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

3 years ago

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

The Armed – Ultrapop (noise rock, post-hardcore)

Did you enjoy the new Genghis Tron but miss some of their noisy abrasiveness? The Armed‘s new album Ultrapop might be for you. With their lineup intentionally always in flux with an ever-changing line-up of collaborators, you never totally know what to expect from The Armed, just that it will be distinctly them, and distinctly good. More digestible than 2018’s Only Love, Ultrapop takes a well, more “pop” direction without compromising their sound. Elements of synth punk, post-hardcore and noise rock are still at the forefront, with spastic contributions from their mathcore roots and chaotic digital hardcore drumming and electronics. Definitely one of the standout albums of 2021 so far, and a uniquely rewarding listening experience.

See Also: Suffocate for Fuck Sake – Fyra (screamo, post-metal)

Trent Bos

Motorpsycho – Kingdom of Oblivion (progressive rock, psych rock)

To say that Motorpsycho is my favourite band, and that this is my most anticipated album of the year is kind of an understatement. No one else comes close, and no other albums comes close.

Over 30 years, MP has put out a steady release of albums, near an album per year, often double albums, with half as many EPs during the first half of their career, and most of it is amazing.

Depending on who you talk to, their favourite era may vary, but for me, they haven’t put out a less than amazing studio album since the mid-90s. Consistently near the top of my top albums every year.

Kingdom of Oblivion was partly written and recorded during the sessions for their previous album, The All Is One, which might explain the less than 8-month span between albums this time around. All signs point to this being another amazing release from a band who apparently can do no wrong. If you like progressive and psych inspired heavy rock, and haven’t taken the time to check these guys, this will surely be as good as any point to jump in! Work your way backwards from there. It’s all great!

Last Week’s Biggest Surprise: Tunic – Exhaling (post-punk, noise rock)

Remi

While She Sleeps – Sleeps Society (melodic metalcore)

I’ll have a full review for this album for the next drop, but the skinny version is that While She Sleeps continue to be one of the best and most passionate bands in modern metalcore.

Sleeps Society feels like more of a natural continuation of modern masterpiece You Are We (2017) than 2019’s So What?, while still managing to incorporate some of the more successful electronic experiments from that record as well.

It’s a great starting-point for those new to the band, while being sure to satisfy longtime fans as well.

-Josh Bulleid

Best of the Rest

Abducted – Eons of Inception (instrumental tech-death)

Alaskan Tapes – For Us Alone (ambient)

Aloft – Far (alt-rock, post-rock)

Amigo the Devil – Born Against (gothic country, dark folk)

The Ammonoids – Survivors of the K-T Boundary (melodic punk)

The Armed – Ultrapop (noise rock, post-hardcore)

August Burns Red – Guardians Sessions (melodic metalcore)

Lea Bertucci – A Visible Length of Light (modern classical, electroacoustic)

Betrayal – Disorder Remains (blackened death metal, groove thrash)

Bewitcher – Cursed Be Thy Kingdom (heavy metal, doom metal)

The bonus – On Every Street, A Snake (post-rock)

Born Ruffians – Pulp (indie rock, indie pop)

Bushido Code – The Ronin (crossover thrash, metalcore)

Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined (death metal)

Church Tongue – The Hubris of Gods Departed (metallic hardcore, metalcore)

Colonial Wound – Degradation (post-hardcore, sludge)

Conway the Machine – La Maquina (hip-hop)

Louis-Jean Cormier – Le ciel est au plancher (indie folk, indie pop)

Cosmophobe – Neo-Terran Dystopia (tech death, deathcore)

C R O W N – The End of All Things (post-metal, prog metal)

Endseeker – Mount Carcass (death metal)

Eomac – Cracks (industrial techno, tribal ambient)

ExtinctExist – Anthropocene (thrash)

Greta Van Fleet – The Battle Of Garden’s Gate (hard rock, blues rock)

Hail The Sun – New Age Filth (post-hardcore, prog rock)

Nick Hakim & Roy Nathanson – Small Things (alternative r&b, jazz)

Heaven Pierce Her – ULTRAKILL: Chaos / Order (breakcore, video game soundtrack)

Hell Hordes – Hell Hordes (death metal)

Holding Absence – The Greatest Mistake of My Life (post-hardcore)

HØST – Kos (jazz, post-rock)

Icon of Sin – Icon of Sin (heavy metal, melodic rock)

Ildaruni – Beyond Unseen Gateways (melodic black metal, folk metal)

Intonate – Severed Within (progressive death metal, post-death)

Kink Gong – Zomia Vol.1 (avant-garde, field recordings)

Legions of War – Dark Dimensions (blackened thrash)

Liquid Tension Experiment – LTE3 (progressive metal)

London Grammar – Californian Soil (chamber pop)

Monarch – Future Shock (thrash metal)

Mystics Sons – Curses and Spells (stoner-doom)

The Offspring – Let The Bad Times Roll (alt-rock, punk)

Oh The Humanity! – Oh The Humanity! (punk, melodic hardcore)

Pathfinders – Ares Vallis (nu-tech-deathcore)

Pathologically Explicit – Septycemia-Yersinia Pestis (brutal death metal, slam)

Son Lux – Tomorrows III (art pop, chamber pop)

Alexandra Spence – A Necessary Softness (electroacoustic, field recordings)

Andy Stott – Never the Right Time (UK bass, ambient)

Suffocate For Fuck Sake – Fyra (screamo, post-rock)

Superlynx – Electric Temple (heavy psych, doom)

Temple Balls – Pyromide (hard rock, hair metal)

To The Grave – Epilogue (technical deathcore)

Venter – Hikikomori (prog post-rock)

The Vintage Caravan – Monuments (prog rock, stoner rock)

Vvvlv – 100 Years of Defeat (blackened sludge)

Zaumne – Élévation (ambient, tape music)

Scott Murphy

Published 3 years ago