Thought I would start this thread up, same as the "New 2012 Metal albums that you liked". Just a thread to talk about new releases that you feel are worth mentioning.



So I got the self titled debut album by Lancer and thought it was really great. Its another power metal band in the Keeper of the Seven Keys style. Though there is traces of other influences. There song "Seventh Angel" really sounds like an Edguy song. Anyone that likes Helloween, Gamma Ray or Trick Or Treat should really check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3qImjnDR8Q

My first album of the year is Malignant Monster's Yours in Murder. Need to give it a few more spins to get to know it better, but I'm impressed so far. Very solid blackened thrash with a little bit of death, and worth checking out if you're into that whole Australian scene (D666, Trench Hell, Gospel of the Horns etc). Their first album seemed quite weak, but they were brilliant live. You'd scarcely recognise them as the same band from disc to stage, but that gap is a lot smaller this time around.

It also has some seriously OTT packaging, since it comes in an envelope with a wax seal. I would have been to the album launch show on January 5 if not for a buck's night.

The new Katalepsy (brutal death metal) album, Autopsychosis, is in my good/very good range, but I find it a bit lacking compared to Musick Brings Injuries and Triumph of Evilution which I consider very good. It's still worth checking out, and it seems like many others are very satisfied.

As for Black Debbaths album Nå får det faen meg være rock! Akademisk stoner-rock!, which is probably only relevant for Norwegians, I was disappointed. I loved the single, and I love some of their previous stuff (especially Den femte statsmakt), but the new album was overall somewhat boring.

Couldn't care less about the 100th Darkthrone album, but a new piece from Bestial Raids wouldn't go astray. Should be a good year for dark hymns.

Sorry but... what about this?
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=94562

Seconding Katalepsy, extremely cool mash up of everything bdm with traditional dm vocals making up the majority of the voice work.

Abyssal is getting some serious love around here, being so twisted death/black ala Portal and Antediluvian etc. I wasn't too impressed and found it a bit drab, but lots of people are going nuts over it so people should give it a go.

And Basque, that thread is about upcoming stuff, this thread is usually about albums once they're actually available to hear.

Uhm... Ok, I didn't understand it this way.

Vorum's debut Poisoned Void is crushing and brutal as fuck, good old school Finnish death metal.

Corpus Mortale's album is also pretty good, being one of the few Danish bands that I have encountered so far. Sounds like a more brutal version of The Cleansing, with hard hitting drums that was extremely satisfying to the ear.

Overtorture's debut At the End the Dead Await was impressive as well, one of the few newer Swedish death metal albums that I enjoyed. Superband of sorts, featuring members from various other Swedish death metal bands such as Grave and Demonical.

I am looking forward to the new Centurian, Imprecation, Portal, Suffocation and Voivod

The New Overtorture sounds promising! Will keep an eye for that!

I've been enjoying Abyssal's new album quite a bit. http://abyssal-home.bandcamp.com/

That and the new Cult of Luna are all that I have really heard and cared for so far.

Yeah, Abyssal's new one is amazing. I normally do not care for these dissonant experimental death metal bands (save Esoteric. And we shouldn't call them experminental anymore because there are tons of them) But Abyssal manages to not bore me to death. Quite the opposite actually. I'm thoroughly captivated by it. It never gets stale and boring, and they've managed to put enough variation and change of pace into the album. The atmosphere is absolutely daunting and otherwordly, and the guitar tone is massive.

Going for Darkthrone "The Underground Resistance" ("Leave No Cross Unturned" sample is catchy as fuck, so...), Voivod "Target Earth", Cultes Des Ghoules "Henbane" and Metal Grave "The Eternal Flame Of Deception"

That's for stuff that has been announced but hasn't come out yet. This is more for stuff that has already come out I think.

Well I gave Abyssal another go and I'm glad I did, seems to be growing on me, its far less meandering and non descriptly cavernous as I originally had feared. With that said I'm not still a hundred percent able to get past how exactly like Portal the slow/mid paced death metal that makes up 70% of their sound. They have the same vocals, the same tom heavy kinda off time drum work, the exact same riffing style that uses super fast tremolos which are distorted to the point the notes are indistingushable, leaving an evil churning hornets nest buzz which makes lurching atonal melodies that are made up bwuaahhhh's and fwuaaaaah's. Its exactly like Portal but the sound is actually dynamic and immense, which makes the actually sound more like live Portal than Portal do. They're really good at it, but it doesn't have the unique touches that a band like Mitochondrion has. On the plus side they add in some solid doom metal, and a fair few less dense, jangly parts that are reminicent of DsO and their ilk. The combination works well, but they're not as good as Svartdaudi or Dodecahedron's View From... tracks from last year. There are also a few melodic parts on the last couple of songs which provide variation, but kinda break that horrific evil ritual which makes up their primary appeal.

