100: Frozen Land – Icemelter 
99: For The Pyres – At the Pyres of Sin 
98: Unleashed – Fire Upon Your Lands 
97: Dead Heat – Process Of Elimination 
96: Sanguisugabogg – Hideous Aftermath 
95: Sadist – Something To Pierce 
94: Skaphos – Cult Of Uzura 
93: Trold – I Skovens Rige 
92: Heruvim – Mercator 
91: Pupil Slicer – Fleshwork 
90: Martröð – Draumsýnir eldsins 
89: Vacuous – In His Blood 
88: Oromet – The Sinking Isle 
87: Wretched Path – Sea of Death 
86: Blood Monolith – The Calling Of Fire 
85: Inhuman Condition – Mind Trap 
84: Blood Abscission – II 
83: Hazzerd – The 3rd Dimension 
82: 16 – Guides For The Misguided 
81: Kamra – Unending Confluence 
80: Katatonia – Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State 
79: Bent Sea – The Dormant Ruin 
78: Last Retch – Abject Cruelty 
77: Poison The Preacher – Vs The World 
76: Howling Giant – Crucible & Ruin 
75: Outlaw – Opus Mortis 
74: Vittra – Intense Indifference 
73: Nite – Cult Of The Serpent Sun 
72: Tower – Let There Be Dark 
71: Der Weg Einer Freiheit – Innern 
70: In The Woods… – Otra 
69: A Flock Named Murder – Incendiary Sanctum 
68: Faetooth – Labyrinthine 
67: Warfield – With The Old Breed 
66: Nailed To Obscurity – Generation Of The Void 
65: Selvans – Saturnalia 
64: Doomsday – Never Known Peace 
63: Cryptosis – Celestial Death 
62: Ancient Death – Ego Dissolution 
61: Lik – Necro 
60: Conjurer – Unself 
59: Blindfolded And Led To The Woods – The Hardest Thing About Being God Is That No One Believes Me 
58: Scorching Tomb – Ossuary 
57: SpiritWorld – Helldorado 
56: Fell Omen – Caelid Dog Summer 
55: Jade – Mysteries Of A Flowery Dream 
54: Century – Sign of the Storm 
53: …And Oceans – The Regeneration Itenerary 
52: Drouth – The Teeth Of Time 
51: Haggus – Destination Extinction 
50: Blackbriar – A Thousand Little Deaths 
49: Shadow Of Intent – Imperium Delirium 
48: Mantar – Post Apocalyptic Depression 
47: Teitanblood – From the Visceral Abyss 
46: Dessiderium – Keys To The Palace 
45: Imperial Triumphant – Goldstar 
44: King Parrot – A Young Person’s Guide To 
43: Mortal Scepter – Ethereal Dominance 
42: Gaahls Wyrd – Braiding The Stories 
41: Jinjer – Duél 
40: Sacrifice – Volume Six 
39: Morax – The Amulet 
38: Lamp Of Murmuur – The Dreaming Prince In Ecstasy 
37: Puteraeon – Mountains Of Madness 
36: Havukruunu – Tavastland 
35: Sarcator – Swarming Angels & Flies 
34: Wytch Hazel – V Lamentations 
33: Between The Buried And Me – The Blue Nowhere 
32: Despised Icon – Shadow Work 
31: Blackbraid – Blackbraid III 
30: Caustic Wound – Grinding Mechanism Of Torment 
29: Bleed From Within – Zenith 
28: Veilburner – Longing For Triumph, Reeking Of Tragedy 
27: Dormant Ordeal – Tooth And Nail 
26: Revocation – New Gods, New Masters 
25: Mors Principium Est – Darkness Invisible 
24: Aephanemer – Utopie 
23: Weft – The Splintered Oar 
22: Deftones – Private Music 
21: The Haunted – Songs Of Last Resort 
20: Employed To Serve – Fallen Star 
19: Abigail Williams – A Void Within Existence 
18: Qrixkuor – The Womb of the World 
17: Coroner – Dissonance Theory 
16: Cryptopsy – An Insatiable Violence 
15: Impureza – Alcázares 
14: Witherer – Shadow Without A Horizon 
13: The Great Old Ones – Kadath 
12: Scalp – Not Worthy Of Human Compassion 
11: Igorrr – Amen 
10: Allegaeon – The Ossuary Lens 
9: Castle Rat – The Bestiary 
8: Gorotica – Daily Grind Of The Medieval Age 
7: 1914 – Viribus Unitis 
6: Kalaveraztekah – Nikan Axkan 
5: An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City 
4: Creatvre – Toujours humain 
3: Whitechapel – Hymns In Dissonance 
2: Warbringer – Wrath And Ruin 
1: Scour – Gold
A list of my favorite 100 metal albums released in 2025
(Click the arrows to progress through the slideshow above, or scroll down the list below).
