Upcoming Metal Releases: 8/8/2021 - 8/14/2021
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of August 8th, 2021 to August 14th, 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
Ænigmatum — Deconsecrate | 20 Buck Spin | Black + Death Metal | United States (Portland, OR)
From the clattering, bombastic drum fill that opens up this record, it’s pretty obvious that Deconsecrate is not going to be a smooth, pleasant ride, and that’s exactly what happens in the best possible way: delightfully clangy death metal, jubilantly discordant and ready to rearrange your brain cells.
–Ted Nubel
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Qrixkuor — Poison Palinopsia | Dark Descent Records | Death metal | United Kingdom
Skulls, tombstones, beheadings, and corpse paint remain tired staples of album covers, so it’s nice when a band uses their album art to showcase their sound. Qrixkuor’s extremely prolonged tracks (Poison Palinopsia runs just under an hour across only two tracks) extend outwards from both the brain and the heart. Listening to them does feel like you are exhaling your veins into the shape of a fetus.
–Colin Dempsey
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Vaelmyst — Secrets of the Egochasm | Independent | Melodic Death Metal | United States (Los Angeles, CA)
From Ted Nubel’s full album premiere:
[Vaelmyst’s] upcoming debut full-length Secrypts of the Egochasm isn’t looking to recapture the melodic death metal of decades past, but rather provide a new strain. Stately melodies and harsh vocals erect a blackened cathedral through which torrents of grisly death metal flow, but listeners will notice sizable chunks of heavy and thrash metal adrift in the spew as well.
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Melted Messiah — Melted Messiah | Independent | Blackened Doom + Sludge Metal | United Kingdom (Scotland)
Melted Messiah call themselves a blackened sludge/doom band, but they’re closer to being lo-fi Motörhead. Vocalist Mark Golder sings like he’s been smoking as many cigars as possible to match Lemmy’s huskiness and they groove like a classic rock ‘n roll garage duo.
–Colin Dempsey
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Annihilus — Follow a Song from the Sky | Federal Prisoner | Black Metal | United States (Chicago, IL)
Punky and brutish black metal that suffocates you with fuzz. The production is an instrument itself for Annihilus. He wields the distortion to maintain rawness even during moments of levity. This is black metal for folks who shove cotton balls into their ears so that everything they hear is compressed.
–Colin Dempsey
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Viserion — Natural Selection | Independent | Black Metal | United States (New York)
Natural Selection is as harsh as the evolutionary process it pulls its name from: snarling, envenomed black metal that lashes out with no pretext of subtlety or mystery.
–Ted Nubel
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Dea Artio — Nebelfelder | Independent | Atmospheric Black Metal | Austria
Dea Artio play an idealized style of epic black metal. The production crunches like leaves breaking under winter boots, while the plodding pace is that of a bard wandering the countryside, the high notes mimicking the emotional highs of his trek.
–Colin Dempsey
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Devilgroth — Noch | Independent | Acoustic Black Metal | Russia (Moscow)
An interesting acoustic take on black metal that, rather than going for a powerful ‘dark folk’ approach with super-tight chords like Xasthur, gently layers subtle layers of acoustic guitar on top of each other for an atmospheric swirl of sound.
–Ted Nubel
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Imperial Slaughter — …Vile Slobs | Horror Pain Gore Death Productions | Grindcore | United States
Grindcore has always been political and grimy. Tom Morgan mentioned as much in his recent column covering the genre’s best offerings this year. Imperial Slaughter would’ve fit on that list. They spew the same disgusting and politically active misanthropy that separated grindcore from just being really fast, really short death metal. But …Vile Slobs is also that, in case you were worried Imperial Slaughter strayed too far from the pack.
–Colin Dempsey
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Re-Releases
American Draft — Hawk | Independent | Post-Metal + Doom | United States (Chicago, IL)
Originally released in 2008, American Draft (who I discussed in our debut edition of Records of the Week) have put a new digital remaster out of Hawk. On top of sounding great, this release blends the metal and not-metal sides of American Draft in ways that The Rescue, despite being my favorite album of the band, did not, offering much starker contrasts. The sprinkling of varied textures and approaches throughout the tracks makes it an adventure through and through.
–Ted Nubel
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