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Upcoming Metal Releases 4/29/2018-5/5/2018

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It has been a very, very big week for news outside of metal. Has anyone been following the Golden State Killer stuff? Holy shit, I’ve been losing my mind over it.

Here are the new metal releases for the weeks of April 29, 2017 – May 5, 2018. 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 the coming Fridays unless otherwise noted or if labels and artists get impatient. Blurbs and designations are based on whether or not I have a lot to say about it.

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

As a little bit of a challenge, include your own opinion about anything you want to add. Make me want to listen to it!

Please note: this is a review column and is not speculative. Any announced albums without preview material will not be covered. Additionally, any surprise releases which are uploaded or released after this column is published will be excluded.

send Jon your promos at [email protected]. Do not bother him on social media.

ANTICIPATED RELEASES

Thy Catafalque – Geometria | Season of Mist | Avant-Garde Metal | Scotland
At this point, calling avant-metal wunderkind Tamás Kátai “unique” is a given, if repetitive. Now in its 20th year, his flagship project Thy Catafalque does more than just defy categorization, it is its own category. This catchy, bizarre, atmospheric music may have at one point been considered adjacent to black metal, but the strange, grey shapes found in Geometria pose themselves in opposition of pure ontology. This is an atmosphere we’ve all felt before, rather, those of us who can recall monochromatic chevrons leading to a red curtain.

Ihsahn – Ámr | Candlelight Records | Progressive Metal | Norway
From Andrew’s interview with Ihsahn:

‘Amr feels decisively post-Das SeelenbrechenArktis, meanwhile, perhaps shared more commonalities with its predecessor. Both of those two prior albums are delightful — softer, more rounded expressions of Ihsahn’s avant-garde take on the various adjacencies of black metal — but don’t capture all of his potential aggression and might. This isn’t to say that ‘Amr is a blunt or hard-hitting album; certainly, it relishes in moody guitar solos, clean singing, and pop sensibilities. But at certain moments, it explodes toward an almighty peak in intensity — Ihsahn’s growls as harsh as ever — where guitars, drums, bass, and electronics all swing into locomotive synchrony.

Dimmu Borgir – Eonian | Nuclear Blast | Symphonic Black Metal | Norway
As someone who prefers their music with a bit of flair and melodrama, Dimmu Borgir is obviously a very special band to me. Rather, Dimmu Borgir up to about 2003 is. Everything after then was an unfortunate reflection of the more radio-centric expectations of the time, and so Death Cult Armageddon and In Sorte Diaboli expressed extremity in an almost cartoonish fashion, entirely separate from the endungeoned mysticism which defined the keyboard-spackled perfection of their youth. Ten years does offer a lot of time for reflection and re-maturation, even with the loss of bassist and vocalist ICS Vortex, but, alas, Eonian finds itself where Dimmu Borgir left off in 2007. A pillar falls to the demon of time.

Aeviterne – Sireless | P2 Omerta | Avant-Garde/Technical Death Metal | United States
It’s been a long time since we’ve heard from the Flourishing camp, likely it will be even longer. Now that two thirds of the band has found a more than incredible means of expressing their intricately melodic death metal sense, Aeviterne, which also features members of Artificial Brain and Gath Šmânê, recalls that late 2000s/early 2010s era of crazed, catchy technical death metal.

Stream Sireless at Metal Injection.

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OF NOTE

Wolvhammer – The Mountains Of Ash & Bone | Blood Music | Blackened Sludge Metal | United States
The blackened sludge apocalypse dawns again — check back later today to hear the album in full.

Bismuth/Legion of AndromedaSplit | At War With False Noise | Drone/Doom Metal / Industrial Death/Doom Metal | England/Japan
The heaviest transformative metal’s (get it? Bismuth?) gleaming, fuzzy drone finds itself matched with the steel of a mechanized pummel.

Sallow Moth – Deathspore | Caligari Records | Death Metal | United States
Cara Neir mastermind Garry Brents extends outward, manifesting in crushing, miasmal death crush.

