New Releases From BAD OMENS, FOUR STROKE BARON & More Out Today 5/31

This week’s new heavy metal releases include hella Bad Omens, catchy evil stuff, and more! To the metals…

Bad Omens – Concrete Jungle [The OST]

Genre: Metalcore/alternative metal
Origin: Richmond, Virigina
Label: Sumerian

Buy/stream here

Wowzers. If you’re a fan of Bad Omens you are about the have a FEAST. This is twenty-six tracks that includes new stuff, live stuff, and more covering pop, metalcore, and beyond. So many guests here too. Wargasm, Poppy, Health, Erra, Thousand Below, and oodles more.

Four Stroke Baron – Data Diamond

Genre: Progressive metal
Origin: Reno, Nevada
Label: Prosthetic

Buy now on Bandcamp

Reno’s favorite weirdo progsters are back with another album that’s so hard to describe. This has massive grooves, catchy melodies, unique vocals, and sonic oddities all throughout it. The closest comparison I can make is the latest Ou record. Maybe?

Nightrage – Remains Of A Dead World

Genre: Melodic death metal
Origin: Gothenburg, Västra Götaland, Sweden
Label: Despotz Records

Buy now on Bandcamp

I guess I should include some straight up metal, huh? Here find the latest from Nightrage to scratch your itch for some catchy heaviness in the ballpark of an Arch Enemy or a Dark Tranquility. Long time fans may need to adjust as this is their first with new vocalist Konstantinos Togas.

Rhapsody Of Fire – Challenge The Wind

Genre: Power/symphonic metal
Origin: Trieste, Italy
Label: AFM

Buy now on Amazon

With over thirty years behind them, you know should know what to expect from a Rhapsody of Fire record. This is epic and nerdy power metal that will get you inspired. And you want some lore? You got some lore as this serves as the third and final entry in The Nephilim’s Empire Saga trilogy. I’m a casual fan, so I’m not sure what that means, but I love me some lore.

Thou – Umbilical

Genre: Sludge
Origin: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Label: Sacred Bobes

Buy now on Bandcamp

Golly. I’m so used to writing about Thou when they collaborate that I forgot what they sound like on their own. The band’s first outing on their own in six years is a sludgy, thrashy, beast of a record. This is dark and heavy as hell.

Wormwood – The Star

Genre: Melodic black metal
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden
Label: Black Lodge

Buy now on Bandcamp

Taking us home with a dynamic monster of a record. This album includes some folksy moments, some slower grooves, but plenty of blast beats and earworm(wood) guitar melodies. The closing track (below) is especially rad.

Also dropping this week…

• Adversarial – Solitude With The Eternal (Dark Descent Records) – Black/death metal
• The Antikaroshi – L’inertie Polaire (Exile On Mainstream) – Post-punk
• Arhat – Secrets Of Ancient Gods (Self-released) – Groove metal
• Bad Nerves – Still Nervous (Lowly) – Rock
• Bastardane – Catatonic Symphony (Self-released) – Thrash/hard rock
• Beaten To Death – Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis (Mas-Kina Recordings) – Progressive/avant-garde grindcore
• Bonecarver – Unholy Dissolution (Unique Leader Records) – Symphonic deathcore
• Candlemass – Tritonus Nights (Peaceville Records) – Doom
• Carnwennan – Lotus (Darkest Records) – Sludge/doom
• Cloven Hoof – Heathen Cross (High Roller Records) – Heavy/power metal
• Chve – Kalvarie (Relapse) – Ambient
• Dune – Years of Chains (Self-released) – Groove metal/thrash
• Ereley – Garden (Wormholedeath Records) – Progressive rock/metal
• Euge Valovirta – Hardtones (Gramophone Records) – Heavy metal
• Fight The Fight – Shah Of Time (Indie Recordings) – Death metal
• Graywave – Dancing In The Dust (Church Road Records) – Alternative
• Hellbutcher – Hellbutcher (Metal Blade) – Black metal
• High Desert Queen – Palm Reader (Magnetic Eye) – Desert rock
• The Hope Conspiracy – Tools Of Oppression/Rule By Deception (Deathwish) – Hardcore
• Lock Horns – Red Room (The Distortion Project/Code 7 Distribution) – Progressive metal
• Louvado Abismo – Louvado Abismo (Half Beast Records) – Death rock
• Lowlives – Freaking Out (Spinefarm) – Hard rock
• Duff McKagan – Tenderness: Live In Los Angeles (Blood Merdian) – Rock
• Nestor – Teenage Rebel (Napalm) – Glam rock
• Perfect Sky – Hunting Demons (WTF Records) – Hardcore
• Reliqa – Secrets Of The Future (Nuclear Blast) – Metalcore/pop
• Ruins Of Perception – Ballads Ov Blood (Seek And Strike) – Symphonic deathcore
• Saving Vice – Good Days, Dead Eyes (Saving Vice) – Metalcore
• Saltpig – Saltpig (Heavy Psych Sounds) – Doom
• Shrapnel – In Gravity (Candlelight) – Thrash
• Supermodel Taxidermy – At What Cost (Punishment 18 Records) – Thrash/crossover
• Swampbeast – Offering of Chaos, Lamenting In The Blood of Man (Translation Loss Records) – Black/death metal
• Varices – The Undoing (Shunu Records) – Melodic death metal
• Vicolo Inferno – Circles (Rockshots Records) – Heavy metal
• Witherfall – Sounds Of The Forgotten (Deathwave) – Power/progressive metal
• Young Acid – Murder at Maple Mountains (Majestic Mountain Records) – Punk