It’s been years since we’ve been able to enjoy something so loathsome.

The agonizing long wait since I Let It In And It Took Everything felt brutal considering Loathe would occasionally sprinkle out a cover or song while touring through the years. 2026 finally gave us what we all desperately needed in A Stranger To You.

14 tracks across 55 minutes and a slew of features including, Nowhere2Run, Mansur Brown, Static Dress, and more. What opens with a spoken word and backing Loathe track featuring Buck Sugar quickly continues to excellence that Loathe created in 2020.

This big shock that will come to some people is the fewer extreme moments filled with shrieking and dropped riffs than some may anticipate. A Stranger To You is much more serene gaze filled as it is heavy which add a perfect balance. The heavy moments still come in the excellent “Gemini” and “Revenant”, but this is not a full blown metalcore album that the Octanecore crowd will expect. The lesson here is to never anticipate Loathe’s next move. They will find a way to impress with whatever they create.

“Fangs” is the drum and bass groove that will have everyone at live venues moving together between pit formations. The long closing sequence of “Gifted Every Strength” and “No Stranger To You…” feels like the perfect snapshot of the metalgaze Loathe can blissfully create. The guitar work is versatile to each mood and in a 55-minute album, you feel a world of emotion through the riffs and chords.

Kadeem France’s and Erik Bickerstaffe’s vocals both complement the writing perfectly. This album is a headphones listen for the best experience as some speakers may be blown trying to adjust for each track in the mixing across the full release, but no matter how you listen this album is worth your time.

Overall: 9/10

Loathe gave us a stranger we all can be happy to bring home.