Top Picks
Girish And The Chronicles – Back On Earth (hair metal)
The hair metal revival revival rages on! Actually, this might be the beginning of the "hair metal revival revival revival". Back on Earth is a re-recording of Girish and the Chronicles' 2014 debut record. All of the original vocals, except for "Loaded" and "Angel", have been kept in tact, but everything else has been re-rebuilt and re-recorded from the ground up, with new sections, arrangements and an updated production job that makes these songs pop so much more than the originals.
Back on Earth isn't quite on par with last year's excellent Hail to the Heroes, but it goes to show that Girish and his Chronicles defininitely had it in them from the beginning. There's still a bit of fat that could have been cut, bloated Bon Jovi pastiche "Revolving Barrel" ("I walk alone in this desert with six strings in my hand-uh...") was probably best left back in 2014, but everything else sounds remarkably vital for a band ostensibly in their infancy. You'll know within about fourteen seconds of opener "Ride to Hell" (below) whether this album is for you or not, and if it isn't, then, well... I guess there's no acocunting for taste.
Idle Ruin – The Fell Tyrant (blackened death thrash)
At the complete other end of the awesome, adrenaline-charged metal spectrum there's always Brisbane's Idle Ruin. In case you missed the two tracks we've premiered from them in the past, the trio play nasty, hard hitting heavy metal that sits perfectly at the intersection of the black, death and thrash subgenres. They're also a band that keep getting better with every release, and The Fell Tyrant more than delivers on their previously brimming potential. Fans of Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost in particular should find a lot to enjoy.
Release Roundup
Anachronism – Meanders (progressive death metal)
…And Oceans – As In Gardens, So In Tombs (progressive black metal)
Anzillu – Ex Nihilo (prog death, thrash)
Arctic Rain – Unity (dad metal)
Ashen Horde – Antimony (blackened prog death)
Astral Moon – Into Solar Abyss (goth doom)
Bizarrekult – Den Tapte Krigen (black metal)
Blood of the Prophecy – Blood of the Prophecy (blackened doom)
Bloody Falls – Dying is Easy (groove death, melodeath)
Cancervo – II (doom)
Cerbère – Cendre (sludge doom)
Conjureth – The Parasitic Chambers (brutal death metal)
Crowne – Operation Phoenix (heavy metal)
Dead Will Walk – A New Day of Dawning (death metal)
Decimate Our Kind – Thrillingly Dead (brutal death thrash)
Dust Prophet – One Last Look Upon The Sky (stoner doom)
The Ember, The Ash – Venerate / Abnegate (blackened deathcore)
Firienholt – White Frost and Elder Blood (blackened folk metal, dungeon synth)
Fucked Up – One Day (hardcore, art punk)
Glyph – The Time of Peril (black metal)
Grief Symposium – …In The Absence Of Light (death doom)
Hâl – Drei Dezennien (black metal)
Hammock – Love In The Void (ambient, post-rock)
Hellset – Global Warning (thrash)
Kimbra – A Reckoning (art pop)
Knights of Blood – El juicio de Osiris (power metal)
Kuyashii – Dreams (instrumental post-metal, metalgaze)
Le Temps De Loup – Leteo (post-metal, post-rock)
Liv Sin – KaliYuga (heavy metal)
Lumen Ad Mortem – Upon The Edge of Darkness (atmospheric black metal)
Malice Divine – Everlasting Ascendancy
Mask Of Prespero – Hiraeth (prog metalcore)
Methane – Kill it With Fire (thrash)
Necrotesque – The Perpetuated Festering (death metal)
Nephilim’s Noose – Blood Chants of Impiety (noisy brutal death doom)
New Miserable Experience – Philosophy on Pessimism (experimental, art rock, electronic)
New Miserable Experience – Philosophy On Pessimism (progressive post rock)
Ob Nixilis – Abhorred (blackened death metal)
Ominous Scriptures – Rituals Of Mass Self-Ignition (brutal death metal)
Oozing Wound – We Cater To Cowards (hardcore, crossover)
Raum Kingdom – Monarch (atmospheric sludge metal)
Sarkasm – As Empires Decay (thrash)
Sear – Grief in V Stages (blackened hardcore, screamo)
Sereignos – Vx Kontaminas (blackened death metal)
Serotonin Syndrome – Seed of Mankind (post-black metal, doom)
Sightless Pit – Lockstep Broodwar (industrial noise, dub)
Skvm – North Star Black Metal (black metal)
Sorrowful Land – Faded Anchors Of The Past (prog doom)
Suasion – The Infinite (prog metalcore, trancecore)
Superterrestrial – The Fathomless Decay (black metal)
Third Eye – Vengeance Fulfilled (prog metal)
Uriah Heep – Chaos & Colour (heavy metal)
Vengeant – Mana (operatic metal)
Vesication/Gland – Pissing Contest (goregrind)
White Reaper – Asking for a Ride (heavy metal, thrash)
X.L. Life – The Boogie Down South (hardcore, rap metal)
Zac Leaser – Libera (progressive tech death)
Zombie Rot – World Epitaph (death metal)