Well, hello there, friends! It’s time for another round of MEEEEEEEEE! [laughs maniacally] Much like the rest of the world, the team’s been stretched a bit thin in all the wrong places this last week or so, so here I am to help re-thicken that stretch (“save the day” would be giving me entirely too much credit) with an Initial Descent post.

And what an Initial Descent post to have chosen! Because friends, we’ve got us some power metal this week. We start with German alphas Powerwolf (get it?), who return with the new full length, Wake Up the Wicked. If you could look at the header picture above and not immediately identify them as “extremely my shit,” then you don’t know me nearly well enough. We’ve also got the return of Ironflame! The prolific Ohio heroes are back with Kingdom Torn Asunder, which is – somehow – their fifth full-length in just seven years. I still don’t love their new logo, but I’m pumped as all hell for this thing. Next up is State Faults, who return with Children of the Moon. If you’ve heard our recent Albums-of-the-Half-Year (AOTHY?) podcast, you’ll know that Vince is particularly stoked for this one — and if our boy’s happy, we’re happy! Finally, uhh… I guess Ghost made a movie? Maybe? Something like that? Satan bless ‘em. Either way, the soundtrack to said movie, Rite Here, Rite Now, is also out this week, if that’s your kinda thing.

As usual, that’s just the very tip of the new release iceberg for this week. Wanna see what else is on tap? Jump right in…

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Powerwolf – Wake Up the Wicked (Napalm) – symphonic power metal

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Ironflame – Kingdom Torn Asunder (High Roller) – heavy/power metal

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State Faults – Children of the Moon (Deathwish Inc.) – post-hardcore

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Ghost – Rite Here, Rite Now (Loma Vista) – hard rock / heavy metal

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Also on tap:

Absorb – Smog – EP (Hypaethral) – death / doom

Art of Atrition – …And It Will All End Forever (self-released) – blackened technical deathcore

Battlefront – Among The Corpses (Sliptrick Records) – glamcore

Beyond All Hope – Life Cycles (Total Deathcore Affiliated) – progressive metalcore

Brain Pain – The Magazine (Argonauta Records) – heavy rock

Category 7 – Category 7 (Metal Blade) – heavy metal

Coldcell – Age of Unreason (AOP Records) – black metal

Culled – Psycles (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions) – sludge/doom/grind

Death Racer – From Gravel to Grave (Dying Victims Productions) – speed metal

Defacement – Duality (Avantgarde) – black / death

Demon Spell – Evil Nights (Dying Victims Productions) – heavy metal

Dream Evil – Metal Gods (Century Media) – heavy metal

Duskwalker – Underground Forever (Black Lion Records) – death metal

El Supremo – Signor Morte Improvvisa (Argonauta) – psych rock

Goat Semen – Fuck Christ (Hells Headbangers) – black/death

Gods & Punks – Death (Electric Valley Records) – stoner rock/doom

Grid – The World Before Us (self-released) – post-metal

Herzblut – Radikal Verliebt (Dead Serious Records) – punk

Kahfa – Le poison et la reine (Argonauta Records) – rock

Krypt – Great Spawn of the Worms of the Earth – EP (Terminus Hate City) – black / death

Intolerance – Waking Nightmares of an Endless Void (Memento Mori / Godz ov War) – death metal

Krypticy – The Non-Return (Memento Mori / Godz ov War) – death metal

Laceration – I Erode (20 Buck Spin) – death metal

L’Espectre Que Alimenta La Flama Dels Ancestres – Funesta Epifania (Negra Nit) – dark ambient black metal

Mayhemic – Toba (Sepulchral Voice) – thrash

Mean Mistreater – Razor Wire (Dying Victims Productions) – heavy metal

Mountaineer – Dawn and All That Follows (A Thousand Arms / Dunk! Records) – post-metal

Nether – The Blood of Rats (Void Wanderer Productions) – black metal

Øresund Space Collective – Orgone Unicorn (Laser’s Edge) – improv prog

Orpheus Omega – Emberglow (WormHoleDeath) – melodic death metal

Pohl – Mysteries (Wrong Speed Records) – noise rock

Respire – Hiraeth (Dine Alone Records) – black / screamo

Sacri Monti – Retrieval (Tee Pee Records) – psych/prog rock

Show Me a Dinosaur – Plantgazer (AOP Records) – blackgaze

Soulbound – obsYdian (Metalville) – industrial metal

Spacecorpse – Shapeshifter (self-released) – tech death

Spread Thin – World of Snakes (self-released) – hardcore

Summoning the Lich – Under The Reviled Throne (Prosthetic Records) – tech death

The Other Sun – Daimon, Devil, Dawn (The Ajna Offensive) – dark / occult

Tyraels Ascension – Hell Walker (Rottweiler Records) – progressive deathcore

Verni – Dreadful Company (M-Theory Audio) – punk

Void Witch – Horripilating Presence (Everlasting Spew) – death / doom

Wizard Tattoo – Living Just For Dying (Garage Fire Recordings) – progressive metal

Wormwitch – Wormwitch (Profound Lore) – black metal

Wraithfyre – Of Fell Peaks and Haunted Chasms (Naturmacht Productions) – black metal

Wurm Flesh – Teratogenic Malformation (Comatose Music) – brutal death

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Keep it heavy,
—Dan