Rise Of The Northstar — Chapter 04: Red Falcon Super Battle! Neo Paris War!!
Grave Noise at 7.5, Kerrang! at 3/5: unique in the world, yet familiar. The Paris blade cuts a 7.
7/10 November 18, 2025
Alter Bridge — Alter Bridge
Press anoints it (85/100), public checks out (65): the year's widest critics-fans gap.
8/10 January 13, 2026
Beyond The Black — Break The Silence
Killer hooks for the press (8.5/10 at Blabbermouth), 53/100 from the public. The great symphonic split.
6.5/10 January 13, 2026
Soen — Reliance
More metal, less prog: the press wavers (8/10 vs 5/10), the fanbase checks out. See you at Le Rex in December.
6.5/10 January 18, 2026
Ov Sulfur — Endless
Symphonic deathcore with hooks: 9/10 on one side, 2.5/5 on the other. The genre glares at itself.
7/10 January 19, 2026
Megadeth — Megadeth
Mustaine's goodbye: 62/100 from critics, 48 from the public. Stumbling off the stage.
5.5/10 January 25, 2026
Karnivool — In Verses
Thirteen years of waiting, 78/100, press and public aligned: "the bar for progressive metal in 2026" per Metal Hammer.
8/10 February 10, 2026
Worm — Necropalace
Three 9/10s and a « modern classic » tag: symphonic black metal gets its delusions of grandeur back. 84/100.
8.5/10 February 17, 2026
Converge — Love Is Not Enough
Three perfect scores and 87/100 across 13 reviews: hardcore's elder statesmen still have no rival.
8.5/10 February 18, 2026
Cryptic Shift — Overspace & Supertime
Four 9/10s and a trip into "the obsidian kaleidoscope": 87/100, the winter's extreme-metal peak.
8.5/10 March 1, 2026
Rob Zombie — The Great Satan
Winning comeback at 74/100: Zombie's industrial B-movie "rocks like an absolute motherfucker". Only Pitchfork pouts.
7.5/10 March 1, 2026
Lamb Of God — Into Oblivion
Eleven reviews, 81/100: the best Lamb Of God since Wrath, and almost nobody argues otherwise.
8/10 March 15, 2026
Gaerea — Loss
Cathartic black metal goes luminous metalcore: press won over (74), faithful betrayed (60). Debate open.
7.5/10 March 24, 2026
Neurosis — An Undying Love for a Burning World
Resurrection with Aaron Turner, 89/100: 2026's best-rated metal record is a Neurosis album.
9/10 March 25, 2026
Poison The Well — Peace In Place
Seventeen years away, 80/100 on arrival: the year's best-received metalcore comeback.
8/10 March 25, 2026
Immolation — Descent
Thirty-five years, zero drop-off: 85/100 for a direct and devastating death metal statement.
8.5/10 April 12, 2026
Bodysnatcher — Hell Is Here, Hell Is Home
"Heavy as fuck": 78/100 for the Floridian demolition machine, tried-and-true formula included.
8/10 April 14, 2026
Skindred — You Got This
First UK number one of their career and 76/100: the Welsh "punky reggae party" gets almost everyone dancing.
7.5/10 April 22, 2026
Terror — Still Suffer
Zero surprises, ferocious execution: 75/100 for veterans proving hardcore is in rude health.
7.5/10 April 26, 2026
At The Gates — The Ghost of a Future Dead
Tompa Lindberg's posthumous farewell: 85/100, Kerrang! and AMG at full marks. Exit through the front door.
8.5/10 April 27, 2026
Atreyu — The End Is Not The End
The press hails the comeback (4/5 at Kerrang!), AMG fires a 2/5: round ten for the metalcore veterans.
7/10 April 29, 2026
Dimmu Borgir — Grand Serpent Rising
Eight years away, back at 81/100: the symphonic black throne reclaimed, the scissors forgotten.
7.5/10 May 26, 2026
Shinedown — EI8HT
Press applauds (74), public sulks (58): Shinedown's most ambitious record is also its most divisive.
7.5/10 May 31, 2026
Sanguisugabogg — Homicidal Ecstasy
Ohio's sludgy death metal wallows gleefully in the muck: 79/100 for a record as filthy as it is fun.
8/10 June 5, 2026
Aborted — Vault of Horrors
The Belgian steamroller invites its peers to a gore feast: 79/100 for a death metal as swift as it is well-signposted.
8/10 June 5, 2026
Boris — Heavy Rocks (2022)
The insatiable Japanese replay their riff library with glee: 80/100 for a third "Heavy Rocks".
8/10 June 5, 2026
Employed to Serve — Conquering
British rage turns more hymnal without losing its bite: 82/100 for an ambitious metalcore.
8/10 June 5, 2026
Suffocation — Hymns from the Apocrypha
The architects of technical death metal hold their course: 80/100 for a controlled return.
8/10 June 5, 2026
Ingested — The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams
The Britons widen their brutality without betraying it: 80/100 for a finely crafted deathcore.
8/10 June 6, 2026
An Autumn for Crippled Children — Closure
The Dutch band's diaphanous melancholy reaches its purest form: 82/100 for a blackgaze of mist.
8/10 June 6, 2026
Converge & Chelsea Wolfe — Bloodmoon: I
Hardcore meets the gothic: 84/100 for a collaboration as improbable as it is spellbinding.
8.5/10 June 6, 2026
Venom Prison — Erebos
Violence in the service of a message: 83/100 for a British death metal as ferocious as it is lucid.
8/10 June 6, 2026
Rolo Tomassi — Where Myth Becomes Memory
Chaos and grace in a single breath: 86/100 for the culmination of a twenty-year mutation.
8.5/10 June 6, 2026
Immortal — War Against All
Norwegian black metal pared back to its icy open sea: 80/100 for a convincing first record after Abbath.
8/10 June 7, 2026
Frontierer — Oxidized
The calculated chaos of mathcore reaches peaks of aggression: 82/100 for a suffocating record.
8/10 June 7, 2026
Blood Command — World Domination
The Norwegians confirm their supercharged hardcore pop punk: 80/100 for an explosive, melodic record.
8/10 June 7, 2026