Heavy Duty – July 2026

Written by – Gareth Endean-Pitt

Welcome to Heavy Duty, the first in a monthly series bringing you a round up of the best new releases from the British underground metal scene. If you’re looking for the most brutal, angry, loud and uncompromising music this sceptred isle has to offer then you’ve come to right place.

Traditionally the summer is slow for new music, but July has broken that tradition with some exceptional new albums from stalwarts of the scene and newcomers alike. And if you want to catch up on the best British metal of the year to date then we’ve provided a handy little playlist at the end of the article too. But let us tarry no more. Onward, into the darkness…

Witchsorrow – The Devil and All His Works

Released: 3 July 2026

WitchSorrow’s latest album starts with a tolling bell and a riff so evocative of classic Black Sabbath that you fear Tony Iommi might turn up on their doorstep demanding his share of the royalties. It is however merely the intro, a fitting nod to the band who remain doom metal’s key touchstone. It quickly becomes clear that The Devil and All His Works is far more than mere Sabbath worship. Dues are paid, of course, but WitchSorrow do more than enough to put their own spin on the genre’s sound.

All the usual elements are there: funereal riffing, fuzzy, down tuned guitars and a propensity for misery – it is a formula WitchSorrow have perfected over their career and one they utilise to perfection on the opening salvo of Omnia Finiuntur and Bacchus; but it is when they mix things up that the record really comes into its own. Up-tempo ragers Hades Chains and In Triumph We Rot!!! give The Devil and All His Works a dynamism often lacking in the doom genre; but regardless of the pace of the songs the entire album is laced with a propulsive energy fuelled by vocalist Necroskull’s howl of a voice, a fine line in classic soloing and a tight, monolithic rhythm section underpinning the anguish and anger of the songs themselves.

Even so, it’s fair to say that the album doesn’t stray too far from the doom template, but there is enough nuance that it never feels generic or tired. And as the album draws to a close with A Quintessence of Dust, an eight minute tour de force that brings together all the elements they’ve toyed with across the previous six tracks, you realise that while The Devil And All His Works is excellent in its own right, there could well be even more to come. WitchSorrow have made their move for a seat at doom’s top table, now we must wait and see if they can build on this and truly earn their place amongst the big boys.

Mountainscape – Traversing Realms

Released: 24 July 2026

What exactly constitutes an album? It’s a trickier question than it might first appear. Mountainscape’s latest, Traversing Realms, is just 3 songs long and clocks in at under the 30 minute mark, but it manages to pack more creativity, emotional heft and technical ability in that half hour than many albums twice, even thrice, as long.

Describing themselves as cinematic post-metal, Mountainscape’s music is widescreen music, as evocative and stirring as any epic film. It swoops, it soars, it rises high above you before crashing down with destructive force and reminding you how beautiful sheer crushing heaviness can be. Traversing Realms is a largely instrumental affair, the only vocals – provided by Amaya Lopez-Carromero (better known by her Maud the Moth stage name) – are on opener Dune, and in truth they serve more as an additional instrument than any kind of traditional vocal line. But at no point do you feel the songs are lacking anything, the lush instrumentation more than speaks for itself, words would be redundant when the music conveys as much as this.

Treading similar ground to Russian Circles or Pelican, Mountainscape have mastered the ability to add layer upon layer to their songs to create a wholly immersive experience. As Dune gives way to The Elder Scrolls you find yourself getting lost in the worlds they have created. Reality becomes a mere afterthought, time a long-forgotten myth and on final song Closure the band allow themselves the space and time to build to a powerful, crashing crescendo before concluding the album with a sumptuous string section delicately placing you back in your humdrum existence and all that is left is the desire to dive straight back in.

The British post-metal scene is in rude health at the moment with bands like Dimscua, The Grey and Codebreaker leading the charge, but with Traversing Realms, Mountainscape may have topped the lot. And it only took them three songs to do it.

Tomb Slab – Tomb Slab

Released: 17 July 2026

You know where you are with a band called Tomb Slab, don’t you? They either play dark, ugly, bruising metal or some kind of indie rock from a band who have seriously misjudged the naming conventions of their genre (see: Death From Above 1979 or The Brian Jonestown Massacre). Fortunately, Tomb Slab are very much from column A and to double down they’ve even gone and called the album Tomb Slab too. Sadly, they miss out on the unholy trinity by foolishly not naming one of their songs after themselves too, but it’s a minor complaint on an otherwise solid debut.

Their particular brand of metal is riff-heavy sludge powered by a surprising and insistent groove on songs like The Butcher, Tomb of Flesh, and Toils of the Unclean Spirit. The vocals are harsh, but not impenetrable, and the whole thing has far better production than a sludge album has any right to. Everything feels clear in the mix but they never lose the filthy edge required to stop it all sounding too sanitised.

For a debut release Tomb Slab does a sterling job of announcing the band and defining their core sound, but while the songs themselves feel distinct enough from each other to stop it becoming sterile, there is perhaps not enough variety across the album as a whole. Most of the songs sit rigidly in the mid-tempo range, built around admittedly excellent riffs, but it would be nice to have a couple more moments when they break from the formula as they do on the urgent Rawhead. Again, this is a fairly minor gripe, and with a run time of about half an hour the album certainly doesn’t drag at all.

It will be interesting to see whether the band stick to their guns on future albums or look to diversify their sound. For now though if you’re looking for a, ahem, slab of mosh pit friendly, filthy sounding underground metal than this album is more than worthy of your time.

Sunswarm – Those Who Do Not Build Must Burn

Released: 22 July 2026

Sunswarm describe themselves as “UK Industrial Noise. Darkness.” and it is an entirely accurate descriptor. Now, if your experience of industrial music is more towards the commercial and marketable end of the spectrum, say Nine Inch Nails or Stabbing Westward’ then you might be in for a shock to the system here. In fact, even for those more acquainted with the darker, nastier side of industrial may well still find this a brutal and harrowing listen. It is a visceral assault to the senses. The guitars cut like razorblades, the drums pound like heavy machinery and the vocals scream to the very darkest reaches of your soul. Distortion is layered upon every inch of the rhythmic battering and even in the brief moments of respite an uneasiness pervades. If Hell has factories, then this is their soundtrack.
Clearly then, this is not an album for everyone. It is uneasy listening with a bleak and blistered world view. But if you’re in the headspace for some sonic punishment or you’re a fan of bands like Frontierer and Godflesh then there is plenty on Those Who Do Not Build Must Burn to get your teeth into and the deeper you delve into it the more it reveals itself to you.

While the wall of noise that Sunswarm produce is very impressive it does sometimes mean the individual elements are lost. The vocals sometimes feel a little low in the mix, engulfed by the storm around them, which is a shame as when they do break through as on SOUR/// with its repeated ‘you will shut your mouth’ refrain, it elevates the songs to new heights.

Ultimately, Those Who Do Not Build Must Burn is a ferocious and unique voice in the British underground scene and there is more than enough promise on this debut to invest your time, money and perhaps a little of your soul into, because while it would take a fairly drastic musical about face for Sunswarm to become a mainstream success there is every chance that they could well become a grimy hidden gem of the UK underground.

To hear all these bands and more, check out our British Underground Metal playlist here: