Top Picks
Mors Principium Est – Darkness Invisible (symphonic/blackened melodeath)
I don't know why I'd never listened to Mors Principium Est. I think I'd always just assumed they were a black metal band, and I never really hear or see anyone talk about them, even if theirs is still a name I recognise somehow. Turns out they're a melodeath band, and they absolutely rip! To be fair, their sound is noticeable blackened on this release, which also seems to deviate from what I've since sampled of their traditional sound by adding in a lot more symphonics alongside some impressive fretboard gymnastics and some serious riffing that has me fully on board. Shame about all the AI though...
Revocation – New Gods, New Masters (technical death-thrash)
By all rights they should be one of my absolute favourite bands, but Revocation have never fully grabbed me. Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoy listening to them, and they're always phenomenal live (a Revocation support slot is a must-see!), but none of the often intense and overly intricate music they make has ever really stuck with me, outside of 2016's Great is Our Sin and their 2013 self-titled album. As you can tell from those (perhaps idiosyncratic) stand-outs, I much prefer Revocation when they're in their thrashier mode, which is why they might have lost me somewhat with the more death-leaning records they've been putting out recently. As you might also be able to further tell from its prominence here, New Gods, New Masters swings things back in a more thrash-friendly direction, infusing a hefty helping of groove into their often chaotic mix, which—along with appealing to my own, personal tastes—helps give the songs a lot more shape than they've traditionally had, especially over the last two albums, which makes for a more memorable and engaging listen while still keeping all of their trademark technicality and aggression in play—it's just this time they give you space to stop and pull a stank face every now and then.
Release Roundup
Abraded – Ethereal Emanations From Cthonic Caries (noisy/brutal death metal)
Abraham – idsungwüssä (weird/post doom)
Absence Of Colors – Poison On Your Lips (post metal)
Acidwound – Rule Of Nines (djethcore)
Adrenaphine – Haunted (death metal)
After Earth – Dark Night of the Soul (melodeath) Premiere / Review
Amorphis – Borderland (powerful/progressive melodeath)
The Answer Lies In The Black Void – Transcendental (melo/sludge doom)
Anthology – Frozen Sun (symphonic metal)
Ars Amandi – Rumbo Norte (folk metal)
Atomic Rule – With Skull Crushing Force (sludge-core)
Autumn Tears – Crown of the Clairvoyant (opera)
Banderstadt – Red (folk metal)
Beyond Extinction – Where They Gather (djethcore)
Blizaro – Light And Desolation (doom prog)
Christ Agony – Anthems (blackened death metal)
Cosmic Reaper – Bleed The Wicked, Drown The Damned (doom metal)
Cruentation – Damned Fallen Angels (death metal)
Curse Of Cain – Achtung! (nu industrial)
Darkness – The Death Squad Chronicles (thrash)
DarWin – Distorted Mirror (melodic prog rock)
Degrave – Metalithic (death metal, thrash)
Demiurgon – Miasmatic Deathless Chamber (death meta)
Difuntor – A Butchering Monolith of Mystical Damnation (death metal)
Dying Wish – Flesh Stays Together (metalcore)
Elbe – Peculiar (post rock/metal)
Elder – Liminality / Dream State Return (post-prog)
Esses – Pain At The Altar Of Jest (post goth)
Extholiate – Vermorpha (deathcore)
Eyes Of The Oak – Tripping Through Neon Skies (psych doom)
Face Yourself – Fury (deathcore)
