El Goro and SonOfOdin wrap up 2014 with the newest albums from Ireland's Primordial and Finland's Mors Principium Est. They also check out a solo black metal project from France, and finish with Brazil's most well-known band, Sepultura.

New Releases:

Primordial : Where Greater Men Have Fallen (2014)

Primordial is an extreme metal band from Ireland. Their sound melds black metal with doom metal and Irish folk music.

Get this album: Amazon.com • CD Universe • iTunes • Barnes & Noble • Spotify

Mors Principium Est : Dawn Of The 5th Era (2014)

Mors Principium Est is a Finnish melodic death metal band that melds the Gothenburg sound with elements of thrash to create a new spin on typical Scandanavian melodeath.

Get this album: Amazon.com • CD Universe • iTunes • Barnes & Noble • Spotify

Local/Indie Band:

Askrinn : Hjørleifsljóð (2014)

Askrinn is a solo black metal project from France. Valenten is well-versed in Norwegian lore and focuses on the spirituality of the Northern people instead of simple war and bloodshed.

Get this album: WWW     Info: Facebook

Heavy Metal Valhalla:

El Goro and SonOfOdin's work schedules aren't cooperating with each other, so here is a pair of minor releases from 2014 you may have missed to tide you over until January's main episode drops.

Albums:

Phantasmal : The Reaper's Forge (2014)

Formed in 2012, Phantasmal is a two-man project aiming for the perfect mix of black metal's vitriol and thrash metal's aggression.

Get this album: Bandcamp     Info: Facebook

Humiliation : Battalion (2014)

Humiliation is often referred to as "the Bolt Thrower of Malaysia". They play heavy, crushing death metal with an underlying groove element.

Get this album: Bandcamp • Amazon • iTunes     Info: Facebook

This episode is sponsored by Jakprints.

El Goro listens to some experimental Japanese metal with Dir En Grey while SonOfOdin resurrects a little-known classic from the mid-'80s with Powerlord's only album.

Albums:

Dir En Grey : Arche (2014)

Dir En Grey is a Japanese metal band formed in 1997. Although their lineup has remained relatively consistent over the years, the style of their music has varied wildly.

Get this album: Amazon.com • iTunes • Spotify

Powerlord : The Awakening (1986)

Barely even a footnote in the annals of American metal, Oklahoma's Powerlord released only one album before disbanding. A coveted item among tape-traders over the years, Shadow Kingdom Records finally remastered and rereleased the album in 2014.

Get this album: Bandcamp • Amazon.com • SKR

El Goro and SonOfOdin offend three different countries this episode with their gross mispronunciation of Iceland's Skàlmöld, Finland's Raskasta Joulua, and Denmark's Aphyxion. Fortunately, Florida's Morbid Angel give their tongues a break.

New Releases:

Skàlmöld : Með vættum (2014)

Translating to "Age of Sword", Iceland's Skàlmöld play a heavier style of Scandinavian folk metal, incorporating elements of death and black metal along with multi-dimensional arrangements to add new interest to a sometimes stale genre.

Get this album: Amazon.com • CD Universe • iTunes • Barnes & Noble • Spotify

Raskasta Joulua : Ragnarok Juletide (2014)

Raskasta Joulua is a Finnish supergroup featuring musicians and vocalists from several top heavy metal and hard rock bands. They gather every year to tour their heavier interpretations of classic Christmas songs much like the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Get this album: Amazon.com • CD Universe • iTunes • Barnes & Noble • Spotify

Local/Indie Band:

Aphyxion : Earth Entangled (2014)

Blending melodic death metal, thrash, and traditional death metal, Denmark's Aphyxion try to throw a new light on modern death metal, acknowledging their influences while creating a sound for the modern era.

Get this album: Big Cartel •

SonOfOdin really mixes it up this time around, first with a recap of the Alice Cooper/Mötley Crüe farewell tour, and then reviews of albums by Sweden's Sister Sin, Norway/Germany's Liv Kristine, and Singapore's Flesh Disgorged.

Concert:

Mötley Crüe : The Final Tour (with Alice Cooper)

After thirty-plus years of playing live, '80s glam metal icons Mötley Crüe are calling an end to touring and doing one final performance in the major cities. Opening for this show is shock rock legend Alice Cooper and throwback band, The Raskins.

Info: The Final Tour

Albums:

Sister Sin : Black Lotus (2014)

Despite hailing from Gothenburg, Sister Sin eschews melodic death metal for a more traditional style of heavy metal centered around themes of free thought and self-empowerment.

Get this album: Amazon.com • iTunes • Spotify

Liv Kristine : Vervain (2014)

The former Theatre and Tragedy and current Leaves' Eyes vocalist indulges in her solo project during the years between Leaves' Eyes releases and explores a lighter musical style.

Get this album: Amazon.com • iTunes • Spotify

Flesh Disgorged : A Pulchritudinous Macabre (2014)

Fusing brutal death metal with grindcore, Singapore's Flesh Disgorged aim to produce a new level of musical extremity dripping with severed body parts and other viscera.

Get this album: Bandcamp • Amazon.com •

El Goro and SonOfOdin check out new albums by Texas Hippie Coalition and the reformed Godflesh. In the indie segment, The Furor blasts out some blackened thrash, and At The Gates brings more Gothenburg into the Valhalla.

New Releases:

Texas Hippie Coalition : Ride On (2014)

Hailing from a small town in Texas, THC plays a Southern-fried style of groove metal they call "red dirt metal" which is heavily influenced by performers like Molly Hatchet, Waylon Jennings, Pantera, and ZZ Top.

