This winter weather is relentless. Maybe spring will start early. Anyway, new release time and this week knocks off a handful of my early 2022 most anticipated albums and preorders. A mailbox full of preorders does indeed make me happy despite the cold weather, so there’s that. Moving on, Amorphis just get better with age and Halo finds them lean just a tad harder on the heavier side but still in excellent melodic form, pretty much one of my favorites from them in a long time. As we all know, when Zeal & Ardor hit the scene they shook all the foundations of metal and beyond and with this week’s effort, they throw caution completely to the wind and offer up their best, and wildest, yet. Following those we’ve got epic post-metal from Cult of Luna, wrecking ball grind from Napalm Death, and a long list of other releases worthy of your time. Jump in there and get cracking, tons of goodies to discover this week.
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Amorphis – Halo (Atomic Fire) – melodic death metal
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Zeal & Ardor – S/T (MVKA) – black metal / folk
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Cult of Luna – The Long Road North (Metal Blade) – post-metal
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Napalm Death – Resentment Is Always Seismic – a final throw of Throes, EP (Century Media) – napalm grind
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Also on tap:
A Pale December – Dearth Panacea (Avantgarde Music) – black metal
Abrasive – Edge of Darkness (RTM-Productions) – death metal
Anachoret – Syndrom (Folter) – black metal
Author & Punisher – Krüller (Relapse) – industrial
Backslider – Psychic Rot (To Live A Lie) – extreme
Bludgeoned – Summary Execution (Vile Tapes) – extreme
Breidablik – Alduorka (Apollon Prog) – prog
Caveat – Alchemy (Independent) – metal
Chasmdweller – Bacterial Lotus, Reissue (Dawnbreed / Life After Death) – death metal
Creeping Flesh – …And Then the Bombs Came (Emanzipation Recordings) – death metal
Crestfallen Queen – Hall of Maati (Vocem Interiorem Manifestations) – doom
Dead Tree Seeds – Back To the Seeds, EP (Music-Records) – thrash
Funeral Whore – Dreadfully Expired (Vidar Records) – death metal
Greyhawk – Call of the Hawk (Fighter) – heavy / power
Hammr – Eternal Possessions (Hells Headbangers) – black / punk
Heavy Meta – Mana Regmata (Independent) – metal
Kadavereich – Radiance of Doom (Godz Ov War Productions) – death metal
Karmanjaka – Gates of Muspel (Grind to Death Records) – progressive black metal
Kill Alters – Armed to the Teeth L.M.O.M.M. (Independent) – rock
Mainbrain – Jawbreaker (Independent) – death metal
Mariangela Demurtas – Dark Ability (Independent) – dark
Moluchtas – Telos Terminus (Godz Ov War Productions) – black / death
Mortuary Drape – Wisdom Vibration Repent (Peaceville) – black metal
Near Death Condition – Ascent from the Mundane (Unique Leader) – black / death
Nervochaos – All Colors Of Darkness (Emanzipation Productions) – death metal
Night Cobra – Dawn of the Serpent (Irongrip / High Roller) – metal / punk
Non Serviam / Gallkrist – Split, EP (Trepanation Recordings) – black metal
Once Human – Scar Weaver (earMUSIC) – metal
Sataray – Blood Trine Moon, EP (Scry Recordings) – ambient
Shield of Wings – Unfinished (Elderpath) – symphonic metal
Son of Seth – De Dor a Odio (Trepanation Recordings) – black / industrial
Soulcarrion – Infernal Agony (Godz Ov War Productions) – death metal
Stalker – S/T (WormHoleDeath) – metal
Syvyj Yar – Golden Threads (Avantgarde Music) – black / neofolk
Tersivel – To The Orphic Void (UPRISING! Records) – death/doom
Theandric – Flight Among The Tombs (Independent) – progressive metal
The Sea Shall Not Have Them – Debris (Bird’s Robe Records) – instrumental/post-rock
Trouble – One for the Road / Unplugged, Remastered (Hammerheart) – metal
Tugt – Ved Lysets Ophør (Onism Productions) – black metal
Vastatum – Mercurial States of Revelation (Avantgarde Music) – black metal
Voivod – Synchro Anarchy (Century Media) – sci-fi metal
Whales Don’t Fly – The Golden Sea (Raging Planet Records) – heavy thrash
Ysyry Mollvün – S/T (Avantgarde Music) – black metal
– Josh
Nine Circles 