This week's new heavy metal releases include a soundtrack to a restaurant, an album that some might argue isn't music, and more! To the metals…
Antagonist – Gone Is The Light 
Genre: Metalcore
Origin: Whittier, California
Label: Infinite Strength Records
Buy now on Bandcamp
On their first full album in a decade, Antagonist are bringing the melodic metal jams. This band has always been one to dabble, but this might be their most diverse. Gone Is The Light has a metalcore…uh…core but dips into thrash, punk, and even some grunge.
Michael Angelo Batio – More Machine Than Man 
Genre: Shred/Neo Classical Metal
Origin: Los Angeles, California
Label: Rat Pak
On More Machine Than Man Michael Angelo Batio is confirming the theory I have always had about him which is that he's at least part robot. That is the only thing that can explain his ambidextrous guitar approach. On this album he has a few friends with him in former Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler on a couple tracks and an appearance from bass god Victor Wooten. Fans of Vai, Satriani, and the likes will dig this.
Behold The Arctopus – Hapeleptic Overtrove 
Genre: Technical death metal
Origin: New York, New York
Label: Willowtip/P2
Behold The Acrtopus have always been into weirdness, but on Hapeleptic Overtrove they really seems like they doubled down on the avant-garde. Full tracks feel like absolute free-form stream of consciousness that feel like they are devoid of time-signatures. This is a challenging album that is both off-putting and oddly intriguing. I kept wondering what the hell was next.
BPMD – American Made 
Genre: Thrash/covers
Origin: California/New York/New Jersey
Label: Napalm
BPMD is that dad band down the street that plays nothing but classic rock covers, but if those dads were in actual bands. Mark Menghi (Metal Allegiance), Phil Demmel (Vio-Lence), Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth (Overkill), and Mike Portnoy (oh gosh…let's say Bigelf) take on tracks originally by Areosmith, Van Halen, Grand Funk Railroad, and others. They add a little bit of gruff to their covers and some added frills, but they're pretty straight up takes otherwise.
Bulb – Archives: Volume 8 
Genre: Progressive/djent
Origin: Bethesda, Maryland
Label: 3DOT Recordings
Listen on Spotify and Apple Music
Here we have the first (yep, he's starting with Volume 8) in a series of ten archival albums from Periphery's Misha Mansoor. Bulb has always been a project for experimenting. It sounds like Periphery sometimes, an epic film scores sometimes, and really whatever Misha Mansoor feels like doing. This first one includes a lot of ideas that are less than two minutes that feel like demos, but then there are also some full epic tracks that sound what you'd hope for from this modern prog giant.
Powertrip – Live in Seattle 05.28.2018
Genre: Thrash/Crossover
Origin: Dallas, Texas
Label: Southern Lord
Buy now on Bandcamp
Since it appears that 2020 is basically cancelled for touring bands, yesterday Power Trip released this live album with the hopes of scraping together some cash while they and their crew are off the road. So hit the Bandcamp, buy the album, and throw them a little extra if you can. Hopefully this can keep them fed until they are able to thrash all over you in person.
This Will Destroy You – Vespertine
Genre: Post-rock
Origin: Los Angeles, California
Label: Dark Operative
This Will Destroy You have already created sweeping post-rock that sounded like a film score. However, this time they have created a score for a restaurant experience. A restaurant album, you ask? Well, Vespertine is a restaurant in Culver City, California and this album has played there since 2017, but the band is now releasing it to the masses. Each song plays during a certain location in the restaurant. So there's "Dining Room," "Kitchen," "Rooftop," etc. That might be one of the weirder blurbs I've written for this website. Also, this dropped Tuesday, but shit is slow and this is wild.
Also dropping today…
- The Acacia Strain – Y 7" (Rise) – Deathcore
- Anonymus – La Bestia (Bam&co Heavy) – Thrash
- Aversions Crown – Hell Will Come For Us All (Nuclear Blast) – Black/death metal
- Electric Mob – Discharge (Frontiers) – Hard rock
- Elm – The Wait (Bronson Recordings) – Noise rock
- Justice For The Damned – Pain Is Power (Greyscale Records) – Groove metal/hardcore
- League of Corruption – Something In the Water (Black Doomba Records) – Souther/groove metal
- Lightworker – Fury By Failure (Solid State Records) – Hard rock
- Living Gate – Deathlust EP (Relapse) – Death metal
- Lord – Chaos Raining (Self-released) – Heavy/power metal
- Clint Lowery – Grief & Distance (Rise) – Acoustic/hard rock
- Magnus Karlsson's Free Fall – We Are The Night (Frontiers) – Heavy metal
- Nemesium – Continua (Black Lion Records) – Blackened death metal
- Obscene – The Inhabitable Dark (Blood Harvest) – Death metal
- Shape Of Water – Great Illusions (Eclipse) – Art rock
- Stinky – Of Lost Things (M-Theory Audio) – Hardcore
- Tia Carrera – Tried And True (Small Stone Records) – Heavy psych
- Ulthar – Providence (20 Buck Spin) – Avant-garde Black/death metal
- Valdrin – Effigy of Nightmares (Blood Harvest) – Black/death metal
