re: Hard Rock and Metal releases for Nov 3 - Nov 9

This week we get an answer to an age old question. Not really but it has crossed my mind now and then.

It has been 7 years (11 years since a full length record) since The Genitorturers have released an album while Morbid Angel has left us 6 years waiting for that evasive 'I' album. Since it was announced David Vincent had rejoined Morbid Angel some of us wondered what that meant for the band he has with his wife and we got kind of an answer this week with Genitorturers beating Morbid to the punch. Morbid Angel though has an enhanced reissue of what is my personal favorite death metal record of all time, Blessed Are The Sick! If you have missed this album you are missing a classic that showed that death metal really had no boundaries.

Oh yeah some guys in a band called Slayer and Morbid Angel contemporaries Nile have new albums this week too. =) Hypocrisy, Halford, and Epica have solid releases too. Looking forward to downloading the others I haven't heard yet and checking them out.

Nov 3 - Nov 9

All titles in bold are available in one form or another on Zune marketplace at the time when I post this

11^th Hour – Burden of Grief
Arkona – Goi Rode Goi
Defiance – The Prophecy
Epica – Design Your Universe
Geist – Galeere
Genitorturers – Blackheart Revolution
Halford – III: Winter Songs
Hypocrisy – A Taste of Extreme Divinity
Morbid Angel – Blessed Are The Sick (enhanced reissue) (think original version available in marketplace)
Nile – Those Whom The Gods Detest
Nocturnal Fear – Metal of Honor
Oppressor – The Solstice of Agony and Corrosion
Savage Messiah – Insurrection Rising
Shadow Gallery – Digital Ghosts
Slayer – World Painted Blood
Various Artists – Grind Madness At The BBC
Various Artists – Swedish Death Metal (3 CD showcase of early Swedish death metal)
We Came As Romans – To Plant A Seed

Import now or wait until later to get in US

Sybreed – Pulse of Awakening (Dec 1?)

Disclaimer: These may or may not get added to Zune and may be removed from the service at any time. The above is simply a list I compile every week to help with dj chatter at my station and thought I would include it here to let my fellower Zuners know of recent hard rock/metal releases. In no way does it reflect every release just those listed in various sources I use to compile the list. As always items are subject to change.

Thanks for the Nile heads up. I'm listening to the new Slayer now, it's pretty sick.

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New Amon Amarth song available, check out their myspace!

Yeah it was a pretty interesting week. Slayer stuck to their guns and you can't complain since it still sounds good and recognizable as Slayer. I gave the edge, as far as my favorite, to Nile this week since the album just sounds so epic. I just get lost in it and don't realize the length of some of those tracks. Also always nice to catch up with Peter Tagtgren (Hypocrisy) is up to. Just all the music he has done himself and has come out of his studio but overall it was a good week from what I have heard. I've yet to secure a copy of The Genitorturers going to have to make an Amazon order soon.

BTW, The various artist comps capture some nice history this week. I didn't even know there was some bands before Entombed. It is a nice reminder of the bands before At the Gates brought a lot of attention to what the Swedes were doing. I use to be a complete Earache head so had all the BBC stuff but it is a nice 3 disc collection with Napalm Death, Carcass, Bolt Thrower, and much more. Nice testament to John Peel and just England/Europe in general to give a national forum to extreme music.

The closest we have gotten here to giving extreme music a national spotlight is a fictional band, Dethklok, and some cameos from the likes of Cannibal Corpse in Ace Ventura and a Morbid Angel video premiere on an episode of ECW way back in the day for 'Where The Slime Lives'. I know there is more but those two come off the top of my head and the Morbid Angel thing is even pulling stuff out of the air.  ECW was limited at that point with them buying some infomercial time in multiple markets but just trying to think of things outside the Headbangers Ball but even then back in 93/94 part of the reason was major label backing with distribution from Sony/Columbia of selected Earache artists and Warner distributing some of the Metal Blade catalog along with picking up Morbid for their Giant sub-label gave a reason for MTV to give the stuff a chance and find out there was some kind of audience for something beyond Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, and a rare Slayer appearance.

New Halford...hmmmmm