New Metal Releases: 8/14/2022-9/3/2022

Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the weeks of August 14th, 2022 to September 3rd, 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.

Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.

New Releases

Trhä — mã Héshiva õn dahh Khata trhândlha vand ëfd datnen Aghen Ecíës drhãtdlhan savd | Independent | Black Metal | United States

Step back into Trhä’s world: a magical realm of beauty, sorrow, and words there’s absolutely no chance you’ll ever know how to pronounce.

–Ted Nubel

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Sun Eater — Vermin | Miasma Records | Technical + Brutal Death Metal | France

Sun Eater dials in just the right amount of technicality and brutality to keep the riffs flowing, replete with an absurd amount of guest features.

–Ted Nubel

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Boding — Circular Ruins | Independent | Doom + Sludge + Post-Metal | United Kingdom

IO writer Tom Morgan recently opened up an interview with an observation about how the UK is crushing it when it comes to heavy post-metal, and here’s one more example. Whether or not Boding counts as post-metal or doom/sludge is up for debate, but I think there’s an expansiveness to Circular Ruins that positions it as more of a full-bodied, heart-wrenching saga than a pure slice of heaviness — but make no mistake, holy shit is this heavy.

–Ted Nubel

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Conan — Evidence of Immortality | Napalm Records | Sludge + Doom + Stoner Metal | United Kingdom

There’s a sense of understatement to Conan’s massive sludge-doom: every tectonic riff comes with precisely the notes it needs and no frivolous embellishments, and each drum fill drives home the rhythm like a warrior delivering a final killing blow to a fallen foe. Like overconfident Facebook Marketplace sellers worldwide, they know what they’ve got.

–Ted Nubel

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Eldritch Rites + Lucifer’s Fall — Graveyard Rites | Independent | Doom Metal | Australia

Get a double dose of two modern Australian doom acts doing their damn best to keep doom metal true — which in this case means as riff-packed as possible and supremely evil.

–Ted Nubel

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Psychlona — Palo Verde | PsychoWaxx | Stoner Metal + Rock | United Kingdom

Psychlona excels at a very specific thing, but their excellence is unquestionable. Enter here for big, druggy, stoner riffs with absurdly infective groove.

–Ted Nubel

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Nurez — Nachtlied | Independent | Atmospheric Black Metal | Germany

Nurez uses an eight-string guitar to add some interesting, beefy low-end to this record, which isn’t too common in the atmospheric black metal space. Against the swirling, ethereal leads and more traditional atmospheric black metal sound, it’s an interesting contrast that lends the album additional momentum.

–Ted Nubel

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Ferum — Asunder / Erode | Avantgarde Music | Death + Doom Metal | Italy

Death/doom where the snare sounds like a coffin being slammed shut. What more can we ask for? Nay, what more do we deserve?

–Ted Nubel

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Azatoth — Ungodly Carnage | Independent | Death Metal | Finland

There’s a charming old-school malice to the riffs here, as well as the tasty, reverbed-to-hell lead work, and it’s compounded by an oppressive atmosphere created through samples and pads.

–Ted Nubel

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Doldrey — Celestial Deconstruction | Pulverised Records | Death Metal + Crust Punk | Singapore

Supremely cantankerous death metal, with a pissed-off punk attitude further flavoring the filthy riffs and making everything just a little more unhinged.

–Ted Nubel

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Sigh — Shiki | Peaceville Records | Experimental Black Metal + Avant-Garde Metal | Japan (Tokyo)

From Kelley Simms’s interview:

On Shiki, the band has based the album’s theme on an ancient Japanese poem with accompanying cover art. Sung in their native tongue, its 10 tracks are a conscious effort on Mirai’s part to represent and capture the essence of Japanese culture. Entering his fifth decade of existence, Mirai wanted to reflect on his life and express his feelings of impending death.

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Old Tomb — Phantom Hour | Independent | Sludge + Doom Metal | Slovakia

Decrepit doom metal with really, really big riffs. Must be a huge fuckin’ tomb.

–Ted Nubel

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Grave Digger — Symbol of Eternity | Rock of Angels Records | Heavy + Power Metal | Germany

Wait, Grave Digger has recorded 21 albums?! Honestly, whether it’s a good or bad thing, their sound really hasn’t changed that much. This is pretty solid heavy/power metal, even if it innovates on exactly zero points (including the by-the-numbers music video).

