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Here are the new releases for August 9th to 15th. Releases reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available.

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Upcoming Metal Releases: 8/9/26 – 8/15/26

Abyssal Rift — Relics of Great Ash | Transcending Obscurity | Death Metal + Doom Metal | United States (Columbus, OH)

Abyssal Rift pull from nearly every corner of death metal on their second album, Relics of Great Ash. Cavernous Maggot Stomp feed entwines with Portal-esque dissonance and galloping riffs, set across a Lovecraftian fear of what lies beyond the human senses. It is weirdo death metal for sickos, though it’s by no means impenetrable.

–Colin Dempsey

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Maidenhead — Maximum Clonage | Independent | Thrash Metal + Death Metal | United States (Boston, MA)

On their debut LP, Maidenhead somehow got guest guitar and bass work from Chris Poland and Glen Drover (both former Megadeth members) and Rich Gray from Annihilator. Yet, those features merely reflect Maidenhead’s vintage leanings. The Boston group leans towards technical thrash metal, the sort that graced the genre’s ’90s swansong, and embellishes it with a proto-death metal growl.

–Colin Dempsey

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Ironflame — Worlds to Conquer | High Roller Records | Heavy Metal | United States (Martins Ferry, OH)

There’s no way Worlds to Conquer was recorded in a home studio. Sorry, but it’s impossible for an album from a dude’s garage in Ohio to carry the energy and compositional depth of peak heavy metal, the type that required a full studio and an entire band roster in the ’80s. No way. A blood oath must’ve been paid for Worlds to Conquer to come out as well as it does.

–Colin Dempsey

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Unadorned — Malwizardry | Independent | Melodic Death Metal + Progressive Death Metal | United States (San Antonio, TX)

An uncompromised, fully realized ideal rarely calcifies on a debut album, yet Unadorned do not let recording limitations or budget issues impede their vision. Yes, Malwizardry is rough around the edges. It’s a bit scuffed, but it’s so as if it’s untouched by outside forces. What it presents–gripping melodic death metal framed as an epic poem–is more than worthy of its framing.

–Colin Dempsey

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Adam Rubenstein has shared the new single and music video “Firebreak Feat. DYAN”, the title track from his

Otep Shamaya is making music again. In a social media post on August 9, 2026, first reported by ThePRP, the Otep frontwoman confirmed that new material is in the works — one demo is close to finished — but said flatly that it won’t be in the genre she built her career on. She retired from music in November 2024. She’s back, and she’s not coming back the way anyone expected.

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What she said

The post is direct, which is on brand.

She confirmed the question everybody’s been asking her — yes, she’s making new music. Not in the old genre. But the message, mood and atmosphere stay the same. She says she’s proud of every album she made and everything she contributed to that space, but the space has changed and so has she, and she needed new creative terrain for her own creative engine and her own sanity.

The new material, in her description, deals with her recent struggles with mental and emotional health, growing up Queer, fighting for equity and equality, being a fighter and a survivor, and living authentically.

Then the line that’s going to get quoted everywhere: she knows some people will hate it, because they want the girl who goes grrrr. Others will love it. Either way she has to stay true to herself. Her words have always mattered most to her, and centering the message and the lyrics is the entire focus now.

One demo is near completion. She was thinking about releasing it, but the mix needs some small changes and her people are telling her to wait. She admits that’s hard because she’s excited. She has no idea where this takes her, only that it’ll be armored with joy.

She signed off with love and respect to all.

Why this is bigger than a genre change

Go back to November 2024. Shamaya didn’t ease out of music — she announced her retirement and started liquidating the gear. Signed guitars from studio sessions and stages. A drum set. Lighting rigs, smoke machines, monitors. When fans asked whether that meant it was over, she confirmed it in a comment: retiring, for real, for good.

That’s not a strategic pause. That’s a woman selling the smoke machines.

So the fact that she’s writing again at all is the actual story here. The genre shift is almost secondary — and honestly, for anyone who’s followed Otep since Sevas Tra in 2002, it shouldn’t be that shocking. This is an artist who built her whole thing on art-house nü-metal, spoken word and hip-hop stitched together, who covered Eminem, Billie Eilish, Slipknot and Olivia Rodrigo on her final album. The words were always the load-bearing wall. The genre was the delivery system.

If she’s saying the message and the mood stay intact and only the sound changes, that tracks with everything she’s ever done.

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The “girl who goes grrrr” problem

That phrase is going to sting for some people, and I think that’s the point.

There’s a version of an Otep comeback that would’ve printed money — reunion tour, the old riffs, another run like the Doyle co-headline in 2024, everybody screaming along to Sevas Tra deep cuts. She could pick up the phone tomorrow and book it.

She’s not doing that. She’s making something her existing audience may reject, and she said so out loud before releasing a single note of it, which is either commercial suicide or the most honest thing anybody in this genre has said all month.

I lean toward the second one. Twenty-four years in, she doesn’t owe anybody a scream.

Whether it lands is another matter entirely. We haven’t heard a second of it. She hasn’t named the genre, hasn’t given a timeline, hasn’t said whether it comes out under the Otep name or her own. All we’ve got is one demo sitting in a hard drive somewhere, waiting on a mix.

But she’s writing again. Two years ago she was selling the amps.

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TL;DR

• What happened: Otep Shamaya confirmed on August 9, 2026 that she’s making new music, two years after retiring.
• The twist: it won’t be nü-metal. She says the message, mood and atmosphere carry over, but the genre doesn’t.
• What it’s about: her recent mental and emotional health struggles, growing up Queer, fighting for equity, and living authentically.
• How far along: one demo is nearly finished. She considered releasing it, but is holding off on advice while the mix gets tweaked.
• Context: she announced her retirement in November 2024 and sold off signed guitars, drums, lighting and stage gear. Her final album was The God Slayer in 2023.

FAQ

She’s giving up the easy comeback to make something her own audience might reject. Respect it or hate it — where do you land? Drop a comment and let us know. And keep it locked on the Loaded Radio stream — follow Loaded Radio for daily rock and metal news.

The post Otep Shamaya Is Making Music Again Two Years After Quitting, And She Already Knows Metal Fans Are Going To Hate What It Sounds Like appeared first on Loaded Radio.

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