Release Date: April 3rd, 2026 Label: Liminal Dread Productions Attention slitherees and slitherers, The Embrace of Cloacal Desire, the debut LP from Philly snakes Crotaline, released on April 3rd. Crotaline is music for reptilian mother fuckers. I think the band would actually be quite happy if only actual reptiles listened to their music. Pure bliss. Straight up, this record is fuckin sick. Evil and doomy blackened thrash. If you’re a fan of first wave of black metal, you sh

Self-Released Release Date: 07.04.26 Running Time: 24:01 Review by Dark Juan Score: 478,666,986,274,671,323/10   Today’s written nonsense is brought to you by several things – Crow Cottage required a new vacuum cleaner. This has caused much hilarity because Dark Juan’s sense of humour has not evolved much beyond being a teenage boy. Farts are still funny. Anyway, the new appliance came with something they have called a crevice nozzle.   I have been sniggering for two weeks.  

Release Date: March 27th 2026 Label: Century Media Get your denim, get your leather, get your spikes, and your bullet belts! The new Hellripper album, Coronach, fucking rips. Blackened Speed Metal coming at you from Scotland with enough grooves to get the punks two-stepping and the riffs and solos that are hot enough to melt even Zakk Wylde’s face off. Coronach, released March 27th, is the 4th full length album from James McBain, the mastermind behind Hellripper, whose output

Release Date: February 13th 2026 Label: Relapse Records Hoaxed, the trio labeled “Dark Rock” from Portland, released their sophomore LP, Death Knocks, on Friday the 13th of February. Fitting day for this witchy death-rock release. At 9 songs, 31 minutes, this is an easy record to run through a bunch, and after the first listen that’s exactly what you should want to be doing! This is a very much as described, a dark rock record, but with the hard hitting sensibility you find a

Released by: Road To Masochist Release Date: 27.03.26 Running Time: 37:16 Review by Dark Juan Score: Graham’s Number/10   Once more into the breach, dear friends. I am Dark Juan, and I write total bollocks that is occasionally about music. However, even though I am one of the most misanthropic arseholes on the planet, I want to speak to you about the importance of friendships, regardless of their shape. My friendships are mainly remote, based on mutual love for Metal with peo

Released by: Argonauta Records Release Date: 27.02.26 Running Time: 39:23 Review by Dark Juan Score: 9/10   It is a sad and sorrowful time at Crow Cottage. The last of the original canine Triumvirate of Terror left us earlier this week. Hodgson went peacefully and surrounded by love and for this Dark Juan is thankful. Mrs Dark Juan is utterly inconsolable and so am I. He has now joined the pantheon of very good bois and is in the company of the mighty Zeus and the pocket rock

Label: Nidhogg (Independent) Release Date: February 6th, 2026 Unleash the wolves of the Polish black metal metalion. Narcissvs the debut album from Polish practitioners of evil Nidhogg (solo project of former Wilczyca vocalist), released in February with a strength and power to it that you may not hear that often. This sounds to me, very much like a late 90s/early 2000s Behemoth release. Black metal with the hairy balls of death metal. I think it’s awesome honestly. I’m reall

Label: Paper Wings Records Release Date: February 20, 2026 Do you like Waking The Cadaver level ignorance? Look no further than the brutal death coming from Colorado’s Disgustingest. Their brand new EP, Coagulating Putrescence is a certified hoe scaring landmark. I pressed play on this in my car and the volume was near full blast without me knowing and it really scared the living shit out of me.  The soundscape on this, the vocals on this, maaaaan it’s like I’m hearing some s

Label: Century Media Release Date: January 30th, 2026 It’s been a little bit of a slow start to the year 2026 and I’ve taken much of January to decompress. I’ve been mainly listening to European New Wave music really, it’s so damn good I can’t stop! But Texas Death Metal band Stabbing has broken the ice for me with the absolute crusher of an album that is Eon of Obscenity. Hopefully this is the kickstart I’ve needed for this year of music ahead. I’ve been pretty busy with wor

The time has come, the year has gone. What an amazing year for music. Making my top 10 albums for this year was very difficult, there was some last minute movement going on below the top 3, and day by day things can change, but I’m just gonna go with my gut. The top 3 have been locked for a while. I joined Decibel Warfare late in the year, some of these will have a link to reviews I have up already, but I am going to include some thoughts for each album on this list. I must w

Label: Metal Blade Records Release Date: April 11th 2025 Where to start with this one. Well, I’m gonna keep this one contained and let the music speak for itself, so after reading this, or while reading this, listen to the fucking album. I have a running list I like to keep of my personal album of the year starting from 1969 (I wasn’t born til long long after that). Black Sabbath, Dio, Iron Maiden, Sepultura, Hatebreed, Dimmu Borgir, Lamb Of God, Opeth, Rammstein, God’s Hate.

