Top Pick
Adon – Adon (blackened groove death)
Keeping it short an sweet this week, as I'm off to see Gatecreeper in a tiny studio venue this evening, and also because I don't actually have access to my top pick at the time of writing. Nevertheless, amid all the juicy death metal releases this week it's the unknown Adon's brand of aggressive blackened death metal that has lashed out and caught my ear.
Just when you think there's only so many times Behemoth's "Conquer All" (itself a repurposing of Anthrax's "Be All, End All") can be repurposed, Adon come roaring out of the traps with the nastiest take on the iconic riff yet! What follows is a torrent of blackened death brutality, reminiscent of the mighty Vredehammer or even Death Cult Armageddon-era Dimmu Borgir, sans all those pesky symphonics, with an added layer groove that sets the standard rather high for the for the forthcoming Dååth album in the process. I don't have the full picture yet, but based on the two tracks on offer, it's going to be a blast.
Release Roundup
Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties – In Ieu of Flowers (heartland/indie rock)
About Us – Take A Piece (melodic rock/metal)
And Hell Followed With – Untoward Perpetuity (deathcore)
Arrow Minds – S.A.D. (TikTok core)
Attacker – The God Particle (heavy metal, thrash)
Battlecreek – Maze Of The Mind (thrash)
Belmont – Liminal (hyperpop punk)
Benighted – Ekbom (deathgrind)
Blue Oyster Cult – Ghost Stories (blues/occult rock)
Bottenhavet – Ljud i Tysta Rum (southern/stoner rock)
Castle Rat – Into the Realm (trad doom)
Corvus Corone – The Finality Of Winter (chill funeral doom?)
The Cosmic Dead – Infinite Peaks (stoner prog/doom)
Crown of Asteria – Cypher (weird ambient black metal)
Crucifier – Led Astray (blackened death metal)
Elfensjón – Zenith (anime power metal)
Elk Witch – Azimuth (stoner groove)
Eventide – Waterline (saxy/ambient/electro/post/doom jazz?)
Exist – Hijacking The Zeitgeist (proggy prog-death)
Extinct – Incitement of Violence (thrash)
Friends of Hell – God Damned You to Hell (trad/power metal)
Graufar – Scordalus (black metal)
Greyhaven – Stereo Grief (DEP, Norma Jean)
Griefgod – Deterioration (progressive groove-death)
Grind – Grace & Misery (post-death metal)
Heavenly Blue – We Have The Answer (post hardcore, screamo)
Heavy Temple – Garden Of Heathens (trad doom)
Heleven – New Horizons Part 2 (prog metal)
Heresiarch – Edifice (death metal)
Hypersonic – Kaosmogonia (symphonic powerish metal)
Icosandria – A Scarlet Lunar Glow (post-prog metal)
Imminence – The Black (djentcore)
Jakobs Castle – Enter: The Castle (why tho?)
Junkyard Drive – Look At Me Now (hard rock)
Karst – Eclipsed Beneath Umbral Divine (brutal disso-death)
Kharma – A World Of Our Own (hardcore)
Khirki – Κυκεώνας (progressive folk, speed metal)
King Zebra – Between The Shadows (hard rock)
Known Demise – Sick and Cold and Blue (nu hardcore)
Lesath – Under the Moon (Post-Metal)
Leyka – Resurrection (metalcore, melodeath)
Love Sex Machine – Trve (post-sludge)
The Lunar Effect – Sounds Of Green & Blue (doom rock/metal)
Mallephyr – Ruins of Inner Composure (black metal)
Martikor – Acedia (dsbm)
Metz – Up On Gravity Hill (‘member Metz?)
Mor – Hear The Hour Nearing (black metal)
Mother of All – Global Parasitic Leviathan (prog/tech thrash)
Nag – Boys Of Europe (blackened crust)
Necrot – Lifeless Birth (deathy death metal)
Nothing is Real – Acts of Despair and Faith (arguments for the use of AI cover art)
Northlane – Mirror’s Edge (SYL-core)
Ornamental – Verwandlung Im Schlaf (psychedelic prog)
Replicant – Infinite Mortality (weird/kinda nu death metal)
Riot V – Mean Streets (thrash/speed metal)
薔薇の宮殿 [Rose Palace?] – Picaresque (JRPG Power Metal)
Sarcasm – Mourninghoul (deathend meloblack)
Setyoursails – Bad Blood (nu metalcore)
Severe Overbite – Severe Overbite (holy shit)
Shadows of Steel – Twilight II (power metal)
Sleepmakeswaves – It's Here, But I Have No Names For It (chill post rock)
Spit on Your Grave – Arkanum (groove death)
Sulphur And Mercury – Alchemia Prophetica (deathend heavy metal)
Tårfödd – Mörker (black metal)
Tarot – Glimpse Of The Dawn (trad prog)
Tenebrific – Labyrinth Of Anguish (blackened death-doom)
Tetsuo – Dots (weird sludge doom)
The Acid Machine – Mushrooms (instrumental stoner rock/metal)
Throwing Bricks/Ontaard – Oud Zeer (weird dsbm)
Tulpa – Temple of Wounds (crusty black metal)
Unborn Generation – …And All We Forget (death metal/grind)
Upploppet – Road Runner (garage rock)
Veriteras – The Dark Horizon (powerful melodeath/black)
The Vision Bleak – Weird Tales (goth doom)
Walk Through Fire – Till Aska (Sludgedoom)
And, if you’re wondering where Vulture is, maybe go read some of the lyrics from their frontman’s charmingly monikered side project Misogynist. Or, better yet, don’t.