Hello, and welcome to another edition of Heavy Side Up!

So, at the start of the week, I found myself looking at the upcoming heavy music releases of the week thinking “Damn, there’s very little here that interests me.” But as the week progressed, I stumbled upon some awesome new discoveries – to the point where I had a hard time narrowing it down to just a few featured releases, and I’m very excited to share some of these with the community!

First up is Anna, the debut album by The Bipolar Disorder Project, a one-man musical project from Romania. A concept album about a woman’s entanglement with a malicious dark entity, Anna is rooted in progressive metal but also embraces the influence of countless other genres, with each song possessing its own unique sound. The end result is a unique and eclectic musical journey well worth the listen:

Next up is an entirely different type of album, Snake Body by Pennsylvanian duo Vulturepeak. These guys are all about creating crushing walls of sound that knock the listener on their ass, and play a style of music that incorporates elements of black metal, noise rock and hardcore punk. If you’re looking for something that packs a punch, check this out:

And next we have Sleepless, the sophomore album by Russian act L’Homme Absurde. Beginning as a one-man project and eventually evolving into a fully-fledged band, these guys embody all the best traits of blackgaze – executing the caustic black metal aspects equally as well as they do the more atmospheric shoegaze aspects, creating a hurricane of contrasting sound from start to finish:

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention Illusive Golden Age, the third album by Canadian technical/progressive death metal band Augury. Brutally heavy music, intelligently composed and not without its delicate moments, there’s a good reason this band has been making more and more waves over the years in the tech death scene, and fans of the genre won’t want to miss this:

Other albums that caught my attention this week included Through the Void, Above the Suns by Italian band Deadly Carnage, who play a really interesting blend of post-metal, doom metal and blackgaze, and Covenant of Black, by Indian band Stark Denial, who play a truly monstrous mix of black metal and death metal. Neither the former’s Bandcamp nor the latter’s Bandcamp have the album streaming in full without purchase (though both bands are totally deserving of your financial support!), you can listen to these brilliant works via the following YouTube videos:

Now for the rundown of all the other albums that came out this week: Italian hard rock band 17 Crash, French black metal band Abduction, Swiss melodic death metal band Abinchova, Italian thrash metal band Adversor, Swedish melodic death metal band Aesthetics of a Loss, Greek black metal band Akantha, Finnish symphonic black metal band Alghazanth, Danish black metal band Angantyr, German black metal band Ascension, Spanish black metal band Barbarian Prophecies, Finnish progressive death metal band Barren Earth, doom metal band Beneath Oblivion, Swedish doom/stoner metal band Besvärjelsen, Italian stoner/hard rock band Brain Distillers Corporation, Swedish doom/sludge metal band Burn Your Highness, Iranian melodic death metal band Chaos Descent, Finnish doom metal band Convocation, Swedish metalcore band Crawl Back to Zero, German death metal band Critical Mess, Canadian death metal band Cryptic Enslavement, Canadian death metal band Dark Century, Irish post-metal band Dark Matter, hard rock band Dawn of Life, Brazillian thrash metal band Degola, sludge metal band Diseased Earth, post-hardcore band Escape the Fate, Finnish melodic death metal band Evil Drive, Italian heavy metal band Evilizers, French melodic death metal band Evilness, Czech thrash metal band Exorcizphobia, Belgian progressive metal band Fields of Troy, instrumental heavy metal band Final Gate, British hard rock band FM, British one-man death metal act Foul Body Autopsy, psychedelic hard rock band The Golden Grass, German death metal band Half Past Eight, Swiss heavy metal band Headless Crown, Swedish melodic/progressive metal band Hexed, alternative metal band Hopes Hollow, Indonesian technical death metal band Humiliation, hard rock band Initial Mass, Dutch death metal band Izegrim, German hard rock band Jaded Heart, German heavy metal parody band JBO, Italian deathgrind band Jesus Ain’t in Poland, multi-national death metal collaboration Johansson & Speckmann, power metal band Judicator, Italian black metal band Kurgaall, Italian death metal band Lectern, metalcore band Light the Torch (formerly Devil You Know), Mexican stoner/hard rock band Los Mundos, German gothic metal band The Lust, British black metal band Lychgate, Soulfly/Ill Niño guitarist Marc Rizzo, Australian hardcore/groove metal band Massic, Thai symphonic metal band Melodius Deite, progressive death metal band The MothMan Curse, one-man Brazillian black metal act Muireterium, one-man Canadian black metal act Neige Et Noirceur, Italian symphonic metal band Neophobia, British hard rock band Night Circus, French alternative metal band [no one is innocent], stoner/hard rock band The Octopus, Greek hard rock band Odyssey Desperado, French symphonic black metal band Onirism, French industrial black metal band Pavillon Rouge, Colombian thrash metal band Perpetual Warfare, Austrian progressive hard rock band Phi, Ukranian power metal band Power Tale, Irish black metal band Primordial, Polish melodic death metal band Psycho Visions, Italian thrash/speed metal band Rawfoil, stoner metal band Realms of Vision, alternative post-hardcore band The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, South African hard rock band Red Letter Sunday, hard rock/post-grunge band Red Sun Rising, British thrash/death metal band Reprisal, Canadian sludge metal duo Resin Witch, death metal band Ripped to Shreds, Austrian atmospheric death metal band Richthammer, Italian death/black metal band Rust, Russian funeral doom band Sadael, Austrian black metal band Schlachthaus Zukunft, German industrial metal band SeelenWalzer, British progressive/power metal band ShadowKeep, Canadian black metal band Shibboleth, Canadian heavy metal band Snake Eyes Seven, power metal band Son Survivor, Belgian black metal band Soul Dissolution, Italian folk/power metal band SpellBlast, black metal band Storm of Kaos, Portugese death metal band Undersave, Brazillian progressive death metal band V.I.D.A., one-man German melodic death metal act Von Pey, Australian thrash/death metal band Vyrant, French stoner/hard rock band Wild Dawn, Russian post-hardcore band Wildways, Slovenian deathcore band Within Destruction, French instrumental post-metal band WuW, and hardcore punk band Zeke.

There were also EPs by post-hardcore band Alesana, hardcore punk band Berthold City, screamo band Eat Every Pill, Australian progressive metalcore band Earthbøund, Russian black metal band Gaarm, Swedish one-man black metal act Gestank, deathcore band The Last King, hard rock band Ravenscroft, death metal band Sentient Horror, Danish heavy/power metal band Shadow Storm, thrash metal band Take Offense, British heavy metal band Vendetta, and Australian progressive metal band Vespertine Vescada.

So, what have you been rocking out to?

BONUS QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Who are some artists you’ve discovered through Bandcamp and similar sites?