TAILGUNNER – MIDNIGHT BLITZ

Out now via Napalm Records - On their second full-length, TAILGUNNER abandons any sense of being a promising revival act and delivers a record that is nothing but structurally assured. Midnight Blitz, released through Napalm Records, consolidates the band’s fixation on classic British heavy metal into something a little more purposeful.

SPACE OF VARIATIONS – POISONED ART

Space of Variations return with Poisoned Art, their third full length and most disciplined statement to date. Released February 13, via Napalm Records, the album reframes the band’s reputation for stylistic excess into something finer and more intentional.

Ennui - QROBA

AVAILABLE NOW via MEUSE MUSIC RECORDS - Coming from Tbilisi, Georgia, on the banks of the Kura River, ENNUI have steadily built a reputation as masters of funeral doom. With already four records to their name, the band now returns with "Qroba", putting an end to nearly eight years' wait, since their last release, "End of the Circle". Only guitarist, bassist, and vocalist David Unsaved and guitarist Serge Shengelia remain from the original lineup, yet the current ensemble impresses with its depth: up to four guitars weave a dense, layered sound, creating the massive, immersive textures that define ENNUIS's signature funeral doom.

VAULDERIE – SANGUINOCTUM

According to the press materials, the new album is meant to be a ferocious statement steeped in occult ritual, vampiric imagery, and raw black-thrash violence. Whether VAULDERIE truly delivers on that promise is something this review aims to explore. Emerging from the German underground, the band released "Sanguinoctum" in January 2026 as their first full-length effort, following the 2022 EP "Fiends of the Night" and a few split releases in the years that followed. Issued through Witches Brew, the album marks a decisive step forward-and now it is time to examine what this debut has to offer.

NECROFIER – TRANSCEND INTO OBLIVION

Eight years after they formed in Texas, NECROFIER are ready to make the next move. Following their first two full-length albums, "Prophecies of Eternal Darkness" (2021) and "Burning Shadows in the Southern Night" (2023), released via Season of Mist, the band now reveal "Transcend Into Oblivion", their third full-length and the first release under Metal Blade Records. Their Scandinavian-inspired melodic black metal shows that the genre remains alive and compelling, even beyond the underground. On their third album, NECROFIER present an icy, three-chapter black metal journey, each of those chapters is divided into three acts.

MUERTISSIMA – PROPHECY

MUERTISSIMA returned five years after their debut with a new full-length release on February 13, 2026 Titled "Prophecy". The album sees the French outfit continuing their self-described old-school death metal approach while opening a new chapter in the band’s evolution. The band was discovered by Fetzner Death Records, an Underground label from Germany. The band’s lineup features Simon aka Gevaudan (guitars/vocals), Steph aka El Pradosaure (rhythm guitar), François (bass) and Nicolas aka Le Nickolathor (drums). Founded by guitarist "El Pradosaure" somewhere in the Region of Paris, MUERTISSIMA have carved out a distinct sonic identity rooted in old-school death metal, sharpened by pronounced elements of black and thrash metal. The result is a sound that balances raw aggression with tight, riff-driven intensity-firmly grounded in tradition yet charged with a darker, modern edge.

NECROSEXUAL – ROAD TO RUBBLE

AVAILABLE NOW via Black Metal Archives - Road to Rubble is the second full-album release from Necrosexual, a powerhouse of energy hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their sound is classic thrash metal injected with horror punk, the adrenaline-filled adventure one of lust, rebellion and ultraviolence. Leading the rampage is our star of the show, The Necrosexual. He oozes charisma as a frontman, kicking off the starting track “High Times In Hell” with a roar of ignition.

SYLOSIS - THE NEW FLESH

AVAILABLE NOW via NUCLEAR BLAST RECORDS - Reaching for something larger without weakening the foundation is one of heavy music’s hardest tricks. Plenty of bands have tried to scale up - broadening choruses, polishing production, layering atmosphere - only to find that the very thing that made them appealing has been lost in the process. Ambition can elevate a band just as easily as it can undo them.

EVIG NATT – VÅKETIMEN

Out now via Wormholedeath Records - Norway continues to export melancholy with absolute precision, and Evig Natt’s fifth full length Vaketimen stands as one of the band’s most cohesive statements to date. Rooted in orchestral gothic doom and sharpened by black progressive metal instincts, the record favors complete atmosphere, with a stronghold on patience and restraint. The result… heavy music that breathes the way it should.

PATRIARCHS IN BLACK – COMPLETELY COVERED IN BLACK

Out now via NoLifeTilMetal Records - On Completely Covered in Black, Patriarchs in Black doubles down on a formula that has defined the project since its 2021 formation. Complete reverance for classic heavy music filtered through a thick, modern doom lens. Led by guitarist Dan Lorenzo and drummer Johnny Kelly, the record is a controlled weight test of songs that shaped their musical DNA.

GUYOÐ - DEATH THROES OF A DROWNING GOD

AVAILABLE NOW via GRAZIL RECORDS - As Death Throes of a Drowning God settles into its closing moments, GUYOÐ make one thing clear: this is not a record built from parts. Doom, death and black metal are all present, but none of them operate as foundation or accents. The EP doesn’t pivot between styles. The elements converge rather than alternate, and across four expansive tracks offset by brief but purposeful interludes, the band construct something that feels larger than its runtime.

