This week's new heavy metal releases include black metal book-ends, a legend, another legend, and more! To the metals…
Ceremony Of Silence – Hálios
Genre: Blackened death metal
Origin: Zvolen, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
Label: Willowtip Records
Buy now on Bandcamp
Starting this week really pissed off. This is a dark and heavy record with low vocals and frantic, dissonant musicianship all in a sinister realm. This one is for fans of Ulcerate and Gorguts.
Deep Purple – =1
Genre: Hard rock/heavy metal
Origin: London, England
Label: earMusic
Buy now on Amazon
Going from Ceremony of Silence to Deep Purple is one of the more drastic shifts in hard rock/heavy metal tones, but that's what makes our genre special. Anyway, this is the twenty-third album from these legends. This is their first with new guitarist Simon McBride who brings the right amount of bluesy shred to go with Don Airey's keyboard wizardry.
Highly Suspect – As Above, So Below
Genre: Hard rock/alternative
Origin: Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Label: Roadrunner Records)
Buy now on Amazon
Pairing nicely with Deep Purple is the latest from Highly Suspect. There is a little grit, some keyboard swells, and some bluesy moments all in a modern art rock package. This new record makes the band feel like they'd be the kind to fit in at a jam band festival or as a Clutch opener.
Orange Goblin – Science, Not Fiction
Genre: Stoner/heavy metal
Origin: London, England
Label: Peaceville
Buy now on Bandcamp
Now weirdly, I have seen Orange Goblin as an opener for Clutch (it was rad). These things are becoming a real stream of consciousness for me. Moving on. It's been six years since these guys have unleashed a record of stoner metal jams. This time, they're back with a new bassist who is the star of the track below. As usual, this is a balanced mix of doom heaviness and driving rock. Another fun entry in their already fun catalog.
Paul Di'Anno's Warhorse – Paul Di'Anno's Warhorse
Genre: Heavy metal/punk
Origin: Chingford, London, England/Split-Dalmatia, Croatia
Label: BraveWords
Buy now on Amazon
Original Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno has been active in various bands since his split from the band, and this is the fourth with his name in the title if the Metal Archives is to be believed. As you'd hope and expect this is a collection of classic metal rippers with just the right amount of punk in there. His guitarists Hrvoje Madiraca and Ante "Pupi" Pupačić (both of Rapid Strike) understood their assignments, and kill it as well.
Seth – La France des Maudits
Genre: Black metal
Origin: Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France
Label: Season Of MIst
Buy now on Bandcamp
Book-ending this week's column with some more blackened fun with another stellar record from these Frenchmen. This has the perfect blend of theatrics and straight-ahead kvlt stuff. Epic and evil in ways that deserve the loudest chef's kiss. Also, technically dropped on Sunday, but these have become albums out this week, so leave me alone.
Also dropping today…
- A Thousand Reasons – A Thousand Reasons (Wormholedeath) – Post-grunge/hard rock
- Act Of Creation – Moments To Remain (Massacre) – Death metal/thrash
- Assemble The Chariots – Unyielding Night (Seek & Strike) – Symphonic death metal/deathcore
- Atavistia – Inane Ducam (Self-released) – Blackened symphonic metal
- Axamenta – Spires (Self-released) – Cinematic/progressive metal
- Beasto Blanco – Kinetica (COP International) – Industrial
- Castrated – Surgical Vicissitude (Comatose Music) – Brutal death metal
- The Chris Slade Timeline – Timescape (BraveWords) – Rock
- Dark Sky Burial – Solve Et Coagula (Self-released) – Dark ambient
- Eternal Drak – Imprisoned Souls (FirstWave Canada) – Black/heavy metal
- Falcon Trails – Coming Home (Metalville) – Rock
- Flat Black – Dark Side Of The Brain (Fearless) – Melodic/hard rock
- Her Head's On Fire – Strange Desires (Iodine) – Post-hardcore
- I, Cursed – Death Holograms (Inverse Records) – Death metal/grindcore
- Mexican Coke – Mexican Coke (Convulse Records) – Hardcore
- Jupiter Cyclops – Age Of The UFOnaut (Rockshots) – heavy metal
- Onchocerciasis Esophagogastroduodenoscopy – The Fallen Lament (Stillbirth Records / Gore House Productions) – Slam/brutal death metal
- Patriarchs In Black – Visioning (Metalville) – Southern/doom metal
- Quiescent Mantis – Here Comes the Swarm (Exitus Stratagem Records) – Groove/death metal
- Sable Hills – Odyssey (Arising Empire) – Metalcore
- Sacri Monti – Retrieval (Tee Pee Records) – Heavy metal/hard rock
- Saint Diablo – The Reckoning (Eclipse Records) – Nu/groove metal
- Sarajah – Sarajah (Argonauta Records) – Doom
- Shun – Dismantle (Small Stone Recordings) – Psychedelic/hard rock
- The Stabbing Jabs – The Stabbing Jabs (Reptilian Records) – Stoner/punk
- Thousand Limbs – The Aurochs (Azathoth Records) – Post-metal/doom
- Trail Of Lies – Only The Strong (Triple B) – Hardcore
- Tracheotomy – Fixated Propensity For Destruction (1126 Records) – Hardcore/technical death metal
- Worshipper – One Way Trip (Magnetic Eye) – Psychedelic/hard rock
