With its 30th anniversary coming up in 2026, music reviews site Pitchfork is beta testing new features, related to user input.
Users will be able to comment on reviews, and rate the album being reviewed. The user rating average will be adjacent to the review rating.
The new features are currently tested by a pool of 500 readers, and are expected to be fully rolled out in the next year.
Commenting on the initiative, tech site The Verge wrote that Pitchfork "begs the internet to tell it what's cool these days". Furthermore, it debunked user comments/reviews/ratings (The Verge has a dedicated comments section for every article it publishes) in the age of social media influencers, and ad money moving therein.
35 years after the release of Act III, Bay Area thrashers Death Angel have announced a dedicated U.S. tour this winter. With Vio-Lence, Lions At The Gate and Misfire as supporting acts, the band is going to play the album in its entirety.
Additionally, Death Angel have released a song called "Cult of the Used" along with an animated music video, which is planned to be included in the tour's setlist. According to the guitarist Rob Cavestany, the song is a depiction of society under hypnosis, being strategically manipulated and taken advantage of and urges you to leave the so called reality behind. Earlier this month, they've also put out a video for the previous single "Wrath", filmed during Summer of Wrath Tour 2025 in Europe.
There's no definite information about the band's next album yet, but it's confirmed to be in the works since last year.
The UK-based hard rock four-piece Marmozets have released their first new material since 2018. The track, titled 'A Kiss From A Mother,' can be heard below:
While there hasn't been any formal announcement of a new album, they have announced an upcoming tour of the UK that's set to take place later this year and early into 2026.
Mayhem are set to release their seventh studio album, Liturgy of Death, on February 6, 2026, through Century Media. New single “Weep For Nothing” serves as a testament to the black metal outfit's enduring legacy, forty-one years since their formation, and represents the band's newest offering since October 2019.
Listen to “Weep For Nothing”:
“Liturgy of Death” Tracklist:
01. Ephemeral Eternity
02. Despair
03. Weep For Nothing
04. Aeon's End
05. Funeral Of Existence
06. Realm Of Endless Misery
07. Propitious Death
08. The Sentence Of Absolution
09. Life Is A Corpse You Drag (bonus track)
10. Sancta Mendacia (bonus track)
Welsh ragga metallers Skindred have announced their 9th album, You Got This, will be released via Earache Records on 17 April 2026. The track list is as follows:
1. You Got This
2. Can I Get A
3. Born Fe Dis
4. This Is The Sound
5. Broke
6. Glass
7. Big Em Up
8. Do It Like This
9. My People
10. Give Thanks
The title track has been released as a single. Prior to this, the band confirmed on Monday, 3 November, that founding bassist Dan Pugsley has left the band, with Feeder's Tommy Gleeson filling in on live duties for the foreseeable future. This makes You Got This their first album as a 3 piece, and first since the original 2002 recordings of debut album Babylon not to feature the core line-up of Benji Webbe, Dan Pugsley, Mikey Demus and Arya Goggin (Demus and Arya Goggin joined during the recording of Babylon, with Jeff Rose and Martyn Ford originally contributing to the album).
New Zealand stoner-sludge juggernauts Beastwars have risen from the waves of their slumber to present their first full-length album of original music in six years, titled The Ship // The Sea. The band also released a covers album in 2023, Tyranny of Distance, featuring re-imaginings of songs from fellow New Zealand musicians.
The album will release on November 7th, 2025 and features artwork from Nick Keller, whose excellent paintings have adorned all of the band's previous albums.
Obey the riff.
"Levitate"
Tracklisting:
1. We Don’t Say Fear
2. Guardian of Fire
3. Levitate
4. The Storm
5. Rust
6. Blood Will Flow
7. The Howling
8. You Know They’re Burning the Land
9. The Devil
10. Light Leads the Way
Swiss experimental/black metal long runners Samael, have aired a new song at the official YouTube channel of Napalm Records.
Titled "Black Matter Manifesto", it is as yet unknown whether the cut will make it to a new Samael album, although the outfit is working towards that direction for a 2026 release.
You can listen to the single, right below:
More info: https://blabbermouth.net/news/samael-releases-first-new-single-in-eight-years-black-matter-manifesto
Hailing from Detroit MI, electro/gothic/industrial/post punk outfit Ritual Howls is streaming a new album at the official Bandcamp location of Californian imprint Felte Records.
Titled Ruin, the long player was officially let out today (October 31).
You can listen to the entire release, right now:
https://ritualhowls.bandcamp.com/album/ruin
UK alt-rock veterans InMe have unveiled their latest single, “Prove Myself,” now streaming on all major platforms.
The track follows April’s “Confession” and serves as the second taste of the band’s upcoming crowdfunded album Demons.
Yellow Eyes stealth released their seventh full length album Confusion Gate, a sister album to 2023's Master's Murmur.
It can be streamed in full on the band's Bandcamp and other streaming services like Spotify.
https://yelloweyes.bandcamp.com/album/confusion-gate
Groove-core riff-circus Volumes releases S.O.A.P, their second single since Happier? (2021), along with what seems to be album art and a title for a future release, titled Mirror Touch.
