As we roll into summer, more and more great bands are releasing their new albums, filling the charts with heavy music. The summer touring season is always a great time for new releases, and we’re getting into that period in full swing. Just look at the list of new music coming out today – it’s looking to be one hell of a week, and I’m excited to see how it turns out!
Lacuna Coil, Delirium (Century Media)
Lacuna Coil underwent massive changes after the release of 2014’s Broken Crown Halo, as three of the band’s six longtime members departed the group. Undeterred, the Italian group wrote and recorded Delirium as a four-piece group, with all of the recording sessions taking place in Italy for the first time since the band’s inception. Delirium is touted as the band’s heaviest and most intense album of their entire career.
Death Angel, The Evil Divide (Nuclear Blast)
Consistently one of the most consistent and most unheralded thrash bands in the North American scene, Death Angel put the world on notice with 2013’s The Dream Calls for Blood. Scoring a debut at number 72 on the Billboard 200, Death Angel followed up the album’s release with several touring stints that rampaged all over the globe, leaving no doubt that the veteran group is here to stay. The Evil Divide continues Death Angel’s streak of dominance, and should end up on some Top 10 lists by year’s end.
Thrice, To be Everywhere is to be Nowhere (Vagrant)
After taking a hiatus that lasted nearly three years, Thrice came back in 2015 with immediate effect, playing at festivals all over the world while teasing new music on social media the whole time. To be Everywhere is to be Nowhere is the first release since Thrice’s return, and it’s safe to say that the group has not lost a step. With further worldwide touring in the works, Thrice is definitely back in full force.
Architects (UK), All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us (Epitaph)
Architects is an excellent example of great results coming from humble beginnings. Starting out as just another young band laboring in the metalcore underground in 2004, Architects has taken massive strides in their career, to the point that they are now headlining tours in their home country and getting prime touring spots around Europe and North America. All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us is expected to break into the top 10 of the UK charts, and should also be in the top 100 of the US charts.
Jim Breuer and The Loud & Rowdy, Songs from the Garage (Metal Blade)
Comedy and metal have a long history, which Jim Breuer understands greatly. He’s managed to embrace both on Songs from the Garage, an album that fits alongside metal’s classics in terms of sound and has the added benefit of being a very fun album to experience. When firmly tongue-in-cheek lyrical themes are mixed with high-quality music, a memorable album is usually the result, and that is what has been created here.
Six Feet Under, Graveyard Classics IV – The Number of the Priest (Metal Blade)
Six Feet Under plans to release their twelfth album of original material next year, but that hasn’t prevented them from working on other things in the process. Namely, Chris Barnes has compiled the material for his fourth album of covers. Focusing solely on material from legends Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, Barnes has chosen many hidden gems from the catalogs of both bands in order to create this new album.
Withered, Grief Relic (Season of Mist)
Withered has not been on the radar since 2010’s Dualitas. Some of their absence has been due to the departures of guitarist/vocalist Dylan Kilgore and bassist Mike Longoria, both of whom left the band in 2012. Kilgore was replaced in 2013 by Ethan McCarthy, previously of Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire, and session bassist Colin Marston (Gorguts, Dysrhythmia) filled in to allow the band to complete the recording of Grief Relic.
Gutter Instinct, Age of the Fanatics (Prosthetic)
Gutter Instinct formed in 2012, when three former members of Swedish thrash group Zero Tolerance came together to form a new group. The end goal was to form a death metal band that drew on the sound of the classic Swedish death metal scene and added elements of the newer styles of death metal that have arisen in recent years. Gutter Instinct delivers fantastically in that manner, with influences of black metal, grindcore, and ambient metal all showing up around the core buzz-saw style that Sweden made famous.
