2014 POLL RESULTS COUNTDOWN - ILM Metal Albums of the Year

i'm going to give celestite another go on the back of this poll.

Dominique's ballot

"YOB - Clearing the Path to Ascend
Stargazer - A Merging to the Boundless
Thantifaxath - Sacred White Noise
Swans - To Be Kind
Inconcessus Lux Lucis - Disintegration: Psalms of Veneration for the Nefarious Elite
Darkspace - Dark Space III I
Teitanblood - Death
Old Wainds - Nordraum"

Auto Focus

"Botanist - Vi: Flora
Panopticon - Roads to the North
Dawnbringer - Night of the Hammer
YOB - Clearing the Path to Ascend
Indian - From All Purity
Wold - Postsocial
Pallbearer - Foundations of Burden
Woccon - Solace in Decay
The Flight of Sleipnir - V.
Blut aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry
Occultation - Silence in the Ancestral House
Falls of Rauros - Believe In No Coming Shore
Thou - Heathen
Scott Walker & SunnO))) - Soused
Aureole - Alunar
Sivyj Yar - From the Dead Villages' Darkness
Horrendous - Ecdysis
Witch Mountain - Mobile of Angels
Coffinworm - IV.I.VIII
Agalloch - The Serpent & the Sphere
Auroch - Taman Shud
Conan - Blood Eagle
Bongripper - Miserable
Bölzer - Soma
Vorde - Vorde
Bastard Sapling - Instinct Is Survival
Spectral Lore - III
Xothist - Simulacrum
Primordial - Where Greater Men Have Fallen
Revocation - Deathless
Wolvhammer - Clawing into Black Sun
Barghest - The Virtuous Purge

Primitive Man/Fister - Split 12""
Lotus Thief - Rervm
Alraune - the Process of Self-Immolation
Yellow Eyes - The Desert Mourns
The Great Old Ones - TEKELI-LI
Secret Cutter - ""Self Titled""
Vermin Womb - Permanence
Yith - Yith
Artificial Brain - Labyrinth Constellation
The Wounded Kings - Consolamentum
Lord Mantis - Death Mask
Earth - Primitive and Deadly
Atlas Moth - The Old Believer
Atriarch - An Unending Pathway
Alaskan - Despair, Erosion, Loss"

TERRORIZER ALBUMS OF 2014

50. NACHTMYSTIUM ‘The World We Left Behind’ CENTURY MEDIA
49. At The Gates49. AT THE GATES ‘At War With Reality’ CENTURY MEDIA
48. DEATH PENALTY ‘Death Penalty’ RISE ABOVE
47. MARTYRDÖD ‘Elddop’ SOUTHERN LORD
46. ESBEN AND THE WITCH ‘A New Nature’ NOSTROMO
45. 11 PARANOIAS ‘Stealing Fire From Heaven’ RITUAL PRODUCTIONS
44. PRONG ‘Ruining Lives’ STEAMHAMMER/SPV
43. Lord Mantis43. LORD MANTIS ‘Death Mask’ PROFOUND LORE
42. WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM ‘Celestite’ ARTEMISIA
41. DECAPITATED ‘Blood Mantra’ NUCLEAR BLAST

40. CONAN ‘Blood Eagle’ NAPALM
39. ACxDC ‘Antichrist Demoncore’ MELOTOVE
38. INSOMNIUM ‘Shadows Of A Dying Sun’ CENTURY MEDIA
37. OPETH ‘Pale Communion’ ROADRUNNER
36. MAYHEM ‘Esoteric Warfare’ SEASON OF MIST
35. MASTODON ‘Once More ‘Round The Sun’ WARNER
34. THE BODY ‘I Shall Die Here’ RVNG
33. TOMBS ‘Savage Gold’ RELAPSE
32. ORANGE GOBLIN ‘Back From The Abyss’ CANDLELIGHT
31. SCHAMMASCH ‘Contradiction’ PROSTHETIC

30. TRAP THEM ‘Blissfucker’ PROSTHETIC
29. TEITANBLOOD ‘Death’ NORMA EVANGELIUM DIABOLI
28. SUNN O))) & ULVER ‘Terrestrials’ SOUTHERN LORD
27. PYRRHON ‘The Mother Of Virtues’ RELAPSE
26. TODAY IS THE DAY ‘Animal Mother’ SOUTHERN LORD
25. EARTH ‘Primitive And Deadly’ SOUTHERN LORD
24. VALLENFYRE ‘Splinters’ CENTURY MEDIA
23. AUTOPSY ‘Tourniquets, Hacksaws And Graves’ PEACEVILLE
22. BLUT AUS NORD ‘Memoria Vetusta III – Saturnian Poetry’ DEBERMUR MORTI
21. WOVENHAND ‘Refractory Obdurate’ DEATHWISH

