Sh*t That Comes Out Today: January 31, 2020

It’s Friday, which means it’s new metal day! Look forward to my usual idiosyncratic recommendations as well as things people actually want to hear about.

Bütcher
666 Goats Carry My Chariot (Osmose)

Album cover of the year already? I’m gonna go ahead and say yes. And, praise Satan, the music within lives up to the goat-filled maelstrom it’s wrapped in. Bütcher love Judas Priest and Venom and Mercyful Fate and Immortal and they sing about devil stuff and heavy metal and Vikings and purposely misspell song titles. Beavis and Butthead would dig this. Dumb as bricks, heavy as steel, metal up your ass.

Clint Lowery
God Bless the Renegades (Rise)

As much as I enjoy ragging on nu-metal, Sevendust were one of the highlights of that misbegotten scene, and not only because of Lajon Witherspoon’s versatile vocals — guitarist Clint Lowery knew how to harness the limited musical language of the form. His six-string prowess brought both a technicality and funkiness to their work. For his first solo album, Lowery goes the modern rock route, and that’s okay. His talent elevates what could be boring radio fodder as well.

Dead Kosmonaut
Gravitas (High Roller)

These guys sure like Iron Maiden. I mean, who doesn’t? But Dead Kosmonaut have it down to the Steve Harris bass tone. To their credit, the songs on Gravitas have more of a late-period, mid-tempo, downbeat Maiden vibe rather than the early killers that most acts try to ape. Some doomier passages help it stand out, and the melancholy vibe gives it more depth. Still, it’s hard to build your own monument in the shadow of the colossus.

Fliege
The Invisible Seam (Self-released)

Fliege’s debut isn’t easy to google — the band name brings up pictures of flies, the album title returns a bunch of knitting videos. On this concept record about The Seventh Seal, the Brooklyn trio finds the bridge between post-punk, screamo, industrial, and atmospheric black metal and proceeds to jump right off of it. While the individual components may seem incongruous, they somehow weave them together into a cohesive (and thoroughly enjoyable) listen — maybe those knitting videos weren’t so irrelevant after all.

Leeched
To Dull the Blades of Your Abuse (Prosthetic)

I admire Leeched’s commitment to their artsy black-and-white cover photo aesthetic, as well as their unwillingness to relent. This blackened grind is so abrasive it’ll clean your grout. To Dull the Blades of Your Abuse delivers a burst of violence so genuinely unsettling it can be a challenge to make through the relatively brief 36 minute runtime. They may not be Full of Hell, but they’re full of Hell nonetheless.

Lordi
Killection (AFM)

I’ll cop to getting a kick out of Lordi. Sure, they’re dumb and derivative, but have you looked at the rest of metal lately? Their latest is a fake greatest hits set where they pretend they’ve been around since the 70s. It’s a pretty funny idea, and they do some pretty damn catchy Rob Zombie, KISS, and disco homages. Unfortunately, the band already has such a throwback approach that this material doesn’t actually sound that different.

OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY

Amberian Dawn – Looking For You (Napalm) Listen
Big Scenic Nowhere – Vision Beyond Horizon (Heavy Psych) Listen
Coffin Curse – Ceased to Be (Memento Mori) Listen
Deathwhite – Grave Image (Season Of Mist) Listen
A Life Divided – Echoes (AFM) Listen
Nechochwen/Panopticon – Split (Bindrune) Listen
Obsidian Tongue – III (Bindrune) Listen
Paul Di’Anno – Hell Over Waltrop – Live Germany (Metalville) Listen
Savage Hands – The Truth in Your Eyes (Sharptone) Listen
Serenity – The Last Knight (Napalm) Listen
Theory of a Deadman – Say Nothing (Atlantic) Listen