45 Most Anticipated Albums of 2020 | Revolver

45 Most Anticipated Albums of 2020

Deftones, Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson, Code Orange, Turnstile and more
Deftones 2017 APPLEFORD, Steve Appleford
Deftones
photograph by Steve Appleford

2020. The year of the Metal Rat, a strong, prosperous, and lucky year for almost all Chinese zodiac signs. It's also marks the start of a new decade. 2019 will be hard — if not impossible — to match when it comes to momentous heavy-music releases, with Tool, Slipknot, Rammstein and other major players dropping long-awaited albums, but there will still be plenty of well-established acts — as well as more than a few ambitious up-and-comers and merciless extremists — offering up must-hear new music. Here are 45 albums we're particularly looking forward to.

Anthrax 2017 hubbard, Jimmy Hubbard
photograph by Jimmy Hubbard

Anthrax

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Their Big 4 brethren Slayer may have called it a day in 2019, but thrash OGs Anthrax are still going strong — indeed, if you ask drummer and songwriter Charlie Benante, he'll tell you that they have their best days still ahead of them. The band's next album will be their first since 2016's For All Kings and, according to Benante, it'll be "the greatest Anthrax record!" Guitarist Scott Ian has maybe an even loftier description: "It's our Dark Side of the Moon," he told us, "but faster."

August Burns Red 2017 Press Photo, Gene Smirnov
photograph by Gene Smirnov

August Burns Red

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Revolver's favorite metal band from Amish country, August Burns Red have been on a tear as of late, releasing an album of originals, a remix album and two EPs over the last three years alone, not to mention touring in celebration of the 10th anniversary of their third full-length, Constellations, throughout 2019. 2020 will see the release of their ninth LP, and according to vocalist Jake Luhrs, it'll be "real aggressive and heavy." We do not doubt it.

billy howerdel ashes divide a perfect circle SHINN, Travis Shinn
photograph by Travis Shinn

Ashes Divide

Title: TBA
Release Date: late spring/early summer

In 2018, A Perfect Circle released their first album in 14 years, Eat the Elephant. In 2020, guitarist-songwriter Billy Howerdel is set to release the first album in 11 years from his solo project Ashes Divide, the follow-up to his 2008 debut, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright. Look out for more expansive, ethereal rock in the vein of the latter album, as well as Eat the Elephant, some of the songs on which were originally intended for Ashes Divide.

avenged sevenfold 2017, Travis Shinn
photograph by Travis Shinn

Avenged Sevenfold

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

2020 will mark four years since Avenged Sevenfold surprise-released The Stage, which would be the longest break between albums to date for the chart-topping O.C. metal juggernaut. Of course, the band has hardly been slacking off in that time, releasing a deluxe edition of the LP with a slew of new cover songs, as well as an EP of their Call of Duty contributions, but the wait does raise expectations. Perhaps with that in mind, the band reportedly won't be touring this year in order to focus on the new album.

body count 2019 PRESS, Dirk Behlau
Body Count, 2020
photograph by Dirk Behlau

Body Count

Title: Carnivore
Release Date: March
6
Ice-T has never been one to mince words, so it came as little surprise when he quipped that his metal band Body Count's next LP would be titled Carnivores for certain un-PC reasons. "It's basically: Fuck Vegans," joked the multi-hyphenate superstar, who clarified soon after, "I'm not [really] saying 'Fuck Vegans.' Everyone's so pussy right now — we're carnivores." Judging from the album's ferocious lead single and title cut, which they dropped late last year, Body Count are indeed more bloodthirsty than ever.

carcass_1600.jpg, Jimmy Hubbard
Carcass
photograph by Jimmy Hubbard

Carcass

Title: TBA
Release Date:
TBA
Carcass unleashed one of the most brutal albums of the decade with their 2013 comeback LP, Surgical Steel. Their latest single, 2019's "Under the Scalpel Blade," suggests that the Liverpudlian extremists' scalpels haven't blunted one bit since then. For his part, frontman Jeff Walker is lukewarm on the tune, describing it as "a slow, throwaway number we cobbled together." If this is the trash from their recent studio sessions, we can't wait to hear the treasure. 

