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Blood Incantation has a full album stream up at Decibel as of today. Last month I wrote about one of the more "pedestrian" tracks, which is still insanely good. I highly recommend you spin this thing straight through, then go out and buy it. Excellent shit. http://decibelmagazine.com/blog/2016/7/29/full-album-stream-blood-incantations-starspawn-might-be-the-death-metal-album-of-the-year

Chiming in to say save some excitement for these as well: - Inquisition - the album is very much on par with the last two, even if the single was just a ripping bruiser. - SubRosa - I've barely heard it, but the last one was incredible and this sounds very much on par if not weirder and better. - Oozing Wound - kind of an indescribable genre hybrid, somehow blending crossover thrash and atmospheric sludge and going all in on the instrumental freakouts, with riffs galore, this thing slays. - Vanhelgd - excellent gloomy Swedish death, seemingly even stronger than prior releases, and they were already great. - Be'lakor - weird, melancholic Australian melodeath, kind of in the vein of In Mourning - Profanatica - insanely bass heavy production makes this the gnarliest sounding black/death record I've heard in ages. Catchy riffs and generally blasphemous vibes make for the best record I've heard from them til now. - Thrawsunblat - former Woods of Ypres peeps playing pagan/folkish black metal. Sounds a bit like Agalloch with a melodeath vibe, which you have to hear to believe. The vocals took me a minute to acclimate to, but they grew on me quickly.

Related note, these dudes are reaponsible for the most hideous long sleeve t-shirt design of all time. Cosmic ketchup and mustard. I want it so bad https://www.facebook.com/dark.descent.5/posts/1153994911298561

MDF thoughts: I missed most of Friday and all of Thursday, so there are some obvious highlights missing, such as Crypt Sermon, Paradise Lost, Goblin, and Wormed (and probably more). That said, in the time I had, I saw more than my fair share of incredible shit. My favorites include Hail of Bullets, General Surgery, Dragged Into Sunlight, Demolition Hammer, Satan, and Zhrine. Hail of Bullets felt particularly poignant since it was their first show without Martin van Drunen, and their first with Dave Ingram (of Benediction and Bolt Thrower fame). Apparently it was a test run to see how Ingram would fit in with the band--he sounded better than perfect, as good or better than MvD, and it was clear the band was feeling it too. Halfway through the set, guitarist Stephan Gebedi turns to him and smiles before grabbing the mic, saying, "Allow me to introduce our new permanent lead singer." Ingram lit up like a Christmas tree; the crowd started chanting his name. That was easily one of my favorite heartwarming MDF moments, up there with Nocturno Culto's MDF appearance (and first American appearance ever) back in 2014. On a completely different tip, in the least feel-good way possible, Dragged Into Sunlight were unbelievable. No other band over the weekend held a candle to their set, and I'm having a hard time thinking of any other shows I can even compare in terms of intensity. Maybe seeing Isis back in 1999, around the time of the Red Sea EP; or maybe Cobalt at MDF in 2013. This was absolutely at that level, but it felt much more destructive, much more punishing; for once it felt like we were watching something truly extreme. There were television screens playing sporadic clips of the serial killer interviews the band is so fond of sprinkling through their recordings; that was paired with a strobe light that served to nauseate more than entrance. But the sound... even with earplugs it was way too loud. This was the stuff of nightmares, reminiscent of Portal's set last year, with so much more power and focus. Towards the end of the set I had to walk away and sit down just to collect myself; it was too much noise and flashing light, too much of everything, just an overwhelming surge of negativity—what extreme music always promises but rarely delivers. I kept thinking back to an old urban legend about the earliest Swans shows, where the band supposedly played so loud the audience would start to convulse and vomit. I never thought I'd enjoy that sensation, but I was wrong. Absolutely seek them out when they tour. I could blather on about the others, but there's less to say so I'll keep it short. Satan is one of my favorite traditional metal bands and the band fucking slays live, despite their collective age. I have a couple of videos shot from the front row that I need to upload to youtube; I'll tag this thread when they're up (hopefully soon). General Surgery was the best of the Soundstage bands I saw (admittedly I didn’t watch many), a perfect mix of Swedish death and goregrind (which is to say: they're one of the many Carcass tribute bands out there, but they do it better than anyone). The singer looked a lot like Andrew WK and captured the same vibe somehow, despite the brutal tunes. I already mentioned Demolition Hammer, but they were the clear winner of the "best reunited band" award (not counting Satan, who have been back together for a while now). Probably the biggest surprise of the weekend was Zhrine, who brought out an electric upright bass and wore clean-cut button-up shirts and short hair (they basically looked like uniqlo models), more preppy than Deafheaven but every bit as intense, with a bit more of a Deathspell/Ulcerate vibe in the guitars. They tore the roof of the Rams Head, and that bass sounded incredible. I'm going to revisit that album often. All in all it was a glorious heavy metal weekend, as always. Next year you all should go, for real.

