Kez Whelan gets straight to the point in his latest roundup of newheavy metal, which this month features Converge’s second brilliant LP of 2026, an audacious orchestral recording from Voivod, the latest disappointment from Venom, and much much more<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to skip the introductions this month and get straight down to business \u2013 just like the new EP from Italian grinders Ape Unit<\/a>, Sticks, which is probably the tightest, most robust demonstration of their madcap fastcore sound yet. Despite how impressively technical the band\u2019s sound is (try wrapping your ears round the fiddly, dissonant riff clusters strewn throughout songs like \u2018Toy Boy Division\u2019 or the incendiary \u2018Lieutenant Tennent\u2019s\u2019), what immediately strikes you is just how fun it is to listen to, with the band\u2019s creative song structures and mischievous sense of humour shining through in even Sticks\u2019 most brutal moments. Ape Unit never cross the line into being overly wacky for wackiness\u2019 sake, and manage to squeeze more ideas into these eleven minutes than many bands do in full-length records, incorporating elements of powerviolence (\u2018Diet Cong\u2019), noise rock (\u2018Biodegradable Youth Exchange\u2019) and even death metal in the Morbid Angel aping \u2018Where The Smile Lives\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fans of thrashy black metal have been eating well of late \u2013 the new Darkthrone <\/a>album is unsurprisingly another cast iron banger, and the fourth album from Aberdeen\u2019s Hellripper<\/a> is arguably the band\u2019s most ambitious and fully realised outing yet. Whilst 2023\u2019s Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags hinted at a somewhat cleaner sound and more adventurous song structures, Coronach dives headfirst into this new direction. Opener \u2018Hunderprest\u2019 and the aptly named \u2018Blakk Satanik Fvkkstorm\u2019 are no-nonsense black\/thrash rippers, of course, but the winding, progressive structures and epic, melodic leads of songs like \u2018Baobhan Sith (Waltz Of The Damned)\u2019 and the towering title track feel more like vintage Metallica liberally doused in corpse paint. Whilst it may clean up the Hellripper sound a lot, it\u2019s also probably the most distinctive and unique record they\u2019ve released yet. If you\u2019re after some grittier blackened thrash though, Manchester\u2019s Aggressive Perfector<\/a> have got you covered. Their filth encrusted second album, Come Creeping Fiends, has an infectiously manic energy to it, bringing in both more anthemic NWOBHM influences and a gutter level street punk vibe that adds a lot of character to their Venom-esque thrashing.<\/p>\n Speaking of Venom<\/a>, they\u2019re back with their sixteenth album this month, and first since 2018\u2019s Storm The Gates. Initial fears that the cover art was AI generated seem to be unfounded, but honestly, the music may as well be at this point given how bereft of fresh ideas the band are. If Venom felt stale back in 2006 the first time they rehashed the iconic Black Metal cover art for, ahem, Metal Black, then the well has truly run dry here \u2013 \u2018Lay Down Your Soul\u2019 is not so much a riff on the song \u2018Black Metal\u2019 but essentially a poorly rewritten version of the same song, whilst \u2018Nevermore\u2019 feels just a few notes off from \u2018Countess Bathory\u2019. When they\u2019re not recycling ideas from their \u201880s heyday, they\u2019re just plodding through the same dull groove metal shapes they\u2019ve been churning out for their last few albums, with tepid, pinch harmonic infested chuggers like \u2018Legend\u2019 failing to inspire much excitement. It\u2019s a shame as the lack of ideas could be forgiven if the energy was there \u2013 Mot\u00f6rhead hardly reinvented themselves, well, ever, and still keep belting out solid records to the end. Mantas and Abaddon both sounded in fine form touring the Black Metal album with Venom Inc. a little while back (although, hilariously, both have subsequently left, leaving Venom Inc. with no original Venom members at all), and you get the feeling that if they could all just bury the hatchet, we\u2019d finally get an album worthy of the Venom name again \u2013 but unfortunately, this is not it.