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

Code Orange

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Code Orange haven't simply matured as a band; they've become an all-out art project with their latest hype campaign: the metallic hardcore group's new blue-toned interactive "escape room" website features all sorts of codes and clues, some linking out to cryptic YouTube videos and more, all seemingly pointing to an imminent follow-up their 2017 smash Forever. Bandleader Jami Morgan told us last year of upcoming music: "We're about done, and we don't necessarily like to look at it that way completely, but there are opportunities that have been coming up so we'll see. I think we're ready to move on, and we have a lot in store."

deftones PRESS
Deftones, 2017

Deftones

Title: TBA
Release Date:
TBA
Deftones have hardly rested since the 2016 release of Gore, with the NorCal alt-metal leaders putting on two editions of their Dias de los Deftones festival, involving themselves in countless side projects, and touring extensively. It's all been cool and exciting, but now they're finally in position to give fans what they really want: a new album. Guitarist Stephen Carpenter, who didn't contribute much to the group's last LP, Gore, will be more involved this time out, as the bandmates wrote together during frequent but casual sessions over this past summer. While no hard release date is set, the band is hoping to drop it "earlier on in the year," according to singer Chino Moreno, talking to NBC San Diego. "Our biggest thing is making sure it's good."

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Dana Dentata, 2019
photograph by Max Beck

Dana Dentata

Title: TBA
Release Date:
TBA
Shortly after playing pretty much the perfect gig for her — opening for Marilyn Manson in Vegas on Halloween night — sleaze-metal singer turned feminist rapper Dana Dentata blessed us with the Daddy Loves You EP. Led by hard-hitting single "lil blood" and its badass all-female Fight Club–inspired music video, the EP bodes well for Dentata's next full-length, which promises to take no prisoners and, of course, "trust no dick."

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En Minor

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Former Pantera singer Philip Anselmo is a man of many projects, most leaning to the extreme-metal side of the aisle. En Minor, which he unveiled in 2019 via a two-song EP, is something else altogether: a brooding, mostly acoustic goth-Americana outfit making self-described "depression core" in the vein of Nick Cave, Tom Waits or Waylon Jennings. We can't wait to hear what Anselmo and Co. have in store for us in long form.

evanescence PRESS

Evanescence

Title: TBA
Release Date:
TBA
Evanescence closed out 2019 with mixed emotions — the triumph of their hit cover of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain," recorded for the video game Gears of War 5, and the devastation of the Knotfest México riot, which saw concertgoers storm the stage and set drummer Will Hunt's kit on fire. Amy Lee and Co. have always captured a wide spectrum of feeling in their music, and for their long-awaited follow-up to the band's last proper album of all-new material — 2011's self-titled LP — they will have plenty to draw on.

every time i die PRESS 2016
Every Time I Die, 2016

Every Time I Die

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Buffalo, New York, hardcore stalwarts Every Time I Die hit a high-water mark with their last album, 2016's Low Teens, an emotional firestorm of a record that drew on frontman Keith Buckley's real-life trauma and eschewed the band's signature sardonic wit and party-hard attitude to get deadly serious. ETID may be in more upbeat spirits for album No. 9 — especially since celebrating their 20th anniversary two years ago.

ghost.sanjose.2018_359_hi-ryan-chang-web.jpg, Ryan Chang
photograph by Ryan Chang

Ghost

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge has been saying all kinds of things about the band's next album. That it will be heavier and riffier than its smash predecessor, Prequelle. That it will be the occult-rock group's equivalent to Metallica's "Black Album." That it will come out in 2020. That it will come out in 2021, after the U.S. presidential election. What is real? What is playful misinformation? It's hard to know with Ghost. But, of course, that's part of fun. Whenever Forge finally offers up album No. 5, we will be all ears.

the ghost inside PRESS 2018

The Ghost Inside

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

The Ghost Inside's hard-earned 2019 show in L.A. — the group's first performance since a devastating 2015 bus accident took a terrible toll on the band members, including the amputation of one of drummer Andrew Tkaczyk's legs — was arguably the comeback story of the year. Now, the metalcore veterans are set to complete their return to action, by dropping their first album in six years, the follow-up to 2014's Dear Youth.

ghostemane 05.jpg, Akiva Alpert
photograph by Akiva Alpert

Ghostemane

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Self-described "transgenre" artist Ghostemane spent 2019 showcasing the many sides to his split personality. He released hardcore, acoustic and goth-rap EPs. He dropped collaborative singles with HEALTH and Ho99o9. He played Lollapalooza and took out Harm's Way, Jesus Piece, Candy and more on his headlining run. What will the follow-up to Ghoste's 2018 album N/O/I/S/E sound like? The possibilities are practically endless.

