THE WEEKLY INJECTION: New Releases From KHEMMIS, NINE INCH NAILS, and More Out Today 6/22

This edition includes dooooooooooom, short LPs, lushness, and more! To the metals…

Amarok – Devoured 

Genre: Sludge/Doom
Origin: Chico, California
Label: Translation Loss Records

Starting nice and slow this week. Devoured is a four song doom debut that clocks in at just under an hour and ten minutes. In a move that's both confusing and cool, the song titles include numbers that seem to be counting the number of the song in the band's career. This one starts with a track called "VI Sorceress." That's fun.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBMqmCxFYSw][/youtube]

 

Cavern – Eater

Genre: Progressive sludge/instrumental metal
Origin: Oakland, Maryland
Label: Grimoire Records

Sample and purchase on Bandcamp

Eater is a lush instrumental album of two guys either using loopers to build massive tracks, or getting real proggy and rhythmic. They wind up being a fascinating band with a sound somewhere between The Ocean and Scale The Summit. Highly recommended.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwFiaX48f5U][/youtube]

 

Haken – L-1ve DVD/CD

Genre: Progressive metal
Origin: London, England
Label: InsideOut

Filmed during their tenth anniversary tour, L-1ve includes stellar performances of tracks from their entire catalog. Especially cool is the "Aquamedley" track which should be a treat for long-time fans. Overall, this would be a great introduction to those curious about the band, but this also became an eye opener for me as a fan that hasn't seen them yet. I now know that I really should.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMzgh_1j838][/youtube]

 

Impending Doom – The Sin And Doom Vol. II 

Genre: Deathcore
Origin: Riverside, California
Label: eOne

Oh man, here's a band I haven't thought about in a long time. The deathcore thing was huge where I lived, and Impending Doom shirts were everywhere, but then I moved and there doesn't appear to be deathcore guys in my hippie college town. Anyway, it's been five years since these low-tuned, guttural vocal loving have gotten all up in your earholes with new stuff. This seems to be a sequel to their demo, at least in name. That's fun. Amber has a full review here.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6NG7bl89b4][/youtube]

 

Khemmis – Desolation 

Genre: Doom
Origin: Denver, Colorado
Label: 20 Buck Spin

Behind the scenes here in the Metal Injection headquarters, there is a constant battle about if Khemmis is a great band, or the greatest band. This was all anyone talked about for months before it was even announced. Now that it's here we find that the riffs and melodies on this thing are undeniably solid, but SOMETHING about it isn't quite clicking with some of our writers the way Hunted did. It doesn't mean it's a bad album, it just means it'll be in the number two on spot their end of the year lists.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZd2liHm8P8&t=150s][/youtube]

 

Nine Inch Nails – Bad Witch 

Genre: Industrial
Origin: Cleveland, Ohio
Label: Null

This is the third and final release in a trilogy of EPs (or rather two EPs and this short LP, apparently). This doesn't quite have the banger tracks like Add Violence did with "Less Than" or "Branches/Bones" on Not The Actual Events. "Ahead of Ourselves" comes close, but instead this dives deep into the noisy atmospheric side of Trent and Atticus.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeJ_DzRJUI4][/youtube]

 

Also dropping today…

Al Ard – Al Ard (code666) – Industrial black metal
Arstidir – Nivalis (Season Of Mist) – Black metal
Brass Owl – Brass Owl (Self-Released) – Rock
Eskhaton – Omegalitheos (Lavadome) – Death metal
Hatchet – Dying To Exist (Combat/EMP) – Thrash
Heretic – Evil Rising (Massacre) – Heavy metal
King Heavy – Guardian Demons (Cruz Del Sur) – Doom heavy
Marduk – Viktoria (Century Media) – Black metal
Micks Jaguar – Fame and Fortune (RidingEasy Records) – Rock
Morgengrau – Blood Oracle (Unspeakable Axe) – Death metal
Various Artists – First Contact: Music From The Original Soundtrack 'The Planet of Doom' (Ripple Music) – Doom
Various Artists – Turn It Around: The Story Of East Bay Punk DVD/CD (1-2-3-4 Go!) – Punk
Vein – Errorzone (Closed Casket Activities) – Experimental/hardcore