26 for ’26: The Transcending Obscurity 2026 Label Sampler Platter
Find your rainbow.
Here are 26 words on 26 songs from the 2026 Transcending Obscurity sampler. Buy it so cats and dogs can receive care they need and deserve.
Endspace – “Sixth Transmission”
For a song that starts interdimensionally, it certainly ends apace. Kunal said things were going to be weird on this year’s sampler, and he ain’t wrong!
Veilburner – “Vitriolic Hiss”
Veilburner operates unrestrainedly. Everything song concludes, but it’s never foregone. “They say you should see paradise, and all I see is…” It would be uninterpretable, right?
Februus – “Measures of Escalation”
For all the din and racket of “Measures of Escalation,” it repeatedly locks into tasty grooves attended by layered, echoing vocals that keep things sufficiently bizarre.
Devenial Verdict – “Elysium”
Blessing of Despair was a huge hit around ToH in 2024, and “Elysium” surely means whatever comes next will be, too. And now with beatdown riffs?
Haxprocess – “The Divinity of the Self”
I still haven’t processed Beyond What Eyes Can See. Weirdly twisted Opeth with all sorts of 80s metal adornments in a much shorter package. I’m dissonated!
The Scalar Process – “Far from the Flesh”
It’s been five years since Coagulative Matter. The band’s particularly brutal side of proggy, techy death metal gives way to a synth-laced conclusion. I want more!
Viande – “Cercueil de vase”
Last year’s inclusion didn’t bring a new album, but hopefully “Cercueil de vase” means something forthcoming. Dark and dense but not impenetrable. Nearing horror’s stultifying limitlessness.
Ritual Fog – “Enraptured”
These slime-greeniacs from Memphis have a knack for 90s-inflused death metal. Ian Younkin’s vocals are still a standout, and the riffs still accumulate like an avalanche.
Ninth Realm – “Rituals in Thar’amath”
I unsheathed my mystical blade and just started blastin’! These Maryland mercenaries share traits with High Command and Foreseen but deathier. That final riff is nuts.
Defect Designer – “Repeated Aversive Stimuli Inducer”
A testament to the band’s craftsmanship, “Repeated Aversive Stimuli Inducer” shouldn’t be this catchy, but all its parts fit together and add up to something acrobatic.
Cutterred Flesh – “The Colour Out of Space”
Grooved-out Suffocation-inspired brutal death metal that bears the “deathcore” label with grace. Let the centrifugal intensity turn you into human protein foam for your Starbucks latte.
Chaos Motion – “Neurotic Contortion Abuse”
Gorgutsian, Pyrrhonic, Replicanted disso-tech the likes of which we haven’t heard since 2019. Bass strings flying about, freaked out scaling solos, turn-on-a-dime transitions. Writhing, gnarled, misshapen.
Dysgnostic – “The Black Sun”
Our first foray since 2022. “The Black Sun” channels Ulcerate in all its dreaded, suffocating atmospherics while also carrying along with it appropriately titanic, looming riffs.
Elitist – “Enforced Malnourishment”
Thomas Fischer, round two! Elitist grinds away in a spasm of blackened dissonance that brings to mind Cephalic Carnage combined with Saevus Finis. Get Piss Vortex’d.
Carbon Tomb – “A Hidden Creature”
The Danes will have their say. “A Hidden Creature” is punkier, but I’m not sure it’s any less grinding than Elitist. I’m starting to lose it.
Goreworm – “The Enthralling Grave”
First noted back in 2020 for bringing a serious intensity to neoclassical tech-death, Goreworm’s return should have fans of Archspire and Inferi arching in furious anticipation.
Dissect the Masses – “Flesh Mechanics”
Newcomers from Onalaska, Wisconsin! The logo, colour scheme, and beefy sound are conjuring up the discographies of New Standard Elite and Unique Leader. Pop the fleshtrunk.
Xenosis – “Prolapsed Twin Entombment”
Let’s run this back after last year’s “Altar of the Hound”: Spear has been all over this band for years. “We need a Graaaaavedigger.” Then mosh.
Hanging Garden – “Dreamwoven”
Who? What? Are you kidding me? Oh, this dude’s also in Noxis and Scumbag? I’m immediately racing back to 2024’s The God That Made Them Bow.
Decipher – “Return to Naught”
The lead single from forthcoming Thelema. Chilling black metal comparable to Yoth Iria and Dodsferd. BSG was right about the band’s fresh approach to the genre.
Apolaustic – “Shining Amidst the Lights”
Swaggering and melodic, graceful and charging. Who is this band? We’ll know and care by year’s end, about that there is no doubt. Grandiose black metal.
Verdun – “Funeral of the Cosmic”
A sludgier version of Mouth of an Architect? A gloomy hybrid of Cavity and Majority Rule? A metaphysical weightiness subtends this French outfit’s approach to doom.
Muerto – “Serpentine Echoes”
Post-black metal that feels indebted to a slew of weird 90s acts. Penny Smitten’s vocals are the creakingly perfect cover for the swirling, roiling madness underneath.
Besotten – “Mist of Decay”
“Rotten and forgotten” death/doom from Portland, Oregon, that could easily fit on Transylvanian Records or Everlasting Spew. Low ‘n slow for the chugs ‘n slugs crowd.
Abyssal Rift – “The Enlightenment (There Was Never Will)”
Charred bones and warped flesh in a cavernous maw of delirium. Fittingly, these Ohioans released their first record on Sentient Ruin. A different kind of death/doom.
Death Obvious – “Sipirja”
Like Hexrot, Death Obvious released an album on TO just last year, and, also like Hexrot, play a mind-shifting blend of black/death/doom that unsettles the soul.
The Label Sampler is out now.
Throw some duckets their way.
2026 is already bad,
but Transcending Obscurity is good.
