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Baby girl Zoe was delivered by C-section just after 10 this morning. Mom and daughter are doing well, currently resting. Bandcamp and hangovers can wait.

Attention YouTube posters! We must say this about a million times a year but still we get YouTube videos posted incorrectly or labelled incorrectly/half-labelled. When posting YouTube links simply copy and paste the link from YouTube straight into your post and hit return. No need to paste it using the link button on the post toolbar. When you post a YouTube video you must label both the Artist and the Album/EP/Single/Demo title. This is so when these links inevitably break (because they get taken down off YouTube) the moderators can repair them by replacing with up to date links. If you don’t label them we can’t fix them then your post gets deleted and recommendations are then meaningless. We are less precious about this in the What Are You Listening To? thread because it is so busy in there we couldn’t possibly keep up, but everywhere else the YouTube videos get labelled or the post gets deleted. Thanks everyone, let’s keep MF a well labelled place people can come to find recommendations and pick up new bands to listen to.

Immolation - Acts of God (2022) Number eight on my end of year list that if I am being honest, the boredom of being unable to do much of anything with COVID has led me to do an end of year list. I have listened to a lot of death metal in my lifetime. Give or take a couple of years, I have been active in the genre from its beginnings and have explored all manner of variants, sub-genres and cross-genre blending over the last 30+ years. In that time, I have seen bands hit real runs of form in terms of consistency and finding their peak output (Death from more or less start to finish) as well as simply finding amazing one-off releases from the more obscure artists in the far corners of the globe. I have watched bands like Morbid Angel define the very essence of the genre and then tragically run out of gas yet inexplicably carry on despite there clearly being nothing in the tank, whilst other old favourites like Obituary seem to have more than enough determination (if not necessarily the quality of old) to still bang out some serious death metal material. Inevitably with so many choices out there, some bands slip through the net initially. Some quite well-known names in fact because I did not listen to any Immolation until well into the noughties. Over time, as I have discovered more and more of their output, they occupy a rarefied space in my buying habits whereby I will buy pretty much anything they put out, cold. Whilst I am unable to stipulate that the band has a flawless discography, their levels of consistency for over three decades is unable to be matched by many of their contemporaries. Such is my admiration of them I waited three long months to listen to their latest offering on vinyl as opposed to just going for the instant streaming option that is so easy to access nowadays. For reasons I will go into shortly, upon initial purchase, I undertook a second full listen through in the digital format as there was a genuine need to compare the two following my initial spin on my trusty turntable. The over-arching statement first though is that this is Immolation through and through. Technically capable without being overly technical death metal, urgent without being sloppy and beastly without needing to be utterly monstrous at the expense of structures or form. You could pick this album up knowing nothing about the band and tell instantly that this is a record written and performed by guys who have been around the block a few times and who know their stuff as a result. The disdain for organised religion still sits at the heart of their lyrics and song themes and instrumentally they still balance pace and tempos well to offer a varied playbook out of which they pull every play possible over a lengthy fifteen tracks. Complete with superb artwork from Eli Kantor, Acts of God is an album staged on very familiar and welcoming ground. However, as much as there is to be celebrated, there are also some challenges which keep the scores on the doors well away from being a full compliment. Firstly, Acts of God is too long. Now, this is not to say that it outstays its welcome – far from it. As a vinyl experience though you have two discs to play and each side averages around three songs so the overall experience gets a bit stop-start. Absolutely my choice to go with vinyl of course, but this really emphasises that there is a lot to get through here. As I mentioned above, once I had heard the vinyl version of the album I reverted to the digital version for my next run through. There were two reasons for this. Oddly, Dolan’s vocals sounded too monstrous upon first listen, to the point of them sounding artificial. Clearly just and oddity in the formats as this is not an issue on the digital version. I also thought the production sounded a little too muddy on the vinyl format and again, this is not an issue with the streamed format. Whilst neither of the above challenges ruin the listening experience overall it was worth exploring the detail on this occasion. Worthy of noting that the album sound on vinyl is (as you would expect) absolutely huge. Although by no means flawless, Immolation’s eleventh studio offering is well worth the five-year wait (as well as the extended couple of months due to issues with the vinyl pre-orders). It still sounds like a mature, well-established death metal band that are still able to sound relevant and individual at the same time. There cannot be many more of these in the tank – at least not based on my already noted experience of other bands in the genre who began at approximately the same time – and so to all intents and purposes Acts of God should be celebrated for the fine death metal album that it is.

Slayer - Hell Awaits, 1985 Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion, 1985