gojira bonnaroo GETTY 2019, FilmMagic/FilmMagic for Bonnaroo Arts And Music Festival
Gojira, 2019
photograph by FilmMagic/FilmMagic for Bonnaroo Arts And Music Festival

Gojira

Title: TBA
Release Date:
TBA
With a bevy of festivals, including Welcome to Rockville, Pink Pop and Rock am Ring, already lined up for this year, Gojira are primed to come out big behind the new album they've been working on for the bulk of 2019. "We are very happy and super proud of it," drummer Mario Duplantier enthused last year of the French progressive metal titans' new material, which comes in the wake of 2016's instant classic, Magma. "We just can't wait to give you more details." It's safe to say that their many fans can't wait to hear them.

grey daze PRESS

Grey Daze

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

True Linkin Park heads know: Grey Daze was Chester Bennington's first real band. In 2020, three years after the singer's death, the surviving members of the group will release an album of re-recorded songs featuring contributions from members of Korn, P.O.D. and Bush, as well as Chester's 23-year-old son Jaime. The record should, according to Chester's widow, Talinda, provide fans with "a better understanding of his art and a more full picture of his journey through this incredible music."

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Hatebreed

Hatebreed

Title: TBA
Release Date: May

Hardcore figurehead Jamey Jasta is known for his positive, inspirational message, but on Hatebreed's eighth album — the follow-up to 2016's The Concrete Confessional — he might be getting "much darker and much more angry." However the lyrics turn out, expect the songs to be massive, concert-ready anthems. As Jasta has joked: "We're 'Arena-Core' now."

higher power img_4922.jpg

Higher Power

Title: 27 Miles Underwater
Release Date: January 24

Proudly gap-toothed melodic hardcore upstarts Higher Power have quickly made a name for themselves with their alt-rock-inflected sound, a sinuous, soaring mix of Bad Brains, Jane's Addiction and Deftones. The U.K. firebrands have taken things next level with their Roadrunner Records debut, 27 Miles Underwater, which already seems like a shoo-in for best-of-the-year lists based on singles "Seamless" and "Low Season."

in this moment PRESS, Jeremy Saffer
photograph by Jeremy Saffer

In This Moment

Title: Mother
Release Date: TBA

With singer Maria Brink leading the way, In This Moment have evolved way beyond their early metalcore days, embracing elements of pop, blues and electronic music, and expanding their stage show into a full-on theatrical production. The band's 2020 album will chart another step in that evolution, as the cryptic and captivating teasers on ITM's Instagram forbode. "This is our heaviest record since [2012'sBlood," In This Moment guitarist Chris Howorth promised in May last year. Titled Mother, it treads heavy thematic territory, too. "It's Mother in the sense of Maria's a mother, mother Maria, but also Mother Earth. Mother is the key to life."

buzz osborne 2014 PRESS, Mackie Osborne
photograph by Mackie Osborne

King Buzzo

Title: TBA
Release Date: late spring/early
summer
It's been nearly six years since the wild-maned frontman of sludgy grunge-punks the Melvins released his acoustic folk-metal record This Machine Kills Artists, but as longtime bandmate Dale Crover revealed in December, a follow-up is now imminent: "Buzz has a new solo record coming." Ahead of said LP, fans can catch the two together in the Melvins on the band's Intensities in Ten Cities tour, going down in early 2020. 

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King Diamond

Title: The Institute
Release Date: TBA

In November, King Diamond delighted fans when he dropped his first new song in over a decade, "Masquerade of Madness," along with news that he'd be delivering his 13th solo album in 2020. And of course, the Danish corpse-paint pioneer announced the LP in his typical maniacal manner: "For reasons unknown to you, it is clear that you have no way of making it to The Institute on your own at this point," he proclaimed. "Therefore, we will bring THE INSTITUTE to you ... It could be for your own good, you know."

