PLAYLIST: 🩸 THE NEW FLESH INDEX — WEEKLY ROTATION #8 Friday, February 13th to Thursday, February 19th, 2026

Welcome to The New Flesh Index—a weekly descent hammered into shape by the tracks that ruled February 13th–19th with absolute violence. This isn’t a playlist; it’s a slow-motion collision, a grinding maw of new metal tearing itself forward through grit, blood, and blown‑out amplifiers.
 
This rotation drags you face‑first through February’s ugliest mutations—riffs that crush like collapsing concrete, rhythms that stalk with cold intent, and vocals that rip through the mix like exposed wiring. These are the sounds that left dents, split teeth, and carved their presence into the room long after the last vibration died.
 
This week’s choice cuts were torn from the bone of the following releases—records that bled hardest under repeat impact and refused to let go:
 

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1) Ritual Arcana – “Ritual Arcana” (69 individual track streams)

A debut steeped in occult‑charged heavy rock and doom, forged by a trio with deep lineage in classic doom and supernatural hard‑rock traditions. The album blends stalking riffs, ritualistic atmospheres, and a vintage heaviness shaped by its veteran lineup, creating a sound rooted in mysticism and slow‑burn power.
 
2) Toothless – “Past Futures” (56 individual track streams)

A technical, aggressive metalcore release built on mathy structures, sharp rhythmic shifts, and high‑precision execution. It leans heavily into progressive metalcore tendencies — dense, tightly wound, and designed for listeners who like complexity fused with force.
 
3) Gorrch – “Stillamentum” (46 individual track streams)

A suffocating, dissonant black‑metal record from Italy, steeped in claustrophobic tension, harsh chord structures, and unrelenting intensity. It marks the duo’s return with a style that pushes into experimental territory while remaining firmly rooted in bleak, atmospheric extremity.
 
4) Remote – “Parish” (39 individual track streams)

A blackened sludge work defined by thick low‑end pressure, dragging riffs, and a hypnotic, ritualistic sense of pacing. The album leans into darkness and slow‑burn immersion, drawing from the heavier, more meditative edges of sludge and doom traditions.
 
5) Under – “What Happened in Roundwood” (29 individual track streams)

An unclassifiable collision of sludge, noise rock, doom, avant‑garde impulses, and warped prog sensibilities. Angular riffs, dissonant harmonies, odd time signatures, and a confrontational atmosphere make this album intentionally uncomfortable, narratively strange, and sharply original.
 
6) Cattle Hammer – “Dark Thoughts With Lights Out” (18 individual track streams)

A towering, bleak fusion of doom, drone, sludge, and blackened doom. Long, crushing tracks move with agonizing slowness, loaded with oppressive atmosphere and thick, noise‑drenched heaviness. A debut built entirely around weight, misery, and suffocating sonic density.
 
7) Matriphagy – “From Nothing to Nothingness” (18 individual track streams)

A brutal death‑metal outburst driven by frantic blast beats, savage riffing, and guttural‑to‑screeching vocal extremes. Chaotic, violent, and unrelenting, the EP also includes a twisted reworking of a Cryptopsy track, underscoring its commitment to technical ferocity.

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⚔️ Total Streams: 348 ↓ 31% - A noticeable reduction in overall listening, largely because time was spent with family during half‑term rather than at full listening capacity.
🩸 Total Artists Streamed: 24 ↑34% - Despite the lower stream count, listening was spread across more artists — a broader range than last week.
⚔️ New Albums: 24 ↑ 27% - More new releases entered rotation, showing continued interest in fresh material even with reduced total listening time.
🩸 New Tracks Streamed: 113 ↑38% - A strong increase in new tracks explored, highlighting variety over volume this week.
⚔️ Total Listening Time: 1 day, 5 hours ↓ 27% - Listening sessions were shorter overall, consistent with spending more time offline.
🩸 Average Streams per Day: 50 ↓ 31% - Daily activity followed the same downward trend as total streams for the week.
⚔️ Most Active Day: 106 streams on February 13th ↓ 2% - The week still started with a solid peak before the slowdown set in.