IRON BONES - POISON RIOT

Out February 19 (Unsigned) - Iron Bones’ Poison Riot is a record built around velocity, pressure, and intent. This is the bands third full length, and it sounds like a band focused on pure execution. The self coined “Heavy Speed Roll” tag is less branding than description, with speed metal propulsion welded to rock and roll grit, driven hard enough to strip polish into something functional, leaving any traces of decoration behind.

FROZEN OCEAN – ASKDRÖMMAR

Available Now via APOCALYPTIC WITCHCRAFT - FROZEN OCEAN is the exciting solo project of multi-instrumentalist Vaarwel from Moscow, whose work has spanned two decades of constant evolution. Throughout this time, the project has yielded numerous full-length albums and EPs, yet the period between 2015 and 2026 saw an absence of new studio albums—a silence now broken by "Askdrömmar". Originally formed in 2005 as an atmospheric black metal group, FROZEN OCEAN soon grew beyond the confinements of any single genre. Vaarwel’s approach has always been about exploring, shifting between different styles while preserving his distinctive sonic identity that holds the entire catalog together. This versatility is clearly shown in the project’s amazing discography. The raw, uncompromising black metal of "Likegyldig Raseri" (2011), "Vanviddsang" (2013), and "Natt Over Meg" (2013) stands in stark contrast to the droning ambient textures of "Aokigahara" (2011) and "Oneiric in Geocentricism" (2011), as well as the electronic experimentation found on Trollvinter (2013). Despite these stylistic shifts, a persistent atmospheric thread runs through every release, giving FROZEN OCEAN a cohesive artistic character. With the album "Askdrömmar", Vaarwel revisits his atmospheric foundation with a new clarity. The album leans into melodic black metal while combining ambient, electronic, and industrial elements, creating a layered and also immersive soundscape. The result is an album that feels both familiar and also fresh and newly inspired, showing once again FROZEN OCEAN’s ability to evolve without losing their essence.

DESORATION - NON

Desoration are a five-piece Blackened Symphonic Metal band with elements of Death Metal, from Christchurch. Formed in 2020, they went through some lineup and stylistic changes before assembling the roster of musicians involved in making NON, their debut album that follows 2024’s Apotechnosis EP. Engineered by the band, NON was mixed and mastered by Marvin Menz at Tide Studio in London, and its striking cover art was created by Nicolás Oliveros/Dark Blessed.

Bizarrekult - Alt Som Finnes

Out February 20 via Season of Mist - Bizarrekult’s Alt Som Finnes is the bands third album, abandoning distance and restraint in favor of exposure. Where earlier releases balanced introspection with atmosphere, this record presses further inward, documenting complete collapse. Roman V.’s long running project, rooted in Norwegian black metal but shaped by personal fracture, reaches its most direct and punishing form here.

DARKLORE - THE GREAT ELVEN WAR

Release date: 20 February - Emerging once again from the depths of the blackened fantasy metal scene, DARKLORE returned with their second full-length album, The Great Elven War, set for independent release on February 20th. Across nearly seventy minutes and eight expansive tracks, the album pulls listeners into a sprawling mythical battlefield where heroic clashes and dark magic unfold in cinematic fashion. Each song feels like a chapter in a larger saga, combining vivid storytelling with carefully crafted musicianship. With The Great Elven War, DARKLORE takes a clear step forward musically. Crushing bass lines and relentless drums form the foundation for soaring guitar riffs and rich harmonies that cut through like flashes of magic in the chaos. Orchestral layers add depth and atmosphere, while fierce blackened death vocals bring both rage and grandeur to the forefront, capturing the spirit of a realm consumed by war. The result is an album that balances aggression with epic scale, drawing the listener deep into DARKLORE’s dark and fantastical world.

UNVERKALT – HÉRÉDITAIRE

Release date: 27 February via Season of Mist - It would be easy to describe Héréditaire as Unverkalt’s heaviest record. It is. The album incorporates extreme and blackened elements without compromise, but the heaviness of the sound isn’t the subject here – it’s simply the medium through which the post-metal band chooses to communicate its underlying themes.

BRAHMASHIRAS – TRINITITE

Out February 20 via Caligari Records - Brahmashiras’ Trinitite is a decisive debut album that confirms the structural promise of their 2023 EP. Where the self-titled release thrived on force and cult obscurity, Trinitite applies the pressure with fierce intent. The band expands its language without diluting, delivering a tightly wound 26 minute record that feels engineered to bruise the eardrums with every listen.

DWELLNOUGHT – MONOLITH OF EPHEMERALITY

Out February 20, 2026 via Caligari Records - Dwellnought’s debut full length Monolith of Ephemerality arrives already burdened with scale. Formed in 2023 in Varese, Italy, the quartet positions itself squarely in the tradition of extreme music that treats mass, duration, and atmosphere as primary compositional tools. The album does not gesture toward monumentality, it simply enforces it.

PONTE DEL DIAVOLO - DE VENOM NATURA

Releasing February 13th via Season of Mist - A deep dive into the unique noise that is known best as blackened punk, De Venom Natura marks Ponte del Dialovo’s second full-length album. It is heavy and sensual in its nature, charming one to listen deeper and reflect upon its message, ensnaring listeners with a siren-like magnetism and sharpened claws. Its vague, poetic lyrics tell a story of life, love and death in all forms.

