New Metal Out Today: 12/3

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It’s Friday, which means two things: giving the week the finger and new music! Tune in every Friday for The Pit’s round-up of new releases, from singalong hard rock to pus-drenched underground death metal. Keep those ears bleeding!

Volbeat, Servant of the Mind (Universal Music Group)

For fans of: In Flames, Machine Head, Demonspeed

Standout track: “Heaven’s Descent”

You know what, we’d written Volbeat off as a band that’d just write the same album over and over, but we have to admit, Servant of the Mind does things a little differently, and it’s cool. The fast songs feel faster, the slow twangers twang slower, and the metal tracks are incredibly metal. It’s good to know that this far in, these Danish metalbillies can surprise us and come out with tunes that impress even jaded shmucks like us. It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.

VHS, I Heard They Suck…Blood (Wise Blood Records)

For fans of: Exhumed, Fulci, Acid Witch

Standout track: “I’m Sorry Abby”

If you’re a grody death metal band that writes albums about specific horror movie themes, how do you take a left turn? Vampires! Ontario’s VHS have easily written one of the most gnarly — and entertaining — metal albums about the undead with I Heard They Suck…Blood, packed as it is with blastbeats, growl-along choruses, and references to vampire boobs. That said, the band don’t lose all atmosphere, as Let The Right One In-based track “I’m Sorry Abby” keeps things weird and melancholy. The children of the night are all right.

Genocide Pact, Genocide Pact (Relapse Records)

For fans of: Tomb Mold, Spectral Voice, latter-day Morbid Angel

Standout track: “Charcoaled Remains”

You’re not going to get anything dulcet or nuanced out of DC’s Genocide Pact on their self-titled record. Instead, the band bring all the burly, merciless death metal one could ask for. It’s all murky, cruel, and impossibly heavy, and will deeply please fans of the genre at its most single-minded. Sure, there’s hints of hardcore and grindcore in here, but mostly it’s just that big, cruel, unrelenting stomp. Fucking rad.

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Words by Chris Krovatin