ERIK T

I did my list a little differently this year, as ranking 25-40 albums individually just got tedious and changed with my mood. So I went with my clear-cut album of the year, then a genre breakdown, as there were so many good albums that I just could not rank by number outside my top 3 to 5.

Symphonic/Blackened deathcore was my jam in 2025, without question. I know, fucking poser, right? The genre seriously exploded, with not just the releases listed below, but other killer albums and EPs from the likes of (* takes deep breath)…Hate Within, Kneel Before the Death, XII Thorns, Sielkanker, Immortal Disfigurement, Decayer, Grimnis, Inhuman Architects, When Plagues Collide, Sold Soul, Disembodied Tyrant, Face Yourself, Lightbearer, Spire of Lazarus, Sunscourge, Drown in Sulphur, Vile Sycophant, and Whispers of Oblivion (*exhales).

And of course it was all spearheaded by…

Overall Album of the Year :

Lorna Shore – I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me (Century Media Records). No surprise, right? After the bar setting Pain Remains, how would they follow it up? Would they go more commercial? Would they sell out? Fuck no, they somehow got even more emotional and personal, yet still heavy as hell. An improved mix, let everything breathe a little more, and even more epic keyboards from guitarist Andrew O’Connor, made songs like “In Darkness”, “Glenwood”, and my favorite song of the year, “Forevermore”, sonic gut punches that I played over and over again, as I did with the Pain Remains trilogy in 2022.

The Best of the Rest by Genre:

Deathcore:

Shadow of Intent – Imperium Delerium (Self-Released). Album number 5 from one of the symphonic deathcore’s elder statesmen would have been my album of the year any other year.

Sin Deliverance – Universe of Nightmares (Lacerated Enemy). One of my most anticipated releases after a 4-year wait. These Russians delivered a more intense, blacker album of Symphonic Deathcore.

Whitechapel – Hymns of Dissonance (Metal Blade). The year’s best return to form as they went back into far more brutal, straight-up deathcore of their early years.

Despised Icon – Shadow Work (Nuclear Blast). A model of grinding deathcore/hardcore consistency, even adding a slight black metal flair.

Ov Ruin – Eternal Lament (Self-Released). The fourth best symphonic deathcore album of the year, but the best orchestration of the year from Harry Tadayon (Hate Within, ex Immortal Disfigurement)

Denying God – Falling of the Pale Mist. (Self-Released). A Slovakian duo delivering absolutely top-notch symphonic deathcore. If you like the genre, you need to hear this.

Netherwalker – Odyssey of Respair (Self-Released). The new darlings of Symphonic deathcore added video game lore and fantasy nerdery to some absolutely bludgeoning symphonic deathcore. Now, if we could get some merch?

Death Metal:

Cryptopsy – An Insatiable Violence ( Season of Mist). Arguably the most pummelling,  Whisper Supremacy-sounding of their recent releases, despite the complaints that they are ‘deathcore’ now. I don’t hear it.

Sanguisugabogg – Hideous Aftermath (Century Media). A heftier, improved follow-up to the debut. I think we are witnessing this generation’s Suffocation.

Dormant Ordeal – Tooth and Nail (Willowtip). Willowtip’s best release of 2025 and one of the best Polish death metal albums of the last few years.

Impureza – Alcázares (Season of Mist).Third brilliant album of silky smooth, Flamenco/Spanish spoken tech death, but from France.

Ominous Ruin – Requiem (Willowtip). No nonsense, brutal tech death, and one of the most ferocious female frontwoman performances of the year from Crystal Rose.

Ade –  Supplicium (Time To Kill Records). These Romanic death metal centurions keep getting better and better.

Deliquesce – Saviour/Enslaver (Lacerated Enemy).A skronky, brutal tech death, ‘Suffocation on LSD’ of an album. 

Open Kasket – Trials of Failure (Self-Released). A sheer hardcore-tinged death metal beatdown that made the likes of Gatecreeper, etc, look soft.

Progressive/Technical/Melodic Death Metal:

Brain Blast – Colussus Suprema (Rebel Pyro Musick). An obscure, late-year gem that is the Colombian love child of early Obscura’s twangy tech death and the orchestral bombast of Fleshgod Apocalypse. One of my top 5 albums of the year.

The Project Hate – Undivine Dethroning (Mouth of Belial/Self Released). Like a fine wine, Lord K and co. just keep better better…..and more melodic?

Allegaeon – The Ossuary Lense (Metal Blade). These guys are so locked into their progressive, technical melodic death metal sound, it’s scary.

Kardashev – Alunea (Metal Blade). Another top 5 release for me, in part due to Mark Garrett’s absolutely stellar array of vocals.

Changeling – Changeling (Season of Mist). What Obscura should have sounded like in 2025. Additional orchestration made it even better.

Aephanemer – Utopie (Napalm Records). Such a gorgeous album and some of my favorite keyboards of the year (along with Eldercall’s Closure) from this now elite French, melodic death metal act. So a bonus instrumental CD was just a lagniappe.

Black Metal:

A Flock Named Murder – Incendiary Sanctum (Hypaethral Records). My second favorite album of the year overall. I love, love, love this album of perfectly introspective, atmospheric black metal.

Havukruunu – Tavastland (Svart Records). Another top 5 album of the year from this expertly crafted Bathory/Moonsorrow worshiping Black metal act.

Scour – Gold (Nuclear Blast Records). Who would have thought Phil from Pantera, and some current and former dudes from Misery Index, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, and Pig Destroyer would have delivered one of the year’s very best and most vicious black metal albums?

Labyrinthus Stellarum – Rift In Reality (Northern Silence). A weird, trippy, ambient, at times even metalcore-ish take on atmospheric black metal from these ambitious Ukrainians. 

Argesk – Moonlight Pyromancy (Matriarch Records). The new Hecate Enthroned album might now even sound as much like this fast-rising UK symphonic Black metal act, which features a Hecate Enthroned member.

Saor – Amidst the Ruins (Season of Mist). These Scots have perfected their soaring, epic, Braveheart meets black metal style.

Best EPs of the year:

Synestia – Premonitions (Self-Released). Adding Ryan Vail from Larcenia Roe elevated this top-notch Symphonic deathcore act into truly devastating, elite levels. I’m pumped for a full-length with this lineup. The next Lorna Shore?

Crown Magnetar – Punishment (Unique Leader). Along with Whitechapel’s album, the most brutal, straight-up deathcore of the year.

Burial Gift – MMXXV (Eihwaz Recordings). A gorgeous late-year discovery from these elegant Louisiana-ians.

To Obey A Tyrant  – Frigorie Inferi (Seek and Strike). These guys could surpass A Night In The Abyss as the UKs best symphonic deathcore act (though Vile Sycophant could easily join the conversation) if they build on this killer EP to continue their rise.

Blinded By Hate  – Desolación de la Existencia (Self-Released). Just like Eden Adversary or Enemies Everywhere in 2024, these Mexican guys (after being a pretty forgetful metalcore/deathcore band on their debut album) said, ‘fuck it, let’s sound like Lorna Shore’s Immortal‘ and just be really, really good at it.

Biggest Surprises:

Soulfly – Chama (Nuclear Blast). I hadn’t listened to Soulfly in years, but Chama was a damn good time, especially with some sneaky Swedish death metal tones here and there.

Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power (Roadrunner). I had written these guys off and fully expected the new album to just be a Depeche Mode/darkwave pop record. It was not, and while not quite a Sunbather return to form, it was close.

Bleeding Through – Nine (Sharptone Records). It’s been 23 years since I first heard Portrait of a Goddess and discovered orchestration in metalcore/deathcore. You can blame these guys for me being a poser. I have not been impressed with much since The Truth, but Christ, did Nine surprise me with a vicious return to form.

Folk Metal was good in 2025: Albums from Dalriada,  Mandragora Titania, Trold (two albums, a regular and a live one), and Svartsot’s swansong all hit the mark, in a genre I had all but forgotten.

Best Artwork:

Clamfight – Clamfight (Self-Released). Dehumanizing Reign – Dawn of a Malefic Dominion (FDA Records).

Biggest Disappointments:

Vildhjarta – Där skogen sjunger under evighetens granar . (Century Media).  With no original members left, it was clear something was amiss here. Nearly an hour of the same boring riff and pace. A real shame, as these guys have made my year list before, just not on the ‘disappointments’ part.

Everything in streaming /digital only: A lot of the releases and bands above had no physical releases, just Bandcamp/Spotify etc. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guilty Pleasure:

Mausoleum Gate – Space, Rituals and Magick (Cruz Del Sur). Absolutely outside of my normal listening wheelhouse, but this wispy, The Doors-influenced take of psychedelic, dreamy heavy metal was a perfect complement to a gummy and headphones.

Briar Creed – Bitter Moth (Self-Released).  An alluring mix of country, grunge, and metal with a touch of orchestration, plus the guy is an Opeth fan. Perfect fire pit music for you and your normal friends. 

Well, we have seen some major bands not touring overseas due to the rising fuel costs, especially in Europe where the Diesel prices are astronomical, and …well you’ve read all the band members left As I Lay Dying again as the singer tries to put the band back together again.  The memes and GIF’s have been pretty funny to say the least.

Let’s not forget that legendary Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain has officially retired from touring.  Their 2024 North American tour was incredible and he played amazing live.  With a new touring drummer in place, Simon Dawson, as they say, “The Show Must Go On”!!  Indeed it certainly does, with nary a breath of Kerry King announcing his new band and debut album, his main bread and butter the almighty Slayer, then coming out of retirement and announcing, festival dates, not only that have been played for 2024, but going forward into 2025.  What else is next, Metallica announcing they are going to do full tour sets of their first four and best albums??? Never say never, as we are seeing an all time high number amount of bands either reforming and or electing to do sets of their classic albums!!  It’s actually what the fans truly want, when it’s all said and done.

As far as the future, plenty to look forward to with 2025 just getting started with new metal releases and killer tours and fests.

All of us writers want to thank each and every one of you for visiting this page, and checking out our Facebook page and we hope we have turned you all on to some new and exciting bands.  That is always our goal – to spread the word of metal.  We thank you all for keeping up with our rants, in our reviews and we all wish you and yours a terrific 2025.  With that being said, let’s get into our exciting year-end lists….

ERIK T

1. Assemble the Chariots – Unyielding Night. (Self-Released). I flipped-flopped between this and the more emotional A Wake In Providence album, ultimately, fun and bombast won out.
2. A Wake in Providence – I Write to You My Darling Decay. (Unique Leader Records). An absolute tour de force of emotive symphonic deathcore.
3. Worm Shepherd – Hunger. (Unique Leader Records). A really solid third album from these consistent guys. Eager to hear more as they are a studio project only now after vocalist drama
4. Lamentari – Ex Umbra in Lucem. (Self-Released). Brilliantly chaotic symphonic black metal record.
5. Ensom – Poimandres. (Self-Released). Another killer release from these classically inspired black metal Spaniards.
6. Druparia – The River Above. (Self-Released). A stunning debut of Darkest Hour/ Light This City worshipping melodeath.
7. Fleshgod Apocalypse – Opera. (Nuclear Blast Records). These Italians can do no wrong, having perfected symphonic death metal for several albums now.
8. Exuvial – The Hive Mind Chronicles Part I – Parasitica (Silent Pendulum Records). A late, out of nowhere addition to the list that’s a brilliant tech death album reminiscent of Allegaeon.
9. Ensiferum – Winter Storm (Metal Blade). Another winning, wintery album from these epic Fins.
10. Spiritual Deception – Semitae Mentis (Amputated Vein). A superb example of symphonic, brutal death metal.
11. Eden Adversary – Kingdom Ov Heresy (Interlude Records). What happens if you lock a bunch of Indonesians in a room and make them listen to Lorna Shore’s Immortal and AIRTN EP and Mental Cruelty’s A Hill to Die Upon non-stop.
12. Moisson Livide- Sent Empèri Gascon (Antiq Records). Funky, punky, folky, revolutionary black metal from the Biosson  Divine Dude.
13. Darkness Everywhere– To Conquer Eternal Damnation, (Creator Destructor). Another tightly wound, killer Light This City clone- but with Light This City members.
14. Arkona – Stella Pandora (Debemur Morti). Pitch-perfect black metal from the ‘other’ Arkona.
15. Job For a Cowboy – Moon Healer (Metal Blade). The band’s transformation from SpongeBob deathcore to top-notch tech death is stunning.
16. The Mist From the Mountains – Portal – The Gathering of Storms (Primitive Reaction). A second album of even more rangy, epic Finnish black metal.
17. Xenotheory -Blissful Death (Self-Released). Bludgeoning Alien-themed deathcore/slam. The perfect orgasm indeed.
18. Unhallowed Deliverance – Of Specters and Strife (Self-Released). A beefy mix of tech death, deathcore, and slam from out of nowhere.
19. The Last Ten Seconds of Life—No Name Graves (Unique Leader Records). The more serious tone and delivery make for a lean, mean, downtempo deathcore record.
20. Vomit the Soul – Massive Incineration (Unique Leader Records). The best pure death metal album of the year that no one talked about.
21. Stilverlight—Dead Souls (Self-Released). The ten-year wait was worth it for these earworm-delivering power metal/Melo death Russian hybrids.
22. Asarhaddon – Era – (Self Released). Hypnotically repetitive but alluring atmospheric black metal from this underrated German Duo.
23. Dodsrit –Nocturnal Will (Wolves of Hades). A near-perfect record of atmospheric but despondent and melodic black metal.
24. Acathexis – Immense (Amor Fati/Extraconscious Records). See above.
25. Opus Irae – Into the Endless Night (Endtime Productions). A fantastic Symphonic black metal album, and yes it’s Christian.

EPs

1. Synestia/Disembodied Tyrant  – The Poetic Edda (Self-Released). The best collaboration of the year, and melds classic music. Brilliant.
2. Enemies Everywhere – Endless Discord. (Self-Released). Literally a note-for-note rendition of Lorna Shore’s  AIRTN EP and Pain Remains album. And I love it of course.
3. Heteromorphic Zoo –.New World. (Self-Released). Deathcore + a Violin = magic
4. Atavistia – Inane Ducam. (Self-Released). A revamped, darker, meaner Atavistia, and I like it.
5. House of Atreus – Orations. (Iron Bonehead Productions). After 5 years away, Greek-themed Melo death act returns triumphantly.

Biggest Surprises

1. Daath – The Deceivers. Who would have thought a fairly average groove metal band from the early/mid-00s that I didn’t give a rip about would drop a killer album 14 years later?
2. Oceano – Living Chaos. Once at the top of the deathcore heap, a 6 year layoff made this a superb, album of controlled, downtempo chaos. Of course, people of the internet ruined it and the band is no more.
3. Henry Kane – Circle of Pain. Jonny Petterson took a hard turn away from death grind into keyboard-drenched atmospheric blacker metal. “A Swarm of Idiots” was the most fitting song title for 2024 as well.

Biggest non-surprise.

Immortal Disfigurement – KING (Self-Released). CJ McCreery gets booted from Lorna Shore after Immortal, and releases….. Immortal pt 2. But it hit my sweet spot regardless.

Album Cover

Keres – Homo Homini Lupus

Disappointment

Massacre – Necrolution. A lazy, lethargic album after a solid album in Resurgence. Inhuman Condition is clearly the better version of Massacre right now.

Best Label:

“Self-Released”. The number of top-notch self-released EPs and albums, that were either digital (Bandcamp, etc) only or physical was astounding.

FRANK RINI

2024 was yet another great year for metal releases and excellent to see us get the hell out of COVID.  Tours ramped up in full swing.  Highlights for me were the Iron Maiden tour and the Desolus album release show.  I had a guest spot on the Crushuman debut album and already tapped for a few guest spots in 2025.  My top 25 is in order of what I felt were the best releases for 2024 and fun sub-categories.  Please enjoy my list and all the other great writers’ lists here.  For 2025 look out for releases from:  Anthrax, Gorguts, AngelMaker, King Diamond, Internal Bleeding and Sanguisugabogg to name a few.  Enjoy the new year.  Be Safe.  Be Smart. m/

1. Judas Priest – Invincible Shield (Sony Music)
2. Deicide – Banished by Sin (Reigning Phoenix Music)
3. Ripped To Shreds – 三屍 (Sanshi) (Relapse Records)
4. Nile – The Underworld Awaits Us All (Napalm Records)
5. Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere (Century Media Records)
6. Arka’n Asrafokor– Dzikkuh (Reigning Phoenix Music)
7. Drown In Sulfur– Dark Secrets of the Soul (Scarlet Records)
8. The Dread Crew of Oddwood– Rust & Glory (Self-Released)
9. Eminem – The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope Records)
10. Exhorder – Defectum Omnium (Nuclear Blast Records)
11. PeelingFlesh – The G Code (Unique Leader Records)
12. Hail Spirit Noir – Fossil Gardens (Agonia Records)
13. Lord Goblin – Lord Goblin (Self-Released)
14. Ensiferum– Winter Storm (Metal Blade Records)
15. Assemble The Chariots – Unyielding Light (Seek & Strike)
16. Midnight – Hellish Expectations (Metal Blade Records)
17. Unleash The Archers – Phantoma (Napalm Records)
18. Morta Skuld – Creation Undone (Peaceville Records)
19. Totengott – Beyond the Veil (Hammerheart Records)
20. Kanonenfieber – Die Urkatastrophe (Century Media Records)
21. Mad Hatter– Oneironautics (Art Gates Records)
22. Skeletal Remains– Fragments of the Ageless (Century Media Records)
23. Extermination Dismemberment – Butcher Basement (Revamp) (Unique Leader Records)
24. Mutilation Barbecue– Amalgamations of Gore (Maggot Stomp)
25. Brodequin – Harbinger of Woe (Season of Mist Underground Activists)

Comeback Album of the Year: Atrophy – Asylum (Massacre Records)

Sleeper Hit Album: Neon Nightmare– Faded Dream (20 Buck Spin)

Best Debut Album: Theurgy– Emanations of Unconscious Luminescence (New Standard Elite)

Best Stoner/Doom Album:  WyndRider – Revival (Electric Valley Records)

Heaviest Release: Rabid – Rabid Demo (Self-Released)

Best Reissue/Re-recording: Cavalera – Schizophrenia (Nuclear Blast Records)

Best Hardcore Album: Speed – Only One Mode (Last Ride Records)

Best EP: Disentomb – Nothing Above (Unique Leader Records)

Most Underrated Active Band:  Deceased

Best New Band: Desolus

Best Record Label:  Maggot Stomp

STEVE K

It’s possible that many of you, our dedicated readers, may have noticed my involvement here at Teeth of the Divine took a dramatic hit this year. Or maybe you didn’t, because… I mean lets be real, I have no significant role one way or another in your lives. And that’s fine! And while none of you are asking or really care to know (again, totally rational and fine), I at least owe it to my colleagues here at this excellent site to explain my decrease in productivity. Long story short, 2024 was the year I’ve officially hit my midlife crisis. I owe this to a myriad of circumstances in my personal life that I won’t get into, but lets just say it caused me to both spiral a little bit, but also take a good hard look at my life and evaluate what needed more attention, what was really important, and what things I really needed to just let go of in order to be happy and move forward in a way that gave my life more meaningful purpose.

But don’t get it twisted, my dedication to the music and artists I love is not taking a back seat. It just took me a beat to get some things reorganized so that I can hit 2025 with better focus and energy. And here’s the thing that has always been true – music was a gigantic part of helping me get through a lot of the lows, and made me appreciate just how much the bands i care about really mean to me. So to that end, I hope to get back to dumping more of my nonsense on you guys in 2025, and hopefully do a better job of spreading the word about the music we all love and need in our lives.

So I’ll keep this list short and sweet, and just say that the following 10 releases, in no particular order, are the ones that really meant something to me at various points in my journey through 2024. Plus a couple extras that I feel like maybe could add value to your lives as well. Are they objectively the best albums of 2024? I don’t know. I don’t really fucking care. These are just my favorites. Keep an open mind.

• Dodsrit – Nocturnal Will (Wolves of Hades): The Swedish one-man-wrecking-crew-turned-full-band continues to fly under the radar with yet another stellar, beautiful and forceful release that sees some of the crustier, D-Beat leanings of the project’s earliest work, give way to increased melody, atmosphere and, dare I say, vibes. This band’s journey continues to surprise and impress.
• Demiser – Slave to the Scythe (Metal Blade): Still no frills, still no fuss, the southern sons of Blackened Thrash and Speed continue to be amongst the most metal fucking bands on the planet. Don’t think to hard about it, just enjoy what it is.
• Winterfylleth – The Imperious Horizon (Candlelight): Majestic, flowing, another album greater than the sum of it’s parts. Winterfylleth albums rarely blow you away with one or two individual tracks, but instead demand a look at the full picture, and the one laid out here is nothing short of stunning.
• Gaerea – Coma (Season of Mist): While Gaerea has already been widely revered around the world, this latest opus showcases the band’s most focused and, in many ways, accessible material. This is far from a bad thing. Instead, Coma puts the band’s brand of cathartic, emotional chaos center stage for a greater audience to bear witness.
• Midnight – Hellish Expectations (Metal Blade): It’s Midnight. Doing Midnight things. Obviously it rules. It’s also perhaps the band’s biggest celebration of Metal music to date, and that’s something we can, and should, all get around.
• Wristmeetsrazor – Degeneration (Prosthetic Records): No one was more surprised by this one as me. This was a fucking awesome, nostalgic look back at Metalcore’s heyday mixed with the best part of Nu Metal to make for a thoroughly interesting, and simply just goddamn fun record.
• Unleash the Archers – Phantoma (Napalm Records): To be honest, it took me a minute to really get into this one, which was surprising given that they are, unquestionably, my favorite band of the last decade. But over time, the brilliance of the band’s evolution and dedication to the themes present on Phantoma really shined through.
• Kublai Khan TX – Exhibition of Prowess (Rise Records): Look, no one is gonna sit here and try to tell you this is some kind of brilliant work of art or game-changer. But perhaps no record was more self-aware in 2024. You want heavy? This shit’s got heavy on lockdown. It’s dumb and knuckle-dragging and goddamn I adore it.
• Sovereign – Altered Realities (Dark Descent Records): An old school slab of Sepultura and Pestilence worshipping Death Metal pulled off in a way that sounds far more sincere and authentic than many of their throwback-thumping counterparts. One of my favorite early records of the year stood the test of time.
• Mega Colossus – Showdown (Cruz del Sur Music): Another early entry, Showdown is still the year’s most fun Heavy Metal record in my mind. What more do I really need to say? It rules.

Remember when I said “Keep an open mind?” Ok well, here’s 5 non-metal records that left just as big an impact on me this year as any of our heavier-hitting brethren. Give ’em a shot.

• Kacey Musgraves – Deeper Well (UMG Recordings): Keep in mind my earlier rant about going through midlife crisis if you decide to take a listen to this one. You won’t find a better-written record this year or, indeed, many others.
• Sierra Ferrell – Trail of Flowers (Rounder Records): A beautiful collection of vintage Americana, Folk and Country tunes, including my personal song of the year candidate “American Dreaming,” Trail of Flowers is as beautiful and compelling as it is raw and distinct.
• Goldie Boutilier – The Actress EP (Goldie M&E Enterprises): A fantastic storyteller, Boutilier weaves another compelling tale of vintage vibes that’s altogether sultry, melancholic and gorgeous. Another stellar release in an increasingly impressive catalogue.
• Orville Peck – Stampede (Warner Records): Country music’s premier gay cowboy returns with a voice that would make Roy Orbison blush, but this time combining it with talent ranging from the legendary Willie Nelson and Elton John, Noah Cyrus, Margo Price, Kylie Minogue and so many more. At times a campy thrill ride, other times heartbreaking and sincere, Stampede is a hugely entertaining record.
• Hozier – Unreal Unearth: Unending (Island Records): A sprawling, incredibly complex work based loosely on Homer’s The Odyssey, Hozier brings his work to an entirely new level to create his most ambitious release yet.

J MAYS

I adopted my new best friend, Judith Priest. I went to Maryland Death Fest by myself and outpaced kids half my age. I lost my mom in June, my grandma in November, and my only remaining grandparent has dementia. Somehow, I’m managing my depression better than ever. I really need a great 2025, though. Get fucked, 2024.

1. Unleash The Archers – Phantoma (Napalm Records)
2. Kittie – Fire (Sumerian Records)
3. Neon Nightmare – Faded Dream (20 Buck Spin)
4. Cemetery Skyline – Nordic Gothic (Nuclear Blast Records)
5. Darkest Hour – Perpetual Terminal (MNRK Heavy)
6. Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere (Century Media Records)
7. Valletta – Summer (Self-Released)
8. Mourning Dawn – The Foam of Despair (Aesthetic Death)
9. Better Lovers – Highly Irresponsible (SharpTone Records)
10. Gaerea – Coma (Season of Mist)
11. Dead Icarus – Zealot (MNRK Heavy)
12. Witnesses – Joy (Self-Released)
13. Mother of Graves – The Periapt of Absence (Profound Lore)
14. Molder – Catastrophic Reconfiguration (Prosthetic Records)
15. Judas Priest – Invincible Shield (Epic Records)
16. Replicant – Infinite Mortality (Transcending Obscurity Records)
17. Hell is Other People – Moirae (Transcending Obscurity Records)
18. Opeth – The Last Will and Testament (Reigning Phoenix)
19. Intranced – Muerte y Metal (High Roller Records)
20. Vexing Hex – Solve Et Coagula (Wiseblood Records)

Best Songs: My number 1 album.

