ILM METAL POLL 2018 RESULTS THREAD!

Thanks to everyone who voted. We received 33 ballots and big big hails to seandalai for doing the hard work tabulating.

Drugs a money and I are going to post a bonus 25 albums this weekend and the 100 will start Monday.

As always there is a Results playlist

125 Black Label Society - Grimmest Hits 75 Points, 3 Votes

https://i.imgur.com/7ZzgyMd.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/2lUZ9w5P1SCM1yViaQNfuA?si=-mWf1aTSQrWUykGz4NM0-Q

spotify:album:2lUZ9w5P1SCM1yViaQNfuA

http://www.blabbermouth.net/cdreviews/grimmest-hits/

Zakk Wylde has entered a unique phase in his venerated career. Of late, he has been running about with his tribute band, ZAKK SABBATH. After dropping 2016's compelling "Book of Shadows" sequel album, Wylde is set to rejoin his patron papa bear on the road. Ozzy Osbourne, who recently completed a book-closing run with BLACK SABBATH, has announced a two-year-plotted solo career farewell tour with Zakk Wylde on lead guitar. The circle revolves fittingly as Wylde releases his latest BLACK LABEL SOCIETY album, "Grimmest Hits", one unloading a gratuitous dose of SABBATH overtures. If it was anyone else, that might be a trite, overdone prospect. This being Zakk Wylde, however, the results yield gratifying adoration.

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY smooshes doom and blues together with full salute tilted toward BLACK SABBATH on "All That Once Shined", "Disbelief", "Bury Your Sorrow", "Seasons Of Falter" and "A Love Unreal". On the latter, Wylde can't vocally emulate his good friend Ozzy enough, in cadence if not pitch. Such as it's always been.

The fugue-whispered intro to "Trampled Down Below" opens up a somber march with John DeServio's plucky bass line dishing a monster groove for Zakk Wylde to wistfully dig his vocals into, and naturally to drop a juicy guitar solo over. DeServio is nearly as much of a force as Wylde himself on this album. The moody tone carries into "Seasons Of Falter", which plods upon the backbone of Jeff Fabb's steady crashing, the solemn guitars yet compelled to create an agreeable counter melody. The up-tempo rhythm, blaring bass and scattered blues bombs on "The Betrayal" give the album a hearty shake at the right spot.

As a master rock balladeer, Zakk Wylde engineers equal winners with "The Only Words" and "The Day That Heaven Had Gone Away". Their infectious glides provide customary shades of grace amidst the pounding antagonism—"Room Of Nightmares" punching the snot out of everything in-between them. The organ behind both songs' sprawling easygoingness hums along like an admiring bystander.

Jeff Fabb leads "Illusions Of Peace" even more than Wylde with a crushing rhythm that ceases only during the breath-catching breakdown. Fabb's sweat is matched by "Illusion's of Peace"'s enormous riffs and Zakk's fiery solo. With Dario Lorina on second guitar, the bulk in this band isn't contained strictly to Wylde's shredded biceps.

"Grimmest Hits" being what it is, a partial excuse for Zakk Wylde to shower his affection for Ozzy and BLACK SABBATH to blaring effect, this open love letter will delight Wylde fans. As a BLACK LABEL SOCIETY album, it has the required elements to qualify it as thus, but the gist of "Grimmest Hits" is most concerned with keeping the Birmingham doom torch blazing eternal.

https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/grimmest-hits-zakk-wylde-and-bls-serve-up-a-collection-of-radio-unfriendly-loudness-on-their-new-album

You’ve got to give Zakk Wylde this much—he can never be accused of overhyping himself. When asked if his latest Black Label Society album, Grimmest Hits, is a greatest hits set, he scoffs, “No. That would imply that I had the one essential ingredient for a greatest hits album: hit songs.”

He recounts a phone call he received from one of his record label reps when he was cutting the album. The exec asked, “Are there any hits?” Wylde let out a sad sigh and said, “I don’t think so. It’s looking rather grim.” Just like that, the album’s title was born, and the guitar star thinks it makes perfect sense. “This way, when somebody listens to the record and says, ‘I don’t hear any hits,’ I’ll go, ‘Exactly, jackass. That’s why it’s Grimmest Hits and not Greatest Hits.’

An auspicious start to be sure.

3 votes!

I haven't seen the ballots so I have no idea who voted this year but I hope this makes the day of those 3 voters.

Look forward to imago and tt liveblogging their listening

How come we decided to do it at 125 albums and not the ubiquitous 100?

25 bonus albums for the weekend

75 points for three votes! What is the place for a 25-pint album of which that is the average ballot score?

You would need to ask seandalai that as I have no idea of the weighting

Whoa that was quick.

33 ballots was a good opportunity to make this a Top 66 - almost a very beastly number and deferent to the 77. Quality, not quantity. I shall tune in when you reach #66

Kind of you to volunteer to run the 2019 poll. But DAM & I will finish this one first, thanks.

124 Deep Space Destructors - Visions from the Void 76 Points, 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/Rjn8ZIU.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/5zg8oj2XErF1cfdk4jsAcR?si=n7Z4M3B7R7-G0Asj6pAOgg

spotify:album:5zg8oj2XErF1cfdk4jsAcR

https://deepspacedestructors.bandcamp.com/album/visions-from-the-void

released December 10, 2018

On "Visions from the Void" pieces of the DSD hivemind are aligned with Dr. Space, contributing analog synthesizers for the whole album, as well as Antti "Yskä" Ylijääskö playing saxophone on "Tyhjyyden Mantra", Joonatan Elokuu Aaltonen devoting synthesizers, mellotron & guest vocals for "Floating", and TYHJÄ PÄÄ (Void Head) providing analog space sounds & drones for "From the Void".

