There’s a brand new Ozzy Osbourne album out this month. There’s additionally a brand new Striborg album out: two and a half hours of oppressively bleak — and, at its finest, downright chilling — “blackwave” courtesy of the Tasmanian loner referred to as Sin Nanna. I state these info to reveal a easy level: The universe of what we name metallic is huge, and roughly unattainable to maintain tabs on in its entirety. Favor the pageant headliners and area fillers, and also you miss the very best of the membership acts and fledgling bands sweating it out over that soon-to-be-legendary demo; scour the underground obsessively and also you may overlook a late-career triumph from a family identify.
So if this new incarnation of SPIN’s month-to-month metallic roundup — in which I take over from Andy O’Connor, an astute and passionate lifer whose suggestions on all issues heavy I’ve adopted for years — has any guideline, it’s that there’s greatness to be discovered in all corners of the scene, from the indisputably iconic to the cultest of the cult. Each month, I’ll curate a mixtape of standout tracks from the newest crop of recent releases, plus a handful of bonus choices. And although I can’t assist however fail miserably in my try to encapsulate all of it, my hope is that, no matter your tastes, from the grimiest sounds to probably the most grandiose, I can supply a spotlight reel that’s compelling sufficient to make you wish to do your individual additional digging. Thanks for studying, and let’s rage.
*****
Sumerlands, “Edge of the Knife”
The finest metallic observe I’ve heard this month comes from a 2022 album that might move for one from round 35 years in the past. In current years, artful revivalists like Haunt and Eternal Champion have zeroed in on the fantastical themes and invisible-orange-clutching drama of ‘80s metal, vaporizing any remaining aura of guilty pleasure that might still cling to the era in a righteous explosion of denim and spike-studded leather. Sumerlands, who share two members with Eternal Champion, may now be the band to beat in this retro arms race. Done poorly, this style can register as cheap cosplay; done well, it can take on an uncanny power that can make you feel like you’re inhabiting a Frank Frazetta masterpiece. Dreamkiller, Sumerlands’ second LP, falls squarely into that second class. Helmed by Arthur Rizk, whose magic contact behind the boards has elevated each new-school stars like Power Trip and established metallic gods like Sepultura co-founder Max Cavalera, the band churns out tunes that will sound completely at residence blaring out on the soundtrack of an ‘80s film as a gaggle of dead-end youngsters furiously pedal their BMX bikes towards both immortality or the 7-11 parking zone. Crank up “Edge of the Knife,” pushed by the steel-sharpened riffs of Rizk and John Powers and the mighty melodic belt of Brendan Radigan, and promptly overlook what decade it’s.
Ozzy Osbourne feat. Tony Iommi, “No Escape From Now”
An apparent affect on Sumerlands — hell, an apparent affect on any one among us who’s ever discovered themselves banging their head uncontrollably whereas willfully blowing out their eardrums — is the aforementioned Ozzy Osbourne, particularly the Ozzy of 1986, when he was laying down brooding hard-rock gems with the assistance of guitarist Jake E. Lee. Ozzy has all the time wanted a succesful right-hand man, and nowadays it’s Andrew Watt, the Grammy-winning pop producer who’s labored with everybody from Post Malone to Camila Cabello, Miley Cyrus and different massive names in the course of the previous decade. He’s helped to maintain the Oz model robust with two albums in two years which have teamed him with a formidable listing of collaborators, together with Posty himself, to not point out some man named Elton John on 2020’s Ordinary Man. The visitor listing for the brand new Patient Number 9 is leaner however in some methods extra engaging, as Watt has roped in quite a few monster guitarists, together with two key collaborators from Ozzy’s previous: Zakk Wylde, who helped enhance the singer’s profession in the ‘90s on hit albums like No More Tears and rejoined his stay band in 2017, and Tony Iommi, the person answerable for the minor achievement of inventing the whole style of heavy metallic together with Ozzy.
