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Montix73 is an independent Italian artist and writer blending melodic metal with cinematic atmospheres and emotionally driven storytelling. His music explores themes of inner conflict, resilience, and transformation, combining modern production tools with a strong personal artistic direction. Montix73 has released his new single Inside the Forest of Mind. It is a dark and atmospheric […]

Emerging independent artist The Taciturn is tearing down the walls of the Australian music scene with the release of the new single, You Got Nothing from his new album Where Walls Once Stood. Rooted in the raw tradition of Brisbane pub-rock but infused with a “venomous clarity” and the influence of his father’s love of […]

The story of the song that schooled Metallica’s James Hetfield

From the sun-soaked streets of Brisbane, emo rock outfit Bad Neighbour have spent the last few years carving out a rough-around-the-edges, heart-on-sleeve sound that’s unmistakably their own. Now, they’re ready to share news of their sophomore album, Burns From The X-rays, which is set for release Friday 5 June via Ninth Life Records. Ahead of […]

Interview by Ali Williams Trying to kick off an interview while your tech does that fun little “betrayal at the worst possible moment” routine is a very modern way to start talking to the frontman of Obscura. Thankfully, Steffen Kummerer was unbothered, cheerful, and immediately in touring mode, calling in from Munich while the band’s […]

The big story round these parts is that I’ve got the vinyl bug back – big time. In February I noticed on Facebook that a new record shop, Veneno Music Store (Spanish for “poison” or “venom”) had opened in Dunfermline. I hadn’t been buying a lot of used vinyl lately so I wasn’t too excited about it. But Dunfermline is a quick drive from where I live and it’s a place I like going to anyway so I decided to visit for a wee nosey. I’ve now been back three times in the last month. Check out what I’ve been buying in the pictures below, it’s like he’s been using my Discogs wish-list to stock his shelves or something.

I’m really chuffed to finally have such a great record shop in my neck of the woods. The chap that runs it is very friendly and he’s getting in great stuff every week. It’s not all rock and metal, there’s quite a range of genres. All the things I’ve bought were conservatively graded, reasonably priced and have played like a dream. If you’re in the area please make sure to pop in. And tell them that HMO sent you.

Via Me Saco Un Ojo Records / Extremely RottenOut 27 March, 2026 Words by: Liam Hedges Returning with their third full-length album are the UK’s infected brutality-dealers Cryptworm. Infectious Pathological Waste serves as the perfect follow-up to the 2022 debut album Spewing Mephitic Putridity and 2023 release Oozing Radioactive Vomition. This album review really started […]

Last month, Bladee shared the great track “Magic Misery,” and now he’s back with more. The Swedish rapper unleashed “Love Is A State” and “Eyelash” today, and he sounds better than ever, self-actualized, almost transcendent. After going full evil on 2024’s Cold Visions, he’s switching gears. “Love Is A State” and “Eyelash” are romantic, or…

The post Bladee – “Love Is A State” & “Eyelash” appeared first on Stereogum.

Here are the new releases for March 22nd to 28th. Releases reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available.

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Upcoming Metal Releases: 3/22/26 – 3/28/26

Hellripper — Coronach | Century Media Records | Black Metal + Speed Metal | Scotland (Aberdeen)

In some ways, Coronach is Hellripper’s most Bathory-coded album (as if the whole blackened thrash conceit isn’t already paying royalties to Quorthon). It approaches the epic scale and mythology that Blood Fire Death toyed with through the lens of Hellripper’s native country and with a heavy NWOBHM flair.

–Colin Dempsey

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Varmia — Lauks | M-Theory Audio | Black Metal | Poland (Olsztyn)

Following their stellar 2023 album Nie nas widzę, Varmia return with polished pagan black metal. Although Lauks was recorded in castle ruins and features, among other instruments, a goat horn and a krivula, it doesn’t rely on atavism and sounds rather modern. Compared to Nie nas widzę, it feels like Varmia have finally caught up with this century.

–Colin Dempsey

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Bekor Qilish — Consecrated Abysses of Dread | I, Voidhanger Records | Avant-garde Metal + Death Metal + Black Metal | Italy (Milan)

A few years ago, I wrote that Bekor Qilish’s last album, The Flesh of a New God, “deconstructed their knotty compositions into legible fragments, so that instead of scratching your head wondering what it all means, you’re left in awe of how effortlessly Bekor Qilish congeal everything.” Their new record, Consecrated Abysses of Dread, continues that trend, and that’s the simplest way to describe it, else I sift through granular details about jazz, objective truth, the will to live, the cosmos, and Mick Barr (who guest features).

–Colin Dempsey

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Myrath — Wilderness of Mirrors | earMusic | Folk Metal + Power Metal + Progressive Metal | Tunisia

Myrath has long been extremely adept at building uplifting songs with infectious chorus melodies while maintaining the intensity that power prog metal has at its best. Wilderness of Mirrors continues that tradition, with songs such as “The Funeral” and “Breathing Near the Roar” fusing Middle Eastern folk influences and progressive power metal. Altogether, it’s a powerful and emotional album.

–Kevin Zecchel

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Iron Savior — Awesome Anthems of the Galaxy | Perception | Power Metal | Germany

Iron Savior is a founding piece of the German power scene, but have largely been overshadowed by peers like Blind Guardian and Helloween, despite putting out some of their best material in the last decade. That said, this album of ’80s pop covers is not that. Power metal does covers of pop music better than most styles of metal, but it’s still not essential listening unless you really want to hear German men covering Cutting Crew and Blondie.

