We do our best at Heavy Blog to bring you all the best new music we’ve been listening to, but there’s only so much time and so many things you can say about a band or album. Moreover, sometimes all you need is an elevator pitch to know whether something is worth checking out, which is why we’ve developed our revamped Hey! Listen to This! column where our writers can come together recommend you all the things that have taken their fancy, but who don’t necessarily need a page-long sales pitch to go with them—and less time writing means more time listening.
Feral Light – Psychic Contortions
Dynamic, post-metal-tinged black metal from I, Voidhanger records. Does an exceptional job at channeling the more somber energies of post-metal while adding in much needed aggression and directness from the black metal side of things. This means that the record doesn’t become as stale as some post-metal can get, due to the ponderous nature of the sub-genre, as it relies on blast-beats, intricate guitar riffs, and blazingly powerful vocals to keep the listener engaged.
–Recommended by Eden
Void Dancer – Prone Burial
A fun combination of progressive metal, melodic death metal and metalcore without really sounding like any of those genres on their own. If you’re into the idea of metalcore-tinged melodeath of the late 00’s of bands like Darkest Hour or Woe of Tyrants, mixed with the extreme progressive styles of modern acts such as Cryptodira or Dessiderium there should be lots of latch onto here.
–Recommended by Trent
The Spirit – Of Clarity and Galactic Structures
Imagine if Death made a black metal album after The Sound of Perseverance (1998), and you’ve got yourself something akin to The Spirit‘s killer new record Of Clarity and Galactic Structures. There are plenty of bands out there doing the Death pastiche thing but few, if any, have got as close to nailing the progressive death metal pioneers’ sound as this German duo. This would be a more than worth addition to the Schuldiner catalogue and arguable an even more complex and ambitious one at that.
–Recommended by Josh
Andre Antunes – “Master of Puppets” in the style of Muse
YouTube covers aren’t normally my thing, but I stumbled across this one and was really blown away by how well it works. Andre Antunes really nails Matt Bellamy’s idiosyncrasies, both as a vocalist and a musician, without making them grating and the new arrangement, which extends out to almost ten-minutes, also exposes the progressive complexity inherent in the original “Master of Puppets”. The new Muse singles have been surprisingly heavy and pretty good actually, and if the rest of the album ends up sounding like this it could make a fan out of me yet. Also, I really want that jacket!
–Recommended by Josh
Ernia – How to Deal with Life and Fail
When I asked the blog’s grind aficionado emeritus Matt MacLennan which new grindcore bands I should be checking out, his immediate answer was Ernia. I thought the Spannish outfit (whose line-up features members of Wormed)’s 2018 debut was solid enough to see why he was singing their praises, but it never truly grabbed me. With their new album, I’m fully on board. There’s only a few tracks released so far, but How to Deal with Life and Fail goes to some really interesting places that definitively set Ernia apart from the crowd. The full album comes out July 2022 through Transcending Obscurity, who have been absolutely nailing it recently.
–Recommended by Josh
Dychromia – The Dangers of Curiosity
One of the most overlooked, and slept on prog metal releases this year. Gets very noticeably Between the Buried and Me at times, but isn’t afraid to dip its toes into stronger deathcore and metalcore influences of stuff like Exoplanet and Digital Veil. While not a perfect release, the 31-minute run-time is highly digestible and for a debut full-length this Minneapolis trio shows a ton of promise for things to come.
–Recommended by Trent
I Am The Night – While The Gods Are Sleeping
Got a hankering for very 90’s black metal in the vein of Dissection’s Storm of the Light’s Bane, or Emperor’s more melodic side? You can certainly do worse than this. A refreshing dose of well composed “kvlt” riffs with vocals that satisfy all the frosty metaphors you can think of. Another impressive recent debut full-length from a Finnish group worth keeping an eye on.
–Recommended by Trent
Scarcity – II
One of the most impressive debut singles I’ve heard this year, new The Flenser signing, Scarcity, show “microtonal black metal” is apparently a thing that I want much more of. Featuring Pyrrhon vocalist Doug Moore, this track is equally hypnotizing as it is terrifying. Fans of Krallice and Jute Gyte will definitely want to give this a spin.
–Recommended by Trent
Morgue Supplier – Inevitability
Even by Transcending Obscurity’s standards, Morgue Supplier are pretty weird. Inevitability begins off soundling like a sloppy grindcore record and ends sounding like a messy death-doom one. Beyond that unlikely combination, however, there’s the album’s middle section where everything seems to coalesce (while continuing sound as though it’s falling apart) that sounds like Behold, the Arctopus! playing Exhumed songs or something. I honestly cant tell if this album is actuall good or not, but it’s certainly intriguing.
Further Listening
Molder – “Engrossed in Decay”
This new Molder single just got us pregnant. Because it fucks.
–Recommended by Jordan
Satyr – “Vector”
New single from one of the blog’s favourite up-and-coming progressive metalcore bands.
–Recommended by Trent
The Dear Hunter – “Ring 7 – Industry”
The Dear Hunter return with a space-funky new single.
–Recommended by Nick