This week's new heavy metal releases include some modern metal musings, some new old, some extra mouths, and some more! To the metals…
ALSO! Today, Bandcamp is doing one of their days of giving 100% of what you pay directly to the labels and artists. So if you can get stuff from Bandcamp, please do.
Alpha Wolf – Half Living Things
Genre: Metalcore/nu metal
Origin: Burnie, Tasmania, Australia
Label: Greyscale/SharpTone
Buy now on Bandcamp
If you like your metalcore atmospheric and full of grooves, then Half Living Things is for you. When I think of "modern metal," this is the sort of sound I think of, and that's not meant as a slight. If that isn't quite your speed, at least try the track "Sucks 2 Suck," which has some hip hop influence as well as a guest spot from Ice-T.
Bayside – There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive
Genre: Pop punk/heavy metal
Origin: New York, New York
Label: Hopeless
Buy now on Bandcamp
This album features some songs form their Red and Blue EPs and some singles released over the last year or so. Don't let that familiarity stop you from getting this though. Having it all as one piece of music gives some songs extra life in their new context.
Erra – Cure
Genre: Progressive metalcore
Origin: Birmingham, Alabama
Label: UNFD
Buy now on Bandcamp
Pairing REALLY well with the new Alpha Wolf is the latest form Erra. They're another you could put in the "modern" category with a certain flavor of production, but they're technical and proggy as hell. Guitarist and vocalist Jesse Cash has cemented himself as the one to watch in this band, and on Cure he is once again stealing the store with catchy vocals and great fretwork. Sorta new second guitarist Clint Tustin is certainly no slouch on his first record with the band either.
Horndal – Head Hammer Man
Genre: Sludge/hard rock
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden
Label: Prosthetic
Buy now on Bandcamp
Horndal are not an old band, but they're a hard one to give the "modern" label to. This record is a sludgy, hardcore, and hard rocking affair but it has a classic production style. Head Hammer Man is a concept album about a union working (read about it on the Bandcamp), but it sounds like an evil epic of monsters and such.
Ingested – The Tide Of Death And Fractured Dreams
Genre: Deathcore
Origin: Manchester, England
Label: Metal Blade
Buy now on Bandcamp
Speaking of sounding evil… The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams is a bludgeoning and equal parts sinister and heavy. While listening to it my head split and did exactly what the cover depicts. Pretty brutal, but at least I have a couple more mouths to snack with.
Korpiklaani – Rankarumpu
Genre: Folk metal
Origin: Lahti, Finland
Label: Nuclear Blast
Buy now on Bandcamp
Up next we have some folk metal goodness. This has plenty of fun songs that will get you and your friends throwing leather top hats into a pit. There's plenty of accordion, violin, and other Finnish folk instruments.
Witch Vomit – Funeral Sanctum
Genre: Death metal
Origin: Portland, Oregon
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Buy now on Bandcamp
Closing this week out with some new old school death metal. Witch Vomit's first new record in five years is a welcomed return to the scene. This is one with a sound you can guess from the cover, and while you'll likely guess correctly, you won't be mad about it at all.
Also dropping this week…
- Acid Mammoth – Supersonic Megafauna Collision (Heavy Psych Sounds) – Stoner/doom
- Amblare – Amblare (Melodic Virtue) – Sludge
- Attic – Return of the Witchfinder (Ván Records) – Heavy metal
- Austere – Beneath The Threshold (Lupus lounge) – Depressive black metal
- Bilwis – Hameln (Northern Sile) – Atmospheric black metal
- Blacktop Mojo – Pollen (Self-released) – Hard rock
- Destroyer Of Light – Degradation Years (Heavy Friends Records) – Doom
- Diabolic Oath – Oracular Hexations (Sentient Ruin) – Black/death metal
- Dialith – Alter (Self-released) – Symphonic/power metal
- Disbelief – Killing Karma (Listenable) – Death metal/thrash
- Drungi – Hamfarir Hugans (Self-released) – Black n roll/doom
- Filth – Southern Hostility (Crowdkill Records) – Deathcore/hip hop
- Friends Of Hell – God Damned You To Hell (Rise Above) – Heavy metal/doom
- Furze – Caw Entrance (Devoted Art Propaganda) – Psychedelic black metal
- I Ya Toyah – I Am The Fire (Femme Fatale Records) – Synthwave
- Iron Monkey – Spleen & Goad (Relapse) – Sludge
- Ischemic – Condemned To The Breaking Wheel (Self-released) – Blackened doom/death metal
- Kobra Paige – Like No Other (Self-released) – Hard rock
- Locrian – End Terrain (Profound Lore) – Experimental metal/noise
- Once Upon The End – Archive 200 (Self-released) – Melodic death/power metal
- Planet On A Chain – Culture Of Death (Revelation Records) – Hardcore
- Shred Rogers – The Circle (Heavy Armor Records) – Heavy metal for kids?
- Straight On View – Gotta Step Up (Strange Mono Records) – Hardcore/punk
- Temple Of The Fuzz Witch – Apotheosis (Ripple) – Stoner/doom
- Trocar – Extremities (Selfmadegod Records) – Grindcore
- Warbell – Ruin (Self-released) – Melodic death metal
- White Dog – Double Dog Dare (Rise Above) – Southern rock
- Peter Wilson – Freedom's Door (Dr. Music Records) – Hard rock
