Release Day Roundup – 4/17/20

Editor’s Note: Longtime reader Remi VL is a regular guest contributor to our Release Day Roundup posts! He submitted several of the albums listed below. Join his Facebook group for more recommendations.

Each month, we always seem to come to the same conclusion when it comes to our Editors’ Picks column: Friday release days open the floodgates and unleash a seemingly endless stream of quality new music. But while some of our Editors and Contributors sit down gleefully each week to dive into this newly stocked treasure trove, others find themselves drawing a blank at the end of the month due to the breakneck pace needed to keep up to date with what’s been released. Which brings us to this Heavy Blog PSA: a weekly roundup of new albums which pares down the week’s releases to only our highest recommendations. Here you’ll find full album/single streams, pre-order links and, most importantly, a collection of albums that could very well earn a spot on your year-end list. Enjoy!

Aborted – La Grande Mascarade (deathgrind)

Abysmal Dawn – Phylogenesis (tech death)

The American Dollar – Lofi Dimensions (downtempo, chill-hop)

Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters (art pop, piano rock)

At the Altar of the Horned God – Through Doors of Moonlight (ambient black metal)

Azath – Through a Warren of Shadow (death metal)

Lea Bertucci – Acoustic Shadows (electroacousatic, modern classical)

The Black Dahlia Murder – Verminous (melodeath)

Joshua Burnside – Far O’er the Sounding Main (traditional Irish folk)

City Girl – Goddess of the Hollow / Siren of the Formless (chillwave, lo-fi hip-hop)

Coldbones – The Cataclysm (post-rock)

Cryptic Ruse – UNFERTILE (experimental doom, math metal)

Cyado – Mhä’s Dogmas Part II: Samsara (progressive death metal)

Danzig – Danzig Sings Elvis (Danzig sings Elvis)

darius – Voir (post-metal, post-rock)

Deaf Lizard – No Man’s Sky (stoner rock, heavy psych)

Dictator Ship – Your Favorites (hard rock, rock ‘n’ roll)

The Ditch and the Delta – The Ditch and the Delta (progressive sludge)

Emme Phyzema – Chronic Bronchitis (avant-prog, neofolk)

Enter Shikari – Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible (electronic rock, synthpop)

EOB – Earth (alt-rock, alternative dance)

Etherius – Chaos. Order. Renewal. (instrumental prog metal)

Factor Chandelier – First Storm (alternative hip-hop)

Feed Them Death – Panopticism: Belong/Be Lost (progressive deathgrind)

Fovitron – Alter of Whispers (symphonic black metal, death metal)

Heel of Achilles – Idle Hands, Idle Minds (progressive metalcore)

Hexvessel – Kindred (heavy psych, progressive folk)

Jarboe – Illusory (experimental rock, darkwave)

Khemmis – Doomed Heavy Metal (doomed heavy metal)

Khôra – Timaeus (avant-garde metal, blackened death metal)

Roman Khrustalev – Contemplating the Beksinski (dark ambient)

Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin Kynsi (psychedelic black metal)

Pelican – Live at the Grog Shop (post-metal)

Shabazz Palaces – The Don of Diamond Dreams (abstract hip-hop)

Shards of Humanity – Cold Logic (death metal, thrash)

Sigiriya – Maiden Mother Crone (stoner doom)

The Smith Street Band – Don’t Waste Your Anger (indie rock, punk)

Sugar Horse – DRUGS (doomgaze)

T E S A – C O N T R O L (post-metal)

Trench – Blossom (beatdown, metalcore)

Vampire Squid – Reinventing the Eel (progressive tech death, mathcore)

Vrazek – Дистанция (blackgaze, post-punk)

Wyldlife – Year of the Snake (punk, garage rock)