45 Most Anticipated Albums of 2019 | Revolver

45 Most Anticipated Albums of 2019

Tool, Rammstein, Deftones, Gojira, Youth Code and many more
tool 2017 GETTY, Taylor Hill/Getty Images for Governors Ball
Tool, Governors Ball Music Festival, 2017
photograph by Taylor Hill/Getty Images for Governors Ball

2019. The year of the Pig — an animal marked, according to the Chinese zodiac, with good fortune. Heavy-music fans will be similarly marked over the next 12 months, blessed with an unholy bounty of headbanging offerings from deities young and old. Two of the biggest rock bands in the world will release their first new albums in a decade and more. Monster rockers will create a "hellacious hullabaloo." Death-metal, punk-rock, grindcore, goth and industrial insurgents will stake their claim to the respective thrones. Babymetal might grow up. We'll be there, eagerly taking it all in. Here are 45 of the albums we're most looking forward to in 2019.

Amon Amarth 2017 PRESS
Amon Amarth, 2017

Amon Amarth

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

In 2018, Amon Amarth looked back at their long, strange trip to Viking-metal supremacy with the career-spanning documentary The Pursuit of Vikings: 25 Years in the Eye of the Storm; in 2019, they will look forward, with a new album, the follow-up to 2016's Jomsviking. So what will it sound like? "We're always trying to take it to the next step, but in the end, even when we [say], 'We're gonna do something really different,' it will still end up sounding like Amon Amarth anyways," bassist Ted Lundström said in March. "We're doomed — we're always gonna sound like this."

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photograph by Angela Owens

Angel Du$t

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Featuring members of Turnstile and Trapped Under Ice, Baltimore, Maryland, punk-rock crew Angel Du$t surprised fans in November with two new singles, "Big Ass Love" and "Take Away the Pain," both of which are about as catchy and fun as catchy and fun get. According to singer Justice Tripp, the former is about "the healing power of rock" — if Angel Du$t's forthcoming LP, the follow-up to 2016's Rock the Fuck on Forever, is anything like these songs , we might never get sick again.

Anthrax 2017 hubbard, Jimmy Hubbard
photograph by Jimmy Hubbard

Anthrax

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

East Coast thrash OGs Anthrax have been on a roll since the 2010 "Big 4" shows and the 2011 release of Worship Music, their first album in 21 years with singer Joey Belladonna. They plan to keep that going with their forthcoming 12th album, which, according to drummer and main songwriter Charlie Benante, will be "a little more aggressive and angrier" than 2016's For All Kings. "I think the other guys stepped up, as well, and want to hit a home run on each song," he enthused in June of the writing sessions for the record. "Everybody in the band stepped up their game."

babymetal 2018

Babymetal

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

The future of Babymetal has been swirling in mystery and chatroom theories as the kawaii-metal figureheads drop cryptic hints about the band's storyline and showed up to gigs sans one of its three lead singers (Yuimetal, who, it was finally confirmed recently, is no longer in the band). One thing is clear, however: Babymetal's djent-pop latest single "Starlight" kicks ass and has us looking forward to whatever the Japanese outfit has in store for us.

Baroness 2017 HUBBARD, Jimmy Hubbard
photograph by Jimmy Hubbard

Baroness

Title: TBA
Release Date:
Spring
Not only do Baroness have a big co-headlining tour with Deafheaven lined up for 2019, but the kaleidoscopic prog-sludge-whatever-you-wanna-call-them band also plans to drop a new album, the follow-up to 2016's breakthrough LP Purple. The record will be the group's first with new guitarist Gina Gleason, who has brought her metal cred, shredder skills and theatrical experience (as a former cast member of Cirque du Soleil) to Baroness' live shows since joining in June 2017. Where will she and bandleader John Dyer Baizley take the group on its latest record? As Baroness posted on Instagram in December: "Just you wait and see… #redalbum #bluerecord #yellow&green #purple #???"