TEXTURES - GENOTYPE

Out now via Kscope - After nearly a decade of silence, Textures return with Genotype, an album that rejects the weight of expectation and redraws the band’s creative perimeter. Marketed as the conceptual counterpart to 2016’s Phenotype, this is not a sequel and is far from a resurrection. Written from scratch and self-produced, Genotype reframes Textures as architects of controlled atmosphere, restraint, and melodic discipline.

GIRLZEROTH - FIGHT AGAINST STIGMA

Out now via Underground Syndicate - GIrlzeroth’s Fight Against Stigma showcases the band reclaiming momentum through brutal force. Formed in Bandung in 2008, the group survived years of instability and a prolonged hiatus before re-emerging with a sharpened sense of purpose. However, this EP does not frame that return as a comeback story, but rather presents itself as evidence.

ERNTE - DER SCHWARZEN FLAMME VERMÄCHTNIS

Out February 13 via Purity Through Fire - Ernte’s fourth full-length, Der schwarzen Flamme Vermächtnis, clarifies the project’s intent with unusual discipline. The duo strip their sound back to its most militant components and rebuild it with atmosphere as a mass destructive weapon.

WINTER ETERNAL – UNVEILED NIGHTSKY

Release date: 13 February via Hells Headbangers - With Unveiled Nightsky, Winter Eternal return with their fifth full-length, operating firmly within the lineage of Scandinavian second-wave black metal. The band favour icy tremolo picking, relentless (yet measured) blast work, and atmosphere over shock or excess. Released via Hells Headbangers, Unveiled Nightsky feels more like a consolidation than a reinvention. Rather than reaching for novelty, Winter Eternal commit to a language whose grammar was fixed in Scandinavia in the early ’90s, trusting its constraints to generate meaning rather than limit it.

DEATHRAW - REDUCED TO ASHES

Out February 13 Independently - Deathraw’s Reduced to Ashes is a disciplined exercise in modern thrash restraint. The five track debut runs under half an hour and wastes not even a second of it!

PAGANIZER – AS MANKIND ROTS

Available now via XTREEM MUSIC - Evolution has always been optional in death metal, and Paganizer offer a reminder that longevity doesn’t require reinvention. Twenty-seven years on, with thirteen full-length albums behind them, Swedish death metal here feels less like a preserved style and more like a working discipline - one still capable of producing records that hold together with confidence and purpose.

VARANG NORD – MYGLA

Released on 5th December, Mygla marks Varang Nord’s fourth full-album release. The quintet, hailing from Latvia, present this electric offering, bursting with pagan tradition and death metal flair.

Cattle Hammer - Dark Thoughts With Lights Out

Out now via Road to Masochist - Cattle Hammer’s Dark Thoughts With Lights Out functions like a controlled collapse, with four extended movements designed to reduce emotion, time, and self perception to base matter. This release formalises the intent first made explicit with the band’s 71-minute endurance piece Methlehem.

SUBJUGATED - INHERENT BELLIGERENCE

Subjugated have released their debut full length album ‘Inherent Belligerence’, via Amputated Vein Records. The group originates from Basque Country, Spain with members coming from various previous bands including Carnivorous Voracity, Gory Delivery, Putrid Torso, Virulency and Nekrocake. The band identify as brutal death metal and don’t hold back saying “This record is not meant to entertain; it’s meant to dominate”.

WICKED SMILE - WHEN NIGHT FALLS

Release date 6th February via No Dust Records - WICKED SMILE are back with their second full-length release, When Night Falls. Bursting onto the scene in 2021, the band quickly established themselves as unapologetic standard-bearers of old-school heavy metal. With guitars blazing, a driving rhythm section, and hooks that hit hard, they made it clear that they are true metal rockers at heart-rooted in tradition, yet infused with their own unmistakable energy. With their 2021 debut "Waiting For The Night", WICKED SMILE perfectly positioned themselves at the crossroads of hard rock and heavy metal, blending melodic sensibilities with the raw energy of classic metal. Led by vocalist Danny Cecati (ex-PEGAZUS) and guitarist Stevie Janevski (BLACK MAJESTY), the Australian band now returns with their sophomore full-length effort, "When Night Falls". In 2023, the band also released the EP "Night Time Riders", and three of its four tracks have been carried over to the new album—much to the delight of fans. This continuity highlights how WICKED SMILE are not merely revisiting old ground, but refining and amplifying their signature sound, creating a record that feels both familiar and freshly energised.

INVICTUS – NOCTURNAL VISIONS

Available now via Memento Mori / Me Saco Un Ojo - By the time Nocturnal Visions reaches its eight-minute closing track, Invictus know who’s still listening. The song doesn’t chase new ears or attempt to restate the band’s credentials. Instead, it opens outward. Wider, longer, more generous - like a final gesture reserved for those who committed. It unfolds like the band saying: you’re still here - good, here’s everything we’ve been holding back.

VOIDHÄMMER - NOXIOUS EMISSIONS

Out now via Caligari Records - Voidhämmer’s Noxious Emissions arrives as a blunt corrective to the over articulated end of contemporary death metal. The Los Angeles trio, with members drawn from Swampbeast and Crematory Stench, operate with a clear objective in mind, reduce the form to pressure, filth, and complete motion.