"Visions from the Void" was recorded and mixed at Tonehaven Studios by Tom Brooke, while the guest artist were recorded in different locations. Mastering was done by Mojolab.

Yet again extremely talented Markus Räisänen provided the artwork and the gatefold images conjured by the artist will leave no spacehead cold.

http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2018/12/17/deep-space-destructors-visions-from-the-void-review/

Deep into the album comes the hook that says it all. “Abandon space and time/Freedom lose your mind.” It’s what Deep Space Destructors have been saying all along, but it’s not until the fourth of the five total tracks, on the aptly-titled “Floating,” which leads off side B ahead of closer “From the Void,” that they actually come out and say it. Their advocacy of that position, however, is writ large across Visions from the Void, which follows less than two years from early 2017’s Psychedelogy (review here) and pushes into new cosmic reaches for the band, expanding their sound and reach along an interstellar plane of surspace, dimensions intertwining as the core trio of bassist/vocalist Jani Pitkänen (also percussion), guitarist/backing vocalist Petri Lassila and drummer Markus Pitkänen welcome a host of guest performers. Perhaps chief among them is Scott “Dr. Space” Heller, who also helms Space Rock Productions, which is the label behind this and the last release.

Heller, who also captains the USS Øresund Space Collective, contributes analog synth to all five cuts on the 43-minute LP, but he’s hardly alone here, with Antti “Yskä” Ylijääskö adding sax to side A finale “Tyhjyyden Mantra,” Joonatan Elokuu donating synth, mellotron and vocals to the aforementioned “Floating,” and Tyhjä Pää giving further drone and ambience to “From the Void.” The latter two are return appearances, but even so, their coming back is emblematic of the growth Deep Space Destructors have undertaken since their 2012 debut, I (review here), and indeed, as their evolution has unfolded across 2013’s II (review here), 2014’s III (review here), 2015’s Spring Break from Space EP (review here) and Psychedelogy, they have only proceeded outward, and Visions from the Void is their most resonant work yet, unfurling with motorik beats and drifting atmospherics along a directed swirl that holds an underpinning of consciousness even as it seems to “lose its mind” along the lysergic meditation. From opener “Psyche Remade” onward, the band only affirms their maturity and their mastery of the spaced-out forms, calling to familiar genre tropes while putting their own stamp on them in craft and manifestation.

There’s little by way of fanfare at the outset. A quick introduction of a winding guitar line starts “Psyche Remade” and within the first 10 seconds of the album, Deep Space Destructors set themselves to the work of melting brains. Their style has never been to completely jam for jamming’s sake, and not that there’s anything wrong with that approach, but the trio’s process has only come to work more for them over time, resulting in hooks that act as beacons along their charted course into the titular void. They’ve done this in the past as well, but Visions from the Void finds Jani a more confident vocalist, higher in the mix and more of a presence even as his voice is coated in a range of effects. “Psyche Remade” has standout lines urging sonic enlightenment, and that frames much of the perspective from which the rest of the record draws, a kind of expand-your-mind-blow-your-mind advocacy the second cut “Astral Traveller” soon affirms in its last line, “Free your mind/Only love can remain,” after six minutes or so of primordial space rock groove and molten synth.

Tense, progressive and classic, its genre elements are nonetheless presented with a sonic heft that classic space rock could never have claimed as its own, pushing into a realm of heavy psychedelia in its low end that only seems to emphasize the throb at heart in the rhythm and the faroutification of what might otherwise be a straightforward structure. Heller has a marked effect on the atmosphere, but as “Tyhjyyden Mantra” crashes in its nine-minute grandeur to take hold and introduce not only the end of side A, but really the crux of what will follow in the final two tracks, there’s a darkening of mood that even the surrounding swirl can’t contradict. As the centerpiece, “Tyhjyyden Mantra” swaps out English lyrics for the band’s native Finnish, and along with the arrival of Ylijääskö‘s saxophone, it provides a pivotal turning point in the narrative of the record, marking the place where one is given over to the cosmos itself in that embrace of enlightenment, becoming one with dark matter as a necessary step in that. There’s a quiet moment that starts just before the five-minute mark and is soon topped by chants and leaves on a build that I wish was longer, but it accomplishes the purpose the band has for it as is, and soon departs for an effective sax-laced semi-wash that holds out to a graceful finish.

“Floating” starts with the lyrics noted earlier, and makes itself a standout not only through its lyrical quest for freedom of mind and spirit, but through its near-orchestral progressive arrangement. The additional synth and mellotron give further breadth to that which the band has already established — and among those elements, the midsection a stretch of gotta-hear bass and guitar interplay well worth noting — particularly the mellotron arriving shortly before seven minutes in to lend a dramatic feel to “Floating”‘s apex before the return of the vocals ultimately bring it full circle. As the only inclusion to pass the 10-minute mark, “From the Void” is immediately distinct as well, but it’s more the hypnotic initial rhythm that makes it so, and the sense of arrival is multi-tiered. As listeners, we’ve arrived at that moment of freedom so fervently championed throughout the four songs prior, and as a band, Deep Space Destructors have arrived at a new level of presentation and storytelling in their work, creating a thematic arc to convey their ideas across the album’s entirety. That’s an achievement not to be understated, but their execution of the semi-title-track is in no way bludgeoning listeners with what’s happening.