Compiling this list I more or less abandoned objectivity completely, and arranged the albums by level of impact, both immediate and lasting, on me personally. I love the fact that, no matter how many AOTY lists that get put out there, virtually no one will agree 100% with any other person’s picks, which speaks to the sheer size and complexity of the stylistic spectrum within metal music today.
In an attempt to sum the year up, I suppose what strikes me the most is just how many grindcore-style releases I really got behind. Also, just how few other people, particularly reviewers, seemed to do the same. Prog and straight death metal seem to have had a bit of a setback, but still have great success combining forces. Thrash is as strong as it’s been in a long time, and technical metal seems to have found a sweet spot where individual bands are able to achieve clear distinction, instead of all of them sounding like the product of the same dozen-limbed, frantically out of control, homicidal cyborg. Power-, symphonic- and other mostly melodic metal hasn’t made much of a splash, but melody has been allowed back into the extreme without diluting the ferocity, which I’m always a fan of.
Anyway, without further ado, agree with me or not, here are my top 100 albums of the year. Bear in mind that I haven’t had the time to listen to absolutely everything that dropped. So if you find that a major release is missing from the list, then that’s probably the reason. That, or I think everyone else is wrong, and the album is completely overrated. Feel free to speculate.
100: Frozen Land – Icemelter
Genre: Power metal
Borrowing some heft from melodeath, riff elements from thrash and groove, with rhythms from straight heavy metal, and infusing it with a highly eager, instrument-forward, Finnish melodic sensibility, this is a power metal album that’s bursting with fun-factor and adventurous spirit.
99: For The Pyres – At The Pyres of Sin
Genre: Death metal
No, I can, in fact, not get enough of classic Swedish death metal. It’s a non-stop headbanging good time, overflowing with groove and all the brutal bells and whistles you would expect from this style.
98: Unleashed – Fire Upon Your Lands
Genre: Death metal
It’s not innovative at all, but feels confident in just the right kind of way. It’s as if the OSDM revival has shown them that it’s okay to rely on the old ways and embrace the sort of thinking that got them started in the first place.
97: Dead Heat – Process Of Elimination
Genre: Thrash metal/hardcore
This is a thrash-forward variant of southern Californian crossover, carrying elements of Slayer and Anthrax, among others. It delivers mid-and high tempo serrated-edge riffing with deadly accuracy, and to equally murderous levels of effect, which is a feat in itself.
96: Sanguisugabogg – Hideous Aftermath
Genre: Death/extreme metal
I’m gonna say it: It feels mature, if such a thing is possible with track titles like “Erotic Beheading”. There’s an industrial edge to a lot of it, even technical, giving much more a feeling of considered songwriting rather than impulsive, live-oriented chug-piling.
95: Sadist – Something To Pierce
Genre: Progressive death metal
This is one to jump on if you want your death metal to challenge you, but are tired of the surgical technicality of the modern stuff. Sadist plays it murky and whacky, and doesn’t go overboard with the complexity.
94: Skaphos – Cult Of Uzura
Genre: Blackened death metal
It dips into eldritch horror and ritualistic soullessness, but first and foremost it’s an utter assault of coarse riffs, canon-barrage drums and rusty, gurgled vocals.
93: Trold – I Skovens Rige
Genre: Folk metal
This gang of merry trolls understand perfectly how to play around and have fun within the style, while both keeping it simple enough to not have to philosophize over, and also keeping it alive and varied with some actual great musicianship.
92: Heruvim – Mercator
Genre: Death metal
Here’s a Ukrainian debut old school death metal album that sounds like it’s traveled all the way from the late 80s and picked up traits from some of the more influential bands along the way.
