Whether this was a good week for you or an absolute shit show one thing is for sure, things will never be the same. Uncertainty abounds, tempers are raging at an all time high and patience is in increasingly short supply but there is one thing we must never forget: be good to each other. If metal pleases you — since you’re here I’m assuming this is the case — this week’s new releases will raise your spirits, plus as we ease further into January the list of offerings grows. Cioran offer up a raging menace of black metal and punk on Bestiale Battito Divino, on Not For Music Belgium’s Emptiness paint a dark and harrowing picture of experimental black metal, with only four songs on Samskaras‘ excellent EP Asunder the band convince anyone not fully on the technical death metal train to take another look and Parius also amaze with only four songs of melodic and hard charging death metal on Let There Be Light. But wait, there’s more after the jump.

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Cioran – Bestiale Battito Divino (Caligari Records) – blackened punk metal [full review]

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Emptiness – Not for Music (Season of Mist) – black metal, death metal

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Samskaras – Asunder, EP (Independent) – technical death metal

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Parius – Let There Be Light, EP (Independent) – melodic death metal

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Also on tap:

Ashenspire – Speak Not of the Laudanum Quandary (code666) – avantgarde metal

Balfor – Black Serpent Rising (Drakkar Productions) – black metal

Bill + Phil – Songs of Darkness and Despair (Housecore Records) – experimental

Brutal Unrest – Trinitas (Hammerheart Records) – death metal

Dakhma – Suna Kulto (Halo of Flies) – black, crust, grind

Ecferus – Shamaniacal Essence, EP, CD (Hellthrasher Productions) –  black metal

Endalok – Úr Draumheimi Viourstyggoar (Signal Rex) – black metal

Frozen Sand – Fractals: A Shadow Out Of Lights (Independent) – progressive metal

Infernal Angels – Ars Goetia (My Kingdom Music) – blackened death metal

Memoriam – The Hellfire Demos II, 7” (Nuclear Blast) – death metal

Terrifier – Weapons of Thrash Destruction (Test Your Metal) – thrash metal

Twingiant/Into The Storm – Split (Tridroid Records) – sludge

Uniform Choice – Screaming For Change, Reissue (Southern Lord) – hardcore

Witchmaster/Voidhanger – Razing the Shrines of Optimism, Split (Third Eye Temple) – black metal, thrash

– Josh