Upcoming Metal Releases

Upcoming Metal Releases: 9/15/19 -- 9/21/19

Upcoming Metal Releases

Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of September 15th to September 21st, 2019. Release 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.

No One Knows What the Dead ThinkNo One Knows What the Dead Think | Willowtip | Grindcore | United States (New Jersey)

From Jon Rosenthal’s premiere of “Cinder”:

Musically, this is a beautiful continuation of what the world missed after The Inalienable Dreamless. Marton’s dizzying, staccato guitar weaving melody in with the incredible momentum set forth by the album up to this point. It is atypical, strange, and emotive music, especially when heralded by Chang’s own alien screaming. Two minutes and 40 seconds seems like nothing, at first. Blink and you miss it, but travel with this trio and find yourself in the stratosphere, or even further. Don’t fall.

Cult of LunaA Dawn to Fear | Metal Blade | Post-Metal | Sweden

Presenting their first new material since 2016, Swedish post-metal pioneers Cult of Luna return with A Dawn to Fear, their ninth studio album. Filled to the brim with the group’s signature blend of crushingly nuanced soundscapes and sprawling song structures, the record guides the listener into a raw, heart-wrenching wall of postmodern artistry. With characteristically immense riffs and primal vocal incantations, this album sees Cult of Luna taking a heavier approach than ever before heard in their discography, both musically and emotionally.

— Thomas Hinds

EngulfTranscend EP | Everlasting Spew | Death Metal | United States (New Jersey)

The third in a series of EPs from this Jersey death metal outfit, the Transcend EP feels like a completion of Engulf’s ultra-modern sound. Last year’s Gold and Rust EP was a sure sign that this band would arc their way toward underground death metal primacy, and now this newest EP is their golden-gun shot into the cosmos. The Transcend EP comprises four tracks of primitive weight but complex structure and atmospherics — in short, it slaps, it whips, it whatevers. It’s top-notch death metal.

— Andrew Rothmund

MonolordNo Comfort | Relapse | Doom Metal | Sweden

Stoner doom power trio Monolord make their Relapse Records debut this week with No Comfort, their expectedly massive fourth album. Channeling the crushing essentials of their sludge-laden, righteously stoned sound into six cohesive and catchy tracks, the record showcases Monolord’s inventiveness through towering riffs, pulsing percussion, and a groovy bass attack that will test the mettle of even the most seasoned doom ears. As they continue to bolster their already well-founded reputation, No Comfort sees Monolord further solidifying their role as a true heavyweight within the realm of all things low and slow.

— Thomas Hinds

White WardLove Exchange Failure | Debemur Morti | Black Metal | Ukraine

From Andrew Rothmund’s premiere of Love Exchange Failure:

The “Love Exchange Machine” has failed, the antithesis to the real machinery of the now and the future, the loser in the battle for humanity’s future. White Ward titled their sophomore release appropriately: the black metal it comprises is aggressively somber, angry and bleak but aware of its own helplessness. It is ceaseless in movement but static in mood, ever-shifting but permanently destined toward a drowning death. It is the black metal of now, but also the black metal of the future, because right now the two are one of the same as we converge on an era of conflict and death like none other before it.

TorporRhetoric of the Image | Sludgelord Records | Post-Metal | United Kingdom

Now this is post-metal. It has exacting edge, it has grit, it’s thick and nasty just like our postmodern future. I fucking raved about another post-metal band LLNN last year (the projects are unrelated, I’m just making a stylistic comparison), and much of what I said there also applies to Torpor’s Rhetoric of the Image. It eschews some of LLNN’s deathcore-like weight but adds a fuckton of abrasion and doom, plus it’s downright moody, and I dig that. Stay tuned later this week for more.

— Andrew Rothmund

Murder Made GodEndless Return | Unique Leader | Death Metal | Greece

The third full-length album from technical/brutal death metal outfit Murder Made God, Endless Return consists of ten tracks of razor-sharp complexity fused with unforgiving slams and breakdowns. Though the album presents some of this year’s heaviest and most obscene content, its meticulous virtuosity and machine-like precision are never compromised, even in its most brutal moments. Rarely are technical death metal and brutal death metal combined so effectively as on Endless Return.