–Kevin Zecchel

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Enisum — Autumn Embrace | Avantgarde Music | Atmospheric Black Metal + Doom Metal | Italy

Enisum are veterans of atmospheric black metal, having been around for 20 years and releasing, now, eight albums. Autumn Embrace is a contemplative listen, taking a lonely walk through isolated landscapes with strong tremolo-picked riffs and sparse vocals that occasionally cut through the music. They share sonic similarities with the Cascadian black metal scene, invoking the darkness of the deep forests in autumn’s grasp.

–Kevin Zecchel

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Cruel Force — Haneda | Shadow Kingdom Records | Thrash Metal + Speed Metal | Germany (Manheim)

With their 2023 reformation, Cruel Force divided fans with what could be described as a more streamlined sound, with the grim black thrash that characterized their early recordings honed and polished to reveal the razor-sharp steel beneath. Dawn of the Axe was thus a departure from the material that preceded it, but as a straightforward speed/thrash album, it was still great fun.

Cruel Force definitely doubles down on the denim and leather on their latest album Haneda; however, the band has more than a few tricks up their sleeve. Lead single “Whips A Swinging” takes us on a breakneck chariot ride chock full of stampeding percussion and rapid-fire riffs. But just past the halfway mark, the track slams on the brakes and allows a travelling group of exotic dancers to pass before resuming the chase. “Crystal Skull” is another highlight, taking the form of a dynamic, mid-paced instrumental whose bouncing rhythms and phrygian melodies fade away into an epic guitar solo that seems to emanate from a long-forgotten chamber within the temple. These little flourishes make all the difference, ensuring that Haneda stays fresh even after multiple listens.

–Alex Chan

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Këkht Aräkh — Morning Star | Sacred Bones Records | Black Metal + Ambient | Germany (Berlin)

Black metal auteur Këkht Aräkh is set to drop Morning Star, the long awaited follow-up to 2021’s Pale Swordsman. To the uninitiated, Këkht Aräkh is the singular vision of Ukrainian-born musician Dmitry Marchenko, aka Crying Orc. Since 2018, Crying Orc has steadfastly guided Këkht Aräkh’s evolution from his initial mission to combine Transilvanian Hunger-era Darkthrone with the vast icy cold electronic soundscapes of Internazionale and Croatian Amor into something more intimate and original. Pale Swordsman saw the elegant neoclassical flourishes and delicate ambient passages become more intricately interwoven into the quick jagged salvos of second wave black metal worship. The buzz surrounding Morning Star has revolved partially around the collaborators Crying Orc invited into Këkht Aräkh’s heretofore solitary orbit. Ambient producer VS-55 and the Swedish MC Bladee are two such guests. The impact increased levels of collaboration may have on Këkht Aräkh is fascinating for fans to consider.

Expanded collaboration seems to work best on “Genon Sorgen,” where VS-55 helps Crying Orc fashion a deeply sorrowful Ukrainian folk lament, replete with accordion and acoustics. It’s one of the album’s strongest moments, while Bladee’s appearance on “Eternal Martyr” barely registers. The overt black metal songs like “Wanderer,” “Lament,” “Castle,” “Angst,” and “Three Winters Away” are all somber desperate blasts of well-executed midpaced ravishing grimness, but even these are shot through with dour clean vocals, gothy whispers and a jangly droning acoustic guitar line, often high in the mix, that haunts the entire album like a Greek chorus. The more neoclassical folk, ambient and post-punk influenced tracks (“Raven King,” “Trollsang,” and others) fill out the back end of the record. Morning Star is indeed an extremely ambitious project. Whether all of these disparate influences and ingredients coalesce seamlessly will depend on the listener

–Dennis Seese

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Aggressive Perfector — Come Creeping Fiends | Dying Victims Productions | Speed Metal + Black Metal | United Kingdom (Manchester)

Madchester power trio Aggressive Perfector are back with Come Creeping Fiends, the sequel to 2019’s Havoc at the Midnight Hour. These British maniacs have brewed up a right poisonous batch of ancient, everlasting metal in the vein of Venom, Di’ Anno-era Maiden, Raven, and pre-Hell Awaits Slayer. Nothing new under the sun, but it has a primordial energy and aura only true believers can manifest. Whiplash-inducing denim and leather-clad rippers “Fiend in You,” “Strange Companion,” and “Denied by the Reaper” drip with the naked authenticity of lifers conjuring a communal reanimation of that magical moment you first popped in Show No Mercy or Welcome to Hell. Though adept at skillfully channelling their influences, make no mistake, Aggressive Perfector are equally skilled at crafting bruising, jaggedly catchy slabs of 100% pure British steel like “Harlot’s Spell” and “Obscene Cult.” If an unholy mix of revved up NWOBHM and black rock’n’roll (ala their fellow travellers Midnight) is something you need right now. Look no further. Aggressive Perfector has your back.

–Dennis Seese

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Ten years. A decade of silence fractured by fracture itself — not by the world outside, not by trends and streaming algorithms, but by something far more intimate and far more devastating. Neurosis did not simply go on hiatus; they were cracked open at the foundation. Nobody knew what, if anything, would come next. And … Continue reading Album Review: Neurosis – An Undying Love for a Burning World