| Best of every month 2026 - an album calendar |
| 1 |  | Gorrch
Stillamentum
January.
Fantastic in its monotonous elegance and dissonant-hypnotic addiction. The guitars sound like Liturgy sometimes which brings a little bit light in the darkness of this record. Overall this album is very uncomfortable which is a compliment for a black metal album.
Rating 77/100. |
| 2 |  | Cryptic Shift
Overspace & Supertime
February.
I thought thrash metal is dead now (after Megadeth and Kreator this year) and then this album came out. Metal 2026 has to sound like this. Totally fresh, adventurous-epic and truly demanding sci-fi tech prog death thrash metal. You have to invest in this but it will all pay out. Collecting details and memories of this record is a pure joy.
Rating 89/100. |
| 3 |  | Neurosis
An Undying Love for a Burning World
March.
For sure this has to be the incredible comeback album of Neurosis with the incredible choice of Aaron Turner as a new bandmember. Turner does fit like he has always been part of this band and the album should be placed among their very best ones. It has all things that made Neurosis great over the course of their discography and therefore could be a great starting point for younger listeners who want to discover this outstanding band. Neurosis shadow dropping this was for sure one of the best moments of this year. This album, for what it is, is close to perfect.
Rating 96/100. |
| 4 |  | Immolation
Descent
April.
With one of the best discography ever in metal behind them, New York's legend Immolation returns with another slap in our faces. And what a hard-hitting slap it is: loud and aggressive production, tight and razorsharp songs with a lot of genre-uncommon turns and an excellent guitar work. Yes, this is a massiv band's statement that Descent turns out to be one of their best, i say top3 albums ever...and there are just excellent ones...Crazy.
Rating 90/100. |
| 5 |  | Panopticon
Det Hjemsøkte Hjertet
May.
No doubt, this is the year of Neurosis and as a fun fact by chance this new Panopticon album is the one of all the Panopticon Outputs that sounds the most like Neurosis. And other than that: just like the latest Neurosis album, it is a best of all the band's sounds of the past, means that black metal, post metal, country, folk, symphonic stuff are all coming together in well-tuned way. And therefore Det Hjemsøkte Hjertet turns out to be the most pathetic and the most emotional Panopticon album. It sounds majestic and mighty and it is probably the best album in a very strong back catalogue. A star among stars. Sir, thank you for this iconic piece of music.
Rating 95/100. |
| 6 |  | Warning
Rituals of Shame
June.
After 20 years here it is, a new album of legendary UK doom outfit Warning. What a great time to be alive! Yes? Sure? With Rituals of Shame you are able to listen to the dangerous beauty of sadness in a very satisfying way. But the experience comes with a price to pay. Listening to this makes you want to enter peace, quit everything, lay down and die. This could be the last tone for this earth.
Rating 80/100. |
| 7 |  | Protest the Hero
Within
July.
Within is pure and vivid fun. An this could already be the end of this short review. Protest The Hero proof (again) that they were a great band without a stinker in their discography. This time they have done a best of all of their sounds maybe with a slight shift towards punk, not only because of the short punkrock-like runtime. Within should be for everbody: for punkheads, for true metal heads, for prog fans, even for fans of avantgarde or opera and and and... Listen to yourself.
Rating 74/100. |
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