Feral State – II (grindcore)
From Fall To Spring – Entry Wounds (nu butt-core)
From the Crypt – Born in the Grave (death metal)
Frostmoon Eclipse – As Time Retreats (black metal)
Ghost Cries – Vrykolakas (symphonic power-death)
Hei’An – Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye (baddiecore)
Henret – Depths Below (deathcore)
Hive – Conduct of Flies (djethcore)
House Of Hosts – Reckoning (heavy metal)
Indecent Behavior – Sick (pop punk, rock)
Inner Perception – Voyage (metalcore)
Inferum – Musth (djethcore)
Infest – Ambassadors Of Aggression (death thrash)
Irk – The Seeing House (noise rock/metal) Review
Korypheus – Gilgamesh (prog metal)
Last Hyena – Suspect Your Elders (instrumental prog)
Last Retch – Abject Cruelty (death metal)
Left Hand Black – Left Hand Black 3: Death Can’t Keep Us Apart (hooror punk/metal)
Libretto Orchestra & Co. – Dark Side Dominion (symphonic metal)
Lifeless End – Hidden Light (alt/goth metalcore)
Lightchapter – Where All Hope Begins (groove melodeath)
Marmalade Knives – Paradigm Lost (psychish rock)
Monolyth – Seeds of Perseverance (prog metal/thrash)
Mrs Frighthouse – Solitude Over Control (doom drone)
Muggeseggel – Lällekönig (deathgrind)
Mysthicon – Bieśń (black metal)
Neko Case – Neon Grey Midnight Green (country pop)
Nero Kane – For The Love, T he Death And The Poetry (folk drone)
Occulsed – Antegnosis (death doom)
Ordeals – Third Rail Prayer (blackened death metal)
Overt Enemy – Insurrection (groove metal, deathcore)
Pansophic – Kingdom Come (heavy metal, thrash)
Paradox – Mysterium (prog/power thrash)
Patterns of Decay – Departure (melodeathcore)
Peeling Flesh – PF Radio 2 (slamming nu-deathcore, coworker music?)
Percussor – Remnants Of Horror: The Final Cut (death metal)
President – King Of Terrors (y tho?)
Rage – A New World Rising (groove thrash)
Rainbow Kitten Surprise – bones (indie rock, emo)
Record Thieves – Tragic Company (melodic punk)
Refiner – Refiner (alt metalcore)
Risen Atlantis – Power To The Past (power metal)
Robert Plant – Saving Grace (folk, rock?)
Royal Sorrow – Innerdeeps (progressive/alt metal)
Sainthood – Dull Bliss (emo)
Sardonic – Menschenfeind (groove death)
Shiner – Believeyoume (post/progressive alt-rock)
Sink – That Which Evolves From The Loss Of Others (nu deathcore)
The Sorrow Of Being Immaculate – Suicide Forest (drone)
Sterveling – Sterveling (proggy post-black/doom)
Stone Machine Electric – Faces (stoner doom)
Sucking Void – Dead End Host (crusty melodeath)
Sundrowned – Higanbana (brackened post-metal) Premiere
Tabernacle – The Iron Tabernacle (proggy trad-metal)
Tales Of Destiny – Ashes Of Destiny (heavy metal, thrash)
Telesterion – Songs of Orpheus (blackened post-doom)
Theurgy HC – Theurgy (hard/mathcore)
Tom Thumb – Boner Petite (grindcore)
Uragh – Stalemate (groove metalcore)
Vibravoid – Remove The Ties (psyche rock)
Villain Of The Story – The Love You Took Away (nu metalcore)
The Vintage Caravan – Portals (prog rock)
Viola – The Grey Ephemeron, A Dream Of You (djentcore)
Voidlurker – Loathe For Life (sludge doom)
Voluntary Mortification – Mortem Cultus (djethcore)
Vrdbr – Mono | Tod (black metal)
War Grave – Free Will (heavy metal, thrash)
Warcoe – Upon Tall Thrones (stoner doom)
Waxwolf – Magic Madness Sadness (instrumental prog/death, chiptune)
Wehmut – III: Frühling (post-black metal)
Wounds of Recollection – I Found the Love that I was Looking For (graduation blackgaze) Review
Your Heterosexual Violence – Some People Have Too Much To Say (garage/indie punk)
Zombie Eater – Faces (stoner sludge/doom)