Stuff I liked in 2026
Table of contents
List-in-progress of metal albums, books, and games I liked in 2026. Metal limited to 2026 releases, the rest whenever.
Heavy metal§
- Turpitude — Mordoré (black)
- Wildhunt — Aletheia (epic thrash)
- Pict - The Nomad (black/death/doom)
- coffret de bijoux — dyn vywjil nen jyn dij nendindalnen dyn lelqit nen vaw qanjiw / tremaalk' lalvunqat lalvunqat (post-black / electronic)
- The Luna Sequence — Rifts Become Passages (electronic)
- Gladenfold — Soulbound (power/melodeath)
- Cryptic Shift — Overspace & Supertime (prog/death/thrash)
- Archspire — Too Fast to Die (tech-death)
- Bloody Valkyria — Requiem - Reveries of the Dying (melodic/atmospheric black)
- Ethereal Darkness — Echoes (melodic death/black)
- A Forest of Stars — Stack Overflow In Corpse Pile Interface (avant-garde black)
- Plini — An Unnameable Desire (instrumental prog)
- Unlucky Morpheus — Gate of Hell (symphonic power)
- Fires in the Distance — Circadian Promise (death/doom)
- Gold Spire — Steps into Shadow (death / smooth jazz)
Books§
Adrian Tchaikovsky — Pretenders to the Throne of God
The latest addition to the Tyrant Philosophers series
I've alredy mentioned in previous years.
This one explores a new, Scandinavian- and Scottish-inspired corner
of the world which continues to be delightfully built,
with all sorts of fun and funny magic and gods
coexisting in a way that somehow feels entirely natural.
Like many of Tchaikovsky's works this is a tragic and brutal story of imperialist war,
but with just enough levity brought by wonderfully human characters
and playful fantasy worldbuilding.
Christopher Priest — The Inverted World
We follow Helward, a boy born to a secretive society in a strange moving city,
but the main character is the city itself.
Why does it need to move? Why do its denizens behave the way they do?
What's in the outside world, a world that seems to warp and twist in nonsensical ways?
I love a mystery story where the world itself is the secret to unravel,
and this is a good one.
China Mieville — Railsea
Another fun worldbuilding exercise, this one starting from one simple thought:
what if the Age of Sail but with trains instead of boats?
Instead of water and whales, the seas are full of tangled rails
and giant moles (and all sorts of other burrowing animals, but I'm partial to moles myself).
I wasn't entirely on board with all of the plot and characters,
but the world was fun enough to captivate me nonetheless.
Games§
Fear the Spotlight
A short and sweet PS1-style horror adventure game
about two teenage girls who sneak into their school at night
in search of ghosts from a past tragedy in the school's theater class.
Not particularly scary or intense,
but with plenty of enjoyable atmosphere and a cute story that made me smile.
Archvale
A Zelda-style adventure RPG with bullet hell combat.
The RPG mechanics felt a little half-baked to me,
and the difficulty curve got a little spiky towards the end,
but it's a solid-feeling bullet hell that I had fun playing.
Pacific Drive
An unusual mashup of genres
that happens to be perfectly up my alley:
car building game meets cosmic horror.
The graphics are beautiful and the atmosphere immaculate,
the customization deep and the story fascinating.
It's a little slow and lengthy, but the pacing is a great fit for the atmosphere —
I never felt in a hurry to get out
(except when the storm anomaly was closing in behind my car).
Pseudoregalia
A compact and beautiful PS1-inspired 3D metroidvania that's all about movement.
You explore a mysterious castle full of platforming challenges
which are often insurmountable at first but can be traversed in several ways
as you build up your kit of unlockable tricks.
Chaining moves together to jump and dash through the castle with ease
is an absolute blast all the way through,
and the game doesn't outstay its welcome,
keeping the extent of the world manageable even when you inevitably get lost for a while.
Also, you get to play dress-up with the cute goat-girl protagonist.
MOLE
The name caught my attention for obvious reasons,
but what's behind it turned out to be a brilliant horror experience.
You're a worker on a subterranean drilling vessel
headed towards some mysterious signal coming from deep within the earth.
The repetitive task of navigating the machine is punctuated
with increasingly surreal and frightening things happening around you
and the story of horror and tragedy that brought you here slowly unveiling itself.
If you liked Mouthwashing, play this one.