Rather, it rolls out fluidly atop a steady push of drums as bass, guitar and synth craft a nod that’s both psychedelic and a fitting bed for the lyrics, a kind of watery chant that keeps aligned with space rock traditionalism even as the music behind seems to tap into mantra-ism in a different and exciting way. They cap in motorik but still smooth fashion with a guitar solo leading the way out toward what comes after the void. And one supposes that’s really the question that remains. Deep Space Destructors have found this avenue of expression and made it their own. Over the past six years, a steady growth has led them to this point, where the aspects of genre they’ve absorbed have been remade at their will. So what happens now? It does not seem to me that they’re at any kind of end point in their progression. Nothing on Visions from the Void indicates a feeling of being staid. So what comes after sonic enlightenment? Where in the cosmos do we go next? It’s a story that ends and begs further elaboration, and I for one can’t wait to find out in the next chapter from Deep Space Destructors.
Deep Space Destructors, Visions from the Void (2018)

Neither is really my thing but Deep Space Destructors sound fun.

123 Protoplasma - - 76 Points, 3 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/qj5VbQa.jpg

https://protoplasmaprotoplasma.bandcamp.com/releases

released March 29, 2018

SONGS - PROTOPLASMA

WITH:
VOX ON SCIFI - PROTOPLASMA NŐI KAR
SAX ON TRITON - THESEUS CLAY

REC - PROTOPLASMA
ADD-REC - PATAKI TOMI
MIX & MASTER - PUHA SZABI

ART - DÉMIEN (www.instagram.com/david_pazar)
license
all rights reserved
tags
Tags
pop brutal prog noise rock zeuhl Budapest

https://canthisevenbecalledmusic.com/protoplasma/

What a surprise I had, when sifting through the zeuhl tag on bandcamp, when I stumbled upon this Magyar brutal prog gem. Protoplasma keeps it mysterious: we don’t know who is in the band or how many they are, only that they’re from Budapest! Maybe I should organize a field trip, someday, to make some detective work… They hardly play zeuhl music, their sound is closer to experimental, noise rock, and avant-prog, but I certainly won’t mind the indirect reference.

– (Kötőjel, I guess?) is just over thirty minutes, but it’s filled to the brim with explosive riffs and rhythms, odd, reverberated vocals, and off-kilter compositions. It’s certainly an album that stands out, while showing its roots in psychedelic and progressive music. Kötőjel (-) is inventive and easygoing. You’re sure to have a good time with it!

never heard of but sounds very interesting

It's a name your price album on bandcamp

Protoplasma was my #37, which now that I think about it seems like a very low placement for something I enjoyed a lot. Sounds like children's TV themes from a nightmare future. Sort of this year's Stabscotch.

Hard rock is a genre tag I would usually avoid, but Black Label Society are sounding pleasant and proficient enough. Not sure I'd be able to vibe with a whole album of this in one sitting though.

122 The Oscillation - Wasted Space 77 Points, 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/FFo6OIS.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/2J0tq5Kyd647gKyWxPFU1e?si=t4INgZ3iT3WqSBEvM99nJA

spotify:album:2J0tq5Kyd647gKyWxPFU1e

https://theoscillation.bandcamp.com/album/wasted-space

Following a recalibration and consolidation with their recent electronics-inflected album, 2018’s U.E.F., The Oscillation is back with their sixth and most ambitious album to date, Wasted Space. A meditation on the nature of existence in the face of what can be insurmountable odds, Wasted Space finds The Oscillation painting from the darker shades of the kaleidoscopic scale.

“The origins of Wasted Space go back to Monographic in 2016,” muses Demian Castellanos - the mastermind behind The Oscillation. “That was a very bleak and heavy record and I really needed to move out of that mindset. Making U.E.F freed me up to write a coherent collection of narrative songs and compositions. Wasted Space is a partial continuation of a journey started with U.E.F., but one that re-incorporates more song-based ideas again.”

What’s immediately apparent is that Wasted Space sets it stall well away from the prosaic third-eye tropes that have become orthodoxy. Album opener ‘Entity’ establishes the pace with a focus on the dancefloor as much as on the navigation of existence. Fusing muscular grooves with an industrial wall of sound, these are bold steps into wholly new territories.

“There’s an irony at play here,” considers Castellanos... more
credits
released September 21, 2018

https://psychinsightmusic.com/2018/09/28/album-review-wasted-space-by-the-oscillation/

This is The Oscillation’s sixth album, and I don’t remember one that opens quite with the bang of ‘Wasted Space’. The band’s previous outing ‘UEF‘, an LP of two long tracks which really gave Castellanos the space to explore new directions and incorporate new sounds and textures, and has seemingly allowed him to hit re-set to some extent. This has certainly paid off in my opinion as this album feels really tight and focussed and yet also a departure from the album before ‘UEF’, ‘Monographic’.

The opening track, ‘Entity’ blasts out of the speakers as if transported through time from Bowie’s ‘Scary Monsters’ album (my favourite of his if you’re interested). That slightly metallic tone together with a deep funky baseline have me casting my mind back to all those years ago when the great man set sonic thrusters away from the ‘Berlin trilogy’ and on to yet another persona. However, while elements of ‘Entity’ joyfully remind me of that album through there is more to this track. It’s darker and more dysfunctional (deliberately so I imagine), but is a massive dance track all the same, and here you can see Castellanos’s direction towards such as techno on the previous album.

In many ways the same could be said of the title track. ‘Wasted Space’ keeps up the funky tone, allied with darker electronic elements which really give this album it’s atmosphere. Here the joyousness of the beat is given a counterpoint with bleaker tones that match the aim of the album, which is “a meditation on the nature of existence in the face of what can be insurmountable odds”. This is further illustrated by the video released in conjunction with the album, directed by Antonio Curcetti, whose work with Castellanos I have previously featured (here). Castellanos takes up the commentary:

The concept behind the video is about the idea of losing yourself in technology and merging with it. It definitely pursues my previous themes of alienation and feeds them through Antonio’s vision and third eye.