<\/p>\n Rituals of Shame by Warning<\/a><\/p>\n This is one of the albums I\u2019ve been most curious to spin this year, as I\u2019m sure many of you have \u2013 for the obvious reason that Watching From A Distance is one of the most uniquely affecting classics in the doom canon, sure, but also because Patrick Walker\u2019s songwriting style has changed so much in the two decades since that album\u2019s release, moving away from crushing traditional doom metal and further into sombre slowcore and strummier singer\/songwriter territory. Given how definitive Watching From A Distance was and the direction 40 Watt Sun had gone in, you\u2019d be forgiven for wondering if Walker had anything left to say in this style. The answer is, thankfully, a resounding yes \u2013 there are certainly traces of 40 Watt Sun\u2019s more wistful, lighter approach seeping through in the dreamlike textures of \u2018Landing Lights\u2019, but for the most part, Rituals Of Shame is pure, unabashed doom metal, albeit with that special, achingly emotive touch that Walker always brings, of course.<\/p>\n The opening title track hits like a sack of cement dropped into the ocean, with Walker\u2019s iconic voice soaring above slow, yearning guitar harmonies that instantly invoke both the sonic and emotional weight of Warning in their prime \u2013 the kind of rich, resonant doom harmonies where the notes just blend together in a way that hurts. The aptly named \u2018Night Comes Down\u2019 is even heavier, as mournful chords slowly ooze over you like darkness at dusk, gradually unfurling melodies that feel somehow ancient, as if they\u2019ve been floating in the ether for centuries, whilst \u2018Teacher\u2019 almost feels like a spiritual successor to \u2018Footprints\u2019 in its sincerity and vulnerability, with Patrick\u2019s voice almost cracking under the weight of the song\u2019s themes at its devastating peak. Following up a widely agreed upon classic is never easy, especially if said classic\u2019s stature has only grown in the 20 years it\u2019s been left to marinate, but Rituals Of Shame does an admirable job, integrating all the songwriting lessons Walker has learned in the intervening years into a powerful sound that resolutely feels like Warning through and through.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hum of Hurt by Converge<\/a><\/p>\n Given what an absolute rager Converge\u2019s last album Love Is Not Enough was, I was fully expecting this swiftly released companion album to be a more subdued, experimental affair, but it\u2019s nowhere near as clear cut as that; as furious opener \u2018Slip The Noose\u2019 makes abundantly clear from the off, with drummer Ben Koller blasting away like his life depends on it. Vocalist Jacob Bannon has said the band\u2019s initial impetus here was to \u201cmake a noise rock album\u201d, before ending up with two different, distinct records, neither of which were really that \u2013 but of the two, Hum Of Hurt definitely leans further into that sound with the clanking bass lines, menacing grooves and caustic, seething guitar in tracks like \u2018Doom In Bloom\u2019 or the swaggering \u2018I Won\u2019t Let You\u2019 occasionally sounding like an amped up Jesus Lizard.<\/p>\n At the same time though, this still very much feels like a Converge record \u2013 the stuttering riffs and ferocious energy of tracks like \u2018It Only Gets Worse\u2019 and \u2018Detonator\u2019 feel like classic Converge, and even the weirder cuts like the ominous six-minute \u2018Dream Debris\u2019 don\u2019t feel like a huge departure, especially given how much noise rock influence they\u2019d displayed on recent songs like \u2018Trigger\u2019. It does, however, have a noticeably different vibe to Love Is Not Enough \u2013it complements it, sure, but after just a few cursory spins it\u2019s easy to see why the band separated them into two different records rather than unleashing a mammoth double-album. And that\u2019s before we\u2019ve even gotten into the record\u2019s concept; with Bannon\u2019s lyrics exploring the bizarrely invasive phenomenon of \u201cthe Hum\u201d, a mysterious tinnitus-like affliction that can cause severe psychological distress to those who hear it, Hum Of Hurt has perhaps the most specifically focussed theme of any Converge record yet. If Love Is Not Enough felt like a real return to form, then this is the sound of the band hitting the ground running and continuing to do what they do best \u2013 long may it continue!