Upcoming Metal Releases: 4/7/19 -- 4/13/19
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Here are the new metal releases for the week of April 7th to April 13th, 2019. Release 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.
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Recent Surprise Releases + Things We Missed
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Orso — Paninoteca | Czar of Crickets | Progressive, Instrumental | Switzerland
Well, it looks like we missed last week’s release of the only sandwich-themed metal album I’m currently aware of. From opening track “Sloppy Joe” to my personal favorite “Monte Cristo” (seriously, if you’ve never had a monte cristo, do yourself a huge favor), Paninoteca churns effortlessly through waves of instrumental post-metal, ambiance, and progressive rock. The album title is Italian for “sandwich shop,” but Orso have compiled a much more introspective set of tunes than you might expect by name/theme alone. If there ever was an album perfect for eating a sandwich alone, in silence, but still enjoying it thoroughly, then this is it.
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Upcoming Releases
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Inter Arma — Sulphur English | Relapse | Progressive Doom | United States (Virginia)
Throughout the entirety of their already prolific career, Virginia sludge/post metal band Inter Arma’s identity has been defined by their uncompromisingly forward-thinking mixture of styles. Having pioneered a primal, abyssal style of metal that can be best described as blackened death-sludge, the group has further defined and solidified their enigmatic sonic emulsion with each release, never ensnared by the common pitfalls of repetition or imitation. Their upcoming fourth album Sulphur English is no exception: with sprawling, volcanic compositions that effortlessly balance brutality with majesty, the record continues to elude categorization without straying from Inter Arma’s now well-established hyper-unique style of savagely passionate metal.
— Thomas Hinds
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Numenorean — Adore | Season of Mist | Atmospheric Black Metal | Canada
From my premiere of “Adore”:
There’s beauty built right into personal devastation, ironically, but also hope. There’s also music which captures this high/low duality: sonic reverberations powerfully bleak enough to blank your overflowing emotional slate but laden with enough vibe and style to reinvigorate your soul. Indeed, this is where black metal and post-metal conjoin — the two’s nexus a terrain of tumult and terror where raw feelings are exposed to death’s infinite vacuum — to make something thematically bespoke but always seminally grounded. And this is where Canadian troupe Numenorean come in with their sophomore effort Adore, echoing off the corners of everything from shoegaze to dark ambiance to straight-up black metal but still honing one sharply cohesive story.
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Big Business — The Beast You Are | Joyful Noise Recordings | Metal, Rock | United States (California)
Now gearing up for the release of their sixth album The Beast You Are, Seattle stoner/sludge/experimental metallers Big Business return bearing yet another offering of their thick, punchy, hard rock-tinged brand of heaviness. Having gained international renown after joining forces with Melvins from 2006 to 2016, the two-piece outfit consisting of bassist/vocalist Jared Warren and drummer Coady Willis has remained one of sludge metal’s most unique and unconventional groups since their formation in 2004. Presenting a characteristically uncanny, upbeat yet ferocious aesthetic across its 13 tracks, The Beast You Are sees Big Business maintaining the outstanding potency and consistency of their idiosyncratic catalog.
— Thomas Hinds
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Inculter — Fatal Visions | Edged Circle Productions | Blackened Thrash Metal | Norway
This Norwegian quartet is back with their sophomore full-length after Persisting Devolution was released four years ago. Fatal Visions stuffs itself with quick-attack riffage, mad guitar solos, and enough tempo to keep the Earth spinning on its axis. Thrash metal, for me at least, can be hit-or-miss, but Inculter nails all the tenets without overblowing them to such a degree as to turn off newcomers to the subgenre. Album closer “Through Relic Gates” is especially saucy.
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Hath — Of Rot and Ruin | Willowtip | Death Metal | United States (New Jersey)
From Ivan’s premiere of “Accursed”:
There’s a moment midway through “Accursed” at which Hath pivot like a ricocheting bullet from a charred and surging tremolo sprint into a fleshy breakdown with all the chugs and pinch squeals one would expect from the most devoted of deathcore practitioners, yet in Hath’s deft hands, everything flows as nature intended. Between the ebullience of the album’s guitar solos, the dynamic layering of the occasional clean vocals, or the dexterity with which Hath seed these magnetic bits of melody within the rolling terrain of their songwriting, the band are poised to drop a full-length debut marked by a degree of cohesion and confidence many groups only begin to grasp by albums two or three.
