6 Great New Metal Albums That Provide a Cosmic Journey
Metal has been to space before. It’s a frequent destination for a particularly imaginative kind of hesher, just as much as blood-splattered slaughterhouses or mystical underworlds—in fact, metal’s been taking inspiration from science fiction pretty much since its inception. This month has seen the best kind of reminder of metal’s unique relationship with sci-fi and space through a cosmic death metal journey that’s just as much a progressive rock album as it is metal. But once I started to look beyond that album (spoiler below), I noticed a fertile galaxy of metal bands exploring the vast reaches of a universe beyond our own—sometimes in metaphorical ways, sometimes in absurd ways, and more often than not with some chemical additives.
This month’s best metal albums will take you on a journey into space, however literally or nebulously defined that may be. Excelsior!
Note: When you buy something through our affiliate links, Treble receives a commission. All albums we cover are chosen by our editors and contributors.
Oryx – Primordial Sky
Like so many of the best contemporary metal bands of the past decade or so, Oryx hail from Denver (fully half of this month’s picks are beamed in from the mile-high city), and their thick slabs of doom riffs sound pretty massive enough on their own. And while Primordial Sky speaks to earthly concerns as much as the metaphysical, they have a scope and an immensity that transcends gravitational bonds, even if their crushing tone and lurching rhythms inevitably bring them back down to terra firma. And Oryx do so while wrapping their sprawling, triumphant epics in gorgeous melodies and epic flourishes that showcase a nuanced approach alongside a toxic cloud of guitar tones. Fittingly, Primordial Sky features killer artwork from sci-fi artist John Harris, a superb final touch on a bruising record with skyward aims.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon (vinyl)
Ghosts of Glaciers – Eternal
One of the central plot points in the just-concluded Star Trek: Discovery series involved travel by way of mycelial networks, which they referred to as the “spore drive.” I couldn’t tell you exactly how the science is supposed to work (which it probably doesn’t—this is sci-fi!), but it was fun to see the USS Discovery leap through space by way of fungal networks. “Mycelial networks” are likewise a conceptual thread in the latest album by Ghosts of Glaciers, which is as much about our decaying planet as it is about the interconnectedness of the universe. Eternal is at once mystical while reflective of the catastrophic climate change that humanity has caused and experienced, accelerating toward even greater disasters (and, if we get our shit together, maybe averting worse ones?). But the album itself is instrumental, which perhaps makes this all subtext rather than simply text, but the group nonetheless offers an emotional and powerful series of compositions that drive home the urgency of their message, spoken or not.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Mammoth Caravan – Frostbitten Galaxy
Some of the albums I’ve chosen for this month’s roundup are concerned with tangible matters of urgency and importance. Some of them are more philosophical in their scope. Mammoth Caravan’s new album Frostbitten Galaxy does neither, instead focusing on the galactic quest of a power-hungry mammoth king. Which, I suppose, you could find a metaphor in, if you wanted to look just under the tusks. But also if you choose to look at it as a purely escapist text driven by sludgy riffs and swirling psychedelic sequences, you can do that as well. That’s where I’m at, and from where I’m sitting, this rips.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Gigan – Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus
Chicago death metal vets Gigan have logged nearly two decades in crafting uniquely psychedelic and technically proficient death metal—with an emphasis on interplanetary and chemically addled avant garde sounds. Their albums all feature artwork depicting robed figures with orbs, opening portals in space, or something, and they’ve yet to release an album that doesn’t live up to their reputation as wormhole-traveling mystics. Yet Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus is in the running for their best, a dizzying balance of complex arrangements and rhythmic intricacy that still leaves plenty of room for melodic flourishes and, yes, kickass riffs. I don’t totally understand what they’re on about half the time, but titles like “Trans-Dimensional Crossing of the Alta-Tenius” and “Ominous Silhouettes Cast Across Gulfs of Time” suggest it’s beyond the comprehension of mere earth mortals. Nonetheless, this is a dazzling work, overwhelming and awesome, not unlike that fantastic new Ulcerate album, if a few notches weirder. But where Ulcerate proudly proclaim their death metal as the “metal of death,” Gigan’s is the metal of death in space. On lots of drugs.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon (vinyl)
Oranssi Pazuzu – Muuntautuja
Every Oranssi Pazuzu album is a visit to an alien landscape—usually a hostile one. Where before the group incorporated more nuanced explorations of krautrock and psychedelia on their explorations of strange and disorienting terrain, their latest is icy and unforgiving. The band drew inspiration from bands ranging from Death Grips to Nine Inch Nails, and while the end result is by no means a straightforward industrial-metal record, there are harsher, darker elements at play. In fact, Muuntautuja might be the most terrifying and menacing record in Oranssi Pazuzu’s catalog to date, which speaks volumes. In space, no one can hear your inhuman screech.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon (vinyl)
Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere
Look, we all know this is the album causing such a massive gravitational pull this month, the one around which all other space-metal records orbit. Blood Incantation always suggested that they were capable of such interstellar heights, and on 2019’s Hidden History of the Human Race, they very nearly achieved them. But Absolute Elsewhere is nothing short of a masterpiece, comprising two lengthy compositions that showcase a level of depth and mastery that their previous albums merely suggested. It doesn’t hurt that they didn’t just enlist Tangerine Dream-like sequences in their prog-metal sojourns, but actually enlisted Tangerine Dream. That’s next level. And yet death metal is still the sound that guides them, that defines them, no matter how far into the vastest reaches of the galaxy they travel. I’m in awe.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon (vinyl)
Treble is supported by its patrons. Become a member of our Patreon, get access to subscriber benefits, and help an independent media outlet continue delivering articles like these.
Jeff Terich is the founder and editor of Treble. He's been writing about music for 20 years and has been published at American Songwriter, Bandcamp Daily, Reverb, Spin, Stereogum, uDiscoverMusic, VinylMePlease and some others that he's forgetting right now. He's still not tired of it.