Hey you butts! Here's some new metal! This edition includes some Swedish stuff, some stuff from the Pacific Northwest and more! To the metals…
Dark Fortress – Venereal Dawn 
Genre: Black metal
Origin: Landshut, Germany
Label: Century Media
Buy now on Amazon.com
Based on named alone, you know exactly what "Dark Fortress" is going to sound like. This is grim, evil, melodic black metal straight out of Germany. Much of the album is more on the slow lurching side than the blasting side. I didn't expect it, but I'm for it.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l5LGrbH-8k[/youtube]
Earth – Primitive and Deadly 
Genre: Stoner/Drone
Origin: Olympia, Washington
Label: Southern Lord
Buy now on Amazon.com
I've been following this band on and off for a bit now, and was really excited to see them dropping something new. They're like my old stoner buddy that I don't call enough. They never weren't fun to hear from, but I just was elsewhere. The band is just as fantastic as always. I'll always love the lush atmosphere they create without relying too much on feedback and tropes that turn me off to most of the drone scene.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71nROr1yLgI[/youtube]
Hammerfall – (r)Evolution 
Genre: Power metal
Origin: Gothenburg, Sweden
Label: Nuclear Blast
Buy now on Amazon.com
This on-again, off-again power metal titan is back with their first album since their (second) reunion. It is all you love (or perhaps hate) from the band. Soaring choirs of men, keyboard/guitar back-and-forth madness, and all the glory of a sword battle.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtGFIrvtiAs[/youtube]
The Haunted – Exit Wounds 
Genre: Melodic death metal
Origin: Gothenburg, Sweden
Label: Century Media
Buy now on Amazon.com
This album launches the second reunion with The Haunted's second singer that replaced (then was replaced by) Peter Dolving. If you enjoyed their album Made Me Do It or those first few albums when Dolving came back, you'll probably dig this. For everyone else, At The Gates are doing stuff again.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63YzOuKDGVA[/youtube]
YOB – Clearing the Path To Ascend 
Genre: Doom
Origin: Eugene, Oregon
Label: Neurot
Buy now on Amazon.com
Yob is one of the two IT bands of modern doom (the other being Pallbearer) and I'd say they're worth the hype. This album is four tracks of crushing and dark (yet, calming and beautiful) doom that will kick the shit out of you, and take it's time doing so.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUxgXyOi220[/youtube]
Also dropping today…
Axel Rudi Pell – Into the Storm Deluxe Edition (SPV)
Black Tongue – Born Hanged/Falsifier Re-Release (SOAR / Century Media)
Black Twilight Circle – Tliltic Tlapoyauak (The Ajna Offensive)
Blood Of Kingu – Dark Star On The Right Horn of the Crescent Moon (Season Of Mist)
Bloodsoaked – Religious Apocalypse (Comatose)
Burzum – The Ways of Yore (Candlelight)
Code Orange – I Am King (Deathwish)
The Color Morale – Hold On Pain Ends (Fearless)
Cowards – Shooting Blanks & Pills Re-Release (Secret Handshake)
Emblazoned – Eucharistiae Sacramentum (Deepsend)
Empress AD – Still Life Moving Fast (The End)
Faithsedge – The Answer of Insanity (Scarlet)
Horned Almighty – World of Tombs (Scarlet)
Incite – Up In Hell (Minus Head)
The King Is Blind – The Deficiencies Of Man EP (Mordgrimm)
Krieg – Transient (Candlelight)
Meridian – The Awful Truth (Victory)
Neopera – Destined Ways (Armoury)
Nethermost – Noetic (HPGD)
Nostril Caverns – Inside the Cell/The Dying's Last Breath (Tridroid)
Oecist – XVIII EP (Crowquill)
Pig Heart Transplant – For Mass Consumption (20 Buck Spin)
Richie Kotzen – The Essential Richie Kotzen CD/DVD (Loud and Proud)
Set and Setting – A Vivid Memory (Prosthetic)
Solace of Requiem – Casting Ruin (ViciSolum)
Solstafir – Otta (Season of Mist)
Trascendental – Nothingness (Xtreem)
Vermin Womb – Permanence EP (Throatruiner)
Weedeater – …And Justice For Y'all Re-Release (Season of Mist)
Weedeater – Sixteen Tons Re-Release (Season of Mist)
Wolf – Devil Seed (Century Media)
