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Upcoming Metal Releases 1/25/2015 – 1/31/2015

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Here are the new metal releases for the week of 1/25/2015 – 1/31/2015. Release dates are formatted according to proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see the bulk of these records on shelves or distros on Tuesday unless otherwise noted. Blurbs and designations are based on available promotional material and perceived buzz.

See something we missed? Goofs? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging.

Anticipated Releases:

Black Sheep Wall – I’m Going To Kill Myself | Season of Mist | Post-metal, sludge | United States
Core chugs lumber along and move with a misanthropic painfulness. If this isn’t your speed, Season of Mist is also handling the stateside release of Germany’s Ascension.

The Body & ThouYou, Whom I Have Always Hated | Thrill Jockey Records | Sludge, doom, drone | United States
Following last year’s collaborative Released From Love, two sludge/doom darlings do it again.
Related to: Thou: Barghest.

Callisto – Secret Youth | Svart Records | Post-metal | Finland
Uses post-hardcore to subtly shift post-metal’s tidal patterns.

Dødsfall – Kaosmakt | Osmose Productions | Black metal | Norway
This black metal duo had their riffs strengthened by a stay at Sunlight Studios. Out on Friday (January 30).
Related to: Kvalvaag, Forest of Doom, Isolated, Moonlight, Skygge, Svarthaueg

Lord Dying – Poison Altars | Relapse Records | Sludge | United States
Strums through sludge tunes with a greater immediacy.
Related to: Dark Castle

Napalm Death – Apex Predator: Easy Meat | Century Media Records | Death/grind | United Kingdom
The ageless grindfathers rip through their 15th full-length. As always, there are many styles forming one voice.
Related to: Venomous Concept, Brujeria, Lock Up, Bent Sea, Absolute Power, Menace, Unseen Terror, Meathook Seed, Blood from the Soul, Defecation, Righteous Pigs, Benediction, Extreme Noise Terror

Venom – From the Very Depths | Spinefame Records | NWOBHM | United Kingdom
Cronos and company wipe the angel dust off a 36-year-old sound that has birthed a million bands.

Visigoth – The Revenant King | Metal Blade Records | Power metal, heavy metal | United States
An Americanized take on soaring, mythology-minded power metal.
Related to: Huldra, Gallowbraid, Winterlore

Voices – London | Candlelight Records | Blackened death metal, prog | United Kingdom
Balances violent explosions of blackened death metal with meditative gothic and proggy parts. Finally hits USA’s shores.
Related to: Akercocke, The Order of Apollyon

Xibalba – Tierra Y Libertad | Southern Lord | Metallic hardcore, death metal | United States
Has no other goal than bringing the mosh. Think Merauder or Death Threat with a Left Hand Path fixation.

Of Note:

Angelus Apatrida – Hidden Evolution | Century Media Records | Thrash | Spain
Modernized thrash built on Megadeth‘s blueprint.

Archgoat – The Apocalyptic Triumphator | Debemur Morti Productions | Blackened death metal | Finland
Belching, bestial evilness that’s messier than a murder scene. Album in a song title: “Nuns, Cunts and Darkness.”
Related to: Torture Killer

Atomicide – Chaos Abomination | Iron Bonehead Productions/Death Division Rituals | Death/thrash | Chile
Charred-black and stripped down death metal doing its work at a thrash-y tempo. Out on Friday (January 30).
Related to: Death Skull, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Hades

Black Cilice – Mysteries | Iron Bonehead Productions | Black metal | Portugal
Raw and so lo-fi it boarders on noise. Oddly melodic. Out on Friday (January 30).

By the Patient – Gehenna | Lifeforce Records | Death metal | Denmark
Employs a thick, modern death tone to beef up crusty chord progressions.

Deathbreed – New World Order | Rogue Records America | Death metal | Sweden
Slick modern death metal eschewing most modern trends.

