Spanning a broad spectrum of metal subgenre, Cori Westbrooks drills down what newest releases are worth the spin.
This week we have a lot of variety ranging from melodic death metal from multiple corners of the world, a little chaotic avante garde and a stunning addition to the black metal genre coming out of nowhere. For the full list of our favorite new releases, follow the Knotfest New Flesh Playlist!
Blackbraid came out of seemingly nowhere bringing with him a primal form of black metal that is both soaring and traditional in both black metal essence and the Native American roots the artist has brought to the genre. Blackbraid has done an outstanding job of bringing a fresh take on a genre that often gets overshadowed. The powerful emotions captured throughout this album are nothing short of profound.
Get your copy HERE.
Brymir straddles the line between melodic death metal and power metal. Grandiose orchestration and powerful melodies create a wall of sound completed by chantable and engaging lyrics. Voices in the Sky is one of those albums that will have the entire crowd at a festival throwing their fists and horns into the air as they scream the lyrics at the top of their lungs.
Get your copy HERE.
Yucatan based melodic death metal outfit Death Scythe show that it isn’t only the Scandinavians that get to have all the fun with the genre. Killing For Pleasure Forever is a re-recorded version of their debut album, and, although the tracks were released once before, they have been given new life and showcase a band gearing up to do great things in the melodic death metal world.
Get your copy HERE.
Full of passion and energy, Of Kingdom and Crown shows a reignited fervor for metal in Machine Head. Like other recent releases, Machine Head seems to have rediscovered themselves and their love of metal on this album. Ferocious and precise in their intent, Machine Head have again captured what makes them who they are.
Get your copy HERE.
When it comes to Sigh, you can expect any album to be a journey through the looking glass, a deep dive into the unconvention. With influences ranging from psychedelic to experimental black metal, bathed in traditional Japanese musical elements, sign have crafted an album that is the definition of avant garde.
Get your copy HERE.
Wrapping up this week we have another stellar front-runner in the underground hardcore renaissance Thoughtcrimes. Fast, ferocious and technical, Thoughtcrimes bring together hardcore and mathcore without getting too chaotic or overly technical. Solidly engaging and 100% authentic, the band knows how to bring it live. Check out their performance as part of Pulse of the Maggots Fest 3×22.
Get your copy of Altered Pasts HERE.
Also out this week…
2Mums – Bushmaster: Side B EP (Riot)
Absolute Darkness – Failure Of State (Self)
Alcatrazz – Official Bootleg Box Set Volume 2: 1983-1984 (HNE)
Align The Tide – Hollow (Cleopatra)
Alms – The Trial (Epictronic)
Anchillys – Elan Vital (Self)
Anthea – Tales Untold (Rockshots)
Apeiron Bound – Multiplicity (Layered Reality)
Armnatt – Immortal Nature (Signal Rex)
Auriferous Flame – The Great Mist Within (True Cult)
Austere – Towards The Great Unknown Box Set (Lupus Lounge)
Bad Baron – Ace Of Hearts (Pride & Joy)
Becoming The Archetype – Children Of The Great Extinction (Solid State)
Bloodbox – Post Human Disorder (Headwound)
Blood Of Indigo – Dawn Of The Shaded World (Self)
Bloody Redemption – Hit To The Gore (Awakening)
Cathartic –Through The Abysmal Gates Of Subconscious (Awakening)
CB3 – Exploration (Majestic Mountain)
Centershift – Of… EP (Self)
Child Of Caesar – Spirit & Liberation (Dr Music)
Consumption – Necrotic Lust (Hammerheart)
Cyborg Octopus – Between The Light And Air (Silent Pendulum)
Datura4 – Neanderthal Jam (Alive Naturalsound)
Deus Ex Machina – III (Self)
Draagyn – Bent Rib EP (Self)
Drag Me Out – Demons Away (Lodereih)
Dreadnought – The Endless (Profound Lore)
Dynazty – Final Advent (AFM)
Eaten By Sharks – Eradication (Self)
fallfiftyfeet – Lonely If You Go EP (Self)
Flesh Sermon – Venomous Black Magick (Self)
Glassing – Dire And Sulk EP (Brutal Panda)
Grave Digger – Symbol Of Eternity (Rock Of Angels)
Hexis – Aeternum (Debemur Morti)
Hierophant – Death Siege (Season Of Mist)
The Hirsch Effekt – Solitaer EP (Long Branch)
Humaniac – Until The Light Fakes Us (Self)
Imperial Age – New World (Atlantean)
Intent – Exile (Self)
Iron Savior – Reforged – Ironbound (Vol. 2) (AFM)
Lacrimas Profundere – How To Shroud Yourself With Night (SPV/Steamhammer)
Little Caesar – This Time It’s Different Re-Release (Dirty Deeds/Deko)
Lonely Robot – A Model Life (InsideOut)
Long Distance Calling – Eraser (earMusic)
Lugnet – Tales From The Great Beyond (Pride & Joy)
Lustre – A Thirst For Summer Rain (Nordvis)
Malamorte – Omen (Moribund)
Manifest – The Sinking (Sound Pollution)
Master – On The Seventh Day God Created Master Re-Release (Hammerheart)
Matt Sassano – In Defiance EP (Rockfest)
Mayhemic – The Darkest Age (Awakening)
Might – Abyss (Exile On Mainstream)
Migliori Amici & Co. – Best Of Friends EP (OCMusic)
Mystic Charm – Hell Did Freeze Over Re-Release (Personal)
Naked Soldier – Naked Soldier (Sixteentimes)
Obituary – Cause Of Death – Live Infection (Relapse)
Obituary – Slowly We Rot – Live And Rotting (Relapse)
Olhava – Reborn (Avantgarde)
Phase IV – Phase IV (Moribund)
Pineid – Blue Doom (Sympatry)
Plasmodulated – Plasmodulated (Personal)
Red Rot – Mal de Vivre (Svart)
Santa Cruz – The Return Of The Kings (M-Theory)
Shroud Of Despondency – Air Of Abrasion (Self)
Species – To Find Deliverance (Awakening)
Spirit In The Room – Flamingo EP (Housecore)
Stitched Up – Jupiter Jazz And The Suicide (Self)
Storm – Invincible EP (Indie)
Stormhunter – Strangle With Care EP (G.U.C.)
Syryn – Heads Or Tails (
Tad Morose – March Of The Obsequious (GMR)
Wampyric Rites – The Wolves Howl To The Moon (Signal Rex)
Wyrd – Heathen Re-Release (Moribund)
Zeistencroix – Cruxi Fiction EP (Pavement)
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