By JCL
We have reached the end of the 2010's, and what a decade it has been, especially for our favorite music genres. The time has come for me to attempt to sum up the greatest, most noteworthy, extraordinary and otherwise interesting albums, that we have seen from 2010 until today. For those wondering where 2019 went on this list, I've already listed my nominations
here. Album-titles highlighted in
Yellow is my pick for that year's best. Sprinkled throughout are what I call "Joker-categories", like "Best Cover-art" and "Best Danish Release", which might not otherwise have made it to this list, but for one reason or another deserves an honorable mention.
Triptykon – Eparistera Daimones
Eparistera Daimones, clocks in at just under 73(!) minutes, 20 of those taken by the closing song alone. I remember when I first listened to opening song
Goetia, that the guitartone felt larger than life, almost comically so. This album is MASSIVE. Of course, given the Celtic Frost-lineage behind Triptykon, and the equally monolithic
Monotheist, I expected little less from these Swiss... well, they could have pulled another
Hip Hop Jugend or Cold Lake(
!) on the world... Thankfully they didn't...
Deathspell Omega – Paracletus
Other than Mgła, it's hard to think of a black metal band receiving more attention than Deathspell Omega. And judging by
Paracletus, it's not hard to understand why. This album is organized chaos in its finest form. Not much more to say than that.
Alcest - Écailles de lune
It's questionable if this French album can be called black metal, but the black influence is undeniable. Equally undeniable is the artistic merit and, dare I say, emotion, of this album. Conceived as a soundtrack from various dreams,
Écailles de Lune does indeed feel very dreamlike. Make sure to notice the vocals: Screaming one moment and then to soft song, almost like a lullaby the next moment.
Worst disappointment: Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra
The symphonic Norwegians, now de-talented from the departure of Mustis and ICS Vortex, gave birth to
Abrahadabra.. I think
enough has been said about this album, I would just like to remind you of it's existence...
Wolves In the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage
If ever black metal could be used to sound warm, magical and filled with wonder,
Celestial Lineage is all those and more. An absolutely majestic album from start to finish, and even the ambient segments feels integrated, as a part of a greater unity... much like I felt while listening to this epic album.
Taake – Noregs Vaapen
By many, including myself, seen as Taake's
Magnum Opus, this album is 46 minutes of no-fucks-given assault on the world and Norway in particular. Still a controversial album, with the divisive banjo-solo in
Myr and the lyrical content of
Orkan, I still cannot help feeling that
this is what black metal is all about.
This is in some way also the "last hurrah" from the Norwegian scene, or at least the old-schoolers. Go ahead, can
you name another Norwegian album since, that is as good, or better than this? I'd like to hear it then.
Best Album artwork:
Worst disappointment:
Gorgoroth - UTSoH '11 + Morbid Angel
Gorgoroth had the bright idea to re-record their old masterpiece
Under the Sign of Hell, but this time they wanted to sound as sterile, impotent, uninterested and uninspired as possible. Gods know they succeeded in
that endeavor... What a fucking letdown after the excellent Q
uantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt. What is it with re-recordings and bands needing to re-invent themselves or a former hit? Morbid Angel tried something similar this year with their much lambasted trainwreck album
Illud Divinum Insanus. Cease, please
.
2012:
Mgła – With Hearts Towards None
2012 was quite a dreary year for black metal. Thankfully Mgła came to the rescue and delivered "With Hearts Towards None", which proved my own first experience with these masters of Polish nihilism, and a dive into their back-catalog. Even better, everything I liked with this album was continued upon with Kriegsmaschine's
Enemy of Man, which I sadly had to cut from this list, but now it's mentioned at least...
Svartidauði – Flesh Cathedral
Svartidauði came, saw, and became the battering ram for the current wave of Icelandic black metal. In my mind, Iceland had always seemed the perfect birthing place for Black Metal with it's unforgiving nature, long winters and culture of solitude, and yet the world had to wait until 2012 to witness this gargantuan effort of Svartidauði before it finally caught on. And what a way to do it. Immediately the album hits you with what can only be described as the sound of Iceland itself plunged deep into an arctic night. This is an album you feel haunting you. So much so that you might just taste the smoke, stale beer and sweat that assisted in the construction of
Flesh Cathedral.
Best Danish Release:
Eldjudnir - Angrboða
2013:
Cult of Fire – मृत्यु का तापसी अनुध्यान (Ascetic
Meditation of Death)
Black Metal has been taken strange places throughout the times, so a band from Czechia digging into Hinduism with this genre as the medium... Well, I still wasn't expecting
that. Nor the Hammond organ or Tibetan chants, yet it at comes together perfectly here. The nature of the tracks is fairly diverse, with the band shifting between more atmospheric song-writing ideas and blasting, more aggressive indulgence, all in the name of Goddess Kali.
