Quick-fire Roundup - March 2026

Short reviews for some of our favorite releases of the past month.

gatekeep!, Hugh Puddle, A.R.O., and 4 others

Apr 15, 2026

Quick-fire Roundup is our chance to highlight a few of the albums we’ve been digging from the past month that we may not have had the time or energy to pump out full essays for. These releases nevertheless deserve a gold star and a spot on the podium.

Neurosis - An Undying Love For A Burning World
63:30 // March 20th, 2026 // Neurot Recordings

Neurosis were about the last band in the world I expected to drop what for many – both in and out of metal – has been the event album of the month. Back in 2022, the remaining members of the legendary sludge act were widely praised for punctiliously expelling an abusive member as soon as his behaviour came to light (and levelling with their audience as soon as they were able), but I doubt I was alone in assuming that said member had been so central to the band that their future career was essentially shuttered from that point. So much for assumptions! This time last year, we would doubtless have thrown accusations of dated, fantastical stare-clutching at the thought of revitalised Neurosis buoyed by new member Aaron Turner (of ISIS celebrity and Sumac notoriety), but there we are: some fantasies are clearly worth a little conviction.

However, the new lineup alone does not account for the Event, even if Turner does prove an impeccable complement to Steve Von Til as one of the band’s trademark dual vocalist/guitarist figureheads (with the long-absent bellow of bassist Dave Edwardson I hear giving them both occasional pause for breath). Neurosis have a unique claim on the epithet force of nature, in part for force alone, and in part for the bristling, straining, groaning, churning vitality that they bring to atmospheres that could just have easily been stoney and unyielding. Their unmistakable mix of humanity and sheer power is all over this thing, and with more vim than anyone could have asked for! Than anyone had arguably heard from the classic line-up in years!

The bulk of An Undying Love For A Burning World packs a no-nonsense display of muscle that instantly does away with any suggestion of aging gracefully (or at all) and quickly brings to mind the thunder that still echoes from 1999’s iconic Times of Grace (the likes of “Mirror Deep” or album highlight “Seething and Scattered” take me right back to “The Doorway” (1999) or the rollicking title track). It may not be Neurosis’ melodically engaging or emotionally laden record, but it streamlines their momentous peak/valley navigations into perhaps their most effortless traversals to date, as has clearly been noted by the new generation of fans that have already gravitated to it. You could raise all manner of concerns about whether this recent acclaim has overstated the record’s position within Neurosis’ iconic discography, but this seems churlish to me: the dust has yet to settle, and this album has already given us more than most to be grateful for. (8.0/10)

- Hugh Puddle

Sacrificial Ecstasy - Relic of Lamentation
11:26 // March 30th, 2026 // self-released

If you’re going into this readily awaiting more Haunter, which Sacrificial Ecstasy are a continuation of in terms of personnel and broader genre classification, it’d prove wise to do so with tempered, nay, recalibrated expectations. While they had already started their departure from Sacramental Death Qualia’s prominent prog leanings on Discarnate Ails, ‘progressive’ has atrophied to an afterthought on this demo. This retrogression towards a more primal attitude could be compared to a backwards Timeghoul evolution, wherein the material trims some of its fat rather than picking up new tricks, and just as with the now-revered former underdogs’ development (or, by extension, Blood Incantation’s), you’ll either crave their earlier ideals or applaud their pluck. I fall firmly into the latter camp in two out of those three instances.

Fret not, though, as you’ll still be treated to rather sprawling, heavily blackened dissoscapes in the vein of Mitochondrion, now enriched with a tad more traditionalist flair drawing from both the DM and BM spheres at points. The two tracks never quite reach the declamatory pageantry of an album like The Destroyers of All, but it’s evident the band was aiming for something more visceral here, keeping clear of the higher levels of abstraction. Unnecessary comparisons aside, this brief little gem is a great appetizer for these lads’ future endeavors and an easy recommendation for fans of all things disso. (7.0/10)

- Nex

Skee Mask - F
56:21 // March 20th, 2026 // self-released

Is there a letter this man won’t touch? My verbal reasoning skills extend just far enough to count F as the sixth ‘album’ of unmastered outtakes released thus far by Bryan Müller/SCNTST/IDM club god/“Skee Mask”, and for my money it’s one of the better entries in this series — certainly a notch up on A and C, and perhaps on a level with B and D. As with its predecessors, the sequencing is a loose scaffold; any continuity is a by-product of his well-documented ability to straddle whatever configuration of sub-genres he so pleases, chiefly techno, breaks, house, IDM, 2-step, dub and ambient is in question. These tracks could probably be slapped together in any order, and we’d nod along wistful as though to affirm that this was definitely made by that one guy.

