Friends. Haters of nobles. Fine folk one and all. Death’s Door is back.
Oh yeah, baby.
We appreciate your patience for this latest installment, our first of 2026. As is often the case, newer quality releases tend to be a bit scarcer in the opening months of the year. So we gave ourselves a little breathing room to let the year’s cream of the crop rise to the top. Below is a taste of the excellence we’ve discovered thus far this year, and we hope you find these records as tasty as we have!
To another year of face-melting madness, we say death metal. Forever.
-Jonathan Adams
Cream of the Crop
Stabbing - Eon of Obscenity
My relationship to brutal death metal has been probably my most inconsistent in comparison to all of death metal’s subgenres. I’m not always in the mood for a fundamental slam or 12, but something about 2026 is calling me back to the genre’s heaviest extremes. Probably a phase in life, but my appreciation for this style grows daily, and Stabbing’s latest release has done nothing but further stoke the fire. Eon of Obscenity, the group’s sophomore outing, is exactly what the doctor ordered as we kick off the year, and if this is the quality we can expect within this sonic space as the year continues we may be looking at an all-timer.
For the uninitiated, Stabbing hail from Texas and play some of the most interesting brutal death metal you’re likely to hear. The riffs are catchy yet somewhat intricate, the rhythm section is absurd, and vocalist Bridget Lynch delivers some of the nastiest gutturals in the game. Eon of Obscenity certifies the band’s skill set as more than a one-hit wonder, upping the ante from their debut in every measurable metric. This is premium, high octane brutal death metal at its most disgusting and sonically depraved. “Inhuman Torture Chamber” displays this perfectly, blending pitch perfect riff creation with stalwart instrumental performances and vocals that make one want to vomit. Exactly as it should be.
The only knock one might be able to level against Stabbing is that they’re not the most original band working in the scene today. Elements of Disgorge and Defeated Sanity are replete throughout Eon of Obscenity, but that’s honestly not a bad thing. Stabbing aren’t aiming to reinvent the wheel, but instead hone and refine it (in the grossest way possible). On the whole, their second record is proof positive of what happens when you take elements from the masters’ greatest works and craft them into something that feels familiar without losing a sense of uniqueness and panache. That’s what Eon of Obscenity represents to my ears, and it’s one of my favorite brutal death metal records in quite some time.
-JA
Best of the Rest
BRAINBLAST - COLOSSUS SUPREMA
I usually don’t like it when bands capitalize their name but in this case, there really wasn’t any other choice. Hailing from Bogotá, Colombia, BRAINBLAST is an exercise in death metal maximalism. Every single dial that has ever existed has been turned up to eleven. New dials have been invented, just so they could go to eleven. One dial reads “TECHNICAL”. A second dial reads “SYMPHONIC”. And one last dial, perhaps the most important one, reads “DEATH METAL”. COLOSSUS SUPREMA puts any other “epic” album you’ve heard to shame, not just blasting everything loud but also blasting everything multiplied. More leads, more violins, more choirs, more blastbeats, more of that good, farty bass tone, more oughs and growls and breakdowns and solos than should work.
But here’s the thing: COLOSSUS SUPREMA fucking works. It should be a bloated mess where everything is competing for your attention but, instead, BRAINBLAST uses exceptional composition and excellent production to make sure everything gets its time in the sun. This means the listener is free to choose what to focus on: are you here for soaring choruses replete with choirs and gothic pianos? Go for it. Do you want to meditate upon shredded solos with a thousand notes a second? You got that as well. Or are intricate, technical, weaving unisons and sweeps more your thing? COLOSSUS SUPREMA has you covered there as well. Everything is well executed, with the same love and attention given to the rest of the album.
There is only one price of admission: you must love death metal. This album seriously does not stop to do anything else. If you’re looking for variety or counterpoint, this is not the album for you. There is no counterpoint or shadowplay when the sun is fucking exploding. There is only white, searing, hot light, the light of death metal, that washes over you and burns you to a crisp. If you are looking for METAL that is LOUD and GOES FAST, you have come to the right place. Slowpokes leave the hall. BRAINBLAST is playing and there is only one tempo: YES.
-Eden Kupermintz
Mors Verum – Canvas
Canadian quartet, Mors Verum, have been around for over a decade and while most of their previous efforts have veered towards old school and technical death metal, their latest opus, Canvas, is a more complex affair. This release sees them shift into a more progressive realm and in doing so they appear to have found their sweet spot. The band manages to meld dissonant atmospherics, ferocious staccato riffs, sludgy rhythms and jazz intricacies with nonchalant abandon.
Transcending Obscurity records plucked out some heavyweight names for their “For Fan Of” list, with Gorguts, Morbid Angel and Ulcerate all in the mix. But it’s genuinely difficult to argue against any of them, as there are nods and subtle tips of the cap scattered throughout this beguiling offering. The first riff from opener “Bloodied Teeth”, for example, could slot straight into Morbid Angel’s Gateways To Annihilation or Kingdoms Disdained, and this is the kind of hero worship that I can get on board with. However, Canvas is not purely about brutal riffage, and there is a delightful change of gear on “Your Apocalypse”, which slowly evolves through walls of blast beats and screams to become one of the most elegant death metal songs I’ve heard in some time. The delicate touches on show are not only intelligent and accomplished but graceful, culminating in a final third that is so damn catchy it will be bouncing around in your head for weeks to come.
“Mortal” is another highlight with a huge doom-laden opening that eventually cracks open to release a river of sickly dissonance (big tick in the Gorguts box). The breakneck speed middle-section is a technical masterclass but doesn’t overstay its welcome, giving way to a slower riff and pounding drums that you’ll have no choice to bang your head to. The finale ups the speed once again but now accompanied by the most beautiful trilling guitars that you’ll never want to end (tick the Ulcerate box for a full house).
There are only five tracks on this release but calling it an EP seems like an injustice due to the cacophony of layers its half hour performance contains. Yet, the relatively short duration somehow seems just right, allowing each song to stand on its own and giving the listener a chance to digest and process every moment without clutter. This is an astoundingly well composed piece of forward-thinking death metal which manages to be heavy, experimental and sophisticated all at the same time.
-PK
Syrictus - Temple of Unbeing
Look, OK, yes, this album is from 2025 but you’re not the boss of me, I worship only riffs. I needed somewhere to write about this underrated release and it’s death metal (very much so) and so, here we are. Temple of Unbeing didn’t get nearly as much love as it deserves and it’s well worth spending the first two months of a new year digging into things you might have missed. On it, Syrictus do the seemingly impossible - getting me interested in whirling, somewhat dissonant, very maximalist death metal. They do this by combining very dense main riffs with big choruses, bringing forth that classic death metal combo of technical brutality with massive, heavy metal groove.
But oh, the real secret is the absolutely magnificent and sweeping leads on the album. Check out “Graveform” for example, the first proper track of the album. I was already sold by the time the bridge appeared in the middle of the track, swayed by the excellently blistering vocals and the agile riffs. But that bridge! Its melodic grandeur is so good, like a pillar of light piercing through the murky darkness of the rest of the composition. It completely won me over and made me hear the album in a completely different way.
So it’s from 2025. Who cares? It’s wreally, really good death metal, with influences from the skronkier side of things, but also plenty of melodies a la progressive death metal, and some sweeps and riffs that are tech death through and through. Most of all, it is unsung and so, here I am, singing its praise. Listen to Syrictus! Shit slaps.
-EK