From twenty year waits to four month breaks, we mop up some of the biggest heavy records of the last few weeks reviewing Converge's second album of 2026, Marmozets, Static Dress, Turnover, Guilt Trip, Warning, Stormkeep, & Funebrarum.

Converge 26:04
Marmozets 48:34
Static Dress 1:15:35
Turnover 1:30:00
Guilt Trip 1:41:39
Warning 1:53:38
Stormkeep 2:20:01
Funebrarum 2:38:26

Sam returns from Asia (and through a robo-mic, sorry about that) to talk about Japanese hardcore hijinks at Bloodaxe Festival, Voivod and Midnight speed through the UK together, and we unpack the news no one saw coming that Faith No More are returning in 2027.

Releases:
Warning - Rituals of Shame
There Were Wires - Vessel
Chainlacing - Messuage
Iron Kobra - Eternal Dagger
Saidan - Fangdriller: Scars Beneath Memory’s Wrist
Mork - Monolitt
Einherjer - Lifeblood
Liminal Sky - All Tomorrow’s Darkness

On top of a stream of new music from across the heavy spectrum, we weigh in on the debate following End It's targeting of the man in a banana costume at their show, why the frustration and resentment towards meme behaviour and influencer culture exists at subcultural events, and whether this particular incident went too far.

Releases:
Sublime - Until the Sun Explodes
Sleeping With Sirens - An Ending In Itself
Pussy Riot - CYKA
Yes - Aurora
Tarja - Frisson Noir
Swiss Army Wife - I Love You, But I Hate It Here
Khemmis - Khemmis
Joseph Tholl - It Might Be Art
Nuclear Tomb - Epoch Inhumane
Genghis Tron - Signal Fire
MONO - Snowdrop
BIG|BRAVE - In Grief or In Hope
Fleshcrawl - Epitome of Carnage
Fires in the Distance - Circadian Promise
Defiled - Altered State
Stormkeep - The Nocturnes of Iswylm
Véhémence - Assiéges pour l’éternité
Fyrnask - Íosir
Iron Reagan - Demonetization
Devourment - Pious Impiety
Still Remains - Spirit Breaker
Mystifier / Craven Idol - Demystification of the Fallen Souls

Fortress Festival returns bringing worldwide black metal exclusives to the British seaside, with Gallowbraid, Old Man's Child, Dødheimsgard, Misþyrming, A Forest of Stars & more darkening the skies over the 2026 bill.

Releases:
Devin Townsend - The Moth
Turnover - Down on Earth
Static Dress - Injury Episode
Sparta - Cut a Silhouette
‘68 - They Are Survived
Healing Wound - Bodies of Heavenly Violence
Deafkids - Cicatrizes do Futuro
All Them Witches - House of Mirrors
Elder - Through Zero
Monolord - Neverending
Godthrymm - Projections
Funebrarum - Beckoning the Void of Eternal Silence
Tyrann - Tyrann Forever
Trelldom - …by the Word…
Hecate Enthroned - The Corpse of a Titan, a Lament Long Buried
Converge - Hum of Hurt
Evanescence - Sanctuary
Death Cab for Cutie - I Built You a Tower
100 Demons - Embrace the Black Light
Guilt Trip - Armour of Angels
August Burns Red - Season of Surrender
Blood Incantation - All Gates Open (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
A.A. Williams - Solstice
Slift - Fantasia
Evergrey - Architects of a New Weave
Dwarves - Jenkem
Voivod - Symphonique
Gurt - Survival of the Shittest

It's all about vaporwave prog, French oi, and choo choo train black metal as a whip round the underground picks up Basement, Frozen Soul, Haggard Cat, Fire-Toolz, Prisonnier du temps, A Forest of Stars, Panopticon, and Scimitar for the month's most blistering records.

