April Roundup 2026

This Texan folk artist has eluded me up until now, but I'm glad his music finally reached me. Very laid back, straight forward, and blunt in both its sound and lyricism. A simple affair with warm and cozy instrumentation, and a satisfyingly deep male voice that keeps the album very grounded and real. Some very vulnerable lyrics as well.

Quite an easy listen, and its one hour runtime flies by.

Man, what a headbanger of a record this is. I've never heard of this band before even though they've been around for more than 20 years, and they pretty much blew me away with this one.

The band has a very distinct approach to writing riffs, which keeps the songs interesting and varied, and they dip into some extremely heavy sections that induce some serious stankface. The vocals are a bit one-note, but serve the music very well, and the medium tempos ensure that grooves are plentiful.

This one grabs the OSDM prize this month due to the simple fact that the music on this album sounds so incredibly vibrant, menacing, and purposeful, despite the band being 40 years old at this point. Yes, you read that right! The amount of talent and musicianship it takes to put out music this good way after your best years should be behind you is genuinely mind-boggling to me as a music fan. If I didn't already know that the band has been around since 1988, I really don't think I would've been able to tell.

Hell, it might even be the best metal album released in April, period. Considering how stacked this month was, that's saying something! I suspect this will be on a lot of year-end lists come December. And the album cover is also one of the most striking I've seen in a long while.

... aaand we're back to stupid!

Well, not really. In fact, not at all... Once you get past how ridiculously heavy and grimy and silly this music is on its face, you start to notice that it's actually good. Like really good. The production on it is a cut above the others in the genre, for one, but there's also a level of technicality to the music itself which suggests that this band very much know what they're doing.

There's a somber and very serious tone to this album, and compared to more "traditional" slam, there are several pensive progressive sections which help break up the absolute batshit brutality on display throughout the record.

This may very well be way too niche for it to end up on many AOTY year lists come December, but I actually wouldn't be too surprised if it did.

There's been very few melodeath records that have caught my attention like this recently. It falls very much in line with those other "modern metal" bands like Orbit Culture and Bloodred Hourglass, but leans a bit more towards the traditional melodeath composing style. I kind of wanna say I'm getting Soilwork vibes too, but in a good way!

I'm also very impressed with the vocals here. They're pretty much perfect for the genre. I'd say they're what pushed it over into "recommended" territory; Not fantastic, but worth a listen.

Sometimes you just wanna go full caveman. Leave all sense of pretense behind and just get stupid, with guitars tuned so low they might as well not be guitars anymore, breakdowns every other minute, and even DJ scratching to really put the cheesy cherry on top.

This scratches the same itch for me that Kublai Khan does, except whereas their music comes off as genuinely badass, this is just fun. I find myself pulling the stank-face while trying to smile at the same time, and I can't help but love it.

The masters are back! My favorite tech death band have not only released what will probably be the most ferocious and blistering metal album of the year, but they're also finally coming to Norway! I've already secured tickets to their show in November, and I can tell you right now; I might not survive that show. I'll probably die from dehydration or something from sweating all night.

Anyway, this record sees the band take on a slightly more progressive slant, leaning a bit more into the atmosphere and grander soundscapes that they're known to break up their songs with. Like many others are saying, it feels like this album isn't as instantly appealing as their two previous offerings, but it's still hard to find fault with metal music that's this competently written and performed.

If you haven't heard Archspire yet, I certainly hope I can convince you to have a listen now. Start with the track Carrion Ladder. Trust me, it's an experience.

Like most of you, I came across this band on YouTube. I wasn't that into it at first, as the slightly dissonant microtonal nature of the melodies felt off-putting. Then my focus shifted towards the groove, and then there was no turning back. They hooked me too, damnit. It's wild, it's fascinating, it's groovy as hell, and has extremely impressive musicianship. What else could you possibly want?