Crossing the threshold of March and this dumpster fire we’re living in just burns hotter and hotter with each new day it seems. Of course each of us can choose how we handle it but it’s infinitely difficult to crawl into a hole and just be. So, we turn to music for an escape. I’ve been doing it for eons and without it…well…I’d surely go insane. Another week and another long list of metal to keep the insanity at bay, thankfully. Kicking things off in grand fashion is Slugdge, the UK’s answer to some of the best progressive death metal you’re likely to hear in the foreseeable future on Esoteric Malacology and somehow this is even better than their last. Next up is Kentucky’s nihilistic and downright vicious doom duo Nest with their debut Metempsychosis. Moving right along with more soul crushing doom is Sixes on their debut Methistopheles and rounding out the opening slots is Oceans of Slumber who do the opposite of crush your soul and instead invite you to search it on their progressive and intriguing The Banished Heart. Just those four alone offer shelter from the raging fires around us but there’s so much more to explore this week and just in time for the weekend. Score. Dive in and enjoy.

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Slugdge – Esoteric Malacology (Willowtip Records) – progressive death metal

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Nest – Metempsychosis (Sludgelord Records) – black / sludge [premiere]

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Sixes – Methistopheles (Black Bow Records) – doom metal [full review]

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Oceans of Slumber – The Banished Heart (Century Media Records) – progressive metal [full review]

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Also on tap:

Ancst – Ghosts Of the Timeless Void (Lifeforce) – black / death

Asta Kask – Historian Dömer OSS Alla, EP (Gaphals) – punk

Black Mass of Absu – Discography 1995 – 2000 (Pulsating Putrefaction) – black metal

Charun – Mundus Cereris (Third I Rex) – black / sludge

Darius – Clôture, EP (Cold Smoke Records / Czar of Revelations) – post metal

Dead Meadow – The Nothing They Need (Xemu) – psych doom

Disembowel – Plagues and Ancient Rites (Iron Bonehead) – black / death

Divine Realm – Nordicity (Independent) – instrumental prog

Galvanizer – Sanguine Vigil (Everlasting Spew Records) – death / grind

Har – Visitation (Blood Harvest) – black metal

Hemelbestormer – A Ring of Blue Light (Ván Records) – black / doom

Ilsa – Corpse Fortress (Relapse Records) – sludge / doom

Imperial Triumphant – Inceste, Vinyl Issue (Redefining Darkness / Temple of Torturous) – avantgarde metal

Infection Code – Dissenso (Argonauta Records) – industrial

Infraktor – Exhaust (Rastilho Metal Records) – thrash

Iron Reagan / Gatecreeper – Split (Relapse Records) – thrash / death

Kudzu – Defeated (Push & Pull Records) – darkwave

Lumnos – Ancient Shadows of Saturn (Flowing Downward) – black metal

Mile Marker Zero – The Fifth Row (Independent) – prog rock

Misrule – Forced To Suffer (Sentient Ruin Laboratories) – black / death grind

Morphcored – Beyond the Kings (CDN Records) – death / thrash

Myrholt – Vinter (Independent) – black metal

Nebula – Dos EPs, Reissues (Heavy Psych Sounds) – desert psych

Nod – Mountain Void (Independent) – doom / occult

Noir – Nuit, EP (Blackened Death) – darkwave

Purest of Pain – Solipsis (Independent) –  melodic death metal

Road to Jerusalem – S/T (ViciSolum Productions) – death metal

Saltas – Currents (Nuclear War Now! Productions) – death metal

Savage Hands – Barely Alive (Sharptone) – hardcore

Sleep In Heads – On the Air (Noizr) – prog metal

Spirals – S/T (Pacific Threnodies) – darkwave

Svartanatt – Starry Eagle Eye (The Sign Records) – classic rock

Voidhanger – Dark Days Of the Soul (Agonia Records) – black / death

VVilderness – Devour the Sun (Casus Belli Musica / Beverina Productions) – atmospheric black metal

Wishing Well – Rat Race (Inverse Records) – rock

Wows – Chakpori, Single (Argonauta Records) – rock

Ziggurat – Ritual Miasma (Blood Harvest) – black / death

– Josh