Iommi, who shared the stage with Osbourne at August’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, U.Ok., hasn’t recorded with the singer since Black Sabbath’s spectacular 2013 sign-off LP, 13. He turns up on two songs on Patient Number 9 however makes a major mark: The standout is “No Escape From Now,” an almost seven-minute observe that strikes between darkish psychedelia and grade-A doom rock, main as much as a stomping uptempo bridge. It’s basic Iommi, however curiously, the general really feel is nearer to the epic, suite-like items (“Falling Off the Edge of the World,” anybody?) discovered on the Sabbath albums — and one beneath the identify Heaven and Hell — that the band made with Ronnie James Dio after Ozzy left the band. The outcomes are superior, and we’d gladly take one other full album of collaborations between these two. (And hey, why not invite Geezer Butler and Bill Ward alongside, however we digress…)
Bloodbath feat. Marc Grewe, “To Die”
Inspired visitor appearances are a operating theme amongst this month’s metallic releases, and one other one among my favorites comes on the newest album from Bloodbath, a Stockholm band that specializes in what is perhaps known as fan-service demise metallic — that’s, a tackle the style that panders unabashedly to disciples of the style’s late-‘80s/early’90s heyday. For their sixth LP, “Survival of the Sickest” (be aware these old-school citation marks), they’ve not solely re-teamed with elite death-metal cowl artist Wes Benscoter, who’s illustrated tons of nightmarish scenes for the style going again a long time, and accented his grotesque portray with a font that screams 1987; they’ve additionally roped in just a few fellow lifers to assist them drive the morbid message residence, together with Napalm Death’s Barney Greenway and Gorguts’ Luc Lemay. But the cameo that sticks with me probably the most is the one by Marc Grewe, frontman of Morgoth, a German band that put out a pair wonderful, underrated LPs throughout demise metallic’s preliminary explosion. On “To Die,” he provides his unhinged yowl, akin to the supply of Obituary’s John Tardy, to the grizzly-bear roar of “Old Nick” Holmes (additionally of Paradise Lost) and the impact is scrumptious. Meanwhile the remainder of the band — together with Katatonia co-founders Anders Nyström and Jonas Renske on guitar and bass, respectively, together with former Opeth drummer Martin “Axe” Axenrot — grinds out a collection of towering riffs, laying out a blood-red carpet for these two seasoned execs to walk down.
Megadeth feat. Ice-T, “Night Stalkers”
One extra auspicious assembly comes on Megadeth’s The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead!, an album that’s arrived with a load of headache-inducing media squabbles to match its considerably ponderous title. But the music is sweet, hard-thrashing enjoyable that finds tireless chief Dave Mustaine leaning into his over-the-top strengths. A very livid observe is “Night Stalkers,” the place Mustaine snarls out an account of a nighttime army raid, well-matched with diamond-cutter riffage and daredevil shredding. If the scene wasn’t already aptly set, none apart from Ice-T exhibits up, returning the favor for Mustaine’s cameo on Body Count’s 2017 album Bloodlust to ship a booming monologue about “Black Hawk helicopters” “and “Delta Force Special Ops shooters” that contains a hilariously on-the-nose declaration of “Game’s over, bitches.” This team-up sounds precisely such as you’d count on it to, and that’s simply effective.
Clutch, “Slaughter Beach”
Just a few different releases from this month present additional high-order heavy-metal consolation meals. A track I can’t get out of my head is “Slaughter Beach,” the sorta title observe from Sunrise on Slaughter Beach, the brand new thirteenth album from Maryland rock survivors Clutch. The observe is archetypal Clutch — swaggering hard-blues riffage paired with one among frontman Neil Fallon’s inimitable Philip Ok. Dick–meets–John Lee Hooker character sketches — and it’s completely killer. “I demand to shuck my clam the old-fashioned way / Under a Strawberry Moon, bare-handed, wearing no clothes,” he howls on the finish of the second verse, earlier than launching into the track’s righteously soulful refrain. Add this one to the pile of groovy, surrealistic anthems the band has been churning out for 30-plus years.
Autopsy, “Skin by Skin”
An identical ain’t-broke/no-need-to-fix spirit emanates from Morbidity Triumphant, the newest from Oakland, CA. “death… fucking… metal!” stalwarts Autopsy. One factor I really like about this band is that they completely would not have to make new music — they might fortunately spend the remainder of their days headlining varied Deathfests and delighting crowds with tracks from foundational LPs like 1989’s Severed Survival and 1991’s Mental Funeral. But drummer/growler Chris Reifert (additionally an early member of the storied Death) and guitarists Eric Cutler and Danny Coralles can’t appear to withstand the urge to maintain creating new sonic horror exhibits to associate with previous favorites like “Service for a Vacant Coffin” and “In the Grip of Winter.” “Skin by Skin” — marked by gut-churning downtempo verses, vomitous vocals, a breakneck midsection and tortured guitar solos — exhibits that these guys are nonetheless masters of their grisly craft.
Slipknot, “The Dying Song (Time to Sing)”
You know who else might most likely cease placing out albums with out lessening their capacity to pack arenas for many years to come back? A bit of mask-wearing combo out of Des Moines known as Slipknot. But “The Dying Song (Time to Sing),” an advance single from their upcoming seventh LP, The End, So Far, already appears like a stay chestnut, most likely due to how effectively it checks all of the bins of the band’s latter-day sound: a hooky Corey Taylor chorus that sounds virtually Broadway-ready, a raging verse the place he unleashes his syllable-chewing diatribes and, later, a pit-detonating, double-bass-choked breakdown. Even to the informal fan — say, a merely Maggot-curious metalhead reminiscent of myself — it’s all extraordinarily acquainted however no much less satisfying for it.
