As we get deeper in the year the metal just gets better and better. And amazingly, it hasn’t been shabby to this point so count your blessings folks. The list gets a little longer each week from here on out and I could’ve easily put way more than four up here. Be sure to stick around at the end of the list for picks from last week we missed but have since rectified it with extended listening sessions and vinyl purchases. Yea, I’m that guy AND I’ve got tapes too. Nerd.

Anyway, kicking these festivities off in a raucous way is the debut, Death Sentence, from England’s Exxxecutioner and if you thought this was porno grind you’re dead wrong. It’s eight tracks of kick ass blackened speed metal perfect for a night of drunken debauchery. Next up is one of NY’s shining death metal legends, Internal Bleeding, and thank Satan the brutish death contained within Corrupting Influence is so much better than that artwork, just sayin’. Following that is Outre-Tomb with Nécrovortex and good god almighty this is down and dirty morbid death that needs to be in your ears, NOW. Switching it up a bit, tempo wise, is Domkraft‘s Flood which flips the Neurosis meets Ufomammut switch but adds major apocalyptic heft which makes for a devastating second effort.

So, crushing top slots here but fear not as there’s more where that came from directly below…

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Exxxekutioner – Death Sentence (Ulthar) – black / thrash

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Internal Bleeding – Corrupting Influence (Unique Leader) – death metal

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Outre-Tombe – Nécrovortex (Temple of Mystery) – death metal

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Domkraft – Flood (Blues Funeral Records) – doom

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Also on tap:

Ace Frehley – Spaceman (eOne) – rip it out

Adverso – Ex Inanis (Purodium Records) – black metal

Antiverse – Under the Regolith (Seeing Red Records) – death / thrash

Airion – Life Is Not Beautiful (AFM) – symphonic metal

Ascaris – The Raised Hand (Independent) – death metal

Be the Wolf – Empress (Scarlet Records) – hard rock

Black Lotus – Sons of Saturn (Inverse Records) – doom

Bonfire – Legends (AFM) – heavy metal

Brain Oil – Singularity To Extinction (Tankcrimes) – sludge

Castle – Deal Thy Fate (Ripple Music) – doom / heavy metal

Crimson Throne – Of Void & Solitude (Apocalyptic Witchcraft) – atmospheric black metal

Crystalmoors / Hordak – Split (Casus Belli / Beverina) – pagan metal

Dark Ocean Society – Hymns for the Last Man (Independent) – doom / sludge / post metal

Deadly Carnage – Through the Void, Above the Suns (Snow Wave Records / ATMF) – melodic doom

Death On Fire / Corpse Paint and Dayglo – Hope (Independent) – death metal

Dirge – Ah Puch (Independent) – sludge / doom

Drowning In You – Hope Is Here (Boersma Records) – metalcore

Dwarrowdelf – The Sons of Fëanor (Folkvangr Records) – atmospheric black metal

Eadem – Luguber (Iron Bonehead) – black metal

Entropy Created Consciousness – Impressions of the Morning Star (Folkvangr Records) – black metal

Erosion – Maximum Suffering (Hydra Head) – hardcore / death / thrash

Eternal Khan – Isolate, Dishearten and Kill, EP (Independent) – black metal

Gematria – S/T (Nefarious Industries) – progressive metal

Gorod – Aethra (Overpowered) – progressive death metal

Greyhawk – Ride Out (Independent) – heavy metal

Haiduk – Exomancer (Independent) – black / death

Hatesphere – Reduced To Flesh (Scarlet Records) – thrash

Heir Apparent – The View From Below (No Remorse Records) – metal

Imperialist – Cipher (Transcending Obscurity) – black metal

Karmic Link – Dark Metropolis (Rockshots Records) – industrial metal

Kyprian’s Circle – Noitatulen vartija (Werewolf Records) – black metal

Malacoda – Restless Dreams (Rockshots Records) – symphonic power metal

Malepeste / Dysylumn – Ce qui fut, ce qui est, ce qui sera, Split (Goathorned Productions) – black metal

Merzbow / Genesis Breyer P-Orridge – A Perfect Pain (Cold Spring) – avantgarde

Moab – Trough (Falling Dome Records) – psych rock/metal

MoE / Marhaug – Capsaicin (Utech Records) – metal

Musta Paraati – Black Parade (Cleopatra Records) – post-punk

Praying Angel – The Judgement (Boersma Record) – modern metal

Resumed – Year Zero (Mighty Music) – tech / prog death metal

Sacral Rage – Beyond Celestial Echoes (Cruz Del Sur Music) – speed metal

Satan’s Satyrs – The Lucky Ones (RidingEasy / Bad Omen) – sleaze rock

Sex Messiah – Eastern Cult of Sodomy (Nuclear War Now! Productions) – metal / punk

Soul Dissolution – nowhere, EP (GS Productions) – atmospheric post-black metal

Sundrifter – Visitations (Small Stone) – desert rock

Tezcatlipoca – Tlayohualtlapelani (Iron Bonehead) – black metal

Thrawsunblat – IV: Great Brunswick Forest (Ignitera Records) – black / folk [interview, profile]

Tommy Concrete – Unrelaxed (Howling Invocations) – progressive metal [profile]

Valdur – Goat of Iniquity (Bloody Mountain Records) – black / death

Valley Lodge – Fog Machine (Tee Pee Records) – rock

Voidhaven – S/T (Solitude Productions) – death / doom

Whispering Sons – Image (Cleopatra) – post-punk

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And, a quad of GLARING omissions from last week that demand to be heard…

Aeternus – Heathen (Dark Essence Records) – dark metal

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Crypteria – S/T (Independent) – death metal

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Outer Heaven – Realms of Eternal Decay (Relapse) – death metal

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Sargeist – Unbound (WTC Productions / Blut & Eisen Prod.) – black metal

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Yea, I know we’re breaking the rules here but when the music is this good it absolutely cannot go unnoticed and rules are meant for breaking. Period. Come at me.

– Josh