Curcetti adds:

‘Wasted Space’ comes from a technological journey, the same each of us goes through since technology has changed our daily lives. As in David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, where the main character becomes part of the interface and machinery he is investigating, in ‘Wasted Space’ Demian discovers his multi-self through the monitors.

From there ‘Visions of Emptiness’ begins in a somewhat fragmented manner before settling into a trippy rhythm that is far from passive, the beats and swirls of sound add to the meditative nature of the work, taking it away from the much darker shades of ‘Monographic’. After what is a lull, the dance patterns return with ‘Drop’ which I imagine grooving myself stupid to in the right situation. Again the catharsis of the ‘UEF’ album is plain to see as The Oscillation approaches the music which a new level of clarity.

‘The Human Shell’ is a far more considered piece which comes with Castellanos’s hope that:

People will be able to relate to this song. There’s a lot of love and empathy in there and it reaches out to say that we’re not alone, that we don’t have to exist independently of each other.

It is certainly one of those tracks that you can just sit with and let it wash over you, repeat with the fragility that we often feel in our own lives and personalities.

The album finishes with ‘Luminous Being’, which is a long instrumental piece that, to some extent, harks back to the ‘UEF’ album. But even here the sound feels somehow more crystalline, the thought patterns reflected in it somehow more clear. Indeed, there seems to be a lightness of touch here that I’ve not felt to be the case, at least to an extent, on any of Castellanos’s previous works.

‘Wasted Space’, then is for me something of a step forward for The Oscillation project. It is an album that at some points wants you to get up and dance, where as at others you are encouraged to sit and engage in contemplation. It is an album, then, about movement and the senses… and if it is about the nature of existence, for me it is how this is experienced through these media.

‘Wasted Space’ is available now from The Oscillation bandcamp page and Fuzz Club Records.

Obviously not metal yet cool nonetheless.

121 Wayfarer - World's Blood 77 Points, 3 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/AOmjDxT.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/1XETgWzPEDpuGiDRxAdxLf?si=dFNe8PCgRXKm-KGBJ2VB3A
spotify:album:1XETgWzPEDpuGiDRxAdxLf

https://wayfarercolorado.bandcamp.com/album/worlds-blood-2

“World’s Blood” is black metal of the American West. Wayfarer recorded the album in the winter of early 2018 at The Thousand Caves in New York under the watchful production of Colin Marston.

A reflection of the Rocky Mountains and high plains of their native Colorado, the band tells a story that is uniquely American. Drawing influence as much from the dusty, dark Americana of the “Denver Sound” and the scores of epic westerns as they do the fury and melody of black metal; Wayfarer brings something original to the table with a sound that is at once aggressive and honest. The album paints a hallucinatory picture of the western frontier, and the haunting presence of the blood in the soils from a culture lost to time.

Wayfarer was first brought together in 2012, by a group of Colorado natives. The members of the band aimed to create something original - fierce, beautiful, and honest, in order to contribute back to the pantheon of the great and timeless music that shaped them as people. The founding lineup of Shane McCarthy, Tanner Rezabek, Isaac Faulk and James Hansen released their debut album “Children Of The Iron Age” in 2014, which was later picked up by Prosthetic Records. With the release of the album, the band began what would grow be substantial touring of the material... more
credits
released May 25, 2018

Engineered, mixed and mastered by Colin Marston at The Thousand Caves.

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/wayfarer-worlds-blood/

Black metal has touched nearly every corner of the world, and Colorado outfit Wayfarer’s brand reaches to a version of the American Frontier immortalized on countless films and TV shows. Drawing from the quintessential swagger of Ennio Morricone (ubiquitous in its time and since hammered repeatedly into pop consciousness thanks to Quentin Tarantino and other subsequent luminaries) and melding this influence with the contemplative atmospherics of the Cascadian wilderness, Wayfarer channel the Old West in all its windswept and dust-caked glory.

Travel back to this blood-soaked and bullet-riddled era with our exclusive premiere of Wayfarer’s third full-length album World’s Blood below.

Wayfarer understand the immersive worldbuilding power achievable through patient songwriting across grand timescales. Over the course of three consecutive epics exceeding ten minutes and bookended by five-minute counterparts, the album develops at a consciously deliberate pace. Much of the music wallows in dirgelike tempos, creeping steadily forward as a weary yet committed caravan trundling across barren plains and through narrow mountain passes, with violent cloudbursts of blast beats and concussive tom fills puncturing the stillness.

The Western themes of World’s Blood are implied, rather than overtly stated, through rhythmic, instrumental, and melodic references. The record opens with a creeping snare crescendo suggesting the approaching footfalls of a sprinting horse. As it peaks, Wayfarer erupt into a full-out gallop, the cadence of which subtly sets the tone for the album’s concept. After several minutes of soul-withering black metal, throughout which honest, emotive leads waver mournfully over rampaging drums, the soft snare pattern returns to underpin an ambient interlude. Wayfarer could have bluntly incorporated their chosen motifs as obvious gimmicks, but instead, they’ve breathed these ideas gradually into their cinematic compositions so as to embed them on an intuitive level.

The implacable lead melodies are reminiscent of the meandering progressions spun by experimental black metal masters Krallice, a comparison made all the more readily due to Colin Marston’s role in engineering, mixing, and mastering. Marston’s morose aesthetic — distant vocals, maudlin leads, crisp bass, and thin, punchy drums — is an apt medium for Wayfarer’s lumbering arrangements. He proves an ideal partner for the band, empowering the music by focusing it though a stylistic filter which best enables it to flourish. The interplay between the unflagging dervish guitars and grounding presence of the bass adds intricacy and depth, while drummer Isaac Faulk’s soulful performance reinforces the album’s deeply organic nature.

