Upcoming Metal Releases: 5/17/26 – 5/23/26
Dimhav — Ondine | Independent | Power Metal + Progressive Metal | Sweden (Stockholm)
As of the time of writing, no singles have been released from Ondine, Dimhav’s second album. Expect it to be something similar to their debut, The Boreal Flame, which was a complex, operatic, and hyper-melodic offering. The band’s knack for creating intricate arrangements and interspersing them with powerful, heavy moments is clear. This should be an excellent record.
–Kevin Zecchel
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Witching Hour — Descending…Where Time Has Ceased to Exist | Dying Victims Productions | Heavy Metal | Germany (Rehlingen)
Witching Hour may be the most “Dying Victims Productions band” out of all the bands on Dying Victims’ roster. They’re an explicit love letter to heavy metal’s spirit, referencing the genre as a whole without feeling derivative because they refract it through an epic and darkened lens. What hooks one into them is their fluid songwriting. Witching Hour abandon the verse-chorus-verse protocol in favor of lengthy, nigh-progressive dirges.
–Colin Dempsey
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Shewolff — WE’RE ALL GONNA FUKKIN’ DIE | Dying Victims Productions | Heavy Metal + Punk + Black Metal | Belgium
From Colin Dempsey’s track premiere of “Nail + Burn”:
While there’s a reflex to call Shewolff’s particular punk and heavy metal hybrid thrash metal, that incorrectly asserts that there’s a higher level of cognitive functioning they are accessing. No, “Nails + Burn” deliberately shuts its brain off to focus on raw power. Cavemen created fire with sticks and stones; Shewolff recreated it with bass, drums, and guitar.
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Noituma — Yhdeksän sairautta | Independent | Folk Metal + Black Metal | Finland (Kokkola)
Noituma leans into the morose aspects of folkish black metal on Yhdeksän sairautta. It’s equally angry and in mourning, though given Noituma’s home country, those emotions are presented with Viking-like heroics.
–Colin Dempsey
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Immortal — To the North and Into Eternal Winter–Live in Darkness 1993-1995 | Darkness Shall Rise | Black Metal | Norway (Bergen)
The German connoisseurs of “eerie and somber audio cult” artifacts Darkness Shall Rise will be unleashing (and I do mean unleashing) To the North and Into Eternal Winter–Live in Darkness 1993-1995, a primal live document focusing on the formative years of black metal legends Immortal. Comprised of “raw fan recordings, unpolished, and unapologetically real” from 1993’s jovial Fuck Christ tour as well as 95’s Battle of the Ages campaign, To the North… offers a glimpse of a “time where black metal was still young, dangerous and defiantly outside of the mainstream.” If the gloriously raw, blistering version of “Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms” from a 1995 show in Munich is indicative of what’s on offer here, all fans of early Norwegian black metal will be receiving quite a gift indeed. If you’re into vinyl, move quickly–as only 666 copies are being pressed.
–Dennis J. Seese
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Dimmu Borgir — Grand Serpent Rising | Nuclear Blast | Symphonic Black Metal | Norway (Oslo)
Somehow, a Dimmu Borgir album is promising, a sentiment unfelt for the better part of the past two decades. It could be another bloated pastiche, but “Ulvgjeld & Blodsodel” promises otherwise. As overblown as it is, it’s tempered by a gravely vocal performance from Silenoz and a meaty main riff. In a sense, it feels like Dimmu Borgir are reining themselves in, ever so slightly.
–Colin Dempsey
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Armored Saint — Emotional Rest Factory | Metal Blade Records | Heavy Metal | United States (Los Angeles, CA)
Veteran LA metal institution Armored Saint have re-emerged with Emotional Reset Factory, their ninth studio album. Bassist and founding member Joey Vera recently said he views each Armored Saint record as a “new skin for the band, a different chapter.” Early interrogations suggest that perhaps this chapter is in need of a revision. I’ve become fascinated with how active legacy groups negotiate said legacy when releasing new material. Metal Blade is touting the record as a celebration of Armored Saint’s “past as one of the most respected and recognizable bands in heavy music while making forward thinking music.” Variations on this theme echo from record company PR machinery worldwide, of course.
Upon listening to “Close to the Bone,” a generic, would-be anthem that’s energetic and competent (but dated) shredding and phantom limb sharpness is virtually negated by Vera’s bombastic overproduction, it’s hard to discern any forward thinking. However, John Bush, a fantastic, universally revered vocalist, hears a “slamming” and “diverse” metal/hard rock song they heroically translated into “vintage Armored Saint” in 2026! This is where the negotiation becomes fraught. The disconnect bleeds into dissonance. “Hit a Moonshot,” a paint-by-numbers trad metal pantomime that lowers the lyrical bar even further, is viewed by guitarist Jeff Duncan as a definitive example of the band’s current sound. A pattern emerges. If you want to check the lyrical content’s temperature yourself, here’s a line from “Every Man-Any Man” that Bush flat-out loves: “I’m a rouge (sic) crazy evil cheating lucky little leprechaun.”
Armored Saint are a proud band with a decent resume, but the cruel irony here is the only modern element of Emotional Reset Factory is the comp lord production which eliminates any intrinsic rawness and dynamism these songs may’ve initially possessed.
–Dennis J. Seese
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