- Posted By: Dark Emperor
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Psycroptic - The Pulse of Annihilation (2026)
- Posted By: Dark Emperor
- Comments: 0
Iotunn - Waves over Copenhell (2026)
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After blowing everybody away with their majestic 2024 release “Kinship”, Iotunn has been making the rounds playing their highly melancholic music to live audiences. Lucky for those of us that haven’t been close enough to catch them live, Metal Blade opens 2026 with the band’s “Waves over Copenhell” live album. Featuring five tracks and tons of energy, the band gives us a little glimpse of their live show. Opening with “Waves Below”, the band showcases fierce rawness and their signature emotive sound that oozes melancholy. Jón Aldará is a very talented vocalist and masterfully showcases his range as Jesper Gräs and Jens Nicolai Gräs guitars lead the way. The band’s live sound seems to be more organic and powerful, delivering tracks like “The Tower of Cosmic Nihility” and “Access All Worlds” with a vicious edge, while keeping things engaging and heavy. | ||
- Posted By: Dark Emperor
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Igorrr - Amen (2025)
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The master of weirdness and experimental madness, Gautier Serre, returns with Igorrr’s fifth full-length album titled “Amen”. Featuring over 40 minutes of extremely engaging and totally deranged music, this release continues the band’s tradition of not being bound by any genre, while adding additional heaviness and with a certain live-setting edge that makes the music more digestible and headbangable as well. Opening with the dramatic arrangements of “Daemoi”, the stage is set for one hell of a ride, featuring lush vocal arrangements and crafty instrumentation. Of course the electronics create some chaotic dissonance that is the brilliance of Igorrr. The use of unconventional elements and interesting percussions and arrangements, creates unique tracks like “Headbutt”, “Limbo”, and the crazy “Blastbeat Falafel”, which are all brilliant in its own insane way. | ||
- Posted By: Dark Emperor
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Kardashev - Alunea (2025)
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Showing their breakthrough release “Liminal Rite”, was not a fluke, North American outfit Kardashev returns with the brilliant “Alunea”. Perfectly blending genres and creating totally unique aural experiences, this outfit delivers eight tracks of crushing melancholy. Taking their “Deathgaze” genre to new heights, the band showcases extra maturity and polish in one of our early candidates for album of the year. Opening with the dreamy “A Precipice. A Door.”, the band embarks on a very ethereal journey that is perfectly flanked by completely crushing Deathcore onslaughts. Mark Garrett’s vocals are some of the most exhilarating in Metal music, as they go from dreamy cleans to insane growls and harsh shrieks, creating an extremely contrasting and yet satisfying experience, through tracks like “Reunion”, “Seed of the Night” and “Speak Silence”. | ||
- Posted By: Dark Emperor
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Messa - The Spin (2025)
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Facing the herculean task of following up to their ground-breaking release “Close”, Messa returns with “The Spin” and manages to shake things up enough to create awe and excitement. After heavily touring the world after their previous release, the band took a different approach when recording this album, and managed to deliver another Doomy/Jazzy/Proggy offering with a few interesting surprises. Quickly turning heads, the release opens with “Void Meridian”, a mysterious track that while having some of the band’s signature elements, it also introduces some intense Darkwave/Goth Rock vibes. With an eerie The Sisters of Mercy meets Tribulation meets Soror Dolorosa, the opener and “At Races”, and “Fire on the Roof” showcase the band’s on a different light, making them more dynamic and perfectly complementing their already hypnotic style. Sara Bianchin’s vocals are a perfect fit for such a style and are as haunting as ever, particularly on the solemn “Immolation”. | ||
- Posted By: Dark Emperor
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Allegaeon - The Ossuary Lens (2025)
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Continuing their crushing onslaught to the top levels of Technical/Melodic Death Metal, today we have Allegaeon and their latest opus “The Ossuary Lens”. Featuring ten tracks and nearly 45 minutes of blistering music, this release further refines the band’s high-octane sound, while infusing some new elements and marks the return of their original vocalist Ezra Haynes. With a focus on creating engaging songs and delivering maximum brutality, the band manages to unleash their finest release to date. After the atmospheric “Refraction”, the band instantly means business with the punishing “Chaos Theory”. This track sets a very hectic pace thanks to its insane riffing and crafty drumming. The band has never focused on creating complex tracks just for the sake of it, like others in the genre, but rather deliver a perfectly balanced mixture of musicianship, melody and brutality, as “Driftwood”, “Dies Irae” and “The Swarm” showcase. | ||