World’s Blood is fittingly illustrated by its cover art, a vintage 1908 Edward S. Curtis photograph taken in Montana. Any identifying features of the monolithic, backlit subject are lost in shadow, the entire scene blanketed in sepia haze. Calling to mind Frank Frazetta’s iconic work Death Dealer, Curtis’s faceless rider is an ominous harbinger of the dangers that await in the merciless, wild frontier.

https://www.echoesanddust.com/2018/07/wayfarer-worlds-blood/

World's Blood by Wayfarer
Wayfarer on the web:
Facebook | Bandcamp |
Release date: May 25, 2018
Label: Profound Lore Records
by Gary Davidson | July 13, 2018 | Reviews

I am still trying to come to terms with what just happened after I pressed play on the third album by Denver’s Wayfarer. I was ripped from reality and placed back in the 1880’s, suddenly I could smell the plains of America and taste the sand and dust filling my lungs as my body was pummelled from riding in a rickety horse and carriage. From the go World’s Blood takes you on an adventure, imagine Little House On The Prairie through a black metal filter and you start to get on the right path.

From 1845 Manifest Destiny and various gold rushes spread the populace of North America from the east coast to the west coast and there are many highs and lows of moving such a great distance with horse power being the grandest form of transportation. Wayfarer has managed to create an album that makes you feel like you are there on that voyage. Opening track ‘Animal Crown’ captures the sense of excitement of the new undertaking with its pounding rhythm led by the drums and wrapped in a rustic, metallic riff that breaks with a heavy twang in between thrusting strums. It is very catchy, a perfect opener and one that you will keep on going back to. Yet even in this track you can begin to hear the creaks of discontent setting in and the following tracks traverse the many hurdles such a journey can produce.

The overall label for the release is black metal but it is worked so brilliantly that it is never the overbearing theme and appears in flourishes. No two tracks follow the same structure or pattern yet the atmosphere on the album is very consistent. After ‘Animal Crown’ the music sits back a bit which leaves space for a wonderful atmosphere with rich reverb to build in the gap before the deep ferocious vocals descend. On ‘The Dreaming Plain’ and ‘On Horseback They Carried Thunder’ there are outbreaks of blast beats and tremolo guitar that draw you back to black metal but ‘The Crows Ahead Cry War’ has a far more progressive feel to it and swings around the foot stomping beat of the opening track.

There is just such an ease to this album which creates a meaningful theme rather than a forced concept album. The tonality and little touches always manage to drawback to the feeling of western expansion. Little drum rolls and percussion mix with slightly metallic guitar rings, space and great production to take the listener with the band and its wagon on its mission. This is truly a cracking piece of work and is sure to stand the test of time due to its originality, it is rare to find new leaders but Wayfarer proves it is still possible to be unique.

Everynoise calls this "Christian indie" (??) but that might not be right...

Dunno this but it sounds interesting indeed

Oh I remember liking this one

My #24, and the best American(a) BM I've heard all year. Bonus points for 'A Nation of Immigrants'.

Surprised to see it place so low tbh.

did you campaign for it? that usually helps

I campaigned for a dozen or so but this one wasn't among them.

This is enjoyable!

I like the image for the Spotify playlist btw

TIE
119 Pig Destroyer - Head Cage 78 Points, 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/V50ZPI4.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/1GCN7SL1Z4mRyMxqb1YJGQ?si=CvEP1LMRTt-uSlXzUPtcWQ
spotify:album:1GCN7SL1Z4mRyMxqb1YJGQ

https://pigdestroyer.bandcamp.com/album/head-cage

After six long, harsh years of absence, the mighty PIG DESTROYER have reassembled to eradicate eardrums and split skulls with their highly anticipated sixth full-length opus, entitled Head Cage (named after a grisly medieval torture device). A visceral vortex of animalistic rage and extreme sonic brilliance, Head Cage is a true work of extreme metal art, that with the addition of a bass player, is hands down their most dynamic and heaviest recording to date. Across twelve tracks, PIG DESTROYER weave together harrowing tales of philosophical dualities, touching on mortality and depression, fear and violence, and the darkest complexities of the human condition, all told through the distorted lens of delightfully transgressive vocalist/lyricist JR Hayes. Musically, the band continues to push the boundaries of metal, grindcore, noise and punk, ramping up the intensity and leaving you bludgeoned in a state of utter shock, all in less than 33 minutes.

Head Cage was recorded by guitarist Scott Hull at Visceral Sound Studios, mixed and mastered by Will Putney (Exhumed, Every Time I Die, Body Count) and features striking artwork by Mark McCoy (Full of Hell, Nothing) along with guest vocal appearances by Agoraphobic Nosebleed's Richard Johnson and Kat Katz plus Full Of Hell's Dylan Walker. PLAY AT MAXIMUM VOLUME!
credits
released September 7, 2018

2018 Relapse Records
www.relapse.com
www.relapserecords.bandcamp.com

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/pig-destroyer-head-cage/
8.1

119 Alrakis - Echoes from η Carinae 78 Points, 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/MHzBpmQ.jpg

https://selfmutilation.bandcamp.com/album/echoes-from-eta-carinae

https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Alrakis/Echoes_from_%CE%B7_Carinae/707426/