body count 2017 PRESS
Body Count, 2017

Body Count

Title: Carnivore
Release Date: TBA

Ice-T's ever-provocative metal outfit Body Count pulled no punches on its comeback album, Manslaughter, and its follow-up, Bloodlust, and that's not about to change with 2019's Carnivore. Of the title, the frontman, gangsta-rap pioneer and Law & Order: SVU actor said in May, "It's basically: 'Fuck vegans.' We figure, anything carnivorous pretty much kicks ass. We're carnivorous! I'm not [really] saying 'Fuck vegans." Everyone's so pussy right now, [so] we're carnivores."

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Bring Me the Horizon, 2018

Bring Me the Horizon

Title: Amo
Release Date: January 25

From mosh-fueling deathcore to electronic-leaning hard rock, Bring Me the Horizon have evolved in fascinating fashion over their career. Amo singles "MANTRA" and "Wonderful Life" showcase a next-level fusion of pop hooks and production with heavy riffage and attitude, but what we really want to hear is the album's collaborative track with Grimes, which promises to blow fans' perception of what BMTH can and cannot be out of the water all over again.

carcass press HUBBARD, Jimmy Hubbard
Carcass, 2013
photograph by Jimmy Hubbard

Carcass

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

How do you top 2013's Surgical Steel, Carcass' first new record in nearly two decades and one of metal's greatest reunion albums ever? We have no fucking idea, but the Birmingham, U.K., extreme-metal miscreants are giving it a go, and we have a feeling that the results will be bloody good.

frank carter PRESS 2018

Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes

Title: TBA
Release Date:
Spring
It's no secret that we at Revolver are big-time Frank Carter fans, from his time fronting Gallows to his current "Gucci punk" solo incarnation. Like Queens of the Stone with Sid Vicious attitude, Carter and his Rattlesnakes dropped one of 2017's best albums in Modern Ruin and followed it up with a killer standalone single "Spray Paint Love." The prospect of a new record practically has us doing handstands — Carter's signature move.

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Children of Bodom

Title: Hexed
Release Date: March 8

Finnish melodic death-metal shredmeisters Children of Bodom's last album was titled I Worship Chaos, and Alexi Laiho and his Hate Crew still do, judging from Hexed's knotty lead single "Under Grass and Clover" and what COB's bandleader has promised. "There's some crazy shit in there, almost progressive or at least technical," he said of the record in November. "There are certain melodies across the album that could have come from jazz songs, although," he added, with a laugh, "they're completely metal with us, of course."

code orange PRESS 2018, Angela Owens
Code Orange, 2018
photograph by Angela Owens

Code Orange

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

The meteoric rise of Pittsburgh metallic hardcore crew Code Orange has been something to behold, and to say that the pressure is on for the band's follow-up to 2017's universally acclaimed Forever is an understatement. Will we get more of the heavy-grunge vibes of "Bleeding in the Blur," or more of the industrialized madness of Corey Taylor–assisted single "The Hunt," or something different altogether? Jamie Morgan, Code Orange's hype man/prophet/WWE wrestler of a band(cult)leader, surely has a plan, and in him we trust.

crowbar_2019_press_credit_kevinwilson.jpg, Kevin Wilson
photograph by Kevin Wilson

Crowbar

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

NOLA sludgecore titans Crowbar celebrated the 20th anniversary of their resounding heavy late-Nineties opus Odd Fellows Rest in 2018 by playing the album in full on select dates. Fans can only hope that certified riff master Kirk Windstein's experience revisiting the seminal record will brush off on the songwriting for his band's next outing, but even if it doesn't, expect plenty of sonic excess and glorious suffering.

