The Tuesday version of this piece is coming to a close this month in favor of a Friday one. Look forward to this?!? Anywhoozle, this edition contains a comeback, a solid live album, and more, but not much more really. To the metals…
Coffins – Perpetual Penance
Genre: Doom
Origin: Tokyo, Japan
Label: HPGD
Buy now on Amazon.com
A collection of demos, live tracks and other previously unreleased tracks from one of Japan's finest metal exports. An essential for collectors, but probably not much to bother with if you're a casual fan.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brAGCsi1cDM[/youtube]
Disarmonia Mundi – Cold Inferno
Genre: Melodic death metal
Origin: Avigliana, Italy
Label: Coroner
Buy now on Amazon.com
On their first record in six years Disarmonia Mundi and really bringing a Soilwork vibe hard. There are some technical bits and some straight up death metal thrown in the mix too though. A pretty great return for the band and a good launch point for anyone that's unfamiliar with these guys.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT5oSNv9bBQ[/youtube]
Les Discrets – Live At Roadburn
Genre: Shoegaze/black metal
Origin: France
Label: Prophecy
Buy now on Amazon.com
When I was getting into atmospheric black metal shoegaze stuff (or the unfortunately named "blackgaze"), I was really into Alcest. Neige has hand his hand in about a dozen other projects one of which was Les Discrets. I loved this band more than most I found at the time. The two are pretty similar in sound, but Les Discrets was always more about that shoegaze side that Alcest has been into lately. ANYWAY! This is a live set I wish I was at.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZx0Djd3WGM[/youtube]
Lorna Shore – Psalms
Genre: Technical death metal/deathcore
Origin: New Jersey
Label: Density
Buy now on Amazon.com
Guttural vocals? Check. Big ol' breakdown? Check. Unrelenting guitar wankery? Check. Kinda everything you'd want in a band of their sort.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9yjwBf6DxE[/youtube]
My Sleeping Karma – Moksha
Genre: Psychedelic/instrumental
Origin: Aschaffenburg, Germany
Label: Napalm
Buy now on Amazon.com
Really, really, REALLY fucking cool instrumental rock. Essentially a stoner collective but with a lot myriad of influences, which is always nice. Probably my favorite vocal-less record of the year so far.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om3MKkdaPMs[/youtube]
Night Flight Orchestra – Skyline Whispers
Genre: Heavy metal
Origin: Sweden
Label: Unsigned
Members of Soilwork, Arch Enemy, and other Swedish metal projects are once again joining forces to pay tribute to their influences. Songs on this record sound like the songs Kiss, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, and others never wrote. This is the record you can use to trick your family into thinking that you don't just listen to albums of men growling like monsters.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg79Vo6s9vY[/youtube]
Tremonti – Cauterize
Genre: Heavy metal
Origin: Orlando, Florida
Label: Fret 12
Buy now on Amazon.com
Mark Tremonti is a talented musician with an unfortunate track-record. He spent much of his time in the spotlight playing guitar in Creed, then Alter Bridge. Eesh. The guy is actually pretty solid on his own. This record still has some of the formulaic aspects of previous projects (soft verse, "heavier" chorus, repeat until guitar stuff happens), but when he strays from this formula he reveals someone that could be good in a Trivium-esque setting. I await your anger for including the Creed guy.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmoMjMl_Jxw[/youtube]
Also dropping today…
Ashtar – Ilmasaari (Czar of Bullets) – Doom
Beauvoir Free – American Trash (Frontiers) – Hard rock
Bulletboys – Elefante (Cleopatra / Deadline) – Glam
Chainsheart – Leaving Planet Hell (Pitch Black) – Heavy metal
Connoisseur – Stoner Justice (Tankcrimes) – Sludge
Christ – Tower (L'Oeil Du Tigre) – Doom
Dan Deagh Wealcan – Who Cares What Music Is Playing In My Headphones? (Total Metal) – Progressive
Darkology – Fated To Burn (Prime Eon) – Prog power metal
Dogmatic Absolution – Poetries of Oppression (Tridroid) – Black metal
Ethereal Shroud – They Became The Falling Ash (Northern Silence) – Funeral doom
Fight Amp – Constantly Off (Brutal Panda) – Doom/post-hardcore
Gamma Ray – Best Of (EarMusic) – Heavy metal
Grip Inc. – Hostage To Heaven EP (KFM) – Groove metal
Hollow Haze – Memories Of An Ancient Time (Scarlet) – Progressive metal
House of Lords – Indestructible (Frontiers) – Glam
Insect Ark – Portal/Well (Autumnsongs) – Experimental noise/doom
Leere – Bleak (Gravity) – Black metal
Midnight Odyssey – Shards Of Silver Fade (I, Voidhanger) – Ambient black metal
Mosaic – Ancient Sky (Wharf Cat) – Psychedelic
Nightslug – Loathe (Broken Limbs) – Sludge
No Consequence – Vimana (Basick) – Progressive metalcore
Nocturnal Possession – Spleen Black Metal (Avantgarde) – Black metal
Possession — 1585-1646 EP (Iron Bonehead) – Blackened death metal
Rise To Fall – End Vs. Beginning (Coroner) – Melodic death metal
Sideburn – Evil or Divine (Metalville) – Stoner
Strengthen What Remains – Justice Creeps Slow (Blood & Ink) – Hardcore
Temple Of Dagon – Revelations Of The Spirit EP (Black Voodoo) – Thrash/crust
Temple Of Gnosis – Mystervm Magnvm (Goathorned) – Doom
Trixter – Human Era (Frontiers) – Even more glam somehow
The Ugly – Decreation (Vicisolum) – Black metal
Vallendusk – Homeward Path (Northern Silence) – Atmospheric black metal
W. Angel's Conquest – Taste Of Life (Ferrum) – Power metal
Withering Soul – Adverse Portrait (Mortal) – Melodic black metal