Deep Purple — Splat!
A torrent of energy from great-grandfathers: 76/100, Purple's best reception in ages.
7.5/10 July 5, 2026
Muse — The Wow! Signal
From 100 down to 20 depending on the church: Muse's cosmic madness owns itself, the press picks sides.
7/10 June 29, 2026
Enslaved — Heimdal
The Norwegians turn myth into music: 84/100 for a sixteenth album of undimmed ambition.
8.5/10 June 24, 2026
Katatonia — Sky Void of Stars
Melancholy made record: 84/100 for an album where the Swedes elevate their art of elegant despair.
8.5/10 June 24, 2026
Svalbard — The Weight of The Mask
Fury and light in the service of the intimate: 85/100 for a devastating record on mental health.
8.5/10 June 23, 2026
Green Lung — This Heathen Land
English folklore and the Hammond organ: 85/100 for an irresistible occult heavy-rock record.
8.5/10 June 23, 2026
Incantation — Unholy Deification
The patriarchs of cavernous death metal do not falter: 85/100 for a record of absolute darkness.
8.5/10 June 23, 2026
Blut aus Nord — Disharmonium – Nahab
The French band's sonic nightmare reaches an unprecedented intensity: 85/100 for a haunted record.
8.5/10 June 23, 2026
Dying Fetus — Make Them Beg for Death
The technical-death-metal war machine remains implacable: 84/100.
8.5/10 June 23, 2026
Mutoid Man — Mutants
The American supergroup make virtuosity a game: 83/100 for a record as ferocious as it is joyful.
8/10 June 22, 2026
Tomb Mold — The Enduring Spirit
The Canadians shed their skin without disowning it: 87/100 for a death metal that opens to the cosmos while keeping its mire.
8.5/10 June 22, 2026
Wormrot — Hiss
Singaporean grindcore reaches peaks of expressiveness: 85/100 for a record as violent as it is heartrending.
8.5/10 June 22, 2026
Warning — Rituals of Shame
Twenty years away, 87/100 and a Kerrang! 5/5: the year's most devastating doom comeback.
8.5/10 June 22, 2026
Chat Pile — God’s Country
American despair set to sound: 86/100 for a debut album that hits like a punch.
8.5/10 June 22, 2026
Artificial Brain — Artificial Brain
Cosmic death metal reaches its most accomplished form: 83/100 for a record at once cold and dizzying.
8/10 June 22, 2026
Pyrrhon — Exhaust
The New Yorkers' organised chaos reaches its point of incandescence: 84/100 for a suffocating record.
8.5/10 June 21, 2026
Full of Hell & Nothing — When No Birds Sang
The improbable meeting of fury and mist: 82/100 for a collaboration of troubled beauty.
8/10 June 21, 2026
Wiegedood — There’s Always Blood at the End of the Road
The Belgians broaden their palette without losing their edge: 83/100 for a black metal mid-moult.
8/10 June 21, 2026
Undeath — It’s Time… to Rise from the Grave
The new guard of old-school death metal embrace their heritage: 82/100 for a jubilant, uncomplexed record.
8/10 June 21, 2026
Gatecreeper — Dark Superstition
Arizona death metal gains melody without losing power: 82/100 for a record built to last.
8/10 June 21, 2026
Autopsy — Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts
The pioneers of putrid death metal stay true to their grime: 81/100 for a record of gleeful insalubrity.
8/10 June 20, 2026
Cannibal Corpse — Chaos Horrific
The most famous institution of death metal does not falter: 80/100 for a record of metronome regularity.
8/10 June 20, 2026
White Ward — False Light
When the saxophone haunts black metal: 85/100 for a Ukrainian record of nocturnal beauty.
8.5/10 June 20, 2026
Panopticon — The Rime of Memory
A lone American's great winter work: 85/100 for a glacial, devastating meditation.
8.5/10 June 20, 2026
Ashenspire — Hostile Architecture
An avant-garde firebrand against social injustice: 87/100 for one of the most original records of the year.
8.5/10 June 20, 2026
Spectral Wound — Songs of Blood and Mire
Quebecois black metal in its sharpest form: 85/100 for a record of undiminished fury.
8.5/10 June 19, 2026
Zeal & Ardor — Zeal & Ardor
The negro spiritual meets black metal: 82/100 for a third album consolidating a stroke of genius.
8/10 June 19, 2026
Wayfarer — American Gospel
Black metal turned crepuscular western: 84/100 for a fresco on the myth of the American West.
8.5/10 June 19, 2026
Alcest — Les Chants de l’Aurore
The father of blackgaze finds the light again: 84/100 for a record of luminous grace.
8.5/10 June 19, 2026
Gaerea — Mirage
Portuguese black metal steps up: 83/100 for a record of visceral intensity.
8/10 June 18, 2026
1914 — Where Fear and Weapons Meet
The Great War set to music: 82/100 for a brutal, documented record on the horror of the trenches.
8/10 June 18, 2026
Amenra — De Doorn
The Belgians' sonic ritual reaches a new intensity: 84/100 for a record of liturgical gravity.
8.5/10 June 18, 2026
Chelsea Wolfe — She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
The priestess of electronic goth reinvents herself: 82/100 for a record of intimate rebirth.
8/10 June 18, 2026
Khemmis — Deceiver
The Americans' luminous doom grows heavier: 83/100 for a fourth album shot through with grief.
8/10 June 18, 2026
Bell Witch — The Clandestine Gate
A single eighty-three-minute piece, suspended outside time: 84/100 for a monument of slowness.
8.5/10 June 17, 2026
Cult of Luna — The Long Road North
The Swedish masters of post-metal unfold their sonic cathedrals: 83/100 for a monumental record.
8/10 June 17, 2026