Definitely not the news any of us wanted to hear: Children of Bodom front man and one of metal’s best guitarists, Alexi Laiho, has passed away. No doubt the reverberations of this will be felt for a long time and he will certainly be missed, 41 is way too early to go. Our hearts go out to his family, friends and fans. RIP.

Tough to muster new metal speak but here we are. First up is the full length debut from Frozen Soul who were on Maggot Stomp (this is your “quality” hint) but are now on Century Media and as good as their demo was, this is not only better but more of it. Second, we’ve got a physical release from Exsul by way of Caligari (again, quality) and if you missed the digital, rectify that now. Beyond that, another short list of entries to follow.

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