SH*T THAT COMES OUT TODAY: MAY 22, 2012

Oh hi there, metal people of awesomeness! It’s Tuesday, so the MetalSucks team again welcomes you to Shit That Comes Out Today, your weekly round-up of heavy, hard, and heardvy new releases! Now look, we won’t bullshit you here: Our jam is the best. We don’t just fart out a black-and-white list of records for you ohmyno. That is boring. Here on STCOT, you get cover art. You get links to listenables. You get info, insight, context, and even some subtext. (But no pretext.) And cuz we truly care, our dates are quadruple-verified by a costly independent review board. Fuck yeah!

So now that we’re all on the same page — publishing joke lol — let’s get to the new jamz, from killer debuts (Mutilation Rites, Royal Thunder) to a spritely EP (Havok) to lid-fluttering scorchers (Emptiness, Six Feet Under) to a return-to-form ace from Saint Vitus (their first in 17 years!) and like a million more. Hope you get paid this week.

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Emptiness
Error (Dark Descent)
On a playlist with: Concealment, Blut Aus Nord, Leviathan
Listen “Deafer” (here)

Error is the first record in five years from Emptiness, a Belgian crew that counts Enthroned’s Nerath Daemon among its ranks. Their musical canvas swirls dashes of death metal, black metal dissonant riffage, ambience akin to post-rock or experimental black metal, and a few surprises. Here the Emptiness sound is furious and dynamic. If only Error reveled less in its weirdness and more in a consistent groove …

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Havok
Point Of No Return (Candlelight)
On a playlist with: Hatchet, Vektor, Death Angel
Listen “Arise” (here)

Coming a year after the excellent sophomore record Time Is Up, this taster EP sports two new Havok jams and two re-makes to hold us over. Its cover of Sepultura’s “Arise” rips in its own way, yet harkens to the awesomeness of the original. And rest assured that the new originals rip just like all Havok stuff, as does their Slayer double-cover of “Postmortem” and “Raining Blood.”

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Mutilation Rites
Empyrean (Prosthetic)
On a playlist with: Landmine Marathon, Tombs, Craft
Listen Empyrean full stream (scroll down about halfsies here)

After a handful of demos, an EP (Devoid), and a split, Mutilation Rites unleashes this anticipated debut of black metal infused with punk, crust, and sometimes even rock and roll. The result is a blistering, galloping blast of dark tunes, and an impressive intensity all over Empyrean that’s jaded fan-proof. And although noisy and fast, Mutilation Rites leaves their own mark on the style. No really, these fuckers leave a mark.

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Royal Thunder
CVI (Relapse)
On a playlist with: Year Long Disaster, Christian Mistress, Graveyard
Listen CVI full stream (here)

Royal Thunder is a rock and roll band first and foremost, and CVI is a stomping bluesy-rock venture peppered with high-on-the-gain riffage. The melodic vocals of bassist Miny Parsonz go with the heaps of melody behind her, and all packed in heavy riffage and solid drum work. CVI will appeal to fans of Witchcraft and Graveyard, bands among whom Royal Thunder will soon stand. Oh and fuck, they’re on tour with Valient Thorr and Holy Grail this summer. Don’t be late.

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Saint Vitus
Lillie: F-65 (Season Of Mist)
On a playlist with: Trouble, The Obsessed, Candlemass
Listen Lillie: F-65 full stream (here)

Even considering track records of the Saint Vitus guys, which include vocalist Scott “Wino” Weinrich (The Obsessed, The Hidden Hand, Shrinebuilder, Premonition 13), a fan might not expect this first new record in 17 years to be good; you could expect it to fall flat or maybe receive respectful notices. But this isn’t Van Halen, this is fucking Saint Vitus, and Lillie: F-65 fucking kills start to finish. Shit, it might be better than some of the band’s ’90s work. Named for a powerful barbiturate of yesteryear, Lillie appropriately kicks you in the face with doom tone and doom riffage, and with a few snappier turns before a minute of feedback near its conclusion. Saint Vitus has been active again on tour since 2008, but Lillie declares that they deserve to be out there and are just as relevant as anyone. Moreso.

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Six Feet Under
Undead (Metal Blade)
On a playlist with: Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Obituary
Listen Undead full stream (here)

Six Feet Under might not make jaws drop with their latest offering of hyper-fast gorethrash jams and throat-destroying vocal delivery. But Chris Barnes and crew make up for their deficit of progression with reliability: Undead stands with the rest of the 6FU catalog, with enough brutality, groove, and speed to draw in any passing fan of their style.

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MORE SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY

Affector Harmagedon (InsideOut) listen
>>The Bunny The Bear The Stomach For It (Victory) listen
Burzum Umskiptar (Candlelight)
Children Of Bodom Holiday At Lake Bodom: 15 Years Of Wasted Youth (Fontana) listen
Create Avoid Pastime 7″ (Pure Noise) listen
>>The Cult Weapon Of Choice (Cooking Vinyl) listen 
Diablo Swing Orchestra Pandora’s Pinata (Sensory/Laser’s Edge) listen
Dismember Like An Everflowing Stream reissue (Willowtip) listen
End Of September End Of September (Ulterium) listen
Expire Pendulum Swings (Bridge Nine) listen
Firewind Few Against Many (Dismanic) listen
Float Face Down Exitium Verum (Mediaskare) listen
Flotsam And Jetsam The Cold deluxe (Goomba)
Great White Elation (Frontiers)
Gun Barrel Brace For Impact (Soulfood) listen
Hardline Danger Zone (Frontiers)
Kill Devil Hill Kill Devil Kill (SPV/Steamhammer) listen / listen
Kraanium Post Mortal Coital Fixation (Phantom)
The Last Of Our Kind A Diamond In The Rough (Mediaskare) listen
Martyrdod Paranoia (Southern Lord) listen
Mekong Delta Intersections (Steamhammer) listen
Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, Randy George Cover 2 Cover (Radiant) listen
>>Nunslaughter Hell’s Unholy Fire reissue (Hells Headbangers) listen 
Obey The Brave Ups And Downs EP (Good Fight) listen
Order Of Nine Seventh Year Of The Broken Mirror (Red)
Rotomagus The Sky Turns Red: Complete Anthology (Lion Music)
Sabaton Carolus Rex (Nuclear Blast) listen
Saxon Heavy Metal Thunder Live: Eagles Over Wacken (Caroline) listen
Shadowside Inner Monster Out (Inner Wound) listen
Slash Apacalyptic Love (Dik Hayd/EMI) listen
Smile Empty Soul 3’s (eOne) listen
Stalwart Manifest Of Refusal (PRC) listen
^Stoneburner Sickness Will Pass (Seventh Rule) listen / listen
Superchrist Holy Shit (Hells Headbangers) listen
Sonata Arctica Stones Grow Her Name (Nuclear Blast) listen
Tesseract Perspective EP (Century Media) listen
Thin Lizzy Live On Air (EMI)
To Speak Of Wolves Find Your Worth, Come Home (Solid State) listen
UFO The Chrysalis Years 1980-1986 box set (EMI) listen
Unisonic Unisonic (Armoury)
Visceral Throne Omnipotent Asperity (Brutal Bands) listen
Vorkreist Sigil Whore Christ (Agonia) listen 
Winterfylleth The Ghost Of Heritage reissue (Candlelight)
Wisdom In Chains Class War / Die Young reissue (Eulogy)
>>Witchtrap Vengeance Is My Name (Hells Headbangers) listen
John Zorn Templars: In Sacred Blood with Mike Patton, Trevor Roy Dunn, Joey Baron, John Medeski (Tzadik) listen

-VV