Release date: 30 October 2026 Record label: Listenable Records The Riff Doctor's Score: (09/10) RRRRRRRRRR Diagnosis Shadows in the Night is a blistering debut that drags the spirit of '80s heavy metal into the present with razor-sharp riffs, soaring vocals and enough speed to leave the competition choking on dust. Best Tracks: Spellbound, Shadows in the Night, Where the River Meets the Sea. The Full Review Few emerging bands have made such an immediate impact on the heavy me

Release date: 30 October 2026 Record label: Century Media Records The Riff Doctor's Score: (08/10) RRRRRRRRRR Diagnosis Painstream sees Blind Channel combining massive hooks, crushing riffs and raw emotion into a bold, infectious and polished modern metal comeback. The choruses remain enormous, but this time there’s a little more weight behind the noise. Best Tracks: “Messiah”, “Stars We See”, “Into The Void”, “Diana”, “No Encores In A Swan Song” Deep Cuts: “Types Of Killing”

Release date: 23 October 2026 Record label: Self-Released The Riff Doctor's Score: (8/10) RRRRRRRRRR Diagnosis Beyond Extinction unearth the darkest chapters of Essex’s history, transforming centuries of witch hunts, plague and violence into four suffocating tracks of crushing deathcore. Guttural vocals, dissonant guitars and an overwhelming sense of dread turn the past into something that feels disturbingly alive. Best Tracks: Witchfinder, The Estuary The Full Review There i

Release date: 23 October 2026 Record label: BMG The Riff Doctor's Score: (10/10) RRRRRRRRRR Diagnosis The godfather of heavy metal returns after two decades with a masterclass in monstrous riffs, sinister atmosphere and old-school metal brilliance. Best Tracks: World Alone, Black Times, Over The Violent Sun, Legacy, Stormwatcher. Deep Cuts: Return Of The Arbalist, Beyond The Dead, Death Wake. The Full Review More than half a century after those first terrifying Black Sabbath

Release date: 23 October 2026 Record label: Metal Blade Records The Riff Doctor's Score: (8/10) RRRRRRRRRR Diagnosis Entheos have traded surgical precision for something rawer, heavier and more human. With a formidable new line-up and a renewed sense of purpose, Empty on the Inside proves that sometimes the best way forward is to strip everything back. Best Tracks: The Earth Will Move, Hell Is a Part of Me, Pale Faith Deep Cuts: Hollow, Call My Name, Never Let Me Go The Full

Release date: 23 October 2026 Record label: Century Media Records The Riff Doctor's Score: (9/10) RRRRRRRRRR Diagnosis Almost three decades into their career, Insomnium have turned melancholy into an art form. Netherworlds is a breathtaking collision of crushing riffs, haunting melodies and emotional depth, proving that even after ten albums, Finland's masters of melodic death metal still have new worlds to explore. Best Tracks: Gleam in the Black, The Hour Grows Late, Shadow

Release date: 16 October 2026 Record label: Metal Blade Records The Riff Doctor's Score: (8/10) RRRRRRRRRR Diagnosis Everything we build is destined to fall. Fervence turn that uncomfortable truth into 11 tracks of crushing riffs, haunting melodies and beautifully controlled chaos. Constructs is as emotionally devastating as it is musically ambitious. Best Tracks: Zenith, Miasma, Constructs Deep Cuts: The Things We Can't See, Ghost II, Providence The Full Review Constructs, F

Release date: 9 October 2026 Record label: Metal Blade Records The Riff Doctor's Score: (8/10) RRRRRRRRRR Diagnosis Thirty years of fury, and Sweden's crust punk veterans are still absolutely raging. Best Tracks: Doomrunner, Cold War Bootlicker, Cosmic Meatgrinder Deep Cuts: Seeking Scapegoats, Headhunting, Tangled Steel Mask The Full Review For over three decades, Wolfbrigade have been kicking up an almighty racket with their unmistakable mixture of crust punk, hardcore, d-b

Unwelcome Guest is Left To Suffer sounding bigger, nastier and more adventurous than ever.

Seven years away. All teeth on return. RAM strip heavy metal back to its beating heart on Against: vicious riffs, soaring twin guitars and a sound you can feel breathing. A defiant comeback and a serious contender for heavy metal album of the year.

