While the Light Lasts
Minimal Techno, Death Metal, Metalcore, Indie Rock, Stenchcore, Skate Punk and more!
Hello y’all!
Whenever I end up with a stack of capsule reviews like today’s, I feel the need to apologize to anyone who lacks the interest in aggressive/metal releases… because this edition is very death metal forward. I’ve just been in that kind of mood these days, I suppose.
For those of you who are not fans, I offer you a) a couple non-aggro reviews for good measure this week and b) a picture of Maple sunbathing:
Otherwise, here’s some music reviews. Hope you enjoy ‘em!
Emoji legend:
⛏️ denotes picks of the week, my favs.
🌱 seedling denotes albums like a lot and expect could grow on me over the year.
✨ albums I would recommend to fans of the genre (i.e. it might not convert new listeners, but you should check it out.)
✂ denotes favourite tracks from a given record.
As always, feel free to reach out over on BlueSky or join the Rosy Overdrive Discord server where I can be found now and again.
You can also find me in the corners of Rate Your Music scrounging for obscure emo, hardcore, indie rock and pop punk.
Don’t forget: if you’re reading this in your email it will be cut off.
Read on the web for the full list of reviews!
⛏️ Picture - Eeeeeeee (2026)
Genres: Minimal Techno, Dub Techno, Ambient Techno
Euphoric minimal techno with a heavy emphasis on tactile, organic textures; splits the difference between ambient elements and beat-forward danceability incredibly well. This is practically made for me: longform, brain-clearing stuff with a decidedly human pulse.
Cannot co-sign this sentence from the Bandcamp notes hard enough: "You could have the 38 most productive minutes of your life with it spinning as your soundtrack next to you."
Highly recommended to fans of the genre(s). Thanks to hotdogapocalypse for putting this one on my radar.
⛏️ Fossilization - Advent of Wounds (2026)
Genres: Death Metal, Death Doom Metal
Never heard any of Fossilization's previous work but saw this in the new release bin (and this "shreddit" [ugh] release tracker tool) tagged as death so I gave it a whirl.
At first I thought this would border on the constant-blasting type death metal that can give me fatigue, but they never hammer that stuff home for too long before they change things up in interesting and riff-focused ways. Maybe the drums drop to a simpler pattern while the guitars tremolo to their hearts content before hopping back in ("Cremation of a Seraph"). Or maybe they pull back entirely and provide some bleak, overcast atmosphere. It just gives things a nice level of variety while still pressing the buttons you want this type of music to press.
Wrap it all up in a package that runs 35 minutes? Big time potential for this to be an album I come back to all year. So nice I listened to it twice already today.
🌱 Converge - Love Is Not Enough (2026)
Genres: Metalcore, Mathcore, Sludge Metal, Hardcore Punk
I'm certainly not a Converge expert or mega-fan, but in particular I have enjoyed their late-career trajectory with All We Love We Leave Behind and The Dusk in Us in particular landing for me. I'm seeing a lot of hype around this being one of the best they've ever done, but personally it doesn't hit as hard as those two. This feels a little like a victory lap type record, revisiting some of what worked on those albums and doing a bit of a greatest hits of their textures and styles in a concise 30 minute package. It flew by and I dug my time with it, but I'm not sure it stands neck and neck with even the best of their later records. Still, a solid and well-rounded record and I can't imagine dyed-in-the-wool fans being let down by this.
🌱 Slant of Light - Slant of Light (2026)
Genre: Indie Rock
Grab-bag indie rock; some moments have a pinch of Sleater-Kinney in there ("Archetypes"), and other times they have that post-hardcore-esque angularity that recalls (an admittedly much calmer) Unwound ("Lie Like the Deer"). Brief shades of gothic rock influence, grey-day slowcore and noisy outbursts—sometimes all within the same song. My usual way of talking about albums like this is to say that it has the right ingredients, and the right measurements.
Maybe not the most remarkable album in the world, but high potential for being a sleeper in 2026 because I like everything here and they get out before the 35 minute mark.
Have to thank Tracy Wilson (go follow them!) for recommending someone pass this record along to me. They were right to!
🌱 Voidhämmer - Noxious Emissions (2026)
Genres: Death Metal, Stenchcore, Crust Punk
Stompy, crusty and cavernous riff-and-groove forward death metal. Genre and sub tags get you pretty much all the way there. When the snare hits and has that tweaked hardcore sound with a tasteful amount of cave-dwelling reverb, my brain says "yes, please". The drumming in particular is a highlight, I dig the active cymbal work on the intro of "Coffin Leakage". None of this is going to blow any minds, but I was in the right place and the right frame of mind to thoroughly enjoy these 14 minutes.
🌱 Mors Verum - Canvas (2026)
Genres: Dissonant Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Technical Death Metal
Twisty, dense death metal with technical and progressive sub-tags and some foundational dissonance to the riffing. A lot of dissonant and modern technical death metal doesn't do it for me, because it usually means "aggressively fast and sounds like no human had a hand anywhere in its composition" but this all feels and sounds very organic and thoughtful. Lots of turns, tempo changes and surprises without it coming off wildly calculated or egghead; a whiff of progressive air without it totally being for dorks ("Canvas" has some post-rock elements in its atmospheric passages.) But when they focus in on riffs or slow things down, it generally passes the "is it heavy still?" skill check.
I wasn't sure about this based on the band name and album art (caught a "death metal, but for hipsters" air for some reason) but I'm glad I took a chance because it's well rounded and enjoyable.