Aosoth – IV – An Arrow in Heart
Aosoth matured even further after 2011's
Violence and Variations, and by
IV - An Arrow in Heart, they gave us this masterpiece of dissonant, downtuned and devilish black metal. A big leap in production-quality also helped and the renaissance-style artwork by
Benjamin A. Vierling is just as impeccable as the contents of this album. Whenever I have to make the case that black metal is art, this is an album I resort to, to prove my point.
Vallendusk - Black Clouds Gathering
Another album that blew my expectations on many levels. Hailing from, of all places, Indonesia, Vallendusk weaved not just one, but 3 epic and melodic albums over a few years, each as poetic and grand as the one before. This band is worthy of so much more recognition than they get, and I hope they'll get it soon.
Bölzer – Aura
Probably the most hailed metal EP of the last 10 years, and for good reason. It
IS good and
Entranced by the Wolfshook is a killer song... Goddamn well done for only two people making it all. It's a shame that this duo has trouble translating their great EP's into full-length albums though..
Paysage d'Hiver - Das Tor
An album so cold and merciless that you can feel it, like a winter death-march across a glacier.
The production on this piece is a page straight out of
Transilvanian Hunger, and really manages to sound 20 years older than it really is.
Das Tor doesn't score many points on technicality or even originality, but it's the sheer hypnotic effect that you experience during the multiple repetitions of the simple riffs that seals the deal.
2014:
Woods of Desolation – As the stars
This Australian outfit centered around guitarist D. already struck a tune with me on
Torn Beyond Reason, but early in 2014 they released
As The Stars which blew me away. While some might label this as DSBM, it's a far call from the misanthropic musings from the likes of Xasthur and Lurker of Chalice. The keywords here is
Melancholy. Each lead is performed with an almost light touch, yet providing the listener with such melancholic majesty, to the point it's almost...
comforting. Beautiful, even. This may seem like a manic and almost nonsensical description, yet when people try to describe music that's almost beyond words, I think of this album.
Fen – Carrion Skies
With the level of praise given to Woods of Desolation, it's hard to think anything this year would match it. UK-based Fen damn nearly succeeded with
Carrion Skies, an album that seemed purposely bred for solitary hours spent in misty fields gazing upon landscapes.
Odraza - Esperalem tkane
On the other end of the aesthetic-scale we find Odraza, whose name literally translate into "Disgust", which you will experience here in droves. Yes, we all know
why we clicked on that album, and to the bands credit, it paid off. Much like an old east-bloc concrete high-rise this album is ugly as sin, repulsive and smelly. Yet, there is soul and character: Groovy, full of grit and on the fringes of society, ready for more vodka, cigarettes and stories. It's hard not to like this working-class monstrosity for being so unapologetic.
Diocletian - Gesundrian
Continuing down the avenue of grit and hate, Diocletian gave us their greatest work
Gesundrian this year. The Kiwis graced us with 35 minutes in the company of the 4 horsemen of apocalypse. Anyone even remotely interested in war and destruction should give this a spin, as the combined onslaught from the guitar-tone, drums, the pounding bass and the rabid-infested vocals sounds absolutely set on tearing you apart. Bit by bit.
Best Danish album:
Solbrud - Jærtegn
2015:
It proved impossible for me to pick the best album of 2015 due to the amount of quality present (I had to cut out entries from Blaze of Perdition, Outre, VI and Panopticon just to keep this year at a reasonable length... sorry.), so here are the contenders, in no particular order:
Akhlys – The Dreaming I
It's hard to fathom this album; The sheer releases of cacophony, The high pitched melodies and insidious atmosphere feels like something that transcends dimensions like some ancient being which our feeble bodies can't comprehend. The soundscape is so thick it blankets you in complete bone-chilling misery for a solid 45 minutes.
Leviathan – Scar Sighted
Wrest's return with Leviathan was rocky to say the least. The 2011 effort "
True Traitor, True Whore" proved a bit hit-and-miss for my own taste, and given his own private affairs at the time, I can't hardly blame the man for creating such a disheveled album. "
Scar Sighted" on the other hand is not only more accessible and easier to approach, but deeper, more menacing and otherworldly and still maintains the terrifying vibe that Wrest channels into his music. A superior successor!
Misþyrming – Söngvar elds og óreiðu
Looking at this list and seeing the choices I picked for 2015 made me realize how spoiled for choice we as listeners were this year. And with such a bountiful harvest, Iceland of course chipped in with their own Misþyrming.
Söngvar elds og óreiðu is everything I love about Icelandic black metal rolled into one package; Unforgiving, harsh, dense with atmosphere and focused.
While Svartidauði might have laid the ground, Misþyrming wrought it into perfection, and
Söngvar elds og óreiðu became the gold standard to which I uphold their countrymen.
