hells headbangers records

Initial Descent: August 25 – 31, 2025

Josh1 Comment
Helloween
Helloween

Hard to believe we’re on the doorstep of spooky season and pumpkin spice everything yet, here we are. So, start making your scary movie watchlists and warming up the ol’ Type O Negative playlists. And now for your weekly blast of new releases of which we kick off with the ever amazing, trusty, and seasoned heavy metal vets Helloween, then we move into some thrash from Void and a blackened variety of the same from Deathhammer, and last up top is some vile industrial from Hateful Abandon…SCORE! As always though, there are plenty more picks below that span the many metal genres we have these days. Meaning: you absolutely will find something to take home. Now, go find all your fall decorations and skulls and whatnot and get to it. See you here throughout the week. Also and again we say, RIP Brent Hinds.

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Donuts & CANTO: Forbidden, Crypt Sermon, Verdalack, and More

CoreyLeave a comment

I am currently in Boston. That’s all I’ve got.

  • To open things up, we have long-time favorites Crypt Sermon. They have a new EP on the way, Saturnian Appendices, which will feature a collection of B-sides taken from The Stygian Rose. Check out the visualizer for “Only Ash and Dust” here. That collection will be out through Dark Descent Records on August 8th.
  • Japanese speed metal crew Verdalack released the new track “Axehead”, the second revealed from their debut album Force From the Grave. That album is out on July 25th via Hells Headbangers Records.
  • Maltese death metallers Beheaded shared a new single, the title track, from Għadam. Their seventh album will also be out on July 25th through Agonia Records.
  • Norwegian instrumental progressive rock project Agropelter are releasing their debut LP, The Book of Hours, on July 25th through The Lasers Edge. Check out “Levitator” now.
  • Bay Area thrash seems a good ending point. Forbidden dropped a video for their new track, “Divided By Zero”. That’s their first new music in 15 years, and they’ve got a busy festival season ahead as well. Good stuff.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb

Initial Descent: August 25 -31, 2024

JoshLeave a comment
Deceased
Deceased – image courtesy of Thirdxposurephotography

My favorite haunted house opens in two weeks and that is FANTASTIC. They always do an early bird discounted ticket sale and of course I’m stocked. On the other hand, I can’t even begin to believe we are at that point in the year already but here we are and I am 100% here for it. Some of you stay there all year and that is quite alright…trust me, no judgement here. I mean, we are a metal site and we all love horror so, carry on. Alright then, we’ve got this week’s list of new metal (aka Initial Descent) for you to peruse and it kicks off with the old school death metal vets DECEASED. Beyond that we’ve got more death metal from Gutvoid, black metal from Ellende, which has been a 9C fave as of late, then some more death metal of the dissonant type from Teeth. Oh, and as usual, we’ve got tons more below these opening picks so get to exploring and we’ll see you here throughout the week.  

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Album Review: Skelethal – Of the Depths…

Dan4 Comments

Skelethal - Of the Depths...

Lately, there seems to be an ever-flowing stream of Swedish-sounding death metal — and we’re talking real death metal, not melodeath — that doesn’t actually come from Sweden. I have a particularly dark recollection of Arizona natives Gatecreeper wowing the hell out of me with last year’s Sonoran Deprivation, while Germany’s Revel in Flesh and Holland’s Bodyfarm have also done a nice job carrying listeners down a Stockholm-inspired left hand path in recent years.

The latest addition to this group is France’s Skelethal, who’ll likely send listeners tumbling into the grave with their debut full-length, Of the Depths. It’s an album plucked straight from the murky depths where no life dwells, and while it’s hardly charting any new musical courses, it’s still a solid listen and one of the more entertaining death metal releases of the year to date.  Continue reading →