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⚔️ Top Artist: Ritual Arcana (69 individual track streams)

🩸 Top Album: Ritual Arcana – “Ritual Arcana” (69 individual track streams)

⚔️ Top Track: Gorrch – “Vorago” (9 streams)

⚔️🩸 The New Flesh Index Playlist #8 (30 biggest tracks of the week)

PLAYLIST: 🩸 THE NEW FLESH INDEX — WEEKLY ROTATION #7 Friday, February 6th to Thursday, February 12th, 2026

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A curated descent into the tracks that defined February 6th – February 12th: the most vital, corrosive, forward‑leaning new metal of the week, delivered with the slow, air‑starved crush of something sinking under its own mass. This rotation sinks fully into February’s churn, crawling through the filthiest new strains on offer and locking onto the sounds that bruised deepest, smothered the room, or clung like a tightening coil long after the final impact.

 

This week’s choice cuts were stripped from the following release(s)
 

Eximperitus – “Meritoriousness of Equanimity”

The gravitational centre of the entire week, streamed 90 times, making it both the top artist and the most‑played album. Its labyrinthine death metal architecture set the tone for the rotation from start to finish.

MØL – “Dreamcrush”

A major presence throughout the cycle with 79 track streams, its soaring blackgaze intensity cutting through the week with relentless momentum.

Shine – “Wrathcult”

With 77 streams, this release carved deep into the mid‑week sessions, its serrated edge leaving a clear mark on the week’s overall texture.

Shields – “Death Connection”

Although not included in the playlist, it still landed 59 streams, becoming one of the most significant outside‑rotation forces of the week.

Nightmarer – “Hell Interface”

A dense, disorienting slab that contributed 45 track streams, adding weight and atmosphere to the darker corners of the rotation.

Blacklight Holywater – “Not Here Not Gone”

Another off‑playlist standout, streamed 42 times, its bleak, shadow‑drenched tone fitting seamlessly into the week’s overall mood.

Syberia – “Quan tot s'apagui”

A sweeping instrumental counterbalance with 42 streams, offering atmosphere without easing the intensity of the broader cycle.

Urne – “Setting Fire to the Sky”

With 27 streams, this track added a dose of muscular, melodic heft to the week’s listening profile.

Armed for Apocalypse – “Fist Like Feathers”

The most‑played individual track of the week at 17 streams, standing out as the blunt‑force highlight amid heavier full‑length rotations.

Pilori – “Lèse-Majesté”

A venomous single that pulled in 15 streams, holding its own against the week’s dominant albums and adding a sharp, caustic edge to the rotation.

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WEEKLY LISTENING REPORT — FEBRUARY 6–12
 
⚔️ Total Streams: 504 — a 32% increase, marking one of the heaviest surges in recent rotation. The bulk of that weight came from a handful of records that demanded repeat immersion, with Eximperitus and MØL in particular pulling the week into deeper, more obsessive territory.
🩸 Total Artists Streamed: 18 — down 38%, reflecting a much tighter focus. This was a week defined by fixation rather than exploration, with a small circle of bands dominating the atmosphere from start to finish.
⚔️ New Albums: 19 — a 35% drop, though still a substantial intake for a week where repeat plays carried most of the load. Even with the narrowed scope, new material continued to carve out space in the rotation.
🩸 New Tracks Streamed: 82 — down only 4%, holding nearly steady despite contraction elsewhere. Fresh tracks continued to feed the edges of the listening cycle, but the gravitational pull of a few dominant releases kept the centre of the week firmly anchored.
⚔️ Total Listening Time: 1 day, 15 hours — a 30% rise, signalling longer, more immersive sessions. Much of that time was spent locked into the dense, ritualistic weight of Eximperitus and the atmospheric punishment of Nightmarer.
🩸 Average Streams per Day: 72 — up 31%, showing consistent pressure throughout the week rather than isolated spikes. The rotation stayed heavy from start to finish.
⚔️ Most Active Day: 108 streams on February 11th — a 15% increase, standing as the week’s clear peak. This was the day where the listening pattern tipped fully into saturation.

