September and October have long been a hot-bed for strong releases and this year was no different. The crisp air in the northern hemisphere and shortening days have had that seasonal depression kicking in early, and “spooky season” is always ripe for some grimy, frightening, or bleak music, and we’ve got an unhealthy dose of that to share today. With that, here’s some of our favourite and potentially slept-on releases from the worlds of metalcore, noise rock, sludge, screamo and what have you.
-TB
The Wall of Death
Great Falls - The Bite That Grows Up (sludge/noise rock)
Great Falls’ previous album, Objects Without Pain (2023), was a massive creative leap forward for the Seattle-based trio, and it was one of my favorite albums from that year. That album detailed the slow, painful dissolution of a decades-long relationship, and it meticulously interrogated all of the questions, from the existential to the mundane, that present themselves during such personal upheavals. That subject matter is reflected in the unforgiving density and dissonance of the band’s unique mixture of sludge and noise rock, punctuated by guitarist/vocalist Demian Johnston’s skronky guitar work and his vocal-shredding howls. Great Falls’ newest release is largely a continuation of Objects Without Pain, but The Bite That Grows Up further refines the sound and subject matter found on that album.
Made up of Johnston (ex-Kiss It Goodbye, ex-Playing Enemy), bassist Shane Mehling (ex-Playing Enemy), and drummer Nickolis Parks (Gaytheist), Great Falls’ music continues to thrive on discomfort and tension on The Bite That Grows Up. The foundation of much of that discomfort and tension stem from Johnston’s vocal delivery and guitar stylings. Johnston’s vocals are so frequently and deliberately strained that his voice often sounds as if it’s on the edge of giving out entirely. It has the effect of making the anguish and anger present throughout the album so much more sincere. Also central among the band’s carefully-concocted cacophony is Johnston’s extensive utilization of alternate guitar tunings. Similar to that of Sonic Youth, Johnston’s guitar tunings allow for chords and intervals that might be difficult, if not impossible, to perform on a standard-tuned guitar. That in of itself can create unexpected sounds since the types of chords and intervals that listeners are used to hearing with standard-tuned guitars are absent. But it’s particularly noticeable in Great Falls’ case when Johnston’s open strings are played against fretted strings, often focused on creating tension and dissonance. This is most clearly heard in the oddly-timed opening of “Debt Ethics.”
Like peers Neurosis, Sumac, and Kowloon Walled City, Great Falls’ albums have a natural, earthen quality while retaining the sharp edges and biting clarity. Appropriately enough, Scott Evans, the vocalist/guitarist behind Kowloon Walled City as well as the audio engineer behind releases from Neurosis, Sumac, and a host of others, engineered The Bite That Grows Up. Evans generally does a masterful job capturing the band’s performances in a natural sense reminiscent of the late, great Steve Albini. The guitars do, however, sometimes get too muddy in the mix, such as at the halfway point of “Buildings Full of Rope.” Nevertheless, the clank of the upper register of the guitars, the growl of the bass, and the pounding of the drums are all distinct in the mix, even during the densest and most complex sections.
Like Objects Without Pain before it, The Bite That Grows Up is a heartwrenching, emotionally draining listening experience. The misery presented in its 40-minute runtime is raw and unfiltered to the extent that it calls into question the sincerity of a multitude of other loud, aggressive bands claiming they make for catharsis. Great Falls continues to put them all to shame.
-JD
Gilla Band - Pugnello (noise rock/industrial rock/EBM)
I keep writing about exemplary, innovative noise rock being released this year, but there's a simple reason why: it’s a fertile time for it. The UK seems especially rife with bands like Model/Actriz, Chalk, and Mandy, Indiana that are taking the plunge into experimental, electronic- and industrial-leaning noise rock. Gilla Band is an example of another British noise rock act swimming in the wreckage of defective electronics and industrial waste, and Pugnello is the stellar result.
