New Releases From IHSAHN, THE ARISTOCRATS & More Out Today 2/16

This week’s new heavy metal releases include lots of shredding, lots of blackening stuff, and more! To the metals…

The Aristocrats – Duck

Genre: Instrumental progressive rock/fusion
Origin: International
Label: Boing!

Buy now on Bandcamp

One of Earth’s mightiest virtuoso trios has returned to make you feel terrible about your musical abilities once again. Lots of shredding and genre dabbling as expected from Guthrie Govan (ex-Steven Wilson), Bryan Beller (Dethklok, Steve Vai), Marco Minnemann (ex-Joe Satriani, ex-Steven Wilson). Just an all around fun ride which can’t always be said for this sorts of fusion, nerd rock things.

Bokassa – All Out Of Dreams

Genre: Stoner/hardcore
Origin: Oslo, Norway
Label: Indie Recordings

Buy now on Bandcamp

Here’s another one that journeys all over the place. This is a stoner rock record at its core, but over the half-hour runtime you’re getting sludge, hard rocking, hardcore, and more. This one is for fans of Kvelertak.

Farsot – Life Promises Death

Genre: Black metal
Origin: Gotha, Thuringia, Germany
Label: Lupus Lounge

Buy now on Bandcamp

On their first album in seven years Farsot are doing the grim thing like they do, and they are doing it well. This has all you’d want from bands of their ilk, but there are some hypnotic moments that have an almost doom atmosphere. A cool one that was worth the wait.

Ihsahn – Ihsahn

Genre: Progressive/blackened metal
Origin: Notodden, Norway
Label: Candelight

Buy now on Amazon

Ihsahn simply cannot slow down. This is his first full record in six years, but in that time he dropped three EPs and has been on the road with Emperor. This might be his most epic solo offering yet. So epic in fact that he is also releasing an orchestral version of it. Jeff has a full review here.

Samael – Passage – Live

Genre: Industrial black metal
Origin: Sion, Switzerland
Label: Napalm

Buy now on Bandcamp

The title pretty much tells you what you’re in for on this one. This is Samael playing their 1996 Passage record live in full. They have the benefits of some modern recording tech to make it sound more grand than before, and also has the live energy giving it more oomph. A must for fans.

Witchorious – Witchorious

Genre: Doom/hard rock
Origin: Paris, France
Label: Argonauta Records

Buy now on Bandcamp

Concluding this week’s adventure with some haunted riffs that will get your head banging. Witchorious are far from a one tempo (read:slow) doom outfit. There are tons of dynamics in energy and tone here. Perhaps this is something to try on if the usual low and slow of the subgenre doesn’t work for you.

Also dropping this week…

• Acrid Death – Abominable Presence Of Blight (Rising Nemesis Records) – Death metal
• Barren Womb – Chemical Tardigrade (Fucking North Pole Records/Blues For The Red Sun) – Noise rock/”dark Americana”
• Bloom – Maybe In Another Life (Pure Noise/Greyscale) – Metalcore/modern metal
• Cercenatory – GoreSphere (Comatose) – Brutal death metal
• Coltre – To Watch With Hands… To Touch With Eyes (Dying Victims) – Heavy metal/NWOBHM
• Crazy Lixx – Two Shots At Glory (Frontiers) – Rock
• Darkspace – -II (Season Of Mist) – Atmospheric black metal
• The Drowns – Blacked Out (Pirates Press) – Punk
• Durbin – Screaming Steel (Frontiers) – Heavy metal
• Elettra Storm – Powerlords (Scarlet) – Power metal
• Eternal Storm – A Giant Bound to Fall (Transcending Obscurity) – Melodic/progressive death metal
• Far Beyond – The End Of My Road (Prosthetic) – Extreme/melodic death metal
• Forfeit Thee Untrue – Gather The Broken (Rottweiler Records) – Modern/nu metal
• Laura Jane Grace – Hole In My Head (Polyvinyl) – Rock/punk
• Griffon – De Republica (Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Porductions) – Black metal
• Steve Hackett – The Circus And The Nightwhale (InsideOut) – Progressive rock
• Honeymoon Suite – Alive (Frontiers) – Melodic rock
• i Häxa – Part 1 (Pelagic Records) – Experimental/post-metal
• Illumishade – Another Side Of You (Napalm) -Modern metal
• In Autumn – What’s Done Is Done (My Kingdom Music) – Post metal/doom
• K’mono – Mind Out Of Mind (Apollon) – Progressive rock
• Leah – The Glory And The Fallen (Ex Cathedra Records) – Fantasy/folk metal
• Mr. Bison – Echoes From The Universe (Heavy Psych Sounds) – Psychedelic metal
• Naga Siren – Sea Of Myself (Self-released) – Hardcore/punk
• No Relief – Destroy Your World (Rest Assured Records) – Hardcore
• The Obsessed – Gilded Sorrow (Ripple) – Heavy metal/doom
• Pestilength – Solar Clorex (Debemur Morti) – Black metal/doom
• Ponte Del Diavolo – Fire Blades From The Tomb (Season Of Mist) – Doom/darkwave
• Praise The Plague – Suffocating In The Current Of Time (Lifeforce) – Blackened doom/sludge
• Profiler – A Digital Nowhere (SharpTone) – Nu metal/metalcore
• The Requiem – A Cure To Poison The World (Fearless) – Gothic rock/emo
• Einar Solberg – The Congregation Acoustic (InsideOut) – Progressive
• A Somerset Parade – Carcosa (Wormholedeath) – Industrial/metalcore
• Sujin – Save Our Souls (Scarlet Records) – Melodic death metal/metalcore
• Sun of Nothing – Maze (Venerate Industries) – Blackened sludge
• Sundrifter – An Earlier Time (Small Stone Recordings) – Desert/stoner rock
• Thy Shining Curse – Theurgia (ViciSolum Productions) – Symphonic death metal
• Toxikull – Under The Southern Light (Dying Victims) – Heavy metal/thrash
• UKC – Coming Out – Love & Hate Diaries (Theogonia Records) – Black metal
• Vanir – Epitome (Mighty Music) – Melodic death metal
• Volucrine – ETNA (Volucrine) Melodic death/progressive metal
• Rick Wakeman – Live At The London Palladium 2023 (Cherry Red) – Progressive rock