You should have mentioned Lychgate has Aran from Lunar Aurora and Chandler from Esoteric and I would have jumped on that immediately! Holy shitballs is that good!!!

Also digging the Sonic Reign material too, almost reminds me of a waaay better version of newer Satyricon.

Seconded, holy shitballs indeed! I can't believe I haven't heard about this band until now. Greg Chandler's vocals are something else.

I've never actually thought much of anything non-esoteric Chandler has done, but I'll be sure to check it out due to my fanboy madness.

Fans of Cult of Luna/Neurosis/Breach (for obvious reasons) and the likes, should check this out.
The Old Wind - Feast On Your Gone

Guy who pasted Abyssion. Thanks, great stuff.

Deep Purple's Now What?! I'd be surprised if anyone who's been following the band since Steve Morse joined found the record to be disappointing. Personally, I think it's better than the previous Rapture Of The Deep (which I thought was excellent anyway). Sounds like Deep Purple alright.

My favorites so far this year...

Koldbrann - Vertigo
http://youtu.be/1y8ESHXZXZg

October Falls - The Plague of a Coming Age
http://youtu.be/uZM9uXnLSiY

Essence - Last Night of Solace
http://youtu.be/viUBZN_JPB0

Procession - To Reap Heavens Apart
http://youtu.be/5MNgQsYNeAw

Bölzer - Aura
http://youtu.be/4ZBaEtnxjYw

Black/Death metal, guy from Witchrist in the line-up. This particular song is pretty massive!

yo you guys should check out Monotheist, this progressive death metal band whose EP is streaming on their bandcamp do it you'll be a happier person afterwards
http://monotheist.bandcamp.com/

Awesome shits man, thanks.

Man, this is a great thread. Found loads of stuff that I'm gonna have to look into when I get home today. In particular Guttural Secrete. Also someone said Arcturus is coming out with a new album and my mind absolutely exploded.

My favorite things released so far in 2013:
Wormed - Exodromos
^Duh. It's freaking Wormed.

Inter Arma - Sky Burial
^this album actually really surprised me. I had never heard the band before, then listened to the album in one sitting and was totally blown away. It has a huge range of things happening depending on the song. That is to say, it's impossible to hear one song and know what this band sounds like. I would say it combines Black metal with Neurosis, and the last track almost sounds Mastodon-esque in terms of riffage. Really creative drumming as well.

Save Us From The Archon - Some Things We Carry, Always EP
^I'm not really sure how this group would be received here. They aren't listed in the archives at least. But I'm a huge fanboy for this band and I definitely consider them metal. For fans of the most technical of technical... so technical in fact that I don't even know how to genretize the band aside from melodic. Oh and they're instrumental btw. I like their first album better, but I love this band so much that they automatically make the list.

Light Bearer - Silver Tongue
^atmospheric sludge with an element of hardcore. On this album　I often have to scroll around for second because I can't decide which song I want to listen to. Because they're all really good. And really long.

Funeral Circle's self titled debut album is fairing quite well so far. No frills epic doom and it's an album to watch out for this year!

Thanks for the mention. I'll need to buy it urgently.

Holy shit, there's a new Battle Beast album coming out? FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFGOTTA GET IT

First impression: The new vocalist is awful and the opening lines of the album are lifted straight from a Gamma Ray or Helloween song that I can't put my finger on.

Final verdict after listening through it twice: It's awesome. Pretty much the best pop metal album I've heard in a long time. The new girl really doesn't sound all that different from the Messiah Marcolin lookalike, so I'm not sure what I was on about, and there are tons and tons of cool, memorable parts, and "Black Ninja" has got to be the coolest slice of cheese written this decade. It's pretty much a blueprint on how to be completely unoriginal but still be totally awesome.

