MØL — DREAMCRUSH
Denmark's blackgaze spearhead delivers one of the year's highest-rated records (85/100) — but the gap with the public marks it as divisive.
8/10 September 5, 2026
Green Carnation — A Dark Poem, Part III: The Messiah Complex
Trilogy finale bordering on critical genuflection: 9.8/10 at Sonic Perspectives. Out September 4.
8.5/10 September 1, 2026
Chat Pile — Who Loves The Sun
Rapturous early reviews: "the fury has metastasized". Out September 4.
7.5/10 September 1, 2026
Russian Circles — Nine
The season's best-reviewed record: 83/100, zero reservations. Instrumental post-metal at its peak.
8.5/10 September 1, 2026
Airbourne — Airbourne
Zero evolution, maximum execution. The year's best AC/DC record isn't by AC/DC.
6.5/10 September 1, 2026
Mastodon — Marrow Deep
Mastodon's first post-Hinds album is an acclaimed grief record (83/100 Metacritic), cathartic and often magnificent.
8/10 September 1, 2026
In This Moment — Witch
Press applauds (77/100), listeners check out (49/100). The season's biggest gap.
6.5/10 August 31, 2026
Beartooth — Pure Ecstasy
Beartooth's pop-rock turn: press applauds (77/100), fans grumble (59/100). Divisive — therefore interesting.
6.5/10 August 31, 2026
Kamelot — Dark Asylum
Karevik masterful, formula unchanged: press splits (8/10 vs 2.5/5), consensus lands at 6.5.
6.5/10 August 31, 2026
Turnstile — Never Enough: Versions
From Elton John to Dying Fetus, twenty-two wildly uneven reworks: not an album, a flex.
7.5/10 August 30, 2026
Gorod — The Ember Gone
Bordeaux tech-death dares to be vulnerable. The craft is unanimous; the pacing divides.
7.5/10 August 30, 2026
Deftones — private music
87/100 across nineteen reviews: the alternative-metal masters return to near-unanimous acclaim.
8.5/10 August 30, 2026
Spiritbox — Tsunami Sea
89/100: the new benchmark for modern metalcore, driven by Courtney LaPlante's extraordinary voice.
9/10 August 30, 2026
Deafheaven — Lonely People With Power
83/100 across twenty-one reviews: the blackgaze pioneers reconnect with fury.
8/10 August 29, 2026
Sunn O))) — Sunn O)))
79/100 across twenty reviews: the drone kings' self-titled album, a mass of low frequencies.
8/10 August 29, 2026
Mayhem — Liturgy of Death
77/100: the Norwegian black-metal legends deliver a solid if debated record.
7.5/10 August 29, 2026
Agriculture — The Spiritual Sound
86/100: the Californian "ecstatic black metal" crew turn darkness into light.
8.5/10 August 29, 2026
The Callous Daoboys — I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven
85/100: the wildest mathcore around reaches an unexpected maturity.
8.5/10 August 28, 2026
Deadguy — Near-Death Travel Services
83/100: the improbable return of the 1990s chaotic-metalcore pioneers.
8/10 August 28, 2026
Igorrr — AMEN
83/100: the French mad scientist returns, between metal, baroque and breakcore.
8/10 August 28, 2026
Cryptopsy — An Insatiable Violence
81/100: the Canadian tech-death masters hold their rank.
8/10 August 28, 2026
Fallujah — Xenotaph
81/100: the Californians' atmospheric, cosmic death metal regains its shine.
8/10 August 28, 2026
Paradise Lost — Ascension
79/100: the English goth/doom godfathers confirm a second youth.
8/10 August 27, 2026
Helloween — Giants & Monsters
81/100: the inventors of European power metal, reunited, keep the flame.
8/10 August 27, 2026
Conjurer — Unself
80/100: the English progressive-sludge outfit confirm the hype.
8/10 August 27, 2026
Bleed from Within — Zenith
83/100: the Scots confirm their place atop modern European metalcore.
8/10 August 27, 2026
Sylosis — The New Flesh
80/100: the English melodic thrash/death crew confirm their metronome consistency.
8/10 August 27, 2026
Archspire — Too Fast to Die
83/100: death metal's fastest Canadians push the tempo limits again.
8/10 August 26, 2026
Devin Townsend — The Moth
83/100: the Canadian polymath delivers another oversized, generous opus.
8/10 August 26, 2026
Chelsea Wolfe — The Dark
Her most accessible album, still haunted. Critics and public aligned at 77/100.
7.5/10 August 26, 2026
Voivod — Symphonique
83/100: the Québécois prog-thrash legends re-orchestrate their catalogue with a symphony orchestra.
8/10 August 26, 2026
Fen — Elemental Part One: Mourning Earth
English atmospheric black at its peak: "my favorite Fen album to date" (AMG 4.0), 9/10 from Dead Rhetoric.
8.5/10 August 26, 2026
Sepultura — The Cloud of Unknowing
79/100: after announcing the end, the Brazilians deliver an honourable last chapter.
8/10 August 26, 2026
Darkthrone — Pre-Historic Metal
80/100: the Norwegian veterans keep morphing into gleefully filthy heavy/black.
8/10 August 26, 2026
Blackbraid — Blackbraid III
85/100: Sgah'gahsowáh's atmospheric, Native American black metal keeps fascinating.
8.5/10 August 25, 2026
Der Weg Einer Freiheit — Innern
85/100: the German atmospheric-black-metal outfit reach a rare intensity.
8.5/10 August 25, 2026