This week's new heavy metal releases include melodic death metal, RIFFS, guitars that don't sound like guitars, and more! To the metals…
Arch Enemy – Deceivers
Genre: Melodic death metal
Origin: Halmstad, Sweden
Label: Century Media
Deceivers comes five years after Arch Enemy's last record and it keeps up their tradition of melodic death metal infused with triumph. This album isn't a reinvention of the band by any means, but it's a solid entry in this era of the catalog. Also, I know it's been eight years, but the fact that Alissa White-Gluz and Jeff Loomis are in this band still makes them feel like a supergroup to me. Still, get a charge out of that. Jeff wrote a full review here.
Boris – Heavy Rocks
Genre: Stoner rock
Origin: Tokyo, Japan
Label: Relapse
Back in 2002 Boris first released Heavy Rocks. It was a higher energy stoner rock affair. In 2011 they dropped another album in this style, so it made sense to also call it Heavy Rocks. And now in 2022 they are back to this version of their sound…so Heavy Rocks.
The Halo Effect – Days Of The Lost
Genre: Melodic death metal
Origin: Gothenburg, Sweden
Label: Nuclear Blast
Remember when there were two Queensrÿches? This kinda feels like that except this band isn't calling themselves "In Flames," despite having dudes that all were a part of In Flames to some degree at one point. Unsurprisingly, this album is a masterclass of melodic death metal from some of the finest in the sub-genre's history. Max's full review is here.
Moths – Space Force
Genre: Stoner/progressive metal
Origin: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Label: Self-released
Buy now on Bandcamp
Let's slow things down and go to space. Space Force sounds like the chill parts of Mastodon's Crack The Skye – and these were my favorite parts. The riffs in this are so solid in this and the atmosphere throughout is oddly comfortable.
Norma Jean – Deathrattle Sing For Me
Genre: Post-hardcore/mathcore
Origin: Douglasville, Georgia
Label: Solid State
Georgia's noisiest boys are back with some new noises. And what a diverse collection of noises this is. You're getting all sorts of ____-cores mixed with some grunge, post-rock, and more. Shaun has a full review here.
Seventh Storm – Maledictus
Genre: Power metal
Origin: Portugal
Label: Atomic Fire Records
When you learn that this band's leader is ex-Moonspell drummer Miguel Gaspar, the sound makes a lot of sense. This is rather epic with lots of melody coming from dudes in black cloaks. Something pretty cool they did is that you can get the song below in both English or Portuguese AND performed acoustically in both languages. It would have been cool to do the whole record this way, but I imagine doing so would have been expensive.
Unprocessed – Gold
Genre: Progressive metal
Origin: Hessen, Germany
Label: Spinefarm
Gonna wrap with some guitar shredding. If you're a fan of Polyphia you'd probably dig this band a lot. They also blend modern pop and hip hop production and tricks with guitar theatrics. However, unlike their current tour buddies, they have a singer. So if you're one of those "I'd like them if they had a vocalist" types, here you go!
Also dropping today…
- A-Z – A-Z (Metal Blade) – Melodic progressive metal
- Aronius – Irkalla (The Artisan Era) – Technical death metal
- Blasted Heath – Vela (Wise Blood Records) – Black metal/thrash
- Bleed Like Mylee – Nuk Soo Kow (Self-released) – Metalcore
- Carrion Vael – Abhorrent Obsessions (Unique Leader Records) – Technical/brutal death metal
- Collective Soul – Vibrating (Fuzze-Flex)
- Generation Radio – Generation Radio (Frontiers) – Rock
- Hell Fire – Reckoning (RidingEasy Records) – Thrash/NWOBHM
- Hollywood Undead – Hotel Kalifornia (BMG) – Rap rock/nu metal
- Hydra – Point Break (Frontiers) – Melodic rock
- Kilfeather – Armchair Revolutionaries (Golden Robot Global Entertainment's Riot Records) – Art punk
- Locrian – Ghost Frontiers (Profound Lore) – Experimental/drone
- Locrian – New Catastrophism (Profound Lore) – Experimental/drone
- Nordic Union – Animalistic (Frontiers) – Rock
- Of Virture – Sinner (Arising Empire) – Hardcore/metalcore
- Restless Spirits – Second To None (Frontiers) – Melodic rock/AOR
- Sarattma – Escape Velocity (Nefarious Industries) – Doom/jazz
- Sunstorm – Brothers In Arms (Frontiers) – Hard rock/melodic metal
- Vanden Plas – Live & Immortal DVD/CD (Frontiers) – Progressive metal
- Weregoat – The Devil's Lust (Iron Bonehead Productions/Parasitic Records) – Black/death metal
- Wolfbrigade – Anti-Tank Dogs (Armageddon Label/Agipunk Records) – Hardcore
