Release Day Roundup – 7/31/20

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!

Alcatrazz – Born Innocent (hard rock, heavy metal)

Beyoncé – Black is King (pop, r&b)

Black Thought – Stream of Thought Vol.3: Cain And Abel (conscious hip-hop)

Lauren Bousfield – Palimpsest (IDM, breakcore)

Brotthogg – The Die is Cast (progressive black metal)

Church of the Dead – Church of the Dead (blackened death metal)

City Morgue – TOXIC BOOGALOO (hardcore hip-hop, rap metal)

Collars – Collars (midwest emo, math rock)

Colorama – Chaos Wonderland (psych pop, neo-psych)

Creeper – Sex, Death & the Infinite Void (alt-rock, horror punk)

Deathstorm – For Dread Shall Reign (thrash metal, death metal)

Disavowed – Revocation of the Fallen (brutal death metal, tech death)

Draghkar – At the Crossroads of Infinity (old-school death metal, melodeath)

Drouth – Excerpts From a Dread Liturgy (atmospheric black metal, progressive death metal)

Dmitry Evgrafov – Surrender (modern classical, post-rock)

Fall of Messiah – Senicarne (screamo, post-rock)

Dominic Fike – What Could Possibly Go Wrong (alternative r&b, indie pop)

Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death (art punk, post-punk)

Future & Lil Uzi Vert – Pluto X Baby Pluto (trap, pop rap)

Ganser – Just Look at that Sky (noise rock, post-punk)

High Spirits – Hard to Stop (hard rock, heavy metal)

Hockey Dad – Brain Candy (pop-punk, surf rock)

Steve Howe – Love Is (prog rock)

Imperial Triumphant – Alphaville (avant-garde metal, blackened tech death)

Alex Izenberg – Caravan Château (art pop, psych rock)

Journey Into Darkness – Multitudes of Emptiness (symphonic black metal)

Alam Khan – Solace (Indian classical, Hindustani classical)

Katalepsy – Terra Mortuus Est (brutal death metal)

Kekal – Quantum Resolution (avant-garde metal)

Land of Talk – Indistinct Conversations (indie rock, dream pop)

Le Ren – Morning & Melancholia (folk)

Los Mapas del Miedo – La Bestia Que Prometía Amor (prog fusion, math metal)

Metalriff – Under my Skin (thrash)

Moon Tooth – Violent Grief: Acoustic Sessions (acoustic, prog rock)

Alanis Morissette – Such Pretty Forks in the Road (pop rock)

NOFX / Frank Turner – West Coast vs. Wessex (punk rock)

PowerSquad – Mysterizer (progressive power metal, symphonic metal)

The Psychedelic Furs – Made of Rain (post-punk, new wave)

Question – Reflections of the Void (death metal)

Resin Tomb – Resin Tomb (blackened deathgrind)

Max Richter – Voices (modern classical)

Rival Consoles – Articulation (IDM, microhouse)

Romare – Home (house, breakbeat)

Phoebe Ryan – How It Used to Feel (electropop)

Sepulchral Curse – Only Ashes Remain (blackened death metal)

Shezmu – À Travers Les Lambeaux (blackened death metal)

Aime Simone – Say Yes, Say No (art pop)

Suzie Stapleton – We Are the Plague (gothic folk, blues rock)

Upon a Burning Body – Built From War (groove metal, deathcore)

Valgrind – Condemnation (death metal)

Vein – Old Data in a New Machine, Vol. 1 (nu-metalcore, remixes)

Wicca Phase Springs Eternal – This Moment I Miss (emo rap cloud rap)