GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, APRIL 2026

(April was a sorry month in many ways for many people, but it still yielded a lot of good heavy albums, and in his latest monthly roundup of reviews our friend Gonzo picks out four of them.)

These days, it feels like I’m behind on everything: Behind on new heavy music, behind on listening to it, and most certainly behind on writing about it.

I guess there’s a reason for that. Not to delve too far into a sob story, but this is mostly because my day job decided to callously and haphazardly lay me off last week. Having this happen so abruptly is one thing, but the fact that this unceremonious ending was the third layoff in a row for me is another. Screaming into the void is therapeutic, and by that measure, my yearly pilgrimage to Roadburn a few weeks ago turned out to be more necessary than ever.

So, fuck the corporate grind. My venom for capitalism knows no bounds. Being forced to repeat the Sisyphean and futile exercise of finding another job in this hellscape has only tempered said venom in something even more vitriolic. For these reasons, I’m sad to say I’ll be missing this year’s Northwest Terror Fest in the coming days. That bums me out more than anything else.

In the meantime, here’s some new music to keep your ears busy.

 

SPIRIT ADRIFT, INFINITE ILLUMINATION

All journeys must end, and in the case of Texas’s Spirit Adrift, it was never about the destination—it was always about the experience.

It’s hard to believe that 11 years have passed since founder Nate Garrett put out his (at the time) one-man band’s EP, Behind – Beyond, and it might even be harder to believe that six full-lengths and international acclaim would follow that inauspicious debut. But it’s albums like Infinite Illumination, with one foot planted in riff-driven tradition and the other in a swampy mire of modern doom, that have helped them reach such heights.

The opening title track feels like a final invocation of sorts, a grand summation of everything that defines the band’s sound: Ethereal intros, memorable leads, Garrett’s telltale Ozzy-esque vocals, and a general feeling of resplendent grandeur. And just like on each record that preceded it, there’s hardly a moment of fluff throughout. “Window Within” and “You Will Never Hold the Key” follow this formula with steadfast dedication. Album highlight “White Death” might be the most infectiously catchy 5+ minutes this band ever wrote, and the closing head-nodding banger “Where There Was Once an Ocean” ends the trip on the most memorable note imaginable.

If this is truly it for Spirit Adrift, they did anything but slow-walk their last few steps.

https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/infinite-illumination

 

REEKING AURA, ON THE PROMISE OF THE MOON

Death metal upstarts Reeking Aura have been on our radar at NCS for a while, and On the Promise of the Moon is an album that’s all but certain to turn more banging heads.

The nine songs found here are equal parts pummeling and memorable. Vacillating between white-hot blasting salvos and extremely well-placed interludes, the group’s knack for songwriting that remains heavier than hell without exhausting the listener is deftly executed. It’s not every day that I hear an album that comes absolutely crashing out of the gates (the first minute of opener “Concrete Basin Bath” is one of its most punishing moments) but manages to resist the urge to go all gas, no brakes for the rest of its length.

After an intro that could lead anywhere, “Gorged Beyond Grudges” crushes itself into a devastating riff that almost seems to conjure something out of Florida in 1992. It’s one of many devastating riffs on an album that’s otherwise full of them. Judging by song title alone, “Manure Like Magma” might sound like it’s ripped from the shit-encrusted walls of goregrind, but its complex layers and song structure elevate it to something else entirely. And the surprising ambience in “Lunar Rumination” point to someone listening to their fair share of Blood Incantation recently.

Don’t look now, but with On the Promise of the Moon, Reeking Aura might be quietly pushing death metal forward more than we realize.

https://reekingaura.bandcamp.com/album/on-the-promise-of-the-moon
https://www.facebook.com/reekingaura/

 

TRUCKFIGHTERS, MASTERFLOW

When you think of stoner metal, your first thought likely isn’t anything that comes from Sweden. Regardless of where your brain lands with this thought, Sweden’s Truckfighters have been a stoner mainstay since 2001, and Masterflow is a glorious return to form after 10 long years of silence.

These nine songs hit like an invigorating bong rip after a dust-caked day in the desert. The fuzzy guitar tones sound fuzzier than ever, channeling a sound that’s halfway between TF’s countrymen in Witchcraft and stoner heroes Fu Manchu. The riffs in “The Bliss,” “Carver,” and “Truce” are just heavy enough to usher the band’s sound into “metal” idioms without trying too hard.

The band even wades into “Planet Caravan” territory with the title track, an instrumental track that serves more than just empty space between “actual” songs. Hell, the entire album sounds like it was just as much fun to write as it is to listen to, and that cathartic energy is what makes Masterflow a thoroughly fun ride.

https://fuzzoramarecords1.bandcamp.com/album/masterflow
https://www.facebook.com/truckfighters/

 

DOODSESKADER, THE CHANGE IS ME

Who cares about genres, anyway?

If anything is true, Belgium’s Doodseskader (Dutch for “death squad”) gives less than a single fuck about them. They left a huge mark on these pages in 2024 with their second album Year Two. Trying to describe the duo’s sound in conventional terms is hilarious—Andy Synn and I eventually landed on something like “neo-industrial hip-hop death sludge” over beers at one point last year—and I was intrigued to hear where the band would go next.

With The Change is Me, Tim De Gieter (ex-Amenra) and Sigfried Burroughs are clearly aiming higher. Glossier production, more focused songwriting, and a willingness to push their already-broad sound into even further territory have served them well, for the most part. “Celebrity Culture Simp Farm” hits with alternating harsh noise and a catchy chorus that you’ll probably find yourself humming in the shower, while “Please Just Make It Stop” comes off as a more developed idea from some of their earlier work.

“No Laughter Left in Me” is the closest thing to “Bone Pipe,” my favorite track off Year Two and one of my top songs from 2024. It skates between genres, trying to please everyone and nobody all at once, and that’s where some of the concepts don’t work as well as they once did. The cleaner, more polished approach that Doodseskader has taken with this album leaves behind some of the raw, filthy grime I was all but scraping off my speakers with Year Two. “Unthinking My Every Thought” might be a miss that falls into this category, and “It Keeps On Stinging” sounds like what you’d get if Pendulum started listening to ’90s hardcore.

With so many musical avenues explored, it’s hard to make a final judgment about The Change is Me. There are several highs that might grab unlikely listeners, but the complexity and drifting into so many ideas might lose others. Overall, though, the band has done a solid job of expanding their sound and trying to cater to a wider audience, and if nothing else, their creativity is admirable.

https://doodseskader.bandcamp.com/album/the-change-is-me
https://www.facebook.com/Doodseskader/

Like what you’ve heard? Follow my best-of-2025 playlist for selections from everything you’ve just read, and a whole helluva lot more.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7zWqE685GVpuB5M3qRDvog?si=08d80939b43e4d89