After all that I feel like I may as well have just reviewed them haha.

The new Lightning Swords of Death album is astonishing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sZXBCvIsu8

Some of the riffs are like Deicide or Bloodbath at their best. Great vocals too.

Yes, as I recall there was two different threads last year, one for upcoming releases and one for stuff that has already been released.

I liked their second album definitely will check this out. Album cover looks awesome.

You know, lord_ghengis, I disagree. I find the vocals in Abyssal pretty irrelevant (they're mixed really low and don't really do anything) and the drumming insanely great and dynamic. It's fast, the fills are in your face and really well mixed, and there's quite a bit of separation between the instruments and notes they play. Portal's drums are just this off kilter rumbling in the background and their guitars are like five times more indecipherable. I think Abyssal just took Portal as a jumping point, combined it with a few other influences, added HUGE melodies and tapping sections, and then ran with it.

Irrelevant or not, they're exactly the same delivery as Portal. The production is a big shift which is what makes them very different on record, maybe knowing Portal's live sound, which is much more in line with Abyssal, is what makes me see the similarities stand out more for me, and makes me think this is better than any studio recordings by the Australians. Yes, the drums have a few more faster parts, but when ever they get a bit slower they get much more inline with Portal's tom thumping. I agree there are a few other influences, which I brought up in my post, but I didn't really notice any melodies outside of the last couple of songs (And I felt they kind of ruined the evil ritual mood), so I'll need to listen more no doubt, and Portal get pretty darn techy at times, I didn't think many of Abyssal's more complex adventures were all that different, other than the ones that were clearly dissonant BM influenced of course.

Have you heard both albums or just the newest?

Just the newest in full, I'm going to give Denoument a go soon, at this point I've only heard a couple of songs off. I hear it's riffier which would make it less Portally, but my views on the new one still stand.

i am looking forward to this.

I'm most looking forward to Paysage d'Hiver - Das Tor. The tape is available for order, but I'm waiting for the CD. Other than that, new Darkthrone and Portal come to mind, pretty obvious choices there. Also new Antediluvian on NWN.

This is really a good one! Quite an improvement over the debut EP.

About the Abyssal I have to fully agree with some guy's remark at RYM: "Great sound, filthy and messy noise. Too bad the songs are completely boring".

Welp, once again thanks to this board I've been introduced to something fucking great. That being the new Abyssal album, which struck me so quickly I actually made my first purchase on bandcamp and my first ever digital music purchase, instead of just downloading it for free in 2 minutes.

The Headless Serpent............ this fucking song...

Please excuse me while I clean the jizz off my keyboard and find out more about this band. Why are they not on the archives?

"Released on January 25th via Apostasy Records!"

It will be!

I agree with both of these comments. Fantastic album that I expect to see on numerous end-of-year lists.

The new Centurian album is fantastic as well. Feels to me like some of the more technical Nox sound rubbed off on the more oldschool Centurian sound, although the oldschool sound is definitely the more dominant of the two on Contra Rationem.

The new Riverside album might be the best they've ever done. At the very least it's their best since Out of Myself/Second Life Syndrome.

Gorguts.

Of course I have to re-iterate my love of Abyssal. While I prefer 'Denoument' - seriously, ghengis, give that one a listen as soon as you can, it's breathtaking - their 2013 release is nonetheless absolutely, utterly stupendous. I'll be interested to see if any of the releases I'm anticipating this year (especially Portal) will be able to top it; honestly, I'm doubtful.


While I don't think the vocals are irrelevant I have to agree with these comments here. While Abyssal' sound is clearly related to Portal's, I really don't see that high level of similarity; the former have far more variety in their sound, and, well, their songs actually sound like songs without in any seeming less menacing or chaotic. That's one of the things that strikes me about the Brits - they've managed to combine that churning, hopelessly dark Portal-esque maelstrom with recognisable structures, melodies, SONGS THAT ACTUALLY GET STUCK IN YOUR HEAD, without in any way reducing the bleakness or horror of the former. It's a different beast, one that takes various elements and somehow manages to make them more listenable without rendering them less complex or terrifying, and turns them into what I think is a sound that is the band's own. I never think 'this must be a Portal cover' when listening to Abyssal; whenever I hear a snatch of an Abyssal song, I immediately, unequivocally know it's Abyssal.

