THE WEEKLY INJECTION: New Releases From ABORTED, THE METALLICA BLACKLIST, and More Out Today – 9/10

This week’s new heavy metal releases include oodles of covers of songs you know by heart, a good time deity gets artsy, me overusing the word "sonic," and more! To the metals…

Aborted – ManiaCult

Genre: Death metal/grindcore
Origin: Beveren, Belgium
Label: Century Media

Starting this week with a bludgeoning. Aborted are not fucking around on their eleventh album, though they rarely did before. This is nonstop sonic rage. They even brought in a heavy friend in Humanity's Last Breath's Filip Danielsson for "Drag Me To Hell" if the core band wasn't enough for you. Frank has a full chat with Sven here, while Kevin is less excited about the new album here.

Andrew W.K. – God Is Partying

Genre: Party rock/experimental
Origin: Palo Alto, California
Label: Napalm

Everyone knows Andrew W.K. as THEE party guy, and why wouldn't you? He's had multiple singles about partying and this album literally has him claiming to be the good time deity. This record isn't what I'd suggest to put on as a soundtrack to a rager though. Necrosexual has a full review here, but he really sums it up in the opening lines "God Is Partying is a tale of two Andrews. One is the Andrew W.K. who loves to party hard. The other is Andrew W.K. the artist."

Chrome Waves – The Rain Will Cleanse

Genre: Post-black metal/shoegaze
Origin: Chicago, Illinois
Label: Transcending

Buy now on Bandcamp

This album's title The Rain Will Cleanse is oddly fitting. This record feels like a water flowing over your with loads of atmosphere, aggressive percussion, and the perfect balance of darkness and beauty. It sounds like a sonic storm. If you dig the new Deafheaven, you'll probably enjoy this.

Inferi – Vile Genesis

Genre: Technical/melodic death metal
Origin: Nashville, Tennessee
Label: The Artisan Era

Now for some epic flurries! Just under a year after last year's stellar EP Of Sunless Realms Inferi are already back with a full record of technical melodic metal, because there was no touring so whatever were they do to? This record continues the winning streak the band has been on since Revenant, so if you dug that, you'll probably dig this as well.

Anette Olzon – Strong

Genre: Symphonic rock
Origin: Katrineholm, Sweden
Label: Frontiers

It's been seven years since Anette released a solo record which makes sense since she has been busy with The Dark Element, Allen/Olzon, and more importantly a day job as a nurse. On her long-awaited sophomore release, she's turning the driving synths, symphonic elements, and energy way up. She also tapped Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear and a million other things) to help out on this record.

Various Artists – The Metallica Blacklist

Genre: Various/Metallica covers
Origin: Various
Label: Blackened

Sure, Metallica are re-releasing The Black Album with all sorts of bells and whistles today which has demos and live stuff. However, The Metallica Blacklist is where the really interesting stuff is happening. This has 53 artists taking on the album's twelve songs in their own ways. You're getting Biffy Clyro contorting "Holier Than Thou" into an old school Biffy monster, Kamisi Washington turning "My Friend Of Misery" into a jazz odyssey, and literally a dozen different takes on "Nothing Else Matters." You're probably not going to find a lot of heavier versions of the songs here, but you still might discover some new artists along the way.

Also dropping today…

• Æpoch – Hiraeth (Self-released) – Progressive death metal
• April 21st – Courage Is Born From Fear EP (Eclipse) – Metalcore
• Between Worlds – Between Worlds (Frontiers) – Melodic metal
• Black Mass – Feast at the Forbidden Tree (Redefining Darkness Records) -Black metal/thrash
• Coyote Man – Relics (Self-released) – Progressive
• Cult Burial – Oblivion (Self-Released) – Black metal/doom
• Dawn Fades – Ode (Metal Assault Records) – Post-metal
• Four Trips Ahead – Remnants (Dr. Music Records) – Progressive/hard rock
• Gamma Ray – 30 Years Live Anniversary (earMusic) – Heavy metal
• Giant of the Mountain – Mountain's Blood (Careless Records) – Black/death metal
• Gwar – Scumdogs Live (Pit) – Heavy metal/shock rock
• Hail Spirit Noir – Mannequins (Agonia Records) – Psychedelic/black metal
• Hawkwind – Somnia (Cherry Red) – Psychedelic
• Hawthorne Heights – The Rain Just Follows Me (Pure Noise Records) – Alternative
• Inglorious – Heroine (Frontiers Music Srl) – Hard rock
• Like Machines – Supervillain EP (Self-released) – Hard rock
• Lvcifyre – The Broken Seal (Dark Descent Records) – Black/death metal
• Maladie – Symptoms III (Apostasy Records) – Avant-garde metal
• Mastiff – Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth (eOne Music) – Sludge/hardcore
• Mehenet – Ng'ambu (Gilead Media) – Black metal
• M.ill.ion – Back on Track (AOR Heaven) – Hard rock
• Mutant Blast – Detonation (Wormholedeath) – Death 'n' roll
• Nest – Tipping Point (Self-released) – Sludge/doom
• Raizer – Resurrection (FiXT Radium) – Electronic rock
• Redemptus – Blackhearted (Gruesome Records) – Post-metal/hardcore
• Seven Spires – Gods Of Debauchery (Frontiers) – Symphonic metal
• Shumaun – Memories & Intuition (Self-released) – Progressive
• Silence Equals Death – I'll See You On The Other Side (Upstate Records) – Hardcore/thrash
• Sinshrift – Sinshrift (Godsize Records) – Alternative metal
• Teeth – Finite (Translation Loss Records) – Death metal/doom
• Trappist / Connoisseur – Cross Faded (Tankcrimes) – Grindcore/hardcore/sludge
• Turn Cold – Break Your Faith (Self-released) – Crossover/thrash
• Zealot R.I.P. – The Extinction Of You (Three On G Records) – Grindcore/hardcore