Batushka – Litourgiya
It's hard to talk about this decade without mentioning Batushka. While the band has been split and the whole matter turned into a joke in it's own right,
Litourgya deserve to be held in high esteem. Taking "Orthodox Black Metal" into the literal sense, this seamlessly combines monk chants with some deep and melodic metal.
Mgła – Exercises in Futility
Meanwhile in Poland, misters M. and Darkside was getting quite some traction with
Exercises in Futility. In honesty, I still prefer
With Hearts Towards None, and I'd be first to admit that a part of the reason I include
Exercises in Futility on this list is because I would be up to my neck in angry postage if I didn't. Well, dear Mgła fans; I think that
Exercises in Futility is a very good album... But not the revolution others might proclaim it as.
Now you may send me angry posts, but for the
right reasons(!).
Der Weg Einer Freiheit - Stellar
The aptly titled
Stellar by Der Weg Einer Freiheit also won my heart. Pure melodic pleasure blended with sublime aggression and brutality, all brilliantly played, but especially Tobias Schuler behind the drums proves he's among the best.
Best Danish album:
Serpents Lair - Circumambulating the Stillborn
Best Album artwork:
Shrine of Insanabilis - Disciples of the Void (By David Glomba)
2016:
Terra Tenebrosa – The Reverses
Terra Tenebrosa already graced my ears with
"The Purging", but it took "
The Reverses" to convince me of the full potential that this band possesses. A friend of mine described this album as "
Murder music"... despite the cliches and Tipper Gore-flashbacks, I am inclined to agree. This is an album that plays tricks with you and your mental health, a̤̻̼̬͔̣̖̲ń̼̹̭͍̪͠ḏ̺ ҉̸̴̜͖̹̩Ì̮͈͍͎̫͉͎̹ ̸̪̮̱͚̞͎̳̹̻͢f̶̥u̴̘̫͎̹̻̮̦͘͜ḻ̵̵͇̝̪͍l͘͢͏̤̼y̧̛̦̩͓͢ ̲̺͕̦r̨͎͜e̙͍̰̹̱͖ͅc̷̡̬͚̱͕o̢̠̼̱͍̹m̗̩m̡͖͖͖̠̠ͅè̵̜͚͉̭̱̳n̸̹͓̞̘͉̰͓͉ͅd̡̻̳̟͔͖͙̫ ̗̥̥͇͚̳i̡̝̳͕ṱ͎̩̝̮ ͉͇̺̫̩͓͞p҉̵͉̰̱̜̳̻̜l̯̙̀a̶͖̙̼̯̺y͍͔̠̺̤͈̩̲͢i͎̻͞n̼̞̗̝̦̼g҉̫̙̤̤̦̭̤̞ ̸͖̯͕͚̙͝ą̴̱̝̺̘̣̳̫͈t̷̻͓̳̪͎ ̩͔͟f͏̛͎̮̩̠͚ͅu̠̘͓̯̩̦͝l̫̳̦̟͎͕̀̕͞l̡̬̙͍̺̞̱ ̖̙̠v͇̲͡ơ̶̤̝͙͙͚̬̤̞͘ļ̘͠u͖̘̺͚̥̙̞͝m̱̩͙͔͉e͚̭̭ ̢̰̺͠i̸̻̝͖̻̥̗̱͇͠f̟̞͞ ͖̗̣̹͖̬͢y̵̧͚̼̻o̧̝͓̲̙̗̦u̧̼̲͙ ͏͔̭̹̬̭̪͚ͅw͡͏̝͍̭i̯̩̮͞s͍̲̬̺͍͇͙h̨̪ ̷͕̘͖̥͖̠͇͔ͅṱ̸̷̲͙o̥̦̺ͅ ҉͓̤͎̻̜̼̠͢u̜͚͖͠p͕̲͙͡s̙͇̦̥ȩ̷̢͉͚̖̗t̼͞ ̡̠̰̻́ͅy̺͠o̢̱ͅu̲̼̼͈ŗ̜̤͔͎͍̞͇͞ ̣̙̲͇̝̙̣̳ą̶̨͉̬̻̘̹͍̬̖̦n̩̖n҉̤̱̺̣̖͕̠o̶͔̲͎͉̪͖y͠͏͓̟̲̭͓i̩̙̩̪ń̦̦̣͖̦̪͡ͅg̗͔̲̘̜̙ ̴̴̧̪͖̤̤͓̜̮n̶̳̟̫̥̬̰͕͠e̹̞̖̰̝̼̠͟͝i̵̳̰̙̰̼̭͔̦͚͡ǵ̻͙͉̱͢͢h̛͢҉͉̥͕̗͔͈b̘̙͓̱͓͈̙͎͟ò͈̯͙̗͔̥̜̖̳r̖̻̱̦̬͈̩͜s̷͙̥͡
Pillorian – Obsidian Arc
After Agalloch was gone and buried, frontman John Haughm came back with Pillorian and the Agalloch-heritage is deep in the dark folk-inspired sounds of Pillorian. I admit some might not like this album, nor the darker direction of the last Agalloch album and
Obsidian Arc, but I genuinely hold no shame in liking this album. Consider it a guilty pleasure if you like.
