This week is fucking solid. So much so that I didn't even get around to talking about everything I wanted to. Sad. Anyway, get stoked with new progressive wonderfulness of all types, throwback rock, and more! To the metals…
Fallujah – Dreamless 
Genre: Progressive death metal
Origin: San Francisco, California
Label: Nuclear Blast
Buy now on Amazon.com
The little of this I've heard at this point sounds like a continuation of their last record The Flesh Prevails, which was one of my favorite records of 2014. Their combination of atmospheric, soaring guitar and technical metal had never been done like that before. They changed the game in 2014, and with Dreamless, I think the band will be upping their own game.
Haken – Affinity
Genre: Progressive
Origin: London, England
Label: Inside Out
Buy now on Amazon.com
Speaking of upping their game, Affinity is ridiculously good. Haken has been great from the beginning, but this is a new level. This time they are dabbling with 80's prog rock and modern EDM while cementing their own successful sound. As of right now, this is my favorite album to come out this year.
Joy – Ride Along! 
Genre: Psych rock
Origin: San Diego, California
Label:Tee Pee
Buy now on Amazon.com
Joy are a great kept secret of the stoner/psych rock scene. You get some of the throwback rock aesthetic, but as a whole this band is their own animal. Fuzzy everything, interesting transitions, and enough memorable licks to tear through a year's supply of Tootsie Pops.
Long Distance Calling – Trips 
Genre: Progressive rock
Origin: Münster/Dortmund, Germany
Label: Inside Out
Buy now on Amazon.com
Seriously you guys, the prog this week is killing it. I should note that Long Distance Calling has more of a modern prog rock sound that might not appeal to those that write off bands like The Dear Hunter, Muse, and the likes. However, if you're like me and you simply want all the prog, Lines is an enjoyable experience start to finish
Purson – Magic Theatre 
Genre: Psych/Occult rock
Origin: Southend-on-Sea, England
Label: Spinefarm
Buy now on Amazon.com
There are plenty of "occult rock" bands out now, but hands down Purson is my favorite one. They just ooze 70's swagger while dabbling with some folk influences. They're sophomore record doesn't disappoint one bit. It makes me like them more and regret missing them when they opened for Ghost recently, but gives me hope for another shot to see them.
Schammasch – Triangle 
Genre: Avant-garde/Black Metal
Origin: Basel, Switzerland
Label:Prosthetic
Buy now on Amazon.com
On their third record, Schammasch are really earning the avant-garde label while still bringing the metal. Some tracks are Tyr-like, while some are blackened experimental numbers. I even found myself loving the epic ambient seuges. Over all interesting, dark, weird, evil sounding shit.
Visions Of Atlantis – Old Routes: New Waters 
Genre: Power metal
Origin: Bruck an der Mur, Austria
Label: Napalm
Buy now on Amazon.com
Visions of Atlantis has a pretty extensive back catalog, and has had a ton of line-up changes. Because of these two characteristics that they seem to share with every band in their field, the band is releasing this EP of songs from their first three albums re-recorded with their current line up. Vocalist Clementine Delauney (and any vocalist the band gets) will always live in the shadow of the fallen Nicole Bogner, but Delauney has pipes and sings the older stuff well.
Wrong – Wrong 
Genre: Sludge/Hardcore
Origin: Miami, Florida
Label: Relapse
Buy now on Amazon.com
Part punk, part sludge, all badass. They're a band that can stand up with their rocking contemporaries like Torche or Kvelertak while also pairing well with your more melodic rock acts like Nothing (whom they happen to be touring with). They do lean a bit more to the rock side than I was expected, but it works.
Rob Zombie – The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser 
Genre: Hard rock
Origin: Haverhill, Massachusetts
Label: UMe / T-Boy
Buy now on Amazon.com
Never one to fuck with a working formula, Rob Zombie is back with his latest batch of spooky, vaguely-industrial metal tracks. The singles that I've heard so far ("Get High" and seemingly Primus-inspired "Well, Everybody's Fucking in a UFO") are better than a lot of his stuff I've heard since The Sinister Urge, so I have hope for the deeper cuts on this one.
