Editor’s Note: Do you think we “missed” an album this week? Click here. Each month, we always seem to come to the same conclusion when it comes to our

2 years ago

Editor’s Note: Do you think we “missed” an album this week? Click here.

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

LLNN – Unmaker (atmospheric sludge metal, death-doom)

Another heaviest album of the year contender here. We’re talking gravity well opening, cosmic titan fighting, dense space sludge that picks up right where they left off with their 2018 standout Deads. With Unmaker we see them leaning a bit more into a doom-oriented sound, with some slower, dramatic tension building in their songwriting, but it always builds back to their patented planet-crushing heaviness. The equally terrifying vocal delivery combined with their subtle synth usage just pushes their sound even further, augmenting that feeling of the cold, bleak emptiness of space.

See Also: Still – {} (post-metal, blackened hardcore)

Trent Bos

Japanese Breakfast – Sable (soundtrack, ambient pop)

Michelle Zauner has had an excellent year, with the release of her acclaimed album Jubilee and equally well-received memoir Crying In H Mart. Now we can hear her talents as Japanese Breakfast channeled into the soundtrack for Sable, an open world exploration with exceptional artwork. She maintains the sharp, catchy songwriting that distinguishes her brand of indie chamber pop, while also leaning into more atmospheric timbres that lend themselves to a soundtrack. Jubilee is still my favorite Zauner project to date, but Sable is an undeniably impressive inclusion to her increasingly multimedia repertoire.

See Also: Succumb – XXI (death metal); My favorite Flenser-approved metal band is back with another helping of punky, sinister death metal.

Scott

Best of the Rest

A Pale Horse Named Death – Infernum In Terra (goth metal)

Angels & Airwaves – Lifeforms (synthpop, alt-rock)

Antigone – I Have No Comfort Left To Give (metalcore, groove metal)

Blodet – Vision (post-rock, experimental rock)

Blu – The Color Blu​(​e) (jazz rap, west coast hip-hop)

The Body and BIG|BRAVE – Leaving None But Small Birds (chamber folk, heavy psych)

Ben Böhmer – Begin Again (progressive house, deep house)

Broken Youth – Suffering : Silence, Vol. 2 (prog metalcore)

Clarence Clarity – VANISHING ACT I : NO NOUNS (glitch pop, electropop)

Cognizance – Upheaval (tech death)

Corvid Canine – Broken Crepuscular Autumn Monad of Wilt (cybergrind, blackgaze)

Cuneiform – Reverse (noise rock, industrial rock)

DROTT – Orcus (prog rock, psych rock)

Farer – Nomad (doom-noise, blackened sludge)

Film School – We Weren’t Here (alt-rock, indie rock)

Forgetting the Memories – Vemod (prog metalcore)

Grace – Grace (hardcore)

Laura Jane Grace – At War With The Silverfish (folk punk)

Invent, Animate – The Sun Sleeps, As If It Never Was (prog metalcore)

Iskandr – Vergezicht (black metal)

Krushya – Dogma (death thrash)

Mas Aya – Máscaras (IDM, Latin electronic)

Muldrotha – Slowly to Forget and to Be Forgotten (deathcore, death metal)

Dave Okumu – KNOPPERZ (jazz, experimental electronic)

One Step Closer – This Place You Know (melodic hardcore)

The Ophelias – Crocus (art rock, indie pop)

Orbit Culture – Shaman (groove thrash, melodeath)

Paradox – Heresy II (thrash metal, power metal)

pembe – Yalnız Hissedersen (screamo, post-hardcore)

Poppy – Flux (alt-metal, industrial)

Рожь – Вечное (blackened doom, funeral doom)

Putrid Tomb – Putrid Tomb (death metal, OSDM)

Rivers of Nihil – The Work (progressive death metal)

Andy Shauf – Wilds (chamber pop, indie folk)

Signs of the Swarm – Absolvere (brutal deathcore)

Skepticism – Companion (funeral doom)

Sleep Token – This Place Will Become Your Tomb (prog metal, alt-rock)

Soccer96 – Dopamine (electronic jazz, psychedelic rock)

Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine – A Beginner’s Mind (singer/songwriter, indie folk)

Still – {} (post-metal, blackened post-hardcore)

Succumb – XXI (death metal)

TAUK – Chaos Companion (jazz fusion, psych rock)

Third Eye Blind – Our Bande Apart (alt-rock, pop rock)

Amon Tobin – How Do You Live (progressive electronic, IDM)

ToxicRose – In For The Kill (heavy metal, hard rock)

Transmission Zero – Bridges (post-rock)

Tremonti – Marching In Time (hard rock, alt-metal)

Tumba De Carne – Decatexis // Perpetuo Altar (dissonant death metal, blackened death)

Unto Others – Strength (gothic metal, heavy metal)

Veilburner – Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull (dissonant death metal, avant-garde black metal)

Vulgar – Vulgarity (groove thrash)

We Butter The Bread With Butter – Das Album (electronicore, deathcore)

Scott Murphy

Published 2 years ago