20. DEAD CONGREGATION ‘Promulgation Of The Fall’ MARTYRDOOM
19. PANOPTICON ‘Roads To The North’ BINDRUNE
18. THOU ‘Heathen’ GILEAD MEDIA
17. AGALLOCH ‘The Serpent And The Sphere’ PROFOUND LORE
16. SWALLOWED ‘Lunarterial’ DARK DESCENT
15. VOICES ‘London’ CANDLELIGHT
14. JUDAS PRIEST ‘Redeemer Of Souls’ EPIC
13. WINTERFYLLETH ‘The Divination Of Antiquity’ CANDLELIGHT
12. MORBUS CHRON ‘Sweven’ CENTURY MEDIA
11. MIDNIGHT ‘No Mercy For Mayhem’ HELLS HEADBANGERS

10. ELECTRIC WIZARD ‘Time To Die’ SPINEFARM
9. PALLBEARER ‘Foundations Of Burden’ PROFOUND LORE
8. SÓLSTAFIR ‘Otta’ SEASON OF MIST
7. PRIMORDIAL ‘Where Greater Men Have Fallen’ METAL BLADE
6. EYEHATEGOD ‘Eyehategod’ HOUSECORE/CENTURY MEDIA
5. TRIPTYKON ‘Melana Chasmata’ CENTURY MEDIA
4. YOB ‘Clearing The Path To Ascend’ NEUROT
3. BEHEMOTH ‘The Satanist’ NUCLEAR BLAST
2. SWANS ‘To Be Kind’ YOUNG GOD/MUTE

1. GODFLESH ‘A World Lit Only By Fire’ AVALANCHE

Cosmic Slop could you post my ballot as well? I want everyone to bask in it's glory (i.e. I can't really remember half of it).

ok here's your ballot ultros

"Spectral Lore - III
Thantifaxath - Sacred White Noise
Old Man Gloom - The Ape of God II
Old Man Gloom - The Ape of God I
Scott Walker & SunnO))) - Soused
Jute Gyte - Vast Chains
Ambergris - Ambergris
Murmur - S/T
Boris - Noise
Jute Gyte - Ressentiment
AEvangelist - Writhes in the Murk
Kayo Dot - Coffins On Io
Hail Spirit Noir - Oi Magoi
Mare Cognitum - Phobos Monolith
Botanist - Vi: Flora
Petrychor - Makrokosmos
Lantlos - Melting Sun
Panopticon - Roads to the North
Have A Nice Life - The Unnatural World
Morbus Chron - Sweven
Alcest - Shelter
Agalloch - The Serpent & the Sphere
Opium Warlords - Taste My Sword Of Understanding
Sunn O))) & Ulver - Terrestrials
Floor - Oblation"

Ta, duck

spotify:user:pfunkboy:playlist:4DzhT7xPiDI3oy9tWVMGos
http://open.spotify.com/user/pfunkboy/playlist/4DzhT7xPiDI3oy9tWVMGos

i'm going to give celestite another go on the back of this poll.

― auto focus, Friday, December 19, 2014 2:01 AM (2 hours ago)

good headphones a must. first track starts of shaky, imo, but it just gets better and better as it goes. 2nd half of the title track is devastating.

Contenderizer, if you're at all interested, I found Ressentiment much more palatable. Maybe thatd be more your thing...? Of course I really like Discontinuities as well...

― wonderful about a proletariat-Vorticist version of James Brown (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, December 17, 2014 12:31 PM (2 days ago)

THANK YOU DRUGS. Spent the last few hours listening to Discontinuities, Vast Chains and Ressentiment back-to-back, and yeah, I enjoy the latter a great deal more than its predecessor. Keeps the sickening intensity level, but brings back the catchy, layered dissonance-hooks I loved so much on Discontinuities. Fewer anguished dirges also a plus. Honestly, there isn't a single Vast Chains track I like half so much as "The Haunting Sense of an Unrepeatable Unidirectional Vector", "Supreme Fictions and the Absolute Fake" and "The Failure of Transmutation". For that reason, my attention wandered, and I never got back around to check up on Ressentiment. Which is fucking fantastic. "The Grey King"! Ordered the CD-R to go with the other two, and now itching to dive into JG's six (!) prior black metal styled releases.

