Damn, it felt great to go to a show again.
This year’s installment of Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest in Philly was the perfect way to return to life as it’s meant to be: among your fellow social beings, together, in person, aided but not mediated by technology. It also helped that the bands ruled and the drinks were flowing. Midnight was a raucous joy as always, and it was fun to see Municipal Waste keep that spirit going as well. Additionally, I’d never seen Immolation before and only had a passing familiarity with their material. Was about time to fix that problem! And, of course, the ultimate highlight was seeing Converge do their Jane Doe set and taking the opportunity to crowd-surf to “The Broken Vow.”
And while I can’t provide the same feeling to all of you via this article, I CAN give you a list of five new releases to check out.
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Blood Red Throne – Imperial Congregation
Solid, punchy, well-produced modern death metal. The is the 10th outing from these Norwegian death metal veterans, and they use every chug, riff, kick-drum blast, and growl in their arsenal to make a supremely catchy record.
Stream: Apple Music
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Chaoshorde – Hordes Arising
Man, lots of blackened thrash coming out this year! Add the physical remaster and re-release of this EP from the Greek ragers in Chaoshorde. This release includes the original 2018 EP plus a couple other songs from a 2019 split.
Stream: Apple Music
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Enslaved – Caravans to the Outer Worlds
Enslaved is at their best when they blend their various talents together — straightforward black metal, epic viking metal, progressive metal. On this new EP, so generously following up last year’s Utgard, the band shows how well they’ve mastered their own art.
Stream: Apple Music
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Full of Hell – Garden of Burning Apparitions
Speaking of Full of Hell, there was an unofficial after-show-show in Philly on night one of the Fest which featured another fantasticly brutal band: Jarhead Fertilizer. I bring them up because the band shares a couple members with Full of Hell, and because they absolutely slay. Anyway, so does the latest from Full of Hell, which should come as no surprise.
Stream: Apple Music
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Katatonia – Mnemosynean
Katatonia-completists, rejoice! If you’ve wanted to hear what the band has left on the side of the road while making their long, gloomy journey, you’ll want to dig into this.
Stream: Apple Music
