IoMP 170: What Have You Been Listening To? — Best Albums of 2026 So Far feat. Chris Thrash
We're officially halfway through 2026.
Hundreds of albums have already fought for our attention. Some were fantastic for a week before disappearing into the endless void of new releases. Others survived.
Those are the albums we're interested in.
On a special edition of What Have You Been Listening To?, Collin and Tom are joined by Chris Thrash to answer one deceptively difficult question:
What are the five best albums we've heard in 2026 so far?
Each person brings a Top 5 plus one honourable mention to the table, and considering there are 18 spots available between the three lists, you'd think there would be plenty of agreement… there isn't.
Three Metalheads, Three VERY Different Lists.
Chris brings plenty of thrash and old-school death metal, while Collin ventures through prog, and death metal. Meanwhile, Tom's picks range from the core, to blackened modern metal and epic MDM.
And Somehow, That's Only Part of the Episode.
If you've heard “What Have You Been Listening To?” before, you know perfectly well that nobody is capable of simply naming an album and moving on. Chris's appearance sends the show into glorious chaos.
There are debates over physical media and why buying a game case without a disc is basically like ordering coffee and receiving the beans (that the barista can take away at any moment.) There are stories about reviewing albums for Banger TV and the difficulty of finding something constructive to say about music you dislike.
There are discussions about concert ticket prices, early-2000s punk, beer, deathcore, prog, Metallica, album production and whatever completely unrelated thought happens to enter someone's brain next.
In other words, it's WHYBLT functioning exactly as intended.
Eighteen releases enter the rankings. Three survive at #1. And by December, there's every chance these lists could look completely different.
So which albums are leading the race for Album of the Year — and which records should you add to your own listening queue? There's only one way to find out.
Click play and join Collin, Tom and Chris as they rank the best metal albums of 2026 so far.
DISCLAIMER: Copyright Exceptions under the Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42), allowance is made for "fair dealing" for the purposes of criticism or review.
