Here are all the new releases for April 21st through April 27th. 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.
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New Releases 4/21-4/27
Darkthrone — It Beckons Us All…… | Peaceville Records | Black Metal + Heavy Metal | Norway
There’s not much to go on for Darkthrone’s 21st studio album aside from “Black Dawn Affiliation,” which implied a shift away from their recent doom metal projects in favor of classic heavy metal. The thing is, at this point in their careers, the duo seem to follow their noses, meaning there isn’t a ton of evidence one can pull from to decipher where It Beckons Us All…… will go.
–Colin Dempsey
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Inter Arma — New Heaven | Relapse Records | Sludge Metal + Post-Metal + Death Metal | United States (Richmond, Virginia)
From Luke Jackson’s interview:
Putting on an Inter Arma album has always felt like stepping into an extreme music Big Top Circus; above your head a spiraling blackened odyssey balances on the high wire, in the globe of death a prog metal mystery revs its engine, and sitting in the sawdust some vintage blues fretwork crawls to life.
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Amiensus — Reclamation: Part 1 | M-Theory Audio | Progressive Metal + Black Metal | United States
Amiensus plants one foot in progressive metal and hover the other foot above black metal. There are some vestiges of the latter on tracks like “Reverie,” but it’s a tad too clean and professional to feel like more than an influence. Incidentally, this works well for Reclamation: Part 1 by giving it some claws amidst its prettier passages and fantastical structures.
–Colin Dempsey
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Glassing — From the Other Side of the Mirror | Pelagic Records | Doom Metal + Post-Hardcore + Black Metal + Post-Metal | United States (Austin, Texas)
From Colin Dempsey’s premiere:
[Glassing’s] dynamic has never been as accessible as it is on From the Other Side of the Mirror, a more commanding effort than their previous record, 2021’s Twin Dream, with the first three tracks aiming to punch your teeth out. “Circle Down,” the album’s third single, dials down the muscle to writhe in the gaps between post-hardcore, screamo, and black metal, at least at the onset. Halfway through, Glassing can’t help but shovel more of their overpowering riffs into your mouth.
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Pulverised — Master’s Personae | Pulverised Records | Death Metal | Indonesia
You should handle Master’s Personae with gloves because it is scorching. Everything about the Indonesian death metal group’s fourth album is seemingly burning, perhaps because it’s so rough around the edges that it’s generating friction. Nothing on it is operating at less than 100% capacity, and given the end results, nothing should.
–Colin Dempsey
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Fluisteraars — Manifestaties van de Ontworteling | Eisenwald | Black Metal | Netherlands
This Dutch duo’s bracing experiments in black metal now extend to dropping the sub-genre altogether, with Bob Mollema and the splendidly-named Mink Koops pledging themselves here to an immersive arthouse ritual conjured in cahoots with analogue synth ace Simon Claessen. From a viscous sludge of bulging drones surface a surreal flotsam of ceremonial gong chimes, electro-charged bird chorus and wonky arpeggios issued from a hollowbody guitar, absurdly churning in dark ambient abstraction like some Lautréamont-sponsored sound-bath, a bizarro phantasmagoria swimming in freakish sharks.
–Spencer Grady
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Freeways — Dark Sky Sanctuary | Dying Victims Productions | Hard Rock | Canada
If you’re looking for ’70s worship, Freeways’ second record is for you. Like its predecessor (2020’s True Bearings), Dark Sky is throwback ay eff, all the way down to the humid production and boogie-woogie groove. It’s a lotta fun, too: tightly arranged proto-metal filled with catchy melodies and tasteful leadwork. The cover’s all you really need to evaluate—you can practically smell the cigarettes and stale beer. Indeed, Freeways just wanna have a good time, and they’re inviting you along. How perfectly Canadian.
–Steve Lampiris
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ACxDC — G.O.A.T. | Prosthetic Records | Grindcore | United States (Los Angeles, California)
In which the L.A.-based powerviolence/grindcore quartet unleashes another collection of feral rage bashed out with stunning urgency: 17 songs in 23 minutes. Themes from 2014’s self-titled debut—systemic racism in policing, misogyny, troll culture, self-righteousness among the far-left—return here because the problems weren’t fixed in the interim. Hence the seeming nihilism of the record (“I see that nothing’s changed / What could I have ever done / To change the end result?”). In reality, ACxDC are simply expressing the exasperation that these problems still exist. Listening to G.O.A.T. probably won’t solve any of them, but its anger is pretty fucking cathartic.
–Steve Lampiris
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Full of Hell — Coagulated Bliss | Closed Casket Activities | Grindcore + Noise + Death Metal | United States (Ocean City, Maryland)
The latest Full of Hell record has far more going for it than I can fit in a simple blurb, but it’s definitely their strongest record yet. From overlapping noise and experimental moments to heavy, catchy riffs, this is not an album to miss.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Deicide — Banished By Sin | Reigning Phoenix Music | Death Metal | United States (Tampa, Florida)
There has been a lot of hype around this record already, not all of it good. Many are annoyed by the AI art on the cover, but if you actually stop to listen to the music, this is a heavy record and a great summation of their career so far. Make sure not to skip this one if you’re a death metal fan.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Morgul Blade — Heavy Metal Wraiths | No Remorse Records | Heavy + Black Metal | United States (Philadelphia, PA)
What sets Morgul Blade apart is their indifference to genre allegiance — although they’ve dialed up the black metal elements on their latest album, Heavy Metal Wraiths is really just about meshing fantasy and metal together without compromise or pretense.
–Ted Nubel
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Black Tusk — The Way Forward | Season of Mist | Sludge Metal | United States (Savannah, GA)
If you like your sludge terminally infested with punk, Black Tusk is still the go-to outlet. Beyond their raging discontent, you’ll also find complex songwriting and some unusual sonic construction — personally, I love the huge yet boxy drums and the weird little synth bits in there.
–Ted Nubel
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Tombstoner — Rot Stink Rip | Redefining Darkness Records | Death Metal | United States (New York City)
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Rot Stink Rip”:
The band’s sonic density — two guitars, two vocals, everything punchy as all hell — thrives in this rancid landscape of far-flung, gore-drenched scenarios and aggravated nihilism. It almost feels like a mathematical constraint: their cranked-up approach to death metal demands similarly exhilarating subject matter. That isn’t to say that this ventures into comedy or pure absurdity — the New York crew offer a hard-to-imitate mix of blood-spattered satire and dead-serious violence.
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