91: Pupil Slicer – Fleshwork
Genre: Mathcore
This is not your average, fiendishly complicated, rubbing-alcohol-flavored piece of mathcore. It’s aggressive, for sure, and certainly not straightforward. But there are layers to the harshness, and the band deftly maneuvers between them in a way that is both satisfyingly unpredictable and which produces a rich level of variation.
90: Martröð – Draumsýnir eldsins
Genre: Black metal
Enter a whirling confluence of the damned, like an infernal whirlpool in the dark, pulling at the edges of your sanity and challenging your sense of comfort at every turn.
89: Vacuous – In His Blood
Genre: Death metal
There’s a place you can go musically, that potentially works quite well for the dirtier and more fiendish spectrum of metal, where everything doesn’t have to fit together perfectly well, and this becomes part of the point. Vacuous exists in this slightly demented, slightly listener-hostile place.
88: Oromet – The Sinking Isle
Genre: Doom metal
If you’re looking for funeral doom with the same kind of all-enveloping, seemingly endless scope as Bell Witch, then this is likely to sate your hunger. It keeps rising, and rising, and rising, and pulls you along with it to unseen domains of the skies.
87: Wretched Path – Sea of Death
Genre: Death metal
Completely stuffed to the brim with skull crushing riffs, served out on easy-to-follow rhythms that sometimes take on a hardcore-like flavor. If it wasn’t for the awesome riff tone, roaring vocals and delicious solo work, I’d be tempted to call it one-dimensional, but it has all the right elements to make me a pure addict.
86: Blood Monolith – The Calling Of Fire
Genre: Death metal/grindcore
This feels like the full force of the primal savagery behind all death metal unleashed, and further boosted by the ferocity of grindcore. But beneath the storm-whipped, turbulent surface grinds a steady wheel, steering the onslaught in a controlled direction.
85: Inhuman Condition – Mind Trap
Genre: Death/thrash metal
The surprise lies not in it being experimental, progressive or terribly distinct, but in that it manages to be so goddamn engaging despite its faithfulness to that original, Obituary-like style.
84: Blood Abscission – I I
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
This is a synthetic-melodic, highly atmospheric black metal project. Very importantly, it doesn’t get lost in its distant wanderings, staying on course and getting both exultant and in an uproar at times.
83: Hazzerd – The 3rd Dimension
Genre: Thrash metal
Thrash! Unfiltered, unmodified, unpretentious, on-point thrash that takes its mission just the perfect degree seriously. Not markedly old school nor modern, it perfectly blends speed, groove, sharp precision and impatient attitude into a pure, timeless thrash extravaganza.
82: -(16)- – Guides For The Misguided
Genre: Sludge metal
This is still a coarse, roaring, bone-rattling sound with a threatening tone, but damn are you getting your fill of groove on this one. Many of the riffs are Metallica-level catchy and the lead guitar gets into some seriously tantalizing escapades.
81: Kamra – Unending Confluence
Genre: Atmospheric black/death metal
It’s a monumental, barely controlled series of half-dissonant, darkly atmospheric waves of unholy cacophony. And, worryingly, it makes more and more sense the longer you listen to it.
80: Katatonia – Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State
Genre: Progressive/gothic metal
This album feels like the natural continuation of 2023’s “Sky Void of Stars”, which doesn’t speak all that much to the band’s powers of innovation, but as styles go, it’s a very good one to keep exploring.
79: Bent Sea – The Dormant Ruin
Genre: Grindcore
It’s a lively one for sure, particularly in the drum department, and given that it’s 20 tracks long, it’s a huge plus that they’ve managed a high level of variation, even incorporating a couple of atmospheric interludes.
78: Last Retch – Abject Cruelty
Genre: Death metal
What is otherwise a perfectly murky, malevolent, mid-tempo affair with dry-gurgling vocals, almost sinking into doom on a few occasions, will on most of its tracks set off on a riff rampage that, at times, feels almost comically eager.
77: Poison The Preacher – Vs The World
Genre: Thrash metal/hardcore
They serve up plenty of is that Power Trip-style, old school death metal-derived raspy brutality, and coupled with the fired-up, no-way-but-forward mentality of eager, short-form thrash, it sets off like a Mad Max-styled monster truck.
