Upcoming Metal Releases

Upcoming Metal Releases: 6/23/19 -- 6/29/19

Upcoming Metal Releases

Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of June 23rd to June 29th, 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.

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Surprise Releases + Things We Missed

GygaxHigh Fantasy | Creator-Destructor Records | Heavy Metal + Rock | United States (California)

Get your lighters and sixers ready. We missed blurbing Gygax last week, but now is better than never: High Fantasy blends old-school heavy metal with rock-‘n’-roll sensibilities into a powerful package. NWOBHM infiltrates some of the guitar leads, but doesn’t define the album overall — indeed, this album makes the most sense on the California coast. Preferably, actually, charging down SR-1 at a high rate of speed in a convertible on a sunny afternoon. Get it.

Dream VoidDivinization | Technical Death Metal | United States (Indiana)

Futuristic-feeling technical death metal that takes full ownership of the “mechanized” feel without feeling sorry about it. The vocals may be a turn-off for some — they’re very deathcore adjacent and sometimes don’t meld perfectly to the music — but that’s really a non-issue once you get into the musical depths charted by this band. Melodic, emotive, and powerful all around, Divinization is actually something refreshing for the very tired tech-death subgenre. Props to Dream Void for being a bit different without breaking many rules — their creativity with the tenets of tech-death is refreshing in itself.

HumanAlizarin Refraction | Technical Death Metal | Italy

I’m not 100% sure if “Human” was selected as a band name due to the legendary Death album, but it would make sense in context of Alizarin Refraction. Progressive without undue wankery, Human actually add layers of brutality and modern aggression to that old(er)-school sound. Make no mistake, Human hasn’t straight-up copped Death, but the importance of Death’s influence within technical death metal can easily go without saying. Alizarin Refraction is a valiant tech-death album for modern times that doesn’t feel like an exact repeat of something else already achieved.

Upcoming Releases

HeilungFutha | Season of Mist | Experimental Neofolk | Denmark + Norway + Germany

Prepare your ears for the mystic entrancement of Heilung (which translates to “healing” from German). Futha relishes in its own haunting atmosphere, but it’s the extremely powerful vocal performances which carry this release forward: as voices dance in layered unison with each other, the music builds to subtle climaxes over sometimes lengthy runtimes. There’s some patience involved when listening to Heilung, but the experience, if you let your mind release itself from temporal trappings, is quite unlike any other you can get with such ethereal music. Futha isn’t “heavy” in the traditional sense, but taken all at once, the album wields its planetary weight effortlessly.

VictimsThe Horse and Sparrow Theory | Relapse | Hardcore + Crustpunk | Sweden

With one foot in the past and one in the future, Victims return with their seventh full-length The Horse and Sparrow Theory. Politically motivated and “current” in that regard, the band’s sound is juxtapositionally old-school, with 1980s hardcore vibes. The crustiness, though, is an extremely nice touch, and adds a layer of grit atop something delightfully more polished. This imbues The Horse and Sparrow Theory with a timeless feeling (one that’s truly hard for bands to nail without copping old sounds or going hyper-experimental), achieved even within the album’s brief sub-30-minute runtime.

Yellow EyesRare Field Ceiling | Gilead Media | Black Metal | United States (New York)

Yellow Eyes are on their way to legendary status. While they still need more time to secure that honor, Rare Field Ceiling is another exceptional entry in the band’s bleak black metal repertoire. This is the band’s fifth full-length — it carries forward the dynamics of Immersion Trench Reverie with some of the unbridled anger of Sick with Bloom. It may actually be the most “put-together” Yellow Eyes album to date, with no feelings of untied loose ends or overwrought songwriting ideas. From its honest production values to the dizzying highs of its climaxes, Rare Field Ceiling is essential black metal for the decade’s end.

UndoerSurvival is a Myth EP | Sun and Moon Records | Black Metal | Turkey

Undoer’s Survival is a Myth EP released last year independently, but will now be seeing a CD release via Sun and Moon Records. This trio from Turkey excels at hard-hitting, fast-action black metal that remains unrelinquishing throughout the EP’s runtime. They might not be the band for you if you seek a plurality of dynamics in your black metal; that said, for something which can punch you in the head without being overbearing, this EP is where it’s at. Excited to see whether this band churns out a full-length in the future.

AxiomaCrown | Translation Loss Records | Black Metal | United States (Ohio)

A strong debut from Cleveland black metallers Axioma — churning with well-paced fury and lacking the sensory overload that a lot of black metal evokes nowadays, Crown actually dissolves into an easy listen all things considered. There’s plenty of speed and aggression, of course, but those elements feel tempered under focuses on songwriting and especially guitar riffing. A bone-dry vocal performance then rounds the package out nicely.

BirdfleshExtreme Graveyard Tornado | Everlasting Spew Records | Thrash + Grindcore | Sweden

I think the album title Extreme Graveyard Tornado says pretty much all you need to know about Birdflesh and their latest wave of short-format skull-busters.

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