Just want to get this out of the way up front… LABELS: send us your shit! We can't pimp it if we haven't heard it. This is the first week in 2013 where I've heard less than half of the albums coming out today, and I listen to everything I get at least once. Troof. Now then…
Coilguns – Commuters
Genre: Experimental
Origin: La Chaux-de-Fonds, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Label: Pelagic Records
This right here is an example of a killer record that I never would have bothered covering if I hadn't been desperate enough to go digging through Youtube for shit to highlight this week. The band themselves did me a big favor by posting the entire album themselves, but if you're just looking for a taste this one is a personal highlight for me:
Eremite – Dragonarius
Genre: Blackened Sludge
Origin: Genoa, Ligury, Italy
Label: Taxi Driver
Is blackened sludge an actual genre? It is now. Is Taxi Driver a metal label? I wouldn't know: they didn't send us jack shit (see above). Boasting a mere two epic tracks – at a vinyl-friendly 17-20 minutes apiece – Dragonarius should put these dudes on the map. Who wants a Yob / Eremite tour? This is too kvlty for Amazon so if you want it head on over to Bandcamp.
Neaera – Ours Is the Storm
Genre: Deathcore
Origin: Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Label: Metal Blade
Core-by-numbers here but sometimes that's just what the pit crew ordered. This is the sixth album by the German band since 2005, every last one of them on Metal Blade… a venerable label that knows how to stick by its roster through thick and thin if there ever was one.
Rotting Christ – Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy
Genre: Black Metal
Origin: Athens, Greece
Label: Season of Mist
I'm actually on the Season of Mist promo list but they seem to be keeping this one pretty close to the vest. Can't say I blame them: first album in three years and from what I've heard so far it stands poised to be one of the best of the year. I know some older fans aren't big fans of the direction the band have taken in recent years, but taken on its own merits Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy is inventive, forward-thinking metal operating at an elite level.
Soilwork – The Living Infinite
Genre: Metalcore/Melodic Death
Origin: Helsingborg, Sweden
Label: Nuclear Blast
I'd be surprised if this weren't the big seller of the week. Soilwork have also been gone for three years now, and they're returning with their most epic work to date, a two disc, 85-minute concept piece ruminating on the nature of time and the infinite. Basically you already know whether you want this or not, but these guys are still one of the best in the genre.
Vreid – Welcome Farewell
Genre: Black Metal/Black & Roll
Origin: Sogndal, Norway
Label: Indie Recordings
Said about all I wanted to say about this one a few weeks ago, where I found it to be a "tempered, mature vision" chock full of "screeched vocals, sawtooth ascending/descending riffs and icy demeanor". This is as good an excuse as any to plug another video, though:
Also out today:
Altaar – Altaar (Indie)
Enforcer – Death By Fire (Nuclear Blast)
Hatchet – Dawn Of The End (The End)
Jolly – The Audio Guide To Happiness (Part 2) (InsideOut)
Kamala – Kamala Akka (Inverse)
Krokus – Dirty Dynamite (The End)
Lifeless – Godconstruct (FDA Rekotz)
Long Distance Calling – The Flood Inside (Superball)
Okular – Sexforce (Self)
Omnium Gatherum – Beyond (Lifeforce)
Paganland – Wind Of Freedom (Svarga)
Pathogen – Miscreants of Bloodlusting Aberrations (Dunkelheit)
Pyro Ohio – Before The Sun Sets EP (At Your Command)
Shannon – Circus Of Lost Souls (Mad Association)
Upon Wings – Afterlife EP (Sword Of The Spirit)
Valor – The Yonder Answer (Pitch Black)
White Widows – White Widows (Sacrament)