Deftones 2017 APPLEFORD, Steve Appleford
Deftones
photograph by Steve Appleford

Deftones

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

After the career high points that were Diamond Eyes and Koi No Okan, the Deftones' last album, 2016's Gore, was something of a letdown, missing in particular the signature heavy grooves of guitarist Stephen Carpenter, who was largely absent from the songwriting. Frontman Chino Moreno has promised that Carpenter will be much more involved this time out, which has us — and most other Deftones 'heads — waiting to hear the band's new material with bated breath.

the devil wears prada PRESS

The Devil Wears Prada

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Zombie-loving metalcore veterans the Devil Wears Prada have always been hard to pin down, and in 2018, the band members both looked backward, celebrating the 10th anniversary of their classic 2009 album With Roots Above and Branches Below, and ahead, exploring post-punk and noise-rock influences with side project God Alone. For the follow-up to 2016's Transit Blues, the group plans to continue on the latter band's road less traveled, experimenting with what frontman Mike Hranica has described as a "moodier" and "less-riffy" sound. "I know a lot of people will be bummed out" about the new direction, he added, but true artists have to follow their muse.

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Drab Majesty
photograph by Sean Stout

Drab Majesty

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Gothy post-punk duo Drab Majesty made (dark)waves in 2018, touring with Deafheaven and rearing their makeup-slathered heads in spooky Smashing Pumpkins music videos, setting a perfect neon-soaked stage for the L.A. group's new LP. Expect Eighties sci-fi vibes, synth-pop hooks and waves of beautiful melancholy.

dream theater PRESS 2018
Dream Theater, 2018

Dream Theater

Title: Distance Over Time
Release Date: February 22

"The world we live in can be a scary place and the thought of an uncertain future a terrifying notion," Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci has said of Distance Over Time opener and lead single "Untethered Angel." "Untethering from that fear and giving yourself up to the future's countless possibilities is what will ultimately set you free." The prog-metal veterans took a fittingly untethered approach to their upcoming 14th studio album, which the band crafted while living and jamming together in a house in upstate New York over the summer of 2018. "It was like going back to summer camp," vocalist James LaBrie enthused.

philip anselmo 2018 danin drahos, Danin Drahos
photograph by Danin Drahos

En Minor

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

While talk of Phil Anselmo's "goth project" — or as he has described it, "My 'Hello, great dark Eighties'" project — has visions dancing in our heads of the erstwhile Pantera frontman rocking guyliner and a Robert Smith 'fro, what we're really looking forward to is the music. According to the singer, En Minor draws influence from Sisters of Mercy, early the Cure and early U2, as well as "Nick Cave and the fucking Bad Seeds" — all of which sounds mighty fine to us.

fever333_2018_credit_jimmyfontaine.jpg, Jimmy Fontaine
photograph by Jimmy Fontaine

Fever 333

Title: Strength in Numb333rs
Release Date: January 18

Hot off a 2019 Grammy nom, one of the best music videos of 2018 and some of the most acrobatic, high-octane gigs this side of Dillinger Escape Plan, the Fever 333 — featuring current and former members of letlive., the Chariot and Night Verses — are ready to bring their political rap-rock in long form on the supergroup's upcoming debut full-length. Rage Against the Machine fans, don't miss this shit.

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Full of Hell, 2018

Full of Hell 

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Full of Hell's 2017 full-length, Trumpeting Ecstasy, was something of a revelation, from its teeth-rallying grindcore blasts to its industrialized Nicole Dollanganger cameo. The prolific quartet has not rested on its laurels, however, offering up a collaborative LP with the Body and a split EP with Intensive Care since the record's release. And there's no respite in sight: In December, Full of Hell revealed that they'd completed their next album with Converge guitarist and noted engineer Kurt Ballou at his GodCity Studio in Salem, Massachusetts. A mid-2019 released is expected, as is some of the best extreme music of the year.

