New Metal Releases: 7/17/2022-8/6/2022
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the weeks of July 17th, 2022 to August 6th, 2022. 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.
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New Releases
Garden of Worm — Endless Garden | Nasoni Records | Progressive + Psychedelic Rock | Finland
Progressive rock tinged with doom metal is a hell of a combo, and Garden of Worm nail it here. Sink into some tasty grooves that are just a little heavier and a little slower than the rest of the pack.
–Ted Nubel
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Imperial Triumphant — Spirit of Ecstasy | Century Media Records | Avant-Garde Black + Death Metal | United States (NYC)
The crashing, discordant annihilation here somehow sounds like a freight train dismantling itself… but also, class warfare. Haughty growls and back-alley-stabbing blast beats await.
–Ted Nubel
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Karl Sanders — Saurian Apocalypse | Napalm Records | Middle Eastern + Egyptian Ambient | United States
Karl Sanders’ solo project remains consistent in name and vision, delivering a bizarre soundscape of Nile-instrumental-esque Egypt-inspired weirdness and sick guitar chops. We don’t get many albums from this project, but they’re always worth checking out.
–Ted Nubel
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Northless — A Path Beyond Grief | Gilead Media | Sludge Metal + Post-Rock | United States (Milwaukee, WI)
The Milwaukee group’s latest album comes drenched in extra misery, delivered through savage forays into death metal-like nastiness that dovetails surprisingly well with their sludgy post-rock.
–Ted Nubel
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Oceans of Slumber — Starlight and Ash | Century Media Records | Progressive Metal + Rock | United States (Houston, TX)
This is a release probably more interesting to fans of progressive rock than metal, to be honest: solid songcrafting and Americana/country tinges, with djent-ish heaviness lurking in the shadows. Okay, that sounds a little… iffy… written out, but the powerful vocals kind of sell the whole package.
–Ted Nubel
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Panzerfaust — The Suns of Perdition – Chapter III: The Astral Drain | Eisenwald | Black Metal | Canada
A corrupting mire of black metal: there’s no light to be found here, only endless waves of darkness. Panzerfaust is as good at crafting desolate sludge as they are punishing black metal, and they combine both here to deadly effect.
–Ted Nubel
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Void Rot — Telluric Dismemberment | Everlasting Spew Records | Death + Doom Metal | United States (Minneapolis, MN)
You know a death metal record’s gonna slap when you have to look up one of the words in its title. Or maybe I’m just sorely lacking in Death Metal English these days…
–Ted Nubel
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Witchery — Nightside | Century Media Records | Black + Thrash + Speed Metal | Sweden
Look, this is perfectly acceptable black/speed, but I’m just not sure you can title a song “Don’t Burn the Witch” if it’s not a Venom cover, especially when you’re playing black/speed. This is a solved problem – no other entries are necessary!
–Ted Nubel
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Nebula — Transmission from Mothership Earth | Heavy Psych Sounds | Stoner Rock + Metal | United States
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Highwired”:
On this new album, featuring the same lineup as 2019’s Holy Shit, Nebula unleashes immaculate, free-floating grooves that soar through the cosmos propelled by good vibes and copious fuzz pedals. Each song is a riff-focused meditation, but the power trio’s beefy rhythm section keeps heads nodding and toes tapping throughout while far-out vocals billow through the red-hot atmosphere like desert wind.
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Wake — Thought Form Descent | Metal Blade Records | Grind + Black + Death Metal | Canada (Calgary, Alberta)
From Colin Williams’s review:
Thought Form Descent is bold and catchy. It sees Wake almost completely shed their past grindcore inclinations in favor of big production and sweeping melodies. If anything, this nominally grindcore act has released one of the best post-metal albums of the past few years.
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(the infamous) Gehenna — Negative Hardcore | Iron Lung Records | Black Metal + Hardcore | United States
From Neill Jameson’s review:
(the infamous) Gehenna are basically responsible for the genesis of my writing for this site and have been a band I’ve held in the highest esteem for years now, and so, so, if we can humor my ego, my anticipation and expectations for this record were higher than most. Is it what I wanted out of one of my favorite bands? Don’t be a fucking dunce, there was never any doubt.
