Release Roundup: 6/6/25

Top Picks

Gruesome – Silent Echoes (Deathy death metal)

As much as I love the band Death, I've never really bothered with Gruesome. Perhaps that's because—in addition to some questionable artwork choices—I'm much more taken with Death's later, more progressive 90s period than I am with the earlier 80s era that Gruesome have so far been aping.* As good as the early Death albums are, plenty of bands have come along since and pushed the realms of traditional death metal much further. Yet, while many others have run with its template, none have quite captured the magic of, let alone surpassed, Human. That album's position (to me at least) as the single greatest death metal album of all time feels pretty indisputable—teetering as it does on the edge of the genre's more fruitful progressive and technical subsets, while still retaining much of its traditional raw aggression—with the only real competitors being the three Death albums that followed it. But with Gruesome having naturally progressed to the point of their career where they're ready to take on Death's loftier, later fare, I might have to start paying attention—especially when they do it this well.

Silent Echoes builds of Gruesome's earlier forays into Human-ism from 2017's Fragments of Psyche EP by reproducing the title track (which originally featured late Human-era drummer Sean Reinert) alongside seven other concoctions that feel like they've been ripped straight out of 1991—arguably the single greatest year in death metal history. None of Gruesome's albums quite match up to the Death originals, but Silent Echoes is as close as they've ever come, and they're interesting to think of as imaginary intermediates. Just as Twisted Prayers (2018) made for a solid halfway house between Spiritual Healing (1990) and Human, so too does Silent Echoes feel like a logical link between that mightiest of death metal albums and 1993's odder and more openly technical Individual Thought Patterns. Or maybe that's just because I'm pretty sure some riffs from "Trapped in a Corner" and "The Philosopher" show up once or twice. Either way, it's said that if you can't beat 'em, then rip them off wholeheartedly, and with Silent Echoes Gruesome have produced a worthy tribute to one of the absolute greatest albums of all time. I'd like to think Chuck would be proud.

*I say this as I'm literally sitting here sipping out of a Scream Bloody Gore mug...

Volbeat – God Of Angels Trust (Metallica with hats)

It's ironic, but Volbeat have only gotten more metal following the departure of ex-Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano. They were already on a heavier trajectory, but with God of Angels Trust (G.O.A.T.—get it?), they've doubled down on the hard hitting approach of 2021's surprisingly volatile Servant of the Mind. There's nothing here that goes quite as hard as "Shotgun Blues" or "Becoming" from Servant of the Mind, but tracks like "Demonic Depression" come close. It's also probably a more consistent album overall, with the band ditching much of their lingering surf-rockabilly sensibilities in favour of the power Black Album-style stomp and other modern Metallica-isms that have been creeping into their sound over the last few records.

That God of Angels Trust feels somewhat short has more to do with its underdeveloped songwriting than its compact 44-minuets. The record flows well, but it also cuts off somewhat suddenly with "Engineering the Disorder (By a Monster's Hand Part 2)", which might have perhaps been better integrated into the actual back-end of its predecessor, which spends a lot of time building up, only to suddenly stop shot once things finally get going. As such, this album, much like the last, feels like a collection of good riffs, rather than great songs, and outside of a few choice cuts from 2016's Seal the Deal and Let's Boogie, I haven't found any of the band's earlier material particularly compelling. At this point, it's still Servant of the Mind and God of Angel's Trust that have taken my fancy, rather than these outlaw gentlemen themselves, but if they can keep up this run of form and hone some of the songwriting a bit, then they might make a "Volbeat" fan of me yet.