Upcoming Metal Releases: 9/3/2023-9/9/2023
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for September 3rd through September 9th. 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
Cryptopsy — As Gomorrah Burns | Nuclear Blast | Technical Death Metal | Canada
Death metal die-hards have been waiting for the new album from Cryptopsy for some time, and finally, they don’t have any longer to wait. There is a lot of black metal present on this record, as well as some modern stylings that take it into 2023, but it still sounds like the French maniacs we all remember. This is one hell of a comeback.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Dying Fetus — Make Them Beg for Death | Nuclear Blast | Brutal Death Metal + Grindcore | United States (Baltimore, MA)
No real surprises here, just the maniacally intense slam-heavy death metal Dying Fetus is, I posit, morally obliged to deliver. Look, once they made that “Wrong 12 Fuck With” jersey, their fate was sealed. We know what we want.
–Ted Nubel
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Monolord — It’s All the Same | Relapse Records | Stoner + Doom Metal | Sweden (Gothenburg)
This new single release presents an interesting duality for Monolord – the ‘front side’ is a melodic, retro-doom-inspired jam while the back half unveils a ponderous work of shadowed, dialed-all-the-way-up heaviness.
–Ted Nubel
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Slomatics — Strontium Fields | Black Bow Records | Sludge + Doom Metal | United Kingdom
Initially, this feels like evil doom bulging with fuzz and mystery, yet it’s much more than just that, building off of titanic foundations into a vehicle of exploration – expect riff-granted revelations as you progress through Strontium Fields.
–Ted Nubel
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Domkraft — Sonic Moons | Magnetic Eye Records | Stoner Metal | Sweden
Large, spacey riffs are the main drivers of Domkraft’s fourth album. The title Sonic Moons and the album cover get across the point that this is all about hazy metal with a psychedelic and cosmic tinge, though a hearing five seconds of any riff would deliver that same information.
–Colin Dempsey
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Stonecutters — Eye of the Skull | Independent | Sludge + Thrash + Death + Punk | United States (Louisville, KY)
Though they started as a sludge band and still feel like one, Stonecutters’ road-hardened metal is a strangely cohesive blend of death, thrash, punk, and, of course, sludge. Angry and almost viciously D.I.Y.-minded, Eye of the Skull rips and tears against everything that tries to hold it down. We’ve got a track-by-track breakdown of this coming on Friday when the full album drops digitally (what’s streaming below is a single).
–Ted Nubel
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Demons My Friends — Demons Seem to Gather | Gravitoyd Heavy Music | Stoner Rock + Doom Metal | United States + Mexico
Ranging from stomping fuzz rituals to vocal-driven alternative metal, Demons My Friends folds in a lot of influences on their debut record, all tied together with a conspiratorial, shrouded atmosphere. “Alternative doom” is not a new thing, although I think it’s yet to truly mature, and this group definitely has the chops to carry the genre further.
To quote my video premiere of “Ghosts of You:
One strongly positive indicator that a song is going to rule: when the bass is just as loud as the guitar. That low-end commitment is part of Demons My Friends‘ appeal, but the Austin/Mexico City groove unit applies their sonic dominance toward deftly-written, clever songs to really seal the deal. The trio can bring big riffs as well as surprisingly dense, climactic hooks that help shake up their pacing, introducing drama into their luxuriously groovy pacing.
–Ted Nubel
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Ethereal Tomb — When the Rivers Dry | Peace Reaper | Doom Metal | Canada
The vitriolic Ethereal Tomb repurpose doom metal’s language to convey societal frustrations with a hardcore punk-like distain. It’s plodding and crushing–as good doom metal should metal–but plugs into how modernity itself can often feel plodding and crushing.
–Colin Dempsey
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We Do Not Belong Here — Strange to Cope in Today’s World | Independent | Black Metal + Screamo | United States (Louisiana)
Strange to Cope in Today’s World is a dingy slice of blackened screamo, owing to the members’ history with death metal and emo. Though that may seem minute, their experience presents itself in a heartier manner than say, Portrayal Guilt. Emo is We Do Not Belong Here’s Rosetta Stone, and everything they play on this EP is translated through that lens.
–Colin Dempsey
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Terminalist — The Crisis as Condition | Indisciplinarian | Thrash Metal | Denmark + United States
Terminalist live up to their self-described “hyperthrash” label on their second album The Crisis as Condition. They’re technically proficient and expansive, evident by their eagerness to take their songs down narrow chutes and through wormholes. For me, this approach has always been the best for thrash metal because it keeps the genre’s griminess while improving the framework beyond its original iterations.
–Colin Dempsey
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Ice Giant — Ghost of Humanity | Independent | Melodic Death Metal + Power Metal | United States (Massachusetts)
Ghost of Humanity is a melodeath album at its core, with all the drama that entails, but it plays as symphonic thrash metal to the point that its as bombastic as power metal. On tracks like “Serenity of Darkness,” Ice Giant tie together these components so tightly that the song feels like it’s going to collapse were it not held together by a grander cosmic vision.
–Colin Dempsey
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