Too many albums, too few reviewers…that’s the problem with all the metal blogs, not just this one. What do you do? How do you get a sense of what’s out there if you’re only listening to a fraction of what’s getting released? How do you open yourself up to new music? I’ll tell you how: you jump into all the unpicked promos each month and devote a sentence or two giving a sense of what you gleaned from it.

That’s right: it’s a new year and we’re back for another round of “The Month That Was…” so enough preambling. Let’s dive into this edition of Nine Circles ov… and catch up on the loud and heavy from February 2026.

Feb 2026 note: I’m running way late this month due to storms, actual workload, and family stuff, so we’re keeping it brief. TL;DR: all good stuff ahead worth your time!

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I don’t think I’ve listened to Ashbringer since their 2016 Yūgen album. Maybe I needed a break from the glut of USBM that was threatening to topple everything, but I’m very glad to have come back to the fold with Subglacial. The Minnesota group focuses on a dark melancholy to temper the more aggressive moments, and the dynamics help to break out of any guardrails that would relegate Ashbringer to the pile of discarded bands trying their hand at emotional, atmospheric post-black metal.

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Lately I’ve become obsessed with getting a dank, weedy fuzz tone out of my rig, and I’m using the excellent vibe Belzebong are exhaling on their latest slab of muscular doom The End is High as my primary point of reference. With song titles like “420 Horsemen” and “Hempnotized” you can easily imagine the kind of music the Polish group is churning out. You’d be right, but it’s drier, danker, and more sweet in the nose than you think…

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The latest from Bizarrekult deserves its own full review, full stop. Alt Som Finnes is the most accomplished, perfectly executed example of “post-black metal” I’ve come across in a while. It took me a moment to reconcile the new, darkened art aesthetic when compared against main man Roman’s previous output. Sporting a host of guest vocalists, tracks like “Håp” and the furious spiral of “Blikket Hennes” make this the the yardstick I’ll be comparing other black metal releases to in the new year.

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It’s been almost a decade since the last Converge full length?! I’m still working through my feelings about the brooding (but too often stilted and dull) Bloodmoon collaboration with Chelsea Wolfe, but there’s no dithering on Love Is Not Enough, the band’s punishing new album. The basic rule I’ve been using is any song with three words like “Distract and Divide” and “Force Meets Presence” are devastating in their brutality. All the other songs are punishing and fantastic, but DAMN those two just tear your face off, you know?

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I’m struggling with Coscradh, the latest death metal act signed to 20 Buck Spin. On the one hand, Carving the Causeway to the Otherworld is some seriously dark and foreboding death metal…on the other hand, it does also seem so on-brand for what 20BS typically release it feels…a little same-y? But then I hear the dive-bombs on “Badhah’s Shadows” and I don’t remember what I saying, except how killer is this Coscradh album?!

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Look, Matt Harvey can do no wrong in my ears. Exhumed do what Exhumed do, and that is lay down some slick and slippery death that is technical, groovy, and hilarious from a lyrical and art perspective. In case you’re worried if any of that changed with Red Asphalt, uh…you saw the cover above, right? Subtly was tossed in a sack and thrown in the river, judging by the band’s current theme of vehicular destruction. Songs like “Crawling From The Wreckage” and “Symphorophilia” (if you’ve seen Cronenberg’s Crash, you know what this is…) take no prisoners.

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Québec black metal duo Incandescence were one of my touchstones for what black metal was doing post- ’90s second wave explosion. Eventually. At first I was simply smitten with the artwork for 2013’s Abstractionnisme. The fact that the music was killer was a bonus. 13 years later Hors Temps sees that little has changed in the best possible way. To borrow something from my Exhumed summary, for many people Philippe Boucher (also of Beyond Creation, Chthe’ilist) is their Matt Harvey. Anyway yeah; Incandescence continue shredding this particular strain of black metal.

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Probably my other biggest regret not getting to a full review for this gem of a discovery for me. The best way I can describe what Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows do on Inexorable Opposites is doom blues. With copious amounts of psych, desert rock, and dare I say a touch of black gothic rock? I was gobsmacked by the close of opening track “Moss” and this is doing for me what Bask did last year…and that wound up being #2 album of 2026. Just sayin’, I think this is in that ballpark for me right now, folks.

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WORM! BUT NOT THAT WORM! WHICH I THINK THE KIDS REFER TO AS SIMPLY “WORMED” I THINK! WHO KNOWS? THIS IS THE WORM I WORM FOR! LOOK AT THAT INCREDIBLE COVER ART! IT’S CALLED NECROPALACE AND THERE IS A DRAGON AND I GUESS SPACE DRACULA! MARTY FRIEDMAN LAYS DOWN A SOLO! HOLY CRAP THIS VIDEO! SERIOUSLY THE LAST RECORD WAS FINE IF A BIT TOO GLOOMY FOR ME BUT HERE THEY’RE GOING FULL EMPEROR MODE AND I AM HERE FOR IT! MAY YOU SOON BE INFESTED WITH WORM!

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We’re still ramping up to a powerful year, but there are already small pockets of extreme excellence to hold us over until the Spring. Let’s continue keeping each other in view, and lend a hand, an ear, or a good record recommendation to someone when you can.

Until next time, keep it heavy…keep it safe.

— Chris