Welcome back to Unmetal Monthly, your destination for slightly less tinnitus-inducing recs from the HB team. It's been a wild spring around these parts, with life changes of all stripes taking place. And with change, even positive change, comes a sense of unsettling and exploration. Those feelings are certainly represented in our latest listening, with experimental and psychedelic albums dominating this column. Seize the day (and your headphones) with us for a exciting journey through sounds unknown. As always, I'm glad to have you on the sonic road with us. -Bridget Hughes Henrik Palm - Ner ..read more

Top Picks Idol Throne – A Clarion Call (progressive power-thrash, emphasis on the thrash!) I'm sure one of our other writers will be along shortly to let you know why the new Beaten to Death and Thou albums are worth listening to. Today though, I'm going to bat for the powerfully thrashy new release from Indiana's Idol Throne. It's no secret that all the best power metal is just thrash metal in disguise/Conan cosplay, but Idol Throne have given up the jig entirely, putting the thrash back on front street, while still maintaining the epic, uplifting scope of their nominal power aesthetic. A Cl ..read more

Holy crap, what a monster edition of Doomsday! Let's pretend that it's not because I straight up forgot (just literally forgot) to post the April iteration! Haha, definitely not! But, what does that really matter now that we are here and there are so many fucking riffs in this post? We've got stoner prog (hell yeah), silly albums which still go super hard, big doom riffs, blues grooves, and a lot more besides. So, join me, won't you? Let us dive into Doomsday! -Eden Kupermintz Guenna - Peak of Jin’Arrah Yes, I am happy to inform you that it is once again time for me to show you some mind-blow ..read more

There's an alternate universe where we stopped running Post Rock Post last year. Two of its biggest contributors, Nick and David, simply have too much going on in their life to commit to it like they used it. It's mostly Trent and I now and our ongoing interest in one of the best, and most maligned, genres out there. And that's primarily why Post Rock Post still exists - post-rock, and post metal, and psychedelic, and post-black, and the other sub-genres we allow on here, are all still making really good music. So yeah, sometimes we might take a month off to let the amount of albums gather an ..read more

Top Picks Rotting Christ – Pro Xristou (epic/melodic pagan metal) Greek metal titans Rotting Christ have always been a hard band to classify. From their basic black metal beginnings through their symphonic, goth-soaked middle-period, to the power-tinged, almost ritualistic style they settled on with 2007's Theogonia and perfected with 2013's Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού ("True to Your Own Spirit"/"Against the Demon Within"), the band has always stood apart. An appeal might perhaps be made to the nebulous term "Viking metal", but while Rotting Christ sometimes sound a bit like Bathory and Moonsoorw ..read more

Philadelphia-based Cathari have only been around for a couple years, yet they’ve managed to have multiple lives, evolving from doom metal dealers to noisecore ragers. Fusing the unrestrained fury of powerviolence with the pummeling intensity of metallic hardcore and punishing heaviness of sludge, Cathari delivers pure sonic destruction on their latest EP, It Will Hurt The Entire Time You Are Alive.  Like their complex sound, Cathari packs a lot of emotions into four songs, exploring the fury of moving into adulthood under the shadow of unprecedented disruption and injustice, their feelin ..read more

As you by now probably know, closing loops by working with bands over time is one of my favorite things to do. Watching a band's music evolve and covering it at different key moments is a true joy and, maybe more importantly, it gives me a lot of perspective into how these things tend to grow and develop. Today, I get to do that again by premiering Seeress' new album, Empathy. If you don't remember who these guys are, I first covered them seven (!) years ago, when they were making a sort of cavernous, cosmic, and caustic type of post-rock, post metal, and drone combination. Ever since then, I ..read more

Top Picks Gatecreeper – Dark Superstition (crossover death metal/melodeath) And the award for the best album with the worst cover art of 2024 goes to... Seriously though, what is going on here? There's a giant spider crawling out of a grave, and the grave's on fire, and some of the fire is blue, and there's a lightning storm, and a nebulous green skull floating in the air, and also the whole thing is shattering somehow, but also only half of it. It's like they took a "less if more" approach to Job For A Cowboy's Moon Healer (2024) an somehow came up trumps. None of that matters though, becaus ..read more

Music that sounds profoundly evil and utterly fun is hard to find. On the evil end of the spectrum, abrasive industrial certainly scratches the itch. On the danceable side of the spectrum, you’re more likely to explore post-punk and synthwave.  Portugal’s Louvado Abismo manage to bridge both worlds with their upcoming self-titled debut. A potent combination of deathrock, heavy post-punk, and industrial grime, listening to Louvado Abismo is like prom night in a crypt. Mesmerizing but caustic beats pound over eerie synthy guitars, plunging you into the dark side of the 1980s. It’s hypnot ..read more

Ah. Black metal in the spring and summer months. I love the smell of decay in the morning. It’s another lean, mean edition of Kvlt Kolvmn. Let’s go.  Admittedly, we here at Heavy Blog have not had as much time to delve into the riches of black metal in 2024, especially over the past few months. But we did hear some bangers, and we're choosing our favorites to share with you this month. It may not be our most robust entry to date, but the content here is spectacular. Let us know your favorites in the comments. Stay frosty.   -Jonathan Adams Winter’s Crown Dystopia- Geen Weg Uit ..read more