Upcoming Metal Releases: 8/29/2021 - 9/4/2021
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of August 29th, 2021 to September 4th, 2021. 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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Upcoming Releases
Iron Maiden — Senjutsu | Parlophone | Heavy Metal + NWOBHM | United Kingdom
If you’re reading this column, you already knew this album was dropping—it’s been sitting on Steve Harris’ laptop for over a year and a half. The group continues further into the realms of progressive songwriting without indulgent technicality. As Bruce Dickinson puts it; “…there are other people who can still understand drama and light and shade in a song. [What we did in] the early days of the heavy metal world, we’re not really doing that anymore; we did that with the first five or six albums, but we’re now on album number 17. We can do so much more now, and really take people on a journey.” In short, more refinement, more world-class melodies, and more ambition, even in their twilight years. They shall never surrender.
–Colin Dempsey
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Portrait — At One with None | Metal Blade Records | Heavy Metal | Sweden
It’s fitting that Portrait’s new album is releasing the same week as Iron Maiden’s because it’ll satisfy those salivating for that sweet classic metal sound. The operatic vocals, twin guitar melodies, and marching pace evoke NWOBHM’s heights with unabashed sincerity.
–Colin Dempsey
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Carnifex — Graveside Confessions | Nuclear Blast | Deathcore | United States (San Diego, CA)
Well, if you’re in the market for ‘blazing fast death metal meets prolonged breakdowns’, Carnifex continues to be a top-tier purveyor of it.
–Ted Nubel
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Defacement — Defacement | I, Voidhanger Records | Death + Black Metal | Netherlands
As the album art indicates, take this project’s name very literally: a primal emission of ripping, eviscerating black-death with as little in the way of “hooks” or “musicality” as (in)humanly possible. Still, it’s seductively bleak: the foggy miasma it’s all wrapped in is tantalizingly obliviating.
–Ted Nubel
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Sermon of Flames — I Have Seen the Light, and It Was Repulsive | I, Voidhanger Records | Death + Black Metal | Ireland
Sermon of Flames’ debut album is a far cry from their raw, recorded-possibly-inside-an-air-conditioner demo: in agonizing clarity, their furious death/black hybrid spits out focused rage in short, cathartic bursts.
–Ted Nubel
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Sol Kia — Zos Ethos | I, Voidhanger Records | Black Metal + Drone` | Belgium
Black metal, if it was played by a duo of sleep paralysis demons (one of whom in this case is the mastermind behind Ôros Kaù).
–Ted Nubel
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Vessel of Iniquity / Thecondontion — The Permian-Triassic Extinction Event | I, Voidhanger Records | Black + Death Metal | United Kingdom + Italy
Themed splits are always worth hitting, and the weirdo mix of black and death metal found here is specially worthwhile. Thecondontion explores some esoteric species through weirdly melodic dinosaur death metal (with huge, rattling bass textures, I should add) while Vessel of Iniquity, as they tend to do, explores the boundaries of noise and black metal and exactly how little sonic information one needs to get their skull perforated by a blast beat.
–Ted Nubel
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Claymorean — Eulogy for the Gods | Independent | Epic Power Metal | Serbia
Claymorean make soaring heavy metal seem effortless. They maintain their high energy as if they’re gliding. Their craft is light, balancing muscular riff work with Dejana Garčević’s throaty performance.
–Colin Dempsey
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Aran — Pimeyttä Vasten | Naturmacht Productions | Atmospheric Black Metal | Finland
Brassy synths adorn the lengthy atmospheric compositions on this release, which weaves fascinating melodies and clever rhythmic variations into compelling journeys easily worth the time.
–Ted Nubel
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Deformatory — Inversion of the Unseen Horizon | Independent | Technical Death Metal | Canada
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Summoning the Cosmic Devourer”:
Inversion of The Unseen Horizon[‘s] concept continues the band’s own mythology, a twisted derivative of Clive Barker’s fantastically demented Hellraiser mythos pushed into realms beyond our own. Brutally punchy and laced with annihilating streaks of black metal, cosmic machinations are put into bone-snapping focus through the band’s unrelenting technical death metal.
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Doctor Smoke — Dreamers and the Dead | Ripple Music | Heavy + Doom Metal | United States
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “https://www.invisibleoranges.com/doctor-smoke-the-rope-video/”:
While taking some cues from stoner rock and doom, there’s a clear shift from the fuzzier, stoner-ish metal of their 2014 debut The Witching Hour, bringing the vocals into focus and introducing some modern grit to help the devilishly complex rhythm side of the record hit home […] delightfully demented and plenty doomed.
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Dragon Breath — The Awakening | Independent | Heavy Metal | Cyprus
This supercharged heavy metal record puts the vocals pretty high in the mix. With the unusual delivery on tap it’s a bit of a risk, but ultimately it works, and the heavy presence allows the guitar-versus-vocals harmonies to really resonate.
–Ted Nubel
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Illum Adora — Ophidian Kult | Independent | Black Metal | Germany
Illum Adora is pretty obviously over-the-top when it comes to their aesthetics and lyrical content, but the end product is highly compelling and worth suspending disbelief to really get into the mood: smartly-penned lyrics and intriguing synth lines add extra flavor on top of the classic black metal attack.
–Ted Nubel
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Apallic — Edge of Desolation | Kernkraftritter Records | Progressive Death Metal | Germany
The German death metal band’s newest album boasts a heightened focus on lengthier tracks. They use these longer run times to inject epic inclinations without cramming the mix. Pick this up if you like your death metal with progressive and folk tendencies that keeps it pretty fucking death metal.
–Colin Dempsey
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Rise to the Sky — Per Aspera Ad Astra | GS Productions | Atmospheric Death + Doom Metal | Chile
Though it’s their second album in under a year, this Chilean doom/death solo project continues to execute at the top of its class: truly emotional metal with powerful vocals and haunting melodies. I really can’t get enough of the lead guitar work here.
–Ted Nubel
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Genophobic Perversion — Gore Reprisal | Independent | Goregrind + Noise | United States (Boston, MA)
The one-man sludge/grindcore act is joined by Plaguewielder, who sets the tone with a pair of bookending ambient pieces. His contributions contrast Genophobic Perversion’s cavernous, chunky, and surprisingly groovy tenth full-length release this year.
–Colin Dempsey
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Beyond Grace — Our Kingdom Undone | Prosthetic Records | Death Metal | United Kingdom
Pissed off, brutalizing tech-death metal with a melodic bent — the biting lyrics aren’t focused on ripping organs asunder here, instead tackling socio-political issues with savage insight.
–Ted Nubel
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