Highlights of the year - 2017 edition

Belphegor - Totenritual
Probably listened to this record the most times this year, because it's simply awesome. Straight death metal with some cool melodies here and there, a killer mix and absolutely insane vocals.



Vampire - With Primeval Force
Speed + Death + Hooks everywhere = win



Temple of Void - Lords of Death
Death with some doom and even more balls. Throughout not just solid but surprisingly very very good, never heard of them before.



other good stuff:
Cut Up - Wherever they may rot
Vallenfyre - Fear those who fear him

Major dissappointment:
Avatarium - Hurricanes and Halos
The Girl With the Raven Mask was such a great record that I was really hyped for this one. But surprisingly it's pure boredom softrock with just very few good moments in between. wtf?
 
Major dissappointment:
Avatarium - Hurricanes and Halos
The Girl With the Raven Mask was such a great record that I was really hyped for this one
have to agree. Both the first album and EP rocked, had almost classic Candlemass vibes to them :kickass: New album's just average at best.
 
Top 10 2017

I have mostly spent this year eating antidepressants and hating life and myself and it has reflected on my music listening in a big way.
Black Anvil has not really made the best album this year but it is the one I have been listening the most to by far and it has been my go to album this year when feeling down so nothing else can really take the top spot for those reasons.
Some albums on here have been big surprises for me like the Bell Witch album which was hyped to the extreme upon release so I checked it out and I really fucking like it.
Firespawn kicked ass when I saw them live this year so they are basically the only Death Metal band I have given a fair share of attention. Same here as with Black Anvil, Immolation or Cannibal Corpse have probably made better albums really but I have just not listened to them enough.

1. Black Anvil - As Was
2. Ofermod - Sol Nox
3. Insulters - Metal Sill Means Danger
4. RAM - Rod
5. Whoredom Rife - Dommedagskvad
6. Firespawn - The Reprobate
7. Urn - The Burning
8. Svartsyn - In Death
9. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
10. Wolves in the throne room - Thrice Woven

Honourable Mentions
These are probably much better than some of the stuff on my list and in time I will give them the attention they deserve but this has simply not been a year for Death Metal for me and I have not listenend to either Immolation or Cannibal Corpse as much as I usually would have done.
Morbid angel and Cavalera Conspiracy makes this list because I was positively surprised by them, especially Cavalera Conspiracy who has managed to make an album that sounds very much like old Sepultura. And Necrowretch are awesome but simply did not make the cut.

Morbid Angel - Kingdoms Disdained
Cavalera Conspiracy - Psychosis
Immolation - Atonement
Cannibal Corpse - Red before black
Necrowretch - Satanic Slavery

Dissapointments
Totenritual is a fine album I guess but I expected alot more from Belphegor after how awesome their last album was. Memoriam is fine music wise I guess but Karl Willetts cannot growl to save his life anymore. He mostly sounds like somebody doing a bad attempt at a vocal cover of what should have been a much better album.

Belphegor - Totenritual
Memoriam - For The Fallen
 
EP
  • Abigor/Nightbringer/Thy Darkened Shade/Mortuus - ANTM
  • Árstíðir lífsins – Heljarkviða
  • Cloud Rat/Disrotted – Split
  • Consummation – Ritual Severance
  • David Bowie – No Plan
  • Eschatos – MÆRE
  • Expulsion – Nightmare Future
  • Howls of Ebb/Khthoniik Cerviiks – With Gangrene Edges/Voiidwarp
  • Kleptokrat – S/T
  • Mastodon – Cold Dark Place
  • Oranssi Pazuzu – Kevät / Värimyrsky
  • Rope Sect - Personae Ingratae
  • Schammasch – The Maldoror Chants: Hermaphrodite
  • Skáphe – Untitled
  • Sutekh Hexen / Hissing – Split
  • Weeping Sores – Weeping Sores

Non-Metal(ish)

  • Big K.R.I.T. - 4eva is a Mighty Long Time
  • Björk - Utopia
  • Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
  • Circa Survive - The Amulet
  • Crystal Fairy - Crystal Fairy
  • Toby Driver - Madonnawhore
  • Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Choir of the Mind
  • Kauan – Kaiho
  • Kenrick Lamar - DAMN.
  • Leprous – Malina
  • Lost Salt Blood Purges & Boring Bathtimes – Yellow Fog Sword
  • Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me
  • Nadia Reid - Preservation
  • Neun Welten - The Sea I’m Diving In
  • Oxbow - Thin Black Duke
  • Planning for Burial - Below the House
  • P.O.S - Chill, dummy
  • Rosalía - Los Ángeles
  • Joan Shelley – Joan Shelley
  • Trepaneringsritualen – Kainskult
  • Tyler, the Creator – Flower Boy
  • Upcdownc - I, Awake
  • Urghun - Somnus Reliquit
  • Steven Wilson – To the Bone
  • Zola Jesus - Okovi

Metal(ish)

  • Amenra - Mass VI
  • Artificial Brain - Infrared Horizon
  • Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
  • Bestia Arcana - Holókauston
  • Blut Aus Nord - Deus Salutis Meæ
  • Botanist - Collective: The Shape of He to Come
  • Cavernlight - As We Cup Our Hands and Drink From the Stream of Our Ache
  • Chaos Moon - Eschaton Mémoire
  • Couch Slut - Contempt
  • Endon - Through the Mirror
  • Full of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy
  • Glassjaw - Material Control
  • Immolation - Atonement
  • Jute Gyte - Oviri
  • King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering
  • Krallice - Go Be Forgotten
  • Loss - Horizonless
  • Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
  • Primitive Man - Caustic
  • Rebirth of Nefast – Tabernaculum
  • The Ruins of Beverast - Exuvia
  • Tchornobog - Tchornobog
  • Venenum - Trance of Death
  • Völur - Ancestors
  • Yellow Eyes – Immersion Trench Reverie

The order continues to be fluid—it all depends on mood—but my favorite four releases this year were probably: Bell Witch, The Ruins of Beverast, Mount Eerie, and Oxbow.
 
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Can't be bothered to start a new thread :kickass:
Obscura's Diluvium is absolutely massive, gonna go down in the annals of tech/prog death metal as one of the pinnacles.
 
Can't be bothered to start a new thread :kickass:
Obscura's Diluvium is absolutely massive, gonna go down in the annals of tech/prog death metal as one of the pinnacles.
I listened to a couple of songs, but there's too much instrumental-wankery going on there for me to really appreciate it.
 
One must distinguish wankery from an actual complex composing and virtuoso performance :kickass: Their time signatures, for example, are out of this world. Drumming and guitar work - flawless. Not your usual "look what I can do" tech death.