It’s Saturday and that means a lot of things for a lot of folks but for us it means NEW METAL. And once again we are stacked beyond ceiling height with it this week. Triumvir Foul leads us off (because they rule) with their second full length, Spiritual Bloodshed, and it finds them once again displaying some dangerous death metal chops but it’s darker than their first and they sound better than ever, you know what to do. Next up is the perfect soundtrack for a Saturday with Space Witch‘s space prog take on the stoner doom metal genre Arcanum and the band actually does the impossible in this crowded scene — they stand out! Rolling on is Abrams who truly find their identity with a career defining heavy rock album on Morning, it’s heavy and beautiful and well…I could go on but trust me here — GET IT. Anathema return with a further journey into their moody, melodic and astounding alt-rock on The Optimist and old school death metal darlings Necrot with their debut full length Blood Offerings — and I use darlings here because this band has that something special when it comes to bringing the death metal of yesteryear screaming into 2017. They combine all the high points from their limited material thus far into a fist pumping, hair raising album. But wait, there’s more — much, much more so dive in and find all the gems this week has to offer.

Triumvir Foul – Spiritual Bloodshed (Invictus/Vrasubatlat) – death metal [full review]

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Space Witch – Arcanum (HeviSike Records) – stoner doom [full review]

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Abrams – Morning (Sailor Records) – heavy rock [full review]

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Anathema  – The Optimist (Kscope) – ambient post-rock [full review]

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Necrot – Blood Offerings (Tankcrimes/Sentient Ruin) – death metal

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Also on tap:

A Flourishing Scourge – S/T (Begotten Records) – death metal

Anthesis – The Age of Self (Hibernation Release/Ancient Temple) – noise metal

Atavisma – On the Ruins of a Fallen Empire, 7″ EP ( Blood Harvest) – death metal

Atlantean Kodex – The Annihilation of Bavaria, Live (Ván Records) – epic metal

Big Kizz – Eye On You (Tee Pee Records) – rock

Bury the Machines – Wicked Covenant, EP (Midnite Collective) – ambient

Cemetery Urn – S/T (Hells Headbangers) – death metal

Contaminated – Final Man (Blood Harvest) – death metal

Dawn of Ashes – Dæmonolatry Gnosis (Metropolis Records) – black metal

Dead Register – Fiber, Vinyl Release (Throne Records) – doom gaze

Displeased Disfugurement – Origin of Abhorrence (CDN) – brutal death metal, slam

Enragement – Burned, Barren, Bloodstained (Inverse Records) – death metal

Exist – So True, So Bound (Prosthetic Records) – technical death metal

Ghost Toast – Out of This World (Inverse Records) – instrumental progressive rock

Gods Forsaken – In a Pitch Black Grave (Soulseller Records) – death metal

Hollow – Home Is Not Where the Heart Is (Independent) – metalcore

INVSN – The Beautiful Stories (Dine Alone Records) – post-punk

Klabautamann – Smaragd (Zeitgeister Music) – progressive black metal

Knogjärn – Marscherar & Förstör (Big Balls Productions) – metalcore

Logic of Denial – Aftermath (Comatose Music) – brutal death metal

Maim – Ornaments of Severity (Soulseller Records) – death metal

Nuclear Oath – Toxic Playground (Independent) – modern metal

Petyr – S/T (Outer Battery) – psychedelic hard rock

Progenie Terrestre Pura – oltreLuna (Avantgarde Music) – melodic death metal

Raw Power – Inferno ( Demons Run Amok) – hardcore punk

Requiem for Oblivion – Burning Nation (Independent) – tech death

Schammasch – The Maldoror Chants: Hermaphrodite (Prosthetic Records) – avant-garde metal

Solbrud – Vemod (Vendetta/Indisciplinarian) – black metal

Suffocation – …Of the Dark Light (Nuclear Blast) – death metal

Sunspell/Saudade – From the Mist…We Are but Dust, Split (Iron Bonehead) – black metal

Terminal Nation – Absolute Control, EP (Deep Six Records) – powerviolence, grind

The Black Capes – All These Monsters (Dark Tunes) – gothic metal

The White Swan – The White, EP (Independent) – doom metal

Valor – Arrogance: The Fall (Pitch Black Records) – power metal

Vehementor – Replenishment Circle (The Black Spectumfest), 7″ EP (Blood Harvest) – blackened thrash

Vigilance – Hammer of Satan’s Vengeance (Dying Victims Productions) – black/heavy metal

Vokonis – The Sunken Djinn (Ripple Music) – doom metal

Walpyrgus – Walpyrgus Nights (Cruz Del Sur Music) – heavy metal

Wederganger/Urfaust – Split (Ván Records) – black metal

White Skull – Will of the Strong (Dragonheart/Audioglobe) – heavy metal

– Josh