Spring and summer were quite good seasons for metal. Now, as we pack away the whites and the nights start earlier, it might be as good a time as any to mention five heavy albums you'll need to accompany the days of discolored, dying foliage.

01 Om, God is Good, Drag City

Remember when Om used to be that really sick two-piece featuring the guys from Sleep that weren't Matt Pike? Things have changed a bit, and drummer Chris Hakius has left to make way for Emil Amos. The fourth studio album by the stoner masters will not only mark the first with Amos, but also the first on Drag City. Does this mean Om will be collaborating with Bill Callahan? Probably not, but we can all dream. Comes out September 29.

02 Gnaw Their Tongues, All The Dread Magnificence of Perversity, Crucial Blast

If the name or title of the album didn't give it away, then song titles like “The Gnostic Consumption of Semen As Embodiment of Wounds Teared In The Soul” should probably be enough proof that this band from the Netherlands will probably kill you. I might go as far as to say that these are the best song titles I've heard of since Carcass put out Symphonies of Sickness way back when (“Cadaveric Incubator of Endoparasites”, anyone?).

Oh, and the music is something akin to Godflesh as a Disintegration Loop. While to the casual listener, this might come off as the soundtrack to your worst nightmare, it is actually a brilliant, minimalist, gorecore sympathy.

Out now.

03 Baroness, Blue Record, Relapse Records

I don't think I'm going to change any minds or lives talking about Baroness, because at this point, you should already know that this Savannah, GA band hardly fucks around, and the recent unveiling of the song “A Horse Called Golgotha” off their October 13 release restates the obvious.

04 Dusted Angel, debut 7″, Corruption Recordings

If you don't think Dusted Angel is a sweet name, I'm sorry for you, you twee bastard.

05 Shrinebuilder, S/T, Neurot Recordings

I sorta saved the best for last, because if ever there was a band that deserved the title of “supergroup”, Shrinebuilder would almost certainly be that group. The players include (in no particular order) Dale Crover of The Melvins, Al Cisneros of above-mentioned Om and Sleep, Scott Kell of Neurosis, the almighty Wino of Saint Vitus, The Obsessed, and other doom metal legends… and Beelzebub as their muse.

Seriously, this is the album of all of our dreams, and I hardly think these professionals can fuck it up. Out sometime in October.