This Toilet Tuesday (5/19/26)
O Flame-Touched Rim, O Shining Seat, vanish all chill from the rumps ov Thy flock. This week, we’ve got a sanguine snake, awful thrash portmanteaus (as you would assume), and eelcore. My, my, what a shallow Bowl in which to frolic; I suggest you take your time, let the waters warm your toes, and let us know what we missed below.
Solipsism – Pedagogy for the Existentially Exhausted (Sun & Moon Records) [Post-Black]
It is me; I am the existentially exhausted. As I press play, ready to learn I still don’t enjoy most long-form black metal, I’m instead struck by the need to stop being such a negative Nergal. Slovakia’s Solipsism is a new name to me, but their mix of d-beat punk, propulsive meloblack (akin to Vanum and their ilk) and post-metal’s gossamer tones has me eating crow. From “K pádom a vstaniam”‘s winding tremolos and staccato punk break to “On Facing Outwards”‘s aching blackgaze (and accompanying DSBM wails), there is plenty of texture to ensure the record doesn’t slide over listeners without finding purchase. Many blackened projects could stand to learn from this pedagogy; I’m excited to receive the whole syllabus on Friday! -Roldy
Abandon Agony – Endbringer (Independent) [Melodeath]
Acidez – La ley de la calle (Independent) [Thrash / Hardcore Punk]
Akiavel – ScelestVs (Independent) [Melodeath]
Anna Fiori – Metztli (Independent) [Symphonic Gothic Metal]
Armored Saint – Emotion Factory Reset (Metal Blade Records) [Heavy Metal]
As the Sun Falls – Songs from the Veil (Theogonia Records) [Melodeath]
Barren Canyon – A Virulent Steam (Avantgarde Music) [Atmoblack]
Blindead 23 – Deuterium (Peaceville Records) [Prog Death / Post-Metal]
Blood Prophecy – Road to Hero (Independent) [Melodeath]
Blood Python – Voidseeker (Independent) [Heavy Metal]
Blossom Death – Spirit (The Circle Music) [Doom / Gothic Metal]
Burial Clouds – Burn Holy (Independent) [Doom / Post-Metal]
Corrossive – Inmortuae (Independent) [Death]
Crimson Day – Dark Dimension (WormHoleDeath) [Heavy Metal]
Crux Ex – Wickedness and Violence (Independent) [Black]
Dark Millennium – Come (Massacre Records) [Prog Death/Doom]
Deathstorm – Cascophonies (Dying Victims Productions) [Deathrash]
Deliverance – The Voyager Golden Banquet (Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions) [Blackened Sludge]
Desecresy – The Secret of Death (Xtreem Music) [Death]
Dimmu Borgir – Grand Serpent Rising (Nuclear Blast Records) [Symphonic Black]
Doom’s Day – A Church for the Damned (Independent) [Doom / Punk / Heavy Metal]
Downfall of Nur – And the Firmament Will Burn to Quench the Pain of This Earth (Avantgarde Music) [Atmoblack / Folk Metal]
Ecotage – Redemption (Bound by Modern Age Records) [Metalcore]
Elvenking – Rites of Disclosure (Reaper Entertainment) [Power / Folk Metal]
Embrace of Souls – The Battle of the Dead (Rockshots Records) [Symphonic Power]
Escaping Aghartha – Lurkers of Languid Waters (Independent) [Blackened Doom]
Goat the Head – Death by Default (Crispin Glover Records) [Death]
Harboured – We’re Only the Love That We Lead (Independent) [Atmoblack / Post-Metal]
Heaven Is Sleeping – Heaven Is Sleeping (Independent) [Sludge / Stoner Doom]
Hellevate – Killicon Valley (Independent) [Thrash]
Hexenaltar – Descending Curse (Godz ov War Productions) [Blackened Death]
Hourswill – Ensemble (Ethereal Sound Works) [Prog Metal]
Infestation – Rituals Beneath the Crimson Sun (Independent) [Slam / Brutal Death]
Keops – Bitter Story for Humanity (SPV GmbH) [Heavy Metal]
Lore – Psychotic Trance of the Black Nights (Death Prayer Records) [Atmoblack]
Maliciouz – Sympathypnotic Intercession (Independent) [Doom]
Moonlight Haze – Interstellar Madness (Scarlet Records) [Symphonic Power]
Mécréant – Déchéance (Independent) [Black]
Necrotesque – Et Mortui Resurgent (Independent) [Death]
Noituma – Yhdeksän sairautta (Independent) [Black / Folk Metal]
Northborn – S/T (Art Gates Records) [Symphonic Death]
Opera IX – Veneficium (Edged Circle Productions) [Symphonic Black]
Sandstorm – Dungeon of Death (Dying Victims Productions) [Heavy Metal / Hard Rock]
Shewolff – We’re All Gonna Fukkin’ Die (Dying Victims Productions) [Black / Hardcore Punk]
Soulers – Real-Life Crisis (Independent) [Doom / Drone]
Vision Divine – A Clockwork Reverie (Scarlet Records) [Prog/Power]
Witching Hour – Descending… Where Time Has Ceased to Exist (Dying Victims Productions) [Blackthrash / Heavy Metal]