Get this album: Amazon.com • CD Universe • iTunes • Barnes & Noble • Spotify

Godflesh : World Lit Only By Fire (2014)

A foundational influence on modern industrial and post-metal, Godflesh formed in 1988, but disbanded in 2002. Godflesh reformed in 2010, and this is their first new album in thirteen years.

Get this album: Amazon.com • CD Universe • iTunes • Barnes & Noble • Spotify

Local/Indie Band:

The Furor : Impending Revelation (2014)

First and foremost a drummer, Austrailian Louis "Disaster" Rando started The Furor as a solo blackened thrash project to explore avenues he isn't able to perform with his other bands.

Get this album: Bandcamp •

SonOfOdin gets in a metal Halloween mood this time around with the blood-soaked thrash of Rigor Mortis and the tension-building death/doom of Temple of Void.

Albums:

Rigor Mortis : Slaves To The Grave (2014)

The last album featuring guitar work by the late Mike Scaccia, Rigor Mortis was a thrash/speed metal band formed in Texas in 1983, but had only put out a few albums in their 31 years due to the members' involvement in other bands. The surviving members will continue playing under a new name, Wizards of Gore.

Get this album: Amazon.com • iTunes • Spotify

Temple Of Void : Of Terror And The Supernatural (2014)

Rising from the graves of Detroit, Michigan, Temple Of Void hearkens back to the somber sound of early British doom, while channelling the energy and devastation of old-school American death metal.

Get this album: Bandcamp • Amazon.com • iTunes • Spotify

El Goro and SonOfOdin keep it heavy this month with new albums from death metal legends Cannibal Corpse and cross-genre newcomers Crimson Shadows. In the indie segment, it's some industrial death/thrash from Norway's From Below. Finally SonOfOdin relives the world of 1990s death/doom with Paradise Lost.

Band to check out:

* Panopticon — Louisville, KY — Atmospheric Black/Folk Metal

New Releases:

Cannibal Corpse : A Skeletal Domain (2014)

At this point in their career, Cannibal Corpse need no introduction. Since 1990's Eaten Back To Life the group has continuously produced crushing death metal with violently evocative lyrics, making them the all-time top-selling death metal band in the U.S.A.

Get this album: Amazon.com • CD Universe • iTunes • Barnes & Noble • Spotify

Crimson Shadows : Kings Among Men (2014)

Canada's Crimson Shadows competed in and won Wacken Metal Battle 2013, resulting in getting signed to Napalm Records. They play a hybrid of power metal and melodic death metal with lyrics centered around fantasy elements.

Get this album: Amazon.com • CD Universe • iTunes • Barnes & Noble • Spotify

Local/Indie Band:

From Below : I Arise (2014)

From Below hail from Norway and play an industrial-laced form of death metal.

Get this album: Bandcamp     Info:

The Side Stage contains infrequent music-centric podcasts to hold you over between regular episodes.

To salute the German Oktoberfest (September 20 – October 5, 2014), SonOfOdin thought it would be a good idea to showcase some fine metal tunes about drinking. Of course, he was drinking when he came up with this idea, so... we'll see how it goes.

Image Credit: Markburger83 at English Wikipedia [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Track Listing:

* Hammer Fight : I Didn't Feel Like Drinking (Until I Started Drinking)   [Get Song]

* Protokult : Get Me A Beer!   [Get Song]

* Winterhymn : Alesong   [Get Song]

* Claim The Throne : Set Sail On Ale   [Get Song]

* Alestorm : Wenches & Mead   [Get Song]

* Code Of Nelson's Folly : Crack Jenny's Teacup   [Get Song]

* Motörhead : Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers (ZZ Top cover)   [Get Song]

* Black Label Society : Stoned And Drunk   [Get Song]

* Chrome Division : Booze, Broads, And Beelzebub   [Get Song]

* Hellyeah : Drink, Drank, Drunk   [Get Song]

* Viking Skull : Seedealer   [Get Song]

* Morbid Atrophy : Malt And Metal   [Get Song]

* Superjoint Ritual : The Alcoholik   [Get Song]

* Phrenesy : The Power Comes From The Beer   [

El Goro and SonOfOdin raid your booze cabinets with pirate metallers Alestorm before trashing your house to the death 'n' roll stylings of Entombed A.D. Then they see the Midwestern U.S.'s contribution to folk metal with Cincinnati's Winterhymn. Finally, both of them revisit some early Swedish black metal with Marduk's third album.

New Releases:

Alestorm : Sunset On The Golden Age (2014)

Scotland's Alestorm is possibly the most-recognized pirate-themed metal band today and are responsible for bringing the keytar back into vogue. For their fourth album, they added a new member to aid them further on their drunken quests.

Get this album: Amazon.com • CD Universe • iTunes • Barnes & Noble • Spotify

Entombed A.D. : Back To The Front (2014)

Entombed pioneered the "death 'n' roll" style. When Alex Hellid left the band in 2013, the band's original name could no longer be used, so the Petrov/Dahlstedt/Elgstrand/Brandt line-up added an "A.D." to the name and continued on.

Get this album: Amazon.com • CD Universe • iTunes • Barnes & Noble • Spotify

Local/Indie Band:

Winterhymn : Paganfest V Sampler (2014)

Hailing from the cold wastelands of Cincinnati, Ohio, Winterhymn has been waving the folk metal banner since 2009. This EP was originally a Kickstarter bonus for supporters of their Paganfest V touring expenses, but has since been released to the public.

Get this album: Bandcamp • Amazon.com •