This week's new heavy metal releases include thrash legends, weird darkness, dooooooooooooooom, and more!
To the metals…
Annihilator – Ballistic, Sadistic 
Genre:
Origin:
Label: Silver Lining
Canada's thrash legends Annihilator have returned with their seventeenth album of shredding, groovy goodness. Jeff Waters and company are bringing it here with new jams like "I Am War" that stand up next to the earliest classics. This is a thrash masterclass…say it with me…Thrashterclass. Hey Jeff Waters, there's your eighteenth album title on me.
Caspian – On Circles 
Genre: Post-rock
Origin: Beverly, Massachusetts
Label: Triple Crown Records
Now for something more chill. Caspian are definitely on the rock side of the whole post-___ thing (i.e. not super metal), but god damn do their songs carry a weight light a crushing Neurosis swell. This is an immersive and emotional journey that is certainly worth your time.
Konvent – Puritan Masochism 
Genre: Doom
Origin: Copenhagen, Denmark
Label: Napalm
You want some doom? Konvent have you covered. This young Danish band bring lurching rhythms and slow riffs on their debut. Vocalist Rikke Emilie List is a god damned monster on this.
Midnight – Rebirth by Blasphemy 
Genre: Speed/black metal
Origin: Cleveland, Ohio
Label: Metal Blade
Jamie Waters aka Athenar is bringing zero frills on his homage to the early days of evil metal. Rebirth by Blasphemy sounds like an album trying to out-spooky Venom while doing so with Motorhead's attitude. It's one I can already see getting crossover love from your more hip music connoisseurs.
Nero Di Marte – Immoto
Genre: Progressive death metal
Origin: Bologna, Italy
Label: Season of Mist
On their third album Nero Di Marte are once again bringing the spooky prog metal to their fans. Songs are lengthy, rhythms are weird, and chords are dissonant. This one should please fans of Ulcerate and Dysrhythmia alike.
Thy Catafalque – Naiv 
Genre: Avant-garde metal
Origin: Budapest, Hungary
Label: Season Of Mist
Speaking of solid prog, I am happy to welcome Thy Catafalque back to my eardrums. You're still getting a lot of weirdness with Naiv, but this is more about the variety of sounds than Nero Di Marte's approach. This one is more for fans of Borknagar since it's kinda folky and fans Sigh since it sounds like a ton of shit thrown in a blender.
Kirk Windstein – Dream in Motion 
Genre: Sludge/rock
Origin: New Orleans, Louisiana
Label: eOne
That one dude you recognize from Crowbar, whose also in Down, and the one that's not in Hatebreed but is in Kingdom of Sorrow (golly, this guy works), is setting out on his own for the first time. Dream in Motion features unmistakable Windstein sludge with his memorable riffs and trademark gruff vocals, but he seems more adventurous than ever before. Evidence of that adventure is the fact that this LP concludes with a Jethro Tull cover, which I wasn't expecting, but was pleased by.
Also dropping today…
- Blasphemer – The Sixth Hour (Candlelight) – Brutal/technical death metal
- Blue Oyster Cult – Hard Rock Live Cleveland 2014 (Frontiers) – Rock
- Bohren & der Club of Gore – Patchouli Blue (Ipecac Recordings) – Ambient/jazz
- Breaking Benjamin – Aurora (Hollywood) – Rock
- Brothers Of Metal – Emblas Saga (AFM Records) – Heavy/power metal
- Davey Suicide – Rock Ain't Dead (Out Of Line/InGrooves) – "Gutter goth rock"
- Dawn of Solace – Waves (Noble Dream) – Melodic death metal/doom
- Defiled – Infinite Regress (Season Of Mist) – Death metal
- Dirty Shirley – Dirty Shirley (Frontiers) – Rock
- Fear Is Dead – Assimilation (Self-Released) – Metalcore/groove metal
- Hazzerd – Delirium (M-Theory) – Thrash
- Marko Hietala – Pyre of the Black Heart (Nuclear Blast) – Folk metal
- Märvel – Märvelous (The Sign Records) – Hard rock
- Higher Power – 27 Miles Underwater (Roadrunner Records) – Hardcore
- Jordablod – The Cabinet of Numinous Song (Iron Bonehead) – Black metal
- Jorn – Heavy Rock Radio II: Executing The Classics (Frontiers) – Heavy metal
- Mortiis – Spirit of Rebellion (Omnipresence) – Industrial
- Novelist – C'est La Vie (SharpTone Records) – Metalcore
- Revolution Saints – Rise (Frontiers) – Hard rock
- Silent Planet – The Night God Slept Redux (Solid State) – Metalcore
- Surgical Strike – Part of a Sick World (Metalville) – Thrash/power metal
- Temperance – Viridian (Napalm) – Melodic heavy metal
- Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Worlds Within (Self-released) – Ethereal cello
- Worm – Gloomlord (Iron Bonehead) – "Floridian Funeral Doom"
- Zifir – Demoniac Ethics (Duplicate) – Black metal