THE MEDEA PROJECT – Live at Dingwalls

Available now (independent release) - Live At Dingwalls documents The Medea Project at the point where their ideas stop circling and finally crash right into our ear holes. Recorded in London on June 20 2025, and released independently in January, it captures the band in command of their dark gothic doom language.

VOID MONUMENTS - POSTHUMOUS IMPRECATION

Emerging death metal band Void Monuments have just released (16/1/26) their debut full length album ‘Posthumous Imprecation’ via Blood Harvest Records. Formed in 2022, the band hails from Saint Petersburg, Russia and personally identify their style as "old school death metal with sinister vocals". Religious overtones abound in track names such as ‘Devilish Prophecies’, ‘Decapitate the Saints’ and ‘The Sign of Blasphemy’.

SPIRAL FRACTURE - GRACE IN DECAY

Available now via Wormholedeath Records - Virginia’s Spiral Fracture arrive at full definition on Grace in Decay, a record that rejects progressive metal’s usual indulgences while retaining intelligence. Released on January 23, the album showcases a band that has stopped proving competence and started exercising control. Complexity is present everywhere, but only functioning as complete structure within their realm of music.

KREATOR - KRUSHERS OF THE WORLD

Out now via Nuclear Blast Records - Kreator enter 2026 in a position few extreme metal bands ever reach - fully canonized, still functional, and largely immune to irrelevance. Krushers of the World, their sixteenth album, documents a veteran band consolidating power after decades of attrition, operating with clarity about what still works and what no longer matters.

LORD OF THE LOST - OPVS NOIR Vol. 2

OPVS NOIR Vol 2 – Out Now via Napalm Records: From German powerhouse Lord of the Lost come their 11th album and continuation to the original OPVS, released in August of 2025. In this opulent musical journey, the original had a darkness to it – this volume also, but while having its own heartfelt melancholy, it has its own hopefulness within the cracks that shine through the dark, industrial sound.

KARLOFF - Revered By Death

Available now via Dying Victims Productions - Karloff’s second album Revered by Death marks a decisive turn away from genre cosplay and toward something heavier in temperament. Formed in Oldenburg in 2018 as a side outlet for Tom Horrified, the band long ago outgrew the “metalpunk for fun” premise suggested by their early demo material. Where The Appearing clarified their identity, this record complicates it, with deliberate force.

Malignant Aura - Where All of Worth Comes to Wither

Formed in 2022, Malignant Aura quickly forged a reputation for patience, weight, and emotionally severe songwriting. That intention sharpens on their second album, Where All of Worth Comes to Wither. Released via Memento Mori, in conspiracy with Grindhead Records and Primitive Moth, the album is built around slow accumulation and eventual rupture.

NOIRSUAIR- THE DRAGGING POISON

THE DRAGGING POISON – Available Now via Osmose Productions. - First full-album release by French vessel Noirsuaire (created by solo artist N) after having released several singles and EPs since N founded the project in 2022. The majority of this album is created by this one-man project, accompanied by guest artists for extra mood in its atmosphere. The Dragging Poison overall is traditionalist in nature, an offering to the genre it is inspired by. It is steeped in the arcane, spectral and mythic in nature. From production to essence, it encapsulates the brutality of European black metal in all its raw grit and chaos, portraying themes of European folklore, vampirism and devil worship. Moreover, it’s an embodiment of the ‘90s French black metal movement, a birthplace of cultish entities and sorrow-struck sound.

Stalvart - Tempvs Edax Rervm

Available Now via Wormholedeath - After nearly ten years of relative quiet—punctuated only by a handful of new tracks released in 2024 and 2025—the St. Petersburg outfit resurfaces in 2026 with its seventh album, (incl Six full-length albums and one Ep), reasserting its place after a prolonged absence. Titled "Tempvs Edax Rervm" (Time, the Devourer of All Things), the record grapples with decay, impermanence, and the slow unravelling of meaning. Its lyrical themes depict a world where moral excess dies with its carriers, identities erode behind ever-changing façades, and even ancient deities stand powerless in the face of what lies ahead. Heaven and earth appear inverted, and the sense of an approaching end is not foretold, but already unfolding. On a musical level, Stalwart channel the essence of their established sound into a more concentrated form. Razor-edged, groove-oriented riffs intertwine with complex rhythmic patterns, while carefully placed atmospheric elements deepen the album’s weight and tension. Rather than signaling a rebirth, Tempvs Edax Rervm feels like a continuation forged through time—leaner, darker, and more deliberate than anything the band has delivered before.

SANCTVS - De l'Abîme au Plérôme

Sanctvs, the solo project from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, has previously caught the attention of this zine, and with his 2025 album De l’Abîme au Plérôme, he returns with an uncompromising vision of black metal. Set for release on January 30th via Osmose Productions, the record channels a relentless aggression while weaving a dark, immersive atmosphere that defines the project. Across the album, Sanctvs fuses raw intensity with carefully crafted layers, creating a soundscape that is as challenging as it is captivating, promising to leave a lasting mark on fans of extreme metal.