Best Label: Transcending Obscurity

Best Live Bands:

1. Agalloch
2. Powerwolf
3. Dismember
4. Unleash The Archers

JEREMY BECK

Goddamn you 2024. This was another glorious year for the Metal community. So many killer albums were released that it was a bitch to cover ALL of them, but cover I tried and on this list are the cream of the crop. There are some change ups from last year; nothing crazy just a few surprises. This is definitely not the Rolling fucking Stone list by any shape or form. So without further ado here it is!

Album of the year: Flotsam and Jetsam (AFM Records) – I am the Weapon. Here’s why, no album got me through the blistering hell scape that was this summer… and fall… I couldn’t get the chorus out of my head. That’s what makes it my AOTY and they’ve also claimed the Top Thrash album spot! Huzzah!

Best of categories: These bands stood out from other bands in their respective genres.

Best Black Metal: Mork (Peaceville Records)- Syv. This was a toughie, but in the moment of listening and continuing to get my mind in shall we say; a ritual frame of mind, plus this album just fucking kills. Easy pick.

Best Death Metal: Mother of Graves (Profound Lore Records)- The Periapt Of Absence. Fuck me running this was hard as hell; mainly because there were SO many killer albums released. But when I think about the album that touched me the most in terms of brutality and staggering emotions, Mother of Graves have killed it with The Periapt Of Absence.

Best Grindcore: CrusHuman (HPGD PRODUCTIONS) -S/T. CrusHuman meld a few different genres into their arsenal but at the heart of this malignant beast is Grindcore. So it’s only fitting that they get this spot.

Best Original Concept Album: VHS (Crucial Blast/Grand Vomit Productions)- For a Few Riffs More. Ok, so a few people didn’t dig it; or should I say they didn’t get it. For a Few Riffs More is an album that puts these nutty Canadians squarely in this list.

Best Power Metal Album: Mad Hatter (Art Gates Records) – Oneironautics. I was looking for a certain vibe this summer so I asked my fellow scribes and they pointed me to to these guys. Oneironautics is a fucking solid Power Metal album that needs your attention.

Best Folk Metal Album: Thy Catafalque (Season of Mist) – XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek. There were a few bands that put out uplifting, deeply emotional records but this album is so good that it knocked out the rest. Highly recommended!

Best Instrumental Album- Zombi (Relapse Records) – Direct Inject. 2024 may have been filled with speed and malice, but one album would turn into the soundtrack for my year and Direct Inject was that album. Mesmerizing and sensual, hardcore and subtle.

The rest of the list:

These are bands that I can’t go without mentioning, here’s some top albums in various categories:

Top Thrash –

1. Flotsam and Jetsam (AFM Records) – I am the Weapon.
2. Atrophy (Massacre Records) – Asylum
3. Nasty Savage (FHM Records) – Jeopardy Room

Top Death Metal –

1. Mercyless (Osmose Productions) – Those Who Reign Below
2. Loudblast (Listenable Records)- Altering Fates and Destinies
3. Fluids (Hells Headbangers) – Reduced Capabilities
4. Replacire (Season of Mist) – The Center That Cannot Hold
5. Sedimentum (Me Saco Un Ojo / Dark Descent)- Derrière les Portes d’une Arcane Transcendante
6. Black Dahlia Murder (Metal Blade Records) – Servitude
7. Severe Torture (Season of Mist)- Torn From the Jaws of Death
8. Vincent Crowley (Hammerheart Records) – Anthology of Horror
9. Dripping Decay (Satanik Royalty Records) – Ripping Remains EP
10. Trocar (Selfmadegod Records) – Extremities

Top Black Metal-

1. Rotting Christ (Season of Mist)- Pro Xristoy
2. Avmakt (Peaceville Records)- Satanic Inversion Of…
3. 1349 (SeasonofMist) – The Wolf and the King
4. Horna (W.T.C.Productions)- Nyx (Hymnejä yölle)
5. Arkona (Debemur Morti Productions) – Stella Pandora
6. Trelldom (Prophecy Productions) – … By the Shadows…
7. Mutiilation (Osmose Productions) – Black Metal Cult
8. Funeral Winds (Osmose Productions)- 333
9. Hammerfilosofi (ATMF)– Solus
10. Furze (Devoted Art Propaganda / Polytriad Fingerprints)- Cosmic Stimulation of Dark Fantasies

Top Power Metal-

1. Hammerfall (Nuclear Blast) – Avenge the Fallen
2. Krilloan (Scarlet Records) – Return Of The Heralds
3. Shadows of Steel (Metallic Blue Records) – Twilight II

Top Instrumental-

1. Kólga (Otitis Media Records) – Black Tides
2. Shadow Knell (Relapse Records) – Shadow Knell
3. Gotho (Supernatural Cat) – Gothron Vs Fartark

Best Live Album-

Helloween (Reigning Phoenix Music) – Live At Budokhan

Worst Live Album-

Amorphis (Reigning Phoenix Music)- Tales From The Thousand Lakes (Live At Tavastia)

The best of the rest, the iceberg of Metal from 2024:

1. Sur Austru (Avantgarde Music) – Datura Străhiarelor
2. Totengott (Hammerheart Records) – Beyond the Veil
3. Gravenoire (Season of Mist: Underground)- Devant la porte des étoiles
4. Moss Upon the Skull (I, Voidhanger Records)- Quest for the Secret Fire
5. Panzerchrist (Emanzipation Productions) – Maleficium Part I
6. Ritual Fog (Transcending Obscurity Records)- But Merely Flesh
7. Chained to the Dead (HPGD PRODUCTIONS)- Only Hunger Remains
8. A La Carte (Self Release) – Born to Entertain
9. Aussichtslos (Purity Through Fire) – Schicksalstotschlag
10. Todesstoss (I, Voidhanger Records) – Das Liebweh-Dekret
11. Kildonan (CaligariRecords) – Embers
12. Feed the Corpses to the Pigs (HPGD PRODUCTIONS) – Anthology
13. Downcross (Cavum Atrum Rex) – White Tower
14. Bloodcross (Personal Records) – Gravebound
15. Wolves of Perdition (Folter Records)- Ultraviolence
16. Satanic North (Reaper Entertainment) – Satanic North
17. Kawir (Soulseller Records) – Kydoimos
18. Hacavitz (Moribund Records)- Muerte
19. Aklash (Self Release) – Reincarnation
20. Kommandant (ATMF) – Exhibition of Conquest
21. Unleashed (Napalm Records)- Before the Creation of Time
22. Kratti (Signal Rex) – Matka Kohti Kosmista
23. Mudshow (HPGD PRODUCTIONS) – Destiny
24. Lvme (Noevdia)- Of Sinful Nature
25. Whispering Void (-Prophecy Productions)- At the Sound of the Heart

Best Non-Metal album: The Cure (Fiction, Lost Music, Universal, Polydor and Capitol Records) – Songs of a Lost World

Best Live Experience:

I went to a bunch of shows this year and I could just make a list based on all the ones I went to, but I’m just going to pick one and it is (of course); King Diamond/ Overkill/ Night Demon. It eclipsed even Devastation on the Nation which was tough to do.

There it is, my 2024 list! Thank you, constant reader! Happy New Year!

]]> https://www.teethofthedivine.com/blog/teeth-of-the-divine-staff-picks-for-2024/feed/ 0 https://www.teethofthedivine.com/blog/teeth-of-the-divine-staff-picks-for-2023/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=teeth-of-the-divine-staff-picks-for-2023 https://www.teethofthedivine.com/blog/teeth-of-the-divine-staff-picks-for-2023/#respond Mon, 01 Jan 2024 11:04:36 +0000 https://www.teethofthedivine.com/?p=66028 Much like how 2023 has sort of felt like a fucked up calm before what promises to be an absolute fucking rager of a storm in 2024, the world of metal sorta felt like it was just a weird continuation of the year before. Everyone’s still talking about Spiritbox and Slaughter to Prevail, the world of deathcore still seems to exist in direct comparison to Lorna Shore. Hell, it was a year where everything old was the big story – with gigantic returns from the likes of Metallica, In Flames, Suffocation, Cryptopsy, Cannibal Corpse, and Obituary proving the old dogs still have plenty of bite left to dole out. Also, Creed is coming back, so let’s all get ready for that!

So, a weird year? Sure, but still plenty of high-quality stuff to be found. We thank you all once again for continuing to let us show up every day and spew our nonsense without a whole lot of complaint, and we look forward to getting back on our bullshit in the coming year. So without further ado…

ERIK THOMAS

2023 was a good to great year for metal, Not a fantastic year mind you as this was one of the first years where I wasn’t whittling down 50 releases to 25, or scrambling with last-minute releases I discovered. And frankly, I was either still listening to Lorna Shore‘s Pain Remains from 2022, or listening to previously undiscovered symphonic and melodic black releases fromthe last few years (i.e Suffering Souls, In Synergy Obscene, Skylord’s, Frostcraft, Ensom‘s magnificent Civilizations, Panopticon’s …And Again Into The Light, Obscuris Romancia’s Bringer of Light and Tyrmfar‘s Dialectic of Ego and the Unconscious) more than 2023 releases.

What was great about 2023 was it felt like 1994-1998 with death metal veterans Obituary, Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Cannibal Corpse, Cryptopsy and Autopsy all releasing stout albums that proved the old horses could still run. All we were missing was an Immolation album or Deicide album (which I thought might come out before the end of 2023, but it looks like it’s a 2024 album now).

As with my 2022 list, even without the plethora of symphonic deathcore albums, a couple of things were consistent; a weird mix of melody, (especially the atmospheric black metal type) keyboards, and brutal slams.

And what a year for Sergio Catalán, owner of Tragedy Productions- three of his label’s bands ended up on my list and two of those bands are his solo projects.

As with my previous list, the order is pretty insignificant as depending on my mood, the order changed daily. And I’m still struggling with my # 1 between Mental Cruelty delivering a brilliant example of my favorite genre or the high nostalgia factor for Suffocation.

1. Mental Cruelty – Zwielicht (Century Media Records). I was torn between Mental Cruelty‘s stunning blackened deathcore with an increased emphasis and the blackened or death metal legends Suffocation. My favorite song of the year “Symphony of a Dying Star” was the deciding factor.
2. Suffocation – Hymns From the Apocrypha (Nuclear Blast Records). No Frank Mullen? No problem, as these vets dropped their best album since Pierced From Within.
3. Majesties – Vast Reaches Unclaimed (20 Buck Spin). A wondrously old-school, 90s melodic death/black metal with inherent Obsequiae melodies.
4. Fires in the Distance – Air Not Meant For Us (Prosthetic Records). Increased keyboards made this sublime death/doom act even better.
5. Sühnopfer – Nous sommes d’Hier (Debemur Morti). Classically inspired, one man, gregoroan chant laden, black metal bliss.
6. Panopticon – The Rime of Memory (Bindrune). I lost interest in Panopticon for a while but Christ, is this an ambitious, introspective sprawling album tackling everything from aging to climate change.
7. Passéisme – Alternance (Antiq Records). Again, I’m amazed three Russian death metal dudes continue to deliver epically medieval melodies with album number 2.
8. Æolian – Echoes of the Future (Black Lion Records). One of my favorite new discoveries of 2023, a superb, if not perfect melodic death metal record.
9. Moonlight Sorcery – Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle (Avantgarde Music). Lauded Finnish saviors of symphonic black metal took a bit of a more traditional melo-death turn with fantastic results.
10. Cattle Decapitation – Terrasite (Metal Blade Records). Like a fine wine, Travis Ryan (and his goblin vocals) keep getting better, with their most ambitious and dare I say atmospheric record to date.
11. Deathcode Society – Unlightenment (Osmose Productions). A late year entry of truly blistering French symphonic black/death metal.
12. The Project Hate MCMXCIX– Abominations of the Ageless (Mouth of Belial Productions). Lord K and Co’s most melodic, layered album to date. They can do no wrong, even 15 albums in.
13. Atavistia – Cosmic Warfare (Self-Released). 2023’s most epic, sweeping and bombastic keyboards. I’m really excited for these young Canadians after 2 excellent albums.
14. Félonie – De s​è​ve et de sang (AuralMusic/ code 666). Another solo artist with a brilliant atmospheric black metal debut that’s even better than his already excellent other band, Tyrmfar.
15. Embrace Your Punishment – Made of Stone (Lacerated Enemy Records). An absolute bruiser of a deathcore/slam/death metal record.
16. Dying Fetus – Make Them Beg For Death (Relapse Records). A model of brutal consistency that is still delivering death metal’s greatest slams and grooves.
17. Cryptopsy – As Gomorrah Burns (Nuclear Blast Records). No signs of letting up after an 11-year wait with an album as face-ripping as Whisper Supremacy was over 25 years ago.
18. Gorod – The Orb (Season of Mist). A model of consistency from one of Tech Death’s unquestioned top bands.
19. Winds of Tragedy – Hating Life (Tragedy Productions). A killer release of somber atmospheric black metal from Sergio Catalán, also the owner of Tragedy Productions.
20. My Dearest Wound – The Burial  (Tragedy Productions). See above. Just a bit sadder.
21. Mortem Obscuram – The Wretched Divinity (Self-Released). Vastly improved orchestral melodic tech death from a band that should be on The Artisan Era already.
22. Galundo Tenvulance – Lunar Eclipture (Spiritual Beast). Japanese craziness that mixes huge keyboards with 00s-styled metalcore and melodeath.
23. When Plagues Collide – An Unbiblical Paradigm (NeckTwister). Top-notch, confident blackened deathcore from this improving young Belgian act.
24. Numeron – Road to Valhalla (Tragedy Productions). Another winner of atmospheric black metal from Tragedy Productions.
25. Angerot – The Profound Recreant (Redefining Darkness Records). Of 2023s excellent Swede-death (The Plague, Come Sweet Death, Carnation, Wretched Fate, Endseeker, Gravestone, etc), this now seasoned US act added some well-done atmospherics and was my favorite album of the year in the genre.

Welcome Back: Keep of Kalessin (Katharsis)and US black metal act Woe (Legacies of Frailty) dropped excellent albums out of the blue after lengthy hiatuses.

Most promising new acts: Dragoncorpse, Face Yourself.

Biggest Disappointments: Ne Obliviscaris – Exul. After three almost classic releases, something was missing from Exul’s songwriting. Maladie – For We Are the Plague. These guys have driven me crazy for 4 albums now after three brilliant albums to start their career.  Some real, brilliance and some real head-scratching moments. Primordial– How it Ends. If this is indeed how it ends- a once legendary act is going out with a whimper. The album starts strong, but like me in the sack, fades hard and fast….

Guilty Pleasure: Kvelertak – Ending. Metal’s new punching bags are even more commercial and less black metal now, but some real smile-inducing garage punk anthems here.

Release fucking album/CD Please: Assemble the Chariots, Face Yourself.

Best Label: Century Media. I know I only had 1 release from them on my list (my #1 though..) but if you look at the other great releases they dropped in 2023, many of which were on my list at one point, (Jesus Piece, Sanguisugabogg, Insomnium, Baest, Frozen Soul, Unearth, Marduk, Signs of the Swarm, Dark Funeral, Suicide Silence) they killed it. Note to Century Media- just fucking sign Face Yourself already….

Keyboards, keyboards, and more keyboards. That was my theme in 2022. Whether melodic death metal, deathcore or black metal. “It needs more keyboards” was my mantra as all but a handful have keyboards of some sort, whether subtle, sweeping or bombastic.

Symphonic/orchestral/blackened deathcore in particular was spectacular in 2022, in addition to those on my list, physical and digital releases from the likes of Shadow of Intent, Hanging the Nihilist, Hammer of Dawn, Downfall of Mankind, Despite Exile, The Archaic Epidemic, Sold Soul, Synestia, Rotten Tongue, Art of Attrition, Devoured by the Abyss, Draconian Reign, Mire Lore and others showed the genre wasn’t about to go away (OK, Assemble the Chariots, hurry the fuck up an release an album already). And even regular deathcore delivered the goods with Enterprise Earth, Ingested, Angelmaker, Crown Magnetar and …And Hell Followed With. 

Slam had a solid year as well, with the Analepsy and Fleshgore making my list, the killer debut from newcomers Kanine as well as Crypt Rot, Xenotheory, 9 Dead, Peeling Flesh and veterans Organectomy. 

A shout out to Windrose for Warfront– the only power metal album in 2022 that got me remotely excited. “One Last Day” is so goddamn epic. Let’s see what Twilight Force can do in 2023.

Interestingly I could not settle on the best label of the year as lots of labels had good years, including Unique Leader, Century Media, The Artisan Era, Napalm Records, and Nuclear Blast.

As with most years, my top 5-10 is pretty solid, but everything after that was stuff I liked, and the order is pretty fluid.

1. Lorna Shore – Pain Remains (Century Media). No real surprise here. Despite the album being half-released digitally before it came out, the entirety of the album was still worth it. Particularly the epic “Pain Remains” trilogy of songs, which is the most enthralling and emotional 20 minutes of music I heard in 2022 if not the last five years. A real bar setter for deathcore and symphonic deathcore, if not all extreme music moving forward.
2. Imperial Circus Dead Decadence – 殯――死へ耽る想いは戮辱すら喰らい、彼方の生を愛する為に命を讃える――。(Radtone Music) The utterly bonkers, brilliant love child of Sigh, Babymetal, Cradle of Filth and an Anime soundtrack.
3. A Wake in Providence – Eternity (Unique Leader Records), Just pipped by Lorna Shore as the year’s best symphonic deathcore record. A brilliant answer to losing Will Ramos to Lorna Shore.
4. Amorphis– Halo (Century Media Records). You forgot about this one, didn’t you? Like a fine wine, these guys get better and better with a string of superb albums that not many bands can match. ” Seven Roads Come Together” is just stunning.
5. Greylotus – Dawnfall (The Artisan Era). A perfect supergroup of Artisan Era styles on one dynamic, epic, progressive album.
6. Wolfheart – King of the North (Napalm Records). These guys keep getting better and better and more and more epic. Kings of the North indeed.
7. Allegaeon – Damnum (Metal Blade Records). A sprawling display of American technical and melodic death metal. Pity Riley Mcshane left after a killer performance here. Curious to see who they replace that huge void with.
8. Epoch of Unlight – At War With the Multiverse (Dark Horizon Records) is The best reunion of the year. Well worth the 17-year wait.
9. Vehemence – Ordalies (Antiq Records). Early in the year, this was a contender for the best album of the year. Brilliant French medieval black metal.
10. Xaon – The Lethean (Self Released). Gloriously lush, lavish, catchy melodic death metal with some of the best keyboards of the year. One of my favorite new finds of 2022.
11. Worm Shepherd – Ritual Hymns (Unique Leader Records). Another band nipping at the heels of Lorna Shore, both in quality and style.
12. Necrom – All Paths Are Left here… (Osmose Productions). The best HM2 Swedish-styled death metal release of the year. Pity about the ‘other’ stuff’ .
13. Bonecarver – Carnage Funeral (Unique Leader Records). The sudden change to Lorna Shore styled synths in their deathcore core ended up being a really good decision.
14. Molder – Engrossed in Decay (Prosthetic Records). The most fun I had with a death metal record in 2022.
15. Aethereus – Leiden (The Artisan Era). The Artisan Era continues its run of excellent technical, progressive death metal.
16. Analepsy – Quiescence (Miasma/Agonia Records). The best slam record of the year from Portugal’s answer to Dying Fetus.
17. Fleshgore – Carnival of Flesh (Xtreem Music). A late-year addition that like Analepsy above, is pure Dying Fetus worship but from the Ukraine.
18. The Devils of Loudon – Escaping Eternity ( The Artisan Era). See 17  and just add 90s synths.
19. Fall of Stasis – The Chronophagist (Self-Released), A crazy debut of female-fronted folky, The Black Dahlia Murder and crazy symphonics. Looking forward to more from these guys
20. I Am the Night – While the Gods Are Sleeping (Svart Records). Old-school Emperor worship at its finest.
21. Katharos – Of Lineages Long Forgotten (Willowtip). Later era Emperor worship at its finest.
22. The Mist From the Mountains – Monumental – The Temple of Twilight (Primitive Reaction). More 90s-era black metal homage, this time to Borknagar.
23. Pestilent Hex – The Ashen Abhorrence (Debemur Morti Productions). The Third black metal supergroup on this list playing homage to the classic 90s sound.
24. Inanimate Existence- The Masquerade ( The Artisan Era). See 15 and 18.
25. Exocrine – The Hybrid Suns (Unique Leader Records). Superb tech death with some nice orchestral and experimental flourishes.
26. Spire of Lazarus – Soaked in the Sands (Reality Fade). A name change didn’t change the quality of this techy, video game-influenced deathcore outfit.
27. Blood of the Wolf: IV: The Declaration of War (HPGD Productions). Sheer, apocalyptic black/ death devastation.
28. Horror Within – Awaiting Extinction (Pathologically Explicit Recordings) Deathcore with an HM2 buzz saw guitar tone. Fuck yes.
29. Freedom Of Fear – Carpathia (Self-Released). EVP Recordings. Killer technical, sweep-filled, symphonic black/tech death from Australia with Obscura’s Mannes Grossman on drums.
30. She Must Burn – Umbra Mortis (Self Released). A strangely beguiling yet heavy mix of Cradle of Filth, Make Them Suffer and Bleeding Through. A nice comeback, but I Still miss Aimy Miller though.

Best EP:– Winter’s Gate – The Voyage in Becoming. Some of the best keyboards of the year and one of my very favorite songs of the year in “Preordained”. Needs a CD release (also see below).

Best 1 song album:– Ode and Elegy. Self-titled – 50 minutes of enthralling folky, post-metal chamber music from the guy behind The Pax Cecilia.

Best digital-only releases/please do a fucking CD: – Winter’s Gate – The Voyage in Becoming, Pillaging Villagers – S/T: Rousing blue collar thrash/death metal mixed with Irish pub anthems. Xenotheory – Dawn of the Eyeless Realm (who does cassettes only????) Killer slam based on Alien/Aliens movies?. Oh hell yes. Synestia – Maleficium . Stunning orchestral deathcore from Finnish/Minnesota duo and Fleshgod Apocalypse‘s Francesco Ferrini.  C’mon guys not all of us are ready to move purely to digital music.

Biggest Surprise: – The killer amount of quality melodeath – Xaon, The Halo Effect, Defacing God, Grenadier, Norrskold, Brymir, Soilwork, Wolfheart, Clamoris, Burned in Effigy all released killer melodeath albums in 2022. Let’s see if In Flames can keep it going in 2023.

Guilty Pleasure: Bloodywood Rakshak. Indian tribal nu metal core? Yep. Now, if they only got rid of the rapper guy…..

Best Reunions:- Epoch of Unlight and Defleshed. Two 17-year hiatuses. Two glorious returns to the scene with killer albums.

Best Album Cover Art: I AM – Eternal Steel, Kanine– Karnage.

Erik T

2021 was one of the best years of metal in a long time. The creativity that occurred either during COVID as musicians were locked down, or the post COVID explosion was evident across all genres from all countries. Some late December release really fucked things up but much like 2019, it was evident 2 things were my go-to: epic symphonics (almost half the releases have major keyboards) and breakdowns (7 are deathcore or slam of some sort), though tech-death certainly was a heavy presence as well this year (8 could be considered technical metal). Also, it appears the death knell for deathcore was a little early as the genre (largely due to Unique Leader) blew the fuck up. Unlike last year where I didn’t have to agonize over my list or top efforts, there was a lot of late-year shuffling in 2021, and outside of my top 10 things could be pretty interchangeable depending on my mood.

