A weekly feature focusing on select heavy music news, primarily involving new and upcoming releases with a list of ’em provided at the end. This also serves as a week in review, collecting all of the most recent content on Grizzly Butts in a brief additional list. Want to see what came out this week? Read the “Annihilate This Week” column every week. If I can’t hear it, I won’t cover it! If you have new releases, show announcements, or important heavy music news that’ll be relevant or interesting to folks send it to: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com

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THIS WEEK IN NEWS (4/17/21 – 4/23/21)

• High Roller Records have announced a second pressing of their definitive edition of MORBID SAINT‘s heralded classic thrash metal demo ‘Spectrum of Death‘ on vinyl LP. The first pressing was a thousand copies with four color variants and this second pressing is limited to 500 copies and three variants (200 Black, 200 Bone, 100 Transparent clear/red marbled). So, I guess from a fan’s perspective this album has always been handed to the highest bidder or just snatched up by bootleggers, not necessarily appreciated for its original unpolished grit until the Temple of Disharmony remasters around 2016 or so when Century Media picked it up. As far as I know the handful of issues since have used those same dynamic masters for vinyl since. I personally have the Relapse edition from 2012 simply because it hasn’t been touched and sounds like a death/thrash band performing in a garbage can, as Morbid Saint kinda “should” sound in terms of nostalgia. Anyhow, folks who know me know I don’t think this record is the holy grail as many would suggest, but man any vinyl version you get will be worth it if you love brutal thrash metal, late 80’s thrash, and death/thrash metal. Just like the Manilla Road reissues, these will never stop being high-demand items and they could literally print them forever. Anyhow, the packaging is always incredible on HRR releases and they’re way worth the import mark-up. Pre-orders are up already, and officially release on May 14th via High Roller Records’ webshop: [LINK]
• Personal Records have partnered with Void Wanderer in announcing June 18th as the release date for French black/death metal troupe ARCHAEOPTERIS‘ debut EP, ‘Vision Chaotiques D’un Songe Halluciné‘, wherein Personal will release the CD and Void Wanderer will release the cassette. The somewhat experimental and aggressive black/death metal band have focused on a fusion of dark ambient atmosphere and dissonant guitar work for their debut, as evidenced by “Visions Chaotiques”, the lead single. Check out the song via YouTube: [LINK]
• Bordeaux, France based post-metal sextet YEAR OF NO LIGHT have signed to Pelagic Records and announced their fifth studio album ‘Consolamentum‘ alongside the first single, “Réalgar”. This marks the 20th anniversary of the band, and sits alongside the additional announcement that they will release a limited edition wooden box set of the band’s full discography, ‘Mnemophobia‘ this coming July 2nd. The silkscreened wooden box features a 12 LP set of the band’s releases and comes in very limited quantity. For now check out “Réalgar” over on Bandcamp and poke around for more details from that point: [LINK]
• Long running German celtic death metal project SUIDAKRA have finished their latest album which will be titled ‘Wolfbite‘ and feature some quite nice artwork from maestro Kris Verwimp. The album will be released this coming June 25th through MDD Records. It sounds like the band have reached that point every group does in their career where reflection upon the past calls for an album that takes elements of all eras and attempts a defining release thus far. I can only speculate for now, with this being their 14th record, a cumulative statement is hard to imagine. Follow the band on Facebook to keep up with what develops next: [LINK]
• NoLifeTilMetal Records have announced May 28th as the release date for their CD and vinyl LP reissues of death/thrash metal band MADROST‘s 2012 debut album ‘Maleficent‘. This will be the first “professional” release of the album as it was released on CD-r copies back in the day. Folks interested in underground, kinda modern but classically (as in late 80’s/early 90’s) influenced progressive thrash and death/thrash might like what these guys were up to a decade ago. Since then the Lake Forest, California band have released three acclaimed albums all of which I’ve enjoyed quite a bit. “Zombie Grinder” is a badass song, one of my favorites from their early years, check it out over on YouTube: [LINK]
• Tyrolean black arcane folk rock trio DORNENREICH have unveiled the second single, “Der Freiheit Verlangen nach goldenen Ketten”, taken from their forthcoming album ‘Du wilde Liebe sei‘ which duo out on Prophecy Productions on June 11th this year. This will be the impressive group’s ninth studio full-length. Check out the video for the song over on YouTube: [LINK]
• Polish death metal veterans TRAUMA are back with a new EP containing fours songs from the sessions for their well-received 2020 full-length ‘Ominous Black’. ‘Acrimony’ features the same high standard of recording, three killer brutal yet groove-kicking songs with a maniac Gorefest cover as the fourth track. Great band, and still well worth supporting. The EP releases on CD through Selfmadegod next week, April 30th: [LINK]
• NOTABLE ALBUMS AT PRESS THIS WEEK FROM: Ghastly, Siderean, Anharat, Human Failure, Boss Keloid, Malgoth, Morbid Saint, Firewing, Hasufel, Casket, Trauma, Angstkrig, Krigere Wolf, Entierro, Oxblood Forge, Institution D.O.L., Epoch of Chirality, Hore, Psychic Hit, Tetramorphe Impure and several more. Look for coverage in the near future. Don’t see your album listed? Send it to me: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com

