Lists are fun... so here are ours!
Eden’s Totally Legit List Where He Didn’t Cheat At All (Unranked)
Wildhunt – Aletheia
Object Unto Earth – Memory Tyrant
Exxul – Sealed Into None
City Girl & Guided Tour – Mana Lake
Gavran – The One Who Propels
Bekor Qilish – Consecrated Abysses of Dread
Apparat – A Hum of Maybe
Cryptic Shift – Overspace & Supertime
Sugar Horse – Not A Sound in Heaven
Antropoceno – No Ritmo da Terra
Micorwaves – Temporal Shifter
Abrams – Loon
The Silver – Looking Glass Hymnal Blue
CAVS – Sojourn
Elder – Through Zero
Eveale – Enter the Woodland Realm
Oh Hiroshima – And the Dead Tree Gives No Shelter
Inscribed – Upon the Twisted Throne
We Stood Like Kings – Pinnocchio
Coffin Hunters – Cosmic Dawn
Junius – Sotera
Karmanjakah – Diamond Morning
Fires in the Distance – Circadian Promise
Plini – An Unnameable Desire
Black Lung – Forever Beyond
JD’s State of Metal Address: The Top 25 of 2026 Thus Far (Unranked)
Converge – Love Is Not Enough/Hum of Hurt (metallic hardcore/metalcore)
Neurosis – An Undying Love for a Burning World (post-metal/sludge)
Doppler – Pourquoi Ce Disque ? (math rock/noise rock/post-punk)
Plantoid – FLARE (post-punk/prog rock)
Zu – Ferrum Sidereum (noise rock/experimental)
Mood Drills – When Will You Die (experimental/electronic alt rock)
Otobo – Inside Machines (math/psych/noise/art rock)
Paranoid Void – Action (math rock/post-rock)
Exhumed – Red Asphalt (goregrind/death metal)
Robber Robber – Two Wheels Move the Soul (indie rock/post-punk)
Toast – Dust & Feathers (instrumental indie/ambient)
Mandy, Indiana – URGH (experimental noise rock/post-punk)
Ulrika Spacek – EXPO (experimental post-punk)
Slift – Fantasia (stoner/psych/prog rock)
Tigercub – Nets to Catch the Wind (hard rock)
District Five – GLUT (post-punk/art rock)
Horse Lords – Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive! (experimental math rock)
Hammok – When Does This Place Become Our Scene? (post-hardcore/noise rock)
Failure – Location Lost (alt/space rock)
At The Gates – The Ghost of a Future Dead (melodic death metal)
Sans Froid – Back into the Womb (prog/art rock)
Tsubi Club – Trinket (hyperpop/glitch pop/plunderphonics)
Underscores – U (experimental/glitch pop/R&B)
Brigitte Calls Me Baby – Irreversible (jangle pop/post-punk/alt rock)
Trent’s Extremely Rank List of Ranked Albums (Unranked)
Acloudyskye – In a While This Will All Be Gone (indietronica, post-rock)
Eyelet – Solenoid (screamo, noise rock)
Boards of Canada – Inferno (downtempo, progressive electronic)
Hikes – Winnower (math pop, chamber folk)
Karmanjakah – Diamond Morning (progressive metal, thall)
Cassus – Scalis Felden (screamo, emoviolence)
Zombieshark! – ANGEL NOISES, YOU'RE SAFE NOW. (cybergrind, metalcore)
Deadtrees – New World (post-rock, symphonic blackgaze)
Kaatayra – Caminhos de Água (avant-garde black metal, brazilian folk)
Antropoceno – No Ritmo da Terra (post-rock, brazilian folk)
Ostraca – Thread (screamo, post-metal)
Reeking Aura – On the Promise of the Moon (progressive death metal)
Converge – Love is Not Enough (metallic hardcore, metalcore)
Orphan Donor – Ailments (mathgrind, emoviolence)
Genghis Tron – Signal Fire (progressive post-metal, cybergrind)
