Release Round Up - June 25th
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!
Belgian outfit Amenra release their seventh studio album, and the first on Relapse Records, this week. A band that are Damnation Festival favourites, we check out their latest offering.
"It’s fascinating and intimidating, ferocious yet calming in equal parts. It’s a journey that I’d recommend you take. Soon."
Read our full review here.
Howard Jones, best known for his time in Killswitch Engage, releases a second album as part of the Light The Torch project this week.
"Crammed full of heavy riffs, and bolstered by the incredible drumming of Whitechapel’s Alex Rudinger, the blend of melancholic melody and neck breaking aggressive passages combine to make this the most exciting album so far."
Read our review here.
Enslaved turn last years streamed "Cinematic Tour" into not one, but four live albums, all released this week on Nuclear Blast!
"A magnificent collection and another demonstration that progressive metal can retain its heaviness and intensity."
Read our full review here.
'No Sleep 'til Hammersmith' is one of the most legendary live albums of all time. This week Motörhead release it as a very special box set, featuring four shows from that tour and a total of seventy one songs!
"It’s an album I could listen to on repeat and never tire of it. The passion and energy is simply brilliant."
Read our full review here.
Devin Townsend has kept himself busy throughout the pandemic and this week launches 'Devolution Series #2 – Galactic Quarantine'.
"Essential viewing or listening for any Devin Townsend fan and very much whets the appetite for his hopeful performance at Bloodstock Festival on Friday 13th August."
Read our full review here.
Hanover rock trio Fargo provide something a little different this week with new album 'Strangers D'Amour'.
"Strangers D’Amour is polished. It’s chrome edges gleam in the sun. 43 minutes of laid-back classic rock, which sees plenty of diversity whilst retaining that harmonic, melodic approach."
Read our full review here.
Having formed from the ashes of Hang the Bastard, Urne this week release their debut full length album, 'Serpents & Spirits' via Candlelight Records.
"A triumph of creativity and in utilising such diverse aspects as sludge, hardcore, folk and even technical metal, they have managed to write a record that is both forward thinking and rooted in the past."
Read our full review here.
Birmingham based doom/shoegaze four piece Outlander release a new two track, 18 minute E.P. via Church Road Records this week.
"Massive, mountainous riffs are matched with subtle guitar to create an immense and immersive listening experience. Epic in scope yet, at the same time, deeply introverted."
Read our review here.
Aussie Death Metallers, Mental Cavity, return for round three with new record 'Mass Rebel Infest'.
"On this form and by the time Mental Cavity are unleashed into the wild, no venue will be safe from the utter devastation they will reek."
Read our full review here.
70's/80's progressive rock act Gentle Giant get the Steven Wilson remix treatment this week, with the reissue of 'Free Hand'.
"Wilson’s typically excellent remix has given the album a new breath of life and whilst there have been several remasters over the years, the involvement of one of rock’s highest profile musicians is likely to spark interest in a band who walked at a time when progressive behemoths ruled the earth."
Read our review here.
The low resonating funeral doom tones of Suffer Yourself's new album rings out this week as 'Rip Tide' gets its release.
"The somber growling vocals are exactly the vocals the bands logo conjures in the mind of the listener even before the music has begun. It has a 90’s death metal tone to it; which is both welcome and menacing."
Read our full review here.
Lustmord teams up with Karin Park of Scandinavian duo Arabrot this week to release colaboration album 'Alter' this week on Pelagic Records.
"Alter is the creation of vast paintings made of sound, some colossal in their scope while others are fragile in their intimacy."
Read our full review here.
Seattle death metal ensemble Cerebral Rot return with sophomore album 'Excretion Of Mortality' this week, released via 20 Buck Spin.
"A record so excruciatingly filthy you’ll need a Hazmat suit just to press play."
Read our full review here.
Stoke-on-Trent groove metal outfit Ballsdeep get down and dirty with 'Temperance', their new album released this week.
"A savage, angry and ferocious album that explodes like an incendiary device."
Read our full review here and check out out interview here.
“Too poppy for the heavy crowd, too heavy for the poppy crowd”. Post-hardcore/punk outfit Drug Church release new E.P. 'Tawny' this week.
"Drug Church have flawlessly kept the raw energy and aggression of hardcore punk whilst heavily infusing it with distinct 90s grunge immodesty and catchy pop-like qualities."
