This week's new heavy metal releases include nasty sounding heaviness, yo ho's, incredible instrumentals, and more! To the metals…
Alestorm – The Thunderfist Chronicles
Genre: Folk/power metal
Origin: Perth, Scotland
Label: Napalm Records
Buy now on Bandcamp
Yo ho to you and yours on this lovely Friday. We're starting off with a party aboard a sailing ship. The latest from Alestorm is another rowdy, silly, epic, and fun affair. There's a guest spot from Russell Allen (Symphony X), a Nekrogoblikon cover, a seventeen minute song, a live set on a bonus disc, and some hurdy gurdy by Patty Gurdy. What more could you want?
Cryptopsy – An Insatiable Violence
Genre: Technical/brutal death metal
Origin: Montreal, Quebec
Label: Season Of Mist
Buy now on Bandcamp
The new record from these Canadians hits hard. Lots of rage and tech here. You can learn oodles more about them and the record as they're our June Artist of the Month.
Freeze The Fall – The Red Garden
Genre: Alternative/hard rock
Origin: Kelowna, British Columbia
Label: 604 Records
Buy now from the band
Here is more from our neighbors up North. Freeze The Fall are one of those bands with a toe in modern metal and another in conventional hard rock. The melodies are STRONG and the grooves got my head nodding. This EP, though brief, is dense and varied. Good stuff.
Hiroe – Wield
Genre: Post-rock/metal
Origin: Philadephia, Pennsylvania
Label: Pelagic Records
Buy now on Bandcamp
This is one I am particularly stoked on. This is a 3-guitar attack with crushing waves of sound, beautiful and emotional passages, and all of this without an word uttered. The interplay between these five musicians is something special.
Malevolence – Where Only The Truth Is Spoken
Genre: Groove/deathcore
Origin: Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England
Label: Nuclear Blast
Buy now on Bandcamp
Oh wow. This feels like a sonic fist. Breakdowns on breakdowns with breaks for some weirdly catchy choruses and shredding. Love when the deathcore formula in shaken up like this while remaining super heavy.
Mugshot – All The Devils Are Here
Genre: Death metal/hardcore
Origin: San Jose, California
Label: Pure Noise Records
Buy now on Bandcamp
Mugshot are here to conclude this week's column with some real nasty sounding metal. This is the kind of stuff that will get hardcore dancing going in the middle of a circle pit. Then, before you know it bodies are flying. It's a short one, but a lot of ground is covered.
Also dropping this week…
- Angel Of Damnation – Ethereal Blasphemy (Dying Victims) – Doom
- Black Majesty – Oceans Of Black (Scarlet Records) – Power metal
- Death Pill – Sologamy (New Heavy Sounds) – Hardcore/punk
- Deathblow – Open Season (Sewer Mouth Records) – Thrash
- En Masse – newviolenttrends (Fever Ltd.) – Post-hardcore
- Anthony Green – So Long, Avalon (Born Losers Records) – Indie
- Haggus – Destination Extinction (Tankcrimes) – Grindcore
- Hellevaerder – Fakkeldragers (Void Wanderer Productions) – Black metal
- Helms Deep – Chasing The Dragon (Nameless Grave) – Heavy metal
- Hessian – Hessian (Wormholedeath) – Black metal
- Imha Tarikat – Confessing Darkness (Prophecy) – Black metal
- Jamie's Elsewhere – Alchemical EP (SharpTone) – Post-hardcore/metalcore
- Joliette – Pérdidas Variables (Persistent Vision Records) – Screamo
- Lucille – Dawn of Destruction (Dying Victims Productions) – Thrash
- Morbyda – Under the Spell (Dying Victims Productions) – Speed metal
- Patristic – Catechesis (Willowtip) – Blackened death metal
- Prisoner – Kill The King (Self-released) – Heavy metal
- Reflection – The Battles I Have Won (Pitch Black Records) – Epic heavy metal
- Nad Sylvan – Monumentata (InsideOut) – Progressive rock
- Tenebrae In Perpetuum – Vacuum Coeli (Avantgarde) – Black metal
- Walking Bombs – Blessings Bestrewn Part 1 (Musical Realism Records) – Alternative
- Witherer – Shadow Without A Horizon (Hypaethral Records) – Black metal
