It’s been almost five years since Evil Invaders released ‘Feed Me Violence’. The Belgian thrash/speed metal revivalists finally return with their third full-length album. While the single ‘Sledgehammer Justice’ delivers Evil Invaders’ familiar brand of high-octane adrenaline rush in all its blistering glory, the impressively different ‘In Deepest Black’ and rather more traditional heavy metal oriented recent single ‘Die For Me’ showcases a band that isn’t afraid to evolve and try out new things!

The French synthwave project Carpenter Brut is probably one of the most popular ones among metalheads, appealing to many with their dark tunes and themes heavily leaning on 80’s horror movie aesthetics. ‘Leather Terror’ is the 2nd entry in the ‘Leather Teeth’ trilogy coming in about 4 years after the ‘Leather Teeth’ album. From what has been unveiled already about the release, it’ll involve the kind of classic serial killer/slasher story where the main character of the album is taking revenge by going on a rampage. And if the highly enticing backstory and the promise of dark electronic music isn’t enough, there is a plethora of interesting guest collaborations going from Gunship to Ulver, The Dillinger Escape Plan‘s Greg Puciato to Tribulation‘s Johannes “Jonka” Andersson, French pop singer Persha to Norwegian post-metal muse Sylvaine… What a party is that going to be!

Mavericks. Pioneers. Unique. Immutable.

There simply is no other band like Meshuggah. The Swedish extreme metal band has been around for over 3 decades and with every new release they still know how to push boundaries and smash the mold. Being an influence to many djent and extreme progressive bands, they are still revered as one of the most innovative and technical metal bands around. So a new release of these mastodons is something that creates extremely high excitement and expectations. The way they blow everyone away and stand strong in their craft is simply “Immutable“, hence a perfect album title for this upcoming release…

Papa Roach is one of those few bands that are still remaining from that golden era of nu metal decades ago and while they still clearly sound like Papa Roach, most of their music is nowhere near what they released back then. While a lot of their older fans have been turned away because of the change in musical style, it simply is very impressive how they know how to reinvent themselves time after time again. After somewhat blowing us away with their ‘Crooked Teeth‘ album, their follow-up ‘Who Do You Trust?‘ left us somewhat wanting for more with its very poppy production. With ‘Ego Trip‘ it seems they’re still going in a somewhat more poppy direction, but add some more Papa Roach flavor to the whole, being their quirky selves. ‘Kill The Noise‘ and ‘Stand Up‘ gave us a taste of the more old school ferociousness, while the rather left field but deadly catch ‘Swerve‘ featuring Fever 333‘s Jason Aalon Butler and Sueco was a genre-crossing banger of a song that to this day has put its hooks in me. We can’t help it but to look forward to this, no matter the result.

UK’s Monuments has been the darlings of proggy music for a while now. With the 4th full-length ‘In Stasis’ they’re back in full force after having released a couple of singles over the past years. It also marks quite the milestone in the history of the band, it being the release with many firsts: Mike Malyan back on drums, longtime guitarist Olly Steele not being with them anymore and their latest vocalist Andy Cizek. One thing is sure though with this release, and that it’ll be filled with djenty grooves, heavy as fuck riffs and amazing melodies all stitched together into a prime example of intricate modern metal music. A not to be missed album!

For all who have lived through the heydays of folk metal over a decade ago, or those who simply love a mixture of folk and black metal with strong viking themes, a new album from Sweden’s Månegarm is always an exciting sight to behold. Plenty of their albums are considered to be absolute classics in the folk metal world and with ‘Ynglingaättens Öde’ they are very much continuing their path of epic metal masterpieces brimming with upbeat folky tunes and grim black metal music telling tales of their ancestors.

Caliban is quite the force to be reckoned with. One of Germany’s biggest and longest running metalcore outfits, they’ve never been ones to sit still or do things the easy way, while maintaining a certain level of bone-crushing quality throughout their careers. While last year they released the album ‘Zeitgeister‘, featuring German re-recordings of old tracks, ‘Dystopia‘ is the first full-length with completely new music since 2018’s ‘Elements‘. And that album seems like the piece of music we all need with today’s state of the world, featuring a darker and heavier sound, expressing the anxiety and angst the band members were all feeling. Though at the same time, there is a sliver of hope to be found within the darkness, looking for solidarity and together fighting through the troubled times and rising from the ashes. This already being an impressive piece of music, they’ve added guest appearances from Annisokay‘s Christoph Wieczorek, Heaven Shall Burn‘s Marcus Bischoff and Job for a Cowboy‘s Jonny Davy to add extra gravitas to some of the tracks. This will be most definitely a beast of an album that will shatter windows and eardrums alike.

Freja is a Dutch duo with members from bands like Witte Wieven, Laster and Verval, all much acknowledged entities in the Dutch black metal scene. After working together in 2019 on the by Roadburn commissioned piece Maalstroom, a Dutch black metal scene supergroup, C. and W. decided to continue creating mesmerizing music rooted in both black metal’s harshness and ancient atmospheres. Expect to be taken away and drift along on the “Tides” filled with magical melodies, compelling compositions and crushing heaviness. This will easily speak to music fans of different spectra going from black metal to post-metal to those who look for almost cathartic and contemplative pieces of music that resonate with that part of us that is bonded with the ancient energies of nature.