Written By Kevin McSweeney
Welcome to Seven Deadly Songs, Metal Lair’s weekly feature where we select seven delights, to entice and excite, from some of the week’s best new releases, focusing on bands who don’t yet have the level of exposure they deserve.
We seem to be concentrating on one nation in particular this week. More on that later, but first, the legends!
We would be very keen to shove you in the direction of From Birth to Death (April 1st; Corpse Paint Records,) the new album from Sun Don’t Shine. That’s the supergroup featuring Kirk Windstein and Todd Strange of Crowbar in collaboration with Kenny Hickey and Johnny Kelly of Type O Negative.
I came very close to including the amazing Power To Live as one of the Seven, but it didn’t seem fair, given the enduring popularity of the bands with whom the four members are primarily associated.
The other big news is the return of the kings of North Carolina, the mighty Corrosion of Conformity, whose eleventh studio album, Good God, Bad Maan, will be available from April 3rd, courtesy of Nuclear Blast.
Poignantly, it is their first album since the untimely death of former drummer and founding member Reed Mullin. We dedicate this week’s list to the memory of Reed, and very much hope that you enjoy our selections.
Seven Deadly Songs: Bloody Valkyria – Always
Our opening track is a lengthy one, spanning roughly nine-and-a-half minutes, but it’s well worth the investment of your time.
Finland’s Bloody Valkyria treat us to the epic majesty of their melodic black metal, in which mournful melody and orchestral grandeur perfectly complements the abrasiveness of their extreme edge, which comes courtesy of the customary blast beats, tremolo picking and demonic vocals.
The gargantuan track is taken from their third full-length album, Requiem: Reveries of The Dying, which springs into life on April 3rd, via Northern Silence Productions.
Being Finnish, they are certainly northern, but thankfully there’s no silence involved. When the music is this good, who wants silence?
Seven Deadly Songs: Dust – Bodyless
I like the Italians. They’re an elegant and stylish people, with a sartorial acumen that is second to none. Even when they make metal, they do so with a deftness that exudes from their every quirk and quiddity.
This was evident when I reviewed Ponte Del Diavolo’s De Venom Natura recently. Do you know how much of the aforementioned deftness comes to the fore on Dust’s Bodyless, however? Absolutely fuck all! There’s no stylishness here.
This is just pure brutality from start to finish, and I absolutely love it! The groove metal/metalcore machine from Turin are due to remove the shroud from their second full-length album, Thoughts of a Falling Man, on April 3rd via Rockshots Records, and you should expect it to do to your ears what Mount Vesuvius did to Pompeii. The video is quite scary as well!
Seven Deadly Songs: Nervosa – Slave Machine
To be honest, I’m only including this band to appease my editor. Things won’t go well for me here if she ever discovers I’m actually a raving misogynist, so I have to hide my tracks.
I am of course joking! I’m including it because it’s as solid a bit of South American metal as you’ll hear all year, with some serious shredding to boot!
Brazil’s Nervosa have been kicking the asses of both lads and lasses for over a decade now, and judging by the title track, the rage is showing no sign of abating on their sixth full-length album, Slave Machine, which is available from April 3rd via Napalm Records.
The legendary Sepultura, the originators of their nation’s thrash/death metal hybrid sound, are soon to bring their storied career to a close.
Their fellow Sao Paulo residents would be a fine choice to take over from them as the flag bearers of Brazilian metal, Y chromosomes or no Y chromosomes.
Seven Deadly Songs: Sodden – Alive
And so we turn to Finland, not for the first time this week (and possibly not for the last!) Sodden have only been active as a band since 2022, but you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d been around for four decades, rather than four years.
Their traditional heavy metal sounds authentic enough to be from the 1980s. The anthemic Alive might share a title with one of Pearl Jam’s most popular songs, but it sounds more like a deep cut from Ozzy Osbourne‘s 1986 album The Ultimate Sin.
It’s actually from Fight or Surrender, Sodden’s second full-length album, due to be released independently on April 3rd. It wouldn’t be the ultimate sin if you failed to check them out, but it would be extremely ill-advised.
Seven Deadly Songs: The Solitude – Ruins of The Fallen Stars
Yes! It’s another band from Finland! Is it my fault that they keep producing such good music?
The Solitude treat us to their epic brand of doom metal here on a song with a beautifully poetic title – matched in beauty by the strong, rich baritone vocals of Aleksi Parviainen.
The song is taken from The Sound of Absent Life, which is due to be released on April 3rd via Reaper Entertainment, and is, curiously, their debut album.
