Coilguns : "Everything We Love, We Destroy"

This might be the band's 5th album, but it is my first time giving them a shot . They strike me as a punk band with broader depth of 90s indie rock influences, with the Pixies being the most prominent. It is mixed by Tom Dlagety, who has worked with the Pixies, so this choice was not accidental. I am aware they have a hardcore past, so that explains some of the more emotionally explosive dynamics. There is also a darker Murder City Devils type vibe, though I am not getting the same whiskey-soaked suicidal vibe. "Peace Trader" has a moodier almsot Dinosaur Jr. tinge to it. Perhaps they self-identify as noise-rock, but I would say they are not as unhinged, more like an aggressive Modest Mouse. The fact is highlighted in this song. 

"Repliation Crisis" has a burly bass line and a big guitar riff for the vocals to collide with. It's also nuanced and makes the most of the vocal melodies that are draped around it rather than having the vocals just be obligatory howling. Not to say they are not capable of outbursts it is just a dynamic color rather than being the sole narrative. This was sent to me by Ghost Cult Magazine, so I think they understand that vocals are important to me, and if they are an afterthought, it is going to make me less than enthusiastic.  "Platform Decay' is both tense and anthemic at the same time. The vocals are metaphoric politcal nonsense, but come across as just word soup being puked from an overexcited stomach. 

"Punisher Disclaimer" is more of a frantic punk song. But it does not play to their true strengths. "Days Before the War" is more of a strummed intelude than a complete thought of a song. "Teach Ourselves" finds the vocals pulling the weight to give the song the needed dynamics to make it more memorable than just yelling. "Carbon Magic" is more angular , and less focused. The last tow songs show you how the Pixies might sound as a hardcore band, though the second to las is more screamo. This brings them closer to the status quo of screamo than where they started, which was more unique, but for what this is, it works. I will give it a 9, as the melody it does offer makes it worthwhile. Out November 8th on Humus Records.

Hatebreed : "Fatal Paradox"

 

The band's 9th album, and they are now full circle back to what hardcore is, which is something different than when they started in 94. It feels more like thrash here, and "The Carrion Choir" makes this more noticeable despite the groove of the more breakdown-like riff. Jasta's voice has lowered with age and is pretty one-dimensional. They could have spiced it up more in post-production. They do have a huge guitar sound. The previous albums I've heard by these guys scored a 7 and an 8, with the 2020 being the higher-scoring of the two. The reason for this can be heard in the boring riff driving "Decisions Become Destinies," though not so much that I am totally bored with it. Thankfully, all these songs are compact and sit around the three-minute mark. 

The boredom does begin to itch until midway into "Total Invincible" . The riffs are kinda Slayer-like, so not a total waste just the one-dimensional vocals are wearing on me. The title track is powered by a more deliberate riff andd the vocals carry more of a Biohazard-like cadence. It has the hookiest chorus yet."Still a Threat" is where things begin to blur and sound the same; I knew the moment was coming, and it guess it was delayed more than some of their albums. Then John Tardy helps them out with "Sacrifice Season". Obituary is clearly the better band; it felt like he was dumbing it down. 

"Truth is Lion" is more Slayer-like. I have not really been paying attention to the lyrics up to this point; I am sure it's macho-socio-mish-mash. "Make the Demons Obey" finds them pulling out every trope in the kitchen sink. "None to Save" has an effective refrain that helps the song find its footing. "Poison Planet" finds them trying to be a hardcore punk bandd again, and it does not work that well; it feels like going through the motions. I will give this album an 8.5, putting it above the others I have reviewed, but not aggressive enough to measure up to the hardcore of today.But it sounds good for what it is.

Gothtober-The Top 10 Goth Albums of 2026

It's time to bleed Halloween; that is what goth is about, not Instagram fashion trends. It's the music that matters, so we are going to look at the best albums of the year.  If this seems premature,  record labels have already sent me most of what this year has to offer. After I sort through sorting through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I use those lists to compile the top 10 albums of the year.

 2025  was marginally better than the previous year, though, given the current climate of the world, we are progressing on a downward spiral, making dark music more important as a soundtrack for this.  The very fact that these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album; there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. 

After all, we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day, what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, and you look forward to listening to it again. Perhaps you can find your next favorite on this list, and I have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out the audio on these guys. Anyway, here are the top 10 Goth albums of 2026.