Read our full review here.
Texan thrashers Switchblade Jesus release 'Death Hymns' this week.
"A steamroller of a ride, my advice is to strap in, prepare the neck brace and lose your mind to the rollicking trip that this power trio embark on."
Read our full review here.
The legendary Sisters of Mercy get the tribute treatment this week on album 'Black Waves of Adrenochrome – The Sisters of Mercy Tribute'.
"There are plenty of good efforts on this hour-long record. The cover of Walk Away by Paradise Lost is delivered with an ease that the Halifax outfit can deliver so comfortably. The inclusion of Cradle of Filth’s ‘No Time To Cry’ is inspired, with Mr Filth bringing his own instantly recognisable style to the song."
Read our review here.
Coming out of the hotbed of death metal that is the Florida scene The Absence release 'Coffinized' via M-Theory Audio this week.
"Speedy, aggressive and melodic tunes that demand heads are banged and horns are thrown."
Read our review here.
Heavy Metal
Nemophila - Oiran (JPU Records)
Lacuna Coil - Live From The Apocalypse (Century Media Records)
Kilter - Sys (EP) (Alter-Nativ)
Eddie & The Wolves - War (Self-Released)
Rock / Hard Rock / Classic Rock
VHF - Very High Frequency (Re-issue) (Golden Robot Records)
Beartooth - Below The Lights (Live Album) (Red Bull Records)
Famous Underground - In My Reflection [EP] (Self-released)
Wildstreet - III (Golden Robot Records)
Death Metal
Consumed By Vultures - Pseudobiblion (Rising Nemesis Records)
CRS (Cirrosis) - Live In Isolation [EP] (Concreto Records)
Catharsis - Human Failures (Mad Lion Records)
Withered - Verloren (Season of Mist)
Empire of Disease - With All My hate (WormholdDeath Records)
Hiraes - Solitary (Napalm Records)
Konkhra - Sexual Affective Disorder [Re-issue] (Hammerheart Records)
Slave Steel - DREAM OF DECADENCE [EP] (Self-released)
Suidakra - Wolfbite (Self-released)
Sxuperion - Auscultating Astral Monuments (Bloody Mountain Records)
Beleth - Silent Genesis (WormholeDeath Records)
Black Metal
Artach - Sworn To Avenge (Depressive Illusions Records)
Darkthrone - Eternal Hails (Peaceville Records)
Demersus Ad Nihilum - //180703// (AOP Records)
Leiþa - Sisyphus (Noisebringer Records)
Xanathar - Dark Moon (Spirit Coffin Publishing)
Doom / Sludge / Stoner Rock
Inner Missing - Deluge (Inverse Records)
Swami Lateplate - Doom Jazz (Re-issue) (Subsounds Records)
Dying Whale - Problem With Immortality (Nefarious Industries)
Bong-ra - Antediluvian (Tartarus Records)
Ananda Mida - Karnak (Go Down Records)
Kollapse - Sult (Fysisk Format)
Deathchant - Waste (RidingEasy)
10,000 Years - II (Interstellar Smoke Records)
Stöner - Stoners Rule (Heavy Psych Sounds)
Prog Rock / Metal
Father Before Me - Ruby (EP) (Self-released)
Endless Chain - Forthcoming Past (Rockshots Records)
Fractal Universe - The Impassable Horizon (Metal Blade Records)
Lock Vostok - Opus Ferox - The Great Escape (Black Lodge)
Tommy Concrete - Hexenzirkel (Trepanation Records)
Maitreya - Hyper Reels (Self-released)
And the rest...
Crashface - Heavy Infectious (Self-released) [Alt-Rock/Punk]
Lovebreakers - Primary Colours (Wiretap Records) [Alt-Rock/Punk]
Thy Catafalque - Vadak (Season of Mist) [Avant-garde metal]
Odd Circus - Arch Nova (Self-released) [Avant-rock]
Iceburn - Asclepius (Southern Lord) [Post-hardcore]
Belle Morte - Crime of Passion (WormholeDeath Records) [Symphonic/gothic metal]
Various Artists - DC Dark Nights : Death Metal - Soundtrack (Loma Vista) [Various genres]
And thats just the tip of the iceberg! Other releases today we think you should check out include...
