New Metal Releases: 3/17/2024-3/30/2024
Here are all the new releases for March 17th through March 30th. Releases reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see most of these albums on shelves or distros on Fridays.
See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging.
Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.
New Releases 3/17-3/23
Apparation — Disgraced Emanations From A Tranquil State | Profound Lore Records | Death Metal | United States (Los Angeles, California)
The atmosphere is dense and the riffs are like chair shots to your back on Apparition’s second LP, Disgraced Emanations From A Tranquil State. While heaviness is front-and-center, the synths on “Imminent Expanse of Silence and Not (or Not)” imply tragedy lurks below, revealing that there’s more to sink your teeth into here.
–Colin Dempsey
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Dödsrit — Nocturnal Will | Wolves of Hades | Black Metal | Sweden (Borlänge)
Dödsrit’s method of grafting crust punk and black metal onto an epic heavy metal exoskeleton is beautiful. Their tracks are punchy and victorious while retaining enough bite to ensure the victory feels earned. This is to say that the journeys on Nocturnal Will make you feel like an involved character rather than an audience member.
–Colin Dempsey
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Mastiff — Deprecipice | MNRK Heavy | Doom Metal + Sludge Metal + Hardcore Punk | United Kingom (Kingston Upon Hull, England)
Hardcore punk and loss are the driving forces behind Mastiff’s fourth album, Deprecipice. Jim Hodge and James Andrew Lee, the group’s respective vocalist and guitarist, were both grieving familial losses while writing the record, pushing them to embrace a more direct approach. Resultingly, it’s blunt and pessimistic but powered by a primal energy that can only come from hardcore punk.
–Colin Dempsey
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Daevar — Amber Eyes | The Lasting Dose Records | Doom Metal | Germany (Cologne)
Daevar’s doom metal is actually closer to grunge than it is metal, strange as that is to say. Fuzzy riffs and languid tempos are present, but the atmosphere is laidback and, at least on “Amber Eyes,” inviting.
–Colin Dempsey
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Funeral Oration — Antropomorte | Avantgarde Music | Black Metal | Italy
Funeral Oration have only released two albums before Antropomorte, Sursum Luna in 1996 and Eliphas Love in 2019. In a sense, they sound as if they’re still playing in 1996. The vocals, riffs, and texture have seemingly been thawed from frozen states to retain their freshness, but the keyboards steal the show. They overtake tracks like “Plenus Larvarum” by shoving the lead guitars out of the spotlight or injecting gothic overtones. The entire package is gloriously vintage and off-kilter.
–Colin Dempsey
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Brodequin — Harbringer of Woe | Season of Mist | Brutal Death Metal | United States (Knoxville, Tennessee)
The new masterpiece from this heavy, slammy powerhouse has a slightly different vibe than their previous releases. It was released by Season of Mist and has a classy, almost refined quality while still being insanely dense and aggressive. This is one of those rare records that might unite death metal fans who aren’t snobby about deathcore, slam, and adjacent genres and others who need more nuance and intentionality. In other words, this is a gem.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Hamferð — Men Guðs hond er sterk | Metal Blade Records | Doom Metal | Faroe Islands
This album is a concept death/doom record from a very mysterious part of Europe, the Faroe Islands, about a tragic shipwreck and wailing accident. It’s weird, dark, punishing, and oddly kind of cozy with its lore-recounting vibes. The record is best enjoyed as a whole piece and is more focused on telling a story than churning out bangers, but it’s insanely solid.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Altar of Betelgeuze — Echoes | Independent | Doom + Death + Stoner Metal | Finland
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Echoes”:
In the skilled hands of Altar of Betelgeuze, doom metal is but simple putty to be shaped and transformed. Although the Finnish band deserve praise for how they meld multiple doom subgenres into a coherent approach, what stands out the most is how they create dynamics and motion while staying true to their two core tenets: being heavy, and being slow. Without resorting to disjointed tropes or throwing in oddball songs, their new album Echoes is a consistently enjoyable jam that blends inventive, iconic riffs with a passion for slow, overbearing doom metal.
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New Releases 3/24-3/30
Coffin Storm — Arcana Rising | Peaceville Records | Heavy Metal | Norway (Kolbotn)
Coffin Storm is less of a supergroup and more of a reunion between members of Darkthrone, Aura Noir, and Infernö, all of whom came from the small Norwegian town of Kolbotn. It retains the sound and feel of the practice sessions between Apollyon and Bestial Tormentor during COVID, which were marked by admiration for epic doom metal bands and a looser mindset. Fenriz provides vocals, wailing with the candor of a drunken cover band singer, an approach that perfectly matches the music. We have a full interview with Apollyon coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
–Colin Dempsey
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Coffins — Sinister Oah | Relapse Records | Death Metal + Doom Metal | Japan (Tokyo)
The Japanese quartet have clung to a doom-y style of OSDM for the better part of thirty years like a child clings to their favorite stuffed animal. The only real change for their sixth record is that the cavernous production of 2019’s Beyond the Circular Demise seems to have been turned up a bit, probably because it was the only way they were gonna get any heavier.