Alright you mangy mongrels, here it is as promised, 2am February 3rd, better late than never. THE STATE OF THE BLACK METAL ADDRESS 2021 1. Aarkanne - Mysterii, Chilean war metal...finally with just 48 hours left to go in 2021 some mysterious Chilean goats have emerged from the arcane depths of hell to wreak total havoc on my list and have unseated the mighty Spectral Wound album without even breaking a fucking sweat!! Fudido!! Not sure how many war metal fans we actually have around these parts but this is some sick shit! This came out back in June but I only just discovered it at Christmas. Just another example of why I can't make my list til the year has ended. No doubt in my mind this will be on my top 10 albums of the entire decade list in 8 more years, mark my words. 2. Spectral Wound - A Diabolic Thirst, Montreal Quebec, not my #1 King of the 2021 black metal hill anymore but still fucking awesome. No mini review necessary, I'm sure pretty much everyone who cares has heard this one and bought it by now. Even if they didn't get their candles straight and perfectly erect for the cover shoot. 3. Pakkt - To Brocken Heights Where Witches Dance, Germany, holy hell, this gnarly filth bomb just dropped out of the firmament into my lap last week like a wicked little Christmas prezzie or maybe more like a brick through the window and it's been kicking my motherfucking ass non-stop ever since. I can't stop playing it! Might've even been tempted to place it at #2 just a week after its release but I just couldn't bring myself to do that to my old Canadian friends Spectral Wound. These guys weren't even listed on M-A yet the week when their album first went up on YT. 4. Black Spirit - El Sueño De La Razón Produce Monstruos, España, I really thought this would end up either #2 to big dogs Spectral Wound leading the pack or even possibly vying for #1 until just this past week with some amazing new arrivals. Love this album to pieces though, it's a cut above my usual goat filth, you'ze should check it out. 5. Gråinheim - Hexndeifl Germany, this dude has dropped what I consider to be top 5 caliber albums two years in a row now. Feral, ferocious, fierce, powerful, savage, unhinged, pretty much everything I could possibly ask from a 30 minute black metal demo. Thought the 'harpsichord' outro was a nice touch too. 6. Erz - Erz, monumental slab of unrelenting German black metal fury from Düsseldorf, with just a touch of death metal thrown in for flavor, and the cover art is pretty cool too. Can't seem to figure out where to put this one, I've had it as high as 3 and as low as the teens. 7. Odious Devotion - Ilmestys, Finland, shit tons of great Finnish black metal this year, 12 on my list comprising fully 30% of my top 40. Two in my top 10, seven in my top 25, yet no Finns have risen to be in my top 5 this year. I can't even remember the last time that happened. This duo's debut from 3 years ago is just as good or even better. I can't say enough good things about this band, the melodies, Jesus fucking christ. Reminds me of what Dawn migth sound like if they were from Finland. 8. Malignament - Hypocrisis Absolution, Finland, great debut album for sure but it came up against some pretty tough competition this year so here it sits inauspiciously at #8. But don't let that fool you, this is fucking killer. 9. Í Myrkri - Bag Skyggernes Slør, Denmark/USA best icy cold atmo-black of the year, their third full length in as many years, these Danes have yet to disappoint. 10. Ceress - Silence at the Cursed Fortress, Brazil, riffy and well crafted one-man black metal album from some Brazilian dude named Franco Wolf. He obviously put a lot of love, time & effort into this release, very polished and put together for some dude down in the jungle. The vocals remind me just a bit of Megiddo's Chorazaim at times, which is deffo a good thing. Runs a little long at 56 minutes but that's not a problem because it's so good it feels much shorter. 11. Craven Idol - Forked Tongues, black/thrash out of London UK, for my money this is the best black/thrash album in recent memory, just really delivers the fucking goods to quote a certain Mr. R. Halford. 12. Ifrinn - Caledonian Black Magick, Scotland, I've played this one a ton this year, but with just 3 tracks stretched out to fill 24 minutes my only real criticism is I kinda wish he had given us more like five tracks at 5 minutes each instead of three 8 minute tracks so we could have had some more riff variation. I suppose there's something to be said for just getting in a groove and staying there but I prefer a little more variation. Still I do love this album and I look forward to what he comes up with next time. 13. Arde - Ancestral Cult, German atmo-black, majestic and proud, with a strong underlying rip tide of sadness, and some clean female vocals thrown in just as a little accent. I find this to be an incredibly beautiful album. And our esteeemed Doctor (now retired apparently) likes this one too (not enough to make his list though) which makes me feel much smarter and more refined than I actually am. Might have even ranked it slightly higher but you know I love me filf. 14. Diaboli - Awakening of Nordic Storm, Finland, I've been in love with Pete's work for years, this year he once again graces us with yet another savage album of Finnish badassery. I hear a lot of death metal creeping into his last couple of albums but it's been blackened to a crisp. I probably sound like a broken record at this point but I do wish I could have ranked this a bit higher. His last one Wiking Division was in my top 3 of 2015. 15. Hautakammio - Pimeydem Kosketus, Finland, killer band, as much as I love their last album Pimeyden Valtakunta from 2014, I think this might just be their best record so far. Crazy to think I have it ranked so low, does this mean I have to rethink my whole entire list from the ground up now? I fucking hope not. Think of my rankings as loose and fluid, just to give a little context, or a rough idea of where things stack up, they're not meant to be set in stone. 16. Liktjern - I Ruiner, Norway, this one's a bit of a sleeper, or maybe a grower I should say, I didn't realize just how good this one was for the first month or two after I got it. Then with a few more listens I saw the light. This one brings a truckload of riffs with it and has those sweet as buggery Nocturno Culto-esque vocals. Highest ranked of the 5 Norwegian bands on my list, this was a damn good find. Formed in 1996 this is their first full length after releasing only one other EP way back in 2009. If they stick to their every 12 or 13 year release schedule I might see another album from them in 2033 or 2034 if I'm lucky enough to live that long. 17. Anti - Anti Germany, mid-paced depressive black metal but it's not typically depressive there are also plenty of faster sections and these songs are so god damned catchy, I fucking love this record. Played it over and over when I got it whenever that was, November I guess. Still play it weekly. 18. Marras - Endtime Sermon, Finland, Let's face it, Finnblack rules. I loved their first album 2 years ago and I love this one too. Funny, it's become so common to have all these one and two man black metal projects it's starting to feel like the exception to the rule for a band to have 6 members like this. 19. Gorgon - Traditio Satanae, France, earlier in the year I had thought this one would probably wind up being in my top 10 come the end of the year, but a lot of killer black metal has come my way since June. The 2nd half of 2021 definitely yielded more quality bm albums than the first half. This one rips and is catchy as fuck, have it blasting into my earholes as I type this and I think I might need to move it up a few spots. 20. Archgoat - Worship the Eternal Darkness, Finland, unlike some people on the interwebs who I've seen badmouthing this, I personally really like the new Archgoat record quite a lot. Even though they've ramped up the slower paced black/groove parts this time around and cut down on the fast parts, and it's the juxtaposition of the two that makes this band so special, this album was actually more immediate for me than their last two. Seems almost unthinkable that I could rank this so low as to just barely make my top 20 by the skin of their dicks, but it's been that kind of a year. 21. Øksehovud - Makt, Høyhet, Herredømme RBM Norway, this is raw as fuck black metal so deffo not for everyone, I know it'll probably sound like just noise to some of you, but this shit is sweet sweet music to my ears. Not all raw black metal is this awesome, a lot of it blows quite frankly but this one was truly a glorious find thanks to the Greg Biehl YouTube channel which if anyone cares has just recently rebranded itself as "No Gleaming Light" 22. Valac - Burning Dawn of Vengeance, USA, the other raw black metal album on my list, (kept them together to keep each other company) I had a few more but I figured most of you aren't really interested. I was really high on this one earlier in the year, had it in the upper half of my top 10 for quite awhile but with repeated listens and more and more strong contenders to the throne as the year went on I had to drop it down a little lower. But I still love the shit out of it. 23. Doedsvangr - Serpents ov Old, Norway/Finland/France, this is one of Shautrag of Horna/Sargeist fame's projects, and it's a damn good one. 45 minutes but it doesn't drag for a second. 24. Albionic Hermeticism - Psalms to the Father atmo-black UK/France Albionic Hermeticism - Brittonic Ways. I'm finding it hard to separate these two albums in my mind because they're fairly similar, and I have no idea which one I think is "better" because they're both fucking stellar. So I'm just gonna leave them joined together at the hip like Siamese twins as one entry on my list. Think of it as a double album. I had never heard of this band until a couple of months ago but if you're a fan of atmospheric black metal then you should get both of these right away. 25. Åskog - Varþnaþer, Sweden, a somewhat slower paced black metal album than many of these others but it's still great with lots of cool riffs and I love the 'cheesy' throwback melodic guitar solos. This album had no business slipping down this low on my list. 26. Mork - Katedralen, Norway, really good album, I've seen this posted on the board by several different people last year and it was even featured on my boy Navy's list. But I just couldnt justify a higher position for it on mine given the extreme high quality of the competition this year. 27. Narbeleth - Svmma Cvm Nox Arcana, Cuba, that's right Cuba. Badass 2nd wave Nordic style black metal from Cuba where they don't even know what winter means. They clearly put a lot of work into the writing and making of this album. Imagine what it would feel like to be a run of the mill Norwegian black metal band with several albums under your belt and learn that these flip-flop wearing Cubans from an island in the Carribean just made a better Nordic black metal album than you could. 28. Vulture Lord - Desecration Rite, Norway, straddles the line between black metal and black/thrash, but whichever side of the fence you want to put this on it's badass. 29. Bilwis - Sagenwelt, Germany, I'm done separating EP's from full lengths, especially now with the renewed prevalence of the 30 minute album. I used to impose a mental cut-off point at 25 minutes, but does it really make a big difference if a record is 20 or 25 or 30 minutes? A good release is a good release. This one at just a few seconds shy of 22 minutes is good enough to stand alongside the full lengths imo. 30. Deceiver Legion - Varjoissa, Finland, more killer shit from Finland. There is no higher form of black metal than Finnish black metal imo, and I always have lots of Finn bands on my list. First full length after 2 demos last year and it's a banger, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on these guys. 31. Forhist - Forhist, France, this is Vindsval from BaN fame. Saw someone on the board say this was completely different from BaN but I've gotta say it sounds almost exactly like BaN to me so I've basically just been thinking of this as the new BaN release. Not nearly as good as Hallucinogen I'm afraid, but still this is one of the best atmo-black records of the year. 32. Commander Agares - Legions of Descending Twilight, more raw black metal from Finland, fuzzy guitar tone to die for. Not quite as balls out vicious as the two RBM albums I listed 10 places higher, this one's a little slower and riffier but it deserves its spot on the list, this is excellent. 33. Ossuaire - Triumvirat, Quebec, one of the better young crop of Quebecois bands, this is their 2nd full length and it smokes. 34. Lucifuge - Infernal Power, killer German black/thrash, fast-paced razor-sharp, the best kind of thrash if you ask me. These dudes do it way better than most. I don't know how I listened to so much thrash metal back in the 80's & 90's before they figured out that blackening it makes it at least 1,000 times better. That's my opinion anyway, but regardless this is killer shit. 35. Vexev - Et Demitte Cruorem In Caprum Emissarium, Vicious raw fuzzy black metal demo dall'Italia. 36. Ancient Obscurity - Nimettömät Maat, Finland, I just love Finnish black metal what can I say? This one's fairly melodic but some of these melodies can stay in your head all day. 37. Schrat - Seelenfresser, Germany, love this band. Someone said they thought this was a January 2022 release but M-A has it listed as Dec 16th and it was streaming on Youtube before the end of last year so I'm counting it as 2021. Ranked it down here in the 30's only because it was a late entry and I'm tired of moving everythig all around every time I add something new I just found. But rest assured this is a very worthy addition to their already solid catalogue. 38. Vortex of End - Abhorrent Fervor, France, rip roaring black/death. Came out 4 months ago but I just discovered it over New Year's weekend. This is sounding pretty fucking awesome, just as good their last album if maybe not quite as savage. They bring high speed riffage alternating with slower parts and just riffs on top of riffs. Should really have this one ranked much higher but I don't feel like having to renumber everything. 39. Coraxul - Vihavirsiä Aamunkoin, Finland, for my money even slightly above average Finnblack beats the piss out of most other countries' best black metal. Riffy, melodic, catchy and headbangable, why couldn't they have had Finnblack when I was a youngster? Would I have been ready to accept it? Will I ever grow tired of it? Will they keep on making it until every last Finnish citizen has their own black metal band? 40. Funeral Chant - Dawn of Annihilation, Oakland California, intense black/death with a little crust thrown into the mix, another one of the slew of really good albums I was hit with the last two weeks of the year. Just looked it up and it seems this one actually came out November 1st but I missed it. Mandatory for all goat fuckers. 41. Wolves of Perdition - Ferocious Blasphemic Warfare, black/death Finland, I put most of the black/death albums in with the death metal this year except for this one which really felt more like it belonged with the black metal horde. The album title sums this one up quite nicely. 42. Azzaya - Thy Satanick Ascension, Greece/Turkey/Portugal, I'd never heard of this brand new international 3-piece band til a couple of months ago when this first popped up on Youtube. But this is right up my alley, punishingly aggressive and beligerent, razor sharp black metal. Pretty impressive that they just formed the band in 2021 and managed to get this killer debut album out the same year. 43. Wolfskrone - The Hunt, Estonia, another end of year discovery, one YT commenter said this was like a walk through a haunted forest. This atmo-black album has been a real grower, I've been enjoying it a bunch late at night. And Estonia is just a 2 hour ferry ride away from Finland so it's no wonder I like it.

