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
Breaths – Though life has turned out nothing like I imagined, it is far better than I could have dreamt. (blackgaze, post-metal)
Embracing a lot of post-rock energy with that album name, Breaths play a fairly unique form of blackgaze, where post-metal has a much more prominent influence. The vocals are definitely of the norm, but they contrast the more upbeat floatiness of this style with heavier, slower post-metal riffs for a unique dynamic.
See Also: SOM – The Shape Of Everything (post-metal, doomgaze); More post-metal, this time with a doomy-shoegaze flare.
Last Week’s Best Album: I’ll be a contrarian to Josh, and say the best of all the deathcore albums last week was actually Worm Shepherd‘s Ritual Hymn. Finally, blackened deathcore that sounds like they’ve actually listened to a black metal band other than Dimmu Borgir (though they probably listen to them too.)
–Trent Bos
Comeback Kid – Heavy Steps (hardcore, crossover)
Canada’s kings of hardcore are back in top form on this seventh full-length album, blending the heavier and more metallic sound of modern classic Die Knowing (2014) with the frantic, melody-driven hardcore of their earlier releases. It’s disappointing that they went down the NFT route with this album, because otherwise Heavy Steps is a damn near perfect slab of modern hardcore and a friendly reminder that Comeback Kid are one of the best bands to have ever existed within the genre.
Last Week’s Best Album: …is still Fit for an Autopsy, but Enterprise Earth’s The Chosen is up there with it and Shadow of Intent in terms of amazing early-year releases.
Last Week’s Biggest Surprise: Underoath – Voyeurist; I wasn’t expecting much from this after the massive disappointment of 2018’s Erase Me, but Voyeurist is huge return to form that might even be the heaviest record Underoath have put out to date.
–Josh Bulleid