THE NEW FLESH INDEX: 🩸 Artists That Defined My Week #38 Sept 11th – Sep 17th, 2026

 🎧 This week felt like a genuine three-way contest. Warforged, Chat Pile and Miscreance all spent time at the front of the pack, while a healthy spread of artists, albums and tracks kept things moving throughout the week. Although total listening dipped from the Mastodon-heavy #37, the variety remained high and the listening felt far more evenly distributed.

 

 

⚔️ Weekly Breakdown

📊 541 plays (-26.4%)
🔱 14 artists (+16.7%)
💿 23 albums (-4.2%) (not full run-throughs)
🎧 150 tracks (-13.3%)
⏱ 44 hrs (-22.8%)
📈 77 plays/day (-26.7%)
🔥 Peak: Sep 16 — 127 plays (-17.0%)

 

 

🔱 Top Artists

🔱 Warforged — 160 plays
🔱 Chat Pile — 160 plays
🔱 Miscreance — 114 plays

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💿 Top Albums

💿 Chat Pile — “Who Loves the Sun” (80 plays)
💿 Miscreance — “Convergence” (61 plays)
💿 Warforged — “The Grove Almanac” (58 plays)

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🎧 Top Tracks

🎧 Chat Pile — Creature (11 plays)
🎧 Chat Pile — October All the Time (10 plays)
🎧 Chat Pile — Deep Blue (9 plays)

 

 

🎵 Top 30 Tracks Playlist

🎧 What's taken over your listening this week?

✅ Final verdict:

 

• Much more balanced than the Mastodon-heavy #37
• Warforged and Chat Pile finished dead level on plays
• Miscreance remained a major presence throughout the week
• Artist and album variety stayed high
• Chat Pile claimed the top album and all three top track positions
• A week driven by exploration rather than a single-artist obsession

⚔️ #38 feels like a genuinely competitive week, with Warforged, Chat Pile and Miscreance all vying for attention, but Chat Pile ultimately providing the defining soundtrack.

 

Band info: Chat Pile | Warforged | Miscreance

DISCOG DISSECTION: Warforged, From “I: Voice” to “The Grove | Almanac"

🔱 Artist: Warforged (USA)
⚙️ Genre: Progressive/blackened death metal
💿 Studio albums ranked: 3

📝 This is a personal deep dive into Warforged’s catalogue following the release of “The Grove | Almanac”, their third full-length album, issued on 14 August 2026 through The Artisan Era.

For the uninitiated, Warforged broadly inhabit the progressive and blackened death metal sphere, although their atmospheric, experimental and increasingly deathcore-influenced music is not always easy to categorise neatly.

Full disclosure: I had no prior knowledge of the band before this record or, if I did, I cannot recall hearing them. Nevertheless, I was enthusiastic about checking it out, given the quality of releases associated with the label. This includes the brilliant new record by Inferi, which I previously lauded in another article.

Admittedly, I was not particularly enamoured with “The Grove | Almanac” on first listen. I did not even make it through the entire album, quickly writing it off before moving on to the next new release. What drew me back was the positive response the record received. I began to wonder whether I had simply heard it at the wrong time or had not been in the right mood for it.

I therefore decided to give the album another chance, and I am glad that I did because it really is fantastic. That second listen prompted me to explore the rest of Warforged’s catalogue.

I would certainly recommend checking them out if you are a fan of Inferi or progressive and blackened death metal more generally, particularly music that balances technical extremity with a more atmospheric approach. However, I will leave you to be the judge.

The listening statistics provide some additional context, although the extra time spent exploring newer releases will inevitably be reflected in the play counts. Despite the final ranking order, I genuinely enjoy every album included.

 

📊 Ranking
 
💿 3 — “The Grove | Sundial” (2022)
💿 2 — “The Grove | Almanac” (2026)
💿 1 — “I: Voice” (2019)

🎧 Warforged listening stats during this deep dive (since the release of “The Grove | Almanac”):
 
• Total plays: 197
 
• “The Grove | Almanac” (2026) — 95 plays
• “The Grove | Sundial” (2022) — 52 plays
• “I: Voice” (2019) — 50 plays

 
🔥 Top tracks:

• A Bustle in Your Hedgerow (“The Grove | Almanac”) — 12 plays
• Bliss Joined to the Bane (“The Grove | Sundial”) — 6 plays
• Beneath the Forest Floor (“I: Voice”) — 6 plays

❓ Are you a fan of this band?
💬 How would you rank these?
👇 What's your favourite?