Oranssi Pazuzu –
Värähelijäh
Part black metal, part acid trip, all twisted enjoyment. Sadly I only discovered this album last year, how it went under my nose for so long, after seeing that cover in my suggestions-feed for over a year, is beyond me. It only goes to show that "Better late than never" holds true. Thankfully, I'm up to speed again with these Finns, who breathed some fresh air into black metal with their unique style.
Martröð - Transmutation of Wounds
Take a look at the lineup on this EP: Wrest (Leviathan, Lurker of Chalice, ex-Krieg) MkM (Aosoth, Antaeus), D.G. (Misþyrming, Skaphé) H.V. Lyngdal (Wormlust), A.P. (Chaos Moon, Skaphé, Krieg) and Thorns (Blut aus Nord and too many other bands). This is the current star-lined band to look out for, and thankfully they actually ascended from mediocrity (unlike
a certain other super-band I wanted to like)
Best Danish album:
Gespenst - Forfald
Best Album Artwork:
2017:
Aosoth – V – The Inside
Scriptures
Don't always judge an album by it's cover, there is little there is
petite or pretty here. Vocalist MkM and Guitarist BST decimates the listener with every weapon at their disposal. Rarely have I heard a record so filled with malice and contempt as this, I have a hard time figuring how they could ever improve upon this... and maybe they realized that too, as the band is now history.... goddangit!
The Ruins of Beverast - Exuvia
For me, TRoB conjures images of late medieval cities, the (catholic) church's influence and human corruption in every sense of the word. TRoB originally caught my interest in 2013 with
Blood Vaults, which led to my discovery of
Unlock the Shrine, which has become one of my all-time favorites.
Exuvia proved to be everything good about
Blood Vaults, and then some more. This is a
slow record, but it is packed with atmosphere, ancient rituals and low-end frequencies.
Tchornobog – Tchornobog
Tchornobog (
Ukr: Black God) is what would happen if Morbid Angel had a child with Svartidaudi, and fed it Jazz noir. Created in the deranged mind of Ukrainian-American Markov Soroka, and recorded in Iceland, this hour-long downtuned mammoth of an album juxtaposes full onslaught black/death with atmospheric and ambient pieces.. and is that a saxophone solo?
Special commendation to the Artwork by Adam Burke, which serves as a further enhancement of the universe presented to us by Soroka.
Rebirth of
Nefast - Tabernaculum
2017
really gave us some down-tuned and massive albums, and this is another one, this time a solo project from Ireland. By the time you are done receiving the almost 12 minutes of relentless hammering of the opening track "The Lifting of the Veil", you are spellbound...
Best Danish album:
Sunken - Departure
Kriegsmaschine –
Apocalyptiscists
If you only had to take one thing away from this album it is that Darkside is one hell of a drummer. So much so, he had to make
a video to prove that he had actually played a part of
Residual Blight, that some fans claimed was unplayable by human means. His fellow co-conspirator M. is as always crisp in the guitar and vocal-department, and this all comes together in my favorite album by this duo.
Slidhr – The Futile Fires of Man
Slidhr, hailing from both Ireland and Iceland, gave us
The Futile Fires of Man with some of the most bleak and oppressive black metal to grace my ears in recent memory. I recommend this album as the perfect companion for journeys through snowy forests or long travels.
Psicosfera - Beta
Come for the album cover, and stay for the music. This Argentinian quartet created some full-bodied and avant-garde metal here, all without vocals. It's a hidden gem, and I can only give it my firmest recommendation, if you haven't already found it.
The Dead Creed - Pieces... To Heal A Soul In The Darkest Hour
Speaking of instrumentals, this is definitely a more original project, which only features acoustic guitar, choir-like vocals and nothing else. The warm, crisp sound evoke imagery of byzantine churches, Greek monasteries and medieval times. I am not entirely sure if I could even call this "metal", but I don't care, I commend this anyway.
Best Danish album
Taphos - Come Ethereal Somberness
Best Album artwork:
Well, that's about it. I've tried to cover as much as possible here, or at least put the album on the header montage up at the top, if I didn't have enough to say about it.
I'd like to hear if you have an album, which should belong on this list, or if you agree with the choices. Please post a comment with your thoughts below!
Happy 2020 to you.
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