The news of Opeth’s new album being pushed back two months raised a few eyebrows. Albums in this day and age generally get pushed forward, not back, in order to combat illegal downloading. For Opeth, it was a matter of getting the promotional aspects squared away with label Roadrunner, whose stature in the metal scene isn’t quite what it used to be. Still, Pale Communion is easily the summer’s most anticipated album, and with the steady stream of albums that are released on a weekly basis, another two months isn’t going to hurt, right? – David E. Gehlke
General housekeeping
One of the year’s best albums is up for grabs in our Giveaways area: Insomnium’s Shadows of the Dying Sun.
Washington DC-based female-fronted metallers A Sound of Thunder are a band you may have missed.
Caught in the act: Tesseract and Intronaut in Philadelphia.
Features
Cult French black metallers Aurvandil have a new album on their hands in the form of Thrones. Here to talk about it is the band’s namesake.
Star Wars-themed Hoth caught up with Kyle McGinn to talk their new album, Oathbreaker, and much more.
Guitarist Marty Friedman has carved out quite a career for himself in Japan. Read here to learn more about that, and, his new album Inferno.
Reviews
Splinters, the second album from Vallenfyre (featuring Gregor Mackintosh of Paradise Lost), hones in on the vaunted Autopsy-on-Discharge sound. Whatever that is.
Another metal tree branch album: Se Delan’s serene The Fall.
The Tolkien-inspired Ered Wethrin put on a quality display of Summoning-influenced black metal on Tides of War.
So enamored with The Great Old Ones’ Tekel-Li that we did a Review Face-Off to discuss its merits.
A fresh face in the atmospheric black metal realm, Skogen impresses on I Doden.
Long-running Canadian death metallers Psychotic Gardening have produced a taut, hardened album with Hymnosis.
Is Emmure’s Eternal Enemies the worst album of the year?
The reissue of Death’s classic Leprosy album is a must-hear.
Is Agalloch’s The Serpent and the Sphere the best album of the year?
Doom sludgers Pilgrim turn bring the heaviness on II: Void Worship.
The news in ten
1. Iron Maiden’s “Trooper” beer keeps selling.
2. This parody of Disturbed is pretty funny.
3. Opeth’s new album has been pushed back to August.
4. Cynic members publicly declare their sexuality for the first time.
5. Killer be Killed streams debut album in full.
6. The mighty Septicflesh streams new song, “Burn.”
7. Suicide Silence releases the lyric video for “Cease to Exist.”
8. Prong announces run of American tour dates.
9. Tombs stream a new jam, “Deathtripper.”
10. More details emerge on the Queensryche name settlement.