76: Howling Giant – Crucible & Ruin
Genre: Stoner/psychedelic metal
This is a gorgeous sounding album that will have you delighting in the classic, tasteful instrumentation as well as the enveloping atmosphere. There is a mild prog-ness to the rhythms, but nothing distracting or overly complicated.
75: Outlaw – Opus Mortis
Genre: Melodic black metal
This is black metal that dares to dream, and even though these dreams drip with melancholy, it’s not the venomous nor overly nihilistic kind we so often get from Northern Europe.
74: Vittra – Intense Indifference
Genre: Melodic death/thrash metal
In my opinion, there are few things as badass as good death thrash. And, as evidenced by this fun-loving Swedish bunch, it certainly doesn’t have to take itself all that seriously in order to achieve said bad-assery.
73: Nite – Cult Of The Serpent Sun
Genre: Heavy/black metal
It’s still devilishly catchy in as tasteful a way as can be managed, and seems to absolutely revel in that spine-tingingly cool lead guitar work, reminiscent of the very best you get from Tribulation and Ghost.
72: Tower – Let There Be Dark
Genre: Heavy metal
What might be the most impressive part of the album is that the band manages to craft slow, ballad-like tunes that are, if anything, even more captivating than the high-energy, galloping, solo-tastic tracks.
71: Der Weg Einer Freiheit – Innern
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
It can be harsh and aggressive, and peaks with plenty of force, but it’s not an overwhelmingly negative minded thing. There’s wonder and constructive thought mixed in with the bleakness, making for a fuller spectrum of tonality than you might expect.
70: In The Woods… – Otra
Genre: Progressive black/doom metal
It sounds bleak and mature, but never one-dimensional, and it never gets stuck in neither misery, misanthropy or contemplation for very long at a time. It feels confidently relaxed, flexing beauty, catchiness and depth like it’s second nature.
69: A Flock Named Murder – Incendiary Sanctum
Genre: Progressive black/doom/death metal
It transitions organically into different iterations of itself like the weather on a particularly tempestuous day, and you get the feeling that it’s an elemental force that decides the fates of many.
68: Faetooth – Labyrinthine
Genre: Atmospheric doom metal
This is a very well-balanced experience, where the transitions between mellow and coarse feel otherworldly smooth, allowing you to properly immerse your mind into a world of blissful gloom without fear of getting jarred when the intensity builds.
67: Warfield – With The Old Breed
Genre: Thrash metal
Immediately establishing a malicious tone and a headstrong, impatient approach to song progression, the guys deliver on this promise on track after track.
66: Nailed To Obscurity – Generation Of The Void
Genre: Melodic/progressive death/doom metal
Stepping comfortably into Katatonia-levels of accessibility and leaning fully into Opeth- and Leprous-like progressive-mindedness, this is a many-faceted sound that doesn’t end up over-complicated.
65: Selvans – Saturnalia
Genre: Avant-garde black/heavy metal
Welcome to the theatre of the damned. It will spook you, move you, amuse you and bewitch you, and you will likely not come out the other end with your soul still in your possession.
64: Doomsday – Never Known Peace
Genre: Thrash metal/hardcore
They successfully add an epic dimension to the sound with the guitar-led melodies and solos, and the fuck-it-all attitude shining through every seam makes it difficult not to like.
63: Cryptosis – Celestial Death
Genre: Progressive thrash/extreme metal
It’s the kind of progressive approach that isn’t exhausting in its complexity, rather being preoccupied with moving the style in different directions away from the core, precisely so that you can’t accurately label it, and instead accept it as something genuinely unique.
62: Ancient Death – Ego Dissolution
Genre: Progressive death metal
It’s not extreme in its unconventionality, but does most things in its own way, like it’s mutated from a very recognizable shape into something more complex, while retaining most of its original aspects.
61: Lik – Necro
Genre: Death metal
Everything is stylistically spot on, from the hoarse, throat-rending vocals to the over-crunched guitars to the Sabbath-style-evil tone and the very moderately folk-derived melodies.
