Comes That Today Sh*t Out: October 29, 2013

October 29th, 2013 at 11:00am
David Lee Rothmund

Just read through the list below and tell me this isn’t one of the best weeks for metal ever of this year. Shit, there are more releases than your body has room for! It’s gonna take you the entire damn day to listen to everything, so call off work, play hookey, quit your job, do whatever it takes. Excuse: MetalSucks told you to. Seems legit.

Devin Townsend Project
The Retinal Circus 2CD/2DVD (Inside Out)
On a playlist with: Strapping Young Lad, Devin Townsend, Devin Fucking Townsend
Watch “Grace” (here) “War” (here)

I saw Devin Townsend in Chicago last year with Gojira and The Atlas Moth, and he rocked so bloody fucking hard! I have this image of him standing like a granite monument belting my favorite song from Epicloud: “Kingdom.” After his set, he walked off stage, gave me a grip of his big sweaty Canadian paw, and his power shot into me like a thousand lightning bolts! Later that night, I fucked for seven hours and never broke a sweat. So here’s a hot tip: Watch The Retinal Circus.

Ihsahn
Das Seelenbrechen (Candlelight)
On a playlist with: irrelevant
Listen Das Seelenbrechen full stream (here)
Read Dave Mustein MetalSucks review (here)
Read Vince Neilstein MetalSucks interview (here)

Almost every song on Ihsahn’s unkempt, brash Das Seelenbreche is a gentle rearrangement of odd stimuli, causing random mixtures of reactions like these: “omg” and “hng” and “wow” and “shit.” It’s in this randomness that we find Ihsahn’s sense of chaos; but it’s actually purposefully arranged, it’s actually composed. And therefore brilliant. Its sum is a bespoke relationship with each song, delivered to your ears without pretense and with total coherence. It’s also wickedly profound, post, and, above all, gorgeous.

Winds of Plague
Resistance (Century Media)
On a playlist with: Carnifex, Despised Icon, Whitechapel
Listen Resistance full stream (here) “Say Hello To The Undertaker” and “Open The Gates Of Hell” (here)
Read Axl Rosenberg MetalSucks review (here)

There was something a bit Manowar about Winds of Plague. They gave you epic, non-cheesy feels that melodic/symphonic bands shoot for. (Huge emphasis on “non-cheesy,” though not totally cringe-free.) Resistance continues Winds Of Plague’s reign over battle and core: one part death, one part glam, one part symphony, and one part war. But it’s all heavy as fuck — a step up from their last few albums — yet never loses that delicious symphonic touch which calls to mind war cries and viking hats and all that metal-as-fuck shit.

East Of The Wall
Redaction Artifacts (Translation Loss)
On a playlist with: Intronaut, Rosetta, Mouth Of The Architect
Listen “Arbiters Meet” (here) “Fractal Canopy” (here)

East Of The Wall is the intersection of Mastodon earthiness and any-prog-band complexity. Redaction Affairs puts a tighter focus on the former, giving you those lost-in-the-wilderness feels and a sense of disconnect from melody and chord. Redaction retains enough cohesion to hold together, and the result is an accessible yet deep record from a band that everyone seems to have heard of but that nobody seems to talk much about. Go figure!

Hail Of Bullets
III: The Rommel Chronicles (Metal Blade)
On a playlist with: Asphyx, Bolt Thrower, Vomitory
Listen “Pour Le Merité” (here) “DG-7” (here)
Read David Lee Rothmund MetalSucks interview (here)

“Old school” and “elephants marching” and “classic” and “throwback.” All these are sexy things, even if they’re what Rommel Chronicles is not. Here’s what Rommel Chronicles actually is: A gritty redux of a bygone sound, iced with Martin van Drunen’s hoarseness and sick World War II themes. But it’s plenty modern — like the intro for “DG-7.” Thoroughly classic, and with all those fuck-shit-up brutal feels that more core-focused bands try to achieve. It rocks hard and pure, and so should you.

Protest The Hero
Volition (Razor & Tie)
On a playlist with: The Human Abstract, Periphery, Between The Buried And Me
Listen Volition full stream (here)

If you don’t love Protest The Hero, then shut the fuck up. Ugh, what they combine and how well they do it! Sexy clean vocals, maddeningly brilliant noodle riffage, ecclectic drums and song constructions, and above all, those upbeat feels. We’re hammered with doom and gloom in heavy music. But when bands like Protest The Hero (and there aren’t many of them) and make something heavy, wicked, fast, and all-out with positivity, it’s like brain therapy.

OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY

81db A Blind Man’s Dream (Bakerteam) listen
Aeges / Dust Moth split (Mylene Sheath) listen
A Lot Like Birds No Place (Equal Vision) listen
As Autumn Calls Cold, Black & Everlasting (Rain Without End) listen
Ayreon The Theory Of Everything (Inside Out) listen
Black Crown Initiate Song Of The Crippled Bull (PRC) listen
Centinex Subconscious Lobotomy / Apocalyptic Armageddon reissue (Pulverised) listen
Close Your Eyes Line In The Sand (Victory) listen listen
Cop Problem Buried Beneath White Noise EP listen listen
Corrections House Last City Zero (Neurot) listen listen listen
Dead Letter Circus The Catalyst Fire (The End) listen read
Deserters The Feeling EP (Mediaskare) listen listen
Dethklok Metalocalypse — The Doomstar Requiem: A Klok Opera score (Willams St) listen listen
The Doomsayer Fire.Everywhere. (Candlelight) listen
Doyle Abominator (Monsterman) listen
Doyle Airence Monolith (Lifeforce) listen
» Enbilulugugal Noizemongers For Goatserpent reissue 2CD (Crucial Blast) listen
ERRA Augment (Tragic Hero) listen
The Flower Kings Desolation Rose (Inside Out) listen
Germ Grief (Eisenwald) listen
Giant Squid Monster In The Creek EP reissue (Translation Loss) listen
Harm Cadaver Christi (FDA Rekotz) listen listen
Harm Wülf There’s Honey In The Soil So We Wait For The Till (Deathwish) listen
Heretic Soul The Nihilistic Attitude (PRC) listen
» Hybreed Chaos Dying Dogma (PRC) listen
» Impaled The Dead Still Dead Remain rerecorded (Willowtip) listen
Inquisition Obscure Verses For The Multiverse (Season Of Mist) listen
In The Burial Born Of Suffering (PRC) listen
Kataklysm Waiting For The End To Come (Nuclear Blast) listen listen listen
Kill Devil Hill Revolution Rise (Century Media) listen listen
Lingua Mortis Orchestra LMO (Nuclear Blast) listen
Mortician Chainsaw Dismemberment 2xLP (Hells Headbangers) listen
Mutation Error 500 (Ipecac) listen listen
Myka, Relocate Lies To Light The Way (Razor & Tie) listen listen
Necrophobic Womb Of Lilithu (Season Of Mist) listen
Netherlands Silicon Vapor (self-released) listen
Noctum Final Sacrifice (Metal Blade) listen listen read
Pyrexia Feast Of Iniquity (Unique Leader) listen listen
Rublood Star Vampire (Bakerteam) listen
Russian Circles Memorial listen
Sabaton Swedish Empire Live CD/2DVD (Nuclear Blast) watch watch
Seeker Unloved (Victory) listen listen
Septicflesh Ophidian Wheel reissue (Season Of Mist) listen
Sepultura The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart (Nuclear Blast) listen read
Sinister Haze Demo 2013 (Unholy Anarchy) listen
Sirens & Sailors Skeleton (Razor & Tie) listen
Skeletonwitch Serpents Unleashed (Prosthetic) listen read
Sorronia Words Of Silence (Bakerteam) listen listen
» Suture Carnivorous Urge To Kill rerecorded (Comatose) listen
» Svadilfare Makt Til Uskyld (Naturmacht) listen
Testament Dark Roots of Thrash CD/DVD (Nuclear Blast) watch read
This Will Destroy You Live In Reykjavik, Iceland (Magic Bullet) listen
Toxic Holocaust Chemistry Of Consciousness (Relapse) listen
Tribune Tales (Corpse Corrosion) listen listen
Various Artists Swedish Hitz Goes Metal Vol II (Doolittle) listen
» Vaura The Missing (Profound Lore) listen read
Warbringer IV: Empires Collapse (Century Media) listen
Whores Clean EP (Brutal Panda) listen
¤ Zodiac A Hiding Place (Prosthetic) listen
Zom Demo MMXI reissue (Invictus) listen