I think I have said it elsewhere but I am super-happy with you Metal-Fi lot. It has been too long that we have relied on a core group of perhaps four or five regular posters to maintain some sense of life and inevitably we end up with one fucking smart-arse who ends up dominating threads and whole sub-sections just for the attention. We have had none of that with you guys and you have essentially turned around what was fast becoming a tiring task for me and (not speaking out of turn I hope @FatherAlabaster?) FatherA to try and come up with ways to create interest in the site to the point where I actually quit in 20/21 - can't remember when exactly. Content to put my feet up for a while yet and let you all get on with it. Nobody's been a dick and the only loss wasn't one of your flock (Nocturnal Boredom -and his conspiracy bullshit) so more of the same is all I ask. I think your "style" of year end lists should reflect what you enjoy and how you enjoy rating / explaining it and if that runs into 40+ items then so fucking be it. Personally I did have a list of 30 but the site I held them on somehow fucked up the list and I lost most of it - hence I dropped down to 10. I can't be arsed doing by genre though, just don't have the time to listen to that many different genres and rate all as well.

I can finally share this piece I did last summer for the upcoming Afterbirth album, "Four-Dimensional Flesh":

"Swallow", 30 x 30, oil on canvas. Cover illustration for an upcoming album by Solemnity, UK melodic DM.

MERCYFUL FATE - Melissa

Overkill - The Grinding Wheel, 2017 Condor - Unstoppable Power, Norway 2017 Sodom M-16, 2001

Went a little crazy on bandcamp this morning. Picked up some things I've had on my list for a while, a few I thought I had, and some new items. The Moulting by Tomb Mold The Bottomless Perdition by Tomb Mold Deathbed Sessions by Sepulchral Curse Moon of Foul Magics by Autonoesis Black Cascade by WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM Diadem of 12 Stars by WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM Age of Excuse by Mgła With hearts toward none by Mgła Apocalypse Sun by Nightbringer Two Hunters by WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM Groza by Mgła Queen Of The Night by Vandal Moon SPLIT 2017 by культура курения/regnmoln Обскур by культура курения Некрофилия by культура курения Холодные Провода/Цемент (EP) by культура курения Рвота (EP) by культура курения Blackbraid I by Blackbraid Is Your Heart Still Unmoved Towa... by Pleasure Policy Shadows by Twin Tribes

Can't believe it's NYE, and I haven't seen a proper Listmania thread yet. Guess I'll do the dirty deed and kick the party off. I wasn't as engaged for all of 2021. Lots of shit going on between COVID, job promotion, and deaths in the family, but I still managed to listen to a good deal of new stuff. My list won't be nearly as exhaustive as the General's 964 entry listapalooza, but hopefully you can find a thing or 2 on here that you may have missed that hits your sweet spot. Without further adieu... All the goods I considered for the final cut: Black Metal Marras – Endtime Sermon Circle of Ouroboros - Kiromantia Starer – 18” Below the Horizon Archgoat – Worship the Eternal Darkness Warloghe – Three Angled Void Lamp of Murmur – Submission and Slavery Clandestine Blaze – Secrets of Laceration Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst Cryptospital – Scythe of the Black Death Këkht Aräkh – Pale Swordsman Escotrilihum – Dy’th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath Antichrist Siege Machine – Purifying Blade Albionic Hermeticism – Psalms to the Father Cult of Eibon – Black Flame Dominion Krolok – Funeral Winds & Crimson Sky Death Metal Frozen Soul – Crypt of Ice Outre-Tombe – Abysse Mortifere Worm – Foreverglade Cerebral Rot – Execretion of Mortality Malignant Altar – Realms of Exquisite Morbidity Vomit Spell – Vomit Spell Nekromantheon – Visions of Trismegistos Genocide Pact – Genocide Pact In Between Sarke – Allsighr Mork - Katedralen Apsu – Apsu Iron Maiden – Senjutsu Ophiuchi – Shibboleth Darkthrone – Eternal Hails Craven Idol – Forked Tongues Apostasy – Death Return Poison Ruiin – Poison Ruiin Mastodon – Hushed & Grim EPs Escotrilihum - Urionhsol (Seven Demons) Ancient Mastery – The Chosen One Kaldeket – Vitiae Ancestral Shadows – Eldritch Illuminations Enslaved – Caravans to the Outer Worlds Lamp of Murmur – Punishment and Devotion dai-ichi/Lamp of Murmur – Virgin Womb of Eternal Black Terror Rope Sect – Proskynesis Witch Vomit – Abhorrent Rapture 20-11 20 – Iron Maiden – Senjutsu 19 – Phrenelith – Chimera 18 – Frozen Soul – Crypt of Ice 17 – Cryptospital – Scythe of the Black Death 16 – Warloghe – Three Angled Void 15 – Antichrist Siege Machine – Purifying Blade 14 – Albionic Hermeticism – Psalms to the Father 13 – Sarke – Allsighr 12 – Rope Sect – Proskynesis 11 – Starer – 18” Below the Horizon - late year discovery that could have easily been in the top 10. 10-1 10 – Clandestine Blaze – Secrets of Laceration - if you don't know what you're getting from Mikko at this point, I'm not sure what to tell you. Probably the best thing he's ever put out, and that says a lot. Just a wee bit better than the new Warloghe in my opinion, but if you like legit old school Finnblack from the masters, don't sleep on either. 9 – Escotrilihum – Dy’th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath - freaky, weird, progressive black metal from France (pronounced Fraunse). This dude has been fairly prolific over the past 3 years. Not quite as good as Eternity of Shaog, but not far off. 8 – Darkthrone – Eternal Hails - it's fucking Darkthrone. They could release a Madonna cover album and I'd buy it. I dig the direction they've been going with the past 2 albums. 7 – Ophiuchi – Shibboleth - a little more coherent of an album than Bifurcaria Bifurcata (a deeply unsettling album - would make a great horror movie soundtrack). This one is a bit doomier. Some of the riffs are a bit "congested" or overlapped which gives them a unique sound. One of my most listened too albums for 2021. 6 – Worm – Foreverglade - old school Florida death metal worship with a twist. The best straight DM album of 2021. 5 – Archgoat – Worship the Eternal Darkness - c'mon. Anyone that has been around me on forums over the years had to know the ultimate goat(s) would show up on my top 10. Not as strong as The Luciferian Crown (my #1 of 2019), but filled with mid-tempo satan worshipping goodness. 4 – Lamp of Murmur – Submission and Slavery - narrowly edged out for the 3 spot. The mix of styles here really sets this album apart from his earlier work. M appears on my list 3 times this year and each entry is worth your listening time. This one, however, is far and away the best. Reminiscent of some of the genre mixing from Wagner Ödegård's Om Kosmos Och De Tolv Järtekn (an excellent album from 2020 in case you missed it). 3 – Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst - ferocious face-melting black metal from the frozen wasteland of Quebec. Easily the best thing released on this continent in 2021. I've yet to hear anything from these boys that didn't make me want to carve a pentagram into my forearm and worship the dark lord to. 2 – Mork - Katedralen - riffs on riffs on riffs. When I put this album on, I feel like I'm 16 cruising in my car listening to classic Van Halen. The volume knob can't go high enough. If the boys from Finland hadn't released one this year, this would be at number 1. Just an all-around banger. 1 – Circle of Ouroboros – Kiromantia - a return to a previous more black metal sound. Still elements of psychedelia and post-punk from the previous decade or so of releases. You never get the same album twice from these boys, and I haven't heard one I didn't like. So there you have it, the Circle of Ouroboros boys reign supreme for 2021 followed very closely by a banging Mork album. Lots to look forward to in the new year like a new Immolation, maybe possibly that new DAWN that was teased as being mixed over the summer, a new one from my fave USBM act Demoncy, a rumored new Negative Plane, I'm sure there will be more. Let's just hope the COVID holds off long enough we can get a few more festivals in before we all die.