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Gatecreeper, (center) Chase Mason, 2018
photograph by Joseph Maddon

Gatecreeper

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

The burly buzzsaw riffs of Stockholm death metal are alive and well in the hands of Arizona's Gatecreeper. Fresh off 2018's split with Iron Reagan and backstage hangs with fanboy Post Malone, vocalist Chase Mason and guitarist Nate Garrett (both also of spiritual doomsayers Spirit Adrift) and their neck-snapping compadres are ready to throw bolts and dismember like never before. Bring it on.

ghostemane_promo.jpg, Blood Company
Ghostemane
Courtesy of Blood Company

Ghostemane’s black-metal, hardcore and noise projects

Titles: TBA
Release Dates: TBA

Ghostemane is a restless creator, fearlessly plumbing dark emotional depths and Frankensteining heavy-music genres, from hip-hop and metal to goth and industrial. His last album, N/O/I/S/E, was one of 2018's best, but 2019 will not be about resting on laurels or just playing shows in support. Ghoste has been teasing new cassette releases from his "crusty black metal" project BAADER-MEINHOF and his noise project GASM, as well as a hardcore EP with like-minded frequent partner in crime Wavy Jone$. And that might just be the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Gojira2016DUPANTIER, Gabrielle Duplantier
photograph by Gabrielle Duplantier

Gojira

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

"Usually we write 12 songs and record 12 songs and release 12 songs. Now it looks like we're going to write 100 songs," Gojira main man Joe Duplantier said in August of writing sessions with his brother, drummer Mario, for the group's forthcoming seventh album. He went on to suggest that the follow-up to 2016's critically acclaimed Magma would likely see the French metal band further broadening its already expansive sound. "I want to go back to some of the older influences that we have," he plotted. "We were not always a death-metal band. Before that, I was a Dire Straits fan, Michael Jackson. We have that in us, and some progressive stuff, too. We have all these things and we need to express that somehow, mixed with our own special sauce."

king diamond

King Diamond

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

In late 2010, King Diamond underwent triple bypass surgery, a procedure that was life-saving but also something of a bad dream come true, as he recently revealed to Revolver. According to the occult-metal and corpse-paint pioneer, his new album will be a concept record telling a multi-layered story related to his near-death experience, and it might even feature as its intro the sounds of the hospital ventilator he was hooked up to. "Just hearing that again will give me nightmares," he says.

King Woman Press 2017

King Woman

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

King Woman opened 2018 by offering up a one-off cover of the Stone Roses' "I Wanna Be Adored," but frontwoman Kristina Esfandiari spent much of the rest of the year primarily focused on her shoegaze/dream-pop solo project Miserable, which released a double-EP Loverboy / Dog Days. In 2019, the husky-voiced singer will turn back to her doom band King Woman, who are looking to follow up 2017's acclaimed Created in the Image of Suffering with more ghostly vocals and feedback-soaked grooves.

killswitch engage 2018 PRESS
Killswitch Engage, 2018

Killswitch Engage

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Metalcore figureheads Killswitch Engage broke the headbanging internet when they revealed in April that they were in the studio recording a duet between current and original vocalist Jesse Leach (who rejoined the band in 2012) and departed longtime singer Howard Jones. "He does a verse, I do a verse, we sing the chorus together —Leach said of the song in October. "It's a real heavy shitkicker." We suspect the same could be said of the whole new album.

Knocked Loose 2017 Lublin, Harrison Lublin
Knocked Loose, (from left) Cole Crutchfield, Kevin Otten, Bryan Garris, Kevin Kaine and Isaac Hale
photograph by Harrison Lublin

Knocked Loose

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

"Musical trends come and go," Every Time I Die tweeted in December. "Knocked Loose is one of the reasons that hardcore music will not be going away anytime soon." We have to agree. The Kentucky mosh-mongers have won a rabid fan base while on seemingly nonstop tour in support of their 2016 debut LP Laugh Tracks, and this fall they got fans slam-dancing with the live debut of a ferocious new song "By the Grave." Whether it will make the band's sophomore album is as yet unclear, but either way, consider it a tantalizing taste of neck-snapping things to come.

korn , Dean Karr
photograph by Dean Karr

Korn

Title: TBA
Release Date: Fall (tentative)