City of Caterpillar, “Mystic Sisters”
In the temper for one thing somewhat more difficult? I encourage you to strap in for the seven-minute trip that’s “Mystic Sisters,” the title observe from City of Caterpillar’s first album in 20 years. Originally a part of the arty, explosively cathartic wave of late ‘90s/early 2000s hardcore referred to as screamo, the band has joined its contemporaries Jeromes Dream and Gospel (who launched excellent reunion albums in 2019 and this previous spring, respectively) in getting again collectively for exhibits and including to their small, cult-favorite discographies. Much just like the lengthier tracks on their self-titled 2002 debut, “Mystic Sisters” builds steadily from a forlorn hush to a frantic art-punk climax with the vocals of Brandon Evans and bassist Kevin Longendyke tumbling over each other like stage-divers at a basement present.
KEN mode, “Throw Your Phone in the River”
From there, together with your urge for food whet for the chaotic aspect of hardcore, why not transfer on to “Throw Your Phone in the River,” a seething two-minute noise-rock blast from Winnipeg’s KEN mode, from the brand new NULL? The band’s sound mashes collectively a long time’ value of sterling underground grime — from Scratch Acid and Big Black to Unsane and Today Is the Today — right into a bilious noise-rock confection, all rumbling bass, spat-out vocals and rusty-wire guitar.
Revocation, “Nihilistic Violence”
We shut this month with probably the most headbangable passage I’ve heard on any September metallic launch, the cruel chugger, winding down with a darkly elegant flourish, that opens “Nihilistic Violence,” a observe from Netherheaven, the newest and, to my ears, most ripping launch so far by Boston trio Revocation. You might name them a death-metal band, due to the raw-throated bark of vocalist-guitarist Dave Davidson and the double-kick fury of drummer Ash Pearson, however truthfully, I don’t actually see the purpose in micro-categorizing this one — I detect simply as a lot hardcore and thrash in this track’s DNA, and what shines by way of much more is that high quality that unites all nice metallic of no matter stripe: the hunt for probably the most badass riff possible.
Bonus tracks:
Autophagy, “Sacrificial Spawn”
If the Bloodbath and Autopsy tracks above have you ever in a death-metal temper, an absurd quantity of youthful acts have new albums out this month that scratch an identical itch, together with (deep breath…) Phobophilic, Tribal Gaze, Innumerable Forms, Acephalix, Mortuous, Sublation and Miscreance. But the one which’s acquired me probably the most fired up is Bacteriophage, the upcoming debut LP by Portland, Oregon’s Autophagy. “Sacrificial Spawn” strikes by way of a relentless procession of riffs and tempos, every extra dank and neck-wrecking than the final.
OFF!, “Kill to Be Heard”
Are OFF! a metallic band? When the riffs are this ferocious, I’m not going to quibble, and neither must you. It’s inspiring {that a} punk legend like Keith Morris — Black Flag’s unique mic man, who has additionally fronted the Circle Jerks intermittently since 1979 — remains to be concerned in music that sounds so risky. Riff wizard Dimitri Coats and the brand new rhythm part of bassist Autry Fulbright II and drummer Justin Brown (additionally an A-list jazz participant) deserve equal props for steering this observe, previewing the upcoming Free LSD album, from puree-speed blasts to old-school-sounding hardcore blitz.
Blind Guardian, “Blood of the Elves”
Sick to demise of subtlety? Embrace the goofy majesty of this shamelessly dramatic German act, whose Tolkien-y tales, operatic vocals and relentless crescendos — absolutely intact on their twelfth album The God Machine — make Iron Maiden sound restrained by comparability.
Titan to Tachyons, “Blue Thought Particles”
The previous few years have seen an abundance of visionary heavy music popping out of New York City, numerous it springing out of the intersection of jazz and excessive metallic. Just a few artists that pop up and repeatedly in this sphere are guitarist Matt Hollenberg, drummer Kenny Grohowski and bassist Trevor Dunn, who’ve labored collectively and individually in initiatives together with John Zorn’s Simulacrum, Cleric, Imperial Triumphant and Dan Weiss’s Starebaby. Here, on a observe from new album Vonals, these three be part of the equally eclectic guitarist Sally Gates on a journey from bruising heavy prog to eerily spacious fusion and on to a lurching summary finale.
Motörhead, “Iron Fist (Jacksons Studio Demo – October 1981)”
A demo model of one among Lemmy & Co.’s hardest tracks that’s even rawer and scrappier than the long-lasting unique? Yes, please. Hear extra on a brand new deluxe reissue of 1982’s basic Iron Fist.
Listen to our playlist under:
Discussion about this post