(written by Islander)

Weeks that end on Friday the 13th include just as much metal hub-bub as weeks ending on a Bandcamp Friday. Most superstitious people view those days as unlucky (an example of triskaidekaphobia!), but metalheads tend to be contrary by nature and so Fridays the 13th are to be celebrated. It’s not so much a rejection of superstition as a turning of it on its head.

I guess it’s a good thing that the next Friday the 13th won’t happen until August 13, 2027, and that will be the only one next year (we had three of them this year!), because the flood of new metal that happens in such weeks makes it hard for people like me to keep up. It has certainly complicated my choices for this usual Saturday column, especially because it followed an immediately preceding Bandcamp Friday, which always produces its own flood of new music.

I had so many things I wanted to recommend last weekend that I had to leave some of them by the wayside. Usually when that happens I don’t pick them up at a later point and instead just move on. But for today’s roundup I decided to start off with three songs I didn’t have time enough to write about last weekend and then move on to four that I discovered this past week, for a lucky total of seven, which is also a happy number. Continue reading »