(Gawd, I hate writing about Skee Mask — all it takes is listing the good electronic genres and then slapping a perfunctory sounds like Skee Mask on the end.)

As usual, there are instant highlights among the clubbier cuts (”Untitled 58”’s 2-step groove will power every electric car in your neighbourhood, while “Pirate Space Odyssey”’s drum and bass workout handily warrants that the title); as usual, Skee Mask is borderline unrivalled in his knack for liminal downtempo (”Apt 199B” is one for the Pool fans); as usual, the pure ambient cuts fall at either end of the record’s quality extremes: nay to “29Hz” and opener “Vittore”, yay to “4’22”“, absolutely yay all the way to closer “Cirklon2”. Get these! Or don’t — get all of them! Is F‘s chief appeal that it doesn’t have to be a grab bag? Don’t call me. (7.0/10)

- Hugh Puddle

Nemesism - Premonitions of a Memory
12:49 // March 20th, 2026 // self-released

Months since the last impressive BDM record dropped: 0. If you, like me, grew up with Unique Leader’s unearthly 2000s catalog and have been yearning for a return to the techy tinge which dominated that era, you’ll have a blast with Premonitions of a Memory. Nemesism’s members have come a long way since their Guttural Secrete days and already exhibited their inclination to inject genre-extrinsic methodology on their previous, self-titled EP. On these latest three songs – let’s disregard the excellent Oppressor cover for the sake of this argument – they’ve taken that disposition one step further.

There are still some practically inevitable, though highly evolved and thus barely traceable nods to progenitors like Disgorge or Devourment, but the core experience is defined by more uncommon phrasing evoking, among others, Metaportal-era Wormed. By the time you’ve finished the title track, you’ll have heard effortlessly baked-in acoustic motifs that wouldn’t feel out of place on a prog-death release, brisk side-trips to frenetic fretboard maneuver land, pinches, meter shifts – the full package. The whole thing is pretty free-spirited and doesn’t conform to conventions, yet doesn’t cajole you into calling it jazzy. If I had to sum up its qualities in a single word, I’d go with soulful. Because that’s what sticks out even after the tenth listen: compared to most of the (still? still!) increasingly extreme-pursuing brutal death that comes out these days, enjoyable as that may be, this has an audibly bigger focus on meaningful composition, on progressions and transitions you can sink your teeth into rather than just be entertained or energized by them before moving on to the next thrill. I’m aware how oafish that sounds when talking about a genre that’s blunt and amusement-first by design, and I’m not going to label this ‘thinking man’s BDM’. What I will say, though, is that this feels infinitely more considered than the weekly trap-fueled slam nightmare. (7.5/10)

- Nex

Barbaric Oath - Sword, Sorcery, Vengeance
20:12 // March 27th, 2026 // Caligari

You might recognize L. and S., core members of Barbaric Oath and victims of unimaginative parental naming whims, from their work in Nekus and Putridarium, but even if you do, knowledge of their artistic heritage would only stymie your genre guessing game. This project sees them at their most fell and primitive, delivering rather traditional (a recurring theme this month…) war metal somewhat setting itself apart by way of an emphasis on the DM side. With the gifted Necrohelm of Jade fame, who in all likelihood will have been credited for the artwork of many an album by the end of the year, helming the session kit, you can expect an inclement rumble of double bass and blast beats to delight your neighbors and drown out any unwanted contemplation.

Compositionally speaking, there isn’t much to highlight here. It’s standard fare by and large, and mixing up the consuetudinary textbook-misanthropic blackdeath riffs and rapid-fire snare volleys with a mid-paced DM stomp or, on rare occasions, a doom-death divertissement doesn’t break any freshly scorched earth. This isn’t a genre that’s welcoming, much less rewarding experimentation, and what’s presented is very competent and highly enjoyable if you’re into the style. These gents do score some bonus points for going with the unhoary sword-and-sorcery theme, which I personally find more tasteful than the WW[x] and, even more tiring, ‘anti-abrahamic’ shticks.

Admittedly, I’m an easy target for this sound, because unlike with other genres, I tend to not over-analyze it and simply enjoy the blasts pelting down on me. Sword, Sorcery, Vengeance also benefits from its short runtime, which has enticed me into returning to its toxic embrace repeatedly. A soft (7.0/10)

- Nex

Pitou - P2
38:46 // March 20th, 2026 // self-released

Pitou’s aptly titled sophomore album P2 opens with a sugar high impossible to top—“Too Good to Go” is an expansive, maximalist chamber pop song. It’s chock full of chirping woodwinds and humming strings, blowing itself up to an immense size before crashing back down. The rest of the record settles into more familiar dreamy singer-songwriter territory, in the Haley Heynderickx vein, which always lives or dies on the lead performance’s personality. Luckily, Pitou delivers in spades. She trusts her warm, natural soundscapes to ground her angelic, yet puckish, crooning back to this earth. The great joy of the record lies in her willingness to commit to the bit; whether it’s the shockingly dancey “To Do What” or the sultry horns of “Restlessness,” it’s just another challenge to conquer. With P2, Pitou is 2/2. (7.5/10)

- A.R.O.

