Weekly Digest, Week 32 / 2026

Give up on your high spirits and give in to the anger and gloom of these releases by Aspen Sanctum, Gravecrawler, Hulder, Saprovore and Temple of Dread.

The mood is much elevated among the week's major releases:

Cancer Bats – Give Me Dirt (sludge metal/hardcore)

John & Cody Carpenter + Daniel Davies – Cathedral (cinematic gothic metal/synthwave)

Electric Callboy – Tanzeid (industrial/pop metal)

Xandria – Eclipse (symphonic metal)

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TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

Aspen Sanctum – To Withhold The Need To Conquer

Genre: Atmospheric black metal

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 4/5

Country of origin: USA

What's this? Sunshine and warm, bright colors on a black metal album cover? More worryingly, the pleasantness extends to the music itself. Squealing feedback and blast beats transition into gentle melodies that flow along like a caressing summer breeze as you lie outstretched in the grass by the foot of a tree, half-shaded by the canopy. But every now and then the melancholy chill of a grey cloud blocking the sun's rays makes you realize that the ambient temperature is, in fact, anything but balmy.

On their debut album, Michigan's Aspen Sanctum have managed a sound that rekindles forgotten memories, weighed down by the crushing presence of finality, like death's hand on your shoulder, reminding you that you can never go back to those lost moments in time. Vocals and instrumental heaviness skirt the border of atmospheric death metal on certain tracks, but maintain the hostile sharpness and shrill necessary to not drift off into a genre blend. They vary tempo and mood expertly, and grow and shrink the scale of the impact accordingly. Very close to the absolute ideal mix of beauty and contempt.

Highlights: "Without Illumination" and "The Mortal Trap"

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Gravecrawler – Nidus

Genre: Death metal

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 4/5

Country of origin: Sweden

If you splice together the crusty groove of Swedish OSDM with the nasty slams and gurgles of modern brutal death metal, do you end up completely repelling two major factions of the fan base, or combining them? This is apparently what Gravecrawler have set out to discover, and from what I can gather, they've achieved the most favorable of the two outcomes.

At its core this is quasi-melodic, morbid, doom-flirting riff carnage with distinct traces of black metal misanthropy. But it also knows how to stomp holes in the floor as a means of kicking the intensity up a notch, and it's not overdone in the least. The tone, rhythms and vocal style offer surprising variation, elevating it beyond the bread-and-butter death metal caveman projects. There's a surprising amount of flavors to be had, in addition to, and not at all distracting from, the simple pleasure of mighty, bone-crunching riffs.    

Highlights: "Bogs of Torvus" and "Fetid Bloom"

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Hulder – Verbolgen

Genre: Black metal

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 4/5

Country of origin: USA

On the band's third full-length, now-duo Hulder go close to full-on pitch black folk metal, but without much of the melody of a band like Blackbraid, and without losing track of the corpse-painted origins. This is the band flexing the character of their expression, adding more atmospheric and traditional music elements than before, weaving it all together and playing it at such an even flow that parts of it could be mistaken for doom.

Still, this is unmistakably grim, Scandi-inspired black metal, simply pulled in an entirely non-tacky pagan direction, and avoiding the typical Norse influences. It's quality all the way, offering variation in its nuances rather than experimenting too much with rhythms or mood. Parts of the album might feel a bit flat if you're not fully immersed, and not all of the rousing buildups feel quite as gripping to me as they probably should. But the conviction is sky high, and the sound distinct enough to mark the band as a truly outstanding player on the forest-dwelling, light-shunning scene.  

Highlights: "In Blood and in Earth" and "...And We Shall Sing"

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Saprovore – Numinous Abditory Deflagration

Genre: Avant-garde/industrial black/death metal

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 3/5

Country of origin: Italy

Normally, projects like this with obvious technical defects will earn a quick skip from me, but several things about Saprovore's debut full-length kept my attention firmly fixed, as if it's secreting the sonic equivalent of sticky slug slime. Trying to nail down the sound, I can describe it as half-psychedelic, half cinematic-melodic, wildly unconventional, avant-garde blackened death metal with seemingly random industrial-electronic elements. To some, it will no doubt be completely repulsive, but to me it's utterly fascinating.

The unsettling atmosphere, the hostility, the sporadic demonic growls, the buried instrumentation, the insidious tone, it's all part of what kept me invested from beginning to end, and made me ignore/accept the broken, artificial drums, lacking low end and relative aimlessness of the progression. Objectively I can't quite so easily forgive these aspects, but if you're in a curious mood, I highly recommend dipping your toes in this possibly bottomless pool of kaleidoscopic madness.

Highlights: "Threnody Pt. II (Exequial Dirge)" and "Sibilantum"

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Temple of Dread – Dreadspawn Dominion

Genre: Death metal

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 3.5/5

Country of origin: Germany

Germany's Temple of Dread are back once again to play no-frills, light-on-its-feet old school death metal. Production wise it's a slight step up from 2024's rock solid "God of the Godless", offering a fuller and more defined sound. It might just be me, but the guys sound a bit more pissed off this time, like there's an extra dose of venom behind the dry-snarled vocals and charging riffs. It reminds me of the last-ditch energy that made At the Gates' final album so special, and while this album doesn't quite make it to the same level, it shares more than a few stylistic traits with that of the Swedish legends.

Other than this, the band sound very much like themselves, which should please fans (as which I count myself). But it's this sameness that also raises questions of just how much more they have to offer creatively. A lot of the rhythm approaches are quite similar, and the doomy horror tone is fairly uniform across the album. I had a great time with it simply because the spirit of the band's revitalization of the classic sound is very much still alive, and sounds better than ever, although I wouldn't have minded a bit more groove.  

Highlight: "Dreadspawn Dominion"

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HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Dymna Lotva – Vyraj

Genre: Black/doom metal

Country of origin: Belarus (now Poland)

Horrifier – Revelations of Gore

Genre: Death metal

Country of origin: Norway

Labor of the Negative – The Triumph of Time and the Disillusioned

Genre: Avant-garde black metal

Country of origin: International

Spectr3 – A Procession of the Dead

Genre: Black metal

Country of origin: Spain

Vertiginous – Incessant Affliction

Genre: Brutal death metal

Country of origin: Indonesia