This release day sees the return of one of nu-metal's most popular, influential and groundbreaking artists. That's right, Drowning Pool are back baby!
No top picks this week. The new Slipknot and Björk albums aren't as weird as I wanted them to be, and nothing else is really grabbing me.
I can, however, wholeheartedly recommend...
Last Week's Most Unjustifiably Overlooked Release
Sonja – Loud Arriver
Goth and doom metal aren't really genres I really pay attention to. Thankfully, Heavy Blog's resident doom-enthusiast Pete is here to pick up the slack and make sure albums as brilliant as Loud Arriver don't pass me, or you, by.
Sonja is the new project fronted by guitarist Melissa Moore, following her transphobic (and horribly sexist) firing from Absu in 2017, and their debut statement is aptly titled. This album is doing everything for me that the new Sumerlands record, rather disappointingly, failed to – which is rather ironic, given it was mixed, mastered and had Moore's vocals recorded by Arthur Rizk. While the man works magic on everything else he produced, Sumerlands' sophomore effort sounds really thin to me, and is noticeably lacking in the thick reverb that defined their debut record. Not so here! Loud Arriver sounds far more like a continuation of Sumerlands' sound than Dreamkiller does, and I far prefer Moore's husky tones to those of Sumerlands' new and much thinner-sounding vocalist Brendan Radigan. Maybe it's just a matter of taste, but there's no denying the power, and sensuality, of Moore's performance, nor that of her backing band, which includes current and ex-members of Tombs and Woe to (thigh-high, vinyl) boot.
Release Roundup
Aura – Underwater (prog metal)
Autophagy – Bacteriophage (death doom)
Autopsy – Morbidity Triumphant (death metal)
Björk – Fossora (sad plant sounds)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPr_D-b5v2Q&ab_channel=bj%C3%B6rk
Ceaseless Torment – Victory Or Death (death thrash)
City of Caterpillar – Mystic Sisters (screamo, post-hardcore)
Clifford – Soulless (progressive deathcore)
ColdWolrd – Isolation (atmospheric black metal)
Cruz – Confines de la Cordura (blackened death metal)
Devourer – Diablos Brigade (blackened death metal)
Drowning Pool – Struck a Nerve (nu metal)
Ellende – Ellenbogengesellschaft (atmospheric black metal)
Escuela Grind – Memory Theater (grindcore, powerviolence)
Esoctrilihum – Saopth’s (avant-garde blackened death)
Godeater – Vespera (progressive death metal, metalcore)
Gonemage – Handheld Demise (avant garde black metal)
Graceless – Chants from Purgatory (death metal, melodeath)
Gutsaw – All Lives Splatter (brutal death metal, goregrind)
Hexed – Pagans Rising (melodic power metal, prog metal)
Huracán – We Are Very Happy (progressive alt metal, post metal)
Labyrinth of Stars – Spectrum Xenomorph (blackened death metal)
Living Tales – Persephone (symphonic prog metal)
Lost Society – If The Sky Came Down (nu metal now, apparently)
Lune – Hymns To The Lunar Realm (progressive black metal)
Mamaleek – Diner Coffee (avant garde black metal)
Pixies – Doggerel (alt rock, indie rock)
Polywhy – Don’t You Want To Use Me (mathcore, post-hardcore)
Power From Hell – Shadows Devouring Light (black metal)
Rage – Spreading The Plague (heavy metal, thrash)
Raven – Leave ‘Em Bleeding (heavy metal, thrash)
Root Of All Evil – In Homine Malum (beatdown deathcore)
Skeletor – Blood Empire (heavy metal)
Slipknot – The End, So Far (extreme nu metal)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FnG9lGLyEM&ab_channel=Slipknot