This week's new heavy metal releases include vampires swearing in front of children, the opposite of smooth jazz metal, a surprising number of violins, and more!
To the metals…
Drouth – Excerpts From A Dread Liturgy
Genre: Black/death metal
Origin: Portland, Oregon
Label: Translation Loss Records
Portland's Drouth bring blast beats and tremolo picking to the table. Then at a dash of atmosphere (but not too much) and some rather grand melodies. The resulting meal of an album winds up being black metal enough to appear to fans of the straight-forward stuff, yet has enough frills to kept those bored of the old school entertained. The perfect balance and a solid album overall.
Steve Howe – Love Is
Genre: Progressive rock
Origin: Holloway, England
Label: BMG
Steve Howe is best known for having the longest tenure in the legendary prog band Yes, and perhaps the reason there was once two versions of the band. Anyway, I also learned looking into this album that he also has twenty plus solo albums (some are re-recordings and demo collections, but whatever). The little I've been able to sample of this is some pretty chill instrumental rock stuff. He's not a shredder by modern standards, but Howe is still one of the most unique and interesting guitarists in rock history.
Imperial Triumphant – Alphaville
Genre: Avant-garde/Technical black metal
Origin: New York, New York
Label: Century Media
This shit is wild. Imperial Triumphant are the current It band for a good reason. Alphaville is an evil jazz-influenced ride that sounds like nothing I've ever heard before. And even summing it up as "jazz-influenced" doesn't come close to what this sounds like. Perhaps "an avant-garde nightmare soundscape, with occasional orchestral moments, dissonant death metal, and some of the roughest jazz you could ever hear," comes closer.
Moon Tooth – Violent Grief: Acoustic Selections
Genre: Progressive
Origin: Long Island, New York
Label: Pure Noise Records
Every band is trying to figure out ways to stay relevant and keep an income going, so I'm surprised there aren't more acoustic records being put out right now. This one was a welcomed surprise. Violent Grief made me dig Moon Tooth more actually. This has four songs from their previous gem of an album Crux and a new track. It really showcases the power of vocalist John Carbone.
Septicflesh – Infernus Sinfonica MMXIX
Genre: Symphonic Death Metal
Origin: Athens, Greece
Label: Season Of Mist
This is one of the most epic things this already epic band has ever put out. It's a live recording from 2019 of Septicflesh with Symphonic Experience Orchestra, Enharmonía Vocalis Choir, and the National University of Mexico Children’s and Youth Choir. There are a fuckton of people on this stage. Don't get me wrong, it sounds amazing, but it's also kind of hilarious. Mostly because the band is still screaming rock star stuff like "COME ON MOTHERFUCKERS!" to an audience bound by seats who can't really rock out while in front of a bunch of bored looking kids.
Thundermother – Heat Wave 
Genre: Rock/heavy metal
Origin: Växjö, Sweden
Label: AFM
Wanna rock? Crank this then. Lots of riffs, grooves, and melodies. This is soaring hard rock for fans of Guns N Roses, Motörhead, and Halestorm.
Anneke van Giersbergen – Let the Light In
Genre: Orchestral
Origin: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Label: Self-released
Buy now and sample on Bandcamp
Another orchestra thing? Sure why not. Late last year Anneke van Giersbergen and the Kamerata Zuid chamber orchestra played some shows together. The setlist was mostly Anneke's (underrated) solo material with a classical spin. It also had her taking on songs she collaborated on originally by Within Temptation and Ayreon which is neat. Skimming some of the performances on Setlist.fm, there were some solid covers that were left out but there's definitely plenty of stuff for Anneke fans to dig here and even a song.
Also dropping today
- Æpoch – The Scryer (Self-released) – Progressive death metal
- Alcatrazz – Born Innocent (Silver Lining) – Heavy metal
- Alain Johannes – Hum (Ipecac) – Rock/exmerimental
- Dee Snider – For The Love Of Metal Live CD/DVD (Napalm) – Hard rock
- Defy The Tyrant – Bones (Pavement Entertainment) – Alternative metal
- Disavowed – Revocation Of The Fallen (Brutal Mind) – Brutal death metal
- Draghkar – At the Crossroads of Infinity (Unspeakable Axe) – Death metal
- Fall of Messiah – Senicarne (Holy Roar Records) – Alternative/screamo
- Foot – The Balance Of Nature Shifted (Cooper Feast Records) – Psychedelic rock
- High Spirits – Hard To Stop (High Roller) – Hard rock/heavy metal
- Katalepsy – Terra Mortuus Est (Unique Leader) – Death metal
- Lionheart – The Reality Of Miracles (Metalville) – Hard rock
- Neck Deep – All Distortions Are Intentional (Hopeless) – Pop punk
- Nordra – Pylon III (SIGE Record) – Industrial
- Ost+Front – Dein Helfer in der Not (Out Of Line Music) – Industrial
- Pale Horseman – For Dust Thou Art (Self-released) – Sludge
- Psychosexual – Torch The Faith (6ex) – Hard rock
- Resin Tomb – Resin Tomb (Brilliant Emperor) – Black/death metal
- Shezmu – À Travers Les Lambeaux (Krucyator Productions) – Death metal
- Sepulchral Curse – Only Ashes Remain (Transcending Obscurity) – Death metal
- Upon A Burning Body – Built From War EP (Seek and Strike) – Deathcore
- Valgrind – Condemnation (Memento Mori) – Death metal
- Warkings – Revenge (Napalm) – Power metal