King Woman 2018 Press, Matt Kadi
photograph by Matt Kadi

King Woman

Title: TBA
Release Date:
TBA
King Woman's 2017 debut album, Created in the Image of Suffering, solidified the doomsayers' status as major players in the heavy-music underground — and upped the ante for its follow-up. Perhaps aware of the pressure, singer Kristina Esfandiara announced the band's second full-length via Instagram several weeks ago by saying: "Hello, we're recording King Woman LP 2. Send us some love, it ain't easy." "Feels like I've been waiting to make this record w the boys my whole life," she captioned a subsequent post showing the group hard at work. "It's beyond me." 

kvelertak PRESS 2019

Kvelertak

Title: Splid
Release Date: February 14

Kveleterak fans first heard the Norwegian rockers' new singer Ivar Nikolaisen via his guest vocals on 2010's "Blodtørst," but new single "Brätebrann," released late last year, introduced him to them as the band's full-fledged frontman — and shit sounds hot. For their first since 2016's Nattesferd, the group once again visited Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou at his GodCity Studios to cut what promises to be another excellent mix of triumphant anthems, maximum shred and punk-rock attitude. 

randy blythe lamb of god HUBBARD, Jimmy Hubbard
Lamb of God's Randy Blythe
photograph by Jimmy Hubbard

Lamb of God

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Drummer Chris Adler has been one of the cornerstones of Virginian metal leaders Lamb of God since their earliest days, so it's perfectly reasonable for diehards to wonder what an album without him will sound like. (LOG split with Adler in July last year.) The answer will come in 2020, when the group drops the full-length follow-up to 2015's VII: Sturm und Drang LP and 2016's The Duke EP (not to overlook 2018 covers album, Legion: XX, released under the name Burn the Priest), both of which saw singer Randy Blythe embracing clean vocals more than ever.

marilyn manson 2019 PRESS

Marilyn Manson

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

"I think it's the album that should be called Marilyn Manson," the shock-rock icon told us in July 2019 of his forthcoming LP, recorded with outlaw country star Shooter Jennings. "It's sort of like a wax museum of my thoughts, a study of the chamber of horrors in my head." With his two latest singles — a cover of the Doors' "The End" and a grim take on the folk standard "God's Gonna Cut You Down" — showcasing a heretofore-unseen Southern Gothic side to the singer's always-shifting persona, we're looking forward to the full unveiling of Manson's latest reinvention.

mastodon-jimmy-hubbard, Jimmy Hubbard
photograph by Jimmy Hubbard

Mastodon

Title: TBA
Release Date:
TBA
Mastodon set a high bar for themselves with 2017's The Emperor of Sand, an album unanimously considered to be one of the best of the last decade according to both the Revolver staff and our readers. When asked by Rolling Stone recently about his biggest hope for 2020, drummer-vocalist-songwriter Brann Dailor seemingly acknowledged the challenge. "Try to write a kickass Mastodon record with the next few months," he responded, "and it will probably come out in 2020. So I'm hoping for a continuation of what's been going on the last 10 years."

megadeth 2016 PRESS
Megadeth, 2016

Megadeth

Title: TBA
Release Date:
TBA
Cancer was just a speed bump for Dave Mustaine. When the thrash trailblazer was barely done with chemotherapy, he revealed to Rolling Stone that his band Megadeth already has "nine really crushing songs" demo'd, three of which they may unleash sooner rather than later as "early offerings." The notoriously controlling Mustaine even let his longtime musical partner David Ellefson take the reins on a cut that the Megadeth bandleader likens to KISS classic "Beth." "I said, 'We should write a song like "Beth," where it's a ballad and it's just you singing it …,'" Mustaine recalled. "'I read all your lyrics, and I know your lyrics are aimed at me. You're upset. So why don't you write about it?'"

me and that man neural 2019 PRESS, Grzegorz-Gołębiowski
photograph by Grzegorz-Gołębiowski

Me and That Man

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA
Behemoth's Adam Nergal Darski took a sharp left turn away from blackened death metal in 2017 when he released Songs of Love and Death, the debut LP from his bluesy dark-folk side project Me and That Man. He officially reactivated the group late last year, offering up two new rollicking singles — "Run With the Devil," featuring Shining's Jørgen Munkeby, and "Burning Churches," featuring Grave Pleasure's Mat McNerney — which hint at a fun, twisted and star-studded new album.

myrkur-tour-crop.jpg, Jacob Top Møller
Myrkur
photograph by Jacob Top Møller

Myrkur

Title: Folkesange
Release Date:
spring
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 played a folk-focused "Folkesange" set at the Netherland's cutting-edge Roadburn festival and, in 2020, she'll release a full-on folk album of the same name. "That's something I have dreamed about for years," she's said of the latter.

