Every blue moon, we in the metal community get hit with a fuckton of great releases. It's amazing, but sadly looks like this will the last one of those for this year. There are still plenty of awesome records this year, but this is the last week of both great quantity and great quality.
To the metals…
Ayreon – The Theory Of Everything
Genre: Progressive
Origin: Waalwijk, Netherlands
Label: Inside Out
Buy now on Amazon.com
What we have here is another lovely prog rock opera from Arjen Anthony Lucassen. As usual, there many guest musicians and singers to guide you in your oh so epic journey. Check out my full review here.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E98C5BcXnE[/youtube]
Dethklok – Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem A Klok Opera Score
Genre: Melodic Death metal
Origin: Springfield, Illinois (Brendon Small is from there anyway)
Label: William St
Buy now on Amazon.com
Our metal overlords have touched on just about every sub-genre in the metal world in their three albums. Now they are here with the score for their first full-on musical. Should make for an atypical, but awesome, Metalocalypse story. Here's Brendon Small discussing the special on Livecast.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIaPGyxVeFU[/youtube]
Devin Townsend Project – Retinal Circus
Genre: Progressive
Origin: Vancouver, Canada
Label: Inside Out
Buy now on Amazon.com
Keeping with the musical theme, here is Devin Townsend's career spanning live CD/DVD/BluRay that tells the story of Harold going through life and experiencing love, addiction, religion, and aliens. Guests on the DVD include Jed Simon, Anneke van Giersbergen, and a giant Ziltoid vagina. I reviewed the CD here.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXmaW52ZG-4[/youtube]
East Of The Wall – Redaction Artifacts
Genre: Progressive Sludge/Art Metal
Origin: Keyport, New Jersey
Label: Translation Lost
Buy now on Amazon.com
This has been an awesome year for progressive metal. If you have been a fan of these guys and their ever-evolving sound, you'll dig this record. Here's my gushing full review.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvHmtlfMXfQ[/youtube]
Hail Of Bullets – III: The Rommel Chronicles
Genre: Death Metal
Origin: Amersfoort, Netherlands
Label: Metal Blade
Buy now on Amazon.com
Pretty solid, straight forward death metal with some groove metal thrown in. They're sort of sound like modern take on Bolt Thrower. Also, just to bring things back to where we started. On drums is Ed Warby, Ayreon's drummer.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rmyI5Zmwhw[/youtube]
Inquisition – Obscure Verses For The Multiverse
Genre: Black Metal
Origin: Seattle, Washington/ Columbia
Label: Season of Mist
Buy now on Amazon.com
This band is pretty cool, but also pretty strange. I didn't expect to hear, what I can only describe as, happy sounding guitar-work in a black metal band. It is black metal, but it doesn't really sound evil. Anyway, it' great to hear a band pay homage to an older genre and do something different with it.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q98qulfxXcs[/youtube]
Kataklysm – Waiting For The End To Come
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Origin: Montreal, Canada
Label: Nuclear Blast
Buy now on Amazon.com
Kataklysm are a band that I've always read about but never pursued. If you are somehow also unaware of this band, I highly recommend this record. This is very memorable melodic death metal without the lame singalong parts.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNgKyNkBVqk[/youtube]
Kill Devil Hill – Revolution Rise
Genre: Heavy Metal
Origin: Los Angeles, California
Label: Century Media
Buy now on Amazon.com
Vinny Appice (Non-Ozzy Sabbath) and Rex Brown (Pantera) have returned as the rhythm section for this supergroup of sorts. To me, and again it's just me, this really sounds like someone trying to sound like Pantera and Alice in Chains, and succeeding to a fault. It would probably do well during a rock block on your local hard rock station.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFXKiU0bSGI[/youtube]
Necrophobic – Womb Of Lilithu
Genre: Blackened Death Metal
Origin: Stockholm Sweden
Label: Season of Mist
Buy now on Amazon.com
This band really makes me want to toss on corpse paint and burn shit. It's a shame that the band doesn't even wear it though. What am I supposed to do now that I have this driving blackened soundtrack and a vat of all this paint? Anyway, very cool record.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL4a-4urUPQ[/youtube]
Protest The Hero – Volition
Genre: Progressive Metalcore/Extreme Post Hardcore
Origin: Whitby, Canada
Label: Razor & Tie
Buy now on Amazon.com
I cannot stop listening to this record. It's like metal crack. It's everything I love with technical musicianship, melody out the ass, catchy hooks while remaining heavy, over the top epicness, etc. Here is the long form of me geeking out on this album.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppwWGTgGMMQ[/youtube]
Russian Circles – Memorial
Genre: Instrumental Post Metal
Origin: Chicago, Illinois
Label: Sargent House
Buy now on Amazon.com
