This week's new heavy metal releases include sludgy weirdos, the most metal indie band ever, and more!
To the metals…
Belzebubs – Pantheon of the Nightside Gods
Genre: Black metal/cartoon
Origin: Tampere, Finland
Label: Century Media
This animated band has already made a name for themselves in comic form, on YouTube, and they are now invading record stores (or like, iTunes or whatever). The band drawn by J.P. Ahonen may be "fake," but they bring legit chops and some legit names featured on the album like ICS Vortex, Dan Swano, and more. Also, if you're not familiar with the comic, I highly recommend it as well.
The Damned Things – High Crimes
Genre: Hard rock/heavy metal
Origin: New York, New York
Label: Nuclear Blast
Everyone's favorite Every Time I Die, Anthrax, Fall Out Boy, hybrid band has returned with their second album of rambunctious hardcore-infused heavy metal. This time they've added some Alkaline Trio to their Megazord of rock. There's less Anthrax (and Volbeat for that matter) this time, but the band still does what they do well.
Enforcer – Zenith
Genre: Heavy/speed metal
Origin: Arvika, Sweden
Label: Nuclear Blast
I mainly included Enforcer because I wanted to feature a little more fast shit this week. I didn't quite know how bombastic this band is. Zenith is all the speed, technicality, and "whoa-ohs!" of an 80's band, but the band started in 2004.
Helms Alee – Noctiluca
Genre: Sludge/experimental
Origin: Seattle, Washington
Label: Sargent House
Helms Alee are WILDLY underrated. This album showcases the band's ability to be experimental yet memorable, sludgy yet melodic, and proggy yet accessible. If this band is not on your radar, this is an excellent album to rectify that mistake you're making with your life.
Lord Dying – Mysterium Tremendum
Genre: Sludge
Origin: Portland, Oregon
Label: eOne
Pairing nicely with Helms Alee, we have the new Lord Dying. this pack of Portland dudes bring a more straight forward approach to the stoner/sludge sound, but they're also bringing more energy. They're like if you blended Baroness, Red Fang, and Torche with a bit more aggression.
The Mountain Goats – In League with Dragons 
Genre: Indie
Origin: Claremont, California
Label: Merge
John Darnielle is more metal than you. He has collaborated with Erik Rutan from Morbid Angel and Hate Eternal. He has written songs about professional wrestling, goth culture, and now Dungeons and Dragons. The Mountain Goats are the most metal non-metal band out there for these reasons and more. In League with Dragons needs to be in your ears.
Marissa Nadler & Stephen Brodsky – Droneflower 
Genre: Doom folk
Origin: Boston, Massachusetts/Brooklyn, New York
Label: Sacred Bones Records
Stephen Brodsky of Cave-In and Mutoid Man fame is switching gears with this project with Marissa Nadler. Rather than chaos and hardcore, you're getting some ethereal darkness folded into folk songs. It reminds me of a less intense Chelsea Wolfe.
Sabbath Assembly – A Letter Of Red
Genre: Psychedelic Rock/doom
Origin: Texas and New York
Label: Svart
Fine, I'll get back to the actual metal for a moment. Here's some trippy doom. It has some classic doom metal vibes to it, but does so while being quirky. It's a very interesting listen.
Spotlights – Love & Decay
Genre: DreamSludge
Origin: Brooklyn, New York
Label: Ipecac
"DreamSludge" is the label picked by Spotlights, and I can't really argue with them. This has tons of spacey atmosphere while bringing crushing heaviness. Open this up and you'll get oodles of fuzz and oodles of echoes.
The Well – Death and Consolation
Genre: Doom/stoner
Origin: Austin, Texas
Label: RidingEasy Records
I'll end this week with some straight forward stoner jams. This sounds like a band that studied the OG's of desert rock and doom while smoking all the pot in a Texas. Death and Consolation has the vibe of a haunted Kyuss album.
Also dropping today…
Avandra – Descender (Blood Music) – Progressive metal
Cathartic Demise – Cathartic Demise (Self-Release) – Progressive thrash
Danko Jones – A Rock Supreme (M-Theory) – Rock
Dub Trio – The Shape Of Dub To Come (New Damage Records) – Dub/metal
Embalmer – Embalmed Alive (Hells Headbangers) – Live death metal
Euringer – Euringeremix (Self-released) – Industrial remix
Gridfailure/Walking Bombs – Suicide By Citizenship (Nefarious Industries) – Experimental/industrial
Hardline – Life (Frontiers) – Rock
Hypoxia – Abhorrent Disease (Selfmadegod) – Thrash/death metal
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Fishing for Fishies (Flightless) – Psychedelic
The Lumberjack Feedback – Mere Mortals (Deadlight Entertainment) – Doom/sludge
Manegarm – Fornaldarsagor (Napalm) – Folk/black metal
Massive Ego – Church For The Malfunctioned (Out Of Line Music) – Darkwave
New Years Day – Unbreakable (Red) – Gothic rock/metalcore
Nighnacht – Christophila (Hells Headbangers) – Black/death metal
Nine Shrines – Retribution Therapy (Mascot) – Hard rock
Sinnrs – Profound (Rockshots Records/Extreme Metal Music) – Melodic death metal
Steel Prophet – The God Machine (Rock Of Angels) – Power metal
Tanagra – Meridiem (Self-Released) – Power/progressive metal
Tank – Re-Ignition (Cleopatra) – Alternative
Trade Wind – Certain Freedoms (Other People Records)
Varaha – A Passage For Lost Years (Prosthetic) – Doom/post-metal
Vaura – Sables (Profound Lore) – Avant-garde/post-black metal
