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!
Top Picks
Glorious Depravity – Ageless Violence (death metal)
Death metal? In the vein of Cannibal Corpse, Death, Ripping Corpse, Suffocation, and Deicide? Featuring members of Pyrrhon, Woe, Mutilation Rites, Weeping Sores, and more? Sing me the fuck up.
Last Week’s Best Discovery: Badge Époque Ensemble – Self Help (jazz-funk, psychedelic soul)
–Scott
Ingrina – Siste Lys (blackened post-metal, doomgaze)
Following up from their debut Etter Lys, Siste Lys finds the French conveyors of atmosphere Ingrina return with another devastating album of bleak, crushing post-metal. With reworked old songs and new ones alike, Ingrina shows off their strong roots and resilient growth since. Siste Lys is a soundtrack for the forgotten, lost in the frozen sludge between the mental and the physical.
Last Week’s Biggest Surprise: Seahaven – Halo of Hurt (post-hardcore, midwest emo)
–Trent Bos
Palm Reader – Sleepless (post-hardcore, melodic hardcore)
If there was ever any doubt that Palm Reader are one of the best (post-)hardcore bands working today, then there isn’t anymore. Sleepless is the crowing achievement of their career so far and one of the best albums of 2020.
–Josh Bulleid
Sealand Airlines – Sealand Airlines (prog rock, classic rock)
As much as I’d consider “prog” probably the most common theme in the venn diagram of music styles I listen to, it’s still a genre tag that always makes me a bit apprehensive.
Am I going to get Haken or Porcupine Tree, or some hokey, cheesy neo-prog?
Hopefully, Sealand Airlines’s debut album will be anything but…
Coming out on the excellent The Sign Records, a labels whose back catalog is solid enough to give everything they put out a chance, the first few singles seem to hint towards an excellent mix of ’70s prog with a bit of late ’70s/early ’80s synth love. With excellent driving bass, big jam outs, if they manage to stick the landing, this might be a late contender for a stop on my year end list!
Last Week’s Biggest Surprise: Alpha Hopper – Alpha Hex Index (hardcore punk, noise rock)
–Remi