Written By Kevin McSweeney
Welcome to Seven Deadly Songs. I hope you’ll forgive my abruptness, but there’s something hugely significant this week to which I must draw your attention immediately.
I refer, of course, to the small matter of a new album from a certain band by the name of Anthrax. Cursum Perficio is the first full-length studio album from the NYC thrash metal pioneers in a decade, so it’s kind of a big deal.
The album will be available from September 18th, courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records, and I can’t wait to get my grubby little hands on a copy!
Some bands are impossible to follow, so apologies to German glam metal veterans Kissin’ Dynamite for handing them such an unenviable task.
Their self-titled ninth full-length album will also be available from the 18th, and will be an independent release. The fact that they are unsigned quite frankly, scandalous or genius.
Now that I’ve got that out of my system, I will get on with the business of presenting you with seven songs from newly-released albums this week by bands who deserve more attention than they currently receive.
They’ll be easy to overlook in a week that is blessed by the two aforementioned monumental releases. We urge you not to make that mistake. Here is our list!
Seven Deadly Songs: Domino Drive – Time For Change
The new Kissin’ Dynamite album is far from the only great hard rock release this week. Swedish rockers Domino Drive’s Cosmic Theater is one of three such albums due to be released by the Pride & Joy label on September 18th.
The others being Way Beyond by Germany’s Mystery Moon and The Satan Inqviesta by Italy’s Voodoo Highway. Also on the 18th, we have the self-titled album by LA band The Bites, courtesy of Earache; the equally self-titled independent EP from Sweden’s Black Blood STHLM, and Mass Hysteria from New Yorkers Plush, courtesy of Pavement Entertainment.
Best of all, we have hard rock in the form of Hardbeat by Germany’s Hardbone. Stop giggling, and go get rock hard already, will you?
Seven Deadly Songs: Embers of Dawn – Infernal
We don’t often have new industrial metal to share with you, which is a shame, as I happen to love it.
The soul of a new machine must have been awakened by the release of Roboticist, Fear Factory’s first offering with Milo Silvestro on vocals, as recently covered here on Metal Lair.
Jacksonville’s Embers of Dawn have been around since 2021, and, according to their website, “…the band delivers a dark, futuristic sound defined by crushing rhythms, layered electronics, and haunting melodic textures.”
Their debut full-length album, Infernal Culture, is due to be released independently on September 18th.
For more industrial excellence released this week, see Godfrost’s Hanging Doll EP (NOT Godflesh!), Malhavoc’s The Masquerade’s Death, and Bite ‘Til They Bleed by Australia’s Nasty Insects. Lord knows Australia has plenty of those!
Seven Deadly Songs: Exile of Heaven – Poseidon’s Fury
Hellenic Metal World is a label that really does what it says on the tin! It is courtesy of them that we have this fine bit of Greek power metal, taken from the West Macedonian band Exile of Heaven’s second full-length album, Tides of Destiny.
The album is due to be released on September 19th, and yes, there’s a nautical theme, as well as strong melodies, virtuoso musicianship and no small amount of Greek mythology. The Greeks are smashing it like plates at a party this week.
This is evidenced by Venceremos, the fourth full-length album by folk rockers Villagers of Ioannina City, which is due to be released via Napalm Records the previous day, and also the From Hell EP by Greek/Norwegian black metallers Hexbane, which came out on the 15th via The Circle Music and Hell’s Fire Records.
Oh, and don’t forget Paranoid Reverb’s Red River, Black Roots, (18th, Octopus Rising). Told you they were smashing it!
Seven Deadly Songs: Game Over – Two Souls, One Flesh
Next up, we have returning Seven Deadly Songs alumni in the form of Italian thrashers Game Over, who graced this very column in April of last year with Lust For Blood from their sixth full-length album Face The End.
They return now with this, the third single to be taken from album No. 7: When Darkness Falls, which is due to be released via Scarlet Records on September 18th.
I don’t wish to put too fine a point on it, but there’s a reason why we’ve featured them twice. For more newly-released thrash metal this week, we recommend Rise From Your Grave’s Choose Your Scare, Manifest’s Nothing Left to Kill (for more death-adjacent thrash,) Ombra’s Night Terror EP with its scary venom-laced tarantula fangs on the cover, and of course, the one and only Anthrax. How’s that for metal thrashing madness?