— Thomas Hinds

And Hell Followed WithChimerical Reality EP | Hollowed Records | Death Metal | United States (Michigan)

What goddamn year is it? And Hell Followed With isn’t a name I’ve seen since my late-2000s deathcore/metalcore days, but I’m actually glad to see it back. The Chimerical Reality EP does harken back to the sounds of yore — much more on the deathcore side than metalcore though — but still feels right at home with any deathcore album that doesn’t suck.

— Andrew Rothmund

CoffinsBeyond the Circular Demise | Relapse | Death Metal + Doom Metal | Japan

Do you want your skeleton crushed into dust? Do you want your skin flambeed? Do you want your eyes quite literally vaporized? Beyond the Circular Demise does those things, and many more, as a true-to-word gritty death-doom album. It’s the first full-length from the Japanese quartet in six years and perfectly tops off the band’s 20+ year history of tearing faces apart. Anyway, just wait until later this week, as we’re so pleased to bring you a special Coffins treat.

— Andrew Rothmund

ArctosBeyond the Grasp of Mortal Hands | Northern Silence Productions | Black Metal | Canada

Inspired by the frigid wastelands of Northern Alberta as well as the jagged monoliths of the Canadian Rockies, Edmonton-based epic black metal outfit Arctos infuse the naturalistic themes and soundscapes of the atmospheric Cascadian sound into the triumphant gallop of classic second-wave black metal with their new release Beyond the Grasp of Mortal Hands. Rife with gothic atmosphere and gripping melody, their first full-length album expands upon the sprawling and folkloric material of their 2017 A Spire Silent EP, taking their sound to even loftier and more heart-wrenching space than anything previously explored by the group.

— Thomas Hinds

PangaeaVespr | Progressive Death Metal | United States (Wisconsin)

In a bizarre combination of pre-2010 progressive djent rhythms and symphonic tech-death soundscapes, Wisconsin’s Pangaea have crafted a vast and modern concept album with their debut full-length Vespr. Intimidating and gobsmacking, the record weaves together disparate elements such as metalcore breakdowns, ambient acoustic passages, and digital synthesizers into one towering monolith. Giving a proper continuation to the prog/core movement that seemingly died in the last decade, Pangaea evoke the best moments of groups like Periphery and Ever Forthright but with a grander, more fantastical vision.

— Thomas Hinds

ExhorderMourn the Southern Skies | Nuclear Blast | Thrash Metal | United States (Louisiana)

Returning with their first studio album in 27 years, the newly resurrected New Orleans-based old-school thrash outfit Exhorder introduce a marked change to their classic groove-thrash sound with Mourn the Southern Skies. Approaching the genre with a more technical and melodic power metal-influenced edge, vocalist Kyle Thomas has replaced his signature snarl with soaring clean intonations, and the more frantic pace of their 1990s material has diversified into a wider range of tempos. Despite its differences, the record retains much of the identifiably sludgy aggression of the NOLA sound that imbues all of Exhorder’s material with a lasting sense of individuality.

— Thomas Hinds

BelenosArgoat | Northern Silence Productions | Black Metal | France

Furious and lush, Belenos’s eighth full-length since the project’s inception more than two decades ago hits all the right spots for anyone seeking old-school black metal with refreshed, revitalized vibes. Nature comprises the thematic backgrounding for Argoat, specifically earth (versus water, which was the theme of Belenos’s prior release) and the forests it contains. While this may seem typical nowadays for black metal, remember that only a few who attempt to capture nature’s rapture end up succeeding. Argoat has what it takes.

— Andrew Rothmund

BonesDiseased | Transcending Obscurity | Death Metal + Crust | United States (Illinois)

Bones. Diseased. Death metal. Crust. Complete with: guitar solos, blast beats, hell-screaming, and enough sandpapering devastation to polish mountains into optical-grade glass. Sinister. Not cheerful in any way. Mean as fuck. Uncompromising. Good.

— Andrew Rothmund

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