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Dauþuz — Monvmentvm | Naturmacht Productions | Black Metal | Germany
Dauþuz are back with their third full-length in four years, spanning black metal from its most concrete to its most atmospheric. Monvmentvm contains all the lofty soundscapes that the subgenre’s most abstract iterations have become known for, but still grounds itself in rock-solid riffing and easily digestible songwriting. As a band that knows how to dial intensity in perfectly (going full-bore only when totally necessary), Monvmentvm succeeds in its balance and aplomb execution.
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Ketzer — Cloud Collider | Metal Blade | Blackened Death Metal | Germany
Hailing from the ancient city of Cologne, German outfit Ketzer (meaning “heretic” in German) have been channeling an unswervingly raw and open-minded interpretation of blackened death metal since the release of their debut full-length Satan’s Boundaries Unchained in 2009. Cloud Collider, their newest record and first in three years, represents the culmination of the group’s constant experimentation and ever-widening stylistic scope, showcasing a sound that is undoubtedly darker, faster, and more ominous than ever before while still retaining a sense of stoic melancholy and melodic, vividly organic textures. Cloud Collider is arguably Ketzer’s most potent release to date, a deeply eclectic release that will pique the interests of fans from across the extreme metal spectrum.
— Thomas Hinds
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Theories — Vessel | Corpse Flower Records | Death Metal, Grind | United States (Washington)
I love grindy death (or deathy grind, whichever way you want to call it) — borrowing from grindcore’s intense speed and aggression and then from death metal’s complexity and riffing, Vessel‘s goal is, basically, to rip your head off. These ten short-format songs are stuffed to the brim: “Ill Will” especially feels like a churning nightmare chasm of horrifying delights. A blistering drum performance caps Theories’s latest release, a sure-fire hit every time the blasts kick in, driving the pit wild.
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Nekrasov — Lust of Consciousness | Prosthetic | Esoteric Madness | Australia
From Langdon’s premiere of “Through Blind Acceptance the Nightmare Continues”:
Despite its resolute intensity, the song has a few moments and riffs that feel like they were designed to be extreme music earworms. Nekrasov never goes the overly melodic route; he seems well aware that energy drives this track and not traditional hooks, per se. But Nekrasov also provides enough breaks and ear-catching sounds that feel designed to perk the ear up. “Through Blind Acceptance the Nightmare Continues” is only three minutes long, but each of those three minutes feels like they were the tail-end of a half-hour opus.
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Violet Cold — kOsmik | Avantgarde | Blackgaze | Azerbaijan
According to Metal Archives, Violet Cold has released over a third of the metal albums that have come out of Azerbaijan. Throw in an insane amount of EPs and singles, and it’s obvious that Emin Guliyev’s blackgaze project has swept the Azerbaijani Grammys every year since he started releasing music under the moniker in 2013. kOsmik was digitally self-released in February; however, Avantgarde will be giving it the physical release on LP and CD that it deserves. Although Guliyev has been as expansive as prolific, the album sticks to what he does best: gorgeous, shimmering blackgaze that is reliant on new age mysticism and classical composition with black metal underpinnings as a gravitational anchor to keep the atmosphere from completely escaping into the darkened sky.
— Brian O’Neill
Bonus: check out Jenna’s review of the new album.
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Inferi — The End of an Era | Rebirth | The Artisan Era | Technical Death Metal | United States (Tennessee)
To celebrate the ten-year anniversary of their second full-length album The End of an Era, Nashville melodic/tech-death avengers Inferi are set to release a fully remastered version of the record, entitled The End of an Era | Rebirth. While the band’s enthralling compositional style and hyper-meticulous performances were clearly apparent on the original release, this newly revamped edition has refined their sophomore album’s highly compelling virtuosity and neoclassical styling with modern, high-caliber mixing and mastering. Though this rerelease contains no brand-new material from Inferi, it does stand as a compelling re-interpretation of the group’s breakthrough album in the realm of tech-death.
— Thomas Hinds
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