Release Day Roundup: 4/28/23

Top Picks

Marxthrone – Total Dialectics (Marxist black metal)

Apparently i missed these guys when they first hit the scene with 2018's Blaze in the Western Sky. The joke's still good though; better even, boasting an even better album title that the one before it and brandishing a jump in musical quality to match.

The actual content of Marxthrone's debut EP is surprisingly solid, but this full-length debut is downright impressive. Not only does Total dialectics contain some top tier black metal, but also showcases some superb H2m-drenched death metal, death doom and eventually even progressive metal as well. Penultimate track "Dialectics of Human Nature" is a clear standout, showcasing everything the record has to offer in a shockingly coherent ten-minute-long package, that begins wallowing in mournful blackened death metal sorrow before building to an expansive, cosmic prog metal conclusion, by was of some sexy bass solos and cheeky stab at Joe Rogan while they're at it. What's not to love (besides the Bourgeoisie)?

Ondfødt – Det Österbottniska Mörkret (thrashy black metal)

For those who like their black metal more serious and straightforward, there's the fourth album from Finland's Ondfødt, who I had never heard of either. Normally I like my black metal with a bit of a twist, but the frantic, thrash-infused take of these Norsemen has me hooked. The two new tracks on that Cradle of Filth album are also really good by the way, making it a pretty solid week for black metal all round and and surprisingly strong year for Finland as well, for those keeping score.

Lunar Chamber – Shambhallic Vibrations (progressive death metal)

And for those who like their extreme metal a touch brighter and more expansive, may I present to you Lunar Chamber, who practice a brand of classic progressive death metal with with an emphasis on the prog and lots of that good farty bass. These Georgeans aren't simply celebrating the past though. There's a lot here that reminds me of Rivers of Nihil and Autotheism-era The Faceless (which is the best Faceless album, btw), as much as it does old-school Death and Cynic records. I also just found out they share members with two of my favourite modern, progressive, extrememe metal bands in Tómarúm and The Ritual Aura, so that's cool too. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

Release Roundup

Aleister – Nightmare (thrash)

Andy James – Fury From Above (instrumental groove shred)

Austere – Corrosion of Hearts (depressive black metal)

Basalto – Purga (death doom)

Bastard Cröss – Beasts of the Night (black metal, thrash)

Black & Damned – Servants of the Devil (pervy grandpa metal)

Black Mass Pervertor – Dionysian Rite (black metal)

Burial Extraction – A Shadow Of Things To Come (death metal, melodeath)

Cadaveric Crematorium – Zombology (vegan cannibal metal)

Chrome Waves – Earth Will Shed Its Skin (post black metal)

Clarion Knell – Abyss of Fear (black metal)

Cradle Of Filth – Trouble And Their Double Lives (gothic black metal)

Crimson Dawn – It Came from the Stars (power doom)

Crown The Empire – Dogma (nu metalcore)

The Damned – Darkadelic (rock, punk)

Danava – Nothing But Nothing (heavy metal, speed metal)

Defiled – The Highest Level (death metal)

dšgb – dšgb (chaotic hardcore, metalcore)

Elohims Sterne – Finster (blackened industrial metal)

Elvenking – Reader Of The Runes: Rapture (folky power metal)

Enchantya – Cerberus (symphonic power metal, thrash)

Enforced – War Remains (thrash)

Exit Catacomb – No Escape From the Catacomb (black thrash)

Extinction – Cryogenesis (groovy death metal)

Fardeaux – The Den Has Become An Abyss (black metal, death metal)

Fires in the Distance – Air Not Meant For Us (melodeath)

Flitcraft – House at the Centre of the Universe (heavy metal, trad metal)

Fromjoy – Fromjoy (progressive metalcore, breakcore)

Graveworm – Killing Innocence (symphonic black metal)

Hawkwind – The Future Never Waits (prog rock)

Hypnos – Deathbirth (the birth that eats people)

Ignea – Dreams of Lands Unseen (symphonic prog metal) ​​

Ironmaster – Weapons of Spiritual Carnage (modern death metal)

Kaal Akuma – Turiya (brutal death metal)

Lucifuge – Monoliths of Wrath (black thrash)

Majesty – Back to Attack (cold dudes rock)

Messa – Live At Roadburn (prog doom)

Mistral – In the Throes of Losing Love (post metal, blackgaze)

MoshiMoshi – GREEN (screamo, midwest-emo)

The National – First Two Pages of Frankenstein (indie rock, art rock)

Necronomicon – Constant to Death (thrash)

Neil Gaiman and FourPlay String Quartet – Signs of Life (overrated authorcore)

Oblivion  – The Executioner (thrash)

Old Dirty Buzzard – What A Weird Hill To Die On (southern metal, southern rock)

Ocular Trauma – The Dissection of Tragedy (brutal prog death)

Orphans of Dusk – Spleen (gothic doom metal)

O.S.M. – Plagued By Doubts (posty prog metal)

Pustilence – Beliefs of Dead Stargazers and Soothsayers (brutal death metal)

Ruff Majik – Elektrik Ram (desert rock, prog rock)

Sanctuarium – Into the Mephitic Abyss (brutal death doom)

Scenario – When All is Said and Done (screamo, melodic hardcore)

Shattered Vessels – Exile (symphonic power metal)

Sleepsculptor – Divine Recalibration (metalcore, mathcore)

Spotlights – Alchemy For The Dead (alt doom)

Swollen Teeth – Swollen Teeth (nu metal)

Tarchon Fist – The Flame Still Burns (power metal)

Teramaze – Dalla Volta (progressive metal, prog power)

Terranoct – Icon of Ruin (groovy death thrash)

Tunic – Wrong Dream (noise rock, post-punk)

Vadiat – Spear of Creation (death metal)

Valgrind – Millennium of Night Bliss (death metal)

Vamachara – No Roses on My Grave (metalcore, metallic hardcore)

Vantablack Warship – Last of Hardmouthed Poets (crossover, groove thrash)

Walhalla – Release the Beast (death metal, blackened power metal?)

Wallowing – Earth Reaper (brutal death doom, sludge)