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

3 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

Theon Cross – Intra-I (jazz funk, Afro-jazz)

Why don’t more jazz groups incorporate tuba players (tubists?) into their lineups? I’d never asked myself that question until I discovered Theon Cross through his work with Sons of Kemet and his excellent solo debut Fyah (2019). On this new album, Cross expands beyond his Afro-jazz-funk into the realms of “dub, hip-hop, soca, grime and other sounds connected to the Afro-Caribbean diaspora,” bringing along some guest vocalists for the ride as well.

See Also: Begat the Nephilim – II: The Grand Procession (blackened death metal); I love recommending Granite State death metal, especially when it’s this good. Blackened goodness with melodic and even some symphonic flourishes to round out the proceedings.

Scott

Mastodon – Hushed and Grim (stoner rock, sludge)

I know I’ve been picking a lot of bigger releases lately, but even with everything else coming out today, these new Mastodon singles are just too strong to beat. Outside of Once More ‘Round the Sun (2014), all of the band’s releases this past decade have left me pretty cold (and sometimes dark), to the point that the last thing it seems like I would probably want at this point is a Mastodon double album. But between the Remission-style riffing of “Pushing the Tides” to the melancholic melody of “Teardrinker” and prog indulgences of “Sickle and Peace” it seems like they’re once again operating at peak performance, across every aspect of their sound.

See also: Archspire – Bleed The Future (brutal progressive tech death); Unlike Mastodon, I’ve never really been a huge fan of Archspire in the past, but this new album finally has me believing the hype. If you only check out one of the brilliant tech-death albums out this week, make it this instant genre classic.

Josh Bulleid

Best of the Rest

A Secret Revealed – When The Day Yearns For Light (post-black metal, post-metal)

Ad Infinitum – Chapter II – Legacy (symphonic power metal)

Archspire – Bleed the Future (tech death)

Attack Attack! – Long Time, No Sea (trancecore)

Bad Wolves – Dear Monster (alt-metal)

Bat Fangs – Queen of My World (power pop, garage rock)

Begat the Nephilim – II: The Grand Procession (blackened death metal)

Be’lakor – Coherence (progressive melodeath)

Bizarre – Invocation Codex (death metal)

Bloodmouth – Unmanned (death metal)

BUNKR – Graveyard Orbit (ambient electronica, IDM)

Burial – Inner Gateways To The Slumbering Equilibrium At The Center Of Cosmos (death-doom)

Calling All Captains – Slowly Getting Better (post-hardcore, pop-punk)

Callus – A Breath of Flesh Air (sludge, stoner-doom)

Jerry Cantrell – Brighten (alt-rock, grunge)

Conjureth – Majestic Dissolve (death metal)

D.B. Cooper – the crisis years (grindcore, mathcore)

The Design Abstract – Metemtechnosis (symphonic melodeath)

Elimination – Echoes of the Abyss (thrash)

Sam Evian – Time to Melt (indie pop, alt-country)

First Fragment – Gloire Éternelle (tech death)

Funeralium – Decrepit (blackened doom, funeral doom)

Gates – Here and Now (post-rock, indie rock)

Ghost Bath – Self Loather (post-black metal, depressive black metal)

Grand Cadaver – Into The Maw Of Death (swedish death metal, OSDM)

IAH – Omines (post-metal, stoner metal)

Intaglio – II (death-doom, funeral doom)

Mick Jenkins – Elephant In the Room (conscious hip-hop, trap)

John 5 – Sinner (goth, shred)

Labor Intvs – Sunken Crucible (blackened death, doom metal)

Mary Lattimore – Collected Pieces: 2015-2020 (modern classical, ethereal wave)

Lone – Always Inside Your Head (acid house, hardcore breaks)

Lucifer – IV (classic rock, goth rock)

Masada – II (screamo, post-hardcore)

Mistchaser – Kairos (atmospheric black metal)

Monolord – Your Time To Shine (stoner-doom)

Mortal Vision – Mind Manipulation (thrash)

Marissa Nadler – The Path of the Clouds (contemporary folk, dark folk)

Nightmares On Wax – Shout Out! To Freedom (downtempo, trip-hop)

156/Silence – Don’t Hold Your Breath (hardcore)

Ophis – Spew Forth Odium (melodic death-doom)

Outre-Tombe – Abysse Mortifere (death metal)

Planningtorock – Gay Dreams Do Come True (art pop, synthpop)

Prophetic Scourge – Gnosis – A Sorrower’s Journey (progressive tech death)

scarlxrd – DeadRising. (trap metal)

Soars – Enfold (post-rock)

Sunless – Ylem (progressive tech death)

Thulcandra – A Dying Wish (melodic black metal, melodeath)

The War on Drugs – I Don’t Live Here Anymore (indie rock, heartland rock)

Vivid Illusion – Vivid Illusion (blackgaze, shoegaze)

Whitechapel – Kin (alt-metal, deathcore)

Zeolite – Proselytism (tech deathcore, tech death)

Scott Murphy

Published 3 years ago