From Mars to Sirius absolutely kills. I'd start there.

Demolition Hammer were insanely good. Tight as fuck, heavier than half the death metal bands (true to their classic albums), and just a blast to behold. The singer probably won best metal banter of the weekend (tho I didn't stick around to watch Cronos do his Venom shtick) through continual and unnecessary repetition of the word "fuck" every third or fourth word. The crowd were "fuckers"; the new drummer was a "motherfucker"; and any reaction to the music, no matter how slight, was clearly us "fucking shit up." I love heavy metal. I'll chime in later with some more MDF highlights.

Goddamn, STILL the best underrated Swedish death metal band of all time. These guys just don't stop.

I just found these on Spotify; looking forward to diving in. Industrial was my first exposure to heavier music too. Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Frontline Assembly, Chemlab... that all eventually led me to metal, but the old tastes survive.

Another one I forgot to mention, and one of my favorites: MESSA Yet ANOTHER female fronted doom band that transcends the stereotype by a mile. This thing is a marvel of execution: spacious arrangements drift from clean guitars drenched in a reverb bath to wailing vox over churning guitars... then the riffs drop in for real and doom reigns. They take it further by adding weird shit like clarinet solos and weird middle eastern-tinged lead guitars over the bridge. The entire album is amazing. https://soundcloud.com/aural-music-937888921/messa-blood And here's a much more thorough review from someone who gets it: http://www.angrymetalguy.com/messa-belfry-review/

COLD LAKE FOREVER

Bonus tracks: NAILS Not all of TBM crew likes Nails, but I always have. Hopefully I'll get to cover them next month, as I would have if life (and exams) hadn't gotten in the way this time around. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGGGh03jN4w ABNORMALITY New England death metal done absolutely right. The compression is a little wonky on this youtube stream, but trust me that the album sounds incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq-LEKXXWuI GOJIRA Probably the only groove metal you can convince me to listen to in 2016, the latest Gojira single sounds like Pantera, Muse, and Killing Joke rolled into something that perfectly straddles the line between terrible and amazing. Can't fuck with that chorus either way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNdC_3LR2AI CAUCHEMAR Excellent Canadian doom from Nuclear War Now Records. It's easy to write these guys off as another female fronted retro doom act, but for two things: (1) the vocals aren't even remotely bluesy (thankfully), and (2) the music is cast in more of a melancholy light than most of their peers. They haven't released any tracks to the internet yet, so this bandcamp link is just a placeholder for the moment. Check this out when it comes out on 6/5. http://cauchemar.bandcamp.com/ DARK FUNERAL If you've ever heard Dark Funeral you know exactly what this sounds like. Fortunately the new album sounds about as strong as they ever have. Raging, blasting, vaguely melodic Swedish black metal. I've been indifferent about these guys in the past, but the new one is a lot of fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kemwGeWNFA DESASTER Ripping black thrash from the masters. The production didn't grab me at first, but spending time with the album has made all the difference. Excellent stuff here, very much in line with the similarly excellent Destroyer 666 album (which we also snoozed on here at TBM!). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzciAjWA9hc IN MOURNING Melodic/gothy/deathy/doomy/modern metal has never been a huge genre (in fact, most people assume it starts and ends with Katatonia), but 2016 has all the bands in this scene dropping albums at the same time. Katatonia has one coming in June (it's great, and hopefully we'll be covering that next month); Novembre released the excellent Ursa earlier this month; and October Tide (featuring ex-Katatonia peeps in a much heavier death/doom mode) released one just last week. Meanwhile, In Mourning is ANOTHER band made up of Katatonia alumni; it skews a bit heavier than Katatonia (closer to the mid-period Opeth end of the spectrum I guess), but it's no less gorgeous. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE3jZxGiDPg KATATONIA Guess I'll share this too, while we're here. Won't say much now since I'll probably write up a different single next month. They're definitely embracing the more recent progressive turn they took on Dead End Kings; which means this is significantly less metal. Jonas sounds more like Maynard than ever, and that's not a bad thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIGBNc2nFZA And here are the other two bands, for comparison sake: NOVEMBRE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPxsFvABsqE OCTOBER TIDE (official full album stream) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdKe_gjHu80 BAT Black thrashing speed demons BAT are finally dropping their debut LP, and I looooove this thing. Featuring dudes from Municipal Waste, Volture, and D.R.I., I actually enjoy this a whole lot more than any of those bands, for what it's worth. Good shit. https://hellsheadbangers.bandcamp.com/album/wings-of-chains SWANS And closing things out, a snippet of Swans' latest, THE GLOWING MAN. The album is hilariously long, just like the last two, though the slowness is even more up front and aggressive to my ears (the first three tracks clock in at an hour on their own). Still, Swans are an essential act, and this is essential stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka_hKb7dSiY

