Upcoming Metal Releases: 9/4/2022-9/10/2022
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of September 4th, 2022 to September 10th, 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.
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New Releases
Bloodbath — Survival of the Sickest | Napalm Records | Death Metal | Sweden
From Jackson Young’s interview:
Bloodbath are unquestionably a band about passion, and with Survival of the Sickest, their sixth full length album, they prove it yet again, and do it while clearly having about as much fun as someone can while making art dedicated to exploring the unsavory parts of life.
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Revocation — Netherheaven | Metal Blade Records | Technical Death + Thrash Metal | United States (Boston, MA)
From Tom Campagna’s coverage:
With the release of their eighth proper album on the horizon, Revocation’s Netherheaven represents the next stage in their sonic evolution: from primordial metallic neophytes […] to more full-fledged tech-death beasts […]. Netherheaven continues the progression in quality you have come to expect from the greater part of the last decade.
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Ozzy Osbourne — Patient Number 9 | Sony Music | Heavy Metal | United Kingdom
Oh hey, more Ozzy, with guitar contributions from Iommi, Wylde, Clapton, and more, plus drums from Chad Smith and Taylor Hawkins (R.I.P.). I strongly suspect this’ll make it onto more ‘best of’ lists than it should just due to the pedigree. Minor rant: It’s not a terrible record or anything, but “baseline competence + major-label artist” shouldn’t be a formula for eking out #9 or whatever when there’s so much else coming out this year.
–Ted Nubel
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Fallujah — Empyrean | Nuclear Blast | Progressive + Technical Death Metal | United States (San Francisco, CA)
Making incredibly complex death metal isn’t a good thing, on its own, but Fallujah continue to be adept at taking the widdly-widdlies and chugga-chuggas and turning these building blocks into some really listenable, high-intensity death metal.
–Ted Nubel
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Warforged — The Grove | Sundial | The Artisan Era | Progressive + Blackened Death Metal | United States (Chicago, IL)
Determined to one-up themselves in every way possible on their second full-length, not only has Warforged branched out heavily, incorporating new perspectives on progressive death metal, but they’ve even evolved to a new separator: previously, we had I: Voice with the colon, and now we have The Grove | Sundial. We can (somewhat) accurately state that Warforged ‘lays pipe‘ on this release… not sure why we’d want to, but the option exists.
Well, anyway, this is a must-listen if you’re wondering if progressive death metal has gone anywhere new in the last decade. It has, and Warforged is the proof.
–Ted Nubel
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Vrenth — Succumb to Chaos | Rotted Life Records | Death Metal | United States
Hoarse growls and gravelly riffs cover Vrenth’s death metal in a thick coating of moldering grave dirt, but the band’s knack for weaving catchy, badass melodies into this rot separates their second full-length from the teeming throngs of HM-2-inspired death metal out today.
–Ted Nubel
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Nadja — Labyrinthine | Broken Spine Productions | Ambient Drone + Doom Metal | Germany
While the slow, rumbling noise-and-riffs landscape on Labyrinthine is meditative and ever so sublimely heavy, it’s the vocals (provided by four(!) different contributors) that make this a must-listen: on the title track, they’re whip-like shots of furious anxiety that resound against their viciously slow backdrop, while “Rue” offers lamenting clean vocals that sleekly cut up against the band’s ominous drone. This pattern continues throughout the release, since each track comes with a different guest vocalist: Alan Dubin (Gnaw, Khanate), Rachel Davies (Esben & The Witch), Lane Shi Otayonii (Elizabeth Colour Wheel), & Dylan Walker (Full of Hell).
–Ted Nubel
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An Abstract Illusion — Woe | Willowtip Records | Atmospheric + Progressive Death Metal | Sweden
From Colin Dempsey’s track premiere of “Slaves”:
See, An Abstract Illusion stray from the Swedish death metal traditions of buzzsaw guitar tones and melodicism. Instead, they combine progressive rock’s expansiveness, ornamental piano touches, dramatic black metal riffs, and ambient electronica. Rather than overflowing with all of these components, An Abstract Illusion takes time to develop each so that they congeal into a transient package.
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Escarnium — Dysthymia | Redefining Darkness Records | Death Metal | Brazil
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Far Beyond Primitive”:
On their upcoming EP Dysthymia Brazilian death metallers Escarnium conjure up some exceptionally gloomy and downcast death metal, depicting the world in sickening shades of gray. It’s not exceedingly technical or dissonant — their slowly unfurling riffs just tap into a subconscious well of unease that serves as the perfect setting for their similarly miserable subject matter, making sinking into this swamp easy. Intentionally cultivated despair is much more enjoyable than the natural, everyday sort, after all […]
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Toadeater — Bexadde | FDA Records | Post-Black Metal | Germany
Toadeater’s evolution on this LP is impressive: they’ve always been great at evocative black metal, but Bexadde feels like a warped and twisted offshoot of their solemn, gloomy practice. Truly weird and heart-breaking.
–Ted Nubel
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Invaders — Beware of the Night | Fighter Records | Heavy Metal | Spain
Creatively calling back to the neon- and reverb-soaked glam-oriented heavy metal of the 1980s, Invaders doesn’t offer much new musically, but their debut Beware of the Night is a fun romp through nostalgia’s darkened streets that doesn’t fall back on too many tropes.
–Ted Nubel
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Flittering — Conjuring Vile | Speed Ritual Records | Death Metal | United States
It kind of sounds like no participant in Conjuring Vile was actually aware of what the others were playing, and together their collective unconsciousness lashed together this cyclopean, rotting monstrosity. That’s not the case, though, because it’s a one-man band orchestrating this insanity with just a single mind to bear the burden. Brilliant, if hard to parse, and so very ugly.
–Ted Nubel
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