Ah yesssss, another lovely week for metal. Whether you want heavy as fuck sludge, melodic djent, or off the wall chaos, there is something here for you. To the metals…
Black Sheep Wall – I'm Going To Kill Myself 
Genre: Sludge
Origin: Moorpark, California
Label: Season Of Mist
Buy now on Amazon.com
I saw these guys live a few years ago on a very odd tour with East of the Wall and N.A.M.E. and for a long time they remained the heaviest band I'd ever seen live. They were just crushing noise, emotion, and dissonance, however they felt a bit aimless and under realized. This record retains that despair, dissonance and emotion, but they've matured greatly. Their album cover is very misleading, but the title is pretty accurate. Peep Jeremy's full review here where you'll also find a stream of the record.
The Body and Thou – You, Whom I Have Always Hated 
Genre: Sludge
Origin: Portland, Oregon/Baton Rouge, Lousiana
Label: Thrill Jockey
Buy now on Amazon.com
Two of the IT bands in sludge coming together to get fuzzy. This is about a half-hour of murky sludge that will smash your bones. Features a cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Terrible Lie." A much, much more intense version, I might add.
Falloch – This Island, Our Funeral 
Genre: Blackened post-rock
Origin: Glasgow, Scotland
Label: Candlelight
Buy now on Amazon.com
This one has been out everywhere else for a bit, but it's just hitting North American shores. Here is my full review of the record. However for a TL;DR version I'd say this is a once shoegazey black metal band really playing up a sludgy post-rock angle. I like it a lot though. A solid follow-up to Where Distant Spirits Remain.
Lord Dying – Poison Altars 
Genre: Sludge
Origin: Portland, Oregon
Label: Relapse
Buy now on Amazon.com
Keeping in our these of slow, heavy hitters is one of Portland's finest. These guys have moments of galloping southern jauntiness to shake things up though. You can stream it all here, or just have a taste below.
Napalm Death – Apex Predator: Easy Meat 
Genre: Death metal
Origin: Birmingham, England
Label: Century Media
Buy now on Amazon.com
Napalm Death being Napalm Death. The little I've heard is thrashy, punkish death metal. They're a band that has aged well, and continues to be an important force in the metal scene.
Periphery – Juggernaut: Alpha & Juggernaut: Omega 
Genre: Progressive
Origin: Bethesda, Maryland
Label: Sumerian
Buy now on Amazon.com Alpha & Omega
These albums are sort of a continuation of what was started on Clear. Melodic, rhythmic, soaring "djent." I should say that If you weren't a fan before, you won't be now. Chuck's got a full review here. Stream Alpha here. Stream Omega here.
Venom – From The Very Depths 
Genre: Speed metal
Origin: Newcastle, England
Label: Spinefarm
Buy now on Amazon.com
They sort of hit their own nail on the head with the song below, "Black metal gods. Long haired punks." The band oft given the black metal creator title, is more punk or speed metal than their album title, cover, legacy etc would lead one to believe. Anywhoozle, Venom are a band that would pair with Motorhead these days. I'd see that tour. This record was much better than I expected it would be.
Voices – London 
Genre: Avant-garde metal
Origin: London, England
Label: Candlelight
Buy now on Amazon.com
This year has had me going, "What the fuck am I listening to?!" quite a bit already (See; 6:33). If you mixed Nero Di Marte with Damned Spirits' Dance and Anaal Nathrakh, you'd get pretty close to this band. They're a blackened clusterfuck of a band. And I fucking love it.
Also dropping today…
Andsolis – Vigil (Quality Steel) – progressive death metal
Angelus Apatrida – Hidden Evolution (Century Media) – thrash
Archgoat – The Apocalyptic Triumphator (Debemur Morti) – blackened goat metal
Ascension – The Dead Of The World (Season Of Mist) – black metal
Avoral – War Is Not Over (Club Inferno) – power metal
Battleaxe – Power From The Universe (SPV) – NWOBHM
Battle Beast – Unholy Savior (Nuclear Blast) – heavy metal
By The Patient – Gehenna (Lifeforce) – death metal
Condor – Duin (Gomorrah) – doom
The Cyon Project – Tails of Pain (Pavement) – stoner
Deprive – Into Oblivion (Memento Mori) – dooom
Diablo Blvd. – Follow the Deadlights (Nuclear Blast) – southern metal
Discourse – Sanity Decays (Closed Casket) – hardcore
Funeral For A Friend – Chapter and Verse (Distiller) – No
Grimoire – L'aorasie Des spectres rêveurs EP (Eisenwald) – black metal
Ingested – The Architect of Extinction (Century Media) – deathcore
Jorn Lande and Trond Holter – Dracula: Swing of Death (Frontiers) – heavy metal
Night Demon – Curse of the Damned (Century Media) – heavy metal
One-Way Mirror – Capture (Pavement) – "rock metal band"
Pat Travers Band – Live At The Iridium NYC (Frontiers) – rock
RVNT – Vulnerable EP (We Are Triumphant) – metalcore
Sodom – Sacred Warpath EP (SPV) – thrash
Sumokem – The Madness of Lu Shen Ti Vol. 1 (Handshake) – doooom
Sweet & Lynch – Only To Rise (Frontiers) – rock
Tervahaat – Tervahaat (Nordvis) – folk/industrial
Trial – Vessel (High Roller) – heavy metal
Visigoth – The Revenant King (Metal Blade) – power metal
Vivus Humare- Einkehr (Eisenwald) – black metal
Vulturium Memoriae – Nato Per Ragioni Ignote (Avantgarde) – Avant-garde atmospheric dooooom
Winds of Genocide – Usurpring the Throne of Disease (Pulverised) – crust
Xibalba – Tierra Y Libertad (Southern Lord) – hardcore
Youth Funeral – See You When I See You (Twelve Gauge) – like Fall of Troy, but more feedback