Eh, it was a dumb point to begin with; I actually waffled between "purest" or "foulest", which obviously changes the meaning, but I just meant death metal is generally more extreme than black metal, more of a true antithesis to "normal" music (like, nobody's sitting down to write a shoegaze/brutal death metal mashup album whereas black metal is just an ingredient to combine with every other genre at this point). Again, it wasn't a completely coherent thought as much as a line I liked the sound of.

guys, just stopping by to make sure everyone listens to the ENTIRE pyrrhon EP... Ian didn't mention it, presumably because SPOILERS but i don't care: the last track is a fucking perfect cover of Death's "Crystal Mountain". listen loud!

When the Sky Turns Black (album two) is very much on par with the first one—both forgotten classics. I was never able to track down In Mourning so I can't really comment on that one. The album art looks appropriately bad-90s though, like a perfect companion to Grave's Hating Life. Whoa, just checked spotify and all three albums are available! I know what I'm doing this weekend.

For anyone interested, the entire Obscura album is now streaming over at Guitar World. If nothing else, check out the insane closing track, "Weltseele". http://www.guitarworld.com/news-premieres/obscura-premiere-new-album-akr%C3%B3asis/28620

I remember stumbling onto these guys a few years back and having the exact same awestruck reaction. They have some of my favorite lead guitar parts ever. Another great and occasionally overlooked band from that era is Disincarnate. Their one and only LP, "Dreams of the Carrion Kind," features excellent cover art from Dave McKean, which pairs perfectly with lyrics that occasionally drawn from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics (see "Monarch of the Sleeping Marches"). Along with Brutality, these are two of my favorite death metal bands ever.

Ian and I are both really like that album, but we overlooked it during the deluge of fall releases. It definitely kicks ass though! The structure of the column means we miss things and sometimes don't get a chance to rectify it. C'est la vie

The collective weight of bonus tracks this month is enough to crush a small city. I wanted to pitch probably 20 tracks all by myself, but limitations being what they are, the excess just has to spill down into the comments. One caveat: I'm not gonna link any of the big stuff we're definitely featuring next month (which Doug already mentioned in the intro, like Wormed, Inverloch, Aluk Todolo, etc.). Some of these might reappear next month, if they're eligible, or this might be the most love they get. Let's make the most of our time either way. RAVENSIRE - "Temple at the End of the World" Trad, sweet trad. These Portuguese lads (or old dudes, more likely) play heavy metal the olden way, with album art proudly emblazoned with the image of a warrior dwarf, or a viking or visigoth or someone fierce and hardy and solemn (who happens to resemble a dwarf). And the tunes sound pretty much how you'd expect. What makes it great are the lasting hooks, the excellent playing, and the shredded-larynx gravelly vocals, which give the whole affair some extra teeth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsd9uJryMh4 Ripper - "Neuronal Unity" Another perfectly titled band: ripping, thrashing, gnashing death/thrash from Chile, presented by the ever-impressive Dark Descent Records, featuring some of the best bass playing on a thrash record since you-know-who winked out of this world 30 years ago this September. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv9UbpFLuUw Miasmal - "Fear the New Flesh" One of my favorite of the newer crop of Swedish OSDM bands, Miasmal excel in the lead guitar department, drawing more from crust punk than most of their contemporaries. I'm hoping we get another crack at this next month. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnb5ZHeHIOw Ecferus - "Creation of a New Planet" Stunning cosmic / atmospheric black metal from this one-man USBM "band". For fans of Spectral Lore, Mare Cognitum, and of course Krallice, who edged this one out by the thinnest of hairs (at least in my mind). The musicianship, melodicism, and overall execution here are pretty much mind-blowing, especially considering it's all the product of one dude. I would kill to be this good at guitar OR drums, never mind both. Featuring killer cover art to boot. https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/track/creation-of-a-planet Suspiral - "Poisonour Essence" Another exemplary release from I, Voidhanger Records. This Galician duo plays long-form black/death utterly drenched in wailing lead guitars. Haunting stuff. https://suspiral.bandcamp.com/track/poisonous-essence Borknagar - "Winter Thrice" I posted this back in November before they had a video up, and I'm reposting it again because the album has grown on me even more in intervening months. It's heavily progressive, bountifully-weird, clearly-Scandinavian metal with blackened edges, not unlike recent Enslaved. This track sees original vocalist Garm (of Ulver, Arcturus, and everything else) guesting for a few clean-sung verses alongside ICS Vortex and Vintersorg. This year has already seen an insane amount of top-flight progressive metal in only one month, which is not a sentence I ever thought I'd type, especially not on this site. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDrrKv2wjvk Conan - "Revengeance" Somewhere smack dab between Electric Wizard and High on Fire, you'll find Conan hammering away at their instruments like the self-described cavemen that they are. This track is probably the fastest and shortest thing on the album, which means it sounds much more like High on Fire and much less the rest of the album, but it's perfectly solid and plenty destructive. I recommend listening to the whole thing—it came out today, and you can find it on Spotify right now. https://youtu.be/KT143oJUUKU Obscura - "Sermon of the Seven Sun" Again with the progressive metal. Obscura basically defines progressive death metal in the new millennium, at least to me—they build off the framework of Human-era Death, with nods to Atheist and Cynic (notice the robo-choir vocals at the beginning of this track, directly referencing Cynic's best album, Focus), but the intensity of the playing and the overall orchestration and arrangement of the songs tend to go much further than their progenitors were capable of. The other Black Market guys aren't especially fond of this, and I can understand why—jazz-fusion death prog isn't even an acquired taste, it's an abomination upon all of music, yet I love this record both for the ripping melodeath riffs and the quieter, ambient-acoustic sections that hold it all together. The fretless bass during the quiet parts reminds me of what Michael Manring was doing back on all those Windham Hill records (a label that released a slew of excellent, eclectic "new-age acoustic" records in the 80s and 90s; I'm sure I've already lost you), and when the band trots out the string section on the epic 15 minute closer, you'll either run to the hills or start taking notes. Hey, it's worth hearing once either way. I posted an earlier single way back in the November column's bonus tracks, and one of our regular readers left this comment, which hopefully inspires a listen in at least a few of you: "I think I might like that Obscura song better than anything that made the actual list, which surprises me because I'm not generally a big fan of overly technical death metal. I wouldn't have thought it possible for a tech-death song to be moody, melancholic and subdued, but they nailed it." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LSZMpxh80E

Mickey Rourke's terrible rap on "Shining Star" counts as a cheesy duet, I think.

Adversarial was literally #51! I think it was #17 on my personal list—such a killer fucking band live and on record.

In addition to the Baroness recommendation, take a listen to Elder. It won't convert you to death metal or anything, but the guitar work is stunning and the album is approachable. It's more like epic and heavy psychedelic rock.