Some from my ballot that didn't place. Too bad Colour Haze's distributor won't use Bandcamp to let fans hear the album while they wait weeks and weeks for the physical product to trudge their way to the stores. Small Stone was a great model for that -- you could preview the albums sometimes a couple months before release date, pre-order the CDs through the site and actually get them promptly, etc. Fans of The Oath and Death Penalty will appreciate the proto-metal references really need to check out the Brimstone Coven, Demon Eye and Satyress.

Colour Haze - To The Highest Gods We Know
Spiders - Shake Electric
Castle - Under Siege
Brimstone Coven - Brimstone Coven
Satyress - Dark Fortunes
Demon Eye - Leave The Light
Motorpsycho - Behind The Sun
Les Big Byrd - They Worshipped Cats
All Them Witches - Lightning At The Door
Ogre - The Last Neanderthal
Mansion - Uncreation EP
Purson - In The Meantime EP
Alunah - Awakening The Forest
The Well - Samsara
Electric Citizen - Sateen
Messenger - Illusory Blues
Wedge - Wedge
The Socks - The Socks
Greenleaf - Trails & Passes
Black Moth - Condemned To Hope
Ovvl - Screech
Heat - Labyrinth
Monolord - Empress Rising
Moab - Billow
Hands Of Orlac - Figli Del Crepuscolo
Satan's Satyrs - Die Screaming
Dwellers - Pagan Fruit
Le Betre - Melas
Jeremy Irons & the Ratgang Malibus - Spirit Knife
Spiral Shades - Hypnosis Sessions
Occultation - Silence In The Ancestral House
Hornss - No Blood, No Sympathy
Black Trip - Goin' Under
Mars Red Sky - Stranded In Arcadia
John Garcia - John Garcia
Cardinals Folly - Our Cult Continues!
Lo-Pan - Colossus
Hessian - Bachelor Of Black Arts
Papir - Papir IIII
Sigiriya - Darkness Died Today
Fu Manchu - Gigantoid
Saturn - Ascending - Live In Space
Big Red Panda - Big Red Panda
John Gallow - Violet Dreams
Lecherous Gaze - Zeta Reticuli Blues
Sungod - Vision Space
Seven That Spells - The Death And Resurrection Of Krautrock: IO
Slow Season - Mountains
Holy Mountain - Ancient Astronauts
Morgan Delt - Morgan Delt
Deep Space Destructors - III
The Vintage Caravan - Voyage
Jess & the Ancient Ones - Castaneda EP

who appreciate

i thought occultation would feature in the top 50, surprised not to see it.

CS, could you please post my ballot as well? I didn't save either.

Vigils not Visions

― Devilock, Wednesday, December 17, 2014 7:25 PM (2 days ago)

goddammit, i keep doing that (re the howls of ebb album). when i posted my non-ballot a few days back, i had it backwards, but managed to notice and correct before posting. like my brain wants to be wrong...

sund4r's ballot

Jute Gyte - Vast Chains
Botanist - Vi: Flora
Panopticon - Roads to the North
Menace Ruine - Venus Armata
Thantifaxath - Sacred White Noise
Alaskan - Despair, Erosion, Loss
Zvi - Zvi
Ambergris - Ambergris
Stargazer - A Merging to the Boundless
Jute Gyte - Ressentiment
Petrychor - Makrokosmos
Swans - To Be Kind
Blut aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry
Sunn O))) & Ulver - Terrestrials
Pallbearer - Foundations of Burden

am i the only one to find botanist (maybe just maybe) a wee bit staid and comforting? i haven't made a deep study, but listened to III and IV a few times, the new one once. though i love the hammered dulcimer as an instrument, i wish the drums weren't so buried, or were more engaging, or the vocals a little more aggressive. i dunno, something to cut against the basic sweetness of the strings & melodies. its a gorgeous sound, no doubt, but little of it sticks and the whole leaves me slightly unsatisfied.

yes, you probably are

i thought so. just checking.

eh, i gave botanist a pass. sounded like post-rock.

that's the barbed version, yeah

Have a Nice Life are goth-tastic but enjoyable! I found the Alcest record dull in the extreme (and also not trv metal)

you think HANL are what Alcest should sound like?

my list, weighted:

Gridlink - Longhena
Kriegsmaschine - Enemy Of Man
Blut aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry
Teitanblood - Death
Cyntia - Limit Break

Horrendous - Ecdysis
Indian - From All Purity
AEvangelist - Writhes in the Murk
YOB - Clearing the Path to Ascend
Disentomb - Misery

