This week's new heavy metal releases include a solo outing, a fake compilation, riffs from the desert, and more! To the metals…
Amberian Dawn – Looking For You 
Genre: Power metal
Origin: Helsinki, Finland
Label: Napalm
On their ninth album Amberian Dawn are putting a twist on their symphonic metal sound, and their calling the sound "Abba Metal." I was surprised to only find one Abba cover on the record, and it's "Lay All Your Love on Me." Not one I'm super familiar with. The rest seems to be heavier on synth and more dance-able than they've ever been. It's so damned catchy too.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rLubtTiF-s][/youtube]
Big Scenic Nowhere – Vision Beyond Horizon 
Genre: Desert rock
Origin: Southern California
Label: Heavy Psych Sounds
Buy now from Bandcamp
Big Scenic Nowhere are a supergroup of sorts. This one should excite fans of the niche of a niche Desert Rock scene, This one has folks from Fu Manchu, The Well, and Yawning Man. You can probably guess what this sounds like. If you guessed riffs, riffs, riffs, and a lil swagger, you'd be right. It's quite enjoyable.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTOuPOJTv6Y][/youtube]
Deathwhite – Grave Image 
Genre: Melodic death metal/doom
Origin: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Label: Season Of Mist
Grave Image is a a doom album, but it's a doom record that isn't slow. You still have big riffs, bellowing vocals, and a sense of…well, doom, but there's some energy here. This is a refreshing approach to this sound.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z02mfoiOceQ][/youtube]
Leeched – To Dull the Blades of Your Abuse 
Genre: Hardcore
Origin: Manchester, England
Label: Prosthetic
Oh man, this is abrasive. If you mixed the chaos of Converge, with the sound of a grimy sludge album, and just so much rage, you'd get Leeched. This is their second album, and I can imagine they'll continue to bulldoze listeners for a long time after this gem launches them into the metal mainstream.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX7sp81yQEA][/youtube]
Lordi – Killection (A Fictional Compilation Album)
Genre: Hard rock/heavy metal
Origin: Espoo, Finland
Label: AFM
Finland's favorite monsters, after the shape shifting giant in Finnish myth of course, are back with a sort of confusing new album. It really seems like it should be a best-of, but it's not. Instead Lordi are dabbling more than ever with songs that sound like 90's White Zombie, 80's hard rock, and more. It winds up serving as a bunch of examples of many things rock and metal can be. It's a cool collec-I mean KILLection of songs.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMsmJW0f67w][/youtube]
Clint Lowery – God Bless the Renegades 
Genre: Hard rock
Origin: Jacksonville, Florida
Label: Rise
Despite working on dozens of albums with lots of bands, the man perhaps best known for being the lead guitarist and backing vocalist from Sevendust is setting out on his own here. This is his first solo album, and it sounds a hell of a lot like Sevendust if you just turned the vocals of Lajon Witherspoon all the way down. You wind up realizing just how much of the melodic heavy lifting Lowery does, and this album is all of that with some extra guitar frettery.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV8RB8PPJgw][/youtube]
Also dropping today…
Berzerker Legion – Obliterate The Weak (Listenable Records) – Death metal
Bodysnatcher – This Heavy Void (Stay Sick Recordings) – Deathcore
Coffin Curse – Ceased to Be (Memento Mori) – Death metal
Dark Matter – Nebula to Black Hole (My Kingdom) – Dark rock/doom
Dead Kosmonaut – Gravitas (High Roller) – Heavy metal
Fliege – The Invisible Seam (Self-Released) – Black metal/thrash
Folian – Blue Mirror (Anima Recordings) – Shoegaze/sludge
Former Worlds – Iterations of Time (Init Records) – Doom
Gnaw – Barking Orders EP (Sleeping Giant Glossolalia) – Avant-Garde metal/noise
Gary Moore – Live From London (Mascot) – Rock
Into Pandemonium – Darkest Rise (Self-Released) – Black metal/tech Death
Kause 4 Konflikt – Fornication Under Control Of King (Deadlight Entertainment) – Metalcore/death metal
Kirra – Redefine (Eclipse) – Hard rock
Krvsade – Judgement Day EP (Self-released) – Death metal/thrash
Lament Cityscape – The New Wet (Self-released) – "Larva Rock"
A Life Divided – Echoes (AFM) – Hard rock with 80's vibes
Lonescar – Lust For The End (Self-Released) – Thrash
Lorna Shore – Immortal (Century Media) – Deathcore
Moloken – Unveilance of Dark Matter (The Sign Records) – Atmospheric sludge metal
Nechochwen/Panopticon – Split (Bindrune) – Folk/black metal
Obsidian Tongue – III (Bindrune) – Black metal
Paul Di'Anno – Hell Over Waltrop – Live Germany (Metalville) – Heavy metal
Savage Hands – The Truth in Your Eyes (Sharptone) – Alternative
Serenity – The Last Knight (Napalm) – Power metal
Theory of a Deadman – Say Nothing (Atlantic) – Hard rock
