This is great black metal. Out now on NoEvDia.

https://lvme.bandcamp.com/album/of-sinful-nature

New Praise the Plague is quite a satisfying listen. For fans of their fellow Germans like Ultha and Ruins of Beverast (although somewhat less doomier).

https://praisetheplaguelfr.bandcamp.com ... nt-of-time

Wow. This one kicks some serious ass.

Really enjoying the new Griffon album, some good French black metal.

https://griffonblackmetal.bandcamp.com/ ... -republica

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This is a great album, great rotten death metal that is really deserving of the tag "death"

Killer Black/Thrash for fans of Deathhammer!

Iron Front - Hooked
I’m picky when it comes to brutal death metal. Even more so if it’s slam. I’m going to be extremely picky if it’s deathcore with an emphasis on the core. Throw all of that together and I can’t imagine it could possibly hit all of the right notes for me personally given how selective I am in general with those genres. But this nails it. Goddamn does it nail it.


https://ironfront.bandcamp.com/album/hooked

Just a cool EP

Sarcastic Obedience - Fading Faith is one I enjoyed. Death/thrash with a slight technical edge to it, along the lines of a band like Ripper (Chl) or countrymates Rapture.

https://chaosandhellproductions.bandcam ... ength-2024

This has been pummelling my head:

https://keresofficialband.bandcamp.com/ ... mini-lupus

Nothing groundbreaking or even outstanding, but if you like your blackened death metal to have an emphasis on violence and still be (somewhat) memorable, this should do the trick.

I haven’t listened to it yet so I’m not sure if it’s worthwhile or not, but if their debut is anything to go by, then the new Vircolac album that dropped today should be a ripper. The band has a very unique take on death metal and it’s kinda hard to pinpoint what their influences are.

Oh damn! Thanks for this! First truly enjoyable album of this young year! Such an awesome production too!

You're welcome!

The year started strong, I have to say - Hoplites, Knoll, Necrowretch, Vitriol, Cave Sermon, Pestilength, all released awesome records. And I'm sure I'm forgetting a few.

I know only one listen isn't sufficient at all for getting into an album properly, but I can't help myself.

Had pretty big expectations from Vircolac, and I got even more than I hoped for. Fantastic death metal, not really anything apart from DM, no fancy additions or cross-genre influences, but it has a) riffs upon riffs, b) atmosphere, and c) its own personality. Great stuff



I'd also add Rhûn's Conveyance in Death. That album really grabbed me by the throat; great mix of vibes within the overall black metal framework, at some points inching towards post-BM, but I don't think it's actually there in any time. Fierce and dissonant at other moments, always with fluid songwriting that just feels right.



Damn, this year's shaping up to be really damn good. Apart from those two, Hauntologist, Lvme (above), Hulder and the mighty Unaussprechlichen Kulten impressed me. If I remember correctly, til late February 2023 it was only Deiquisitor's Apotheosis that caught my ear.

One of my favorite albums this year so far, up there with the likes of Spectral Voice, Unaussprechlichen Kulten and Vircolac.

Unhinged technical death/thrash with a progressive edge that sounds like it came straight from the early 90's. This fucking rips.

Last night I saw the band Blood Opera, who just released their debut full-length. I'm giving it a listen now (they played a lot of it live) and although I think it won't appeal to a ton of people here, it's really good. It's sort of like if Ghost was more of a glam/heavy metal band with horror-themed lyrics. They were opening for Macabre and fit in perfectly.

https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/B ... th/1214727

Holy shit this is so fun! Great rec.

The new Chainsword is crushing my skull into dust right now. Best death metal I’ve heard so far this year—mammoth-heavy Bolt Thrower riffs with some Asphyx vibes and the occasional soaring melodic guitar solo. I can’t get enough of this album.

This is my battle horse of 2024, a modern and psychedelic approach to progressive death metal.

Giving it a chance but man, this just doesn't sound good at all to me. Overpolished, annoying vocals, don't really hear any interesting riffs or musical ideas... probably not for me...

It's well played I guess but that's like bare minimum for this stuff. I find bands like Sadist and Martyr do this kind of extreme tech stuff in a more intriguing way - they aren't afraid to get weird. This is too normal for me.

Hi Emp, hey I understand if you don't like Moon Healer, but let me reply to some of your criticism of the album, just to have a friendly music discussion in the forum. The thing about the album being overpolished, that's a criticism that I don't share. I don't like raw production in any kind of music, much less in progressive death metal, I don't think that is what the genre or the style is looking for in their music. As for the vocals, they are a mix between the old style of Job for a Cowboy and modern death metal vocals, maybe you didn't like them back in the day, but I also don't see any relevant problem with them, I like hardcore and metalcore so maybe the problem is that you don't like those genres and it's fine.

As for not hearing interesting riffs or musical ideas, I don't know what to reply to that man, we clearly are hearing very different albums, the riffs of this record are amazing, super tight, and creative. The bass player is a fucking animal, I am sorry that you couldn't hear that because he is doing a pretty awesome job. As for the musical ideas, I don't know if you consumed mushrooms or LSD or any kind of psychedelic substances sometimes, but if you hear the first seconds of the first song you will hear the beep sound that you hear before entering a trip, I thought that was cool as fuck man and in line with what the album wants to tell, it's a progressive death metal album, with a psychedelic take in the genre, just read the song titles and the lyrics.

As for the last criticism, you say this is well played and I agree with that, but then you compare Job for a Cowboy with two bands that don't play the same genre because this is not a technical death metal album, this is not in the style of bands like Nile, Gorguts or Necrophagist, this isn't that and you shouldn't expect to hear that kind of sound in this album. If you want to compare it with something, you can listen to stuff like The Black Dahlia Murder, Between the Buried and Me, and the last albums of Death, Cynic, it's another style of metal. Tech and prog can be confused sometimes but this album falls more into the latter category since it has obvious influences of progressive rock and is a lot more melodic than those bands that you named.

I genuinely fucking hate The Black Dahlia Murder too, so yeah I guess it's a taste thing. It all just sounded too rudimentary - I like either melodic stuff with the clean vocals or stuff that goes even further than this in terms of heaviness and experimenting. Oh well.

I don't know what to say to you man, we clearly have different musical tastes since I love The Black Dahlia Murder, Trevor's death was a very painful loss for the metal world. Other modern albums of this kind of metal could be Horrendous's Ontological Mysterium or Tomb Mold's The Enduring Spirit. Progressive death metal is a pretty cool genre that is very different from tech death and is a lot more melodic. Tech death is almost a brother of brutal death metal in a lot of ways, these guys aren't looking for that kind of sound.

You had me at Bolt Thrower riffs with soaring melodic guitar solos.
Very nice. Thanks for this.

Thirding Chainsword, my AOTY so far.
'Blightmarch' was already huge and proved these guys are the best Bolt Thrower-inspired band around - much better than Memoriam or Darkened - and this new one further cements that position. Killer stuff.

And another shout to Chainsword, awesome stuff! I actually like it more than Blightmarch. I think the guys here are more than just Bolt Thrower worshippers...they have enough here to call their own

Also listened to Chainsword's new album and it really rips. I really love this sort of death metal akin to BT.

I am now listening to Cave Sermon's Divine Laughter and, so far, it's been a quite interesting listen to me. It's been a pretty strong first quarter of year to more extreme kinds of metal.

Listening to this thanks to this thread. This is Bolt Thrower 2 indeed.

I listened to their last one Blightmarch but this one is definitely better. They remind me of Infiltration from Russia but both of course spawn from BT.

February was a lot like January for me where I had a reasonably high strike rate for 6-7.5/10 stuff but not really anything I'm expecting to see near my year end list. The top one here has taken over my #1 of the year spot for me for now and is easily the strongest rec. It's mostly normie shit people have mentioned before, but whatever, can't argue with the results.

Knoll - As Spoken - Had a discussion on this one earlier in the thread, it's like this manic grind meets swirling Portal dirges thing and it's pretty cool. This is easily my favourite sound Knoll have tried and I hope they explore it more.

Spectral Voice - Sparagmos - I'm not as hype about this as a lot of people are, but it's heavy, eerie death doom with a lot of Disembowelment in it, what's not to like?

Dissimulator - Lower Form Resistance - Death-y tech thrash with a lot of Voivod and Vektor, honestly the extra brutality I think keeps this less hyperactive and weird as those, but it's good.

Downwinder - Claws of Despair - If there's one subgenre that I'm always gonna be disappointed by but also like a decent amount it's death crust. It's a melding that should be cooler than it is since it always ends up as caveman shit with d-beat breaks instead of anything more expansive and exciting, but hey, I like caveman shit with d-beat breaks.

Vircolac - Veneration - Pretty interesting thin and antiquated death metal which is basically pure but gives the vibes of black and trad metal through it's specific sonic rawness. Kinda reminds me of Sacriphyx but more exciting and fun with more showy and fast parts.

New Convulsing dropped today

https://convulsing.bandcamp.com/album/perdurance

Sounds excellent again on first listen

New Haunt
https://hauntthenation.bandcamp.com/album/dreamers

Pleasantly surprised by the new Firewind, Stand United. As corny as ever, but the performances are top-notch and the hooks are massive.

The new album from Volcandra "The Way of Ancients" is very good melo death/black and a highlight of the year thus far for me.

https://volcandra.bandcamp.com/album/th ... f-ancients

New Misotheist out today. Continuing with the format of 3 massive songs per album, it's a relentless, crushing piece of black metal.

https://terraturpossessions.bandcamp.co ... made-flesh

Listened to this today. It sounds great. It's at Name Your Price, as well, so well worth it.


I generally prefer my black metal a little experimental/avant-garde or mixed with something else, but I like how this sounds. I'll have to give it another sample and see how I feel.

Job for a Cowboy's new one, Moon Healer, is pretty damn good. Very proggy. Hadn't listened to them in forever, so this was a good surprise.

https://youtu.be/MkkRZ3YZdIk?si=51m3YH6JTS4P9tkq

But has anyone mentioned Job For a Cowboy??

Almost the same here - I had sampled a song here and there from them before, but those didn't win me over. This new one did though. Went back and listened to their previous few albums as well (Marrow, Red In Tooth and Claw, Desiderata), and I must say this sounds the best out of these to my ears (although not by a huge margin). The vocals have only become stronger over the years, and the varied yet catchy songwriting is also still there. Maybe a couple of the tracks don't gel as well as the others, but overall it's very enjoyable.