–Ted Nubel

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Hierophant — Death Siege | Season of Mist | Black + Death Metal | Italy

It takes a certain kind of band to start off an album’s title track by growling out the album/track title… and an even more specific kind of band to make that totally kick ass. This ass-kicking applies to the entire record, really, so by the time said title track rolls around there’s really no surprises. Hierophant’s black and death metal roils around like it’s buried beneath ten feet of incandescent oil, set ablaze and burbling violently to the surface.

–Ted Nubel

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Blackbraid — Blackbraid I | Neuropa Records | Atmospheric Black Metal | United States

From Addison Herron-Wheeler’s interview:

Everyone in black metal seems to have an agenda—I would posit the question of why, but it’s pretty clear given the racist undertones of some of the bands who founded the genre. Today, many bands either still carry those undertones, counter the racist rhetoric prevalent in the genre with a leftist message, or have some agenda all their own to do with religion, or lack thereof, but not Blackbraid. He just wants you to get outside and commune with nature.

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Trhä — vat gëlénva​!​!​! | Independent | Black Metal | Texas

Thanks to yet another UMR pile-up, this is the secondTrhä release in this roundup. This motherfucker can release music faster than I can write pithy blurbs about it!

Don’t expect more of the same, exactly-this release takes an angrier, less synth-focused tack for much of its length, packing some punky riffs into huge runtimes. There’s a bit more ‘classic’ Trhä sound towards the end, though.

–Ted Nubel

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Woe — Czernobog | Crypt of the Wizard | Doom Metal | Australia

Bouncy, classic doom metal from Australia, an unusual hotspot for this sort of thing. I’ll note that Woe features Tarot/ex-The Wizar’d member Felix Russell, but this band is significantly different from both of those acts — and should easily win you over with these inventive riffs.

–Ted Nubel

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Trial (Swe) — Feed the Fire | Metal Blade Records | Heavy Metal | Sweden

There’s just the right amount of gloom behind Trial’s driving, guitar-heavy classic metal. While not entrenching themselves in gothic territory, the band wraps their mighty riffs in a pleasant amount of shadows.

–Ted Nubel

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Plague of Carcosa — Unearthly Geometry | Independent | Stoner + Sludge + Doom Metal | United States (Chicago, IL)

Though they’ve yet to cross over to full-length territory, the Chicago-based guitar-and-drum duo sure knows how to put out an EP. Their latest, Unearthly Geometry is over twenty minutes across two songs, merging riff-driven slow doom with noise, unsettling murmured vocals, and more. Minimalistic while still extremely loud, it has a certain meditative quality — not every band can call their releases ‘rituals,’ but I think Plague of Carcosa probably should.

–Ted Nubel

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Andy Gillion — Arcade Metal | Independent | Progressive Metal | United Kingdom

If Cara Neir (and related project Gonemage) got you curious about how chiptune and video game music can coexist with heavy metal, here’s an entirely different angle on that: Andy Gillion (ex-Mors Principium Est) packs his driving progressive metal with glittering synths and gaming motifs. Of course, while Cara Neir/Gonemage aim for a lo-fi, retro aesthetic, Arcade Metal is chrome-coated and highly-polished, packed to the brim with acrobatic shredding and guest features.

–Ted Nubel

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Vermin Womb — Retaliation | Closed Casket Activities | Black Metal + Death Metal + Grindcore | United States (Denver, CO)

Violent blastbeats are somehow the least chaotic part of this release -take out the drums and you’d be left with an utterly unhinged, indecipherable wall of noise. I kind of want to hear that, actually, but in its full form Retaliation is a blissful descent into gnashing madness.

–Ted Nubel

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Heads for the Dead — The Great Conjuration | Transcending Obscurity | Death Metal | International

From Kelley Simms’s interview:

Since its 2017 formation, Heads for the Dead’s musical blueprint consists of healthy doses of churning guitar tones, massive grooves, and maniacal vocal gurgles. The quartet’s bone chilling style is reminiscent of ’90s old school American death metal, as well as containing the distinct characteristics of Swedish death metal, decorated with a sinister horror movie atmosphere.

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