I’ll be somewhere warm when this goes to print. Or at least, I’ll start the day where it’s warm. This makes me absurdly happy. Moving on… we’re nearly two months into 2026 and I’ve got a solid handful of releases that I just cannot get enough of so to me that’s a strong signal that we could have yet another fabulous year here in the realm of metal. Speaking of releases, this week’s slab of new releases gets the ball rolling with a wildly different amalgamation of black and death metal from Coscradh, the always reliable brand of extreme from Exhumed, and some delicious post-black metal from Bizarrekult. And then we get the rest of the list that follows which does indeed have some gems. Go explore and we’ll be seeing you…

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Coscradh – Carving The Causeway To The Otherworld (20 Buck Spin) – black / death metal

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Exhumed – Red Asphalt (Relapse) – death metal

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Bizarrekult – Alt Som Finnes (Season of Mist: Underground Activities) – post‑black metal

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Also on tap:

Abstracted – Hiraeth (M‑Theory Audio) – extreme

Aeon Gods – Reborn To Light (Scarlet Records) – power metal

Amongruins – Advent of Chaos (Theogonia Records) – melodic death metal

Beelzebong – The End Is High (Heavy Psych Sounds) – doom

Brahmashiras – Trinitite (Caligari Records) – deathpunk

Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean – Let Us Not Speak Of Them But Look And Pass On (Redscroll Records) – progressive metal (probably)

Clawfinger – Before We All Die (Perception) – metal

Daidalos – Dante (Rockshots Records) – black metal

Darklore – The Great Elven War (Self) – fantasy metal

Dehydrated – Victims: Over 30 Years of Sickness (Paragon Records) – death metal

Diabolus, Mecum Semiperterne! – S/T (Terratur Possessions) – black metal

Dissentience – Kaiju (Self) – death / thrash

Domhain – In Perfect Stillness (These Hands Melt) – metal

Dusk – Bunker (Self) – atmospheric industrial black metal

Dwellnought – Monolith of Ephemerality (Caligari Records) – doom

Evig Natt – Vaketimen (Wormholedeath Records) – orchestral black metal

Eye of Melian – Forest of Forgetting (Napalm Records) – symphonic metal

Ferndom – Tesuque (Self) – atmospheric black metal

Foreward – Exposition (Seek & Strike) – metalcore

Galibot – Euch Mau Noir bis (LADLO) – melodic black metal

Hellstedt – All Right As Rain (Self) – alternative metal

Horseman – No Surrender In Dark Days (Recordjet) – metalcore

Mactatus – Blot (ATMF) – black metal

Misotheist – De Pinte (Terratur Possessions) – black metal

Mortal Blood – Vigil For A Hollowed Earth (Self) – doom metal

Necronomicon Ex Mortis – Zombie Blood Nightmare (Self) – death metal

Necropolissebeht – Taurunovem – Th’Astraktyan Serfdome (Amor Fati) – black metal

Nightshade – In Essence Divided (My Kingdom Music) – avantgarde dark metal

Nytt Land – Aba Kahn (Prophecy Productions) – dark folk

Phasma – Purgatory (Transcending Obscurity Records) – black / death

Soul of Anubis – Ritual (Time To Kill Records) – metal

Suplecs – Hymns Under A Blood Moon Sky (Ripple Music) – rock

The Magus – Daemonosphia (The Circle Music) – metal

The Veer Union – Reinvention (Arising Empire) – alternative metal

Transatlantic Radio – Midnight Transmission (Frontiers Music s.r.l.) – hard rock

trauma ray – Carnival, EP (Dais Records) – gazey

Unmother – State Dependent Memory (Fiadh Productions) – black metal

Vorago – Morulus (Amor Fati) – black metal

W.E.B. – Darkness Alive (Metal Blade Records) – metal

Worm Shepherd – Dawn of the Iconoclast, EP (Unique Leader Records) – deathcore

Wreck‑Defy – Dissecting The Leech (Massacre Records) – thrash

— Josh