Category Archives: Reviews

Armed for Apocalypse – The Earth is Breathing Beneath Me (2026); Swerve – S/T (2025)

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Friends, in a conversation with some fellow music appreciators-slash-journalists about recent new releases, I offered the opinion that 2026 has thus far been one hell of a year for sludge metal.

As further evidence, I’d like to present you with this, the fourth album of filty, dirty sludgecore by Portland (Oregon)’s Armed for Apocalypse, which just came out today. As the band describe themselves: “They just play crushing songs that go from slow to slower, from muck to mire, from mosh to circle-pit. And sometimes they’ll make a left turn and end up at epic. Simply put, it’s rock ‘n’ roll music tuned way down and pissed way off.”

For an added bonus, today we’re also going to check out the debut EP, which came out almost exactly one year ago, by Dutch sludge/post-hardcore/noise duo Swerve. Their bio is far more succinct, but no less accurate: “Two guys, big noise.”

 

Armed for Apocalypse – The Earth is Breathing Beneath Me (Church Road Records, 24 April 2026)

 

Swerve – S/T (Tartarus Records, 25 April 2025)

 

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Weaving Shadows – Existential Decay (2026); The Grasshopper Lies Heavy – Heavy (2025)

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There’s that word again: “Heavy.”

Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth’s gravitational pull?

 
That’s right, folks, I’ve got some more music for you to check out, and it’s gonna be heavy. HEAVY. Like multiple metric fucktons of heavy. Just letting you know in advance so you’re prepared.

 

Weaving Shadows – Existential Decay (self-released, 20 April 2026)

 

The Grasshopper Lies Heavy – Heavy (Learning Curve Records, 14 November 2025)

 

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Druid Stone – The Grateful Undead (2023/2025); Transgressive – Extreme Transgression (2023/2026)

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Good afternoon, y’all.

As you may recall, I’ve talked a time or two about the benefits of following bands and labels on Bandcamp. Here’s another argument in favor of that practice: that’s how I found out about Druid Stone, a sorta-experimental doom project from Virginia: because I got the notification from Fiadh Produtions almost six months ago when Fiadh put out a cassette version of their 2023 album The Grateful Undead, which I’d like to tell you about today.

Arizonan thrashers Transgressive, on the other hand, I’ve been familiar with for several years, as they sort of roamed in similar leftist metal twitter circles (back when that used to be a thing). So I’d already heard and had already been a fan of their 2023 album Extreme Transgression, but then I happened to get an announcement last month that it also was being given the cassette treatment by Fiadh. So I figured, let’s check that one out today as well.

 

Druid Stone – The Grateful Undead (self-released, 26 January 2023 / cassette Fiadh Productions, 31 October 2025)

 

Transgressive – Extreme Transgression (self-released, 03 March 2023 / cassette Fiadh Productions, 06 March 2026)

 

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Magnitudo – M A T E R I A L I S M (2026); Throne – Ossarium (2025)

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Hello, Party People!

I was going to mention something in this article’s salutation about hoping you are having a happy Monday, but then I got thinking about how it seems like I use that phrase fairly frequently. As it turns out based on a quick search, fifteen times (not including today) in total, or an average of slightly more often than once per year.

So I guess it isn’t really THAT much, actually, but it does seem a bit irksome that zero of the fifteen times involved any reference to the Madchester band of the same name, and a bit disingenuous that zero of the fifteen times have actually involved anyone having a happy Monday.

But at the very least, we can hope for a Monday that is less awful than it might otherwise have been? And to that end, I present you with a pair of albums. Both by sludge metal bands from northern Italy (specifically, from Bergamo and Parma, approximately 160-something kilometers apart, or 100-ish miles), and both released by the Dusktone label (one exactly one month ago today, the other roughly fourteen months ago).

Enjoy!

 

Magnitudo – M A T E R I A L I S M (Dusktone, 20 March 2026)

 

Throne – Ossarium (Dusktone, 14 February 2025)

 

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A Very Old Ghost Behind the Farm – Canes Gothi ! (2026); Seum – Parking Life (2026)

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Hey folks. Ready to close out the week with some angry French (and/or Franco-Canadien) sludge?

Today I’ve got two brand-new releases for you: one that’s just hot off the presses today, and one that’s so new it won’t actually come out until next week. You’re welcome.

