May wrap-up 2026
Feat. Elder, Devin Townsend, Acid Reign, Darkthrone, Venom, Sevendust, et al.
Another month, another assload of unreviewed albums.
Starting off in thrash, possibly the most stylistically pure metal album I've heard this year and in any subgenre could be "Daze of the Week" by Acid Reign. It's not original – in fact, it sounds a conspicuously lot like Anthrax. But it's still inspired given the relatively small domain. But above all, it's wonderfully true. The riffs kick ass, the energy is high-octane, supported by a low-key production that's more than welcome these sorry days when everything has to sound like laser and sterilized plastic.
And speaking of Anthrax: Armored Saint put out a new LP as well that sounds like a matured version of themselves. It's always a pleasure to hear how well John Bush is keeping those tremendously powerful pipes of his. (Full disclosure: Favorite Anthrax vocalist!) It doesn't have any future classics, and there's a bit of filler, but it's definitely worth checking out if you're into Armored Saint – and there are plenty of good reasons to be into Armored Saint, too (i.e., their first four albums).
In the black metal department, the new Venom album seemed like a pretty honest project for what it was worth; the production was still a bit dumb, though. Not by far as much as earlier on, and the guitar was actually even tight and lying at a decent place in the mix. But it seems like Venom are still mostly out to just be a little ugly and a little corny, so that's all from me in that regard.
The new Darkthrone album didn't exactly sound like a million, either, and that was arguably not the point, either. Just like their last outing, "Pre-Historic Metal" is all-round pretty Celtic Frost. A bit uninspired in the beginning, but it developed into some cooler atmospheres and riffs. It never managed to get me riled up, probably due to that whole crust-punky sound aesthetic. I acknowledge the purpose, but I'll take "Transsylvanian Hunger" ('94) any day, thank you.
At the opposite end of black metal, Hecate Enthroned released a solid round of atmospheric ditto. Nicely produced; audible bass guitar and all. The vocals were monotonous, and there were no stand-out moments except for the occasional piano break. But it would probably satisfy any fan of the (sub-)subgenre.
In that whole area of supposedly equal parts sleaze-rock-and-punk-infused hard rock, I tool a single look at one of the album covers of Black Veil Brides; this told me that we'd be dealing with something a bit too poppy og steril that doesn't really kick it, and that it's stylized and calculated rather than inspired and heartfelt. I did hear 1.5 song off of the new Crashdïet album; same corner of stylized Swedish neo-glam/should-be-punk rock sounding like a caricatured rehash of everything that Steel Panther sounds like. It might have gotten me excited 20 years ago; today, it takes more.
And speaking of punk, I heard the first 3rd of the new Social Distortion album. Didn't sound nearly as much like punk as I'd expect. But for a bunch of would-be punk, it wasn't bad. And under no circumstances was it as horrid as that nauseating pop that goes for punk rock these days but that's just as family-friendly as Sesame Street and just as dangerous as half a glass of lukewarm water.
The rest here is gonna be pretty random. Lair of the Minotaur from Chicago put out an equal parts cool, interesting, and unlikely mix of sludge, thrash, and black metal. The two first songs on the new Sevendust presented a wicked huge production, but the contents themselves were a bunch of wimpy, whiny Linkin Park shit.
The first three songs from the new Pro-Pain sounded unmistakably like the band, but the utter lack of reverb made the damn thing sound like it was taking place in your grandma's hallway. And apart from that, it was as one-dimensional as the band normally is. However, check out "Contents Under Pressure" from '96, because that one's actually packed with memorable moments.
All Them Witches put out "House Of Mirrors", which was a fine round of stoner hard rock with some solid hooks and broad dynamics, but nothing ground-breaking. And in somewhat of the same category, Elder released one of those albums that make me bitter that I can't dedicate all my time to doing music reviews. "Through Zero" sits right at the overlap section on a Venn diagram featuring Oceansize and Tool, and that's one damn fine overlap section, to coin a phrase.
Last but not least, I hella dug the last Devin Townsend album, 2024's "PowerNerd". However, his newest endeavor, "The Moth", was more than I could handle, its keywords being symphonic, comprehensive, gigantic, ambitious, operatic, and – above all – demanding. Not even my trusty guest reviewer, who's a much bigger fan than I am, had the capacity to oversee it, which makes me feel a bit better about not being able to, either. He and I would categorize it as an unmanageable 5/6.
As for trips and travels in May, yours truly managed to get my dumb ass down to Hamburg to participate in the opening meeting of the local Metal BC chapter. I'm telling about it in the video in that previous link, but it merits repeating: Metal BC is a business networking club for metalheads – so far with chapters all over Belgium, Germany, and The Netherlands. Man, I needed that – and I'll be going to the second meeting only in a few days, so stay tuned for that.
As for other things to look out for in June, there's gonna be new albums from pretty much exclusively B- and C-level artists. So in fact, there might not be any album reviews. However, what you should definitely look out for are concert reviews since aforementioned trusty guest reviewer and I will be covering Copenhell, where, among others, we will be seeing Saxon, Queensrÿche, Alice Cooper, aforementioned Anthrax, and, not the least of all, the almighty Iron Maiden.