Rhododendron – Ascent Effort (noise rock, math rock)
Saidan – Fangdriller: Scars Beneath Memory’s Wrist (melodic black metal)
Panopticon – Det hjemsøkte hjertet (atmospheric black metal)
Hammok – When Does This Place Become Our Scene (noise rock, screamo)
Apparat – A Hum of Maybe (art pop, IDM)
.gif from god – Dissimulation (mathcore, emoviolence)
Portrayal of Guilt – …Beginning of the End (blackened sludge, noise rock, nu-metal)
A Forest of Stars – Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface (avant-garde black
metal)
Chalk Hands – The Line that Shapes the Coast of Us (post-hardcore, screamo)
The Saddest Landscape – Alone with Heaven (screamo, post-rock)
Josh’s Roughly Ranked and Entirely Correct Top 25 of 2026 So Far
1. Immolation – Descent
2. Worm – Necropalace
3. Converge – Hum of Hurt
4. Protest the Hero – Within
5. Lamb of God – Into Oblivion
6. DevilDriver – Strike and Kill
7. Sylosis – The New Flesh
8. Jessie Ware – Superbloom
9. Genghis Tron – Signal Fire
10. Cryptic Shift – Overspace & Supertime
11. Elder – Through Zero
12. Doodseskader – The Change Is Me
13. Nervosa – Slave Machine
14. Dir En Grey – Mortal Downer
15. August Burns Red – Season of Surrender
16. Spirit Adrift – Infinite Illumination
17. Converge – Love is Not Enough
18. Defect Designer – Depressants
19. Poison the Well – Peace in Place
20. 100 Demons – Embrace the Black
21. In Malice's Wake – The Profound Darkness
22. Anna Pest – Dark Arms Reach Skyward With Bone White Fingers II: Be (Not) Afraid
23. No Cure – It’s Going to Get Dark
24. Static Dress – Injury Episode
25. Møl – Dreamcrush
Mish’s 25 hardcore records/demos/EPs/uncategorical things so far
1. Powermove – Infernal Hatred… Eternal Strife
2. Killing Pace – HCPM
3. Sin Against Sin – Demo 2
4. Weaponized – Demo 2026
5. Bloodsport – Destined For Demise
6. Zookeeper – Gates Wide Open
7. Rakshasa – Chata Morana
8. Take It In Blood – Exit From Life
9. Wreckonize – Dead 2 Me/Nowhere 2 Run
10. Compulsion – A Doctrine Of Rapid Dominance
11. Temple Guard – Citadel In Flames
12. Fear Of Loss – Summer Of Hate
13. Fantasy – Fantasy
14. Face 2 Face – Promo 2026
15. Destiny – Spring Promo
16. Eternal Enemy – Demo 2026
17. Half Man – I Can See God
18. Bleach To Death – Sacrificing Your Beliefs
19. Division Of Mind – Exoterror
20. Forced Order – Undying Spirit
21. World I Hate – Total Nuclear Annihilation
22. Fraye – Fraye
23. X Ablaze X – Spring Promo
24. Barricade – No Spirit
25. Figure Out – Through the Tides
Boeli’s Unranked Top 25 of ‘26 so far: A Tale Of Contrition Waiting in the Wings
Khemmis – Khemmis (doom metal)
Fires in the Distance – Circadian Promise (melodic death/doom metal)
Warning – Rituals of Shame (doom metal)
The Silver – Looking Glass Hymnal Blue (progressive/blackened goth metal)
Cnoc an Tursa – A Cry For The Slain (blackened folk metal/melodeath)
Walg – VI (melodic black metal)
Truckfighters – Master Flow (fuzzy stoner rock/metal)
Apolaustic – No Plenitude Without Suffering (melodic black metal)
Miserere Luminus – Sidera (progressive/melodic black metal)l
Poison The Well – Peace In Place (post-hardcore/metalcore)
Anna Pest – Dark Arms Reach Skyward With Bone White Fingers II: Be (Not) Afraid
(Progressive deathcore)
Ennui – Qroba (funeral doom)