100% seconded. Very much appreciate the good music, good discussion, and lack of BS the Metal-Fi crew has brought over. Haven't felt like anyone needed a sandbox in a while now. I think I get less out of lists than most people. I'm much more likely to find something new to enjoy throughout the year in the course of normal conversation than I am by hunting through someone else's favorites. I don't bother reading most commercial work products and I take a pretty dim view of lists that purport to be objective. But I do like reading personal lists anyway, even if it's just for kicks. I'd like to say they give me a sense of where someone is coming from, but looking at my own lists that's not necessarily true either... They're just a snapshot of stuff I happened to stumble across and enjoy during some particular, basically arbitrary window of time. Like I said earlier, kudos to those of you who can listen more and maybe be more disciplined about it without burning out.

I know I had said I was gonna wrap up my black metal list and post that one first, but this one had less contestants to chose from so it was a little easier to finalize. I'll drop this here for yiz now so I can stop thinking about it put it behind me which will allow me to focus on the black metal list. @Kuke, Harsh? C'mon man, I put the little smiley face laughing emoji guy, I was just having some fun with ya. Re: my exchange with Navy the other night... after spending the better part of 2 days listening to almost nothing but my 2021 death metal albums, I can honestly say without fear of contradiction that this has most definitely not been a weak year for death metal at all imho. I have compiled a nifty little list here for your perusal of just over 20 really solid and deserving death metal albums. I'm quite proud of this list, even the ones down towards the bottom are killer. And I could have gone to 40, I had another 20 albums ready to go that I will make note of and save for future reference in years to come, but I won't bore everyone by listing all the rest of them here as I reckon most people probably only look at the top 10 anyway. So without further ado, here I present to you the Goatmaster top 20 Death Metal albums of 2021: 1. Cadaveric Incubator - Nightmare Necropolis, Finnish deathgrind, they're presenting this to the world as 'deathgrind' but I don't hear grindcore here, it honestly just feels like some gnarly filthy Finnish death metal to me. I wish all death metal bands could sound like these guys. This will be a common theme on this as well as on all my death metal lists: there will be no prog or avant-garde or anything too unique, weird, different, trend-setting, genre-bending envelope-pushing, forward-thinking or adventurous. It's all just gonna be straight-forward, meat & potatoes, old school, filthy, disgusting & brutal. Just want everyone to be aware of that up front so that no one wastes a lot of time reading my whole list if that's not their bag. 2. Invultation - Unconquerable Death, black/death from Ohio, another goat worthy one in much the same vein as my #1 CI. I've played this one many times this year as it was one of my go-to's for those times when I wasn't really sure what I wanted to listen to yet. so it feels like an old friend to me now. 3. Crypts of Despair - All Light Swallowed, Lithuania, crushing death metal that is nasty and brutal and just ever so slightly blackened, this is just how I like it. It even has clear modern production for those who shun the lo-fi stuff. 4. Altered Dead - Returned to Life, Victoria BC, Vancouver Island Canadia, right across the sea from Olympic Natl Park, Everett and Seattle WA. As Zack will attest, this is a top notch death metal album that should be in everyone's collection. Might not have ranked it quite so high but they won me over with their cover of Celtic frosts Into the Crypts of Rays. 5. Wharflurch - Psychedelic Realms ov Hell Florida, just a wonderful slab of "cosmic/psychedelic" death metal, love the lead work here. Have a buddy of mine who was the one that first turned me onto this band a year or two ago, who said he didn't like this full length nearly as much as their demos. I can see what he's saying, it's not as primitive anymore, but imo they more than make up for it with the songwriting and lead work. I can't personally hear whats so cosmic or psychedlic about this, just sounds like death metal to me but they can call themselves whatever they like. 6. Morbid Messiah - Disgorged in the Coffin, Mexico, Fuck yeah, these Mexicans are onto it! This is what death metal is supposed to sound like, bludgeoning & pulverizing. No pretense, no gimmicks, they give it to you dirty, raw and unfiltered. 7. Ruin - Spread Plague Death, SoCal, pure filth, somehow I had previously placed this one all the way down at #10, but that's been semi-corrected now. This is fucking awesome, I wish I could go top 5 with this one but then who the hell would I bump to make room? 8. Nunslaughter - Red is the Color of Ripping Death, Cleveland Ohio, tbh I've never been the biggest Nunslaughter fan beyond their first two excellent full length releases from 2000 & '03. They've tended to avoid making proper full lengths over the years and have just releasde a whole shitload of splits. And by a shitload I mean dozens of them, most of which I've never bothered with. Glad I bothered with this album though, it's a fucking ripper. Except for long time bassist/vocalist Don of the Dead who has been a member since the beginning in 1987, the rest of the band is all new as of 2014,'16 and '19 respectively so they do have a somewhat different sound now, more death metally and less death/thrashy. Count me in, I'm down. 9. Phrenelith - Chimaera, Denmark, I'll start by saying this new one is not nearly as great as their monolithic 2017 debut album 'Desolate Endscape' you might have heard, but it would almost be too much to ask to expect them to top that massive one. Still after 4 and a half years of waiting with nothing more than a 2-track EP teaser to tide us over in-between, and what with so many bands shitting the bed with their sophomore releases, this is a fantastic follow-up, no complaints whatsoever. 10. Fossilization - He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten, Death/Doom Brazil, long forgotten is appropriate, I grabbed this back in May and until now I probably hadn't played it since June. So damn good, cavernous and crushing. With just 5 tracks in 25 minutes these two dudes don't fuck around, they show up, plug in, destroy everything in sight and get the fuck out. Fuckin' hell I really suck at ranking shit, wish I could just put all of these into my top 5 and be done with it. This probably deserves to have been ranked a few spots higher but I've been moving these all around back and forth which tells you that I don't actually know what the fuck I'm doing anyway. 11. Vomit Ritual - Callous black/death SoCal, going by their picture and their stage names I think these dudes from Riverside CA might originally hail from somewhere south of the border and it shows in their music, this is very Mexican or Chilean sounding thrashy black/death. Outside of the good ole US of A, I reckon Chile has probably become my favorite death metal producing country along with Finland, Mexico & Germany. 12. Sarcoughagus - Delusions of the Sick, Cleveland, first full length from these Clevelanders, short, sweet, and old school, I'm impressed. Their M-A page lists their genre as 'stoner death metal' (???) which made me chuckle but whatever, just sounds like regular (modern) old school death metal to me, I'm really not catching any kind of a stoner vibe off this or anything, but it is groovy and the songs are good so there ya go. 13. Huoripukki - Ikuinen Kamppailu black/death Finland, nearly equal parts black & death, this probably could have been at home on either of my lists but after giving it another close listen I decided it seemed like a better fit right here on the death metal list. The goats and Ukko (Finnish God of thunder & the sky) are undoubtedly pleased with this one. 14. Husqwarnah - Front: Toward Enemy, Italy, no idea where they came up with the band name, cracks me up a little because here in the states Husqvarna is a leading brand of chainsaws and outdoor power equipment. This is a half hour of absolutely viscious killer death metal. First full length from a young band, I'm quite keen to see what they release next. 15. Malignant Altar - Realms of Exquisite Morbidity, Houston TX, rotten, putrid, filthy, very Finnish sounding, this is the sound I think of first when I hear the phrase "death metal." I've seen people badmouthing this one as not that great or nothing special but I imagine they probably listen to prog metal or some such nonsense. For us meat & potatoes guys this is fan-fucking-tastic. 16. Autokrator - Persecution black/death/doom France, released the first week of November but I found this later in the year and my fucking god is this album just ever so satisfying. Cavernously heavy and engaging, and surprise it's not just meat & potatoes! But it does what it does without being all dissonant and weird which I really appreciate. Autokrator is not a new band to me, I already had their 2018 album Hammer of the Heretics, but this new one really ups their game, it almost sounds like an entirely different band. 17. Obscurial - Funeral, Burial and Rites, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, Had no idea there were killer death metal bands like this from Malaysia. I had to look up exactly where Kuala Lumpur was and now I see it's up the penninsula about 350 km from Singapore there. But wherever they're from holy shit this is a fucking bangin' debut from these young dudes, you really need to hear this. 18. Wormveil - Profane Excellence, Sweden/UK, two veterans of shitloads of different death metal bands, but namely Johnny Petersen of Wombbath fame who seems to pop up aall over the place. This is actually one of his better projects, I like this a lot better than the new Wombbath, which to be clear is also very good, but it missed making my list because I just have too much that's more deserving of attention. 19. Worm - Foreverglade Death/Doom Florida, love this because it reminds me so much of Evoken without being so painfully slow all the time. There was quite a bit of conversation about this album on the forum this year, I'll just assume that anyone who'd be interested in a primo slab of death/doom like this has already heard it and bought it. 20. FŌR - The Life Feeding Flame, Death/Doom Sweden, yes the other death/doom album on my list, I know I've used the word "crushing" about 20 times already during the course of this list but I have no choice but to trot it out again here for this one because it's heavy as a planet. Like when you're stoned and your legs feel like they weigh 5,000 pounds each and you couldn't possibly move them from that spot they're rooted to if your fucking life depended on it. For is the Proto-Germanic word for 'Fire' btw. 21. Cerebral Rot - Excretion of Mortality, Seattle, yeah you get the idea, yet another example of the kind of cavernous old school sounding rotten putrid filth I love. These guys are dependable now with their 2nd excellent full length. 22. Wound - Serpent Crown, Germany, late entry so I'm sticking it here for now, not as gnarly and brutal and filthy as some of the entries on this list, it's just a touch more melodic but it has catchy songs and some of that cool lead guitar work I'm so fond of. Sometimes I'll forget just how much guitar solos can add to a record until I hear an album that has them like this. 23. Venefixion - A Sigh From Below, France, ever so slightly blackened and thrashy death metal from Bretagne (Brittany) right across the channel from Plymouth over there on the French side. I've enjoyed everything they've done so far, their first 15 minute demo from 2015 being the best of all imo, but this is very good too. I had another 18 albums but I'm gonna end this list here in the interest of not boring everybody too much more than is absolutely necessary.