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SITE WEEK IN REVIEW (4/17/21 – 4/23/21)

• Annihilate This Week 4/17/21: “Serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen.”
  • This year …From the Tomb becomes Annihilate This Week, still focusing on new releases from the week but now accumulating a New Releases list/discussion in addition to short reviews for around 5-10 new albums each week. It will now post every Saturday (or Sunday) to better fit my schedule.
  • This week I chose to cover 6 New Releases from April 24th. Favorite being Aphonic Threnody.
• An Exhaustive Study: Death Metal/Crust Punk [1988-Present] Part IV – “Usurping the Atomic Throne”
  • The final part of this four part, four month long examination of the last 33 years of crossover between crust punk and death metal concludes with a total of 40 releases from between 2011-2020 and believe me, it could have been at least ~60 (or more) if I hadn’t cut out some of the more directly plagiaristic/for fun acts out today. We see the combination as a stylistic niche, an important arena for young musicians tributing the old ways as well as a place for old extreme metal musicians to uh, take it a bit easy and stay active with a straight forward kind of band. There are pros and cons to this reality but some amazing records have come of it over the last decade and there is much to celebrate within!
  • This feature will be honed down to its 25-30 strongest/most representative releases and included as a revised and fully re-framed feature in Issue #1 of Mystification.

As I focus on finishing the first issue of Mystification (for June/July) and work on interviews, progress has slowed a bit this week in terms of reviews. I cannot yet reveal the mountain of work I’ve been doing behind the scenes for another project but, all in due time. A couple of people kindly donated this week and I wanted to say Thank You! here as well as in the best of April column, coming next week. So, I’m a bit behind on the Sutura, Domkraft, Ungfell and Autarcie reviews. They’ll be done quickly as May arrives as one of the busier release schedules of the year thus far and there are still several strong records to hear from this last week of April.

• SPECTRAL LORE – Ετερόφωτος (2021) | REVIEW
• UNIVERSALLY ESTRANGED – Reared Up in Spectral Predation (2021) | REVIEW
• MERZOTNA POTVORA – Halas Z Pekla (2021) | REVIEW
• ODAL – Welten Mutter (2021) | REVIEW

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UPCOMING RELEASES (4/24/21 – 4/30/21)

NOTE: This is not a comprehensive list, some titles are already reviewed and/or covered and some have yet to enter the final queue for consideration and processing. An asterisk (*) indicates that a full review is drafted or in preparation. A pound (#) indicates a short review is warranted and in process. A plus (+) indicates that the album has already been reviewed. Click/Tap on RECORD LABEL name for preview, stream, or store.

• NEKROMANTHEON – Visions of Trismegistos (2021) [April 30th, Hell’s Headbangers Records]+
• INSANE – Victims (2021) [April 30th, Dying Victims Productions]+
• SUTURA – Dawn of Cursed Souls [April 24th, Awakening Records]*
• DOMKRAFT – Seeds [April 30th, Magnetic Eye Records]*
• UNGFELL – Es Grauet [April 30th, Eisenwald]*
• AUTARCIE – Apogée. Ivresse. Agonie. [April 30th, Purity Through Fire]*
• UNIVERSALLY ESTRANGED – Reared Up in Spectral Predation [April 30th, Blood Harvest Records] +
• SKORB – Skorb [April 23rd, Corrupted Flesh Records]*
• HELSLAVE – From the Sulphur Depths [April 23rd, Pulverised Records] Vinyl 5/14
• IFRINN – Caledonian Black Magick [April 30th, The Sinister Flame]*
• NUCLEAR REVENGE – Dawn of the Primitive Age [April 24th, Awakening Records]*
• DESTRUCTION – Bestial Invasion of Hell [April 30th, High Roller Records] Demo Reissue
• FYRNASK – VII: Kenoma [April 30th, Ván Records]*
• DEATH SS – The Necromancer of Rock: The Origins of… (1977-1982) [April 30th, The Ajna Offensive]* Book
• PLASMODIUM – Towers of Silence [April 30th, Transcending Obscurity Records] #
• WITCHING HOUR – Where Pale Winds Take Them High… [April 30th, Sun & Moon Records] CD issue #
• ORYX – Lamenting a Dead World [April 30th, Translation Loss Records] #
• AMORITE – Archaic Faces of Ecstasy [April 30th, Sun & Moon Records] #
• BECERUS – Homo Homini Brutus [April 30th, Everlasting Spew Records] #
• NATTVERD – Vandring [April 30th, Osmose Productions] #

• THE PLAGUE – Within Death [April 30th, Bitter Loss]
• STONE HEALER – Conquistador [April 30th, Self-Released]
• YELLOWTOOTH – The Burning Illusion [April 30th, Orchestrated Misery Recordings]
• WARISH – Next to Pay [April 30th, RidingEasy Records]
• NIADH – Our Victory is Eternal [April 30th, Eternal Death] !
• MUSTASCH – A Final Warning: Chapter One [April 30th, Tritonus Records]
• EWÏG FROST – Aïn’t No Saïnt [April 30th, Discos Macarras]

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