Happy Friday! It feels like Autumn is well and truly here now (in the UK, at least) and with it an insanely stacked remainder of 2025 as we get into the last push for releases and tours. Even with that in mind, we’re also starting to see 2026’s release calendar fill in, as new albums are being announced seemingly daily.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. First, the results of last week’s vote! It was one hell of a tight race for top spot, with mega Poppy/Amy Lee/Courtney LaPlante collab taking a healthy third place but left far behind by our top two competitors. It was a hard race between The Yagas and Lord Of The Lost, but ultimately the Germans won out with their Eurovision collab Raveyard, taking top spot.
As ever, we’ve got a diverse selection for you to dive into this week, ranging from emerging talent like Urne, Mallvora and Amira Elfeky to veterans like Testament, Limp Bizkit and Mudvayne. Don’t forget to cast your vote in the poll below – and have a fantastic weekend. Happy listening!
Urne – Be Not Dismayed
With their first two albums, Urne proved they were one of metal’s most exciting new underground bands. Be Not Dismayed doesn’t lose that momentum. After doubling down on their heaviest elements with 2023’s A Feast On Sorrow, the London-based band have seemingly rediscovered their groove and classical heavy metal leanings for new album Setting Fire To The Sky, striking a balance between pummelling heft and epic, soaring lead guitars that feels utterly thrilling. There’s a good while to wait for the new album – January 30, 2026 – but the band are also on tour with Orange Goblin later this year, making it the perfect tour for fans of massive, unstoppable riffs.
Testament – Shadow People
More riffs, you say? Fourteen albums and over 40 years in, and Testament are still delivering the goods. Shadow People comes from next month’s Para Bellum – due October 10 – and finds the Bay Area legends stomping forth with dogged determination, easing off the accelerator in favour of something that’ll give you one hell of a sore neck as a mid-pace headbanger.
Beyond The Black – The Art Of Being Alone (ft. Lord Of The Lost)
Beyond The Black temper their goth-tinged symphonic metal with the brooding baritone of Lord Of The Lost vocalist Chris Harms on new single The Art Of Being Alone. Harms and Jennifer Haben’s voices bounce off each other incredibly well and the interplay lends a sense of drama and grandeur befitting BTB’s rising star status. With new album Break The Silence coming on January 9th 2026, and a UK tour kicking off just a week later, it’s looking likely that Beyond The Black will hit the ground running next year.
Sabaton – Crossing The Rubicon (ft. Nothing More)
Even in a career that’s seen them team up with Babymetal and Apocalyptica, a Sabaton collab with radio rockers Nothing More feels pretty surprising. It doesn’t divert attention from the Swedes’ brand of thumping heavy metal however, Crossing The Rubicon still powered by a fist-pumping riff and gargantuan vocal that is perfectly complemented by the addition of Nothing More’s Johnny Hawkins. It results in something fit for the arenas the power metallers now play, triumphant and building plenty of excitement for the arrival of new album Legends on October 17.
Limp Bizkit – Making Love To Morgan Wallen
Past experiences say it’s best not to count your chickens when it comes to new Limp Bizkit albums, new singles or no. But even if Making Love To Morgan Wallen isn’t the first single from their upcoming seventh album, its a primo slice of old school nu metal, all chugging riffs and bizarre Durst narratives with a big ol’ hook at its heart.
RinRin – Killher
There’s a real playful menace to the thrumming electronica of RinRin’s new single Killher. Swinging from buoyant alt. metal choruses to glass-in-the-throat screams, the track is typical of the Australia-based artist’s disregard for genre, sprinkling bits of hyperpop into the mix to create something genuinely fascinating. Taken from her debut album The Nut House, out today, it’s definitely one to check out if you’ve been enraptured by the likes of Poppy or Spiritbox in recent years.
Health – Ordinary Loss
Few bands tread the balance between dystopian dread and dancefloor-ready excitability than Health. The LA industrial metallers are back with new album Conflict DLC due on December 11. Lead single Ordinary Loss comes on like a stampede in a subterranean Berlin basement club, pulsing synths giving way to hard, thundering beats that bypass the brain to get straight to your nerve endings and make you want to headbang, shake your ass and generally move like a manaic.
Love Is Noise – Everyone Bleeds
Having released their debut album To Live In A Different Way back in February, you’d think Love Is Noise might be resting on their laurels. Clearly, the band had other plans. Everyone Bleeds picks up the 90s/turn of the millennium nostalgia of their debut and pushes it in a heavier direction, pushing just a bit further out from the Deftones comparisons they earned previously. Those elements are still there of course, but there’s also a distinct character that is entirely Love Is Noise’s own, suggesting exciting developments for where they could go next. In the meantime, they’ll be on tour with Loathe in December – nu metal revival nirvana if ever we’ve seen it.
Fit For An Autopsy – It Comes For You
Hyperactive, high-intensity extreme metal, Fit For An Autopsy’s It Comes For You is very in keeping for a band who’ve made their name producing uncompromising, thrilling nastiness. Released ahead of the band’s tour with Killswitch Engage in Europe and the UK which kicks off in a couple of weeks, it’s yet more delightful sonic acrobatshittery and a nice top-up after last year’s The Nothing That Is.
Mudvayne – Sticks And Stones
Typical: you wait 16 years for a new Mudvayne single and two arrive within weeks. Not that we’re complaining, of course. Arriving right as the band kick off their L.D. 50 anniversary tour in the US, the new single definitely has shades of Mudvayne’s classic sound, making great use of Chad Gray’s versatile vocal as he switches between smooth cleans and ferocious snarls against a bedrock of chugging low-end. New album in 2026? We’re past due…
Mallavora – Smile
Epic, furious and ferocious, Smile is a perfect introduction if you’ve not already discovered rising British band Mallavora. An explosive track exploring the frustration of people with disabilities when faced with discrimination, there’s a careful balance between extreme metal bluster and alt metal anthemia, the band even folding in some distinct Middle Eastern style melodies as reference to vocalist Jessica Douek’s Jewish Middle Eastern roots. Keep your eyes out for this lot, as this sounds massive.
![Mallavora - Smile [Official Music Video] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/NaWNvlwdqck/maxresdefault.jpg)
Amira Elfeky – Hold Onto Me
A rising alt metal star, Amira Elfeky has had a busy year. First popping up as a guest on Architects‘ new album The Sky, The Earth & All Between, Elfeky then released her own EP Surrender in March before making her UK live debut at both Download Festival and a sold-out London show. Clearly itching to do more, she’s now back with raging new single Hold Onto Me, a track that skitters between thumping nu metal riffs, metalcore breakdowns and radio-friendly choruses that’ll surely help solidy her status as one of alt. metal’s most vibrant new acts.
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