Listening to it now after only really being familiar with their earlier albums, but this sounds really good to me. A song like Live Today is exactly what I look for in prog/power bands and sounds like it could have easily been on Return to Heaven Denied.

Yeah it's very cool - the songs have a lot of parts that reveal themselves on new listens.

The last one, Architecture of a God, had some more epic stuff and more sprawling songwriting, but this one seems to see them trying a few different tricks now that I'm getting used to it.

Sagenland - Oale Groond
https://heidenshart.bandcamp.com/album/oale-groond



This just popped 4h ago on BPM and I've been listening since. Really good stuff. Sounded like something Ulver could've released circa when Bergtatt came out but also reminded me of Agalloch at times.

I could swear that Intro is from a movie but can't really remember which.

Altered Dead - Returned to Life. This came out today on Memento Mori. Excellent death metal with a bit of that Demilich inspired guitar tone.

^
Hell yeah! Those dudes are from my hometown and I've always dug their twisted take on death metal. Fun live band, too, and they've got a big meaty sound for just a two-piece. Hopefully this new one makes a bigger splash than their debut, which was also cool. Total support.

I really don't know where I've been when it comes to Labyrinth. I've been listening to power metal for like 20 years and for some reason just never even heard of these guys. But damn are they a solid band. I mean they're seriously talented songwriters and musicians. The new album is the only one that I've heard, and it's quite strong. I'll definitely be checking out their discography.

Pounder - Breaking the World
It comes out this friday but the band's released the full stream via decibel
https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2021/01 ... avy-metal/

I'm not sure why I like this. It feels paint-by-numbers trad but I keep coming back to it. Maybe this from the interview is the key?

Regardless, I like it more than Saber, but when listening to some of these songs I feel like it's gonna be something else. Like I deadass thought I was listening to Tygers of Pan Tang - Spellbound for a bit. Not in a "oh bro its just that good" way, as in a "this pre-chorus bit is identical to Spellbound".
I also do laugh that this band is comprised of a bunch of goregrind veterans.

I really like how that new Pounder turned out, it's a notable improvement from their first album. I do find it interesting how many bands are influenced by the Jake E Lee-era albums these days. Sumerlands and Haunt hit a similar vibe.

TRoB's latest album `The Thule Grimoires` is streaming on Van's youtube channel. I'm only a couple of minutes in but this is sounding very atmospheric.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd2EOKgxV_M

Rotten Coffin - Suffering, Chaos and Death
https://youtu.be/FEzzi1Hi9ho

https://rottencoffin.bandcamp.com/releases

Really enjoyable demo from Portugal. My kind of Death Metal.

Not to be confused with Rotting Coffin. Or the THREE bands named Coffin Rot. I get that this kind of death metal is popular right now, but this is getting ridiculous.

I’ll cosign the new Frozen Soul album Crypt of Ice. I listened to it today and I thought it was pretty all right. The back half drags a little as they don’t really change up the formula at all but it’s a zippy 40 minutes so the album doesn’t outstay its welcome at all. Overall a pretty positive experience for me.

not getting the point, there are plenty of band names that when typed in search will give 5 or more exact matches with some of them dating back to the 80's, and all of the sudden this is a problem?

not only that, but the band name, when well written will yield only a single result, it might be similar but it's not the same, so if anything, they were actually careful to do their homework

I rather bands have the same or similar names than having to see things like "Natas Liah" or in this case "Niffoc Nettor", now that is ridiculous.

So ... the new Tribulation is out today and it's really good. It's a band that I've slowly getting more and more into during the last years so I won't be able to compare this too much to their earlier albums. But I really like this one.

Yeah, I think it's waaaaay better than the last one. Very strong release imo. This one and the new Grima are my two favourites of January. Slightly disappointed by the new Pounder album.

Very worthwhile blackened thrash from Chile.

I'm not sure what happened but the new album from Crystal Viper is WAY better than I expected. I guess this is just what happened when you get Ced in your band.