60: Conjurer – Unself
Genre: Progressive sludge/doom metal
There is frail melody to juxtapose the crashing harshness, and they craft the transitions between the two in a way that make them seem like two sides of the same coin rather than two clashing personalities, although the contrast is just as strong as you’d hope for.
59: Blindfolded And Led To The Woods – The Hardest Thing About Being God Is That No One Believes Me
Genre: Technical/experimental death metal/deathcore
There’s awesome technical control, a good deal of groove, and it both rises into symphonic heights as well as dissolves into atmospheric mist.
58: Scorching Tomb – Ossuary
Genre: Death metal
This thing was designed to detach your skull from the spinal cord by way of excessively forceful headbanging. What you’re in for is crisp, bloodthirsty death metal in the vein of Cannibal Corpse, but with a massive focus on meaty grooves.
57: Spiritworld – Helldorado
Genre: Hardcore/thrash metal
As you listen to Spiritworld’s brand of metallic hardcore, you might think to yourself, how hard can it be to make direct, catchy riffs like this? But then the saying goes – if it was easy, everyone would do it.
56: Fell Omen – Caelid Dog Summer
Genre: Black/heavy metal/punk
This is (naturally) a single individual in a suit of armor, clearly having the time of his life playing cellar-dungeon-darkness-meets-biker-tomfoolery punky, speedy black metal. There’s nothing sinister about this, but the harshness plays a critical part as contrast to the silliness.
55: Jade – Mysteries Of A Flowery Dream
Genre: Atmospheric/melodic death metal
Like a storm sweeping over the peaks of a mountain range, the sonic turbulence resounding across the valleys below, this atmospheric death metal album rolls over you, forcing you to lean into it to keep your footing.
54: Century – Sign of the Storm
Genre: Heavy metal
Regardless of the fantasy-leaning, gloomy themes, and sometimes full-on doom choruses, the playing always, always takes you back to riff- and solo heaven, which feels inexplicably reassuring, like a car accelerating in perfect accord with the decreasing g-forces as it comes out of a tight bend.
53: …And Oceans – The Regeneration Itinerary
Genre: Symphonic/avant-garde black metal
You take in the first couple of minutes of a song and think you know exactly where this is headed, and then they change it up with a bit of synthwave, or an atmospheric break, only to continue in a new, interesting direction.
52: Drouth – The Teeth Of Time
Genre: Black/death metal
It has an adventurous and daring spirit to it, like the feeling you get from great epic doom and conceptually solid prog metal, and without borrowing any of the technical tropes.
51: Haggus – Destination Extinction
Genre: Grindcore/hardcore
There are a few by-the-numbers tracks (and even these hold a high standard) and then there’s a generous handful of true entertainers, rocking your world with style shifts, endearing attitude and/or sick riffs.
50: Blackbriar – A Thousand Little Deaths
Genre: Symphonic/gothic metal
I guess I’m a goth now, ’cause this stuff just instantly struck a chord with me. Not being familiar with the band, I went in with customary low expectations considering the genre, but had pretty much all of my prejudices swept away and drowned like scattered castaways in a stormy ocean.
49: Shadow Of Intent – Imperium Delirium
Genre: Deathcore/technical death metal
The balance they strike between roaring deathcore pandemonium, death metal savagery, tech death instrumental flourishes and theatrical grandeur is right up there with the very best of their discography, as well as that of their peers.
48: Mantar – Post Apocalyptic Depression
Genre: Blackened punk/sludge metal
The energy on here is bottomless and highly infectious. The blackened edge is still there, but steered more in the direction of black ‘n’ roll, which is absolutely the correct choice for this sound.
47: Teitanblood – From the Visceral Abyss
Genre: Black/death/war metal
Listen attentively, and you will find that it breathes, builds, rises and hunches like a terrible beast, the appearance of which you can only gleam as a black contour. If you think that the vast majority of dark extreme metal is too safe, then this is for you.
46: Dessiderium – Keys To The Palace
Genre: Progressive/melodic death metal
Dessiderium still play melodic, effortlessly complex extreme/death prog that explores its soundscape, sometimes like a curious little critter and sometimes like a frenzied predator.
