As the heat of early summer starts to take hold, March feels like a million years ago (because it was). This means we have to put on our Way-Back hats and recall the things that were rocking our world several months ago. There was a series of killer releases in March, and the voting was heated in the endlessly drab, urine-colored AMG backrooms. As ever, we carefully considered the sentiment of the staffers and tried to make everyone happy, but mostly management (the happy few). Power has privileges.
Belgium’s Ethereal Darkness reemerged from the darkness this year with a massive, monolithic statement on melodic doom-death with second album, Echoes [self-released on March 20th, 2026], and it fried my little ape mind. Borrowing from the greats like Rapture and Insominium, the band set out to weave enthralling, melancholic tapestries sure to ensnare the sadboi. Opening an album with an 11-minute magnum opus is always risky, but Ethereal Darkness use it to dunk you in the darkness and force you to love the negative emotions. Echoes is a large-scale dose of majestic, mighty, and miserable doom, and I’m still enjoying it as a grandiose mood piece all these months later. As I wisely summed up back in March, “This is a sumptuous feast for the ears and mind, and I get the feeling I’ll be spending a lot of time with this over the next few months. Ethereal Darkness are about to get a lot more attention in the metalverse, and they deserve it.” Adopt THIS darkness.
The Silver // Looking Glass of Hymnal Blue [March 20th, 2026 | Gilead Media | Bandcamp] — Made up of members of Horrendous and Crypt Sermon, The Silver is a strange project specializing in a blend of atmospheric Goth, post, black, and progressive influences. Their sophomore outing, Looking Glass of Hymnal Blue, finds them honing their sound and tightening up how the various elements work together. The overall balance that the band finds here is what makes the album such a pleasure to drink in. There’s a sense of grand melody and theatricality to the material, but this is still extreme music with jagged edges that can draw blood. Harsh and clean vocals collide as the music rises and falls in intensity, with creative ideas dotting the landscape. As Saunders enthusiastically gushed, ” Taking their time with this second opus, the payoff is grand, and The Silver’s welcome return suggests this project is here for the long haul.”
Hellripper // Coronach [March 27th, 2026 | Century Media Records | Bandcamp] — The blackened speed maniacs in Hellripper roared back into the fray with their Venom-meets-Motorhead –Darkthone brand of lightning insanity. The thrashy fury and straight-ahead attitude spice the technically sharp guitar work, and the all gas-no brakes mentality drives things off a cliff into a funeral pyre. But it isn’t all just crash and burn here despite the vibrant punk energy undergirding the material. Grin Reaper smiled and said the following about Coronach: “If lethargy creeps in or your mouth runs dry from a chronic deficit of Vitamin R, just take one to two doses of Coronach (by ear) and wait for Hellripper’s restorative fix to kick in.” Cheap speed thrills 4 sale!
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