Five albums from January 2026 that deserve your listening attention!
I am a little late posting this (something about launching my website and getting things ramped up), but here are my top 5 releases from January 2026. The reality is, January kicked off the year in splendid fashion. I reviewed 19 albums released during the month, already curated from a larger list of potentials that didn’t quite hit as hard or I just didn’t have time to review. There were a few obvious top 5 albums and quite a few more under consideration. Here are my 5, in alphabetical order rather than ranked (yes, I will do an end of year ranking, so I can get away with not doing so for now!):
Some of the best gothic death / doom I have heard in a while, this Finnish band put together an incredible concept album chronicling the cycle of losing someone you love and the associated grief. Powerful stuff that is also incredible musically.
This Hungarian band has crafted an incredible progressive metal album that expertly blends symphonic, melodic death, and gothic metal into its fabric. This album quickly became an obsession.
Post metal has worked its way into my regular listening, and this album does it perfectly, defty blending heartfelt emotion with aggressive brutality.
Another new band for me, and their first official full length after a series of singles and a bit of a reboot. Fabulous progressive metal with a fantastic story guiding along!