Departure chandelier - Satan’s soldier of fortune, if you don’t mind key boards in black metal this is cool, French , sounds good

Yeah I don't hear any zheul on this, this is more like he got into Imperial Triumphant.

https://yersinofficial.bandcamp.com/alb ... emorseless
New Yersin is real good

New Chilean band Asphalt Grieving's EP Lack of Certainty.

Moderately dissonant black/death. Not much info about them and not going to be on my EOY list but a good listen.

https://asphaltgrieving.bandcamp.com/al ... -certainty

https://narzissus.bandcamp.com/album/akt-iii-erl-sung

Narzissus - Akt III: Erl​ö​sung

Same artist behind Ancient Mastery. I've been gobbling up everything he releases lately. Black metal rooted but lots of melodeath and power metal influence, refreshing focus on narrative song progressions over mood. 2022's Chapter Two: The Resistance was a slept-on masterpiece in my opinion and I am really digging his new one so far.

New Resin Tomb - Cerebral Purgatory came out today (19 Jan). Dissonant death metal. Songs are catchy and at a length that doesn't outstay its welcome. Good stuff.

https://resintombaus.bandcamp.com/album ... -purgatory

I'll need to listen to this when I'm not at work, but I like the sound of this. Its riffs are dissonant as well as brutal. The whole thing sounds feral which is an interesting take on the sound. Thanks for the name drop.

The new Master album is a pretty big step up from their last couple of releases. The songwriting is sharper and more memorable all around and Speckmann actually sounds pretty energized.

I agree, I follow this band too and enjoy their work. This one seems to be the standout though, more varied and dynamic.

New Mega Colossus dropped today. I'm usually not a big fan of modern heavy metal, but I'm a sucker for this band and Showdown is no exception. Melodic, energetic and fun:
https://colossusmetal.bandcamp.com/album/showdown

Debut album from Kontact called Full Contact

Pretty good shit. It’s like Voivod if they were more of a traditional heavy metal band.

Boundless Chaos - Sinister Upheaval was released today by Dying Victims Productions. Some really good death thrash I enjoyed.

Just listened to it, great one, it has a very deep emotional charge both in vocals and instrumentation that reminds me of Ictus.

There is already a thread for it, but Sovereign's Altered Realities is some good sci fi tech thrash

That’s an apt description. Some cool shit going on musically in this album. But I cannot get past those vocals. Oof.

Japanese melodic death/power Ryujin released their most recent album on January 12th



Never heard of this band before and I'm not even a huge fan of this kind of metal, but I'm digging this release quite a lot.

I'm probably going to give it a few more listens throughout the year, but on first listen I didn't think it was a particularly good album. Same with many of the Gyze (pre-Ryujin) releases. Just went in one ear and out of the other. A shame because I first became aware of them when they supported Battle Beast a few years back, and they were pretty good live.

This EP from Ius Ad Bellum is INSANE to me.

https://iusadbellum.bandcamp.com/album/ ... -the-world



Someone please find the lyrics to this so I know the themes.

Come on just look at the artwork

Also it's tagged as "technical atmospheric death metal"

I just listened to this the other day, and it's fantastic. Their album Riptime is killer too.

New Blood Red Throne is excellent meat & taters Death Metal as we've always come to expect. They have yet another new vocalist, Sindre Johnsen, and he's one of their best yet. Lots of nice chunky riffs, soaring tremolos, and trademark tempo changes that mark Blood Red Throne's style.



On the other end of the spectrum, the new Vitriol sounds like it's going to take some listens to digest (no surprise). First listen is incredibly promising.

Listened to this a few times now and have enjoyed the heck out of it every time. Great leads, varied songwriting, cool themes, and doesn't overstay its welcome. At first I agreed with a previous comment that the vocals are a bit too much, but they've since grown on me. It's basically Snake from Voivod meets King Diamond. And even if I wouldn't say I love the vocals overall, the music more than makes up for it.

It's cool, but I'll admit hearing the leads suddenly turn into that old "MY APARTMENT" song on the opener and a bit of We Are Number One on the second was a bit jarring

It's almost annoying just how competent and solid Blood Red Throne consistently is. Already a solid contender for my top 10 of the year.

