Release Round Up - May 21st, 2021
Every Friday there is a tidal wave of new music released unto the world. Whilst we try to cover as much as possible here at The Razor's Edge, it's not always possible to review everything. So each week on a Friday we'll round up some of the best new music available, some we've reviewed, some we haven't, but all worth checking out!
Theres a lot of new heavy music hitting the airwaves this week, everything from black metal, death metal, gothic metal, Stoner rock, doom, thrash metal and even some of your traditional heavy fuckin' metal!
Here's what we think you should check out today!
The greatest of compilation albums is back with it's 15th edition. The notorious Metal Massacre returns from Metal Blade Records with 'Metal Massacre XV' this Friday.
"40 years since its inception, the Metal Massacre franchise remains as strong today as it did when that urchin Ulrich forced his band’s music on an unsuspecting world."
Read our full review here.
For something news, different and very fresh, check out the compellingly brutal album 'Culling Culture' from Vexed released today.
"From the very beginning of Ignorant to the closing of Lazarus, Vexed commit a sustained modern metal assault that is both breath-taking in its scope and wildly infectious."
Read our full review here.
Los Angeles’ Hardcore Punk reprobates Destroyed in Seconds release their 2020 album 'Divide and Devour' on vinyl for the first time this week following its previous digital and cassette only release.
"Pounding drum and driving guitar, playing with the Swedeath formula and mixing it with chunky breakdowns and chainsaw riffing, gives Divide and Devour an unrelentingly fearsome sound from start to finish."
Read our review here.
Church Road Records hit it out of the park again this week with the release of Epiphanic Truth's latest album 'Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms to a Sordid Species'.
"From the outset the whole of the album seeks to destabilise you, switching from the frenzied black metal attack to a more reassuring chug to a slow, doom-laden plod. "
Read our full review here.
Post-hardcore outfit Fiddlehead deal with a lot of emotions in their music, and return this week with new album 'Between The Richness'.
"This is a musical journey through human emotions and, complex machines that we are, it was never going be channelling the LA Hair-Metal vibe. Rather, Fiddlehead have delivered a mature and measured collection, a meditation on the nature of life and loss."
Read our full review here.
Hardcore comes in all shapes and sizes, and in the case of End You its a one man band hailing from Philadelphia, who releases 'Aimless Dread' today.
"Packed so full of heavy riffs and huge slices of colossal guitar that the forty-five minutes spent in its company will leave you both physically and emotionally exhausted."
Read our full review here.
French Blackened thrashers Conquerors offer a brutal dose of music this week with new album 'Stormbringer', which is released via Music Records.
"It’s highly likely you’ll need a good wash after listening to this album, such is the filth that flows forth once you hit play. This is brutal black thrash in its rawest form."
Read our full review here.
The band also re-issue 'Dawn of War' today too!
Former Accept guitarist Herman Frank releases a solo album this week, 'Two For A Lie' via AFM Records.
"A robust, pacy and impressively played record, with ample classic metal style to enjoy"
Read our full review here.
Portland, Oregon quartet Hippie Death Cult drop as heavy as hell 'Circle of Days' album this week via Heavy Psych Sounds.
"There’s ample Sabbath tucked away here, but with a neat, psychedelic flavour. Plenty of cowbell on the opener, ‘Red Meat Tricks’, alongside Ben Jackson’s sonic vocals and luscious keyboards that lurk underneath Laura Phillips’ thick bass lines."
Read our full review here.
Blessings return this week with new album 'Biskopskniven' which is released via Pelagic Records.
"Whereas Blessings’ previous album, Bittervetten, was raw and aggressive in the mould of Unsane or Today Is the Day, Bishopskniven sees a band stepping into a brave new world of dissonant noise and unbridled rage."
Read our full review here.
Post-Hardcore fans will not be disappointed this week when Revisionist drop the bombshell of a new album that is 'The Emptiness of Gravity'.
"Across the half-a-dozen tracks and its twenty-five-minute running time, Revisionist have crafted an unrelentingly honest slice of post-hardcore and managed to balance the chaos and anger alongside a disciplined adherence to their art."
Read our review here.
Just a year after An Autumn For Crippled Children's last album, they are back with a new one 'As The Morning Dawns We Close Our Eyes', released this week on Prosthetic Records.
"The songs on the album rarely develop or end the way you would expect and this provides the listener with something of an emotional journey, through despair to rapture."
Read our full review here.
Majestic Downfall meld a style of death and doom metal on their latest album 'Aorta', out May 21st on Personal Records.
"South America seems to have a very healthy death/doom metal scene and Majestic Downfall will definitely impress fans of bleak and melancholic metal with 'Aorta'"
Read our review here.
Finnish retro rockers Jess and the Ancient Ones mix psychadelia and the occult into an mesmerising album this week. 'Vertigo'' is released on Svart Records.
