This week’s new heavy metal releases include bleak blackened shoegaze, old school death metal, stuff you'll be mad at me for including, and more! To the metals…
'68 – Give One Take One
Genre: Noise rock Origin: Atlanta, Georgia Label: Cooking Vinyl
Georgia's rowdiest duo is back with their third record of kinda-sludge, kinda-punk, kinda-blues, but all-fun hard rock. More than ever their crossover sound should appeal to metal heads and indie fans alike. I could see this album allowing them to tour with anyone from Portugal. The Man to Mastodon.
The Drowned God – Pale Home
Genre: Black metal/hardcore Origin: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Label: Solid State Records
Now for something a bit darker. This band blends atmospheric black metal with hardcore to create a sound that's chaotic, aggressive, and bleak. This is the band's third record following a character's journey through just a bummer of a time, and the music is unsurprisingly also a bummer.
Evanescence – The Bitter Truth
Genre: Hard rock Origin: Little Rock, Arkansas Label: BMG
Amy Lee and friends have come a long way since they provided the music for both the training montage in Daredevil ("Bring Me To Life) and the funeral scene in Daredevil ("My Immortal"). This record continues to showcase the undeniable power of Lee's vocals and how well it pairs with straight-forward emotional rock. Certain versions of the release include some pretty cool covers of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" and Bananarama's "Cruel Summer" as well. Chad has a full review here.
Genghis Tron – Dream Weapon
Genre: Electronic/atmospheric metal Origin: Poughkeepsie, New York Label: Relapse
After over a decade away Genghis Tron have returned with a rather unexpected twist on their music. I imagine this will be a divisive release for long-time fans, but it's been a long time and half the band is new. It would almost be weirder if they didn't sound different. Still, just how much they're leaning into a more atmospheric sound rather than the grind of their early days might take some getting used to. The record is by no means bad. This is just a new beast. Max has a full review here.
Memoriam – To The End
Genre: Death metal Origin: Birmingham, England Label: Reaper Entertainment
Since Karl Willetts stopped Throwing Bolts in 2016, he's been bringing the heavy with Memoriam. They've been rather prolific since then as this is their fourth album in their five years. It's what you'd expect and hope for from an old school death metal mainstay. Chunky, battle-themed, death metal.
Tomahawk – Tonic Immobility
Genre: Experimental rock Origin: United States Label: Ipecac Recordings
Tomahawk, the band with members of The Jesus Lizard, Mr. Bungle, and Helmet, that's also known as Mike Patton's other, other, other band, is back with their first record in eight years. It's one of the good things to come from the pandemic since the music has apparently been done for a while, but Patton wasn't able to do vocals for it due to his other projects. Then he couldn't go anywhere, so he Mike Patton-ed into a microphone and now we have a fifth album of wonderful, weirdo rock n roll. Kevin does a deep dive here.
Wheel – Resident Human
Genre: Progressive metal Origin: Helsinki, Finland Label: Odyssey Music Network
Wrapping this week with some really solid progressive metal. This is for fans of A Perfect Circle, Katatonia, Oceansize, and the likes, as they embrace rhythmic jumps, grand orchestration, and moody atmosphere. Resident Human is a hypnotic album that gets in your head and begins to slowly split it open long-ways as depicted on the album's cover.
Also dropping today…
1782 – From the Graveyard (Heavy Psych Sounds) – Stoner/doom
Antagonist A.D. – All Things (Greyscale Records) – Metalcore
Aara – Triade I: Eos (Debemur Morti Productions) – Atmospheric black metal
