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MetalBite's Top 10 Albums of the Month - January 2026

January - Top 10

Welcome back to MetalBite's Top 10 Albums of the Month! This is a momentous occasion for this column because January 2026 marks the AOTM's 5 year anniversary. This started out as a time killer in the heat of the pandemic, and I kept it going - with the help of some additional foot soldiers - because there's more music out there than you can possibly consume, and someone needs to sort through it all. It saves you time and gives an extra platform for great bands to be heard, and hopefully those are things we can all get behind. Let's see if we can keep it going for another five years!

-Nate

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Serpent Column - Aion Of Strife
Independent

I can't decide whether this album consists of 200 riffs or one riff. It's a winding staircase of notes that feels very fluid and ouroboric - you can't tell where one motif ends and another begins. The vocals are so buried and hazy they only really exist in the periphery of your mind, and the drums provide some indicators of vibe shifts, but even with those flagpoles and the song divisions, this feels like an endless stream of uplifting, vaguely black metal-esque guitar work with a melancholic tinge. The intricacies are fun to pick apart, but you can also throw this on in the background and it functions just as well.

This project is apparently no more, according to metal-archives, which is a shame. I've enjoyed everything I've heard from it, but I suppose this is as good a note to end on as any.
-Nate

Archvile King - Aux Heures Désespérées
Les Acteurs De l'Ombre Productions

Archvile King is the solo project from French musician Baurus. On his first album, À La Ruine, he played a riff central thrash infused black metal. On this new album, he sheds a lot of the thrash elements to play a more pure, straight black metal attack, even though you can still hear a bit of thrash and heavy metal influences, making this a very melodic experience even if he's much more savage than before. It sounds extra evil with a touch of medieval melodies and atmospheres, provided by the occasional synth, acoustic guitars and general riffs. If you're a fan of knights and castle, and aggressive but melodic black metal, this will scratch your itch.
-Raphael

Stabbing - Eon Of Obscenity
Century Media

My expectations for this were astronomically high - Stabbing is one of my favorite new bands, period. They are the cream of the crop in modern brutal death metal. However, they had a schism and replaced their drummer and bassist, and that coupled with the astronomically high expectations they set for themselves with their past work and the jump to a major metal label gave Eon Of Obscenity an impossible bar to clear. Bridget's guttural are as putrid and nasty as ever, and Marvin Ruiz still has his impeccable ability to bring you to climax via snaking low-end grooves and pinch harmonics, but I definitely feel the absence of drummer Rene Martinez on this. He had a way of matching the riff impeccably and the ping on his snare would immediately staple passages into your skull. The new guy is capable and tight, but he lacks a certain je ne sais quois, a distinct personality in his playing. There are no shortage of guys that can play fast out there, but the second you hear Rene's drumming you immediately know it's him.

At risk of this turning into a review consisting of me lavishing praise on this band's ex-drummer, I'll cut it here. This band is still a mandatory listen for any fans of the style, and I'm very happy to see them making their mark in the wider "mainstream underground" of extreme metal - they deserve all the new fans that Century Media will bring them. If this is a band's worst album, that in itself is a pretty ringing endorsement of their oeuvre.
-Nate

Kreator - Krushers Of The World
Nuclear Blast Records

Kreator continue their evolution from thrash to more power metal. There are some brutal, faster tracks like "Barbarian" or "Deathscream" but most of the songs are highly melodic and catchy. Fortunately, there are no ill-conceived experiments like "Midnight Sun" from the last album - the focus is more on metal. Since the glorious comeback Violent Revolution they haven't changed too much in their style - the melodies just have more space in their compositions. As such, this should appeal to fans of their more recent work.
-Michael

Barbarian - Reek Of God
Dying Victims Productions

ATTENTION, you are about to listen to a Barbarian LP! Expect dirty, dark and raw blackened speed and thrash metal, full of blasphemy and fun riffs! It's a compact 36 minutes that will keep you entertained and bopping your head the entire time. The riffs are simple yet played expertly, the bass is so thick, with that old school dying victim production that makes every drum hit, every slap of the bass sound so real and authentic. Special mention goes to the fun and creative solos! Italy's finest primitive blackened speed and thrash band strikes again, for fans of everything old school with a good dose of darkness.
-Raphael