There was so much we couldn't cover this month, goddamn. Here's the usual assortment of bonus tracks, in a pitiful attempt to make a dent in the mountain of material that didn't make the master list. Happy holidays, heathens. LYCUS - "Solar Chamber" One of my favorite American funeral doom bands is back for a victory lap. New LP in January; here's your first taste of the gloom. https://lycus.bandcamp.com/ OBSCURA - "Akroasis" One of the nerdier tech-death bands, but also one of the most expressive. This one is moody, melancholic, almost subdued in its virtuosity. There are wheedly-deedlies to be sure, but they never stray beyond the boundaries of good taste. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNAqGrVrcMw FORN - Weltschmerz EP Gilead has a knack for finding bands like this: Forn play haunted, haunting sludge bordering on doom, and they do it better than anyone. I'm just now realizing how impressively depressing all these bonus tracks are. Tis the season, I suppose. https://forn.bandcamp.com/ BORKNAGAR - "The Rhymes of the Mountain" Like Arcturus, Borknagar has never quite been my thing, though I respect what they do. I'm not sure where this slots into their catalog, but I like it more than I thought I would. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zoa9w7WB_Xo&feature=youtu.be KETZER - "Starless" Here's one from left field. Five years ago, these guys were the definitive Hells Headbangers black/thrash band, all Satan and bullet belts, the whole shebang. The new album drops all that and somehow lands in Tribulation territory (which is a very good thing), while drawing on a completely separate set of influences (black metal and angular post-punk). Definitely curious to hear the whole album. https://soundcloud.com/metalbladerecords/ketzer-starless/s-eZDYD HEGEMON - "Rays of Lie: There Will Be a Time You Will Give Up" And here's one last paean from the abyss: muscular, melodic metal from a long-running but little-known French black metal act. Highly recommended. You can stream the full album at their bandcamp page; this is my favorite track. http://hegemon.bandcamp.com/track/rays-of-lie-there-will-be-a-time-you-will-give-up

Good call! We snoozed on With the Dead until just after voting closed for the month. I finally heard it over the weekend and it is unquestionably rad. I know we ranked Bismuth quite high, but With the Dead is more my speed, personally.

This month was obscenely overstuffed. My ballot had something like 30 tracks on it (less than half of which appear on the actual list). This month was also drowning in excellent trad metal: Magic Circle is excellent; the new Cauldron is killer, as Ian discusses above; and my favorite of the three, which just missed inclusion here, is this ridiculous slice of perfectly rendered cock rock from Striker: https://soundcloud.com/strikermetal/too-late-1

I neglected to post the link for Lustre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW8WPMEPOUY

Only a handful of bonus tracks this month, but they're all stellar and worth your time. VENEFIXION - Defixio (cassette demo) Best demo I've heard in forever from our friends at Iron Bonehead, with great (non-demo sounding) production to boot. They're French, play a bastardized stew of proto death/black/thrash, but the riffs are melodic and hook-laden, and I think fans of Horrendous or even latter-day Tribulation will find something to love here. https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/venefixion-defixio RAM - "The Usurper" Best arena/trad I've heard in forever. These dudes are Swedish, and they've been doing the trad thing for a while, but I remember their older material being a lot faster (the change is not unwelcome). The last album, and their first for Metal Blade was something of a stumble, but they more than make up for it here. "The Usurper" is one of my favorite songs of recent months, with a perfectly classic chorus. https://soundcloud.com/metalbladerecords/ram-the-usurper ANOMALIE - Refugium LP (including the single "Untouched Walls") Excellent 'post-black' metal from Austria, from one of the guys behind the similar Harakiri for the Sky project. Falls somewhere between black metal, epic melodic doom, and maybe a dash of hardcore/screamo/modern-crust, but it's doing its own thing. Either way, it's catchy as hell with glorious melodic lead guitars all over the place. https://artofpropaganda.bandcamp.com/track/untouched-walls LUSTRE - "Nestle Within" Here's a new standalone single from Lustre, from a forthcoming LP coming sometime next year. Lustre has been moving away from metal for years now with a greater focus on keyboard melody and atmospherics and less shrieking and guitar fuzz, but no matter—I love this stuff. Reminiscent of the quieter parts of other keyboard metal bands like Summoning, Midnight Odyssey, or Burzum's ambient records. P.S. Don't forget to pick up one of the absolute best albums of the year—the latest from Horrendous, which came out yesterday. https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/anareta

