Greetings, fellow metalheads! 

The month of May has showed us again that the metal music world is very active, it's still evolving into many new subgenres while keeping the roots well maintained by both living legends and newcomers. Every month I find something surprising that is being added to metal music as well as new names on the scene paying tribute to old heavy, thrash, death and black metal styles. And the originators regularly come back with fantastic releases, reminding us how it sounds if you put years of hard work into developing your own style and sound.

Starting with full albums, the veterans of the scene who gave us their new creations in May are Artillery, Borgne, Impaled Nazarene and The Monolith Deathcult, we also got a triple monster metal treat from Thomas Gurrath with a split of full albums by Debauchery, Blood God and Balgeroth. The list of albums released in May includes plenty of younger musicians who either perfected their chosen subgenre or enriched it with some very interesting ideas: Adarrak (with guest appearance of Marty Friedman in one of the tracks), Alluvial, Anatomia, Bernth (for fans of guitar magicians, seriously, some of these things sound unreal, I hope I can hear some new Eboncrown stuff in near future), Burning Witches, Dödsrit, Dordeduh (my new Enslaved, my ears liked it even more than "Utgard"), Havamal (inspired by Children of Bodom, but more symphonic and with choirs), Hedonihil, Hore, Inferno, Jarun, Khandra, Osiah, Reality Grey, Seth, Siniestro, Traumatomy and Wormlight to highlight the biggest milestones of subgenres and microgenres. To listen to them, as well as other full releases from May 2021 check out this playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/albums

Now the EPs, another collection of shorter releases where well-established bands meet new names to be discovered by you: Alder Glade, Cage of Creation, Cirith Ungol, Curse of Eibon, Dawn Ray'd, Disembodiment, Ereb Altor, Internal Organs External, Kataan, King Witch, Lady Beast, Morbid Breath, A Night in the Abyss, Nordjevel, Per Wilberg, Sadistik Forest, Stranger Vision, Uncle Woe, Unfathomable Ruination, Unidad Trauma, Wolverine and Zorya. No matter if you're in the mood for trippy doom black or punk black metal or stoner sludge stuff or maybe old school death/black - this list pretty much covers the sountrack for all kind of social interactions, no matter if you're thinking of inviting your neighbours for (psilocybe???) tea, hearty meal or just food fight:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/EPs

If you want to plan your shopping ahead, try new tracks before the full album is officially out. And that's why we've got a list of singles for you, including Aand? (not really a new single, but it's finally on Spotify), The Absence, Amon Amarth, At the Gates, Born of Osiris, Carnifex, Cerebral Rot, Crypta, Desaster, Erdve, Exsanguination, Fear Factory, Fractal Universe, Godslave, Helloween, Ingested, Insomnium, Marta Gabriel, Mastodon, Matthew Heafy, Odraza, Ophidian I, Pain (Rolling Stones' cover), Pestilence, Sabaton and Slaughter to Prevail to, as usual, give you a list of the most famous combined with my personal favourites. The full list is available under this link:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/singles

The live recordings released (or re-released) in May include Amorphis playing at Helsinki Ice Hall, Candlemass show at Green Valley recorded in July 2020, Devin Townsend's "Aftermath" track from upcoming "Galactic Quarantine" (out on June 25th), Dordeduh's "Pândarul" track from "Live at Quantic"(available as part of special edition of "Har" album), Enslaved gave us "The Crossing" and "Fenris" tracks from upcoming Cinematic Tour album (out on June 25th), Lindemann released their full "Live in Moscow" album, Motörhead's "The Löst Tapes - Live in Madrid 1995" is available on Spotify now, Paradise Lost released "Darker Thoughts" from "At the Mill" live album (out June 16th) and Sterbhaus gave us "Absolutely Do Not Die" track from "Necrostabbing at Göta Källare - Live in Stockholm" album (released through Bandcamp on May 4th). All of these can be found here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/live

Some of the re-works and re-releases have also been dropped to Spotify in May. "Megalomania" by Black Sabbath from remastered "Sabotage" album is there, Cage of Creation's "II" EP from 2015, Conquerors made their "Dawn of War" from 2019 available, too, DIO's "Fright Night" live album from 1994, Nephylim decided to do the newer version of "Dust Veiled Sky" track, you can listen to refreshed "Dark Medieval Times" and "The Shadowthrone" by Satyricon, Therion reminded us of their "20th Anniversary Show" recorded in Budapest in 2007, Varathron made their promo "Sarmutius Pegorus" from 1997 availabe on Spotify, together with remastered "Walpurgisnacht" from 1995. The list of "re-creations" (or "re-creational playlist" if you wish) can be found here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/re-releases

If you think that the lists compiled by me are not enough, I've got two more for you, created by bands (or their labels) themselves - Grimgotts with "Tales, Sagas & Legends" and Decoherence with their "System I":

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/compilations

As usual, keep on checking the playlists and our profile on a regular basis as I keep on adding new stuff and correcting some mistakes, haha. Don't forget to support composers of your life's soundtrack, buy their albums and merch, shout about them to all your friends and enemies using all channels possible and make yourself remembered as that person playing "weird, noisy, disgusting music" on all social gatherings.

Mosh responsibly! \m/