O septic savior, O bowl of bowels, may we be #1 in your heart and #2 in your mouth. This week we’ve got putrid portmanteaus, BMP-core, and auditory snow for your ears (read: lo-fi black metal) to help let the spirit of Chrimbus inside. Beware of bergs as you dive beneath these frigid floes and you might just emerge a new favorite in tow!

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Oro – Vid vägs ände (Hammerheart Records) [Sludge]

If Conjurer and Yashira had a baby and absconded to Sweden to raise it, it would end up sounding a lot like Oro here (and probably be hideously malformed as sludge band offspring tends to be). Make no mistake; this is big and icky, packed with slow and punchy riffs, but it’s also very melodic and well produced. If you like your sludge bordering on post-metal without quite crossing that line, check this out immediately. Incidentally, I also think atmoblack fans will get something out of this one as well- closer “Treriksröset” isn’t what I’d call “blackened” in any sense, but it evokes much the same feeling as those dreary autumnal albums tend to do. 12/1/23 (Spear)

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Abandoned Humanity – Against All Odds (Independent) [Prog Death / Groove Metal]

Abduction – Toutes blessent, la dernière tue (Frozen Records) [Atmoblack]

Affected – Forever a Slave (Independent) [Thrash / Heavy Metal]

Aggression – Frozen Aggressors (Massacre Records) [Thrash]

Animalize – Angles Morts (​天​使​の​油​断​) (Independent) [Heavy Metal]

Antü Fucha – Trempulkalwe (Sun Empire Productions) [Raw/Lo-Fi Black]

Axenstar – Chapter VIII (Inner Wound Recordings) [Power]

Behind the Throne – Tormentor (Independent) [Melodeath]

Beyondition – Abysmal Night (Chaos Records) [Death]

Black Hate – Via Pvrgativa… (Odium Records) [Blackened Death]

Briareus – The Aesir Voice (Independent) [Black]

Burden – Bidh mi mo dh​ò​chas fh​è​in (Fiadh Productions) [Meloblack / Folk Metal]

Catalán – The Gate (Independent) [Prog Metal]

Cobra Spell – 666 (Napalm Records) [Heavy Metal / Hard Rock]

Cryptosis – The Silent Call (Century Media Records) [Blackened Death]

Demons of Noon – Death Machine (Independent) [Sludge / Doom]

Dethroned – A Bridge to Eternal Darkness (Dominance of Darkness Records) [Black]

Disorientation – Survival Mode (Independent) [Avant-Garde Death/Doom]

Embrace Your Punishment – Made of Stone (Lacerated Enemy Records) [Brutal Death / Hardcore]

Eternal Starvation – Geisterklamm (Independent) [Raw/Lo-Fi Black]

Fenyx Rising – Never Say Die (Independent) [Heavy Metal]

Flames of Fire – Our Blessed Hope (Melodic Passion Records) [Heavy Metal]

Forsaken Art – Hypnagogia (Ethereal Sound Works) [Dark Ambient]

Fäust – At the Dawn of Life Demise (Black Lion Records) [Melodic Blackened Death]

Galdr/Seder – Tranquilities II: The Air, the Silence and the Vast Array of Emptiness (Fiadh Productions) [Raw/Lo-Fi Black]

Gobolin Master – Wrath of the Orkish Horde (Independent) [lolbuttz]

Godskill – III: Nazarene Sickness (TeufelsZeug Records) [Blackened Death]

Grau – Abseits des Lichts (Tragedy Productions) [Blackened Death]

Greydon Fields – Otherworld (Roll the Bones Records) [Thrash / Heavy Metal]

Hatred Reigns – Awaken the Ancients (Independent) [Brutal Death]

Horoh – Aberration (Crypt of Dr. Gore) [Death]

Infernation – Dark Path of Renunciation (Nekrolust Records) [Blackened Death]

Isospin – Aftermath Chronicles (Independent) [Prog Metal]

Kriegszittern – Flamethrower (Fucking Kill Records) [Death]

Malicious – Merciless Storm (Invictus Productions) [Death]

Necronemesis – Warfield Forever (HPGD Productions) [Death]

Nimrod B.C. – Legacy of the Dead (Metalopolis Records) [Thrash]

Nocturnal Degrade – Cursed Echoes from the Past (War Against Yourself Records) [DSBM / Raw/Lo-Fi Black]

Nornír – Skuld (Northern Silence Productions) [Black]

Oniricous – Los Cultos del Ghoul (BlackSeed Productions) [Death]

Panopticon – The Rime of Memory (Bindrune Recordings) [Atmoblack / Folk Metal]

Post Luctum – Seasons Grieving’s (Independent) [Death/Doom]

Prosperity Gospel – Society of the Spectral (Comfort Monk) [Blackgaze]

Reign A.D./The Oracle – The Mountain Peaks of Prophecy (Repose Records) [Noise / Black]

RüYYn – Chapter II: The Flames, the Fallen, the Fury (Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions) [Black]

Skiltron – Bruadarach (Trollzorn Records) [Power / Folk Metal]

Spell of Enchantress – Lost Prayers of Those Forever Gone (Independent) [Gothic / Death/Doom]

Stilleklang – Tr​ä​nen der Vergangenheit – Part II (Crawling Chaos) [Atmoblack]

Swansong – Awakening (Noble Demon) [Melodeath]

The Company Corvette – Little Blue Guy (Strange Mono) [Stoner Doom]

Tom Vautour – Decimation (Independent) [Instrumental Melodeath]

Totenfeier – The Tower from Which All Evil Dwell (Narbentage Produktionen) [Black]

Ur – Stone Throwers (Independent) [Stoner Doom]

Vanguard – III: Pyrrhic Sequence (Independent) [Melodeath]

Visions of Atlantis – A Pirate’s Symphony (Napalm Records) [Symphonic Power]

Voice of Ruin – Cold Epiphany (Tenacity Music) [Melodeath / Groove Metal]

Walking Corpse – Our Hands, Your Throat (Transcending Obscurity Records) [Deathgrind]

Культура Курения – П​о​л​н​о​ч​ь в Н​о​в​о​с​и​б​и​р​с​к​е (Independent) [Black / Post-Punk]