Release Round Up - February 20th, 2026
Every week there is a tidal wave of new music released unto the world. Each Friday we'll round up some of the best new music available, some we've reviewed, some we haven't, but all worth checking out!
Theres a lot of new heavy music hitting the airwaves this week, everything from black metal, death metal, gothic metal, Stoner rock, doom, thrash metal and even some of your traditional heavy metal!
Here's what we think you should check out today!
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Devotees to the fine art of breaking necks, Sylosis drop 'The New Flesh' via Nuclear Blast.
"their most expansive and sophisticated work yet!"
Read out full review here.
Ireland’s Coscradh unearth their second album 'Carving the Causeway to the Otherworld' via 20 Buck Spin.
"one of the most evil works of metal we’ve encountered in a long time."
Read our full review here.
Street punk pioneers Sham 69 release boxset 'The Albums 1978-80' via Captain Oi!/Cherry Red Records.
"Covering their most successful and influential period. Well worth a look."
Read our full review here.
Polish stoner doom behemoths Belzebong return with latest opus 'The End Is High' via Heavy Psych Sounds.
"a strong hit of the bong, and this music is the result"
Read our full review here.
Scandinavian rap-metal pioneers Clawfinger return with 'Before We All Die' via Perception.
"Clawfinger are back with a vengeance and are ready to tear shit up once again."
Read our full review here.
Bruise Control explode onto the scene with their new, self titled EP, released via Republic of Music.
"Bruise Control tackle ideas of apathy, anger and the daily struggle to survive in an unforgiving world seemingly devoid of any hope."
Read our full review here.
Northern Irish post-atmospheric black metal band Domhain release 'In Perfect Stillness' via These Hands Melt.
"a breath of fresh air in a genre full of cliches and gimmicks, injecting welcome life and novelty into black metal."
Read our full review here.
Fantasy metal champions Darklore return with 'The Great Elven War'.
"the swirling riffs are fast and furious and dancing keys give a drive and dynamism throughout."
Read our full review here.
Phasma meld influences ranging from black metal to brutal death metal and everything in between on 'Purgatory' released via Transcending Obscurity Records.
"It leans a gnarled vestigial protrusion on the crutch of black metal’s inflammatory arsenal, while other of its unspooling tentacles seem expatriates from the fell reaches of deathcore."
Read our full review here.
And thats just the tip of the iceberg! Other releases today we think you should check out include...
Rock
Mothica - Somewhere In Between [EP] (Sharptone Records)
Rollerball - Submarine [REISSUE] (Ripple Music)
Rose Tattoo - The Albums -1981-84 [4CD Clamshell Boxset] (Lemon)
Suplecs - Hymns Under A Blood Moon Sky (Ripple Music)
Transatlantic Radio - Midnight Transmission (Froniters Music SRL)
Heavy Metal
Atlas - Sunder (Odyssey Music)
Hellstedt - All Right As Rain (Independent)
Mantas - Winds of Change [REISSUE] (Dissonance Productions)
Nightshade - In Essence Divided (My Kingdom Music)
Struck/Down - Queue For The Cure (Independent)
The Veer Union - Reinvention (Arising Empire)
Zepter - Septer (High Roller Records)
Black Metal
Daidalos - Dante (Rockshots Records)
Dusk - Bunker (Independent)
Evig Natt - Vaketimen (WormholeDeath Records)
The Magus - Daemonosophia (The Circle Music)
Unmother - State Dependent Memory (Fiadh Productions)
Vried / Djerv - Loving The Dead [SPLIT EP] (Indie Recordings)
Death Metal / Death-Doom / Grindcore
Crowen - Through The Dying Mist (Inverse Records)
Dehydrated - Victims: Over 30 Years of Sickness (Paragon Records)
Dissentience - Kaiju (Independent)
Kadavereich - Perversa Misteria (Godz ov War Productions)
Necronomicon Ex Mortis - Zombie Blood Nightmare (Independent)
Rotten Blasphemy - Worshippers of Chaos (Witches Brew)
Shadowspawn - Cadaver Dogs (Independent)
Transce of the Undead / Chaos Perversion - Trance of Perversion (Godz ov War Productions)
Voidlord - La Congrega Del Signore Oscuro (Godz ov War Productions)
Doom / Stoner Rock / Sludge / Psych
Mortal Blood - Vigil For A Hollowed Earth (Independent)
Soul of Anubis - Ritual (Time To Kill Records)
Metalcore
Foreward - Exposition (Seek & Strike)
Horseman - No Surrender in Dark Days (Recordjet)
Thrash Metal
Eradikated - British Petroleum (Indie Recordings)
Lead Injector - Witching Attack (High Roller Records)
... and the rest!
Aabode - Hyper-Death (Godz ov War Productions) [Industrial/Black/Death]
Abstracted - Hiraeth (M-Theory Audio) Progressive [Metal]
Aeon Gods - Reborn To Light (Scarlet Records) [Power Metal]
Bizarrekult - Alt Som Finnes (Season of Mist) [Post-Black Metal]
Death of Youth - Nothing Is The Same Anymore (Engineer Records) [Hardcore]
Dimscûa - Dust Eater [Physical Release] (Big Scary Monsters) [Post-Metal]
Eye of Melian - Forest of Forgetting (Napalm Records) [Symphonic Metal]
Random Hearts - Love PTSD (MA Såret Records, Araki Records, Mighty Worm, Dingleberry Records, Affliction Records, and Emergence Records) [Post-Hardcore]
Rise of Mercury - Pathfinder [EP] (Independent) [Post Rock]
The Overjoyed - The Overjoyed (Independent) [Punk]
Worm Shepherd - Dawn of the Iconoclast [EP] (Unique Leader Records) [Deathcore]
Wot Gorilla? - Stay Home (Drongo Records) [Math Rock]
Zahn - Purpur (Independent) [Noise Rock]
