At the beginning of April, Relapse Records will dispatch the new, self-titled LP from Portland, Oregon-based crust brigade, NUX VOMICA, the label debut from the underground heavyweights, and first full-length from the band in over five years.  

Private Judgement Day, the newest bone-breaker from Russian death metal slam monsters ABORTED FETUS is out now on Comatose Records. The band’s third full-length picks up right where 2010’s Fatal Dogmatic Damage left off.  

One of my favorite throwback sounding doom bands ever is Pilgrim! Their First album was a heavily, haze laden journey that was a great first album for them. Hopefully this second record has a bit more depth, and they have put even greater efforts into it. About the only flaw was it was simple and never went further than what you initially heard. This album should show some much welcomed growth from these guys, and I am very excited to see this come out.  

New Jersey’s MIDNITE HELLION is proud to announce the release Bitchin’ At Champs! 11-15-2013 on Contaminated Tones as part of the label’s official live bootleg series, exclusively on cassette. With a layout done in old school cut-and-paste DIY fashion, the six-track cassette captures MIDNITE HELLION blazing away on stage. Probably one of the coolest special releases this year!  

Recharged Italian label Minotauro Records has announced the upcoming release of The Last Neanderthal from Portland, Maine’s heavy metal doom rockers OGRE on February 21 in Europe and March 8 in North America.  

BELGIUM – Belgium’s leading black metal force, Enthroned, returns with a new studio album entitled, Sovereigns. The follow up to the critically acclaimed, Obsidium (2012), is scheduled for a worldwide April 15 release via Agonia Records. Sovereigns was recorded and mixed in Enthroned’s own studio, Blackout Multimedia. The album will be available in: digipack CD, black vinyl, bone-white vinyl with green splatter limited to 100 hand numbered copies and exclusive BOX CD limited to 333 hand numbered copies (including: the new album released in exclusive jewel case edition, embroidered patch, flag and a lighter with band’s logo). Pre-orders are up now at: https://www.agoniarecords.com/index.php?pos=shop&lang=en. Sovereigns... 

Long-running Floridian death metal outfit and recent Old School Metal Records signees,  RESURRECTION have announced the departure of bassist/vocalist Damien Chavez. The announcement comes less than a month before the band’s “March of Death” European Tour. RESURRECTION has recruited Jeff Surmell of SOLACE OF REQUIEM to fill in for the tour. The band had the following to say regarding the split with Chavez:  

Louisville-based eclectic rock act Tantric are announcing ‘The 37 Channels Tour’ that will kick off on February 24th in Tulsa, Oklahoma at Downtown Lounge and will conclude in Cherry Hill, Illinois on March 27, 2014. The tour will be followed by dates with fellow label mates Soil and Social 66.  

Danish death metallers DEATH COMES PALE have officially signed to Deepsend Records for the release of their debut album, World Grave.  

As with the review of Exmortus last week, another great band who plays something really kind of different. Grand Magus plays what would traditionally be done by a power, viking, or melodic metal band, not something accompanying a fuzzy guitar doing what could be honestly called stoner riffs. But it fits very well, and with some awesome trad metal touches, is a very catchy and enjoyable record.  

After three successful albums and a whole lot of live shows with ENTRAILS, guitar player Mathias has decided to leave the band for personal reasons. ENTRAILS comments further: “It has been growing a while within the band so we decided to do what’s better for the band and recruit a new member that can handle the axe of death in the future. Mathias is still our best friend and we wish him the best of luck in his other projects in life.”  

Beautiful and Treacherous, from Las Vegas heavy hitting instrumentalists DINNER MUSIC FOR THE GODS is out now on Tunecore, iTunes, Amazon, and other digital retailers. The CD version will be released on February 24. DINNER MUSIC FOR THE GODS‘ sound is a sonic fusion of Metal, Jazz, and World music