From returning thrash legends to surprise swan songs, there’s a lot of great music being released this week. Below, we compile the great, the good, and the downright ludicrous, all worthy of your time and attention.
Delain - Moonbathers
According to their official bio, Delain “began life as a symphonic metal band with big ambitions and bigger ideas”. Moonbathers is about as symphonic as they’ve ever got, so it’s no surprise that our reviewer has been throwing around words like “rumbustious” and “explosive” to describe it. You can read the full review here.
Sodom - Decision Day
Never knowingly out-thrashed, German metal legends Sodom have been going at it for over thirty years now, and this – their fourteenth album – shows they have no intention of slowing down. Decision Day sounds, well, like Sodom. That’s really all you need to know. But if you still want more, you can read our full review here.
SubRosa - For This We Fought The Battle Of Ages
“Ancient magickal doom” from Salt Lake City, SubRosa have been making eerie mystical noise under the radar for over 10 years now. Scoring a 9⁄10, this is one of the albums our reviewers ranked most highly this month, so it must be doing something right. You can read our full review here.
Wretch - Wretch
The musical project following the dissolution of Karl Simon’s Gates Of Slumber in the wake of bandmate Jason McCash’s death, this is the sound of a bereaved friend coming to terms with his own grief – not the one if you’re looking for a bit of light listening. Heavy-going but all the better for it, you can read our full review here.
The Wounded Kings - Visions In Bone
Despite having just dropped a new album, with an extensive Autumn tour planned to support it, Devon-based doomsters The Wounded Kings issued a surprise announcement last week that they’ve split up. Oh. Well, so long and thanks for all the memories – as far as we know, the album is still scheduled to be released this Friday, and you can read our full review here.
Twilight Force - Heroes Of Mighty Magic
If ‘adventure metal’ is your bag, then you might need to reevaluate your life choices, but you won’t find a finer example of it anywhere else. Nonsense and fantasy permeate everything this Swedish power metal sextet do – as evidenced by their claims to have formed in the year 1000 and hail from the ‘Twilight Kingdom’ – and the result is what our reviewer dubbed “Manowar meets Disney”. Yikes. Read our full review here.
Imperium Decadenz - Dis Manibvs
German black metal duo Imperium Decadenz are fixated on the ancient history and traditions of their native Black Forest. So far, so black metal, and the result is about as earnest and gloomy as you’d expect. Read the full review here.
Kuolemanlaakso - M. Laakso – Vol. 1: The Gothic Tapes
This is a Kuolemanlaakso album as you’ve never heard it before. A solo effort by founding member Marcus Laakso, you might well feel confused that it’s been released under their name rather than as an M. Laakso solo album, but this is death metal and there are no rules – deal with it. You can read the full review here.
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Imperium Dekadenz: obsessed with ancient Rome and ready to do black metal battle
