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
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
Dawnwalker – Ages (prog metal, post-metal)
Everything about Ages has me stoked, from the Lord of the Rings meets The Wicker Man cover art to excellent lead single “The Wheel.” We’ve been enamored with Dawnwalker’s unique blend of folk, prog, and metal since Human Ruins(2018), and I have every indication that the band will only continue evolving on Ages.
Last Week’s Best Discovery: Craven Faults – Enclosures (progressive electronic, minimal synth)
–Scott
Dawnwalker – Ages (prog metal, post-metal)
Sometimes you just need a bit of prog metal on Friday morning! I only discovered these guys earlier this week and they had me excited for their Friday release. Folk-tinged prog and post-metal. I hear some The Ocean in there, mixed with more standard death/black elements.
This isn’t exactly the ballpark that I feel most comfortable talking about, but every year I try to track down a handful of killer death and/or black releases that dip into prog and post enough to grab my attention. I think this will be one of those!
Depravity – Grand Malevolence (brutal death metal, tech death)
Depravity‘s debut, Evil Upheaval (2018), was the best Cannibal Corpse album in about a decade and its follow-up is probably the best Nile one in just as long. The Perth act have seriously stepped up both the technicality and brutality for their sophomore release. There’s nothing here the dedicated death metal fan hasn’t heard before, but it’s been a while since they’ve heard it done this well.
–Josh Bulleid
Respire – Black Line (blackgaze, screamo)
Despite a surprisingly stacked release day for December, my pick here has to be Respire. With their third full-length Black Line, the Toronto “orchestral blackened post-everything” collective have cemented themselves as one of the important acts right now in blackgaze, post-rock, and screamo. While not pigeon-holing themselves into any of these exclusively, their fusion of catharsis-breeding genres is unlike anything else you’ll hear this year.
–Trent Bos
Best of the Rest
The Advent Equation – Remnants of Oblivion (prog metal)
Alpha Male Tea Party – Infinite Stare (prog rock, alt-rock)
Tori Amos – Christmastide (art pop, Christmas music)