This week's new heavy metal releases include lots of snakes, no really, like an odd amount of snakes, and more!
To the metals…
Amon Amarth – Berserker
Genre: Melodic death metal
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden
Label: Metal Blade
In a twist no one saw coming, Amon Amarth are releasing a new album about Vikings. However, this time a specific group of vikings called Berserker. I learned this from the little intro in the video below and skimming song titles, so if this isn't entirely accurate, please send a horde of Vikings and/or Berserkers after me to right this injustice. This new Amon Amarth album is the band doing what they do, and unsurprisingly, killing it.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H24S0nym-pE][/youtube]
Disparager – Existential Dread
Genre: Sludge/Post-hardcore
Origin: Brooklyn, New York
Label: Self-Released
Buy now on Bandcamp.com
This is an interesting album from an interesting band. They combine emotive post-hardcore and epic sludge in a way that I've never heard before. The result sounds like Sigur Ros if they were incredibly upset, and I dig it a lot.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0rDys-CiEE][/youtube]
L7 – Scatter the Rats
Genre: Hard rock
Origin: Los Angeles, California
Label: Blackheart Records
L7 have been doing the reunited band thing for the last five years by playing shows showcasing classic material, popping up on festivals, re-proving their legacy, and what not. Now they're dropping some new material on Joan Jett's label and it sounds so wonderfully 90's. It's the line-up from their golden era, so fans sound be stoked to have their heroes back.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUV9fNLYRZI][/youtube]
Myrath – Shehili
Genre: Progressive/power metal
Origin: Ez-Zahra, Tunisia
Label: earMusic
This band is tremendous. Musically, they are a lot of fun. However, the money is in their shtick. The video includes their vocalist steering a ship with his mind from four feet away from the ship's wheel (why not just step forward and use your hands?), the keyboard player surrounded in a triangle of keyboards, and snake battles. The music behind the video, and the entire album, is the perfect soundtrack for this power metal silliness.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWSbC7vPf6E][/youtube]
Origin – Abiogenesis – A Coming Into Existence
Genre: Technical Brutal Death Metal
Origin: Topeka, Kansas
Label: Agonia
This is technically a re-release/compilation which I normally wouldn't include it, but I added it to the header photo before I knew that. Anyway, this on two discs and about twenty-eight minutes long. Disc one features the band's earliest days pre-Origin and disc two appears the be the band's first EP.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCrnou_gmtA][/youtube]
Ringworm – Death Becomes My Voice
Genre: Thrash/Hardcore
Origin: Cleveland, Ohio
Label: Relapse
Weird. Another video with snakes. Ringworm are an angry bunch, and this is an unrelenting pummeling. This, their eighth album in their almost thirty years, will open so many pits and cause so much flailing.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSWIj9_Ss7c][/youtube]
Silver Snakes – Death And The Moon
Genre: Progressive
Origin: Los Angeles, California
Label: Evil Ink Records
Buy now from Evil Ink
More fucking snakes. Indiana Jones would not be fond of this week's album releases. Silver Snakes are a band that's constantly morphing. This time they are taking on some Thrice and Nine Inch Nails vibes while still having a foot in their spacey prog beginnings. The band continues to surprise me with Death And The Moon.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9ysINAXQqs][/youtube]
Also dropping today…
Amygdala – Our Voices Will Soar Forever (Prosthetic) – Hardcore
Asomvel – World Shaker (Heavy Psych Sounds) – Heavy metal
Bad Religion – Age Of Unreason (Epitaph) – Punk
Body Harvest – Parasitic Slavery (Comatose Music) – Death metal
Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes – End Of Suffering (International Death Cult) – Punk/alternative rock
Fury – Failed Entertainment (RFC) – Hardcore
Invicta – Halls of Extinction (Self-released ) – Melodic thrash
Kampfar – Ofidians Manifest (Indie) – Pagan black metal
Mos Generator – Night Of The Lords (Devil's Child) – Stoner/heavy metal
Osiah – Kingdom Of Lies (Unique Leader) – Deathcore
Stellar Master Elite – Hologram Temple (Unholy Conspiracy Deathwork) – Doom/black metal