Rolling 2026 METAL \m/ thread

I probably bought fewer new metal albums last year than most (still a LOT) but 2026 is rife with potential

I've been listening to Eximperitus' third album, Meritoriousness of Equanimity, which comes out January 30 from Willowtip.

https://eximperitus.bandcamp.com/album/meritoriousness-of-equanimity

A metal album whose title translates from Metal to English as "It's Good To Be Chill" seems like a good way to start 2026.

omg sounds amazing - so into those song titles lol

the last few updates from the 2025 thread really gave me a boon of great stuff to listen to at the gym and on runs:

coroner - dissonance theory
i thought this was kinda cheesy at first but it's really grown on me. middle aged in the best sense.

glorious depravity - death never sleeps.
high energy and headbangable

hedonist - scapulimancy
kind of a slow burn

sanguisugabogg - hideous aftermath
just a monster of an album. zeroed-out eyes-rolled-back brutality. missed nominating this for the eoy poll.

Definitely stoked for that Eximperitus album, I loved their last one quite a bit. Seems like the logo still has their, ahem, full name - Eximperituserqethhzebibšiptugakkathšulweliarzaxułum. I can see why they've shortened it elsewhere.

Seems like the logo still has their, ahem, full name - Eximperituserqethhzebibšiptugakkathšulweliarzaxułum.

I was wondering what was going on there. The logo did seem a little long and complicated.

Hails! I wasn't around very much last year. I hope to rectify that this year.

Revolver did a 60 Most Anticipated Albums of 2026 which should be good for discussion, if nothing else!

Alice in Chains
ALISSA
Alter Bridge
Amon Amarth
Anthrax
At the Gates
Bad Omens
Zachary Baker
Better Lovers
Black Label Society
Black Veil Brides
Burn Eternal
Clutch
Converge
Corrosion of Conformity
Deafheaven
Dimmu Borgir
Down
Electric Callboy
Amira Elfeky
Evanescence
Evil Island
Exodus
Five Finger Death Punch
Gojira
I Promised the World
Ice Nine Kills
Imminence
In This Moment
Incubus
Kim Dracula
Kerry King
King Diamond
Knocked Loose
Korn
Lamb of God
Limp Bizkit
Loathe
Marilyn Manson
Mastodon
Megadeth
Ministry
Motionless in White
Mudvayne
Nine Inch Nails
Paleface Swiss
Poison the Well
Poppy
Power Trip
PRESIDENT
Primus
The Pretty Reckless
Puscifer
Sevendust
Shinedown
Slipknot
SPEED
TOOL
Jay Weinberg
Rob Zombie

My own list of things I want to at least list to... Bearing in mind I listen to everything vaguely interesting though there's a bunch of things I am dubious I will like...

7-Jan
Epica

9-Jan
Bullet
Skindred

16-Jan
Gluecifer
Kreator

23-Jan
The Damned
Megadeth
Pelican

30-Jan
Buzzcocks

6-Feb
KMFDM
Mayhem
Puscifier

13-Feb
Converge
The Hellacopters
Malefic
Worm

27-Feb
Rob Zombie

From that big Revolver list, the only ones I'm interested in hearing are At The Gates, Converge, Corrosion Of Conformity, Gojira, Ministry (Paul Barker's back!) and Rob Zombie (the first two singles have been really strong).

Time was, every Amon Amarth record was an automatic purchase for me, but the last one I bought was Jomsviking and The Great Heathen Army was terrible.

Seems like every nu-metal band has an album coming out.

And probably allegations coming out as well

Seen this MTV Rewind site? It's got over 33,000 videos going back to the 1970s, with sub-channels for 120 Minutes and the Headbangers' Ball (which has 1600 videos all by itself).

https://wantmymtv.vercel.app/player.html

The two Mayhem songs already released are strong, that's promising.

The new Kreator album is GREAT fun, because of course it would be.

A new Draconian (Sweden, gothic doom) album is coming out this spring, the studio return of their 2001-2011 female vocalist - https://www.instagram.com/draconianhorde/p/DRzjllKji50/

New Exhumed track rips, suitably gory cover art too.

https://exhumed.bandcamp.com/album/red-asphalt

This morning I got a promo email about a black metal album literally called Hate Speech. In 2026. Deleted that shit immediately.

hellhammer is reissuing the PARIAH albums (what Satan became for a while). great stuff

still catching up on 2025 releases and really enjoyed oromet’s mournful funeral doom:

https://transylvanianrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/oromet-the-sinking-isle

really hit the spot on a particularly shit day!

hellhammer is reissuing the PARIAH albums (what Satan became for a while). great stuff

― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, January 12, 2026 4:46 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

i looked this up and the kindred sounds great indeed but i'm wondering if you meant "steamhammer" the name of the og label, not "hellhammer" the band, which are obviously two words to get easily mixed up?

oromet’s mournful funeral doom: really hit the spot on a particularly shit day!

this is sounding gorgeous thx

and that exhumed track is insane

Really dig that Oromet album, it's great.