1. First Fragment – Gloire Eternelle (Unique Leader). Usually, a 70 + minute album would wear on me, but Phillip Tougas and co somehow delivered an absolutely bonkers, entertaining flamenco laced tech-death masterpiece that improved on the debut and heads a simply killer year of tech death.
2. Mental Cruelty – A Hill to Die Upon (Unique Leader). Let’s be honest, this is a Lorna Shore homage and the much-increased orchestration dramatically improved an already massive deathcore band, and I’m a sucker for this stuff.
3. Ophidian I – Desolate (Season of Mist). Such a vast improvement over the debut with a constant melodic shred along with amazing musicianship, barely beat by First Fragment as 2021s best tech death release.
4. 1914 – Where Fear and Weapons Meet (Napalm Records). Add some dramatic orchestration to already magnificent WWI based doom/black/death metal and the results are spectacular.
5. Passéisme – Eminence (Antiq Records). Three Russian death metal dudes from Wombripper delivered amazing medieval epic black metal and the year’s best black metal release, from a label that had some really good black metal. Whodathunk?
6. Dessiderium – Aria (The Artisan Era). A late-year top 10 buster, this solo effort from Alex Haddad of Arkaik, out Nihil’ed Rivers of Nihil with progressive, epic melodic technical black/death metal, just no sax.
7. Wizardthrone – Hypercube Necrodimensions (Napalm Records). Hopefully, the Alestorm chats fallout isn’t too bad, as this fun and epic Bal-Sagoth inspired side project has some real promise.
8. Vallendusk – Heralds of Strife (Northern Silence). Not a shoo-in for the top 5 as I’d expected due to 3 weaker songs, but the 4 other songs are good enough to warrant a top 10 spot.
9. Aephenamer– Call of the Wilderness (Napalm Records). Man, what a fun uplifting, synth-filled melodeath album. I loved that these guys progressed with 2 self-released albums then deservedly got signed to a bigger label and delivered as a stunning third effort.
10. Seven Spires – Gods of Debauchery (Frontiers Records). I admittedly have a crush on Adrienne Cowan, but man, her voice and compositions skills are top-notch. Such a talent.
11. Harakiri For the Sky – Mære (AOTP). My first introduction to this Austrian duo was this epic, 2 cd, hour-plus-long effort of effortlessly perfect modern black gaze.
12. Duskmourn – Fallen Kings and Rusted Crowns (Self-Released). Amorphis meets Ensiferum with epic keyboards. Vastly underrated US act that needs a label ASAP.
13. Alda – A Distant Fire (Eisenwald). After 2 solid albums, Alda took the jump into elite levels with a nigh-perfect Cascadian black metal album for the ages, and should see the band mentioned in the same breath as WIITR and Falls of Rauros.
14. Be’lakor – Coherence (Napalm Records). Well worth the 5 year wait as Australia’s answer to Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum (who delivered an utter snoozefest on Origin) again delivered the goods.
15. Rivers of Nihil – The Work (Metal Blade). A draining, angst-filled progressive death metal album that really shows how developed these guys have become.
16. Stormkeep – Tales of Othertime (Van Records). A bit different from the EP, but in a good way. Rousing D & D metal for your next Dungeon crawl.
17. Necronautical – Slain in the Spirit (Candlelight). Yep, the best symphonic black metal album from the UK was this, not Cradle of Filth. And it wasn’t close. Additional Fleshgod Apocalyse like orchestration and choirs elevated these guys immensely.
18. Fear Factory – Aggression Continuum (Nuclear Blast Records). If the stupid legal issues between band members made this indeed the band’s last album with Burton C Bell, he went out with a bang and the best album since the classic first 3 releases. This won’t be the same band with a different singer despite what Dino says….
19. Utbyrd – Varskrik (Petrichor). Grandiose epic, black metal from an energetic new band.
20. Funeral Mist – Deiform  (Norma Evangelium Diaboli). Yet another Black Metal Masterpiece from Marduk’s Arioch.
21. Worm Shepherd – In The Wake of Sol (Unique Leader). Yeah another Lorna Shore knock-off, but another really good one, the next album (which comes out pretty soon) should be huge
22. Korpse – Insufferable Violence (Unique Leader). Another ridiculous slamming death metal beat down from Unique Leader.
23. Ominous Ruin – Amidst Voices that Echo in Stone (Willowtip). A real surprise in 2021s massive tech-death onslaught. And to think it’s only their debut.
24. Osiah– Loss (Unique Leader). Could have also been Crown Magnetar‘s A Codex of Flesh, Signs of the Swarm‘s Absolvere, or Zeolite’s Proselytism, as deathcore blew the fuck up again in 2021.
25. Humanity’s Last Breath – Valde (Unique Leader). A nice fill-in for Vildjharta’s hefty lumbering djent. utter devastation.
26. Vildjharta – Måsstaden Under Vatten (Century Media). And speaking of Vildhjarta, they made the long wait worthwhile with a sprawling, 2 cd, hour plus, exhausting effort that I’m still absorbing
27. Pyrexia – Gravitas Maximus (Unique Leader). A simple, effective groove-laden beat down from the bridesmaids of old school, US  slamming death metal. Perfect workout music. Or music for punching grandma in her stupid fucking face.
28. Stortregn – Impermanence (The Artisan Era). More tech death, more brilliance from Swiss masters.
29. Inferi – Vile Genesis (The Artisan Era). Yep, more tech-death, these shredding yanks have nailed their sound with utmost skill and confidence.
30. Bound in Fear – Penance (Unique Leader). Possibly the year’s most stupidly heavy downtempo/deathcore album, just nipping Exorsized Gods‘ Banished Into Conflagration.
31. Hannes Grossman – To Where The Light Retreats (Self-Released). What else would we expect from Obscura drummer? yeah, more superb tech-death that’s actually a little better than the new, more melodic Obscura effort.
32. Dauþuz – Vom Schwarzen Schmied. (Amor Fati Productions). How the fuck do you make black metal songs about mining, epic and catchy as hell?
33. Obscura  – A Valediction (Nuclear Blast Records). A more melodic approach made these tech death master a bit easier to swallow, but still master of thier craft.
34. Massacre – Resurgence (Nuclear Blast Records). An album that finally sounds like a Massacre album with Kam lees iconic vocals back in the fray at last.
35. Aquilus – Bellum I (Blood Music). Like Dessiderium, a stunning late-year release of classically inspired, symphonic, progressive super ambitious music that I could not decide was either a year-end contender or completely overblown. Also how many solo classically trained artists are doing this in Australia????( See Christian Cosentino below)

Best Digital-Only Independent Releases (AKA release physical goddamn versions already please): Runeshard –Shadowbane. Downright brilliant and epic Bal-Sagoth worship. even more so than Wizardthrone or even Kull, and they have actual Bal Sagoth members!!!!.  Urdôl Ur – Seven Portals To The Arcane Realms. Pure unabashed Summoning homage that’s superbly done. Third World Party – Bros Avec la Morte. Another Lorna Shore influenced band that has great things in their future.

Best Eps: Christian Cosentino – Lawn (Self Released). EP? LP? Don’t care. Absolutely gorgeous symphonic black metal with a classical edge. Really looking forward to what he does next. , Lorna Shore – …And I Return to Nothingness (Century Media). Any doubt here? The new genre kings show off new vocalist with some absolutely crushing symphonic deathcore that’s been mimicked to death since 2020s  Immortal. (See above list).

Biggest Disappointments:- Spectral Lore –  Ετερόφωτος (I, Voidhanger) , Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm (I, Voidhanger). Both of these one-man projects once delivered some of the most majestic, melodic, atmospheric black metal around, but both 2021 releases bored me to tears. Maladie – The Sick is Dead, Long Live the Sick (Apostasy). Not sure what happened here, but the once experimental, daring, and ambitious Germans, simplified their sound and the results are pretty unimpressive. It’s not a gut-wrenching disappointment, but certainly …’ different’.

Best Change in Production:- Mystras – Empires Vanquished and Dismantled (I, Voidhanger). The debut was a hot mess, so Ayloss fixed the production and released an album that was better than his Spectral Lore release.

Best 2020 Discoveries:- Vela Pulsar – Memoirs of Unbecoming EP  (Self-Released) Gorgeous multi-layered and dual vocal Cascadian black metal.  Scarab – Martyrs of the Storm (ViciSolum Productions). A monster, groove-filled death metal album that passed me by last year.

Best Label: Not even close. Almost a third of my list is from Unique Leader Records. Napalm Records and The Artisan Era had a solid year also.

We were pretty loose with the list, but tried to limit it to bands that had one EP or album, not including demos or subsequent compilations, reissues of said release and such after that release.

Did we miss a release? Do you have a release that you hold near and dear, but stands alone in a band’s discography? Let us know in the comments!

ERIK T

Disincarnate – Dreams of the Carrion Kind. After his split with Chuck Schuldiner and Death on Spiritual Healing, James Murphy surfaced in Disincarnate, and their lone album in 1993. It was an album that was a perfect blend of Murphy’s time in Death and Obituary, complete with his melodic lead work. “Monarch of the Sleeping Marches” remains one of my favorite death metal songs to this day. There were rumors of another album a few years ago, but alas nothing has surfaced.

Liers In Wait – Spiritually Uncontrolled Art.  A duo that had deep roots with At the Gates and their forebearers, Grotesque, (notably Kristian Wåhlin), this was a little ahead of its time even as then a formative At the Gates were still a bit more experimental in 1992. And clearly as melodic death metal grew and blew up, this 5 song EP was just a bit too chaotic and out there for what labels and fans were wanting at the time.

Hamartia – To Play the Part. There was a fuckton of one-hit wonder metalcore bands to blow up and fade in the metalcore explosion of 00s, but this lone release from guys that went on to form With Honor and Bury Your Dead was easily one of the best. It one of my first exposures to the later, melodic, Euro-inspired metalcore style while writing for digital metal, and subsequently, I discovered Poison the Well, Unearth, Shai Hulud, Between the Buried and Me, Darkest Hour and such. Thanks, Hamartia.

Visceral Evisceration – Incessant Desire for Palatable Flesh. One of the most bizarre releases of the early 90s. It took Paradise Lost‘s Gothic (which came out the same year) and threw in gross-out Pungent Stench/Autopsy lyrics and out there, random injections of psychedelia, Melo-death and female/male operatics along with the experimental death doom. Wacky stuff that’s still out there over 30 years later.

Accidental Suicide – Deceased. I’ve mentioned this album in several other lists and articles over the years. I heard “Misery Hunt” on a Peaceville compilation of some sort, and immediately sought the album out. They unabashedly copied Autopsy’s gurgling, sloppy doom-death, especially vocalist Ed Jackson (RIP) and his super moist, icky growls. But the one album he performed on was well worth it.

Eternal Suffering – Drowning In Tragedy. Another short lived USDM act from the 90s, that did one excellent album and called it quits. Certainly Suffocation worship at its core but songs like “The Warmth in Her Torment”, “Rise” and “To Sadness, Betrothed” had some of the best grooves of the genre and era.   Here’s some loud music that sounds like its saying “I’m angry…I’m very very angry…:”

 FRANK RINI

I had trouble narrowing this list down, but I am sure many of us have our favorite one hit wonder bands.  Bands who only ever released one album, but that album(s) resonated with us throughout the years.  I came up with 7 bands who only ever released one album, but that I have loved for many years, and the majority of them are pretty damn obscure. Also- Frank beat me to the punch with Desecrator’s Subconscious Release, dammit. a true UK one hit death metal wonder.

Unseen Terror–Human Error. Released on Earache Records in 1987 as MOSH 4, it’s one of Earache’s earliest releases featuring Shane Embury on drums.  Shane would soon go onto Napalm Death and UK’s Unseen Terror were around only from ’86-’90.  Playing a blistering form of grindcore/crust/hardcore.  Unbelievably catchy, positive and unifying  lyrics, along with war/terror themes and a penchant for including the cartoon character Garfield into various songs.

Intense DegreeWar in My Head.  Released on Earache Records in 1988 as MOSH 9, another UK band similar in style to other UK ultra-blasting bands like Heresy/Unseen Terror/Napalm Death.  War in My Head is the fastest album ever!  Even faster than Napalm Death’s From Enslavement to Obliteration.  Grindcore/crust/hardcore played with deliberate precision and beyond catchy songs. Absolute intense insanity.

Demilich–Nespithe.  Released in ’93, this Finnish death metal band ushered in a new era of brutality.  Antti’s vocals were/still are a heavy vocal influence in some of my tones.  With song titles longer than an anaconda and sludgy heaviness with bizarre signature time changes this album still boggles my mind.  I was fortunate to see them live a few years ago and they were insanely awesome.  One of the best death metal albums ever released.

Beyond Possession– Is Beyond Possession.  This Canadian band was short lived and this outstanding album was released in 1986.  Playing a brutal form of thrash/crossover metal with one of the earliest blast beats, as well, the vicious “You’re So Important”.  Like all the other mentioned albums I mention here, I know this album front to back, Christ I have had it for like 35 years.  Excellent heavy rhythms and fans of Cryptic Slaughter would love this band.

Desecrator– Subconscious Release.  This UK early death metal band went unnoticed for quite some time, until the album was remastered, by Mosh Tuneage in 2012.  I have enjoyed this album for over 30 years.  Super heavy, really low vocals and while the musicianship may not have been the tightest with respect to the drumming, who cares, when music is this catchy, as well as heavy. Some monster pit-moving songs, like “Ineffectual Condition”, as well and the band wrote longer some songs.

Lord Crucifier–The Focus of Life.  This Italian band, was yet another short lived band and the album has only ever been released on vinyl, in 1988.  I would love to have a remastered cd.  This album was released on the shitty Metalworks label and Lord Crucifier’s songs were certainly bizarre in lyrical and musical arrangements, but of course I still own the original vinyl.  The band played some blistering thrash/speed metal and the title track and “The Scarecrows” are still 2 of my favorite metal songs.

Winter–Into Darkness.  Seeing Long Island New York’s Winter several times live prior to and after Into Darkness was released, in ’90, are cherished memories for me, from 1989-1991.  This is the best doom/death metal album ever released.  Some definite Celtic Frost influences were present and Winter had a calculating cold heaviness to them drenched in atmospheric heaviness.  One of the most perfect album covers to go along with the music.

J MAYS

Cerekloth – In the Midst of Life We Are in Death. This album was my first purchase from Hells Headbangers (although certainly not the last). I loved the album so much I bought the shirt and wore it out fairly quickly. It’s still available, so maybe I’ll buy it again. Anyway, this came out in 2013 and the band promptly decided to break up. What a bummer. This is solid death doom with more of a focus on the “death” part and you’d be a damned fool not to check it out.

Headmeat – Mass Sociogenic Illness. (In my most condescending, elitist voice) This next band you probably haven’t heard of (pushes up glasses). Honestly, I’m really surprised more people haven’t. This band had so much potential, releasing this experimental slab of, well, let’s say progressive deathened black metal? Clean vocals? Check. Symphonic elements? Check. Unfortunately, I must admit I did not hear this album until probably about 2015, despite it coming out in 2005 and literally purchased it for $3 on CD from a bargain bin at the record store my friend used to manage. These guys seriously could have been huge.

STEVE K

I’ve only got one album that I felt I needed to mention in this special, but I think it’s a fucking doozy – and one of the most criminally underappreciated albums I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to.

Vattnet – Vattnet.

Now, hear me out. Some of you may call this cheating, as Vattnet was really the remaining parts left behind after vocalist/guitarist Nick Thornbury left New Hampshire Post Black Metallers Vattnet Viskar in 2018, but anyone who listened to Vattnet Viskar‘s prior works next to Vattnet‘s lone release would struggle to believe they shared any history or similarity with one another. Indeed, Thornbury’s departure was as surpising as the band’s drastic change in sound that came after, as the back-to-back success of 2013’s Sky Swallower and the HIGHLY critically acclaimed Settler sky-rocketed the band to the forefront of the USBM scene, landing them on tour with the likes of 1349 and Taake and many other of the Black Metal elite. But if you listened closely, you’d find that Vattnet really did feature many of the defining characteristics that made Settler such a success – just with a re-focused shift in priorities. The remaining members, with bassist Casey Alyward moving over to guitar and vocal duties, took a much cleaner approach to their sound, blending spacious, Deftones-like stretches with thick, Post Metal riffs and epic, beautifully crafted guitar melodies that are still as infectious as the first day I heard them. Seriously, try listening to tracks “Sugar” and especially the last 3 minutes of the epic “Time Will Prove Everything” and try to get those songs out of your head. You’ll thank me when you find that they can’t.

Unfortunately, we will likely never know what the band’s evolution could have grown into. It seems they were never quite able to find its footing after such drastic changes, and the audience they’d built with Vattnet Viskar just never migrated over with the shift – I suppose yet another unfortunate example of expectations never giving the artists a chance. For his part, Casey Alward went on to join Astronoid, but I’d give anything for the trio of him, Chris Alfieri and Seamus Menihane to come back together some day to give Vattnet one more go, because the one album that group of musicians created was an absolute stunner.

MARS BUDZISZEWSKI 

Genocide Kommando – Black Metal Supremacy (Moribund Records)Black Metal Supremacy was a one off collaboration between Noktu of Gestapo 666 (whose records are as close of a follow up to this as one will get), Mortifera, Celestia and Kommander Horrendus, later of Corpus Christii, Morte Incandescent, and others.  All projects have lengthy catalogs, which has always been upsetting to me when their collaboration is the hateful magic that I know will never be reignited. Why do I love this album?  It could be a timing thing.  I was just dipping my toes into black waters when I saw the cover art pop up.  Probably on Blackmetal.com.  Even with very limited exposure I’d trudged through enough early distro websites to form an idea of the general art aesthetic at the time, but Black Metal Supremacy’s featuring of decked out Satanic, capital “S”, anti-riot corp was more realistically menacing than most.  It immediately spoke to my dark side.  I took the 30 minutes to download a single song to sample.  Its sickly tuned,medium-fast term picking, militaristic lockstep drum programming, and uniquely depraved scorched earth snarling vocals impressed a genuine sense of danger on my ears.  Why does no one else have love for this album? All of the archetypes present in form but each element maligned such that it is perhaps just enough askew to turn off many, for all of the reasons described prior.  Black metal in tried and true style that isn’t just an early Burzum or Dark Throne record.  The difference is there is no folk fantasy element to buffer the content.  Black Metal Supremacy point-blank aims its ill will toward humanity just as the Satanic storm troopers upon the cover. Or…OR… people find it boring.  As a listener, I do tend to focus on everything but the form.  It’s template black metal but with the right presentation, effective riffs, and nauseating tones. A note to Moribund Records: put some goddamn respect on this album.  It’s coming up on the 20 year anniversary and I declare it’s the perfect candidate for a ridiculous picture disc reissue.  That’s an order directly from the Satanic Fronts top brass!

Dripping – Disintegration of Thought Patterns During A Synthetic Mind Traveling Bliss (Macabre Mementos). My experience with mind-altering substances is limited but I love music made by people that are seasoned psychonauts.  Anyone that knows this album probably does drugs because they’re chasing the dragon that was their first time hearing Dripping’s only album (Not counting the Bring The Suffering demo collection).  21 minutes isn’t enough but we’re glad it exists.  The title sums it up.  These New Jersey basement burnouts let the herb, and New York rap lead their blissful interpretation of what death metal could be.  The track flows of adderall buzzing brutal death metal interrupted with dub edits, and short beat loops is jarring in the best way.  

Blood Revolt – Indoctrine (Profound Lore). Another collaboration between prolific artists but this time quite a bit more diffuse in style.  Vocalist Alan Averill of Primordial essentially fronting Canadian lightning force of war metal, Revenge.  …Whaaat!?  Surely one of the most distinct unions any metal weirdo would agree.  The vocal performance is that of a mentally unsound, conspiracy-obsessed ex-singer of a hardworking but obscure 80s thrash band.  His Larynx strained from mostly yelling his thoughts to anyone who will make eye contact.  It’s hard to know if the band is sympathetic, or if they’re exploiting a man on the verge of complete disassociation.  Either way, the Revenge boys just feed the fire with a relentless, exhausting drum assault and fire and brimstone razor cyclone of riffs.  It’s an insane record.  The rare album that reminds one how metal can still be a bewildering and surprising genre especially having come out at a time when the metal world seemed perfectly content with recycled 80s crossover thrash.  If you need a taste “God’s Executioner, Praise Be” should peel your wig back.

Hamartia – To Play The Part (Good Life Recordings). Most melodic metalcore was criticized as being a kid-friendly rip-off of At The Gates, and In Flames but Hamartia was one of the very few of that early run of such bands that could make any respectable claim to be writing riffs that held their own ground.  Darkest Hour, As I lay Dying, Unearth, Undying all achieved a following and surprising success within that sound.  None of them ever got from under the aforementioned criticism.  The only other comparatively original take that skirted that is 7 Angels 7 Plagues. Unfortunately Hamartia didn’t make due on the record or their potential as a unit, having broken up before it was released by Euro label Good Life.  It was never given a chance.  But the members continued on, forking off to institutions like Bury Your Dead, Between The Buried And Me, and to a lesser extent With Honor.

KRISTOFER ALLRED

Midvinter – At the Sight of the Apocalypse Dragon (Black Diamond Productions & Invasion/Death Records). Aaahh Midvinter, you sneaky little underrated and under the radar piece of black metal magnificence you. Formed in 1993, the band’s only proper output was their sole album, 1997’s At the Sight of the Apocalypse Dragon, but what an album it was. The trio, comprised of vocalist, Kheeroth, guitarist/bassist, Damien, and drummer, Zathanel, seemed to come out of nowhere with a sophisticated and dynamic album of damn near black metal perfection if there ever was one. Produced by the infamous Andy LaRoque (King Diamond/Death), the album seemed both ahead of its time and steeped in the roots of elders, and frankly, both album and band arguably should have been the recipient of the critical praise and acclaim that went to Emperor and their Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk full-length, also released in 1997. Not that Anthems wasn’t a fantastic album, because it was/is, but I truly believe Midvinter‘s release to be the better of the two if I had to pit them against each other. Catchy and moody, driving and melodic, blistering, infectious and intense, and usually all within each track, At the Sight of the Apocalypse Dragon throws down the gauntlet of black metal ferocity. It’s full of emotional bliss and brilliance, with a slight sense of somberness and melancholy at times, and somehow manages to be (mostly) all thriller and no filler despite each of the album’s tracks clocking in at eight minutes or more. Coming in at slightly over an hour in length, I used to think the album was actually a bit bloated back in the day. Yet all these years later I now consider the album’s exuberant running time to be another positive in the sole notch of the belt of Midvinter. Exactly what you want out of a black metal album, and a damn near perfect example of what black metal should be, at least twenty-four years ago.

Indwelling- And my Eyes Shall Weep (Facedown Records). I love Indwelling and their siblingless album And My Eye Shall Weep. I love it for two reasons. One, it’s a greatly written and performed piece of death metal, and two, it’s got a huge pair of balls. Seriously my friends, imagine a band with the crushing heaviness of Suffocation, the suffocating oppressiveness of Incantation, the technical chops of Cannibal Corpse, and the overt progressive fortitude of Nile, wrapped with a direct, in your face, message of Jesus Christ, as well as a bit of that hardcore attitude prevalent amongst most of Facedown Records’ roster, and you’ll understand what Indwelling is and all about. And if you don’t think pushing a biblical message of Christianity while playing death metal as brutally genuine as this isn’t ballsy, then well, that’s like your opinion, man… No matter what your stance is religiously if you even have one at all, when it comes to metal and all its glorious subgenres the fact remains that the majority of the players out there push a secular content when it comes to lyrical bases. Love ’em or hate ’em, those out there bringing a non-secular theme and/or message to their metal have got more balls than most metal fans would like to admit. Regardless of what Indwelling present in the lyrical department, the fact is that this death metal power trio bring the pain when it comes to the jams. Originally released in 2003, the album pushes just as hard today as it did then. I could easily break down and dissect the greatness of each track, but why? Simply put, pick any one of the album’s ten tracks and you’re guaranteed to be picking a winner.

I Am War –  Outlive You All (Razor & Tie). Can you believe that the raging metalcore heydays of the then blooming 21^st century are already approaching the twenty year mark? When did we get so much older? Oh well, that’s life… A lot of names pop up when taking a trip down metalcore memory lane, from the big dogs to the little guys, there was definitely no shortage of bands that came to offer their take on a stylized form of American hardcore meeting the Gothenburg sound. Among the myriad of bands that emerged at this time, few were as successful as Bleeding Through and Atreyu. While both bands were not necessarily too far removed from each other as a whole, deeper inspection clearly showed they represented two sides of the same coin. One, a bit burlier and beefier, almost deathly at times, and the other, more accessible and full of poppy sing-along choruses. With I Am War and their sole effort, Outlive You All, we get a really good medium between both Bleeding Through and Atreyu as this duo (trio if count producer, engineer and drummer, Mick Kenney) are comprised of Bleeding Through‘s Brandan Schieppati and Atreyu‘s Alex Varkatzas. In fact, Outlive You All is, to my ears, a damn near-perfect metalcore album, at the very least it’s a shining example of how metalcore had its own brand of seething, vicious, and attainable extremity. No keyboards, no overtly clean, sappy or crooning vocals, no sing-along choruses, just short, sharp, crisp bursts of blasty aggressive metalcore that extremely satisfies, gang shouts and all. Pretty much every attribute of what one likes about ‘core, be it hard or metal, are to be found within Outlive You All, and the album’s thirteen tracks. Granted, the band’s full-on, straight too the point approach can be a bit exhausting by the time you reach the album’s end, as constantly going for the jugular doesn’t leave room for much variation, but all in all this thing is a winner, winner…plus you get the awesome skills and contributions of Mick Kenney, you know, the man responsible for the brilliance of Anaal Nathrakh…

God Macabre  – The Winterlong..(M.B.R. Records) . One of Sweden’s first death metal bands, the band was originally known by the moniker Macabre End and even released a demo before changing their name to God Macabre and eventually releasing their only real full-length album, The Winterlong…, in 1993. The problem for them was that by then the death metal world was already starting to change and morph here and there. One needs to look no further than Entombed‘s Wolverine Blues to see what I’m talking about. That classic Stockholm metal of death sound was becoming a been there done that thing that for the genre’s pioneers and not too many artists, critics, and, to a lesser extent, even fans alike were looking for another Swedeath album at the time. Too bad, because The Winterlong…, while clearly was a “typical” Swedish death metal album, the band actually incorporated quite a bit of atypical traits for the time and included not only some synths/keyboards into some of their song structures, but dabbled in a much more doom and gloom emotional vibe than most of their Swedish peers ever did. Thankfully, Relapse Records reissued the album back in 2014 with a remastered production as well as including an unreleased track and the three song demo recorded under the Macabre End name, thus allowing many to once again hear the magnificence of this band’s hard to find only effort.

