SONIC SELECTIONS (((o))): 🩸 August Top Picks 2026

 

August delivered no shortage of heavy hitters, and over the course of the month, I played 1667 tracks from 31 artists, across a total of 49 different records, for a total listening time of 5 days 17 hours. Overall, these are the releases that stood out most and the ones I'd most strongly recommend checking out from the new releases

📊 1667 plays (‑17%)
📆 54 avg plays/day (‑17%)
⚔️ 31 artists (+11%)
💿 49 albums (0%)
🎧 314 tracks (+7%)
⏱ 5 days, 17 hrs (‑20%)
🔥 Peak: Aug 25 — 178 plays (‑22%)

🔱 Miscreance – Reminiscence

🔱 Mastodon – Marrow Deep

🔱 Living Weapon – Death in the Family

🔱 Teeth Kids – Fake Hell

🔱 HISS – A Cheapened Crown

⚔️ Honourable Mentions

🔱 Cancer Bats – Give Me Dirt

🔱 Celophys – Neanderthal

💬 What were your standout releases from August?

THE NEW FLESH INDEX: 🩸 Artists That Defined My Week #36 Aug 28 – Sep 3, 2026

 

🎧 This week listening felt far more exploratory than #35. While Cancer Bats dominated my overall listening, on the back of their new album “Give Me Dirt”, the most-played records came from a wider range of artists, with Mastodon's “Marrow Deep” and Miscreance's “Reminiscence” competing for attention alongside a return to Cancer Bats 2012 release, “Dead Set on Living” as part of my discography deep dive . The result was a week packed with variety, even if one band still managed to tower over the rest.

🎧 Listening stats

📊 473 plays (-19.1%)
🔱 15 artists (+114.3%)
💿 24 albums (+60.0%) (not full run-throughs)
🎧 159 tracks (+42.0%)
⏱ 33 hrs (-15.4%)
📈 68 plays/day (-19.0%)
🔥 Peak: Sep 2 — 179 plays (+0.6%)

🔱 Top Artists

🔱 Cancer Bats — 257 plays
🔱 Mastodon — 74 plays
🔱 Miscreance — 53 plays

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💿 Top Albums

💿 Mastodon — “Marrow Deep” (2026) (74 plays)
💿 Miscreance — “Reminiscence” (2025) (53 plays)
💿 Cancer Bats — “Dead Set on Living” (2012) (46 plays)

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🎧 Top Tracks

🎧 Mastodon — “Barbarian's Blood” (8 plays)
🎧 Mastodon — “In the Ruins” (7 plays)
🎧 Mastodon — “Snakes for Dinner” (7 plays)

🎵 Top 30 Tracks Playlist

🎧 What do think of this playlist and what has taken over your listening this week?