Eximperitus - Meritoriousness Of Equanimity
Willowtip

A meditative take on tech-death. Maybe it's the frequent and entrancing interludes, maybe it's the surprisingly organic and streamlined performance by Davide Billia, but something about this feels oddly…calming in a way that tech/brutal death generally doesn't. Like anything else that Willowtip puts out, this is an automatic listen for any fans of extreme progressive music.
-Nate

Hagetisse – To Wither Beneath Thy Radiance
Void Wanderer Productions

This entire review could simply contain a list of the many, many projects that Dutch savant Maurice de Jong has unleashed on the world, and anyone familiar with the formidably high quality of many of these acts would likely be persuaded to investigate Hagetisse further, purely on the basis of the man's track record. Although de Jong is primarily known for the terrifying black ambient of Gnaw Their Tongues, much of his most recent work has been rather more conventionally metallic, and Hagetisse is no exception. To Wither Beneath Thy Radiance sees de Jong in 90s black metal mode, and although the album demonstrates some symphonic touches, it is the dense, complex arrangements of Abigor or Obtained Enslavement that Hagetisse are most reminiscent of, as opposed to the more spacious majesty of Emperor of early Dimmu Borgir that modern symphonic bands more frequently use as touchpoints. The synths retain a subtle distance, each song driven by the sophisticated fury of layers of tremolo lines, and the frenzied jackhammer attack of the, presumably electronic, blasting drum battery, which reaches a Mardukian level of ferocity on the opening title track, and rarely drops below lightspeed from that point forward. Hagetisse are yet another project that sees this one-man record collection / Rogga Johansson rival turn his hand to a very specific extreme metal sub-genre, and once again, the results are unerringly high class.
-Benjamin

Invictus - Nocturnal Visions
Memento Mori / Me Saco un Ojo / Iron Fortress

Sometimes, all you need is the simple things in life, a meat and potatoes death metal album, cooked up by three talented Japanese musicians and voilà! With Invictus second record we get a healthy serving of riffs, balanced by great solos and that murky dark cave atmosphere. The bass tone is truly nasty; it's a constant low rumble that gives extra weight to everything but is frequently contrasted by a short and creative solo that brings a bit of melody to the song. This is three super talented musicians that bring a lot of technique to the playing, while never going to tech death territories. For the vocals, if you don't like a rather one note death growl, you might not enjoy it but overall, it doesn't really bother me, think of Frank Mullen from Suffocation. This is a fun and compact old school death metal album, with a modern production, that is sure to keep you warm and fill you up nicely for the cold and dark season.
-Raphael

METALBITE'S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE MONTH

Karloff - Revered By Death

10: Karloff - Revered By Death
Dying Victims Productions

Germany's dirty black metal punks are releasing their second album, Revered By Death, on Dying Victims. It's 30 minutes of to the point and satisfying black metal punk with plenty of memorable hooks, small flairs of extremity and a perfect production, sounding clear and yet, has that irresistible dirty punk quality, boosting its authentic quality! The only small complaint I have is the four minute atmospheric instrumental right in the middle, it affects the flow and always cuts the momentum of the album but other than that, it's a hell of a fun album, scratching that punk metal itch nicely.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.3/10

Ectovoid - In Unreality's Coffin

9: Ectovoid - In Unreality's Coffin
Everlasting Spew

Old-school death metal with members of Father Befouled, Metaphobic and Seraphic Entombment - are the same six guys trying to monopolize Everlasting Spew's roster or what?

This gives an immediate gut punch, which is refreshing in a style that often takes a few listens and careful digestion to properly grow on you. One thing that sets this apart (in a good way) is how polished this sounds - it's easy to use a grimy exterior to mask a lack of riffs, but Ectovoid have done the opposite, giving the gripping sense of melody more opportunities to stand out. It's still got a putrid, morbid bounce the same way that Autopsy does, but it's really…smooth. Clearly composed by seasoned veterans. The songwriting is carefully crafted, which is the undercurrent making everything impactful.Very surprised this is my first time hearing about this band, considering they've been active for 16 years.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.4/10