Deprive – Into Oblivion | Memento Mori | Death/doom | Spain
Sits more on the OSDM side of things, but finds room for those old Peaceville leads.
Related to: Briargh, Hrizg, CrystalMoors, Daemonlord, Eldereon, Lucifuego

Ethereal – Opus Aethereum | Candlelight Records | Blackened death metal | United Kingdom
Layers familiar genres to create an over-the-top, symphonic wall of sound.

Evisorax – Goodbye to the Feast… Welcome to the Famine | Bones Brigade | Grind | United Kingdom
Violent core-leaning grind that doesn’t shy away from dissonance.

Hic Iacet – The Cosmic Trance Into The Void | Iron Bonehead Productions | Blackened death metal | Spain
Reverb-heavy, sulfuric death that tosses in dashes of unexpected timbres.

Iron Lamb – Fool’s Gold | High Roller Records | Heavy metal | Sweden
A driving, no-nonsense take on Motörhead.

Jørn Lande and Trond Holter – Dracula: Swing of Death | Frontiers Records | Heavy metal | Norway
Jørn Lande, fromage master and Coverdale clone, goes all out on a. . . rock opera. . . based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Sure. In other collabo news, Sweet & Lynch – that would be Stryper‘s Michael Sweet and Dokken‘s George Lynch – are releasing Only To Rise. If those don’t pique your guilty pleasure interests (because you’re under 30-years-old), there’s Battle Beast‘s Unholy Savior. Plenty of cheese has been plated this week.
Related to: Masterplan, Allen – Lande, Beyond Twilight, Ark, Mundanus Imperium

MAGI – Forget Me Not | Arognauta Records | Doom, drone, post-metal | United States
Doom swirling together with atmospheric melodies. Find older material here.

Melmak – Pig Songs | Self-released | Sludge, stoner | Spain
Exhales thick clouds of sludgy grooves.

Satyrasis – …Of the Dead | Seventh Door Records | Death/thrash | United States
Shreds through modern thrash with quick licks.

Skygge – Antiqua Ignis | Immortal Frost Productions | Black metal | Norway
Unnervingly discordant chaos that has more sonic depth than one would expect.
Related to: Dødsfall, Svarthaueg, Viðr

Solanum / Epi-DemicPassages To Lunacy | Horror Pain Gore Death | Crossover, thrash | United States / Canada
Two thrashers of a punkier persuasion.

Sumokem – The Madness of Lu Shen Ti Vol. 1 | Handshake Inc. | Stoner, doom | United States
Smoky heaviness that recalls the smooth strut of bands like Only Living Witness and early Soundgarden.

A Swarm Of The Sun – The Rifts | Version Studio Records | Post-rock, post-metal | Sweden
Patiently builds up gaze-y black metal timbres. Out on Friday (January 30).

Tervahäät – Tervahäät | Nordvis | Folk | Finland
Spare folk that carries a heavy emotional weight.

Winds of Genocide – Usurpring the Throne of Disease | Pulverised Records | Crust, death metal | United Kingdom
Death metal covered in crust. Forgoes the God City buzz for old school scuzziness.
Related to: Horrified, Uncoffined, Plague Rider

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Things We Missed:

• Black Metal

Abyssgale – Execution Litany (GER, black metal)

Addaura – …and the lamps expire. (USA, atmospheric black metal)

Dunnock / Intergalactic Holocaust – Split (USA, raw, atmospheric black metal)

Sordide – La France a peur (FRA, black metal)

• Death Metal

Feral – The Deathkult (SWE, OSDM)

Kruor – Nightmares (FIN, death metal)

• Doom/Sludge/Stoner

Keeper / Sea Bastard – Split (USA / UK, sludge, doom)

Tort – II (ESP, sludge, death/doom)

• Hardcore/Punk

Discourse – Sanity Decays (USA, metallic hardcore)

Gas Chamber – Hemorrhaging Light (USA, hardcore, powerviolence)

Same Sex Dictator – Open the Coffin (USA, powerviolence)

Wetbrain – Vacant Life (USA, hardcore, punk, noise)