October wrap-up 2026

Feat. Stoned Jesus, Ministry, Gloryhammer, Forbidden, Queens Of The Stone Age et al.

A lot to cover this October – and more great unreviewed albums than usual. Brace yourselves, y'all.

First and foremost, unreviewed album of the month goes to Stoned Jesus for "Songs To Moon", their much darker and locally much more hard-hitting follow-up to last year's "Songs to Sun". I didn't review that one, and just like with the latest releases from Green Carnation, we're in the midst of a trilogy here, so reviewing this one would be weird. But holy shit, if this album isn't what the world needs right now. Not just because it's hard-hitting, but first and foremost because it's patient, humanly organic, and real.

Like its predecessor, "Songs to Moon" makes a point out of both taking its time and of sounding like actual fucking instruments. (We should not have reached a point where this is a criterion of quality, but here we damn well are.) But this is also a band that does not adhere slavishly to that stoner rock corner to which it belongs overall, but a band that writes actual fucking songs, not just stylistic speculations. I could say much more, and if I'd had the time, I would. But just fucking check out Stoned Jesus.

In that same overall territory of organic and unhurried, Sweden's Graveyard also had a new record out. I heard it once, on YouTube as usual, but then it got taken down and only uploaded again as those playlists with which I cannot be bothered that I've mentioned a couple of times now. But it was decent.

I did make an exception regarding my principle about those playlists when it came to the new Queens Of The Stone Age album, – because it's goddamn Queens of the Stone Age is why. "Perfecth" is much shorter, more laid-back, acoustic, and sparse than 2023's masterful "In Times New Roman". It was no less of a great album for that reason, but it was far from hard enough to justify a review on a website like this one. All the real fans will like it, though – the fans who love the band because they love music; not just because they love distorted guitars.

In power metal, I actually thought that the new Gloryhammer album initially sounded liberatingly streamlined and much less annoyingly goofy than what we otherwise might've come to expect. However, then came a song in which the chorus was based on those four fucking standard cookie-cutter pop chords that I've talked about way too many times now – being a metal site, all the more so. And besides, the use of Auto-Tune, which initially I would've actually been able to let slide for once, became more and more pronounced. So I'm probably done with Gloryhammer.

Same thing goes for Dragonland – I lasted less than 2 minutes throughout their new LP, and it was pretty much a thickness war between the Auto-Tune and the tired clichés. I also got done with Butcher Babies before I'd even gotten started: The first 5 seconds of their new album sounded like one gigantic nightclub was about to ejaculate all over me.

Towards the black metal side of things, the new Wolves In The Throne Room was a lot more straightforward than how I know them, but as yummy as always. Yummy melancholic Minor-key moods, yummy choirs, even. The production was pretty heavy on the mid-tone – in fact, it was probably the least treble'd black metal album I recall hearing. But the fans will appreciate it nonetheless.

Also in the area of things that have at least once been black metal, I lasted a bit more than halfway throughout the new LP from Xasthur. For the uninitiated, we're talking solely acoustic and instrumental… well, music. I mean, it still counts as such. It's mostly a slightly untuned and acoustic guitar aimlessly noodling over far-background drums – doing a surprising amount of aggressive metal moves for acoustic music, but lying extremely low in the mix. It has some conceptual overlaps with freejazz, and ultimately, it's just as tiring and ungratifying to listen to, if not more. It's not exactly good music by a lot of of common standards, but all else being equal, it's not trying to pander towards anyone. Which – at least by that extent alone – makes it more metal than too many other stylized sonic calculations that's released as supposed metal these horrid years.

Staying with bands that start with an X, the new Xentrix album "Allied With the Enemy" was old school thrash as it's supposed to be: Raw, straightforward, and with no fucking artificial enhancements. It eventually became a bit monotonous, especially the vocals, but it should please any fan of unspoiled thrash fucking metal. In the same realm, good old Forbidden's new, self-titled LP was a most ambitious and progressive undertaking. Shit, it reminded me of Symphony X occasionally. But that's not to say that it was neat and high-brow; it was as bitingly aggressive as it was challengingly sophisticated. New vocal dude isn't Russ Anderson, and his delivery weighs much more than his melodies, but what a delivery it is. For the first time, then, I hereby declare this the other unreviewed album of the month! (Stoned Jesus gets the background pic privilege here because Forbidden's cover was a bunch of horrible AI "art".)

Staying in the thrashy end of things, the new outing from my countrymen in HateSphere sounded exactly like they sounded around 2009, which was the last time I heard an album from them, because they kept on making decent death thrash, but not writing any actual memorable songs, and I had reached a stage where it took more than simply red-hot energy to impress me. Man, this band had so much potential once. But hey, it takes one to know one.