I say curiously because the band were actually formed in 1993! Apparently, they used to be a Candlemass tribute band, and are named after a song from the seminal Epicus Doomicus Metallicus album.
Other than that, I don’t know what took them so long. What I do know, however, is that it was clearly worth the wait.
Seven Deadly Songs: Unearthly Rites – Solstice
A fourth band from Finland! This is starting to seem excessive, even to me. We’re going to have to impose a quota so other nations can keep up.
Solstice is taken from the second full-length album by Unearthly Rites, Tortural Symphony of The Flesh, which will be dragged kicking and screaming into public availability on April 3rd, with Svart Records as willing accomplices.
Though billed as death metal, it starts off in more of a sludgy/stony/Sabbathy manner before acquiring its full deathly pallor.
If Master of Reality were a death metal album, this is what it would sound like, though the vocals sound more to me like Jim Carrey’s impersonation of Napalm Death’s Barney Greenway on The Arsenio Hall Show.
If you’re not familiar with the clip, it’s on YouTube. This is not a diss! Carrey is a metalhead, and could front an extreme metal band if he were so inclined. Check the clip if you don’t believe me!
Seven Deadly Songs: Void of Light – Mirrorings
There’s a scurrilous stereotype in the UK about the Scots being a parsimonious people. I remember a joke about copper wire having been invented by two Caledonian gentlemen arguing over a penny, for example.
Well, Glasgow’s Void of Light are flying in the face of that bigoted belief with Mirrorings from their debut full-length album Asymmetries, which will be available from April 3rd via Ripcord Records.
With the track offering up over ten marvellous minutes of multifaceted sludge/post-metal, they are truly spoiling us with their generosity.
There’s even three guitarists at work here, which constitutes almost frivolous extravagance, if you ask me.
We’ll leave it there before I find myself being banned from travelling north of Carlisle. We love you, Scotland. Just not as much as we love Finland, evidently! See you in seven for another seven.
Artwork for Metal Lair’s Seven Deadly Songs, where riffs fall like judgment.
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SEVEN DEADLY SONGS Q&A
Q: What is Seven Deadly Songs?
A: Seven Deadly Songs is Metal Lair’s weekly roundup of the heaviest new releases across the full metal spectrum. Each week we spotlight seven standout tracks you shouldn’t miss.
Q: When does Seven Deadly Songs update?
A: We post a new edition every Friday, typically highlighting weekly new releases.
Q: Where can I find the best new metal songs?
A: Right here. Seven Deadly Songs is your go-to source for discovering the latest metal tracks including fresh black, death, thrash, doom, and speed metal releases, all curated in one place.
Q: How can I listen to the songs featured?
A: Every featured track links out to the artist’s official release, streaming platform, or label page so you can dive deeper and support the bands directly.
Q: Does Metal Lair have other weekly series?
A: Absolutely, Try:
- Deep Cuts – Hidden gems and lost recordings from rock and metal history.
- Metalhead Horoscopes – Weekly forecasts laced with riffs, attitude, and a lucky song for every sign.
- World Metal Weekly – A global passport through the underground, one country at a time.
- Women in Metal – A series celebrating the voices, pioneers, and rule-breakers reshaping heavy music’s DNA.
- Ministry of Metal – A satirical authority devoted to the laws, rituals, and unspoken rules of heavy music. Features proclamations, decrees, cultural edicts, metal lore, and an original comic book series, all delivered with humor and bite.
- Metal Legacy Profiles – Deep dive essays honoring artists who shaped metal’s sound, culture, and philosophy. These aren’t timelines or greatest-hits lists, but examinations of impact, conflict, evolution, and what each figure left behind.
- Road Riffs: Metal On The Map – We take metal beyond the speakers and onto the highway, exploring legendary venues, scene-defining cities, historic landmarks, local haunts, and travel stops tied to real
metal scenes around the world that every metalhead should experience.
About The Author
Kevin McSweeney is Metal Lair’s resident scribe of the underground, eternally rummaging through the global metal scene for riffs worth your time.
As the guiding hand behind Seven Deadly Songs every Friday, he has an uncanny knack for finding the track you didn’t know you needed, usually before finishing his pint.
Equal parts loyal, kind, and quietly razor-witted, Kevin brings deep knowledge, impeccable taste, and a steady, reliable presence to Metal Lair.
Read More From This Author:
Foreignwolf: Merely Mortal EP Review
Mallavora: What If Better Never Comes? Album Review
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