Korn, and especially frontman Jonathan Davis, have always been ones to wear their rawest, darkest feelings on their sleeves and lay it all bare in their music and performances. So it was in 2018, when Davis' wife Deven died shortly before the nu-metal originators embarked on the 20th anniversary tour for their breakthrough Follow the Leader album, leaving the singer to break down onstage and purge his pain in front of fans. "We've been through a lot," guitarist Brian "Head" Welch conceded to Revolver, speaking about the band's next album, which he said should be out in the fall. "Now it's time to get all those emotions and turn them into a positive with music. Jonathan is really good at that."

lamb of god burn the priest press 2018 SHINN, Travis Shinn
Lamb of God, 2018
photograph by Travis Shinn

Lamb of God

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

In 2018 Lamb of God temporarily rebranded themselves as Burn the Priest, their original moniker, and dropped a cool covers album in honor of the 20th anniversary of their one and only LP under that name. In 2019, guitarist Mark Morton will release his long-teased and very star-studded solo album (read on). And yet, amid all this extracurricular business, LOG drummer Chris Adler says a new full-length from the band proper is very much on the horizon. In an October interview, he said the record would likely be recorded in fall 2019, with it "hopefully out for Christmas presents for all your kids." Hail Santa.

lingua ignota PRESS, Profound Lore
Lingua Ignota
courtesy of Profound Lore

Lingua Ignota

Title: TBA
Release Date: Spring

Kristin Hayter, a.k.a. Lingua Ignota, is not out to entertain. Her 2017 EP All Bitches Die is uneasy listening at its finest — an exorcism of extreme sounds and feeling that's been described as "liturgical power electronics, operatic brutalism, beautified death industrial, 'Girl Swans'" — and her live performances are often physically injurious and always emotionally grueling. How much of herself will she sacrifice for her next record? Enough that we won't be able to look away.

megadeth 2016 PRESS
Megadeth, 2016

Megadeth

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

2016's Dystopia was an aggressive return to form for thrash pioneers Megadeth after the active-rock dabblings of Super Collider, an about-face that it would be easy to credit to Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler, who played on the record. Adler won't be back behind the kit for the band's forthcoming 15th album, but the man who will be — former Soilwork member Dirk Verbeuren — is no slouch, which bodes well, though Dave Mustaine is keeping shit close to his vest. Asked in December what the new LP will sound like, the Megadeth main man said cryptically: "It sounds like a combination of everything."

mark morton PRESS 2018
Mark Morton, 2018

Mark Morton

Title: Anesthetic
Release Date: March 1

Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton has been working on his first-ever solo album over the last few years, not in "a concerted effort," he has said, but "more for my own sanity." A host of all-stars joined in the effort of keeping Morton sane — members of Alice in Chains, Arch Enemy, Stone Sour, Testament, Clutch, Megadeth, Trivium and more all make guest appearances. But the highest profile cameo is undoubtedly that of late Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington, who sings on album opener "Cross Off," which is sure to hit still-heartbroken fans hard.

myrkur-daria-endresen.jpg, Daria Endresen
Myrkur, 2018
photograph by Daria Endresen

Myrkur

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Amalie Bruun, the Danish multi-instrumentalist behind extreme-metal project Myrkur, has made no secret of her passion for Nordic folk music, regularly incorporating elements of it in her own compositions and performing covers of traditional pieces — she went viral in 2017 with a forest-set video of her playing a Scandinavian folk song on an insane-looking instrument called a nyckelharpa. In 2019 she plans to fully embrace these leanings, playing a folk-focused "Folkesange" set at the Netherland's trailblazing Roadburn festival and releasing a full-on folk album. "That's something I have dreamed about for years," she says of the latter.

periphery PRESS 2016

Periphery

Title: TBA
Release Date: Spring

Periphery's forthcoming fourth album (working title: P4) will serve as the Djent torchbearers' ultimate statement of independence as their first on their own label 3DOT Recordings since the group's departure from longtime home Sumerian. The band has been sharing plenty of in-studio behind-the-scenes photos and videos over recent months, including a sneak peek at some orchestral tracking that suggests that the tech-metal stalwarts' big sound may be getting even bigger.

