June's Top 10 Albums

 

June is now coming to an end, so let's get you abreast of new releases. This might help you, casual readers, with what you might have missed.  I am not doing little blurbs on them, just linking the reviews. This helps me organize my lists for the end of the year by listing the album's genre. This does not mean that these albums have been released this month, but it is a list of new or upcoming albums I have enjoyed the most. I have albums in my in-box that won't come out until August, so I am normally way ahead of the curve in this regard. They are ranked in order of how much I have listened to them. This month, leaned more on heavy stuff ranging from Nu-metal to Proggy Pop, so perhaps you will find your new favorite among them. Here are the Top 10 albums for June of 2026.

10- The Butthole Surfers-"After the Astronaut" 

Experimental Punk

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-butthole-surfers-after-astronaut.html

9-Lex Legion-"s/t" 

Dark Power Metal 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/06/lex-legion-st.html

8-Muse-"The WOW !. Signal"

Prog Pop

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/06/muse-wow-signal.html

7-Fuming Mouth- 'The Ringing Bell" 

Death Crust 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/06/fuming-mouth-ringing-bell.html

6-Balmora - "These Graven Halls" 

Metalcore

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/06/death-is-june-balmora-these-graven-halls.html

5-Immolation- "Descent:" 

Death Metal 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/06/death-is-june-immolation-descent.html

4-Crucifera-"  "Exostential" 

Goth

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

3-Deftones- "Eros" 

Nu-Metal 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/06/deftones-eros.html

2-The Secrecy -"Pins and Needles" 

Post-Punk

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

1-Converge - "the Hum of Hurt"

Hardcore 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/06/converge-hum-of-hurt.html

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Top 10 Extreme Metal Albums of 2026 ...so far

Extreme Metal is even more important as the Doomsday Clock races; time speeds up with 2026 at its midpoint. Extreme metal is anything too heavy for the other sub-genres, with an emphasis on crust and grind, but we also have a few blackened bands who are too heavy for the normal black metal list.   These lists serve as a decent snapshot of where the year is heading in terms of music. I have already received promos for albums dropping as far out as August in my inbox, so they are really going to need to bring it to compete with the top five albums on this list. No matter the genre,  darkness trumps speed when it comes to heaviness, so these bands reflect that sentiment. These albums provide a fitting soundtrack to the demise of the US.  I have included links to full reviews if you want to check these out, and with all that said, here are the top 10 Extreme Metal albums of 2026 so far. 

10-Nunslaughter-"Satanic Chaos Legions"

This American band is a staple of the extreme metal scene; they are an aggressive yet dynamic blend of black metal and death metal. The vocal rasps are really the only black metal element. As far as the satanic elements, they are pretty much just lyrical. I am not sensing they are darker than any other death metal band of this type, with Deicide and Archgoat being the unholy standards here. A song like "Jesus Fucking Dies" is fun, but on the thrash side of death metal. There is some tremolo-picked guitar in places that blur the lines a little here and there. They are very good at placing the vocals in the right places for maximum effect, as they are spit out as an accent to the faster guitar flowing under what they do.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/06/death-is-june-nunslaughter-satanic.html

9-Reverse-SUFFER & REMEMBER" 

This Los Angeles-based noise punk band gets things off to an interesting start with a dissonant clamour that still carries a great deal of atmosphere even amid its hazy attack. It's an intersting approach to crust punk that goes toward the blasting end ofthe spectrum 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/06/recvrse-suffer-remember.html

 

8-Harms-"Rebirth of the Cold"

This band from Finland plays a hyper-aggressive blend of metal and hardcore that is in-your-face when it wants to be, without forsaking melody. When they kick back into things after wandering into more atmospheric places, they kick back in with full-on anthemic gang vocals. Then you begin to hear the touches of black metal perhaps in their DNA, jsut from the geography. Granted, there is also a great deal of goth metal in Finland, but darker music seems to be the vibe. It is more aggressive in a hardcore sense than a death metal one, so perhaps atmospheric blackened hardcore might be your best category for these guys, which at this point, we are making this shit up as we go.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/02/black-metal-history-month-harms-rebirth.html

7-Anti-Sapien-"At The Mercy Of The Merciless"

Brooklyn-based ANTI-SAPIEN drops some filthy, crusty, death metal that carries the aggression of Deicide in its angry churn forward. They are capable of shredding when it is called for, but prefer staying locked into the locomotive charge. The kind of hyper-aggression that Nails blurs the genre lines with. When they slow down and lock into a chug, the results are powerful

 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/01/anti-sapien-at-mercy-of-merciless.html

6- World Peace- "For No Man Shall See Me and Live"

