This edition contains A capella metal, tech death, Dave Grohl, and more! To the metals…
Aethereus – Absentia 
Genre: Technical death metal
Origin: Tacoma, Washington
Label: The Artisan Era
I'll start this week heavy, fast, and complex. Austin highlighted this album for recentTech-Death Tuesday, and he's far more eloquent than I. TL;DR version: this is a very good debut and one you should be all over if you enjoy technical death metal.
Dropout Kings – AudioDope
Genre: Rap metal…I think?
Origin: Phoenix, Arizona
Label: Napalm
So this band is something. Musically they are in a post-hardcore, metalcore, and occasionally djent realm, but then vocally they had rapped verses and screamed choruses. It's like Linkin Park, but with breakdowns.
Erra – Neon
Genre: Progressive metalcore
Origin: Birmingham, Alabama
Label: Solid State
If you enjoyed the technicality of Aethereus but the melody of Dropout Kings, then Neon might be the happy middle of the two. It isn't something I'd traditionally go for, but this is so fucking catchy that I keep going back. Well played Erra.
Dave Grohl – "Play" 
Genre: Rock
Origin: Springfield, Virginia
Label: Roswell
There's no argument that Dave Grohl is quite talented, despite how you may feel about Foo Fighters. "Play" is a single that has Dave Grohl playing seven instruments on the recording of a twenty-three minute song. I'm including it this week because it's kinda a weird and fun idea, but also it's as long as most EPs.
Mr. Plow – Maintain Radio Silence 
Genre: Stoner
Origin: Houston, Texas
Label: Ripple Music
From what I understand (through some lazy Googling) this is the band's first album in twelve years, it was originally supposed to be released in January before it was picked up by Ripple, and they are NOT a band entirely based on one of my favorite Simpsons episodes Mr Plow. All those things considered, this is a solid fuzzy album that fans of Fu Machu and/or ASG would dig.
Primal Fear – Apocalypse
Genre: Speed/power metal
Origin: Esslingen, Germany
Label: Frontiers
These long-running power metal legends still got it. Guitars rip, melodies are sky-high, and lyrics seem to mostly be about defeating shit. This is quality cheese.
Van Canto – Trust In Rust
Genre: A Cappella metal
Origin: Bingen am Rhein, Germany
Label: Napalm
This is Van Canto's seventh album of A capella metal. Something I love about metal is that it can get really weird sometimes. The fact that there are now seven albums of Van Canto might be the weirdest thing to me. Their voices are all great, and I can't deny the talent and work put into this, but seven seems like a lot.
Also dropping today…
Enuff Z'Nuff – Diamond Boy (Frontiers) – Glam
Haunt – Burst Into Flames (Shadow Kingdom) – Thrash
Mad Max – 35 (SPV/Steamhammer) – Heavy metal
Massive Wagons – Under No Illusion (Earache) – Rock
Sinsaenum – Repulsion (earMusic) – Death/black metal
The Spirit – Sounds From The Vortex (Nuclear Blast) – Death metal
Transient w/ Bastard Noise – Sources of Human Satisfaction (Six Weeks) – Grind
