Alright then, this is not a drill. It is officially Halloween week, FINALLY. Time for tricks, treats, ghosts, ghouls, horror, frights, candy corn, and well, more candy corn. And since it’s Monday, it is also time for new releases of which we’ve picked a brutal top four for you to ponder over. Primitive Man kicks off this week’s festivities with a very strong chokehold on the “heaviest and most soul crushing band EVER” title…still! Then it’s bloodcurdling black metal from Outlaw, flesh peeling death metal from Heteropsy, and a little something to piss off the neighbors with from horror punkers The Other. All that and a ton more are hiding out in the catacombs below so “dig in” and cozy up to the best corpse you can find. Happy Halloween, enjoy! *cue Vincent Price scary laugh…*

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Primitive Man – Observance (Relapse Records) – heaviest shit ever

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Outlaw – Opus Mortis (AOP Records) – black metal

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Heteropsy – Embalming (Caligari Records) – death metal

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The Other – Alienated (Massacre Records) – horror punk

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Also on tap:

Abominator – The Fire Brethren (Hells Headbangers) – black / death

All India Radio – The Unified Field (Self) – gazey

Alpha Destroyer – Fast Lane (Necromantic Press Records) – thrash

Araphel – The Endchanter (Nuclear War Now!) – extreme

Avatar – Don’t Go In The Forest (Thirty Tigers) – avant

Aviana – Void (Arising Empire) – metal

Barren Path – Grieving (Willowtip Records) – grindcore

Bastard Cröss – Crossripper (Morbid and Miserable) – metalpunk

Believe In Nothing – Rot (Church Road Records) – metal

Bianca – S/T (Avantgarde Music) – black metal

Binah – Onkos (Osmose Productions) – metal

Black Charger – Small Town (Clostridium Records) – rock

Black Soul Horde – Symphony of Chaos (Vinyl Store) – metal

Bloody Moon – Lost & Damned (Inverse Records) – melodic death metal

Bog Wizard – Satanik Panik (Self) – doom / sludge

Brown Acid – The Twenty-First Trip (Self) – heavy psych

Burned in Effigy – Tyrannus Aeternum (Self) – neoclassical melodeath

Canvas of Silence – As The World Tree Fell (Self) – prog metal

Cemican – U k’u’uk’ankil Mayakaaj (M-Theory Audio) – folk / death metal

Chat Pile and Hayden Pedigo – In The Earth Again (Computer Students / The Flenser) – noise

Creeper – Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death (Spinefarm) – metal

Damned By The Pope – Blasphemy Perpetuated / Decennium of Damnation (Self) – metal

Danheim – Heimferd (Season of Mist) – nordic folk

Defecto – Echoes of Isolation (Frontiers Music s.r.l.) – rock

Despised Icon – Shadow Work (Nuclear Blast) – deathcore

Dwelling Below – Wearisome Guardians (Transcending Obscurity Records) – death / doom

Elenion – The Symphony of the Night (Self) – world metal

Embraced By Darkness – Ex Inferis (Non Serviam Records) – black metal

Empire Drowns – Endless Nights (Mighty Music) – doom / death

Fír – Het sinistere oog (Amor Fati) – black metal

Flagelo – Insaciable, EP (Nuclear Winter / Night Terrors) – black / death / grind

Flesia – Achterbahnekstase (Cultkill Music) – black metal

Funeral Harvest – Malum in Se (Amor Fati) – black metal

Funeste – Naufrage, EP (Self) – darkwave

Going Off – Kill List II (Self) – hardcore

Hammerfilosofi – Signum (Osmose Productions) – black metal

Häxär – Teufelskult (Purity Through Fire) – industrial black metal

Heraldic Blaze – Monument of Will (Purity Through Fire) – black metal

Howling Giant – Crucible & Ruin (Magnetic Eye Records) – stoner metal

Inferisium – In Hell (Self) – death metal

Kalandra – Mørketid (By Norse Music) – prog folk

Kathodos – Parasomnia: Pavor Nocturnus (Rune Serpent Europa) – ambient

Kuolemankello – Perkeet (Svart Records) – proto-metal

Kvad – Sort Skogsmesse (Purity Through Fire) – black metal

Laura Cox – Trouble Coming (earMUSIC) – rock

Liminal Spirit – Unwell (Self) – progressive doom

Malakhim – And In Our Hearts the Devil Sings (Iron Bonehead) – black metal

Massa Nera – The Emptiness of All Things (Self) – screamo

Merys – S/T, EP (Self) – doom

Miasmata – Subterrania (Naturmacht) – black metal

Newbreed – Outlaw (Selfmadegod Records) – prog metal

Nyrak – Phoenix Mortis (Self) – black metal

ODC – void (BLKIIBLK) – alternative metal

Orgrel – The Abyssal Terror (Purity Through Fire) – black metal

Orm – Guld (Indisciplinarian) – black metal

Pile of Knives – Driven By The Blade (Self) – brutal death

Pinn Dropp – For The Love of Drama (Self) – prog rock

Precious Blood – False Prophets (Self) – doom

Sad – Fullmoon’s Bestial Awakening (Purity Through Fire) – black metal

Sakna – De Syv Dødssynder (Hypaethral Records) – black metal

Sarayasign – Shadows Of The Dying Light (Black Lodge Records) – metal

Scheusal – Fressfeind (Purity Through Fire) – metal

Shrine Maiden – Theory of /Cloud/ (Whited Sepulchre Records) – drone

Siechknecht – Pestmond (Purity Through Fire) – black metal

Slug Boys – Listen To Slug Boys (Self) – post-punk

Smash Into Pieces – ArmaHeaven (The Orchard) – rock

Spite – New World Killer (Rise Records) – metal

Spriggan Mist – The Glare (Essentials) – prog rock

Stillbirth – Survival Protocol (Reigning Phoenix Music) – brutal-surf-death-party metal

Takomaha – American Basements (Loyal Blood Records) – noise

Tales Of Mike – Human (Fetzner Death Records) – heavy / doom

Tapeworm Electric – Moonshine (Pitch Black Records) – rock

Tårfödd – Lidande (Purity Through Fire) – dsbm

Trivium – Struck Dead, EP (Roadrunner Records) – metal

Unprocessed – Angel (Self) – metalcore

Vandampire – Hope Scars (Ripcord Records) – post-metal

Various Artists – Spaceship Landing: A Tribute To Kyuss (Witching Buzz) – kyusscovers

Various Artists – Killed By Deaf: A Punk Tribute To Motörhead (BMG Recordings) – motörpunk

Ventenner – Slow Dissolve, EP (Athanor Records) – atmospheric doom

VII Vitium – S/T (My Kingdom Music) – rock / metal

Wilwither – Pure Light (3DOT Recordings) – metal / rock / core

— Josh