Missed the Alkaloid listening party, but stoked to check out that album.

Missed the Alkaloid listening party, but stoked to check out that album.

The Bach one? It's pretty good in a prog-death-with-multiple-songs-about-Cthulhu way. The Bach interpretations are... done with great seriousness.

I really liked the last Alkaloid album so I was mostly curious to hear those new songs. But JCLC was raving elsewhere about the Bach interpretations.

I liked it enough that I'm including it in an upcoming newsletter devoted to classical albums.

new immolation:
https://immolation.bandcamp.com/album/descent

teaser track sounds great, as usual. album in april. hope there's a tour.

I like the brief but descriptive tags on there:

Tags
metal death metal Yonkers

Fun piece on IO. I love this cover art aesthetic.

https://www.invisibleoranges.com/the-top-20-old-school-black-metal-photoslop-album-covers-1990-2005/

oh man, have that apotheosis disc somewhere. haven’t thought about that one for quite some time.

Loving this debut from Exxûl, another project in the Longueuil lads universe (Ch'theilist, Zeycrideus, etc.). It's dark, doomy USPM, very much like Crypt Sermon. https://productionstso.bandcamp.com/album/sealed-into-none

The album cover is beautiful too.

ok this rules. sounds a bit like early confessor with some modern polish.

damn ok i love this.

i can't take this news of Carson dying every few hours guys my heart is weak

ok very wrong thread wtf

hails to carson, metal’s reigning king of riffsmaxxing

love the keys on this exxul record - adds a little “i am the black wizards” drama to an already very dramatic sound

also, i myself invoked confessor but any excuse to post their texas water park set aka the best live performance ever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5CgB4dB0NU

great video. wiki says they're still active today with three og members.

nice. i remember thinking that their comeback record (now 20+ years old…) was surprisingly good despite the new and prominent grunge influences deployed at what must've been the least cool time in history to really go for that. i should prob spin that again sometime.

Fun piece on IO. I love this cover art aesthetic.

My personal favourite is Maniac Butcher - Barbarians, which features the band members (crudely) superimposed on horseback, in full corpsepaint.

And then on their next album cover, they did it again!

they realized four people to photoshop was just way too much work lol

still cant get enough of this exxul record. the gang vox are another unexpected element that im really into - RIYL biohazard lol

behold, Dave Mustaine in 2026
--------------------------------

I don't care if I'm out of line
I don't care 'cause this life is mine
I don't care you don't like what I say
I don't care, and I won't obey
I don't care if you're gettin' high
I don't care when the truth is a lie
I don't care when the rope gets tight
I don't care if you live or die
I don't care what the headline said
I don't care if all hope is dead
I don't care if I'm not your class
I don't care, you can kiss my ass

He was a hater and a thief, a maggot in dead meat
A traitor and a creep, a jack-off and a sheep
You know a rat never learns, you get what you deserve
You gotta know that I just don't care

You gotta know, gotta know, gotta know
You gotta know, gotta know, gotta know
You gotta know, gotta know, gotta know
You gotta know, gotta know, gotta know

I don't care if you're standing tall
I don't care if you take the fall
I don't care who you try to blame
I don't care, I don't play that game
I don't care if you're wrong or right
I don't care if you came to fight
I don't care if you call my bluff
I don't care, enough is enough

He was a hater and a thief, a maggot in dead meat
A traitor and a creep, a jack-off and a sheep
You know a rat never learns, you get what you deserve
You gotta know that I just don't care

He was a hater and a thief, a maggot in dead meat
A traitor and a creep, a jack-off and a sheep
You know a rat never learns, you get what you deserve
You gotta know that I just don't care

You gotta know, gotta know, gotta know
You gotta know, gotta know, gotta know
You gotta know, gotta know, gotta know
You gotta know, gotta know, gotta know

I'm just going to cling to my 40 year-old Peace Sells cassette and pretend that never happened.

if theres one thing megadave is known for, its for taking things in stride and not caring about what other people think or say

still cant get enough of this exxul record.

Yeah, it's a gem. It's sending me back to the amazing Zeicrydeus album too.

still haven't gotten to it. gonna prioritize that, thanks!

