When I heard about the new Fires in the Distance album, I immediately shot it to the top of my most anticipated albums list. The bands sophomore album, Air Not Meant For Us came as a total surprise as it beautifully worked its way around a faulty production for some of the coolest new death doom I've heard this side of the 2020's with its triple counterpoint of vocals, guitar and piano. I was very excited to see how this band would develop their sound further.

Initial impressions weren't the best, but continued listens helped Circadian Promise skyrocket up the 2026 rankings as one of the best albums of the year. My main concern was the piano, which instead of being played plainly, has been given a drowning filter, taking away some of its melodic dominance. Upon repeated listens, I could quickly tell that this stylistic change was for the better, as the main vocal work has become even more diverse than ever before. The new vocals of Brendan Hayter adds a new, more explicit, gothic texture to an already very dark album. Meanwhile the percussion has gotten a massive glow up and the added strings give the album some well deserved drama.

The songwriting has taken some significant steps forward. I remember that Air Not Meant For Us certainly had its epic moments, but Circadian Promise takes that and puts it on overdrive for almost the whole record. I love the song structure of this album, even if it can get a little tiring after a while. Thankfully, Fires in the Distance are fully aware of this which is why songs don't lazily stay in one place for too long. The bass is noticeable and carries the album forward through its different endeavours. The percussion plays a huge role as well and the occasional spurts of blast beats or drum fills give the whole song a feeling of growth. Take a look at the closing track "Agonal Dreaming". Even though I don't like how Fires in the Distance end the track with a return to a slower groove, the first two-thirds of the song shows an amazing display of maturity and restraint and not allowing the climax moment to take over. 

All in all, this was a most welcome surprise in a year that has been hurting for good music. Fires in the Distance found a balance of epic doom and gothic metal that is also extremely tuneful and heavy. 

Best Songs: Of Radiance and Levitation, Lightless Days of a Songless Bird, By This Time Tomorrow, Once the Silence Takes Your Place

For Fans Of: Swallow the Sun, Dark Tranquility, Insomnium

Love is Not Enough marked an excellent comeback for these Massachusetts metalcore masters earlier this year, but what we didn't know was, they already made another album besides that one! Hum of Hurt, released just 4 months later, shows that their flame of creativity has not been extinguished.

This album is more of a companion to the previous album instead of just B-sides. Basically like some of The Ocean's pairs of albums. Love is Not Enough is more of an aggressive throwback to their roots, while Hum of Hurt adds in the diversified sonic fury they've had since Jane Doe. Considering how this was released 25 years after their magnum opus, it's practically coming full circle!

Similarly to how the new August Burns Red album opens, "Slip the Noose" launches into a brief storm of rage. It's like this album's "Concubine"! Then "Doom in Bloom" slows things down, sounding crushing and unforgiving. Now, "It Only Gets Worse"? More like it only gets better! It's just pure chaos just like in the earlier breakthrough years.

Striking me further is "Detonator" and the edge it has in the riffing of Kurt Ballou and the vocals of Jacob Bannon. Such an intense song! Maybe not even a song, but rather a war speech set to metalcore, and that's what I like about it. You may recognize this next track "I Won't Let You Go" from Cyberpunk 2077, with the band credited as Shattered Void. The lyrics of perseverance sound right in both that game's soundtrack and this album. "It’s Not Up To Us" delivers a more minimalistic approach. At least in the ethereal parts in which Bannon yells out to the heavens before more of that chaotic hellfire. Those vocals are more unpredictable, especially during the outro of pain and no hope.

The centerpiece of the album is the 6-minute epic "Dream Debris". Right from the tribal march of drummer Ben Koller and the rumbling of bassist Nate Newton, comes a spectacular slow buildup to a massive headbanging groove. Converge still have their later atmospheric side to go with their earlier math/metalcore, as that majestic gem has proven. As with the previous album's interlude, "It Used to Matter" breaks things up with melancholic strumming to get you ready for the remaining two tracks. The title track has the theme of looking back at regretful decisions made in the past. The 5-minute ending track "Nothing is Over" strikes with the last of this offering's aggression. Nothing dreamy, just triumph and chaos as you would expect from this band.

Hum of Hurt is the counterpart to Love is Not Enough that we never knew about until its announcement. It shows the band's later more adventurous side without losing any of the heavy chaos that mostly shines in the other album. They're both different yet meant to be heard back-to-back. Altogether, the band still have the strength they've had in most of their career. May that strength never wither!