Deathraiser - Forged In Hatred

8: Deathraiser - Forged In Hatred
Xtreem Music

Now this is my favourite kind of thrash, Brazilians have something special that makes their particular brand of thrash extremely satisfying! This album is raw, fast, aggressive and with an impressive level of technicality and musicianship! Every riff sounds evil, with a touch of melody and the solos! Oh my god, if you like solos you'll be served. Each of them is well composed, each telling a different story while being amazingly fast. The drums sound sharp and huge, and even the bass takes its place sometimes. Vocally, Thiago spits out an angry scream that conveys the rage and urgency of the lyrics in a perfect way. Being thrash, they have that direct, "here's what's fucked up" quality: "Controlling all the leaders, There's no future Enslaving society Money traps", I guess everywhere in the world, It's more of the same… One line made me think of the orange amerikanischer Führer and his sect of red hat wearing followers: "Led to - a tragedy No excuses for whose spread the lies From the cradle of the ignorance To thousand lives sacrificed". So here you go, Brazilian thrash still reigns supreme as the best the genre has to offer, starting the year with a banger!
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

Denominate - Restoration

7: Denominate - Restoration
Dusktone

Brutal, complex, atmospheric, emotive, thought provoking are all appropriate ways to describe this album. The band expertly blends progressive complexity with a keen sense of melodicism and a rich atmosphere. The drumming performance is always dynamic, going from fast and hard-hitting double kick bass drum, a short blastbeat here and there but he can also play with such delicate fitness and plays with off-beat tempos. You will hear that Gojira is definitely an influence, especially on the song "The Cistern" where the Magma influence is palpable, but I also hear everything from Black Crown Initiate to Amorphis and Opeth, but always with that familiar Finish melodic element. If you are looking for a technical musical performance, without going full technical noodling say, a la Archspire and want something more laid back that also focuses on atmosphere and melody, Denominate is the perfect band for you!
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

Carrion Vael - Slay Utterly

6: Carrion Vael - Slay Utterly
Unique Leader

Any time these Indiana boys put out some fresh meat, you know I'm gonna be all over it. They are revving up and releasing music at a fairly solid pace - this came out just under two years after Cannibals Anonymous, but if anything, the breakneck writing speed only seems to have the band gelling as a unit. New drummer Matt Behner (Aethereus, Year of Desolation) is the perfect fit for the band's sound. I can appreciate the incredible skill of Kevin Paradis (the session drummer for the last album), but there's something to be said for having a drummer that plays live with you and has some insight into the writing process - and you can hear it.

Carrion Vael is doing everything they can to eschew the constant comparisons to the Black Dahlia Murder they must get constantly. There's subtle infusions of symphonic elements and clean singing and tastefully-placed breakdowns that flirt with deathcore but never quite take her home for the full nelson. Arobatic, Obscura/Inferi riffing and hyperfast typewriter kicks give a technical flourish, but remain grounded in a melodic death metal. Four albums in, it's evident that they are more comfortable in their style than ever, and the result is a blitz of catchy ass music that has enough skill to hang with modern contemporaries but still gives you a whiff of late 00s nostalgia.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

Wildhunt - Aletheia

5: Wildhunt - Aletheia
Jawbreaker Records

Austrian thrash, from a band with a somewhat mediocre name? With these omens, one could be forgiven for overlooking Wildhunt, but this would be a grave and self-defeating error indeed. Wildhunt specialise in the kind of thrash that seems to have been quietly omitted from the various comebacks that the sub-genre has made over the years. If they instead chose a path of crossover party-thrash, Sodom-aping black/thrash, or a Vektor-style tech overload, there might well be an obvious audience in waiting for Wildhunt, but their moderately technical melodic thrash with US power metal overtones is perhaps a more difficult proposition, but all the more enjoyable for the way that it stands out from the contemporary crowd. Across a wonderfully concise seven tracks, Wildhunt perfectly balance bangable Bay Area chuggery, labyrinthine duelling leads that wouldn't be out of place on Rust In Peace, and soaring clean vocals that bring shades of Eternal Champion and even Helloween. The outstanding closing track 'Sole Voyage' ends proceedings on a high note, eleven minutes of scything crunch, plus a bossa-nova break that really shouldn't work, but somehow, like Sabbath on 'Symptom Of The Universe' it is the wildcard element that brings the song to an altogether higher plane. Aletheia is a high-class metal album that could have been released in virtually any era, and from this listener, that is a high compliment indeed.
-Benjamin

