Stab — Lost In Maine
Two reviews, zero real objections and a 8.5/10: Maine's bruised love letter to melodic hardcore.
Two reviews, zero real objections and a 8.5/10: Maine's bruised love letter to melodic hardcore.
Rody Walker "better than ever", 87/100: Protest The Hero's return is a masterstroke.
The violin and the growl, beauty and fury: 86/100 for the Australians' masterful return.
The British atmospheric-djent band deliver their most accomplished record: 86/100.
The Norwegians turn myth into music: 84/100 for a sixteenth album of undimmed ambition.
Melancholy made record: 84/100 for an album where the Swedes elevate their art of elegant despair.
Fury and light in the service of the intimate: 85/100 for a devastating record on mental health.
English folklore and the Hammond organ: 85/100 for an irresistible occult heavy-rock record.
The patriarchs of cavernous death metal do not falter: 85/100 for a record of absolute darkness.
The French band's sonic nightmare reaches an unprecedented intensity: 85/100 for a haunted record.
The technical-death-metal war machine remains implacable: 84/100.
The Canadians shed their skin without disowning it: 87/100 for a death metal that opens to the cosmos while keeping its mire.
Singaporean grindcore reaches peaks of expressiveness: 85/100 for a record as violent as it is heartrending.
Twenty years away, 87/100 and a Kerrang! 5/5: the year's most devastating doom comeback.
American despair set to sound: 86/100 for a debut album that hits like a punch.
The New Yorkers' organised chaos reaches its point of incandescence: 84/100 for a suffocating record.
When the saxophone haunts black metal: 85/100 for a Ukrainian record of nocturnal beauty.
A lone American's great winter work: 85/100 for a glacial, devastating meditation.
An avant-garde firebrand against social injustice: 87/100 for one of the most original records of the year.
Quebecois black metal in its sharpest form: 85/100 for a record of undiminished fury.
Black metal turned crepuscular western: 84/100 for a fresco on the myth of the American West.
The father of blackgaze finds the light again: 84/100 for a record of luminous grace.
The Belgians' sonic ritual reaches a new intensity: 84/100 for a record of liturgical gravity.
A single eighty-three-minute piece, suspended outside time: 84/100 for a monument of slowness.
The Americans' progressive metamorphosis reaches its fullness: 84/100 for a luminous psychedelic journey.
The Australians deliver their gravest, most accomplished record: 85/100 for a haunted work.
The masked collective turn metal into a love liturgy: 84/100 for a third album impossible to file.
The fusion of din and dream finds its masterpiece: 86/100 for a second album that haunts long after.
Hardcore as political and vital cry: 87/100 for a record of burning urgency.
Post-hardcore meets 1990s grunge: 84/100 for a record as biting as it is catchy.
Noise rock weds the sensuality of post-punk: 84/100 for a debut of troubling intensity.
The Irish band make saturation a sonic material: 85/100 for a radically inventive record.
"No leftovers here; 2 for 2": Converge's second 2026 album equals the first by digging elsewhere.
The Australians broaden their horizon without losing any of their rage: 84/100 for their most accomplished record.
Eleven albums, zero fatigue: 84/100 for technical metalcore's safest bet.
A noisy, devastating portrait of the deep American South: 86/100 for one of the records of the year.