This week's new heavy metal releases include some varied Australian offerings, operatic piano covers, and more! To the metals…
Hemina – Romancing the Ether
Genre: Progressive metal
Origin: Sydney, Australia
Label: Bird's Robe Records
I can't think of something that's more prog than a thirty-five minute track that serves as a conclusion to a career-spanning story, and that's what you're getting on Romancing The Ether. Hemina pulled out all the stops here as they dabble in oodles of genres, employed a hundred person choir, and occasionally get real chunky with some eight-string guitars. If you're a Voyager, Haken, and/or Caligula's Horse fan, and you're not already on the Hemina train, then you're messing up.
Kataklysm – Goliath
Genre: Melodic death metal
Origin: Montreal, Quebec
Label: Nuclear Blast
Buy now on Amazon
Next up we have album number fifteen from these melodic Canadians. While not going full Periphery, you are getting some djenty moments from the guys this time. The melodic death metal core remains intact, so don't fret if you're a long time fan.
Neal Morse – The Dreamer – Joseph: Part One
Genre: Progressive rock
Origin: Nashville, Tennessee
Label: Frontiers
Buy now on Amazon
Now here's some niche, nerdy stuff. You know the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat? Well, this isn't a cover of that, but Neal Morse is doing his own version of the Joseph story here via a musical. This has lots of guests from Ted Leonard (Spock’s Beard), Steve Morse, and more playing roles in the musical. It winds up being just as wonderfully absurd as a Webber show. And great news if you dig it, It's part one! Two drops next year.
Tarja – Rocking Heels: Live At Metal Church
Genre: Operatic covers
Origin: Kitee, Finland
Label: earMusic
Buy now on Amazon
Rocking Heels is a rather unexpected assortment of (mostly) covers from Tarja accompanied by some strings and a piano player. These don't hit in a metal way, but holy shit Tarja's voice on these. She's covering Metallica, Linkin Park, Megadeth, Nightwish, and more.
Urne – A Feast On Sorrow
Genre: Sludge/metalcore
Origin: London, England
Label: Candlelight
Album number two from this trio is a refreshing combo of metalcore melodies with sludge weight. This is catchy with zero corniness. Some of these songs are lenghty and they don't drag for a second. What a cool thing.
Werewolves – My Enemies Look And Sound Like Me
Genre: Technical black/death metal
Origin: Melbourne, Australia
Label: Prosthetic
Buy now on Bandcamp
Taking us home with a little more from Australia. It's only been a year since their last onslaught and these guys are are already bringing more of the blackened mayhem. I love it when a band is super prolific and never dips in quality. Also, you know you're in for an interesting time when the video thumbnail says, "Smash you with my nutsack."
Also dropping this week
- Blessed Curse – Pray for Armageddon (M-Theory Audio) Thrash
- Caskets – Reflections (SharpTone) – Metalcore
- Claret Ash – Worldtorn: Anemoia (Hypnotic Dirge Records) Black metal
- Coney Hatch – Postcard From Germany (EX1) – Hard rock
- Copse – Old Belief/New Despair (Church Road Records) – Post-black metal
- Cystic – Palace of Shadows (Chaos Records) – Death metal/thrash
- Facet – Facet (Hex Records) – Noise
- George Lynch & Jeff Pilson – Heavy Hitters II (Cleopatra) – Heavy metal/rock covers
- Hail The Sun – Divine Inner Tension (Equal Vision) – Post-hardcore
- Hell In The Club – The Lion's Road (Frontiers) – Heavy metal/hard rock
- The Hives – The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons (Fuga) – Rock
- King Kobra – We Are Warriors (Cleopatra) – Glam/heavy metal
- Kind – Close Encounters (Ripple Music) – Stoner/doom
- Lancer – Tempest (Fireflash) – Speed/power metal
- To Kill Achilles – Recovery (Arising Empire) – Alternative
- Megaherz – In Teufels Namen (Napalm) – Industrial
- Move – Black Radical Love (Triple B Records) – Hardcore
- Mycorrhizae – The Great Filtration (Big Bovine Waste Industries) Black metal
- The Mystical Hot Chocolate Endeavors – Clock Without A Craftsman (Massacre) – Alternative rock
- Necronomicon Ex Mortis – Silver Bullet (Self-released) – Death metal
- Nox Eternus – Eternal Night (Reaping Scythe Records) – Black/death metal
- The Prophecy 23 – Live At Summer Breeze (Massacre) – Death metal/"Fresh metal"
- REZN / Vinnum Sabbathi – Silent Future (Blues Funeral Recordings) – Stoner/psychedelic
- The Rite – The Astral Gloom (Iron Bonehead Productions) – Black metal/doom
- John Rooney – Hoodwink (BFD) – Rock
- Sarayasign – The Lion's Road (Frontiers) – Heavy metal/hard rock
- Silverburn – Self Induced Transcendental Annihilation (MSH Music Group) – Sludge/mathcore
- Streetlight – Ignition (Frontiers) – AOR/Melodic rock
- Temple Of Dread – Beyond Acheron (Testimony Records) – Death metal
- Tryst Arcane – Sun of Other Days (Self-released) – Atmospheric/post-rock
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