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Acclaimed Norwegian hard rock unit AUDREY HORNE announce their eighth studio album, Achilles, to be released on September 4, 2026 via Napalm Records! Today, the band has unveiled the first single from the new offering: The high-energy rock’n’roll number “Insanity” arrives with an accompanying music video that fits the track’s wild spirit seamlessly.  AUDREY HORNE‘s prior studio albums Blackout (2018) and Devil’s Bell (2022) […]

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Last week the Stereogum staff listed our picks for the year’s best albums so far. A few weeks earlier, during our visit to Salt Lake City for Kilby Block Party, our team posed the question to some of our favorite artists at the fest. Kilby performers including Lucy Dacus, the Last Dinner Party, This Is Lorelei, Ben Kweller, Cardinals, and more weighed in with their own 2026 album recommendations. (Isaac Brock opted out because he exists outside of time. The universe is shaped exactly like the Earth, etc., etc.)

The post Lucy Dacus, The Last Dinner Party, This Is Lorelei, & More Pick Their Favorite Album Of 2026 So Far appeared first on Stereogum.

Lex Legion features the recording lineup from King Diamond's 'Them' album with singer Nils K. Rue. Continue reading…

Last month Sari Lightman of Tasseomancy and Lightman & Lightman made her solo debut with “The Way I Saw You.” The lead single serves as the magical title track of her forthcoming album, which is produced by Meg Duffy. Now the Canadian indie musician is unveiling another beautiful preview with “Give It All Up.”

The post Sari Lightman – “Give It All Up” appeared first on Stereogum.

Tokyo death metal legends stream new album ahead of tomorrow’s release DEFILED, the Tokyo-based death metal band, premiere the full album stream of their ninth full-length, Altered State, on the Season of Mist YouTube channel ahead of its official release tomorrow, Friday, June 12. Listen to Altered State in full: https://youtu.be/d53JjUeWhAg “Both musically and lyrically, Altered State is an […]

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Lithuanian progressive metal band BLACK SPIKES lures into the concept of their upcoming album, Ydos (out August 28, 2026 via Napalm Records), with their new single. “MOTINA”, translating to “mother”, is the exposition of the complex storytelling aspect of their Napalm debut: throughout the ten songs of their second album, BLACK SPIKES explore the relationships with the eponymous flaws we all carry […]

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November and December will see them out across mainland Europe.

The post The Ocean To Bring Their New Roster On The Road This Fall For A European Tour With Psychonaut, Hypno5e And More appeared first on Theprp.com.

I don’t think of Hovvdy as a band where the singer holds a microphone, which is to say I don’t think of core duo Will Taylor and Charlie Martin as frontmen in the classic sense. The band’s music feels too insular and introverted for that kind of showmanship. I think of these guys holding instruments when they sing, not really commanding my attention, letting the song do the talking. But they’re changing my perception with this new album rollout.

The post Hovvdy – “Blast” appeared first on Stereogum.

I spent about 15 minutes trying to write a pun involving Pitbull and the idea of opening up this pit, but I couldn’t make it work. Why torture myself with that sort of awful wordplay, you ask? I figured it was only proper to namecheck Mr. Worldwide because we’re going international with this edition of Cheap Thrills—well, maybe just slightly more international than usual. Every release in this month’s column is from a different continent, so whether you’ve got some summer trips planned or you’re having a nice staycation at home, you can enjoy this eclectic collection of name-your-price releases from around the globe with a cold drink in one hand and an invisible orange in the other. Cheers!

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svrm – Мертвий край (May 1, 2026)

The enigmatic Ukrainian musician behind svrm is no longer flying solo–on Мертвий край, he is joined by “longtime collaborator” Cronin, who previously contributed acoustic guitar and lyrics on several prior releases. This expanded role results not only in a fuller sound for the atmospheric black metal project, but also in an even more poignant sense of melancholy. The opening minute of “Останнє світло” contains some of the most heart-wrenching melodies I’ve heard this year, as does the final movement of “Попіл,” not to mention the verse riff on “Рана”—I think you get the idea.

