Forthcoming Death Metal Albums
Ten great forthcoming Death Metal albums scheduled to be released in the next 45 days. Mark your calendars!
MALFORMITY
Monumental Ruin
USA
Label: Unspeakable Axe Records
Release date: April 19, 2021
It has been a long, torturous road for the veterans of Atlanta death metal band MALFORMITY. Formed initially in 1991, when their own genre was still in its infancy, they created only a handful of demo recordings before calling it quits four years later. A long-overdue reformation happened in 2014, after which the band produced a couple of EPs and honed their craft.
At long last, 30 years after their initial formation, MALFORMITY has produced a monstrous debut album, with the suitably forbidding title Monumental Ruin. Literally decades in the making, this beast shows the band at their sharpest and most evolved, mixing American and European death metal styles with a sure hand. Incorporating grind and doom influences where appropriate, Monumental Ruin is every inch the ancient, towering structure depicted on its atmospheric cover art. This is death metal old in spirit as well as in the age of the band that made it, but with a clear, current-day production and youthful vigor and brutality that keeps pace with any act you might name.
OBSOLETE
Animate//Isolate
USA
Label: Unspeakable Axe Records
Release date: April 19, 2021
For a certain type of metal purist, extremity is defined not by blast beats and bowel-bothering growls, but by how fast a band can sand your face off with a riff that is both instantly memorable, and so intricate and alien that you can't begin to understand how to play it on a lowly human guitar. By that metric, OBSOLETE may be that certain purist's favorite band.
Every riff here is fine-tuned for maximum cerebral carnage. Why play a normal scale in a normal way at a normal speed, when you can play a bizarre, upside-down bit of nightmare logic at warp 9? Somehow OBSOLETE is able to bang out riff after riff in this style all over their new album Animate//Isolate. Just as impressively, they string them together into comprehensible structures and memorable songs--a collision of head-bangable death/thrashing goodness and advanced technicality encountered only occasionally in such predecessor bands as SADUS and demo-era CYNIC. Adding in occasional splashes of black metal and avant-death dissonance, OBSOLETE manages to craft a debut album that stands apart from the crowd without resorting to gimmicks or unlistenable experimentation.
With Animate//Isolate, OBSOLETE has put together one hell of a first salvo. Nine tracks deep and bristling with ideas and hyperactive energy, this is a death/thrash album that any fan of either genre should hear. Creativity. Ferocity. Technicality. Obsolete. Animate. Isolate.
AKIAVEL
Væ Victis
France
Self-release
Release date: April 23, 2021
Venomous French death metallers AKIAVEL will release their 2nd studio album Væ Victis on April 23. Their monumental new opus comes only one year after their debut album and is a dark and twisted affair, exploring the depths of human depravity. Further nihilistic details from the crypt will soon see the light of day.
“We are very proud of this album,” says guitar player Chris. “When the pandemic hit, and all our shows were canceled, we adapted, becoming more creative and much more brutal in our music.” This concept album delves into the darkest parts of the human psyche. Further evolving their sound, AKIAVEL takes a radical approach to their musical assault, consuming the listener with dizzying maelstroms of chaos. “Væ Victis” embodies the word “death,” putting forth an intrusive battery of blistering guitars, pummeling drums, and scathing vocals that culminate in one of the most robust death metal records the genre has seen yet.
HELSLAVE
From The Sulphur Depths
Italy
Label: Pulverised Records
Release date: April 23, 2021
Italian filth mongers HELSLAVE return with their hellbent sophomore record "From The Sulphur Depths" and the intention to nuke and level everything to the ground! With riffs mercilessly churning out that lusciously thick buzzsaw from hell, "From The Sulphur Depths" opens up a gateway to suffocating, leviathan-like Death Metal at its finest.
Mixed & mastered by Swedish Death Metal godfather Dan Swanö (ex-Edge Of Sanity, ex-Bloodbath, Witherscape, etc) at Unisound Studio. Artwork by Juanjo Castellano (Portrait, Revel In Flesh, The Black Dahlia Murder, etc). (Vinyl release date: May 14, 2021.)
HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY
Rise Of The Rotten
Sweden
Label: Pulverised Records
Release date: April 23, 2021
Swedish chainsaw division HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY unleashes its debut offering with "Rise Of The Rotten"! HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY, comprising of Sweden’s busiest Death Metal overlord Rogga Johansson, Monstrosity frontman Mike Hrubovcak and Paganizer drummer Matthias Fiebig, are paying homage to the Fulci-directed cult horror film from 1981, and their album delivers just the perfect brew of 90’s era HM-2 decapitation riffs. This is bare-bones, essential Swedish Death that has proven to be timeless!
"Rise Of The Rotten" was recorded in different studio locations, mixed and mastered by Ronnie Björnström at EAP Productions (Bodyfarm, Bone Gnawer, Cut Up, etc) and is adorned with a morbific artwork by Malaysian illustrator Iron Gravefix (Thorns Of Hate, Abigail, Bone Gnawer, etc). (Vinyl release date: May 14, 2021.)
GOREGÄNG
Long Live The Grime
USA
Label: Listenable Insanity Records
Release date: April 30, 2021
Florida death-metal band GOREGÄNG has signed a digital licensing deal with Blood Blast Distribution. The duo, comprised of Jeramie Kling (INHUMAN CONDITION, VENOM INC, THE ABSENCE) on vocals and guitar, and Taylor Nordberg (INHUMAN CONDITION, THE ABSENCE) on drums, guitars, and bass, combine the disgusting guitar tone and crusty nature of Swedish death metal of the late 80s/early 90s with their hometown heroes of the Florida death metal scene.
