My weekend festivities consisted of healthy doses of horror and metal, as it should. How many of you caught the new Halloween? I thought they did a great job with it and the fact that they packed it with stuff for fans of the original was a definite plus. And I’ll leave it at that in case you haven’t seen it yet. As for the metal, read on to see what’s in store this week…

Hate Eternal are back with their seventh full length of wildly technical but oh so good death metal on Upon Desolate Sands – I’m not calling it a triumph over Infernus yet but Rutan and co. kill it as usual. No matter what camp of Bloodbath you frequent the most, their fifth full length The Arrow of Satan Is Drawn offers enough horror fueled Swedeath for any and all parties, I dig it. Norway’s Sjukdom keep it frosty with 90s style black metal but offer just enough melodicism to trip my trigger on Stridshymmer Og Dodssalmer and Oregon’s Megaton Leviathan turn the psychedelic drone of Mage into an entrancing ritual which makes it a worthy successor to their stunning Past 21: Beyond the Arctic Cell.

AND there is much, much more to sink your teeth into so get in there…

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Hate Eternal – Upon Desolate Sands (Season of Mist) – death metal [full review]

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Bloodbath – The Arrow of Satan Is Drawn (Peaceville) – death metal [full review]

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Sjukdom – Stridshymmer Og Dodssalmer (Osmose Productions) – black metal

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Megaton Leviathan – Mage (Blood Music) – psych / drone / doom [full review]

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Also on tap:

Alms – Act One (Shadow Kingdom) – doom

Avast – Mother Culture (Dark Essence Records) – post-black metal [feature review]

Barús – Drowned (Memento Mori) – death metal

Blood Chalice – S/T, Demo Reissue (Blood Harvest) – black metal

Cognitive – Matricide (Unique Leader) – brutal death metal

Culled – Thin the Herd, Fail to Learn (Hibernation Release) – sludge / grind

Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want (Ipecac Recordings) – noise rock

Deathtura – Division (WormHoleDeath) – thrash

Dedpool – Lifecircle (Boersma Records) – groove metal

Dethgod – Disease Called Humans (Independent) – death metal

Devouring Star – The Arteries of Heresy (Dark Descent) – black metal

Dissentience – Mask of Pretense (Independent) – thrash

Eneferens – The Bleakness Of Our Constant (Bindrune / Nordvis) – progressive doom

Evil – The Gate of Hell (Nuclear War Now! Productions) – thrash

Eye of Nix – Black Somnia (Prophecy Productions) – avantgarde metal

Glacial Tomb – S/T (Gilead Media) – death metal [feature review]

Godless – Swarm, EP (Moshpit Productions) – death / thrash

Hissing – Permanent Destitution (Profound Lore) – death metal

Icarus Witch – Goodbye Cruel World (Cleopatra Records) – heavy metal

Into Eternity – The Sirens (M-Theory Audio) – heavy metal [full review]

Iron Lamb – Blue Haze (The Sign Records) – rock

Iron Void – Excalibur (Shadow Kingdom) – doom

Kraanium – Slamchosis (Comatose Music) – brutal death metal

Languish – Unworthy (Prosthetic Records) – death metal

Leonov – Wake (Fysisk Format) – doom

Memnon Sa & Miser – Pillars of Tiamat (Astral Noize) – drone

Miserable – Loverboy (Sargent House) – doom rock

Morbid Messiah – Demoniac Paroxysm (Memento Mori) – death metal

Nechochwen – The Ancient Pulse (Nordvis) – folk metal

Nekromant – The Nekromant Lives (Ripple Music) – heavy metal

Nochnoy Dozor – S/T (Prophecy Productions) – ambient / experimental

Nothgard – Malady X (Metal Blade) – melodic death metal

Ophidian Forest – votIVe (code666) – black metal

Outlaw – Marauders (High Roller Records) – heavy metal

Outre – Hollow Earth (Debemur Morti Productions) – black / death

Pandiscordian Necrogenesis – Outer Supernal (Gilead Media) – black metal [feature review]

Putrisect – Cascading Inferno (Blood Harvest) – death metal

Rapheumets Well – The Elder’s Anthology (Test Your Metal Records) – orchestral metal

Rising – Sword and Scythe (Indisciplinarian) – heavy metal

Ruin – Human Annihilation (Memento Mori) – death metal

Samskaras – Lithification, EP (Independent) – progressive tech death

Serocs – The Phobos / Deimos Suite (Everlasting Spew) – technical death metal

Silver Grime – Healed By the Dark (Inverse Records) – doom

Sirenia – Arcane Astral Aeons (Napalm Records) – symphonic metal

Skepticism – Stormcrowfleet, Reissue (Svart Records) – doom

Skull Fist – Way of the Road (Napalm Records) – heavy metal

Slasher Dave – Frights (20 Buck Spin) – horror synth

Sorrowful Land – I Remember (Solitude Productions) – death / doom

Street Sects – The Kicking Mule (The Flenser) – post-punk

Sumeru – Summon Destroyer (Medusa Crush Recordings) – doom

Sunrunner – Ancient Art of Survival (Minotauro Records) – progressive metal

Swilson – S/T (Vanishing Point Records) – rock [profile]

Texas Metal Outlaws – S/T (Heaven and Hell / Texas Metal Underground) – heavy metal

The Dahmers – Down In the Basement (Lövely Records) – rock

The Order of Apollyon – Moriah (Agonia) – black / death

The Wizards – Rise of the Serpent (High Roller Records) – hard rock

Unleashed – The Hunt For White Christ (Napalm Records) – death metal

Vanik – II Dark Season (Shadow Kingdom) – heavy metal

Various Artists – Brown Acid: The Seventh Trip (RidingEasy) – proto-rock

Viva Death – Illuminate (Functional Equivalent Recordings) – alt-rock

Warrel Dane – Shadow Work (Century Media) – heavy metal

Wasted Theory – Warlords of the New Electric (Argonauta) – doom / stoner

Weltschmerz – Illustra Nos (Redefining Darkness Records) – black metal

William Wallace – How Gods Are Made (Independent) – metalcore

Wills Dissolve – The Heavens Are Not On Fire (Independent) – progressive metal [profile]

– Josh