10-Shadowlands-"004" 

Haunting dark wave, that works with the required sounds of the genre without sounding like a stale tribute act. The choice of effects draping the atmosphere works in their favor to help solidify their identity. The Sabin sisters get props for not trying to be Siouxsie Sioux, another key element. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/02/shadowlands-004.html

9-Ductape-"Fadedflowers"

Here is a French goth band that is getting it right. Not dramatically removed from the Siouxsie school of Batcaving, they have some 80s new wave sounds in the mix that help give them their own sound that is relevant in 2026. Bands like this are why gatekeeping is important it is not about shunning other bands but making sure awesome bands like this find their right audience. If you don't get that sentence, then stop reading now.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/10/gothtober-ductape-faded-flowers.html

8-Bleached Cross- "Wrath" 

At times, this album carries an industrial feel with sung vocals that drift behind grim sonics. The bass lines carry things into a synth-laced dungeon of sorrow. The sung vocals deviate from your typical sullen post-punk tropes and have more of a 90s industrial rock feel, with more angst to them and hyper-emotional delivery. It's emotional to the point of being emo,

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/10/gothtober-bleached-cross-wrath.html

7-Crucifera- "Exostential" 

7-Crucifera- "Exostential" 

The creative force behind this project is Danielle Astraea, who combatted the problem that the vast majority of new dark wave runs into by giving the music some sonic rock balls. In doing so, she invokes the spirit of 90s electro-tinged alternative and puts her in a similar musical zip code as artists like Kidney Thieves and Snake River Conspiracy, though darker than the latter. But wait, that is not the best part; she actually uses her voice more like an instrument to color the songs, rather than try to emulate pop vocal hooks, yet proves herself capable of drawing you in. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/06/crucifera-era-exostential.html

6-Crippled Black Phoenix-"Sceaduhelm"

I have enjoyed watching this band descend further into darkness with each album. W. There is an emotional punk tugging against the post-punk tension, with the shadows haunting the atmosphere.An impressive display of refined and dynamic songwriting, and it is likely the band's best album yet, as it feels the most focused

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/01/crippled-black-phoenix-sceaduhelm.html

5-Bestial Mouths -"Dead Lines" 

When it comes to post-90s goth artists, these guys are one of my favorites. They have appeared on both our yearly Top 10 Industrial Albums and 10 Top 10 Goth albums lists, always scoring in the top 5. This album seems to lean more in the darkwave direction, with Lynette's vocals creating lush, evocative melodies that flow over the sometimes more apocalyptic crunch of the beats . I can hear where this might be mistaken for industrial, but it's just aggressive darkwave. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/07/bestial-mouths-dead-lines.html

4-Marilyn Manson-One Assassination Under God pt2

His 13th album and the fourth to be produced by Tyler Bates, with whom he has a pretty decent track record thus far. This album feels darker than Part One. Maybe it's the clean car smell of new songs, but I think this album edges out the previous one in terms of vocals and songwriting. He continues to refine what he does without dialing it in. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/08/marilyn-manson-one-assassination-under.html

3-LOR3L3I- "Peace By Proxy" 

Heike Langhans from Draconian spearheads this atmospheric darkwave project. The darkness lurks under the surface at first listen; her ethereal voice just glides over synths, but holds a great deal of melancholy. Her melodies are well crafted and arranged.If you like a more melancholy whimsy to your ethereal darkwave, you need to hear this album; if you like great-sounding albums with beautiful voices perfectly captured, you need to listen to this album.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/10/gothtober-lor3l3i-peace-by-proxy.html

2-Boy Harsher-"GET MEAN" 

The breakup was what they needed to get inspired. It's not as dark or brooding as their previous work, but they had kinda taken that as far as it could go, as the vocals were beginning to feel one-dimensional. This change helped her singing and finds the songwriting more melodic and intersting, with hooks that bring you back for more in the way their earlier work did not. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/09/boy-harsher-get-mean.html

1-Theodor Bastard-"▽"

Russian electronic wizards continue to blend world music into their mix of sounds. They have said they shifted into a darker direction as the world is darker. This album is catchy with aching vocals. Moody andd dynamic, woven with complex sounds and one great song after another. It throbs with an authentic longing and considering their homeland it makes sense; it also makes for perhaps the year's best album. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/10/gothtober-theodor-bastard.html

pst531

Walls of Jericho : "System Error: Humanity"

 

These guys are legit I saw them playing a college club in 99 with Buried Alive and Indescision , that they rocked it then. Women in hardcore bands were more of a rarity then. Female-fronted hardcore bands of today would be foolish to ignore the impact this band had on the genre. Now the importance of who they are is out of the way; we can focus on whether they're still writing solid songs. The opening trakc is pretty kicking, but how consistent are they. How do they fend off the need to senselessly thrash at you?What they do on "Beginning" works, but a whole album of this will not. They need to lean into groove to compensate for the one dimensional nature of the vocals. 

