Top Picks
Idol Throne – A Clarion Call (progressive power-thrash, emphasis on the thrash!)
I'm sure one of our other writers will be along shortly to let you know why the new Beaten to Death and Thou albums are worth listening to. Today though, I'm going to bat for the powerfully thrashy new release from Indiana's Idol Throne. It's no secret that all the best power metal is just thrash metal in disguise/Conan cosplay, but Idol Throne have given up the jig entirely, putting the thrash back on front street, while still maintaining the epic, uplifting scope of their nominal power aesthetic.
A Clarion Call is an exhilarating listen, opening in full thrash mode and maintaining that momentum for most of its runtime. Much of its early half is reminiscent of golden-era Metallica and Megadeth and might only be considered "progressive" inasmuch as those records demand the label via their elongated song-structures and precise technicality, rather than any truly boundary-pushing musicianship or compositional whims. Come "System Simulcara" however, and Idol Throne are in full-on Dream Theater mode, and there's plenty of power metal detours along the way to keep things interesting, even if the album is still a tad overlong. The seven-and-a-half-minute instrumental closer "Falconer's Cry" could have probably been cut, but it also fits in nicely with all the Metallica-worship going on earlier in the record, so perhaps one of the ploddier power metal numbers like "A Clarion Call" could have been tightened up instead. With a sharper eye for editing, Idol Throne could be true contenders, but as far as shows of sheer force and potential go, it's entirely convincing.
Release Roundup
Abreaktion – Bornhatred (thrash)
Adversarial – Solitude With The Eternal (blackened death metal)
ADX – L’empire du crépuscule (power thrash)
Aseitas – Eden Trough (brutal/prog/post death)
Age Of Distraction – A Game Of Whispers (prog metal)
Anims – Good ‘n’ Evil (hard rock, hair metal)
The Antikaroshi – L’inertie Polaire (alt/post punk)
Arhat – Secrets Of Ancient Gods (groove death)
Auro Control – The Harp (melodic prog metal)
Bad Nerves – Still Nervous (garage rock, punk)
Bad Omens – Concrete Jungle (The OST) (electro/pop metal?/core)
Beaten To Death – Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis (progish grindcore)
Before Days of Humanity – Biological Mutation (noisy goregrind, slam)
Black Diamonds – Destination Paradise (soft hard rock, hair metal)
Blackhearth – Feast of the Savages (prog metal)
Bogmonster – Servants of the Necrosect (sludgy death metal)
Bonecarver – Unholy Dissolution (brutal deathcore)
Carnwennan – Lotus (sludge doom)
Carrion Throne – The Feast Of Human Vices (slamish brutal death)
Celestial Burial – Hymns of Horror (death metal)
Chve – Kalvarie (mind-altering ... droning repetitions of the hurdy gurdy)
Cloven Hoof – Heathen Cross (heavy metal)
Cobra The Impaler – Karma Collision (thrashy stoner-prog)
Congenital Abnormalities – A Resurgence of the Grotesque (brutal deathcore)
Dagorlath – Apocalipsis (symphonic prog/power metal)
De Arma – Synthwave Sessions, Vol. 2 (synthwave)
Dekadent – Dionyst (posty sludge-death)
Despondency – Matriphagy (brutal death metal)
Dissanity – Interminable Pernitiousing (slamming brutal death)
Drive By Wire – Time Horizon (alt rock, grunge)
Dune – Years Of Chains (not that Dvne)
Dusk – Industrie (industrial black metal)
Dysphorectomy – Dysphorectomy (slamming brutal death)
Eat Your Own Head – The Trawler (alt/math rock)
Enquire Within – Elysium (groove thrash/death)
Envig – Eskatos (death metal)
Eternal Hunt – An Era Of Shame (black metal)
Euge Valovirta – Hardtones (heavy metal, hard rock)
Four Stroke Baron – Data Diamond (progish alt metal)
Fuego Interior – Los límites de la realidad (deathcore)
Gaylord – Baseball Bats And Butterfly Knives (blackened grind)
General Fibrosis – Crossbreed Generation (techish brutal death metal)
Graywave – Dancing In The Dust (post-alt rock)
Gurthang – Martyrium (blackened death-doom)
Halcyon Way – Night Crawling (Miley Cyrus, prog metal)
Haunted Plasma – I (psychedelic electro, stoner doom)
Heksegrav – Svart Portal (funeral doom)
Hellbutcher – Hellbutcher (black/speed metal)
High Desert Queen – Palm Reader (stoner rock.metal)
Highways – Never Die (heavy/trad metal)
Hild – The Slayeress (crusty black-thrash)
The Hope Conspiracy – Tools of Oppression/Rule by Deception (hardcore, metalcore)
House By The Cemetary – The Mortuary Hauntings (death metal)
Humanity Defiled – Deficient Breed (death metal)
Laughing Stock – Shelter (folk prog)
Lock Horns – Red Room (nu djent-core)
Louvado Abismo – Louvado Abysmo (gothy/occult rock)
Lowlives – Freaking Out (melodic hardcore, alt rock)
Million Moons – I May Be Some Time (instrumental post-metal/core)
Monstrous Death – Nightmares (instrumental death metal/melodeath)
Mortuary Sickness – What Lies Beyond… (death metal)
My Diligence – Death.Horses.Black (sludgish post metal)
Myronath – Inferno (black metal)
Necrotic Infibulation – Fermented Intestinal Egesta (slamming brutal death)
Nestor – Teenage Rebel (melodic rock, aor)
New Hate Rising – As One (melodic hardcore, alt rock)
Nightrage – Remains of a Dead World (thrashy melodeath, metalcore?)
Nihilo – Made Of Lies (blackened death metal)
Origod – Impression (prog/alt metal)
Post Pulse – Return to the Halls (thrashy/modern melodeath)
Regurgitated Entrails – Sickening Indulgence of Flesh (slamming brutal death)
Reliqa – Secrets of The Future (djentrified nu-metal)
Repugnancy – Vile Ancient Transfiguration (brutal/tech-grind)
Rhapsody Of Fire – Challenge The Wind (power metal)
Rockpyle – Dunny Days (beatdown hardcore)
Rötual – Wörms (death metal)
Saltatio Mortis – Finsterwacht (epic power metal)
Saltpig – Saltpig (psychedelic stoner metal)
Shrapnel – In Gravity (modern metal, melodeath thrash)
Sig:Ar:Tyr – Citadel Of Stars (mellowblack)
Sons Of Gulliver – Sons Of Gulliver (shitty stoner metal)
Stormcrow – Path To Ascension (meloblack)
Submerged – Tortured at the Depths (brutal death metal)
Suffering Souls – An Iconic Taste Of Demise (symphonic black metal)
Swampbeast – Offering Of Chaos, Lamenting In The Blood Of Man (death metal/doom)
Sykofant – Sykofant (prog rock)
Tankobot – Nightshift (death thrash, melodeath)
Thou – Umbilical (crusty sludge)
The Troops Of Doom – A Mass To The Grotesque (death thrash)
Tsatthoggua – We Are God (blackened death metal)
Ueldes – The Veil of Mountains (folky post-black metal)
Varices – The Undoing (melodeath)
Vicolo Inferno – Circles (heavy/alt metal)
Vios – SlaveForm (industrial/groove metal)
Whoredom Rife – Den vrede makt (black metal)
Witherfall – Sounds Of The Forgotten (progressive metal, Nevermore-core)
Wormwood – The Star (progressive post-meloblack)
Young Acid – Murder At Maple Mountain (hardish/stonery rock)
Zero One – Faults In My Design (modern/tech metal)