Seven Deadly Songs: Hav Norn – All Around The World
I was concerned at first that this might be a cover of the Oasis song of the same name. I needn’t have worried, however. Instead, it’s yet another artist from Finland delivering the goods, once again via Inverse Records.
According to his Bandcamp page: “Hav Norn creates deeply emotional, atmospheric music born from silence, struggle, and renewal.
After years of burnout and creative exile, he returns with haunting melodies and raw honesty.” Admirers of gothic-tinged melancholic/melodic death metal would do well to acquaint themselves with Laniena Animarum, his second full-length album, which is due to be released on September 18th.
Fans of those fabulous Fins in general might also like to check out Blackment’s Pandemonium Portrait, an independently-released melodic heavy metal offering that will be available from the same day.
Seven Deadly Songs: Remote Viewing – Retrain as a Swan
It’s an unorthodox title, admittedly. The sludge-loving Londoners have a penchant for such things.
Some of the tracks on State Violence, their independently-released fourth full-length album, will be baffling to those who do not hail from the British Isles, whereas others will be baffling to everyone. There’s an important message underneath it all, however. I think.
For (hopefully) less baffling British brilliance this week, there’s the brilliantly-titled Encyclopaedia Sociopathica EP by black metal project Phlefonyaar.
There’s also the Silence EP by alternative metallers Grinn, and the Rotting Golgothan Remains EP by Viscerated, as well as full-length albums from The Bleeding (Godless Communion) and The Cartographer (The Collapse of a Bitter End), at least one of which I might get round to reviewing if I can pull my finger out. And I can’t forget Shapes of Midnight by Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats! How could you?
Seven Deadly Songs: The Forest Forgets – Pirouette
We wrap things up this week with a mostly subdued offering from New Hampshire’s The Forest Forgets. Their sound is billed as stoner metal/rock, but it’s not like anything I’ve heard before from that particular subgenre.
In fact, with its fragile melodies, cold, austere atmospherics and fraught vocal delivery, it sounds like the work of a project involving Maynard James Keenan – perhaps A Perfect Circle even more so than Tool.
In fact, even when it gets heavy, it counterintuitively retains that sense of both melody and fragility, very much like a Maynard James Keenan project!
The band have only been around since 2024, and this song is from their debut full-length album, Godweight, which is due to be released independently on September 18th.
I’m off to scour through the rest of the album to see if any of it sounds like Electric Wizard or Fu Manchu. See you in seven for another seven!
“Dive into last week’s Seven Deadly Songs weekly metal roundup”
Seven Deadly Songs is A Metal Lair® Original Series
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 – Metal’s 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:
EP Review: Beyond The New Horizon by iAtlas
EVERY TIME I DIE GUITARIST PASSES AT JUST 48
ALBUM REVIEW: GREEN CARNATION – A DARK POEM, PART III: THE MESSIAH COMPLEX
Album Review: To No Avail by Xenith
Album Review: Made Flesh by Untitled With Drums
No algorithms. No fluff. No watered-down corporate metal coverage.
Subscribe to Metal Lair and get weekly underground features, Seven Deadly Songs, Deep Cuts, interviews, and original metal journalism sent directly to your inbox.
Join the patrons of Metal Lair
MetalLair.net is a metalzine muttering to itself about seo and blastbeats at 3 AM powered by caffeine, riffs, a severe lack of sleep, and a dog wondering why the human is still awake.
Sometimes it’s Kevin passing out mid Seven Deadly Songs.
Sometimes it’s digging up forgotten records no one else is talking about.
Always, it’s built for people who actually live this music.
If that sounds like you, you’re already one of us.
Supporting Metal Lair means keeping it independent, loud, and real with no corporate filters, no watered-down takes. If you want to help keep it alive…
Become a patron of Metal Lair.
🤬 GOT A METALHEAD COMPLAINT?
“People roundhouse-kicking” in the pit grinding your gears?
Gatekeepers questioning whether you’re “metal enough”?
Frustrated with getting hit in the head peoples smelly shoes at a concert?
Whatever’s poisoning your particular corner of the metal community, file an unofficial complaint with The Metal Lair Complaint Department.
Vent your venom. Name the offense. Make your case.