Sick/Tired - Dissolution
Full of Hell - Full of Hell & Merzbow
Serpentine Path - Emanations
Behemoth - The Satanist
Neoheresy - Noc Która Dniem Się Stała

Darkspace - Dark Space III I
Necrophagia - WhiteWorm Cathedral
Mournful Congregation - Concrescence Of The Sophia
Incantation - Dirges Of Elysium
Thou - Heathen

Dead Congregation - Promulgation Of The Fall
Skull Fist - Chasing the Dream
BABYMETAL - BABYMETAL
Mayhem - Esoteric Warfare
Jute Gyte - Ressentiment

Triptykon - Melana Chasmata
Anaal Nakhrath - Desideratum
Vainaja - Kadotetut
Emptiness - Nothing But The Whole
Autopsy - Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves

Varathron - The Untrodden Corridors of Hades
Decaying Purity - Malignant Resurrection of the Fallen Souls
Pallbearer - Foundations of Burden
Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire
Archspire - The Lucid Collective

didn't think about the ordering a whole lot

brb, groping in a misty spread

It's interesting to see Kriegsmaschine toward the top of a couple lists. I'm a huge fan of their sister band Mgla, but the Kriegsmaschine didn't do much for me the few times I listened to it. I guess it's yet another one I'll need to spend more time with. That's the beauty of this countdown -- having some potential blind spots in my listening habits exposed and rectified. Thanks so much Cosmic Slop for running things. It's been a fun time for us metal geeks.

Gladsomany enjoyed it and Ihope you all (and lurkers from the rest of ilx) will check out albums and keep returning to posting their thoughts here.

Perhaps you might nominate and vote in ILM's 2014 End of Year Albums & Tracks Poll / NOMINATIONS THREAD

I think Botanist is closer to what I want shoegaze-metal to be, i.e. something that synthesizes the strengths of black metal and shoegaze/post-rock (as opposed to straight-up 90s nostalgia-pop, which seems pointless to me unless you can actually make something as good as Loveless). The drums could probably stand to be produced with more presence but it's something I can live with. I guess this mean that, for me, the metallic/screamo vocals and drums do cut through the sweetness enough. Plus, the distorted hammered dulcimer is so resonant and shimmery.

screamo vox or just black metal? the balance is better on III, at least relative to my tastes.

so a few non ilxors have been moaning that Emptiness did not make the countdown so anything else really good that didn't make it that was really great and under the radar?

Preferably , for me, no death/power/viking metal.

feel like you'd love the serpentine path if you haven't already heard it. just straight-up mean, bludgeoning sludgy riffs p much the whole way through.

Both Old Wainds and Inconcessus Lux Lucis didn't make it, and they're both considered good underground (though hardly "experimental" or post) black metal, of the Darkthrone variety. Really well done, and especially in ILL's case, playing with the style enough to make it seem not just a revival of 2nd wave bands.

screamo vox or just black metal? the balance is better on III, at least relative to my tastes.

When I tried III, I found it plodding (like a lot of post-rock, actually) but I love IV. I'm fine with hearing emo/hc elements mixed in with my metal: I liked a lot of that stuff in the 90s.

sund4r is very emo

so a few non ilxors have been moaning that Emptiness did not make the countdown so anything else really good that didn't make it that was really great and under the radar?

― Cosmic Slop, Friday, December 19, 2014 10:48 AM (9 minutes ago)

Well, Dominique OTM abt Old Wainds & Inconcessus Lux Lucis. Both made my short list, ILL might have gone top 20 if i'd bothered to rank things. Of course, since then i've heard another 10 or 15 really excellent 2014 metal albums, so who knows how things'd fall out now... Love year-end catch-up time!

StuffI at least kind of halfway dug that didn't make the top 100:

