This Toilet Tuesday (3/22/16)
Another week, another Toilet Tuesday. You know the drill; new music, tiny reviews, and a list unflushable by virtue of its sheer girth. Help us pick this behemoth turd apart and put it in its rightful place.
Artillery – Penalty by Perception (Metal Blade Records) [Thrash]
Listen to “In Defiance of Conformity”
Artillery are back with their fourth full-length since their second split-up, and at this point you probably have a good idea whether or not you’ll enjoy this. Fans who miss Flemming Rönsdorf’s scratchy, vitriolic vocal approach may be disappointed by Michael Bastholm Dahl’s more soaring and energetic singing, but fans of Michael Stützer’s riffs should be delighted, as this album has them in spades. “In Defiance of Conformity” isn’t blazing any new paths, but if you just want some headbanging guitar work over driving drum triplets, you could do worse. FFO: Sabbat, Death Angel, Forbidden 3/25/16 (W.)
Horse Latitudes – Primal Gnosis (Ritual Productions) [Drone/Doom]
Listen to “New Dawn”
Album teasers, like movie trailers, can be tricky. Show too much, and you remove any need to explore the material itself; show too little, and you don’t leave a memorable impact. Thankfully, the preview for Primal Gnosis gave me just enough of a taste to leave me craving more, and I can happily say that advance track “New Dawn” satisfied those urgings. Horse Latitutdes play a brainy form of droning doom heavy on the bottom end but with enough clever twists and turns to keep those who get bored with doom and/or drone interested. If you like fat riffs, atmosphere, and open minds, give “New Dawn” a try. FFO: Khanate, Mekigah, Drowning Horse 3/25/16 (W.)
Yliaster – Soliloquy (Independent) [Blackish Metal]
Stream
If you’ve ever asked yourself what a slightly more blackened version of Gojira would sound like, Yliaster might be as close an answer as you’re going to get. When this two-piece was first described to me as “blackish” metal, I was intrigued and didn’t quite know what to expect. What I got was an amalgam of well executed slow to mid paced grooves and atmospheric guitar passages creating an overall pretty fun listening experience. Soliloquy doesn’t stray too far from its influences, but it is an adequate substitute for those of us looking to quell our ever-worsening Gojira fix. 3/20/16 (Jom Pootersan)
Eternity’s End – The Fire Within (Power Prog Records) [Power Metal]
Listen
Realistically, I’m always going to be all over anything featuring Christian Münzner, Hannes Grossmann, and/or Linus Klausenitzer as full members, regardless of style. But a power metal band with all three of them? My life is now complete. The lineup is rounded out by the incredible keyboard prowess of Jimmy Pitts and powerful vocalist Ian Parry; the riffs are mighty, the choruses soar, and the dueling guitar and keyboard solos flay facial material. Power metal fans take notice. 3/25/16 (Spear)
Amon Amarth – Jomsviking (Metal Blade Records) [Viking Metal]
Listen to “First Kill,” “At Dawn’s First Light”
At the Graves – Cold and True (Independent) [Doom/Sludge]
Listen to “Shimmer”
Black Mood – Squalid Garden (Independent) [Doom/Sludge]
Preview
BlackRain – Released (UDR Music) [Glam Rock or something]
Blood Ceremony – Lord of Misrule (Rise Above Records) [Doom/Rock]
The Body/Full of Hell – One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache (split- Neurot Recordings) [LOUD NOISES]
Preview
Boisson Divine – Voletat (Brennus Music) [Folk Metal]
Stream
Bridear – Baryte (Radtone Music) [Power Metal]
Stream
Caliban – Gravity (Century Media Records) [Metalcore]
Listen to “Paralyzed”
Cobalt – Slow Forever (Profound Lore Records) [Progressive Black Metal]
Stream
Darkestrah/Al-Namrood – Akyr Zaman/Tajer Al Punqia (split- Shaytan Productions) [Black Metal]
Dead Emperors – Dead Emperors (Independent) [Stoner Doom]
Stream
Defy the Tide – In the Shadows I Shine (Independent) [Power Metal]