✨ Scythe - Boiled Alive (2026)
Genres: Death Metal, Thrash Metal
Well-balanced stuff out of Romania is foundationally death-thrash, but there's a whiff of technicality and restlessness that makes it a cut above your average death-thrash throwback act. This is totally in my wheelhouse, I like a thrashy band throwing riff after riff my way and then diving headfirst into some steamroller death metal sections. Obviously, not the most innovative or groundbreaking music, but it's well performed and executed so I'm mostly pretty happy. Could improve upon further listens as well.
✨ Void Monuments - Posthumous Imprecation (2026)
Genres: Death Metal
Had to do some work on the weekend, and wanted another 2026 death metal release to check out so I tossed this one on. Hard to express my feelings about this, as it seemed totally cromulent and did the trick. Very "does what it says on the tin" style death metal. Good, down the middle old school style and served me well for 36 minutes. Could improve upon closer inspection but my gut is telling me there's a couple other albums already this year that I'd reach for over revisiting this one, but you never know.
Slaughterday - Dread Emperor (2026)
Genres: Death Metal
Totally fine OSDM-aping stuff. What's the death metal version of pizza thrash? This isn't quite at that level of cartoonish approach, but it's totally down-the-middle stuff that went in-one-ear-out-the-other.
Reviews elsewhere on the internet name-check all the bands you'd expect—like Entombed—alongside Asphyx, Autopsy and Bolt Thrower. I guess these all make sense—this is often mid-tempo, has doom-forward moments, and is generally riff-focused in a Bolt Thrower-esque way, but nothing solidified as memorable to me. Lots of very melodic lead guitar soloing that kind of pulls focus away as well.
Can’t actually pinpoint this as being bad, but I mostly felt nothing while listening, if that makes sense.
⛏️ Necrocannibal - Somnambuliformic Possession (1994)
Genres: Death Metal, Thrash Metal
First song after the introduction hits and I'm already thinking: hell yeah, buddy.
Sick death metal with a diligently thrashy approach to its riffing. This is the kind of death metal that got me to fall in love, because I could appreciate the classic elements of the genre while it was being pulsed into oblivion alongside starts and stops and stretches of varying tempos. Regardless of what they are doing—slow and heavy, fast and pummeling—it's in service of very entertaining riffs and trying to get your head banging. Cherry on top is the legible but still evil sounding vocals. Maybe I'm just in the right mood, but this gave me a nice big rush that I'll probably be chasing for the afternoon.
Basically, this is the type of record that makes me search out new-to-me releases with sub-100 ratings. In 1994, this probably sounded like old hat or a little behind the times, but it's right in my wheelhouse.
I guess this is a demo tape (according to cirithungol's review from 2010) but I was bopping around some mainstream 90s death metal releases this morning... and this sounds better than at least two thirds of them. It's possible the version on streaming has been remastered, but regardless it sounds great to me.
✨ Creeping Death - Wretched Illusions (2019)
Genres: Death Metal, Metalcore, Thrash Metal
I found myself getting into death metal via albums like Holocene Extinction and The Grand Descent alongside vintage thrash metal bands who cranked their speed and heaviness up so much they accidentally turned into death-thrash.
As such, Creeping Death is a name I've heard a lot but never actually listened to. I can imagine had this landed on my plate in 2019 or 2020 I would have gone nuts for it right alongside those records, as it contains both the hardcore influenced death metal I love, with a tinge of thrashiness that gets my inner headbanger stoked. Good shit.
✨ Frozen Soul - Crypt of Ice (2021)
Genres: Death Metal
Very good Bolt Thrower-esque death metal with big time hardcore riffing (comments box user calls it "Bolt Thrower you can 2-step to" which, yeah.) In my journey through death metal I'm always laser focused on the newest of the new, or obscure/underrated vintage releases, so I need to remember that I should check more records out from within the last decade because there's a lot I've missed. This is straight forward stuff, but in the kind of way that feels like comfort food instead of an imitation.
✨ Amorphis - The Karelian Isthmus (1992)
Genres: Death Metal, Death Doom Metal
Slow and heavy death metal featuring a good amount of doom influence. Incredibly well rounded and very satisfying. Not a whole lot to add to the conversation around this record, but I have to second dewtaylo's review on Rate Your Music saying that this got better and better as it went along. Bonus track "Vulgar Necrolatry" at the end is particularly a highlight. Good stuff.
✨ Pariah - Blaze of Obscurity (1989)
Genres: Thrash Metal, Speed Metal, Heavy Metal, Technical Thrash Metal
Entertaining thrash metal with undertones of the speed/heavy varieties. Some nice technicality to their riffing and rhythm section, but none of this is going to change the world. It's fun jean jacket can of Molson type stuff, and as far as it goes this is well rounded and enjoyable.
✨ 30 Foot Fall - Ever Revolving, Never Evolving (1999)
Genres: Pop Punk, Skate Punk
This is the kind of snotty skate punk that gets by on energy and attitude alone. Sits beside bands like Donuts n' Glory or Assorted Jelly Beans in terms of their ability to sound sloppy and off-the-rails while still being an appropriately tight band. Even with this having a 15 minute long track of silence hiding the hidden track, it's too long and cutting some covers and throwaway songs would help a lot. Trim this to the 10 best songs and you've got something I'd probably come back to again, but it wasn't bad otherwise.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.
So good!