nine inch nails PRESS 2018
Nine Inch Nails' Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor

Nine Inch Nails

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have been busier than ever, scoring HBO's Watchmen, Pixar's Soul, acclaimed indie film Waves and more, assembling the "definitive edition" of NIN's With Teeth, and, you know, picking up a Country Music Association award for their inadvertent production on Lil Nas X's mega-hit "Old Town Road." But as Reznor revealed to us late last year, the duo plan to refocus on NIN in 2020, playing shows and making collaborative new music with "a list of people we like." "If something good happens, then maybe the world can hear it," he said. We hope so.

ozzy PRESS 2019

Ozzy Osbourne

Title: Ordinary Man
Release Date:
TBA
Seemingly back to full strength, Ozzy Osbourne is primed and ready to take on 2020 head-first with the completion of the "No More Tours 2" dates he was forced to reschedule following a string of illnesses and injuries, as well as the release of his long-awaited solo record, Ordinary Man. Singles "Under the Graveyard" and "Straight to Hell" sound like classic Ozzy, and with a supporting cast including Guns N' Roses' Slash and Duff McKagan and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith, there's no reason to think that the rest of album won't also live up to the Prince of Darkness' legacy.

poppy PRESS 2019 tour

Poppy

Title: I Disagree
Release Date: January
10
Internet-bred provocateur Poppy's embrace of metal and knack for flipping of it on its head is one of the strangest and most exciting things to happen to the genre in recent memory. A manic mash-up of squealing, roaring riffery, stomping industrialish electronic rock and sunny, shimmering pop — blast singles "Concrete" and "BLOODMONEY" for a taste — I Disagree makes us think Mr. Bungle as fronted by Grimes.

puscifer PRESS, Robin Laananen
photograph by Robin Laananen

Puscifer

Title: TBA
Release Date: fall (or early 2021)

Maynard James Keenan is on a roll. In 2018, he released a new album with A Perfect Circle. In 2019, he released a new album with Tool that you might have heard about. Next up? A new full-length offering from his pretty much indescribable musical/performance-art collective Puscifer. Who's involved this time in the project's revolving lineup? So far, we know Carina Round and Mat Mitchell are back, with Smashing Pumpkins' James Iha and Game of Thrones star Esmé Bianco tagging into the game.

Taylor momsen matt Cameron pretty reckless, Hannah Meadows
Taylor Momsen and Matt Cameron, 2019
photograph by Hannah Meadows

The Pretty Reckless

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

The Pretty Reckless were the opening act at Soundgarden's final show with Chris Cornell before the singer's suicide, circumstances that appear to have forged a lasting bond. In January 2019, the band's singer Taylor Momsen sang onstage with the surviving members of the grunge stalwarts at the "I Am the Highway: A Tribute to Chris Cornell" benefit show. The connection continues with TPR's new album, rumored to be titled Death by Rock and Roll, which Momsen recorded with Soundgarden's (and Pearl Jam's) Matt Cameron in Seattle. "Wait til you hear this," she captioned a photo of the two together, fists raised.

red fang 2016 PRESS

Red Fang

Title: TBA
Release Date:
TBA
Portland's Red Fang finished recording their latest album in October (as they celebrated on Instagram), and you better believe it'll be just as party-ready as the rest of the stoner-metal troublemakers' whip-lashing, beer-swilling catalog has been. If any doubts loom, check out their raucous single "Antidote" from last summer and play along with the group's appropriately titled "Headbang!" video game from the same time. 

slipknot 2008 PRESS
Slipknot, 2008

Slipknot

Title: Look Outside Your Window
Release Date: TBA

Maggots have known about it for a while — the whole album's worth of material left on the cutting-room floor from the All Hope Is Gone sessions — but last summer, Slipknot's Corey Taylor and Shawn "Clown" Crahan heated up rumors that the 11 songs might finally see the light of day. The unreleased LP, titled Look Outside Your Window, has a "much more of a Radiohead vibe," according to Taylor. "It's experimental, but it's super vibey, super melodic." Could 2020 be the year?