Demonstealer – This Burden Is Mine (Independent) [Melodeath]
Listen
Endless – The Truth, the Chaos, the Insanity (Power Prog Records) [Power Metal]
Listen
Fourth Crusade – Sowers of Perdition (Rising Nemesis Records) [Metalcore]
Listen to “Sowers of Perdition”
Grimner – Frost mot eld (Despotz Records) [Folk Metal]
Listen to “Eldhjärta”
Hämatom – Wir sind Gott (Rookies & Kings) [Groove Metal]
Listen to “Wir sind Gott”
Hammer Fight – Profound and Profane (Napalm Records) [Thrash]
Listen to “Target Acquired”
Heretique – De non existentia Dei (Via Nocturna) [Death Metal]
Listen to “De non existentia Dei”
Horrified – Of Despair (Stormspell Records) [Death Metal]
Stream
Hunok – Megrendíthetetlenség (Werewolf Records) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Hadúr”
Immensity – The Isolation Splendour (Hypnotic Dirge/Solitude Productions) [Death/Doom]
Listen to “Irradiance (For The Unlight),” “The Sullen”
Izegrim – The Ferryman’s End (Listenable Records) [Death/Thrash]
Listen to “White Walls”
King Goat – Conduit (Independent) [Progressive Doom]
Listen to “Conduit”
Like Rats – II (Southern Lord Records) [Sludge/Hardcore]
Stream
Malamorte – Devilish Illusions (Satanath Records) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Pactum”
Maniaco – Obscuras aguas del caos (Rotten Cemetery Records) [Brutal Death Metal]
Listen to “La Muerte Vendrá Con Alas Ligeras Sobre Todo Aquel Que Se Atreva A Violar Esta Tumba”
Metal Church – XI (Rat Pak Records) [Thrash/Heavy Metal]
Listen to “No Tomorrow”
Methwitch – Shadowkeeper (Slam Worldwide) [I can’t be sure, but I’m going to assume slam]
Preview
Morito Ergo Sum – A Mournful Foreboding (Independent) [Doom]
Preview
Mourning Soul – Ego Death – Ritual I (Dolorem Records) [Blackened Death Metal]
Listen to “The Cold Embrace Calls Me,” “Moribunds”
Mourning Wolf – Duskfallen (Independent) [Blackened Melodeath]
Stream
Nibiru – Teloch (Argonauta Records) [Sludge]
Preview
Nidhöggr – Ragnarök (Lake of Fire Productions) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Angrboða”
No One Gets Out Alive – Severe Cold (Rotten Roll Rex) [Banjo Slam]
Listen to “Severe Cold”
Orcrist – Catacomb (HOD Productions) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Catacomb”
Phazm – Scornful of Icons (Osmose Productions) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Ubiquitous Almighty”
Ragnarok – Psychopathology (Agonia Records) [Blackened Death Metal]
Listen
Rimfrost – Rimfrost (Non Serviam Records) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Witches Hammer”
The Ritualist – Hell’s Doom (Independent) [Doom]
Preview
Rorcal – Creon (Lost Pilgrims Records) [Sludge/Post-Metal]
Stream
Sautheneron – Demiurgus (Hycha Nutabe Rex) [Black Metal]
Schizo – Rotten Spiral (Punishment 18 Records) [Thrash]
Listen to “Rotten Spiral”
Schrei aus Stein – Wanderwege (Independent) [Black Metal]
Stream
Slave One – Disclosed Dioptric Principles (Dolorem Records) [Tech Death]
Listen to “The Antikythera Mechanism”
Split Heaven – Death Rider (Pure Steel Records) [Speed Metal]
Listen to “Speed of the Hawk”
Stangala – Klañv (Finisterian Dead End) [Weird Doom]
Preview
Suld – City Rider (Stress Hormones Records) [Folk Metal]
Stream
Third Voice – A Day like Today (Independent) [Prog Metal/Rock]
Tyrant – Black Hand (Independent) [Thrash]
Listen to “Dead Sacrament”
Unru – Als Tier ist der Mensch nichts (Sentient Ruin) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Totemiker”
Veldraveth – Malformations of God (Independent) [Black Metal]
Listen
Vibrion – Bacterya (Xtreem Music) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Day of Replication,” “The Wrath of the Beast”
Vindland – Hanter savet (Independent) [Black Metal]
Stream
The Vision Bleak – The Kindred of the Sunset (Prophecy Productions) [Gothic Metal]
Wormed – Krighsu (Season of Mist) [Brutal Tech Death]
Stream
Did we forget a new release? Is there a way we could improve this list? Let us know in the comments below!