While this week's edition of is super diverse, there seems to be stoner rock/metal lean to the albums dropping. Coincidence that it's 4/20 weekend coming up? Probably, but those who toke should take advantage of these smokey releases. However, if that's not your scene there's also releases from epic prog guys, speed metal legends, that one band you hate, and more. To the metals…
Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell – Check 'em Before You Wreck 'em 
Genre: Stoner
Origin: Hastings, England
Label: Rise Above
Buy now on Amazon.com
The band's first album, Don't Fear it…Hear it!, was a really fun stoner record. This one is also a good fucking time. Rob put it best by saying, "This 10 track album has plenty of stoner riffs to keep your head banging while you repack that bong over and over again." Agreed.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x25j28KoCc[/youtube]
Anubis Gate – Horizons 
Genre: Progressive Power Metal
Origin: Aalborg, Denmark
Label: Nightmare
Buy now on Amazon.com
YES! This is the return of one of my favorite progressive bands. This record is epic, technical, adventurous, and even a bit dancey. Think Into Eternity if they were less serious.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pARREzvOYb4[/youtube]
Emmure – Eternal Enemies 
Genre: Deathcore
Origin: New Fairfield, Connecticut
Label: Victory
Buy now on Amazon.com
No. If I was comfortable with leaving a one word record, that last sentence would be it. It's so cliche to hate this band, but I hadn't listened prior to embedding the video below. I had just assumed they were bad and went about my life. Now I know exactly what they sound like. Just…no.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmfScKO8Zqo#t=1249[/youtube]
Enthroned – Sovereigns 
Genre: Blackened Death Metal
Origin: Brussels, Belgium
Label: Agonia
Buy now on Amazon.com
Fucking awesome release from long-running Belgian black metal gods. This record has a hint of death metal to it like a Behemoth record might, but it pulls no evil blackened punches in the process. Highly recommended.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_wzmYOLzCs[/youtube]
Gamma Ray – Empire Of The Undead 
Genre: Speed Metal
Origin: Hamburg, Germany
Label: Armoury
Buy now on Amazon.com
The Speed metal legends aren't slowing one bit on their ninth record. All the silly over the top thrashy tunes about metal you've come to love. These guys are what DragonForce should strive to be.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ2E_8V7-5w[/youtube]
Kyng – Burn The Serum 
Genre: Stoner Rock
Origin: Los Angeles, California
Label: Razor & Tie
Buy now on Amazon.com
These guys had a sleeper gem on their last album Trampled Sun. That record was start-to-finish stoner awesomeness. Their follow-up certainly retains the bands sound to a degree, but there feels like an attempt to become a bit more accessible. Intentional or not is yet to be determined. Having said that, it is still a lovely record.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMhHdd4Ds9U[/youtube]
The Oath – The Oath 
Genre: Doom/Heavy Metal
Origin: Berlin, Germany
Label: Rise Above
Buy now on Amazon.com
This right here is what the Mares of Thrace (bonus point if you remember them) would be if they chilled the fuck out and smoked more weed. The primary players of the record are the two ladies to the right and they are very good at this doom thing. There's a 70's throwback feel without that feeling that they're just trying to copy an old band.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt6xCf9Iivk[/youtube]
Sevendust – Time Travelers & Bonfires 
Genre: Acoustic Alternative Metal
Origin: Atlanta, Georgia
Label: 7Bros
Buy now on Amazon.com
I swear to god, everytime Sevendust drops a record I catch myself saying, "Oh yeah! I forgot about Sevendust. which is weird because I used to love them. This new record is largely acoustic and I enjoy it. I adored their moodier Seasons record as well as the initial acoustic record Southside Double-Wide. While my admiration for this record isn't as much as it was for those since tastes change (I was fourteen then), I see this album as something that works in the realm that those did.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v3sarP35S4[/youtube]
Triptykon – Melana Chasmata 
Genre: Gothic/Doom
Origin: Zurich, Switzerland
Label: Century Media
Buy now on Amazon.com
Last, and certainly not least, is the second album from Tom G. Warrior/Thomas Gabriel Fischer's post Celtic Frost band Triptykon. The first was a doozy, and the second isn't any less of a crushing album. I find Melanna Chasmata really hard to pinpoint though. There are groove metal elements, black metal elements, gothic metal elements, doom elements, and more. I really admire the diversity here. This one will probably be on all sorts of 2014 best-of lists for those in this wheelhouse.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4a8UGehzIE[/youtube]
Also dropping today…
Below – Across The Dark River (Metal Blade)
Black Sabbath – The Complete Studio Albums (1970-1978) Box Set (Rhino)
Bokluk – Taphonomy (Memento Mori)
Brainstorm – Firesoul (AFM)
Clawfinger – Deafer Dumber Blinder CD/DVD (AFM)
Countess – Ancient Lies And Battle Cries (Barbarian Wrath)
Cult Leader – Nothing For Us Here (Deathwish)
Dark Days Ahead – North Star Blues (Inverse)
Desecresy – Chasmic Transcendence (Xtreem)
The Drip – A Presentation of Gruesome Poetics EP (Relapse)
E-Force – The Curse (Mausoleum)
I Declare War – We Are Violent People (Razor & Tie)
Impetuous Ritual – Unholy Congregation Of Hypocritical Ambivalence (Profound Lore)
Lillian Axe – One Night In The Temple (CME)
Memories Of A Dead Man – Ashes Of Joy (Send The Wood)
Morbid Flesh – Embedded In The Ossuary (Unholy Prophecies)
Mos Generator Electric Mountain Majesty (Listenable)
Pact – The Infernal Hierarchies, Penetrating the Threshold of Night(Moribund)
Pet Slimmers of the Year – Fragments of Uniforms (Candlelight)
Polar – Shadowed By Vultures (Prosthetic)
Reality Grey – Define Redemption (Bakerteam)
Seventh Circle – Seventh Circle EP (Dead Chemists)
Sinbreed – Shadows (AFM)
Sleeper Effect – The Hero Clone EP (The Orchard)
Stoneburner – Life Drawing (Neurot)
Teramaze – Esoteric Symbolism (Nightmare)
Thantifaxath – Sacred Noise (Dark Descent)
T.O.M.B.- Pennhurst/Xesse Re-Release (Crucial Blast)
The Tower – Hic Abundant Leones (Bad Omen)
Tuomas Holopainen – The Life And Times Of Scrooge (Nuclear Blast)
Turbo – The Fifth Element (Metal Mind)
Various Artists – Monsters! (Six of a Kind) (Kaotoxin)
Words of Farewell – The Black Wild Yonder (AFM)
Wormreich – Wormcult Revelations (Moribund)