45: Imperial Triumphant – Goldstar
Genre: Experimental/avant-garde black metal
It’s the sound of a particular brand of madness, or at least a very interesting interpretation of this madness made sonic manifest. It is art, and it is inspired, well-crafted and on-brand art at that.
44: King Parrot – A Young Person’s Guide To
Genre: Grindcore/hardcore
This album feels like chugging gasoline and promptly pissing it onto a fire. It’s strutting with barbed wire bravado and reckless abandon, but instead of going in the murky, ultra-heavy direction of death metal, it pulls from hardcore and punk, making it agile and spiteful.
43: Mortal Scepter – Ethereal Dominance
Genre: Blackened thrash metal
There’s an air of prestige, and a tendency of wanting to flesh things out beyond the dagger-storm of riffs and hyperactive drums. There’s darkness, but in that cosmic, uncaring universe sort of way rather than demonic, and it’s not without a sense of adventure.
42: Gaahls Wyrd – Braiding The Stories
Genre: Avant-garde black metal
It feels like a small universe of its own, where we travel down a spiraling, non-linear timeline, the progression being felt as both near-stationary floating, and stark sprints of riled-up panic.
41: Jinjer – Duél
Genre: Progressive/groove metal
The balance between the harshly mechanical, startlingly aggressive, jaw-droppingly dexterous and brilliantly melodic is so pleasingly struck on here that I find my enthusiasm steadily growing as well as regularly peaking throughout the duration.
40: Sacrifice – Volume Six
Genre: Thrash metal
It’s the first by these Canadian thrash metal greats in 16 years, but there’s certainly no cobwebs to be found on here. It’s got an aggressive, blackened edge, and radiates confident, energetic malice, in a “let’s show ’em how it’s done” kind of way.
39: Morax – The Amulet
Genre: Heavy/doom metal
“Occult” heavy metal, when done tastefully, can embody pretty much everything of what metal is about outside of the “extreme” sphere. The Norwegian one-man project that is Morax does exactly this.
38: Lamp Of Murmuur – The Dreaming Prince In Ecstasy
Genre: Black/gothic metal
The symphonic, gothic and prog elements that were present last time around have now been boosted, making for a more melodic and stylistically varied sound. Slightly less sharp and aggressive, but still dramatic.
37: Puteraeon – Mountains Of Madness
Genre: Death metal
This is a Lovecraft-themed, fairly cold-toned, modestly melodic, Swedish old school death metal album that boasts a beefy production, playful rhythms and a constantly threatening tinge.
36: Havukruunu – Tavastland
Genre: Black/heavy metal
It seems to come from a place of genuine musical inspiration and appreciation, and the mood goes where it’s needed in order to tell the story. Whether that be a hailstorm of sharp aggression or solo-happy, ride-across-the-hills, high-spirit stuff.
35: Sarcator – Swarming Angels & Flies
Genre: Thrash/black metal
Sometimes you get the sense that a metal subgenre was created awaiting the day when a band comes along and discovers a way to maximize its inherent potential. I certainly get that sense with Sarcator and blackened thrash metal.
34: Wytch Hazel – V: Lamentations
Genre: Heavy metal
From the exquisite vocal quality to the warm embrace of the production, eager rhythms and tastefully understated but-ever-present riffs, it doesn’t break stylistic stride for a single second of its 45 minute, 9 second runtime.
33: Between The Buried And Me – The Blue Nowhere
Genre: Progressive metal
I get slightly different iteration of the band with every song, and a new surprise at almost every turn. It’s got heaviness, aggression, dazzling instrumentality, excellent interplay, impactful melody and a good dose of catchiness.
32: Despised Icon – Shadow Work
Genre: Deathcore
“Shadow Work” is an instant ambush assault of charging drums and demolishing guitars, rounded off with gut-punch grooves and a touch of bitter-sweet melody.
31: Blackbraid – Blackbraid III
Genre: Atmospheric folk/black metal
The album feels loaded with emotion, not in any sort of tender or overly earnest way, but the highly expressive screams and melodies on here are loaded with passion.
30: Caustic Wound – Grinding Mechanism Of Torment
Genre: Death metal/grindcore
While it’s a savage, dirt-covered, rotting monstrosity to the core, it’s not completely inaccessible. The riffs are meaty, the squeals are sharp, the bass is very much present and menacing, and the vocals sound like they’re hacking up innards piece by shredded piece.