September was fucking obscene in terms of the gluttonous smorgasbord of delectables that fell from the sky into our unworthy laps. Our list above is the tip of the iceberg. Here are a few things that we couldn't cover purely for lack of space: The new Grave album is an evil little ripper. Hopefully it'll get some love next month, if I can squeeze it in. In the meantime here's a lyric video as an appetizer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbAyWFbFmW0&feature=youtu.be New Intronaut seems promising. Super gnarly technical prog-sludge mastery from the reigning champions of that sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujb4E7oEZq0 Fans of W.A.S.P. should rejoice, cuz the new album is a monster. W.A.S.P. rarely if ever slip, but the new one definitely rules pretty hard. The usual complaint is that it's basically Christian propaganda at this point, which is valid. But if you can detach the moral component from Burzum and listen your despite personal loathing, we may as well do the same in the other direction and give a born-again bro a pass. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S03jsNAiXY I wrote about a new Satan track at Black Market last month, and now you can stream the whole album over at Invisible Oranges. I'm not even kidding when I say there is no better band in metal right now, and these guys have to be pushing 50 by now. Stream first, buy later. Do it. http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2015/09/satan-atom-by-atom/ You might recall a post-punk band made up of metal dudes making some noise a couple years back, and they went by the name Beastmilk. They broke up, lost one guitarist, then quickly reformed after stealing the guitarist from the Oath. Now they're called Grave Pleasures, and the new album looks promising as hell. The singer used to be in Dodheimsgard and Code, so you can pretend you're only interested for metallic reasons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgln-C9_zFY New shit from Abbath! Who the fuck knows why he chose to debut the band with a live track, but the recording sounds sufficiently studio-like and powerful enough to count as a proper single. I hear shades of Motorhead, modern-day Satyricon (not unlike Abbath's previous solo outing, which went by the infinitely unmemorable "I"), and, of course, lots of Immortal. Sounds pretty sick. https://youtu.be/tyZNxzSHb-I For the fans of true metal of death, you'll want to indulge in the new Grave Ritual. Total rudimentary cavernous pummeling, kinda like Grave covering Incantation. Out on Dark Descent soon, this shit rips. https://soundcloud.com/dark-descent-1/grave-ritual-adversary-crown I've spent a lot of the year raving about various bands that draw influence from the Hellenic black metal scene (Scythian, Obsequiae, etc.), but here's one from a long-running, full-blooded Hellenic black metal band from way back when. Varathron were doing this shit alongside Rotting Christ and Necromantia all through the 90s. Fortunately they still rule. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z5sgybgbI8&feature=youtu.be This hasn't dropped a proper single yet, but I have the album and it fucking kills. Dragged Into Sunlight did a full-on collaboration with Gnaw Their Tongues, and the result is basically Godflesh fed through a black hole. Incredibly gnarly, headache-inducing, life-repellent ugliness. Here's a trailer to tide you over. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wu0O-ald54&feature=youtu.be New shit from Revenge. Hopefully this will get some love next month. You know what to expect, and if you don't, you should find out what you're missing. https://revengeofficial.bandcamp.com/album/behold-total-rejection?mc_cid=6d71c6a1e5&mc_eid=2196dbf5a4 New Panopticon. Pretty sure we forgot to vote for it this month, as this is fantastic. Hopefully another track will arrive for next month's column. http://nordvis.bandcamp.com/album/autumn-eternal Bodyfarm! Death... the brutal way... aka the dutch death metal way, ala Asphyx, Hail of Bullets, et. al. This guys bring in just a hint of melodeath but otherwise it's straight Asphyx worship, which is perfect in my book. This time they even snagged Martin van Drunen for some killer guest vocals on their first single. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6IbUsNl3UA New Abigail Williams... forgot the old stuff. Ken Sorceron was playing with Lord Mantis for a while, and now he's in the new spin-off project whose name I can't recall right now and don't feel like looking up. The current Abigail Williams lineup includes Charlie Fell (formerly of Lord Mantis) and Will Lindsay (formerly of Indian, currently of Lord Mantis). So... fans of Lord Mantis, inquire within. http://www.revolvermag.com/news/abigail-williams-premiere-new-song-path-of-broken-glass.html NEW KILLING JOKE. this actually kills, and I would have written about it if I wasn't so personally swamped with work this month. Best band is best, eternally. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4wdbibV3IM Denner / Sherman is a new EP from the guitarists best known for playing in Mercyful Fate. They brought on the singer from Cage, who has his own brand of ridiculous falsetto, and the results are pretty epic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfllsliM_xY Not metal, still great. THE VISIT. Basically aggro string work paired with gorgeous vocals, it comes off a bit like Dead Can Dance covering Philip Glass. The album is fantastic straight through, and the instrumental bits actually get both shreddy and heavy. Highly recommended. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_ZmL03TLAg&feature=youtu.be And one last one from Dark Descent, I give you: BLOOD INCANTATION. Surprisingly proggy, spacey, awesome, slightly cavernous but generally cleanly produced death metal. Looking forward to hearing the rest of this. http://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/interdimensional-extinction And for anyone that missed the news, Martin "Kiddie" Kearns, the drummer for the best death metal band of all time (in my humble opinion), Bolt Thrower, died at the horribly young age of 38. I don't much else to say other than that he will be sorely missed. Cheers.