It's jarring going from Protest The Hero to this, but we'll manage. One would think after so many records of instrumental ambient metal, the band would have slowed, or become stale or something that would work against them. Nope. They are still one of the masters of their genre. Side note: see them live if you ever have the chance. Yes, even if you are an instrumental naysayer.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF75kI1iiEw[/youtube]
Sepultura – The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart
Genre: Groove Metal
Origin: Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Label: Nuclear Blast
Buy now on Amazon.com
The band have cemented themselves in metal as legends and this is their 13th record of groovy metal that is simply them doing what they do best. Your head shall bob to the rhythm, and you may even dance. Blah, blah blah, bongos, blah blah blah Max and Igor blah blah.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWILExgA5GE[/youtube]
Skeletonwitch – Serpents Unleashed
Genre: Blackened Thrash
Origin: Athens, Ohio
Label: Prosthetic
Buy now on Amazon.com
It's Skeletonwitch doing a great job and sounding like Skeletonwitch. Jeremy said everything I wanted to say in his full review. "…It's true, there is very little to prefer in Serpents Unleashed over their prior catalog on Prosthetic, but that's no fault of Serpents Unleashed. "
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPPPGMGNg8I[/youtube]
Testament – Dark Roots of Thrash 
Genre: Thrash
Origin: Oakland, California
Label: Nuclear Blast
Buy now on Amazon.com
And now we enter the thrash section of our program. Testament are a great live band, and they may even be a greater recorded band. This is a collection of live tracks old and new, with Gene Hoglan on the drums. I wonder what Chuck Billy would do if he didn't have a mic stand to play with during shows?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B81K2qKF-1M[/youtube]
Toxic Holocaust – Chemistry Of Consciousness
Genre: Blackened Thrash
Origin: Portland, Oregon
Label: Relapse
Buy now on Amazon.com
I often complain about how thrash general bores me. To be frank, if Toxic Holocaust didn't have that blackened side to their sound they'd be underwhelming. Saved by the darkside.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvVjnr6PRfI[/youtube]
Vaura – The Missing
Genre: Progressive
Origin: Brooklyn
Label: Profound Lore
Buy now on Amazon.com
This band is pretty cool. Part Dysrhytmia and part Kayo Dot. The result is incredibly diverse. There is plenty of folky ambient parts with the occasionaly break for chaos. So, you know, what you'd hope and expect.
Sample here
Warbringer – IV: Empires Collapse
Genre: Thrash
Origin: Los Angeles, CA
Label: Century Media
Buy now on Amazon.com
These guys like 80's slayer and the likes and it certainly shows, but they have something else to them. They have moments where you think they're about to become really fucking great, but then they revert to where they started. Such a cock tease. I applaud some of their unusual guitar choices, but the bulk is thrash you'd expect. Embrace that inner voice telling you to venture elsewhere Warbringer! James has a full review here.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BfxYMI8L9Q[/youtube]
Winds Of Plague – Resistance
Genre: Symphonic Deathcore
Origin: Upland, California
Label: Century Media
Buy now on Amazon.com
Would you like some keyboards with your breakdown?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqszxA5QS3Q[/youtube]
Also dropping today…
81db – A Blind Man's Dream (Bakerteam)
As Autumn Calls – Cold, Black & Everlasting (Rain Without End)
Asomvel – Knuckle Duster (Bad Omen)
Austere – Withering Illusions and Desolation (Eisenwald)
Black Crown Initiate – Song Of The Crippled Bull (PRC)
Centinex – Subconscious Lobotomy (Pulverised)
Close Your Eyes – Line In The Sand (Victory)
Corrections House – Last City Zero (Neurot)
Dead Letter Circle – The Catalyst Fire (The End)
Deserters – The Feeling EP (Mediaskare)
Doyle – Abominator (Monsterman)
Doyle Airence – Monolith (Lifeforce)
Enbilulugugal – Noizemongers For Goatserpent (Crucial Blast)
The Flower Kings – Desolation Rose (Inside Out)
Germ – Grief (Eisenwald)
Giant Squid – Monster In The Creek Re-Release (Translation Loss)
Harm – Cadaver Christi (FDA Rekotz)
Harm Wulf – There's Honey In The Soil So We Wait For The Till (Deathwish)
Heretic Soul – The Nihilistic Attitude (PRC)
Hybreed Chaos – Dying Dogma (PRC)
Impaled – The Dead Still Dead Remain (Willowtip)
In The Burial – Born Of Suffering (PRC)
Lingua Mortis Orchestra – LMO (Nuclear Blast)
Mutation – Error 500 (Ipecac)
Myka, Relocate – Lies To Light The Way (Razor & Tie)
Necrowretch – Bestial Rites 2009-2012 (Century Media)
Neurotic November – Anunnaki (Victory)
Noctum – Final Sacrifice (Metal Blade)
Paradise Lost – Tragic Illusion 25 (The Rarities) (Century Media)
Pyrexia – Feast Of Iniquity (Unique Leader)
Rublood – Star Vampire (Bakerteam)
Sabaton – Swedish Empire Live DVD/CD (Nuclear Blast)
Seeker – Unloved (Victory)
Septicflesh – Ophidian Wheel Re-Release (Season Of Mist)
Sinister Haze – Demo 2013 (Unholy Anarchy)
Sirens & Sailors – Skeleton (Razor & Tie)
Sorronia – Words Of Silence (Bakerteam)
Suture – Carnivorous Urge To Kill (Comatose)
Svadilfare – Makt Til Uskyld (Naturmacht)
This Will Destroy You – Live In Reykjavik, Iceland (Magic Bullet)
Tribune – Tales (Corpse Corrosion)
Various Artists – Swedish Hitz Goes Metal Vol. 2 (Doolittle)
Zodiac – A Hiding Place (Prosthetic)
Zom – Demo MMXI LP (Invictus)