- Posted By: Dark Emperor
- Comments: 0
Whitechapel - Hymns in Dissonance (2025)
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Unleashing a crushing Deathcore master class, today we have Whitechapel and their latest opus “Hymns in Dissonance”. With over 43 minutes of total brutality, the band’s eight full-length release delivers ten tracks of vicious music that is quite brutal and yet some melodic hints shine through to keep things interesting and more dynamic. As one of the most consistently good Deathcore bands in the scene, Phil Bozeman and company continue to induce pain with their crushing music. Opening with the ravaging “Prisoner 666” the band quickly escalates things with their crafty guitar work, crushing breakdowns and the insane vocals of Phil Bozeman. Steamrolling the listener with the extreme brutality of tracks like “Diabolic Slumber”, “A Visceral Retch”, and the album title track, this outfit showcases their pedigree and experience with crushing onslaught after crushing onslaught. Particularly when things go from 100 to 120% when the growls and shrieks seem to add extra punishment. | ||
- Posted By: Dark Emperor
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Ensiferum - Winter Storm (2024)
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Reigning kings of Epic Folk Metal, Ensiferum, mark their return with “Winter Storm”, a ten track release filled with the band’s signature high-octane music perfectly blanched with folk elements and soaring vocal melodies. As anybody could expect, this release delivers 45 minutes of some of the finest music the band has ever produced. The band has been improving their style over nearly three decades and they are getting darn near perfection. After setting the mood with an instrumental opener, “Winter Storm Vigilantes” quickly jumps at the listener with the band’s signature catchiness, and Petri’s harsh vocals. This track is quite lively, immediately shifting the mood into all-out-battle mode. The band’s use of multiple vocalists, both on cleans and harsh vocals, allows the tracks to be more dynamic and have some extra depth, keeping things fresh and exciting, like on the magical “Long Cold Winter of Sorrow and Strife”, and the playful “Fatherland” and its folky passages. | ||
- Posted By: Dark Emperor
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Iotunn - Kinship (2024)
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If you thought that Iotunn’s debut release was impressive, wait until you hear how epic “Kinship” is. Taking their lively Progressive Melodic Metal sound to new heights, this release delivers eight highly emotional tracks that clock in at nearly 70 minutes of music. Perfectly surrounding Jón Aldará with excellent musicians and song-writers, this release is a testament on how retooling of traditional/progressive Metal elements and styles can work wonders with the right talent behind the vocals. Opening with the dreamy and emotive “Kingship Elegiac”, the band rapidly sets a very melancholic vibe that brilliantly fits the emotion of Jón Aldará vocals. As the distorted guitars and weeping leads come into play, this track has hooked anybody that likes melodic/melancholic music, and it is just the beginning of this 13-minute piece. The proggy nature of the band’s music keeps things dynamic and very different from your run-of-the-mill Melodic Death Metal band, focusing more on creating epic moody melodies than on headbanging passages, as “Mistalnd” powerfully delivers. | ||
- Posted By: Dark Emperor
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Six Feet Under - Killing for Revenge (2024)
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It’s been a while since we have liked anything that Six Feet Under has released and with “Killing for Revenge”, it looks like this will not change yet. Chris Barnes and company unleash thirteen songs of highly uninspired ‘Groovy’ Death Metal that while not as bad as some of their previous releases, it is still a stinker. If you are looking for the good old times of Chris Barnes in CC, or even some of the band’s earlier releases, this is definitely not for you. Opening with “Know-Nothing Ingrate”, we see the main change is that the vocals sound a bit different, albeit better, than on the previous release. They are deep and snarly and constant, which is an improvement and there seem to be no attempts at doing squeals as “Accomplice to Evil Deeds”, “Ascension”, and “When the Moon Goes Down in Blood” roll in. It is also notable that some tracks are over four minutes and have a few interesting riffs and hooks here and there. | ||