Came to see what others thought of the new Megadeth.
Suffice, I'm not buying.

on first listen, it was fairly middling. there's not as much effect on Dave's voice as on other late-era Megadeth and he sounds really old

Yeah, it's not great. They've made better albums, even in the 21st century. But the closing cover of Metallica's "Ride The Lightning" is... OK, from a performance standpoint it's competent. Musically, it's a precise soundalike - the band adds NOTHING to the arrangement or the performance. Mustaine didn't even write himself a new guitar solo. The vocals are bad, but he's been a shit vocalist for 40 years, why change now? But as a thing that exists, it's an act of artistic surrender that's frankly inexplicable. He spent so many years allowing "guy who was kicked out of Metallica and will never, ever stop resenting them for it" to be half his artistic identity, only to now cover one of their songs on what he claims is his final album? It's just weird. And pointless.

hahaha I love megadave's vox but mostly for comedic reasons. marty friedman is obv the real megaMVP, sorry dave (x-post)

Yeah...I've always been an apologist for Dave's vocals because I felt that his cartoonish snarl fit the band perfectly. But when age caught up he really couldn't figure out a way to pivot. It's hard to do that voice at half-capacity

On Dystopia, they overproduced his vocals so that they sounded robotic. I hated it. On the new album, they've fortunately left it pretty naked, but we'll of course now he sounds old and tired (and understandably so - few untrained singers in metal bands for 40 years don't sound that way. I prefer his old and tired to the robotic vocals, but the album just doesn't do much for me. The previous one didn't either.

Like, he'd actually started doing the Metallica strategy of tuning down (a full step in some cases). I didn't love it because it really hurt the intensity of songs like "Holy Wars" and "Skin O My Teeth" when I saw them last. It was still a good show but they'd sounded much better a year earlier when I saw them.

The Cannibal Corpse documentary is fun because for the most part they're really good, happy-go-lucky dudes.

the cannibal corpse doc is worth every minute. the part where paul says he "has no way to record himself" is an in-house favorite over here

Yeah it's a classic

All the parts of the new MØL record seem like things I would be allergic too together, but somehow I really enjoyed that record.

Two "Fuck ICE" chants at Exhumed show tonight.

One from crowd. One from band.

Harvey also targeted Trump and TERFs.

Made me smile.

Also they sounded so fucking good

sick

https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/italian-dark-sound

Looking forward to this one from Mirdyasi's Kult. The title track is so catchy.

haha that rules

Definitely lives up to its awesome cover art.

New Frozen Soul album in May - guest appearances from Gerard Way, Robb Flynn, and Devin Swank of Sanguisugabogg. Pretty Bolt Thrower-ish on first listen; not bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzKKOXVcD4Y

I cannot stop listening to the Worm album. I was already a fan, but holy shit it rips so much more than I expected.

Digging that Draconian track, though I've never really checked them out before. For some reason I thought they were more power metal leaning, but I'll have to check them out! Thanks for posting.

Remember Spread Eagle? No, you don't. They were a NYC hair metal band who arrived just too late; MCA put out their first two albums, neither of which went anywhere. Anyway, they're back and about to release album #4, and it seriously sounds like if Al Jourgensen made a hair metal record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yyhQQQYp5M

yeah Draconian is really good. haven't checked out the new track yet but they are cool

The more I spin Red Asphalt, the more I think this might be the best Exhumed in... a quarter century?

ugh i'm really psyched for italian dark sound to come out! that title track is so good.

going back to the exhumed album and i am digging it, there's an elegance to it or something haha.

Cavity reissuing Human Abjection, touring, view as Web page here for lotta links and graphics:
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/CAVITY--Reptilian-Records-To-Reissue-Remastered-Human-Abjection-Debut-LP-From-Infamous-Miami-Sludge-Metal-Crew-On-May-29th--Preo.html?soid=1114457189250&aid=WaqFZUo1QM0

Really do not like the new Gaerea at all.

They more or less sound to me like Stabbing the Drama era Soilwork with tiny amounts of shoegaze/post-metal but it's not assembled well. The vocals are a one dimensional roar now and at transition ls between heavy and quiet/moody are jarring and clunky. The heavy bits aren't committed enough, the mellower bits too rote to work.

Shame as I used to love these guys.

I can't claim to have been a particularly attentive Gaerea fan, but my playlist history reports that I discovered them with Unsettling Whispers, and have enjoyed at least every single from "Salve" onwards, including all four advance tracks from this new album. But it also reveals that I didn't really listen to any of their albums as wholes. I'll start with this one and work backwards.

