This edition has a lot of death metal, lots of weirdness, and more!
To the metals…
Bloodbath – The Arrow Of Satan Is Drawn
Genre: Death metal
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden
Label: Peaceville
Death metal's mightiest super group has returned, sooner than I expected them to. Sure it was still four years since Grand Morbid Funeral, but it was eight years before that. I feel like fans will forever miss Akerfeldt fronting the band, but Nick Holms form Paradise Lost sounds pretty natural with The lads from Katatonia, Opeth, and Craft now.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDDTGAsybMY][/youtube]
Cryptopsy – The Book Of Suffering: Tome II EP 
Genre: Death metal
Origin: Montreal, Quebec
Label: Self
Buy now on Bandcamp.com
Cryptopsy's musical output has really slowed down in the last decade. This is their follow-up EP to 2015's The Book of Suffering: Tome I, then before that there was their self-titled album in 2012. If you're a fan, you'll dig these seventeen minutes, but then you'll probably be sad that this is all you get.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG264kpxUsA][/youtube]
Warrel Dane – Shadow Work
Genre: Progressive/groove metal
Origin: Seattle, Washington
Label: Century Media
In 2017 former Nevermore vocalist Warrel Dane passed away from a heart attack. At at the time of his death he was nearing the completion of this solo album. Shadow Work has become Dane's farewell to the world, and it's a really solid swan song.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgHHfp_jOX8][/youtube]
Daughters – You Won't Get What You Want 
Genre: Hardcore/Experimental
Origin: Providence, Rhode Island
Label: Ipecac
Let's get weird. These Rhode Island folks have a foot in hardcore, but dabble in industrial, new wave, and stuff I'm having a hard time putting my finger on that's unsettling. This album is is all over the place in the best ways.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqa4_YuQQV8][/youtube]
Glacial Tomb – Glacial Tomb 
Genre: Sludge/death metal
Origin: Denver, Colorado
Label: Gilead
Buy now from Gilead
This is the debut album from the band featuring members of Cult of the Lost Cause, Diseased Reason (and formerly of Abigail Williams), and Khemmis. This trio sounds like they've been at this band for a long time, but it's only been two years. They really found their stride right away combining atmospheric metal, black metal, sludge, and death metal.
Sample on Bandcamp
Haken – Vector 
Genre: Progressive metal
Origin: London, England
Label: InsideOut Music
Haken quickly became one of my favorite prog bands with Affinity, and Vector is another step in the right direction. It certainly has less moments of novelty, but that may actually cement this as a more credible progressive metal record. There is plenty of weirdness and experimenting to be had, but it is a more modern approach instead of something out of 1985.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oCD4Wk1bwo][/youtube]
Hate Eternal – Upon Desolate Sands
Genre: Death metal
Origin: Tampa, Florida
Label: Season Of Mist
Golly, there's just a lot of death metal to showcase this week. This is Hate Eternal being Hate Eternal, but with Hannes Grossmann (ex-Obscura, Blotted Science, Alkaloid, and a million others past and present) handling drum duties this time. Why can't Erik Rutan keep drummers in this band?
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdPEE8_u8cQ][/youtube]
Sirenia – Arcane Astral Aeons 
Genre: Symphonic metal
Origin: Stavanger, Norway
Label: Napalm
I'm going to end this week in an epic fashion. Vocalist Emmanuelle Zoldan made her Sirenia debut on their last album, and they're back proving that she's woman for the job. This time they introduce a new guitarist in Nils Courbaron, who is also no slouch. Like Hate Eternal, there seems to always be movement in this band's lineup.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCGcS1JpVZI][/youtube]
Also dropping today…
Arlington – A Walk Through Jackson County (Rise Records) – Post-hardcore
The Blue Stones – Black Holes (eOne) – Rock/blues
The Browning – Geist (Spinefarm) – Metal/electronica
Chevelle – 12 Bloody Spies: B-Sides and Rarities (Epic) – Alternative metal
The Casualties – Written In Blood (Cleopatra) – Punk
Cognitive – Matricide (Unique Leader) – Technical death metal
Culled – Thin The Herd, Fail To Learn (Hibernation Release) – Sludge/doom
Days Of Jupiter – Panoptical (Metalville) – Hard rock
Dead Waves – God of the Wild (Entheon Records) – Post rock/experimental
Devour The Day – Signals (Razor & Tie) – Hard rock
Dissentience – Mask of Pretense (Self-Released) – Melodic death metal/thrash
Henry Derek Elis – The Devil is My Friend (Self-Released) – Folk
Fifth Angel – The Third Secret (Nuclear Blast) – Power metal
Fight The Fury – Still Breathing EP (Atlantic) – Hard rock
Icarus Witch – Goodbye Cruel World (Cleopatra) – Heavy metal
Into Eternity – The Sirens (M-Theory Audio) – Melodic death metal (covered on it's original release day in August)
Iron Lamb – Blue Haze (The Sign Records) – Rock
Iron Void – Excalibur (Shadow Kingdom Records) – Doom
KMFDM – Live In The USSA (earMusic) – Industrial
Kurokuma – Dope Rider (Self-Released) – Sludge/doom
Languish – Unworthy (Prosthetic) – Blackened death metal
Malphas – The 39th Spirit (Via Nocturna) – Melodic death metal
Megaton Leviathan – Mage (Blood) – Drone/doom
Nothgard – Malady X (Metal Blade) – Melodic death metal
The Order Of Apollyon – Moriah (Agonia) – Death/black metal
Pandiscordian Necrogenesis – Outer Supernal (Gilead Media) – Black metal
Rapheumets Well – The Elder's Anthology (Test Your Metal Records) – Progressive death/black metal
Riot Horse – Cold Hearted Woman (Metalville Records) – Heavy metal/blues
Rising – Sword And Scythe (Indisciplinarian) – Sludge/groove metal
Royal Tusk – Tusk II (eOne) – Hard rock
Street Sects – The Kicking Mule (The Flenser) – Experimental
Skull Fist – Way Of The Road (NoiseArt) – Speed metal
Striker – Play to Win (Record Breaking Records) – Heavy metal
Sumeru – Summon Destroyer (Medusa Crush Recordings) – Stoner/doom
Super Unison – Stella (Deathwish Inc.) – Post-hardcore/punk
Swilson – Swilson (Vanishing Point Records) – "Loner rock"
Them – Manor Of The Se7en Gables (SPV/Steamhammer) – Heavy metal
Unleashed – The Hunt For White Christ (Napalm) – Death metal
Vanik – II Dark Season (Shadow Kingdom Records) – Speed metal
Westfield Massacre – Salvation (Nerve Strike Records) – Hard rock/metalcore
Wills Dissolve – The Heavens Are Not On Fire (Self-Released) – Post-metal/experimental
