O Pallid Palace, O Porcelain Pariah, keep the rim warm that we might stave off the horrors of horripilation. This week, we’ve got 2020-core, a crossover weather report, and “Y”s in place of “I”s. It’s an odd mix in the Bowl this time around, but there’s surely something for everyone below the surface—jump in, stinky divers, and let us know what we missed in the comments!

---

Blindfolded and Led to the Woods – The Hardest Thing About Being God Is That No One Believes Me (Prosthetic Records) [Prog Deathgrind]

Listening to BaLttW is as disorienting as their namesake: blackened deathgrind tears our skin like briars, and we trip over unexpected roots of sludge and symphonic deathcore. By the time a particularly frost-bitten riff rings out through the boughs in “Cafune”—double-tracked with acoustic guitars à la Nechochwen—we’ve abandoned all hope of identifying the forest we wander. From bursts of atonal tapping (think Cytotoxin or Beneath the Massacre) to post-metal melodies, THTABGiNOBM (rolls off the tongue!) defies expectations, logic, and sanity; when the blindfold comes off this Friday, I’m sure we’ll be amazed and horrified by what’s in store. -Roldy

---

Akolyth – Ecstatic Kingdom (Amor Fati Productions) [Black]

All Hell – Sunsetter (Terminus Hate City Records) [Blackthrash / Hardcore Punk]

Altars Ablaze – Indiscriminate Extermination (Lavadome Productions) [Blackened Death]

Antiquus Scriptum – Into the Realms of Death (Independent) [Black]

Aoecist/Light Dweller/Sleep Paralysis – Illusory Dissolvents (Independent) [Disso Blackened Death]

Armoured Knight – The Quest for the Sacred Melody (Dying Victims Productions) [Speed / Heavy Metal]

Beyond the Portal – Genetically Engineered (Babylonian Records) [Psych Sludge / Doom]

Black Jesus – Onwards to Slaughter (Primitive Moth) [Death]

Boltcutter – Still Broke (Barbaric Brutality) [Slam / Hip-Hop]

Brainblast – Colossus Suprema (Vmbrella) [Tech Death]

Calvary – White Ruins (Into Endless Chaos Records) [Raw/Lo-Fi Black]

Cemican – U k’u’uk’ankil Mayakaaj (M-Theory Audio) [Death / Folk / Groove]

Corretja – Open Source Content (Independent) [Prog Melodeath]

Dead Heat – Process of Elimination (Metal Blade Records) [Crossover Thrash]

Denial of Life – Witness the Power (Creator-Destructor Records) [Crossover Thrash]

Dhikkaar – Fog on the Water (Fifth Funeral Records) [Raw/Lo-Fi Black]

Eldfödd – Risen from the Flames (Edged Circle Productions) [Death]

Frayle – Heretics & Lullabies (Napalm Records) [Doom / Post-Metal / Hard Rock]

Friendship Commanders – Bear (Magnetic Eye Records) [Sludge / Doom / Stoner Rock]

Heads for the Dead – Never Ending Night of Terror (Pulverised Records) [Death]

Hæresis – Si Vis Pacem Para Bellvm (Vendetta Records) [Black]

Katakomba – The Second Death (Majestic Mountain Records) [Death]

Les Bâtards du Roi – Les chemins de l’exil (Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions) [Meloblack / Folk]

Morke – To Carry On (True Cult Records) [Meloblack]

Nelagodnost – Schwarzmalerei (Independent) [Black]

Nils Patrik Johansson – War and Peace (Metalville) [Heavy Metal / Hard Rock]

Numen Noctis – Decay (Independent) [Black]

Occult Kenji – Of Gods and Ancestors (Independent) [Groove / Folk]

Omnivide – Arise (Seek & Strike) [Symphonic Tech Death]

Pandemic Outbreak – Torment Beyond Comprehension (Godz ov War Productions) [Death]

Pervertor – Pactvm (Independent) [Death]

Plague Doctor – S/T (Independent) [Death/Doom / Sludge]

Protocol F40.1 – Fatalritual (Warhorn Records) [Blackened Death]

Pyreworks – Leaky Blood Pipe (Independent) [Melo Deathrash]

Red Right Hand of Plague – Transgress. Scar. Numen (Elf Eggs) [Raw/Lo-Fi Black / Grindcore]

Sanguisugabogg – Hideous Aftermath (Century Media Records) [Death]

Seljačka Buna – Agrometal (Independent) [Heavy Metal]

Serpent God – Denial (Inverse Records) [Death/Doom]

Slyther – Chronicles of Despair (Time to Kill Records) [Groove / Heavy Metal]

Starer – Ancient Monuments & Modern Sadness (Adirondack Black Mass) [Symphonic Black]

Stonebirds – Perpetual Wasteland (Ripple Music) [Sludge / Doom / Post-Hardcore]

Terzij de Horde – Our Breath Is Not Ours Alone (Church Road Records) [Black]

Testament – Para Bellum (Nuclear Blast Records) [Thrash]

Turn Cold – Violent Breed (Upstate Records) [Crossover Thrash]

Umbra – Oscuridad (Independent) [Heavy Metal]

Undersave – Merged in Abstract Perdition (Transcending Obscurity Records) [Death]

Vials of Wrath – Remnants for Remembrance (Vision of God Records) [Meloblack]

Vile Apparition – Malignity (Me Saco un Ojo Records) [Brutal Death]

Vizir – Caralhograma (Haloran Records) [Blackened Deathgrind]

Vulnificus – Inclination (Comatose Music) [Brutal Death]

Warrant – The Speed of Metal (Massacre Records) [Speed / Heavy Metal]

Ways to the Grave – Echoes of Extinction (Independent) [Prog Death]

Wretched Death – Sanity Is a Curse (Independent) [Death / Groove]

Протидія – Unfathomed Gradients (Independent) [Avant-garde Black]