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⚔️ Top Artist: Eximperitus (90 individual track streams)

🩸  Top Album: Eximperitous – “Meritoriousness of Equanimity” (90 track streams)

 

⚔️ Top Track: Armed for Apocalypse – “Fists Like Feathers” (17 streams)

⚔️🩸 The New Flesh Index Playlist #7 (30 biggest tracks of the week)

PLAYLIST: 🩸 THE NEW FLESH INDEX — WEEKLY ROTATION #6 Friday, January 30th to Thursday, February 5th, 2026

 

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A curated descent into the tracks that defined January 30th – February 5th: the most vital, corrosive, forward‑leaning new metal of the week, delivered with the slow, air‑starved crush of something sinking under its own mass. This rotation hauls in some of the final January releases — the last convulsions of the month — crawling through the filthiest strains they offer, locking onto the sounds that bruised deepest, smothered the room, or clung like a tightening coil long after the final impact.

 

This week’s choice cuts were stripped from the following release(s)

 

Poppy – “Empty Hands”

Aendsnigh – “Sun Eater”

Gros Enfant Mort – “Les Sang Des Pierres”

Concrete – “Absent Morality”

Temptress – “hear”

Furi Helium – “No Altar Stands Eternal”

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⚔️ Total streams: 384 ↓ 1% vs. last week

🩸  Total Artists streamed: 29 ↑ 53%

⚔️ New Albums: 29 ↑ 39%

🩸  New Tracks streamed: 116 ↑ 4%

⚔️ Total Listening Time: 1 day, 2 hours ↓ 14%

🩸  Average Streams: 55 per day ↑ 0%

⚔️ Most Active Streaming Day: 92 on February 2nd ↑ 14%

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⚔️ Top Artist: Poppy (62 streams)

 🩸  Top Album: Poppy – “Empty Hands” (62 tracks streams)

⚔️ Top Track: Gros Enfant Mort – “Paillason 4ever” (8 streams)

🩸 The New Flesh Index Playlist #5 (30 biggest tracks of the week)

PLAYLIST: 🩸 THE NEW FLESH INDEX #1 - MONTHLY ROTATION - January 2026

 

My Top January 2026 compiled by Deezer
 
⚔️ Total minutes streamed: 6147
🩸  Total Artists streamed: 54
⚔️ Total Tracks streamed: 352
 
🩸  Top 10 Artists (minutes streamed): 
 
1). Will Haven (916 minutes)
2). The Ruins of Beverast (361 minutes)
3). Megadeth (330 minutes)
4). Vesseles (290 Minutes)
5). Null Existence (265 minutes)
6). Death Cult (251 minutes)
7). Ov Sulfur (227 minutes)
8). Pict (205 minutes)
9). Kreator (196 minutes)
10). Vermocracy (190 minutes)
 
⚔️ Top Tracks (most streamed)
 
1). Gravity Chasm – “Decompiled” (25 times)
2). Pict – “III.Searching” (11 times)
3). Pict – IV. The Nomad (10 times)
4). Pict – “II. Condemned” (10 times)
5). Redivider – “Bask in the Rot” (10 times”
6). Redivider – “Quartred & Devoured” (10 times)
7). Deadwood – “Tales of Massacre” (10 times)
8). Vesseles – “Perpetual Chasm of Black Mirrors” (9 times”
9). Semper Acerbus – “One Day At A Time” (9 times”
10. B e s o t – “feral escalation” (9 times”
 
🩸  The New Flesh Index Monthly (Jan 2026) 49 tracks, 3hrs 31mins of music featuring, Pict, Redivider, Semper Acerbus, b e s o t, Lionheart, Deadwood, Death Cult, Will Haven, Denominate, Kreator, Force Carrier, Viserion, Bite Down, Megadeth, Aendsnigh, The Ruins of Beverast, Vesseles, Null Existence, Carrion Vael, Blanket.

PLAYLIST: 🩸 THE NEW FLESH INDEX — WEEKLY ROTATION #5 Friday, January 23rd to Thursday, January 29th, 2026

 

January 23rd → January 29th, 2026

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A curated descent into the tracks that defined January 23rd – January 29th: the most vital, corrosive, forward‑leaning new metal of the week. This rotation drags through the sounds that actually left a mark — the ones that scraped bone, rewired pulse, or refused to let go once they sank in.

