Top Picks?
Heaven Shall Burn – Heimat (melodeathcore)
There's lots of good stuff out this week, as you can tell from al the reviews we've been recently recently, but none that are particularly jumping out to me. I was going to review the Heaven Shall Burn album as well, which I do think is quite good. However, I found myself with little to say about it, other than it being less interesting than their last few while still being pretty solid. The first song sounds a lot like Machine Head, the Killswitch Engage cover sounds a lot like Killswitch engage, and the rest sounds rather a lot like Heaven Shall Burn.
SouphL – Flore (weird/noisy "improvised grind")
At the other end of the spectrum, you also have the noisy improvised grind of SouphL, which is usually the kind of thing I'd hit with a "who even listens to this?" tag, but I also find strangely compelling in its shorter, grinder bursts, even if its longer, dronier mid-album tracks still do nothing for me (and even less for my cats). Point is, there's a lot to pick from this week and most of it is pretty good, or at least interesting, if not entirely outstanding.
Release Roundup
Aceves – Magnum Dopus (sludge punk)
All Men Unto Me – Requiem (goth/noise doom, gospel?) Review
Analtopsy – Intense Digestive Release (shitty slam)
Anfauglir – Akallabeth (symphonic black metal)
Angel of Damnation – Ethereal Blasphemy (trad/doom metal)
Arch Echo – 3X3: Catalyst (prog-shred)
Beyond Mortal Dreams – Devastation Hymns (brutal death metal)
The Bleak Picture – Shades of Life (mellowdeath-doom) Review
Blood Vulture – Die Close (goth sludge)
Bloodlast – Remains of Your Self (death metal)
Bloody Dice – 2 (hard rock)
Botch – 061524 (live mathcore)
Caged Bastard – Gaze into the Void of Madness (blackened sludge)
Castxdown – Force (metallic hardcore)
Creeping Fear – Realm Of The Impaled (brutal death metal)
Deadguy – Near-Death Travel Services (math/hardcore) Review
Deadlands – Seven (baddiecore)
Deciduous Forest – Fields of Yore (post-black metal/gaze)
Devilpriest – Where I Am The Chalice, Be Thou The Blood (black/death metal)
Dii Minores – March Of The Fallen (power metal)
A Dog Called Ego – Paper Boat (prog/post-rock)
Draghoria – Eternal Sleep (death thrash)
Drawn And Quartered – Lord Of Two Horns (brutal death metal)
Electric Citizen – EC4 (psych rock/doom)
Eteritus – Odium et Irae dei Super Vos (blackened death-doom)
Existentialist – Terminal (Lorna Shore-core)
Fer De Lance – Fires On The Mountainside (power doom)
Frozen Ground – Frozen Ground (metallic hardcore)
Gabrielle de Val – I Am The Hammer (AOR)
Goat Shaman – Monkey Palace (sludge doom)
Grace Hayhurst – The World Is Dying (prog rock, alt-metal)
Gravered – Classic Cult to Death (death metal)
Greet Death – Die In Love (indie rock/prog)
Hot Milk – Corporation P.O.P. (industrial rock/punk)
The Icarus Plan – Some Kind of Sign (badiecore)
Indemon – Reclaiming Chaos (death metal/thrash)
Inhuman Condition – Mind Trap (thrash death)
Isiliel – Moonbow Rebellion (power metal)
Jakko M. Jakszyk – Son Of Glen (soft prog)
Jawfane – Me And All My Demons (screamo, metalcore)
Johan Langquist The Castle – Johan Langquist The Castle (doom metal)
Killing of a Sacred Deer – A Visage of a Mangled Body (deathcore)
King – K (symphonic blackened-deathcore)
King Potenaz – Arcane Desert Ritual Vol. 1 (toner doom)
King Witch – III (quality doom metal) Review
The Last Bastion – Who We Are (heavy metal, thrash)
Lord Belial – Unholy Trinity (blackened death metal)
Lorquin’s Admiral – Lorquin’s Admiral (toner rock/doom)
Lucille – Dawn of Destruction (death thrash)
Margantha – Blood Moon Sacrifice (doomy meloblack)
Merzbow – Sedonis (noisy noise)
Morbyda – Under the Spell (crusty speed-metal)
Morgul Vale – Unfinished Tales from the Undying Lands (Enya-core)
Nefas – Oblation ov Obliteration (noisy/brutal/blackened disso-death)
Niels Vejlyt – Played (shred)
Niklas Sonne – Electric Dream (melodic rock/metak)
Noise Trail Immersion – Tutta La Morte In Un Solo Punto (noisy/blackened disso-doom) Review
Noumenia – Echoes (nu/groove death)
Perpetual Paradox – Deathwish (groove death)
Pig Pen – Mental Madness (crustcore)
Powerhill – Generation X (heavy metal)
Public Enemy – Black Sky Over The Projects: Apartment 2025 (rockin' hip-hop)
Putridity – Morbid Ataraxia (brutal death metal)
Rainbow Bridge – Soundtrack Of A Silent Land (post rock)
Ready For Death – Pay With Your Face (crusty death/grind)
Royale Lynn – Black Magic (pop metal)
Scorcher – Whole World Wept (deathcore)
Serpent Corpse – Retaliate (death metal/doom)
Skies Turn Black – Broken Hearts And Bad Habits (prog rock)
Skräcken – Echoes from the Void (heavy/doom metal)
Sky Falls Down – Sky Falls Down (electro rock)
Sleep Throne – A Moody Quote About Life (post-metal/doom)
Slumdweller – Prequel II: The Industrial Anguish (electro rock?)
Sodom – The Arsonist (thrash)
Spider Kitten – The Truth Is Caustic To Love (slunge, stoner doom)
tealdeer – menace (weird/dissonant? post-hardcore)
Telluric Necro-Parasites – Feel the Nocturnal Energy from the Emanations of the Niche (death metal)
Thanatorean – Ekstasis Of Subterranean Currents (deathened black metal)
Tidebringer – I Feel Crushed by My Own Malice (metalcore)
Tiffany Kills – World On Fire (melodic/power metal)
Tss – End of Time (electro metalcore)
Wanted – Cutting Edge (hair metal)
Warhog – The Dystopian Chronicles, Vol. 3 (stoner prog/doom)
When The Deadbolt Breaks – In The Glow Of The Vatican Fire (posty funeral-doom)
World Wide Smoker – Killing Off My Demons (death/trapcore)