HONOURABLE MENTIONS
godless - 1 (Ζωή χαρισάμενη)
the best two songs here were repurposed at least partially from an earlier demo, but every single tune here is at worst a cool and unique curio that reminds me of how i felt listening to, say, !T.O.O.H.! for the first time.
nevaloth – the antagonist
overt DHG/abigor influences.
peste noire – peste noire
medieval melodic franco melancholia, every instrument suffused with pathos and vulnerability? c'mon you know i can't resist this stuff, no matter how sketch.
stilla – till stilla falla
i do think they became more interesting later, but as far as nordic BM throwbacks go this is top tier, mainly because it understands what made the classics tick but generally avoids sounding too much like any of them.
supuration – the cube 3
call this their swansong, since their final album was released in a year not ending in '3' and therefore doesn't count. this one's a one trick pony perhaps, but i've been riding that pony hard and it keeps laying cool eggs with cool genetically modified organisms inside them and that's all i really need from supuration.
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10) acerus – the unreachable salvation
i can put up with some execution issues and the occasional out of place rock riff if it means getting my fix of corchadoterica, no matter the sub-genre. dude just gets me.
9) solstice – death's crown is victory
a legendary band operating at the peak of their powers, and pound for pound good enough to go even higher. there just ain't enough of it.
8) blackdeath – phobos
this is always skirting the edges of the kind of schizo madcap nonsense you'd expect from a german-language album with a greek title by a russian band, but there's a self-awareness and polish that keeps the songs honest, and ultimately this functions almost as more of an anthemic epic than anything else, which is fine by me.
7) in solitude – sister
this isn't the decade-conquering trad album for me that it is for some, probably because i find it more goth-coded than metal and i'm fussy about when that genre works for me, but at the end of the day it stands out not only for its distinctive sound but for the relative sophistication and liveliness of the songwriting, the track-to-track diversity and the ability to write an addictive hook without leaning on it too hard. a very cosy listen that scratches a specific itch.
6) valuatir – exobnos
i know i know, not another long obscure impassioned french BM album with a keen ear for melody. what can i say, i'm nothing without my brand. this isn't the usual tragic meloblack fare, though, instead entering the rather barren pantheon of folk metal that incorporates the former tastefully and organically into the latter. it'd place even higher if it was just a touch more honed.
5) torture chain – mutilating astral entities
this is everything i hoped for from the year-conquering cover art, and i'm happy to go on record calling it not only radigan's strongest release of the year over stone dagger/magic circle, but his coolest LP in general, that i've heard anyway.
4) manierisme – furoria
you can all keep your j-power, and i'll keep my gorgeous drunken “dissociative identity disorder” howling-into-the-void j-avant BM.
3) procession – to reap heavens apart
while this is a deep year for good trad doom, there's only one great record in my book and songwriting mastery is the reason why. the easy confidence with which these chileans build intense songs around a potent emotional core puts most of the genre to shame, and even though they're working within a familiar framework they very rarely settle for a meandering passage or just-another-doom-riff, it's always geared toward the destination and elevated by texture and feeling.
2) christicide – upheaval of the soul
a textbook example of how to incorporate melodic repetition into a purely metal framework, and trusting your songwriting enough to showcase it through crystal clear, densely layered soundscapes instead of defaulting to murky discordant noise as shorthand for the infernal. it's a triumph of momentum, gravitas and sheer aura, and the overall experience is like witnessing a demon acquire consciousness and enlightenment in real time until finally it spreads its wings.
1) satan – life sentence
look, i'm as big of a satan s(a)tan as it gets. i think they've very clearly been one of the most forward-thinking, creative traditional metal bands of this century, and every album contains ideas and songs nobody else would even think to conceptualise let alone pull off. i love them dearly and i'm not going to say this isn't a worthy #1. but... it is only my 4th favourite satan album. it's a little patchy, it doesn't have that many of their highest highs. out of all the years i've (re)done so far, the only other this would've had a shot at #1 in is 2012, but this list is pretty tightly clustered around the 4.0-4.3 range if you want to get incremental about it, with no true all-timers for me (admittedly i haven't spent enough time with most of them to say for sure), so of course i have to default to my boys at the top. besides, the likes of 'another universe', 'incantations', 'time to die' and 'cenotaph' have stood the test of time as undeniable bangers.
!!! I can't believe I said that (I'm such an arsehole haha) ...in my defense I still don't like that album. But to give them credit they bombed back into my good books when I heard Woe to the Vanquished, fucking killer record.
Near-middle aged man yells at cloud etc. Soon to be seen topping my 00s decade list if you can't be arsed looking it up.
