For as long as is necessary, I'll open this weekly post with a fundraiser for someone affected by the federal occupation of Minnesota, then move on to the fun stuff. I will be making a donation to every fundraiser I suggest, and I encourage you to do the same. Sound good? Okay, glad we're in agreement on that.

Today's fundraiser is a rent relief fund organized by Grace Lutheran Church for families in Northeast Minneapolis (where I live) who have been financially affected by detention, job loss, or being afraid to leave their homes. You can donate here. 

​Okay, let's get to the music, shall we?

First up is actually another fundraiser. This collection is raising money for Community Aid Network Minnesota. There's quite a variety on this collection. There's a lot of folk and indie rock, but also some punk and metal. It's cheap, it's for a good cause, and I believe it's Bandcamp Friday. So yeah, you should buy it. 

This one is a week old, but that's new enough, right? Blackwater Holylight have been doing the heavy music/pretty female vocals thing for a while, and the new album Not Here Not Gone is a solid addition to their catalog. I'll admit that there isn't really a track on this that's jumping out at me yet, but I find the whole thing to be very listenable. 

Virga is a female-fronted rock band with a lo-fi, folky sound. That may not sound like a good fit for a heavy music blog, but there's some noise rock grit to some of their songs. But whatever - my site, my rules. Their new EP The Perfect Freedom of Single Necessity includes a song, "Via Negativa," that I put on my young Best of 2026 playlist after one listen. Is there a lyric that better encapsulates the current mood than "I'm not scared, I'm terrified"? I think not. 

Stephen Brodsky is back with another collection of acoustic covers of hardcore/metal songs. I'll admit that I'm not familiar with a lot of these tracks, but it includes a cover of "Under the Surface" by Neurosis, so that earns an instant recommendation. 

Switching gears completely, Chat Pile is back today with Masks, a 7 inch release on Sub Pop. This is nothing like the the gentler Chat Pile we heard on my number one album of 2025, In The Earth Again. This is visceral and furious, possibly one of the heaviest songs the Oklahoma boys have recorded so far. And it's backed with their cover of Nirvana's "Sifting," which also completely rules. I'm kicking myself for not ordering a copy of the physical record. 

Our second Chat Pile-related release and our second benefit compilation of the day. Escape to Weird Mountain is a collection by Minneapolis-based labels Learning Curve Records and Forbidden Place records. This collection benefits the MN Immigrants Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), an organization doing a lot of great work to help people affected by the ICE occupation. Among other tracks, this collection features songs by Best of 2025 finisher In Lieu and a (as far as I know) previously unreleased demo of Chat Pile's "I am Dog Now." This version is rawer and swampier than the album version. Cool stuff!

Mout Palatine has a new spacy doom album out today that grabbed me immediately. There's a touch of Scott Kelly in the vocals (hopefully provided by a less problematic person), and anything that even partially recalls Neurosis immediately gets my attention. 

Finally, here's a new single by the anonymous Canadian math-rockers Angine de Poitrine. An online buddy tipped me to these guys only yesterday, and lo and behold they dropped a new track a day later. This one scratches a lot of my particular itches - they're a two-piece masked band that makes heavy instrumental music, all things that work for for me for reasons I can't even explain. They have such a unique, wonky sound that there's no way you'd confuse them with any of the other heavy instrumental bands we discuss frequently around these parts. Thanks for the recommendation, Zesty.

Stay strong, everyone. They will not win.