ok ok, but are the lyrics better or worse than your platonic lyrical ideal, Converge?

Grammar nazi karma almost always comes back to bite you. It's absolutely a noun and an adjective, and if you look it up on any dictionary website, it comes up first as a noun.

It's slightly awkward that I apparently wrote that second paragraph, got distracted, forgot I wrote that second paragraph, then rewrote it from scratch. Welcome to the messy process that is my life.

Totally hear that. Based on that, you may actually prefer the later material. Karl Sanders does the gutturals; Dallas Toler-Wade does the barking midrange vocals (sometimes referred to pejoratively as rapping). Karl did almost all the vocals early on, or at least all the lead vocals, whereas Dallas has done steadily more over time. Check out Those Whom the Gods Detest for another great album in the vein of the new one. The guttural vox are long-running mainman Karl Sanders, while the midrange comes from his right hand man, Dallas Toler-Wade. Dallas's vocals have had a long evolution, from where they were mostly backups in the early day, to where they've taken over the lead role on recent albums.

Glad you like the new one! I'm definitely partial to In Their Darkened Shrines, but the first four are all pretty incredible. Annihilation of the Wicked has basically the same production as the newest album (i.e., heavy as hell, but discernibly clear), so that's another great place to start. The first two are a bit less dynamic and more fixated on relentless blasting, but the songs are generally a bit shorter so it works out pretty well. Decibel did a great Hall of Fame piece on the first album a while back, which is worth unearthing. As for their later stuff: Ithyphallic is worth exploring eventually, as it has some great moments and they explored much slower tempos and more doom riffs, it's just marred by less than awesome production and weirdly mixed vocals. Those Whom the Gods Detest was pretty great, actually—huge, heavy production ala Annihilation of the Wicked or the newest album, and the songs were generally back on track. At the Gate of Sethu is my least favorite album by far, with thin production and also-ran riffing, so I wouldn't even bother until you've exhausted everything else (and they have a lot!).

The whole Nile album is up on Spotify; definitely recommended. There's a block of songs in the middle of the album that just destroy me every time. Here's the first single they released a little while back. We sat on the album for a bit so we could highlight our collective favorite track, but everything on there is pretty insane. The sound quality from youtube is a bit diminished, so definitely check the spotify stream if you can. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSVqclCr4fI

Good call! It bothers me that this band is barred from Metal Archives for being too folky. Very cool band making some distinctly weird sounds.

I HUMBLY CONCEDE

This month skews more "black" than the past several, no question, which is due to the particular releases that graced our ears this month. If anything, the voting bloc currently skews towards death metal over most everything else, though this month was light in that department. Ian and I will both rep hard for the trad metal bands when they release things worth hearing; again, this month was pretty dry on that front. That said, keep your eyes and ears peeled for a new track from Satan next month (possibly the best of all NWOBHM hands, and most definitely the best one still going in 2015), and even the new Saxon sounds pretty solid. August will be loaded, and I expect a diverse batch of bands. Out of curiosity, which "less aggressive" material did we miss this month? I'm always down to hear something good that missed my monthly radar.

Doug and I like to argue whether Immortal Bird actually play grind like the band claims. I say existing along "the punkier edge of death metal", along with their stated intent, takes them far enough to count. What do you guys think?