"‘Vertigo’ is a clever record taking the listener on an alluring journey to unexpected places, and all you can do is strap yourself down and enjoy the ride."
Read our full review here.
Prepare for a large dose of HEAVY this week as Nadja release 'Luminous Rot' on Southern Lord Records.
"Luminous Rot is so heavy that the disruption to the gravitational field is such that its arrival could well be mistaken for an extinction-level-event asteroid or the mythic Planet X."
Read our review here.
Impure Wilhelmina are fiercely unafraid and unforgiving in their approach to what they’ve offered up with ‘Antidote’ which is out today on Season of Mist.
"A thoroughly enjoyable slab of progressive heft with beautiful melodies against an ever changing backdrop of chaos and charisma with occasional dives into black metal rage."
Read our full review here.
Flag bearers of Finnish metal, Amorphis release live album 'Live At Helsinki Ice Hall' today via Nuclear Blast Records.
"Live At Helsinki Ice Hall is a fantastic live album from the Finnish legends and truly captures them as the well oiled live machine they were before the pandemic came along and ruined everything."
Read our full review here.
Black Metal
Abkehr - In Blut (Vendetta Records)
Jarun - Rok Spokojnego Słońca (Godz Ov War Productions)
Labyrinth Entrance - Deplore the Vanity (Godz Ov War Productions)
Lord of Pagathorn - Age of Curse (Woodcut Records)
Odraza - Acedia (Godz Ov War Productions)
Ordeal & Plight - Her Bones in Whispers (Eisenwald)
Thanatomass - Black Vitriol & Iron Fire (Living Temple Records / LVX MorgenStern)
Zgard - Place of Power (Schwarzdorn Production)
Decoherence - System I (Sentient Ruin)
Death Metal
Temple Nightside - Prophecies of Malevolence (Nuclear Winter)
Beyond Mortal Dreams - From Hell (Nuclear Winter)
Fulci - Opening The Gates of Hell [re-issue] (Time To Kill Records)
Hundred Headless Horsemen - Apokalepsia (Inverse Records)
Odeum Deus - Brutal Slaughter (Wormhole Death)
Chthonic - Chthonic Megaport 2021 (Self-released)
Anatomia - Corporeal Torment (Me Saco Un Ojo / Dark Descent)
Yautja - The Lurch (Relapse Records)
Nahaya - Vital Alchemy (Rockshot Records)
Doom / Stoner / Sludge
Hagel - Veneration of the Black Light (Personal Records)
Monster Magnet - A Better Dystopia (Napalm Records)
Io - Fire (Argonauta Records)
Robots of the Ancient World - Mystic Godess (Small Stone)
Heavy Metal
Nuclear Winter - Greystone (MMD Records)
Slithering Decay - Aeons Untold (Testimony Records)
Emptynest - Nesting the Void [EP] (Volcano Records)
Befell - Solitude (Self-released)
Mothman and The Thunderbirds - Into the Hollow (Self-released)
Khirki - Κτηνωδία (Self-released)
Metal Core
Eskimo Callboy - MMXX Hypa Hypa Edition (Century Media Records)
Leach - Lovely Light of Life (Brutal Records)
Power Metal
Artaban's Redemption - Broken Puppetts (Demons Records)
Trick or Treat - The Unlocked Songs [Rarities compilation] (Scarlett Records)
Prog Rock / Prog Metal
Standard Human Experience - Never Belong (Wormhole Death)
Illusory - Crimson Wreath (Rockshot Records)
Canyon - Static (Self-released)
Rock
Leslie Ripp - There Goes The Neighborhood (Sliptrick Records)
Prosperina - Flag (Self-released)
The Jailbirds - Jungle [EP] (Golden Robot Records)
Thundermother - Heat Wave (AFM Records)
Wytch - Exordium (Ripple Music)
Night Resident - Darkness Is My Home (Self-released)
And the rest...
Molybaron - The Mutiny (Self-released) [Alt Metal]
Cradle of Haze - Zehntausend Seelen (Dark Sign Music) [Gothic Metal]
Gridfailure Featuring Mac Gollehon - Dismemberment Cabaret (Nefarious Industries) [Harsh/Experimental Metal with Jazz]
Kaonashi - Dear Lemon House, You Ruined Me: Senior Year (Rude Records) [Mathcore]
Wicher - Czary i Czarty (Godz Ov War Productions) [Neo Etno Folk]
Digitial Negative - Digital Negative (Hostile 1 Tapes) [Electronic/Industrial]
Vulture - Dealing Death (Metal Blade Records) [Thrash Metal]
Nobody - Eternal Infernal (Inverse Records) [Folk Rock]
And thats just the tip of the iceberg! other releases today we think you should check out include...