There are plenty of Slayer-inspired bands, so Slayer has influenced hardcore through the bands they influenced as well. They pour on more anger-fuelled thrash on "the Flame" that finds more of the punk side of the genre creeping in. The anthemic chant of vocals and dive bomb chaos of the solo give it more energy. Gang vocals bring things to a rousing, fist-pumping. " The Ascent" is marginally more deliberate, but this was really all they needed to do in order to keep things intersting. "Broken Mouths Can't Speak". Features Randy Blythe lending his voice to things. His voice just kind of blends in as an undertone. It gets the job done but does not bring anything new to the table.

"Untouchable" is both focused and aggressive to be bring more power to the groove. They have just the kind of anger you are in the mood for if you watch the news. "Rise" races off at more of a rapid thumping. Candance is more convincing than 60 percent of her peers. Some are crushing out there; they have come to the head of the pack in the past 27 years, making this a little more middle of the road but still effective."Agency" finds the no kings she is ranting about to just be the window dressing for the chugs."Unchained" feels more like a breakdown made into a song, but still manages to work.

They keep hammering at you on "the End Before"; this album is making me wonder if I should listen to the new Hatebreed after this or do I need to let my ears air out some. They are packing a bunch of songs into this one. Guy from the Red Chord joins them for "Humanity"; the two screamers have such a similar vocal style that it is almost redundant. "Borrowed Ground" his in a furious blur that could use more space and nuance. The chugs begin to run together by the time you get to "Last Judgement," but they find the nuance the previous song needed and prove me right."Brighter Fires" finds her daughter Patsy lending her singing voice. Then they clsoe the album with a more in-your-face goodbye. There is a pit-churning riff that will induce all kinds of karate kicking. I will give this a 9, as it might not do anything new, but shows they can still do what they are best at.

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Malhavoc : "the Masquerade's Death"

 

An Edgar Allan Poe-themed thrash album with industrial leanings makes this a darker version of Angkor Wat. The vocals sit way back in the mix and are on the nastier, snarled side of things. The challenge for them is to not let the tempo run away from them as the more deliberate-paced riffs serve best for the weird atmosphere they like to slather everything in. The other sticking point for this album is that the songs are way to long the opening track is 14 minutes, and thrash is not a genre where this plays to their favor, as they are not Metallica. Even with the samples keeping the thematic narrative going, it still finds the thing dragging a little. Old White Zombie might be a better point of comparison, but the vocals play an even more obligatory role.  

Thankfully, the second song stays under the four-minute mark.   It's a way better song, as it does not hang on the verse riff for too long."The Fact" is almost 11 minutes long. The riff is catchier than some of the previous songs; it's a very boomy, bass-heavy mix on this album, which creates some sonic murkiness that gives them their own personality rather than jsut trying to recreate a sound from the late 80s. There are moments that bring Coroner to mind. It feels like by the time we get to "the Harrow" the Edgar Allen Poe theme has musically rifted away, though there are still some samples running in the distance. The vocals are mixed so far into the guitar that their croak is almost not audible. To their credit, it gets darker as it progresses. 

The collision of sounds works really well on "Through the Cruel Light". It accelerates into a more as it progresses. It takes almist three minutes for distant noise, five nad a half minutes before it does something with" Distant Noize ". I will give this album an 8.5; the vocal coming forward in the mix and getting some love in post-production would have helped in the end. Production would have elevated this one to the next level, but it is fun for what it is. 

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Top 10 Post-Punk Albums of 2026

 It's that time of year again. It may seem early to begin sorting through the year's best post-punk albums, but record labels have already sent me most of what this year has to offer. After sorting through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I use those lists to compile the top 10 albums of the year. In 2026,  marginally better than the previous year, though given the current climate of the world, we are progressing on a downward spiral, making dark music more important as a soundtrack for this.   As far as 2026 goes for post-punk, there were strong albums, especially those in the top 5, though the influx of new material from the genre is beginning to slow.

  The very fact that these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album; there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all, we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day, what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, and you look forward to listening to it again. You might find your next favorite album on this list, and I have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out the audio on these albums. Anyway, here are the top 10 post-punk albums of 2026.

10--Horror Vacui -"Shadows Sanctuary" 

I appreciate their dark take on punk that flirts with deathrock. They move further in that direction on this album. The vocals are more muted and more of an angular groove forming rather than just bashing out the chords, with some reverb lacing the guitar tone, Their singer has improved allowing their soundd as a whole to click into place for me. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/08/horror-vacui-shadows-sanctuary.html

9-Dog Violet -"Wilting" 

For a band with such momentum from internet hype, they flew low under the radar when this album dropped. This British band plays a melancholic take on dreary post-punk that carries an organic elegance in its sense of longing. . Their strength lies in the fact that they are actually playing instruments that are plugged in and do not have too much studio trickery to help them out. There are plenty of witchy vibes, even if they are not inspriing you to smoke a clove cigarette.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/10/gothtober-dogviolet-wilting.html

