Hell yeah. Cheers for the heads up Emp.

I don't know if it's this way for anyone else, but death metal labels seem really splintered right now. There's a few bigger ones if you're looking for a specific sound like Maggot Stomp or 20 Buck Spin, but the sheer number of smaller ones is astounding. I checked on 2-3 dozen of my favorite modern DM bands and almost every single one was on a separate label. I don't know if that's a peculiarity of my own tastes or if everyone else has a similar experience. It makes it more challenging to find similar bands.

This isn't really a new development, it's been like that for a long time. Niche labels that cater to specific style of DM have been around since the 2000s when you had the likes of Unique Leader and Willowtip emerge to sign technical/brutal DM bands and Pulverised Records releasing a lot of OSDM. With the huge death metal revival that's happened over the past decade it's just accelerated. Since there are tons of bands playing death metal these days it's a lot easier to start a label and find bands to sign. You also see a lot of smaller labels releasing tapes since they're a pretty cheap format. The likes of Dark Descent, 20 Buck Spin, Everlasting Spew, Maggot Stomp etc. are just a bit more business savvy and have an eye for talent so they've managed to grow reputations for themselves.

Yeah, exactly. OSDM is still the hot thing right now, and especially with tapes becoming popular again it's super easy for just about anyone to start a label just by browsing Bandcamp and having a little bit of money to throw around. They all have basically the same name, too:

Maggot Stomp
Sewer Rot
Gurgling Gore
Everlasting Spew
Stump Grinder
Morbid Skull
Obscurant Visions
Rotten Carnage
Granite Tomb
Ultra Gash
Dismal Fate

The list goes on and on and on and on, it's pretty insane. And almost all of those have just formed in the past two years! I love this style of metal but this bubble has got to burst sometime.

This looks like the track list for a long lost unreleased Cannibal Corpse album.

You're probably right. Historically speaking I didn't pay much attention to record labels, and in more recent years when I've read up on the history of 80s/90s DM it seemed a lot more consolidated, so when I performed that exercise not too long ago it was a bit eye-opening.

And almost all the legacy underground labels are still going more than 20 years later too. Even if they aren't pushing out a lot of new bands anymore like say 20 Buck Spin, they've still maintained a presence. I just dropped too much of a paycheck on Unmatched Brutality in celebration of Brodequin being back. (Killer EP, hopefully a new album sometime.)

Though it should be mentioned, even folks like 20 Buck Spin are slowing down in the face of insane vinyl backups and other trends like bands jumping to these tape labels or going the DIY route. 20BS put out 16 records in 2020 but only 10 in 2021.

Yeah, the craziness around vinyl has affected pretty much everyone. Even the bigger labels are feeling it, some of them aren't releasing any colour variants for new records at the moment because the manufacturing time for those is ridiculously long and it wouldn't make sense business wise when all the pressing plants are being overloaded with orders.

The debut album of the Hungarian death/doom band Rothadás is coming out next week. I think this one has some promise.

https://rothadasdeathdoom.bandcamp.com/releases

Also Force of Darkness (black/death/thrash from Chile) is releasing a new album called Twilight of Dark Illumination next week as well. I guess this one was delayed from last year because they released the first song in June of 2020. I am not familiar with the band's previous releases but this song is pretty good.

They sound more Autopsy-like to me.

Never heard of Tower before and bumped into their new single due to a post from Cruz Del Sur Music. Apparently they have a new album coming out in november and fuckin' hell this sounds wild. Great NWOBHM with amazing vocals.

I've been listening to this album for the last week or so, and it's really good. Tons of variety and fits into that Satan's Hallow/Midnight Dice mold, but a bit ballsier. My favourite track is In Dreams, but the whole thing is quite good.

I got a promo of the new Sarke album, Allsighr. They have evolved into a Vreid/Enslaved hybrid with Nocturno Culto's vocals. Album drops on November 5.

This is a band I'm still chewing on and trying to 'get'. It's a very different sound for (blackened?) death metal. There's a thinness to the sound. Not necessarily a bad thing. It's just different, and my ears are still adjusting to some of their higher-register riffage.

Supposedly we should be getting new Teeth this year. The Curse of Entropy taught me a lesson about respect.

Phrenelith have a new album coming out in a month: https://nuclearwinterrecords.bandcamp.c ... m/chimaera. Definitely one of the better OSDM bands at the moment.

I'd never heard of this band before. After exactly 1:07 of this song, I immediately pre-ordered it on Amazon!
thank you!!

I heard them earlier this year for the first time, but they didn't quite click for me then. This is better than what I remember of the first album, and would work for that recent thread about newer heavy metal singers.

Holy shit!!! This is out of nowhere. new Hyperdontia and now a new Phrenelith! Incredible way to cap off the year.

Love Phrenelith. I've been excited about that one as well.

New P.H.O.B.O.S. album Bleaker Beater coming November 30th. They have released a new song "Procollapsolog" and it's...different, but I can get into it.

https://megatonmassproducts.bandcamp.co ... r-beater-2