Release Day Roundup – 5/6/22

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

Tzompantli – Tlazcaltiliztli (death-doom)

One of the most brutally named bands in the game is back, this time with their major metal label debut. For the uninitiated, Tzompantli is derived from the Nahuatl (Native Mexican) word for “skull rack,” which were public displays made from the skulls of war captives and sacrificial victims. If this is anything like their debut, expect more of their “mesoamerican, prehispanic” blend of funeral doom, death-doom, and beatdown hardcore, like Disembowelment and Xibalba battling over who will be the builder and materials for a tzompantli.

See Also: Vital Spirit – Still as the Night, Cold as the Wind (black metal); A great day for metal with unique cultural influences. Vital Spirit make “saccharine black metal of the West,” taking a page out of the Wayfarer playbook and blending spaghetti western themes with good ol’ fashioned USBM.

–Scott

Best of the Rest

Absurd Creation – A Dance With Death (prog metal)

Am Fost La Munte Și Mi-a Plăcut – La Vale (post-rock)

Arcade Fire – WE (art tock, chamber pop)

Astodan – Évora (post-metal, post-rock)

C Duncan – Alluvium (indie pop, indie rock)

Chamber – Carved in Stone (metallic hardcore, metalcore)

Cleaver – No More Must Crawl (hardcore, metalcore)

Consciously Dying – Bereavement, A Guide To Loss & Grief (melodic black metal, prog death)

Cosmic Putrefaction – Crepuscular Dirge for the Blessed Ones (weird death metal)

De Arma – Nightcall (gothic rock, darkwave)

Djevelkult – Drep Alle Guder (black metal)

God Mother – Obeveklig (mathcore, chaotic hardcore)

Haunter – Discordant Ails (progressive black metal, disso-death)

Hermitude – Mirror Mountain (future bass, wonky)

I Am The Night – While The Gods Are Sleeping (melodic black metal)

Ibaraki – Rashomon (black metal, folk metal)

Kaleidobolt – This One Simple Trick (prog rock, psychedelic rock)

Kikagaku Moyo – Kumoyo Island (krautrock, raga rock)

Puppy – Pure Evil (alt-rock, heavy metal)

Pure Reason Revolution – Above Cirrus (prog rock, alt-rock)

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Endless Rooms (indie rock, post-punk)

Silverstein – Misery Made Me (post-hardcore, emo-pop)

SkullShitter – Goat Claw (death metal, grindcore)

Soft Cell – Happiness Not Included (synthpop)

Terror – Pain Into Power (hardcore)

Tómarúm – Ash in Realms of Stone Icons (progressive black metal)

UFOmammut – Fenice (stoner-doom, heavy psych)

Upon A Burning Body – Fury (deathcore, metalcore)

Sharon Van Etten – We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong (indie folk, heartland rock)

Virgin Mother – Marrow (mathgrind, avant-garde metal)

Vital Spirit – Still as the Night, Cold as the Wind (black metal)

Warpaint – Radiate Like This (dream pop, indie rock)

Wo Fat – The Singularity (stoner metal)

Wilma Vritra – Grotto (abstract hip-hop)

Wun Two – Ships II (instrumental hip-hop)