Hooray! loved the "High Octane Anarchy" of Ewig Frost's EP and now they are back with another Motorhead worship punked-up speed metal Atomic Release. 13 songs, 30 minutes of ugly, gritty, rip-roaring Black Mountain Madness. Get yer smash on!

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Endorsed by: Abattoir

It's hard to find massive albums that really engulf you from the start and grab you until the very last note. But Névoa's Re Un is one of those albums. This stellar work from the Portuguese duo owes a lot to their name, Névoa (or "mist" in English). The immersive riffs just hoover around like a dim fog of hopelessness. The atmosphere is everything on this release and so is the unexpected. The music is anything but predicable with sludge, post, black and doom all mixed up into one big cauldron of hypnotic and hallucinatory musings. It's desolate, contemplative and slow. You might look for a beacon of light in Re Un's darkness but you will never find one, only mist.

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Endorsed by: Susan, Paz

Up and coming -core band from my hometown, Houston, TX. Check 'em out. My favorite track is "Foundations".

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The self-titled EP by Frenchies Barús is fantastique. Four separate tracks of slightly proggy death with vision, each with their own unique feel and vibe. Listened to this more than a dozen times now over three months, each time enjoying it while hating myself for not pounding out a review saying how much I enjoy it. Thus ends my confession. Hold not my sins against the band. Check it out.

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Endorsed by: Nefarious

Another solid, brutal release in the genre of "show up 15 minutes late, miss first 3 bands". A few more sprinklings of death metal and doom riffs in this one, along with the grindy frantic intensity that Nails is known for. Be uplifted by the sheer optimism of songs like "Life Is A Death Sentence" and "Violence Is Forever" as you watch the world burn.

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Endorsed by: Auntie Sahar, X-Ray Rod, Abattoir, ScreamingSteelUS

Howls Of Ebb are a fine example of the growing tendency towards experimentation taking place right now not only in black metal, but in death metal as well. There's little that can be said about this album other than that it's a bizarre, stimulating journey into a blackened death whirlwind oozing of psychedelic bounce and eerie atmospheres. Say that doesn't sound fun and Yog-Sothoth will devour you.

Raise those tentacles high and sing to the Old Ones.

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Endorsed by: X-Ray Rod

They did it again...

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Endorsed by: Marcel Hubregtse, psykometal, X-Ray Rod, BloodTears, Auntie Sahar, Ag Fox

If I really have to tell you why I'm Staff Picking this album, then you just... you're just... fuck, you people have no excuse for not checking this project out after I've been peddling it for 3+ years. All his albums (save for the new one cuz it's not released yet) are on Bandcamp for Name Your Price. Get on it.

YouTube full album stream

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Endorsed by: Dream Taster, ScreamingSteelUS

Simply put, the best thrash album of this year so far.

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Endorsed by: Dream Taster, Marcel Hubregtse, ScreamingSteelUS

Grief Relic is my first time crossing paths with Withered, the joining of the mighty Ethan McCarthy (Primitive Man, Vermin Womb, ex-CTTTOAFF) to the band being a treat that immediately raised interest. This black/death metal infantry is armed to the teeth with all the fixins: blitzkrieg guitars, thundering drum and bass, monstrous vocals from Ethan and Mike Thompson, and a pleasantly variable tempo ranging from frantic bangers one moment to slow, painful crushers the next. If you've been running low on the brutality pills lately, Withered are happy to compensate.

Get rekt.

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Endorsed by: Marcel Hubregtse

This currently re-released album is an overlooked gem in Sólstafir's back catalogue. A raw, dare I say "warm" but fierce output along a path, the band has long since strayed from; with good production and more than a few elements that will surprise you.

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Endorsed by: Deadsoulman, RaduP

As further testament to the fact that Icelandic black metal is not purely confined to Deathspell Omega emulation, Almyrkvi, the one man project of Garðar S. Jónsson, is hitting the scene hard this year with this debut EP. The music here is something of an industrial-influenced brand of ambient black metal: thick, almost mechanical-sounding riffs create a hypnotizing atmosphere, enhanced by atmospheric breaks interspersed throughout. Think something along the lines of Blut Aus Nord + Darkspace. Easily one of the best BM releases I've yet heard this year.

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Endorsed by: Ag Fox, X-Ray Rod, ScreamingSteelUS, Paz

Ok, with a name like Slabdragger and an album titled Rise Of The Dawncrusher one might expect riffs. You would not be disappointed. From slow, powerful doomy riffs and clean singing to Indian-like shrieking, Slabdragger beat you about the head and neck with riffs, riffs and more riffs. Viva La Bandcamp.

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The sound we all knew Tommy's vocals were much more suited for than Divine Heresy's.

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Look, I can't explain this album, and neither can you. It has djent, it has DragonForce, and it has nonstandard time signatures. At this point, I'm not ruling out a collaboration with Cattle Decapitation and Wardruna on a Bathory cover for the inevitable Babymetal III - The Kawaii-ening. You might question the nature of reality and what it really means to be a fan of music ('cause I sure did), but it's good. Just... just listen. Shut up and listen.

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Endorsed by: wrathchild, Auntie Sahar