Ancient Ascendant – Echoes and Cinder (blackened death metal, weirdly understated yet powerful, classic-sounding but not retro)
Artificial Brain – Labyrinth Constellations (kind of amazed this didn't make the top 100, given local fondness for Gorguts et al)
Blood of Kingu – Dark Star on the Right Horn of the Crescent Moon (all Drudkh-related caveats, plus enchanted by gravemould)
Bloodbath – Grand Morbid Funeral (retro death metal supergroup w/ Katatonia, Opeth and now Paradise Lost folk, not essential but entertaining)
Bloody Hammers – Under Satan's Sun (a bad record, but the two singles are ridiculous catchy, like occult rock Tom Petty, I swear [in case you were really wanting some occult rock Tom Petty])
Coltsblood – Into the Unfathomable Abyss (awesome cromag doom sludge w Conan's John McNulty on vocals, a favorite)
Cretin – Cretin (just out, "overhyped" as someone is bound to say [streaming on NPR], a blast)
Darkest Era – Severance (i don't know what to call this, Primordial gone pop I guess, a guilty pleasure)
Emptiness – Nothing but the Whole (Devilock said so and is a notable hair formation)
Execration – Morbid Dimensions (still more blackened death metal, heavy on dreary atmosphere, lots of variety)
Grand Magus – Triumph and Power (far from their best, but it's definitely got moments, "Dominator" gets stuck in my head for days)
Howls of Ebb – Vigils of the Third Eye (repeat mention, compelling & unorthodox black/death for dedicated murk-dwellers)
Inconcessus Lux Lucis – Disintegration: Psalms of Veneration for the Nefarous Elite (as above, so below)
Melvins – Hold It In (worth it for the three resoundingly un-metal Paul Leary tunes alone - Paul Fucking Leary, you know?)
Mortuary Drape – Spiritual Independence (buried in the late-year rush? deserved better)
Nuclear Hammer – Serpentine Hermetic Lucifer (fucked up, like Aevangelist's special kid brother on discount cough syrup)
Old Wainds – Nordraum (as Dominique said)
Satan's Satyrs – Die Screaming (totally Hell's Headbangers-style, tho not on that label & as much garage rock as metal, fucking great)
Slugdge – Gastronomicon (okay, so they're a concept band about a war waged against humanity by Lovecraftian space slugs and...)
Taake – Stridens Hus (gets kind of black 'n' roll on "Orm", which is weird, and generally quote weak in comparison to prior work, but sue me, I dug it)
Tombs – Savage Gold (sanding off a few of the Metallum-offending edges got them approved but looks like it cost them wider appeal - a grower)
Trap Them – Blissfucker (basically want the whole thing to crawl like "Savage Climbers", but pretty great for teenage mallcore smash it up style shit)
Vampire – Vampire (OSDM working the death/thrash vein, heavy on the autumnal graveyard vibes, fucking rips)
Vaura – The Missing (guess this came out last year *shrug* - similar to Solitude's Sister but better, which is saying something)
Young and in the Way – When Life Comes to Death (works about as well as Red Bull, cheaper)

i was so disappointed by the tombs that i barely played it all year to see if it would grow on me : (

it's good! i did the same, just put it sadly away after an initial spin. didn't look back until about a month ago when i dug it out and found it had improved considerable w age.

still a big step down from path of totality tho :(

Tombs usually make these countdowns but I hadn't heard it (or even know it was out) but figured with nobody really voting for it it cant be that great

it's as great as you want it to be, see

I'm not sure if the Tombs was that poorly written or if it was just that the much drier production that stripped away a lot of the atmosphere and thick sludginess that I enjoyed about their previous stuff

argument for strong songwriting & sympathetic production on the tombs rec:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ecRGfgk90c

sound is clean but cavernous, lots of bass space, think it works really fucking well on this track

not that the image is doing them any favors ffs

Has Bastard Feast gone completely under the radar or do people just not like them? I was their only vote but I put it pretty high, maybe even top 5.

For anyone who liked this year's Trap Them, Young and in the Way, etc. I thought these guys' take on that vein of crusty blackened hardcore was a lot more interesting and well-executed:

https://bastardfeast.bandcamp.com/album/osculum-infame

was super disappointed in this year's Trap Them

Compare all the previous polls Previous Metal Poll EOY Results Thread

yeah, not on my radar, that's all. tbh, i think i only heard the other two due to incessant hype. not my kind of thing generally speaking. both are pretty middle of the road & rock-oriented relative to bastard feast (which is prob why they appeal to me). love YAITW's monster bass sound, the slower trap them tracks.

xp

Dominique you might be interested in that link plus the

YOU TOTALLY MISSED THE ILX HEAVY ROCK/METAL ALBUM POLL COUNTDOWN, SUCKA (CLICK FOR A RECAP)

gah, "Solitude" up there now equals In Solitude, plus whatever other magic erasings as needed. so much stupid.

Cannot believe that with all my anticipation of things Polish this year I missed out on Neoheresy. I love this "cloaked arm gesturing toward the horizon" style of cinematic black metal. Sort of like Summoning. Actually a lot like Summoning. Listening now, enjoying, and realizing it's long past time for me to familiarize myself with Hellveto.

I saw it on someone's list, is why I'm mentioning it now.

Alan N's list, now that I've gone back to check for proper attribution.