Darkness falls way too early now and it feels as though there’s not enough time to get anything done. Yea, I’m complaining a bit but honestly I hate the time change. But on the plus side, this is the time of year I always seem to revisit some of my favorite frostbitten and grim metal albums but also revel in finding new favorites as well. And with that let’s get to it. Leading us off this week is the astounding Pain Will Define Their Death EP from death metallers Vitriol and believe me when I say these three tracks WILL turn your head, Cloak offer up their charred and extremely addictive take on heavy metal with debut To Venomous Depths, Somnuri also offer up a great full length debut with Somnuri which is sludgy, noisy, heavy and forward thinking — hard to pin down but fun to try, and Swedeath torch runners Under the Church return with their second full length Supernatural Punishment which, astoundingly, bests their ridiculously good debut. Well, I’m off to see Primitive Man and life is good. Dive in and stick around for awhile, there is much to explore…

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Vitriol – Pain Will Define Their Death, EP (Independent) – death metal [feature, interview]

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Cloak – To Venomous Depths (Season of Mist) – black / heavy metal

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Somnuri – S/T (Magnetic Eye) – sludge / noise / hardcore [feature, full review]

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Under the Church – Supernatural Punishment (Pulverised Records) – death metal

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Also on tap: 

Ah Ciliz / Chiral – Origins, Split (Hypnotic Dirge / Throats Productions) – atmospheric black metal

Amberian Dawn – Darkness of Eternity (Napalm Records) – symphonic metal

Apartment 213 – Cleveland Power Violence (Magic Bullet Records) – powerviolence

Asylum 8 – Repressed (Inverse Records) – industrial

AUÐN – Farvegir Fyrndar (Season of Mist) – black metal

Axis – Shift (Good Fight Records) – metallic hardcore

Bark – Like Humans Do (Suburban) – extreme

Blackwater – Weltgeist Corrupted (WOOAAARGH) – death / grindcore

Bruno Merz – Breathe Less (Independent) – bohemian folk pop

Deity – S/T (Independent) – death metal

Desolate Shrine – Deliverance from the Godless Void (Dark Descent) – black / doom

Devilpriest – Devil Inspired Chants (Pagan Records) – black / death

(Dolch) – III – Songs of Happiness, Words of Praise (Ván Records) – atmospheric

Edge of Haze – Deluge (Independent) – progressive metal

Funeral Hearse – The Fist, The Spit, The Sword, EP (Redifining Darkness) – black metal

Hornwood Fell – My Body, My Time (Avantgarde Music) – black metal

Impureza – La Caida De Tonatiuh (Season of Mist) – extreme death metal

Lionheart – Welcome to the West Coast II (Fast Break! Records) – hardcore

Luna – Swallow Me Leaden Sky (Solitude Productions) – funeral doom/death

Monotrope – Unifying Receiver (New Atlantis Records) – dark post-rock

Moonlight Prophecy – Vanquished (Independent) – thrash [feature]

Mortiis – Født til a herske, Remastered (Foreign Sounds) – black metal

Nekrasov – The Mirror Void (Prosthetic Records) – black metal / electronic

Pale Mare – S/T (Medusa Crush Recordings) – sludge

Poison Pill – S/T (Sliptrick) – metal

Purple Hill Witch – Celestial Cemetary (The Church Within Records) – psych doom 

Serpentrance – The Besieged Sanctum (Blood Harvest) – black / death

Spook the Horses – People Used to Live Here (Pelagic Records) – post-rock / metal

The Moth – Hysteria (This Charming Man Records) – sludge

The Offering – S/T, EP (Century Media) – progressive metal

The Reed Effect – A Strange Curiosity, EP (Independent) – grunge / psych rock

V – Pathogenisis (Suicide Records) – sludge / doom

Vhäldemar – Against All Kings (Fighter Records) – metal

Witchery – I Am Legion (Century Media) – black / thrash

– Josh