Whatever is the Deal with Me Not Posting While Being Swarmed by Bizarre Metal Oct 2026

Whatever, friends, who even cares. A whole bunch is happening, have been feeling bad about not posting anything, but in reality have enjoyed not having to do anything. The list of tracks I wanted to post here is at this point 30-deep, but this will be just a regular-sized post. Hopefully all the other very cool stuff will make it to the Patreon. Also just did what might be the final Albums of the Decade interview, and it's a gem. More about that soon.

Got to see good people live recently (Panopticon, Inter Arma, Trhä) and that was very nice. Didn't fix the world, but helped.

Keep safe.

If you're new to this metal blog of bones you can also check out the various interview projects I have going on as well as the weekly recommendation posts. And if you'd like to keep abreast of the latest, most pressing developments follow us wherever I may roam (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, Bluesky, TIKTOK etc), and listen to my, I guess, active? (no) podcast (YouTube, Spotify, Apple), and to check out our amazing compilation albums. You could also possibly support my unholy work here (Patreon), if you feel like it. Early access to our bigger projects, weekly exclusive recommendations and playlists, and that wonderful feeling that you're encouraging a life-consuming habit. It's probably a bad idea, but to each their own. On to the list.

Beaten to Death – "Vntrve," from Vntrve by (Progressive Grinding Death Metal – Mas-Kina Recordings). Not that many bands out there, I would say still out there, being creative and sick while also having fun and being very dumb. Beaten to Death are obviously not dumb, but they do have a tendency to make wild, unhinged, and, yes, dumb music. It doesn't always click, last few were just OK for me, but this new one and especially the closing and title track are everything that's great about making music and being a human in a time like ours. Genius. And, of course, dumb.

Manes – "Stones in your Pockets (Nearly Swimming)," from To Burn is to Shine (Avant-Garde Metal – Avantgarde Music). I don't know if this song references Virginia Woolf's famous last trek, but I'm going to treat it as such because that's what I feel like. Who else makes music that even remotely feels like this? Not that many people, if any. If you're already a fan, which you should be, or if you're, say, big on latter-day Dødheimsgard then you shouldn't be wasting time on this blog. You should be spending your money on Manes.

Nekus – "Dakhmam" from Funerary Rites of Ancient Doom (Blackened Death Doom – Caligari Records). It really was mission impossible choosing one track from this astounding new split with two of my favorite bands of the doomy death variety. One, Nekus, has been a recent favorite, releasing a string of unreal albums in the last few years. The other, Bloodsoaked Necrovoid, kind of went away for a minutes, before making 2026 a banner year out of fucking nowhere (really preferred the old logo, but that's neither here nor there). So, I did pick the longer Nekus side of the split, but just treat the whole thing as a must-listen to any for gloomy death lovers, wherever those freaks be. Split of the year?

Teardrinker – "Blessed is the Flame," from I Hope This Hurts (Grindcore/Screamo – Killjoy Sanctuary). Friends of the show, incredible people, amazing musicians, astounding producers/recorders of music, and a bunch of talent with legs and hands of which this world is very much unworthy. This is Teardrinker, in my mind, digging deep into their Orchid bag, and coming up with enough jagged riffs and tortured and/or cathartic screams to level a forest. Though they wouldn't do that. They like trees.

Ava Rasti – "Tehran," from No One Knows How Wild The Wind Blows (Experimental/Drone – FatCat Records). In the meantime I had a whole life's experiences with Ava Rasti. I am a fan, have been since her undemiably brilliant The River (mentioned it here) and was and am overjoyed to see more music from this Berlin-based, Iranian deep-diver of the human soul. But I had also revisited The River while preparing a talk about war, nature, and artistic memory, one having to do with the duplicitous presence of one specific river, The Danube, in my family's history, and also having to do with a wider project/book I have been writing about war, written during war, and that hopefully will get published in the next year or so. So I was writing that talk and thinking these thoughts and listening to The River, also about a river and also, as it turns out, about a river of death. So I wrote Ava Rasti, she kindly replied, and from now on she is no longer another person making incredible art, she is a river with a canal that links into mine. 

Artificial Brain – "Planet: Carrion," from Antillia (Death Metal – Profound Lore Records). One of my favorite bands ever, easily one of my favorite death metal bands ever, and really, if we're honest, wasn't in love with their self-titled album. Just the way it is. It was still better than your band, and yet. And it makes me very happy to say that this new one, yes, even without Will, is a huge leap back into not just making great death metal but making all-time, untouchable death music. 

