This week's new heavy metal releases include epic metal in various forms, "Baroque-influenced" metal, and more! To the metals…
Blut Aus Nord – Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses
Genre: Black/avant-garde metal
Origin: Mondeville, France
Label: Debemur Morti
Starting this week with some evil stuff. The fourteenth album by Blut Aus Nord is unsurprisingly haunting and dark. It's like ominous cinematic score with blast beats.
Cave In – Heavy Pendulum
Genre: Progressive sludge/metalcore
Origin: Methuen, Massachusetts
Label: Relapse
If you're a fan of Cave In (and why wouldn't you be?), you're gonna get a lot of them here on Heavy Pendulum. This is seventy-plus minutes of spaced-out, progressive, sludgy weirdness. It's their first with bassist Nate Newton (Converge) and he fits right in.
Evergrey – A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament)
Genre: Progressive/power metal
Origin: Gothenburg, Sweden
Label: Napalm
With so much time off the road in 2020 and 2021 it only makes sense for the already rather prolific Evergrey, to spend their time writing oodles of epic prog jams. Album number thirteen has Tom Englund and the boys coming off angrier than the last record. Still plenty of epic singalongs in the rage though.
James LaBrie – Beautiful Shade Of Grey
Genre: Melodic metal/progressive
Origin: Toronto, Ontario
Label: InsideOut
When James is away from his fellow Dream Thespians (that's got to be what they're called, right?), he winds up being a bit more straight-forward with his songs. Beautiful Shade of Grey might be his most melodic solo record yet as it seems like he has ditched his harsh co-vocalist this time. This really showcases the strengths of LaBrie. Jordan has a full review here.
Malevolence – Malicious Intent
Genre: Groove metal/hardcore
Origin: Sheffield, England
Label: Nuclear Blast/MLVLTD
Here's something that will get a circle pit spinning. Malevolence have a lot going on with this record. Hardcore fury, metalcore anthem choruses, surprisingly techy lead-lines, and big ol' grooves. They're like if you glued All That Remains to Hatebreed. And what a fun premise for a film that would be. Max has words on it here.
Mortal Thrall – A Path To Fire
Genre: Post-black metal
Origin: Nashville, Tennessee
Label: Trepanation Recordings
Buy now from Bandcamp
When skimming bands to talk about this week Mortal Thrall caught my eye because their press-release included the line, "Baroque-influenced, post-black metal." This is the kind of stuff that gets my attention. Like most post-black metal records this has pretty consistent tremolo picking, high-speed drums, and lots of atmosphere, but there is that little something special mixed in that gives it some classical whimsy. It's a unique record that breaks the mold of their sub-sub-(sub?)-genre.
Septicflesh – Modern Primitive
Genre: Symphonic death metal
Origin: Athens, Greece
Label: Nuclear Blast
Wrapping this week with some epic shit from our favorite Greek vampires. Their first record in five years scratches an itch that only they can with their grand symphonic elements coupled with solid death metal. Jeff has a full review here.
Also dropping today…
- Anvil – Impact Is Imminent (AFM) – Heavy metal
- Aparthiva Raktadhara – Adyapeeth Maranasamhita (Iron Bonehead Productions) – Black/death metal
- Assumption – Hadean Tides (Everlasting Spew Records/Sentient Ruin Laboratories) – Doom/death metal
- Be Well – Hello Sun (Revelation Records) – Hardcore
- Bog Body – Cryonic Crevasse Cult (Profound Lore Records) – Death metal
- Brandy And The Butcher – Lucky Foot (Self) – Hard rock
- Come To Grief – When The World Dies (Translation Loss Records) – Sludge/doom
- D Bloc – D Bloc (Unbeaten Records) – Hardcore
- The Dark Alamort̩ РLunacrium Thepsis (Unique Leader Records) РAtmospheric black/death metal
- Geezer – Stoned Blues Machine (Heavy Psych Sounds) – Stoner
- Gronibard – Regarde Les Hommes Sucer (Season Of Mist) – Goregrind
- Helsott – Will And The Witch (M-Theory) – Folk/death metal
- LaMacchia – Thunderheads (Aqualamb Records) – Dark ambient
- The Loyal Seas – Strange Mornings In The Garden (American Laundromat) – Alternative rock
- Lucer – The New World (Mighty Music) – Hard rock
- Luminous Vault – Animate The Emptiness (Profound Lore) – Black metal/industrial
- MNRVA – Hollow (Black Doomba Records) – Doom
- OPHE – Somnium Nocte Mendaciis (My Kingdom Music) – Avant-garde black metal
- Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio – Nihilist Notes (and the perpetual quest 4 meaning in nothing (Out Of Line Music) – Industrial/neofolk
- Organ Trail – Appetite For Dissection (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions) – Grindcore/death metal
- Predatory Light – Death And The Twilight Hours (20 Buck Spin) – Doom/black metal
- Rod Rodrigues – Tales Of A Changing Life, Part.1 (Self-released) – Progressive
- Rottenness – Violentopia (Selfmadegod Records) – Grindcore/brutal death metal
- Sadist – Firescorched (Agonia) – Technical death metal
- Sadistic Ritual – The Enigma, Boundless (Prosthetic Records) – Thrash
- Serpentent – Mother of Light (Svart) – Folk
- Space Of Variations – Imago (Napalm) – Metalcore
- Spheric Universe Experience – Back Home (Uprising) – Progressive/symphonic metal
- Spice – Viv (Dais Records) – Rock
- Street Sects – Gentrification V: Whitewashed (The Flenser) – Experimental
- Texas Murder Crew – Wrapped in Their Blood (Comatose Music) – Brutal death metal
- Thy Kingdom Will Burn – The Void And The Vengeance (Scarlet) – Melodic death metal
- Vaamatar – Medievalgeist (Iron Bonehead Productions) – Black metal
- Watashi Wa – People Like People (Tooth & Nail) – Rock/pop
- Zinny Zan – Lullabies For The Masses (Wild Kingdom) – Hard rock