Enshine – Elevation (melodic death/doom metal)
Karnivool – In Verses (prog metal)
Ellende – Zerfall (post-black metal)
Stormkeep – The Nocturnes of Iswylm (melodic black metal/dungeon synth)
Doodseskader – The Change is Me (witch house/industrial/hiphop)
Kneecap – Fenian (hiphop)
Draconian – In Somnolent Ruin (goth metal)
Pure Wrath – Bleak Days Ahead (post-black metal)
Northern Graves – Derelict Heart (atmospheric/post-black metal)
Hellripper – Coronach (blackened speed metal)
Antrisch – Expedition III: Renitenzpfad (atmospheric black metal)
Hanging Garden – Isle of Bliss (melodic/blackened doom metal)
Jonathan’s “I Promise I Listen To More Than Death Metal” Top 25 List of ‘26 So Far (Ranked)
1. Saidan – Fangdriller: Scars Beneath Memory’s Wrist
2. Cryptic Shift – Overspace and Supertime
3. Neurosis – An Undying Love for A Burning Workd
4. Mylingar – Út
5. Boards of Canada – Inferno
6. Immolation – Descent
7. Elder – Through Zero
8. Miserere Luminis – Sidera
9. Converge – Love Is Not Enough
10. Converge – Hum of Hurt
11. Funebrarum – Beckoning the Void of Eternal Silence
12. Khemmis – Khemmis
13. Worm – Necropalace
14. Archspire – Too Fast to Die
15. Devourment – Pious Impiety
16. Vomitory – In Death Throes
17. Fossilization – Advent of Wounds
18. Temple Guard – Citadel In Flames
19. Ordh – Blind In Abyssal Realms
20. Gutvoid – Liminal Shrines
21. Stabbing – Eon of Obscenity
22. Exhumed – Red Asphalt
23. Exxul – Sealed Into None
24. Ultha – A Light So Dim
25. Warning – Rituals of Shame
Song o’ the Half-Year
Stephen Wilson Jr. – “Gary”
Phil's Top 25 of Filth, Fuzz and Fervour (Unranked)
Nightmarer – Hell Interface
Under – What Happened In Roundwood
Mors Verum – Canvas
Death Cult – Death Cult
Ronker – Respect the Hustle, I Won’t Be Your Dog
Neurosis – An Undying Love For A Burning World
Converge – Hum of Hurt
Kicked in the Head By a Horse – BLOOM/DECAY
Cell Press – Tabula Rasa
Chamber – This is Goodbye...
Crouch – Breaking the Catatonic State
Merit – Sweetness Fades
Portrayal of Guilt – Beginning of the End
DOPPLeR – Pourqoi Ce Disque
Hammok – When Does This Place Become Our Scene?
Rhododendron – Ascent Effort
Growth – Under The Under
SlaveOne – The Seraphic Conspiracy
Eyelet – Solenoid
Dagerman – Di fronte a noi il nulla
Zhne – Zhne
Crowquill – Erase the Smile
Gutvoid – Liminal Shrines
Bodysnatcher – Hell is Here, Hell is Home
Zao – Pillars
Mitchell Doesn’t Believe in Lists, but Honestly Who Cares (Unranked)
Stam1na – Apnea
Ok Goodnight – Stop/Go
Antropoceno – No ritmo da Terra
Onchocerciasis Esophagogastroduodenoscopy – Fugue Gnawed From the Scabbed God Cerebrum
Million Moons – You Be Good, I Love You
Holotropic – Individual
Black Orchid Empire – Lore
Moonspell – Far From God
Karcius – Black Soul Sickness
Goreworm – Miasmic Solitude
Karlo’s Top 15 (Unranked)
Karnivool – In Verses
Don Broco – Nightmare Tripping
Sylosis – The New Flesh
Textures – Genotype
Einar Solberg – Vox Occulta
Good Tiger – The Most Negative Day Of The Year
Elder – Through Zero
Plini – An Unnameable Desire
Yebba – Jean
Xenobiotic – Dante
Neurosis – An Undying Love for a Burning World
Growth – Under The Under
Ok Goodnight – Stop/Go
Archspire – Too Fast to Die
Lamb of God – Into Oblivion