Few bands in modern metal can make something this heavy sound this elegant.

Release date: 2 October 2026 Record label: Arising Empire The Riff Doctor's Score: (8.5/10) RRRRRRRRRR Diagnosis Of Virtue bring the weight, the hooks and the human vulnerability together on a record that makes their next step feel entirely earned. Best tracks: “The End”, “Enemy State”, “Flatline” Deep cut: “Devotion” The Full Review More than a decade into their career, Michigan's Of Virtue have become a steadily evolving force in modern metalcore. Their 2019 album What Defi

Release date: 2 October 2026 Record label: Metal Blade Records The Riff Doctor's Score: (9/10) RRRRRRRRRR Diagnosis Some bands borrow Viking imagery. Amon Amarth have lived and breathed it for three decades. Their most solid album since 2008’s Twilight of the Thunder God, The Allfather Awakens gallops, roars and raises its drinking horn like no one else has the right to. Best Tracks: “Eight Legs of Thunder”, “Kvasir’s Blood”, “We Rule the Waves”, “Oden’s Hunt” Deep Cuts: “Upp

Release date: 25 September 2026 Record label: Silver Lining Music The Riff Doctor’s Score: (8/10) RRRRRRRRRRR Diagnosis Nine years after their last studio album, Europe return with one of the strongest records of their second life. Come This Madness is heavy, elegant and superbly controlled: a modern hard-rock album made by musicians who know exactly when to strike, when to pull back and when to let a song breathe. Joey Tempest has rarely sounded more commanding, while John N

Release date: September 18, 2026 Record label: Nuclear Blast Records Riff Doctor’s Score: RRRR1/2 (4.5/5) Diagnosis Ten years is a hell of a long time to wait for a new Anthrax record. Thankfully, Cursum Perficio sounds like a band making up for lost time. More importantly, it doesn't sound like five veterans simply protecting their legacy. Anthrax sound hungry, ridiculously tight and willing to push beyond the formula that made them one of thrash metal's Big Four. In fact,

Release date: 18 September 2026 Record label: Killer Candy Records Riff Doctor’s Score: RRRR 4/5 Diagnosis With Shapes of Midnight, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats bring the guitars firmly back into focus without simply retracing their old steps. Recorded live to analogue tape at Abbey Road Studios, the album sounds raw, sinister and wonderfully out of time. The Cambridge cult favourites once again combine irresistible psychedelic melodies with proto-metal weight, doom-laden riffs

Release date: 11 September 2026 Record label: SADCØRE Records The Riff Doctor’s Score: RRRR1/2 — 4.5/5 The Riff Doctor’s Diagnosis BLOODLETTING turns suppressed grief and anger into RØRY’s heaviest and most ambitious work yet. Its genre-blurring journey is raw without becoming shapeless, devastating without surrendering hope, and held together by an artist prepared to feel everything in order to feel alive again. The Full Review What happens after you get everything you thoug

Album release date: September 4, 2026 Record label: Spinefarm Records The Riff Doctor’s Score: RRRR — 4/5 The Riff Doctor’s Diagnosis Airbourne do not reinvent rock ’n’ roll on their self-titled sixth album. They simply remind us how exhilarating it can still be when played loudly, shamelessly and with enough electricity to light up an arena. Familiar influences remain, but Airbourne stopped being an AC/DC tribute act a long time ago. This is faster, fresher and unmistakably

Release date: August 28th, 2026 Record label: Loma Vista Recordings The Riff Doctor’s Score: RRRR – 4/5 DIAGNOSIS: Marrow Deep carries grief in its bones but refuses to be buried beneath it. Overlong and occasionally too crowded for its own good, it nevertheless finds Mastodon turning absence into some of their heaviest, most progressive and emotionally powerful music in years. THE FULL REVIEW Death has cast its shadow across MASTODON’s music before. From the deeply personal

Cinema release: August 26, 2026 Director: Amir Chamdin Score: RRRRR – 5/5 The Riff Doctor’s Diagnosis Grandiose, intimate, ridiculous and unexpectedly moving, 2 Big To Rig captures Ghost exactly as they should be experienced: surrounded by fire, confetti and thousands of devoted voices. A spectacular celebration of the band, their congregation and the enormous crew responsible for raising their cathedral every night. The Full Review When Ghost imposed a strict phone-free poli