Basement 15:40
Frozen Soul 33:44
Haggard Cat 51:10
Fire-Toolz 1:05:09
Prisonnier du temps 1:15:41
A Forest of Stars 1:25:27
Panopticon 1:47:30
Scimitar 2:02:45

Anthrax's first single in ten years leads us to consider the thrash legends' creative relevancy in 2026, and Avenged Sevenfold going fully indepedent by buying back their rights brings reminiscing on ten years of their album The Stage.

Releases:
Marmozets - CO.WAR.DICE.
A - Prong
Dimmu Borgir - Grand Serpent Rising
XCOMM - Time to Burn
Armored Saint - Emotion Factory Reset
David Eugene Edwards - Mercurial Silence
Blindead 23 - Deuterium
Witching Hour - Descending.. Where Time Has Ceased to Exist
Lore - Psychotic Trance of the Black Nights
Gridiron - Lights Out
Bear - Anhedonia

Iron Maiden's brand new documentary Burning Ambition hits cinema screens, and there's new singles from Green Lung announcing their new album Necropolitan and from brat superstar Charli XCX making ro-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ck music.

Releases:
Periphery - A Pale White Dot
The All-American Rejects - Sandbox
Super Sometimes - Show the World What’s Underneath
Held. - Grey
Von Groove - Born to Rock
Pro-Pain - Stone Cold Anger
Acid Reign - Daze of the Week
Jungle Rot - Cruel Face of War
Nedgravd - Ascension
Akem Manah - Threnodies
Tyrannus - Mournhold

This week we make our way back to Incineration to once again kick off the festival season with a scorching of black and death metal as the likes of Dragged Into Sunlight, Of Feather and Bone, Tomb Mold and Scimitar rip it up across London stages.

Releases:
Black Veil Brides - Vindicate
Basement - WIRED
Koyo - Barely Here
Social Distortion - Born to Kill
The Flatliners - Cold World
Haggard Cat - The Pain That Orbits Life
Geoff Tate - Operation: Mindcrime III
Frozen Soul - No Place of Warmth
Ingested- Denigration
Darkthrone - Pre-Historic Metal
Panopticon - Det hjemsøkte hjertet
Yoth Iria - Gone with the Devil
A Forest of Stars - Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface
Draconian - In Somnolent Ruin
Forced Order - Undying Spirit
Crowquill - Erase The File
Scarab - Transmutation of Fate
Gadget - Coerced

Creeper's vampire extravaganza Sangui-Tour hits small venues in the UK for a full celebration of blooddrinking and leather.

Releases:
Foo Fighters - Your Favorite Toy
The Amity Affliction - House of Cards
Atreyu - The End is Not the End
Failure - Location Lost
Terror - Still Suffer
Roman Candle - Unadulterated
Armed for Apocalypse - The Earth is Breathing Beneath Me
Plini - An Unnameable Desire
Einar Solberg - Vox Occulta
Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell - The Trouble With the Shovell
Demon Spell - Blessed Be the Dark
Six Feet Under - Next to Die
Scimitar - Scimitarium II
Cnoc An Tursa - A Cry for the Slain
Blood Countess - Imperatrix Sanguinis
Sepultura - The Cloud of Unknowing
Vomit Forth - In the Name of the Father
American Football - American Football (LP4)
Kneecap - Fenian
Sevendust - One
Cage Fight - Exuvia
Venom - Into Oblivion
Spell - Wretched Heart
Black Cilice - Votive Fire
Effluence - Anticholinergic Derangement
Infected Death - Invicta

Viral microtonal aliens, surprise drops, and defiant, powerful final bows rule the month with At the Gates, Enter Shikari, Corrosion of Conformity, Spirit Adrift, Angine de Poitrine, Portrayal of Guilt, Poison Ruïn, and Immolation. One last time: Go!

At the Gates 18:20
Enter Shikari 49:18
Corrosion of Conformity 1:18:23
Spirit Adrift 1:33:43
Angine de Poitrine 1:49:00
Portrayal of Guilt 2:14:02
Poison Ruïn 2:30:48
Immolation 2:51:47