Good morning, you wicked and divine souls.  Through the magic of WordPress admin rights it only looks like Josh is putting up this week’s Initial Descent.  But in truth it is I, Old Scratch, the Devil himself who has taken over the reins of this post to give you the latest upcoming releases.  Don’t worry: Josh is bound and gagged in the corner with a dozen botflies to keep him company…

Carnal Forge has risen from my depths to vomit forth Gun To Mouth Salvation, their first blast of evil thrash since 2007.  Oh, it is a delicious slice of metal pie!  Do your appetites skewer more…foul?  Then prepare yourselves for Of Worms, a cemetery slab of death doom from Seattle’s Foul bleeding forth on cassette from Caligari Records.  But maybe the death doom doesn’t move you?  You prefer your metal with more noise and static, the better to hear the voices I implant in your head?  Well, Sofy Major have returned from their black mass rituals to take a total dump on you with their new album…uh…Total Dump.  Seriously, I have been playing this to the investment bankers and hedge fund managers we keep in the Fifth Circle of Hell and it elicits the most exquisite screams of agony.  Finally, when I need a little rest and relaxing from all the torture and crossroad bargains I like to cozy up with the latest post-metal goodness from Mono, whose latest Nowhere Now Here lets a little light into this dark and dreary home.

Ah, the botflies have buried their demonic larvae into Josh’s skin.  Read on while I tend to my new children…

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Carnal Forge – Gun to Mouth Salvation (Vicisolum) – thrash

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Foul – Of Worms (Caligari Records) – death / doom

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Sofy Major – Total Dump (Corpse Flower) – noise

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Mono – Nowhere Now Here (Pelagic / Temporary Residence Ltd.) – post-metal

Also on tap:

10:13 – Result of an Iron Age (Independent) – black metal

Altarage – The Approaching Roar (Season of Mist) – black / death

Ars Magna Umbrae – Lunar Ascension (I, Voidhanger) – black metal

Bekmork – Incantations of the Frigid North (Horns High Records) – black metal

Colossus Fall – Earthbeat (Tenacity Music) – metallic hardcore

Dark Mirror ov Tragedy – The Lord ov Shadows (Sliptrick) – symphonic black metal

Devouror – Slay for Satan (Metal Zone Records) – black / death

Dødsfall – Døden Skal Ikke Vente (Osmose Productions) – black metal

Entheogen – Without Veil, Nor Self (I, Voidhanger) – atmospheric black metal

Evergrey – The Atlantic (AFM) – melodic metal

Fetor / Crepitation – Onset of Horrendosity (Deformeathing Productions) – deathgrind

Five the Heirophant – Magnetic Sleep Tapes, Vol. 1 (Astral Noize) – jazz-doom

Gast – Morkrat Kallar (Black Market Metal Label) – black metal

Godsleep – Coming of Age (The Lab Records / Three Chords Records) – stoner rock

Gorgon – The Veil of Darkness (Osmose Productions) – black metal

Hecate Enthroned – Embrace of the Godless Aeon (M-Theory Audio) – black / death

Helavorn – Aamamata (Solitude Productions / BadMoonMan Music) – doom

Hollow Leg – Civilizations (Argonauta) – sludge

Horrisonous – A Culinary Cacophony (Memento Mori) – death metal

Inferitvm – The Grimoires (Inverse) – black metal

Infernarium – Kadotuksen Harmonia (Helter Skelter) – black metal

Inferno – Basado En Hechos Reales (Necromance Records) – thrash

Insanity Alert – 666-Pack (Season of Mist) – thrash

King 810 – Suicide King (Independent) – metal

King Diamond – Songs for the Dead, Live (Metal Blade) – heavy metal

Krukh – Безглуздість!, CD Release (I, Voidhanger) – black metal

Loss & Ruin – Distance, EP (Independent) – grunge

Malamorte – Hell For All (Rockshots) – thrash

Master’s Call – Morbid Black Trinity, EP (Independent) – black metal

Mortal Scepter – Where Light Suffocates (Xtreem Music) – death / thrash

My Diligence – Sun Rose (Mottow Soundz) – progressive rock

Nebula – Demos & Outtakes 98-02 (Heavy Psych Sounds) – stoner rock

Ninety Nine – Wasteland (Dead Serious Rec) – hardcore

Noctambulist – Atmospheres of Desolation (Blood Harvest) – death metal

Ogmasun – Into the Void (Cold Smoke Records) – prog rock

Perverticon – Wounds of Divinity (Iron Bonehead) – black metal

Ravenous Death – Chapters of an Evil Transition (Memento Mori) – death metal

Slow – IV – Mythologiae REDUX (code666) – doom

Sol De Sangre / Panico Al Miedo – La Senda de la Muerte (War Anthem) – death metal

Suffering Souls – In Synergy Obscene (Schwarzdom Production) – black metal

Surachai – Come, Deathless (BL_K Noise) – noise / avantgarde

The Drowned God  – I’ll Always Be the Same (Solid State) – metal

The Ossuary – Southern Funeral (Supreme Chaos Records) – doom

The Sabbathian – Latum Alterum (Svart) – doom

Ulvdalir – ...of Death Eternal (Iron Bonehead) – black metal

Various Artists – Trapped Under Ice Vol. 1: The New Face of Canadian Heavy Metal (Temple of Mystery) – heavy metal

Vessel of Iniquity – Void of Infinite Horror, CD & LP (Xenoglossy / Sentient Ruin) – black / death

Vile Apparition – Depravity Ordained (Memento Mori) – death metal

– Josh Satan