Evil Damn - Eons of Horror

Peru’s Evil Damn return with their 2025 EP Eons of Horror, due for release on January 30th via Hells Headbangers Records. The band continues to carve out their niche at the intersection of black and death metal, delivering a sound that is as unrelenting as it is precise. Across the EP’s runtime, listeners can expect a storm of crushing riffs, blistering blast beats, and guttural vocals, all wrapped in a dark, menacing atmosphere.

BEYOND THE PALE – MONUMENT IN TIME

RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 30th 2026 VIA BLACK METAL ARCHIVES - A band’s first live appearance is rarely remembered for tragedy, yet this was the case for Utrecht-based death and thrash metal act BEYOND THE PALE. Formed in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic by drummer Johnny Derechos and guitarist Jeroen van Donselaar, the band was still at the very beginning of its journey. On April 27th, 2022, while performing at a metal festival in their hometown of Utrecht, van Donselaar suffered a sudden heart attack on stage and passed away, marking a devastating moment in the band’s brief history. On April 27th, 2024, exactly two years after the tragic events that marked their first live appearance, BEYOND THE PALE released their debut EP, Monument In Time. The record functions both as a moving memorial to the exceptional talent and friendship of Jeroen van Donselaar and as an outlet for grief, endurance, and the unbreakable connections formed through music. Clocking in at just 33 minutes, the EP nonetheless demands the listener’s full emotional attention.

IOTUNN - Waves Over Copenhell

Out now via Metal Blade Records - Waves Over Copenhell documents IOTUNN at a moment where everything align’s for the band. Recorded at Copenhell 2023 and released in January 2026, the album captures the Danish/Faroese band operating at full scale, unencumbered by studio containment and fully committed to long form expression.

Barbarian - Reek Of God

Available Jan 23 via Dying Victims Productions - Across sixteen years and six albums, Florence’s BARBARIAN have started sounding like a tradition in themselves. Reek of God, released via Dying Victims Productions, is a complete statement refined through pressure. It compresses everything the trio has learned about heavy metal into a lean, confrontational 35 minutes that feels engineered and ready to explode.

ARCHITECTURAL GENOCIDE – MALIGNANT COGNITION

Brutal death metal from Houston, Texas has just dropped (16/1/26) from Architectural Genocide, who return after 5 years with their latest release ‘Malignant Cognition’ via Comatose Music. With track names like ‘Leave it to Cleaver’ and ‘Trophies for my Murders’, the album is a journey into the twisted and debaucherous mind of a psychotic killer.

Superior Rage – In Memoriam

RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 23rd 2026 via wormholedeath - SUPERIOR RAGE emerged in 2006, carving out a niche in raw black metal infused with dark, atmospheric, and symphonic elements. The core lineup consists of Superior Rage on vocals and synths, Pagan Fury handling guitars and additional synth layers, and Hyemens Kaiser Tszar on bass, together crafting a sound both immersive and menacing.

METEORA – DISSONANCE

RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 23rd 2026 via H-MUSIC - In July 2025, Hungarian symphonic metal outfit METEORA launched an ambitious release strategy, announcing a trilogy of EPs designed to merge into a full-length album. The project began with In This Silence and continued in October with Broken Mind, both of which received positive critical attention and helped further establish the band’s identity within the genre. METEORA now complete the trilogy with Dissonance, the final chapter in this carefully structured release cycle.

FROZEN FACTOR – Apocalypse Inc

OUT NOW via Wormholedeath Records - With Apocalypse Inc., FROZEN FACTORY unleash their fourth studio album, and it’s their most compelling and intense statement to date. Since forming in 2018, the Finnish quintet has earned a name for blending progressive metal, dramatic rock, and socially charged themes into a sound that’s both cinematic and cutting. Following Planted Feet (2020), Of Pearls & Perils (2022), and a series of singles across 2023–2024, this latest release marks a bold evolution: a concept-driven examination of power, deception, and the perils of a world ruled by greed.

Aether - Verfallsschemen

Out Now via Amor Fati Productions - Aether delivers a focused and emotionally suffocating black metal record that explores despair, melancholy, and inner decay. The album adopts a disciplined necro black metal approach, blending fast-paced drumming with dense emotional weight. Rather than relying on excess, Verfallsschemen maintains a controlled atmosphere that reinforces its themes of isolation and suffering, drawing the listener into an oppressive and introspective soundscape.

Beyond the Black – BREAK THE SILENCE

Out Now via Nuclear Blast - For those who enjoy melodic metal, Beyond the Black’s 6th studio album has arrived and at a perfect time. Break the Silence is conceptually ethnocentric, creating a message of communication and the desire to reconnect a divided world.

ENTHRONED – ASHSPAWN

Out Now via Season Of Mist - Ashspawn marks Enthroned’s 12th studio album. Enthroned is a band well known in the Belgian black metal scene, their legacy spanning over three decades strong. Ashspawn demonstrates that Enthroned are masters of their craft, with an intense new release that creates a narrative voyage of metamorphosis and the stages of man, from the fall to the resurrection. Themes that are heavily based in spiritualism, rituals and overcoming the physical form through trials, with reference to belief systems common with the genre.

Elsinore - The Vengeful Ghost / Tombstone Hex

Out now via Caligari Records - Elsinore’s debut EP, The Vengeful Ghost / Tombstone Hex, is an exercise in historical compression. Two tracks, just over six minutes, and a singular purpose to exhume the earliest strain of death metal before refinement diluted its threat. Released by Caligari Records on 7” vinyl, the format is complete structural alignment. This music belongs to short sides, blunt statements, and physical friction.

