Top Picks

Cyborg Octopus – Between the Light and Air (prog metal, metalcore)

Cyborg Octopus are simply some of the most fun you can have listening to modern prog metal. The long awaited follow up to 2016’s Learning To Breathe provides an eclectic barrage of funky, folky, and outright Mr. Bungle-esque weirdness, channeled through a heavy prog lens. The metalcore side of things comes mostly through the vocals, sort in the way that Between the Buried and Me are sometimes referred to as metalcore, but they’re not afraid to throw in a few well-timed breakdowns either. If you’re in the mood for something that’s technically impressive without being too self-indulgent nor taking itself too seriously, this is the ticket.

See also: Glassing – Dire and Sulk (blackened sludge, post-metal)

Now for something that’s the opposite of “fun”, unless you have a kink for violently bleak catharsis.

-Trent

Sigh – Shiki (blackened prog metal)

Shiki might be a more subdued Sigh record, but that doesn’t make it a less impressive one. If anything, the increased focus shown on the Tokyo ‘s twelfth full-length record makes it one of the more compelling of their esteemed discography. There’s still plenty here for those who fell in love with the avant garde tendencies of the band’s post 2010’s output to sink their teeth into, but those with an inkling toward more straight forward genres like thrash and classic heavy metal should get a good kick out of it as well.

-Josh

Release Roundup

Absolute Darkness – Failure Of State (death thrash)

The Air of Hiroshima – Красота русской тоски (post rock, post metal)

Amken – Passive Aggression (death thrash)

Anchillys – Elan Vital (brutal tech death)

Apeiron Bound – Multiplicity (prog metal, avant-garde metal)

Αuriferous Flame – The Great Mist Within (atmospheric black metal)

Autonoesis – Moon of Foul Magics (blackened death metal, black thrash)

Becoming the Archetype – Children of the Great Extinction (symphonic metalcore, prog metal)

Blackbraid – Blackbraid I (atmospheric black metal, indigenous black metal)

Brymir – Voices In The Sky (melodeath, power folk)

Cathartic – Through the Abysmal Gates of Subconscious (death metal)

Death Scythe – Killing For Pleasure Forever (the scythe of death!)

Drag Me Out – Demons Away (metalcore, post-hardcore)

Dreadnought – The Endless (prgressive metal, post doom)

Dynazty – Final Advent (heavy health, melodic prog metal)

Eaten by Sharks – Eradication (brutal death metal)

Endonomos – Endonomos (funeral doom)

Fallfiftyfeet – Lonely If You Go (metalcore, mathcore)

Ghost in the Ruins – Return to Ash (melodic metalcore)

Grave Digger – Symbol of Eternity (heavy metal, power metal)

Hexis – Aeternum (blackened hardcore, death doom)

Hierophant – Death Siege (blackened death metal)

The Hirsch Effekt – Solitaer (tech metal, progressive metalcore)

Holly Caught a Contact High – HCACH (mathgrind)

Intent – Exile (thrash)

Iron Savior – Reforged: Ironbound (Vol. 2) (new old power metal)

Krimh  – The Eternal Return (progressive death metal, blackened death)

Lacrimas Profundere – How To Shroud Yourself With Night (melodic doom, gothic melodeath)

Lustre – A Thirst For Summer Rain (ambient black metal)

Machine Head – Of Kingdom and Crown (epic thrash)

Muse – Will Of The People (prog rock, nu metal showtunes)

Pianos Become The Teeth – Drift (emo, post-rock)

Pineid – Blue Doom (prog rock)

Santa Cruz – Return of the Kings (hard rock, hair metal)

Species – To Find Deliverance (prog thrash)

Teresa – Salvation (deathcore, metalcore)

Thoughtcrimes – Altered Pasts (mathcore, alt rock)

Tiny Moving Parts – Tiny Moving Parts (midwest emo, pop punk)

Vàija – Shivering (post-rock, shoegaze)

Villainous Temple – Fill Creation With Abuse (blackened death metal)

Voyager – A Voyage Through Time (prog metal, synth pop)

Wampyric Rites – The Wolves Howl to the Moon (black metal)