NICK K

Ripping Corpse Dreaming with The Dead, (Kraze Records). Malevolent Creation Ten Commandments, Bolt Thrower War Master, Death Human.  What do these albums have in common?  They all were released in 1991 one of the greatest years in Death Metal.  Also, in 1991 a death metal band from New Jersey called Ripping Corpse release their one and only studio album.  I remember being 15 walking from my house to Best Buy to buy death metal albums on a whim.  That is what we did back then.  We did not have the internet.  We had magazines and random chance.   When I looked at the cover, I was not even sure if it is was a metal band or not.  I had to look at the band members on the back to make decision that this was worth taking a chance on and boy was I right. The guitar duo of Erik Rutan (Ex Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Hate Eternal) and Shaune Kelley (Ex Hate Eternal, Dim-Mak) is one thing that makes this album so memorable.   The context of this and knowing that they also released just one album is incredibly intriguing.  Kelley and Rutan would later join up again for The Hate Eternal Album Fury and Flames.  The other thing to note about Ripping Corpse is how their sound was so different from everything else coming out.  Vocalist Scott Ruth had a delivery that was completely unique and different.  Not Guttural.  Corporal Death from Macabre might be the only comparison I can think of.  If you have never heard Ripping Corpse and are a fan of these guys other projects this is completely worth investing some time to find.

Erik T

A few things stood out for me in the shit show that was 2020, 1) It’s clear black metal was my go to genre of choice with almost half the list being black metal or mostly black metal (with other releases by Prezir, Liturgy, Afsky, Omitir, Porta Nigra, Mavorim, Argesk, Varg, Kryptamok, Eisenkult, Necrocracy and Black Beast all flirting with my list) and 2) This was one of the few years where I didn’t have to trim down my list and agonize over what to add or remove or get creative (ok maybe I did a little…)so I could have some releases out there. And Finally, after Havukrunnu as my clear cut top album of 2020 and my top 5, the rest of the albums were pretty interchangeable.

1. Havukrunnu Uinuos syömein sota. (Naturmacht Productions). As I stated above- the clear cut best album of 2020 for me. Merging Immortal, Macabre Omen and Moonsorrow into rousing, epic black metal anthems for the ages.
2. Marrasmieli Between Land and Sky (Naturmacht Productions).  As I said back in February when I reviewed this amazing record- top 5 of the year and an amazingly gorgeous black metal record littered with Viking era Bathory influences.
3. Lorna Shore Immortal (Century Media Records). Despite the CJ McGreery bullshit, Lorna Shore released a blistering symphonic deathcore tour de force, good enough that even though it was released in January, I still loved it in December.
4. Abigor Totschlager (A Saintslayers Songbook) WTC Productions. Holy hell. Abigor finally settled down a bit and looked to their past but still delivered a maelstrom of chaotic, symphonic black metal majesty.
5. AARA En Ergô Einai (Dememur Morti Productions).  Brilliant, unique Swiss, Choral black metal.
6. Cult of Lilith Mara (Metal Blade Records). A perfect quirky mix of Meshuggah and Soreption from iceland. Great find from Metal Blade records.
7. … And Oceans Cosmic World Mother (Season of Mist) . Worth the 18 year wait, as …And Oceans delivered one of the best reunions of recent memory, going back to their brilliant 90s symphonic style of black metal
8. Anaal Nathrakh Endarkenment (Metal Blade Records) . The most fitting album for the shitshow that is 2020. Blistering yet catchy earworms from this reliable duo.
9. Blodiga Skald The Undrunken Curse (Soundage Productions). My favorite new folk metal discovery of the last few years. Take all the good stuff from Finntroll, Equilibrium, Svartsot, and even Alestorm and you get these energetic Italians.
10. Fluisteraars Bloem (Eisenwald) Sublime, elegant  and slightly avant-garde black metal from this Dutch duo who have been at it for a few albums now, and are now firmly on my radar.
11. Voidceremony Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensional Unravel (20 Buck Spin). Churning, cavernous death metal made progressive and some how melodic? Dimension Unraveling indeed.
12. Mork Gryning Hinsides vrede (Season of Mist). Another veteran 90s black metal act reunites with terrific results.
13. Exocrine Maelstrom (Unique Leader) A killer tech death release with some curveballs (brass sections, female vocals) that showed great progression and experimentation from prior releases.
14. Earth Rot  Black Tides of Obscurity (Season of Mist). Australian black/death metal with a Swedish HM 2 buzz. A supremely underrated band and album from early 2020.
15. The Project Hate Purgatory (Mouth of Belial). Has Lord K and co. released a bad album in their 13 attempts? Nope. another killer techno-industrial Swedish death juggernaut. Kudos for doing a CD version….
16. Exulansis Sequestered Sympathy. (Alerta Antifascista Records). My Dying Bride violins mixed with emotive Fall of Efrafa-ish crust/doom. Fuck yes.
17. Ulcerate Stare Into Death And be Still (Debemur Morti Productions) . Another massive, murky release from New Zealand’s most reliable death metal masters.
18. Noumena Anima (Haunted Zoo Productions). Not as immediate as prior masterpieces, but a more patient sprawling effort from one of Finland’s most underrated death/doom bands.
19. Carach Angren Franckensteina Strataemontanus (Season Of Mist). After a few experimental missteps, one of Symphonic black metal’s vanguards returned to form.
20. Oath of Damnation Fury and Malevolence (Gore House Productions). Absolutely ripping blackened death  album from these Aussies with hints of Bal Sagoth .
21. envy The Fallen Crimson (Temporary Residence Limited/Pelagic Records) Veteran Japanese band have come so far and developed a gorgeous, and unique take on their post rock screamo sound with some of the most wondrous female vocals I’ve heard.
22. Kaunis Kuolematon Syttyköön toinen aurinko (Noble Demon). Expectedly brilliant and somber Finnish doom-death with a brazen, aggressive edge.
23. Naglfar Cerekloth (Century Media Records) Completing the trifecta of killer 90s black metal reunions, Cerekloth was a return to Diabolical and Sheol levels of blistering brilliance.
24. Ordinance In Purge There Is No Remission (The Sinister Flame). Not as sprawling as their debut, but still a masterful release from one of black metal’s brightest (darkest?) newcomers.
25. Asarhaddon  Reysa (Geisterasche Organisation). Obscure, brilliant, melancholic, atmospheric Black metal from Germany. Thanks Spotify!

Best Digital-Only Release; Ovid’s Withering Terraphage (Self -Released). Continuing the band’s high fantasy/sci fi story telling with epic symphonic deathcore. Pity it’s digital only. Come on Unique Leader, get these guys signed!!!

Best EPs: Stormkeep Galdrum.  Epic symphonic black metal adorned by epic Ian Miller artwork. Really looking forward to a full length. (Van Records). Scourge Eternal Subservience (Amputated Vein Records). Sheer Belgian beef mixed with Dying Fetus groove. Massive. Lamentari Miss pro Defunctis (Over the Under Records) Out of nowhere, Bonkers symphonic black metal from Denmark.

Best Vocal Performance: Adrienne Cowan – (Seven Spires –Emerald Seas), Noa Gruman (Scardust –Strangers). These two femme Fatales absolutely killed it on their respective albums delivering supreme range and emotion, and both even using harsh growls and screams to round things out. They both should be huge international stars.

Biggest Disappointment: Mystras  Castles Conquered and Reclaimed. With a production that makes Ulver’s Nattens Madrigal look like Nightwish, the usually genius Ayloss hamstrung his rebellious solo opus, making some possibly brilliant riffs unlistenable.

Best New Discoveries: Mortuorial Eclipse. Another Spotify find, this brilliant Argentinian Symphonic death metal band mixed Behemoth and Fleshgod Apocalypse with epic results on their 2 albums from 2016 (The Aethyrs Call) and 2018 (Urushdaur) respectively. Svalbard – Rending, blackened screamo from the UK that imbues The Circle Takes the Square .

Best reissue/Re-release: Wilderun Veil of Imagination (Century Media Records). I had to find a way to get this absolutely magnificent Opeth meets Blind Guardian combination on my list here somewhere. Originally self-released in 2019, Century Media stuck another track on it and gave it another go around, allowing the world to hear some of the best orchestral and choir arrangements of the last few years again.

Best Thing about 2020: The Reunions- notably the 3 black metal ones above- …And Oceans, Mork Gyning and Naglfar  as well as old warhorses Benediction, all delivering blistering 90s/00s throwback albums. Also one of my favorite metalcore bands from the 00s, Misery Signals reunited with their original vocalist to release Ultraviolet.

Worst Thing about 2020: Other than Covid and Donald Trump, the worst aspect of 2020 was the lack of shows- there were a few bucket list bands I was scheduled to see in 2020 (Borknagar, Rotting Christ) but covid made sure that didn’t happen. Here’s to hoping 2021 sees those shows rescheduled and shows, in general, make a comeback.

Best Label: Unique Leader. I know Naturmacht Productions would seem the obvious choice here as they hold the #1 and #2 spots on my list, and Unique Leader only has two bands Cytotoxin and Exocrine, on my list but when you throw in the consistent releases the label had with the likes of Ingested, Xenobiotic, Afterbirth, Stillbirth, Katalepsy and Athme, as well as the late year Deeds of Flesh release, they literally crushed 2020. Honorable Mentions; Season of Mist, Naturmacht Productions, Purity Through Fire.

One look at my list below and it was clear I was mainly in 2 frames of mind in 2019. Either bombastic and symphonic or flat out brutal slamming. With some contemplation thrown in here and there. What also struck me as I put this list together was a lack of HM 2 Swedish styled death metal. Despite a slew of solid releases from the likes of Gods Forsaken, Fleshcrawl, Revel In Flesh, In Pain, Wretched Fate, Paganizer, Sentient Horror and others, none from the genre, usually an annual mainstay, made my list. Has the genre worn itself out?  2020 will be key. Also, its clear that I’m a huge fan of Francesco Ferrini who did orchestral arrangements for three of the releases below. But, you can never have too much of a good thing, so here’s to more of him and more great metal in 2020. As usual, the list below is pretty fluid past the top 5 or so, so take with a grain of salt.

1. Nile – Vile Nilotic Rites (Nuclear Blast). Dallas Toler Who? Karl Sanders got a new group of guys and delivered the best Nile album of the decade.
2. The Odious- Versica Piscis (Self Released). Who would have thought that progressive death metal and Alice In Chains mixed together would work so well?
3. Kull – Exile (Black Lion Records). Let’s face it. Its a Bal Sagoth album. And it fucking rules.
4. Obsequiae – The Palms of Sorrowed Kings. (20 Buck Spin). These guys have taken their kingly, blackened medieval chamber music to new heights. Gorgeous.
5. Disentomb – The Decaying Light. (Unique Leader). A hulking, pummeling monster of a record.
6. Infant Annihilator – The Battle of Yaldabaoth (Self Released). Total and completely over the top, tech deathcore insanity.
7. Gomorrah – Gomorrah. (Willowtip). A confident, complex multifaceted Canadian death metal duo.
8. Fleshgod Apocalypse – Veleno (Nuclear Blast). Now the unquestionable standard for symphonic tech death.
9. Despised Icon – Purgatory (Nuclear Blast). Rrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-core perfected,
10. Organectomy – Existential Disconnect (Unique Leader). A fun yet still brutal, slamming death metal record.
11. Insomnium – Heart Like a Grave. (Century Media). If only for the brilliant song, “Twilight Trails”.
12. Falls of Rauros – Patterns in Mythology (Gilead Media). These guys have perfected the art of contemplative yet epic black mental.
13. Singularity– Place of Chains (The Artisan Era). Surgical tech black/death with epic orchestration? Yes please.
14. Immanifest –  Macrobial. (The Artisan Era). See Above.
15. Shadow of Intent – Malediction (Self Released). Deathcore meets Fleshgod Apocalypse‘s Franceso Ferrini? Hell yes.
16. ADE– Rise of the Empire (Extreme Metal Music). A nice improvement over their third record. Hail Caesar.
17. Distant – Tyrannotophia (Unique Leader). A uncompromising down tempo beat down.
18. False – Portent. (Gilead Media). Another great, contemplative but throwback black metal record from Gilead.
19. Stormlord– Far (Scarlet Records). Yet another Italian model of symphonic consistency.
20. Belzebubs – Pantheon of the Nightside Gods (Century Media). A symphonic black metal album based on a Finnish cartoon and (allegedly) featuring Insomium dudes and Cradle of Filth‘s Lindsey Schoolcraft? Yes fucking please.
21. Istapp – The Insidious Star. (Trollzorn Records). Frigid, frosty 90s styled black metal done perfectly.
22. Twilight Force – Dawn of the Dragonstar (Nuclear Blast). The best of power metal’s great 2019 (Sabaton, Gloryhammer, Windrose). So fucking cheesily epic. Behind Windrose’s “Diggy Diggy Hole”, “Long Live the King” is the second catchiest  power metal jaunt of the year.
23. Downfall of Gaia – Ethic of Radical Finitude (Metal Blade). Germany’s answer to early Deafheaven deliver again.  That’s 3 of 4 to make this list.
24. Bound in Fear – The Hand of Violence (Unique Leader) . Yet another stupidly heavy down tempo beat down from Unique Leader.
25. Warthrone – Crown of the Apocalypse (Ghoststorm Records). US black metal’s best kept secret and husband wife duo.
26. Knocked Loose – A Different Shade of Blue (Pure Noise). Was originally my guilty pleasure for 2019, but that’s a disservice to a killer, death metal tinged hardcore record.
27. Véhémence– Par La Sang Verse (Antiq Records). If Obsequiae is the kingly chamber music, Véhémence is the blood and mud caked knight returning from battle.
28. Rendered Helpless – Suffer, Seraphim (Inherited Suffering). Pure unadulterated Slam from Organectomy’s singer.
29. Thormesis – The Sixth (MDD Records). A gorgeously melodic and somber black metal record.
30. Bethledeign – Iconography of Suffering (Edgewood Arsenal Records). 8 year old black death metal from Construct of Lethe dudes. Savage AF. Do a CD version please.

Best surprises: As I Lay Dying – Shaped By Fire (Nuclear Blast). Lambesis drama be damned- a killer metalcore record in 2019. , Whitechapel – The Valley (Metal Blade). Phil Bozeman dug deep and exposed him self emotionally, but it paid off with a really mature record.

Disappointments:  Equilibrium – Renegades (Metal Blade) Ugh. they were on this list back in 2016. On it again in 2019. Lets just hope they are not on this again and just call it quits. Also there were albums from usually stellar bands like Mgla, Schammasch, Dekadent, Deathspell Omega and Saor, but for some reason none of them resonated with me at all and seemed pretty average, considering all their past, elite offerings.

Best Reunion: Disillusion – The Liberation (Prophecy Productions). Didn’t miss a beat 13 years later. Borknagar  – True North (Century Media). Cheating I know, but ICS back in the fray full time again was glorious.

Best EPs: Ov Lustra – Tempestas (Black Lion) Franceso Ferrini strikes again., Maladie – ..Still II… (Apostasy Records) A focus on more doomy atmospherics? Brilliant. Dold Vorde Ens Navn – Gjengangere i hjertets mørke (Soulseller Records). Watch out for this Norwegian black metal super group.

Best Label:– The Artisan Era. The big boys (Nuclear Blast, Century Media, Unique Leader) all had expected busy solid years, but The Artisan Era deserves some love for the releases that made the list above as well as a slew of other top notch releases from Warforged, The Odious Construct, Mordant Rapture and others.

Yet another year of great metal. So many releases, so little time. Bands like Binah, Chapel of Disease,  Irreversible Mechanism, Nova, Inferi, Eroded, The Ocean, Deafheaven, Serocs, Apatheia, Aktarum, The Ocean, Creeping Flesh, Depravity, Monotheist, Journal, Wolfheart and Omnium Gatherum were all on and off my list right up to the last minute, causing much stress over the holidays. Also – this year seemed to be the year of great album covers, as cover art on albums by Deicide, Valdur, Pyrexia, Construct of Lethe, Exocrine, Inferi, Soulfly, Eskhaton, Lividity, The Occult, Serocs, Drift of Genes, Vvilderness, Storm Upon the Masses, Sulphur Aeon, Heresy, Dragonlord, Bloodbath, Hate Eternal, Carnal Decay, Cryogenic Defilement and others all really caught my eye. Daemoth Art and Eliran Kantor had a really good year.

1.Vallendusk “Fortress of Primal Grace”. (Northern Silence Records). Man these Indonesians know how to write the most triumphant, melodic black metal and now with added In Flames influence, took their sound to the next level.Sheer bliss.

2. Solstice “White Horse Hill” (Dark Descent Records). It took long enough, but with the addition of Paul Kearns on vocals, was sooooo worth the wait.

3. Shylmagoghnar “Transcience” (Napalm Records). An epic, progressive melodic and symphonic masterpiece for the ages,

4. Abysmal Torment “The Misanthrope”. (Willowtip). You know how you feel when you hear absolutely perfect death metal? This was
absolutely perfect death metal.

5. Altars of Grief “Iris” (Hypnotic Dirge Records). The spirit of David Gold and Woods of Ypres lives on via this amazingly emotional doom /death/black metal record.

6. Gorod “Aether” (Overpowered Records). Yet another tech death marvel , and even with strong competition from the likes of Obsura and Beyond Creation– was the best release of the year in tech death.

7. Maladie “ Of Harm and Salvation”. (Apostasy Records). A brittle production and weird mix job away from being my #2 album and recreating 2015s top 2.

8. Demonical “Chaos Manifesto. (Agonia records). Another strong effort from these Swedish death metal vets and contains one of the best songs in the genre in the last few years in “Välkommen undergång” .

9. Gravestone “The Sickening”. (Raw Skull Records). Project from Entrails guitarist Pontus “Penki” Samuelsson, that gives Entrails a run for their money. Also has my favorite guitar tone of the year.

10. Frost Giant “The Harlot Star” Transcending Records). Best US epic/pagan/folk act since Hammer Horde and the best clean vocal use of the year.

11. Funeral Mist “Hekatomb” (Norma Evangelium Diaboli). The best black metal album of the year from Arioch’s consistently brilliant and most volatile black metal act around.

12. Sulphur Aeon “The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos”. (Van Records). Yet another slab of crumbling immensity from these reliable Lovecraftian Germans.

13. Blood of the Wolf “II: Campaign of Extermination. (Self Released). A truly rousing swath of blackened war/death metal and “With Fire and a Thousand Flashing Blades” stirs my battle lust every time. Also available from Horror Pain Gore Death Productions as a compilation with the bands debut The Law of Retaliation.

14. Corpsessed “Impetus of Death” (Dark Descent Records). Another monolithic slab of crumbling death metal from Finland and Dark Descent.

15. Northwind Wolves “Dark Cold Grim”. (Self Released). The best 90s symphonic black metal record throwback of this generation.

16. Construct of Lethe “ Exiler. (Everlasting Spew Records). An intelligently crafted take on twisty, atonal Morbid Angel styled death metal .

17. Hate Eternal “Upon Desolate Sands”. (Metal Blade Records). Remember what I said about perfect absolutely death metal earlier? Yeah that applies here too. Rutan can do this shit in his sleep.

18. Nightmarer “Cacophony of Terror”. (Season of Mist). Who would have thought that two guys involved with average deathcore act War from a Harlots Mouth would release one of 2018s most aptly named, crushing, oppressive death metal albums?.

19. Our Place of Worship is Silence “ With Inexorable Suffering”. (Translation Loss Records). A labyrinthine mix of Angelcorpse and Bolzer, pity I’ve read that that one of the members might be total douche.

20. Abhorrent Deformity “Slaughter Monolith (Comatose Music). This is what happens when Comatose releases brutal death metal with a bit pf depth and variety.

21. House of Atreus “From the Madness of Ixion” (Iron Bonehead Productions). More rough and ready Shakespearean death metal from one of the US’s most underrated acts.

22. Dalriada “Nyaruto” (Nail Records). On of my favorite discoveries of the last few years does not disappoint with big, burly catchy folk metal goodness.

23. Amorphis “”Queen of Time”. (Nuclear Blast). Ho hum, another year another Amorphis album on everyone’s year end list. How consistently brilliant have have these guys been since Far From the Sun?

24. VVilderness “ Devour the Sun” (Cassu Belli Musica). One man Russian black emtal that’s simply gorgeous.

25. Ayahuasca “Beneath the Mind” (Kernkraftritter Records ). A big tribal death metal world music jamboree that imbues classic Sepultura and Soulfly.

Biggest Surprises: Skeletonwitch –Devouring Radiant Light-, Rivers of Nihil –Where the Owls Know My Name
Biggest Let downs : Panopticon – The Scars of Man , Horrendous – Idol, Soreption – Monument of the End
Best Reunion : Grayceon –V, – Light This City – Terminal Bloom.
Not as bad as I was expecting : Behemoth – I Loved You At Your Darkest
Best EP: Cast the Stone – Empyrean Atrophy
Best reissue : Crimson Relic – Purgatory’s Reign.
Best Swansong: Cosmic Church – Täyttymys
Best Video: Alien Weaponry- “Kai Tangata”
Best Songs : Mourning Sign “Homage to a Dying World”, Dimmu Borgir – “Alpha Aeon Omega”, Amorphis “Amongst Stars”, Demonical – “Välkommen undergång” , Nova ““Pietra della corona di Lucifero” 
Guilty Pleasures : Organectomy – Domain of the Wretched,  Black Tongue – Nadir.

]]> https://www.teethofthedivine.com/blog/teeth-of-the-divine-staff-picks-for-2018/feed/ 1 https://www.teethofthedivine.com/blog/teeth-of-the-divine-staff-picks-for-2017/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=teeth-of-the-divine-staff-picks-for-2017 https://www.teethofthedivine.com/blog/teeth-of-the-divine-staff-picks-for-2017/#comments Mon, 01 Jan 2018 05:18:44 +0000 http://www.teethofthedivine.com/?p=43877 ERIK THOMAS

Seems like every year I say what a great year it was, and 2017 was no different. Despite all the bullshit going on in the world, metal stayed true and was there for me and all of its fans. This year, you’ll notice something that has never happened before on my list. Amid the usual Swedish Death metal, tech death metal, chaotic death metal and black metal, there are 3 power metal albums. Yes, THREE!!!!!! And one in the goddamn top 10! However, death metal was still the story of 2017, as the year saw the US old guard return with a vengeance. Immolation, Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Dying Fetus,  Obituary, Morbid Angel and Broken Hope  all delivered excellent records. Tech death was a particularly strong genre as well, with Gigan, Origin, Inanimate Existence, and Decrepit Birth all returning to the fray. It’s not just about the familiar names, though – a lot of new acts have also found their way to my list to knock those perennial veterans out.

1. Bell Witch – Mirror Reaper (Profound Lore Records). Such a profoundly despondent 83 minute descent into misery.
2. Redemptor – Arthaneum (Selfmadegod). A late find, but a brilliant, cavernous,  otherwordly take on tech death metal.
3. Falls of Rauros – Vigilance Perennial (Bindrune Recordings). An early 2017 release that stayed on my radar, which is a testament to its quality.
4. Dyscarnate – With All Their Might (Unique Leader). Sheer unadulterated power.
5. Altarage – Endighent (Season of Mist). 2017’s most discordant, monstrous release.
6. Dreadnought – A Wake in Sacred Waves (Sailor Records). 2017’s most enthralling and captivating release.
7. Epoch – Sacrosanct (Lavadome Records). Lavadome did well to pick up this excellent Belgian independent death metal monster from 2015.
8. Ne Obliviscaris – Urn (Season of Mist). These Aussies could fart on a microphone and it would be brilliant.
9. Wind Rose – Stonehymn (Inner Wound Recordings). Epic, catchy, and brilliant Italian dwarven-themed power metal. Hooo Haaa!
10. Dying Fetus – Wrong One to Fuck With (Relapse Records). Still killing it on their 8th studio album. Their best since Destroy the Opposition.
11. Wormwood – Ghostlands: Wounds from a Bleeding Earth (Non Serviam). The best melodic black metal album of the last few years.
12. Ghost Bath – Starmourner (Nuclear Blast Records). Fuck the haters. “Thrones” is one of the best songs of the year.
13. Noumena – Myrrs (Haunted Zoo). The love child of Insomnium and Amorphis continues to be overlooked.
14. Entrails – World Inferno (Metal Blade). Back on the year-end list where they should be.
15. Havukruunu – Kelle Surut Soi . (Naturmacht Productions). Literally a last minute addition after seeing it on so many peers’ lists and finally checking it out. A less long-winded Moonsorrow.
16. Archspire – Relentless Mutation ( Season of Mist). The techiest of 2017’s tech death.
17. Beneath –  Ephemeris (Unique Leader). A vast improvement over the debut.
18. Impureza – La Caída de Tonatiuh (Season of Mist). Flamenco death metal brilliance.
19. Desolate Shrine – Deliverance from the Godless Void (Dark Descent). The label’s best effort in another strong year.
20. Sign of Cain –  To Drown and to be Drawn (Apostasy Records). Way better than Lindberg’s other 2017 project, The Lurking Fear.
21. Temple of Void – Lords of Death (Shadow Kingdom Records). Pure fucking groove.
22. Wolves in the Throne Room – Thrice Woven (Artemesia Records). A much needed return after the widely panned experiment of Celestite.
23. Antropofagus – M.O.R.T.E. (Comatose Music). Italy’s burliest and best death metal record in a year of excellent ones.
24. Alestorm – No Grave But the Sea (Napalm Records). “Fucked with an Anchor” is a contender for song of the year.
25. Khazaddum – Plagues of Arda (Self-Released). Tolkien, death metal, and keyboards – say no more.
26. Fin – Arrows of a Dying Age (Folter Records). Great, gritty-but-melodic war/black metal from Chicago.
27. Beheaded – Beast Incarnate (Comatose Music). A long-awaited follow up that delivered.
28. Rings of Saturn – Ultu Ulla. (Nuclear Blast). A more mature and melodic album from this divisive band.
29. Orden Ogan – Gunmen (AFM). “Gunman” and “Fields of Sorrow” were in constant rotation in my house and car.
30. Lör – In Forgotten Sleep – (Self Released). A sprawling, epic prog/power metal record.

