Riff Vault — Independent Rock & Metal Album Reviews

Jesus Crustus — El Crustadore

Marvin — Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Jesus Crustus — 3/5

Berlin crust-punk-into-grindcore duo's new album: fifteen tracks across thirty-two minutes, recorded at Noir Surge Studio, guest vocals from Tina and Harmony Dies, exactly the kind of dirty short-form chaos the genre lives on.

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Sauvageoness — A Maze Deep In

Marvin — Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Sauvageoness — 4/5

Swiss solo project's debut LP — fourteen tracks of 'doomed industrial dream pop' mixed and mastered by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Soft Kill) at Atomic Garden. Indie noise, shoegaze, post-punk and the raw weight of black metal, threaded together.

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The Space Huns — Sunny Road

Marvin — Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Space Huns — 3/5

Hungarian instrumental stoner trio's new LP on Minimal Bogart Records, six tracks of improvised jams recorded, mixed and mastered at Rossz Records — and explicitly without any AI-generated content.

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Buio Dentro — Aurora

Marvin — Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Buio Dentro — 3/5

Italian post-metal/noise project, four long-form pieces totalling forty-seven minutes. Recorded between Rome and Perugia, mastered at Hombrelobo Studio, leaning hard into lo-fi atmosphere and drone.

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Goddess — Ritual of the Cloven Hoof

Marvin — Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Goddess — 4/5

Reborn from the ashes of Goatess after a founding-member departure, the Swedish doom quartet's first record under the new name lands on Majestic Mountain. Six tracks, thirty-seven minutes, recorded by Joona Hassinen at Studio Underjord.

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Hex A.D. — Surgical Cuts in the Cosmos

Marvin — Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Hex A.D. — 3/5

Norwegian doom-prog veterans' new album, three years after Delightful Sharp Edges. Seven tracks spanning prog rock, classic heavy metal, stoner-rock fuzz and old-school doom, all on Apollon Records.

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Faded Remembrance — The Blessing Of Downfall

Marvin — Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Faded Remembrance — 3/5

Hungarian one-man atmospheric doom project, third album on Bitume Prods. Nine tracks of slow doom built around trumpet, trombone and synthesizer — a Pan-Thy-Monium reference made flesh.

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Impure Wilhelmina — Le Sanglot

Marvin — Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Impure Wilhelmina — 4/5

Thirty years into the Geneva quartet's progressive-dark catalogue, their most radical record yet — nine tracks of French- language post-hardcore, mastered by Magnus Lindberg of Cult of Luna.

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Sons of Node — Consequence of Abundance

Marvin — Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Sons of Node — 3/5

Utrecht sludge band's second LP. Eight tracks across forty-eight minutes, recorded with Abel Jansma and mastered by Tim de Gieter, with a two-minute instrumental interlude bracketing the album's long-form centrepiece.

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The Dead At Sea — III

Marvin — Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Dead At Sea — 3/5

Birmingham post-rock-into-doom project's third album. Five instrumental tracks rooted in the isolation of North Sentinel Island, mastered by Jack Chuter.

Listen on Bandcamp

Abyssian — Let Me Die Under the Stars

Marvin — Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Abyssian — 3/5

Italian Atlantean dark-doom collective's third album, on Black Widow Records. Six pieces of sumerian creation mythology, fretless bass and gothic baritone, closing on a Roxy Music cover.

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Manøver — Insurrection

Marvin — Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Manøver — 3/5

Münster crust/sludge three-piece's new LP. Nine tracks, forty minutes of antifascist d-beat and dystopian doom, recorded by Role at Tonmeisterei, vinyl on Fucking Kill Records.

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Red Swamp — Peace and Hate

Marvin — Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Red Swamp — 3/5

Budapest groove-metal four-piece's fourth LP, leaving the stoner phase behind for tighter modern-metal songwriting. Eight tracks, two in Hungarian, sax and trumpet guest appearances.

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Damask — Three Times Ten

Marvin — Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Damask — 3/5

Debut album from the Polish project Damask, fronted by Weno Winter of Sautrus. Eight tracks that move between acoustic intimacy and doom walls, built on twenty years of accumulated ideas.

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Dromos — Failing Light

Marvin — Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Dromos — 4/5

London funeral-doom quartet's debut LP, recorded in five years of dark London winters. Three pieces, forty-six minutes, mixed by Greg Chandler of Esoteric and mastered by James Plotkin. The cinematic patience the genre rewards, executed by people who know it.

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Void Sinker — Cycle

Marvin — Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Void Sinker — 3/5

Salerno one-man instrumental project, second release of 2026. Five tracks across fifty-three minutes of low-tuned caveman riffs, drone, and the kind of hypnotic monotony the genre lives on.

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Godes Yrre — Feelings Can Burn You

Marvin — Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Godes Yrre — 3/5

A preview of the fifth Godes Yrre album, due June 26 on Bitume Prods. Oliva's one-man Swiss doom project gathers three 2024 EPs into a sixty-minute whole, with a guest soloist on every track.

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Belzebong — The End Is High

Marvin — Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Belzebong — 4/5

Their first new full-length in seven years. Four tracks of Kielce stoner-doom, instrumental save for the buried shouts and the smoke samples, recorded at Satanic Audio and released on Heavy Psych Sounds.

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Black Toaster — Astrobird

Marvin — Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Black Toaster — 3/5

Bern stoner trio's first studio album. Six tracks of high-energy Motörhead-leaning rock'n'roll with stoner weight, self-released and self-produced at Mazzive Sound Productions.

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Bismut — Matsutake

Marvin — Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Bismut — 4/5

Their fourth full-length, named after Anna Tsing's book on the mushroom that grows in capitalist ruins. Recorded live at Galloway Studio, six instrumental-leaning tracks of progressive heavy psych from the Nijmegen trio.

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Oreyeon — The Grotesque Within

Marvin — Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Oreyeon — 4/5

Italian heavy-psych quartet's fourth album, inspired by the pessimist horror of Thomas Ligotti. Seven tracks of stoner-doom with prog architecture, mastered by James Plotkin, released on Heavy Psych Sounds.

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The Cosmic Dead — Beyond The Beyond

Marvin — Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Cosmic Dead — 4/5

Tenth studio album from the Glasgow space-rock collective. Four tracks, forty-one minutes, bass and drums and fiddle and synth, all wah-soaked, phasers set to destroy.

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Yeast Machine — Bad Milk

Marvin — Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Yeast Machine — 3/5

Tübingen fuzz-trio gone full-album for the first time. Ten tracks that hop between grunge weight, stoner-rock fuzz and patient psychedelic stretches, with the kind of widescreen contrast between calm and eruption that Yeast Machine seem to have decided is their argument.

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Turpentine Valley — Veuel — Revisited

Marvin — Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Turpentine Valley — 4/5

Follow-up to our February pre-release piece. Ten tracks, properly heard, in the lineage of Russian Circles, instrumental-leaning post-metal where the songwriting does the heavy lifting and the production keeps the dynamics intact.

Listen on Bandcamp

Azken Auzi — Infernua