I'll have to check that Vitriol album as well. Thanks for the rec.

Albums I've enjoyed on first listen so far from January:

Date released, then order first listened to
-Artist (Country) - Album (label, tags/style, rough rating/10)

01-05:
-Svdestada (ESP) - Candela (indie, bm/hardcore/crust, 8-9)
01-08:
-Hauntologist (POL) - Hollow (No Solace, atmospheric/experimental/post-black, 7-8)

Already mentioned these two in this thread, but listing them here for simplicity's sake.

01-12:
-Ryujin (JPN; fka Gyze) - Ryujin (Napalm, melodic death/power, 7-8)
https://ryujinband.bandcamp.com/album/ryujin
Enjoyable melodeath/power metal album that sounds somewhere between Children of Bodom worship and (thanks to Matt Heafy being all over this) modern Trivium.

01-19:
-Resin Tomb (AUS) - Cerebral Purgatory (Transcending Obscurity, dissodeath/sludge, 8-9)
https://resintombaus.bandcamp.com/album ... -purgatory
Echoing what was said above, "dissonant yet brutal" and also catchy. The more sludgy parts and the overall production bring this into a potential list-maker for me.

-Upon Stone (USA) - Dead Mother Moon (Century Media, melodic death, 7-8)
https://centurymedia.bandcamp.com/album ... other-moon
The description on Bandcamp is pretty adequate minus the usual marketing puffery. A lot of At the Gates meets Dissection going on in here. A lot of potential.

-Vemod (NOR) - The Deepening (Prophecy Productions, atmospheric bm, 8-9)
https://vemod.bandcamp.com/album/the-deepening
Very well done atmospheric black metal. Tasteful, not overdone production. Perfect for the season.


01-26:
-Dissimulator (CAN) - Lower Form Resistance (20 Buck Spin, techdeath/thrash, 9-10)
https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/l ... resistance
Easily my album of the month. Brilliant fusion of the techdeath and thrash styles with tasteful callbacks to Voivod and Cynic.

-Vitriol (USA) - Suffer & Become (Century Media, techdeath, 8-9)
https://centurymedia.bandcamp.com/album/suffer-become
Ferociously brutal and many layers to uncover over further listens.

-Lucifer (SWE) - Lucifer V (Nuclear Blast, heavy/doom, 7-8)
https://luciferofficial.bandcamp.com/album/lucifer-v
Moving to Nuclear Blast apparently lit some kind of spark in this band. Much improved and energized over the last two albums.

https://boarhammer.bandcamp.com/album/i ... -mushrooms

This is pretty insane.

For the progheads in here, the new Caligula's Horse record came out three days ago, and it's pretty damn solid! On first listen I would say that I find it takes a little bit of time to really get going, but once I got into the multipart track, Charcoal Grace, it got very good.

On first listen, I'm not loving this quite as much as In Contact or Gloom, but I'm enjoying it more then Rise Radiant, so that's a good start. I'll have to give it a few more spins to really let it sink in.

They went too hard on the nerd stuff this time around. Songs that straight up re-tell the plots from Indiana Jones, Mad Max, and Face/Off and unabashedly use dialogue from the movies as lyrics? I love cheesy heavy/power metal, but they really crossed into cringey territory here.

That's fair. After lyrics like "we will research the tech we find, our battleships will mobilize, we know the secrets of the stars- this world is ours! The human race will never yield, green blood will stain the battlefield" I pretty much knew what to expect here...not to mention at least 2 previous songs about Dune, The Secret of Nimh, Willow, and Dark Souls I sort of think this was not a severe departure haha.

Ah, those lyrics are pure cheese which I don't mind in heavy metal. Cheese in lyrics has always been a part of heavy metal since the time when dinosaurs walked the earth. When it comes to metal I've ignored lyrics apart from rare exceptions.

Going back to the topic, doom metallers should enjoy this:

Prognan - Sjene nad Balkanom (Croatia). Epic black/death metal concept album with orchestral as well folky sections. I quite liked their previous one but I feel this is overall a tad better, feels more complete somehow.