Hello All Sorry for the long absence I wont bore you with the details but all I will say is I have my head back in the game. Managed to crawl out of the whole I find myself in from time to time. Hope everyone is well!

Blasphemathory - War, Blasphemy & Divine Destruction Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal Sentient Divide - Haunted By Cruelty

Finally saw a metal show again, first time since we moved last summer. Local show in a really tiny venue an hour and a half away in Burlington. None of it is stuff I would listen to at home, but it was super fun to just be in a room with loud music and people jumping around.

Bathory - Hammerheart (1990) Each time I tell myself I am done with Bathory and Quothorn's shit singing capability that he somehow relentlessly hacked away at showing a resilience that far outweighed his vocal capacity, I put on Hammerheart and soon find myself completely enamoured with them for an hour or so. The heavy Viking metal aesthetic helps no ends of course, it sort of excuses all the roughness present on the record. This and Under the Sign of the Black Mark should get more plays I have decided.

Bolt Thrower - The IVth Crusade Morbid Angel - Gateways To Annihilation Nevermore - The Obsidian Conspiracy Nifelheim - Servants of Darkness Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons - Kings of the Asylum Possessed - Seven Churches Extremely bitterly disappointed this is not a broadcast of an actual Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan Interim Report for 1979. The bit I listened to was fine musically but nothing about project design brief, community consultation processes, enivornmental impact statement let alone a financial update. I mean where the fuck is the risk management strategy?!? Talk about misleading! And I will bet there is no Final Report either!

I wasn't sure if that was your actual real life name. I thought every third Swedish dude and his uncle were named Johan anyway. Or Anders. But dude it's hard to call somebody something for several years and then one day have to start calling them something else. Just like half the people here still called me Whitenoise until they realized it was easier just to type GG. But anyway I'll have to come up with a special nickname for you then becauae I'm not gonna call you Sheol, no offense but that's stupid. I'll think it over and get back to you. So dude, what's the reason? Are you an undercover secret agent for the Swedish Foreign Service and you're worried word wil get back to Ulf that you're giving away classified state secrets on the metal forum? Or is it that you just don't want anyone in real life to know you secretly listen to pop music? Silly illiterate old goats need to know! NP: Overkill - Scorched 2023

Kingdoms Disdained, I find that the riffs lack clarity, audibility. When I listen to this album, I hear a magma of guitars where I have difficulty perceiving the variations of notes. Until now, I confess, I always listened to it in MP3, which is not the best quality in audio files. I will try a FLAC version with good material to see if my opinion changes. So... Morbid Angel - Kingdoms Disdained (2017) Ok, I revise my opinion on this album that I listen to in FLAC format on a Fiio M11s and a BeyerDynamics DT-770 PRO 32 Ohms wired headphones. The sound is more voluminous, more spatialized and the riffs are finally more audible. Massacra - Enjoy the Violence (1991) A little jingoism can't hurt, can it? 😁 Napalm Death - Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism (2020) Seance - Salt Rubbed Eyes (1993)

Massacre-From Beyond (1991)

Obituary - Slowly We Rot

Motorhead - Orgasmatron

Man there's a lot of music I've never heard (of) this year. Here's my Top 21 list (why 21? Because why not?) 1. GGGOLDDD - This shame should not be mine Easily the best album of the year. Emotional, cathartic and empowering. This isn't really metal, but there's certainly heavy sections. I think this would appeal to the likes of @markm and.... 🤷‍♂️ 2. Jordfäst - Av stoft Just like previous album, Av Stoft is a fantastic journey through hardships and torment via the vehicle of black metal. Jordfäst play folk metal in the very essence of the word; recalling a 18-19th century layer of working class toil on their music and lyrics, without using accordians or folk songs. The perspective is always the worker, looking up at the unjust rulers and the unjust sky. 3. Saints n Sinners - Rise of the alchemist When I first heard this in march it was clear that this was gonna stay with me for a long time. The greatest power/heavy metal album of the year comes from.... fucking Turkey? Yep, with incredibly catchy riffs and choruses and a singer evoking Bruce Dickinson without the needless higher register wailings, SnS is fucking phenomenal and I can't wait to see where they go next. 4. Erzfeynd - Muspilli / Behaft bekert / Wyrm / Split The lone German has had an incredibly productive year and while most material was written last year, 2022 saw the literal ketchup effect of no less than 4 EP:s/splits, and they all rule. This is by far my favourite discovery of the pandemic years and I can't recommend him enough. 5. Misthyrming - Með hamri It's Misthyrming, you know it rules! 6. Besna - Zverstva A hidden Slovakian gem of atmospheric black metal coupled with hints of post-metal. A really wonderful treat, and a band that I think will break big with their next album, similar to what happened to Gaerea. You heard it here first. 7. Ultra Silvam - The Sanctity of Death Just as viciously sharp as The Spearwound Salvation, but with slightly more refined song writing. The chaotic feeling of wheels coming of is intact though! 8. Venus Principle - Stand in your light A mellow, rocking, beutiful album featuring ex-members of Crippled Black Phoenix, with paired male and female vocals. 9. Tchornobog/Abyssal - Split Tchornobog (and all Markov Soroka's bands) have quickly become one of my favourite entities of dark, abyssmal churnings and the split did not only not disspoint, but also introduced me to U.K.'s Abyssal. Both bands deliver 20+ min songs that both wreck minds and corrupts spirits. 10. Absent in Body - Plague God A honest to god super-group that actually delivers. Featuring current or former members of Amenra, Neurosis and Sepultura AIB's main strength is the atmosphere of dark corruption in the music and the absolutley filthy vocals of Colin van Eeckhout (I think). I would also like to highlight the excellent lyrics who also has a very distinct and rhythmic pacing to them. The lyrics could work just as well as spoken word-poetry. 11. Cult of Luna - The Long Road North The undefeated kings of posthardcore/metal. The Long Road North is like the perfect blending of Vertikal and A Dawn to Fear; futuristicly cold and arboreally hostile, while also infinitely beautiful. 12. An abstract illusion - Woe A modern take on death metal with breakdowns, synths, but without falling into the trappings of death/metalcore or djent. 13. Mortuus - Diablerie The true forgotten gem of 2022 black metal. I don't think I've seen this on any AOTY list. This is mid-paced orthodox black metal with a great balance between atmosphere and agression. Topnotch stuff. 14. Egregore - The Word of his law American death metal with a very out-there approach. It's like listening to a round metal cube forcing itself into a square wodden hole. 15. Moonlight Sorcery - Nightwind: The Conqueror from the Stars These Finns surprise-dropped this EP towards the end of the year and just like "Piercing..." there are fleet-footed black metal with a huge dose of 80's shred guitar and tons of charm. Standout track is definitely "Constellations". 16. Shaam Larein - Sticka en kniv i världen The only doomrock band on the list, so you know they must be great! Has a bit of the occult rock flair but packs a lot more attitude and brassknuckles than your usual Devil's Blood-clone. Great, soulful vocals from Shaam too. 17. Kvaen - The Great Below You know this one. The Funeral Pyre set the meloblack scene ablaze two years ago and it's no surprsie The Great Below continues with equal prowess. 18. Kuggur - حصاد ضَوْءٌ النُّجُوم An electronic, ambient album by former Sólstafir drummer Gummi, musing on the artistic similarities between Icelandic and Middle eastern folkmusic. The result is beautiful. 19. Det Eviga Leendet - Reverence Swedish black metal band with Jacob from Mare Cognitum on vocals. A tempered iron gauntlet weilding a spiked flail to your temple, over and over. Hints of dissonant chords keep you on your toes, but you're mainly here for the beating. 20. Deathspell omega - The Long Defeat The most accessible and catchy album by the Frenchies, with some wellsuited guest vocals from M and Arioch. unfortunatly shithead Aspa is still there. 21. Moonlight Sorcery - Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity This EP dropped in febuary and it took me well into the summer before I discovered it. Glad I did though since it's a very, very fun EP. Finnish black metal with extra everything.

