Upcoming Metal Releases: 4/23/2023-4/29/2023
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for April 23rd through April 29th. Releases reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see most of these albums on shelves or distros on Fridays.
See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging.
Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.
Things We Missed
Don’t forget about that surprise Bell Witch album that dropped last Friday.
Upcoming Releases
Enforced — War Remains | Century Media Records | Thrash Metal + Crossover | United States (Richmond, VA)
Richmond, Virginia’s Enforced have been making waves in the thrash metal scene for a few years now, and their latest album, War Remains, is a testament to their growing talent. The album is a blistering assault of old-school thrash metal with a healthy dose of crossover and hardcore thrown in for good measure. It’s a new and fresh take on the signature thrashy sound that comes out of Richmond.
One of the things that sets Enforced apart from other thrash bands is their focus on groove. The band’s songs are full of catchy riffs that are easy to headbang to. This isn’t one for any metalhead to miss.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Defiled — The Highest Level | Season of Mist | Death Metal | Japan (Tokyo)
An impressively riff-focused death metal offering with production that bucks pretty much all the usual trends. There’s a bare minimum of reverb here, and the drums sound… terrible but in a fun, good way?
–Ted Nubel
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Austere — Corrosion of Hearts | Prophecy Productions | Depressive Black Metal | Australia
From Colin Dempsey’s track premiere of “A Ravenous Oblivion”:
[N]obody can quite replicate Austere, primarily concerning how accurately they portray depression, which is impressive considering how black metal and shoegaze fusions have proliferated over the past decade.
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Fires in the Distance — Air Not Meant for Us | Prosthetic Records | Melodic Doom + Death Metal | United States (Newington, CT)
Fires in the Distance leans heavily into melodic death/doom’s potential for building sorrowful, imaginative imagery, layering in keyboard and synthesizers to help illustrate their gothic, gloomy world that always retains a glimmer of hope. That said, don’t discount the riffs here–there’s a solid steel backbone to this record.
–Ted Nubel
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Terzij de Horde + Ggu:II — Van Grond | ConSouling Sounds | Black Metal + Drone + Doom Metal | Netherlands
Roadburn has long fostered cross-pollination among extreme music practitioners. On Van Grond, Ggu:ll, whose membership includes several Dodecahedron alumni, join forces with Utrecht black-metal conveners Terzij de Horde for a record that’s more mélange than split. The four-track release pulls a song each from In One of These, I Am Your Enemy and Ex Est and sandwiches them between two collaborative tracks where the bands, who sound very different on paper, combine forces as they did on stage in Tilburg last year.
These joint compositions with swapped drum tracks underscore what makes Roadburn such a special gathering—”Poison Arrow” sees Ggu:ll’s lofty doom brought up to Terzij de Horde’s frenetic pace without losing their gargantuan sound, while “A Robe of Words” sculpts a doom golem with Terzij de Horde’s black-metal clay. Van Grond serves as a succinct introduction to both groups and a testament to the ongoing innovation taking place in the Low Countries’ metal ecosystem.
–Colin Williams
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Valgrind — Millennium of Night Bliss | Memento Mori | Death Metal | Italy
Punchy and intricate–and taking heavy sonic inspiration from Morbid Angel’s ‘chainsaw-through-a-swamp’ approach–Valgrind’s new album pummels listeners with death metal that’s at times highly technical and at others knuckle-draggingly primitive.
–Ted Nubel
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Lunar Chamber — Shambhallic Vibrations | 20 Buck Spin | Technical Death Metal | United States (Pittsburgh, PA)
Trippy technical death metal that layers the usual suspects–guttural vocals, shredding riffs, frantic drums–with things that are very much not: resonant, squelching fretless basslines and a shitload of synths and backing vocals.
–Ted Nubel
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Chrome Waves — Earth will Shed Its Skin | M-Theory Audio | Post-Black Metal | United States (Chicago, IL)
Desolation and sorrow are fertile clay for Chrome Waves to sculpt into persuasively abrasive and yet poignant post-black metal on their new album. Big, undeniable bass grooves and multiple layers of instruments build up a big, compelling sound that just demands listeners follow, even though we know it’s going to some dark places.
–Ted Nubel
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Exit Catacomb — No Escape from the Catacomb | Independent | Black + Speed Metal | Italy
Deliriously indulgent guitar leads, harmonies, and overall buoyant charisma give this black-speed combo (that’s heavy on the black metal) the sizzling finish it demands. The band’s got an excellent grasp on what made this genre click early on, and they underscore that primitive glee with extremely catchy songwriting.
–Ted Nubel
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Pustilence — Beliefs of Dead Stargazers and Soothsayers | Memento Mori | Death Metal | Australia
Hailing from Australia–or perhaps a terrible bog, somewhere unholy–comes Pustilence with a sound reminiscent not of an era of death metal but rather a place where riffs are royalty and the time to be disgusting is all of the time.
–Jonathan Carbon
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Wallowing — Earth Reaper | Church Road Records | Blackened Sludge + Doom + Noise | United Kingdom
Genre: Blackened Sludge/Doom Metal/Noise.
Themes: Science fiction.
Band picture on Metal Archives: Everyone wearing beekeeper hats.
I am already on board with this field trip–to wherever we are going.
–Jonathan Carbon
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Allochiria — Commotion | Venerate Industries | Sludge + Post-Metal | Greece
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Darklight”:
Riffs, in their meatiest and most primal form, sit at the heart of Allochiria’s post-sludge metal. On the Greek band’s upcoming third album Commotion, they act like a beating heart, urgent conductors driving loose, heartfelt instrumental elements and completely uncompromising vocals.
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Danava — Nothing but Nothing | Tee Pee Records | Psychedelic Stoner Rock + Metal | United States (Portland, OR)
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Let the Good Times Kill”:
Nothing but Nothing […] toes a glorious line between primitive heavy metal and drug-fueled prog rock, all saturated in an indulgent amount of fuzz and vintage production.
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Fardeaux — The Den Has Become an Abyss | Drowning in Chaos Records | Avant-garde black metal | France
The avant-garde black metal band’s debut album wields complexity like pressure, forcing listeners down the same tortured mental paths that it writes about–they loosely describe their concept as “the story of souls that fall inexorably.” And fall we shall.
–Ted Nubel
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Vadiat — Spear of Creation | Redefining Darkness Records | Death + Doom Metal | United States (Cleveland, OH)
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Father Imapler”:
[T]he Cleveland group (consisting of members of local standouts like Terror, Blood of Christ, Ringworm, and more) also color their high-speed lethality with melodic and rhythmic cues from doom and heavy metal. It’s a refreshingly flexible approach to the hybrid genre, and one that leads to some killer moments as the band unites twisted melodies, lurching rhythms, and, of course, growls, with a madman’s disdain for conformity.
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Mistral — In the Throes of Losing Love | Onism Productions | Post-Black Metal + Shoegaze | Poland
Volume seems integral to In the Throes of Losing Love–and not in terms of sound, but in relation to space: the record pushes listeners away at times, building up a dense haze as a buffer, and then pulls us close, eliminating that gap. Even at the highest peaks, though, Mistral retains a certain spaciousness despite being more confrontational, using shoegaze and post-metal elements to create a wide-ranging study of emotion.
–Ted Nubel
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Lucifuge — Monoliths of Wrath | Dying Victims Productions | Black + Thrash Metal | Germany
Not much to complain about here: furiously-pitched riffs delivered with sneering fervor, plus unholy melodies woven into the fray with dramatic flair. This is a delightfully evil record with killer riffs.
–Ted Nubel
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