Written By Kevin McSweeney
Welcome Seven Deadly Songs, Metal Lair’s weekly feature where we aim to provide the discerning metalhead with a song for each of the seven days ahead. This week, we’ll be looking at some of the best albums to be released in the world of metal between the 14th and 20th of April and the songs that have us most excited for them. We hope they whet your appetite just as much as they have ours.
Sick N’ Beautiful – Haunted
Italian band Sick N’ Beautiful release their fourth full-length album, Horror Vacui, via the BLKIIBLK label on April 18th. Their website describes their sound as: “…a unique blend of hard rock and modern metal infused with industrial and punk overtones, along with generous doses of sci-fi, horror, and occult influences.” What I’m hearing is a less nü metal, slightly more gothic version of Evanescence, though the sombre piano on the intro and verses, and the bold, shimmering, synth-laden chorus evokes October Rust-era Type O Negative somewhat, as does the song’s title, not to mention the scary but strangely alluring album cover with its green and black colour scheme. This is no bad thing for an album released just days after the 15th anniversary of Peter Steele’s passing.
Cryptopsy – Until Theres Nothing Left
Written By Christy Norris
Cryptopsy is firing on all cylinders! “Until There’s Nothing Left” is a mechanical hellstorm that captures Cryptopsy in peak form, with surgical savage soaked in nihilism. An apocalyptic maelstrom of blast beats, jagged riffing and guttural fury pulled straight from the void. The track surges with controlled chaos.
Flo Mounier lays down a percussive assault with terrifying precision flirting with a gravitational pull complete with blasts and double kicks taking you into a relentless rhythmic engine. Guitarist Christian Donaldson carves out dissonant, jagged riffs that twist like rusted blades, while Oli Pinard’s bass snarls beneath it all with seismic low-end force, locking in with Mounier like a war machine in motion. At the center, Matt McGachy’s guttural roars sound less like vocals and more like the last cries of a world coming undone. “Until There’s Nothing Left” doesn’t just play, it devours. An Insatiable Violence is set for release on June 20, 2025 on Season of Mist Records.
King Kraken – March of the Gods
Cardiff-based heavy/stoner metal band King Kraken promise on their website to deliver; “…huge slabs of monster riffage from the South Wales valleys!” Judging by the evidence of the title track, that promise is duly fulfilled on March of the Gods, their second album, released independently on April 18th. It’s proper sludgy, Sabbathy stuff, with grit and groove in equal measure, elevated by Mark Donoghue’s gravelly, impassioned vocals, underpinned by a solid rhythm section and big riffs aplenty. A longtime associate of mine reckons they sound like Clutch. I’m not sure I agree with his analysis but, given that they’re Welsh, I might have to humour him and start referring to them as Cwtch.
Into The Fray – I, Borealis
Next, we turn our attention to Russia, where Moscow/St Petersburg-based groove metal band Into The Fray release their second full-length album, entitled Deofolist on April 15th via Satanath Records. The opening track, I, Borealis, is a snarling mid-paced number – very much the sort of song you’d cross the street to avoid if you saw it while walking alone at night. It features highly impressive raw-throated vocals from Igor Sokolov, and the guitar solo is immense – essentially a cross between Dimebag Darrell on Dominationand Kerry King on Seasons in the Abyss. Sterling stuff! There is the famous video of Pantera performing the former in Moscow when supporting Metallica in 1991 in front of an estimated 1.6 million people! That was maybe the planting of a seed that has come into bloom here.
Fabulous Desaster – Faster Than Light
This is pure old-school thrash metal from German band Fabulous Desaster, who release their third full-length album – entitled Crucify This! – via MDD Records on April 17th. Obviously, there is a great thrash tradition in Germany, with such incredible bands as Kreator and Sodom hailing from that country, and these guys are a commendable addition to that proud legacy. Even the vocal style hearkens back to the vintage thrash era. None of your modern, multifaceted approach to vocals, alternating between the ethereal and the guttural, thank you very much. The opening riff is a real test of a guitarist’s dexterity, sounding like it might have serious consequences for the fingers if even slightly misjudged. The guitar solo is an absolute doozy as well, and the rhythm section is unrelenting. Overall, it’s fast, furious stuff in the best traditions of the genre.
Crow’s Flight – Road to Madness
Finnish heavy/power metal band Crow’s Flight release their their third full-length album, The Dark Horizon, via King2Music Records on April 18th. Road to Madness is the closing song from that album and was released as a single in 2024, so they’ve kept us waiting, but it’ll be worth it if this song is anything to go by. It features a classic 1980s-style hard rock chorus, with big synths and soaring vocals from Markku Kuikka. I could almost imagine it playing out over the closing credits of an action movie of that era, on a VHS cassette loaned from Blockbuster perhaps. It’s melodic, stirring stuff that lifts the spirits, which is entirely at odds with the fact that the video was filmed in an old prison in southern Finland.
Superheaven – Long Gone
Please forgive a sentimental old man his dewy-eyed nostalgia as he attempts to squeeze a flannel shirt over a gut that is considerably larger than it was in the 90s, and looks wistfully at the rapidly balding head where his lank, unkempt locks used to be. Pensylvanian band Superheaven return with their self-titled third album, their first in a decade, on April 18th, released via Blue Grape Music, and it’s a gloriously grungy affair. The slow groove, the slightly unnerving harmonies, that ominous bass riff; Long Gone – even the title seems to be a reference to my youth! And hair! – really wouldn’t be out of place on Dirt or Superunknown. It’s got me pining for my salad days back in the grunge era. Maybe if I’d stuck with the salad, I wouldn’t be having so much trouble with the flannel shirt.