Hadopelagyal – "Dakryopneumatic Canticles," from Zalmathic Necroichorion by HADOPELAGYAL (Death/Black Metal – Amor Fati Productions). No, I didn't have many regrets about not posting recently, but I did have one small regret about not being able to write about the new and insane release from these weirdo maniacs, the last album of which I fucking loved. Is it borderline illegible black/death metal that makes you want to run for your life and yet here you are, feet planted, allowing a river of putridity to wash over you? Yes, it is. That's a ringing endorsement, in case you haven't been following.

Protomartyr – "Checking Out," from Hotel Usona (Post-Punk/Indie – Domino). No, not a par-for-the-course band for these posts, and really I haven't been posting that music of this general vein in a while. Also, can't claim to be a Protomartyr expert, though I have enjoyed them from time to time. But this albums is immaculate – stinging, biting, crystal-clear and brutal, in its own way. Also, it kind of made me think of bands that annoy me, bands whose lyrics are front and center – because of how they're recorded, because of how they're mixed – and for that reason, to me, suck. Here is your example of how your place words at the heart of what you do, and use those words to elevate your music. Take notes.

Pan-Amerikan Native Front – "Echoes of Acrimonious Vengeance," from Howling Piercing Darkness (Black Metal – Profound Lore Records). There's this thing I like, I actually like, where a band/project that really doesn't release that much takes its fucking time and talent to make sure that whenever it is that they do release then it's amazing music. Pan-Amerikan Native Front is one such band, and they just randomly released a whole album of brilliant, tasteful (yes) primal black metal. Again, it's the simple things, as always, that are the hardest to get right. This is getting it right. One of the best black metal releases of the year, easily. Side note: Don't miss the new Kommodus, either.

BONUS #1: Crowhurst – The Stars Ain't Never Gonna Leave Us," from Thorns (Experimental – Sleeping Giant Glossolalia). It's been a whole while since Jay Gambit and his revolving cast of merry/insane people released anything, and I for sure have not kept track since the (very brilliant) III. But it's mere seconds after hitting that majestic and triangular "play" button that you realize how much this spirit and this kind of ambition has been missed. What do we, us weird souls who yearn for internal darkness, have to your name? Waiting for new Sleepealker albums? Listening to Leila Abdul Rauf? What do we have? Now we also get this version of Crowhurst, cinematic, energized, and fucking awesome. Again, you get to take breaks, we all need them. But you best come back like this.

BONUS #2: E-L-R – "Cobalt Wound," from Atropa (Post-Everything Metal – Prophecy Productions). Not much I'm proud of right now, but will forever be proud of being an early fan of this incredible group of incredible musicians. I was really done and prepared to not give this album a listen, and not sure exactly why. Maybe my current mood (whatever you might call it, some might call it being sad) wasn't compatible with what I had anticipated as the "vibe." Maybe I just didn't feel like it, whatever. All of which was a mistake – yet another perfect release from a perfect band. Immaculate. I'll use that word again now.

BONUS #3: Golgothan Remains – "An Emanation of Exorcism," from Born From Darkness Absolute (Death Metal – Dark Descent Records). I really wanted to end on an intellectual high here, the stubborn melancholy of life, both small and big, and all that good shit. But I can't in good faith send off without giving homage to one of the best purveyors of sick riffage on this earth and one of my favorite contemporary death metal bands, Golgothan Remains. So, here I am, paying homage. How sick is this shit? Very.

FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

ONE: With me not posting forever I keep pushing back my gush-fest about the new Besotten album. So, here it is – I'm gushing. Incredible death doom. Do it.

TWO: Friends of the show A Colossal Hand have some more living-room-made manic mathcore.

THREE: And Dennis Sullivan II has some freaky experimental sounds to make you think someone is burglarizing your home.

FOUR: Random indie album from 2011 that I had no idea about and got it just because of a loose Dead in the Dirt link. And it's fucking awesome, if you're into that 2000s indie vibe. From OBROTHER.

FIVE: I very belatedly found a year-old conversation between two of my favorite musicians alive, Charlie of Extra Life and Erin of Genital Shame. Good talk, worth getting into, but also made me go back and re-evaluate (read: geek out) over this Stander track. So good.

ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: New Oerheks album coming! First (evil) single is here.

ONE LAST THING, PROMISE PROMISE: New Gudsforladt music! (as part of split with Molocchio)

ONE LAST THING, PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE: Amazing black metal project Hajduk released a shorter folky thing, and it's cool.