Mandroid Echostar only recently released their latest album, Coral Throne, on bandcamp. And… well, it’s all right. While it doesn’t reach Citadels‘ level, it’s a pretty good jam! For those who don’t know the band, they’re an alternative progressive rock band from Ontario, Canada, who’ve been often compared to Coheed & Cambria, but I think that’s unjustified. They’re more prog and generally better, musically, than the sci-fi rock band.
Bands Selvans and Downfall of Nur collaborated for a collaborative release, which came out on November sixth through Avantgarde Music. Both sides feature some form of atmospheric black metal in one long track and either an intro or an outro piece. Each side is pretty interesting, and that might be due to the fact that the two bands coalesced for this album. Indeed, the bands joined forces to record the songs on the album. It’s a solid release!
Tau Volantis is a new deathcore band, and they just released their self-titled debut EP. It’s quite heavy and aggressive, but doesn’t move out of the technical deathcore aspect nor does it try to reinvent it. So, you know what to expect, and Tau Volantis fulfills your expectations. Whether that is a good thing or not depends on your appreciation of the genre. Check it out and judge by yourself!
In mid-January, Burials and Exhausted Prayer will release their split, which consists of four tracks from each band, via Apes Who Looked Up Records. The blackened death metal release is quite impressive from both sides, who manage to merge black and death metal while both having their own styles.
Blood Music is now renowned for putting out killer chiptunes as well as insane metal releases. This time, it’s Setentia‘s dissonant black metal, on Darkness Transcend. This hour-long album is a worthy addition to anyone’s dissonant metal library.

Through Lucid Eyes is a Canadian progressive metalcore band from Ontario, and Transient will be out on December ninth. The EP is pretty good, but also forgettable, in that none of the songs on record really struck a chord with me. Overall, though, I suggest you give it a try if you’re more into metalcore than I am.
Those Darn Gnomes‘ The Zodiac is very ambiguous to me. On one hand, I can but applaud the insane and forward-thinking experiment, especially on the aspects of composition and musicianship. However, when it comes to the final aesthetics and production value of the album, I’m quite turned off. You’ll often hear a guitar that clearly has electrical problems (ground noise?), and the general sound is ‘canned’, for lack of a better term. The avant-garde jazz / mathcore / chamber music ensemble is astonishing and memorable; I just wish its production was on the same level…

The Australian progressive death metal band The Ritual Aura just released Tæther, their latest album. Even though I didn’t give the band any attention before now, I think the album is pretty good. It’s – somewhat expectedly – rather generic, but it does have its own traits, here and there. Of particular note is the overture to the eleven-minute piece ‘物の怪’ (Mononoke), which is an almost Japanese traditional music-sounding piece. Nevertheless, it’s an appreciated change of pace. Overall, though, it’s an all right album.