This week’s choice cuts pull from across the spectrum: the final, self‑titled statement from Megadeth, a closing chapter delivered with cold precision; the first full‑length from hateful hardcore metal unit DEATH CULT, featuring ex‑Purgatory (FR) members — a debut that swings like a rust‑pitted blade and leaves the wound open; Vesseles – “Home”, a symphonic black metal odyssey built on piano‑driven motifs, towering orchestral surges, jagged dissonance, and wounded melodic turns carved straight from personal upheaval; Soen – “Reliance”, a progressive metal offering that tightens their melodic discipline while sinking deeper into shadowed emotional terrain, each movement shaped by shifting dynamics and a relentless sense of control; the fire‑and‑fury assault of Viserion – “Fire and Blood”; and the surgical brutality of Carrion Vael – “Slay Utterly”. Every entry earned its place by force, not familiarity.

What remains is a leaner, more volatile rotation — built on impact rather than excess, every cut chosen for the way it bruised, rattled, or refused to loosen its grip throughout the week. A clean incision to open 2026 — and the flesh only gets stranger from here.

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⚔️ Total streams: 387 ↑ 29% vs. last week
🩸  Total Artists streamed: 19 ↑ 27%
⚔️ New Albums: 21 ↑ 45%
🩸  New Tracks streamed: 112 ↑ 18%
⚔️ Total Listening Time: 1 day, 6 hours ↑ 31%
🩸  Average Streams: 55 per day ↑ 28%
⚔️ Most Active Streaming Day: 79 on January 23rd, 2026 ↑ 5%

⚔️ Top Artist: Megadeth (85 streams)

🩸  Top Album: Soen – “Reliance” (73 streams)

⚔️ Top Track: Vesseles– “Perpetual Chasm of Black Mirrors” (9 streams)

🩸  The New Flesh Index Playlist #5

PLAYLIST: 🩸 THE NEW FLESH INDEX — WEEKLY ROTATION #3 Friday, January 9th to Thursday, January 15th, 2026

January 9th → January 15th, 2026

 

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A curated descent into the tracks that defined January 9th – January 15th: the most vital, corrosive, forward‑leaning new metal of the week, stitched together with a few choice relics from the vault. This rotation drags through the sounds that actually left a mark — the ones that scraped bone, rewired pulse, or refused to let go once they sank in.

This week’s choice cuts open with the hardcore‑driven ferocity of Lionheart – "Valley of Death II", a record built on concrete‑thick groove and street‑level venom. Bite Down – "Violent Playground" detonates with a hybrid of nu‑metal, deathcore, and metalcore, swinging between swaggering bounce, serrated breakdowns, and full‑throttle aggression. Voidhammer – "Noxious Emissions" drags things into a suffocating strain of death‑doom, thick with decay and pressure, while Inborn Tendency – "Let There Be Sin" pushes into progressive death metal, all sharp turns, technical muscle, and shifting structures.

What remains is a leaner, more volatile rotation — one built on impact rather than excess, each cut chosen for the way it bruised, rattled, or refused to loosen its grip throughout the week.

A clean incision to open 2026 — and the flesh only gets stranger from here.

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If you want this to lean even more venomous, more atmospheric, or more stripped‑back, I can tune it further.

⚔️ Total streams: 467 ↑ 34% vs. last week
🩸  Total Artists streamed: 25 ↑ 109%
⚔️ Total Albums streamed: 29 ↑ 45%
🩸  New Tracks streamed: 152 ↑ 64%
⚔️ Total Listening Time: 1 day, 8 hours ↑ 28%
🩸  Average Streams: 67 per day ↑ 34%
⚔️ Most Active Streaming Day: 100 on January 11th, 2026 ↓ 3%

 Top Artist: Lionheart (66 streams)

🩸  Top Album: Lionheart – “Valley of Death II” (66 streams)

⚔️ Top Track: Lionheart– “Icecold” (9 streams)

🩸  The New Flesh Index Playlist #3

ESSENTIAL METAL RELEASE(S): WK #2 Monday, January 5th, 2026 to Sunday, January 11th, 2026

 

Week 2 of THE SLUDGELORD’s Essential Albums brings six uncompromising releases from across the underground, each one demanding attention in its own distinct and punishing way.

