Top Picks
Anna Pest – Dark Arms Reach Skyward With Bone White Fingers II: Be (Not) Afraid (technical/progressive death/core)
Everybody's favourite Evangelion-influenced progressive tech-deathcore act is back, and this time she brought some friends. With Be (Not) Afraid, Anna Pest has expanded from the sole project of first children April Hutchins to a full three-children affair, with the addition of drummer Colin MacAndrew (Ashbreather, Fleshvessel) and guitarist, friend of the blog and very appropriately named John Angel (Fire at the Plantation House), along with a slew of other guest contributors. While the bulk of the album remains Hutchins' creation, the additional contributions make for a notably more natural and varied affair, that still showcases her unique knack for blending the intense and unexpected into something remarkably digestible, while remaining deeply personal and confronting.
The record is broken into two distinct "Acts"; the first providing "An overview of the major events that have shaped [Hutchins'] life over the past five years", while the second presents a "series of open letters to five of the most important figures of [her] past five years", along with a final coda (and collaboration with Ashbringer) functions as "An ode. To the future, to hope, to you, and to us." Although there isn't necessarily a weak or wasted moment on the album, it does end up being a tad long, especially for a progressive/tech-death album, and could possibly have been made even more impactful if broken into two separate releases. Whatever you make of it though, it's a hell of a lot better than the Rebuild movies and a ferocious start to the heavy new year.
Sadie – The Revival of Madness (visual kei)
Dan and I put a lot of thought and effort into giving an overview of visual kei that encompasses the genre's various history, traditions and styles. But if you want a more metallic and streamlined on-boarding, then I say start with Dum Spiro Spero (2011) and the other heavier albums by Dir En Grey, then jump straight into their closest and perhaps most potent imitators Sadie.
The Revival of Madness is the Sadie's third volume of re-recordings—following 2024's revivals of Darkness and Sadness—which updates and makes available their material to a wider, global audience. I'm not sure how timeless or consistent the recordings from their original albums were/are. Presented in concentration, however, they leave an immense impression that perhaps only hints at what we have been missing out on all these years.
Release Roundup
Alter Bridge – Alter Bridge (heavy metal)
Amusie – Rapid Resuscitation (power metal)
Battering Ram – Time Masters (heavy metal/thrash)
Beyond The Black – Break The Silence (heavy/melodic metal)
Bite Down – Violent Playground (techish/nu metalcore)
Bound To Prevail – Enthroned In Torment (brutal death metal)
Bullet – Kickstarter (Accept-C/DC)
Calling All Captains – The Things That I’ve Lost (alt rock, emo)
Deadwood – Rituals Of A Dying Light (death metal)
Denominate – Restoration (funeral doom)
Ectovoid – In Unreality’s Coffin (death doom)
Ellemist – Devastation of the Large Magellanic Cloud (porg death)
Ellende – Zerfall (progressive/posty meloblack)
Enshine – Ellevated (melodic/post-mellowdoom)
Excavated Graves – Life Isn’t For Everyone (death metal)
Fear of Domination – Katharsis (industrial/electro metal)
Feed Them Broken Teeth – Poison of the Masses (noisy/brutal deathgrind)
For My Pain… – Buried Blue (folk metal)
Green Eyes Of Darkness – Fire Waves (prog metal)
Hologramah – Abyssus.Versus.Versiculos. (noisy blackened-death)
Hrmülja – Dream Horizons (stoner doom)
Hursan – R.U.E. (blackened/industrial sludge)
I, Forlorn – Requiem (mellowdeath)
Inyourface – Dark Glow (electro metalcore)
Kadavrik – Erde 666 (progressive/synthy black metal)
Killgurls – Powder (alt rock, grungegazze)
Krushor – Taste Of Hatred (death metal)
Lionheart – Valley of Death II (hardcore)
Lower Definition – The Purpose of the Moon (post-hardcore, emo)
New Mexican Stargazers – ATW (weird noisegaze)
Nighnacht – Limb Service (blackish deathgrind)
Nylist – Rebirth (brutal deathcore)
Oraculum – Hybris Divina (blackened death metal))
Orchid Throne – Buried In Black (post prog/doom)
Paleface Swiss – The WIlted (nu deathcore)
Pâro – Sketches of an Unseen Realm (post-black/doom)
The Promise Of Plague – The Earth Above, A Grave Beneath (goth/crust doom?)
The Protomen – Act III: This City Made Us (prog rock, AOR)
Queen Kona – Long Live (nu metalcore)
Redivider – Sounds Of Malice (death metal)
Sardonic Allegiance – Coast II (melo/black metal)
Semper Acerbus – Following Omens (melodic metalcore)
Sickle Of Dust – Across The Vultures Trail (post-black metal)
Six Going On Seven – Human Tears (softindie prog)
Stranguliatorius – Flies Don’t Lie (blackened deathgrind)
Terror Garden – Terror Garden (heavy metal)
Ulver – Neverland (post/ambient electronic)
Uuhai – Human Herds (folk metal)
Venger – Times of Legend (heavy metal)
Wildhunt – Aletheia (traddy prog-thrash)
Woe – Legacy of Human Frailty (black metal)
Zu – Ferrum Sidereum (post metal)
...oh, and yeah, I finally got around to dropping the "Day" from the title, which has been bugging me for years.