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Cara Neir — Phantasmal | Zegema Beach Records | Experimental Post-Black Metal | United States (Dallas, TX)
From Brandon Nurick’s track premiere of “His First Daemon”:
As the first song released from their forthcoming 8th full-length album Phantasmal, “His First Daemon” is a continuation of the electronic blackened grind stylings we first heard on Phase Out. More recently, the band has not been shy about their love for zany early-aughts Myspace-core, and this track has that influence on full display.
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Christian Cosentino — High Rising Times | Independent | Symphonic + Post-Black Metal | Australia
From Brandon Nurick’s interview:
Building from the eccentricities of his debut record Lawn, Christian’s newest endeavor High Rising Times, is a stunningly diverse record that incorporates everything from symphonic swells to tropical, island music interludes, all filtered through the lens of melodic post-black metal. It’s an album that feels ethereal, but not weightless as its molten metal core keeps it from floating away and dispersing into the wind without having left any lasting impression.
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Gallower — Eastern Witchcraft | Dying Victims Productions | Black + Thrash Metal | Poland
From Brandon Corsair’s full album premiere:
“Witchcraft” is a great word to toss into the name of the release, because storming witching metal is very much what’s happening on this killer new mLP. The vocals drop with a speed of delivery that’s almost more Walkyier than Angelripper despite the clear hints of Sodom in their sound, and melodic solos and unashamed hints of even older heavy and speed metal keep Gallower from falling into the same stale traps that similar bands so often stagnate in.
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Katakomba — Katakomba | Redefining Darkness Records | Death Metal | Sweden (Stockholm)
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Entombed in Concrete”:
Ah, death metal — where a song about an immensely painful death can be viscerally uncomfortable, but also a jam. Swedish death metallers Katakomba draw from their country’s rich and bloody history when crafting their own brand of death metal, but their debut self-titled record puts their own intense spin on things.
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Iskandr — Glas | Eisenwald | Black Metal + Ambient | Netherlands
From Colin Williams’s track premiere of “Glas”:
Featuring lilting guitars, organs and even what sounds like a ticking clock, “Glas” still has a martial quality. Unlike the battlefield epics of Iskandr’s previous releases, however, this is like a song composed in the firelight by a lonesome warrior dreaming of home.
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Extermination Day — Be the Consequence | Hoove Child Records | Heavy + Doom Metal + Punk | United States (Circle Pines, MN)
Though both members of Extermination Day have big projects under their belts (Suffering Hour, Satan’s Satyrs), that’s preceded by a stint in the lesser-known doom metal band Wicked Inquisition, which was my first exposure to frontman Nate Towle’s riff-crafting talents and drummer Jason Oberuc’s powerful style. Those chops are in fine form here, though Extermination Day is a vastly different offering: sleazy, dangerous doom that’s as shot through with punk as it is heavy metal. Be the Consequence revels in nasty, back-alley surprises and B-movie horror thrills, and both of these pair exceptionally well with the riff-heavy retro sound the band brings to the table, where the catchy snarled vocals and extremely musical solos just make sense.
–Ted Nubel
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Uamh — A Windswept River’s Edge, Carved Through Ancient Stone | Fiadh Prod | Atmospheric Black Metal | United States (Montana)
The natural theme of this album fits its expansive construction perfectly – atmospheric black metal with some unusual instrumentation and a staggering sense of scale.
–Ted Nubel
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Sedimentum — Suppuration morphogénésiaque | Me Saco un Ojo | Death Metal | Canada (Quebec City, Quebec)
The paradoxical part about this record is how it can sound so thick and disgusting and still let each grisly riff claw through the mix so clearly. Pure, delightful filth.
–Ted Nubel
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Belphegor — The Devils | Nuclear Blast | Black Metal | Austria
If you like your black metal with lots of hyphens in the song titles, this is the album for you. Frankly, it definitely feels a little too well-produced, but the tight runtime and dedicated theatricality make for a solid record overall.