I forgot to do my customary bonus tracks post this month, but here are a couple randoms that missed inclusion: IMMORTAL BIRD - excellent "grind" project from Rae Amitay and company. Doug and I argued endlessly over why this is or is not grind, with him calling it modern black metal and me disagreeing noncommittally. Whatever it is, it's great, and there's a good chance it makes it onto the list next month. https://immortalbird.bandcamp.com/ WINDHAND - Not a new track, but a snippet of a potentially great album. I hate album teasers with irrational fury, but hey, killer band so what the hell. http://youtu.be/7sVak04OduQ BLACK DAHLIA MURDER - Never been able to muster a whole lot of excitement over these guys despite their best efforts at being incredibly reliable and technically quite excellent. Meanwhile, this is the best thing I've heard from them, which bumps the needle a bit closer to the red. https://youtu.be/5OMiJNgWbI0 CUT UP - Rather awesome grindy Swedish death from dudes that played in Coldworker. Coldworker might be familiar for their ties to uber-legends Nasum, who have sadly departed the mortal plane. This reminds me of Nasum mixed with Swedish death metal, which is pretty great. I would have fought harder for this if we didn't have Cattle Decapitation and a pile of other unpleasant death metal in the same month. https://youtu.be/Tb7INPQX4t0 SABBATH ASSEMBLY - not really my thing, but it might be yours. Folks have compared this to Hammers of Misfortune, who are excellent, so there's that. https://sabbathassembly.bandcamp.com/album/ave-satanas-b-w-risen-from-below LOCRIAN - with each release it gets harder to call these guys "metal," but I thoroughly love what they do. In the past I've described this track as "Jean Michel Jarre jamming with Alcest," and I'll stick with that. https://soundcloud.com/relapserecords/08-heavy-water-1/s-YXoDI THORNESBREED - noisy black industrial-tinged chaos, not unlike a black metal version of that band Autokrator (https://autokrator.bandcamp.com/releases) who released one of the most impenetrable death metal / noise crossover albums I've ever heard earlier this year on Iron Bonehead. This is slightly more fun than that, but equally bleak and excellent. https://artofpropaganda.bandcamp.com/album/gtrd ACRANIA - mostly notable because I've never heard anything remotely like it, Acrania fuse latin music, thrash, and something approximating death metal into an unholy stew of nonsense. It's actually pretty good for what it is, but it's a bit outside my usual comfort zone for bastardized 'world' sounds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6MgIXqlrn0 FAILURE - not metal, still cool. I figured these guys get plenty of coverage in dB so we may as well mention them here. yes, it sounds like a Pink Floyd / Beatles mashup and everyone has pointed that out (including their tour manager). It's still pretty great to hear from a long-dead band that no one dreamed would resurface. I caught their first reunion gig in LA and had a wonderful time; glad to have them back, and now I need to track down the new album and spend some damn time with it already. https://soundcloud.com/failuremusic/mulholland-drive/s-qloSD I probably missed a pile of stuff, but work beckons from beyond.

Murg is monstrous--absolute killer tunes, definitely in my top 10 for the year. Another one that surfaced around the same time and scratches a similar itch is the equally foreign Misþyrming (pronounced Misthyrming, I think). The band hails from Iceland, they play a cavernous but surprisingly melodic variation on black metal, and the album dovetails neatly with the Murg record for back-to-back black-on-black listening sessions. https://misthyrming.bandcamp.com/releases

I'm either a true diehard or a total poseur when it comes to Slayer because I completely write them off after Seasons. I know a lot of folks that legitimately love Divine Intervention and God Hates Us All, but neither of their post-classic "good" albums does much of anything for me. Never mind the rest of the latter-day garbage. Christ Illusion and World Painted Blood are little more than shit-stains on the honor of of heavy metal (see: Playing With Dolls www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaHe4z9mA74), but I digress. All that said.. I kinda like the new Slayer jams (or the last two, not "Implode," which sounds exactly as bad as all other bad Slayer). Maybe Hanneman was the one secretly sucking all these years, not Kerry like we all assumed!? Only time will tell. I'm not exactly keeping an open mind for the new album, but I'm morbidly curious to hear the damn thing.