I’ve always had a soft spot for three-piece bands, particularly three-piece bands in the deeply extreme end of the metal pool. It’s just a helluva lot harder for mediocre musicians to hide within the sound when there’s only three of you. The spotlight shines with particularly unforgiving brightness on the guitarist, jumping from rhythm to lead and back again. So when a three-piece band fails, they tend to fall hard, and when they deliver the goods, the achievement is all the more impressive.

Of course, multiple tracking in a recording studio can make three people sound like a dozen, and the wonders of modern engineering can do a lot to mask mediocrity in the digital rendering of songs. But pursuing that strategy disables a three-piece band from delivering a live performance that sounds faithful to the recorded songs. You might sell some albums, but touring is either out of the question or doomed to failure.

As it turns out, Necronomicon is a three-man band from Quebec that can stand the spotlight.

Their new album on Napalm Records, The Return of the Witch, was on that mega-list of June 8 releases we wrote about a few days ago, and I was especially interested to hear it because, although it’s the band’s third album, it’s the first one from Necronomicon in about six years. To peak my interest further, I’d read that the band’s first two albums were quite different from each other, and so predicting the style of the new one was likely to be a bit of a crap shoot. But that seemed like another plus reason to hear The Return of the Witch, because I like surprises — and I sure got a few from this album.  (more after the jump, including a song to hear . . .)

We’re now a full three months into 2010, and it’s time for our third update to the list of forthcoming new albums we posted on January 1.  (See the original list here, the first update here, and the second update here.) Below is a list of still more projected new releases that we didn’t know about on January 1 or at the time of our last two updates — and the new sickness is still spreading in epidemic proportions.

Once again, we’ve cobbled together news blurbs about bands whose past work we’ve liked, or who look interesting for other reasons. Needless to say (but we’ll say it anyway), these are bands that mostly fit the profile of music we cover on this site.

So, in alphabetical order, here’s our list of cut-and-pasted blurbs from various sources since our last update about forthcoming new releases. Look for the bands you like and put reminders on your calendar. Or if you’re old school like us, just get em tattooed someplace you can see without a mirror (because reading stuff backwards is hard).

ANAAL NATHRAKH: “U.K. extreme metallers ANAAL NATHRAKH have commenced work on material for a new album, tentatively due before the end of the year.”

ANNIHILATOR: “Canadian thrash metal veterans ANNIHILATOR will release their 13th, self-titled album in Europe on May 17 via Earache Records, in Japan through Marquee and in Australia via Riot Entertainment.”

ARISE: “A two-minute video trailer for The Reckoning, the fourth album from Swedish death/thrashers ARISE, can be viewed below. Due on March 22 through Regain Records, the CD features guest appearances by Jonas Kjellgren (SCAR SYMMETRY, ex-CARNAL FORGE), Mikael Stanne (DARK TRANQUILLITY) and Jake Fredém (NOSTRADAMEUS).” [NOTE: the album is now scheduled for release on April 6.]

(more after the jump . . .)