Burning Death - Self Titled

Out Now via Caligari Records - Burning Death’s self titled debut arrives as a deliberate act of genre conservation. Issued by Caligari Records, the album plants its flag firmly in the scorched earth of early thrash, rejecting modern polish in favor of speed, and doctrinal hostility. Formed in 2021 by Nashville veterans Ethan Rock, Jerry Garner, and drummer Gore, the trio uses familiarity as hardened limitation.

Nattradio - The Longest Night

Release Date: December 12 via Darkness Shall Rise - Nattradio's The Longest Night is a profound exercise in atmospheric black metal that masterfully utilizes minimalism to achieve maximum emotional resonance. The album constructs vast, frozen soundscapes through repetitive, hypnotic guitar tremolos and sparse, echoing percussion, evoking the desolate beauty and profound silence of a Scandinavian winter night. The vocals are a distant, harrowing shriek, perfectly blended into the mix as another textural element rather than a dominant focal point. This approach creates an immersive, almost meditative experience that is less about aggression and more about melancholic contemplation. The production is intentionally raw and spacious, allowing each ringing chord to decay naturally, which reinforces the album's central theme of isolation and timelessness. While its deliberate pace and lack of traditional song hooks may challenge casual listeners, its power lies in its unwavering commitment to a specific, haunting mood.

Azketem – Amid

Release Date: December 12 via Darkness Shall Rise - Azetem's new album definitely embodies a post-metal and heavy chamber or cathedral surged gothic death rock feel as the vocalist sensibly pays homage to Peter Steel of Type O Negative and the left hand path leaning band, Babylon Whores. The production quality adds to the fullness of each song, creating an epic feel to each track that would be a great companion during times of dark introspection or lengthy travel. Fans of death rock influenced metal will not be disappointed.

Darvaza - We Are Him

Available Dec 5 via Terratur Possessions - Darvaza’s We Are Him pursues a familiar lineage of adversarial black metal but strips it to fundamentals, pressure, repetition and intent. Omega and Wraath operate inside a vocabulary they know thoroughly, and the result is a record that understands tradition without bothering to modernize. Terratur Possessions issues it as the duo’s second full-length, a decade after their formation, and the release confirms their commitment to a style that privileges atmosphere through discipline.

Deos - Augustus Omnipotens

Available Dec 5 via Wormholedeath Records - Augustus Omnipotens pushes DEOS further into a zone where historical narrative becomes a tool for pressure. The band frames Octavian’s rise as a sequence of ruthless decisions, stripping away sentiment and leaving only machinery, vengeance, legislation and war.

Chris Maragoth - Depths of Despair

Available now on all streaming platforms - Chris Maragoth’s Depths of Despair arrives as a focused counterpoint to the current era’s creative drift. His work has always carried a gothic melodic spine, but this EP tightens the whole body up. The blend of metal, classical phrasing, and unforced emotional weight is deliberate, and the result, a set of compositions that function as a self contained narrative.

Decimator - Downfallen

Available Dec 5 via Wormholedeath Records - Decimator’s trajectory has been defined by instability, but Downfallen turns their volatility into structure. The three track EP works as a concentrated study in power, discipline and historical fracture, using the Reign of Terror as more than a thematic crutch. The band treats the period as a framework for tension, violence as process and collapse as inevitability.

Zero Tolerence - A Test Of Strength

Zero Tolerance’s A Test of Strength arrives with no pretense and no disguise. It is a straight line document of intent with eight tracks, thirty minutes, and no deviation from their mission. The Canadian quartet operates inside thrash’s classic framework, but they refuse to reenact it. They sharpen it, condense it, and strip it down to the core mechanics of velocity, articulation, and impact.

Bloodfield – Homunculus Sapiens

Available Nov 28 via Great Dane Records - Bloodfield’s Homunculus Sapiens lands as a decisive reset after nearly a decade of silence. The Vicenza quintet keeps its thrash architecture intact but sharpens every structural element. The tone colder, the pacing severe, and the overall intent stripped of anything ornamental. The record locks into a psychological and physical intensity that never wavers across its runtime.

GRIM COLOSSUS - Unhallowed Blasphemies

Available Nov 28 on all streaming services - Grim Colossus returns with Unhallowed Blasphemies, a four-track descent into Lovecraft’s psychic rot. The approach is direct with slow, heavy structures, a monochrome palette, and vocals that carry weariness. The one man project has been refining this formula since Where Shadows Dwell, and here the focus sharpens without losing the edge that defines its character.

Perdition Temple - Malign Apotheosis

Available Nov 28 via Hells Headbangers - Perdition Temple’s Malign Apotheosis arrives, pushing their blackened death metal into a tighter, harsher frame. The immediacy is absolute with the record hitting full stride within seconds, never loosening its grip.

Fessus - Subcutaneous Tomb

Available Nov 26 via Darkness Shall Rise - Fessus approach Subcutaneous Tomb with a clarity that is very uncommon for a debut. The Vienna group build their sound on mid tempo death metal shaped by doom weighted pacing, but the execution is cleaner and more deliberate than their raw origins suggest, with their writing relying on pressure, repetition, and distortion used as structure.

