This week’s new heavy metal releases include German reimaginings, bedroom covers, shred, and more! To the metals…
Charlie Benante – Silver Linings
Genre: All-star covers
Origin: The Bronx, New York
Label: Megaforce
Over the last year Charlie Benante (Anthrax) and oodles of his friends got in on the bedroom covers thing and this album is fourteen of the covers they worked on. You're getting covers of Run-DMC, Billie Eilish, U2, Tom Petty, and many more. Friends include folks from Suicidal Tendencies, Testament, Butcher Babies, Death Angel, and others. This should hold you over until the Rush compilation from Charlie and pals this November.
Bernth – Elevation
Genre: Shred
Origin: Vienna, Austria
Label: Self-released
Buy from Bernth
If you've a guitarist that has been trying to suck less, there's a good chance that you stumbled across Youtube videos by Bernth. His channel includes tons of helpful videos to get you shredding. This album, his debut, disproves the whole "those who can't do teach" thing for him. He teaches and can write a hell of a shredding guitar song.
Caliban – Zeitgeister
Genre: Metalcore
Origin: Essen, Germany
Label: Century Media
Caliban have a lot of material out there, and there's probably some older stuff that you've missed. The band did you a solid and recorded seven of those songs, as well as a new track, and put them all on Zeitgeister. Rather than just re-doing the songs with shiny new production, they decided to do all the vocals in German. If you were to A/B these songs with the original versions you'd have yourself an aggressive DuoLingo.
Frost* – Day And Age
Genre: Progressive rock
Origin: England
Label: InsideOut
Now one for the prog dorks. While they had last year's Others EP, this is the first full album from the band in half a decade. This is spacy, emotive, dense rock for fans of Porcupine Tree, Spock's Beard, and other bands where the fanbase is mostly bald dudes with ponytails. And I say that as a fan of these bands, who is bald, but lacks the confidence to rock the skullet.
Subterranean Masquerade – Mountain Fever
Genre: Psychedelic progressive metal
Origin: Israel
Label: Sensory
More prog (sorry?). However, this is progressive rock with pop sensibilities. The choruses are so damn catchy. Despite that you're still getting atypical influences and instrumentation as the band worked in, "African and Balkan brass sections, Arab violins" and "extended vocal techniques."
Panopticon – ..and Again into the Light
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
Origin: Louisville, Kentucky
Label: Bindrune Recordings
Buy now on Bandcamp
Fine, fine, fine. Here are some blast beats and stuff. Austin Lunn has been busy over the last couple years. Last year alone saw a couple splits, a live album, and an EP, so to have a full length already is a little surprising. You're getting long, echo-y songs that are equal parts ethereal and demonic over a seventy-one minute adventure.
Per Wiberg – All Is Well In The Land Of The Living But For The Rest Of Us . . . Lights Out
Genre: Psychedelic/doom?
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden
Label: Despotz
Wrapping with a short but cool EP from Spiritual Beggers/ex-Opeth keyboard wizard Per Wiberg. The four tracks has Wiberg experimenting with spooky rock that seems like it tries to induce a bad trip. This is a weird one to nail down, and that's part of what makes it work so well.
Sample on Bandcamp
Also dropping today…
- Acolyte – Entropy (Wild Thing Records) – Atmospheric progressive metal
- Aeranea – A Voice for the Lost (Self-released) – Djent/melodic metal
- Against Evil – End of the Line (Doc Gator Records) – Heavy metal/thrash
- Antioch – Antioch V (Iron Shield Records) – Heavy metal
- Ã…skog – Varþnaþer (Grind to Death Records) – Black metal
- Bala – Maleza (Century Media)
- The Bleeding – Rise Into Nothing (Decimated Eardrums Records) – Death metal/thrash
- Blood Spore/Coagulate​/Soul Devourment​/Gutvoid – Split (Rotted Life Records) – Death metal
- Canvas Solaris – Chromosphere (Divebomb Records) – Progressive metal
- Crucifixion Ritual – Gouging The Eyes Of Angelic Purity (Invictus) – Black metal
- Dordeduh – Har (Prophecy) – Atmospheric black metal/folk
- Eggvn – La Era de la Bestia (Out Of Line Music) – Industrial
- The Ember, The Ash – Fixation (Prosthetic) – Symphonic deathcore
- Grave Miasma – Abyss Of Wrathful Deities (Dark Descent) – Death/black metal
- Hirsi – III (Self-released) – Folk/black metal
- Myles Kennedy – The Ides Of March (Napalm) – Rock
- Liar Thief Bandit – Deadlights (The Sign Records) – Hard rock
- Mouth For War – Life Cast In Glass (1126) – Groove/death metal
- Otargos- 20 Years of Human Termination (Xenokorp) – Black metal
- S̢ver/Psychonaut РEmerald (Pelagic Records) РDoom/stoner rock
- Scar Of The Sun – Inertia (Napalm) – Melodic death metal
- SeeYouSpaceCowboy/If I Die First – A Sure Disaster (Pure Noise Records) – Hardcore/screamo
- Seventh Crystal – Delerium (Frontiers) – Melodic rock
- Siniestro – Vortexx (Black Lodge Records) – Black metal/thrash
- Sour Times – The 11th Hour (Self-released) – Hardcore/groove metal
- Sunbomb – Evil And Divine (Frontiers) – Rock
- Throat – Smile Less (Svart) – Sludge/noise
- Trumbiten – Emotions (Self-released) – Thrash/progressive
- Wreche – All my dreams came true (Handsmade Records) – Avant-garde Black Metal
- Zombi – Liquid Crystal EP (Relapse) – Progressive
- Zorya – Primeval (Self-released) – Atmospheric black metal
