New Metal Releases: 7/2/2023-7/22/2023
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for July 2nd through July 22nd. 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.
July 2nd – July 8th
Odz Manouk — Ծուռ (Tzurr)/ Bosoragazan (Բոսորագազան) | Blood Coloured Beast | Black Metal | Armenia
Why release albums in a timely manner when you can drop two full LPs on a single day after a decade of radio silence? Odz Manouk returns with two astral black metal albums that cater to different interests; Bosoragazan (Բոսորագազան) is fuller and gripping while Ծուռ (Tzurr) is more primitive.
–Colin Dempsey
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Fen — Monuments to Absence | Prophecy Productions | Atmospheric Black Metal + Post-Rock | United Kingdom
From Colin Dempsey’s interview:
Monument to Absence is more furious and immediate than FEN’s previous albums, in that there’s less crawling to dramatic endpoints than there was on 2019’s The Dead Light. While the sequencing that bridged multiple tracks into one heaping mass on The Dead Light is missed, their latest work replaces it with lively songwriting.
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Will Haven — VII | Minus Head Records | Post-Hardcore | United States (Sacramento, CA)
Dark, heavy and ultimately very groovy, the latest from Will Haven breaks new ground when it comes to the more experimental and unique side of hardcore. VII does a great job of keeping up a catchy, aggressive tempo while not falling into any predictable patterns.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Snuffed on Sight — Smoke | Independent | Brutal Death Metal + Hardcore | United States (San Francisco, CA)
Utterly absurd, over-the-top brutal slam that folds in some really good hardcore. Samples, shout-outs, and–yep, that’s an airhorn–altogether ridiculous production somehow wrap around back into genius territory.
–Ted Nubel
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Blackbraid — Blackbraid II | Independent | Atmospheric Black Metal | United States
Blackbraid II has the dubious distinction of being good enough that metal social media has managed to convince itself it’s probably an industry plant, or whatever. Remember: if everyone else likes something you don’t, they’re definitely being paid to make you feel wrong. Where was I? Oh, right, music. Blackbraid II is a furious, melodic volume of black metal that’s catchy enough to cement itself into the brain while also serving as a seemingly never-ending font of sick riffs.
–Ted Nubel
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Uamh — At the Edge of the Loch | Fiadh Prod | Black Metal | United States (Montana)
I’m a sucker for cowboy black metal if only because the themes associated with Western mythology and cowhands strangely pair nicely with black metal’s frigidity. Montana’s Uamh scratch that itch with long, plodding, and expansive tracks, but their folk elements draw more from Celtic influences for a distinct taste.
–Colin Dempsey
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July 9th – 15th
Death of A King — Antimatter | Independent | Blackened Death Metal | N/A
There’s virtually no information about Death of A King except for a few posts that provide context for their debut album, which covers space travel, Nikola Tesla, and interplanetary wars. Given that subject matter, you wouldn’t expect Antimatter to function as a modern blackened death metal album in the vein of Behemoth, but it works quite well for how outright furious it is.
–Colin Dempsey
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Radiant Knife — Pressure | Independent | Progressive + Sludge Metal | United States (Lafayette, Louisiana)
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “His Capa Was Detated”:
Pressure demands attention if you want to catch all the details. With blink-and-you’ll-miss-them time signature changes and perfectly matched cohesion, the guitar/drum interplay on Pressure feels like a conversation, with vocals almost as an afterthought. Trading off between thick, chuggy obliteration and spidery riffing, guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Stephen Sheppert locks in with drummer Greg Travasos to make the most of his riffing, but still leaves gaps for Travasos to pack in smart fills.
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Evile — The Unknown | Napalm Records | Thrash Metal | United Kingdom
Evile downshifts a bit on this release, combining slow heavy riffs with strong vocals — there’s kind of a Black Album thing going on, actually, especially with the phenomenal drum tones.
–Ted Nubel
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Calligram — Position | Momentum | Prosthetic Records | Black Metal + hardcore | United Kingdom
The London-based band call in influences from across the board, from black metal and d-beat to hardcore and death metal. But unlike some bands that sound like they put those elements in a blender to fuse them together, this record is perfectly balanced despite its varied sound.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Gates of Dawn — II | Independent | Ambient Black Metal + Dungeon Synth | United States (Minnesota)
Despite its lo-fi tendencies, II packs in a surprising amount of layered depth. Warm synthesizers and crunchy guitar tones lay out spellbinding tales of other realms.
–Ted Nubel
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Deitus — Irreversible | Candlelight Records | Black Metal + Death Metal | United Kingdom
Deitus’ new album is certainly beefy, but what impresses most are the adrenaline-pumping moments like the title track’s arena rock guitar solo or the deserved emotional payoff at the end of “Voyeur.” Instances like these engorge Irreversible‘s scale to sound and feel grander than its tight runtime actually is.
–Colin Dempsey
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Quiet Man — The Starving Lesson | Riff Merchant Records | Sludge Metal + Drone | United States (Pennsylvania)
Punkish nihilism fuels Quiet Man’s debut album. It perverts what would otherwise be trippy patience-tester into an art piece that pits the individual against large industries. Even would-be beautiful moments like the title track’s middle chunk feel desperate and scrappy, though that’s part of The Starving Man‘s charm.
–Colin Dempsey
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LanzerRath — Metagalactic Domination | Northern Spire Productions | Black Metal | United States (Michigan)
Though LanzerRath promote themselves as raw black metal, punk and death metal aspects flicker beneath their hood and add layers of punchiness and danger to their fourth full-length album. It’s much fuller and physical than the “raw” nomenclature implies.
