New Releases From JUDAS PRIEST, SONATA ARCTICA & More Out Today 3/8

This week’s new heavy metal releases include heavy metal founders, some dudes in masks, and more! To the metals…

Exhorder – Defectum Omnium

Genre: Heavy metal/thrash
Origin: New Orleans, Louisiana
Label: Nuclear Blast

Buy now on Bandcamp

Starting this week off with some straight forward heaviness. Their second album of their second reunion sees the band with Pat O’Brien (ex-Cannibal Corpse guitarist) joining the band. The thrashy moments are swift, the grooves are hefty, and it’s a pretty good time.

Gost – Prophecy

Genre: Synthwave/industrial
Origin: “Hell, Michigan”/Texas
Label: Metal Blade

Buy now Bandcamp

Time to dance like that scene from the second Matrix movie. Maybe it’s all the fire and the devil on the cover, or maybe it’s signing to Metal Blade, but this feels like a bit of a darker affair than usual. When you’re not getting some goth club jams this sounds like a frantic and apocalyptic soundtrack. So that’s a fun juxtaposition.

Judas Priest – Invincible Shield

Genre: Heavy metal
Origin: Birmingham, England
Label: Epic

Buy now on Amazon

One of metal’s best to ever do it is back after six years and doing it well once more. This feels like a continuation of Firepower in that it’s a heavy metal forward record. No prog, no concept album, just OG heavy metal. Jeff has a full review right here.

Midnight – Hellish Expectations

Genre: Heavy metal/blackened hard rock
Origin: Cleveland, Ohio
Label: Metal Blade

Buy now on Bandcamp

Pairing weirdly well with Invincible Shield is the latest from Midnight. This is a catchy heavy metal record with some angry punk attitude and black metal darkness. Another win in the one-man-band catalog of Jamie “Athenar” Walters.

Skeletal Remains – Fragments Of The Ageless

Genre: Death metal
Origin: Whittier, California
Label: Century Media

Buy now on Bandcamp

As with all Skeletal Remains record Fragments of the Ageless is a relentless death metal pummeling of a record. This is one of those times when I struggle to find even brief ways to describe a record. The songs are efficient, no nonsense death metal. It would be weird if you like death metal and dislike this record.

Sonata Arctica – Clear Cold Beyond

Genre: Power/progressive metal
Origin: Kemi, Finland
Label: Atomic Fire

Buy now on Amazon

It’s been half a decade since a proper Sonata Arctica record of epic heaviness. The Acoustic Adventure records served a purpose during lockdown’s bummer times, so I mean no disrespect to them. However, this record sees the band soaring with energy and bombast again and it’s so much fun.

Also dropping this week…

• 4BanneD – Sanatorium (Wormholedeath) – Death metal/thrash
• Agonista – Grey And Dry (Armageddon) – Hardcore
• Alterium – Of War And Flames (AFM) – Power metal
• Apogean – Cyberstrictive (The Artisan Era) – Progressive/technical death metal
• Arthouse Fatso – Sycophantic Seizures: A Double Feature (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions) – Grindcore
• Before The Dawn – Archaic Flame (Napalm) – Melodic death metal
• Besotten + Funerelic – Abyssal Synodality (Satanik Royalty Records) – Death metal/doom
• Bite The Hand – Brutal By Design (Big Bite Records) – Punk/hardcore
• Cell Press – Cages (The Ghost Is Clear Records) – Stoner metal/sludge
• Domain – Life’s Cold Grasp (DAZE) – Groove metal/hardcore
• Doodseskader – Year Two (Self-released) – Sludge/noise rock
• Early Moods – A Sinners Past (RidingEasy Records) – Heavy metal/grunge
• Ecclesia – Ecclesia Militans (Aural) – Heavy metal/doom
• The End Machine – The Quantum Phase (Frontiers) – Hard rock
• Floya – Yume (Arising Empire) – Hard rock/EDM
• Goat Major – Ritual (Ripple) – Doom/stoner
• Grayscale Season – Feel Something New (Self-released) – Deathcore/metalcore
• Grey Skies Fallen – Molded By Broken Hands (Profound Lore) – Heavy/death metal
• Houwitser – Sentinel Beast (Self-released) – Brutal death metal
• Isenordal – Requiem For Eirene (Prophecy) – Funeral doom/folk
• Kelevra – Onieric (Self-released) – Groove/melodic death metal
• Nick Johnston – Child of Bliss (Remarkably Human) – Shred
• Kill The Lights – Death Melodies (Fearless) – Heavy metal/thrash
• Kollapse – AR (Fysisk Format) – Sludge/experimental
• Lindy-Fay Hella & Dei Farne – Islet (By Norse Music) – Dark pop/synthwave
• Meatbodies – Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom (In The Red) – Psychedelic rock
• Merrimack – Of Grace And Gravity (Season Of Mist) – Black metal
• Midas Fall – Cold Waves Divide Us (Monotreme) – Progressive rock
• Mutilated by Zombies – Scenes from the Afterlife (Redefining Darkness Records) Death metal
• Myrath – Karma (earMusic) – Progressive metal
• Romano Nervoso – From Villarosa to Rotherham (Mottow Soundz) – Hard rock
• Ocean Of Another – One Day This Pain Will Subside (A Drop In The Ocean/Menart) – Metalcore/modern metal
• Puteraeon – Quindecennial Horror (Emanzipation) – Death metal
• Shadohm – Through Darkness Towards Enlightenment (Selfmadegod Records) – Progressive metal
• Slimelord – Chytridiomycosis Relinquished (20 Buck Spin) – Death metal/doom
• Speedkiller – Inferno (Helldprod Records) – Black metal/thrash
• Squid Pisser – Vaporize A Neighbor (Skin Graft Records) – Experimental/noisecore
• Too Close To Touch – For Keeps (Epitaph) – Post-hardcore
• trueandtrue – Reset (Self-released) – Noise rock/shoegaze
• Turbulence – Binary Dream (Frontiers) – Progressive rock/metal
• Vicinity – VIII (Uprising Records) – Progressive metal
• Vlad In Tears – Relapse (Metalville) – Gothic rock/alternative
• The Wind Covenant – Hiraeth (Seek & Strike) – Progressive/technical death metal