Top Picks
Atrae Bilis – Aumicide (progressive tech-death)
I’ll never not be tickled that this cult Canadian tech-death outfit features the guitarist from short-lived Melbourne scatological slammers The Mung. At the same time, I shouldn’t hold them to his past achievements when they’ve so clearly surpassed them, first on 2021’s promisingly portmanteaued Apexapian and now on it’s sonically murderous successor. As its Mung-worthy artwork suggests, Aumicide is a notably darker offering than its predecessor, adding some delicious dissonance and mid-period-Decapitated-style groove into the mix before departing for more contemplative and distinctly Ulcerateasque textures in its back half. The whole affair is lent extra weight by its crushing-yet-crisp production job, which comes courtesy of Cryptopsy guitarist Christian Donaldson and hints toward what Hadal Maw and other Ben Boyle projects might achieve, if they were given a similar sheen. It’s still early days for the band, but Aumicide yet again proves that Atrae Bilis are definitely a band to watch out for when it comes to modern progressive and technical death metal.
Fierce Deity – A Terrible Fate (powerfully melodic stoner prog)
In amongst all the big names, today also sees the return of everyone’s favourite Legend of Zelda-themed, one-man power stoner act Fierce Deity with their first full-length release, following 2021’s outstanding Power Wisdom Courage EP. Suitably, and like Aumicide before it, A Terrible Fate is a much more expansive effort than the band’s previous offerings, taking the listener on a journey from stomping stoner metal through to epic power prog, all while maintaining an ongoing (and possibly original?)* narrative about a mysterious wanderer on some kind of sea of fate. Truth be told, its latter parts tend to loose me somewhat, but they are more than made up for by the triumphant opening combo of “LEViARCH”, which we had the pleasure of debuting last year, and “A Life of Hate” which starts off sounding like Hellfire Club-era Edguy before transitioning into a thunderous, bass-driven stomp that would fit right at home on a Kyusss record or that one good Spiritual Beggars album and rivals “Wisdom” as the best single song Fierce Deity have put out to date. Psycroptic guitarist Joe Haley also shows up somewhere, which is cool, but lone band member Jonathan Barwick remains the star of the show and it is equally evident that he’s hit on a pretty magical combination with Fierce Deity that hopefully only grows stronger with each release.
*Google suggests possible references to Elden Ring (2022) and Genshin Impact (2020) but nothing concrete and nothing anywhere else seems to mention a leviarch, whatever that is
Release Roundup
A Neverending John’s Dream – Coming Back To Paradise (progressive AOR?)
Alicate – Heaven Tonight (Whitesnake at home)
All Will Know – Parhelion (melodeath)
Antagonyze – Interpretations Of The Unknown Wilderness (blackened death metal)
Antichrist Siege Machine – Vengeance Of Eternal Fire (blackened deathgrind))
Ater – Somber (weird blackened death/doom)
Balance Of Power – Fresh From The Abyss (heavy metl)
Big|Brave – A Chaos Of Flowers (melodic drone)
Billy Morrison – The Morrison Project (punk/glam metal)
Blaze Of Perdition – Upharsin (epic black metal)
Blazing Eternity – A Certain End Of Everything (melowdeath/doom)
Bloody Falls – Amartia (blackened melodeath)
Bongripper – Empty (stoner doom)
Bythos – Chthonic Gates Unveiled (black metal)
Caeli Concept – Lunaison (weird death metal, goth doom)
Conquest – Paradox (production value)
Couch Slut – You Could Do It Tonight (noisecore)
Dayseeker – Replica (Spinefarm)
Dool – The Shape Of Fluidity (posty goth rock)
Dvne – Voidkind (not dvn’ it for me)
Earthblood – Witchburner (sludge thrash)
Enfermo – Trágico final (deathgrind)
