I wasn’t going to run one of these this month, but as it turns out everyone and their mother have released new songs from upcoming albums. Might as well roll with it.

Blind Guardian – Deliver Us From Evil

The German metal masters offer up an early serving from a new album slated for September 2022. This song will make up part of a preview EP coming soon. It is unmistakably Blind Guardian, yet another great track in their impressive catalog. While the whole band is obviously great, it’s just stunning to hear Hansi Kursh sing like this after all these decades in the business. The new record’s early outlook is extremely bright.

Crowbar – Chemical Godz

The Louisiana sludge merchants are back for another round. This song heralds a new album in March called Zero And Below, marking the group’s 12^th studio album in 31 years. It is also their first release in nearly 6 years.

The band is sounding great on this track, a brutal romp through the dangers of drug use. The video is better anti-drug propaganda than anything world governments cranked out in the 1980’s. In fact it’s not really propaganda, it’s pretty much just the ills of drug use. The song sounds pretty fresh and it seems Crowbar is ready to kick ass again in the new year.

Immolation – Apostle

New York’s death metal veterans return with their new effort Acts Of God in February. Immolation have been unparalleled masters of death metal over the years and it sounds like nothing will change with the new record.

Apostle is signature Immolation. No reason to fix what isn’t broken, and nothing is broken besides necks in this case. It’s another bastardized, dissonant riff parade from the band, and lyrics that I’m sure have something to do with Sunday church service. Looks like we won’t get too far into the new year without at least one essential listen.

Spite – Made To Please

This is totally new to me, something I’ve run across now that I’m following more deathcore-oriented media. There is no information about a new album at this time, only this single drop.

Unsurprisingly, this is very violent and very brutal, both musically and visually. It does, to me anyway, help illustrate that the line between death metal and deathcore is almost non-existent. But this is one I’ll keep an ear out for, presuming the band intends to record a full-length in the near future.

Arch Enemy – House Of Mirrors

This is the second new Arch Enemy single to be released in a few months, though as yet no new album information has been forthcoming. The song is quite serviceable and does sound like one would expect Arch Enemy to sound. The band continues to provide the highlight of having Michael Amott and Jeff Loomis on guitar, something of a metal guitarist’s wet dream. I think it would’ve been cool if the video would have shown some real broken mirrors but I guess safety is a big feature of modern-day metal video shoots.

Saxon – Carpe Diem (Seize The Day)

Venerable English metal institution Saxon return with the title track and lead single for their upcoming and (if I’m counting right) 23^rd studio album coming in February. It’s been a pretty good run of late for the group, their last several albums have held serve among metal’s best.

This song is straightforward, up-tempo and gets right to the point. And honestly, the band looks older than dirt in this video but is still totally bringing it. It’s kind of shitty to think about how many more new albums are going to come from some of these metal legends, but Saxon act like they’re good for another 10 or so.

That’s about all for this month. I got enough that I didn’t have to waste time talking about the new Kid Rock song, which really sucks. We’ll see who brings what in the first month of the new year.