rammstein_olaf_heine.jpg, Olaf Heine
Rammstein, 2017
photograph by Olaf Heine

Rammstein

Title: TBA
Release Date: Spring (tentative)

2019 will mark a full decade since the release of Rammstein's last album, Liebe ist für alle da, which should be plenty of time for the famously combative band members to have healed the wounds accrued from the last time they were in the studio. Guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe says the German pyromaniacs has been getting along better than ever — they still fight, but "in a very civilized way," he claims — and that the new LP "sounds not like any other Rammstein record." As long as it goes well with fire, lots of fire, we should be good.

red fang 2016 PRESS

Red Fang

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Portland's Red Fang are masters of playing dumb, from their beer-swilling party jams to their goofball music videos. Don't tell anyone, but this shit is smarter than it may seem, and the band's underhandedly clever songcraft draws on influences outside the obvious, as the group's recent cover of Gary Numan's Tubeway Army suggests. If a little more New Wave bleeds into Red Fang's burly riff-rock on the group's new platter, we won't be bummed.

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Slipknot

Title: TBA
Release Date: Summer (tentative)

After much hype about the most brutal lyrics and music since Iowa, Corey Taylor, Clown and their partners in crime shocked Maggots everywhere by surprise-releasing a new song on the most Slipknot day of the year, Halloween. "All Out Life" might not be "People = Shit," but it is a middle-finger-flying anthem that rages like classic 'Knot, with a few black-metal–tinged twists along the way. Summer's a sweaty season to wear a mask, but it can't come soon enough.

Spirit Adrift 2017 Press Photo, Alvino Salcedo
photograph by Alvino Salcedo

Spirit Adrift

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Spirit Adrift main man (and Gatecreeper guitarist) Nate Garrett almost died as a result of years of alcohol abuse, but after hitting rock bottom, he got his shit together and channeled his new creative drive into the doom-metal outfit. Initially, a one-man project, Spirit Adrift has evolved into a full-fledged band (featuring Garrett's Gatecreeper bandmate Chase Mason) and if they can come even close to matching the emotional intensity and soaring musicianship of 2017's Curse of Conception with its follow-up, heavy-metal fans will be in for something special.

sunn o))) 2018 PRESS, Peter Hönemann
photograph by Peter Hönemann

Sunn O)))

Title: TBA
Release Date:
TBA
Riff deconstructionists and robe enthusiasts Sunn O))) haven't dropped a new studio album since 2015's three-song, 30-minute-plus Kannon; in the interim they've been offering up their slow-mo services to horror movies, scoring 2017's The Devil's Candy and lending guitarist Stephen O'Malley's playing to this year's Nicolas Cage­–helmed bad trip Mandy. It's a good fit for them, and one that only makes us more eager to hear what creepshow compositions the drone-metal druids conjure for their next full-length.

tool 2006 SHINN, Travis Shinn
photograph by Travis Shinn

Tool

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

It's really happening. After nearly 13 years and a whole shit load of changes in the universe around them, prog-metal lunatic-philosophers Tool are about to drop their fifth album. Will the world end upon its release? Hopefully not, but maybe Maynard's prayers will be answered and California will fall into the ocean. What can we expect to hear? Long songs? The longest songs? Shit that makes Sebastian Bach feel like he's getting "a deep-tissue massage"? We'll know when Tool wants us to know.

