Friday March 27 is one of the stronger release days Q1 has to offer. Black Label Society closes out Zakk Wylde's mourning period with a full album, a Scottish one-man black metal project drops one of the more ambitious records of the month, and street punk veterans The Casualties resurface eight years after going quiet. Here's everything worth your time this Friday.
Black Label Society — Engines of Demolition (MNRK Heavy)
Five years on from Doom Crew Inc., Zakk Wylde delivers the fourteenth Black Label Society studio album — and the one that carries the most weight he's put into a record in years. Engines of Demolition is a 15-track heavy/groove metal behemoth that Wylde describes as "a sincere ride through the peaks and valleys of the last four years," a stretch that included losing his mentor and closest friend.
The album opens with "Name In Blood" and moves through grimy riff-forward territory across songs like "Gatherer of Souls," "The Gallows," and "Lord Humungus." But the centrepiece is "Ozzy's Song" — a direct tribute to Osbourne, written and recorded as a personal acknowledgment of the loss. It's the kind of track you don't put on a record unless you mean it.
Both "Name In Blood" and "Lord Humungus" also appear in unblackened acoustic versions at the album's close, a BLS tradition that goes back to The Blessed Hellride. Classic move. For longtime fans of the circle pit and the ballad side of Wylde's catalog, this one has both.
Genre: Heavy Metal / Groove Metal
Label: MNRK Heavy
For fans of: Pantera, Ozzy Osbourne, Down
Pre-order and stream: Black Label Society — Engines of Demolition
Hellripper — Coronach (Century Media Records)
Scottish one-man blackened speed metal project Hellripper — the solo work of James McBain — delivers his fourth studio album, and it's the most sonically ambitious thing he's put his name on. Coronach takes its title from the traditional Scottish Highland funeral lament, and the album builds around that concept fully — eight tracks across 44 minutes that pull from Celtic folk, black metal, speed metal, and even Manic Street Preachers-style melodic urgency.
McBain recorded and mixed the record himself at Coronach Studios in Scotland, bringing in synths, cello, violin, and bagpipes without losing the raw blackened thrash energy at the project's core. The tracklist — from "Hunderprest" through "Kinchyle (Goatkraft and Granite)" to the title track closer — reads like a map of Scottish mythology and history set to metal that wants to burn both clean.
Hellripper has been one of the more genuinely interesting projects in underground black metal for a while. Coronach is the record where he earns wider attention.
Genre: Blackened Speed Metal / Black Metal
Label: Century Media Records
For fans of: Venom, Mercyful Fate, Watain
Pre-order: Hellripper — Coronach
The Casualties — Detonate (Hellcat Records)
Eight years. That's how long it's been since The Casualties put out a studio record — 2018's Chaos Sound was their last, and the New York street punk institution has been largely quiet since. Detonate is their debut on Hellcat Records (the Tim Armstrong-founded label, home of Rancid and The Transplants), and it arrives digital March 27 with physical vinyl and CD editions following in July.
The album runs 13 tracks and addresses the usual Casualties terrain — political unrest, social fracture, the value of unity when the world is actively trying to divide. The single "People Over Power" was the early preview, and the title track "Detonate" sets the template for the rest. Vocalist David Rodriguez leads the current lineup through what amounts to a re-entry after a long absence, with Marc "Meggers" Eggers on drums, Jake Kolatis on guitar, and Doug Wellmon holding the low end.
If you remember wearing studs in the early 2000s and have felt that era's streetpunk scene drift further into nostalgia, this one's a direct line back.
Genre: Street Punk
Label: Hellcat Records
For fans of: Rancid, Lower Class Brats, Charged GBH
Pre-order: The Casualties — Detonate
Chamber — this is goodbye... (Pure Noise Records)
Nashville metalcore outfit Chamber put out their third full-length on Pure Noise Records this Friday — and the title isn't accidental. this is goodbye... is an album that directly engages with the exhaustion of being in a band in an era of fractured attention spans, algorithmic gatekeeping, and the grinding reality of touring. Guitarist/vocalist Gabe Manuel has been direct about the record's origins: it came from the "rat race of competing for people's attention," and the toll that takes.
Twelve tracks produced by Randy LeBoeuf, who's worked with the band through their catalog. The record includes "Violins" and the track "resurrect," featuring Vincent Bennett of The Acacia Strain — a guest appearance that makes immediate sense given the sonic overlap between both bands. Manuel's description of the album as "Chamber at our most open and instinctive" maps to how much of it was written spontaneously in the studio.
Worth your attention if Knocked Loose and Converge are on your regular rotation.
Genre: Metalcore / Hardcore
Label: Pure Noise Records
For fans of: Knocked Loose, Converge, The Acacia Strain
Pre-order: Chamber — this is goodbye...
Also Dropping Friday March 27
Carnivore A.D. — Transmutation EP (Apostasy Records) — Peter Steele's old band lives on in a new form. If the name alone matters to you, this is a must.
Evildead — Annihilation of Civilization and The Underworld re-releases (Steamhammer) — Both classic Bay Area thrash records back in print. Annihilation in particular is the essential one.
Heavy Metal Shrapnel — Heavy Metal Hairspray (Nameless Grave Records) — Old-school heavy metal throwback from the speed metal underground.
That's the March 27 slate. Black Label Society and Hellripper are the marquee plays this week, but The Casualties' return deserves full attention from anyone who ever had a Hellcat Records purchase in their iTunes library.
For the full release calendar, including upcoming April drops, visit Metal Mantra's release calendar or browse the reviews section for coverage as it lands.