A reunited Neurosis, with Aaron Turner replacing Scott Kelly, will be headlining the Fire In The Mountains festival.

Fire in the Mountains is excited to announce that the legendary Neurosis will reunite for a worldwide exclusive performance at this year’s festival. Presented by the Firekeeper Alliance — a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing suicide in Indigenous communities — the band’s long-awaited appearance will take place on the sacred lands of the Blackfeet Nation. Neurosis will appear with their new vocalist/guitarist Aaron Turner (ISIS, SUMAC, Old Man Gloom) against the backdrop of the mountains this July.

In addition to the performance announcement, Neurosis have dropped a brand new album titled An Undying Love For A Burning World today via Neurot Recordings.

...

Fire in the Mountains 2026 lineup:
Neurosis
16 Horsepower
Enslaved
Between Two Worlds
Baroness
Amigo the Devil
Borknagar (U.S. exclusive)
Agalloch
Yob (presented by Firekeeper Alliance)
The Ruins of Beverast (U.S. exclusive)
SubRosa
Full of Hell (presented by Firekeeper Alliance)
Gallowbraid (U.S. exclusive)
Sigh
Wayfarer
Old Man Gloom
Raven Chacon & Iggor Cavalera
Midwife
Dreadnought
Phobophilic
Tarantella
Yaotl Mictlan
Savage Oath
Galvanist
Nocturne
El Welk

Fire in the Mountains was originally created to highlight the symbiotic relationship between heavy music and mountain landscapes. It was a way to bring people together to experience something extraordinary: the primal power of heavy music combined with the majesty and wildness of the Rocky Mountains. What transpired was a truly unique and inspiring musical experience for the audience and bands alike. Now, Fire in the Mountains is evolving to be much more than just a concert in the mountains— it’s the deliberate curation of music, art, education, food, social responsibility, and adventure with the intention to cultivate our intrinsic nature through the act of rewilding; that is, to reconnect and immerse oneself with the natural world.

Fire in the Mountains is committed not only to raising awareness of the prevalence of suicide in Indian Country but also to actively participate in the solution by providing support for suicide prevention initiatives. Fire in the Mountains aims to create a platform that brings this issue to the forefront of public consciousness and fosters a supportive community dedicated to change.

Holy shit, that's a hell of a lineup!

xp to Neando - glad it wasn't just me, I sampled some of the new Gaera and was scratching my head

also, holy fuck, i missed the new Neurosis album announcement buried in there as I was too busy admiring the lineup!

yeah shit i'll be checking that out for sure.

Yeah they broke the internet today with this news

whoa, in case anyone else missed it, not only was the new album announced... it's out!
https://neurosis.bandcamp.com/album/an-undying-love-for-a-burning-world

fuck it's real good.

So good..what a treat.

Man I needed this tonight.

it's just beautiful. unexpected gift on the first day of spring. album of the year material tbh.

Liking this.

I think I've heard Through Silver in Blood but otherwise don't really know them.

i don't either! i've never heard them i don't think, don't sue me! they kinda nailed me with that opening chant tbh. powerful! and just the sound of this thing. it sounds amazing! totally its own sound world. so many things about it i'm into.

I never liked their singer, so I was stoked that that they swapped for Turner. Sounds good to me so far, too.

released Jan 25, 2025 so I'll count it as 2026, but Century's "Sign of the Storm" is some excellent trad metal, really good songwriting and melodies

https://electricassaultrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sign-of-the-storm

Yeah, that Century record is good. If you like them you'll probably also like Anchorite, who put out an album back in August:

https://anchoritedoom.bandcamp.com/album/realm-of-ruin

awesome, my allergy to black metal aesthetics makes it hard for me to find new bands

New Cruel Force is great (loved their last - Dawn of the Axe) - epic metal/speed metal hybrid practically. Can tell this will pair nice with new Worm.

Achorite and Cruel Force are definitely up my alley, thank metal thread from a long time lurker

Can't wait to spin the Hellripper

My surprise metal joy of the week is the new album by unapologetically producer-assembled five-female-singer pop metal band Venus 5. Sounds a bit like what we might have ended up with if Queensryche had hired Lita Ford to replace Geoff Tate.

ugh i'm really psyched for italian dark sound to come out! that title track is so good.

Out today. Catchy horror doom with disco-like beats, obviously I love it.