After a 7-year wait, the legendary German atmospheric black metal band, Alrakis, has returned from the dark void of space and has bestowed upon us a new slice of exquisite cosmic black metal that, in my opinion, could be the beginning stages of a cult classic for fans of this interstellar subgenre. Alrakis’ first release, “Alpha Eri”, was great in its self, but the creator, A1V, and his newest guitarist, (N.), have created something really special here. One song, titled “Echoes from Eta Carinae”, is a massive space-laced beast that measures 52:34 minutes long. Being a big fan of the funeral doom subgenre, I have grown very accustomed to very long songs and I usually cultivate much excitement when I encounter a new song over 40 minutes long. Discovering a new long song like this, for me, usually means that a band might have put forth some kind of effort in creating something fresh and enchanting - at least that’s the hope anyways. The question is, can a band create a long ass song that can captivate one’s attention and imagination and not bore them to sleep? Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they fail. Did Alrakis deliver in creating such a song? Yes, they did indeed, and much more.

The first thing that makes Alrakis’ “Echoes from Eta Carinae” so captivating for me is understanding what kind of cosmic atmosphere they were trying to convey with this song. Being an amateur astronomer myself, I am very familiar with the spellbinding Eta Carinae. If you’re not familiar, then perhaps I can explain what it is real quick. I personally see this song as a literal musical interpretation of what Eta Carinae is and what the “Echoes” are. Eta Carinae, about 7,500 light-years away, is binary star system in the Carina Constellation. The system comprises of two main stars, the primary, named Eta Car A, and the secondary star, named Eta Car B. Eta Car A is a massive unstable leviathan similar to a luminous blue variable star. These volatile stars are over a hundred times massive than our own sun and Eta Car A is about 200 solar masses. Blue variable stars have a relatively short lifespan and end up exploding in a supernova when all their fuel is spent. The resultant explosion usually leaves behind a Black Hole. When Eta Car A explodes, somewhere between now and a million years from now, the supernova will be so bright, observers here on Earth will be able to see the spectacle during the daytime. The secondary star, Eta Car B, is a big mean bastard as well but it’s only about 50 solar masses. So, Eta Car B rotates around Eta Car A in an eccentric orbit and does so once about every 5.5 years. At their closest approach, these two stars get pretty pissed at each other. The gravity of each star tugs and pulls on each other straining the already unstable and tormented primary Eta Car A star. Sometimes their gravitational interactions strip off massive amounts of material from the primary resulting in flare-up similar to a supernova itself. When this happens, the star system becomes one of the brightest objects in the night sky. This happened in the year of 1837 and the flare-up lasted for 21 years. Known as the “Great Eruption”, the cataclysm became almost as luminescent as the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius. Now days, astronomers can detect further evidence of the 1837 eruption by observing a phenonium called “light echoes”. When this eruption occurred over 180 years ago, light from the outburst has been bouncing off neighboring dust clouds ever since. Without any known lyrics at this time to examine over, I am assuming that this song that Alrakis has created is referring to this “light echo” phenonium created by the Eta Carinae 1837 outburst.

The second and most important thing that makes this song and album so captivating is, of course, the music. The song starts out with what I perceive as the outburst or outbursts of Eta Carinae and the following echoes. This echo is eventually accompanied and slowly replaced by a slow symphony of beautiful cosmic soundscapes that drift an atmosphere of total calm and entrancing ambiance over my ears. One can easily envision following the source of the echoes by slowly approaching the Eta Carinae nebula - a kaleidoscope of cold dust clouds, gasses, stars and vibrant colors. At about the 9:30 mark, the guitars, bass, drums and vocals all kick into the atmosphere as you pass into the “Homunculus” cocoon - and their they are - the two demonic leviathans wreaking havoc on the region. As per Alrakis fashion, you will never hear any volcanic black metal style blast beats but, rather, their usual style of slow/mid-paced drumming accompanied by (N.)’s fast-ass melodic rhythm and lead guitar picking. If you’re not familiar with Alrakis’ sound try to imagine a meeting between black metal and funeral doom. A1V’s vocals are about the same as on their previous album - high-pitched black metal type shrieks and wales and the style fits perfectly with the song. Along with the atmosphere of keyboards, they proceed to create symphonic tunes of cosmic solitude, resplendence and inevitable doom. Then around 16:30, you hover near Eta Car A - the primary titan of annihilation and awe. But she is quite now, beautiful as she sleeps soundly but… Eta Car B slowly approaches. Then, suddenly, a violent burst of bright light and deadly radiation explodes across the cosmos and you are thrown light-years away. The “Echoes” of light slowly returns. Do you follow the echoes back to the source or do you retreat like a pansy-assed little bitch? Continuing on, very good. At about 28:05 the strings, drums and vocals returns. This time the vocals of A1V sounds utterly tormented, almost like he is mourning the death of something. At about 32:03, a pained and sorrowful picking of guitars floods in like the lowering of a coffin, containing someone once loved, forever into the cold ground. This is the part where I envision Alrakis’ interpretation of the future death process of Eta Carinae – a vicious upheaval of destruction and true unbridled power unlike anything any of us could possibly imagine… The supernova - an explosion so massive that even 7,500 light-years away from us would glow brightly in the daytime sky and would be brighter than the full moon at night. At about the 40:00-minute mark, the song uses the remaining time to grieve the death of Eta Carinae and explore the aftermath of the calamity with a soft relaxing symphony of beauty and majesty – a damn perfect way to end a damn fantastic and mesmerizing song.

