This Toilet Tuesday (1/24/17)
Welcome once more to This Toilet Tuesday! January continues its momentum this week with a couple big releases supported by a host of solid smaller names. W. and I have picked out a couple of the standouts, but they’re just a few of the excellent albums coming out. Let’s skip the small talk and get straight to it.
The Great Old Ones – EOD: A Tale of Dark Legacy (Season of Mist) [Black Metal]
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While I quite enjoyed The Great Old Ones’ previous tale of Lovecraftian black metal, Tekeli-Li, the album always felt that it couldn’t quite deliver on the promise of lead single “Antarctica” across its entire run-time. EOD: A Tale of Dark Legacy seems to address this issue with an album that still sounds as massive and imposing as the cyclopean monoliths of Cthhulu’s dead dripping city, yet the tightness of the performance and variety of song elements make the album feel shorter and more immediate. The songs on EOD remain alien and inhospitable, but the reduced sprawl and clever use of additional strings, voice-overs, tasteful bouts of dissonance, and orchestral arrangements make everything far more interesting and engaging. EOD may very well be the grand spire of human flesh The Great Old Ones have always been threatening to erect. FFO: Altar of Plagues, Wolves in the Throne Room, The Lion’s Daughter 1/27/17 (W.)
Horn – Turm am Hang (Northern Silence/Iron Bonehead) [Questy Black Metal]
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It’s not often that you hear Pagan black metal bands breaking the formula and delivering something different, which is why Horn caught my ear immediately. The first song I heard, “Turm Am Hang,” is driven by a fairly typical low-mid tempo gallop riff that had my head bobbing immediately, but I was truly ensnared by the warlike clean-sung chorus. The rest of the songs all carried their own surprises as well, from the punk stylings of “Alles In Einem Schnitt” and “Ä(h)renschnitter” to the fist-pumping anthemic opening of “Bastion, Im Seegang Tauber Fels.” They’re all relatively brief as well, hovering around five minutes in length with the sole exception of the grandiose closing number. Turm am Hang is incredibly polished and tight in terms of songwriting, endlessly replayable, and instantly memorable. 1/27/17 (Spear)
Acranius – Reign of Terror (Rising Nemesis Records) [Slamphonies of Siqqness]
Listen to “Kingmaker”
Analepsy – Atrocities from Beyond (Rising Nemesis Records) [Maria Slamford]
Listen to “The Vermin Devourer”
Au Champ des Morts – Dans la joie (Debemur Morti Productions) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Le Sang, La Mort, La Chute,” “Dans La Joie”
Avenford – New Beginning (Pride & Joy Music) [Power Metal]
Preview
Beheaded – Beast Incarnate (Unique Leader Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Beast Incarnate,” “The Horror Breathes”
Borealis – World of Silence MMXVII (AFM Records) [Power Metal]
Listen to “World of Silence”
Boris the Blade – Warpath (Siege Music) [Deathcore]
Listen to “Warpath,” “Misery”
Chrome Molly – Hoodoo Voodoo (earMUSIC) [Heavy Metal]
Preview
Code – Lost Signal (Agonia Records) [Prog Metal]
Listen to “Brass Dogs”
Cultural Warfare – Future Kill (M-Theory Audio) [Thrash]
Listen to “Defy the Blade”
Cyclocosmia – Immured (Independent) [Symphonic Doom]
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Deathinition – Online (Independent) [Thrash]
Listen to “Złota Kariera”
Deathless Legacy – Dance with Devils (Scarlet Records) [Heavy Metal]
Listen to “Headless Horseman”
Decrepit Cadaver – Vórtice a lo macabro (Rotten Cemetery Records) [Brutal Death Metal]
Listen to “La Hecatombe de Ammyt”
Deserted Fear – Dead Shores Rising (Century Media Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Face Our Destiny”
Diablerie – The Catalyst Vol. 1: Control (Primitive Reaction) [Industrial Metal]
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Ekpyrosis – Asphyxiating Devotion (Memento Mori) [Death Metal]
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Eldamar/Dreams of Nature – Eldamar/Dreams of Nature (split- Northern Silence Productions) [Black Metal]
Eschaton – Ultimum Exitium (Slovak Metal Army) [Black Metal]
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Everfrost – Appetite For Candlelight (Independent) [Power Metal]
The Fevered – I Have Seen Death (Independent) [HM-2]
Listen to “Pigs,” “Hypocentre,” “Panic”
Hellmouth – Oblivion (Fast Break! Records) [Crossover Thrash]
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Hour of Penance – Cast the First Stone (Prosthetic Records) [Death Metal]
Listen
Hybrid Sheep – Hail to the Beast (Tenacity Music) [Metalcore]
Infamovs – Under the Seals of Death (Memento Mori) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Dawn of the Black Dance,” “Chaos-Madness”
Inverted Mind – Broken Mirror (Defense Records) [Sludge]
Listen to “Broken Mirror,” “Self-portrait”
Kreator – Gods of Violence (Nuclear Blast Records) [Thrash]
Listen to “Gods of Violence”
Krokus – Big Rocks (Century Media Records) [Heavy Metal]
Leathermask – Lithic (Sleaszy Rider Records) [Heavy Metal]
Listen to “Noise”
Lo-Pan – In Tensions (Aqualamb Productions) [Beefy Rock/Doom]
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Mors Principium Est – Embers of a Dying World (AFM Records) [Melodeath]
Listen to “Apprentice of Death”
The Murder of My Sweet – Echoes of the Aftermath (Frontiers Music) [Bodicecore]
Listen to “Personal Hell” (accurate), “Racing Heart,” “Shining After Dark”
Mustan Kuun Lapset – Saatto (Inverse Records) [Black Metal]
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Obsolete Incarnation – Eradication of Society (Rising Nemesis Records) [Brutal Death Metal]
Listen to “Suffocate Humanity”
Ordos – House of the Dead (Moving Air Music) [Doom]
Listen to “II”
Question – Gnosis Primordial (Chaos Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “The Day The Sun Ascended Black”
Schattenvald – V (Kristallbutt Records) [Black Metal]
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Silent Circus – Rise and Fall (Universal Music) [Groove Metal]
Syron Vanes – Chaos from a Distance (Mighty Music) [Heavy Metal]
Listen to “Chaos From A Distance”
Turia – Dede Kondre (Altare Productions) [Black Metal]
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Undrask – Battle Through Time (Independent) [Power Metal masquerading as Melodeath]
Listen to “Conscripted,” “Longhammer”
Valkeat – Valkeat (Redhouse Finland) [Folk Metal]
Listen to “Aallot”
Weltesser – Crestfallen (Prosthetic Records) [Sludge/Doom]
Listen to “Living to Try,” “Rats”
Xandria – Theater of Dimensions (Napalm Records) [Symphonic Metal]
Listen to “We Are Murderers (We All)”
Did we forget a new release? Is there a way we could improve this list? Let us know in the comments below!