I guess I'm up...I'll get the write ups done later...maybe...but for now* Oh...and these aren't ranked, just in loosely alphabetical order *List subject to change depending on the day of the week Top Albums Ancient Death - Sacred Vessel (Death) Blood Chalice - The Blasphemous Psalms of Cannibalism (black/death) Blutumhang - Moonchants to Eternus (black) Concilivm - A Monument in Darkness (death) Ch'ahom - Excavation (black/death) Dolchstoss - War Is Eternal (black) Damnation Lust - Lords of Evil Power (Black/death) Frozen Graves - An Age of Emptiness (black) Fellwinter - Night of the Blood (black) Glemsel - Forfader (black) Gauntlet Ring - Tyrannical Bloodlust (black) Hyngwar - Eternal Glory (black) Innumerable Forms - Philosophical Collapse (Death/Doom) Nither - Cast in Dark Grandeur (black) Necrolatría - Where Light Has No Domain (black) Pâlefroid - S/T (black) Prehistoric War Cult - Under the Sign of the Red Moon (black/death) Phobophilic - Enveloping Absurdity (death) Rotten Tomb - Visions of a Dismal Fate (death) Skare - S/T (black) Serpentfyre - Baptism of Shadows (black) Suppression - The Sorrow of Soul Through Flesh (death) Sadistic - Rotting Eternal (death) Satan's Blade - Curse of the Blade (heavy) Tension - Decay (heavy) Vorgfang - Skammens stein (black) Vultyrium - S/T (black) Walghinge - Primordiaal verlangen (black) Whirlwind - 1714 (Heavy) Warhawk - Pray for War (Heavy Metal) Honorable mentions Blasphematory - The Lower Catacombs (death) Nocturnal Triumph - S/T (black) Total Maniac - S/T (Heavy/Speed Metal/Punk) Triangulum - Victory in Death (Black) Wampyrinacht - Night of the Desecration (black)

Got invited to my nieces school awards last night, she was up for a few awards which we were all proud of but the highlight of the night for me was the musical interludes. I'll give the first kid credit, I'm not an Ed Sheeran fan but the kid singing gave it her all and it sounded okay. The second song was some other pop song I didn't know. But the third song just before the end of the night was brilliant. The lights went down and in the shadows we could see a 15-16 year old kid with long hair stepping up to the mic, 3 other musos with their instruments behind him. Into the mic the young guy mildly says, "This one's for Chuck, gone too soon". I read earlier in the day that the previous day was the anniversary of Chuck Schuldiner's death, but I really didn't think much of the kid's comments. The the lights came up covering the stage in a blood red colour, the kid put up the horns and the band broke into Pull The Plug. The kids did a darn good job but the look on some of the parents and carers faces in the audience not expecting some loud death metal song from school concert was absolutely fucking priceless. Kudos to the teachers for letting the kids express themselves with the music they wanted, but I'll still never forget the look on some peoples faces.

Metallica - Ride the Lightning (1984) Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness (1989) Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss (1990)

Sodom - Persecution Mania (1987) Christ Passion ! 😍🤘🏻

The horns up sign is perfect for acknowledging all this stuff. It shows solidarity. Thumbs up would be for an asshole. I don't know what "ideal" is for childhood, but my run was fairly smooth. I did have a brother that died (as a baby) when I was 3. Did not affect me because I was too young, but my parents have carried it all their lives. My dad tried to say something once a few years ago, like some kind of weird apology "sorry I was not there more" which left me perplexed. "But, dad, you were home at 5pm for dinner every day and were available whenever I needed something....what are you talking about?" So, geez, even good people don't think they did a good job. My mum is pretty crazy now, but was fantastic and supportive when I was growing up. My brother (not the dead one, one that followed) was a different story. He ran away from home at about 15. But everyone's all good now. He has come out the other side and I'm prouder of him than anyone else I've known. Hmm. So maybe it wasn't ideal. Every family has its dramas. Just glad it is resolved now. You don't get a second chance and shouldn't take any of the wins for granted.

Onslaught - The Force (1986) Death - Human (1991) Judas Priest - Painkiller (1990)

There's no need to introduce the album, is there? Ride the Lightning, I discovered it in 1986, a few months before Master of Puppets was released. I was in high school. A friend of mine came up to me and handed me his headphones, saying: listen to this, you'll be amazed! I hear the introduction of Fight Fire with Fire and all of a sudden this big riff comes in before Lars' drums kick in. Indeed: I was hallucinating! So much so that today, 36 years later, I still love Thrash Metal. I haven't listened to Metallica for years (um... 1991?) but it's a style that gave me a lot of pleasure and without which I probably wouldn't listen to Metal nowadays. The musical style, AND this album. Note: the same day, I ran to my record store to get "Ride". I have the record with the green cover

Binging some Bathory today... The Return Under The Sign Of The Black Mark NP: Blood Fire Death

Enslaved - Below the Lights Enslaved - Monumension

Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky - 30th anniversary of this classic, so why not.

