It’s Initial Descent time which means another list of new metal for your earholes. The quality is still high so count your blessings. Or don’t. 

My love of noise rock runs deep but up until this point in the year nothing has really grabbed me by the throat. Ohio’s Night Goat offer up a scorching debut that has everything I need to call it THE noise rock album of the year; it’s loud, visceral, nasty, and has an unshakeable darkness to it – in other words, perfect. In Human Form put the A in avantgarde with an even larger batch of 70s prog to go with their forward thinking black metal, and NEDXXX cash in on the whole ‘sent by the devil to do the devil’s work’ schtick with the kind of black metal that sounds like ol’ scratch himself puked it up. Put those three in your pipe and smoke them but don’t forget about the rest that await immediately below. GO.

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Night Goat – Milk (Independent) – noise rock [profile]

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In Human Form – III (I, Voidhanger) – avantgarde

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NEDXXX – S/T (NoEvDia) – black metal

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Also on tap:

Arkona – Age of Capricorn (Debemur Morti Productions) – black metal

Benighted In Sodom – Carrier of Poison Apples (I, Voidhanger) – gothic metal

Bethledeign – Iconography of Suffering (Independent) – extreme

Calibre – The Storm Inside (Downfall) – metalcore

Cancer Clan / Desteufels – Split (Merciless) – metal / punk

Comando Praetorio – Ignee Sacertá Ctonie (ATMF) – black metal

Conjurer / Palm Reader – Split (Holy Roar) – post-metal / hardcore

Death Wolf – IV: Come the Dark (Blooddawn Productions) – death / punk

Fjældmark / Wintarslāf – Split (Trepanation Recordings) – dungeon synth 

Halphas – The Infernal Path Into Oblivion (Folter) – black metal

Hellknife – Dusk of Doom (WOOAAARGH) – crust

Horrified – Sentinel (Testimony) – progressive death metal

In Obscurity Revealed – Glorious Impurity (Blood Harvest) – black / death

Insanity – Moneyfest (Bastardized Recordings) – hardcore

Iron Curtain – Danger Zone (Dying Victims Productions) – speed / thrash

Israthoum – Arrows From Below (New Era) – black metal

Lifvsleda – Manifest MMXIX (Shadow / Regain) – black metal

Mosaic – Secret Ambrosian Fire (Eisenwald) – ambient

My Funeral – Graveblaster (Independent) – thrash

Neverland In Ashes – The Human Experience (Independent) – metalcore

Nightbearer – Tales of Sorcery and Death (Testimony) – death metal

Nova – Veniamo Dal Cielo (ATMF) – pagan black metal

Oath of Cruelty – Summary Execution at Dawn (Dark Descent) – death / thrash

Officium Triste – The Death of Gaia (Transcending Obscurity) – doom

Oni – Alone, EP (Metal Blade Records) – progressive metal

Resonance – Out of the Silence (Inverse) – modern metal

Shredder 1984 – Resistance (Lazerdiscs) – dark synthwave

Skullcrush – Archaic Towers of Annihilation (Redefining Darkness / Raw Skull) – death metal

Solace – The Brink (Blues Funeral Recordings) – metal

The River – Vessels Into White Tides (Nine) – doom

Trajeto de Cabra – Supreme Command of Satanic Will (Iron Bonehead) – war metal

Voltumna – Ciclope (Extreme Metal Music) – black / death

Wacht – La mort (Auric) – black metal

Xantam – Altered State (Blood Harvest) – black / death

– Josh