Top Picks
Plasmodulated – An Ocean ov Putrid, Stinky, Vile, Disgusting Hell (surprisingly progressive death-metal/doom)
Speaking of things you should (or at least could) be listening to instead of Blood Incantation... Plasmodulated's An Ocean ov Putrid, Stinky, Vile, Disgusting Hell isn't as progressive as I thought upon my first few listens, but it's also a lot more spacey and inventive than you might expect from an album with its title and cover art. Much of the record trudges along like an expert blend of Immolation, Incantation and Morbid Angel, but by about track three or so, progressive/atmospheric sections and interludes start to creep in to its compositions, and while these are largely confined to the spaces between the end of one song and the beginning of the next, they also transition so smoothly as to bestow the record with the sense of a continuous and continuously transmogrifying journey through the putrid, psychedelic setting of its cover, and by the end of the record you will have been treated to more than a few Pink Floyd-esque freak outs. Also, it has a two-minute grind track on it called "The Final Fuckening". No notes!
Centuries of Decay – A Monument to Oblivion (posty/blackened prog-death)
Canada's Centuries of Decay are a bit more traditional, though no less remarkable in their progressive applications. A Monument to Oblivion draws heavily on the posty, blackened template set out by In Vain, Black Crown Initiate or even Ne Obliviscaris albeit much more directly and aggressively than those bands tend to be. Along with these more elating textures comes a dominating almost dissonant darkness, reminiscent Ulcerate's more recent, postier output, except played with more urgency and the types of riffs you might find on a Rivers of Nihil record—as though they're going directly for the jugular, rather than letting the sheer weight of their dissonant atmosphere compress and suffocate you. There's also some some guitar and vocal harmonies in there that remind me of Enslaved or even Mastodon at times, especially during the record's early sections, which leaves A Monument to Oblivion feeling like both a combination of all the best modern in extreme, progressive music and a distinctive statement all of its own.
Harvested – Dysthymia (Cannibal Corpse, Decapitated)
This one sounds like Decapitated, if they sounded more like Cannibal Corpse.
Release Roundup
Accvsed – Dealers Of Doom (metalcore)
Amphisbaena – Rift (weird blackened-death)
Anchorite – Realm Of Ruin (heavy metal, melodoom)
Ancient Malice – Accept The Vile Gifts Of The Dead (noisy grindcore)
Ancient Torment – Follow The Echo Of Curses (black metal)
The Armed – The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed (progressive/noisy hardcore, indie rock)
Barbarous – Initium Mors (death metal)
Bengal Tigers – Cry Havoc (heavy metal)
Blessings – Blodsträngen (sludgy noise rock)
Blood Brain Barrier – Windows Drenched In Red (doomy black metal)
Burial Tree – The Power Of Myth (weird ambient-doom/drone?)
Call Of Charon – Tales Of Tragedy (death metal)
Cancer Void – First Metastasis (death metal)
Car Bomb – Tiles Whisper Dreams (brutal tech-metal, shitty AI AMVs)
Connect The Circle – Wolf In The Sky (melodic metal)
Creatvre – Toujours Humain (weird/progressive black metal)
Crungus – Hollow (blackened death metal)
Dakota Ave – Soul Fragments (metal/deathcore)
Darkness Is My Canvas – The End Of Times (prog/industrial metal)
Deadstream – Toluca (nuish/brutal metalcore)
The Depth Beneath Us – Descent (progressive post-rock)
The Depth Beneath Us – Descent (post rock)
Epitomectomy – Morbid Obsessions (slamming brutal death)
The Fallen Prodigy – Fragments (metalcore)
Fermento – Acts Of Blood (blackened death metal)
Final Error – Daemonium in Nobis (death metal/thrash)
Fit For A King – Lonely God (melodic metalcore at home)
Fox Lake – New World Heat (hardcore)
Fracture – A Change In What May Come (deathcore)
Gridlink – Perfect Amber (grindcore)
Hammer – Trapped (groove-death)
Hayley Williams – ? (indie pop)
Hedonist – Scapulimancy (death metal)
Invictim – Guilt of Gods (alt metal)
Knosis – Genknosis (nu metal/core, get it?)
Knowing the Future – N E W F V t V R E (djenstrumental)
Leaden – Steps Through Silence (post metalcore?)
Lommi – 667788 (stoner-sludge)
Moths – Septem (doom rock) Review
Murderess – Time to Kill (black/death metal)
Nighthawk – Six Three O (heavy metal, trad rock)
Nuclear Daisies – First Taste Of Heaven (electro-goth, dream pop)
Oni – Genesis Pt. II (baddiecore)
Pulpit Vomit – Hospital Lens (grindcore)
Purge of Sanity – The Expense Of Striving To Heal (progresisve deathcore)
Sallow Moth – Mossbane Lantern (weird/progressive tech-death)
Sea Mosquito – Majestas (disso-black/doom)
Silk Spinster – Silk Spinster (shitty hard rock)
Sin Seer – Arrival (alt rock/core)
St.sinner – Hearts in Hands (electro metalcore)
Sursum Corda – Métodos de tortura (death metal)
Tar Pit – Scrying The Angel Gate (doom metal)
Terrordome – Plagued With Violence (thrash)
To the Grave – Everyone’s Still a Murderer (vegan deathcore, OR DIE!)
Under Cold Sun – White Silence (melodeath thrash)
Vaegon – Ciphers from the Void (tech deathcore)
Vertebra – The Same (old school prog-death)
Victim of Fire – The Old Lie (blackened melodeath)
Visceral. – Defenceless (nu metal/rock)
Vlad In Tears – Hide Inside (nu metal, hard/butt rock)
Wailing Banshee – Worlds Apart (heavy metal)
When Man Meets His Maker – The Hell in Heaven (groovy melodeath)