2015's Final Word
After posting my year-end list in mid-December, the two weeks following flooded me with more and more indulgences in the way of 2015 albums that it was solidified in my mind that I'd have to do a post-year-end list. Not only did I feel slight regret - or more like a feeling of laziness for not taking more time to elaborate and screen things more - but I noticed a few glaring omissions that had been there (even to my knowledge) all year. I also noticed a few on the list that should have been in BOLD with an editor's blurb following their excellent asses like the others that were, but I did overdo it last year. I was so busy keeping up with the unfathomable quantity of releases in metal and related genres (and my favorite choices of non-metal styles) that my knowledge and passion was diminished by what felt like quantity-overload.
I should have praised Ghost much higher, for instance. Their penchant for rockstarish pomp and simultaneous, aching restraint is not only helping preserve the spirit of where dark, heavy music came from, I believe it's helping to SAVE it for this generation. (The "it's not extreme enough" boneheads need to do their homework, by the way. Fuck off. If all you like are growls and blasts, you're not a full-fledged metalhead. End of story.) Also, I should have taken more time on the Denner/Shermann EP. I mean, C'mon...the guys backed up my favorite metal performer of all time for YEARS! That's also why I probably didn't have enough time to feel it as much as I could have, King wasn't present, and it feels weird to me hearing that axe-duo without the eerie, charismatic vocals of The Lord Of Demonic Storytelling. It would take me sitting down with intent to see past that and find the magic that I'm sure truly is there. Similarly, I should have put Satan's Host's obviously stellar "Pre-Dating God" double-album in bold and said more. The very METAL contemporary Queensryche that we have nowadays and I should have also spent more time together last year. But I just listed the album and put some "!!!"s after it, because I listened a few times and knew it was great, but not HOW great it most-likely is. There's all kinds of shit like this in my mind about 2015 and my monolithic listing. I SWAMPED myself, okay?!
2016 will be different in that respect, as I will be my usual obsessed self, but one to back off a bit on the strangers and give a bit more love to the chosen hotshots. The list - and this one - consist of what I stated in the first one; metal worth spinning, with top-shelvers ("!!!"), top-shelf ELITES (in BOLD and with a blurb), and ones very near top-shelf status (indicated with a "?"), and all the others just being definitely worth a spin (in other words, pre-screened as worthy by me).
So, if that was my method, as someone who thinks being a dickhead within a scene that you adore is fucking heresy in a time like this - a time where mall "metal" dog shit it being praised (in waaaay overstated ways) as metal gold - then the abundance was only limited by the amount of time I put into it. And, as you can see from the other list; I put in a LOT of time. But, my enjoyment and deep analysis for the extraordinary did suffer this past year.
Now that that's all out of the way, here's my final word in the way of listing for 2015. Whoever feels that I somehow missed something or underdid it...go die. Please. All others, ENJOY! Happy New Year!
*Mad Architect - Hang High √!!!
[That fucking Snowy Shaw!]
*Abysmal Lord - Disciples of the Inferno√?
*Azalea - Gone√
*Crom Dubh - Heimweh √!!!
*Furze - Baphomet Wade√
*Angel 7 - The Fall Of The Golden Calf√
*Natanas - Xylophar√!!!
*Voodus - NightQueen [E.P.]√
*Desolate - Imperator Of Flames√
* Lauxnos - The Last Pier√
*Cross Vault - The All-Consuming√?
*Jarnvidr - Närwarelse√
*Crocell - Fuego Negro √!!!
[Deep, dark, black metal with passion and conviction.]
*Apricity - Procession √!!!
*Kayra – Demo√?
*Moros - Life Assisted Suicide√?
*Blasphemous Overlord - Frozen Lake Of A Thousand Souls√
*Megadeth - The Threat Is Surreal √
*Morphinist - Fetish Support√!!!
*Daarlig Stemning - Jeg Elsker Beton√
*Plague Wyrm - Of Magick and the Sword√
**Bone Gnawer - Cannibal Crematorium√!!!
*Nuclear Assault - Pounder [EP]√
*Korriban - Gloom Walkers√
*Sirenia - The Seventh Life Path√
*Fifth To Infinity - Omnipotent Transdimensional Soulfire√?
*Temnohor - Krv A Pot Malých Karpát√
*Invidus - Rays of a Black Sun√?
*Dr. Shrinker - Contorted Dioramic Palette√!!!
[Being that this underground-dweller of the death metal scene was literally right there during MY time of extremity-stretching as a young, full-fledged metal kid; I had heard the name. But from newer friends nowadays that listen to them, as well as their obvious desire to be heard again - I now know of the insanity and murderous depravity of this unique and violent band of experts. Fans of the (slightly) more well-known Ripping Corpse take note.]