Malevich/Iron GagSplit | Independent | Sludge/Grindcore / Neocrust | United States
The classic hardcore split — where would the world be without it? In the classic sense, Malevich is righteously chaotic, so much so that I was actually taken aback. They call themselves sludgy, but I can’t make anything out in the supreme rage and speed in which the music is actually performed. We’ve covered Iron Gag before, and are obviously big fans, so imagine my delight when I wasn’t disappointed with this followup. A foil to Malevich’s incoherence, Iron Gag responds with lyrical neocrust which would make even the grumpiest dude in a His Hero Is Gone shirt grin and nod in approval.

FOR THE ADVENTUROUS

Kyle Bobby Dunn/Wayne Robert Thomaskbd/wrt | Whited Sepulchre Records | Ambient/Drone | Canada/United States
Pretty, shimmering, delicate drone meditations. Two lengthy, slow ideas which quietly blossom into full form and close with the fading of the sun.

Tusmørke – Fjernsyn i farver | Karisma Records | Progressive Rock | Norway
Norway’s long-running (and, surprisingly, black metal-adjacent) progressive rock heroes continue down their folk-laden path. As such, which is the case with most folk-and-prog-related-things, Tusmørke doesn’t break any new ground, but I don’t think that is their intent from the start.

FROM THE GRAVE

Golden Dawn – The Art of Dreaming Casus Belli Musicae | Melodic Black Metal | Austria
The new renaissance of Dreamlord’s early works comes to a close with the LP reissue of The Art of Dreaming — something he referred to as the final recording in his “demo” period. Though decidedly more “gothic” in scope when compared to the Medieval bent of the releases which precede it, The Art of Dreaming still possesses the “innocence in excess” which defined Golden Dawn’s early period. I believe this LP edition is sold out, but there should be a CD, as well.

OTHER RELEASES

Collapse of Light – Each Failing Step | Naturmacht Productions | Funeral Doom Metal | International
Slow, deliberate, and extremely depressed, Collapse of Light somehow captures the feeling of Shining’s Halmstad and puts it in a freezer. Unfortunately, the intensity and depravity is sorely absent, leaving a potentially interesting, but mostly flat album.

Depravity – Evil Upheaval | Transcending Obscurity | Death Metal | Australia
Fairly standard early-Tucker-era Morbid Angel worship, though definitely higher quality than most. Prepare for chunky, groovy riffs ahead.

Ommadon – End Times | Dry Cough Records/At War With False Noise | Drone/Doom Metal | Scotland
Another Ommadon record means more talk of crushing, bottomless drone, but none of it really goes anywhere, nor does it carry any heft outside of frequency-depth.

Bong – Thought and Existence | Ritual Productions | Psychedelic/Drone/Doom Metal | England
While everyone else praises Sleep’s use of that one Iommi riff, Bong has quietly found the middle ground between deep, bassy fuzz and the hypnotic drone of Eastern music. I also owe an immense debt to mastermind Dave Terry for getting me into Lovecraft through the unique name of the now defunct Ungl’unl’rrlh’chchch.

Death. Void. Terror. – To the Great Monolith I | Iron Bonehead Productions | Funeral Drone/Doom Metal | Unknown
It’s been a few years since I used the “torture doom” tag. If you were around in the mid-2000s, you’d know the type, that horrific, funereal drone doom made by the likes of Wormphlegm, Senthil, and Black Bile, among many others. Though decidedly death metal oriented, and there are lengthy bouts of death metal which punctuate To the Great Monolith I, mysterious band Death. Void. Terror. Exudes a similar sort of disgusting, filth-ridden fear to that golden age of horror music.

Adversvm – Aion Sitra Ahra | Iron Bonehead | Funeral Doom Metal | Germany
Iron Bonehead Productions isn’t really known for delving into the funeral doom realm, though Adversvm’s sluggish movements definitely mirror the ugly nature which defines most of the label’s releases.