Our fearless editor Josh is away on vacation, no doubt depleting whatever town will have him of all their bourbon and listening to a fair amount of Waylon Jennings.  That’s how our man rolls, but in the meantime he left me the keys to the kingdom that is Initial Descent!

Which means I get to tell you that the titans of British stoner metal Orange Goblin are back with revolution #9 The Wolf Bites Back, and it’s a raw, chunky blast of hard rock and blissed stoner goodness that will have you quaffing heady ales and adding as much denim as your closet will hold.  Hoth return from a galaxy far, far away to bring their second full length Astral Necromancy, a concept album that, reading between a few lines has me believing this just might pick up with the progeny of the main character from 2014’s Oathbreaker, so if that was your jam you’re probably going to fall for this as well.  Elsewhere Dave Ingram (Ex-Bolt Thrower) and company are back on the third release from Down Among the Dead Men.  The crusty death on …And You Will Obey Me recalls some of the best  old school flavor while pushing past the kids with a deep and brutal modern production.  Finally if I were to pick a little something off the radar to bring to your attention it’s the hazy, occult doom soaked gaze of Frayle, whose debut EP The White Witch eschews stoner mentality and instead infuses its doom roots with a hypnotic vulnerable attack that shows some incredible promise for the future of the genre.  Plus there’s a kickass Portishead cover, so what are you waiting for?  Let’s get into it and let us know in the comments what’s been making your ears go crazy.

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Orange Goblin – The Wolf Bites Back (Candlelight / Spinefarm) – heavy metal

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Hoth – Astral Necromancy (Epicurus Records) – black metal [full review]

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Down Among the Dead Men – …And You Will Obey Me (Transcending Obscurity Records) – death / crust

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Frayle – The White Witch, EP (Seeing Red Records / Lay Bare Recordings) – doom [feature review]

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Also on tap:

Archaic Tomb – Congregations for Ancient Rituals (Caverna Abismal Records) – death metal

Altars of Grief – This Shameful Burden, Deluxe Re-Release (Hypnotic Dirge Records) – doom

ASG – Survive Sunrise (Relapse Records) – rock

Battleroar – Codex Epicus (Cruz Del Sur Music) – power metal

Barren Altar – Entrenched In the Faults of the Earth (Independent) – black / funeral doom

Begat The Nephilim – Begat the Nephilim I: The Surreptitious Prophecy / Mother of the Blasphemy (Unholy Anarchy) – extreme metal

Blasphamagoatachrist – Black Metal Warfare, Cassette (Nuclear War Now! Productions) – black metal

Blood Rites – Demo 1, Cassette (Caverna Abismal Records) – black metal

Blood Worship – Death’s Omnipotence (Independent) – black metal

C.3.3. – Ballad of Reading Gaol – The Cachophonietta (Cold Spring) – industrial

Closet Witch – S/T (Halo of Flies) – grind

Cold Bound – The Gale (Independent) – melodic death metal

Comess – Botched and Failed (Independent) – extreme metal

Count Raven – High on Infinity (Metal Blade) – heavy metal

Count Raven – Messiah of Confusion (Metal Blade) – heavy metal

Crossing Eternity – The Rising World (Rockshots Records) – symphonic power metal

Délétère – De Horae Leprae (Sepulchral Productions) – black metal

Dischordia – Binge / Purge, EP (Independent) – death / mathcore

Dreadful Fate – Vengeance (I Hate Records / To the Death) – thrash

Drowned – 7th (Greyhaze Records) – thrash / death

Enhailer – Dumb Enough To Care, Vinyl (Burnout Records) – doom

Falcun – Kingdom Come (Eat Metal Records) – heavy metal

Fog Light – 2nd Impression (Inverse Records) – fusion rock

Funeral Horse – Psalms for the Mourning (Artificial Head Records) – stoner metal

Funeral Mist – Hekatomb (NoEvDia) – black metal

Goat Disciple – Wolfcult Domination (Blood Harvest) – war metal

Gramma Vedetta – Address Unknown (Independent) – stoner rock

Gyre – Shared Visions (Independent) – metal

Hallig – A Distant Reflection of the Void (Talheim Records) – atmospheric metal

Here Lies Man – You Will Know Nothing (RidingEasy Records) – doom

Jason Charles Miller – In the Wasteland (Red Music / Sony) – outlaw country

Lizzy Borden – My Midnight Things (Metal Blade Records) – heavy metal

Matterhorn – Crass Cleansing, CD (Iron Bonehead) – heavy metal

Mesarthim – The Density Parameter (Avantgarde Music) – atmospheric black metal

Moonreich – Fugue (Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions) – avant black metal

Motorjesus – Race to Resurrection (Drakkar Entertainment) – heavy rock

Obsolete Theory – Mudness (My Kingsom Music) – atmospheric black metal

Progenie Terrestre Pura – starCross, EP (Avantgarde Music) – scifi black metal [feature review]

Scathed – Already Dead (Independent) – crust / d-beat

Shades of Sorrow – Ascension (Sliptrick Records) – metal/rock

Spotlights – Hanging By Faith (Ipecac Recordings) – post-metal

Take Offense – Tensions On High (Demons Run Amok) – hardcore

Tyranno – The Great Homage Night (single) (PRC Music) – heavy metal

Unborn Generation – Vøid (Inverse Records) – grind n’ roll

Vhäldemar – Shadows of Combat, Reissue (Fighter Records) – heavy metal

Void of Silence – The Sky Over (Avantgarde Music) – doom

Woorms / A Hanging – Split (Hospital / Paranoize Records) – noise / hardcore

Words of Concrete – Negative Vibes (BDHW) – hardcore

WRACK – Hollow Sun (Independent) – doom

– Chris