*Kuldrin - Obsidian Caverns (EP)√
*Vonülfsrëich - Spell Of Thunder (EP)√
*Atanas - II (EP)√
*Dark Slumber - Dead Inside√
*Caverne - Aux Frontières Du Monde√
*Wallachia - Carpathia Symphonia (EP)√!!!
*Azazel - Witches Deny Holy Trinity√
*Beskyd - Never To Return√
*Phobonoid - S/T√
*Ashen Horde - Feral EP√
*Antarcht - s/t [demo]√
*Cerbrium - When I Am Dead√
* Funeral Art - La Belleza Oculta√
*Dendera – Pillars of Creation√?
*Brightly Painted Corpses - Collapsing Wormholes√?
*Yohualli - S/T (EP)√
*Degial - Savage Mutiny√
*Deliverance Lost - Tears of White Raven√?
*Deliverance Lost - Death of White Raven√?
*Ditheist - Eternity Of Nothingness√
*Valgaldr - Østenfor Sol√?
*Fimbulvinter - Начертаны Резы Древних Заклятий√
*Aminion - The Embodiment Of Blasphemy√!!!
*Offal - Horrorfiend√
*Luctus Hydra - Brutal Black√
*Pale From Sunlight - S/T [EP]√
*Concubia Nocte - Sekerou Peruna- Kladivom Thora√!!!
*Byrging - Aural Squall√
*1914 - Eschatology Of War√?
*Kvesta - Human Scum [EP]√
*Gardarika - Chthonica √!!!
[This is a like a bit more thrashy and fist-pumping Falconer with less sheen, more love for hooks, and nods to things more common in extreme metal than traditional metal - the tag this outfit would still fit best. It has a lot of personality that is quite unheard of these days.]
*Katachthon - Κήρυξις πολέμου√
*Invidus - Force Fed Karma√?
*Nefast - Discomfort√
*Ether - Hymns Of Failure√!!!
*Grafvitnir - Necrosophia√
*Horrenda - Algea√
*Gravewürm - Doomed To Eternity√
*Signs Of Darkness - The Age Of Decay√?
*Mork – I Sluket Av Myra [ep]√
*Apollyon Mechanicus - 218√
*Sykelig Englen - Hymns Of The Dead√?
*Cornigr - Funereal Harvest [ep]√
*Just Before Dawn - The Dead And Those About To Die [ep]√
*Xpus - Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth√
*Yellow Eyes - Sick With Bloom√!!!
*Sacrament Ov Impurity - All The Colors Of The Dark√
*Triumvir Foul - S/T√?
*Epic Death - Witchcraft√?
*Orcrypt - Mercenaries of Mordor√
*Trial - Vessel√!!!
[Good ol' traditional metal. This dark, anthemic, and well-executed album is full of just that, and done to awe-inspiring results.]
*From The Vastland - Blackhearts [ep]√
*Death Like Mass - Kręte Drogi [ep]√!!!
*Sebastien - Dark Chambers of Deja Vu√
*Morth - Towards The Endless Path√
*Ashen Horde - Nine Plagues√
*Underling - Bloodworship√
*Ömheten - Själv√!!!
*Zgard- Totem√?
*Perverse Homage to the Rotting Divine√
*Kuldrin - Field of Pestilence√
*Ethicist - II√?
*Lifestream - Post Ecstatic Experience√
*Sanguine Relic - Vampyric Will√
*Shroud Of Despondency - The Beast's Desire to Sacrifice√!!!
*Niezgal - Statut√
*Nethermost Majesty - Acuitas (EP)√
[This thing is like a glorious nightmare, empowering, eerie, and akin to conquering an army of demons and taking over their haunted forest to live amongst them and torment weary travelers. Dark forest black metal.]
*Astralhex - Night Witches on the Coast of the Abyss√
*Nostril Caverns - Vague Evolving Patterns√?
*Afogado - Mare Sumit Omnes√
*OldPagan-OgdrunJarhar√
*The Arrival Of Satan - Passion Sodomy Terror√
*Mantle - Entering The Cave√?
*Skygge - Antiqua Ignis√?
*Kormeth - Despond√
*Cyril Lepizzera Group Arianrod - The Garden Of Memories√
*Weeping Silence - Opus IV Oblivion√
*Nekrasov - There Is No Other Way [EP]√!!!
*Obscure Infinity - Perpetual Descending into Nothingness√
*LvxCælis - The Watchers√?