This week's new heavy metal releases include riffs, blast beats, (probably) lots of drugs, and more!
To the metals…
Alcest – Spiritual Instinct 
Genre: Post-black metal
Origin: Paris, France
Label: Nuclear Blast
France's atmospheric black metal OGs are back with another ethereal metal gem. Neige sounds angrier than he has in a while on this. Those that think the band have gone soft, will probably be stoked. However, this is still very balanced overall.
Bad Wolves – N.A.T.I.O.N. 
Genre: Groove metal/hard rock
Origin: Los Angeles, California
Label: Eleven Seven
These guys struck gold with their cover of The Cranberries song "Zombie" last year, and the band are already trying to strike again. This feels like an album made to prove that this band is more than a cover. It's heavier, groovier, and more melodic than last time.
Desert Sessions – Vols. 11 & 12 
Genre: Stoner/experimental
Origin: Palm Desert, California/Various
Label: Matador Records
It's been a long, long time since Josh Homme got some pals together in the middle of nowhere and recorded some dirty desert rock. Well, today is a day I thought I'd never see as Desert Sessions return. This time with Les Claypool (Primus), Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint), Carla Azar (Autolux), and lots more. I haven't heard a second of this at the time of this writing, but I'm already in love with this.
Jinjer – Macro 
Genre: Groove metal/progressive
Origin: Donetsk, Ukraine
Label: Napalm Records
This band is keeping busy. This is their second release of the year after January's, Micro (get it? Macro and Micro). On their fourth full-length album Jinjer are bringing low, djenty grooves, and soaring melodies. I will not be surprised if this is the album that skyrockets them onto every heavy festival in North America.
Leprous – Pitfalls 
Genre: Progressive
Origin: Notodden, Norway
Label: InsideOut
I feel like this will be a divisive album in some circles. This is a great progressive album. This is not a metal album. This is the band at their most experimental and theatrical. It's not what I expected, but I'm here for it.
Mayhem – Daemon 
Genre: Black metal
Origin: Olso, Norway
Label: Century Media
Like last week's 1349, Mayhem are providing more scary Halloween-y jams. This band, of course, has a history of actual murder though, unlike bands just singing about death and stuff. And yes, yes, I know it was that one guy who isn't in the band anymore, but still. Anyway, first album in five years, black metal originals, etc.
Norma Jean – All Hail
Genre: Metalcore/hardcore
Origin: Douglasville, Georgia
Label: Solid State
Despite not actually going anywhere, I feel like we're in the middle of a second coming of sorts for Norma Jean. Something about the band's blend of feedback-fueled hardcore and chaos is hitting all the right spots. Like their last album Polar Similar, the noisy Georgians are killing it here.
Rings Of Saturn – Gidim 
Genre: Technical deathcore
Origin: Bay Area, California
Label: Nuclear Blast
While doing some lazy research of this release I noticed that this band has a lot of former members. One of them from the albums Dingir and Lugak Ki En, guitarist Joel Omans, is back for this one which might excite fans. If that doesn't excite you, their signature combo of guttural vocals and oodles and oodles of noodley guitar fret-work should do it.
Sunn O))) – Pyroclasts 
Genre: Drone/doom
Origin: Los Angeles, California/Paris, France
Label: Southern Lord
Slllllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww riffs and feedback. If Life Metal didn't shake you to the core earlier this year, Pyroclasts will.
Also dropping today…
Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell – Very Uncertain Times (Rise Above) – Psychedelic
Airbourne – Boneshaker (Spinefarm) – Hard rock
The Almost – Fear Caller (Fearless) – Rock
Botanist – Ecosystem (Aural) – Black metal
Phil Campbell – Old Lions Still Roar (Nuclear Blast) – Hard rock
Cirith Ungol – I'm Alive DVD/CD (Metal Blade) – Heavy metal/doom
Cleric – Serpent Psalms (Redefining Darkness Records) – Death metal
Cloak – The Burning Dawn (Season Of Mist) – Black metal/rock
Coilguns – Watchwinders (Hummus Records) – Hardcore
Consumer – In Computers (The Flenser) – Doom Rock/Electronic
Dawn Ray'd – Behold Sedition Plainsong (Prosthetic) – Atmospheric black metal
Denial Of God – The Hallow Mass (Osmose Productions/Hells Headbangers) – Black metal
Edenbridge – Dynamind (SPV/Steamhammer) – Power metal/symphonic
Exmortus – Legions of the Undead EP (M-Theory Audio) – Heavy metal/thrash
Fit For An Autopsy – The Sea of Tragic Beasts (Nuclear Blast) – Deathcore
The Great Old Ones – Cosmicism Season of Mist Atmospheric Black
Hour Of Penance – Misotheism (Agonia Records) – Brutal death metal
Ice Nine Kills – The Silver Scream – The Final Cut (Fearless Records) – Metalcore
Karyn Crisis' Gospel Of The Witches – Covenant (Aural) – Gothic/doom
The Last Martyr – Like A Ghost (Self-release) – Melodic metal
Metalite – Biomechanicals (AFM) – Power metal
Petbrick – I (Closed Casket) – Instrumental sorta-industrial
Process Black – Countdown Failure (Deathwish Inc.) – Hardcore
Sacrificer – The Offering (Self-release) – Deathcore/black metal
Saint Asonia – Flawed Design (Spinefarm Records) – Hard rock
Savage Master – Myth, Magic & Steel (Shadow Kingdom) – Occult Rock
Skinlab – Venomous (Art Is War Records) – Ni-metal
Steve Grimmett's Grim Reaper – At The Gates (Dissonance) – Heavy metal
Swans – Leaving Meaning (Young God) – Experimental
Thornhill – The Dark Pool (UNFD Records) – Metalcore
Turbokill – Vice World (SPV/Steamhammer) – Heavy metal
Vamachara – Hereafter (Closed Casket Activities) – Hardcore
Vastum – Orificial Purge (20 Buck Spin) – Death metal
The World Without Us – Incarnate (Self-release) – Progressive metal
Wolves Like Us – Brittle Bones (Pelagic Records) – Hard rock
Zonal – Wrecked (Relapse) – Dub/drone