Best Comeback: Morbid Angel – Kingdoms of Disdain. Was there any doubt Steve Tucker would save the day?

Best Concept album: Squalus The Great Fish. (Translation Loss). Former members of The Giant Squid and Peter Benchley’s Jaws?-Perfect.

Best Production:  Cannibal Corpse – Red Before Black. Erik Rutan said fuck it, turned everything to 11.

Best Cover Art: Bell Witch – Mirror Reaper, Gutslit –Amputheatre.

Biggest Surprises: Myrkur – Mareridt. Amalie Bruun delivered a wonderful, electronic, trance-rock black metal opus to the mouth-breathing black metal fans who made her life miserable.   In The Woods –  Pure. Who would have thought 17 years later, the singer from Jaldaboath would join In the Woods and they not miss  a beat in one of 2017s more overlooked returns?

Disappointments: . Deepsend Records and Blast Head Records calling it a day.

Best Label:  Despite strong years from previous sinners Unique Leader and Dark Descent, this year it’s Season of Mist. As well as all of the releases above, they had killer releases from the likes of Carach Angren,  Virvum, Ulsect, Dodecahedron, Impure Wilhemina, Nightbringer, Necrowretch and Benighted. A few of these were on and off the above list many times.

Most anticipated for 2018: Dalriada – Nyaruto Solstice (UK) – White Horse Hill (Dark Descent), Summoning –With Doom We Come. Full length album from Kull, new project of Bal Sagoth‘s Maulding brothers.

Guilty Pleasure: Grimgotts – Lions of the Sea (Self Released). Slaughter to Prevail- Misery Sermon (Sumerian)

2016 has proven to be a lot like 2014, a great year for metal but no clear cut, runaway album of the year as with 2015’s Vallendusk album, Homeward Path. What we had was a cluster of excellent albums, which throughout the year moved in and out and up and down my list.

For me, the year was dominated by tech death, Swedeath and moody melodic death metal. A mix of veterans like Omnium Gatherum and Insomnium and bright-eyed newcomers like Beansidhe, Virvum, and Aephenamer delivered the goods, while some old friends like Anaal Nathrakh showed up again after a few years of absence. Also a good mix of first-timers like Meshuggah and perennials like Fleshgod Apocalypse.

So here then is my list of albums that I really enjoyed in 2016. The order is fluid, but you get a rough idea of what rocked my world this year.

1.First Fragment– Dasein. Unique Leader. The noodliest of all 2016 tech death. Sheer over-the-top flamenco-flavored shreddage. A testament to Phillip Tougas, who was in this as well as Chthe’ilist and Zealotry. Both released fine albums this year and cement him as one of the biggest names in death metal right now.

2. Mithras – On Strange Loops. Willowtip. After a long wait, the UK duo returned with a killer, intelligent tech death album that’s part classic Morbid Angel, part Interstellar sound track.

3. Katalepsy– Gravenous Hour. Unique Leader. A black hole heavy mix of brutal and tech, Katalepsy is in a galaxy of their own when it comes to heaviness.

4.  Deathspell Omega – Synarchy of Molten Bones. Norma Evangelium Diaboli. EP or full-length, a super late add to my list. Just…wow. Malevolent, discordant high art.

5.  Vindland – Hanter Savet. Black Lion Productions. Melodic, powerful and epic. A real surprise in the top 5.

6. Forteresse – Themes Pour L’Rebellion. Sepulchral Productions. A rousing, searing triumphant display of primal, but epic black metal.

7. Bolzer – Hero. Invictus Productions. A weird, twisty, divisive album that really sunk in after a few listens.

8. Beansidhe – Mont. Via Nocturna. A perfect blend of Finnish death doom and melodic black metal. Really excited for the future of this new Swiss act.

9. Morrow – Covenant of Teeth. Halo of Flies. Though we will unfortunately never see Light Bearer‘s planned trilogy complete, this is close enough.

10. Cobalt – Slow Forever. Profound Lore Records. A rare, perfectly named double album that’s worth the time you invest in it.

11. Interment – Scent of the Buried. Dark Descent. Dismember is not dead, they just reincarnated as Interment.

12. Fleshgod Apocalypse – King. Nuclear Blast. Perennial favorites add a blistering production to their already epic symphonic death metal, and it pays off.

13. Anaal Nathakh – The Whole of the Law. Metal Blade. Sheer, apocalyptic sound track to the end of civilization. Fitting considering the year’s events.

14. Textures – Phenotype. Nuclear Blast. The perfect bridge between the svelte prog chug of Gojira and the more beefy grooves of…..

15. Meshuggah – The Violent Reason of Sleep. Nuclear Blast. Never been a huge fan, but this is such a muscular, monstrous record, it makes me smile every time I hear it.

16. Ade– Carthago Delenda Est. Xtreem Music. Epic, Romanic death metal done right, and now with a much more commanding vocal presence.

17. Brutally Deceased – Satanic Corpse. Doomentia. Dismember have several incarnations apparently…..

18. Saor – Guardians. Northern Silence. Perfect blend of epic black metal and the Braveheart sound track. Also responsible for one of the year’s weirdest social media moments.

19. Be’lakor – Vessels. Napalm Records. Finally getting their dues after years of being under rated.

20. Omnium Gatherum – Grey Heavens. Lifeforce Records. These guys were off my radar for a while, but powered by the track “Skylines” and “Stormfront,” they are back on it in a big way.

21. Ulcerate – Shrines of Paralysis. Relapse records. Kind of a low hype release considering the label and consistency of the band,  and even though I soured on the sound a bit, they still do this style of death better than anyone other than Gorguts.

22. Obscura – Akroasis. Relapse Records. In a year of great tech death, these guys are still delivering the goods.

23. Warfather – The Grey Eminence. Greyhaze Records. Pure Morbid Angel-styled US death metal.

24. The Zenith Passage. Solipsist. Unique Leader. An underrated Unique Leader release, but a killer modern tech death record with some sci-fi flair.

25. Withered – Grief Relic. Prosthetic Records. Nice return to more crusty death metal for these long gone Atlantans. Now with More Colin Marston.

26. Sentient Horror – Ungodly Forms. Testimony Records. Just beat out labelmates Demonbreed for this spot.

27. Despised Icon – Beast. Nuclear Blast. Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

28. Cognitive – Deformity. Unique Leader. Katalepsy’s younger American brother is doing good things.

29. Fatalist – The Bitter End. FDA Records. Glad these guys are back to deliver a killer American take on a classic Swedish sound.

30. Antaeus – Condemnation. Norma Evangelium Diaboli. Took over from Blasphemer’s Ritual Theophagy as 2016’s most utterly relentless album.

Best Song of the Year: Furia “Zwykłe czary wieją” from Księżyc milczy luty . The album itself was on and off the above list, but the closing song sure as hell made this list.

Best Reissues: Bal- Sagoth‘s first 3 albums . Cacophonous. Not only was it great to see Cacophonous records back in business, and even though they didn’t add a lot other than some notes and more bass, it was wonderfully nostalgic to revisit these classics from the 90s.

Best 2015 Discovery: Macabre Omen – Gods of War.

Best Self-Released Albums: Virvum – Illuminance. There was some great tech death in 2016 and newcomers like this are pushing vets like Obscura.  Aephenamer – Memento Mori. These guys actually got me back into Omnium Gatherum. Great young newcomer to melodeath and I hope they keep delivering. Painted in Exile – The Ordeal. May have got me back into the style.

Best Packaging: Cultes Des Ghoules – Coven, or Evil Ways Instead of Love. great story, great, if loooong album, fantastic presentation.

Best 1-song Album: Insomnium – Winters gate. Century Media. If only for the 7.44 moment. Sheer bliss.

Best Old-School Comeback: Brutality – Sea of Ignorance. Repulsive Echo Records. Instantly recognizable as Brutality. It’s like they never went away. Bonus points for the Bathory cover.

Best Production: Asphyx. Incoming Death. The easy choice was one of the swedeath bands above, but not only did Martin Van Drunen deliver a monstrous album with a whole new line up, the production absolutely peels paint, skin and earth.

Biggest Surprise : Serpentine Dominion – S/T. Metal Blade. Who thought a collaboration between George Fisher of Cannibal Corpse and Killswitch Engage would kick this much ass?

Label of the Year: Unique Leader. Not only for the handful of killer releases above, but a slew of other very good releases by Carnophage, Internal Suffering, Ohmnihility, Fallujah, Inanimate Existence, Lord of War, Dawn of Demise and Unmerciful, some of which also fluttered on and of my list.Bring on the new Beheaded and Dyscarnate.

Biggest Letdown. Equilibrium – Armageddon.

Still Don’t Get the Hype: Khemmis and Dark Throne.

Biggest Reason to Be Excited in 2017: Steve Tucker rejoining Morbid Angel and hopefully getting the shit taste of Illud Divinum Insanus erased from history.

Top 25 of 2015

1. Vallendusk – Homeward Path (Northern Silence Productions). Unlike last year, where any number of albums could have claimed the top spot, I fell in love with Homeward Path instantaneously and never lost any love. The melodies are just so darn uplifting and gorgeous they give me goosebumps every time I hear them.
2. Maladie – Still. (Apostasy Records). Sheer, unbridled, chaotic, orchestral, black/death mindfuckery. Brilliant.
3. Deluge – Æther. (Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions). A dense, weighty, but still harmonious post-black record that blew Deafheaven out of the literal and figurative water.
4. Mgla – Exercises in Futility. (Northern Heritage). A late gate crasher on my list, but I can see why so many of my peers listed it. Perfect black metal.
5. Wolfheart – Winterborn/Shadow World. (Spinefarm). Yep, I’m cheating – two releases in the same year. Sure, one was a reissue, but both are soooooo damn good at the whole sullen, melodic Finnish crunch that Insomnium and Amorphis had better step it up.
6. Amorphis – Under the Red Cloud. (Nuclear Blast) And step it up is all Amorphis has done since 2006’s Eclipse, the band has been on about as good a 6 album run as any band has ever had.
7. Horrendous – Anareta (Dark Descent). Would not be a top 10 list without a DDR release, right? Three albums in, and a slight left turn from their Stockholm past into more progressive pastures, and Horrendous is on the brink of Carcass-like mainstream death metal stardom.
8. Gorod – A Maze of Recycled Creeds. (Unique Leader/Listenable). Just a sheer joy to listen to, and when was the last time you could say that about a death metal record?
9. Abyssal – Antikatastaseis, (Profound Lore Records).  A vast, dense, crumbling record with some lurking blackened melodies. An improvement over Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius and a force of nature, not just a record.
10. Obsequiae – Aria of Vernal Tombs. (20 buck Spin). Gorgeous, medieval chamber metal.
11. Ovid’s Withering – Scryers of the Ibis (Unique Leader). Also one of the best re-issues of 2015, this massive record successfully mixed intelligently crafted but punishing deathcore/djent and orchestration into a deep world with a riveting story and concept.
12. Hate Eternal – Infernus. (Metal Blade). Another massive, blistering crumbling release from Rutan. “Pathogenic Apathy” makes me see red every time.
13. Adversarial – Death, Endless Nothing and the Black Knife of Nihilism. (Dark Descent). And not just because they fixed the snare,
14. Sarpanitum – Blessed Be My Brothers. (Willowtip) Good year for Leon Macy (also in Contrarian below), maybe a Mithras album in 2016?
15. Lost Soul – Atlantis (Apostasy Records). 6 years in the making, and one of Poland’s more underrated bands delivers an epic, symphonic-tinged tech death tour-de-force.
16. Nile – That Which Should Not be Unearthed .(Nuclear Blast). Nile back to being classic Nile.
17. Panopticon – Autumn Eternal (Bindrune). Can Austin Lunn do any wrong at this point?
18. Synapses –  Devoutness. (Cimmerian Shade). A fucken monster of shredding tech death with some major grooves.
19. Contrarian – Polemic (Willowtip). Big, cavernous death metal with a touch of Schuldiner-esque wizardry.
20. Sulphur Aeon – Gateways to the Antisphere (Imperium Productions) . Almost crushed by its lofty predecessor, but a definite grower
21. House of Atreus – The Spear and the Ichor that Follows. (Dark Descent). Melodic death metal done with Dark Descent grime and weight and a killer Roman/Greek theme.
22. Nechochwen – Heart of Akamon (Bindrune). The native american equivalent of Obsequiae.
23. Heaving Earth – Denouncing the Holy Throne. (Lavadome). Early 2015 Immolation worship that got lost. Not by me.
24. Envy – Atheists Cornea. (Temporary Residence ltd). A more direct but still contemplative and brilliant envy.
25. Ghost Bath – Moonlover (Northern Silence). More utterly gorgeous melodies from Northern Silence.

Random Shit

Best label: Dark Descent. Any doubt? As well as three releases above they also released fine albums by Undergang, Desolate Shrine, Eternal Solstice, Hacavitz, Ghoulgotha (which was in the above list right up until the last minute), Tyranny, Wombbath, Crypt Sermon, Third Storm, Grave Ritual, Blood Incantation and Spectral Voice.  Many of which you will see scattered around this site’s end of year feature as well as many others.

Biggest surprises:  Cradle of Filth  – Hammer of the Witches. How many of you thought these guys were done? With the Dead – With the Dead. Never truly dug Cathedral, but this less hippy version is heavy as balls. Abigail Williams – The Accuser. Who saw that coming? Tribulation – Children of the Night. Sexy ass vampyric metal that met the hype.

Welcome Back: Leviathan – Scar Sighted. Wrest got all his legal and personal shit behind him and after the lackluster True Traitor, True Whore, and got back to what he does best.

Best packaging: Arstisdir Lifsins – Aldafǫðr ok munka dróttinn.  (Van Records). Not just a brilliant album but a sonic historical document.

Best production:  Fear Factory – Genexus. Even with all the great old school guitar tones (Entrails, Wombath, Mass Burial, Tortureama, Morbid Vomit etc), Fulber, Bell, and Cazares gave their album a sound that just hit me right on every level.

Best reunions: Vehemence – Forward Without Motion. Welcome the fuck back. Most apt album title of the year as well. Arcturus – Arcturian.   The album that should have come after The Sham Mirrors. 

Best EP: Cosmic Church – Vigilia.

Best Self-Released albums:  Dekadent – Veritas.  Auric – Empty Seas.

Let-downs:  VHOL, Napalm Death, Between the Buried and Me, Deafheaven, Iron Maiden.

Wishful thinking: My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost released kickass old school albums- how about Anathema returning to Serenades sound?

Guilty Pleasures: Chelsea Wolfe – Abyss. Subterranean Masquerade – The Great Bizarre.  Such a smooth svelte progressive metal record.

Unlike last year- there was no clear cut album of the year for me. Of the top 10 below, any one of them could have been my number 1 album on any given day, and the other 15 could have been in my top 10.  Tech death and progressive black metal seemed to rule the year (Stargazer, a band that mixed both, flirted with my list late) with dashes of the old school thrown in, but once again 2014 showed that metal is still and quality AND quantity, and shows no signs of letting up.

Dark Descent Records crushed 2014 as they did 2013 with the releases listed below but also the fine likes of Swallowed, Sempiternal Dusk, Thantifaxath, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Phobocosm and Lie In Ruins, and already look to crush in 2015 with early releases from Invisible Force, Desolate Shrine and Ghoulgotha.

Another label, and one I’ve previously been down on for being too samey, Unique Leader Records, absolutely dominated the tech death landscape with a high-profile Fallujah release, but added other quality releases from Internal Bleeding, Near Death Condition, Inanimate Existence, Beneath, Rings of Saturn, Ohmnihility and Alterbeast, as well as my album of the year from Soreption. Season of Mist (Nightbringer‘s Ego Dominus Tuus was on and off my list all damn year) and Bindrune also chimed in with a solid year.

Spectral Lore, Falls of Rauros, Ordinance, Panopticon, Oubliette and Mare Cognitum added some much needed crystalline introspection and atmosphere to the year, while promising newcomers Black Crown Initiate rubbed shoulders with my list regular stalwarts like Bloodbath, Alestorm, Equilibrium and Jaldaboath.

Some big names were missing as the likes of Primordial and Anaal Nathrakh seemed to tread water, while fresh, young relatively new, hungry acts like Sons of Aurelius, Archspire and Inferi commanded my attention, despite lacking big name appeal and recognition critically.

The Elite 10:

1. Soreption – Engineering the Void. (Unique Leader Records). Something about this record just clicked with me- the Meshuggah on steroids stammering, the orchestral injections, the guitar tone. All were just perfect.
2. Vallenfyre – Splinters. (Peaceville). Arguably the dirtiest and heaviest guitar tone of the year, and better song writing and vocals than the mighty Bloodbath. Those Paradise Lost guys had a good year.
3. Ne Obliviscaris – Citadel. (Season of Mist). My first introduction to this supremely talented Aussie metal band that melded tech death, violins and melodic death metal into one brilliant progressive kaleidoscope.
4. Spectral Lore -III (I. Voidhanger Records). Arguably one of the best one man black metal bands in the world now, Ayloss followed up Sentinel with an even more gorgeously layered, evocative and complex slab of mesmerizing riffs. I cant wait to see what he does next.
5. Horrendous – Ecdysis. (Dark Descent Records). Erupting from the cocoon of stale old school Swedish death metal, Horrendous injected some creativity and experimentation into a tried a true sound resulting in a truly special, dare I say classic album.
6. Archspire – The Lucid Collective. (Season of Mist). Even with all the great tech death in 2014, even from bigger names, Canadian youngsters Archspire rose up and ripped my face off with searing complexity, but actually made it memorable.
7. Sons of Aurelius – Under A Western Sun. (Self Released). Vocalist Riley McShane might get more attention for growling in Inanimate Existence, but his clean performance here is simply stunning, adding to the sumptuous shreddage. How a label didn’t pick this up blows my mind.
8. Artificial Brain – Labyrinth Constellation. (Profound Lore Records.) A potential game changer in death metal, Artificial Brain not only melded cosmic grinding brutality with atonal tech complexity and ethereal black metal, they got name dropped on Prime Time TV on NBC’s Elementary.
9. Ordinance – Relinquished. (Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions). 3 songs, 20 minutes each and each delivering utterly captivating black metal
10. Bloodbath – Grand Morbid Funeral. (Peaceville). Jorgen Sandstrom next, please?

The rest of 2104’s awesomeness:

Any of these releases could have ended up on my top ten on any given day, and many were before the final list. These are all too good to even be honorable mentions, so they are 11-25 in no particular order.

Panopticon – Roads to the North (Bindrune). A more direct but still American folk laced black metal story of Austin Lunn’s move to Minnesota. The strings that start “Chase the Grain” give me goosebumps every time.
Disentomb – Misery (New Standard Elite). Late entry of brutal yet technical swirling Australian savagery. Why are these guys not on Dark Descent?
Corpsessed – Abyssal Threshholds (Dark Descent Records). Monstrous and suffocating, Corpsessed remain the best Incantation clone there is.
Fallujah – The Flesh Prevails (Unique Leader Records)Was a top 10 release when it came out,but simply got bumped. Lavish, mature and complex with some beautiful atmospheres, Fallujah might be the future of modern technical metal.
Inferi – The Path of Apotheosis. (The Artisan Era). Shredding technical and epic, but overlooked early in due to early year release and a ton of bigger name tech death.
Jaldaboath – The Further Adventures of…(D.T.M Productions). Monty Python and Black Adder-ish humor mixed with metal and some of my childhood TV show themes? Brilliant. And “Roland the Farter” is still one of my new favorite songs. Ever..
Equilibrium – Erdentempel (Nuclear Blast). Down right epic and bombastic backed folk/viking metal at its finest. I’m interested to see how Ensiferum and Finsterforst answer.
Black Crown Initiate – The Wreckage of Stars. (Eone Entertainment). One of metal’s most promising young American newcomers. I’m interested to see how they develop their progressive death metal even further and keep it metal.
Alestorm – Sunset on the Golden Age. (Napalm Records). The Pirate metal stalwarts 4th album reeked of closure and impending changes. I hope not.
Falls of Rauros – Believe in No Coming Shore (Bindrune). Gorgeous, atmospheric, folky, grey metal. A vast improvement from the last album. Out Agalloch-d, Agalloch. “Ancestors of Smoke ” is simply one of the most mesmerizing songs of the year.
Oubliette – Apparitions (The Artisan Era). Insomium meets black emtal? yes please. Good year for Mike Low, also of Inferi no?
Lvcifyre – Svn Eater (Dark Descent Records). More superb, cavernous, crumbling chaos from Dark Descent. IS there no end?
Annihilated – XIII Steps to Ruination. . (Unique Leader) Got kind of snowed under all of UL’s other releases, but this is my second favorite kind of death metal- big, beefy and commanding.
Mare Cognitum.Phobos Monolith ( I, Void Hanger Records). No coincidence this US one man act shares a label with Spectral Lore, he is the American equivalent and rapidly rising.
Schammasch – Contradiction. (Prosthetic Records) 2 CDs, 90 minutes of under promoted, big, black, droning, ambitions metal that made me forget the already forgetful Triptykon album.

Other Stuff:

Best Vinyl LP: Martelo Negro – Equinocio Espectral LP. (Hellprod)
Best Reissues: Deathevocation – The Chalice of Ages (Xtreem Music). How did I miss this the first time around? , Dyscarnate – – And so it Came to Pass. (Century Media Records) How did everyone else miss this the first time around?
Best Reunion: At the Gates – At War With Reality. Absolutely Worth the wait. (Century Media Records).Godflesh – A World Lit By Fire. (Avalanche Recordings). How did this not get more attention?
Biggest Surprise- Job for a Cowboy – Sun Eater (Metal Blade Records). The second best album named Sun Eater and a masterful, career defining tech death shift for former spongebob core pig squealers.
Surprising Omissions- Pallbearer, Primordial, Anaal Nathrakh, Misery Index, Origin, Agalloch. Not that any of these were bad, but clearly the old guard has been supplanted.
Biggest let downs- Behemoth, Darkest hour, Triptykon.
Best Labels -Unique leader and Dark Descent
The heaviest Thing I heard in 2014: Black Tongue – Falsifier/Redux. May literally be too heavy for a CD release.
Coolest New Discoveries – Tengger Cavalry, Valknacht,
Guilty Pleasure: Affiance: Blackout.

1. Deafheaven – Sunbather (Deathwish Inc) . Haters gonna hate. One of the most brilliant albums of any genre in 2013.
2. Light Bearer – Silver Tongue (Halo of Flies). If not for the knee-wilting title track alone.
3. Inquisition – Obscure Verses for the Multiverse (Season of Mist). Never liked these guys until now, but my, how I like them all of a sudden. Riff-a-delic.
4. Gorguts – Colored Sands (Season of Mist). Of all the high profile death metal reunions, this was the best.
5. Ade – Spartacus (Blast Head Records). One of the biggest death metal surprises of 2013.
6. Aosoth – IV- An Arrow in Heart (Agonia Records). Icky , filthy, regal.
7. Extol – Extol (Facedown Records). Pure progressive metal bliss, Christian or otherwise.
8. Carcass – Surgical Steel (Nuclear Blast Records). Second-best high profile death metal reunion of 2013, even if Exhumed almost out-Carcass‘d them.
9. Cultes Des Ghoules – Henbane (Hells Headbangers). Traumatic, nightmarish, and truly disturbing stuff.
10. Entrails – Raging Death (Metal Blade Records). New label, same reliable and consistent sound. This generation’s Dismember?
11. Man Must Die – Peace Was Never An Option (Lifeforce Records). Welcome back. Intense and melodic grinding death metal with a message.
12. Ulcerate – Vermis (Relapse Records). Had some thunder stolen by Gorguts, but still truly oppressive stuff.
13. Autopsy – The Headless Ritual (Peaceville). Topped even Obliteration, Slaughterday, and San la Muerte doing their best Autopsy impressions.
14. Blood Mortized – The Angel, The Death, The Disease (Chaos Records). Underrated challenger for Entrails‘ throne. Beat out Demonical too.
15. Caladaan Brood – Echoes of Battle (Northern Silence Productions). Summoning who?
16. Hail of Bullets – III – The Rommel Chronicles (Metal Blade). More death metal consistency from this Dutch supergroup.
17. Fleshgod Apocalypse – Labyrinth (Nuclear Blast). More over-the-top orchestrated death metal. Maybe I’ll review some of their wine and pasta in 2014?
18. So Hideous – Last Poem/First Light (Self Released). Haters still hating. Some of the most gorgeous instrumentation of 2013.
19. Katalepsy – Autopsychosis (Unique Leader). The most bludgeoning album of 2013, even with stiff competition from Suffocation, Broken Hope, Wormed, Defeated Sanity, Boal, and Necromorphic Irruption.
20. Krypts – Unending Degradation (Dark Descent). Dark Descent’s best release in an otherwise quiet 2013 (compared to 2012).
21. Noumena – Death Come Walk With Me (Haunted Zoo Productions). Superb Finnish melancholy and a welcome return.
22. Sulphur Aeon – Swallowed By The Oceans Tides (FDA Rekotz). Liable to get forgotten in the end of 2012/early 2013 shuffle.
23. Sacriphyx – The Western Front (NWN! Productions). A completely unheralded gem in 2013, Please go and check it out.
24. Nails –  Abandon All Life/Dead in the Dirt  -The Blind Hole (Southern Lord). Two almost identical, absolutely fucking intense crust/hardcore/grind releases
25. Thrawsunblat – Wanderer on the Continent of Saplings (Self Released). What a great year for Ms Rae Amitay. David Gold would be proud.

