The Weekly Injection: New Releases From EPICA, THE MARS VOLTA & More Out This Week 4/11

This week’s new heavy metal releases include some yeehaw, some experimental weirdness, some epic stuff, and more! To the metals…

Benthos – From Nothing

Genre: Progressive metal
Origin: Milan, Italy
Label: InsideOut

Buy now on Bandcamp

Getting this week’s party started with some pretty rad prog. This record has these guys showing off some djenty elements, lots of melody, and even some shoegaze atmosphere. They’re like a blend of The Contortionist and Good Tiger. Would recommend.

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Elvenking – Reader Of The Runes – Luna

Genre: Power/folk metal
Origin: Sacile, Italy
Label: Reaper

Buy now from Elvenking

Let’s get epic! The band’s third in the Reader of the Runes series is another record that will make you want to mosh in your finest animal pelt. Just some well-done fantasy stuff here.

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Epica – Aspiral

Genre: Symphonic metal
Origin: Reuver, Limburg, Netherlands
Label: Reigning Phoenix

Buy now from Epica

Aspiral keeps the soaring metal theme going, but less of a folk lean. Despite having a VERY prolific four years with lots of live albums and EPs, this is the band’s full-length since 2021’s Omega. Log-time fans may be excited to learn that this one includes three more entries into the on-going “A New Age Dawns” saga. I very much look forward to the eventual (probable?) performance of the entire suite.

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In The Woods… – Otra

Genre: Progressive black metal/doom
Origin: Kristiansand, Norway
Label: Prophecy

Buy now on Bandcamp

Bringing the darkness this week we have the latest from the proggy, bleak, and blackened In The Woods…. Otra is a seven song collection of long and catchy songs. Fans of Green Carnation and perhaps Borknagar should check this out.

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The Mars Volta – Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos Del Vacio

Genre: Progressive/experimental rock
Origin: El Paso, Texas
Label: Clouds Hill

Buy now via Clouds Hill

I went to one of the recent Deftones shows that The Mars Volta opened where they played this album in full. Assuming the studio version isn’t wildly different, it is in the realm of their self-titled comeback record. Pretty chill, spacy, and experimental. Fans of the early chaotic years may be left wanting (again?).

Messa – The Spin

Genre: Doom rock
Origin: Cittadella, Veneto, Italy
Label: Metal Blade

Buy now on Bandcamp

The Spin is one of those records that I could see crossing over to the more hip music outlets. It is a fun and dark record with toes in both doom and post-punk. You’ll wanna dance and headbang.

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Mark Morton – Without The Pain

Genre: Southern rock
Origin: Williamsburg, Virginia
Label: Snakefarm Music Group

Buy now from Mark

Are you THAT surprised that a dude from Virginia is going all in on Southern fried rock? Lamb of God‘s most-bearded guitarist has a few heavy friends with Troy Sanders (Mastodon) and Neil Fallon (Clutch) guesting, but the rest of the names that pop out to me are handled by proper country/Southern rock voices. If Chappell Roan’s boot-scootin’ turn doesn’t do it for you, maybe Mark’s will.

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Also dropping this week…

• Aittala – Machines (Exitus Stratagem Records) – Doom
• Black Map – Hex (Spinefarm) – Progressive rock
• Blood Abscission – II (Debemur Morti Productions) – Atmospheric black metal
• Celestial Sanctuary – Visions of Stagnant Blood (Metal Blade Records) – Death metal
• Church Of The Sea – Eva (These Hands Melt) – Doomgaze
• Cytotoxin – Biographyte (Self-relased) – Technical/brutal death metal
• Exiled Hope – Apocrypha (Self-released) – Symphonic/gothic metal
• Ghörnt – Bluetgraf (Soulseller Records) – Black metal
• Håndgemeng – A Path Less Traveled (Ripple Music) – Stoner/doom
• Herman Rarebell & Friends – What About Love? (Metalville) – Rock
• Idle Heirs – Life Is Violence (Relapse Records) – Post-metal
• The Infernal Deceit – The True Harmful Black (Personal Records) – Black metal
• Imperishable – Swallowing The World (Hammerheart Records) – Death metal
• Last Leaf Down – Weight Of Silence (Lifeforce Records) – Post-rock/shoegaze
• The Lord Weird Slough Feg – Traveller Supplement I: The Ephermal Glades (Cruz Del Sur) – Experimental/stoner metal
• Magnolia Park – Vamp (Epitaph) – Emo/hip hop
• The Man-Eating Tree – Night Verses (Noble Demon Records) – Atmospheric metal
• Mika Häkki – Mørker (Majestic Mountain Records) – Rock
• Moonfall – Odes to the Ritual Hills (Iron Bonehead Productions) – Black metal/doom
• Nightsteel – Nightsteel (Cosmic Fire Records) – Heavy/power metal
• Putrid Offal – Obliterated Life (Time To Kill Records) – Death metal/grindcore
• Rebelmatic – Black Hole Eats The Tornado (Say-10 Records) – Heavy metal
• Revengin – Dark Dogma Embrace (Wormholedeath) – Symphonic metal
• Rock-Out – Let’s Call It Rock N’ Roll (Frontiers Music s.r.l.) – Rock
• Samtar – The Bog Of Cosmic Delusions (Self-released) – Progressive rock/experimental metal
• Ryoji Shinomoto – Children Of Bushido (Napalm) – Smphonic metal/Children of Bodom covers
• Sons Of Ra – Standard Deviation (Free Electric Sound) – Jazz metal
• Speedway – A Life’s Refrain (Revelation Records) – Hardcore
• Teen Mortgage – Devil Ultrasonic Dream (Roadrunner) – Hard rock
• Valhalore – Beyond The Stars (Rock Of Angels) – Folk metal
• Vortex – Alien Realms (Self-released) – Symphonic metal
• Vulvectomy – Aberrant Vaginal Gestation (Comatose Music) – Slam/brutal death metal
• Within Destruction – Animetal (Sumerian) – Nu-metal/deathcore
• Wurmian – Immemorial Shrine (Pest Records) – Melodic death metal
• Ye Banished Privateers – ‘Til The Sea Shall Give Up Her Dead (Napalm) – Folk metal

Also! Tomorrow is Record Store Day. Peep the list here so you know what to go camp out for.