Ok. Day before Halloween. Are you ready? If not, get there homie. I stay ready all year so there’s that. New week means new metal and topping this week’s list is the MIGHTY Suffocation coming back for the album none of us ever thought possible, then we’ve got more death metal… well, deathgrind from Psionic Madness which is a damn treat, let me tell ya, next up is some excellent gloomy doomy post-metal from Morne, and closing us out is another release from melodic metallers Insomnium but this time it’s a quick EP, and it’s good but that’s not a shocker. Indeed, it’s a KILLER week here on Initial Descent and one at home if you’d hurry up and get in the spooky spirit. Do that, then hunt down a favorite album out of the list below. We’ll see you here over the next few days, if we make it out of tomorrow alive…muhahahaHAHAHA………

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Suffocation – Hymns From the Apocrypha (Nuclear Blast) – death metal

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Psionic Madness – Warhead Crucifix (Vargheist) – deathgrind

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Morne – Engraved With Pain (Metal Blade Records) – post-metal / doom

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Insomnium – Songs of the Dusk, EP (Century Media) – melodic metal

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Also on tap:

A Flying Fish – El Pez Que Voló – Act I (Apollon Records / Gymnocal Industries) – psych

Acid Force – World Targets In Megadeaths (Jawbreaker) – metal 

Aeonian Sorrow – Katara (Independent) – doom

Aerik Von – Shadow Empire (Independent ) – darkwave / synth

Amalekim Avodah – Zarah (Avantgarde) – black metal

Angra – Cycles Of Pain (Atomic Fire Records) – progressive power metal

Asteroid Witch / Greenseeker – S/T, Split (Electric Valley Records) – proto-metal/doom

Axioma – Primal Descent, EP (Stained Glass Torments) – probably black metal?

Black Knife – Baby Eater Witch (Wise Blood) – thrash / speed

Blazoner – Escape to Electric Land (Independent) – ambient

Briqueville – IIII (Pelagic) – post-metal

Bunsen – Burner (Kaos Kontrol) – industrial

Carnal Tomb – Embalmed In Decay (Testimony) – death metal

Carnation – Cursed Morality (Season of Mist) – death metal

Cavalcade – Evergreens (Independent) – sludge / punk

Ch’ahom – Knots of Abhorrence (Sentient Ruin) – progressive black/death

Chaînes – Les Litanies des Chaînes (Amor Fati) – black metal

CirkeIn – The Primitive Covenant (True Cult) – black metal

Crystal Coffin – The Curse of Immortality (A Beast In The Field) – melodic black metal

Damnation Defaced – They Brought Death To Darkness (Independent) – death metal

Dawnwalker – Human Ruins (Room 312) – post-rock

Doctor, Doctor – Second Opinion (Independent) – prog rock

Dying Wish – Symptoms of Survival (SharpTone Records) – metal/hardcore

Escarion – Towards a Futile Existence (Independent) – black / death

Exiled Hope – Altar of Moloch (Independent) – power metal

Faidra – Militant : Penitent : Triumphant (Northern Silence) – black metal

Flagburner – Grim Beat Manifesto (Syrup Moose Records) – synth metal

Full Body Autopsy – Crucifix Dreams, EP (Independent) – death metal

Fuming Mouth – Last Day of Sun (Nuclear Blast) – death metal

Goatkraft – Prophet of Eternal Damnation (Hells Headbangers) – bestial

Graven Image – Gods Who Decree, EP (The Coming Strife / Death Farm) – metalcore

Graven Sin – Veil of the Gods (Svart) – doom

Green Lung – This Heathen Land (Nuclear Blast) – metal

Headstone Brigade – Victory & Defeat (Independent) – dark folk

Hebephrenique – Non Compos Mentis (Gutter Prince Cabal Records/Brilliant Emperor Records) – death metal

Helms Deep – Treacherous Ways (Nameless Grave) – heavy metal

Hermano – Only A Suggestion (Ripple) – stoner

ILD – Kvern (Vendetta) – black metal

Infinity Ritual – II (Independent) – stoner

IVAN KING KRÁĽ – Retrospective 1993 – 2023 (Sliptrick Records) – metal

Jord  – Tundra (Hammerheart) – atmospheric black metal

Kill The King – S/T (Independent) – thrash

Kontrust – madworld (Napalm) – metal

Krypta – Outo laakso (Svart) – rock

Manipulator – Drawing Secret Circles (Independent) – deathgrind

Melancholia – Book of Ruination (Brutal Panda) – black / death

Merzbow – Cafe OTO (Cold Spring) – noise

Mortuary Drape – Black Mirror (Peaceville) – metal

Mugshot – Cold Will, EP (Pure Noise) – metalcore

Nahasheol – Serpens Abyssi (Argento) – black metal

NecroticGoreBeast – Repugnant (Comatose Music) – death metal

Netherdom – Forsaking, Forseeking (Amor Fati) – black metal

Of The Muses – Senhal (My Kingdom Music) – blackgaze

Rosa Faenskap – Jeg Blir Til Deg (Fysisk Format) – black metal

Sanctum Sathanas – Into the Eternal Satanic Damnation (Inferna Profundus) – black metal

Satan’s Fall – Destination Destruction (Steamhammer / SPV) – heavy metal

Sea Mosquito – Igitur (Onism) – avantgarde black metal

Serenity – Nemesis AD (Napalm) – symphonic metal

Sigir – Rainmaker (Gramophone Records) – black metal

Silent Planet – Superbloom (Tooth & Nail Records) – post metal

Sleepbomb – The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Koolarrow / Consouling Sounds) – doom / sludge

Stenched – Gorging On Mephitic Rot (Blood Harvest) – death metal

Strigoi – Bathed in A Black Sun (Season of Mist) – death / doom

Sugar Horse – Truth or Consequences, New Mexico (Fat Dracula) – gazy post-metal

Svartanatt – Last Days On Earth (The Sign) – rock

Tetragrammacide – Typho-Tantric Aphorisms From The Arachneophidian Qur’an (Iron Bonehead) – black/death

Teufelsberg – Pakt mit dem Teufel (Signal Rex) – black metal

The Wreckery – Fake Is Forever (Golden Robot) – post-punk

Thine Inner Sanctum – The Coming of The Dawn (Independent) – atmospheric doom

Totenmesse – Fiktionlust (Pagan) – black metal

Tripper – People Die Every Day, EP (Independent) – hardcore

Ufomammut – Crookhead (Supernatural Cat) – doom

Various Artists – Brown Acid, The Seventeenth Trip (RidingEasy Records) – garage rock

Vulnificus – Inextricable (Independent) – brutal death

Warcrab – The Howling Science (Transcending Obscurity) – death metal

Warplan – The Snake Eye Conspiracy (Independent) – hard rock

Watain – Die In Fire – Live In Hell (Nuclear Blast) – black metal

Xoth – Exogalactic (Dawnbreed) – tech death / black / thrash

Yatsu – It Can’t Happen Here (The Ghost Is Clear / Roman Numeral) – grind / powerviolence

Yawning Balch – Volume Two (Heavy Psych Sounds) – desert rock

— Josh