What this San Francisco-based band does it pretty interesting as it has groove to it.  But the songs stay true to grindcore and are clocking in at 30 seconds apiece, meaning they lock into these, and then it is over. . If you like your grindcore short and to the point, then this album is worth your time. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/06/world-peace-for-no-man-shall-see-me-and.html

5-Fistula-"Galaxies of Disappointment"

The joking is over on the opening track to Fistula's new album. They go for the throat with the momentum of death metal behind them. The barrage is a powerful sonic force that goes for heft over some of the songwriting smarts they have shown in the past, but it works for what it is. They continue to flex their raw sonic power

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/03/fistula-galaxies-of-disappointment.html

4-Balmora-"These Graven Halls"

Here is another album that blurs the lines between metalcore and death metal. I suspect these kinds of kids feel cooler by having a label for themselves that is not just death metal, since that has become, in some circles, like thinking of it as dad rock

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/06/death-is-june-balmora-these-graven-halls.html

3-Lair of the Minotaur-"I Hail I "

These bruisers are back with more hardcore grit to their attack. The vocals come across as being less growled and more of a burly command. The grooves are as dense as you might want them. There is almost a sludge weight. The aggression is not a full-speed-ahead charge but a massive grind of distraction chugged with malicious intent. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/03/lair-of-minotaur-i-hail-i.html

2-No/Mas -"No Peace"

On the more punk side of grind-core, NO/MAS are angry as fuck. They have a dialed-in guitar sound rather than just a raw outburst, and just because they play grind-core does not mean they have not refined their attack on their instruments. At times, even grooves slide into the riffs, which is an ear for detail,l considering that these songs clock in at two minutes more often than not. They are certainly influenced by Slayer in how some of the riffs are nuanced. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/01/nomas-no-peace.html

1-Portrayal of Guilt ="...Beginning of the End..."

 "We Are Always Alone" stands as a masterpiece against which this band's work is to be measured. Up to this point, they have not met that head-on, but played around with more extreme and experimental sounds at various genre crossroads in heavy music. Grindcore being one of the more frequent ones, hardcore is another more notable sonic flavor they have painted their compositions with. This album finds them expanding their arsenal to include a wider range of sounds, while tightening the songwriting to craft songs that are digestible for broader metal audiences without compromising their unsettling, confrontational style. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2026/04/portrayal-of-guilt-beginning-of-end.html

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Death is June - Balmora - "These Graven Halls"

Here is another album that blurs the lines between metal-core and death metal. I suspect these kinds of kids feel cooler by having a label for themselves that is not just death metal, since that has become, in some circles, like thinking of it as dad rock. The second song does have a more breakdown-style riff, which could be divisive among metal purists. But there is not a great deal of space between what they do and the Black Dahlia Murder. Though these guys are more melodic at times and might even care more about writing dynamic songs if we are judging them by the impressive "Ophelia."

"The Beautiful Writing " is faster and blasty in places with melancholic guitar harmonies racing around in some places.A lower death vocal counterbalances the higher snarl. A sung vocal refrain comes in, which might lean it more in the metalcore direction, though it feels like it's from the early 2000s. They throw some hooky riffs in for good measure. There is qa very technical element to what they do that feels like it should put them closer to At the Gates than the karate in the pit crowd.

Until the more symphonic passage of "Inheritance & Solitude," I thought it was still connected to "The Beautiful Writing," even though they do not let their songs sprawl out like that . There is one song later in the album that breaks the six-minute mark, but generally speaking, things are pretty concise, though at times experimental, yet always anchored in the heart of death metal that pulses from this album's sinister core. The more gurgled lows attached to what kids call the slam genre begin to surface here and there. What I like the most is that they are not afraid to break away from the pummelling to create melody and atmosphere, before taking off on a racing riff. 'Needles and Rags" drops this in one of the more unpredictable ways. 

"The Day You Died" has more of a bouncing hardcore cadance from the vocals, though the rest of the band is buzzing and blasting under it. The epic squeal of the guitar melodies is pretty metal. "Augustyne" is all over the place but somehow keeps it together. By the time we get to "Moonlit Hysteria' there is a more uniform quality cast over the songs, but they have left it varied for the bulk of the album. The six-minute Timor Mortis" is darker and one of the most memorable songs of the album. It finds them keeping things at a more deliberate pace. "NOV" closes the album with an odd turn as they go into a Ghostmane-like hip-hop feel, but run through a more hazzy lo-fi, which ends up in a shoegazey pop melody, that is not going to be for everyone and seems like a weird choice, but you can accuse them of playing it safe. I will round this up to a 9.5, as I appreciate the chances they take. 

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