New year, new music! We're hitting the ground running in 2026 with big names and rising stars alike getting in early doors with fresh cuts. Much as we've done the past few years, we'll be collecting the very best new songs from across rock and metal for your listening pleasure, helping you cut through the masses to hopefully make some great new discoveries.
Of course, that also means we'll be asking you to vote on your favourite new single each week, with the top three bands being entered into a massive "best of 2026" playlist and getting automatic entry into our end of year poll. So check out our selection for this week's tracks below, and we'll be back next week with the results of the vote!
Distant - Nothing Left To Hate
2025 was a seriously big year for deathcore, and 2026 already looks like it'll keep the momentum up. Dutch/Slovakian bruisers Distant kick things off with the utterly feral Nothing Left To Hate, a track that walks away from modern deathcore's embrace of high-end production to just get back to the genre's gritty, gruesome roots, pig squeals and all. If you're in the UK/EU, you can catch the band opening for Sylosis over the next month and a bit.
Hanabie. - Iconic
Hanabie. are coming out swinging for 2026. New single Iconic - taken from their upcoming EP Hot Topic - is a great showcase of just how unique the Japanese group are, one minute growling and snarling, the next dropping eurodance style synth and bouncy, gleeful pop vocals. It's a bizarre mix, but works oh so well.
Uncultivates - Every Day I Wake Up On The Bonnet Of A Different Car
They might dress like dimestore cowboys, but Ireland's Uncultivates have more in common with the meme-metalcore (memalcore?) of The Callous Daoboys or madcap antics of Dillinger Escape Plan than anything you'd hear from the good old boys. Every Day I Wake Up On The Bonnet Of A Different Car has a kind of manic intensity of someone on the edge of a nervous breakdown, its jangling guitars screaming like car alarms. The band's debut This Will All Become Clear Later, Like The French Revolution is due February 6 and well worth your time if you're into the more manic side of metalcore.
Mammon's Throne - Elixir
Dooooooooom. But there's so much more to Mammon's Throne besides, the Aussie band evoking a Satyricon-like feral, occult-flavoured extremity (or at the very least, a less fuzzy Weedeater) on new single Elixir. Taken from new album My Body To The Worms - due March 13 - it's a stomping, tooth-gnashing track that'll make you want to twist your hands into claws and howl along till your larynx is shredded. "Nosferatuuuuu" indeed.
Speglas - Dearth
Talk about a fake out. The first minute or so of Speglas's new single Dearth is gloriously bombastic you could half believe they're some long-forgotten AOR or power metal band, only to break out into some seriously epic black metal. Distinctly Swedish in grandeur, the Stockholm group set expectations sky high for new album Endarkenment, Being & Death - due February 27 - with this absolute beaut.
Alter Bridge - Scales Are Falling
Talk about getting in for early doors. Alter Bridge's self-titled is the first big rock/metal release of the year (out today, no less), and the band clearly aren't marching back their ambitions on new single Scales Are Falling. After the riffier Playing Aces we got at the end of last year, Scales is a more sombre and technical affair, feeling almost like AB do prog.
The Veer Union - Venom In My Veins
Vancouver alt. metallers The Veer Union are flexing the impressive pipes of vocalist Crispin Earl on new single Venom In My Veins. Soulful, gargantuan melodies give the song an uplifting atmosphere, while backing screams add a heft and ferocity. Taken from new album Reinvention - out February 20 - we reckon their time in the sun is long overdue.
Tailgunner - Eulogy
Tailgunner started out in the realms of giddy NWOBHM worship, but seem to taking a different route on album two. Produced by former Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing, new single Eulogy offers up Dragonforce-style power metal, their sound kicked into hyperdrive with epic, soaring guitar lines and widdly solos aplenty. Taken from new album Midnight Blitz, out Feb 6, it remains to be seen if the Brits have made a full stylistic shift or if this is just a sideroad.
Black Veil Brides - Certainty
Black Veil Brides' Crüe-meets-Manson aesthetic might've made them stand out when they first emerged in the early 2010s, but it also made them divisive. While the furore has largely died down nowadays, it's easy to forget just how big the band still are (they headlined Wembley a couple years back) and new single Certainty definitely speaks to the kind of enormous crowds they're aiming for. A stomping, alt-metal thumper with some snarls threaded in, it's not a million miles from the kind of radio singles that made Bring Me The Horizon or Architects massive.
Lord Of The Lost - I Hate People (ft. Wednesday 13)
You can't knock Lord Of The Lost's work ethic. After releasing two albums in the Opvs Noir series in 2025, the Germans are eyeing up an April 10 release for Volume 3. Lead single I Hate People sees them team up with horrorcore icon Wednesday 13 for a surprisingly restrained club metal banger, slowly building to a big breakout in the song's final minute.
Shields - Miss Me
Tragedy almost spelled the end of UK metalcore hopefuls Shields. Initially active from 2011 - 2018, the death of guitarist George Christie saw the band split in its aftermath. New single Miss Me details some of the tumult that arose from his passing, dealing directly with Christie's funeral with an emotional ballad that is simaltaneously heartbreaking and touching. Taken from comeback album Death & Connections, out January 30, its well worth diving into.
Sylosis - Erased
26 years in and still going strong, Sylosis may well be the UK's most underrated band. Just stick on the pounding, anthemic Erased to see just what this band are capable of; no frills metal done to exceptional quality and offered up for your headbanging, fist-pumping pleasure. Taken from upcoming album The New Flesh - out February 20 - its a solid showing from the UK metal veterans.
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