I enjoyed Alrakis’ first album well enough but this newest release of theirs is something special. It’s everything I love in music, long as hell and chucked full of imagination, darkness and beauty – just waves upon waves of crushing atmosphere. You’ll not wish the song to end, literally. The good news is you can play it again. “Echoes from Eta Carinae” is not a song for the distracted, impatient or a rushed listener. Embark with Alrakis and this song when you have 52+ minutes all by yourself. If you’re a fan of space, cosmic, depressive, ambient and atmospheric black metal, this newest album is a must-have. If you were a fan of Alrakis’ first release and, after 7 years, gave up thinking they were done – go get this now you damn fool! Go get it!

A Pig Destroyer album in the Age of Trump, huh? It feels too easy—a standing invitation to catharsis, complete with a return envelope and postage already paid. The Mid-Atlantic’s grindcore standard bearers have rarely been overtly political, but they’ve often been relentless with their social critiques. A mental health regimen meant to curb eccentricity, a power structure where shutting up advances résumés, a religious system where ideas are presented as directives: Especially during the last decade, Pig Destroyer have attached J.R. Hayes’ subtly poetic and explicitly scathing notions to music so meticulous and belligerent that it could drive you to enlist with whatever side he’s on. Now seems like the time for Hayes to rage, to make his coded frustrations loud and clear.

But Pig Destroyer are not the kind of band to fulfill expectations. During their 20-year career, they have morphed in stepwise, deliberate fashion from grindcore exemplars into subgenre subversives, interrupting tantrums with plunges into doom and coarsening their sound with sheets of noise. They’ve never done it better than they do on Head Cage, the band’s strangest, strongest, and most accessible album ever. The landscape it paints is of a planet more terrifying than a mere president or the politics he represents could ever be. Pig Destroyer sidestep political diatribes to build a world of sheer terror, where broken hearts sink into abjection and satisfaction is a quasi-religious myth. There is a scene of Lovecraft-like horror and another of apocalyptic gloom, all animated by music as uneasy as the tribulations these dozen songs portray.

Head Cage is a vivid compendium of modern crises, where the likes of Trump are symptoms of causes too complicated for a single impeachment to eradicate. Hayes lambasts social ills one at a time, an outsider criticizing the inner workings of systems he abhors. During “Army of Cops,” he rages that we enjoy the complacent glow of contentment too much to overrun the heavy hand of the state. On “Terminal Itch,” he notes that we’ll try anything to stay young and beautiful for now, even if it means an uglier death later. And in “Mt. Skull,” he laments how we exploit the places we love until we’ve choked them into wastelands. Hayes shifts briefly into fantasy for “The Adventures of Jason and J.R.,” where a run-in with deep-state operatives and “Dick Cheney in his Halliburton jet pack” ruins a trip to the hardcore show. Even ordinary nights get crazy now.

Pig Destroyer answer these odd times by ripping apart their grindcore fabric for good, twisting the threads into surprising chimeras. In the distant past, they could fit 38 tracks into less than 40 minutes. While they’ve slowed that pace, in general, they reverted to their more straightforward hustle as recently as 2012’s Book Burner. But these dozen songs are an unabashed detour. “Army of Cops” and “Circle River” are meant for shouting out loud, anthems waiting to be echoed back to the band by heaving, sweat-soaked clubs. Navigating a hangman riff, “The Torture Fields” moves from an invocation of lumbering doom to a sermon of circle-pit madness. Grand finale “House of Snakes” suggests Neurosis writing after epinephrine injections. This is as close to crossover approachability as Pig Destroyer have ever gotten.

As with 2007’s Phantom Limb, Pig Destroyer’s breakthrough with a wider audience and their earliest clean split with genre orthodoxy, the success of Head Cage stems in part from a new addition. A dozen years ago, it was Blake Harrison, whose squeal of squelch and samples added a terrifying depth to Pig Destroyer’s charge. This time, it’s John Jarvis, the band’s first-ever bassist and the cousin of drummer Adam Jarvis. He strengthens the sound, a back brace offering support for the occasional dead-ahead rumble like “Terminal Itch” and the thrash of “Mt. Skull.” And he supplies textural breadth for the high-treble attack, battling against Harrison’s ghastly noise during “Concrete Beast.”

More important, though, is his role as a musical pivot point, allowing the band to change directions in an instant and his cousin to stretch and compress time itself. The bass holds the center of “Dark Train,” for instance, while Adam occasionally leaps over the meter, only to splash back down in a blast beat, creating the continuous sensation of whiplash. It’s like watching Usain Bolt skip through the middle of a 100-meter dash before easily sprinting to the win. And in “The Adventures of Jason and J.R.,” Pig Destroyer slide steadily from a mid-tempo march to a breakneck onslaught around the time Dick Cheney arrives, the band translating the anxious spirit of the story into sound. A quintet now, Pig Destroyer are not only louder and bigger but also more dynamic and versatile, capable of bolder ideas and executions.

One of the year’s best and most urgent metal records, Head Cage is a fitting counterpart to another essential bit of 2018 heaviness, Thou’s Magus. Like Hayes, Thou’s Bryan Funck confronted our confounding times and walked away with complicated questions about what we’ve demanded from ourselves, our leaders, and our world. Both records place blame on responsible parties but also ask that we all try harder—or that we, as Hayes puts it, fight against our urge to be “kept down.” His and Funck’s respective bands respond in kind by using subgenre strictures as starting points, not finish lines. Like Magus, Head Cage attempts to wrestle ageless ideas from the specific stresses of our age without deigning to call them by name.

we dont have many ties this year

Also:. Very surprised that DSD and Oscillation got another vote. imago called ST 37 "this year's Hawkwind" but I suspect Deep Space Destructors deserve that designation every year, even if this year's album is a little weaker than the last. I really love that Oscillation album a lot, though. I think it works as metal but obviously that sort of 'industrial kosmiche' vibe breaks a lot of the molds

I don't get Pig Destroyer at all. Alrakis, on the other hand, helps justify your decision to go for 125 instead of the customary 100.

as i said its just a weekend bonus. I'll give the Alrakis a listen.