Favorites: "It Only Gets Worse", "Detonator", "It’s Not Up To Us", "Dream Debris", "Nothing is Over"

Just one day before what can be described as the Day of the Beast (6/6/2026), two of my favorite metalcore bands have each released a new album. Those two bands being August Burns Red and Converge! Unlike Converge, August Burns Red doesn't seem to have any plan of releasing one album this year and surprising us with another one later this year. They've taken their time...

August Burns Red is already over two decades deep into their career, and they've already just dropped their 11th album. Close to one album every two years! If only Trivium could've continued that pace... Despite the album being titled Season of Surrender, August Burns Red will never surrender. Not when they have some heaviness to unleash.

Already at a punishing start is the opening track "Legion", getting straight to the point with Jake Luhrs' vocal fury. The progressiveness of their previous album Death Below hasn't been left behind as there are still some tempo changes. The guest appearances aspect hasn't been taken out either, and the first of this album's guests, Mike Hranica of The Devil Wears Prada screams out a brief verse. Although there's some occasional melody, it's all just killer chaos. And there's more of that in "The Nameless" with the heavier metalcore roots to make me happy from the rage. Luhrs bellowing "DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGERS!!!" makes it clear that they're throwing back to the era of that album. "Behemoth" has even greater rage. An absolutely perfect return to their sound from 20 years ago, and then some. We have an Architects-style "BLEGH" 30 seconds in, plus a heavy breakdown a minute later followed by an even more crushing one shortly after. This band really should get more credit for enhancing metalcore, both now and long ago. "Den of Thieves" is more nostalgic in the Gothenburg-infused guitarwork. The guitar soloing shows how much of a hero guitarist JB Brubaker is.

He continues to shred in "Sonic Salvation" with some oriental vibes. Polaris vocalist Jamie Hails unleashes his screams, even duetting with Luhrs. The lyric "I NEED AN OUTLET FOR MY ANGER!!!" couldn't have been any more fitting for both vocalists' raging output. When Hails does his cleans, they're some of the only parts of the album having clean singing. Despite ending so quickly after all that blasting, it's perhaps one of the metalcore tracks of the year! The one other track with clean vocals, "Cerebral Malfunction" features the two Make Them Suffer vocalists; Sean Harmanis and Alex Reade. The recent atmosphere and earlier aggression are in great contrast. The ethereal singing by Reade and the guitar shredding by Brubaker are the closest the band has gone to power metal. Such a distinct standout! The guitar/synth interlude "Tears of the Cloud" follows. It segues to the heavy yet melodic "Whispers Like Splinters". They simultaneously have more heaviness and melody than before, and that breakdown slays.

Heading further back into their roots is "S.O.S." Same with the ironically titled "New Horizons", which sounds like a B-side from one of their earlier albums. As much as I enjoy those previous two tracks, there should've been something new to add to the album's second half. That's where the 7-minute closing track "Forged by Failure" comes in. Heavy groove alternating with soft atmosphere gives the structure more variety, sounding a bit like Parkway Drive. A massive epic just like that of their previous two albums!

August Burns Red's new album has cranked up the metalcore hard. Everything's in great balance between the old and the new, pleasing fans old and new. With the band just firing away with their breakneck music, they won't stop their studio creativity and live energy any time soon. Keep the flame burning!

Favorites: "The Nameless", "Behemoth", "Sonic Salvation", "Cerebral Malfunction", "Whispers Like Splinters", "Forged by Failure"

These occasional dips back into the heavy metal/traditional metal world seem to be a little easier on the ear than I have come to expect them to be, certainly over the past couple of months or so anyways. Another female-fronted outfit in the form of Tower follow hot on the heels of last months Serpent Rider feature release and they manage to land a bit more successfully it must be said. The spontaneity of Let There Be Dark is hard to not fall for. I recall the debut from this band back in 2021 and how it caused a minor ruckus amongst my online metal peers who celebrated it alongside many a favourable review also. I don’t recall anything particularly standout from the debut record and as such I have viewed Let There Be Dark on its own merits as a standalone record.

Tower give a good acquittal of themselves here, building a consistent and strong track listing that burns with the energy of Chastain without quite crossing into the speedier side of Sölicitör, but also espousing a health nod in the direction of Warlock along the way. The inclusion of two instrumentals feels a dubious choice in an otherwise well-constructed album, but when they focus their efforts into actual songs, Tower are at their very best I would say. Whilst the album may lack any genuinely stunning performances beyond the vocals of Sarabeth Linden, everything is played with competence with the caveat that some aspects (the drums) are a little staid overall.

