1) the chasm - farseeing the paranormal abysm
2) nokturnal mortum - voice of steel
3) while heaven wept - vast oceans lachrymose
4) varathron - stygian forces of scorn
5) altar of oblivion - sinews of anguish
6) griftegard - solemn . sacred . severe
7) procession - the cult of disease
8) absu - absu
9) bulldozer - unexpected fate
10) goreaphobia - mortal repulsion
i probably consider FARSEEING their most overrated album, but it's still great, and what else is there from 2009 that offers a more immersive and holistic experience? i prefer the arcane, emotionally charged wildness of their earlier material; they've become more calculated, repetitive and atmosphere-centric over the years and it feels like they're on autopilot at times. but this is still such a vivid journey, littered with great ideas.
nokturnal mortum's best record pushes it close, bursting with creativity itself, but it doesn't have a climactic song like 'the mission / arrival...' to push it over the edge. the while heaven wept is easily my favourite of theirs and i listen to it a lot, but it's just a big dumb glorious nonsense (and needs to be approached as such - the fates warning comparisons, while superficially very accurate, do it no favors lol) that constantly attempts to out-epic itself and mostly succeeds. not sure i respect it enough to have it any higher but it's super satisfying. the varathron is my favourite of theirs that i've heard, more of a melodeath/meloblack album but an excellent one.
then there's a trio of quality doom records, each quite different from the other. the AoO vocalist needs to stick to the great fierce singing and give up on the weak falsetto but musically it's really cool, the griftegard doesn't exactly live up to the 10/10 i gave their cover in the mixtape game but it's been growing on me a lot, 'the funeral of an age' by procession is probably my favourite tune of the year along with the aforementioned closer on FARSEEING. and then there's three cool ass albums by bands who've been knocking around a long time - particularly pleased to see bulldozer had such a fun comeback record, that one wasn't really on my radar at all before this round.
lots of stuff i could give honourable mentions to, but this is probably my weakest list to date as it is. since phylactery will probably ask me about BM/DM stuff, i like the excoriate, beherit, sammath, ketzer (a better d666 album than DEFIANCE) and blut aus nord quite a lot. if the BaN lived up to that opening riff it'd be my number 1, man. the cruciamentum's pretty cool. probably some other stuff i'm forgetting.
the countdown shall begin henceforthwithish