Infernal Presence - Fiery Paths

Physical Format Available Nov 26 via Darkness Shall Rise - Infernal Presence arrive with Fiery Paths, a first full length that shows none of the hesitation common to new projects. Formed in 2023 and already landing a release through Darkness Shall Rise, the duo move with the focus of musicians who understand the foundations they’re working with. The record runs six tracks, including a brief instrumental introduction, and wastes no time establishing intent.

1349 - Winter Mass

Out Nov 28 via Season Of Mist - 1349’s Winter Mass stands as a direct snapshot of a band operating on complete instinct. Recorded in Oslo just after the pandemic restrictions lifted, it carries the tension of a room finally returning to volume. The sound is unfiltered. The atmosphere is close and abrasive. There is no attempt to smooth anything out.

Equilibrium - Equinox

Out Nov 28 via Nuclear Blast Records - Equinox marks Equilibrium’s return with a clean sense of direction. The band cuts away the excess and rebuilds its core with tighter writing and utterly sharp control. René Berthiaume and Jessica Rösch guide the shift with precision, while new vocalist Fabian Getto adds something extra without distorting the framework.

Death Yell - Demons of Lust

Out Nov 28 via Hells Headbangers - Death Yell’s Demons of Lust moves with the same ferocity the band carried out of Santiago in the late ’80s, but the execution is tighter, colder, and more deliberate. The production avoids glossiness, yet it’s structured enough to keep every riff and drum strike anchored. Nothing feels nostalgic, the album works like a continuation rather than a rehash.

The Old Dead Tree - London Sessions EP

Available Nov 28 via Season Of Mist - The Old Dead Tree approach London Sessions with a kind of quiet steadiness. After years scattered across different projects and cities, the band steps into Abbey Road not to make a grand statement, but to see what still holds between them. The result is four songs that move with complete intention.

THE OMINOUS CIRCLE - Cloven Tongues of Fire

Available Nov 28 via Osmose Productions - The Ominous Circle return with Cloven Tongues of Fire, a record that wastes no time reminding you how hostile and unadorned their world is. Nothing here leans on nostalgia or trend. The band works in a narrow, deliberate frame with low tuned guitars, blunt rhythmic pressure, and a sense of scale that comes from sheer physical force rather than theatrical posturing. What separates this album from their debut isn’t polish or ambition, but control. They’ve stopped circling their own ideas and started cutting straight through them.

Lamp of Murmuur - The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy

Out now via Wolves of Hades - Lamp of Murmuur’s The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy arrives two years after Saturnian Bloodstorm and lands with absolute intent. The project has always thrived on the pull between instinct and reinvention, and this fourth full length sets that dynamic into clearer focus. It draws on the severity of the earlier work while adopting a wider symphonic vocabulary, using scale as structure, instead of embellishment.

Moral Implant ‘Delusion’

Out now via @CaligariRecords - Moral Implant’s Delusion lands with the assurance of a band that already understands its internal logic and has no interest in diluting it for anyone. The trio’s fixation on darkness, pressure, and psychological unrest is not a theme, it’s the operating system that drives every decision across these six tracks.

Grenouer - Downtown Dream

Available Nov 21 via @brutalrecords - Grenouer’s Downtown Dream arrives with the weight of a band that has outlived multiple metal eras and refuses to settle into any of them. Instead of looking backward or chasing trends, the album functions as a controlled recalibration of their entire body of work. Three decades of stylistic detours, death metal, industrial rigidity, groove driven syncopation, and melodic expansion, are distilled into a record that sounds unhurried, and structurally exact.

Dragon Throne - Tale of the Two: Dusk

Out now on all streaming platforms - Dragon Throne’s Tale of the Two: Dusk doesn’t posture or overreach. It works because the band commits to its own world building with the same seriousness it brings to its riffs. The record is short, sharp, and assembled with the kind of intent that suggests the band finally understands its center of gravity. The shift toward Japanese and Chinese tonal colors isn’t a gimmick, the koto and erhu sit inside the arrangements like they were always meant to be there, tightening the mood rather than broadening it for show.

Sun Of The Dying - A Throne Of Ashes

Out Nov 21 via AOP Records - A Throne of Ashes demonstrates a band stepping into its third decade of work with a clearer sense of its own gravity. Sun of the Dying strip their sound down to essentials, slow motion violence, melodic tension, and a lyrical stance that rejects abstraction in favor of lived despair. The record abandons the cosmic detachment that marked earlier releases. Here, the weight is terrestrial. Tyranny is not metaphor but environment.

Decrepit Altar - Egregious Defilement

White Baroness - War Chariots

Available now via Primitive Reaction - White Baroness arrive with pedigree and intent, and War Chariots makes that plain within seconds. The lineup’s history of Morgal, Sigon, Devil Moon, Mutant Sex Demon, Nocturnal Mass, suggests chaos, excess, and a particular Finnish strain of black metal mania. What the album delivers is not a rehash of any prior project but a concentrated distillation of everything these players know how to weaponise. It’s fast, disciplined, and edged with a melodic sensibility that never softens the impact.

Waldgeflüster - Knochengesänge I & II

Out now via aop records - Waldgeflüster’s Knochengesänge I & II stands as the band’s most ambitious work to date, a double album that functions as both a reflection and a rupture. Conceived and recorded between autumn 2024 and spring 2025, it is less a pair of records than a single body split in two, one rooted in the band’s established atmospheric black metal form, the other stripped bare and rebuilt through alternate languages of sound.