8-Mouth Ulcers-"Silent Pictures"

The band continues to improve with each release, which is impressive for the second release of the year; they are on the grind , adding more textures and not letting the dull vocals be a factor, since I had more sound to choose from.If you like post-punk, it is worth your time.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/07/mouth-ulcers-silent-pictures.html

7- Deeper Graves _"Pull Me Toward the Dark" 

The third album from  Jeff Wilson's darker, more dark wave-leaning project since. Where Chrome Waves has gradually drifted in a darker, more post-punk direction, this album bridges the gap where darkness becomes heavy. In some ways, it is closer to what a band like Cold Cave does, which is a fair comparison as it is forward-thinking rather than just paying homage to the 80s.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/01/deeper-graves-pull-me-toward-dark.html

6-Wailin Storms -" the Arsonist"

This project has improved over the past decade. Each album has been a little more impressive as it has morphed from a noisy cow-punk band to something more focused and serving songs, rather than working on a sound. I would not call it goth, but it is dark enough to appeal to fans of post-punk who work more of the kind of brooding summoned here

.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/04/wailin-storms-arsonist.html

wailin

The Canadian band returns with a new collection of moody bangers. Even for all its Cure worship and ballads halting the momentum, it sounds great, and there is a depth to the melodies that make you a believer in the moping going down here. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/03/traitrs-possessor.html

4- Astari Nite- "Medications in Bloom" 

The Miami-based goth project continues their journey away from their death rock beginnings into somewhere new yet not far removed from the more new wave sound they expanded upon with  2024's "Resolution of Happiness.."I like that overall the mood is darker and more melancholy than the previous album. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/05/astari-nite-medications-in-bloom.html

3-Actors - "Our Love Will Live Forever" 

This Canadian band was poised to be one of the biggest goth-adjacent acts of 2026 as they have been top-billed at many festivals already.  times around, things work off a bigger throb that carries the weight of synthwave and festival EDM; this is balanced out by glimpses back into their familiar style of post-punk as the dance groove intensifies to make for a fun listen.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/09/actors-our-love-will-live-forever.html

2-The Secrecy -"Pins &Needles" 

Part of the magic at work here is thanks to the ever-prolific Jeff Wilson from Chrome Waves, who is no stranger to this sort of thing and keeps reinventing this sound. This incredible album features very nuanced vocals and never stoops to imitating Joy Division. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-secrecy-pins-and-needles.html

1-Twilight Sad- "IT'S THE LONG GOODBYE"

 

Using pain as the inspiration is the esscence of what music should be about, and they have shown with this album the willingness to bare their souls in an honest manner rather than dressing it up in melodrama; but to extract a powerfully emotive statement like this that is catchy and dynamic makes for the unbeatable album of this genre. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-twilight-sad-its-long-goodbye.html

pst428

Gothtober- Dismantled : "Endless"

 Gary Zon's electronic project has been in motion for 26 years now. It is clear he has mastered making the sounds that he does. They fall between the genre lines. There is a pulse that you could dance to on goth night, but it is not as aggressive as industrial. The breathy vocals on the first actual song give it a darker feel, and some of the melodrama of darkwave. I could also hear this being thought of as future pop, as it's not unlike what Gary Numan does to some extent. The second song 'Cloned," has a more poppy feel in the refined cruise control of the beat and how the vocals are produced. 

The vocals are actually one of this album's strengths, as they are not an afterthought, but arranged and produced with a great ear for detail. While they do adhere to the mainstream son format, they are used almost more like another instrument than to make the choruses super anthemic, which can be cheesy. "Poison" is atmospheric, but still finds its groove amid the space-age ambiance. "Wired For War" seems like it would be more aggressive than it is, and it is more aggressive than the previous song, thus working within the parameters of this brand.  More like the more modern era of Nine Inch Nails, where they abandoned guitars. 

They fall back to the more focused throb of "Nano Cloud Warning". The vocals stay in this hushed, almost purring, with a whispered tension that obviously is shooting for more of a horny vampire demographic.'Zero"works off a middle-of-the-road thump that is catchy enough to justify the abundance of ambiance it is cloaked in. The title track also has its share of dystopian sonic trapping and benefits from a deliberate beat and melancholy synths. But it also never develops into a song. "Mirror's Edge" compensates for this. It has a great groove and vocals that complement it. DJs take note: a more club-ready beat powers 'Frozen". This compensates for the vocals being so low in the mix. 

"The Fires Out West" features one of the album's most intersting vocal performances, even if they sit back into the synths. The last song is stripped down with a more vulnerable vocal performance. It works for what it is . Overall, I think this album sounds great and is really well done. I will give it a 9.5. Out November 20th on Metropolis Records 

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