This Toilet Tuesday (4/30/19)
Welcome to This Toilet Tuesday, in which we conglomerate a list of 55 albums per week on average and of which only about five are even remotely listenable. Hans, Karhu, and I have picked out three of them for you today, and to all the bands that didn’t make the cut: write better music.
Amon Amarth – Berserker (Metal Blade) [Melodeath]
Listen to “Raven’s Flight,” “Crack the Sky”
Sure as the passing of the seasons, Amon Amarth releases a new album that sounds exactly like every Amon Amarth album preceding it. Whether it’s consistency or banality comes down to how much enjoyment you get out of it; for what it’s worth, I had my share of fun with this one. The leads aren’t particularly flashy or moving, but they are better on Berserker than any previous album, and little tweaks (such as the clean singing on “Ironside” or the choice of key on “Mjölner, Hammer of Thor”) keep things from feeling completely stale. It’s Amon Amarth through and through for better or worse. 5/3/19 (Spear)
The Howling Void – Bleak and Everlasting (Avantgarde Music) [Funeral Doom]
Listen to “Bleak and Everlasting”
Once upon a time, The Howling Void made some very good funeral doom that was seasoned with synths to make it appear appropriately “symphonic” in a vein similar to early black metal bands taking advantage of the additional sound palette offered by them. Then they got derailed and added began to add loads of clean vocals, folk influence, and faster tempos to a degree that any vestige of the original sounds was completely lost. As intentional as the development had been, my interest decreased so I am more than glad to be able to say that The Howling Void is returning to its roots with Bleak & Everlasting. I have not yet heard a note so I cannot speak if it is only a return to influences or style, but if it’s half as good as they used to be, you should welcome this with arms wide open. 4/30/19 (Karhu)
Body Harvest – Parasitic Slavery (Comatose Music) [Brutal Death Metal]
Listen
Merely checked it out because of the N64 game, but was surprised by entertaining songwriting and some cool riffs. The latter, unfortunately, are marred by the guitar tone, which is absolutely muddy, yet somehow also produces awful shrieks (check the end of “Consumed by Tyrants”). 5/3/19 (Hans)
Arboretum – Il medico della peste (AHPN Records) [Death Metal]
Listen
Appalling – Inverted Realm (Redefining Darkness) [Black/Death]
Listen
Artificial Fear – Death by Machines (Independent) [Instrumental Prog]
Listen to “Dehumanize”
Asomvel – World Shaker (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Heavy Metal]
Listen to “The Law is the Law”
At the Dawn – The Battle to Come (Underground Symphony) [Power Metal]
Listen to “Cadaver Synod”
Aveth – Wisdom of Bogumn (Narcoleptica Productions) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Wisdom of Bogumn”
Azking – Higeki (Independent) [Melodeath]
Listen to “Higeki”
Black Dawn – On Blackened Wings (Pavement Entertainment) [Heavy Metal]
Listen to “Help Me”
Carnal – Lecherous Acts of Hedonism (New Standard Elite) [Brutal Death Metal]
Listen to “Embedded With Spores”
Clouds Taste Satanic – Evil Eye (Independent) [Doom]
Listen to “Evil Eye”
Coil Commemorate Enslave – The Unavoidable (Independent) [Post-Black Metal]
Listen
Cryoshock – Cold Front Rising (Independent) [Death Thrash]
Stream
Crypter – Crypter (Independent) [Death Metal]
Cut the Architects Hand/Diseased Earth – No Quarter for Cowards and Traitors (split- Independent) [Sludge/Death Metal]
Listen
Deiphago – I, the Devil (Hells Headbangers) [Blackened Death Metal]
Listen
Deus Mortem – Kosmocide (Malignant Voices) [Black Metal]
Stream
Embrace Your Punishment – Nameless King (Miasma/Vomit Your Shirt) [Deathcore]
Listen to “Ascension”
Eroica – Blind Observer (Independent) [Heavy Metal]
Listen to “Blind Observer”
Eternal Blight – Descendence Forever (Independent) [Black Metal]
Stream
Free as Birds – Poisonous Wonderland (Independent) [Power Metal]
Hymn Above Traumatic Emotion – Nullus (Independent) [Melodeath]
Listen to “不壊”
In Memoriam Riffs – In Time of Dying (Independent) [Metalcore]
Listen
Invicta – Halls of Extinction (Independent) [Thrash]
Listen
Kampfar – Ofidians manifest (Indie Recordings) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Ophidian”
Karmatik – Unlimited Energy (Independent) [Melodeath]
Listen to “Tsunami Sanguinaire”
Lord – Fallen Idols (Dominus Records) [Power Thrash]
Listen to “United (Welcome Back)”
Mavradoxa – Nightmarrow (Hypnotic Dirge Records) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Maple”
Murdryck – Födelsen (Independent) [Black Metal]
Listen
Myrath – Shehili (earMusic) [Folk/Prog Metal]
Listen to “No Holding Back”
Necrofobia – Membership (Independent) [Thrash]
Listen to “Membership”
Neige et Noirceur – Interstellar Enigmatic Throne (Avantgarde Music) [Black Metal]
Novarupta – Disillusioned Fire (Suicide Records) [Black/Sludge]
Listen
N’Zwaa – Maha Kali (Deafening Assembly) [Black Metal/Noise]
Listen to “Adya Dhyanam”
Old Night – A Fracture in the Human Soul (Naturmacht Productions) [Doom]
Listen to “Elder”
Origin – Abiogenesis – A Coming into Existence (Agonia Records) [Tech Death]
Listen
Osiah – Kingdom of Lies (Unique Leader Records) [Deathcore]
Listen to “Reflections of a Monster”
Pa Vesh En – Cryptic Rites of Necromancy (Iron Bonehead) [Black Metal]
Pectora – Untaken (Mighty Music) [Heavy Metal]
Listen to “Untaken”
Ringworm – Death Becomes My Voice (Relapse Records) [Thrash/Hardcore]
Listen
Ruthless – Evil Within (Pure Steel Records) [Power Metal]
Sound Factory Carolina – Ninth Romancer (Independent) [Power Metal]
Preview
Stellar Master Elite – Hologram Temple (Unholy Conspiracy Deathwork) [Black Doom]
Listen
Sxuperion – Endless Spiritual Embodiment (Bloody Mountain Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Sacred Chamber of Enlightenment”
Terravore/Many More – Mental Amputation (split- Panzer Productions) [Thrash]
Listen to “We Came to Destroy”
Time Lurker/Cepheide – Lucide (split- Les Acteurs de L’Ombre Productions) [Black Metal]
Listen
Túrin Turambar – Czas braku wojny (Pagan Records) [Black/Death Metal]
Listen to “Wymarłem”
Verwüstung – Gospel ov Fury (Handful of Hate) [Black Metal]
Stream
Voyage in Solitude/Crescent Days/Falaise/An Ocean of Light/Sadness – Sounds of Melancholy (split- Independent) [DSBM]
Stream
Did we forget a new release? Is there a way we could improve this list? Let us know in the comments!
