Release Day Roundup – 3/11/22

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

Lack the Low – God-Carrier (avant-pop, baroque pop)

Way back in 2018, Lack the Low dropped one of my favorite pop records of the year with One Eye Closed. Kat Hunter’s debut was both familiar and refreshing, pulling from the Fiona Apple school of adventurous singer/songwriters and delivering a gorgeous collection of artsy baroque pop. God-Carrier is billed as a more avant-pop take on her exceptional formula, and I’m thrilled to hear the results.

See Also: White Suns – Dead Time (noise rock, experimental rock); After tipping the pendulum all the way toward “noise” on Psychic Drift (2017), White Suns brought the “rock” end of the equation back into the fold with The Lower Way (2021). I’m curious to see how their unique blend of no wave, power electronics, and experimental rock manifests on this new 4-song EP.

–Scott

Best of the Rest

AngelMaker – Sanctum (melodic deathcore)

Arkaik – Labyrinth Of Hungry Ghosts (tech death)

Brandon Boyd – Echoes And Cocoons (alt-rock, funk rock?)

Cailleach Calling – Dreams of Fragmentation (post-black metal)

The Cast Before The Break – Where Are We Now (indie-emo, post-rock)

Cryptworm – Spewing Mephitic Putridity (brutal death metal, goregrind)

Dead Chasm – Dead Chasm EP (death metal, death-doom)

Deficiency – Warenta (melothrash)

The Dialectic – A Falsehood Defined EP (metalcore, deathcore)

Distinguisher – Under The Weight Of Things I Couldn‘t Change EP (metalcore, metallic hardcore)

Drug Church – Hygiene (post-hardcore, post-punk)

E-L-R – Vexier (post-metal)

Ghost – Impera (heavy metal, occult rock)

Humanotone – A Flourishing Fall in a Grain of Sand (prog doom, stoner prog)

Jesus Wept – Psychedelic Degeneracy (Carcass)

Krig – Anthropus (brutal death metal)

Messa – Close (psychedelic doom, stoner prog)

Nostalghia – Ovido (atmospheric black metal)

Portal-Hex – A Decay In Grey Matter (prog metal, trap metal)

So Much Hope, Buried. – Sentiment EP (metalcore)

Sonic Youth – In/Out/In (post-rock, neo-psych)

Thin & The Wind In The Trees – Split (mathcore, mathgrind)

To Be Gentle – Wounded (screamo)

Trhä – Tálcunnana dëhajma tun dejl bënatsë abcul’han dlhenisë ëlh inagat, jahadlhë adrhasha dauzglën nu dlhevusao ibajngra nava líeshtamhan ëf novejhan conetsë danëctsë kin, ëf tu dlhicadëtrhënna bë ablhundrhaba judjenan alhëtangrasë shidandlhamësë inkom (atmospheric black metal)

Vanir – Sagas (melodeath)

VoidDweller – Worm Highway (noise rap, industrial hip-hop)

White Suns – Dead Time (noise rock, experimental rock)