After much debating and lots of procrastination, I've finally settled on my top 30 albums of 2021. As usual, last year was ridiculously strong, so strong that I'm honestly surprised some albums didn't make the cut. Anyway, here goes: 30. CULT OF LUNA - The Raging River Red Crk. CoL was kind enough to grace us with a palatte cleanser before unleashing a full-length in... 2 weeks. While slightly uneven, opener Three Bridges more than makes up for the price of admission. 29. HÄXKAPELL – Eldhymner Nordvis. A stunning debut album by Häxkapell. Pulling from the rich soil of Scandinavian black metal and imbuing it with arcane practices of Vinnland, Eldhymner is a must-buy. 28. GOLDEN BLOOD - Serpent Chariot Self-released. This is not the last time you'll find Austrian tour de Force Erech Leleth on this list, this time it's with heavy/black/punk metal hybrid Golden Blood. A ridiculously entertaining and catchy album! 27. PAN-AMERIKAN NATIVE FRONT - Little Turtle's War Death Kvlt Production. The rightous fury and passion on this, and indeed all PANF releases, are magnificent and really what gives this band the edge over many US bm-bands. 26. VINTERKRIG - Härskare över stjärnorna och mina drömmar Graveless Souls Records. An obscured and forgotten gem of 90s melodic black metal from Sweden, lovingly unearthed by GSR. The missing link between Gates of Ishtar, Dawn and perhaps Dissection, with some dashes of early Limbonic Art. If you haven't LISTEN TO THIS! I would love for this to get the vinyl treatment in the future... *Wink wink* 25. SPECTRAL LORE – Ετερόφωτος I, Voidhanger Ayloss continues to bend and shape the confines of what loosely is called atmospheric black metal into all manner of twisted forms, and I'm all here for it. 24. ANCIENT MASTERY - The Chosen One Death Kvlt Production See, I told you Erech Leleth would return. This is probably his most popular band, and for good reason. AM mixes pummeling black metal, atmoshperic passages and triumphantly tooting brass-sections, all wrapped up in straight-up nerd shit! 23. THE NIGHT ETERNAL - Moonlit Cross Ván. A previously unknown band for me, The Night Eternal plays heavy metal with a wide stance and tight pants, without forgetting to add the dark streak. 22. NOVAE MILITAE - Topheth Sentient Ruin Speaking of dark streak, Novae Militae is all dark, no streak, no light, only death. Music to get lost in. 21. LLNN - Unmaker Pelagic These Danes have managed to make one of the heaviest albums without actually being metal. Their blend of Godflesh, Author & Punisher and pissed off post-hardcore is mesmerizing. Like staring into that famous head-shaped hole Trent Reznor talked about. 20. HIPPOTRAKTOR - Meridian Pelagic Pelagic again, that label knows how to find interesting bands. Hippotraktor is alternating between beautiful postrock passages to brick-heavy riffs that are probably the closest I'll come to listen to djent. 22. BLODTÅR - Blodtår Nordvis The best Scandinavian folk-infused black metal since Thyrfing? Absolutely. Carl MUST record a full-length. Now. Just listen to Svartsejd, you won't regret it! 18. THE SUNS JOURNEY THROUGH THE NIGHT - Demo II Self released Building upon his latest full-length Demo II sees No One further fine-tune his craft. Fantastic black metal alternating between raw buzzings, cosmic atmoshperics and inner turmoil. 17. ESCUMERGAMËNT - ...ni degu fazentz escumergament e mesorga... Avantgarde Escumergamënt gives me the same feeling of mystery as when I first heard Bathory and was trying to figure out what the hell was going on. No other similarities though. Way too many have slept on this album. 16. SAIDAN - Jigoku: Spiraling Chasms Of The Blackest Hell Obscurant Visions Much hated, but I still can't get over how engaging and catchy Jigoku is. 15. ANCIENT MASTERY - Across the mountains of Drämmerskoll Death Kvlt Production Oh look, it's Erech Leleth again, here to steal all your girlfriends! 14. MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY - Biolume Part 2 - The Golden Orb I, Voidhanger Dis Pater is just as much a musical chameleon as Ayloss and that's probably why I always tend to get them and Jacob Buczarski mixed up together. Biolume pt 2 is a sharp change from pt 1, much more insistent on the clean vocals and a very strong melodic heavy metal vibe, only filtered through black metal sensibilities. This is the kind of album you can return to and find new details for years. 13. NESTOR - Kids In a Ghost Town Nestor Music Group Straight out of nowhere, Nestor dropped like a bomb in my lap and they haven't left my car stereo ever since. Truly fun and catchy 80's heavy metal with a top-notch singer and tasteful keys and guitar-licks. Amazing! 12. FERRITERIUM – Calvaire Epicureal Still fucking bummed that I forgot to order this fantastic riff-machine of an album. If anyone want's to sell their copy, hit me up! 11. WHOREDOM RIFE - Winds of Wrath Terratur Possessions WR continues to dominate the Norwegian black metal scene together with Djevel, this being perhaps their most curated and well-balanced album. 10. 1914 - Where Fear And Weapons Meet. Napalm Records. The Blind Leading the Blind socked me in the jaw and sneaked up as my #1 album of 2018, so this follow-up had A LOT to prove! And as you can see by the placement, 1914 didn't quite live up to the pressure, but that is in part due to the VERY stiff competition this year. All in all, this album is really, really good, make no mistake. 9. MARE COGNITUM - Solar Paroxysm. I, Voidhanger. I've waxed poetically about this album numerous times before but in short it's a fantastic and mesmerizing journey across the five tracks (clocking in at a total of 56 min). Rooted in atmospheric black metal, Jacob Buczarski travels from the rich soil of Earthy black metal riffs, out into spacious synthscapes and the scorching, blast-beat filled surface of our sun. Just listen to Luminous Accretion and feel your soul expand. 8. CRADLE OF FILTH - Existance is Futile. Nuclear Blast. In a way it's a thing of beauty, as well as poetic justice, that Cradle of Filth releases one of their best albums 30 years into their career. For all the scorn and ridicule Dani Filth and gang have endured (including past me), it's nice to see that sticking to your guns and trusting your vision pays off if you know what the fuck you're doing. Existance is Futile is a fantastic testamet to this credo, melodic, riff-driven, and with tasteful vocals and lyrics. If you, like me, lost touch with the Filth years ago, here's your chance to make it right. 7. ANCIENT WISDOM - A celebration in honor of Death. Avantgarde. Words can't express how happy I am to finally hear a new Ancient Wisdom album (the one-man Swedish doom/black band, accept no American substitutes!!). Vargher may work slowly, but by Satan it's worth it when he conjures up songs like Breaking the Circle of Life and Those Who Do Not Exist. 6. STORMKEEP - Tales of Othertime. Ván Records. I was not too impressed by Stormkeep's first EP Galdrum, so imagine my surprise when The Serpents Stone dropped and it was 100% everything I needed in my life at that time. Super-symphonic black metal that is thiiiiis close to being camp, but manages to balance on that razor's edge. 5. SPECTRAL WOUND - A Diabolic Thirst. Profound Lore. As soon as I heard "Frigid and Spellbound" I knew this was gonna be a heavy contender for AOTY. What I didn't know was just how ridiculously fierce the competition would be. Any other year and Spectral Wound would've taken the crown. 4. NINKHARSAG - Dreadmarch of Solemn Gods. Vendetta. I had my eye on these brits since the "Discipline Through Black Sorcery" single and Dreadmarch of Solemn Gods did not disappoint. Melodic black metal that is as surgically precise as it is wildly headbangable. 3. ZORNHEYM - The Zornheim Sleep Experiment. Noble Demon. For some godforsaken reason it took me almost into October before I bothered listening to the sophomore album from Zornheym. I don't know why, since "Where Hatred Dwells and Darkness Reigns" was a sleeper favourite of 2017. Well, I fixed that with prejudice. If Spotify Wrapped was actually correct it would've shown "Slumber Comes in Time" and "Keep The Devil Away" to be my most listened songs of 2021. No contest. This is the finest symphonic death metal since... well, the last album. Insanely catchy, with a ton of details in the riffs and orchestra arrangements, not to mention a truly impressive vocal performance from Bendler. 2. MALAKHIM - Theion. Iron Bonehead. This album came out in January so you'd think it would run the risk of being forgotten over the course of the year. Well, not if you are Malakhim and you know how to harness the fire of black metal and forge it into a barbwire cudgel to bash your fucking head in. That'll leave an impression. Like Whoredom Rife and Stormkeep this is an album where every aspect from packaging, cover art, calligraphy to individual drawings weaves into a perfect whole. 1. ARCHSPIRE - Bleed the Future. Seasons of Mist. The undisputed king of 2021. For every single Archspire released I grew more and more impressed until it all culminated with the release of Bleed the Future. What's amazing is not the incredibly technical skills of each individual musician or that they found a verbose freak in Oli Peters that could match them with his vocals, but that Archspire writes songs that do not compromise on brutality, technicality OR catchiness and tasteful composition.