How does everyone feel about the new StarGazer album? Got it in the mail yesterday and I haven't really had a chance to let it sink in yet.

Yeah this is really good. Definitely an improvement on the last one, which was a little too tame and slightly underwhelming.

Definitely. And while it may be a bit too early to say, I think it's better than The Children of the Night. It took a couple spins for that album to grow on me, while this one is an instant hit.

It's great but I've only listened to a promo a couple of times, I'm waiting for Bandcamp FLAC/CD to spin it a few more times. Not sure if I like it more or less than the orevious one but it's probably going to be one of my favourite albums of the year.

Yeah, this one really impressed me. To be honest I was totally oblivious to the NWOTHM until getting on this forum last year, and most of the releases I've checked out since then have been ok to good, but nothing spectacular. Then Wytch Hazel blew me away on the 1st of this year after finally checking it out after it charted so high. And now this might be the second most impressive album I've heard in that vein. I can't quite put my finger on what it is about it yet, as there's nothing particularly inventive or unusual, just solid performances all around, and I can already tell I'm going to be coming back to some of these songs again very soon. It has leaped up to my favorite release of the year so far.

Only had time to play the first track, and yeah this is good. I really loved their first album but gave up on them after a few more albums came out. Glad to hear they're making cool shit again.

^
Pretty much the same boat. I bang their debut often but none of their later albums are as good. I gave the new one a listen yesterday and I dig the speed metal tracks, but the ones with cheesier power metal choruses I'm not as into. Fantastic King Diamond cover, though!

I somehow didn't know Crystal Viper existed before listening to "The Cult", but I also like it quite a lot.

Grima - Rotten Garden

What an amazing release. Few spins in and already assured to be in my AOTY list. If someone wanted an early Nokturnal Mortum / Drudkh sound, this is right up their alley. Soaring guitar leads and a very dense atmosphere. I love the vocals as well, flow nicely with the songwriting.

Fumes - Assemblage of Disgust (EP) Released January 28th on Morbid Chapel Records


Filthy Death metal from Canada with a lot of dissonant riffing.

I love this album, as well, and it's one of my three favourite releases from January, but to already be considering AOTY list with 11 months to go.....

So what?

Hulder - Godslastering: Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry

https://hulder.bandcamp.com/album/godsl ... -peasantry

Enjoying this solo project. The album drags a bit because some of the intros and interludes are a too long, but the Black Metal sounds great. Absolutely love her vocals.

My fav song on the album:

Is Crystal Viper's latest really all that different from their other releases? I only gave it one listen, but it seemed pretty interchangeable with something like Queen of the Witches. They've always been consistently pretty good for me, they can probably write a thousand songs that would rate around 70%-80%, but they've never blown me away.

The last one I heard was Legends way back when. I'd been disappointed by both Metal Nation and that one, so I fell off the band. Maybe the other ones have been more similar. I played the debut again last night - I really think that's one of the better new heavy metal albums even now.

Any fans of DSBM or Post-Black hearing the new one from "And Now The Owls Are Smiling"? I'm absolutely loving this. Beautiful, heartbreaking, bleak.

https://andnowtheowlsaresmiling.bandcam ... bum/dirges

I'll 2nd this one. For whatever reason I have largely ignored this artist, but decided to check out the album and have enjoyed it a lot.

Nice!

The new Stargazer can be streamed/bought here. Best album of the year so far (yeah, I know it's only February, but it's great).



https://stargazeraustralia.bandcamp.com ... secretions

that's a 2020 release according to the archives tho' (vinyl released in december), or is that incorrect info over there?

Incorrect info imho. It's a 2021 album but the vinyl copies arrived earlier than expected so they started shipping on December. Official release date is still 2021, that hasn't changed and preview/Bandcamp/CD hasn't been available until now.

How does the new Mefitis album stack up to Emberdawn?

It's more death metal-y and the influences I had detected on Emberdawn aren't quite as present. Still sounds like Mefitis though.