GOREGÄNG have also announced their newest album, “Long Live The Grime”, which will be released digitally on Blood Blast Distribution and on CD and CD boxset on Kling and Nordberg’s Listenable Insanity Records on April 30, 2021.
Nordberg said “We are very excited about this next step in GOREGÄNG’s story. We started this band with a goal to do everything in-house, to do it all ourselves. We ended up having the first full-length put out on Transcending Obscurity Records, which was a great release and we were stoked to be a part of their label, but we are excited to get back to doing it in-house. We’ve come up with a pretty cool release for this EP, including a limited edition box set available with all sorts of goodies in it. We have tons of new music coming out soon, but for this EP it’s 4 new songs, a White Zombie cover, and 4 live tunes. Long Live The Grime!”
GRAVE MIASMA
Abyss of Wrathful Deities
UK
Label: Dark Descent Records (US) / Sepulchral Voice (Europe)
Release date: May 14, 2021
Abyss Of Wrathful Deities is GRAVE MIASMA’s latest opus after five years of quiescence. Bone-breaking, aggressive and demonic Death Metal pairs with the accomplished and progressive production of Jaime Gomez Arellano (Orgone Studios), forming a sepulchral miasma that elevates the band’s songwriting to a previously unrivaled level.
Developing on the powerful and dark sound pursued on Endless Pilgrimage, the London trio presents nine distinctively enigmatic tracks on death and resurrection, the demons of far-away lands, and Tibetan burial rituals. GRAVE MIASMA is both the circling vulture and the epiphany, equally well-versed in the raw and primitive as they are in technical lead guitar orgies. Music not as a means of style, but as an accurately-wielded sharp scythe.
The reverence to South American titans is obvious, yet the band has the approach of merging (de)composition with creativity, creating a contemporary yet absolutely timeless atmosphere.
Recorded and produced by Jaime Gomez Arellano at Orgone Studios in August 2020.
Brazil’s Pedro Felipe (Ars Moriendee) is responsible for the three-eyed artwork. Do not gaze long into the abyss, for it will devour you ...
THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT
V3 - Vernedering
Netherlands
Label: Human Detonator Records
Release date: May 14, 2021
Dutch avant-garde death metal Kaiju's THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT proudly presents their brand new album, entitled "V3 - Vernedering" (means Humiliation). The follow-up to 2018's "Vergelding" represents the final installment of the V-Trilogy.
THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT holds the conviction that death metal has reached a ceiling in terms of speed. This is why the band has decided to broaden the genre by inserting previously ‘not done’ elements into the style, adding to the brutality and speed.
They comment about the new release: "Vernedering is a blood-chilling super-spectacle and the ominous last sorry chapter in the once-proud franchise of the V-trilogy. Despite being nominated countless times for the honorable Covid-escape. THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT stays relevant (as fuck) and reinvented itself musically countless times like the most advanced shape-shifter. V3 aka Vernedering is THE soundtrack of The Great Rese(n)t and what we will build back better is a new artistic empire of shocking embarrassment. Our message is as blunt and brutal as a lead pipe: We, THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT, are the new invincible gods and the best is yet to come."
The album was mixed by Guido Aalbers (Giesound) and mastered by Pier Durk Hogeterp. The production was in the hands of THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT and the cover artwork came courtesy of the band's own Carsten Altena.
SLITHERING DECAY
Aeons Untold
Belgium
Label: Testimony Records
Release date: May 21, 2021
From the gruesome depths in which they mercilessly rule, the ancient gods of the HM2 buzz saw cult summoned fresh disciples to serve their cause. Niko (ex-Tyrant’s Kall), Jörgen (Theudho), Bart (ex-Fleshmould, ex-Storm Upon The Masses), and Tomas (Human Vivisection, ex-Fractured Insanity, ex-Storm Upon The Masses) answered that infernal call in 2017, crafting frantic hymns based on barbarous riffing, chaotic soloing and ferocious hammering under the moniker of SLITHERING DECAY. In March 2018, they committed four of their twisted concoctions to tape and unleashed them upon the realm of mortals in the form of a cassette demo, highly appropriately yet fabulously apathetically entitled "Demo 2018". The fifty black cassettes quickly found their way to all corners of the earth, while digital copies were left to quench the bloodthirst of new devotees. In the meanwhile, more disharmonious pieces were conjured from the nameless abyss. Once again engineered, recorded, and mixed by the band themselves, ten wretched pieces were gathered for their debut full-length, "Aeons Untold".
The album received a final sonic boost through a master by Dan Swanö. The sinister cover art by Wesley Dewanckel outstandingly captures the atmosphere of the madness captured on the record.
ADARRAK
Ex Oriente Lux
Singapore
Label: Sathanas Records
Release date: May 27, 2021
Singapore-based Death Metal newcomers ADARRAK will release debut album Ex Oriente Lux on May 27 on Satanath Records (physical) and Blood Blast Distribution (digital).
On Ex Oriente Lux, ADARRAK showcases a mixture of established (Headcrusher, Norse, The Amenta, Dispiteous, Sol de Sangre, Somnium Nox) and emerging musicians that are both local and global. The album boasts guest appearances by Marty Friedman of Megadeth fame, as well as other local musicians (Üllermach, Boxchild).
The album was mixed and mastered by the one and only Dan Swanö at Unisound Studios. Says Swanö about the forthcoming album: “Adarrak is truly progressive since they are not afraid to implement all kinds of metal into the mix, anything from epic leads to insane blast parts.”
For fans of the extreme yet progressive with a touch of the Gothenburg sound.
Thanks to: Sure Shot Worx, ClawHammer PR, Dewar PR & Infecting Cells PR.
© 2021 by Emil Chiru
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