Didnt Get the Hype:
Grave Miasma, Craven Idol, Altar of Plagues, Tribulation, Soilwork, Cerekloth.

Biggest Letdowns:
Convulse – Evil Prevails, Oceano – Incisions,  Morne – Shadows; Rotting Christ – Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού; Witherscape– The Inheritance; Summoning – Old Morning’s Dawn.

???????????:
Duobetic Homunkulus – Ani já ani ty robit něbudzeme, šedněme do koča, vozit še budzeme (Zero Budget Productions).

Best Album Cover and Lyrics:
Vastum – Patricidal Lust (20 Buck Spin). Solid album to boot.

Best 2 Album Cheaters: 
Feared – Furor Incarnatus/Vinter.

Best Reissues:
Abyssal – Denouement (Hellthrasher Productions); Besieged – Victims Beyond All Help (Unspeakable Axe Records).

Best EPs:
Bolzer – Aura; Sidious – Ascension to the Throne ov Self; Immortal Bird – Akrasia

Best 2 Minutes of 2013:
Trollfest – “Rundt Balet.”

Best Discovery of an Old-Ass Album: 
Earth – Star Condemn’d, from 2000.

Best Split:
Mare Cognitum/Spectral Lore – Sol

2012 Gems I Missed in 2012: 
Before the Dawn – Rise of the Phoenix; Dyscarnate – And so it Came to Pass; Circle Takes the Square – Discontinuations.

2013 stuff I should check out so it makes the above list next year: 
Cult of Fire, Inta Arma, Secrets of the Sky, Ævangelist, Smothered.

Early 2014 Contenders:
Jaldaboath, Corpsessed, Lvcifyre, Lie In Ruins

Teethofthedivine reviewed almost 400 albums in 2012. I reviewed over 150 of them. Here are the highlights and a few low lights as well.

1) Binah – Hallucinating in Resurrectre (Dark Descent Records). Best label right now.
2) B’elakor – Of Breath and Bone. (Kolony Records). So smoothly heavy and somber.
3) Gorod – A Perfect Absolution. (Listenable Records). Catchy tech death done right.
4) Anaal Nathrakh – Vanitas (Candlelight Records). Vicious return to form.
5) Beyond Terror Beyond Grace – Nadir. (Willowtip Records). Best style shift in recent memory.
6) Downfall of Gaia – Suffocating in the Swarm of Cranes (Metal Blade). Great new band.
7) Horrendous – The Chills (Dark Descent Records). Better than Asphyx’s Deathhammer.
8) Liberteer – Better to Die on Your Feet Than Live on Your Knees (Relapse Records). Napalm who?
9) Indesinence – Vessels of Light and Decay (Profound Lore Records). Good year for Binah lads. Amazing packaging too.
10) Stagnant Waters – Stagnant Waters (Adversum). Utterly insane brilliance.
11) Pallbearer – Sorrow and Extinction (Profound Lore Records). Gorgeous melancholy.
12) Chaos Inception – The Abrogation (Lavadome Productions). Did Nile better than Nile.
13) Revel in Flesh – Deathevocation (FDA Rekotz). FDA is Europe’s Dark Descent.
14) Ævangelist – De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis,(I, Voidhanger). Nasty.
15) Daylight Dies – A Frail Becoming (Relapse Records). US doom metal’s best kept secret.
16) Incantation – Vanquish in Vengeance (Listenable). Reclaiming the throne indeed.
17) Desolate Shrine – The Sanctum of Human Darkness (Dark Descent Records). Finnish death metal is killing it.
18) Pseudogod – Deathwomb Catchechesis (Hells Headbangers). Filthy.
19) The Great Old Ones – Al Azif(Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions). Blut Aus who?
20) Eis – Wetterkrutz (Prophecy Productions). glorious rise from the ashes of Geist.
21) Murder Construct – Results (Relapse Records). Good year for Travis Ryan with this and Cattle Decapitation.
22) Dying Fetus – Reign Supreme (Relapse Records). So consistent.
23) Black Breath – Sentenced to Life (Candlelight Records) Early 2012 release almost made me forget about this.
24) Gorephilia – Embodiment of Death (Dark Descent Records). Got lost in Dark Descent’s awesome slew of releases
25) Dordeduh – Dar De Duh (Prophecy Productions). Not Negura Bunget.
26) Cult of Fire – Triumvirát (Demonhood Productions). Wicked 70s laced black metal.
27) Sophicide – Perdition of the Sublime (Willowtip). More tech death with killer melodies.
28) Maveth – Coils of the Black Earth (Dark Descent Records). See Desolate Shrine, Gorephilia
29) Krallice– Years Past Matter. How was this self-released? Did HHH fuck it up for everyone else?
30) Finsterforst – Rastloss (Napalm Records). Epic.

2011 Releases that would have been on 2011 list if I had heard them sooner: Cormorant– Dwellings, Omit – Repose, Beaten to Death – Xes and Strokes

Most Notable Omission: Between the Buried and Me

Best Reissue: Desecrator– Subconscious Release

Awesome Album that I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in the US who heard: Desert Beneath the Pavement – Transit

Best LP: Bréag Naofa – Bréag Naofa(Panic Records), Panopticon – Kentucky.

Best Label : Dark Descent Records- seriously, look at the above list. And then realize they also released albums by Father Befouled, Paroxsihzem, Weregoat, Anhedonist, Coffin Texts, Emptiness and the Timeghoul, Morgion and Cianide compilations.

WTF??????: Sigh – In Sominphobia (Candlelight Records).

Best EP: Spectral Lore/Locust Leaves, Warseid – Where Fate Lies Unbound.

Biggest Letdowns: Nile, Wintersun, Necrovation, Undergang

Enjoyable but overrated : Napalm Death, Blut Aus Nord, Asphyx, Neurosis.

Time to Hang it Up: Grave. Funeral Whore did Grave better than Grave.

Guilty Pleasures: Beyond All Recognition – Drop=Dead, The Acacia Strain – Death is the Only Mortal, Whitechapel – Whitechapel.

Best Reunions/Comebacks: Dehumanized/Antropofagus. Comatose Music killing the death metal comebacks.

Worst Album of 2012: Babylon Mystery Orchestra –  Poinium Cherem. Seriously- google that shit, its comically bad.

1. Fleshgod Apocalypse – Agony.
2. Entrails – The Tomb Awaits.
3. Kverlertak – s/t
4. Light Bearer – Lapsus
5. Vildhjarta – Masstaden
6. Wolves In The Throne Room – Celestial Lineage
7. Ulcerate- The Destroyers of All
8. Disma– Towards the Megalith
9. Life in Your Way – Kingdoms
10. Obscura – Omnivium
11. Deafheaven – Roads to Judah
12. Insomnium – One for Sorrow.
13. Origin – Entity
14. Loss– Despond
15. Mitochondrion – Parasignosis
16. Anomalous – Ohmnivalent
17. Hull – Beyond the Lightless Sky
18. Obsequiae – Suspended in the Brume of Eos
19. Primordial –Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand
20. Mournful Congregation – The Book of Kings
21. All Pigs Must Die – God is War
22. Alestorm – Back Through Time.
23. The Living Fields – Running Out of Daylight
24. Morne– Asylum
25. Sleeping Giant – Kingdom Days in an Evil Age

Albums that I heard in 2011, that would have been sure fire for 2010: Journal – Unlorja, Rhino – Weight of Coronation

Sorry guys, you got bumped by a ridiculously good late year flurry of releases and discoveries: Anaal Nathrakh– Passion, Fen – Epoch, Ana Kefr – (II) The Burial Tree, Dekadent – Venera : Trial & Tribulation.

Sorry guys, I Didn’t Get the Hype: 40 Watt Sun – The Inside Room, Absu –Abzu, Vektor – Outer Isolation, Revocation – Chaos of  Forms.

Sorry guys,  I didn’t have enough time to get to know you properly, but I’m pretty sure you were awesome: Unexpect – Fables of the Lost Empire, Tombs –The Path of Totality , Vale of Pnath – The Prodigal Empire , Killing the Dream – Lucky Me, Flourishing – The Sum of All Fossils,  Saille– Irreversible Decay.

Album I had to find a spot for and at least mention somewhere: Ever Forthright – S/T.
Best Vinyl release: Dead in the Dirt – Fear 7″
Best Re-issues: Augury – Concealed, Uncanny – MCMXCI-MCMXCIV
Best Self Released CD (and best fucking cover art)- Vore – Gravehammer
Best Demo – Hessian Crucible – Morbidity
Best comeback: Autopsy – Macabre Eternal
Best EP- Corpsessed – The Dagger & The Chalice
Biggest surprise: Jungle Rot – Kill On Command
Best labels: Dark Descent/ Southern Lord/Profound Lore
Worst albums: Morbid Angel – Illud Divunum Insanus, Denial Fiend– Horror Holocaust.
Best album everyone hated because of the artist, not the actual music: – Liturgy – Aesthetica

Best Songs: Fleshgod Apocalypse “The Betrayal” and “The Violation”, Light Bearer “Primen Movens”, Augury “Lair of Purity”, Alestorm ” I am a Cider Drinker”, Hessian Crucible “Shame Spiral”, Ulcerate “Cold Becoming”, Kverlertak “Utrid Die Svake”, Subrosa “House Carpenter”, Turisas “Hunting Pirates” and “Venetoi! Presino!” , The Living Fields “Glacial Movements” and “Perseverance”, Woods of Ypres “By the Time You Read This” and “I Was Buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery”, Liturgy “Tragic Laurel” and “Returner”, All Pigs Must Die “Death Dealer”, Dekadent “Day of Solace”, Illdisposed “The Taste of You”, August Burns Red “Carpe Diem”, Century “Painting Leprosy”, Vrani Vlossa “Rising Red”, Anaal Nathrakh “Drug Fucking Abomination”, Deafheaven “Tunnel of Trees”, Morne “Volition”, Rose Funeral “Malignant Amour”, Primordial “Mouth of Judas”, Ulcerate “Cold Becoming”, Hull “Earth From Water”, Lock Up “Stigmartyr”, Svartsot “Farsoten Kom”,Hands “Northern Lights”, Monsterworks “Everything You Believe is a Lie”, Thousand Year War ‘Spartacus”, Taake “Myr”, Loss – “Cut Up Depressed and Alone”, Skyrim Theme.

For me, 2010 was a year of unheralded firsts, a year where many new and often unsigned acts cut a swathe through my top ten list and the usual big name stalwarts were left glaring in the wings. And for me, black metal was surprisinglyprevalent. Entrails? Arkheth? The Makai? Norse? Aiumeen Basoa? Who the fuck are these guys? Well, get to know them, as they produced some of 2010’s best metal.

1. Entrails – Tales from the Morgue

This album is so retro, I lost 80lbs and grew my mullet back. Filled with songs that were actually written in the heyday of 90s Swedish Death metal, Tales from the Morgue sounds like a long lost gem unearthed from is dusty tombs rather a neo throwback or lazy homage. Tracks like “Voices” and “Euthanasia” are pure Stockholm brilliance, with a guitar tone sent from God himself.

2. Arkheth – IX & I: The Quintessence of Algaresh

There’s ambitious and then there’s the second album from this Aussie duo: 2 CDs, 10 songs, 2 fucking hours of the most epic, regal yet organic and mesmerizing symphonic black metal of the last 10 years. It almost makes the scrotum bearing, man-goat rape on the cover worth while.

3. Deathspell Omega – Paracletus

I’m pretty sure that Paracletus was not meant for human ears. Like a dog whistle, its on audio levels, mere mortals cannot comprehend. Somewhere in hell, every time this CD plays, a demon bangs his head. The fact I only owned this 3 days before my year end list was due and it comes in as an instant top 5 album shows its dynamic, twisted, hallucinatory savagery.

4. Agalloch – Marrow of the Spirit

I tried not to be vogue with this pick, but to be honest up until Ashes Against the Grain, I always considered Agalloch to be pretentious and over-rated. And with 2010 being the year I returned to nature, their form of Grey metal topped other excellent like minded releases by Winterfylleth, Nechochwen, Ironwood and Negura Bunget. Like a walk in the woods after a snow storm, the brisk and harsh elements meld with elegant, organic and introspective musings. Complete with frosty breath and Perniosis.

5. The Makai – Embracing the Shroud of a Blackened Sky

Here’s a release I could have submitted as a couple of other things; best vinyl release, best song, best EP- whatever. Consisting of one brilliant 27 minute song that culls from black metal, metalcore and post rock, “Embracing the Shroud of a Blackened Sky” remains one of the most epic pieces of music Ive heard in the last few years. its a shame those without LP players wont get to hear it until it’s (hopefully) released as a CD at some point in 2011. Then Ill wait for all the “HOLY SHIT ERIK- you were right- I want your babies!!!!” emails to pour in. Listen to this.

6. Aiumeen Basoa – Iraganeko Bide Malkartsuti

Auime–what? Iraqanko bide- huh? I’ve owned this album for 6 months and still have no idea what these Basque folk/black metallers are talking about. Needless to say though, when you beat out the likes of Equilibrium, Kivimetstan Druidi, FInntroll, Heathen Foray and Heidevolk for the years best folk metal album, who cares. Brilliant, ambitious and beautiful this new act is sure to stay on my radar for the next few years.

7. Norse – Hellstorm

Who would have though that an Australian unsigned black metal act who took nearly two years to record their searing debut would unleash the most perfectly title album of the year? That’s not a black/death metal album- THIS is a black/death metal album. Yes, that ‘s a Crocodile Dundee reference.

8. Nightbringer – Apocalypse Sun.

This paranoia inducing slab of discordant filth came very close to stealing Deathspell Omega‘s thunder. As it stands its simply one of the best , most disturbing and truly evil USBM records of the last few years without traipsing in the woods or delving into post rock trends. Sick and cathartic, I’m still paying for therapy.

9. Iron Thrones – The Wretched Sun

Another self released gem, the second album from Iron Thrones proved the No Label Needed contest winners did not in fact need a label. Mixing sublime Opeth textures with elegant Burst, Isis and Callisto crescendos, ebbs and flows, The Wretched Sun is a near perfect listen with “I Once Had the Crown” simply being one of the best songs of the year in any genre.

10. Jaldaboath – The Rise of the Heraldic Beasts

Thats right, you cant keep my British lineage down. Yes, a tongue in cheek folk metal, heraldic Templar rock, Monty Python core album from a crusty old guy that was in The Meads of Aspodel made my top ten. I grin from ear to ear whenever I hear “Hark the Herald”, “Bash the Bishop” and “Axe Wielding Nuns”. Lets hope the left over, more serious The Meads of Asphodel hues are filtered out for the next album. Hey nonny nonny!

11. Rotting Christ – Aeolo

12. Negura Bunget – Vîrstele Pămîntulu

13. Decrepit Birth – Polarity

14. Nechochwen – Azimuths to the Underworld

15. The Red Shore – The Avarice of Man

16. Black Breath – Heavy Breathing

17. Shadow of the Colossus – Shadow of the Colossus

18. Woe – Quietly, Undramatically

19. Hail of Bullets – On Divine Winds

20. Equilibrium – Rekreatur

21. Heidevolk – Oit Oude Gronde.

22. Amia Venera Landscape – The Long Procession

23. Heathen Foray – Armored Bards

24. G0d Dethroned – Under the Sign of the Iron Cross.

25. Wuthering Heights – Salt.

Best Songs: Entrails “Voices” + “Euthansia”, Iron Thrones “I Once had the Crown”, Jaldaboath “Hark the Herald”, Heidevolk “Beest bij Nacht”, Svartsot “På Odden af Hans Hedenske Sværd”, The Acacia Strain “Impaler”, Rotting Christ “Aeolo”, Arkheth “Faint Whispers in the Heart of Orion”, Keep of Kalessin “The Divine Land”, Aiumeen Basoa “Aintzinako Guduen Oroimenak”, Dimmu Borgir “Dimmu Borgir”.

Albums that might have made this list if I had more time to listen to them : The Meads of Asphodel – The Murder of Jesus the Jew, Winterfylleth – The Mercian Sphere, Ihsahn – After, Melechesh– The Epigenesis, Sigh –Scenes From Hell, Weapon – From the Devils Tomb, Withered – Dualitas, 1349 – Demonoir, Journal – Unloria.

Stuff I heard in 2010 that would have been on my 2009 year end list: Painted in Exile – Revitalized EP, Cormorant – Metazoa, Sickening Horror – The Dead End Experiment, The Ruins of Beverast – Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite, Hull – Sole Lord.

Best non Metal album – Eminem – Recovery

Best Reunion/Comeback – Atheist – Jupiter, Fear Factory – Mechanize.

Best EPs – Nails – Unsilent Death, Fleshgod Apocalypse – Mafia.

Biggest Surprises – New Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth albums not sucking.

Best Free, Digital Release – Contaigeon – Death at the Gates of Delirium

Biggest Letdowns –Arsis,  Ov Hell,  Iron Maiden, Cephalic Carnage and Dawnbringer

2011 releases that are going to be on this list next year: Fen – Epoch, Mitochondrion – Parasignosis.

Chris Dick

1. Opeth – Ghost Reveries
2. Rapture – Silent Stage
3. Arcturus – Sideshow Symphonies
4. Primordial – The Gathering Wilderness
5. Kamelot – The Black Halo
6. Dark Tranquillity – Character
7. Swallow the Sun – Ghosts of Loss
8. Slumber – Fallout
9. Bolt Thrower – Those Once Loyal
10. Akercocke – Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone

Erik Thomas

1. Between the Buried and Me, Alaska
2. Primordial, The Gathering Wilderness
3. Opeth, Ghost Reveries
4. Equlibrium, Turis Fratyr
5. Embrace the End, Counting Hallways to teh Left
6. Aes Dana, Formors
7. Neuraxis, Trilateral Progression
8. Despised Icon, The Healing Process
9. The Berzerker, World of Lies
10. Hiretsukan, End States

Apollyon

1. Nevermore, This Godless Endeavor
2. Primordial, The Gathering Wilderness
3. Gojira, From Mars to Sirius
4. Bolt Thrower, Those Once Loyal
5. Gorefest, La Muerte
6. Kingston Wall, Real Live Thing
7. Nile, Annihilation of the Wicked
8. Antimatter, Planetary Confinement
9. Rapture, Silent Stage
10. Amoral, Decrowning

Grimulfr

1. Horna, Envaatnags Eflos Solf Esgantaavne
2. Satanic Warmaster, Carelian Satanist Madness
3. Belphegor, Goatreich- Fleshcult
4. Averse Sefira, Tetragrammatical Astygmata
5. Sargeist, Disciple of the Heinous Path
6. 1349, Hellfire
7. Aes Dana, Formors
8. Morrigan, Headcult
9. Brume d’Automne, Fiers et Victorieux
10. Primordial, The Gathering Wilderness

John Gnesin

1. Overmars, Affliction, Endocrine, Vertigo
2. Jesu, Jesu
3. Solefald, Red for Fire: An Icelandic Odyessy
4. Bolt Thrower, Those Once Loyal
5. Horse the Band, The Mechanical Hand
6. Ulver, Blood Inside
7. Impure Wilhelmina, L’amore, l’morte, l’enfance Perdue
8. Modern Life is War, Witness
9. Antigama, Zeroland
10. Behold…The Arctopus, Nano-nucleonic Cyborg Summoning

Shawn Pelata

1. JOURNEY, Generations
2. KING’S X, Ogre Tones
3. TNT, All The Way To The Sun
4. STARBREAKER, Starbreaker
5. THE MOB, The Mob
6. KEITH URBAN, Be Here
7. NICKELBACK, All The Right Reasons
8. GOTTHARD, Lipservice
9. ALLEN LANDE, The Battle
10. BON JOVI, Have A Nice Day

Brent Mittelstadt

1. Rosetta, The Galilean Satellites
2. Opeth, Ghost Reveries
3. The Project Hate, Armageddon March Eternal
4. Buried Inside, Chronoclast
5. Avenged Sevenfold, City of Evil
6. Arsis, A Diamond for Disease
7. Enslaved, Isa
8. Strapping Young Lad, Alien
9. Bolt Thrower, Those Once Loyal
10. Moonsorrow, Verisakeet

Fred Phillips

1. Black Label Society, Mafia
2. Sentenced, The Funeral Album
3. God Forbid, IV: Constitution of Treason
4. Jon Oliva’s Pain, Tage Mahal
5. Soilwork, Stabbing the Drama
6. Opeth, Ghost Reveries
7. Nevermore, This Godless Endeavor
8. Kiuas, The Spirit of Ukko
9. Corrosion of Conformity, In the Arms of God
10. Bruce Dickinson, A Tyranny of Souls

Damien Boorman

1. Nevermore, This Godless Endeavour
2. Between the Buried and Me, Alaska
3. Watchmaker, Erased From the Memory of Man
4. Gojira, From Mars to Sirius
5. Opeth, Ghost Reveries
6. Despised Icon, The Healing Process
7. Porcupine Tree, Deadwing
8. Prostitute Disfigurement, Left in a Grisly Fashion
9. Neuraxis Trilateral Progression
10. Through the Eyes of the Dead, Bloodlust

Honorable Mentions:

Unearth “The Oncoming Storm”
Enslaved “Isa”
The Chasm “The Spell of Retribution”
Borknagar “Epic”
Dismember “Where Iron Crosses Grow”

EP

Misery Index “Dissent”

***

Well, another year in the proverbial bag and quite a varied year it was, with this year’s top 10 being a solid cross section of all genres from the rending black metal of Leviathan to The Dillinger Escapes Plan’s adventurous musings.

Notable omissions? One could argue that former US death legends Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation and Deicide have officially lost their clout as they all released albums in 2004 and none of them even got a sniff of the top 10. What about European death metal stalwarts Entombed and Dismember? Both released comeback albums of sorts and only Dismember garnered any sort of surprisingly lukewarm recognition. Are metal fans now bored with classic death metal, preferring the heightened polish and variety of acts like Disillusion and Into Eternity? Where were usual former Digitalmetal [Teeth of the Divine!] favorites Finntroll and Behemoth? Behemoth may have suffered from the same fate as Enslaved’s ISA, having a dual release date that spanned both US and European markets.

What about surprises? How about the retro thrash turnaround of Susperia that seemed to please fans? Or Aussie newcomers The Amenta and their blistering debut? Or how about metalcore’s poster children Unearth hovering around the top ten with their long awaited sophomore album?

Of course perennial favorites Mastodon, Pig Destroyer and The Dillinger Escape Plan made their predictable appearance, but who would have thought that the one man German progeny Muhammed Suicmez and his band Necrophagist would have swept the year end honors as they have for many publications? Epitaph’s uber technical ferocity seem to enamored many of you as it beat second place band Disillusion by a healthy margin. But can Necrophaghist follow Epitaph up, or will they fade like many former death metal greats?

We will just have to wait until 2005 concludes to find out. Thanks to those who voted, keep Digitalmetal.com [teethofthedivine.com, dammit] your number source for online extremity, and have a great metal year.

