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Release Day Roundup – 7/22/22

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

2 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

Ernia – How To Deal With Life And Fail (progressive grindcore)

I knew I’d be getting some great grindcore from a new Ernia record. What I wasn’t expecting was a genuinely progressive album that incorporates elements of jazz, tech death, post hardcore, sludge, dissonance and even the occasional melody, all while going a million miles an hour, and which somehow manages to make it all flow together. Then again, maybe I should have just looked at the cover art. How to Deal with Life and Fail is the most exciting grindcore album I’ve heard in years, and one that firmly establishes Ernia as leaders, not followers.

See Also: Wake – Thought Form Descent (blackened progressive post metal); …speaking of which, can you believe these guys used to be a grindcore band? 2020’s Devouring Ruin was already undeniable, and this one’s even better.

Josh Bulleid

Best of the Rest

Abhorsen – A Weather Front (instrumental post-metal, post-rock)

Alex The Astronaut – How To Grow A Sunflower Under Water (indie pop, singer/songwriter)

Arzhang – Devoted To Nothingness (melodic black metal)

Ashenspire – Hostile Architecture (avant-garde black metal)

Battlegrave – Cavernous Depths (death metal, thrash)

Beach Bunny – Emotional Creature (indie rock, power pop)

Castrator – Defiled in Oblivion (death metal)

Critical Defiance – No Life Forms (thrash metal)

False Gods – Neurotopia (doom-sludge)

Hatriot – The Vale Of Shadows (thrash)

Imperial Triumphant – Spirit Of Ecstasy (avant-garde death metal)

The Koreatown Oddity – ISTHISFORREAL? (abstract hip-hop, jazz rap)

Moonshade – As We Set The Skies Ablaze (melodic death metal)

John Moreland – Birds in the Ceiling (Americana, alt-country)

Mosara – Only The Dead Know Our Secrets (progressive doom)

Nicolas Cage Fighter – The Bones That Grew From Pain (metallic hardcore)

Northless – A Path Beyond Grief (atmospheric sludge metal)

Oceans Of Slumber – Starlight and Ash (progressive metal)

Karl Sanders – Saurian Apocalypse (world music)

Spite – Dedication To Flesh (crossover deathcore)

Teethgrinder – Dystopia (grindcore)

Wailin’ Storms – The Silver Snake Unfolds (punk blues, deathrock)

Wake – Thought Form Descent (blackened progressive post metal)

Jack White – Entering Heaven Alive (blues rock, garage rock)

Witchery – Nightside (pope crush, pope crush, pooooope)

ZZ Top – Raw (hard rock, blues rock)

Scott Murphy

Published 2 years ago