The Best New Metal Album Releases This Week

A press shot of Korn taken in 2016

Korn - The Serenity Of Suffering

The Serenity Of Suffering is like a selection box of Korn’s defining moments. There’s Jonathan Davis’s satisfying scat vocal attack on single Rotting In Vein, pulled straight from Life Is Peachy’s Twist. In the middle of the pacey Take Me, he yells, ‘Go!’, gloriously recalling Follow The Leader’s hit single Freak On A Leash. Then there are the violent vocal breakdowns on each bridge; with the exception of Die Yet Another Night, they all see him explode with characteristic torment. ” Read the full review here.

Wovenwar - Honour Is Dead

“Wovenwar might have been born of terrible circumstances – which we won’t rehash here – but in adversity the former As I Lay Dying (and current Oh, Sleeper) members have truly found redemption. With their second album the supergroup have delivered a masterclass in combining jagged riffs with considered, mature songwriting.” Read the full review here.

Auroch - Mute Books

“Taking lifeblood from Canadian extreme metal, Auroch worship the wrist-mangling technicality of prime Cryptopsy and Gorguts while also bowing down before the fiery Floridian temple of Trey Azagthoth and, in terms of ambience, many of black metal’s legendary heathens.” Read the full review here.

Mithras - On Strange Loops

“Five years since their Time Never Lasts EP and a full nine since their last full-length, Mithras are back and still trying to fire death metal into orbit. If this band – mastermind Leon Macey and exiting bassist/vocalist Rayner Coss – have been guilty of anything in the past, it’s an understandable but occasionally distracting devotion to Morbid Angel.” read the full review here.

Pelander - Time

“It’s already six years since he released his solo EP,A Sinner’s Child – a promising but tentative four-tracker tapping into another underground musical tradition from this assiduous record collector’s beloved 1970s: that of the loner-folk private pressing, wherein depressive singer-songwriters quietly contemplate looming darkness with minimal acoustic instrumentation and wounded vocals.” Read the full review here.

Forever Still - Tied Down

“Frontwoman Maja Shining immediately proves her worth on blistering opener Scars, veering between ethereal harmonies and wanton ferocity… Harnessing raw emotion, muscular rhythms and sufficient melodic bombast to escape mere formulaic territory, Forever Still may be able to banish those female-fronted band parallels that have plagued their sound.” Read the full review here.

Neberu - Point Zero

“Even on the simpler nu metal motifs of Reversal andPerversity and heavyweight groove of Two Faced there’s still plenty to keep you on your toes, making this debut far more smart and surprising than more experienced purveyors of tech metal.” Read the full review here.

Planes Mistaken For Stars - Prey

“If you miss the sound of driving, clattering punk rock that intends to challenge you with odd song structures and a variety of influences pulled from post-rock and lo-fi indie, then songs like She Who Steps or the piano led, whiskey-throated lament of Black Rabbit will make you very happy indeed.” Read the full review here.

T.O.M.B. - Fury Nocturnus

“The haunted, gargling vocals and eerie guitar drones root the album resoundingly in black metal, but it’s movement’s the fiendishly abstruse sub-basement, inhabited by queasy-listening guttersnipes like Abruptum and Gnaw Their Tongues. As always with this sort of unholy cacophony, if you’re in the right mood and receptive to their oppressive atmospheres, it’s an engrossing soundscape of feverish ritualistic impulses; if you’re not, it’s a silly, patience-testing din.” Read the full review here.

The A-Z Of Korn

The Best New Metal Album Releases This Week

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