 

A Very Old Ghost Behind the Farm – Canes Gothi ! (Peccata Mundi Records, 17 April 2026)

 

Seum – Parking Life (digital+CD self-released, 23 April 2026 / cassette Falling Apart Records / vinyl Black Throne Productions)

 

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Muerto – Eclipsed Realms (2026); Entrøpia – Down in the Swamp of Human Bleakness (2025)

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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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Olhava – Reborn (2022), Sacrifice (2024), Memorial (2026)

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Olhava, Olhava, Olhava. That’s the theme of the day.

For those who perhaps haven’t been around that long, a quick reminder: the Saint Petersburg (RU) atmospheric-black ensemble’s 2021 album Frozen Bloom (their fourth overall) was reviewed here after Avantgarde Music handled the physical release; and it promptly floated its way into the top ten of my list of that year’s best releases.

Since that time, despite all the fucked up stuff that’s been going on in their own country and all around the world, the duo (which includes Tim Yusupov, also of Trna and various other projects, on drums, and Andrey Novozhilov, also of Trna and Remaining Warmth [discussed here] among various others, on guitars and vocals) have managed to put out three more incredible records.

These releases ranked #1 on my lists for 2022 and 2024. The most recent came out about six weeks ago; at this point, just barely more than a quarter into 2026, it’s impossible to say whether this newest record will follow its predecessors in the highest spot, but regardless you can guarantee it’ll be pretty damn close to it at the very least.

In this post we will take a quick spin through all three.

 

Olhava – Reborn (digital self-released, 27 May 2022 / physical Avantgarde Music, 26 August 2022)

 

Olhava – Sacrifice (Avantgarde Music, 26 January 2024)

 

Olhava – Memorial (Avantgarde Music, 27 February 2026)

 

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Laden – Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly (2026); Wren – Black Rain Falls (2025)

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Hey there, friends. Hope you’re having a good Friday.

Nah, wait, Good Friday was last week. Hope you’re having a GREAT Friday!

I’d like to share something with you that’s just being released today — an album by single-member band Seattleite Laden which I recently discovered through the Metal Bandcamp Gift Club.

For those who may not be familiar, MBGC is essentially a mailing list — which has gone through various incarnations over the years but currently hosted on Substack — where you can share your birthday and your Bandcamp wish list, and every day (well, most days) a message goes out to let everyone know whose birthday it is that day, and a link to their wish list.

It’s a great way to give and receive the gift of music, to support independent artists, and also a great way to discover new suggested stuff to listen to: if you see someone’s list and you think, hey I like a bunch of these bands, chances are you may want to check out some of the other stuff on their list.

Speaking of which, I thought it would be fun to discuss this brand-new album alongside the most recent release from a band of Londoners who Laden have cited as one of their influences: Wren — an album which happened to sneak its way into my list of favorites from last year.

 

Laden – Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly (self-released, 10 April 2026)

 

Wren – Black Rain Falls (Church Road Records, 21 February 2025)

 

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Void of Light – Enshroud (2023), Asymmetries (2026)

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Well babes*, looks like the week’s about halfway over. I’m already kinda dragging my feet on getting any actual work done, looking ahead in the calendar to another weekend coming up soon.

Let’s talk about some music to pass the time, what do you say?

Today I’ve got two releases to share with you, from a band whose name means Darkness (although no word on whether they believe in a thing called love).

No, this Glaswegian post-metal ensemble really grabbed me by the ears when Trepanation released their sophomore EP three years ago, and they’ve finally followed with their first-ever full-length LP, which came out just a few days ago. Enjoy!

 

Void of Light – Enshroud (Trepanation Recordings, 24 March 2023)

 

Void of Light – Asymmetries (Ripcord Records, 03 April 2026)

 

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Pia Isa – Distorted Chants (2022); Ten East / SoftSun – Turned to Stone Chapter 10 (2026)

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Good afternoon, y’all. Is it just me, or do you also find that Monday morning return to work tends to be brutal and exhausting no matter how much time off you’ve had or how relaxed you might have been in the interim?

I had a three-day weekend since my company took Friday off thanks to the Zombie Jesus holiday; had a fairly nice time visiting with family part of the weekend, and lounging out in nature the rest of the time. So I should be feeling refreshed and ready to go, but that never seems to be the case.

Anyway, we can all feel hashtag-blessed with some hypnotically chill music to help us survive another tedious day of drudgery: a split record Ripple Music just released on that holiday Friday, as well as a solo album from a few years back by one of the members who was involved in both projects on that split.

 

Pia Isa – Distorted Chants (Argonauta Records, 25 March 2022)

 

Ten East / SoftSun – Turned to Stone: Chapter 10 (Ripple Music, 03 April 2026)

 

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