CHRIS DICK

1. Enslaved – “Ruun”
2. Katatonia – “The Great Cold Distance”
3. Ihsahn – “The Adversary”
4. Agalloch – “Ashes Against the Grain”
5. Zombi – “Surface to Air”
6. Akercocke – “Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone”
7. Mastodon – “Blood Mountain”
8. Napalm Death – “Smear Campaign”
9. Converge – “No Heroes”
10. Insomnium – “Above the Weeping World”

Honorable Mentions:

1. Dolorian – “Voidwards”
2. Amon Amarth – “With Oden on Our Side”
3. The Gathering – “Home”
4. I – “Between Two Worlds”
5. Nocturnal Rites – “Grand Illusion”

Most disappointing:
Iron Maiden – “A Matter of Life and Death”

ERIK THOMAS

1. All Shall Perish- “The Price of Existence”
2. Unexpect -“In A Flesh Aquarium”
3. Anaal Nathrakh- ‘Eschaton”
4. Insomnium -“Above The Weeping World”
5. I-“Between Two Worlds”
6. Starkweather -“Croatoan”
7. Negura Bunget -“Om”
8. Ligeia -“Your Ghost is a Gift”
9. The Faceless -“Akeldama”
10. As Blood Runs Black -“Allegiance”
11. Noumena “Anatomy of Life”
12. Misery Inc- “Random End”
13. Amon Amarth -“With Oden on Our Side”
14. Daylight Dies -“Dismantling Devotion”
15. Protest the Hero -“Kezia”

Biggest Disappointment: Terrorizer “Darker Days Ahead”

APOLLYON

1.Gojira – “From Mars to Sirius”
2. Tenhi – “Maaäet”
3. Celtic Frost – “Monotheist”
4. Agalloch – “Ashes against the grain”
5. Magyar Posse – “Random Avenger”
6. Mokoma – “Kuoleman laulukunnaat”
7. Khoma – “The Second Wave”
8. Keep of Kalessin – “Armada”
9. Dolorian – “Voidwards”
10. Communic – “Waves of Visual Decay”
11. Stam1na – “Uudet kymmenen käskyä”
12. Vader – “Impressions in Blood”
13. SYL – “The New Black”
14. Daylight Dies – “Dismantling Evolution”
15. GWAR – “Beyond Hell”

GRIMULFR

1-Negura Bunget- “OM”
2-Amon Amarth- “With Oden on our Side”
3-Belphegor- “Pestapokalypse VI”
4-Unleashed- “Midvinterblot”
5-Manegarm- “Urminnes Haud”
6-Hellveto- “Zmierzch”
7-Enslaved- “Ruun”
8-Kampfar- “Kvass”
9-Belenos- “Chants de Bataille”
10-Ancient Rites- “Rubicon”
11-Lja- “Til Avsky for Livet”
12-Hellebaard- “Valkyrenvlucht”
13-Bothildir- “for what once was”
14-Grimm- “Dark Medieval Folklore”
15-Wolven Ancestry- “The Wrath of Gaia”

Biggest Disappointment: Celtic Frost-“Monotheist”

TIM DODD

1. Doom: VS – “Aeturnus Vale”
2. Insomnium-“Above the Weeping World”
3. Borknagar-“Origin”
4. Black Crucifixion-“Faustian Dream”
5. Amon Amarth-“With Oden on Our Side”
6. Theatre of Tragedy-“Storm”
7. Gorgoroth-“Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam”
8. Draconian-“The Burning Halo”
9. Hellveto-“Zmierzch”
10.Wolverine-“Still”

Honorable Mentions:

Dolorian-“Voidwards”
Agalloch-“Ashes Against the Grain”
Axel Rudi Pell-“Mystica”
Dissection-“Reinkaos”
Nocturnal Rites “Grand Illusion”

JEFF LAMB

1. Converge – “No Heroes”
2. Woods of Infinity – “Hedja”
3. Made Out of Babies – “Coward”
4. Ghoul – “Splatterthrash”
5. Hekel – “De Dodenvaart”
6. The Sword – “Age of Winters”
7. Sunn0)))/Boris – “Altar”
8. Funerot – “Invasion From the Death Dimension”
9. STNNNG – “Dignified Sissy”
10. Regurgitate – “Sickening Bliss”
11. Witch – “s/t”
12. Lifelover – “Pulver”
13. Merrimack – “Of Entropy and Life Denial”
14. Goatwhore – “A Haunting Curse”
15. Asunder – “Works Will Come Undone”

CHRIS AYERS

1. The Ocean- “Aeolian”
2. Gojira- “From Mars to Sirius”
3. Sepultura- “Dante XXI”
4. Om- “Conference of the Birds”
5. Intronaut- “Void”
6. Vore- “Maleficus”
7. Confessor- “Unraveled”
8. Daylight Dies- “Dismantling Devotion”
9. Helmet- “Monochrome”
10. (The) Melvins- “(A) Senile Animal”
11. Indian- “The Unquiet Sky”
12. Volumen- “Science Faction”
13. Totimoshi- “Ladrón”
14. Incantatio-, “Primordial Domination”
15. Don Caballero-“World Class Listening Problem”

Biggest Disappointment: that metalcore isn’t being taken over more quickly by traditional metal!

DAN ZIDAR

The Gathering “Home”
Mogwai “Mr. Beast”
Mono “You Are There”
Dim Mak “Knives Of Ice”
Jesu “Silver”
Zombi “Surface To Air”
Katatonia “The Great Cold Distance”
Daylight Dies “Dismantling Devotion”
The Daysleepers “The Soft Attack”
Agalloch “Ashes Against The Grain”
Enslaved “Ruun”
Mouth Of The Architect “The Ties That Blind”
Killing Joke “Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell”
Neko Case “Fox Confessor Brings The Flood”
General Surgery “Left Hand Pathology”

FRED PHILLIPS

1. Lamb of God – “Sacrament”
2. Poisonblack – “Lust-Stained Despair”
3. Trivium – “The Crusade”
4. Rebel Meets Rebel -“s/t”
5. Jon Oliva’s Pain – “Maniacal Renderings”
6. Into Eternity – “The Scattering of Ashes”
7. Amon Amarth – “With Oden on Our Side”
8. Strapping Young Lad – “The New Black”
9. Kiuas – “Reformation”
10. In Flames – “Come Clarity”
11. Slayer – “Christ Illusion”
12. Angel Blake – “s/t”
13. Stonegard – “Arrows”
14. Cannibal Corpse – “Kill”
15. Beyond Fear – “s/t”

Biggest disappointment: Black Label Society – “Shot to Hell”

SHANE WOLFENSBERGER

1. Agalloch – “Ashes Against The Grain”
2. Scar Symmetry – “Pitch Black Progress”
3. Amon Amarth – “With Oden On Our Side”
4. Saturnus – “Veronika Decides To die”
5. Novembre – “Materia”
6. Doom:VS – “Aternum Vale”
7. Insomnium – “Above The Weeping World”
8. Katatonia- “The Great Cold distance”
9. Daylight Dies – “Dismantling Devotion”
10. Kalmah – “The Black Waltz”
11. Noumena – “Anatomy of Life”
12. Into Eternity – “The Scattering of Ashes”
13. Gojira – “From Mars to Sirius”
14. Asunder- “Works Will Come Undone”
15. All That Remains – “The Fall Of Ideals”

Biggest Disappointment: Shadows Fall

BRENT MITTLESTADT

1. Amon Amarth – “With Oden On Our Side”
2. Agalloch – “Ashes Against the Grain”
3. Cult of Luna – “Somewhere Along the Highway”
4. I – “Between Two Worlds”
5. Converge – “No Heroes”
6. Isis – “In the Absence of Truth”
7. Genghis Tron – “Dead Mountain Mouth”
8. Drudkh – “Blood In Our Wells”
9. Burst – “Origo”
10. Cancer Bats – “Birthing the Giant”

Most Disappointing Album: Arsis – United in Regret

Favorite Albums of 2009

1. Kalisa – Cybion

2. Augury – Fragmentary Evidence

3. Fall of Efrafa – Inle

4. Insomnium – Across the Dark

5. Between the Buried and Me– The Great Misdirect

6. Wolves in the Throne Room– Black Cascade

7. Ensiferum – From Afar

8. Gorod – Process of a New Decline

9. Fatalist – The Depths of Inhumanity

10. Ulcerate – Everything Is Fire

11. Demonical – Hellsworn

12. Obscura – Cosmogenesis

13. Geist – Galeere

14. Funeral Mist – Maranatha

15. Be’lakor– Stones Reach

16. Blut Aus Nord – Memoria Vestusta II

17. Alestorm– Black Sails at Midnight

18. Fleshgod Apocalypse – Oracles

19. Altar of Plagues – White Tomb

20. Nile – Those Whom the Gods Detest

21. Despised Icon – Day of Mourning

22. The Red Shore – Unconsecrated

23. Man Must Die – No Tolerance for Imperfection

24. As You Drown – Reflection

25. Woe of Tyrants– Kingdom of Might

Album That I’m Actually Scared to go Back and Listen to: Teitanblood– Seven Chalices

Best Free album: Cephalectomy –An Epitaph to Tranquility

Best Comebacks: Samael – As Above , Skyfire – Esoteric , Asphyx – Death the Brutal Way

Best Cover Art: Ignominious Incarceration – Of Winter Born

Best Reissues: Nirvana 2002 – Recordings 1989-1991, Giant Squid – The Ichthyologist

Best Compilation : Various Artists – Grind Madness at the BCC: The Earache Peel Sessions.

Best New Discoveries : Sunn O))), Mono, Septic Flesh, Finsterforst.

Best movie of 2009: District 9

Favorite Songs: Alestorm – “Keehauled”, Ensiferum – “From Afar”, Woe of Tyrants “Soli Deo Gloria”, Fatalist – “Homicidal Epitaph”, Amorphis – From the Earth I Rose”, Geist -“En Winter Auf See”, Tyr “Hold Your Heathen Hammer High”, Gorod -“Guilty of Dispersal”, Killswitch Engage – “The Forgotten”, Diablo Swing Orchestra ‘”Lucy Fears the Morning Star”, Crimfall – “The Crown of Treason”, God Dethroned – “Poison Fog”, Blackguard – “This Round’s on Me”, If He Dies, He Dies – “Feels like the Very first time”, Isis – “Threshold of Transformation”, After the Burial – “The Fractal Effect”, 3 Inches of Blood – “Fierce Defender”, Birds of Prey – “Juvie”, Moker – “Manual Strangulation”, My Dying Bride – “Santuario de Sangre”, Enemy Reign – “Abuse”, Impending Doom – “Anything Goes”, Be’Lakor -” Countless Skies”, Insomnium – “Weighed Down With Sorrow”.

Biggest albums that I thought would end up on my list but didn’t  (PC way of saying disappointments): Pantheist – Journey Into lands Unknown, Behemoth – Evangelion, Secrets of the Moon – Privigelivm, Skeletonwitch – Breathing the Fire, Napalm Death – Time Waits for No Slave, Anaal Nathrakh – In the Constellation of the Black Widow, The Black Dahlia Murder – Deflorate, Dethklok – Dethalbum II, Swallow the Sun – New Moon, Suffocation – Blood Oath, Krallice – Dimensional Bleedthrough, Immortal – All Shall Fall, Necrophobic – Death to All, A Plea For Purging – Depravity, Belphegor – Walpurgis Rites – Hexenwahn.

CHRIS DICK

1. Katatonia – Night is the New Day

2. Paradise Lost – Faith Divides Us… Death Unites Us

3. Colosseum – Chapter II: Numquam

4. Converge – Axe to Fall

5. Baroness – Blue Record

6. Obscura – Cosmogenesis

7. My Dying Bride – For Lies I Sire

8. Swallow the Sun – New Moon

9. Behemoth – Evangelion

10. Demonical – Hellsworn

11. Black Sun Aeon – Darkness Walks Beside Me

12. Callisto – Providence

13. ISIS – Wavering Radiant

14. Unanimated – In the Light of Darkness

15. Amber Asylym – Bitter River

16. Funeral Mist – Maranatha

17. Mastodon – Crack The Skye

18. Napalm Death – Time Waits For No Slave

19. Asphyx – Death…The Brutal Way

20. Shining – VI: Klagopsalmer

APOLLYON

With each passing year I become even worse at being a metalhead. I remember 10 years ago going through pretty much every band website and mp3 clip I could find, discovering a ton of bands I still listen to today. Nowadays, rather than actively searching for new material I expect it to fall into my lap and thus new names are scarce on my list. Which is a shame, as I’m sure there’s plenty of new stuff out there awaiting to blow my head off. Things that I missed that I don’t even know to miss (like finding Disillusion‘s “Back to Times of Splendor” only a year ago). I can only hope they cross my path at some point (thus I’m always open to suggestions). Anyway, here are the metal albums from 2009 that I’ve listened to more than once or twice (in no particular order):

Ghost Brigade – Isolation Songs

Fall of Efrafa – Inle

Dark Sun Aeon – Darkness Walks Beside Me

Katatonia – Night is the New Day

Swallow The Sun – New Moon

Devin Townsend – Addicted

Behemoth – Evangelion

Callisto – Providence

Centaurus-A – Side Effects Expected

Blood Tsunami – Grand Feast For Vultures

Gorod – Process of a new Decline

Mastodon – Crack the Skye

Napalm Death – Time Waits For No Slave

What’s worrying is the amount of Finnish bands on the list as I try not to be a homer, but goddamn this toilet earth, er, hm, country of mine produces a lot of comforting discomfort.

GRIMULFR

Best of 2009 :

best cover art – Inferno – Black Devotion

best song on otherwise unremarkable album: Hudrefolk – Morbid Elite

Favorite Packaging/booklet – Marduk – Wormwood

Comeback Album – Immortal – All Shall Fall

Iron Fist Award – Throne Of Katarsis – Helvete – Det Iskalde Mørket

Dependability – Dark Funeral – Angelus Exuro pro Eternus

Favorite Debut Album – Der Weg Einer Freiheit – Der Weg Einer Freiheit

Best Back from the Dead –Beherit – Engram

Best Title –  Arckanum – fififififififififififi

Most Haunting –Xasthur –All Reflections Drained

Most likely to Induce Vomiting –Týr – By The Light Of The Northern Star

Favorite EP – Neige et Noirceur – Philosophie des Arts Occultes

Best 2008 Release not Heard til 2009 – Adorned Brood – Noor

Best Two song Full Length – Dodsferd – Suicide And The Rest Of Your Kind Will Follow

Best Amon Amarth – Strydegor – Back On Ancient Traces

Top Albums:

1-Marduk – Wormwood

2-Gorgoroth – Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt

3-Wolves in the Throne Room – Black Cascade

4-Mortuus Infradaemoni – Imis Avernis

5-Funeral Mist – Maranatha

6-The Ruins Of Beverast – Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite

7-Månegarm – Nattväsen

8-Teitanblood – Seven Chalices

9-Blut aus Nord – Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars

10-Faustcoven – The Priest’s Command

Honorable Mentions: Den Saakaldte – All Hail Pessimism, Geist – Galeere, Gromm – Pilgrimage Amidst The Catacombs Of Negativism, Horna – Musta Kaipuu, Borgia – Ecclesia, Belphegor – Walpurgis Rites – Hexenwahn, Absu – Absu, Crimfall – As the Path Unfolds…

JOHN GNESIN

Top 10 of 2009 a/k/a “From Hype to Hyperbole”

1. A Storm of Light – Forgive Us Our Trespasses. Droning and draining, dreamy and delirious, wildly experimental in spirit and at the same time hauntingly familiar in it’s archetypal resonance, A Storm of Light begged forgiveness for their trespasses yet left me heralding their transcendence. Even in light of the individual members’ resumes and the fact that this was their second effort, few could have seen this masterful effort coming before coming to the realization is had completely obscured the horizon from which it seemingly emerged. The “Tribe of Neurot” has expanded exponentially over the past decade, and A Storm of Light easily matches and arguably surpasses the best recent efforts of the many minions and perhaps even the masters themselves if I may be so bold. Fucking epic.

2. Japanische Kampfhörspiele – Luxusvernichtung (Vierundfunfzig Vertonte Kurzgedichte). A lot of grindcore bands have stuffed a ridiculous amount of “tracks” onto a release, but JaKa’s feat is in composing 54 memorable “songs” into 22 minutes, with all their trademark catchiness, schizoid transitions, frantic momentum and intensive dynamics not only intact, but in fact, Luxusvernichtung amazingly still finds the band upping the ante while firing on all cylinders. Incomprehensibly, this band just keeps getting stronger, faster, tighter and better as the years go by and as I revisit this album I am already well into the process of flipping out over their early 2010 release Bilder Fressen Strom. Band of the freaking decade, hell the millennium so far. No one even comes close.

3. Baroness – The Blue Record. Not only did I just now this year get the Seuss-tastic joke of their discography of titles to date (One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish…), but I am also very satisfied that Baroness has definitively delivered on their well-deserved hype with their latest album, finally emerging from the studio with a whole that is better than some of their parts. Overemphasizing their epic classic/progressive rock influences to the nth degree while still maintaining their folksy even soulful punk rock spirit is an impressive enough feat in itself, however the real triumph is the total lack of any need to describe or categorize these songs and this album as anything other than just plainly, manifestly awesome.

4. Gorod – Process of a New Decline. We had to see this coming, after two impressive outings in Neurotripticks and Leading Vision; these Frenchies finally delivered on all their potential on album number three. Exquisite virtuoso shredding over crushing and clever arrangements, brilliant and brutal drumming and that kind of noodly bass work that gives 90’s prog death fans all kinds of wood. Progressive and technical as anything out there but heavy as all balls in a direct sense, passionate and purposeful, Process of a New Decline is the best death metal album I heard all year, and while I’m in a superlative mood, possibly the best French death metal album of all time.

5. Devin Townsend Project – Ki & Addicted. Major differences between the DTP(rogject) and the DTB(and)? Damned if I know. That said these two offerings, the first two of four total, more than makes up for the last two decent but far less than stellar DTB outings, though nothing will ever get me the 20 precious minutes I wasted with Ziltoid…The Unlistenable back. Possibly more focused by the long overdue pasturing of Strapping Young Lad, Ki and Addicted recall without repeating my two favorite Devin solo records to date, Ocean Machine and Infinity, the former with it’s chill, mellow even-flow hard rock and the latter with it’s bombastically reckless ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ approach. Impossible to talk about Addicted without citing the collaboration with Anneke van Giersbergen, formerly of The Gathering, which plays brilliantly on both the kooky techno-pop-metal numbers as well as the more serious epics contained therein.

6. Horse the Band – Desperate Living. Typically, a band maturing by their third album is a good thing, but in Horse the Band’s case, their immaturity is one of their biggest charms, and thus A Natural Death while certainly representing a progression, came off a bit flat in terms of pure enjoyability. Such experimentation did open the doors to a highly redeeming album number four, as Desperate Living finds the band rediscovering their defining zaniness and infectious catchiness within the context of a much-expanded musical vocabulary, resulting in an album that is alternately spasmodically frantic and masterfully restrained as the moment dictates. Still the band that no one takes seriously, but everyone should, their bipolar ability to go from irreverently silly to desperately disturbing remains unparalleled.

7. Maudlin of the Well – Part the Second. Even before pressing play, the fact that this was new Maudlin of the Well material, the fact that production of said material was financed by the group’s rabid fanbase, and the fact that such material was to be distributed for free or donation was enough to put this in heavy contention on the basis of positive sentiment alone. Upon pressing play, any misgivings about this not being quite the Maudlin of the Well I remembered were washed away in a flood of brilliant, captivating music, the best Toby Driver has composed since the first Kayo Dot album, which simultaneously makes a lot of sense and no sense at all since apparently most of this music was rescued from the period between the end of the MoTW era and the beginning of the Kayo Dot era.

8. Mournful Congregation – The June Frost. My first encounter with these inexplicably depressed Aussies (GO TO THE BEACH, IT’S TEN MINUTES FROM WHEREVER YOU’RE STANDING + YOU HAVE KANGAROOS – WHY ARE YOU CRYING?), ahem, via their raw but intriguing double-album collection, The Dawning of Mournful Hymns was also my first experience with the funeral doom subgenre. Ever since I have been hooked on band and subgenre alike, and their 2009 effort is justification enough for the group’s appropriately slowly growing fan-base in the underground over the years, sporting just the right blend of ethereal romanticism and sludgy, droney death-march.

9. Keelhaul – Triumphant Return to Obscurity. Maybe my many repeated listenings and placement of this album in my top ten is a symptom of absence making the heart grow desperate, but it was nigh impossible to find fault with the group’s expertly titled comeback album. It is testament enough to Keelhaul’s energy and ingenuity to state that their sound is just as fresh and interesting half-a-decade later as when they last left off, and a rarity that such a reunion effort can make one more excited about the band’s future than nostalgic about their past.

10. YOB – The Great Cessation. Among many other cliched slogans my boss seems to automatically generate, “same church, different pew” certainly applies when considering YOB’s long-awaited return from purgatory when placed side-by-side with Keelhaul’s. Whereas the latter returns to the sound they innovated, the former returns to reassert their rightful inheritance of the throne presiding over the rest of the kingdom of doom, and their expert blending of virtually every style and era of that subgenre into one monolithic morass is still awe-inspiring to behold.

Honorable Mentions a/k/a “Thanks for Slaying”

19 A.D.D. – Dead River, Ablaze in Hatred – The Quietude Plains, Animals as Leaders – S/T, Antigama – Warning, Between the Buried & Me – The Great Misdirect, Bloodhorse – Horizoner, Buried Inside – Spoils of Failure, Burnt By the Sun – Heart of Darkness, Converge – Axe to Fall, Dysrhythmia – Psychic Maps, Giant Squid – The Ichythologist, Jesu – Infinity & Opiate Sun, Martyrdod – Sekt, Mastodon – Crack the Skye, Nadja – Under a Jaguar Sun, Belles Bettes, collaborations with Pyramids & Black-Boned Angel, Nile – Those Whom the Gods Detest, Obscura – Cosmogenesis, Our Survival Depends On Us – Painful Stories Told With a Passion for Life, Porcupine Tree – The Incident, Raised Fist – Veil of Ignorance, Suffocation – Blood Oath, Swallow the Sun – New Moon, Tombs – Winter Hours, Until Death Overtakes Me – Days Without Hope, Woods of Ypres – The Green  Album

Disappointments a/k/a “Dishonorable Discharges”

Clutch – Strange Cousins from the West, Ensiferum – From Afar, Shrinebuilder – S/T

JORDAN ITKOWITZ

Top 20 of 2009:

1. Blut Aus Nord – Memoria Vetusta II. Beautiful, terrifying, exquisite and transcendent. The best black metal album I’ve heard since Anthems at the Welkin at Dusk, which not only makes this my #1 pick for 2009, but one of my favorite releases of the past ten years.

2. Kalisia – Cybion. This monumental space-opera stretches to the ends of the universe, with scope, ambition and technical fireworks to match its epic narrative. Mandatory listening for fans of melodic death and progressive metal.

3. Insomnium – Across the Dark. With this magnificent release, these Finnish death/doom masters have taken their already-sumptuous sound to even more soaring heights – and to even more miserable depths.

4. Mastodon – Crack the Skye. Russian mystics, astral projection and shaggy, psychedelic groove. Mastodon’s transformation is now complete, and although they may not pummel as hard as they used to, they’re more fascinating than ever.

5. Wodensthrone – Loss. Close your eyes and journey back into England’s murky, forgotten history with this fantastic pagan black metal odyssey – one of my all-time favorites in the genre.

6. Klabautamann – Merkur. Although neither Enslaved nor Opeth had new releases in 2009, you could hear both bands’ signature sounds – jagged riffage and smooth, nocturnal lullabies – throughout this startling piece of black metal art.

7. Amorphis – Skyforger. For a band I’d once left for dead, Amorphis has been having one hell of a renaissance. Once again, they know exactly how to deliver rousing, triumphant and gorgeous melodies, with the perfect blend of light and shade.

8. Blood Tsunami – Grand Feast for Vultures. Dear Slayer: World Painted Blood was a decent return to form, although younger bands like these Norweigan thrashers write such amazing riffs that the bar keeps getting pushed higher and higher. Better luck next time.

9. Obscura – Cosmogenesis. This was a toss-up between Nile, Gorod and these German tech-death wizards, who eventually won out with their catchy melodies, twisty cosmic riffs and twangy, Cynic-al basslines. Necrophagist who?

10. Katatonia – Night is the New Day. A noticeable shift in writing style made this the band’s most challenging album to date, but they’ve also never sounded more lush or haunting.

11. Nile – Those Whom the Gods Detest

12. Gorod – Process of a New Decline

13. Wolves in the Throne Room – Black Cascade

14. Isis – Wavering Radiant

15. Saint Deamon – Pandaemonium

16. Fen – The Malediction Fields

17. Absu – Absu

18. Centaurus-A – Side Effects Expected

19. Immortal – All Shall Fall

20. Woe of Tyrants – Kingdom of Might

Most Disappointing Releases of 2009:

1. Brutal Legend. Yeah, I know I gave it a glowing review, and the game is still a perfect love letter to metal, with an astoundingly realized world, a terrific story and an incredible soundtrack. Too bad I thought the RTS gameplay , clever as it was, turned the game into a chaotic, frustrating slog. I would much rather have played a straight-up action-adventure, or better yet, experienced Schafer’s unique vision as one amazing CG movie.

2. Dream Theater – Black Clouds and Silver Linings. “A Nightmare to Remember” features some of my favorite DT melodies since Scenes from a Memory. Shame the rest of this album seemed rehashed and corny.

3. Clutch – Strange Cousins from the West. I was okay with Clutch’s detour into Beale Street’s straightforward southern rock. I just didn’t want them to get stranded there. Bring back the bluesy prog-metal goodness of Blast Tyrant and Robot Hive/Exodus again!

Best Discoveries (of pre-‘09 releases):

1. 8-bit Metal. If underground black metal weren’t geeky enough, it definitely is when you listen to it as an 8-bit NES tune. It’s all over YouTube – and now we have a dedicated thread on the forums, where I’ve posted plenty of homebrew compilations of black metal, progressive and tech-death, even Maiden.