Engulfed – Unearthly Litanies of Despair (death metal)
Extinct – Incitement Of Violence (thrash)
Feuerschwanz – Warriors (folk/power metal)
Folterkammer – Weibermacht (weird operatic black/death metal)
Fractal Gates – One With Dawn (melodeath)
The Ghost Inside – Searching for Solace (increasingly melodic hard/metalcore)
Greybush – A Never Ending Search For Justice (death metal/core)
Guenna – Peak Of Jin’Arrah (Yes-style stoner prog)
Haunted – Stare At Nothing (not The Haunted)
Haust – Negative Music (blackened doom rock)
Hekseblad – Kaer Morhen (black metal)
Henrik Palm – Nerd Icon (sludgey occult rock)
High On Fire – Cometh The Storm (doomy stoner metal)
Homecoming – Those We Knew (progressive metal, stoner sludge)
Hybrid Nightmares – Woeful Inertia (black metal)
In Vain – Solemn (progressive mellowdeath)
Infestus – Entzweiung (mellowblack)
Ivy Gardens – Goon (alt/desert rock)
Ixion – Extinction (mellowdoom)
Kawir – Kydoimos (flutey black metal)
Kickin Valentina – Star Spangled Fist Fight (sleaze/hair metal)
Korpituli – Pohjola (folk/black metal)
Leach – New Model Of Disbelief (thrash metalcore)
Life’s Question – Life’s Question (hardcore, alt metal)
Lightworker – How The Beautiful Decay (metalcore)
Loch Vostok – Opus Ferox II: Mark of the Beast (prog metal)
Maere – …And The Universe Keeps Silent (disso-death)
Mass Killings – The Coed Murders (brutal death, slam)
Megafauna – Venator (instrumental hip-hop, dubgeon synth)
The Melvins – Tarantula Heart (slunge)
Mothman, The Man – Where’s Your Head? (psychedelic garage doom> My Dying Bride – A Mortal Binding (goth doom)
Nocturna – Of Sorcery And Darkness (operatic power metal)
NoFX – Half Album (pop punk)
Nuclear Tomb – Labyrinthian Terror (technical death-thrash)
Oak, Ash & Thorn – Our Grief Is Thus (powerful melodeath)
Omega Glory – Offerings (black metal)
Outworld – Sky Keeper (power metal)
Padus – Opera Funebre (‘gan and bass)
Paperclip – Natural Man Is the Enemy of God (crossover death-sludge)
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Pearl Jam – Dark Matter (possibly worse than lightning bolt and way more boring)
Peklo – Supostat (black metal)
Perseus – Into the Silence (power metal)
Post Death Soundtrack – Veil Lifter (prog doom)
Praying Mantis – Defiance (melodic rock, AOR)
Quantum – Down The Mountainside (alt-prog metal)
Ravage – Spider On The World (thrashy trad metal)
Red Mesa – Partial Distortions (blackened stoner doom)
Satanic North – Satanic North (black metal)
Savage Wizdom – Who’s Laughing Now (heavy metal)
SeeYouSpaceCowboy – Coup de Grâce (post-hardcore, screamo)
Selbst – Despondency Chord Progressions (blackened post metal)
Seventh – Collapsar (blackened death metal)
Silent Weapon – Demonology (industrial electronic)
The Silver Doors – The Silver Doors (indie/stoner rock)
Slug Gore – They Slime! They Ooze! They Kill! (slugdge at home)
SRD – Vragvmesiton (blackish metal)
Strom – En Orkan På Vår Sida (hard rock)
Sundowner – Lysergic Ritual (sludge doom)
Tassack – Old Skull (thrash)
Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department (boring pop)
Thief – Bleed, Memory (electro goth)
Tomb Portal – Enthanatogen (black/death metal)
Tomorrow’s Rain – Ovdan (mellowdoom)
Typhuzz – Typhuzz (retro doom)
Uncanny – Shroomsday (weird instrumental metal)
Unpeople – Unpeople (melodic alt metal)
Uragh – Maelstrom (groove metal/core)
Uttertomb – Nebulas Of Self-Desecration (weird/dissonat death metal)
Vanden Plas – The Empyrean Equation Of The Long Lost Things (prog metal)
Verikalpa – Tuomio (folk/power metal)
Vilify – Fever Dream (hardcore, metalcore)
Voidgazer – Dance of the Undesirables (groove/death metal)
Wardra – Warden of the Stellar Crypts (weird black metal)
Whores. – War. (alt rock, sludge)
The Wraith – Ghost March (goth rock/punk)
Joshua Bulleid
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