Here's that week I've been holing out for. Lots of good stuff this week. This edition includes some comedy metal, varying degrees of death metal, something completely different and more! To the metals…
Austrian Death Machine – Triple Brutal
Genre: Metalcore
Origin: San Diego, California
Label: Artery
Buy now on Amazon.com
So, unless Tim Lambesis does some Varg Vikernes shit, this will be the last we hear from Tim for quite a while. This is the third album based entirely on Arnold Schwarzenegger references. It's actually pretty good too. I'm not a big As I Lay Dying fan, but I'm on board enough for this. I personally think it would be amazing if he ONLY did Austrian Death Machine from prison.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDwOJOTvLzE[/youtube]
Boyfrndz – Breeder 
Genre: Experimental Math Rock
Origin: Austin, Texas
Label: Brutal Panda
Buy now on Bandcamp.com
You can file this one as, "Not really metal." But whatever, this band is phenomenal. They combine atmospheric elements into math rock and make something really amazing. Think Alcest mixed with Dillinger Escape Plan and Adebisi Shank (Google AS if you don't know them either).
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ypzvu1v1K4[/youtube]
Lacuna Coil – Broken Crown Halo
Genre: Gothic
Origin: Milan, Italy
Label: Century Media
Buy now on Amazon.com
Christina Scabbia and friends are back with an album that sounds just like every Lacuna Coil record. Actually, I would compare this album to their first album In a Reverie. It has a bit of a heavier lean than they've had in a while and doesn't quite have all the hooks they usually do. I'd say they have a long way to go until they are out of this corner they've backed themselves into, but it seems like they're starting to try.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFttR7bvogo[/youtube]
Massacre – Back From Beyond
Genre: Death Metal
Origin: Tampa, Florida
Label: Century Media
Buy now on Amazon.com
Twenty-three years ago, this band released their debut record From Beyond and now they're back with Back From Beyond. Much like the many bands from this era that have reformed decades later, the band doesn't seem to have lost the fire they had in the the first place. They did lose that early-90's recording sound, which is nice actually.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaSc_eQciVc[/youtube]
Nux Vomica – Nux Vomica
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Origin: Portland, Oregon
Label: Relapse
Buy now on Amazon.com
Based on the included sample "Reeling" this sounds like a band I can get behind. This song is an epic adventure of a track that is equal parts melodic, dark, beautiful, and crushing. Currently downloading album now. You should too, legally of course.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afbDSZg0AK0[/youtube]
Pyrrhon – The Mother Of Virtues
Genre: Technical Death Metal
Origin: Brooklyn, New York
Label: Relapse
Buy now on Amazon.com
Pyrrhon is one of those bands where you read their name, and you know exactly what you're going to hear. They just have the name of a grimy, technical death metal band, and that's what they are. They remind me of Gorguts with a more clusterfuck-y angle.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuBPGlfmP7Y[/youtube]
Sonata Arctica – Pariah's Child
Genre: Power Metal
Origin: Kemi, Finland
Label: Nuclear Blast
Buy now on Amazon.com
This band has spent the last fifteen years soaring through the skies singing about clouds, wolves, mountains, etc, so by this point fans will know what glorious tales the band is here to tell. In a nutshell for those unaware, this album uses the lyric "Winter wonderland" unironically, and doesn't have any Christmas songs on it. These guys are simply epic, and a little silly.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGp0kms-GEk[/youtube]
Steel Panther – All You Can Eat
Genre: Parody Hair Metal
Origin: Los Angeles, California
Label: Open E
Buy now on Amazon.com
These have been keeping up this whole hair metal parody shtick for fourteen years or so now, and I've got to applaud their commitment. They're all talented musicians and clever humorists. I'd be curious to hear them not trying to sound like Bon Jovi, or see if they could write a sketch or two, but this album of them doing what they do will suffice.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_sFafClcUk[/youtube]
Various Artists – This Is Your Life Ronnie James Dio Tribute Album
Genre: Heavy Metal
Origin: All over
Label: Rhino
Buy now on Amazon.com
So often an all-star tribute album will drop, and if will just be a bummer (see: That Frank Sinatra album form a while ago), but every once in a while, a label with nail it. This is one of those times. This tribute features Metallica, Motorhead, Anthrax, and members of Judas Priest, Slipknot, and more all destroying the Dio songs they cover. This album feature a song that is the best Metallica has sounded in at least fifteen years. Corey Taylor does such a good job on "Rainbow in the Dark," it's insane that anyone ever shits on the man. It isn't perfect, but the good more than makes up for the bad. There is even a really powerful Dio ballad on here to wrap it all up nicely.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10zHdU08GyQ[/youtube]
Also dropping today…
Alesana – The Decade EP (Artery)
Buioingola – Dopo l'apnea (Sentient Ruin)
Cauldron Black Ram – Stalagmire (20 Buck Spin)
Cemetery Fog – Shadows From The Cemetery EP (Iron Bonehead)
Circle – Leviatan (Ektro)
Daggers – It's Not Jazz, It's Blues (Throatruiner)
Direwolves – Aegri Somnia (Throatruiner)
Epistasis – Light Through Dead Glass (Crucial Blast)
Gravehill – Death Curse (Dark Descent)
Hatriot – Dawn Of The New Centurian (Massacre)
Hellion – To Hellion And Back (HNE)
Human Cull – Stillborn Nation (Wooaaargh)
Infest – Cold Blood War (Xtreem)
Johnny Wore Black – Walking Underwater (Dead Cherry)
Khroma – Collapse (Inverse)
Lost Society – Terror Hungry (Nuclear Blast)
Magnum – Escape From The Shadow Garden (SPV)
Mass Infection – For I Am Genocide (Comatose)
Neige et Noirceur – Gouffre Onirique et Abîmes Cosmiques (Sepulchral)
Pilgrim – II: Void Worship (Metal Blade)
Plebeian Grandstand – Lowgazers (Throatruiner)
Relief In Sleep – Relief In Sleep (Imminence)
Sabbath Assembly – Quaternity (Svart)
Sargeist – Feeding The Crawling Shadows (WTC)
Shear – Katharsis (Lifeforce)
Social 66 – Social 66 (Pavement)
John Wesley – Disconnect (Inside Out)