Getting beyond my utterly devoted Abyssal fan-girlishness for a while... I'll have to second Katalepsy and Vorum; two excellent records already. I'd add Coprocephalic's debut full-length 'Gluttonous Chunks'; if you like brutal death metal, you absolutely have to check that one out. Blew me away on the first listen; here's their bandcamp.

Just spun that Abyssal album for the first time and as a big fan or Portal and the like, I'm pretty much floored. We'll see how it sticks after more listens but I just paid 16 bucks for the cd and I never dish out that much for a cd. It's like these guys seamlessly traverse every avenue of the deranged extreme metal landscape. I feel the strongest nods are obviously to Portal and perhaps Antediluvian along with Mitochondrion, but there were some touches, even some moments that brought Blut Aus Nord, Darkspace, and Ocrilim to mind as well. All this, without sounding like a mess. We'll see after more plays but this hit me like a ton of bricks and really was just about perfect to me. Glad you guys brought this shit up, unbelievable they're not signed.

Anywho, listening to the new Vorum now and it sounds excellent as well. Loving just about everything Dark Descent has been putting out.

Also, I think I mentioned it in another thread, but some of you guys really need to check out Sulphur Aeon. Their album Swallowed By The Ocean's Tide is a juggernaut. Massive production and an interesting style as well. The sound is largely swedish and seems to be held together by an old school glue, but will flash more modern, melodic sounds at times....a few instances bring Amon Amarth and Hypocrisy to mind. They mix it up a good bit and keep things interesting, in other words.

That new Katelpsy is really cool too. As many have said before me, I'm not usually a big fan of that style but those guys have a great grasp of their sound. They never take the slam element off that horrible, horrible deep end, but just keep it kind of hanging out there overhead while the brutal DM machine churns along, sick album. INSANE album art as well.

In fact, all these albums mentioned more or less have some pretty sweet cover art. 2013 is ruling hard so far, can't wait for the new Portal, Cult of Luna, and many others.

Yeah, good point, calusari. That's what I was starting to get at towards the end of my comments on them...despite all those off the wall intangibles they incorporate into their music, its still held together by something coherent that guides the songs along an intelligible manner, somehow, someway. haha Dying to give it a second listen already but will try and let it resonate some for the night and give it another go tomorrow.

Yeah, Dark Descent is proving to be pretty much my favourite label right now; and distro, too, actually - surprisingly cheap shipping to the back of beyond. I'd have to agree about Sulphur Aeon - not usually my kind of death metal, but there's something really engaging about their sound. Good stuff.

Aye, Dark Descent have been throwing some really evil shit out there. With mostly stupendous artwork as well. That Maveth album is sickening.

I actually think Dark Descent has been one of the most middling labels around up until very recently, they had a lot of albums, but none of the great ones up until very recently, to me they've always been a bit of a quantity not quality label, and the few upper level releases of late still haven't quite got me to shake off that viewpoint. Vorum is pretty damn cool, far more interesting that the Vasaeleth split a while back would have lead me to believe, I'm an absolute sucker for little creepy lead melodies and Vorum's album has an assload of them, even if they're not as good as the Ataraxy's or Funebrarum's of the world. Still not absolutely top tier, but definitely out of that gutter of competent yet middling death metal that's made up all the label's albums up until last year or so ago. My money is still on Lantern to be the band to give the label their first real exceptional album.

And everyone can stop telling me to listen to Denoument, it's next on my list.

Oh and Sulpher Aeon aren't that great, they're solid, but don't do anything particularly interesting. The cover art though, hnnnngghhh.

Edit: Wait a Minute, Vorum aren't even on DDR. Probably explains why they're not dull as hell.

Well, I came to post here about the new Abyssal only to find a full on Abyssal circle jerk. lol If Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius was released in 2012, it would have been my favorite album of the year. I agree with the Portal comparison. There are also some other comparisons, that clearly have influenced this band in some way, but the album really stands on its own.

Anyways, carry on, but please use protection.

I'm going to join in on the Abyssal circle jerk and second pretty much everything MazeofTorment and Calusari have said. It's little wonder that I like it though, I'm an absolute sucker for bands that have that creepy dissonant thing going on (Portal, Mitochondrion etc). I've had their 2013 album on regular rotation for a couple of weeks now.

I've been meaning to check out the new Katalepsy as well, I'm not a fan of slam at all, but the samples I've heard sound pretty impressive.

The new Katalepsy is pretty nuts. I'm not sure if it will have lasting power, for me at least, but it certainly has a strong initial impact with it's production and playing in every department.

I am one who always look out for new albums, end have a list of top albums of the year.
It's only January, but I'm seeing Sulphur Aeon's debut making it to that list. Been listening to it on extremely heavy rotation, and I must say, the production of it brings out the best out of it.