From twenty year waits to four month breaks, we mop up some of the biggest heavy records of the last few weeks reviewing Converge's second album of 2026, Marmozets, Static Dress, Turnover, Guilt Trip, Warning, Stormkeep, & Funebrarum.Converge 26:04Marmozets 48:34Static Dress 1:15:35Turnover 1:30:00Guilt Trip 1:41:39Warning 1:53:38Stormkeep 2:20:01Funebrarum 2:38:26

Sam returns from Asia (and through a robo-mic, sorry about that) to talk about Japanese hardcore hijinks at Bloodaxe Festival, Voivod and Midnight speed through the UK together, and we unpack the news no one saw coming that Faith No More are returning in 2027.Releases:Warning - Rituals of ShameThere Were Wires - VesselChainlacing - MessuageIron Kobra - Eternal DaggerSaidan - Fangdriller: Scars Beneath Memory’s WristMork - MonolittEinherjer - LifebloodLiminal Sky - All Tomorrow’s Darkness

On top of a stream of new music from across the heavy spectrum, we weigh in on the debate following End It's targeting of the man in a banana costume at their show, why the frustration and resentment towards meme behaviour and influencer culture exists at subcultural events, and whether this particular incident went too far.Releases:Sublime - Until the Sun ExplodesSleeping With Sirens - An Ending In ItselfPussy Riot - CYKAYes - AuroraTarja - Frisson NoirSwiss Army Wife - I Love You, But I Hate It HereKhemmis - KhemmisJoseph Tholl - It Might Be ArtNuclear Tomb - Epoch InhumaneGenghis Tron - Signal FireMONO - SnowdropBIG|BRAVE - In Grief or In HopeFleshcrawl - Epitome of CarnageFires in the Distance - Circadian PromiseDefiled - Altered StateStormkeep - The Nocturnes of IswylmVéhémence - Assiéges pour l’éternitéFyrnask - ÍosirIron Reagan - DemonetizationDevourment - Pious ImpietyStill Remains - Spirit BreakerMystifier / Craven Idol - Demystification of the Fallen Souls

Fortress Festival returns bringing worldwide black metal exclusives to the British seaside, with Gallowbraid, Old Man's Child, Dødheimsgard, Misþyrming, A Forest of Stars & more darkening the skies over the 2026 bill.Releases:Devin Townsend - The MothTurnover - Down on EarthStatic Dress - Injury EpisodeSparta - Cut a Silhouette‘68 - They Are SurvivedHealing Wound - Bodies of Heavenly ViolenceDeafkids - Cicatrizes do FuturoAll Them Witches - House of MirrorsElder - Through ZeroMonolord - NeverendingGodthrymm - ProjectionsFunebrarum - Beckoning the Void of Eternal SilenceTyrann - Tyrann ForeverTrelldom - …by the Word…Hecate Enthroned - The Corpse of a Titan, a Lament Long BuriedConverge - Hum of HurtEvanescence - SanctuaryDeath Cab for Cutie - I Built You a Tower100 Demons - Embrace the Black LightGuilt Trip - Armour of AngelsAugust Burns Red - Season of SurrenderBlood Incantation - All Gates Open (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)A.A. Williams - SolsticeSlift - FantasiaEvergrey - Architects of a New WeaveDwarves - JenkemVoivod - SymphoniqueGurt - Survival of the Shittest

It's all about vaporwave prog, French oi, and choo choo train black metal as a whip round the underground picks up Basement, Frozen Soul, Haggard Cat, Fire-Toolz, Prisonnier du temps, A Forest of Stars, Panopticon, and Scimitar for the month's most blistering records.Basement 15:40Frozen Soul 33:44Haggard Cat 51:10Fire-Toolz 1:05:09Prisonnier du temps 1:15:41A Forest of Stars 1:25:27Panopticon 1:47:30Scimitar 2:02:45

Anthrax's first single in ten years leads us to consider the thrash legends' creative relevancy in 2026, and Avenged Sevenfold going fully indepedent by buying back their rights brings reminiscing on ten years of their album The Stage.Releases:Marmozets - CO.WAR.DICE.A - ProngDimmu Borgir - Grand Serpent RisingXCOMM - Time to BurnArmored Saint - Emotion Factory ResetDavid Eugene Edwards - Mercurial SilenceBlindead 23 - DeuteriumWitching Hour - Descending.. Where Time Has Ceased to ExistLore - Psychotic Trance of the Black NightsGridiron - Lights OutBear - Anhedonia

Iron Maiden's brand new documentary Burning Ambition hits cinema screens, and there's new singles from Green Lung announcing their new album Necropolitan and from brat superstar Charli XCX making ro-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ck music.Releases:Periphery - A Pale White DotThe All-American Rejects - SandboxSuper Sometimes - Show the World What’s UnderneathHeld. - GreyVon Groove - Born to RockPro-Pain - Stone Cold AngerAcid Reign - Daze of the WeekJungle Rot - Cruel Face of WarNedgravd - AscensionAkem Manah - ThrenodiesTyrannus - Mournhold

This week we make our way back to Incineration to once again kick off the festival season with a scorching of black and death metal as the likes of Dragged Into Sunlight, Of Feather and Bone, Tomb Mold and Scimitar rip it up across London stages.Releases:Black Veil Brides - VindicateBasement - WIREDKoyo - Barely HereSocial Distortion - Born to KillThe Flatliners - Cold WorldHaggard Cat - The Pain That Orbits LifeGeoff Tate - Operation: Mindcrime IIIFrozen Soul - No Place of WarmthIngested- DenigrationDarkthrone - Pre-Historic MetalPanopticon - Det hjemsøkte hjertetYoth Iria - Gone with the DevilA Forest of Stars - Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile InterfaceDraconian - In Somnolent RuinForced Order - Undying SpiritCrowquill - Erase The FileScarab - Transmutation of FateGadget - Coerced

Creeper's vampire extravaganza Sangui-Tour hits small venues in the UK for a full celebration of blooddrinking and leather.Releases:Foo Fighters - Your Favorite ToyThe Amity Affliction - House of CardsAtreyu - The End is Not the EndFailure - Location LostTerror - Still SufferRoman Candle - UnadulteratedArmed for Apocalypse - The Earth is Breathing Beneath MePlini - An Unnameable DesireEinar Solberg - Vox OccultaAdmiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell - The Trouble With the ShovellDemon Spell - Blessed Be the DarkSix Feet Under - Next to DieScimitar - Scimitarium IICnoc An Tursa - A Cry for the SlainBlood Countess - Imperatrix SanguinisSepultura - The Cloud of UnknowingVomit Forth - In the Name of the FatherAmerican Football - American Football (LP4)Kneecap - FenianSevendust - OneCage Fight - ExuviaVenom - Into OblivionSpell - Wretched HeartBlack Cilice - Votive FireEffluence - Anticholinergic DerangementInfected Death - Invicta

Viral microtonal aliens, surprise drops, and defiant, powerful final bows rule the month with At the Gates, Enter Shikari, Corrosion of Conformity, Spirit Adrift, Angine de Poitrine, Portrayal of Guilt, Poison Ruïn, and Immolation. One last time: Go!At the Gates 18:20Enter Shikari 49:18Corrosion of Conformity 1:18:23Spirit Adrift 1:33:43Angine de Poitrine 1:49:00Portrayal of Guilt 2:14:02Poison Ruïn 2:30:48Immolation 2:51:47