Grotesque Digest - Week 43, 2025
Your weekly extreme metal release roundup
Do you hear that? That’s the sound of the Big Metal exec cabal rubbing their collective hands in anticipation of next week’s release day coinciding with the Murican pumpkin fest. This week, meanwhile, is anything but a mere preamble to that abundant monetary cornucopia (who am I kidding - these ‘execs’ are fifty-somethings toting tattered and torn, sun-bleached-beyond-recognition Megadeth shirts, and we’re talking ‘work 12-hour shifts at each of your two jobs just to afford going on tour for a week’ type music here). The list is a little shorter than tradition would suggest, but there’s some truly fun music to discover.
The two biggest releases this week are the new Conjurer and the surprise EP from Rolo Tomassi, the latter of which has been bugging the living hell out of me with its title ambiguity. Did the intern responsible for the streaming uploads goof? Was the title changed along the way and someone forgot to tell the layout designer? Whatever happened here, I wish they could decide - IS IT ECHO OR ECHOES, DAMMIT? Edit: Bandcamp to the rescue!
Anyway, you were promised fun, and fun you shall have. Looking for excellent floating atmo-black? Easy - check Sunken. Core-adjacent death metal? Torture Hammer and Scorching Tomb. Coreless, more traditional metal of death? Thaumaturgy. Full-on sideways-dad-hat core? Walking Wounded. Some Indonesian blasts to dance to? Devastrosity. Grindcore garnished with dweedles and lyrics you won’t understand? Distaste. Before I name every single entry here, let’s just say that the average enjoyment I got from the list below was refreshing after last week’s doomy slump.
Then there were some very, very good singles this week. Debemur Morti struck threefold with Blut aus Nord, Lychgate, and Martröð, there’s new spoilers for the upcoming works by VoidCeremony and Veilburner, and the Innsmouth baton has been passed to Olde Outlier. I’m also beyond keen to hear what Neuropsychosis will come up with on their second album.
So yeah, low-key stacked week.
Fordæðuskapr - Hræflóð Markar Fjalla
🇳🇴 Black Metal
Order of the Ebon Hand - XI: Justice
🇬🇷 (Melodic) Black Metal
Sunken - Lykke
🇩🇰 Atmospheric Black Metal
Krallice - No Hope [EP]
🇺🇸 Avant-garde Black / Death Metal / Ambient
Darah - Holier Than Thou
🇸🇬 Death Metal
Perfect Suffering - Conditioned to Kill [EP]
🇺🇸 OSDM
Scorching Tomb - Ossuary
🇨🇦 Death Metal
Skelethal - Transmogrification [EP]
🇫🇷 OSDM
Thaumaturgy - Pestilential Hymns
🇺🇸 OSDM / Blackened Death Metal
Torture Hammer - Torture Hammer [EP]
🇺🇸 Core-infused Death Metal
Depurated - Demo [Demo]
🇺🇸 / 🇵🇱 Brutal Death Metal
Devastrosity - Eviscerating Desolation
🇮🇩 Brutal Death Metal
Traumatomy - Repugnant Coalescence [Demo]
🇷🇺 / 🇯🇵 Slamming Brutal Death Metal
Old Year - No Dissent
🇺🇸 Doom / Death Doom Metal
Deterioration - Prepare for the Worst
🇺🇸 Grindcore
Distaste - Agoniepositur
🇦🇹 Grindcore / Brutal / Technical Death Metal
Disarray - The Darkening [EP]
🇸🇪 OS Thrash Metal
Conjurer - Unself
🇬🇧 Post-y Atmospheric Sludge Metal / Metalcore
Maladie - Symptoms V
🇩🇪 Blackened Avant-Garde / Progressive Metal / Sax & Keys
Drofnosura - Ritual of Split Tongues
🇨🇦 Blackened Sludge / Post-Metal
Mastiff - For All the Dead Dreams [EP]
🇬🇧 Sludge Metal / Metalcore
Walking Wounded - Bend the Knee / Pray for Death [EP]
🇺🇸 Metalcore
Rolo Tomassi - In the Echoes of All Dreams [EP]
🇬🇧 Metalcore / Post-Metal
Hot Singles in Your Area
Blut aus Nord - The Ordeal
Ethereal Horizons | November 28th | Debemur Morti
🇫🇷 Atmospheric Black Metal
Der Rote Milan - Aus der Finsternis
Verlust | December 12th | Unholy Conspiracy Deathwork
🇩🇪 Black Metal
Diabolus, mecum semperterne! - Ab illo benedicaris, in cujus honore cremaberis
February 2026 | Terratur Possessions
🇳🇴 Black Metal
Lychgate - Hive of Parasites
Precipice | December 19th | Debemur Morti
🇬🇧 Avant-Garde / Black Metal
Martröð - Sköpunin
Draumsýnir Eldsins | December 12th | Debemur Morti
🇮🇸 / 🇺🇸 / 🇫🇷 Dissonant Black Metal
Vargrav - The Gates of My Dimension
Werewolf
🇫🇮 Symphonic Black Metal
The Ruins of Beverast - Alpha Fluids
Tempelschlaf | January 9th | Ván
🇩🇪 Gothic-y Atmospheric Black / Death Doom Metal
Abysmal Dawn - Cradle of Affliction
Season of Mist
🇺🇸 Death Metal
Glorious Depravity - Necrobotic Enslavement
Death Never Sleeps | November 7th | Transcending Obscurity
🇺🇸 Death Metal
Olde Outlier - The Revellers
From Shallow Lives to Shallow Graves | December 19th | Iron Bonehead
🇦🇺 OSDM w/ Black, Heavy and Thrash Metal nods
Primal Scourge - Cavalry of the Damned
End of Eden | November 14th | Iron Fortress
🇺🇸 Death / Death Doom Metal
Putrevore - Morbid Procession
Unending Rotting Cycle | November 11th | Xtreem
🇸🇪 / 🇪🇸 Death Metal
Sligm - Succumb to the Swarm
Untethered Dimensions | October 31st | Gurgling Gore
🇺🇸 Death Metal
Tenebro - Impiccata
Una lama d’Argento | December 12th | Time to Kill
🇮🇹 Death Metal w/ some Goregrind
Infected Flesh - Mechanically Deboned
Post-Apocalyptic Vicious Tyrannization | December | Brutal Mind
🇪🇸 Brutal Death Metal
Neuropsychosis - Callously Extinguished
Doctrine of Damnation | 2025 | New Standard Elite
🇺🇸 Brutal Death Metal
Shores of Null - An Easy Way
Latitudes of Sorrow | November 21st | Everlasting Spew
🇮🇹 Melodic Death Doom Metal
Veilburner - Matter o’ the Most Awful of Martyrs
Longing for Triumph, Reeking of Tragedy | November 14th | Transcending Obscurity
🇺🇸 Avant-Garde / Dissonant Death / Black Metal
VoidCeremony - Failure of Ancient Wisdoms
Abditum | November 14th | 20 Buck Spin
🇺🇸 Technical / Progressive Death Metal
Hellripper - Kinchyle (Goatkraft And Granite)
Century Media
🇬🇧 Speed / Black Metal
Sifting through next week’s line-up is going to be an arduous process. Send help! If we make it through, you’ll find our findings here on…
Nice ™️ [4]
New Voidceremony seems like it’ll be good!