O Swirling Dervish, O Malodorous Maw, Thy walls are striped by the feculent fervor of Thy flock. This week, we’ve got SMELLS, molluscan Muay Thai, and the most terrifying predator known to man. Who knows what you’ll find in the muck? It’s low tide and the stank is ripe with opportunity. Let us know what we missed in the comments!

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Mares of Thrace – The Loss (Independent) [Sludge / Doom / Post-Hardcore]

An album based on the Kübler-Ross model hits especially hard in the USA this year—and the ripples of distortion have clearly reached our neighbors to the north. The Calgarian duo Mares of Thrace meld sludge and doom in a pool of tar that refuses to relinquish anything—be it a genre or person—that stumbles into The Loss. From larynx-shredding skramz vocals to elegiac cleans, from “Anticipatory Grief”‘s blackened blasts to “The Fourth Stage: Bargaining”‘s swingy centerpiece riff, we hear transcribed all the emotional beats (and beatdowns) of life. Like with grief itself, everyone will experience The Loss differently; for me, the discovery of Mares of Thrace has tipped the scales back toward equilibrium in a year heavy with privation. -Roldy

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Antropomorphia – Devoid of Light (Testimony Records) [Death]

Aroma – Mountains of Odorous Decay (Inherited Production) [Goregrind / Brutal Death]

Athanatos – Kosmogonia (Independent) [Black / Ambient]

Bell of Mimir – Nocturne (Octopus Rising) [Doom]

Blaxem – Ethereal (Eclipse Records) [Tech Death / Groove]

Burial94 – The Gate (Independent) [Black]

Cadaver Shrine – Into the Horrible Depths (Chaos Records) [Death/Doom]

Clamfight – S/T (Independent) [Stoner Sludge / Hard Rock]

Cruenta Venganza – Legend (Independent) [Death]

Dead Chasm – Spectral Tyranny (Transcending Obscurity Records) [Death/Doom]

Deathblade – Orwellian Future (Independent) [Deathrash]

Deep Sun – Storyteller (Power Blast Records) [Symphonic Metal]

Desekryptor – Sarcophagal Corridors (Nuclear Winter Records) [Death]

Distaste/Sickrecy – Man’s The Leech / Oppressor: Salvatio (Murder Records) [Grindcore]

Drouth – The Teeth of Time (Independent) [Blackened Death]

Eleventh Ray – Reviving Tehom (Dark Descent Records) [Blackthrash]

Executionist – Sacrament of the Sick (Independent) [Deaththrash]

Full of Hell – Broken Sword, Rotten Shield (Closed Casket Activities) [Powerviolence / Grindcore / Noise]

Genune – Infinite Presence (Consouling Sounds) [Post-Black]

Grave Speaker – Rays of the Emerald Sun (Independent) [Stoner Doom]

Gutrectomy – Angst (Reality Fade Records) [Deathcore / Brutal Death]

Harvested – Corrupted Sense of Survival (Independent) [Death]

Hate Within – Tomb of the Tormentor (Independent) [Symphonic Deathcore]

Helldrifter – Shell of Inexistence (Violent Creek Records) [Death]

Honey Badger – On Bloody Claws (Independent) [Sludge / Doom]

Im Nebel – Hypocrisis (Octopus Rising) [Prog Black]

Inferno Nuclear – Amazônia em Chamas (Independent) [Thrash]

Joviac – Autofiction Pt. 1 – Shards (Inverse Records) [Prog Metal]

Katagory V – Awaken a New Age of Chaos (High Roller Records) [Prog Heavy Metal]

Khlyst – Thy’Valis-Uhrvitaar (Independent) [Blackened Death / Instrumental]

Køldbrynger – Korrumpierte Elendsgestalt (Independent) [Atmoblack]

La Janara – Le donne magiche (Independent) [Doom / Heavy Metal]

Medico Peste – Aesthetic of Hunger (Malignant Voices) [Black]

Nekrodeus – Ruaß (F.D.A. Records) [Blackened Death / Crust Punk]

No Raza – Tyrona (Noble Demon) [Death]

Nårdegaist – Domdagsbeistn (Independent) [Black]

Ondfødt – Dimsvall (Eisenwald) [Black]

Pandemia – Darkened Devotion (Hammerheart Records) [Death]

Pelican – Flickering Resonance (Run for Cover Records) [Post-Metal]

Root Zero – Dark Rainbow (Independent) [Prog Metal]

Scarset Rebellion – Flesh Against the Void (Independent) [Industrial Death / Prog Metal]

Skuggor – Where Sun Resigns (Naturmacht Productions) [Atmoblack]

Slow Fall – Blood Eclipse (Out of Line Music) [Melodeath]

Spectral Sacrifice – Transcending the Abyss (Independent) [Death / Groove Metal]

Steve Von Till – Alone in a World of Wounds (Neurot Recordings) [Psych Folk / Ambient]

Suicide Watch – Omega Point Zero (Independent) [Crossover Thrash]

Swampgrave – Skinned Crushed Reduced (Independent) [Death / Hardcore]

Throw Me to the Wolves – Days of Retribution (Independent) [Melodeath / Metalcore]

Tunguska Mammoth – Cactus (Independent) [Stoner Doom / Sludge]

Vetus – Diabolical Devotion (Independent) [Raw/Lo-Fi Black]

Waltari – Nations’ Neurosis (Metalville) [Alt Metal / EDM]