Gilla Band is no stranger to electronically-driven, industrial-tinged noise rock, as their previous album, the superb Most Normal (2022), clearly demonstrated. However, Pugnello widens the scope and spectrum of the band’s already anxiety-inducing sound, pushing it into more abstraction and experimentation. Central to this is the Perkins HD-01, a piece of musical hardware that acts as a drum machine, synthesizer, and sound designer. Despite the fact that members of Gilla Band are credited with guitar, bass, and (acoustic) drums, there is very little on Pugnello that resembles those instruments. Instead, Pugnello is replete with programmed drums, metallic clanks, grating squelches, and nauseating pulsations. With that in mind, there is one adjective that comes to mind when succinctly describing Pugnello: broken. From the stuttering electronic trill in “Megazord” to the failing-machine vocals of “Computer Sadness,” nearly every element of the album is fractured, fragmented, wrecked, or ruined.
This also extends to vocalist Dara Kiely’s performance and lyrics, which often engage with two consequential aspects of Kiely’s personal life: his schizophrenia diagnosis and the death of his estranged father. In addressing those issues, Kiely is disarmingly direct on tracks like “Alogia” (“Especially because I’m a schizophrenic”) and “Jacobsons” (“I should be more sad”). At other times, he revels in vivid but disparate imagery in his James Murphy-like lilt. The obsessive repetition and anxious cataloging of pop culture references (e.g., Top Cat, Bananas in Pyjamas, and Elvis) and idioms strikingly juxtapose the title of opener “The Angelus.” The Angelus is a common Catholic prayer, so the superficial references in the lyrics suggest a broken embrace of spirituality for which the mundane has been elevated to the sacred. “The Angelus” isn’t the only song on Pugnello rife with pop culture references: “Placeholder,” the very next track, references Teletubbies, Friends, Phantom Menace, Power Rangers.
If the point of Pugnello was to immerse the listener in complex feelings of grief and the disconcerting experiences of schizophrenia, then Gilla Band succeeded brilliantly. From start to finish, Pugnello is the sound of someone desperately trying to regain some semblance of balance to their life, even going so far as to grasp at pop culture nostalgia for some composure and comfort. Instead, the lack of stable footing presents a world and worldview that is just as broken as the sounds that soundtrack it.
-JD
God Mother – Kottvarld (metalcore/mathcore/hardcore punk)
Last year it was Danish rascals Eyes hitting us with the most fun you can have in a hardcore mosh pit, as Spinner wound its way into people’s hearts and AOTY lists. In 2026 it’s Swedish scoundrels God Mother who are attempting the same party trick with their third full-length Kottvarld. This album slaps from the get go and just doesn’t stop slapping. You’ll likely feel a tad tarnished and raw by the time you’ve made your way through all twelve tracks, but you’ll know you’ve had a good time. And that’s the thing; this is just damn good fun. There’s no escaping it.
Galloping guitars intertwine with blast beats, which give way to gloriously catchy melodeath riffage, exuberant black n roll solos follow, all punctuated with Sebastian Campbell’s rasping vocals and guttural bellows. And that’s all just in the first two tracks. The pedal is firmly on the floor for the opening salvo of this album, but “Fault” serves up some welcome slow and sludgy respite. God Mother are more than happy to mix things up, just don’t expect any indulgent opuses, as half the tracks clock in at under the two-minute mark.
This is their first full-length album since 2017’s Vilseledd and while some of the obvious Dillinger Escape Plan links (they were originally signed to their Party Smasher Inc label) are still there, they’re less prevalent than on previous releases. We do however have some new influences sneaking in from the likes of fellow Swedes, Kvelertak, including the introduction of piano on “Almost Intelligent” and “Limbless”. It’s a fleeting yet welcome addition and possibly one that could be explored further if they ever decide to extend the length of their songs. Speaking of which, the album finale “Meat World” (the English translation of Kotvarldd) is over four minutes long, but while the first half is full of sludgy dissonance as you might expect, the second half focuses on a jazz fuelled cacophony of saxophones and frenetic drums. I wasn’t expecting it, but I love it.