Opening with a fantastic instrumental that slowly builds up and showcases the fantastic guitar work of singer Wolfgang Elwitschger and of Julian Malkmus! What truly makes this Austrian heavy thrash band stand out is the creative song writing and the insane levels of technical musicianship. The albums second and first full song, 'The Holy Pale', a song about Vlad the Impaler, will take you on an epic journey of flawless instrumentation and a bewitching vocal performance with plenty of grand harmonies. You will experience heavy riffs, a precise rhythm section and an over one-minute technical and extremely melodic solo. The album flows seamlessly, with each song telling epic tales of love and nightmare, until you reach the title track, which has the catchiest chorus of the entire album and then, Wildhunt decides to end on a high note, the 11 minutes and 30 seconds prog epic, 'Sole Voyage'! With a solo at the beginning, before any vocals, you know the band means business! The little Latin inspired instrumental works surprisingly well to cut the song in two halves, the second being particularly epic! Aletheia is an impressive work of art, from the first quiet acoustic notes to the grandiose closing movement, it will grab your attention and never let go. Special shout out to Lena Richter for the amazing cover art!
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.7/10

Megadeth - Megadeth

4: Megadeth - Megadeth
BLKIIBLK Records

It has finally come to an end with Megadave and his band. There aren't too many albums that came out in the last couple of years with this much buzz surrounding them, and it's certainly a love-it-or-hate-it affair. For me, it's the former - I was floored when I listened to it for the first time and it has held up on repeated spins. The songs really kick ass, even the slower ones like "Hey God" or "Another Bad Day". "Tipping Point" is a great guitar lesson. The lyrics may be not the best but everything else is surprisingly stellar. Also Dave's vocal performance is fine - he has sung worse. The only weaker track is "Ride The Lightning" where the vocals are really weak and the song sound quite sterile. But this must have been on purpose - like a friend of mine said, it would be great to see Dave's reaction when he realizes "Ride The Lightning" is the best track on Megadeth. Love it or leave it!
-Michael

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

The Ruins Of Beverast - Templeschlaf

3: The Ruins Of Beverast - Templeschlaf
Van Records

It doesn't seem like this album got a ton of press - but that could just be because the passion project of Alexander von Meilenwald is established enough that this doesn't need much of an extra promo push. The fans know what they're getting and probably pre-ordered this without hearing a note - it's rare that a band this multi-faceted has such a guaranteed quality standard. Especially a one-man band. But this is not your buddy's basement black metal project.

Templeschlaf leans less towards the broodic, gothic doom and more towards more standard black metal, but that's putting it way too concisely. There are still all the same elements we've come to expect from this band woven into an elegant tapestry - but this album feels more aggressive than the last couple. Perhaps von Meilenwald revisited some of his old Nagelfar records? Who knows.

One thing that The Ruins Of Beverast makes very evident: if you're in a one-man band, drums should be your primary instrument. After all, a band is only as strong as their drummer, and the rhythmic intricacies and additional textures are a big component of what sets this band apart from the scores of other extreme metal soloists. That and this ineffable atmosphere that is so unbelievably rare for music to capture - it feels corny to say, but von Meilenwald taps into a different dimension when creating that most of us wish we could access.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

Skulld - Abyss Calls To Abyss

2: Skulld - Abyss Calls To Abyss
Time to Kill Records

The call of the void, despair calls more despair, with the band's description: "Antifascist, feminist, occult death metal punk from Italy.", you now have my full attention! Is this just an interesting gimmick or is there a solid musical backbone to accompany it all? Spoiler alert, the answer is a resounding yes! They took a lot of different genres, death metal, punk, crust and hardcore and created something sounding both new and old school. This is the kind of album that works both as a full listen and as individual songs, everyone being strong enough to be a single! Every moment of the 34 minutes is memorable, from the super satisfying breakdowns of "The Blink", the tremolo and blast beat heavy "Wear The Night As A Velvet Cloack", the pure and raw feminine energy of "Mother Death" and the epic solo of "Sacred Fire" closing the album, at no point do they take their feet of the accelerator. Combining occultism and feminism, "magic as resistance, vengeance, and revolution"! Connection to nature, the ancestors, cyclical wisdom, spiritual practices and rituals, dance journeying, intuition, and altered sates of consciousness, all elements of shamanic old knowledge, to enact positive change, is a really fucking cool concept. "Each song delves deep into the essence of being, merging ancestral ritualism, female mythology, social critique, and archetypal symbolism into a single, cohesive vision" on top of a polished mix of genres, a homogenous and impactful musical piece, makes for an instant classic. Put that with an original oil painting by Roberto Toderico as a cover and voilà, the perfect record to release all your anger and at the same time, makes you ponder about the patriarchal structure of our society, truly inspiring stuff!
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