triptykon PRESS 2018, Century Media
Triptykon
courtesy of Century Media

Triptykon

Title: TBA
Release Date:
TBA
It's been five long years since extreme-metal pioneer Tom G. Warrior — he of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost infamy — dropped the last album, 2014's crushing Melana Chasmata, from his current band Triptykon. Despite suffering a broken arm this summer, Warrior has a busy 2019 ahead of him, including a special Celtic Frost "Requiem" set at Roadburn festival and shows with a new group Triumph of Death dedicated to playing the music of Hellhammer. Will fans also get Triptykon's long-awaited third album? The singer-guitarist said in June after his injury that writing was a "challenging proposition at the moment," but we wouldn't put anything past this battle-tested Warrior.

venom prison 2018 PRESS

Venom Prison 

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

U.K. rabble-rousers Venom Prison cemented themselves as one of the compelling new voices in extreme music with their 2016 debut full-length Animus, a provocative slab of forward-thinking feminist death metal with enough mosh-pit groove and gory imagery to distract and entertain the meatheads. Frontwoman Larissa Stupar promises "heavier breakdowns," "faster grindcore elements," "electronic bits and some melodic parts that people wouldn't necessarily expect." Thematically, she sums up the new album succinctly: "The whole record is about suffering."

volbeat_2019_press_credit_rosshalfin.jpg, Ross Halfin
photograph by Ross Halfin

Volbeat

Title: TBA
Release Date:
TBA
As poppy and accessible as Danish "Elvis metal" outfit Volbeat's music sometimes veers — particularly on the group's more rock-leaning 2016 LP Seal the Deal & Let's Boogie — the band's roots remain firmly in horns-throwing heaviness. It's no accident that King Diamond and Napalm Death's Barney Greenway have guested on past albums. So when guitarist Rob Caggiano (formerly of Anthrax) says that the quartet's next full-length is "gonna be a different feel than the last record," it's hard not to think that he's hinting at a return to a more metallic and aggressive approach. Certainly, it doesn't hurt to hope.

Chelsea Wolfe 2017 PRESS, Bill Crisafi
Chelsea Wolfe, 2017
photograph by Bill Crisafi

Chelsea Wolfe

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

2017's Hiss Spun captured goth-rock high priestess Chelsea Wolfe at her darkest and heaviest, channeling twisted family history and calling in a demonic assist from one Aaron Turner to chilling effect. With a guest appearance on Deafheaven's Ordinary Corrupt Human Love and a recent spot opening for A Perfect Circle introducing her to a wider audience in 2018, the musician is set to break even more hearts and raise even more hairs with her forthcoming new acoustic album, the unofficial follow-up to 2012's excellent Unknown Rooms. We can't wait.

youth code 2018 SIANA, Jolene Siana
Youth Code, House of Vans Brooklyn, 2018
photograph by Jolene Siana

Youth Code

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

L.A. EBM duo Youth Code stands firmly on the front lines of the current industrial-music renaissance, bolstered by 2016's excellent Commitment to Complications LP and kinetic live shows that never fail to grip attention. While vocalist Sara Taylor has been expelling some of her bilious fury via a new all-star punk-rock side project Heavens Blade, we're confident there's more than enough rancor left in her reserve to fuel her main band's forthcoming offering. Look forward to aggro dancefloor beats, blood-curdling hardcore screams and plenty of gut-punching sociopolitical outrage.

rob zombie 2017 APPLEFORD, Steve Appleford
photograph by Steve Appleford

Rob Zombie

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

If Rob Zombie has seemed too preoccupied making 3 From Hell, the much buzzed-about sequel to his horror classic The Devil's Rejects, to be making another album, think again. In July, he revealed that he'd teamed with indie metal bastion Nuclear Blast for the 2019 release of a new record, and he sounded stoked. "I am very excited to work with the fine folks at Nuclear Blast," Zombie enthused. "The combination of the label's grassroots urge to get the hustle done mixed with the detonation of our most combustable [sic] melodic masterpiece yet should prove to be a winning hybrid of hellacious hullabaloo." The rocker-director's guitar (anti)hero John 5 is jazzed on the hullabaloo, too; he told us in March, "It is by far the best Zombie record. And White Zombie record. Because I love Astro-Creep [2000]. I think it's better. I love this record."