2. Janvs – Vega. An introspective, warmer take on progressive black metal with some lovely Opethian dynamics at play.

3. Volahn – Dimensiones del Trance Kosmico. Raw, chaotic and authentic Norweigan black metal by way of California’s Black Twilight Circle. Another jewel in the USBM crown.

4. Sapfhier – Trollskogen. Maybe it was the trollish, Kvist-like guitar tone or the waterlogged EDT-era Dimmu Borgir keys, but either way, I got a big nostalgic kick out of this album.

5. US Christmas – Eat the Low Dogs. Rippling, spacey sludge with a southern gothic twist – like listening to 16 Horsepower during a particularly bad trip.

Favorite Songs of 2009:

1. Mastodon – “Divinations” 2. Insomnium – “Lay of the Autumn” 3. Amorphis – “Silver Bride” 4. Porcupine Tree – “Time Flies” 5. Blut Aus Nord – “Disciple’s Libration” 6. Blood Tsunami – “Personal Exorcism” 7. Lamb of God – “Choke Sermon” 8. Saint Deamon – “Pandaemonium” 9. Isis – “Ghost Key” 10. Nile – “Utterances of the Crawling Dead”

LARRY “STAYLOW” OWENS

Best Albums of 2009:

1 .Blood Tsunami – Grand Feast For Vultures – I liked Blood Tsunami’s debut, but this took things to a whole new level. Blackened, nasty thrash metal with a enough killer riffs to level an entire city. Easily the best thrash album of the past decade.

2.God Dethroned – Passiondale – This was a very close contender for my AOTY spot. This album is just a beast, from the monster riffs, great lead work and melodies to the absolutely pulverizing drumming of Roel Sanders to the engaging World War I concept centered around the Battle of Passchendaele. I couldn’t get enough of it.

3.Darkane – Demonic Art – I’ve become kind of a fanboy of this band over the past few years with their blazing, wall of sound approach to death/thrash. They keep things fresh each outing, continuously expanding and moving their sound forward, and Demonic Art is no exception.

4.Be’lakor – Stone’s Reach – I’m still floored that one of the bigger metal labels hasn’t snatched these guys up yet. Slightly progressive melodic death with some doom-y elements that is superbly executed and infinitely memorable.

5.Goatwhore – Carving Out the Eyes of God – One of my surprises of the year. I wasn’t ever a big fan of their first couple albums, but as they’ve moved in a more black/thrash direction with this and it’s predecessor A Haunting Curse, they’ve quickly converted me into a huge fan.

6.Kreator – Hordes of Chaos – Mille and Co. are pure win these days. Of all the big thrash names from 80’s, no one is kicking as much ass as Kreator since the turn of the millennium. Hordes of Chaos is easily on par with the previous two albums in being the best work they’ve ever done.

7.Between the Buried and Me – The Great Misdirect – I loved Alaska 4 years ago, but for some reason I never got on board with it’s follow up Colors, despite endless praise wherever you looked. I guess I was just too preoccupied with other releases to give it it’s proper due. The Great Misdirect however, had me hook, line and sinker after 4 or 5 spins as it’s leaps and bounds ahead of Alaska. The influences here are far ranging, but no matter what they do, it just works and never fails to blow my mind.

8.Vektor – Black Future – This one came out of nowhere and totally floored me on the first spin. These young cats from Arizona pay homage to Voivod with their logo but not as much as you’d think in their sound. Sure the influence is there, but as others suggested and I found out for myself, they sounded much closer to Deathrow’s Deception Ignored. I even detect a just a little Rust In Peace era Megadeth in there. Long, complex songs with all around great axe work, blackened vocals and the occasional falsetto make these guys really stand out among the current crop of thrash ‘revival’ bands.

9.Skeletonwitch – Breathing the Fire – As with the two albums that came before it, Breathing the Fire is a truckload of awesome blackened thrash with NWOBHM overtones. Easily one of my favorite new bands.

10.Insomnium – Across the Dark – I was a casual fan of this band before, but Across the Dark changes that, as they’ve taken their game to a whole new level here. Beautifully depressing.

11.Hypocrisy – A Taste of Extreme Divinity

12.Adagio – Archangels in Black

13.Hirax – El Rostro de la Muerte

14.Slayer – World Painted Blood

15.Revocation – Existence is Futile

16.The Empire Shall Fall – Awaken

17.The Black Dahlia Murder – Deflorate

18.Obscura – Cosmogenesis

19.Lay Down Rotten – Gospel of the Wretched

20.Rumpelstiltskin Grinder – Living for Death, Destroying the Rest

21.Dreaming Dead – Within One

22.Razor of Occam – Homage to Martyrs

23.Dying Fetus – Descend Into Depravity

24.Centaurus-A – Side Effects Expected

25.Infinitum Obscure – Sub Atris Caelis

BEST EP’s:

1.Barren Earth – Our Twilight

2.Hollenthon – Tyrants and Wraiths

3.Spirit Disease – Spawn of Satan

MOST DISAPPOINTING:

Amoral – Show Your Colors – I knew it was going to be bad when Niko Kalliojärvi left the band and was replaced by Finnish Idol winner Ari Koivunen, but this far exceeds any expectations I had in terms of utter shit. The switch in style from technical melodic death metal to watered down, poppy power metal is the worst I’ve ever seen. Originally they had said Koivunen would still be doing some growls along with the clean vocals, but it seems they opted for the full sell out instead. Never before have I gone from liking a band so much to hating them so much – this band is fucking dead.

Megadeth – Endgame – I had really high hopes for this with the arrival of Chris Broderick and of course all the fluff Dave talked leading up to it’s release, but was ultimately disappointed. It’s not really a bad album – I’d say it’s easily on par with the last two – because a couple of these songs are easily the best songs Dave has written since his heyday, but others are among his worst or just flat out boring. Terrible lyrics abound and Dave’s vocal performance is lacking.

Scar Symmetry – Dark Matter Dimensions – This is actually a good album, especially musically. It’s disappointing that one of the two replacements for ex-vocalist Christian Alvestam failed to really impress me at all. Maybe I’m just a rabid Alvestam fan, but I couldn’t get into it.

2008 ALBUMS I MISSED OR OVERLOOKED:

Cynic – Traced in Air – I listened to this one 5 or 6 times right after it’s release but it just wasn’t clicking. Almost immediately after posting my year end list everywhere it was like a switch went off when I heard it again at a buddies house and it was suddenly one of my favorite albums of 08. A great piece of work that easily stands up to Focus.

Revocation – Empire of the Obscene – I discovered this one shortly after the first of the year and was instantly a fan. Just a notch below their new, Relapse released album Existence is Futile.

BEST NON-2008/2009 DISCOVERIES:

Naglfar – I’ve known them by name only for some time now, but have long ignored them due to the black metal tag. A friend recently changed that when he had me listen to Pariah, which blew me away. Great band.

Ihsahn – Exact same story as above, except the album was The Adversary.

Deathrow – Decpetion Ignored – When comparisons were made to it about Vektor’s Black Future, I had to investigate. Top shelf prog/tech thrash from Germany is what I got. How did it take this long for me to discover these guys and why haven’t more people been singing their praises?

Liers in Wait – Spiritually Uncontrolled Art – I’ve got to thank the guys on the boards in the Now Playing thread for this one – this is excellent.

FAVORITE SONGS:

Blood Tsunami – “Personal Exorcism”, Dethklok – “Laser Cannon Death Sentence”, Rumpelstiltskin Grinder – “Brainwasher c.1655”, Kreator – “Warcurse”, Between the Buried and Me – “Fossil Genera – A Feed From Cloud Mountain”, Be’lakor – “Countless Skies”, God Dethroned – “Poison Fog”, Slayer – “Public Display of Dismemberment”, Vektor – “Forests of Legend”, Megadeth – “1,320”.

SHANE WOLFENSBERGER

2009 blew the doors wide open and it hasn’t stopped all year. The amount of great shit that I have heard and have yet to hear is astonishing. What a great year for metal. 2010 looks to have a great start as well. Happy New Year!

Best Albums of 2009:

1. Katatonia – Night is the New Day

2. Insomnium – Across the Dark

3. Paradise Lost – Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us

4. Skyfire – Esoteric

5. Ulcerate – Everything is Fire

6. Obscura – Cosmogenesis

7. Be’lakor – Stones Reach

8. Blut Aus Nord – Memoria Vetusta II – Dialogue With the Stars

9. Mastodon – Crack the Skye

10. Revocation – Existence is Futile

Honorable Mentions

1. Shrinebuilder – Shrinebuilder

2. Fission– Pain Parade

3. Megadeth – Endgame

4. Behemoth – Evangelion

5. Burnt by the Sun – Heart of Darkness

6. Novembers Doom – Into Nights Requiem Infernal

7. While Heaven Wept – Vast Oceans Lachrymose

8. Augury – Fragmentary Evidence

9. Suidakra – Crogacht

10. Wine from Tears – Through the Eyes of a Mad

SCOTT ALISOGLU

Top Albums of 2009

You have no idea how much I agonize about this list. Keeping track of all the releases throughout the year can be mentally taxing. I review one hell of a lot of albums and listen to a fairly wide variety of metal, which is why I put together a Top 30 with honorable mentions; trust me, it’s only a fraction of the albums I’ve heard. Then there is that whole thing about “best” album versus “favorite” album. Consider an album like Altar of Plagues’ White Tomb. It is an incredible album, but I’ve got to be in a specific mood to listen to it. Is it a better album than, say, Fatalists’ The Depths of Inhumanity? Maybe not, but the fact remains that I’m typically more inclined to throw in the Fatalist disc. What is most important to realize is that there is not a lot of difference between, for example, an album at the number 15 spot versus one at the number 25 spot. It is what it is.

1. Goatwhore – Carving Out the Eyes of God (Metal Blade)

2. Lions Share, Dark Hours (Blistering)

3. Napalm Death, Time Waits for No Slave (Century Media)

4. Slough Feg – Ape Uprising (Cruz Del Sur)

5. Burnt by the Sun – Heart of Darkness (Relapse)

6. Brutal Truth – Evolution Through Revolution (Relapse)

7. Saxon – Into the Labyrinth (SPV)

8. Weapon – Drakonian Paradigm (The Ajna Offensive)

9. Marduk – Wormwood (Regain)

10. Whiplash – Unborn Again (Puverised)

11. The Red Chord – Fed Through the Teeth Machine (Metal Blade)

12. God Forbid – Earthsblood (Century Media)

13. Hypocrisy – A Taste of Extreme Divinity (Nuclear Blast)

14. Acheron – The Final Conflict: Last Days of God (Ibex Moon)

15. Fatalist – The Depths of Inhumanity (Ibex Moon)

16. Lye by Mistake – Fea Jur (Black Market Activities)

17. Goreaphobia – Mortal Repulsion (Ibex Moon)

18. Shadows Fall – Retribution (Everblack Industries)

19. Hirax – El Rostro De La Muerte (Deep Six)

20. Obscura – Cosmogenesis (Relapse)

21. Asphyx – Death…The Brutal Way (Ibex Moon)

22. Ahab – The Divinity of Oceans (Napalm)

23. Dagon – Terraphobic (Bombworks)

24. Mumakil – Behold the Failure (Relapse)

25. Altar of Plagues – White Tomb (Profound Lore)

26. Fistula – Burdened by your Existence (Plague Island)

27. The Company Band – The Company Band (Restricted)

28. Teitanblood – Seven Chalices (Norma Evangelium Diaboli)

29. Impetuous Ritual – Relentless Execution of Ceremonial Excrescence (Profound Lore)

30. 16 – Bridges to Burn (Relapse)

Honorable Mention

Ignivomous – Death Transmutation; Candlemass – Death Magic Doom; General Surgery – Corpus In Extremis; Superchrist – Defenders of the Filth; Fleshgod Apocalypse – Oracles; Crystal Viper – Metal Nation; Demonical – Hellsworn; Bleeding Fist – Bestial Kruzifix666ion; The Chasm – Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm; Hatebreed – Hatebreed; Death Before Dishonor – Better Ways to Die; Suffocation – Blood Oath; Witchmaster – Trücizna; Cage – Science of Annihilation. Ace Frehley – Anomaly

FRED PHILLIPS

Top 10 of 2009

1. Heaven and Hell, The Devil You Know. Call this a fanboy pick if you want, but I’ve continued to return to this record time and time again over the course of the year. I really think the songs here blow away much of the stuff being done by musicians who could be their great-grandchildren.

2. Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Night Castle. Fans waited a long time for this one, and it was worth it. It’s got a good blend of rock and classical, with some of the most metallic moments on any of their records. There are also a couple of Savatage covers thrown in for good measure.

3. Alestorm, Black Sails at Midnight. Alestorm’s second record is just as much fun as their first was, and the music is better.

4. Amorphis, Skyforger. I find myself firmly back in the Amorphis fan fold after this record. To me, it’s easily the best thing they’ve done since “Elegy.”

5. Saint Deamon, Pandeamonium. This was my introduction to Saint Deamon, and I was immediately impressed. It’s got a great blend of heaviness and melody.

6. Megadeth, Endgame. No, it wasn’t “Rust In Peace” part 2, like Mustaine promised, but I didn’t expect it to be. It’s a rock solid record that’s among the best, if not the best they’ve done since the 1980s.

7. Luna Mortis, The Absence. I’d reviewed a record from this band under their former name, Ottoman Empire, but couldn’t remember much about it. The first album as Luna Mortis, though, pretty much blew me away early in the year.

8. Machines of Grace, Machines of Grace. The band features two former Savatage members, and it’s no secret that I’m a Savatage fanboy, but the music has little to do with that band. This is old-fashioned 1970s-style hard rock with a few progressive leanings.

9. Black Water Rising, Black Water Rising. I’m not sure if this record has officially been released yet, but I’ve been digging the promo since April. It’s some of the best straight-up hard rock I’ve heard in a while.

10. Alice in Chains, Black Gives Way to Blue. I didn’t want to like Alice in Chains without Layne Staley, but I do.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):

God Forbid, Earthsblood. With more progressive leanings, God Forbid is about the only band from the metalcore movement that remains in my playlist.

Lazarus A.D., The Onslaught. This may be the best band to come out of the neo-thrash movement.

Goatwhore, Carving Out the Eyes of God. I’ve never been a big fan of my hometown boys, but this record impressed me.

Ensiferum, From Afar. The best folk metal I heard this year outside of Alestorm.

Lacuna Coil, Shallow Life. Yeah, it’s incredibly poppy and commercial, but I still liked it.

Favorite songs of the year (in no particular order):

“Bible Black,” Heaven and Hell. The best song they’ve recorded since “Heaven and Hell.”

“Keelhauled,” Alestorm. Just try and resist this melody. It’s impossible.

“Another Way You Can Die,” Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Featuring Jeff Scott Soto on vocals, this is a very metallic, very Savatage-flavored tune. Probably the heaviest in the TSO catalog.

“The Only One Sane,” Saint Deamon. Great riffing, undeniable melody, fantastic song.

“Hold the Heathen Hammer High,” Tyr. I can’t resist the big melody of this tune. I have to crank it every time it comes on.

“Silver Bride,” Amorphis. This song wormed its way into my head within a few days and hasn’t left.

“Six Times Dead (16.6),” Primal Fear. I can’t get enough of the military march chorus of this song.

“A Tap Dancer’s Dilemma,” Diablo Swing Orchestra. A great blend of big band and rock. I wish more of the record were in this vein.

“Floyd,” Lynyrd Skynyrd. The first of two completely non-metal songs on my list. Co-written by John 5, this tune is a great, grooving, creepy hard rocker worth a listen even for hardcore metal fans.

“127 Rose Avenue,” Hank Williams Jr. No metal at all here, but it’s a dark, haunting number that’s easily the best he’s recorded in decades.

“No Halos,” Black Water Rising. Great hook, solid hard rock.

“Last of My Kind,” Alice in Chains. Easily the best song on the new record with a great, raging hard rock chorus.

Most Promising Discoveries of 2009:

White Wizzard. I know I gave them some grief for the spelling of their name and their two-year-old EP which was released by Earache this year, but it did show a lot of promise. I’ve kept up with some of the stuff they’re doing for their official Earache debut “Over the Top,” and I’ve got high hopes for it.

The Sin Committee. Their EP was one of the best sets I’ve heard from an unsigned band lately. I’m interested to see where they go from here.

Biggest Disappointments of 2009:

Tim “Ripper” Owens, Play My Game. I had hoped this record was going to blow me away, but it turns out to be an average hard rock album. Here’s hoping Richard Christy’s Charred Walls of the Damned provides some more inspiring work from Owens.

Lillian Axe, Sad Day on Planet Earth. After a big comeback with Waters Rising, one of the staples of my youth follows it up with a mediocre effort that isn’t helped by poor production values. There are good songs, but it’s an overall disappointment.

Kiss, Sonic Boom. Not that I expected greatness from a new Kiss record, but I expected more than this phoned-in attempt to relive the 1970s.

JUSTIN M NORTON

Best Album: Sunn O))) – Monoliths And Dimensions

Favorite Album: Post Mortem – Message From The Dead

Most overhyped: Suicide Silence

Best album cover: Slough Feg – Ape Uprising

Best festival: Maryland Deathfest

Best compilation: Swedish Death Metal

Best comeback: Asphyx

Best metal purchases: Mystifier, Baphometic Goat Worship vinyl box set (Nuclear War Now Productions); Cripple Bastards Age of Vandalism CD box set (Selfmadegod).

Most bizarre concert experiences: Watching Mortuus of Marduk hip toss a fan who jumped on stage and hugged him; the girl in the front row of Cephalic Carnage who picked up an old cup of what appeared to be whiskey and backwash and chugged it; the “models” making the rounds at MDF who were barely clothed and looked like rejects from a Charles Band b-movie production; any concert without The Faceless in an opening slot; the Repulsion show in New York, held in what appeared to be a converted sweat lodge.

Biggest letdown: 1349 Revelations of the Black Flame

Album I heard way to late but should be included somewhere because it rules: Cobalt, Gin

Band I interviewed this year that I am least likely to listen to: Leaves’ Eyes

Frequent traveler miles: Goatwhore

Favorite new discoveries: White Mice; Wicked King Wicker; Tribulation (Sweden); Sollubi ; Hyadningar

Biggest bummers: Deaths of John McCarthy (Post Mortem) and Lux Interior (The Cramps); demise of the print edition of Metal Maniacs.

Honor roll: The Gates of Slumber, Hymns of Blood and Thunder; Nile, Those Whom The Gods Detest; Napalm Death, Time Waits For No Slave; Goatwhore, Carving Out The Eyes Of God ; Isis, Wavering Radiant; Converge, Axe To Fall; Vreid, Milorg; Deathspell Omega, Chaining The Katechon; Magrudergrind, S/T; Baroness, Blue; Lye By Mistake, Fea Jur; White Mice, Gajahovadose; Wicked King Wicker, Borne Black; Brutal Truth, Evolution Through Revolution

Most anticipated 2010: Pig Destroyer; Cretin; Nachtmystium; Decrepit Birth

JODI MICHAEL

Allow me to preface this list by saying that 2009 was a lazy listening year for me; the birth of my son in February made doing other things (such as checking out new music, sleeping, bathing, holding onto my sanity, etc.) difficult. There are no doubt plenty of releases not yet heard that would make this list had I checked them out. Inevitably, though, I won’t get around to listening to them until 2010 and by that point it will obviously be too late. So fuck it. Lazy as I am, that doesn’t mean these ears were deaf to heavy metal in 2009, and there were quite a few albums that stayed in my head long after they were done playing…those are listed here.

1. Kreator – Hordes of Chaos. One of the most anticipated and most played album of 2009 for me. Not quite as excellent as 2005’s Enemy of God, but impeccable Kreator melodies and great energy made this a stellar album.

2. Ravage – The End of Tomorrow.What can I say? I’m a sucker for melody and a vintage metal feel/sound. This album has got both. Would kick me in the balls if I had some.

3. Mastodon – Crack the Skye.Dreamy, hazy stoner prog that swirled around in my brain and begged to be listened to over and over. Great album to mellow out to, and thought-provoking as well. Even without drugs.

4. Wolf – Ravenous. A melodic exercise in ass-kicking and true metal to the core. I thank the gods of metal for the efforts from these Swedes.

5. Hypocrisy – A Taste of Extreme Divinity.Hypocrisy’s near-legendary style continues to evolve as the years fly by. This one gels the best of the band’s components fluidly.

6. Vader – Necropolis.It’s crunchy, it’s evil, and delicious with sprinkles on top. True Vader, true Polish death metal.

7. Pestilence – Resurrection Macabre. Being a huge Pestilence fan made this another most anticipated release for me. Wasn’t quite what I’d expected, but its combination of brutal groove and classic Pestilence mysticism grabbed me.

8. Blood Tsunami – Grand Feast for Vultures. Thrashing their way through the follow-up to 2007’s aptly titled Thrash Metal, these dudes up the ante here. Great cover art, too.

9. Skeletonwitch – Breathing the Fire. A modern metal monolith with just the right amount of infectious melody and potent ferocity.

10. Bleeding Fist – Bestial Kruzifix666ion. Unholy blackened death from Slovenia. Less on the melodic side than my other selections this year, but no less deserving of a top 10 spot.

Honorable Mentions

Suidakra – Crogacht, Slough Feg – Ape Uprising, Cannibal Corpse – Evisceration Plague, Destroy Destroy Destroy – Battle Sluts, Cauldron – Chained to the Nite, Razormaze – The True Speed of Steel,Crescent Shield – The Stars of Never Seen,Obscura – Cosmogenesis,Dreaming Dead – Within One, Megadeth – Endgame.

Most Entertaining

Steel Panther – Feel the Steel, White Wizzard – High Speed GTO

Worst Album of 2009…and Possibly Ever

Throwdown – Deathless

BENJAMIN DEBLASI

Best of 2009 (top 20)

No discernable order, this year I was spoiled rotten.

Kickback – No Surrender

Earth Crisis – To the Death

Merauder – God is I

Converge – Axe to Fall

Ingested – Surpassing the Boundaries of Human Suffering

Vomit the soul – Apostles of Inexpression

Strength for a Reason – Burden of Hope

Providence – Far Beyond our Depth

Impending Doom – The Serpent Servant

Human Mincer – Degradation Paradox

Devourment – Unleash the Carnivore

Despondency – Revelation IV Nemesis

Cheyenne – Doom Prophets

Embryonic Depravity – Constrained by the Miscarriage of Conquest

Enemy Mind/Line of Scrimmage – Split

The Empire Shall Fall– Awaken

Verdict/Hoy Es el Dia/Shiver – 3 way split

Megadeth – Endgame

Trapped Under Ice – Secrets of the World

Dying Fetus – Descend into Depravity

I must stress that this is limited within what I listen to the most (i.e. hardcore and brutal death metal), the odd man out being Megadeth, which, grew, and grew on me considerably.

If I had got the albums when I had ordered them (still waiting on the new ones by Nile, Red Chord, Immortal, Marduk, Hatebreed, Gorgoroth and quite a few more) then the top 20 would have taken a more eclectic shape.

Best Live Bands

1) Kickback – smashed it at Hellfest, by far one of the most powerful bands I have seen live ever.

2) Terror – saw them 3 times in three different countries, licked it each time.

3) Metallica – 3 times in 2 countries, again, smacked it every time.

4) Between the Buried & Me – Finally, after 7 years of waiting, I got to sample this marvel in the flesh.

5) Arkangel – Belgian masters never fail to get the blood pumping

6) E.Town Concrete – all they had to do was play “End of the rainbow,” they did, I spinkicked so much it would put washing machines to shame.

7) Cold World – licked it in New England.

8) Earth Crisis – would have been higher as the performance was great but the show itself was dismal.

9) Cold Hard Truth – this UK Beatdown monster is going places.

10) Despised Icon – they get tighter every time.

Interests for 2010

Misery Signals – new album/tour please.

Shattered Realm – clarification on status, are you done, alive?

Bulldoze – ditto.

Knuckledust, Ninebar – UKHC in general. The LBU needs to get back on track and dropping more albums and crush all this wimpy shit doing the rounds right now.

Goodlife Recordings – Once the label in Europe is looking to take back it’s crown with some interesting prospects in the pipeline.

Italian Death Metal & Hardcore – Not a bad year for us in 2009, (Vomit the Soul, Septycal Gorge, To Kill, Fleshgod Apocalypse) let’s carry it on in 2010.

Unique Leader – they are dropping 4 new releases in January all of which look spicy, exciting year ahead.

Colonize the rotting – ridiculous tech-death-slam-groove, EP was promising, full length promises to exterminate all.

Vomitous – this Swedish slam monolith is frustratingly slow at getting their act together, LAY OFF THE BONGS!

Cold Hard Truth – Full length is taking shape and promises to wreak havoc on dance floors across Europe.

Japan – Home of a ridiculous amount of amazing bands that are like Vomitous, they take too long to get stuff done, but fortunately Extinguish the Fire, Loyal to the Grave and more look set drop some new material in 2010.

Nuclear Blast – Immolation, Testament, All Shall Perish and a lot more are dropping new albums.

Disgorge – brutal DM legends need to get their groove back on despite the loss of Ben Marlin.

Razorback Records – discovered the brilliance of this label only this year, a purchasing frenzy ensued, 2010 I am sure will be as fruitful.