Top Pick
Tailgunner – Midnight Blitz (heavy metal, power thrash)
Now this is what I'm talking about! English quintet Tailgunner go a long way toward answering the question, "What if Iron maiden and Judas Priest?" More specifically, the opening title-track to their new album, Midnight Blitz, answers the question, "What if 'Aces High' was also 'Painkiller' tho?" The results are every bit as elating as that combination suggests, with the song hammering down the runway toward one of those early half-choruses I love so much, before taking off into a killer solo section, complete with some Yngwie Malmsteen-esque classical trills, courtesy of new guitarist Rhea Thompson, while what looks and sounds like a young Kenny Leckremo (but is actually frontman Craig Cairns) wails into a light-saber-like microphone. The performance and passion speak for themselves, and the video for this most metal of opening tracks will surely have you raising your fist in unison with the rest of the band, and is made all the more powerful for not being interjected with pointless, shitty-AI sections. This absolute barnstormer of an opener sets the standard for classic heavy metal in 2026, and the rest of the record follows in tight formation. Heavy metal rules.
Release Roundup
Ablaze – Slow Death (hard/math/metalcore)
Agenbite Misery – Remorse Of Conscience (doomy meloblack)
All The Damn Vampires – Vicecore (synth wave? baddiedoom?)
Assignment – With The End Comes Silence (prog metal)
AtteroTerra – Guillotine (groove/death thrash)
Belonging/Inny – The Dog Split (sad sludge)
Bergtagen – In Forests Eternal (black-doom)
Big Big Train – Woodcut (prog rock)
Bitterness – Hallowed Be The Game (thrash)
Blossoms Fall – La Alma (post-hard/emocore)
Buried – Imagined Deformation (death metal)
Capsize – Under A Hollow Sky (emocore)
Cartoons Can’t Die – Rebirth (death doom)
Cattle Hammer – Dark Thoughts With Lights Out (sludge doom)
Cruel Fate/Savage Annihilation – Cruelle Annihilation (crusty death metal)
Cyclone – Known Unto God (thrash)
Daniele Brusaschetto – Dichotomous (sludge)
Demonic Resurrection – Apocalyptic Dawn (symphonic black/death metal)
Ensanguinate – Death Saturnalia (deathish black metal)
Epimetheus – Perseus 9 (stoner doom)
Epinikion – The Force Of Nature (heavy/power metal)
Eternal Winter – Cosmic Blood, Cosmic Grail (progressive power metal)
Evoked Eclipse – The Cries Of Evil (mellowblack, doom)
Frostmorner – Orbital Kaos (brutal dreath metal)
Full House Brew Crew – Glasgow Grin (groove metal/core)
Heir Corpse One – Destination: Domination (death metal)
Hermano – Clisson, France (stoner rock)
In Aeturnum – …Of Death And Fire (black metal)
Induction – Love Kills (melodic rock, (no)hair metal)
Infinite Misery – Altar of Extracted Teeth (death metal)
Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows – Inexorable Opposites (stoner sludge, doom folk)
Karnivool – In Verses (mellow/alt prog) Review
Lily Löwe – Beautiful Disaster (hardish rock)
letterstoyou – ...maybe someday became today (hardcore, screamo)
Lomor – Sabouk Ridge (black metal/thrash)
Lueenas – Tender Anger (post-doom) Premiere
Mädätys – Kuoleman ulottuvuudet (death-doom)
Mayhem – Liturgy Of Death (black metal)
Media – 6058 (heavy metal)
Moloch – Bend. Break. Kneel. Crawl. (noise sludge)
Monovoth – To Live in the Breath of Worship (post post-balck)
Moon Mother – Meadowlands (doom folk)
Morari – Rain of Heaven (postish black metal)
Mors Verum – Canvas (weird disso-death)
Mossgiver – Renewer (folky post-black)
Mount Palatine – Wormholy World (post metal, stoner doom)
Paganizer – As Mankind Rots (death metal)
Phendrana – Cathexis (folky prog-death)
Poor Bambi – Skyscrapers Soaring, Yet We’re Drowning (alt doom)
Predatory Void – Metamorphosis (sludge goth?)
Puke Wolf – Descend (post-rock, screamo)
Puscifer – Normal Isn't (croaky alt prog)
Riastrad – Riastrad (doom metal)
Shatterheart – Infernal Symphony (heavy metal)
Silversun Pickups – Tenterhooks (posty alt/prog-rock)
SkyTigers – …Injustice For All (crossover, skate thrash)
Sleeping Giant – The Beauty Of Obliteration (stoner melodeath)
Sombra – Condemned to the Colorless (progressive/tech death)
Stress Spells – Hearts Never Tire (post-hardcore, screamo)
Supralunar – Dead Come To Dance (heavy metal)
Through Void – Forsaken (progressive death/doom)
Troll – Engenharia reversa da desgraça (Soulfly in the woods)
Virodh – Harvest of Desolation (noisy death metal)
Wicked Smile – When Night Falls (heavy metal)
Wolverine – Anomalies (progressive metal?, synth rock)
..."Waaar in heaven! Aaangels in the sky!!!!"