–Steve Lampiris
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Vorga — Beyond the Palest Star | Transcending Obscurity | Black Metal | Germany (Black Metal)
Sophomore LP from the German melodic black metal quartet finds them leaning into the proggier elements of 2022’s Striving Toward Oblivion—which is to say: ’70s keyboards and more soaring leadwork. Whatever you wanna call what Vorga do (Black-prog? Arena black metal?), it’s pretty great.
–Steve Lampiris
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Septage — Septic Worship (Intolerant Spree of Infesting Forms) | Me Saco un Ojo | Grindcore + Death Metal | Denmark (Copenhagen)
There’s nothing sweet or puffy about these Danishes. Balanced midway on the Carcass-o-meter between cavernous death metal and putrescent gore-grind, this crushing debut album is as grisly and grotesque as an all-you-can-eat at the local charnel house. Pass the barf bag!
–Spencer Grady
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Above Aurora — Myriad Woes | War Anthem Records | Black Metal + Doom Metal | Poland (Poznań)
Above Aurora draw from a similar creative well as their countrymen Behemoth with their dense and beefed-up metal that pays homage to black metal without fully embracing it. Not that that’s a bad thing, but Myriad Woes is best absorbed as a melting pot of death metal, black metal, and doom rather than a beacon for any of them.
–Colin Dempsey
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Cantique Lépreux — Le bannissement | Eisenwald | Black Metal | Canada (Quebec)
Returning six years after their previous LP, Cantique Lépreux continue crafting exciting black metal. Their palette contains traces of the genre’s atmospheric, melodic, and triumphant subdivisions and congeals them with dexterous brushstrokes.
–Colin Dempsey
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Verwoed — The Mother | Argento Records | Black Metal | Netherlands (Utrecht)
As Colin Williams wrote about last year, Utrecht is one of the most forward-thinking cities on the planet when it comes to black metal. It’s not always bizzaro incantations; sometimes, much like Verwoed’s latest album, The Mother, the city produces black metal that’s more in touch with its sensitive side and flaunts it by tapping into doom metal. At least, that’s one part of it, because elsewhere, Verwoed sound as if they’re battling for their sanity, and on “The Madman’s Dance,” they’re not winning.
–Colin Dempsey
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Givre — Le cloître | Eisenwald | Black Metal | Canada (Quebec)
Givre have been improving their production over their last few albums, evolving from Le Pressoir Mystique‘s raw offerings until reaching Le cloître, and they’ve never sounded better. Their concepts have always been intriguing, but the production formerly bottlenecked their musicianship. Fortunately, Le cloître corrects that. The dismal tones take the spotlight, and fittingly so, as the album recounts six tales of saint women suffering through their commitment to the Lord.
–Colin Dempsey
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Child — Shitegeist | Suicide Records | Grindcore | Sweden
From Colin Dempsey’s premiere:
Admittedly, “Shitegeist” is closer to punk rock than it is outright grind, which is to say that you can understand what Child are playing on first listen rather than succumb to the breakneck tempos. Those are reserved for later tracks on Shitegeist. In all honesty, “Shitegeist” is simple, but the pieces at work here–Lindström’s performance, the crunchy texture, and Albin Sköld’s performance behind the drumkit in which he operates at a few clicks faster than the rest of the troupe–shine because of it.
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Kólga — Black Tides | Otitis Media Records | Black Metal + Surf Rock | United States (Dallas, Texas)
There’s a video on YouTube with over 2 million views titled “Black Metal Without Distortion Is Just Surf Rock.” Its arguments are convincing, if not a bit exaggerated. However, one year ago, @mckeithenmccormick9642, either not recognizing his clairvoyance or simply manifesting his will into the universe, commented, “now I want to hear surf rock with distortion and metal vocals….” 35,000 people liked that comment. Kólga must’ve read that comment as they are looking to feed those 35,000 hungry mouths with Black Tides. The album is best summarized by @mckeithenmccormick9642’s YouTube comment. It’s surf rock but with black metal synths, tremolo picking, and screams (when required). As much as it is a gimmick and a thought experiment, it’s also endearing. It could’ve been much more ridiculous, yet thankfully, Kólga reigned themselves in when necessary, resulting in captivating tracks like “Squall of Cthulu.” Avoiding Black Tides makes sense if you believe in secularity between black metal and fun, but it’s worth checking out just to hear Kólga’s thought process in action.
–Colin Dempsey
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