Welcome to Metal Lair’s Seven Deadly Songs weekly feature where we curate songs from the past and the present for your listening pleasure.
Written By Kevin McSweeney
March has been a tremendous month for new releases in the world of metal. We’ve highlighted some of the best new music from earlier in the month in Seven Deadly Songs previously. This week, we present evidence that the quality is not diminishing as the month ends by listing to seven of the most exciting songs from albums released this week. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we’ve enjoyed selecting them.
Nothing – The Self-Repair Manifesto
First up, we have Australian progressive death metallers Nothing, who have unleashed an enormous thunder from Down Under with their independently-released debut album, The Self-Repair Manifesto, out on the 26th of March. The title track involves a breathtaking display of dexterity from these seriously talented musicians from Melbourne. As the late DJ Tommy Vance once noted, music of this extremity requires the stamina of an athlete and the precision of a fighter pilot, and the virtuoso musicianship and seemingly superhuman drumming on display here certainly attest to that. It is music of staggering complexity, with rapid changes of time signature to wrong-foot the listener at every turn. Nothing, as it transpires, are really something.
Vulvarine – Fool
This feisty four-piece band from Vienna in Austria certainly knew how to choose an eye-catching name! In fact, they go further, using the term “vulvarock” to describe their sound, which is, according to their website: “…raw punk meets heavy metal and high energy rock ‘n’ roll”, resulting in music that is: “…energetic, dramatic, and most of all: empowering.” They assert a strong feminist ethos through their lyrics, and they certainly didn’t spare the adamantium claws when it came to eviscerating the hapless chap who drew their ire for this particular song from their second full-length album Fast Lane, released on the 28th of March via Napalm Records. They are currently touring Europe in support of the fabulous Thundermother. You’d be a fool if you turned down the opportunity to see that show.
Autumn’s Dawn – Far From Home
Autumn’s Dawn, a dark and despondent duo from Wollongong, New South Wales, released their third full-length album, We Lost Our Hope Along the Way, on Avantgarde Music on the 28th of March – a timely release, given that March is an autumnal month in their native Australia. It’s every bit as sombre as the title suggests. Defined as depressive/post-black metal/post-rock, it’s as if White Pony-era Deftones collaborated with a black metal vocalist to cover The Cure, and specifically songs from their most masterful album Disintegration at that. The two musicians, known as Sorrow and Anguish, have created a sound that pairs brutality with a bleak and brooding beauty if Far From Home is anything to go by.
Judicator – Concord
Utah’s finest purveyors of power metal, the mighty Judicator, return with their seventh full-length album, Concord, released independently on the 28th of March. The title track sets out the stall for the album perfectly with five minutes of fancy fretwork and frivolity. From the harmonised lead guitars at the beginning of the song and the harmonised vocals throughout, to the shredding solo and the amusing choral interlude, it’s an example of power metal at its finest: epic, upbeat, somewhat over the top, a little bit camp and a whole lot of fun. Also, it’s executed with no small amount of skill. The band have been added to the bill of Epic Fest 2025, a power and fantasy metal festival due to take place in Roskilde in April, alongside such great bands as Battle Born, Iotunn and the magnificent Majestica. That’ll be well worth a trip to Denmark.
Telepathy – Oath
Telepathy are perhaps not a band for those with a short attention span, but they provide a gratifying listening experience for the more patient and discerning metal fan. The Anglo-Polish band, based in Essex in the UK, released Transmissions, their fourth full-length album on the 28th of March, courtesy of Pelagic Records – an album containing seven stately slabs of cinematic sludge metal. Oath is the first single from the album, and it’s a lengthy instrumental that would be a perfect accompaniment to a solitary stroll through a desolate wilderness, perhaps like the one depicted in Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road. It is eerily atmospheric and ominous, but ultimately rewarding for those prepared to put in the hard yards.
Doomsday – Never Known Peace
This is proper Bay Area-style crossover thrash as it should be done! Never Known Peace is the title track from Doomsday’s debut album, released on the 28th of March via Creator-Destructor Records, and the Californian band are shaping up to follow in the fine tradition of thrash and its variants from the Golden State. It generates a similar excitement in me to when I first heard Davidian by their fellow Oakland residents Machine Head. It might be a lazy comparison on my part, but the metronomic rolling kick drums and huge breakdown at the end have an air of freedom ringing with a shotgun blast. They cite a wide range of influences among the luminaries of thrash metal, groove metal and hardcore punk, and they are worthy standard bearers for the Bay Area scene in 2025.
Sicksense – Follow Me
We certainly have an eclectic blend of vocal styles from this nü-metal/metalcore band from Phoenix, Arizona, whose debut album, Cross Me Twice, came out on Earache Records on the 28th of March. The vocal duelling between Vicky Psarakis, formerly of The Agonist, and Stuck Mojo frontman Robby J. Fonts is at first reminiscent of Evanescence’s Bring Me toLife, though they move beyond this by each of them employing a mixture of clean vocals, gutturals and raps, very much from the Corey Taylor playbook. Psarakis boasts a range and power that brings an element of symphonic metal to proceedings, making them much more than just another nü metal reboot. It’s all about the “he says/she says”, but it’s far from bullshit.