This week's new heavy metal releases include the heaviest band on the planet, some live epicness, an SoaD offshoot, and more!
To the metals…
Biffy Clyro – A Celebration of Endings
Genre: Alternative rock
Origin: Kilmarnock, Scotland
Label: 14th Floor
Through their career the ever morphing Biffy Clyro have dabbled in math rock, progressive rock, pop anthems, and weird noise stuff. All of it has been accompanied by some pretty heavy guitars. A Celebration of Endings has the band doing what they do best while examining the end of days (which is eerily timely). They're not metal per se, but they're a band that is worthy of crossover attention like Muse, or Placebo, or something.
Halestorm – Reimagined
Genre: Hard rock
Origin: Red Lion, Pennsylvania
Label: Atlantic
Reimagined is just what you'd expect from the title. Halestorm are taking older tracks and putting new spins on them. You're getting new versions of "I Get Off," "Break In," and more. There's even a cover of Whitney Houston's cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You." Fans will probably dig this.
Ingested – Where Only Gods May Tread 
Genre: Brutal death metal
Origin: Manchester, England
Label: Unique Leader Records
FINE! Here's some "real metal." Where Only Gods May Tread is an unrelenting bludgeoning in sonic form. Then with tracks like "The Burden of Our Failures," "Forsaken in Desolation," and "Leap of the Faithless," you're even getting some heavy subject matter as well. Since they're on Unique Leader you can probably expect a certain vibe, but you won't be mad about it.
Kamelot – I Am The Empire – Live From The 013
Genre: Melodic power metal/progressive
Origin: Tampa, Florida
Label: Napalm
In 2018 one of America's most epic bands put together one of their most epic shows and filmed it. Now Kamelot are finally releasing it for those who couldn't be there. The setlist spans their entire career and they brought friends with them. Those friends are Lauren Hart (Once Human), Elize Ryd (Amaranthe), Charlotte Wessels (Delain), Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy) and Sascha Paeth (Avantasia). This is a must have for Kamelot fans, and a hell of a starting point for fledgling power metal newbies.
North Kingsley – Vol. 1 
Genre: Bass-driven hip hop
Origin: Los Angeles, California
Label: North Kingsley
Download/stream here
While John and Serj have been jabbing at each other in the press about politics, and Daron has presumably been mourning the cancellation of the Korn/Faith No More trek that Scars On Broadway were supposed to be on, System of a Down bassist Shavo has been working on North Kingsley. This is a long way from SoaD ruckus as this is a hip hop band. Still, Shavo and bandmates Saro Paparian and Ray Hawthorne have dropped a pretty solid collection of tracks that would appeal to fans of Mike Shinoda-led Linkin Park tracks and even Run The Jewels.
Nug – Alter Ego 
Genre: Progressive/post-metal
Origin: Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
Label: Willowtip
On their debut, this Ukrainian quintet break a lot of rules in wonderful ways. So often, post-metal is just sludge with some echoes tossed on, but these guys have infused some prog elements into the post-metal sound and made something special. You're still getting atmosphere and waves of heaviness, but also some time-signatures jumps, atypical genre blends, and other cool shit. If you're a fan of The Ocean, Cult of Luna, and all that, do not sleep on Nug.
Primitive Man – Immersion 
Genre: Sludge/doom
Origin: Denver, Colorado
Label: Relapse
Ending this week in perhaps the heaviest way possible. On their third album, Primitive Man are hitting hard and slow. This is a sludgy journey full of darkness and feedback. Lots of hype behind this one, and it is worthy of all of it.
Also dropping today…
- 8Kids – Live In Leipzig 2019 EP (Napalm) – Post-hardcore
- Atrae Bilis – Divinihility (Transcending Obscurity Records) – Death metal
- Deathcave – Smoking Mountain (Satanik Royalty Records) – Sludge/doom
- Havukruunu – Uinuos Syömein Sota (Naturmacht Productions) – Black metal
- Höstblod – Dikter om döden (Le Narthécophore) – Folk/black metal
- King Buzzo – Gift Of Sacrifice (Ipecac) – Acoustic
- Ov Shadows – I Djävulens Avbild (Hypnotic Dirge) – Black metal
- Titans to Tachyons – Cactides (Nefarious Industries) – Avant-garde
- Visceral Violation – Carnival Cannibal (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions) – Brutal death metal