I also got to check out Darkest Hour for the first time; they play a modern take on classic thrash metal, but without any poppy elements, and it's not too polished. However, it wasn't too memorable, either, so I kinda gave up after the first half of their new full-legnth. But if I'd never heard metal before, I'd probably be perfectly ecstatic about 'em.

Another band I never got to check out until now – believe this or not – is Cirith Ungol. Because, shit, there just seemed to be many more important bands, and it seems to me that when someone's been around for 55 damn years, they would have made it big enough to catch my attention if they'd bothered to. Insofar as the music goes, judging by CU's newest LP, it's in the true-as-all-living-fuck corner of NWoBHM. But the vocals were one long, hysterical series of atonal drops from higher notes to lower ones. And if this is how it's always been, that's exactly why CU never made it any bigger. Didn't last all the way throughout this new one.

In the same stylistic corner, Ram, whom I'd also never checked out before, kinda sound like part Raven, part Virgin Steele, part early Maiden. And if you know actual heavy fucking metal, a description like that should make you either wanna copulate fervently or destroy things in pure excitement. Judging from the new Ram LP, "Against", the band is hardly very original, nor were the individual songs on "Against" necessarily very memorable. The tempo tended to run a bit, and those kick drums dominated the mix quite a bit. But they sounded like actual fucking kick drums and not a copy/pasted digital standard loop picked from a folder with 900 similar ones. And the whole thing sounded like those early 1980s when heavy metal was pure, because there was only yet heavy metal and nothing else.

Mark my words, dear readers: it does not matter how hard you are digging on downtuned nine-string guitars and 4-BPM-breakdowns; metal does not get any more true than a band like Ram. Also towards the far end on the trueness spectrum is Master, whose new album was kinda funny – it even sounded like punk rock at times. But it was a bit too one-track, and those vocals were always a bit silly.

On the far end of said spectrum, though, is one Tony fucking Iommi who put out another among too few solo albums, this time with Jorn Lande on vocals. Those riffs that are supposed to be the man's trademark, were generally satisfactory, but not amazing. In fact, you wouldn't necessarily always be able to tell that it's Iommi, which is not the case for his other solo outings. This is a man who normally masters the art of getting extremely much out of extremely little; this time around, he still didn't have enough raw material.

Even the solos – including one from friend and colleague Brian fucking May – were prudent and left too much to be desired. Lande's vocals were probably the strongest asset to the whole thing – although explicitly Dio-esque. Could've sounded like many worse things; just didn't sound very personal – much like the album itself. Not a bad record; hella true and a must-listen, but far from as awesome as we could expect from the godfather of metal.

Also sounding a bit tired was Ministry's farewell album "Hate To Go". It sounded like Ministry, but even though it did have some kickass passages, it was overall running on autopilot, both in terms of energy and inspiration. Probably best to wrap it up – although it wouldn't surprise anyone if uncle Al decides to reunite with himself again in a handful of years.

Ending in viking territory, Amon Amarth released a new album, as they seem to have do every once in a while. If there was ever any metal band that encompass the qualities of being generic and formulaic, these guys are it. I'm not saying that it's bad or that it doesn't kick ass, but it does so in a very controlled, predictable, and digestible way, and apart from the growl being badass and some singular riffs having a slight edge to them, this is as edgeless and predictable as metal goes.

However, the new full-length from their fine Norwegian neighbors in Enslaved was fucking majestic. I only heard it once, and I was blown away by its creative level of ambition and the meticulous attention to detail. I hate that I'm not gonna be able to do… No, you know what? Fuck it; they damn well deserve a review. And I hereby publicly commit to writing one.

Staying with yours truly, I actually did go somewhere in October, namely to another meeting in Metal BC Hamburg – and hold a presentation, even. I didn't shoot a video from there, but I'll take this opportunity to make some noise for Metal BC again. If you haven't heard of it, it's a goddamn business networking association for metalheads. And as far as I'm concerned, that's exactly what I needed. So far, they have chapters all over Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, with more opening on a monthly basis. If you're a self-employed metalhead in any of these countries (or just any neighboring ones), you should visit. And if you're too far away, you should contact them and offer to open up a local chapter. They'll love you for it. Tell them Andy from Global Metal Blog said hi!

Staying with travels, I'll be going on a longer journey to Thailand in a coupla weeks, so stay tuned for updates from Chiang Mai, which is supposedly the global nomad hub – we'll see about that! And stay tuned for new albums, too, because November's here, and we got new shit coming out from the likes of Cult of Luna, Asia, Carnifex, Comeback Kid, Extol, Prong, Hatebreed, Trollfest, Heaven's Edge, Iron Savior, Yngwie Malmsteen, Sinister, Walls Of Jericho, Down, Disfear, Suicide Silence (meh), Trivium (double meh), Vanishing Point, Wolf, Molly fucking Hatchet, Whiplash, and not the least, my fine, doomy countrymen (actually, women) in Konvent.

Think global, act metal.
– Andy

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