SHEESABLOK NIN-JAaAaAaAaAaA

The first song was pretty substandard, but I'm on track three right now and this is ruling pretty hard. I don't know if it's better than Steel yet, since about half of that album was the best retro-metal in years, but this is about as good as the last Herman Frank - i.e. great if you don't take into account the debut. I can dig it.

Yeah that first track is really underwhelming, but after that it just picks up steam and gets better and better. Totally pop oriented heavy metal, but I loved it.

I dunno, this isn't really as good as the first one, though. I think it'd be better if it didn't have 13 fucking songs. And a few of the choruses don't seem all that amazing. But maybe it'll grow on me.

edit: Okay, "Black Ninja" is cool. That's what I want from these guys and gal! The killer riffing blended with the weird poppy synths and epic melodies!

summoning's new album is the album of 2013

Well, after streaming it from the Dark Descent bandcamp a few times, I think its safe to say we can add Lantern - Below to the list. REALLY digging this. Possibly the most refreshing, unique incarnation of old school death metal I've heard yet. And that artwork to boot? This album is pure win.

The new uncle acid album is fuckin awesome.

Thanks for the reminder! I wrote down somewhere to check out the new Lantern when it came out ages ago, but forgot about it till now.



Possibly. I can't wait to hear an actual, QUALITY version of it (the sound quality of the rip sucks), though even with the crappy quality it's gotten a crapload of spins from me.

I'm really enjoying Enshine's debut album, Origin. This band is a project of Jari Lindholm (Seas of Years, ex-Slumber/Atoma) with Sebastien Pierre (Fractal Gates, Inborn Suffering, Cold Insight) on vocals, and it sounds a lot like Jari's previous bands, particularly Slumber. And that's awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx7HnTAsKtI

Is '13' from Black Sabbath also mentioned?

Got the new VICIOUS RUMORS, "Electric Punishment" yesterday.
Really solid! Even much better than their last which was quite killer too.

You should definitely check out their first album, Sundown. One of the best albums released in 2010. I like it better than Sky Burial personally, though it's a largely different sound. Way less Neurosis-ing and way more black metal-ing.

Abomnium - Coffinships
http://youtu.be/yZ0GYTOCDto

Enjoyable one man blackened death metal...

Infinitum Obscure - The Luminous Black

BETTER than Razorback Killers? Granted, my expectations were already high to meet or at least come close to meeting that album as the standard but this is quite encouraging.

Well, the new Imprecation is killer.

Way more death metal than anything on Theurgia Goetia Summa but till very good. It manages to have a great sense of identity and a heavy ritualistic and morbid atmosphere, while avoiding the usual trappings of the "cavernous" sound of the OSDM resurgence. I think we have a strong candidate for death metal's AOTY!

October Tide
http://youtu.be/5JYeYgtF7J8

Sort of a melodic doomy thing with harsh vocals...

First time I am hearing of this. but I'm liking this. Don't usually hear such a massive sound out of these kinds of bands and it has that driving energy that I love in black metal.

Just in the next month....UDO, Civil War, Sabbath, Megadeth and Amon Amarth. Then after summer I'm sure new Motörhead, Trouble and Hail of Bullets will be upon us.

Just got the new Airbourne too!

I can't wait to check this out, been looking forward to hearing the new album for a while!

it's streaming at dark descent's bandcamp

Immolation's new disc might be their best since Unholy Cult. I haven't been this excited about a new Immolation release for a long time, if ever.

New Zombiefication is pretty fucking good death metal. Reminds me of Swedish death metal, albiet a more sinister and dark version of it.

The new Thou Art Lord destroys! The ultimate underrated Greek BM sound meets Sweden, so fucking good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Mnimkf ... e=youtu.be

Thanks to Henkkjelle in the Band sanctioned d/ls thread for posting Sedulity's The Valley of Dying Stars. What a great album! It's kinda like Death mixed with Artillery and Warbringer's vocalist. It's not as good as a Death/Artillery mix could be, but that would pretty much be the pinnacle of music as far as I'm concerned, so not a bad effort.