The Album of the Week goes to Redivider with “Sounds of Malice”, a debut full‑length that channels the ferocity of 90s Florida death metal while delivering it with modern precision and a striking sense of narrative weight. The promo accompanying the release states that “from the first note to the last, Redivider seeks to overwhelm the listener with stories of death, decay, addiction, ritual, and myth,” and that intent bleeds through every suffocating moment. The result is an album rooted in death metal tradition yet sharpened for the present—tightly constructed, immersive, and impossible to ignore.

Force Carrier follow with “Intranuclear”, a dense, irradiated surge of technical and progressive death metal. The band navigate spiralling structures and high‑pressure riffing with precision, creating a record that feels both cerebral and crushing. It’s a release built for deep immersion, revealing new layers each time you return to it.

B e s o t deliver “Beneath Creation”, an uncompromising slab of dissonant sludge that moves with the force of something ancient and unyielding. The album unfolds with tectonic heaviness—gnarled riffs, oppressive atmosphere, and a sense of looming dread that never loosens its grip. It’s a record built on tension and abrasion, ritualistic in pacing and utterly consuming in tone, the kind of release that drags you under rather than inviting you in.

With “The Nomad”, Pict offer a bleak and wandering vision of extremity. The band describe their sound as blending Black, Death, Doom, and Sludge into a uniquely miserable strain, and that ethos saturates every moment of the record. Raw aggression collides with bleak atmosphere and a sense of restless movement, pulling the listener through desolate, wind‑scoured terrain. It’s harsh, mythic, and steeped in a gloom that feels both ancient and immediate.

Voidhammer unleash “Noxious Emissions”, a filthy collision of OSDM grit and suffocating doom. The record lurches between cavernous, old‑school death metal weight and slower, crushing passages that feel designed to smother the listener. It’s raw, hostile, and steeped in decay—an album that revels in heaviness without sacrificing momentum, delivering a sound that’s both primitive and punishing.
Closing out the week, Lionheart return with “Valley of Death II”, a bruising sequel steeped in metallic hardcore swagger. The band double down on their signature blend of anthemic aggression and thick, street‑level crunch, delivering a record built for impact and immediacy. Confident, punishing, and unmistakably Lionheart.

Alongside these new releases, I’ve also been revisiting the back catalogue of Will Haven—a reminder of just how enduring, atmospheric, and emotionally volatile their body of work remains.
This is THE SLUDGELORD’s Essential Albums of the Week #2. Plug in and black out. The ‘Lord has spoken.

 

⚔️ 🩸 Album of the week:
 
#15
 
⚔️ Artist: Redivider 
🩸  Title: “Sounds of Malice”
⚔️ Release date: January 9th, 2026

🩸 Genre/tags: atmospheric death metal 

🩸 Essential Release (s)
 
#9  
 
⚔️ Artist:  Force Carrier
🩸  Title: ““Intranuclear”
⚔️ Release date: January 2nd, 2026

🩸 Genre/tags: progressive metal, sci fi, instrumental 

#10
 
⚔️ Artist:  B e s o t
🩸  Title: “beneath creation”
⚔️ Release date: January 1st, 2026

🩸 Genre/tags: sludge, dissonant 

#13
 
⚔️ Artist:  Pict 
🩸  Title: “The Nomad” 
⚔️ Release date: January 5th, 2026 

🩸 Genre/tags: black metal, post metal, sludge, progressive metal 

#16

⚔️ Artist: Voidhammer 
🩸  Title: “Noxious Emissions”
⚔️ Release date: January 9th, 2026 

🩸 Genre/tags:  osdm , doom 

#18

⚔️ Artist: Lionheart 
🩸  Title: “Valley of Death II”
⚔️ Release date: January 9th, 2026

🩸 Genre/tags:  hardcore, metalcore