It’s time to preview some promo singles from albums coming out in the near future. I’m still trying to get the timing right on these and December is generally a dead month for album releases so I’m still feeling this thing out.

Also, I will feature a few second singles from upcoming albums I talked about in the last (and first) version of this. I won’t normally do that because I’d like to cover more ground but it helps in the early going to again highlight a few releases I’m really looking forward to.

One more note – this one is almost exclusively metal, with one (two, if you’re elitist) exception. I haven’t run across a lot more from other scenes that’s releasing soon. I’ll try to do more to mix things up in the future, it will help when we get into next year.

Cradle Of Filth – Crawling King Chaos

I’m leading off with one I meant to have on the first round of previews. The main issue is that CoF’s new album Existence Is Futile comes out this Friday. I though it wasn’t until November, silly me.

I mean, it’s Cradle Of Filth. I am a fan, have been since the later ’90’s. I haven’t really been disappointed with anything I’ve heard from them and while this has a slightly different sound probably due to new band members and the passage of time, it’s still signature Cradle. I doubt I’ll have any issue with this new album.

Shadow Of Intent – From Ruin … We Rise

This cut is from the upcoming album Elegy, which hits early next year. Shadow Of Intent are one of deathcore’s more interesting prospects, fully embracing symphonic and prog-like elements instead of the often-sterile technical showcase many of the -core bands get into.

From Ruin… We Rise offers a new showcase of this use of melody and symphony to create a heavy yet smooth listening experience. This isn’t about wowing with crazy vocal ranges or BPM (not that I mind that…) but using the medium to present a well-arranged and executed song. It makes for a nice preview for the upcoming album.

Ghost – Hunter’s Moon

This one is a little different – it’s not a preview for an upcoming album. Rather it’s a soundtrack release for the now-in-theaters Halloween Kills. I personally haven’t seen the film and probably won’t anytime soon, I’m not a huge movie buff.

I’ll admit this too – I’m not a huge Ghost buff either. I think they have some decent stuff, I do like their song Year Zero quite a bit. I did also see them open for Iron Maiden in 2017 and I thought they put on a really good show.

But I don’t own their albums or seek them out much at all. And this song doesn’t really hold my attention much. I don’t know if this is the territory they’ve moved into after their more mellow and slower stuff from their early days but I can’t really hang with this. I don’t think it’s badly executed, I just can’t get into it.

Hypocrisy – Dead World

This is one that I’m “cheating” on. I covered Worship’s lead single Chemical Whore in my last romp through preview tracks, yet right then Hypocrisy offered this second song. The song gets into how screwed up the world is. I agree. The song is another sign that the new album is going to be a great release after a long period of inactivity.

The real highlight here is the video – it’s a woman fighting her way through a zombie apocalypse. It is pretty brutal and honestly would lead me to ask questions about who is allowed to post what on YouTube, but I won’t do that because I don’t want Hypocrisy getting their video yanked. (Not that I have that kind of stroke, but there’s a conversation to be had about YouTube content). Anyway, it’s a stunning video and I’m looking forward to the new album dropping next month.

Mastodon – Teardrinker

Here with another band I don’t really keep up with – I liked their first few albums but I drifted off after that. This song is just ahead of a new album, Hushed And Grim, which releases the Friday before Halloween on October 29.

This song is pretty cool. It’s not what I think of when I think Mastodon but like I said, I haven’t been in touch with them in a long time. I won’t be in line to buy this on release day but it’s an album I’ll give a spin to and see if there’s more there I can get into. I like the more melodic approach but it takes some getting used to when I haven’t heard them since their heavy early days.

Be’lakor – Foothold

This is melodic death metal from Australia (not Sweden! Shocking, I know) that comes from the album Coherence that releases Halloween weekend, or October 29 for those that don’t know when Halloween is. It has been a five-year gap between releases for the band.

This is some really good stuff, with arrangement and movements that sets it apart from the more savage extreme metal out. Of course there is more like this these days but this group does it quite a bit better than the “look we can put every kind of metal subgenre into one song” thing that kind of permeates metal in our current climate. It’s well-structured and offers some hooks that hold attention. I’ll definitely be keeping an ear out for this on its release.

Emma Ruth Rundle – Blooms Of Oblivion

I’ll close the same way I did the first time around – with a new single from Emma’s upcoming album Engines Of Hell. This is one of my most anticipated releases of the year and it will finally see the light of day on November 5.

While lead single Return felt very deliberate and orchestrated, this song flows more with a gentle acoustic guitar and piano accompaniment. Both the lyrics and video are sparse yet, I don’t know, kind of spooky, as if Emma got David Lynch involved. It’s a very simple video and has a almost ingenious yet profound ending.

Emma has stated that this album is sparse, fragile and a departure from the more noisy effort On Dark Horses that captured a lot of attention in 2018. And she wasn’t kidding – both songs so far are even more stripped down than her 2016 effort Marked For Death. That album’s closing track Real Big Sky was a quiet yet soul-eviscerating affair and so far it sounds like Engines Of Hell is operating in similar, yet not exact circles. I am absolutely looking forward to it, but I’m honestly also kind of scared. This level of raw emotion might be kind of fucked up to listen to for an entire album.

That covers it for this round of previews. We’ll see if we get much to go with as far as stuff coming out in December, since most acts like to get their stuff released in time for album of the year considerations. Perhaps some more bands will preview material that’s going to hit next year as early Christmas gifts, we will see.