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Kaatayra – Caminhos de Água (April 24, 2026)

Caio Lemos’s blackened folk-metal project is back–or did it ever leave? There was some chatter about him putting Kaatayra to rest, but here we are only three years later with a brand new album. Caminhos de Água very much follows in the footsteps of Inpariquipê and Só Quem Viu o Relâmpago à Sua Direita Sabe, melding the furious tempos and vocal rasps of black metal with acoustic guitars, dulcimers, and traditional Brazilian wind instruments. The music is lush and earthy in an almost literal sense, born from the very soil and rivers depicted on the cover. If you haven’t heard Kaatayra before, you’re in for a treat—there isn’t anything else like it.

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Demon Sluice – Dancers Beneath Shores of Fire (September 5, 2025)

I got wind of this one because Garry Brents of Cara Neir, Gonemage, and about a dozen other bands performs vocals. However, the primary composer is an individual named Valefor, about whom we know little outside of the fact that they hail from New Zealand. Under the name Demon Sluice, the pair released a mean little blackened death metal record last September that, weirdly enough, has been getting a lot of play in my car, of all places. Dancers Beneath Shores of Fire is chock-a-block with nasty, infectious riffs and appropriately monstrous vocals given the band name and the album’s theme (mythological sea monsters and where to find them), so it really bumps in the whip. 

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اکوان (Akvan) – سووشون (Savushun) (May 16, 2024)

It’s odd how the ongoing “conflict” in Iran has resulted in several Iranian metal projects surfacing on YouTube and Bandcamp, but if the music’s good, who am I to argue with the algorithms’ inscrutable whims? I stumbled across this 2024 EP while looking up information on a completely different release with a somewhat similar cover design: the recent compilation from American/Iranian group Shahanshah. Both releases may be black metal—and fantastic in their own ways—but only this one falls under the loose criteria of this column! 

Akvan is the solar project of Vizaresa, who hails from Isafan in central Iran, about 400km south of Tehran. For the last decade, they have released a steady stream of singles and demos, all exploring various facets of Iranian history and culture. On Savushun, they delve into raw yet melodic black metal featuring tasty quarter tones (some of which are even played with a tar on an interlude track), but my primary reason for choosing this release is the story behind it. On the EP’s Bandcamp page, Vizaresa shares the following:

“This release takes its title from the eponymous book written by Dr. Simin Daneshvar. Widely regarded as the first novel published by an Iranian woman, سووشون (Savushun)* tells the story of an Iranian family in Shiraz living under the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Iran during WWII.”

At one point, Vizaresa even sold copies of the book alongside the LP. Even though I have not read the album’s namesake, I may check it out in the near future. Vizaresa’s deep respect for Dr. Daneshvar and her work is made manifest in this epic, elegiac adaptation, and it’s inspired me to add the novel to my list. 

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Bea$ters – Alienation by Solidarity (November 22, 2019)

I interviewed Mitchell Luna and Takafumi Matsubara of Barren Path last year, just before the release of their debut album Grieving. Many of the band members had played together previously in Noisear, Mauruta, and, most famously, Gridlink. However, I recently revisited the band’s Metal Archives page (probably out of sadness after missing Barren Path’s West Coast tour) and started checking out some of the members’ other projects. Rhythm guitarist Rory Kobzina, who I had seen perform with Gridlink at their final shows in NYC, is also the founding member of the “technical grind death syndicate” Bea$ters. They put out three albums before going relatively quiet, with 2019’s Alienation by Solidarity being their most recent release. Whether it ends up being their swansong or a prelude to some new chapter is anyone’s guess, but what I can say is that the album is a thrashing, gnashing, skull-smashing delight with a wicked sense of humor. 

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Black Death Metal force BELPHEGOR will unleash their magickal processions across Europe in autumn 2026 with the “Praise The Beast” European Tour 2026. The trek kicks off on September 29th at Turock in Essen, Germany, and will storm through Belgium, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Central Europe, Poland, and the UK before reaching its final ritual on October 18th at […]

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