Top Pick
Matenrou Opera – Cinematographe (symphonic power metal, visual kei)
When we recommended Matenrou Opera as part of our Visual Kei Starter Kit, it was a a predominantly symphonic power metal band that Western audiences might find more accessible than many of the genre's more entrenched counterparts. Conversely, or rather suitably, Cinematographe is a lot more traditionally visual kei-sounding than their last few releases, while still being built around an extravagant and bombastic symphonic metal core.
From my first few listens, I'm not going to say this is as good as Matsu No Hana (2024) or the two albums that preceded it, but it's still a wild and impressive ride. Openers "Scar" and "Embryo" absolutely rip, standouts ""Sanzensekai" and "Enemy" bring the riffs, with the latter lending some soaring leads to proceedings as well, and then there's the stompy goth metal of "Desire" and danceable prog of "Ego" to keep you on your toes. If anything, Cinematographe is a more concise and accessible album than Matenrou Opera have put out before and has only grown in my esteem with each subsequent listen, after the shock of the initial bombast has somewhat subsided. Think of it as something to pep you up after you're done with that new Warning album, and another excellent entry point into all that J-Metal has to offer. Terrible album cover though.
Release Roundup
Axemaster – Of Beasts And Plagues (dudes rock)
Avarice – Perpetual Ruin (death metal/core)
Belvedere – Seven Years Of Bad Luck (tech-punk?)
Blood Mother – Blood Mother (post black/metal)
The Carburetors – We Ride At Night (hard rock)
Chainlacing – Messuage (dreamgaze)
Conflux – In the Wake of Saturn (dissish/techy death metal)
Cutthroat – Invoking Terror (black thrash)
Cyclopic – Flesh Of Chaos (death metal)
Deadspawned/Mogila Deathcult – Afterlives: Revenants / Vile Torture (death metal)
Degenerated – Echoes of Infection (death doom)
Destructor – Tales of Glory (heavy metal, speed thrash)
Drakkar – Invasion (heavy metal)
Einherjer – Lifeblood (folky black metal)
EL – The Angelarium (noisy tech-death)
Endseeker – Coffin Born (death metal)
Ephemerality/Malignant Providence – Unholy Alliance (death metal)
Eretia – El otoño de la civilización (post metal)
Eternal Recurrence – Eternal Recurrence (progressive folk-metal, post-melodeath?)
False Messiah – Seven (prog metal)
Fetal Sewage – Awakened One (shitty death metal)
Gold Spire – Steps Into Shadow (deathened black metal)
Green Desert Water – Eerie Meadows (stoner rock/metal)
Halo of Teeth – Meditations on Dying (post-black, death doom)
Hyena/Risingfall – Heavy Metal Heroes (heavy/speed metal)
If I Die Today – I Felt Nothing (sludge death)
Inherits The Void – The Silent Abscission (weird prog-black)
Innuendo – Not Lost (in your endo!)
Inscribed – Upon The Twisted Throne (shitty tech-death)
Into Darkness – Route To The Other Side (black/death metal)
Iron Kobra – Eternal Dagger (heavy metal, speed thrash)
Kilter – Ten Billion Years (progressive black-jazz)
L.M.I. – V (progressive deathgrind)
Liminal Sky – All Tomorrow’s Darkness (post prog/doom)
Loneshore – Nothing Left To Deconstruct (progressive/post mellowdeath)
Lost In Kyiv – We’re All Going To Be Fine (post rock)
Lost Vital Spark – The Motion Paradox (melodeath)
Lumen Ad Mortem – A Grave Ascent (black metal)
Mattador – III (hard rock)
Mortiis – Ghosts of Europa (electro goth?)
Mossystone – Paysages Tristes (black metal)
One Day in Pain – Devouring the Gods (blackened death metal)
Plaindrifter – Gestalt (stoner prog)
Prince Of Failure – Prince Of Failure (gothy post-prog)
Prompts – Parasite Dream (metalcore)
Quiet Fear – La Tierra Arriba/El Abismo Abajo (post hardcore, screamo)
Red Vinter – Ghost in the Fog (death metal)
Saidan – Fangdriller: Scars Beneath Memories Wrist (gothic black metal)
Scordatura – Led Into Oblivion (death metal)
Scythe – Boiled Alive (black/death metal)
Shadowborne – Heaven’s Falling (melodic/power metal)
Sinamort – Breathing Cargo (goth doom)
Solitone – Le Champ Des Possibles (post rock)
There Were Wires – Vessels (sludge-core, post metal)
U.S. Bastards – Negligent Discharge (crossover thrash)
Various – Ride The Rainbow: The Ultimate Tribute To Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow (hard rock, heavy metal)
Veleno – Spleen Punk (shitty death-punk)
Vomepotro – Fall Into Decay (death metal)
Warthrash – No Light Shall Remain (death metal/thrash?)