Those of us veterans of the trade have a long story of our trip through the metalsphere to 2021. I'd love to hear any of the posters journey, I know you have one....Everybody's got a story, don't they? Here's mine in a nutshell.... I’ve been discussing, debating and generally bullshitting with all of the metal-fi transplants for years and I’d like to say here it’s been my great pleasure coming to these forums, commiserating with the friendly, intelligent group here on the metal forum. Thank you for the work cultivating this forum! Like the GG, I find the present era a playground for fans of heavy music but, I obviously come from a different perspective. What I love is the diversity of metal. I don’t really care about genres, it’s just soundwaves hitting my ears. In fact, I'll grab oddball albums that I probably wouldn't listen to in their entirety very often just to add some texture to my playlists. Shit, now that I think of it, I think I'll grab that Helloween album I was crapping on earlier in the year for some goofy fun. Or some eccentric prog. Shoot, I'll throw on some over the top symphonic horror like Epica-fuck it-that girl can sing her ass off. In the beginning.... My story is really of a guy who got hooked into rock and metal in my high school years in the 80’s surrounded by modern rock kids and had few peers that loved metal and then drifted away in the 90’s when thrash and hair metal ran their course and alt metal became redundant. Years later, sick of hearing Creed and Limp Bizkit on the radio, I realized I still liked to rawk and returned to the pursuit of new music in the digital age in the early 2000’s. I remember getting on Stonerrock.com back in 2002 or thereabouts and finding Chad Bowar who was the editor for About.com’s heavy metal page. Every month they’d post their best albums of the month. Back then it was a lot of stoner metal (Fu and Magnet-I'll never forget those binges we had together), doom and post metal and new discoveries every month. Albums like Leviathan, Dopethrone, Ghost Reveries, The Illusion of Motion, Oceanic, Surrounded by Thieves and Through Silver and Blood led me to open the Pandora's box of extreme metal. Sure, a lot of it was mainstream as it comes, at least in extreme metal. There was Opeth and Enslaved and prog through the lens of death and black metal, post metal (and post everything else, really), power metal, gothic, beauty and the beast symphonic tripe, metal adjacent, the explosion of female fronted wicca stoner doom, At-Dark-Amon Amarth-Tranquility-of the gates melo-overdone-deth, meloblack, atmo-never-eding-black, atmospheric/folk/Pegan/viking everything, math metal, metallic hardcore, entombedcore, OSDM, hard doom, blackened sludge (can I get a hell's yeah Lord Mantis), second wave Nordic black, brutal technical death (meaning shit like Nile but not techdeth if you please), Sunn0))) inspired hordes of drone, avante-weird-fuckery, DSO and the dissonance clones……a never ending sea of Mary Poppins wonderland for the damned. But time waits for no one and the devil will have your soul.... Jump forward to 2012, my collection outstripped my Ipod’s capacity and I decided to look into audio solutions. So, I began putting a little stereo and dedicated headphone set-up. I joined Head-Fi’s metal forum where I got schooled in fidelity, metal, dynamic range and compression. One of the poster's, Alex was passionate about demanding quality audio recording in metal with dynamic range and he founded Metal-Fi. Cards on the table.... So there lies my biases, a wide range of styles that include plenty of mainstream bands along with extreme metal and experimental, genre-shaping-shifting artists as well as adjacent metal. Full stop, I like music that’s well recorded and sounds good. Now, along the way to audio paradise, The Goat General formerly Whitenoise came in and shook things up with his insistence on listening to raw, underground music. He ushered in a new era at M-F and along came many of the ne'er do wells we have here now, all of whom found a voice and an audience-at least in me. I’m a big fan of all you guys. These guys have been great for my listening as I’ve enjoyed peppering my collection with more underground works. But as the more progressive and diverse listenership at Metal-Fi drifted elsewhere, I feel an obligation to stand my ground and advocate for well recorded good sounding music with dynamic range. The Absolute Sound....IMHO there doesn’t have to be a divide between raw and production values. Music can have an edge and be well recorded. And it’s happening with more extreme cavernous or at least intentionally raw or brutal---fill in the blank-sounding bands-looking at you Blood Incantation and Cerebral Rot-well done boys-DR: 12-thank you very much! Truth-I like plenty of raw music these days, but wouldn’t want to make a steady diet of it anymore than I would with post progressive sludge. Naturally, as a guy who gravitates to more then more popular (ahem, vetted) releases, I have a few minor quibbles with the low-fi-we-like-raw-fisting crowd. First, it's great live. I’d go back to MDF in a heartbeat. The visceral thrill of brutal DM should be heard live. But....oh you know there has to be a but.....with all of the self-released material, I feel like many of these artists would benefit from collaboration-working with additional ears giving constructive criticism and input. Like, uh, dude that sucks. Dead used to post about the show circuit and studio system that he was involved with in OZ. And I think he has some legitimate points, being that back in the day bands would spend time cutting their teeth in clubs working to get recording contracts. They'd really have to hone their craft, then would be and forced to collaborate, compromise, edit and ultimately produce better material. Today, left to their own devices, we find some brilliant work but often we find artists doubling down on their excesses and would benefit from some serious proofing. To be sure, some of those excesses are fantastic. There's something to be said about making strong artistic choices and sticking to your guns. I get that. And they have charm. But I find some of it (certainly not all), repetitive, samey, lacking in varied musical ideas, devoid of distinctive, memorable songwriting -frankly some of it is just uninspiring. Yet there are gems to be found which is why I keep one eye open for the. It's prolly what keeps most of us in the game. Keep 'em coming! Today-I have to admit, after several years of exposing myself to the land of the goat, my biases are actually moving away from slick modern production which is a completely different animal than production values and dynamic range. Two separate things-heavy/raw, visceral completely separate from SQ, fidelity, etc. I think some of the guys who listen to predominantly raw material, get skewed and begin thinking that-only raw or low-fi recording techniques can do justice to metal. And, it’s all good. It’s simply a preference. But let’s face it, humans are tribal. We have an instinct to protect and defend what we perceive as ours against outsider threats. This is mine and that is yours. Me, I don’t have any issues mixing peanut butter with chocolate. Or for that matter, eating cotton candy. After all, terms like poser and hipster are just words meant to trivialize other kinds of kinds of culture you don't like. But they don't add much to the conversation. So coming full circle, I've grown to love a lot of rougher, dungeon-y, putrid sounding filth. Some people just want the most brutal, primitive sounding material that they can find. I’ll take a small percentage-it does have a place. My argument is to not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Now, where's my new copy of Deafheaven.

KING DIAMOND - Fatal Portrait MERCYFUL FATE - Don't Break The Oath

Arckanum - Kostogher, Sweden, 1997 masterpiece

I'm psyched, my recording gear showed up today

Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal

Deicide - Once Upon The Cross

I seem to be dipping in and out of the forum a bit recently due to family/personal issues mostly. Hope to be back more when things are more stable and my mind is in a better place. You lot are the best ❤️

My son is in his first Karate class tonight. I’m very excited. I hope he loves it. And ‘gets’ it.

Some artwork that I have been doing recently. and me!

And here's some of my personal (non-illustration) work from the last several years. Episteme: Absence: Mother: The Farmer: Gabriel: Mary:

Welcome to the forum. We have a lot of sections and a lot of threads; it can take a bit of work to get your bearings. Hopefully this helps. The busiest thread is usually "What Are You Listening To?" There are several other threads in the General Chat and Forum Games sections that see a decent amount of activity. To see newest posts first and get a sense of where the action is, select All Activity from the Activity tab, either near the top of the screen (for desktop) or in the drop-down menu (for mobile users). Introduce yourself if you'd like. Start a thread in our intro section and tell us a bit about yourself. Don't use this section for promotion; it's just for personal introductions. Promotion in the promo section only. We keep promotion separate from our discussion threads. If you want to share your band or any other project, start a thread about it in Promote Yourself. This is the catch-all section for anything that you're involved with - music, artwork, videos, your playthroughs, your review channel, your book/game/survey, etc. This also goes for anything you're sharing for a friend, or getting paid to flog, or anything asking people to click through to another site. Keep it in this section. Promotion elsewhere is treated as spam; it'll be deleted and you might get banned. Looking for a band to join? Looking for a band member? Post in one of these sections to share a bit about your project and what you're looking for. You can post your own music here, within reason. Don't turn it into a promo thread. No duplicate threads, no topic bumping. Label your links. Want to join the discussion? Feel free to jump into our ongoing threads and share your favorites, or your current listening, or whatever else is relevant. YouTube and Bandcamp links are fine, but please label your video links with the artist and song or album title so we have something to refer to. Unlabeled and broken links are subject to removal. No file sharing/download links. This should go without saying. If you need help with anything, you're welcome to contact the moderator staff. Hope you enjoy your stay.