Hey there, friends. Gotta say, I’ve really been on the struggle bus this week. This whole month, in fact. Maybe some of you can relate? Hopefully not. But please feel free to say hi in the comments below, or drop by Bluesky with some words of encouragement!

Anyway, let’s dive right into it. Today we’ve got a brand-new album of bleak black-doom from Mexico (coming out this Friday!) and a bonus serving of Italian bleak death-doom-sludge (from about six months ago)…

 

Muerto – Eclipsed Realms (Transcending Obscurity, 17 April 2026)

 

Entrøpia – Down in the Swamp of Human Bleakness (self-released, 16 October 2025 / cassette: Fiadh Productions, 17 October 2025 / vinyl: OSTIA Records, October 2025)

 

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Muerto, black metal trio from Querétaro state, south-central Mexico, are releasing their third LP later this week. Its six tracks present slightly over half an hour’s worth of dissonant chords, frenzied blackened riffs and rhythms that intersperse with sparsely-arranged down-tempo post-metal bits, overall creating a rather avantgarde-blackened-death-doom atmosphere.

These disparate elements serve as a backdrop for bassist Penelope Matamoros‘ impassioned howls and roars, delivered commandingly and unwaveringly throughout. Except, that is, for a few unexpected moments of forlornly vulnerable-sounding clean vocals that make an appearance in the penultimate “Decay” and the especially desolate and dismal doom-fest of a closing track “Radiance” (though in both cases, those swiftly give way back to the death-metal roars, making them sound all the more vicious by comparison).

 

 

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When Bolognese sludge quintet Entrøpia released their debut LP in late 2025, they certainly had no expectation of turning anyone’s day bright and cheerful when they gave it the title Down in the Swamp of Human Bleakness. In fact, they explicitly stated, “This record was never meant to save anyone. It’s the sound of four broken minds clinging to feedback and heaviness, trying to make sense of a life that constantly slips through our hands.”

Over its approximately two-thirds-of-an-hour spanning seven tracks, the band explore the murky depths of sludge – bass-heavy, distorted to hell, full of feedback, and complementing their bleak aura and dire messaging with sporadic spoken word samples à la Dopethrone, Eyehategod, et al.

Entrøpia point out that these songs are all original compositions with the sole exception of “Bite It You Scum,” based on a GG Allin & the Murder Junkies song, but they are also quick to point out that they completely modified the lyrics because the originals (in the band’s own words) “were cringe as fuck.” Their revised version removes the misogynistic themes and then turns it into a scathing diatribe against those same themes (and plenty of other examples of widespread shittiness). “If your identity relies on being a tough guy, you’re probably just a scared little boy.”

In closing, the band refer to this release as “our form of collective catharsis: ugly, loud, unfiltered. We don’t know if there’s a light at the end of this tunnel, but we know we’re deep in it — and silence would kill us faster.” Very eloquently said, and I have to agree — we may all be suffering through the same shit day after day, or sometimes increasingly incomprehensible versions of it, but blasting these caustic sounds through some headphones sure can make it seem (slightly, barely perceptibly, infinitesimally) more bearable. So what the hell, maybe these guys actually did succeed in brightening my day?

 

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Eclipsed Realms is available to pre-order here (digital/US); or it can be found on CD (and because it’s Transcending Obscurity you KNOW they also have a shit-ton of different merch options available) right here.

Down in the Swamp can be found right now: here (digital/US), here (cassette), or here (vinyl).
 

 

Muerto: Bandcamp | label-specific Bandcamp | YouTube
Transcending Obscurity: website | Bandcamp | Bluesky | US Store | EU Store | YouTube
 
Entrøpia: Bandcamp
Fiadh: Bandcamp | Bluesky
Ostia Records: Bigcartel