There is so much heavy, extreme, and beautiful metal music being conjured all around the world that it can be overwhelming. Fortunately, Metal Has No Borders has curated the best of the best, from Singapore and Ukraine to Indonesia and New Zealand as well as everything in between.
Enjoy our hand-picked favorite albums, singles, and videos for July 2022 below. Enjoy and share which bands you were headbanging to this month in the comment section!
Gold Album of the Month
Wormrot
Hiss
Singapore
A bonafide strategy in creating compelling music is utilizing tension to lead to a satisfying aural release. Wormrot doubles down on this technique, thoroughly exploring the art of tense noise, where the eventual arrival at a release is as crucially impactful as the first gasp after near-drowning. Within Hiss, the Singaporean extreme chameleons boast a trio of layers: grind, thrash, and hardcore. Raw moments resemble a sweaty underground dive bar experience, yet smoothly transition into a mean 80’s thrash rager. With a majority of the songs falling on the short side of one to two minutes each, the band somehow manages to arrange vast emotional arcs between desperate rage and futile melancholy. Metal that leans this far on the extreme spectrum normally isn’t my cup of tea, but Wormrot‘s fourth full-length drew me back multiple times to further explore the beauty in the brash.
Hiss by Wormrot is awarded Gold Album of the Month for July 2022
Favorite Songs: “When Talking Fails, It’s Time for Violence,” “Seizures,” “Your Dystopian Hell”
FFO: Full of Hell, Swans, Napalm Death
Silver Album of the Month
Kekal
Envisaged
Indonesia
Considering music has an age of near over 4,000 years, it’s undeniably riveting in discovering distinctly unique new expressions of the art form today. The avant-garde genre benefits greatly from this feat, the ability to bring forth music that sounds like no other. Consequently, the experimentation usually results in less aesthetically pleasing listening. While Kekal‘s Envisaged is still far from radio-friendly, the act injects a dose of accessibility in their strange soundscapes. The record is chock full of peculiar melodies that act as the gripping textures upon truly strange and alluring sonic landscape.
Envisaged by Kekal is awarded Silver Album of the Month for July 2022
Favorite Songs: “The Ascending Collective,” “Anthropos Rising,” “Born Anew“
FFO: The Mars Volta, Voivod, Fantomas
Bronze Album of the Month
Organectomy
Nail Below Nail
New Zealand
Stepping farther outside of my comfort zone, brutal death metal is honestly never on my listening list. However, Organectomy has absolutely changed that. The extent of their intensity is unsurmountable, yet inviting, as dynamic grooves and tech-death leads sharply grip the listener back from escaping the forty minute eardrum masochism. Bellowing gutturals that overflow from Alex Paul’s throat and lips are convincingly inhuman. The rhythm section tightens each riff and drum fill to provide a notable mechanical barrage. As the vocals, musical leads, and rhythm come together, an overall cataclysmic sci-fi future is visualized through the immersive, pessimistic sounds of Nail Below Nail.
Nail Below Nail by Organectomy is awarded Bronze Album of the Month for July 2022
Favorite Songs: “The Third Mutation,” “Ulcerborne,” “Concrete”
FFO: Ingested, Defeated Sanity, Vulvodynia
Other Notable Releases:
Neurotic Machinery – A Loathsome Aberration
Czech Republic
Any modern death metal should gladly sink their canines into this well-done slab of technical progginess akin to the recent couple Rivers of Nihil records and complete with the occasional saxophone appearance.
Listen to “Transcendental“
Patria – Hexerei
Brazil
From Venom and Mayhem to Rotting Christ and Opeth, black metal spans mountains and valleys in variety of intensity. Patria proves they are well-travelled extreme metallers as they explore the range of all aforementioned acts in their seventh full-length album.
Listen to “A Last Breath of Sulphur“
Antigama – Whiteout
Poland
Similar to the previously mentioned merit from Wormrot‘s latest, Antigama delivers a shotgun-propelled indulgence in grindcore with just enough variety in the chaos to string you along for a half hour of white-knuckled grit.
Listen to “Holy Hand“
Check out All Recent, Upcoming, and Past Notable Releases by Clicking Here
Best New Single / Video
White Ward – “Phoenix”
Ukraine
I feel genuinely embarrassed to my core in the fact that atmospheric, avant-garde black metal group White Ward‘s new release, False Light, is missing from my favorite picks from last month. The band had somehow dodged my awareness, but fortunately, I was swept up in the hype this month and am in awe. This new video for the “Phoenix” track off that album is evident of the act’s transformative nature. Clocking in at ten minutes, the piece meanders from eerie suspense with saxophone solos to threatening waves of dissonant riffs alike the Norwegian blackjazz project Shining. Thematically, “Phoenix” represents tragedy in Ukraine. In 2018, activist Kateryna Handziuk was unjustly killed in an acid attack. Follow the lyrics in the video to learn more about Kateryna’s story.
“Phoenix” by White Ward is awarded Best Single / Video of the Month for July 2022
Other Notable Singles / Videos:
Archonist – “Insanity”
India
While the latest record by Tool was solid nap material, Archonist brings instead brings a far more engaging and modern twist to their proggy allure in this chunky single; listen here
Cold Blooded Murder – “L.C.F.R.”
Russia
It’s hard not to draw comparisons to Slipknot when masks are worn, but even more-so when Cold Blooded Murder excrete a venomous anger in their plodding deathcore; listen here
Undying Inc – “Open Source Degenerate”
India
Fusing the crushing tropes of thrash and death metal with a metalcore mindset makes for an absolutely killer listening experience; listen here
Become the Watcher – “Dissociate”
South Africa
The deathcore scene in South Africa is reaching unforgivable levels and Become the Watcher is proof of the nasty quality spewing from regional pioneers Vulvodynia‘s homeland; listen here