God Mother have delivered an album that is an explosion of pure energy. Don’t try to harness it, just stand back and marvel as it bounces from one place to another smashing everything in its path.
-PK
Hiss – A Cheapened Crown (noise rock/sludge)
It’s been yet another strong year for Noise Rock, with stellar releases from heavy hitters like Chat Pile, Truck Violence and Ronker, which while all enjoyable, haven’t quite reached the nasty, distorted fury I’ve been craving of late. Step forward Portland 3-piece HISS, with their debut album A Cheapened Crown. Please excuse me while I lay down a lazy comparison to set the scene, but the first thing that popped into my head was KEN Mode covering Bleach-era Nirvana, and whilst that does an injustice to the complexities on this record, I also hope it will pique intrigue. There are some blatant early 90’s vibes emanating through this release, possibly due to Robert Comtiz’s purposefully slurring and sneering vocal delivery (which sounds like a cross between Cobain, Craw’s Joe McTighe and The Jesus Lizard legend David Yow) but it also feels contemporary and incredibly heavy thanks to the killer mix by Bob Cheek (Haunted Horses and Bronson Arm).
A Cheapened Crown does not come across like a debut release, and this is due to the band being formed of seasoned musicians from Pacific Northwest acts Still/Form and Marriage + Cancer. The album is confident and assured in its abilities but not in an arrogant way, somehow ensuring there is a slovenly charm and unhinged edge to everything they do. “Buried In Current”, for example, has a plodding persistence, like a hooded stranger following you home on a stormy night. While the title track intro is far sparser and more restrained, it soon caves in under its own weight and hits you with waves of menacing distortion. “The Taste of the Hide” is dense and beautifully twisted with a mid-section that sounds like their instruments are detuning and melting around their hands whilst being played.
Despite its angular, lurching, off-kilter approach, the whole album flows fluidly and the 33 minutes sail by in no time at all. Just don’t think of it like a river or stream, more like a dam that has been mistakenly opened and about to obliterate the unsuspecting town it looms over.
-PK
False Body - Tomorrow Starts Without You (metalcore, grind)
Tomorrow Starts Without You is 20-minutes of razor sharp metallic hardcore out of Alberta, Canada. Everything about this is incredibly cathartic, raw and burning like a solar flare directly to the chest with emotion. False Body write metalcore from the Converge-ian lens, with their dynamic blend of belligerent mathcore, dense sludgy heaviness and fluctuating tempos. However, compared to Converge, the sludge influence is dialed back and filled with an air of grinding screamo and subgenres that end in “violence”.
I appreciate how all-around balanced this is, it never feels too repetitive or over-reliant on the same metalcore tropes. They smoothly transition from atmospheric tension-building, stomping cave-man death metal influence, to crowd-murdering breakdowns, with bouts of impressive technicality and frenetic chaos. "Dylan (Tomorrow Starts Without You)" seriously has one of stompiest-stink-face inducing riffs you'll hear this. And I love a “panic chord” but I’ve felt a little beaten to death by them in the last few years of revival-core and I'm glad they're not over-relied on here. False Body frequently let riffs speak for themselves and give them their time to soak in, and refreshingly let the drumming shine through. The mix is appropriately bass-heavy, but lets the mid-end and treble of the guitar punch through, while importantly allowing Michelle’s vocals to pierce through everything (including potentially your soul.) Speaking of which, this is easily one of my favourite vocal performances of the year. It took me a while to realize why, which is likely because she reminds me of Eva from Rolo Tomassi's screams, with the sort of vulnerability and “leaving everything on the floor” ethos of screamo, noise rock, and bands like PISS.
