The World We Left Behind
Nachtmystium
CD|MP3|Vinyl
Century Media
Release date: August 5, 2014

I find it very suspect anytime that a band says “This is our last (album, tour, whatever).” Especially when said band is essentially a one-man project. It’s much easier for one person to change their mind after a little while (looking at you, Corgan).

That’s exactly the case with Nachtmystium, who are preparing to release what was being billed as their “final” record The World We Left Behind. Sure, there has been a revolving door of personnel throughout the band’s thirteen-year history, but Nachtmystium is, for all intents and purposes, Blake Judd.

Fallujah
The Flesh Prevails
CD | MP3
Unique Leader Records
Release date: July 22, 2014

Technical death metal perfection. That’s pretty much all that need be said about Fallujah‘s brilliant new release The Flesh Prevails. From the moment that you lay eyes on the gorgeous album art until the final notes of album closer “Chemical Cave” leave you jaw agape, this album takes you on a journey through ethereal beauty and Earth-shaking brutality. The musicianship is astounding and inventive. Even in the moments of calm in the eye of this storm, Fallujah never let you forget that this record is HEAVY in nearly every conceivable sense of the word. Listen below to the album’s first single “Sapphire.”

Savage Gold
Tombs
CD | MP3
Relapse Records
Original Release Date: June 10, 2014

When one hears the term “black metal,” the first thing that springs to mind might be a bunch of guys in black leather and spikes with corpse paint, burning churches and murdering their way across Scandinavian countries. The last image that the name of this often-feared and misunderstood genre evokes would be an average-looking bunch of guys in street clothes from Brooklyn, New York. But that is exactly what Mike Hill and his band Tombs are. In fact, they are on the cutting edge of the genre.

Melana Chasmata
Triptykon
CD | MP3 | Vinyl
Century Media Records/Prowling Death Records
Release date: April 15, 2014

Tom Gabriel Warrior (aka Tom G. Warrior aka Thomas Gabriel Fischer) is apparently not a man to rest on his laurels. No one could blame the man if, at the age of 50, he were to trudge around a “greatest hits” package just to cash in on his legendary status. After all, he was the driving force behind not one, but two of extreme metal’s most seminal bands, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. In fact, Warrior is considered by many to be one of the founding fathers of both the black metal and avant-garde metal genres.

But, after an ill-fated Celtic Frost reunion in 2007 failed to heal old wounds between Tom G and his long-time collaborator Martin Ain, he swore off both bands forever — a resolution which was reiterated 7 years later when he turned down an offer of $140,000 for Celtic Frost to play a single, one-hour reunion set as the 2014 headliners of metal’s biggest festival, Wacken Open Air in Germany.

No, Mr. Fischer has no time for a stroll down memory lane, because he is busy working on a trifecta. His latest band, Triptykon, is rapidly establishing itself as one of the most bone-crushingly heavy, black, sludge, doom metal bands in the world.

Judas Priest
Redeemer of Souls
Epic/Columbia Records
CD | Deluxe CD | MP3
Release date: July 8, 2014

Judas Priest Lose A Founding Member, Deliver Their Best Record in Nearly 25 Years With Redeemer Of Souls

You know, I am a very big fan of Judas Priest, so much so that I have both the band’s iconic trident symbol and the album title Defenders of the Faith permanently inked on my arms. So, when founding guitarist K.K. Downing announced in 2011 that he would be retiring from Judas Priest, I really felt gutted. Surely this would be the end of the “Metal Gods!” But alas, our heroes decided to soldier on by replacing Downing with new guitarist Richie Faulkner (previously of the Lauren Harris band, daughter of Steve Harris of Iron Maiden), who is nearly 3 decades their junior. This sounded like an idea as ill advised as when the band tried to replace irreplaceable singer Rob Halford for a couple of albums around the turn of the millennium with Tim “˜Ripper’ Owens, a very skilled Halford imitator whom the band discovered singing in an Ohio-based Priest tribute band (this event even served as the inspiration for the Mark Walberg/Jennifer Anniston movie Rock Star). Owens is a perfectly capable singer, but is also nearly two decades younger than the rest of the band and the albums that he appeared on with Priest are mostly forgettable and serve merely as a footnote in the band’s career. Halford returned to the fold in the mid 2000s and Priest has since released two somewhat uneven offerings (2005’s Angel of Retribution and the double concept album Nostradamus in 2008) featuring a handful of great songs.