No/Más - No Peace
21:53 // March 13th, 2026 // Redefining Darkness

On paper, No/Más occupy an interesting niche. Their ambition to fuse grind, death metal, and metallic hardcore should theoretically give them a lot of leeway at the writing stage, ideally resulting in a smooth blend of mosh and finger-wagging sections. While they manage to pull off all three styles convincingly, with death metal getting the short end of the stick in favor of more deathgrind-affine climes, I found there to be a lack of emulsification leading to a choppy assemblage of genre-specific set pieces at some points and overly dialed-in tunnel vision (read: stylistic monolithism) at others. I was often reminded of Dying Fetus if they were to go full-on hardcore (a side-by-side comparison of “Leech” and DF’s “One Shot, One Kill” would make for a good starting point here), as well as of a thirty percent more trad-grind-coded Misery Index. What they’re doing is still good, mind you – and fun enough that I gave this numerous spins before eventually coming to the conclusion that I prefer jamming the two aforementioned bands when I’m longing for either HxC-tinted DM or deathgrind with a pinch of melody. This isn’t average by any means, nor was the landing spot missed per se, but No Peace is neither fish nor fowl and left me wanting something more resolute while jamming it. Try it at the gym and feel your calories burning to the beat. (6.5/10)

- Nex

PISSCORPSE - PRECIPICE OF DEATH
17:59 // March 27th, 2026 // self-released

PISS.

CORPSE.

Let that acme of highfalutin philological accomplishment sink in for a minute. And to think that the music is of an equally magniloquent quality! If this conflation of downtuned, deathy grindcore with powerviolent tendencies and a philistine-repellent war metal coating doesn’t accord with your hermeneutic criteria, I’m at a loss as to what further articulation would meaningfully advance the discussion.

To transition, if only briefly, into a more earnest register, PRECIPICE OF DEATH is so thoroughly divested of self-seriousness that any attempt on your part to supply such gravitas on its behalf would be misplaced. Instead, it’d serve you well to simply submit to the auditory torrent and permit yourself a moment of attentive engagement with its unfolding. There shall be exclamations of ire and anguish, thundering percussion, and ravishing scrapings of the pick, each element proving eminently amenable to your sensibilities. The corpse hath been well and truly pissed upon. (7.0/10)

- Nex

Courtney Barnett - Creature of Habit
38:47 // March 27th, 2026 // Mom+Pop

On Creature of Habit, Courtney Barnett takes a step back to the lackadaisical, kaleidoscopic sound from her early EPs, the best tracks (“Mantis”, “One Thing At a Time”) maintaining a more driving, groove-based edge on her mellowed out psych-pop sound, a course-correction from the indie-pop-rock malaise she’s found herself in the past couple of records. To be fair, “Wonder” is as great a pop ditty as she’s ever written, channeling her newfound melodic sheen to real effect over a grounded chorus—“And I wonder/ What you say when I’m not around...” Few do that stream-of-conscious brand of rambling quite so well, but she perfectly replicates the anxiety of an unquiet mind with ease. It does bleed out a bit into less exciting stuff as the record goes on, but it’s a cozy, foot-tapping good time all the way through. (7.5/10)

- A.R.O.

Egregore - It Echoes in the Wild
48:25 // March 20th, 2026 // 20 Buck Spin

It’s a good thing these catch-up articles run a couple of weeks into the following month, as some works are so eclectic they require a serious amount of time to decipher and fully appreciate. Exhibit A: Egregore’s latest. Their debut didn’t leave much of a lasting impression despite the involved musicians’ prestigious line-up of former projects and its deft agglutination of a wide range of heirloom styles, which I’d mainly attribute to a deficiency of personality; a well-made mosaic of antique metal ultimately too inviscid to stick to the listener’s memory. While this follow-up, as alluded to, isn’t exactly accessible on first listen due to its constant metamorphosis and the growth of additional hydra heads as it progresses through its ten movements, characterlessness is the last thing I’d ascribe to it.

The polar opposite of the lack of cohesion I remonstrated against No Peace above, Echoes in the Wild is a masterclass in perplexing yet structurally sound songwriting with a sublime integrative logic. Throughout this journey, you’ll hear reverberations of extreme metal’s incipiencies and high points, calling to mind everything from the Mantas tapes to Pestilence circa 1991 to later-era Death, sometimes luminous, sometimes broken by a prism cut from tarry tourmaline. Traces of speed and heavy metal, evident in the riffcraft as well as in sporadic vocal delivery shifts, add further nuance. Although my anecdotal knowledge gets scantier the further the material moves away from the thrashing blackdeath bonding agents holding this pastiche together, my plebeian notion is that all of these genres have proven to go well with each other regardless of the specific configuration. Be that as it may, you hardly ever hear literally all of them united under the same umbrella, and the fact that the band has managed to do so in this convincing a fashion, the songs growing natural fascicles in such a way that it feels as if they had been written on the fly with youthful esprit bordering on naivety rather than being the product of meticulous refinement derived from many years of heuristic experience collection, evinces the musicians’ genuine infatuation with the foundational releases of yore.

Even with the recent renaissance of speed-thrash, black-speed, and adjacent genre salads birthing a good number of academically similar offerings, you’re not going to find many albums like this one – at least not this side of the millennial moat. It Echoes in the Wild would never pass as ‘avant-garde’, but I can’t help but feel that, unlike those of most other outfits seeking to take you back to simpler times when riffs loomed large, the fusing techniques employed here are so forward-thinking they’d befit a prog-tech band like Atheist. Whatever afflatus is to thank for this inexplicable jump in writing chops, one can only hope Shawn, Sebastian, and Philip locked it away to keep drawing from it. Chances are I’m still underrating this. (7.5/10)

- Nex

Dusqk - Lost Sanctuary
54:50 // March 12th, 2026 // Heaven, 11

After several albums, Dusqk has released another album. It comes hot on the heels of Sanctuary OS, which was a chill departure from his dense d&b synthetics. Does Lost Sanctuary depart? Yeah but like no: it continues the ambience-driven vibes of its predecessor, while blending in a little more intensity here and there. “Sky Data Corridor” grooves hard, “Eden Bios” is disgustingly heavenly, and “Flow of Sanctuary”, well, flows gorgeously. Lost Sanctuary is, above all, simply a lovely new chapter in the story of our favourite operating system. (7.0/10)

- Hugh Puddle & jesper

Cryptworm - Infectious Pathological Waste
35:17 // March 27th, 2026 // Me Saco un Ojo

Gatekeep!’s own V.S. has already put in the work and published an in-depth review on their personal blog, so this is mostly included to raise awareness of its existence. Just a few quick notes:

There can never be too many Demilichian riffs.
This is Cryptworm’s best release to date.
Fun!

I’ll leave you to it. (7.0/10)

- Nex

Miserere Luminis - Sidera
51:29 // March 6th, 2026 // Debemur Morti

Remember when people used to care about how close black metal releases hewed to its progenitors, as if The Scene was a desirable social group whose exploits should be recreated ad infinitum? Thank God (jkjk) that’s not the case anymore, and thank the atheistic vacuum that Miserere Luminis are genrewise enough to crossover whatever they’ve crossed over here, regardless of how ill-advised it might sound on paper, which is something like: less-cracked Oranssi Pazuzu atmospheres (aw) alongside some Deafheavenesque emotional resonance (no suburban ennui, I promise — it’s existentially triumphant!) that tickles itself into various frenzies using the aid of (I swear this doesn’t suck) symphonic touches. If you’re sane enough to realise how fucking stupid that sounds, I hope you can still recognise the earnestness of my appeal here. Musicians good, album good, life good, please don’t burn down any houses of worship and take care of yourself. (7.5/10)

- Milo Ruggles

Protrusion - The Last Suppuration
51:43 // March 13th, 2026 // Sevared / Iron Fortress / Unholy Domain

As much as old-school death metal’s iterative gestalt can stimulate the hypothalamus in all the wrong places, prompting maxilla and mandible to part ways to the point where anything beyond an austere ‘good’ becomes a seemingly impenetrable barrier, it’s albums like The Last Suppuration that recall why artists keep bothering with the quest for early nineties enshrinement.

Maintaining the equilibrium between infatuation with the genre’s opera magna and a distinct voice, ahem, protruding from the sediment of echoes has always been the tricky part, and I feel like many bands who have set out to pay homage to the Morrisound and Scandi greats fall just shy of that sweet spot with dispiriting regularity. Which isn’t to say they don’t have their appeal, because they do, but to hammer home how tough a task it is to write traditional death metal with any aspiration to reach the vicinity of menhirs such as Altars of Madness, Onward to Golgotha, or Dawn of Possession without coming off as uncreative.