Also dropping today…
Abandoned By Bears – The Years Ahead (Victory) – Metalcore
Abhomine – Larvae Offal Swine (Hells Headbangers/Osmose) – Death/black metal
Abnormality – Mechanisms Of Omniscience (Metal Blade) – Brutal death metal
Allfather – Bless The Earth With Fire (Static Tension) – Sludge/hardcore
Angarthal – Uranus And Gaia (Asgardh) – Heavy metal
Burning Hatred – Carnage (Vic) – Death metal
Cadaveric Poison – Cadaveric Poison (Metal On Metal) – Thrash
Chains / Suton – Balkanian Narko Doom Split (Ordo MCM) – Doom
Cilver – Not The End Of The World (eOne) – Hard rock
Convictions – I Will Become (InVogue) – Metalcore
Darkend – The Canticle Of Shadows (Non Serviam) – Symphonic black metal
Darkestrah – Turan (Osmose) – Folk metal
Dead Man's Hand – Til Karma Forgets (Pavement) – Heavy metal
Devils Gun – Dirty n' Damned (Black Lodge) – Rock
Discharge – End Of Days (Nuclear Blast) – Hardcore/thrash
Fister / Teeth – Split (Broken Limbs) – Sludge/doom
Germ – Escape (Prophecy) – Post-Black Metal/Shoegaze
Gluttony / Sordid Flesh – Split (Vic) – Death metal
Graveyard – For Thine Is The Darkness (War Anthem) – Death metal
Greaver – The Faun (Cardigan) – Post hardcore
Ides – Sun Of The Serpents Tongue (Vic) – Doom
Infernal Majesty – Nigrescent Years Of Chaos (Vic) – Thrash
Isolert – No Hope, No Light…Only Death (Ogmios) – Black metal
Kawir – Father Sun Mother Moon (Iron Bonehead) – Pagan black metal
Lord Mantis – NTW EP (New Density) – Blackened sludge
Midnight Eternal – Midnight Eternal (Inner Wound) – Symphonic metal
Mindshift – Horizon (Eclipse) – Melodic metal
Mountain Grave – Massive Structural Collapse (HPGD) – Blackened death metal
Nemesea – Uprise (Napalm) – Gothic rock
Occult Burial – Hideous Obscure (Invictus) – Thrash/black metal
Orden Ogan – The Book Of Oden DVD/CD (AFM) – Power metal
Plebeian Grandstand – False Highs, True Lows (Throatruiner) – Avant-garde
Psychedelic Witchcraft – The Vision (Soulseller) – Occult rock
Pyramido – Vatten (Halo Of Flies) – Sludge/stoner
Ravenia – Beyond The Walls Of Death (Inner Wound) – "Epic film score metal"
Rising – Oceans Into Their Graves (Indisciplinarian) – Sludge
Sixx:A.M. – Prayers For The Damned (Eleven Seven) – Hard rock
Slaughterday – Laws Of The Occult (FDA Rekotz) – Death metal
Spider Kitten – Ark Of Octofelis (Undergroove) – Stoner/Industrial
Svarttjern – Dodsskrik (Soulseller) – Black metal
Tremonti – Dust (Fret 12) – Heavy metal
Ultha – Pain Cleanses Every Doubt (Translation Loss) – Black metal
Universal Mind Project – The Jaguar Priest (Inner Wound) – Progressive
Uttertomb – Sempiternal EP (Pulverised) – Death metal
Valley Of The Sun – Volume Rock (Fuzzorama) – "Volume rock"
Vidargangr – A World That Has To Be Opposed (War Anthem) – Black metal
Wildhunt – Descending (Metal On Metal) – Thrash
