Album Review: Distant – Into Despair (Century Media Records)

The most personal and emotional piece of work to date, ‘Into Despair’ is the brand-new album from European deathcore heavyweights, Distant. It is out on November 6th, 2026, via Century Media Records. An album exploring real-life struggles, loss, and the shared grief that connects humanity.

How do we feel about Distant moving away from creating conceptual, fantasy and sci-fi based music? Personally, I don’t mind it. The way I see it, if this is the album they felt they needed to make then this is the album we have. The listener doesn’t get to decide how a band’s creativity is showcased, and I do believe change is a good thing, mostly.

Distant’s focus on misery, albeit warped by contemplative ideas, contrasting touches, and a progressive vein of hope, doesn’t change one important thing about them here. They’re still a deathcore band and ‘Into Despair’ is a deathcore album.

Opening with The World, Distant set the heavy bar at an impossibly high point. It’s effectively just an intro, but the slamming, screeching, and roaring combination is so intense, it sticks. Then it’s straight into Nothing Left to Hate, and I genuinely don’t know what sounds more potent, Alan’s feral and passionate vocals or Rene’s blast beat drum style. It’s a f**king beast of a track.

Distant are only getting started though and the title track has an emotional intensity that puts this album on a higher plateau than other modern deathcore releases. Especially when it comes with a teeth-shattering breakdown too. That rage, the kind that comes through streaming eyes and gritted teeth, is further showcased in the likes of Spirit, Circle of Vultures, and The Shallow Gaze too.

Each is blistering, savage, and so damn addictive. Distant proving that by opening up this side of themselves, a sobering personal side, they can reach a whole new level. Delivering, arguably, some of their most concentrated deathcore music to date. You’ll be hard pressed to find tracks that don’t go as hard as the likes of Veil of Paranoia, Desolation, and All Will Be (N)One. The world feels so broken, we’re all desperately holding on for something to give us hope, and despair runs rampant. Can anyone blame Distant for producing a record this intense?

I love it and I think there are many tracks on it that sit alongside the best this band has produced previously. Thirteen tracks might feel like a lot, but there’s a surprising amount of variety throughout and very little desensitisation. Come the last part of the record, I was as invested as I was at the start so eagerly enjoyed the aggression of Rat Torture and the pig squeal vocals that crop up in the slamming Flesh and Nails.

Harder, harsher, and heavier, right up to the end. There’s no relief from The Shared Grief, and Distant force us over the line with one last cacophony of chaos, Iron Knee. Beastly, and so effective.

Distant – Into Despair Track Listing:

1. The World
2. Nothing Left to Hate
3. Into Despair
4. Spirit
5. Circle of Vultures
6. The Shallow Gaze
7. Veil of Paranoia
8. Desolation
9. All Will Be (N)One
10. Rat Torture
11. Flesh and Nails
12. The Shared Grief
13. Iron Knee

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