Label: Kuromaku Corp Release Date: November 14th 2025 I wasn’t even gonna do another review this year. I wanted to shift my focus on getting my 2025 top 10 albums post ready. But I felt compelled for some reason to do a review for this one. CHAPTER 04: RED FALCON SUPER BATTLE! NEO PARIS WAR!! is the 4th full length album from whatever the fuck French hardcore crossover rap ani-metal band Rise of the Northstar. Fucks sake I’ve listened to this album much more than I needed to.

Label: Epitaph Release Date: November 7th 2025 Santa Cruz hardcore kings DRAIN are back with their third full length album, …IS YOUR FRIEND. This is a positive, feel-good record with no shortage of gnarly riffs, breakdowns, skank parts, sing-alongs, and solos. DRAIN is a band, that when you hear their music, you immediately know it’s them. Whether it’s the killer guitar tones, the infectious grooves, or Sammy’s undeniable vocals, you know you’ve stepped into their world from

Label: BLKIIBLK Release Date: October 17th, 2025 It’s been 13 years since NYHC legends Biohazard released an album. They have now returned with Divided We Fall, featuring their classic lineup, and boy it’s refreshing to hear these guys back at it, just as if it was the early 90s. We are thrown back into that era right as we start the first track, hard riffs and some tough-guy attitude. This is streetwise 90s NYHC. This is the bands complete playbook — mosh parts, fast parts,

Label: Nuclear Blast Release Date: October 31st, 2025 After 6 years, Montreal deathcore kings are back with Shadow Work, their 7th LP. Released on a busy Halloween, the album is a lukewarm but solid enough outting that displays the deathcore vets’ chops and why they are still one of the last OGs goin hard. This is manic, brutal, technical deathcore that also highlights the hardcore part of the genre. Shadow Work showcases a veteran band with the energy of younger, hungrier, a

Label: Napalm Records Release Date: October 31st, 2025 Symphonic Power Death/Black Metal, whatever the fuck you wanna call this. Utopie the 4th album (produced by Dan fuckin Swanö), released on Halloween, by French band Aephanemer, was my first experience with the band. I loved every damn second of it. All 6120 of them. Utopie is packed with orchestral grandeur, the sharp bite of melodic death metal, lush polyphonic musical texture, blood curdling screams you’d find on a blac

Label: Personal Records/Gurgling Gore Release Date: October 31st, 2025 As soon as I started this album I smiled and thought to myself, “this is exactly what I want to be listening to right now”. Colorado Vampyric Death Metal band, Pedestal For Leviathan released their debut full length album, Enter: Vampyric Manifestation on Halloween 2025. Perfect release date for such a haunting sonic experience. What a great, refreshing death metal listen that offers more than just stinky

Label: Napalm Records Release Date: April 4th, 2025 The German Trio released their sophomore full length album earlier this year via Napalm Records. This was a highly anticipated release for their fans including myself, their debut album Wrecking Command was a total teutonic thrash mayhem and With the Old Breed takes it even up a notch. The album consists of 10 songs each more brutal than the last one and lasts 42 minutes. The overall songwriting of the album will tell you th

Released by: New Heavy Sounds Release Date: 07.11.25 Running Time: 40:19 Score: Infinity/10   I have been consumed by the urge to write, this is the third review I have written today and it appears that the words are a torrent of things within my head which have been bursting to get out and unleash themselves on you, the unsuspecting people who just waited to read stuff about music, but instead are forced to endure the verbal diarrhoea spewing forth from the majorly twisted p

Label: Youngblood Records Release Date: October 17th, 2025 Though there is a healthy scene of hardcore bands in the UK, it does seem that in this area of the world, straight edge has always been harder to come by. It makes sense though, this is a place where sharing pints with your mates is engrained in the culture. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of blokes Xing up in the UK. The members of Sheffield straight edge hardcore punk band Cannonball are some of them. Cannonbal