10 years on from the Colectiv Disaster claimed the lives of 65 people at their album launch show, including 4 of the 5 band members, Goodbye to Gravity has returned with sole survivor Andrei Găluț recruiting friends of the band to perform acoustic renditions of two tracks for "The Memento Project". The band's statement is as follows:
10 years ago, Goodbye to Gravity was getting ready to release its sophomore album, Mantras of War through a celebratory concert. The enthusiastic reviews and the success of the first three singles promised an exceptional record, with a strong anti-corruption message, expressed through lyrics centered around resilience and courage. After the first show, the band had plans to embark on a national tour and play abroad as well. Everything pointed towards a successful career, both locally as well as internationally, and the artists were close to fulfilling their dream: to change the world for the better with their music.
Hailing from Denver CO, metallic hardcore outfit Thrillrot is streaming its namesake debut album at the official Bandcamp location of Lost Future Records.
Thrillrot was officially published on October 17.
You can listen to the entire release, right below:
https://thrillrot.bandcamp.com/album/thrillrot
Metalcore/melodeath stalwarts The Agony Scene have announced in a Facebook posts that their fifth studio album is upcoming soon. Frontman Mike Williams offered this as a “smallest of updates” so little information is yet available. The band also introduced BJ Sampson formerly of Enterprise Earth as their new guitarist and songwriter.
Six Feet Under has finished recording their next album, the follow-up to Killing For Revenge (2024), and will begin mixing soon. Vocalist Chris Barnes revealed on the 100 Songs That Define Heavy Metal podcast that he co-wrote the record with Jack Owen. Barnes described the album as encompassing the full range of Six Feet Under’s sound, from rhythmic and straightforward tracks reminiscent of Haunted to thrashier songs like those on Killing For Revenge, and even material recalling The Bleeding era of Cannibal Corpse, where both Barnes and Owen played together.
The album will be mixed by Mark Lewis, who previously worked with the band on Graveyard Classics III (2010), Undead (2012), and Unborn (2013). Barnes reconnected with Lewis earlier in 2025 and praised his production on Dying Fetus’ recent albums, saying Lewis aims to create a mix that complements the album’s stylistic diversity.
After a long 4 year wait, San Diego Post-Hardcore band Lower Definition have finally revealed their new full length studio album, which is titled The Purpose of the Moon. Along with the unveiling of the album, slated for a January 9, 2026 release, comes two singles which can be streamed below.
Tracklist for The Purpose of the Moon:
1. Loom
2. What Are You Running From
3. The Purpose of the Moon
4. Blackflower
5. Miami Nights II
6. Potioncastle
7. Spires
8. Godmode
9. Signs
10. Apparition Room
11. Abattoir
12. Aphasia
The titans of baddiecore are back with another new single, titled "Dying to Love". This is their third new single in recent months, however, a new album is yet to be announced.
Earlier, the legendary german black metal project "The Ruins Of Beverast" debuted "Alpha Fluids" a new track from their forthcoming album "Tempelschlaf". The aforementioned record is scheduled for release on January 9, 2026 via Van records.
Klaus Doldinger passed away on 16 October 2025 at the age of 89. He is probably best known by his collaboration in the German prog jazz rock/fusion band Passport that was formed in 1971. He was one the founder members of the band being a permanent collaborative member of Passport. Passport released more than 30 albums all over the years. Doldinger was also known as a frequent collaborator of the German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen on many of his films as a score composer, including "Das Boot" from 1981 and "The Never Ending Story" from 1985.
LIMP BIZKIT bassist Sam Rivers has died at the age of 48.
On Saturday, October 18, a post on Instagram announced that Sam Rivers had passed away earlier in the day. No cause of death was released. The entire post stated:
"Today we lost our brother. Our bandmate. Our heartbeat," the band wrote in the caption, alongside a photo of Rivers performing onstage.
"Sam Rivers wasn't just our bass player — he was pure magic. The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound," the band continued. "From the first note we ever played together, Sam brought a light and a rhythm that could never be replaced. His talent was effortless, his presence unforgettable, his heart enormous.
"We shared so many moments — wild ones, quiet ones, beautiful ones — and every one of them meant more because Sam was there," LIMP BIZKIT continued. "He was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of human. ...more
The much-maligned Corpus Christi metalcore group Design the Skyline have returned in a peculiar way this week.
After a period of silence since 2018's visual kei inspired single "In Dreams", Design the Skyline - now consisting of original members Dani Ray and Matt Ryan, released a new single called "Beckoning" on 16 October, along with launching all new social media pages. The song marks a return to the band's deathcore roots.
However, the following day, another Design the Skyline using the band's original socials posted a statement claiming that the version fronted by Eric Azure is the sole legitimate version of the band, along with ressuing their Synthetic Cities EP and Galactical Celebration demo on streaming services. The statement reads as follows:
"OFFICIAL STATEMENT: DESIGN THE SKYLINE Continu ...more