I also love how their Bandcamp page and writeup keep misspelling the band name.

https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/italian-dark-sound

Aggressive Perfector is another new great UK lp out today - motorhead/early maiden/venom
Cryptworm is good but not sure if it'll beat the last one for me...
will spin Hellripper later, looking forward to the london show with Devastator and Schizophrenia soon!

The Hellripper is great. McBain is a riff machine, a one-man master composer.

I grew sick of black 'n roll/blackened speed metal years ago because a lot of mediocre acts were basically just trotting out slightly reheated Motorhead/Venom riffs with witchy screams on top, almost like they were too afraid to veer off formula.

But Hellripper takes their songs through peaks and valleys in a way that's pretty fuckin cathartic on every track. Their traditional heavy metal backbone is taut, harkens more to Maiden, Saxon, Dio, and the black metal elements are just kind of seamlessly interlocked with it.

From the last album, "The Nuckelavee" is one of my favorite metal songs, like, ever...it's only a few years old still but it was one of those "holy shit" moments when I heard it

The Hellripper is great. McBain is a riff machine, a one-man master composer.

thought i was in a simpsons thread for a second

Haha!

I interviewed the Hellripper dude for Bandcamp Daily a few years ago. The piece got taken down, but I found the email Q&A in my Gmail, so here it is:

How would you describe the evolution of the music from the last album to this one? What are you better at (as a writer, as a player) in 2023 than you were in 2020?
I think that the overall sound is perhaps more diverse on this album. In order to keep things interesting for myself, I wanted to branch out and bring some new elements into the sound from bands that typically wouldn't influence Hellripper's music. The only rule I set for myself was that the album would stay true to the black/speed/thrash style at the core, and so the goal was to incorporate these new things in a way that would compliment that style while being careful not to dilute the end product.

I think that I am better as both a writer and as a player, as well as a producer. With the many live shows we've played over the past couple of years and the amount of time I spent writing the tracks on this new album, I feel like I just naturally improved as a musician. But, I feel like I have improved as a songwriter and perhaps more importantly, I have grown more confident as a songwriter. As I mentioned previously, I wanted to bring in some different influences, and I don't think I would have been able to do some of the things that I've done here on the last album. It all comes from experience I guess.

I think the album is the best sounding Hellripper album to date also, and again that comes from experience in recording/mixing my own music over the years. Like with the songwriting, I wanted to try some new things production-wise on this record, and a lot of these ideas came from albums outside the black/speed metal genre. The process involved a lot of trial and error and there were some things that just didn't work out, but it was a really fun process for me.

Your lyrics are a mix of history, pre-Christian religion and anti-Christianity, but you've avoided drifting into bonehead "cultural nationalism" disguised as headbanger misanthropy - what advice do you have for other metalheads, to help them avoid that pitfall themselves?
Well, first of all, I'm not a bonehead, so I guess that helps!

From having conversations with my non-Scottish friends, I've gathered that what you describe might be the case in other countries, but this is not the case in Scotland, and Scotland may be an exception in this matter. People may want independence for example and enjoy the culture, but in general it has no connotation to right wing views - in fact it's usually the contrary.

I don't know what advice I would give to other metalheads other than to do research and know what you're reading about/listening to. Don't fall into the trap of "National Myths" - where history is twisted or reappropriated to make a point that fits a personal opinion.

You play almost everything yourself on the records, but you have musicians you use for shows. Why not use them in the studio? Is it a question of geography/logistics, or something else?
I just prefer the process of working alone mostly. The convenience, cost, and ability to change things myself at any point also play a part in that! I guess geography would be a factor also!

I am constantly changing things throughout the whole process and replacing/removing songs at all times. With about one month or so to go until I had to submit the album for mastering and to the label, I realised that one of the tracks just didn't fit and I wasn't 100% happy with it. So I made the decision to remove the track (which was almost fully recorded and mixed) from the album, and work on another half-written track instead. I was able to do that because everything is done at home by myself. That just wouldn't have happened if I had to go through the process of contacting other people, getting them to learn the track and hiring a studio for them to record it, and I would have been left with an album that I wasn't completely satisfied with.

It's a hobby and my passion, so I just really enjoy being able to write or record something whenever I want to with little thought for anything else.

Not a question, an observation: Good for you, using real bagpipes and not a keyboard on the title track!
Thank you! I wish I could have played them myself, but I'm just no good unfortunately (or fortunately for my neighbours)! Antonio did a great job on the recording and I think they fit with the track nicely.

debut from Speglas is superb: https://speglas.bandcamp.com/album/endarkenment-being-death

also looking forward to the new The Silver lp!

late to the party but really loving the Neurosis. I thought I was done with them forever. What a rebranding!