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Times of Grace

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

In 2011, before he rejoined Killswitch Engage, vocalist Jesse Leach teamed with KSE guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz for The Hymn of a Broken Man, the one and only album from the emotional, exploratory melodic metal project Times of Grace. Now, fresh off the success of Killswitch's 2019 offering, Atonement, the duo are finally prepping a follow-up. "It's liberating. It really is what it is," Leach said of the new LP. "And the lyrics, I take a different approach to that stuff. On this next one, there's a lot of real poetry ... I'm really stoked."

triptykon PRESS 2018, Century Media
Triptykon
courtesy of Century Media

Triptykon

Title: TBA
Release Date:
TBA
Tom G. Warrior fans better clear their throats with a thousand "OUGHS!" of anticipation, as the skullcapped extreme-metal hero confirmed in fall 2019 that his doom-goth act Triptykon is coming back for more. "I admit it's all my fault," the musician said of the delay between the band's 2014 opus, Melana Chasmata, and now. But he and his cohorts have gotten serious, with plans to record their new LP in early 2020 — and to return again with quick follow-up, too, meaning we could kick off the decade with not one but two albums from the band. OUGH!

trivium-matt-2018-gettyimages-947922976.jpg, Katja Ogrin / Getty
photograph by Katja Ogrin / Getty

Trivium

Title: TBA
Release Date: spring

Parenthood has taken up a lot of Trivium frontman Matt Heafy's time over the last couple years, and as a result his band has been less active than usual. 2019 saw sporadic shows and a handful of stand-alone singles, including a collaboration with Portuguese artist Toy for a new version of his song "Coração Não Tem Idade (Vou Beijar)." 2020 will see Trivium return full bore. "Early next year, there will be a lot of new Trivium news coming out," guitarist Corey Beaulieu promised last summer, "so next year's kind of like when people start to get excited with new tours, new music and everything like that."

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Turnstile, 2018
photograph by Angela Owens

Turnstile

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

Turnstile's Brendan Yates, Pat McCrory and Daniel Fang spent much of last year focused on their other, more-pop-punk-oriented outfit, Angel Du$t, also featuring Trapped Under Ice's Justice Tripp. In 2020, the Baltimore posicore leaders will re-prioritize their main band, taking on the lofty task of following up their breakthrough sophomore album, 2018's revelatory Time & Space. The mosh pit will be happier for it.

Underoath 2018 Press, Nick Fancher
photograph by Nick Fancher

Underoath

Title: TBA
Release Date: late 2020

In 2018, metalcore veterans Underoath shocked fans by dropping their first album in eight years, the excellent Erase Me, and by publicly renouncing their status as a Christian band. In the time since, they've toured with Alice in Chains and Korn, lent drummer-singer Aaron Gillespie to EDM star REZZ for a genre-busting collaboration and begun work on a follow-up that should solidify both their return and their new secular outlook.

kirk windstein PRESS 2019 HUBBARD, Jimmy Hubbard
photograph by Jimmy Hubbard

Kirk Windstein

Title: Dream in Motion
Release Date: January 24

Undisputed riff master Kirk Windstein has pioneered the NOLA sludge sound with revered bands including Crowbar and Down, but he's never released a solo album — until 2020, that is. Evolving from the initial idea of making an acoustic album, Dream in Motion is instead a fully amplified operation, heavy, riffy but also spacier and mellower than Windstein's signature output. As for Down, don't worry — he'll be joining the band this year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their landmark debut, NOLA.

youth code 2018 PRESS, Travis Shinn with grooming by Christina Guerra/Celestine Agency
photograph by Travis Shinn with grooming by Christina Guerra/Celestine Agency

Youth Code

Title: TBA
Release Date: TBA

L.A. EBM duo Youth Code stands firmly on the front lines of the ongoing industrial-music renaissance, bolstered by 2016's excellent Commitment to Complications LP and kinetic live shows. While vocalist Sara Taylor has been expelling some of her fury via all-star punk-rock side project Heavens Blade, we're sure there's more than enough rancor left in her reserve to fuel her main band's forthcoming offering. Steel yourself for aggro dancefloor beats, blood-curdling hardcore screams and plenty of gut-punching sociopolitical outrage.

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Rob Zombie, Los Angeles, 2019
photograph by Travis Shinn

Rob Zombie

Title: TBA
Release Date:
TBA
Now that 3 From Hell is behind him, Rob Zombie can re-focus on music, specifically, his debut album for his new label: indie metal bastion Nuclear Blast. "I am very excited to work with the fine folks at Nuclear Blast," Zombie enthused when the partnership was announced. "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 2018, "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."