Exxûl – Sealed Into None

1: Exxûl – Sealed Into None
Productions TSO

It seems to happen with some regularity that this listener is turned onto a spectacular new band, only to discover that the band concerned is yet another project from the fertile mind of Phil Tougas. Chthe'ilist, Atramentus, Worm and Zeicrydeus have all caught my attention in recent years, and the latest in this increasingly impressive roster is Exxûl. One might wonder why Tougas doesn't simply house all of his ideas within a single incarnation – after all, fellow Canuck Devin Townsend mostly releases his output under his own name now, despite the eclectic nature of his music. It is, however, clear that Tougas meticulously ensures that each of his bands stands alone as a coherent entity, even if they effectively exist in the same thematic universe, with lyrical content that ties some of the bands together. Furthermore, each band exists as a love letter to a particular sub-genre, and the impact of this might be diluted if it was a single band moving itinerantly from one sound to another. After tackling funeral doom, Hellenic black metal and cavernous death metal, with Exxûl, Tougas embarks on surely his most outrageously obscure journey yet, landing on a combination of Candlemass-style doom and grandiloquent US power metal. Thomas Karam (or Stargazer, to give him his Exxûl name) from Noor does a staggering job on lead vocals, delivering a finely wrought performance somewhere between Messiah Marcolin and early Geoff Tate, and his virtuosity is matched at every step by Tougas's neo-classical lead guitar, with some utterly spellbinding legato runs lighting up 'Blighted Deity' and the epic closer 'The Screaming Tower' in particular. The whole album is perfectly judged, moving from lumbering epic doom to chugging Manowar / Doomsword passages with outstanding fluidity, and huge personality. If there is a criticism to be levelled at Exxûl, it is that it Tougas doesn't really synthesise his influences into something new, content to essentially pay tribute to metal as it once was. However, when it is done with this level of care and skill, producing a result as arcane and authentic as Exxûl, one has to conclude that it simply doesn't matter. Mercyful Fate next Phil?
-Benjamin

As if releasing one of the best albums of last year, the magnificent and completely unique work of art that is La Grande Hérésie and playing guitar on the new Worm record was not enough, Philippe Tougas decided to drop another record without notice, with a new band. It's a genre bending, once again, as is Phil's habit. This man can play any genre and any instrument, but he is, first and foremost, a guitarist. Exxûl's sound can be described as epic doom with a lot of power metal. This album is full of duality, going from slow doomy tempos to fast double kick drums and of course, plenty of flashy solos, which is Phil's speciality, to the delight of my ears and every metalhead that enjoys guitars, so probably like 99.9% of us. The album is 45 minutes long but goes by so fast, there's not a dull moment anywhere. Everything sounds incredible, production wise it's organic, crystal clear and rich in textures. Of course, Phil surrounded himself with la crème de la crème of musicians, on vocals, Thomas Karam brings his Candlemass type of epic doom vocals with incredible falsettos. The way he harmonises his powerful voice with Phil's technical and melodic solos is beyond satisfying! Rhythm section wise, Guyot Begin-Benoit's drum and Antoine Daigneault's bass play off each other and combine to give a very dynamic performance. François Bilodeau's ambient keyboards gives an irresistible gloomy atmosphere and adds a rich layer of melodies. And Phil, my god, is it a thing to talk about musical soulmates? From the atmospheric and truly disgusting tech death of Chthe'ilist, to the classical infused tech wizardry of First Fragment, passing by the everything metal of Zeicrydeus, his new gig in Worm and now, the epic Exxûl. I'm in love with everything this man touches! His solos are both technical and always with an exquisite melodic phrasing. This album sounds new and familiar; Phil's touch is everywhere and once again, he created pure magic. An epic doom record with power metal and even a touch of darkness that comes out in the form of a short blast beat here and a cold riff there. Talking about AOTY in January is silly but this album is that good.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 9.3/10

Thanks for stopping by! To celebrate this five-year birthday, dig into our archives: Here's all of our previous AOTM columns for the past 5 years. Happy hunting!

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