Upcoming metal releases: October 2009
 |
Photo by [charlie cravero] |
The list of upcoming October metal releases is now up. As always, it’s a work in progress. (Please submit corrections and additions in the comments box.) According to metal-archives.com, new releases average about 10 a day. There’s no way I can capture all that, so hopefully I’ve gotten most of the the major and major minor ones. Buzz is heavy for the new Baroness record, which I haven’t heard. The new Immortal has fantastic guitar work and horrifically modern production. You can hear the title track here. Same with the new Gorgoroth album — audio excerpts here. Modern production isn’t per se bad, but it just does not work for most black metal.
On the positive side, I’m excited to hear the new Paradise Lost. The King Diamond reissues should be fun to hear. Russian Circles sound solid. I’m on the fence about Marduk. The new Red Chord, Belphegor, and Portal rule hard. Many will be jazzed to hear the new Ruins of Beverast, although I myself have yet to “get” that act. I’m mildly morbidly curious about the new Rammstein, and super morbidly curious about the Halford Christmas album.
The biggie for me, however, is the new Converge record, Axe to Fall, which is tell-all-your-friends, then-ditch-them-for-this amazing. The title track has been making the rounds. It’s interesting to compare it against the demo version from half a year ago. Drummer Ben Koller replaced some European blastbeats with snare rolls, and switched out some d-beats for straight-up double bass pummeling. The result is faster and even more intense than the demo. That hammer-on riff is like Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” run through Kill ‘Em All and the history of metal since. Converge wouldn’t call themselves metal, but they’re better at it than many metal bands.
Pre-order:
Amazon (CD)
Deathwish, Inc. (CD, LP)
Converge (CD, shirt, print)