–Colin Dempsey
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July 16th – July 22nd
Bloodletter — A Different Kind of Hell | Wise Blood Records | Thrash Metal | United States (Chicago, IL)
Yes, I know the Bandcamp page’s liner notes describe this as a “scorching thrashterpiece,” but I promise it’s killer enough to not just close the tab right after reading that. Call Wise Blood Records’ wordplay skills into question all you want, but Bloodletter’s thrash dominance isn’t up for debate. This third full-length sees the band practicing their melodic thrash metal trade with utmost precision, tapping into more dark mythology and horror for inspiration.
–Ted Nubel
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Agriculture — Agriculture | The Flenser | Black Metal | United States (Los Angeles, CA)
Agriculture break a lot of black metal’s perceived boundaries on this album, ditching misanthropic trappings for their self-described ‘ecstatic’ black metal sound and re-imagining how the key parts of the genre can fit together. Lap steel, violin, and saxophone all play a part in this, though they’re skillfully applied as interesting embellishments, not stand-alone gimmicks. Altogether, Agriculture has created something that genuinely does feel new, and that’s incredibly rare. Read Luke Jackson’s excellent interview to learn more about the album.
–Ted Nubel
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Fatale — The Night Eternal | Ván Records | Heavy Metal | Germany
Gothic-tinged, yet invariably heavy metal at its core, Fatale is a joyful descent into luxurious darkness. Come for the over-the-top trappings, stay for the powerful songwriting and killer chops.
–Ted Nubel
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Exsanguination — Burial Rites | Horror Pain Gore Death Productions | Death Metal | United States (Massachusetts)
Balancing melody with all the subtlety of a mausoleum collapsing on your head, Burial Rites merges razor-sharp HM-2 riifs and filthy mid-paced grooves into a thick, meaty onslaught.
–Ted Nubel
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Outer Heaven — Infinite Psychic Depths | Relapse Records | Death Metal | United States (Pennsylvania)
This death metal record has everything you could want from a 2021 release: a trippy cover and name, punishing riffs that borrow heavily from hardcore, riffs and drums for days, and catchy, memorable song structures. Definitely worth a listen, or several.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Mizmor — Prosaic | Profound Lore Records | Black + Drone + Doom Metal | United States (Portland, OR)
On his latest record, Prosaic, Mizmor focuses his despair and depression into four killer tracks that take his already experimental sound to the next level. Between the howling vocals, wailing guitars, and the doomy lull and rhythm in each, you can get lost in this album. This is the perfect soundtrack to introspection.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Call of Pripyat — Lullaby of Suffocation | Independent | Sludge + Death + Doom Metal | United States (Philadelphia, PA)
Call of Pripyat’s first foray into LP territory comes with longer, even more emotionally taxing songs that give off enough eerie atmosphere to set listeners’ mental Geiger counters off instantly. The band takes key doom tenets — long songs, slow riffs, the works — and twists them into agonizing, extreme-metal-laced descents into madness. Buried samples and sharp, piercing production add additional layers of trepidation to Call of Pripyat’s journey through this troubled realm.
–Ted Nubel
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Vulnere — Toothed Lines | Total Dissonance Worship | Death Metal | United States (Portland, OR)
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Devious Indoctrination of Outer World Evil”:
Vulnere’s riffs are stuffed with intricate detail work that’s brought to life by a razor-sharp rhythm section, acting as a bedrock upon which multi-pitched vocalist Mark Smith stalks. Though indomitable on its own merits, Toothed Lines sets the stage for much more mayhem to come.
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Rannoch — Conflagrations | Willowtip Records | Progressive Death Metal | United Kingdom
From Colin Dempsey’s full album premiere:
While it’s always entertaining to witness how progressive metal acts connect their pieces and script larger scenes, Conflagrations is more than just an exercise in pacing. There are the requisite moments of brevity, but Rannoch are in top form when they give into their basal desires for riffs and rhythms.
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Disimperium — Grand Insurgence Upon Despotic Altars | Sentient Ruin | Black + Death Metal + Grindcore | United States (Portland, OR)
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Carry Forth the Edict of Annhilation”:
The Portland-based black/death metal group’s grim take on war metal–experimenting heavily in an already nebulous genre space–is a twisted affair that brings listeners into a morbid, decrepit world of their own. Their debut album Grand Insurgence Upon Despotic Altars uses howls, urgent drumming, and hellish, unrestrained guitars as murky paintbrushes to set a scene of turbulence where the only constant seems to be death.
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Cultic — Seducer | Eleventh Key | Death + Doom Metal | United States
From Ted Nubel’s full album premiere:
Tortured screams and dangerous magic roam the halls of Cultic’s loud, often dilapidated-sounding metal: prepare for wild synthesizer lines, and a theoretically lethal amount of delay and reverb. It’s unhinged, delightfully so, and hones in on its chosen aesthetic with an incredible precision.
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Somnuri — Desiderium | MNRK Heavy | Sludge Metal | United States (NYC)
In Somnuri’s case, sludge is more of a feeling than a specific sound: the Brooklyn deviants throw in everything from shrieking blasts to arena-rock-ready choruses, but it still feels like a thick industrial waste line piped right through your skull.
–Ted Nubel
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Inhuman Condition — Panic Prayer | Listenable Insanity Records | Death Metal | United States (Florida)
Worth the price of admission for the “Godzilla” cover alone, but a new EP from this always-killer band is welcome regardless.
–Ted Nubel
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