I listen to a lot of music. No, really. If I’m not catching up on what my fellow writers are putting down or doing homework for the Crushed Monocle Podcast (remember that?) I’ve always got my ear to the ground. There’s so much music out there that it’s hard to keep a cohesive list. While the podcast is a great way to discuss a few records each month, I feel I’m undercutting some of the other records that got repeated spins. What’s the remedy? This column! This is The Showcase.
Hey hey! We made it through 2025! I really didn’t think we’d make it, but while we’re here, 2026 isn’t looking much better. Maybe I should try to be more positive, yeah? If that were my New Year’s Resolution, I would’ve failed already. Do people still do those? Did they ever? Who even started that anyway?
You’re probably halfway expecting me to kick off The Showcase with some snarky commentary like I did all last year. There’s plenty to talk about, too. From murder, civil unrest, political bafoonery, and the whole nine yards. But haven’t straight white men said enough already? Do you really need more play-by-plays from someone who the system benefits the most? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
Let’s be real for a second: I think we could all do with less preaching to the choir and more action against the establishment.
It’s all comment sense stuff, too, right? Stand up to bullies, help your neighbor, and rebuke authoritarian fascism. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. I guess if I had anything to add, it would be to donate to your local food banks and please, for the love of God, vote in the midterms. To quote the wise philosopher Michael Stipe: “Oh no, I’ve said too much. I haven’t said enough…”
Let’s get on with The Showcase for February 2026!
Blackwater Holylight – Not Here Not Gone
After spending nearly a decade perfecting the art of contradiction, Not Here Not Gone feels like the moment it all locks into place for the band. Rooted in doomgaze but unafraid to wander, the album seamlessly folds grunge, psyche, goth, and shoegaze into something that feels both crushing and strangely buoyant. Existential dread and hypnotic warmth coexist here without cancelling each other out. Dense, immersive, and relentlessly self-opposing, the record is a masterclass in how heaviness and hope can occupy the same space.
White Sands – White Sands
I can’t say Albuquerque, NM, is the first place that comes to mind when I think of surf, but White Sands doesn’t care, so why should I? Stripping atmosphere to the bone, this instrumental surf garage act rejects excess in favor of purpose. Naturally, there’s plenty of Dick Dale and Link Wray influences, but White Sands puts their own, almost gothic fingerprints on the genre. The result is dark, groovy, and downright cool. Think of it as late-night music for the misfits and weirdos hanging out in the shadows.
Wildhunt – Aletheia
If you’ve been following The Showcase column for the past few years, you already know there’s 2 things I always stand behind: nudity on cover art and over-the-top power metal without a shred of self-awareness. Fortunately, Wildhunt offers up both on their sophomore record, Aletheia. From operatic vocals to the savory gallops, everything about this record is so overly dramatic that I don’t know if I want to laugh at it or headbang to it. Regardless of which stance you take, you’re gonna have a blast.
Dry Cleaning – Secret Love
Moving with a certain quiet confidence, Secret Love documents small human fixations while the world outside continues to burn. (Hey, 2026 isn’t starting off much better than 2025, is it?) However, Dry Cleaning realizes the importance of finding strength in connection without ever shouting about it. Much like other records produced by or around Cate Le Bon, arrangements leave space to sit and breathe with discomfort. But beneath the swirling aesthetics, sharp wit, and deadpan delivery cut through themes of alienation, intimacy, and persistence. It’s worn-in, intentional, and rooted in a band that finally sounds at home in its own skin.
Redivider – Sounds Of Malice
Not every metal record needs a dizzying foray into neo-classical sweep picking, fighting Phrygian scales tooth and nail. Sometimes you just need honest-to-goodness death metal in its purist form. Bonus points when it’s unapologetically blunt in its delivery. From the opening moments, Sounds Of Malice lands its blows with surgical force, as Redivider provides a relentless tone that never lets up. No frills. No detours. Just riffs stacked on riffs, swinging with enough weight to cave your skull in and remind you why death metal, at its core, doesn’t need to be clever to be effective.
Ulver – Neverland
Ulver have built their entire career on refusal, and Neverland is another clean break from whatever expectations still linger. Abandoning the shadowy ’80s synth-pop lane they carved out on The Assassination of Julius Caesar, the band leans fully into atmosphere here. Mostly instrumental, Neverland feels more like an unsettling dream. Cold electronics, field recordings, and creeping melodies suggest collapse, regeneration, and quiet technological dread. There’s no mystery left to solve about Ulver’s direction, though. Their brand of black metal is long dead, and now, even structure is optional. Even while I’m writing this blurb, they’re probably already moving on to something else.
Sealer – Sealer
Fusing the queasy unease of noise rock with the blunt-force impact of hardcore, Sealer charges headfirst into a lane they refuse to stay confined within. Their sound thrives on the violence of collision, crashing into melody, giving way to moments of unexpected sensitivity and stark beauty. It’s exploratory without losing its teeth, a band unafraid to let chaos and grace exist in the same breath. Hey, that kinda sounds romantic! Sealer is anything but.
Leather.head – mud again
Despite the complexity of math rock as a genre, leather.head’s intricacy is where the feeling lives. On Mud Again, their blend of sincerity and technical prowess drifts between emo, prog, and post-rock with a calm edge. The record distills their approach perfectly: brash one moment, hushed the next, and all without ever losing direction. For all its moving parts, leather.head’s music rejects theatrics, favoring discipline, intention, and emotional weight.
Annabelle Chairlegs – Waking Up
Like a late-night crawl through the gnarliest corners of garage rock, Annabelle Chairlegs splinters grunge, blues, punk, and warped alt-rock into something loose and unvarnished. Driven by snarling wit and demo-esque production by Ty Segall, Waking Up is raw, surreal, and refreshingly free of pretension. Because you already know, here at The Showcase, we love when music chooses feel over finesse and lets the mess tell the story.
Mandy, Indiana – Urgh
You don’t really need guitars and a live drum kit to be rock n’ roll. All you need is attitude. Mandy, Indiana uses attitude as an instrument. Urgh is a wild rush of noise, racket, and abrasion, but it never gets too heavy for its own good. Even during its ugliest moments, a wink and a nudge suggest that the band probably had just as much fun creating the album as the listener does when hearing it for the first time. [check out Adam’s full review here]
BRINE – softling
A Chicago noise rock supergroup of sorts, BRINE is a wall of ugly aggression featuring members of Unico, Meth, and Carnivores at Grace. From start to finish, softling is an unrelenting whirlwind of hardcore, sludge, and metal, acting as an onslaught of punches to the ribs, kicks to the shins, and face stomps. Doesn’t that sound pleasant? Sure it does!