Protrusion’s love for Gorguts’ Considered Dead couldn’t be more obvious, and yet they manage to go beyond redundant regurgitation by spicing things up with lessons absorbed across adjacent strata: mid-paced, leads-driven passages à la Demigod, an alternation of doomy craft and thrashier bars in the vein of e.g. early Cenotaph, and even slam-approximating beatdowns taking a page from the Suffo playbook, all topped off with very evocative, perfectly executed low-register gurgles you’d expect from BDM acts both primeval and modern. Not a single part of this fusion of influences feels like legerdemain, quite the contrary. Every track is a genuine old-old banger, and if the band had told me these were recordings from ‘93 that they just now unearthed, I would have believed it. I can’t stress enough how lived-in this record sounds.

Since this is very much based on proprietary building blocks (though it bears repeating that this is a custom Rebrickable build, not a stock model), and intentionally so, I can’t bring myself to slap the elusive, rarely employed 9/10 on it. That said, it’s fifty-plus minutes of nostalgic bliss, a rare standout release in a genre that – unwavering popularity among artists and listeners notwithstanding – has struggled to break away from the monotrophic diet it’s been feeding its fans. And while I can’t get over how paradoxical it is that an album so intractably clinging to DM’s roots sounds fresher than ninety percent of what’s passed the ‘OS’ turnstile in the past few years, my right elbow hurts from all the hat tips I consistently find myself performing whenever I put this on. (8.5/10)

- Nex

Joshua Burnside - It’s Not Going to be Okay
38:07 // March 20, 2026 // Nettwerk

I’m as enamored with the drearily-titled It’s Not Going to be Okay as I was with Joshua Burnside’s last album, 2025’s Teeth of Time, if not moreso, but it feels like quite a different beast. The jaunty Celtic-ness of the latter record has been drawn back, allowing for a focus in subdued, moody character portraits. The results might push the Northern Irish singer-songwriter into potentially more generic indie folk territory, but not to worry, these ten songs not only manage to all feel distinct from one another, but also rise far above the typical fare in this oversaturated market. The main key to Burnside’s success here, I think, is the specificity of his lyricism - whether he’s suddenly reminiscing about watching the X-files or musing poetically about the hue of the streetlights, everything feels deeply personal and real. A whole bunch of these songs are among my favorites from this year so far, but the title track might be the finest introduction to those curious, and a satisfying anthem for our ever more dystopian headlines. (8.0/10)

- Sunnyvale

Cruel Force - Haneda
42:36 // March 27th, 2026 // Shadow Kingdom

And now for something completely different. And by completely, I do of course mean somewhat. There are still, y’know, distorted guits, drums wot go fast and all, just of the variety I rarely find myself gravitating to. I mentioned the recent resurgence of speedy thrash (speedy anymetal and thrash-plus-X, really) earlier, and Cruel Force are among that biome’s apex predators right now, at least as far as their visibility and popularity are concerned. Are we tired of Phrygian-scale riffs yet? Naw? How about hearing all of them on a single album? Fuck yeah? Then this one is for you.

Let’s get the rototoms in the room out of the way: your enjoyment of this album will live and die by your tolerance for or, if you’re a hardened Die Flippers apologist, enthusiastic embrace of the all-pervasive tom fills inserting themselves every four bars on average. Having them sit so high in the mix you can’t escape their shrill pummeling was certainly a choice, especially given their tonal uniformity, but I quickly surrendered and have since taken a masochistic liking to them. Roll me harder, daddy GG! The remainder of the arrangement, to this ignoramus’s ears, resembles a cross between TTM in the vein of Kreator’s Terrible Certainty (sans fire-and-brimstone attitude) and more tropey speed akin to something like Blind Guardian’s Battalions of Fear (sans power metal antics), to use another German band as an example. Add a markedly 80s idea of ‘oriental’ to the mix and you’re as good as there.

In light of their rise to prominence, there’s little shock involved in discovering the band has further streamlined their approach here. Not long after their re-emergence from a ten-year hiatus in 2022, the black metal edge of their first two albums, originally warranting comparisons to Desaster and Sodom, was sanded down to a flimsy veneer; four years later, that dusky stain is all but nonexistent. What the Teutonic revivalists gain thereby is an elevated level of approachability, which will no doubt garner them new fans. If you prefer your metallic retro fetishism enameled with a measure of grit, Haneda can still be diverting in a popcorn-flick way, but might feel hollow on repeat spins. As a linear continuation of Dawn of the Axe, however, it’s grand. (7.0/10)

- Nex

Want more? Check out our full-length reviews for these additional March releases: