Here are all the new releases for March 30th to April 5th. 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 3/30 – 4/5
Aldaaron — Par-delà les cimes | Paragon Records | Black Metal | France (Grenoble)
On their fifth, record, Aldaaron shout black metal proclamations from mountaintops, with their voice carrying down to the valleys below. While rooted in the melodic black metal of Dissection, Par-delà les cimes is all about scale. These tracks feel huge even though they’re conjoined segments of gnarly 90s worship.
–Colin Dempsey
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Mizmor & Hell — Alluvian | Gilead Media | Doom Metal + Black Metal | United States (Oregon)
Mizmor and Hell have a storied history together, often performing on each other’s albums and supporting one another on stage, but this is their first full collaborative album in a decade. Unsurprisingly, both acts sound reenergized given this context. Also unsurprisingly, it’s about surviving the throes of mental illness, though they do not lean upon doom’s slow-churning as a stand-in for depression. Mental illness is as much about the specific condition as it is one’s frustration with their condition, and Alluvian tap into that with slow-cooked black metal that falls off the bone.
–Colin Dempsey
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Ancient Mastery — Chapter Three: The Forgotten Realm of Xul’Gothar | Northern Silence Productions | Black Metal | Austria (Vienna)
Ancient Mastery is one of Erech Leleth’s many projects. He’s responsible for one of last year’s best and most overlooked black metal records. However, under this moniker, he dons a dungeon master’s garb and spins black metal tales so epic that they require maps. Suffice to say, it’s nerdy, though admirably so. You couldn’t make metal this cavalier and jovial while trying to keep it cool, and Chapter Three: The Forgotten Realm of Xul’Gothar is all the better for it.
–Colin Dempsey
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Fluisteraas — Kronieken Van Het Verdwenen Kasteel – III – Grunsfoort | Eisenwald | Black Metal | Netherlands (Bennekom)
As the third and final entry in the Kronieken Van Het Verdwenen Kasteel trilogy, Fluisteraas wrap up their trek through the Grunsfoort Castle by inspecting the surrounding marsh and searching for ghosts. While that sounds like the ideal set-up for a drone album, all available information indicates that it will be a return to freaky and raw black metal. So, to those let down by last year’s Manifestaties van de ontworteling, rejoice!
–Colin Dempsey
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Chestcrush — ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ | Independent | Blackened Death Metal | Scotland (Edinburgh)
If you dropped ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ on the ground, it’d leave a crater. Chestcrush’s second album is unbelievably heavy and dense, without much in the way of dynamics or melodies to soften the blow. Of course, that’s intentional. The group frontloads their weight for maximum punching power and concentrates on their black metal-tinged riffs and modern vocal affectations. These two factors alone give Chestcrush an identity apart from other cavernous death metal bands.
–Colin Dempsey
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Lo-Pan — Get Well Soon | Magnetic Eye Records | Stoner Rock | United States (Columbus, OH)
Like any stoner rock band around for two decades really ought to, Lo-Pan has done some growing up. Not that there was anything wrong with their high-volume, frenetic origins, but the increased awareness of dynamics and vocal complexity only makes them rock even harder.
–Ted Nubel
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Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs — Death Hilarious | Missing Piece Records | Stoner Metal + Hard Rock | United Kingdom
The new album by these seven-worded avant-garde stoner rockers pushes the genre out of its safe space while leaving a safety rope of sinewy riffs behind for listeners to cling to. Also, given that legendary MC El-P shows up on this for a feature, I think we need to seriously contemplate the existence of nu-stoner rock.
–Ted Nubel
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Tómarúm — Beyond Obsidian Euphoria | Prosthetic Records | Progressive Black Metal | United States (Atlanta, GA)
File this one under your list of ‘black metal bands that involve contrabass’ – which is probably a short list. The Atlanta-based black metal group dive deep into progressive waters on this album, experimenting with rich synth layers and classical interludes both to frame and contrast their high-intensity metal underpinnings.
–Ted Nubel
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