Beyond just what this album sounds like, in listening to this you're filled with a sense of liberation. Like a vicarious therapy session. It captures that empowerment of extreme metal that makes you feel like you can take on the world, while purging yourself of every ounce of pain and anguish in the process. By the end you come out of it feeling both sliced to pieces, but revitalized and ready to do it again. This is easily among the top metalcore releases this year, and this band deserves far more attention.
-TB
The Crowdkillers (TB Rapid-Fire Spinkick Edition)
XBONGX - XBONGX
XBONGX! A surprise standout metalcore EP of late, this is rowdy old-school metalcore that subverts expectations and doesn't take itself too seriously. It has a skronky mathcore edge and sometimes sounds like old Norma Jean, some melodeath riffs, generally rough and chunky production, all while being oddly catchy.
Endswell - Everything Confided Will be Forgotten
What if twinkly emo had gutturals? Everything Confided Will be Forgotten is a nostalgic warm blanket of midwest emo and pop-punky melodic hardcore, sewn together with tastefully catchy charm and emotional vulnerability. Wisconsin’s Endswell are fun, earnest, and something that’s been missing from the post-hardcore realm. Oh, and please listen to that incredible little 2-minute instrumental electronic math rock track in the middle, “Seraphim”.
30,000 Monkies - SUPER REBOUND
30,000 Monkies are presumably and fittingly named after a track by the noise rock group Lightning Bolt. They write droning sludge metal with that similarly off-kilter and hypnotizing rhythmic undertone to everything. The vocalist matches that tone with a persistently unhinged and ferocious delivery of harsh screams. Combined with some cool post-metal riffing, this thing really sucks you into its groove.
Netherwilds - Peasant Rising
Peasant Rising is a wildly ambitious rock opera of medieval folk channelled into various forms of metal and hardcore, complete with endearingly corny interludes that make me want to watch the musical, conceptualized by the band as “peasant metal.” There’s some great snowmobile racing game worthy nu-metal riffs in here, blackened-thrashy moments, 00s metalcore, all pulled off impressively. The idea of “fun” in -core music has been a recurring motif in my listening lately, and this has that in spades. Tracks like “Siege Proof Hovel” need to be experienced by a mosh-pit of people LARPing in medieval armor. It immediately clicked, but I was blown away to discover this is a new project by vocalist/guitarist David Monks of 00s-10s Toronto indie rock band Tokyo Police Club, for any real ones out there.
Wellness - Wellness
Wellness are one of the most ambitious and promising new acts to pop up this year. I was not surprised to see the drummer of Liturgy, and Kayo Dot (Leo Didkovsky) attached to this, they have a brilliant talent for avant-garde percussion that keeps the dissonant waves of mathcore flowing through this 17-minute, 7-track release. A great balance of abrasive technicality and evocative melodies throughout have had me coming back to this a lot. The production kind of makes you feel like you’re listening to them from the entrance of a venue, (both complimentary and derogatorily?). The guitars are a bit buried but you get used to it in a way that feels intentional, and the drum-and-vocal forward mix works here to bring out the raw emoviolence anguish emanating from this impressive debut.
Mental Cruelty - Echoes of a Forlorn Land
Mental Cruelty might be the best modern deathcore band not trying to sound like old deathcore. Instead, they sometimes sound like Finnish melodic death metal and its folk side. There's a lot of riffs, which is sadly refreshing for this style, great vocals that sound like an old-fantasy villain creature, and pretty balanced songwriting. If you're a fan of modern symphonic deathcore, but also like, Ensiferum, you might want to check this out. This is their 5th album to date since their 2018 debut and they keep getting better with each one.
Ghola - AEON
Ghola are a dynamic new screamo super-group of sorts with members from Lord Snow, Crowning, Frail Body and more. If you're familiar with those bands you should have some expectation of what you're getting here. This brief but affecting release is filled with challenging, jazzy instrumentation, solemn soundscapes and fierce vocals. A screamo standout for 2026 for certain.