29: Bleed From Within – Zenith
Genre: Metalcore/groove metal
Even though there are a few tracks on here that are more miss than hit, the ones that pierce the bullseye are all radiant, vital examples of how to make youthful, melodic extreme metal that bridges the gap between light and dark.
28: Veilburner – Longing For Triumph, Reeking Of Tragedy
Genre: Progressive death/black metal
Instead of a forbidden, underground ritual, we’re now in the devil’s laboratory/workshop, where all sorts of abominations are born, altered and grafted to each other and all manner of impractical objects.
27: Dormant Ordeal – Tooth And Nail
Genre: Death/black metal
Despite its jaw-clenched aggression, it’s impressively controlled and highly precise, without feeling like it’s being held on a leash. The melodies give it depth and reach, without deflating the force or disrupting the progression.
26: Revocation – New Gods, New Masters
Genre: Technical death/thrash metal
A lot of it sounds like a kind of complex task-solving, and I must conclude that it’s not as overwhelmingly pleasing as its predecessor. But it’s not far off, and it’s more layered, allowing you to appreciate different facets of it on each new listen.
25: Mors Principium Est – Darkness Invisible
Genre: Melodic death metal
For people like me, who desire both more of what I’ve loved previously and attempts at branching out and evolving, this is like a personalized gift basket.
24: Aephanemer – Utopie
Genre: Symphonic/melodic death metal
It’s the lofty yet playful neoclassical style that the shred monsters of the 80s championed, and bands like Chrildren of Bodom took into the realm of extreme metal, now revived with aggressive melodeath fervor and a flair of prog death complexity.
23: Weft – The Splintered Oar
Genre: Atmospheric/avant-garde black metal
Steeped in achingly beautiful melody and folk-y Americana, it sweeps you off to solemn, desolate, yet breathtaking places. It builds to majestic, roaring highs of anger, but restrains the harshness to a point where its role is that of the snow-capped peak of the mountain,
22: Deftones – Private Music
Genre: Alternative/progressive metal
You get hard-hitting grooves and hardcore aggression, and it’s juxtaposed with dreamy, contemplative atmosphere, rhythm- and melody tangents, a tone that travels between deeply psychedelic and fluffy calm, and mood that goes from ecstatic elation to sadness and anxiety.
21: The Haunted – Songs Of Last Resort
Genre: Melodic death/thrash metal
They go heavy on the thrash and groove, but always with the throat-ripping vocals and a ravenous aggression fueling the momentum. The start of the album is insanely strong, and it keeps up the quality all the way through.
20: Employed To Serve – Fallen Star
Genre: Metalcore/groove metal
“Fallen Star” vibrates with vigor, exploding with forceful performances and radiating positive, creative energy. A brilliant lighthouse of a release that will likely bridge the gap between the mainstream and the extreme for many.
19: Abigail Williams – A Void Within Existence
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
An album I never ended up reviewing, but certainly couldn’t leave out of this list. The gravity of it is mercilessly arresting, and it’s as masterfully dynamic as it is scrupulous in its tonal and stylistic range.
18: Qrixkuor – The Womb of the World
Genre: Atmospheric death/black metal
It feeds on your fear and causes light itself to wither and die. An orchestra of beautiful malevolence plays in the background, while the vocals hiss like serpentine demons and the guitars thrash and writhe in blind rage and agony.
17: Coroner – Dissonance Theory
Genre: Progressive thrash metal
It’s truly fascinating to get all this deadly riffage, Testament-like groove and Kreator-like snarling vocal work deftly navigating their way through a complex, yet organic and surprisingly melodic system of ebb-and-flow energy, and subtly layered moods.
16: Cryptopsy – An Insatiable Violence
Genre: Technical death metal
It’s got some of the most spine-tinglingly crushing riffs I’ve heard all year, and manages to inject austere, darkly majestic melody without it diluting the malevolence.
15: Impureza – Alcázares
Genre: Folk/death metal
The transitions between castanets and acoustic guitar and murderous chugs with predatorial vocals include both complete shifts and stylistic blends, and somehow work incredibly well regardless. A thing I didn’t realize how much I needed in my life.
