Work is a disaster, the world gets even more impossibly (except the reality shows it is in fact entirely possible) insane, and I just can’t keep up. I’m working on the theme for April (it’s gonna be live music all month), prepping for a vacation and for more work insanity as the first quarter ends and the second one begins. It’s like the universe knew I needed heavy music to pound my brain, so this week’s playlist is – almost – all new and heavy music. Dig into the metal below:

• Deafheaven – “Heathen”
• Imperial Triumphant – “Pleasuredome”
• Nospūn – “Life, the Universe, and Everything”
• Sadist – “Deprived”
• Rwake – “You Swore We’d Always Be Together”

Again keeping it brief this week with two bands making perhaps their best albums to date. After taking huge swerve into emo-driven ambient shoegaze, Deafheaven make a big course correction on their new album Lonely People With Power, blending their styles and influences into a more cohesive whole…Art Deco NYC fanatics Imperial Triumphant get everything right on their latest Goldstar, making their new album shorter, more concise and – dare I say – accessible without sacrificing any of their genres hybrid complexities…

I’m not usually one for djent-y music, but the progressive metal of Nospūn really works, and their re-recording of their early EP is exactly the kind of groovy hard hitting metal my brain needed this week…similarly, the technical death metal of Sadist – a band I never listened to despite going on over 30 years – completely floored me with their new album, and I love the electronic and ambient flourishes a track like “Deprived” does to their sound…I haven’t paid attention to Rwake since 2011’s Rest, and that might have been a huge mistake considering how incredible their new album is, and the way their inject gorgeous slide guitar into their brand of sludgy doom is impeccable.

• Sykofant – “Embers”
• Don Airey – “Tell Me”
• Population II – “Maintenant et Jamais”
• Iron Maiden – “Flight of Icarus”
• Accept – “Balls to the Wall”
• Dead Brain Cells – “Infinite Universe”

Moving on to the less extreme end of the spectrum, one of my favorite bands from last year Sykofant have already returned with one half of their next full-length, incorporating more progressive, psychedelic, and desert rock vibes into an enticing package…With my recent conversion/worship of late-era Deep Purple it was only natural I was going to take a listen to the new solo release from keyboardist Don Airey and surprise (no surprise): I love it, especially the choice guitar work from DP’s new guitarist Simon McBride…finally we end on a trio of cuts from the 80s that need no introduction because I just wrote about Accept and Dead Brain Cells for 80s metal week, and if you don’t know Iron Maiden by now, well…

Be safe, be good to each other. See you next week.