Another year another list of some unusual suspects.
10. Tau Cross - Pillar of Fire
Sounding like Killing Joke with hella riffs...I'm down.
9. Ewigkeit - Cosmic Man
A ramshackle true metal affair that dips into the eclectricism of Diabolical Masquerade and the original trash oddballs Blind Illusion...Neon Ghoul Ride is both a standout track and title.
8. Laster - Ons vrije fatum
Dutch black metal that lives up to that nation's heady contribution to the genre. I hear both modern flowing style black metal mixed with mid period Enslaved psychedelia (think Mardraum, Monumension). Great stuff!
7. Akercocke - Renaissance in Etremis
Even after a decade hiatus these boys still delivered the goods. Challenging, unique and inventive, this was a welcome resurrection.
6. The Chasm - A Conscious Creation from the Isolated Domain - Phase I
Another progressive death metal band that hasn't been heard of from a while, but came roaring back firing on all cylinders. Celestial, mystic, break-your-neck goodness from the godfathers of occult death/thrash.
5. Gigan - Undulating Waves of Rainbiotic Iridescence
Alien, weirdly cascading neural metal, like Luc Lemay in a back alley melee with Spastic Ink. Doing the Cosmos proud.
Voivod by way of GBH plus the fucking raddest artwork of the year to boot.
3. Droid - Terrestrial Mutations
One of my fav newer bands delivers on their debut full length. This most reminds me of the airy spacey vibes of Voivod's The Outer Limits...only heavier.
2. Fleurety - The White Death
Another long-asss hiatus and no problem. Sounding like an off-kilter, dreamy version of their Stagnant Waters project. Still raw, but beautiful.
1. Trollech - Kazdy strom ma svuj stin
The great Trollech deliver the album with the best riffs of the year. Tremendous atmosphere with those enviable Czech foresty vibes. Thanks Lord Morbivod, thanks.
The Residents - The Ghost of Hope, Bedwetter - Vol.1: Flick Your Tongue, Oxbow - Thin Black Duke, Slagmaur - Thill Smitts Terror, Nuit Noire - Sa Majeste La Nuit, Mutation - III: Dark Black, Coma Cluster Void - Thoughts From A Stone, Limbonic Art - Spectre Abysm, Way To End - Senestre, Nokturnal Mortum - Verity, Suffering Hour - In Passing Ascension, Freddie Gibbs - Crushed Glass, Nyn - Entropy: Of Chaos and Salt, Rope Sect - Personae Ingratae, Impure Wilhelmina - Radiation, Yellow Eyes - Immersion Trench Reverie, Selcouth - Heart is the Star of Chaos, Renaldo & The Loaf - Gurdy Hurding, Vulture Industries - Stranger Times, John Frum - A Stirring in the Noos, Ingurgitating Oblivion - Vision Wallows In Symphonies Of Light, Sol Iustitiae - Iam Christe Sol Iustitiae, Mouthgate - Fungal, Ides of Gemini - Women, At The Drive In - Incurably Innocent, Lugubrum - Wakar Cartel, Misanthrope - Alpha X Omega, Dreaming Dead - Funeral Twilight, Acedia Mundi - Speculum Humanae Salvationis
Best eps/splits
Wolok/Rotting Heaven - The Anatomy of Madness, Howls ov Ebb/Kthoniik Cerviiks - With Gangrene Edges/Voiidwarp, Theory In Practice - Crescendo Dezign, Ferrous Oxide - Wild Summer Nights, No Joy - Creep, Yeast Mother - An Electroacoustic Mass
Best electronica
Fhloston Paradigm - After..., Black Zone Myth Chant - Feng Shen, We Plants Are Happy Plants - The Bohemian Impulse, Arca - Arca, Bjork - Utopia, Actress - AZD, Forest Swords - Compassion, Laurel Halo - Dust, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement - Ambient Black Magic, runescape斯凱利 - runescape.wav符文風景骨架, Blanck Mass - World Eater, Zola Jesus - Okovi, Fever Ray - Plunge
Least of the year
The new Enslaved and Satyricon were flat out awful.
