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Release Day Roundup: 12/23/22–1/6/23

Rounding up new releases from Iggy Pop, Ὁπλίτης, Scalpel, Iravu, Escotrilihum and more.

a year ago

Top Picks

Scalpel – Century in the Boilpit (brutal prog death)

Scalpel just snuck in at the end of last year with this slab of brutality. I’m told Century in the Boilpit sounds a lot like early Mithras. Since I only really know that band from 2016’s On Strange Loops, I couldn’t say. That album was certainly weird but I mainly remember it for its sparse, ethereal aesthetic. Century in the Boilpit on the other hand is cluttered and extremely tangible. Its razor sharp, almost mathcore-esque rhythms are drenched in a layer of grime, reminiscent of early Cannibal Corpse, if their arrangements were as unhinged as their imagry. I guess there's a world where this is the album Gorguts made in 1998 instead of Obscura. In this timeline though, it's an album Scalpel made at the end of 2022 and there really isn't much else like it.

Ὁπλίτης  – Ψευδομένη (brutal blackened deathgrind)

Speaking of idiosyncratic albums... What we have here is some extremely brutal black metal with a crossover edge. The band (whose name apparently translates to "Soldier") come from China, but write and record in Greek, just to keep things interesting. I'm told they sound like Serpent Column, but this seems like its on a whole 'nother level of brutality and is grabbing me a lot more than anything I've checked out from those guys. Thanks to Calder for pointing this one out.

Release Roundup

The Abortionist – Deceiving Hades (technical deathcore, melodeath)

Advocata Nostra – Per Viam (melodeath)

The Alpha Incident – Sundowner (progressive metal)

Akloleh – Aybiker Ritual (black metal)

Anti-Flag – Lies They Tell Our Children (pop punk)

Bejalvin - Bejible (experimental cybergrind, swagcore)

Black Riding Hood – Into Imagination (progressive metal)

Cephalophore – Seraphimus (atmospheric black metal)

Confined – Eternal Fury of the Disillusioned Ones (death metal)

Conjoined Twin Octopus – The Infinite Pregnancy (ew)

Devin MacAulay – Angels (progressive metal)

Endtime/ Cosmic Reaper – Doom Sessions Vol. VII (stoner doom)

Eremus – Monólogo (black metal, doom)

Esoctrilihum – Funeral (black metal, death metal)

Fathers – He Who Greets With Fire (sludgecore)

Finistère – Only the Tides Are For Ever (black metal)

First Fragment / Heavy Metal Shrapnel – First Fragment VS Heavy Metal Shrapnel (heavy metal, power shred)

Hand Of Doom – Stray From The Path (death doom)

Iggy Pop – Every Loser (punk rock, post punk)

Intrepid – Slaying of Sanity/Murder of Mind (death metal)

Iravu – A Fate Worse Than Home (post black metal)

June 1974 – Please Destroy Me (instrumental progressive metal)

Kinetic Orbital Strike – Kinetic Orbital Strike (crust punk)

Kossuth – Necronym (tech death)

Lord of the Lost – Blood and Glitter (industrial metal, goth rock)

Nag – Human Coward Coyote (weird alt rock)

Reverted Decay – The Sigil (progressive death doom, melodeath)

Sovereign Darkness – The Conclusion to Chaos (instrumental thrash)

Throat Locust – Dragged Through Glass (death metal)

Vanagandr – Storms of Empire (black metal)

Joshua Bulleid

Published a year ago