This week's new heavy metal releases include a brief but heavy EP, me complaining about punctuation for some reason, and more! To the metals…
Disconnected Souls – Fragments Of Consciousness
Genre: Cinematic metal
Origin: Chester, UK
Label: Self-released
Buy now on Bandcamp
When I see the label "cinematic metal," it sort of could be anything, right? The latest from Disconnected Souls is a concept album that covers "Gothic fantasy realms to deadly club settings to a dystopian celebration of the world's end." Seems like multi-genre spanning cinema, actually. The actual sound is epic, synth-heavy, and catchy.
Green Day – Saviors
Genre: Punk/hard rock
Origin: East Bay, California
Label: Reprise
Buy now on Amazon
Green Day's first new record in four years is full of rocky earworms that will piss off punk purists and those "Green Day isn't metal, why are you talking about them on Metal Injection" types alike. Feels on par with the last few. These songs seem like they'd be fun live tracks.
Lord Dying – Clandestine Transcendence
Genre: Sludge/doom
Origin: Portland, Oregon
Label: MNRK Heavy
Buy now on Bandcamp
Want some weirdness with your low heavy riffage? Why the hell wouldn't you? Get weird, you coward. Lord Dying is offering up another proggy, sludgy one here, and it would be rude for you to ignore it. Jeff's full review is right here.
Master – Saints Dispelled
Genre: Death metal
Origin: Chicago, Illinois/Zlín Region, Czechia
Label: Hammerheart
Buy now on Bandcamp
It's hard to feel like there's been a real devoid of Master material since they have put out a bunch of stuff over the last six years, but this is their first full record in that time. They have a new drummer in Peter Bajci who is five years younger than the band itself, but he knows his way around classic death metal.
Saxon – Hell, Fire And Damnation
Genre: Heavy metal
Origin: Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England
Label: Silver Lining
Buy now on Amazon
I'm not usually this guy, but I am more compelled to complain about this album title's lack of Oxford comma than I am the music. It's rad, classic heavy metal from one of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal pioneers, but it just looks weird without the second comma. I looked into it a bit and despite being called the "Oxford comma" – yes, I'm really doing this – it's less common in the UK. Weird. Anyway, Jeff is back at it with this review here.
Upon Stone – Dead Mother Moon
Genre: Melodic death metal/metalcore
Origin: Los Angeles, California
Label: Century Media
Buy now on Bandcamp
This is a hell of a debut. It's nasty sounding production, but the melodic moments shine through the muck. There are some blackened moments mixed in as well and some fucking shredding guitars. Wow. Get on this before all the cool kids do.
Wasp Mother – Digital Pollution
Genre: Grindcore/death metal
Origin: Weymouth, Massachusetts
Label: Self-released
Find it here
Concluding this week with a brief but hefty EP. These six tracks grind and mash listeners into a paste, then freeze that paste into paste ice cubes only to break the ice cubes into bits. It also has some tongue in cheek moments, which is unexpected. All this in about nine minutes.
Also dropping this week…
- A/Oratos – Ecclesia Gnostica (Les Acteurs de L’Ombre Productions) – Melodic black metal
- Abhoria – Depths (Prosthetic) – Black metal
- Advocacy – The Path Of Decoherence (Uprising) – Progressive rock/metal
- Andracca – To Bare The Weight Of Death (Vendetta) – Black metal
- Avenger – Steel On Steel: The Complete Avenger Recordings (Dissonance) – Heavy/speed metal
- Becoming The Lion – Turning Point (Self-released) – Progressive rock
- Boundless Chaos – Sinister Upheaval (Dying Victims) – Death metal/thrash
- CobraKill – Serpent's Kiss (Frontiers) – Heavy metal/hard rock
- Cold In Berlin – The Body Is The Wound EP (New Heavy Sounds) – Gothic/doom rock
- Corvus – Immortals (Pride & Joy) – Hard rock
- Dark Oath – Ages Of Man (Self-released) – Epic/melodic death metal
- Final Coil – The World We Ineherited (Sliptrick Records) – Progressive metal
- Gotus – Gotus (Frontiers) – Hard/glam rock
- Grand – Second To None (Frontiers) – AOR
- Horrorgraphy – A Knight's Tale (Wormholedeath) – Symphonic doom
- Kontact – Full Contact (Dying Victims) – heavy metal
- Lazarus Dream – Imaginary Life (Pride & Joy Music) – Hard rock
- MesaVerde – All Is Well (Apollon)
- Methedrine – No Solution, No Salvation (Time To Kill) – Thrash/crossover
- Nick Oliveri – N.O. Hits At All Vol. 8 (Heavy Psych Sounds) – Stoner/punk
- Nick Oliveri – N.O. Hits At All Vol. 9 (Heavy Psych Sounds) – Punk/stoner
- Plush – Find The Beautiful (Pavement Music) – Rock
- Ribspreader – Reap Humanity (Xtreem) – Death metal
- Resin Tomb – Cerebral Purgatory (Transcending Obscurity Records) – Dissonant death metal/blackened sludge
- The Rods – Rattle The Cage (Massacre) – heavy metal
- Scarlet Anger – Martyr (Self-released) – Melodic death metal
- Sgàile – Traverse the Bealach (Avantgarde Music) – Progressive metal
- Slift – Ilion (Sub Pop) – Krautrock/doom
- Soul Resin – Soul Resin (Self-released) – Death metal
- Sovereign – Altered Realities (Dark Descent) – Death metal/thrash
- Touché Amoré –Survived By: Revived (Deathwish) – Post-hardcore
- Vemod – The Deepening (Prophecy) – Black metal – Review
- Verona On Venus – Popular Delusions (Self-released) – Gothic metal
- The Vice – Dead Canary Run (Noble Demon) – Death rock/black metal
- Voltumna – For Death Is Fate (Self-released) – Black/death metal
