This week's new heavy metal releases include Abba metal, mathcore madness, and more! Now to the metals…
ALSO! Today, Bandcamp is doing one of their days of giving 100% of what you pay directly to the labels and artists as Covid-19 Pandemic relief. So if you can get stuff from Bandcamp, please do. Or can also check out select new releases here on vinyl via Gimme Metal.
Amberian Dawn – Take A Chance – A Metal Tribute To ABBA
Genre: Power metal/Abba covers
Origin: Helsinki, Finland
Label: Napalm
Buy now on Bandcamp or Gimme Metal
As advertised this is a metal tribute to Abba, and you know what? It fucking rips. The take on "S.O.S.," "Super Trouper," "Mamma Mia," and so many more. The best part is that Pierce Brosnan is nowhere to be found.
Årabrot – Heart
Genre: Post-rock/experimental
Origin: Haugesund, Norway
Label: Pelagic Records
Buy now on Bandcamp
Up next is a quick EP follow up to last year's Norwegian Gothic. In addition to an original track, this features covers of Nancy Sinatra, T Rex, Coil, and Ethel Azama's version of Miklós Rózsa's "Green Fire."
Blame Kandinsky – Exlectic Ruiner
Genre: Mathcore
Origin: Athens, Greece
Label: Venerate Industries
Buy now on Bandcamp
The last couple years have been really solid for mathcore, and Eclectric Ruiner is another success for the subgenre. This is the perfect blend of technicality, dissonance, chaos, and catchy moments. If you're a music video viewer, I highly recommend their videos as they are visual feasts.
Checkp01nt – Where There's A Yee There's A Haw
Genre: Skate punk
Origin: Sacramento, California
Label: Self-released
Stream here
Checkp01nt is what happens when some Sacramento-area metal heads take on skate punk. The guitars are hella shreddy, the rhythms are grounded but far from basic, and the melodies will get you singing at the top of your lungs. This features folks from Journal, Knocked Down, At The Crossroads, and more.
Hammers Of Misfortune – Overtaker
Genre: Progressive rock/heavy metal
Origin: Montana
Label: Self-released
Buy now on Bandcamp or Gimme Metal
It's been six years since these Bay Area turned Montana weirdos have brought their unique brand of heaviness. Mainstay John Cobbett has a few new friends this time and together they're going down some unexpected paths for the band. For example, "Don't Follow the Lights," is a thrash track with lots of 70's rock bombast. The entire record is a delightful journey.
Obvurt – Triumph Beyond Adversity
Genre: Technical death metal
Origin: Montréal, Quebec
Label: Unique Leader
Buy now on Bandcamp or Gimme Metal
If you're looking for some high-speed and complicated heaviness, then the debut full-length from Obvurt has you covered. Since this a Unique Leader record, you can safely assume you're in for a techy good time, and this trio delivers on that assumption.
White Lung – Premonition
Genre: Punk/indie
Origin: Vancouver, British Columbia
Label: Domino
Buy now on Bandcamp or Gimme Metal
Wrapping this week with some melodic punk stuff, because this is very good. White Lung are a lot of fun and deliver some of the frantic guitar fretting of a mathcore band, but they wrap it in catchiness. Trust me on this one.
Also dropping today…
- Aawks – (((((Heavy on the Cosmic))))) (Black Throne Productions) – Psychedelic rock
- Acid Blade – Power Dive (Personal Records) – Heavy metal
- Celestial Season – Mysterium II (Burning World Records) – Doom
- Destroyer 666 – Never Surrender (Season Of Mist) – Black metal/thrash
- Dystopia A.D. – Doomsday Psalm (Self-released) – Progressive/melodic death metal
- Gavran – Indistinct Beacon (Dunk!records) – Sludge/doom
- The Ghost Of Fu Kang Walker – The Ghost Of Fu Kang Walker (Wormholedeath) – Hard rock/heavy metal
- Heron – Empires of Ash (Sludgelord Records) – Doom/sludge
- Ihma Tarikat – Hearts Unchained – At War with a Passionless World (Lupus Lounge) – Black metal/folk
- Isafjord – Hjartastaki (Svart) – Folk rock
- Isolated Earthings – Isolated Earthlings (Self-released) – Punk
- Mick's Jaguar – Salvation (Tee Pee/Totem Cat) – Hard rock
- Nihilist Death Cult – Death To All Tyrants (Self-released) – Death metal/hardcore
- NOFX – Double Album (Fat Wreck Chords) – Punk
- Opus Arise – The Network (Self-released) – Orchestral metal
- Shining Wizard – Tournament Of Death (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions) – Grindcore
- Swept To Sea – Tides (Eclipse Records) – Metalcore
- T.O.M.B. – Terror Winds (Dark Essence Records) – Industrial/noise
- The Three Sum – Kingdom Fall (Dr. Music Records) – Punk/rock
- Vis Mystica – Celestial Wisdom (Dark Star Records) – Power/Jedi metal
- Wage War – The Stripped Sessions (Fearless Records) – Acoustic metalcore