–Ted Nubel
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Funeral Chic — Roman Candle | Prosthetic Records | Black Metal + Hardcore | United States (Charlotte, NC)
Funeral Chic’s violent, noisy stomps come with excessive vitriol and an oddly successful infusion of Southern flair. That’s not something I expected, especially given the album art, but hell if it doesn’t work.
–Ted Nubel
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Grima — Frostbitten | Naturmacht Productions | Atmospheric Black Metal | Russia
There’s an element of wonder here that sometimes get lost in atmospheric black metal: an airy, fantastical feeling that serves as a reminder to stand back and simply gaze in awe.
–Ted Nubel
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Krisiun — Mortem Solis | Century Media Records | Death Metal | Brazil
Krisiun has always excelled at crafting exceptionally winding riffs that twist around pummeling drums, and that’s what we’ve got here — time hasn’t dulled their edge one bit.
–Ted Nubel
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Oath — Hallowed Illusions | Independent | Traditional Heavy Metal | United Kingdom
Oath was an early participant in the rather recent rise of D.I.Y. traditional metal bands, and remains one of the catchier ones out there. It’s also a project that has continuously improved, chasing a very specific sound. I feel like Hallowed Illusions hits the right balance between garage rock’s roughness and reverb-packed ’80s metal glamor, lending each anthemic song a charming production.
–Ted Nubel
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Reeking Aura — Blood and Bonemeal | Profound Lore Records | Death Metal | United States
Man, I should have written about this record last – suffering some serious braincell damage from this one. Reeking Aura lets absolutely nothing get in the way of chunky, bloody devastation.
–Ted Nubel
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Triumvir Foul — Onslaught to Seraphim | Vrasubatlat | Death Metal | United States (Portland, OR)
Some death metal is just more evil than the rest. Revel in Triumvir Foul’s bouncy, brain-burrowing darkness.
–Ted Nubel
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Body Void — Burn the Homes of Those Who Seek to Control Our Bodies | Independent | Noise + Doom | United States (San Francisco, CA)
I saw Body Void at Oblivion Access a few months ago in Austin, and they crushed. Their palpable anger filters into noisy, acerbic doom like a painful dose of capsaicin, burning and twisting already heavy music into something legitimately tough to process. Fittingly, the only stage banter I recall was “Fuck Greg Abbott,” which really ties in with this release’s obvious focal point.
–Ted Nubel
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Early Moods — Early Moods | RidingEasy Records | Doom + Heavy Metal | United States (Los Angeles, CA)
Early Moods make their well-deserved debut on RidingEasy Records with this release, which nails an absolute perfect balance between druggy doom and gloomy heavy metal.
–Ted Nubel
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Psycroptic — Divine Council | Prosthetic Records | Technical Death Metal | Australia
I remember picking up a Psycroptic CD (probably (Ob)servant) at Best Buy back when a) I could buy CDs at Best Buy and b) I went to Best Buy — crazy to think these guys have been in action for over 20 years and are still putting out technical death metal this intricate.
–Ted Nubel
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Liminal Shroud — All Virtues Ablaze | Willowtip Records | Black Metal | Canada
I was impressed by Liminal Shroud’s debut LP Through the False Narrows back in 2020, but All Virtues Ablaze manages to one-up it even still. The melodic vein that runs through the despondent atmosphere of this album is absolutely captivating.
–Ted Nubel
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Soulfly — Totem | Nuclear Blast | Groove + Thrash + Death Metal | United States (Phoenix, AZ)
Totem isn’t really my jam, on paper, but damn – this kind of rips.
–Ted Nubel
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Toxik — Dis Morta | Massacre Records | Technical Speed + Thrash Metal | United States
I completely forgot this was coming out, and to be honest I was expecting to be one of those ill-advised thrash band comeback records that sounds like it was formed from the radioactive byproducts of a landfill full of Line 6 Spyder amps, but actually, no, this is pretty great. There’s a bit less of a progressive bent than I get from Think This or World Circus, but the maniacal energy on display is classic Toxik.
–Ted Nubel
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