To those of you reading this we hope you are ready for, and have, a good Christmas/holiday/whatever and if you don’t celebrate we hope you have a good…Monday. Whether good, bad or indifferent by the time you read this next week the holiday will have come and gone but the metal will continue on. Speaking of, this week’s metal offerings may be light in the quantity department but there might be a few here that stand to bust your best of 2017 list plans. With that said, let’s get to it — leading us off is the completely captivating atmospheric black metal of Greytomb on Monumental Microcosm. Next up is a blast furnace of death and grind on Combat Grind from Sonic Poison and closing out the opening slots is The Howling Void‘s continued evolution in melancholic doom metal on The Darkness at the Edge of Dawn that truly must be heard to be believed, and yes I know the digital version has been out for a month or so but with the digipack version out this week let this stand as a reminder. Super strong openers here, but there’s a few more just inside that are equally as strong. Dive in…

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Greytomb – Monumental Microcosm (Transcending Obscurity) – atmospheric black metal

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Sonic Poison – Combat Grind (Caligari Records) – death / grind

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The Howling Void – The Darkness at the Edge of Dawn (Avantgarde Music) – doom

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Also on tap:

Blight – The Teachings / Death Reborn (Black Market Metal Label) – black metal

Boia – Chivalry of Death (Caligari Records) – power / necrometal

Centripetal Force – Eidetic, EP (Xtreem Music) – technical thrash

Chronic Xorn – For These Sins Who Must Die (Independent) – deathcore

Circle of Salt – Suffer the Cold, Vinyl Reissue (Avantgarde Music) – atmospheric black metal

Cryptae – S/T, EP – Demo (Sentient Ruin) – experimental death metal

Drawn and Quartered – Feeding Hell’s Furnace, Cassette Reissue (Krucyator Productions) – death metal

Dreadful Fate – The Sin of Sodom, LP Issue (Edged Circle Productions) – thrash metal

Eternal Torment – Blind to Reality (Independent) – death metal

Jarun – Sporysz (Arachnophobia Records) – black / progressive

Ofdrykkja – Irrfärd (Avantgarde Music) – depressive black metal

Shadowmaster – S/T (Seeing Red Records) – stoner doom

Thy Sepulchral Moon – Indignant Force of Great Malevolence (Signal Rex) – black metal

Trono Alem Morte – O Olhar Altento da Escuridao (Harvest of Death / Signal Rex) – black metal

UR – Black Vortex (Arachnophobia Records) – black / heavy metal

– Josh