14: Witherer – Shadow Without A Horizon
Genre: Blackened death/doom metal
It feels like being buried alive and hearing the earth move around your coffin like a great beast tossing and turning in its sleep, while other buried souls scream their lungs out in agony and despair all around you.
13: The Great Old Ones – Kadath
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
It is a full, rich soundscape of tragic melody and powerful natural forces that feels as steady and intentional as it is unpredictable.
12: Scalp – Not Worthy Of Human Compassion
Genre: Grindcore/death metal
Scalp’s third full-length feels like being subjected to a spiked, hyperactive garbage compactor infused with the rage born of the world’s collective unfairness. Again, and again, and again the album delivers cataclysmic bangers, punching up with barbed-wire-bound fists.
11: Igorrr – Amen
Genre: Experimental extreme metal
“Amen” sounds like the most coherent album I’ve listened to of Igorrr’s to date, and that’s not saying it feels in any way tamed, or even housetrained. The flow writhes and glitches along in typical, spasmic fashion, and, long story short, it’s a great fucking time.
10: Allegaeon – The Ossuary Lens
Genre: Technical/melodic death metal
It’s always moving forward, in leaps and bounds, scurrying along complex tunnel networks, prowling the shadows and taking jet-fueled flight. Melodically, it’s as vibrant as it is focused, which is a hard thing to pull off.
9: Castle Rat – The Bestiary
Genre: Doom/heavy metal
What Castle Rat does so well within the fantasy doom genre is that they don’t make music ABOUT an imaginary realm, describing it in the role of storytellers, or poke half-ironic, half-loving fun at the concept from a meta standpoint. Their music IS the fantasy realm.
8: Gorotica – Daily Grind Of The Medieval Age
Genre: Grindcore/death metal
It’s hyper aggressive and savagely heavy, but instead of sticking with the intention of simply causing damage, they’ve crafted a series of flavorful, outstanding chapters in a mildly unhinged tale of cannibalism and medieval sadism, that’s about as serious as a Tarantino-film.
7: 1914 – Viribus Unitis
Genre: Black/death/doom metal
It’s extremely well balanced, and spins a dynamic tale that takes us through the entirety of the war, and chances are good you’ll come out the other end feeling things you might not have expected from a blackened death metal project.
6: Kalaveraztekah – Nikan Axkan
Genre: Progressive/melodic death metal
This is progressive death metal that’s absolutely dripping with Mesoamerican instrumental folk elements. It makes for a saturated and highly distinct sound not quite like anything else I’ve ever heard. It hits damn hard, is highly varied, and just oozes potential.
5: An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City
Genre: Progressive/atmospheric death metal
It’s got amazing melodic depth, feels completely organic, and builds beautifully. It’s impressively heavy as well as hypnotically atmospheric, with the kind of pull that has you “waking up”, as if from a trance at the end of it.
4: Creatvre – Toujours humain
Genre: Progressive/avant-garde extreme metal
Talk about outdoing yourself. “Toujours Humain” is alive, and running a whole bunch of different operations simultaneously, continuously evolving as its incomprehensible mind processes new information and reacts to it in ways both benign and hostile.
3: Whitechapel – Hymns In Dissonance
Genre: Deathcore
This stuff will shake your brain into a paste of submissive appreciation that they’ll knead into a ball and throw repeatedly into a wall. There’s tons of groove, and an impressive range of tempos, vocal styles and riff tones. Did I mention it’s unbelievably goddamn heavy?
2: Warbringer – Wrath And Ruin
Genre: Thrash metal
This might be the most focused, best produced thrash metal release that I have ever heard. Pause for effect. And that isn’t even nearly the best part of it…
1: Scour – Gold
Genre: Black metal/grindcore
The achievement of this album can be compared to the effort of mounting a chainsaw as a bayonet to a rotary cannon and somehow employing it as a precision weapon. The combination of frigid-toned, razor-edge ferocity and raw brutality on here might be the best I’ve ever heard. To me, this is everything that extreme metal is about and more.
What’s your AOTY? Voice your eclectic preferences in the comments below.
The Metal Dispatch 