Ukrainian atmospheric black metal entity DRUDKH announce their forthcoming EP Thaw with the release of its lead single, “Memory.” Conceived during the same sessions as 2025’s Shadow Play, the new EP stands as a direct continuation of that album’s emotional and thematic landscape.
From the beginning, it was clear that Beyond Creation possessed a special aura. On their debut album, the Montréal four-piece concocted the next progressive evolution in technical death metal by splicing together classic brutality and prog’s insatiable curiosity with a refreshing knack for melody. Now, ahead of their fifteenth anniversary tour in celebration of The Aura, the Independent Music and Lit Music Award winners and Canadian Grammy nominees are releasing their first new song in eight years.
ONLY HUMAN are fresh to the prog space. But the Danish upstarts are already on the brink of a major discovery with their debut album. Planned Obsolescence invents an existential form of prog metal that speaks to our not-too-distant dystopia.
True to black metal’s fiercely individual spirit, upon moving to Norway at the end of the 2000s, Roman V. started Bizarrekult as a lone wolf. Much like Roman’s previous two retreats into the studio, his upcoming third album emerged from a deeply personal crisis. Only on Alt Som Finnes, he’s not alone in confronting all there.
While long enshrined amongst the hallowed halls of metal, after nearly three and a half decades, Cryptopsy are as insatiable as ever. After cracking year-end lists at Decibel, Metal Injection and BangerTV with their latest Billboard-shaking album, An Insatiable Violence, the most vile band in death metal were just crowned headliners of the longest-running heavy metal tour in North America. Now, as they continue to bang heads on their current European tour, the Canadian legends are proud to add another honor to their Hall of Fame career.
Heilung are known around the world for transcending the boundaries of sound and history. Since forming in 2015, the Nordic collective have made their unmistakable presence felt everywhere from the Billboard charts to Glastonbury, The Game Awards and major Hollywood films. Their performance rituals draw crowds into an intimate, mystical space that threads together earth, fire and incense with throat singing, primordial rhythms, subtle electronic textures, a mesmerizing light show and instruments made from human bone.
Fresh off slitting through a largely sold-out European headline tour, Cryptopsy remain insatiable as ever. The most vile band in death metal are nominated for Best Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year at this year’s JUNO Awards, a category that they won just two years ago. Now, as they prepare to headline the longest-running heavy metal tour in North America, the Canadian legends are proud to add another accomplishment to their Hall of Fame career.
After taking the world by storm last year with their new album ÜL, Mawiza are beating the drum for indigenous metal even louder in 2026. The modern day Mapuche warriors paid a visit to Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier’s Silver Chord Studio and performed to a packed house in Santiago before taking the stage alongside Mr. Bungle and Avenged Sevenfold.
Ever since they emerged from Greece’s underground catacombs, Unverkalt have been drawn to the edge. On their upcoming third album, the post-metal luminaries finally plunge into the darkness that’s always waited for them below. While wrestling with the weight of our accursed history, Héréditaire now stands as the band’s heaviest and most heartfelt offering.
Since 2018, NITE have proudly carried the torch for Bay Area metal. But the San Francisco natives are catching fire behind their white-hot new album. Cult of the Serpent Sun was named one of the best albums of 2025 by Decibel, New Noise, Invisible Oranges and other major publications, as well as Nate Garrett from Spirit Adrift. Now, as they prepare to ignite Inferno Festival, the blackened heavy metal band are celebrating the one-year anniversary of their latest critically-acclaimed LP with Bandcamp.
Green Carnation have never been afraid of a challenge. Just last year, the Norwegian captains of progressive metal finally set sail on an epic three-part voyage that had eluded them for more than thirty years. The Shores of Melancholia washed onto year-end lists at PROG, Loudwire, Angry Metal Guy and other major publications. Now, after reaching crushing new highs during its opening chapter, the band are descending into deeper, darker and more personal depths with Part II of A Dark Poem.
In keeping with black metal’s fiercely individual spirit, Bizarrekult began its journey in Norway as a lone wolf. Much like the previous two retreats into the studio from lone mastermind Roman V., his upcoming third album emerged slowly and painstakingly from a deeply personal crisis. But the post-black metal luminary continues to expand his tortured vision by not breaking so much as bending with the genre’s storied traditions. On Alt Som Finnes, he confronts all there is with devastating clarity.
Since the ‘90s, Septicflesh have elevated death metal to a fine art. Alongside their Athenian brothers-in-arms Rotting Christ and Nightfall, real-life flesh and blood Spiros and Christos Antoniou rose from the Greek underground alongside virtuoso shredder Sotiris Vayenas. After the trio re-communed with drummer Fotis Benardo at the Season of Mist table during the 2000s, the maestros set to work on composing their greatest masterpiece.