It is hard for me to get too excited over such a regurgitated sound though. No matter how solidly it is played, this is nothing new to my ears and nostalgia alone is not enough to keep my scores higher than the mid-point for Let There Be Dark. Despite the unnecessary instrumentals, the album is succinct enough however, coming in at just under forty-minutes seems a sensible length to avoid boredom settling in for me and at no point do I scrabble for the skip button. For some, this record will be flying the heavy metal flag high, and I don’t dismiss that purpose. However, it is not one that I am as invested in as I was a few years ago and so it does sound to me like just another heavy metal record.

Ah, Motörhead. I can't tell you how heavily obsessed with this band I was in my secondary school days in the latter part of the 1970s. Lemmy, Eddie and Philthy were the absolute fucking peak of musical rebellion for me back then. Punks thought they were rebelling, but they were just glorified clothes horses. Nah, bikes, booze and speed as preached by this unholy threesome were where rejection of the system and true freedom really lay. Motörhead shows were special, they had a hardcore of fans who always showed up, particularly from the biker community and were a celebration for those who rejected and lived outside of the system. The band had been steadily growing their popularity with each release, but then, all of a sudden in '79 / '80, rock and metal became popular here in the UK and all manner of "normies" started taking notice. Pivotal in that metal explosion here was "Ace of Spades". It became popular here on a level that was unprecedented for UK metal bands (even Sabbath didn't really hit this level of popularity in the general populace). Shit, the 'Head were even there on Thursday night on Top of the Pops for fuck's sake. I was a naive kid and some part of my kid's mind felt betrayed by this sudden "sell out". Of course this was a great album, but my admiration of it was a bit grudging because, much as I loved it, I resented having to share something that had been so personal to me with all these newbies who had no history with the band. Stupid and naive, but my immature mind knew no better. Rather than revelling in the fact that my love of the band had been vindicated by so many others now discovering them, my connection now felt diluted.

So now, as an only marginally more mature-minded old man, what's my take on "Ace of Spades"? Well, I don't think its influence on the future of metal can be understated. Its influence on bands such as Venom is evident and therefore, by extension, on the whole extreme metal scene. It was certainly Motörhead's most truly metal album up to this point and is a long way from the material you would find on their earliest recordings such as the heavy rock 'n'roll of "On Parole". It is also one of the band's most consistent records with few real dips in quality, unlike a lot of their albums which always frustratingly seemed to have at least one "bum" track, think "Vibrator", Step Down" or "I'll Be Your Sister".

The tempo established by the iconic opening title track is maintained pretty consistently throughout the album with tracks like "Fire Fire", "We Are the Road Crew" and "The Hammer" while they shake it up with some variety of pacing as supplied by tracks like "Shoot To Win" and the brooding "Chase Is Better Than the Catch". And over all this booms Lemmy's unmistakeable, thundering basslines whilst Philthy lays into all around him like the "Animal" for which he is named, the duo combining into one of the most devastating and charismatic heavy metal rhythm sections of all times. From what I understand Eddie Clarke was already at this point becoming a little disillusioned with playing second fiddle to Lemmy, yet he was such a consummate professional that you would never guess it as this is probably his all-time best work and his riffs and solos are vibrant and energetic, playing the lightning to Lemmy and Phil's booming thunder. Sure, I will concede, sometimes Lemmy's less-than-serious lyrics can cause the odd grimace, but I think he wrote them with tongue firmly in cheek most of the time.

I don't know if they ever suspected that the title track would become the iconic track it did. I mean it is up there with songs like "Paranoid" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in terms of tracks that are so well known people actually become tired of hearing them over time. Whether they did or not, it is one of the best known British metal tracks ever. Hell, even my Elvis-loving mum could be caught singing it occasionally. To be fair she did once sweet-talk a bouncer into letting her in for the last half hour of one of the band's shows at our local fleapit when she came to pick me up. It blew her mind and she always loved Lemmy after that! I digress, but the material on "Ace of Spades" is so strong that even with such a titanic track opening the record, the remainder doesn't feel even remotely disappointing and a couple such as "We Are the Road Crew" and "The Hammer" are even better for my money. Ultimately the top and bottom of it is that this is one of the iconic albums of the UK metal scene alongside "Paranoid" and "Number of the Beast" and no matter what I or anyone else says that ain't changing any time soon.

On a more sombre note, I always use metal-archives as the resource for factual information about the albums I am reviewing and, rather poignantly, I thought, the full lineup page for "Ace of Spades" which includes producer Vic Maile, engineer Trevor Hallesey and even photographer Alan Ballard has R.I.P. next to each name. Fuckin' sad man.