Funeral Harvest - Malum in Se

Out now via Amor Fati Productions - Issued through Amor Fati Productions on October 31, this six track mini album reaffirms the Norwegian collective’s command of occult black metal as spiritual praxis. It follows Redemptio (2022) not as continuation but as inversion, where the earlier work invoked divine wrath, Malum in Se exalts Lucifer, the morning star, as the sole light worth seeking.

Araphel - The Endchanter

Out now via @nuclearwar - Araphel’s The Endchanter marks a rare debut that feels both ancient and newly awakened. Rooted in the black metal traditions of early Rotting Christ and Varathron, the Italian quartet’s first full length transforms epic heavy metal structures into philosophical ruin. Led by former Demonomancy drummer Santo, Araphel strip the genre of excess, revealing something austere, ritualistic rather than performative.

Imperial Domain - Portentum

Stellar Circuits - Phantom : : Phoenix

Out Nov 14 via @nuclearblast 🔥- Stellar Circuits’ Phantom :: Phoenix extends the trajectory of a band determined to refine chaos into coherence. Building on the precision and weight of 2023’s Sight to Sound, the North Carolina quartet reemerges with a record that translates loss, collapse, and rebirth into sound design, feeling out progressive metal as catharsis, not display.

Binah - Ónkos

Hammerfilosofi – Signum

Malakhim - And in Our Hearts the Devil Sings

Out now via @IronBonehead Malakhim’s second album, And in Our Hearts the Devil Sings, stands as a towering affirmation of purpose from a band already known for precision and conviction. Four years removed from Theion, the Umeå quintet refine their vision of orthodox Swedish black metal into something sharper, darker, and far more brutal. Their sound remains rooted in that late-’90s melodic severity, equal parts No Fashion grandeur and Solistitium malice, but what was once promise now feels absolute.

FÍR - Het Sinistere Oog

Orgrel - The Abyssal Terror

Heteropsy - Embalming

Radiant Thought - Transcendence

Out Nov 7 on all streaming platforms 🔥 Transcendence, the debut full length from @RadiantThought is a rare instance of restraint within progressive metal, a record defined not by virtuosity but by emotional architecture. Conceived, performed, and produced primarily by @ValterAbreu the album condenses over a decade of experimentation into a cohesive meditation on renewal, decay, and the cyclical nature of human experience.

Selias - Killkarma

Out Nov 7 via @wormholedeath 🪱💀 Killkarma, the sophomore album from Canadian outfit @Selias sharpens the band’s vision into a weaponized form of melodic death metal that fuses mechanical precision with emotional gravity. Released via Wormholedeath, it builds upon the foundations of 2024’s Headshot but replaces its straightforward aggression with a deeper, more cinematic bleakness.

Abyssic Grave - Born of the Wilderness

Kvad - Sort Skogsmesse

Heraldic Blaze - Monument of Will

Sad - Fullmoon’s Bestial Awakening

Out now via @PurityThroughFire Nearly twenty years into their existence, Greece’s @Sad show no sign of softening their assault. Fullmoon’s Bestial Awakening, their ninth album and third with Purity Through Fire, reinforces everything the band has stood for since 2005, unrelenting, orthodox black metal devoid of compromise or modern varnish. Multi instrumentalist Ungod and vocalist Nadir again summon the frostbitten spirit of the late ’90s underground, filtering it through their own instinct for repetition, hypnosis, and controlled violence.

Pest - Eternal Nightmares

Out now via @HeidensHart German black metal veterans Pest return from the grave with Eternal Nightmares, their first album in over a decade, out through Heidens Hart. Formed in 1997 and silenced by the death of drummer Mrok, the band, now consisting of Scum, Atax, and Mr. Blasphemy, resume exactly where their legacy froze - in the cold, minimal orthodoxy of true black metal. Recorded entirely in their rehearsal room, the album rejects polish and progress alike, capturing a sound as primitive, raw, and unrepentant as it was twenty five years ago.

Grailknights - Forever

Out now via @reigningphoenixmusicofficial Germany’s costumed crusaders Grailknights have always walked a fine line between parody and power, delivering tongue in cheek hero metal with the kind of unrelenting theatricality that could make even Gloryhammer blush. Their seventh studio album, Forever, doesn’t rewrite the genre’s rulebook, but it’s packed with enough galloping riffs, laser bright hooks, and unashamed camp to power a small comic con.

Conjurer – Unself

Out now vía @NuclearBlast There’s always been something uniquely suffocating about @Conjurer’s sound. A molten fusion of sludge, post-metal, and deathly dissonance that feels equally cathartic and collapse. On Unself, the Midlands quartet take that familiar heaviness and drag it somewhere deeply human in an unflinching portrait of identity, transformation, and pain.

Despised Icon - Shadow Work

Two decades into shaping the sound of deathcore, Despised Icon hit back with Shadow Work, and they’ve brought the fucking heat. Opening with the title track, the band wastes no time with Alex Erian and Steve Marois tearing into dual vocal assault with all the hatred you’d come to expect, while musically, the band are completely locked, loaded and ready to go. It’s controlled chaos waiting to destroy your ears.