\u00a0<\/p>\n Decrepitizing Din Of The Cerebral Psyopticon (LUNGS-320) by FAKE DUST<\/a><\/p>\n At the risk of sounding hyperbolic right out of the gate, I\u2019d bet this Portland quartet\u2019s debut album is going to be the best grindcore album you hear this year. Bold words for a mere five months into 2026, but this record is just that good. Featuring members of powerviolence acts like Family Vacation and Sniping Pigs plus blaster extraordinaire Brennan Butler (of Infernal Coil, Human Effluence, Pyrkagion and more), Fake Dust already showed bags of promise on both their demos, but this debut album still feels like a huge step up, delivering some of the fastest, harshest and downright gnarliest deathgrind I\u2019ve heard in a very long time. It feels like Insect Warfare with more Jon Chang style screeches and even more skin-flaying blastbeats, with Butler turning in a genuinely ludicrous performance on the kit, blasting at daft speeds with both astonishing technical precision and inhuman energy levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n Your first exposure to this will likely feel like chomping down on a live grenade, but repeated listens reveal some excellent songwriting amongst the veritable blastbeat feast on offer here. \u2018Implanted Imperative\u2019, for instance, sounds absolutely enormous, especially when it plows into that thick, chunky mosh groove in the middle. \u2018Stalker\u2019, meanwhile, rapidly and violently snaps between knuckle-dragging riffing and lightspeed blasting in a way that belies the band members\u2019 powerviolence past, whilst longer cuts like \u2018Cooked At Conception\u2019 inject some righteous thrashing into the band\u2019s chaotic din, accelerating the tempo until it bursts into all-out grindcore blitzkrieg. Beyond the somewhat word salad-y album title, the band\u2019s ruthless efficiency also extends to their lyrical approach, with each of these songs reading like bleakly provocative dystopian haikus. Even if you\u2019re not big on grindcore, I feel like this, much like World Extermination orThe Inalienable Dreamless, is a record that transcends the genre\u2019s parameters to become essential listening for anyone with even the slightest interest in extreme music in general.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vertebrae After Vertebrae by PHARMACIST<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s been four years since we last heard from this Japanese goregrind duo, with even their usual torrent of split releases drying up after their second album Flourishing Extremities On Unspoiled Mental Grounds. That record felt like a big step forward for the pair, marrying their pungent, filthy goregrind to elaborate, progressive song structures with more melodic elements and curiously jazzy solos \u2013 it almost felt like every era of Carcass pulped together into one intriguingly grotesque pile of goo \u2013 so it initially feels like somewhat of a step backwards to discover that this, their long-awaited third full-length, dispenses with much of those flamboyant embellishments to focus on more primitive, blood-splattered grinding.\u00a0<\/p>\n The album certainly opens up with repeat spins however, and running almost ten minutes shorter than their last record, it feels more lean and focussed overall \u2013 even with the song lengths generally coming in much longer than your average grind band. The duo\u2019s idiosyncratic song-writing style still has a very unique charm, with a palpable classic heavy metal undercurrent running through these caustic chunks of gore (especially on the raging \u2018Lazure Sphacelation\u2019, which lurches between frantic blasting and righteous metallic galloping). The title track, meanwhile, keeps things interesting rhythmically whilst maintaining the band\u2019s bulldozer sound and remaining eminently headbangable throughout, and six minute epic \u2018Endogenica\u2019 is the closest goregrind comes to riff worship, settling into a gigantic, crunchy groove and riding it to oblivion. Vertebrae After Vertebrae may not be as forward-thinking as Pharmacist\u2019s last offering, but it\u2019s just as satisfying in its rancid onslaught.\u00a0<\/p>\n