This edition includes cellos, sad metal, a truly special band I hope blows up huge, and more! To the metals…
Abiotic – Casuistry
Genre: Progressive deathcore
Origin: Miami, Florida
Label: Metal Blade
Buy now on Amazon.com
I'm pretty on board for this second (third? whatever) wave of deathcore bands that are more ambient and adventurous than ever. This record seems pretty interesting. They're a really heavy bands that doesn't seem to play up the "br00tal" side of them much.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr-sNO8MBy0[/youtube]
Acid King – Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere 
Genre: Stoner
Origin: San Francisco, California
Label: Svart
Buy now on Amazon.com
If you slowed down Torche to a crawl, you'd have Acid King. They are melodic, epic, and so very, very fuzzy.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFVmhZna4cU[/youtube]
Apocalyptica – Shadowmaker 
Genre: Cello metal
Origin: Helsinki, Finland
Label: Better Noise / Eleven Seven
Buy now on Amazon.com
The band that made cellos metal (if you over look Judgement Day) is back with another guitarless record. They are employing a single vocalist in Frankie Perez this time. The gentleman has a pretty diverse voice that seems to settle in the radio hard rock realm, but I've still got to give it up for his pipes. Anywhoozle, the cellos are the stars, and they are once again stellar.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtUU5AP4XZg[/youtube]
Native Construct – Quiet World
Genre: Progressive
Origin: Boston, Massachusetts
Label: Metal Blade
Buy now on Amazon.com
The track I included literally had me say, "whoa" aloud. This is amazing. Super weird, technical, and all over the place. I'm in love. One minute blast beats, the next jazz piano, then shredding. Prog's next huge band? I fucking hope so.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXQPCowmbD8[/youtube]
Shining – IX: Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends 
Genre: Black metal
Origin: Halmstad, Sweden
Label: Season of Mist
Buy now on Amazon.com
I had a hunch that this album is start-to-finish bleak as fuck based on the title alone. I'm only a few minutes into a song, and I can say that my hunch is confirmed. Melancholy, somber, cheerless, and many other synonyms that come up when I look in a thesaurus under "Sad."
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWYIJCu5FT0[/youtube]
Tribulation – The Children Of The Night 
Genre: Progressive black metal
Origin: Arvika, Sweden
Label: Century Media
Buy now on Amazon.com
A rocking, evil good time. Pretty diverse. Ranges from straight up black metal, to atmospheric stuff, to death metal, to death 'n' roll, and so on. Fun memorably guitar wankery too.
Also dropping today…
Aelter – Aelter IV: Love Eternal (Pesanta Urfolk) – folk ambient
Alesana – Confessions (Revival) – metalcore
Antiversum – Total Vacuum (Invictus) – blackened death metal
The Atomic Bitchwax – Gravitron (Tee Pee) – Desert rock
Banda de la Muerte – 8894 (DHG) – stoner
The Beautiful Ones – Jaded Love (6131) – punk
Biopsy – Fractals Of Derangement (Transcending Obscurity) – I'd wager death metal for some reason
Black Witchery / Revenge – Holocaustic Death March To Humanity's Doom Split EP (Nuclear War Now!) – Blackened death metal
Bleak / Sovereign – Split EP (Blasphemour) – death metal
Blizzen – Time Machine (High Roller) – speed metal
Bloid – Rise To Ruination (Aural) – thrash
Chaos Echoes – Transient (Nuclear War Now!) – doom
Continuum – The Hypothesis (Unique Leader) – progressive death metal
Danko Jones – Fire Music (Bad Taste / MRI) – rock
Deathwish – Out For Blood (Beer City) – hardcore
Deez Nuts – Word Is Bond (Century Media) – testicore
Dienamic – Afterlife (Aural) – thrash/metalcore
Dormant Inferno / Dionysus – Beyond Forgotten Shores (Transcending Obscurity) – blackened doom from Pakistan and India
Entropy O.A.C. – Dark Clouds and Clarity (Pavement) – Metalcore
Fall To June – Fall To June (MRI) – rock
False Pregnancy – Dance Your Meat Off (Nailjar) – classy grindcore
FM – Heroes and Villains (Frontiers) – power metal
Forgotten Tomb – Hurt Yourself and The Ones You Love (Agonia) – gothic metal
Giftgiver – Shitlife (Century Media) – shitcore
Gruesome – Savage Land (Relapse) – death metal
Hardcore Superstar – HCSS (MRI) – rock
Havenless – The Crimson Lines (Aural) – progressive death metal
Horsehunter – Caged In Flesh (Magnetic Eye) – stoner
Impellitteri – Venom (Frontiers) – shred
Implode – A Syndicate: I, Tension Chapter IV EP (Cramada) – melodic death metal
Incinerate – Eradicating Terrestrial Species (Comatose) – brutal tech death
Kiske/Sommerville – City of Heroes (Frontiers) – power metal
Kult of Taurus – Adversarial Paths: The Sinister Essence (Forever Plagued) – black metal
Mirror Queen – Scaffolds Of The Sky (Tee Pee) – stoner
Nocternity – Harps Of The Ancient Temples (Iron Bonehead) – black metal
Oblivious – Out of Wilderness (Gaphals)
Olten – Mode (Hummus/Division) – instrumetal…see what I did there?
Percussor – Proclamation Of Hate (HPGD) – death metal
Points North – Points North (Magna Carta) – Instrumental rock
The Prestige – Amer (Imminence) – hardcore
Romeo's Daughter – Spin (RD) – "AOR mainstream rock"
Shattered Sun – Hope Within Hatred (Victory) – metalcore
The Tangent – A Spark In The Aether (Inside Out) – progressive
While She Sleeps – Brainwashed (Razor & Tie) – metalcore
Zombi – The Zombi Anthology (Relapse) – death metal
