The last few weeks have seen a lot of exceptional new releases. Hardly a day goes by when Apple Music’s New page doesn’t have some juicy metal to digest. We’ve seen albums from Haken, Deftones, Desaster, Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas and Painted Wives. Some of these are excellent albums, but for this post I want to step slightly outside the world of mainstream metal and focus on some slightly difference releases.

First off, Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool deserves a mention. The first single, Burn The Witch, is undoubtedly the most immdiately accessible track here, but listen more and there’s a lot of great post-prog to dig into. If you’re a fan of artists signed to Kscope, you’ll love this. I know I do. This isn’t the Radiohead you used to listen to, it’s much, much better!

Talking of kscope, Se Delan’s Drifter is a new release from them that definitely needs checking out. Se Delan consists of Justin Greaves from Crippled Black Pheonix and the singer Belinda Kordic, and these guys make a great team. Have a look at their home page to see some awesome album art, albums streams and a related podcast.

I discovered Wistful by Sylvain on Heavy Blog, which – in a fairly long winded – way says it’s like Alcest’s most recent offerings, only better. Since first hearing it, I’ve had this on repeat and I have to agree, this has the soaring shoegaze, the black metal vocals and the epic buildup you are looking for!

Finally, the self titled Mirrors for Psychic Warfare is ambient, dark and poetic. This could be part of a genre I’ve not fully explored, but I’d like to think it stands alone. I found this view Apple Music, then discovered that Heavy Blog covered it too. When there are lyrics they’re dark and poetic, and inexplicably put me in mind of The Southern Reach trilogy.

Have I missed any alternative metal or rock this month? Let me know in the comments.