Memorial Day 2026. Regardless of your feelings on the military / those tasked with keeping order and us safe, TONS have paid the ultimate price, and continue to, so I can write this and you can read this. And of course, everything else we do here in the States. So, today, show some gratitude even if it’s a quiet thank you or quiet acknowledgement of the sacrifices made. Alright then, Initial Descent kicks off with a rather stunning black metal album from Galvanist (we’ll have more on this in the coming days), Godthrymm return kicking and screaming with an album that sails head and shoulders above their last, Pharmacist gets the goregrind juices flowing like only they can, Funebrarum lay down some barbaric death metal, and the entire rest of the list that follows is solid as a rock. Good stuff all around so get to digging and we’ll see you here throughout the week… I’ll close in wrapping up my opener; the choice is yours on what you do today and you can do it at will. The freedom to do precisely that is the benefit we reap from those who gave all.

---

Galvanist – The Silence Between Stars (ATMF) – black metal

---

Godthrymm – Projections (Profound Lore) – doom

---

Pharmacist – Vertebrae After Vertebrae (Hells Headbangers) – goregrind

---

Funebrarum – Beckoning The Void of Eternal Silence (Pulverised Records) – death metal

---

Also on tap:

Abrasive Trees – Light Remaining (Argonauta) – experimental

Ater Era – Sinistria (On Parole Productions) – black / doom

Ana – Motivated By Death (Eclipse Records) – symphonic metal

Balmoral – These Gaven Halls (Daze) – metalcore / black metal

Belialed – The Echoless Chasm (Trollzorn) – black metal

Bjørn Riis – Lifandi (Karisma Records) – rock

BlackMarket – Radical Views, EP (Self) – nu‑metal

Chronic Hate – Defeating The Oblivion of Life (Time To Kill Records) – death metal

Consecration – Submerged In Sand (Nuclear Winter) – death / doom

Crocell – Swarm of Insects (Emanzipation Productions) – death / black

Crushing – voice chat (Self) – rock

Dark Divination / Wampyric Rites – Finnish Ecuador Alliance (Signal Rex) – black metal

Daupuz – Todeswork: Uranium II (Amor Fati) – black metal

Deafkids – Cicatres Do Futuro (Neurot) – avantmetal

Deus Sabaoth – Distortion of Lies (Paragon Records) – melodic black metal

Devin Townsend – The Moth (InsideOut) – prog

Diminishing – The Outcome (Anti‑Corp Music) – post‑industrial

Elder – Through Zero (Blues Funeral Recordings) – heavy psych rock

Erdve – Epigrama (Season of Mist) – sludge / metalcore

Eternal Evil – Forever Feared (Listenable) – thrash

Furnace – Echoes of a Distant Future (Emanzipation Productions) – melodic death metal

Gouge – Pure Deathfuck (Hells Headbangers) – black / speed / death

Graveir – The Festering Triad (Apocalyptic Witchcraft) – black metal

Hanry – What Came From Silence (Pelagic Records) – post‑rock

Harboured – We’re Only The Love That We Lead (Lost Future) – blackgazey

Hecate Enthroned – The Corpse of a Titan, A Lament Long Buried (M‑Theory Audio) – symphonic black metal

Kristoffer Gildenlöw – Humanised (Self) – progressive metal

La Paille – Ecliptica Ratio (Self) – symphonic metal

Leatherwitch – First Spell (Listenable) – metal

Liva – Ecce mundus (WormHoleDeath) – power metal

Lufeh – Overwhelmed (Self) – prog rock

Malebeste – Monestherou (Antiq) – black metal

Mandy Manala – Something Wicked (Argonauta) – rock

Meltification – S/T (Extremely Rotten Productions) – death metal

Misère – Bēacn (Self) – black metal

Monolord – Neverending (Relapse) – doom

Mzzrt – Pronounced MIS‑TER (Self) – alt / shock rock

Narnia – X (Narnia Songs / Sound Pollution) – melodic metal

Necrobeast – Iron Baphomet (Self) – black / thrash

Nidelgret – Traüerlarm (Frozen) – black metal

On Borrowed Time – In The Dark Before The Dawn (Omen) – melodic hardcore

Phase Meridian – Egregore (Self) – prog metal

Rakinua – Esi Um Ninu (Dusktone) – dark folk

Somnia Finem – Desassossego (Signal Rex) – black metal

The Fifth Alliance – Stenahoria (Tartarus Records / Breathe Plastic / Ardua Music) – doom / post / black metal

The Freqs – No God On The Gold Coast (Gum Cuzzler) – noise rock

The Scalar Process – Agnomysticism (Transcending Obscurity Records) – progressive techdeath

Tooms – Karst (Road To Masochist) – sludge / death

Trelldom – …by the word… (Prophecy Production) – avantmetal

Tyrann – Tyrann Forever (Dying Victims Productions) – heavy metal

Verzauber – Dire Garden of the Ages (Naturmacht Productions) – black metal

Vimbullnat – Der dunklen (Void Wanderer Productions) – black metal

Vintegral – Towards The Last Dawn (ATMF) – black metal

Voidmaker – A Cold, Unyielding Universe (Self) – blackened death / thrash

V.R.I.L. – Patrole (Edged Circle Productions) – gothgaze

Wyrmhaven – Seasons of Gloom (Self) – death metal

Yawning Balch – Volume 4 (Heavy Psych Sounds) – instru‑metal

— Josh