Welcome back to Week 2 of MEEEEEEEEE! Just kidding. As ever, it’s all about the new musics here on Initial Descent. And hooooooooboy do we have a lot of those this week.

We start with Thy Catafalque! The Hungarian maestro is back with his… wait, eleventh full length?! Holy hell. I only knew about, like, two before this one. Okay, then! Anyway, that album, Alföld, comes via Season of Mist. Next up, we’ve got Boris and Uniform! The Japanese experimentalists and the New York industrialists joined forces for the collaborative full-length, Bright New Disease, which… if lead single “You Are The Beginning” is any indication… is gonna fuckin’ rip. And, oh hey! Arkona‘s also got a new record coming! I remember in the early days of this blog when Corey and I lost our shit over Arkona on multiple occasions. They’re back with Kob’, their first album in five years, via Napalm. And finally, a band whose inclusion here merits, okay, perhaps a bit of debate. But you know what? I’m writing the column and I wanna include ’em, so they’re here. Queens of the Stone Age! Josh Homme and Co’s latest effort, In Times New Roman… also drops this week.

But hey, this is just the tip of the iceberg, folks! Smash that link button below and see what else we’ve got coming this week!

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Thy Catafalque — Alföld (Season of Mist) — experimental / avant-garde metal

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Boris & Uniform — Bright New Disease (Sacred Bones) — experimental / industrial

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Arkona — Kob’ (Napalm) — pagan / folk metal

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Queens of the Stone Age — In Times New Roman… (Matador) — alternative / desert rock

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Also on tap:

alt. — Abeyance (SharpTone) — alt rock/punk

Altar of Oblivion — Burning Memories EP (From The Vaults) — doom

A.M.E.N. — The Book Of Lies – Liber I (I, Voidhanger) — jazzy metal

Church of Misery — Born Under a Mad Sign (Rise Above) — stoner / doom

Creeping Death — Boundless Domain (MNRK Heavy) — death metal

Diesomnia — Pray for the Flood (Independent) — death / thrash

Disillusive Play — Songs for the Non Existent (WormHoleDeath) — prog

Duivel — Heiligschennis (Nomad Snakepit / Van) — black metal

Elder Devil — Everything Worth Loving (Prosthetic) — blackened hardcore / grind

Geist of Ouachita — Imprisoned in the Graven Wood (Signal Rex) — black metal

Heatwaves — Kappa (Apollon Records) — indie/psych

Helleruin — Devils, Death and Dark Arts (New Era) — black metal

JOEL HOEKSTRA’S 13 — Crash of Life (Frontiers Music s.r.l.) — hard rock

Lanayah — I’m Picking Lights In A Field… (Anima / Drongo) — post-metal

LineOut — Andromeda (Black Star Foundation) — metallic hardcore

Memorrhage — Memorrhage (Big Money Cybergrind) — nu-metal

Nargathrond — Killing Season (Wormholedeath) — horror metalwave

New Dawn Fades — Forever EP (Independent) — psych/metal

OneFromTheNorth — Regime, Salvation & The Pyre (Sliptrick) — industrial

Orchid’s Curse — The Decay EP (Independent) — melodeath

Phantom Horde — Prince of Death (Independent) — death metal

Rana — Richtfeuer (Breath Sun Bone) — black metal

Reaping Flesh — Abyss of Existence (Redefining Darkness) — death metal

Rise to the Sky — Two Years of Grief (Meuse / Tragedy) — death/doom

Royal Thunder — Rebuilding the Mountain (Spinefarm) — hard rock

Sammath — Grebbeberg (Hammerheart) — black metal

Sarmat — Determined to Strike (I, Voidhanger) — jazzy metal

Saturnus — The Storm Within (Prophecy) — doom

She — Goodpaster (Independent) — hardcore / crust

Sidus — Seismos EP (Argonauta) — post-rock

Speed Limit — Cut a Long Story Short (NRT-Records) — hard rock

The Bloodstrings — Heartache Radio (Independent) — punk

The Sigil — Argante EP (Independent) — progressive rock

The Sun of The Moon — Andromeda (Tonzonen Records) — psych

Thymata — Embraced By Death (Adirondack Black Mass) — black metal

Trip the Wire — Trip the Wire (Independent) — hard rock

Varmia — Nie nas widzę (M-Theory Audio) — black metal

Vile Ritual — Caverns of Occultic Hatred (Sentient Ruin) — death metal

Vulture Industries — Ghosts from the Past (Dark Essence) — black / doom / industrial

Vypera — Race of Time (Frontiers Music s.r.l.) — hard rock

Witchskull — The Serpent Tide (Rise Above) — psych/doom

Wonders — Beyond the Mirage (Limb Music) — power metal

Wooden Shadow — Eternal Land of Wrath and Mourn (Inverse Records) — melodic metal

Yawning Man — Long Walk of the Navajo (Heavy Psych Sounds) — stoner/psych

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Keep it heavy,
—Dan