2026.05 - Last month I mostly listened to...

Life continues to be hectic as far as music goes. I attended Iron Corpse live which had old school death metal bands playing, then a friends birthday bash in another town about 250 kms away with 7 bands performing (Lola Kumtus was amazing, I also enjoyed Orbiter and a Bad Religion cover band I forget the name of) and Sonic Rites festival (Russian Circles, Acid King, Pelican, Blackwater Holylight, Jesu, Wolfbrigade…) along with the usual music quiz’s and everything else. Few times I felt like I’m too old for this shite!

Again, I came across many amazing new bands’ music, but it seems I’ve heard and forgotten most or all of them at least once already, so I can’t be arsed to figure out which of them are actually new.

The new Yawning Balch took me by surprise, it’s a collaboration with Yawning Man and Bob Balch (Fu Manchu guitarist) I didn’t know was coming, then I sort of mixed it up with Yawning Man in my mind… it took me a long time to realize what was bugging me.

Few special shoutouts to the bands I found quite interesting and enjoyable, but which were left out of this list due to various reasons (such as it came out very late in the month, or it came out last month when I missed it, only found on streaming platforms and thus failed to listen to it more as most of my promos are local files). These bands related albums are also listed at the bottom of the post, so here goes:
Warp Transmission, Jesus The Snake, Upupayāma, Fucked Up, Thrownness and Buio Dentro! y’all got submitted to the Doom Charts tho!

I managed to finish “Instrumental Forever: The Story of Karma to Burn” book, which was great, but kind of clunky to read. I had an pre-release ebook of it, so don’t take this as my review, so even the formatting was clunky. I enjoyed it as source of information more than anything, like it had slipped me that Will Mecum had died in 2022 for one.

Anyway, here we go!

Last month I mostly listened to version 2026.05:

1. Liquify
2. Blke
3. The Dead At Sea
4. El Altar Del Holocausto
5. Maliciouz
6. Elder
7. Goldfish Kaseem
8. Goddess
9. Mantra Machine
10. The Oblivion Expedition
11. Yawning Balch
12. Lair of the Minotaur
13. Dust Giant
14. Saimaa
15. We Stood Like Kings

By playtime (h:mm:ss):

1. Yawning Balch 7:28:14
2. Liquify 5:46:57
3. Elder 4:20:58
4. Maliciouz 4:17:12
5. El Altar Del Holocausto 4:12:48
6. The Oblivion Expedition 4:03:10

Track obsession: Yawning Balch - Pyramid of Djoser

Bubbling under: All Them Witches, Karma to Burn, Bleeth, Lobo is Mute, Monolord, Old Year, Solar Mantra, Soundgarden, Taxology, Conan, Fucked Up, Thrownness

1001 project bands of note: The Who, Johnny Cash, ZZ Top, Fela Kuti & Ginger Baker

Total artists in rotation: 217

Relevant albums:
Liquify - Voyage to the Outer Worlds (2026)
The Dead At Sea - III (2026)
Blke - BLKE (2026)
El Altar Del Holocausto - Ecos (2026)
Maliciouz - Sympathypnotic Intercession (2026)
Elder - Through Zero (2026)
Goldfish Kaseem - For A Bryter Future (2026)
Goddess - Ritual of The Cloven Hoof (2026)
Mantra Machine - Echoes Forest (2026)
The Oblivion Expedition - Intergalactic Gateway To Infinity (2026)
Lair of the Minotaur - I Hail I (2026)
Yawning Balch - Volume Four (2026)
Dust Giant - Dust Giant (2026)
Saimaa - Matka mielen ytimeen, vol. 2 (2026)
We Stood Like Kings - Pinocchio (2026)
Bleeth - Lázara (2026)
ZZ Top - Tres Hombres (1973)
Old Year - No Dissent (2025)
Solar Mantra - State Of Joyful Lightness (2026)
Soundgarden - Louder Than Love (1989)
Taxology - A Deep Dive In The Colourful And Mysterious Garden Of Mr. Taxology (2026)
Conan - D.I.Y Series 2 (2026)
All Them Witches - House Of Mirrors (2026)
Fucked Up - Monkey Meets the Dragon (2026)
Thrownness - Marrow Part II: A Fire Through The Ether (2026)
Warp Transmission - Excess Currents (2026)
Jesus The Snake - Ethereal Waters (2026)
Upupayāma - Honesty Flowers (2026)
Buio Dentro - Aurora (2026)

Also! Don’t forget to check out Doom Charts Peroration for April 2026, or the Doom Charts for May that are released coming friday!

Finally, here is the link to playlist with a one track from each* of the Top 10 artist above (sort by 'date added' if applicable): http://dy.fi/iio (behind the short url are links to mostly identical playlists in Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer, Spotify, and finally Soundiiz, last of which you can use to transfer the playlist to your chosen platform).

* with the exception of The Oblivion Expedition and Maliciouz (on some platforms) whom are replaced with a Yawning Balch track.