P.S. Read the storyline synopsis in the video description.

https://effluence666.bandcamp.com/album ... rporeality

Totally late on this but here you go, Effluence in 2024. Those who aren't familiar, approach with caution

Vitriol is some seriously great stuff. Really liking the intensity and the madness, they have a certain Cattle Decap thing going which is always a good thing in my book.

https://projectarcadia.bandcamp.com/alb ... ther-tales

Project Arcadia put out some pretty kick ass power metal. Not a lot of frills, just some strong melodic riffs, powerful vocals, some good variety - it's all solid.

Technically it came out last year, but Akitsa's new album is available on CD and LP now, so I'll be checking it out. I think the physical editions were released this month, but the MA page doesn't yet reflect this.

https://akitsa.bandcamp.com/album/devenir-le-diable

Had a steady but not particularly impressive start to the year. The first one here would have (just) cracked my top 50 last year but everything else here is under that level. Still, not a terrible start with a fairly high number of things I'm happy enough to have heard.

Departure Chandelier - Satan Soldier of Fortune - Infinitely better than the last Akitsa album. Really driving and hooky and fun with the keyboards adding a huge amount of colour, while still keeping that raw base sound to keep it feeling tough.

Deconsekrated - Ascension in the Altar of Condemned - You already know what this sounds like by looking at it. But it is a good rendition of it.

Ὁπλίτης [Hoplites] - Παραμαινομένη - Hoplites man dicscovers Imperial Triumphant. I like the freakout sax parts but most of the stuff between it feels a bit phoned it, not nearly as good as his first two. Slow down.

Ynkleudherhenavogyon - Yeunadow Henaver - Man who keeps making gibberish named black metal band sends off this gibberish black metal band in style. Not really anything fancy (again almost none of this stuff is top tier) but nice black metal nonetheless.

Krvna - The Rhythmus of Death Eternal - Did somebody say not really anything facy but nice black metal nonetheless? As with all their stuff this is some high energy high melody stuff which is easy on the ears without being essential listening. Worthwhile for anyone into blasts and trem melodies.

Abigor - Taphonomia Aeternitatis (Gesänge im Leichenlicht der Welt) - Kinda surprised this hasn't popped off here, legacy band making electronically tinged prog BM with lots of vocal focus? Feels like it should be the DHG of 2024, except like, not shit.

Sucks you're not as bad of a fan of this one as his earlier work. I think it's maybe his best album, and one of the best of January.

I like it more than the third one, and it's my third pick here so it's not exactly a poorly received album from me. Dude just needs to slow the fuck down for a bit, there's a really good idea here but there's a lot of chaff between the highlights this time around imo.

January roundup:

Ὁπλίτης [Hoplites] - Παραμαινομένη - A lot of cool dense and chaotic Imperial Triumphant-esque stuff in the beginning, sadly let down by it just sort of trailing off at the end with mid-tier renditions of what he had nailed in those first two albums.

Sovereign - Altered Realities - Pretty good kinda techy thrash. Nothing particularly special, but everything certainly enjoyable.

Master - Saints Dispelled - They've had a streak of mid albums that dot the i's and cross the t's. This sounds like a band re-energized, like they've had their morning coffee... while a fire's lit under their asses.

Project Arcadia - Of Sins and Other Tales - Just a slick slab of power/prog with an ultra-melodic bent. Though the new vocalist is basically Great Value Urban breed, his vocals can and often do soar into some well-crafted vocal rhythms.

Only album so far to sniff my top list for the year is Project Arcadia's one, but there have been a few that I've missed... for now. One honorable mention I do have is for Manticora's Mycelium which I did enjoy, but I think this one might need a few more listens before I know where I really stand on it.

My favorite Hoplites is still the second but this last one is quite fantastic, I think it's the one that has achieved the best balance between cohesion in the songs and keeping the technicality and chaotic aggression.

By the way, most of the people mention it associates the band with black metal and dissonant death metal, but to me since some time ago it seems to me that it has a thrash metal edge above all. I recently read that he said that what he listens to most is Vektor and Aspid and it made a lot of sense to me. How would you classify the Hoplites music?