Weekly Digest, Week 15 / 2026

It's a week for hellos and goodbyes, with the most extreme stuff elevated beyond the murky depths, leaving releases by Battlegrave, Nukem, Skaphos, Spirit Adrift and Witch Ripper.

Have you ever seen this much death metal in the "overground"? Will we ever again?

Archspire – Too Fast To Die (technical death metal)

Bodysnatcher – Hell Is Here, Hell Is Home (deathcore/hardcore)

Immolation – Descent (death metal)

Inferi – Heaven Wept (technical death metal)

Lord Of The Lost – Opvs Noir Vol. 3 (gothic metal)

Metal Church – Dead To Rights (heavy/power metal)

Vomitory – In Death Throes (death metal)

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TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

Witch Ripper – Through The Hourglass

Genre: Progressive sludge/heavy metal

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 4.5/5

Country of origin: USA

Witch Ripper's brand of progressive sludge inevitably prompts a few Mastodon comparisons, but as on 2023's "The Flight After the Fall", there's no mistaking their stylistic distinctions if you spend more than just a few seconds listening. "Through The Hourglass" feels like a patient album where every song starts out in a different yet stable place and then goes exploring. And the band seems to know all the best places to discover entertainingly puzzling rhythm- and tonal shifts, and mind-nurturing, melodic rapture. At its best it's fascinatingly intricate, pleasant and satisfyingly grating at the same time. It feels highly mature and creatively challenging in a listener-friendly way, and the band is likely only a real "hit" away from blowing up at this point.

Highlights: "The Portal" and "The Clock Queen"

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Battlegrave – Enslavement

Genre: Thrash/death metal

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 3.5/5

Country of origin: Australia

This one took me by surprise, as I'd never heard of this Australian band before. What comes raging out of the speakers is a hyper aggressive strain of thrash that's spread well into death metal and its neighboring extreme subgenres. Giving the band's last, sophomore full-length a quick listen I instantly noted that "Enslavement" is a significant step up in production and tightness of the performances. I hear Scour-like blackgrind, Werewolves-style groove-forward death metal and the kind of deathcore-y tech death you'd expect from a band like Summoning the Lich. It's dark, with clear ambitions of expanding into an unsettling horror-themed soundscape. That's not unwelcome, but ultimately the more atmosphere-loaded tracks in the second half of the album end up pulling in a slightly different direction than the high-energy, adrenaline-fueled tracks you get in the beginning, and so it feels a bit like a veering off from what initially built my enthusiasm. Still, it's got great energy throughout and radiates a suitably foul mood.

Highlights: "Bonesaw" and "The Grand Machine Of Despair".

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Nukem – The Grave Remains

Genre: Thrash metal

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 3.5/5

Country of origin: USA

The river of thrash, once nearly run dry, now surges stronger than perhaps ever, and has provided yet another feral, clawing animal of an album, this time from sunny California. Nukem sound as pissed of and impatient as a thrash band should, with strained, shouted vocals (that sound quite a bit like those of Obituary's John Tardy) and the kind of tone that convinces you there's plenty in the world to be mad about. They slap you around with savage, charging speed as much as locked-in riff execution, an active, agile bass and some surprisingly melodic solo sections. Not every track hits quite as hard, but the ones that do really hit the spot. It took 10 years for them to follow up their debut with this. Let's hope the wind blows in their favor and they get to expand even further on this bangin' foundation.  

Highlight: "Torture, Murder, Mutilate!" and "Into the Kill Zone"

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Skaphos – The Descent

Genre: Death/black metal

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 4/5

Country of origin: France

Ready for some deep sea terror? Last year's "Cult of Uzura" was not this French blackened death metal band's first outing into abyssal dread (it was their third), but it was the first I'd heard of them, and the album made my top 100 list of the year. I found it to be a refreshingly "dangerous"-sounding alternative to the much more by-the-numbers "The Shit of God" released that week by subgenre peers Behemoth. In comparison, "The Descent" feels more cleaned up, technically minded and, dare I say, modern (yuck?). It doesn't have the strongest opening tracks, but you quickly get the gist of its theme, and soon you're being pummeled by unforgiving heaviness, with increasing measures of tribal savagery and atmospheric oppressiveness. I suppose you could say we're making a... descent... into the realm of unspeakable subsea horror where this band is at its most outstanding, and, whether you like it or not, you're stuck here for the duration. A little less wild? Sure. Still unsettling and brilliantly punishing? Hell yes. Also, that album art is just perfect. NOTE: After writing this review it came to my attention that this album is a compilation of re-recorded songs from the band's first two albums. It's not immediately evident, as they've renamed the tracks, and production wise it's such a massive step up that some of it is hardly recognizable unless you're already well familiar with their earlier work. In either case, it won't change my score, but it's worth keeping in mind that this is actually not original material, and so doesn't necessarily fully represent the band's stylistic trajectory for the future.  

Highlights: "Mireborn" and "Horror Squid"

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Spirit Adrift – Infinite Illumination

Genre: Doom/heavy metal

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 4/5

Country of origin: USA

For someone who just got into these guys, it's sad to learn that this will be their last album, as they announced their split-up last month. 2023's ultra groovy, upbeat and memorably melodic "Ghost At The Gallows" was one of my favorite releases that year. That was the band leaning strongly into the heavy metal iteration of their sound. "Infinite Illumination" sees a significant step back into classic doom, with an accompanying gloomy mood. The riffs are punchier, the tone darker, the tempos slower, and there's a mournful tinge to Nate Garrett's vocals. All that's not to say that you can't have fun with it. There's plenty of groove still, and the solos taste just as sweet. But while the last album felt very in the moment, this sends the mind wandering. It doesn't have quite the same memorable quality, but functions solidly as both a well-balanced, purposeful heavy/doom album and a full-circle statement.  

Highlights: "Where Once There Was An Ocean" and "Window Within"

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HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Caustic – Inner Deflagration

Genre: Death metal

Country of origin: Spain

Doedsvangr – Within The Flesh

Genre: Black metal

Country of origin: International

MIRE – Pale Reflection

Genre: Groove metal/metalcore

Country of origin: USA

RIKET – 2026

Genre: Death/thrash metal

Country of origin: Sweden

Voidchaser – Interstellar I

Genre: Progressive metal

Country of origin: Canada