This week's new heavy metal releases include grungy dad rock, wild French electronic metal, doomy demos, and more!
To the metals…
Candlemass – The Pendulum EP 
Genre: Doom
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden
Label: Napalm
This follow-up to The Door To Doom consists of demos and the titular track, which is the only one with all the polish of a finished song. The demos are an interesting glimpse into this band's process, but they are clearly demos. Regardless, fans of OG vocalist Johan Längquist will get some more of him here.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUp4tSTPU1I][/youtube]
Igorrr – Spirituality and Distortion 
Genre: Black metal/baroque/trip-hop
Origin: France
Label: Metal Blade
Heavy music's most interesting act is back with more of their truly unparalleled weirdness. Spirituality and Distortion dabbles in death metal, thrash, glitchy electronic music, and more. Corpsegrinder helps out on a track, and that track starts off as a death metal song and devolves into a Fixit Felix-esque 8-bit video game soundtrack. Check out our recent profile here.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ3KObtDaGw][/youtube]
Imonolith – State Of Being 
Genre: Groove metal
Origin: Vancouver, British Colombia
Label: Imonolith Music
After the Devin Townsend Project split drummer Ryan Van Poederooyen was quick to regroup with fellow DTP bandmate Brian Waddell and launch Imonolith. It's been a long road for the band to get here (having had and lost half of the classic Strapping Young Lad guys as members), but their debut is here and it's groovy metal infused with tons of melody. As a huge DTP fan it's great to hear Ryan and Beav out there again.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlmOcXMilHs][/youtube]
Me & That Man – New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1 
Genre: Country
Origin: Gdynia, Poland
Label: Napalm Records
I had always assumed the "Me" of Me & That Man was Nergal of Behemoth and "That Man" was the other dude that's not in the band anymore, so I was a little surprised to see "Me & That Man" back. Anyway, Nergal is the sole member under this banner, but he has all sorts of friends with him on his second evil country/blues music foray. This time he's helped by Ihsahn, Slipknot's Corey Taylor, Trivium's Matt Heafy, and others.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQQIAO8Sb_M][/youtube]
In This Moment – Mother 
Genre: Alternative metal
Origin: Los Angeles, California
Label: Roadrunner/Atlantic
On their seventh album Maria Brink and her gang of zombie musicians are infusing more bombast and industrial into their alternative metal/metalcore sound than ever before. They're also including some covers of unexpected songs like Steve Miller Band's "Fly Like An Eagle," Queen's "We Will Rock You" with Lzzy Hale from Halestorm and Taylor Momsen from The Pretty Reckless, and Mazzy Star's "Into Dust." This album is never not interesting, and I had to keep it going to hear what happened next.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjOtKC_GZ9o][/youtube]
Parkway Drive – Viva The Underdogs 
Genre: Metalcore
Origin: Byron Bay, Australia
Label: Epitaph
Parkway Drive has put a documentary together that covers their fifteen years as a band, and this is the soundtrack to that doc. It includes eleven live tracks from a headline set in Wacken and three new tracks. This would serve as an pretty good introduction if you're not familiar with the band, or if nothing else it showcases how massive this band is outside of the US.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykzedo–Vk8][/youtube]
Pearl Jam – Gigaton 
Genre: Rock/grunge
Origin: Seattle, Washington
Label: Monkeywrench/Republic
Look, I know Pearl Jam is the least heavy of the big grunge bands, but fuck it. It's been seven years since the band's last album and they've put together their most experimental and diverse album since maybe Vitology. "Dance of the Clairvoyants" had some people confused, but don't worry fans. You will still get the powerful ballads, dad rockers, and everything else you'd want from Eddie Vedder and the gang.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOYdZ0GyQFQ][/youtube]
Also dropping today…
- Alexisonfire – Season Of The Flood 10" (Dine Alone Music) – Post-hardcore
- Amnutseba – Emanatism (Iron Bonehead Productions) – Black metal
- Angerot – The Divine Apostate (Redefining Darkness Records) – Death metal
- Aodon – 11069 (Willowtip) – Post-black metal
- The Beautiful Mistake – You're Not Broken. I Am. EP (Wiretap Records) – Punk
- Crypt Dagger – From Below (Dying Victims Productions) – Speed/black metal
- Demonic Death – Judge The Trail (Suicide Records) – Stoner/sludge
- Deranged – Deeds Of Ruthless Violence (Agonia Records) – Brutal death metal
- Destroyer of Light – Generational Warfare (Heavy Friends Records) – Doom
- Diarchy – Splitfire (Unherd Music) – Stoner rock
- Disbelief – The Ground Collapses (Listenable Records) – Death metal/thrash
- Dyssidia – Costly Signals (Self-released) – Progressive metal
- Irist – Order Of The Mind (Nuclear Blast) – Sludge/progressive
- Little Albert – Swamp King (Aural Music) – Blues
- Loose Sutures – Loose Sutures (Electric Valley Records) – Garage rock
- Lord Buffalo – Tohu Wa Bohu (Blues Funeral Recordings) – "Haunting mud-folk"
- Magic Sword – Endless (Joyful Noise Recordings) – Synthwave/heavy metal
- Mamaleek – Come & See (The Flenser) – Black metal/jazz/blues
- Moon Destroys – Maiden Voyage (Brutal Panda Records) – Sludge
- Mystic Priestess – Part Time Punks Sessions (Self-released) – Punk
- Nox Formulae – Drakon – Darshan – Satan (Dark Descent Records) – Black metal
- Omega Infinity – Solar Spectre (Season Of Mist) – Black metal
- Riot – Rock World (Rare & Unreleased 87-95) (Metal Blade) – Speed metal
- Solothus – Realm Of Ash And Blood (20 Buck Spin) – Death metal/doom
- The Sonic Dawn –Enter the Mirage (Heavy Psych Sounds) – Psychedelic
- Stone Machine Electric – Stone Machine Electric (Sludgelord Records) – Doom/jazz
- The Suicide Machines – Revolution Spring (Fat Wreck Chords) – Punk
- Temple of Void – The World That Was (Shadow Kingdom) – Death metal/doom
- Tesla – Five Man London Jam (UMe) – Hard rock
- Torchia – The Coven (Rockshots Records) – Melodic death metal
- Unholy Desecration – Unholy Horde (Confused Records) – Black/death metal
- Velnias – Scion of Aether (Eisenwald) – Doom/Post-black metal
- Void of Sleep – Metaphora (Aural Music) – Stoner sludge
- Wake – Devouring Ruin (Translation Loss Records) – Grindcore/crust
- Woorms – Twitching, As Prey (Hospital Records/Sludgelord Records) – Sludge
- WuW – Rétablir L’Eternité (Prosthetic Records) – Doom/experimental