I haven't got access to the ballots george so I dunno who else voted for those albums but clearly they have a 'fanbase' on ilm, lol.
They're bound to get more fans though because of the countdown , I gave them both a listen and enjoyed.

It was hard to find out anything about them. That was the only review I could find.

So far I've heard Protoplasma, who I voted for, and Wayfarer, which was Ok I thought but not much more. The psych stuff is probably good for what it is but I have little tolerance for that stuff.

lol at BLS placing though, I haven't thought of that band for years... I had a good friend in high school who was really into that southern rawk stuff so I heard this band while drinking for a time

Comment on bandcamp about listening to Alrakis in a sensory deprivation tank has led me to reading all about the founder of isolation tanks and soundtracked by this, I am having the best time.

118 KŁY - Szczerzenie 79 Points, 3 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/cugddjt.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/3xcoIAL0RgXD7ErVpaLSSv?si=9d9Qbq5oTfyd81pcp-3gzg

spotify:album:3xcoIAL0RgXD7ErVpaLSSv

https://paganrecords.bandcamp.com/album/szczerzenie

Although KŁY (english: fangs) were established in 1997, the band released their first demo, “Taran-Gai”, only last year. Their first full-length release, “Szczerzenie” consists of six tracks that are difficult to categorise under one genre. At the roots of the album lies melancholic Burzum-like black metal richly interwoven with different sounds. The band themselves compared those different sounds to the music of Hypothermia, Lifelover, Austere, Grey Waters or even the early works of Ulver, Unholy, Katatonia or Anathema. Kły have a broad spectrum of musical influences; however, black metal, the mountains, the Forest and shamanism are the driving force.
credits
released April 20, 2018

Recorded at the turn of 2017/18 at Czyściec Studio.
Mixed and mastered by Nihil.
Intros recorded in Kielce in 1998.

http://polishmetalcult.blogspot.com/2018/05/ky-szczerzenie-recenzja.html

I przyszło mi po raz kolejny spojrzeć w kierunku dość starej, bo formalnie z 1997 roku formacji z upośledzonym "ł" w logu zespołu. Kły wydało rok temu demko "Taran-Gai" na łamach papierzaka R'lyeh zine, a dokładniej numeru #13. Spotkało się z różnymi opiniami. Jakie było moje zdanie tajemnicą nie jest, możecie sobie wejść na stronę i zobaczyć leniwe kutasy, nie bronię. Za to pełniak "Szczerzenie" ukazał się 20 kwietnia tego roku i do swojej stajni przygarnął ich nie kto inny jak Pagan Records, więc materiał zdążył już obiec internet, który wręcz oszalał na punkcie tego prawie 50-minutowego materiału. Przydałoby się, żebym teraz ja wcisnął swoje 3 grosze w tej sprawie.

Po raz kolejny czeka nas niebagatelna wędrówka, a już na pewno dłuższa. Materiał w demku wydawał się dojrzały, więc nie wiem, czy można powiedzieć, że ten jest jeszcze "doroślejszy" od swojego poprzednika. Parę motywów i elementów jest tutaj bardzo do siebie zbliżonych, jednak co by nie mówić, to nie jest już muzyka, którą można skategoryzować jako po prostu atmo black metal. Teraz to coś z pogranicza stylu Burzum, avant-gardy Furii, klimatu Lifelovera, riffów z Anathemy i czego oni by tutaj jeszcze kurwa nie dali. Nie brzmi to jak jakaś kalka lub chaotyczny i bezpłciowy twór. Wszystko jest przemyślane i wstawione tam, gdzie chcieli to zrobić. Tylko czy to wyszło zespołowi na dobre? I tak, i nie. Wiele osób poznało Kły dopiero przy spotkaniu z tym krążkiem i zachwytów było dużo. Mają to coś, czego nie można im odmówić, niesamowity klimat trzymany od samego intra, które jak dla mnie jest trochę przydługie, bo zajmuje aż kawałek ponad pieciominutowy i trwa wręcz jeszcze przez początek następnego utworu, aż do samego końca płyty, która jest zakończona dźwiękiem tak dosadnym, że aż ja się poczułem nijako. Z drugiej strony mamy osoby, którym nic ciągle nie pasuje, i akurat mówię tu o sobie. Więc ja się spodziewałem black metalu, tego co było w demku, a poszli w zupełnie innym kierunku. No, jak dla mnie blacku jest tutaj bardzo mało. Lecz trzeba przyznać, że pierwszy faktyczny utwór "Wypełni" może cholera zmylić, bo tutaj tego blacku zdecydowanie najwięcej i naprawdę wchodzi to solidnie, bez zbędnego biadolenia. W "Kłysica" też jest tego trochę, więc da się znaleźc coś na czym idzie zawiesić ucho. Mamy taki blackowy początek, zakończenie i intro, outro w stylu tych całych dziwnych odgłosów czy innych efektów, którymi był przepełniony "Taran-Gai". Ma to swój urok i gdzie w wspominanym demku, mówiło się raczej o tym jak o efekciarskich motywach, tak tutaj wydają się one być integralną częścią całej kompozycji. Za to ten cały środek, jakoś tak przepada w moim mniemaniu mimo kilku na prawdę chwytliwych momentów. Trzeba na prawdę wielokrotnie ten wałek odsłuchać, aby wyłapać to co najważniejsze. Wydaje mi się, że za dużo treści wsadzili w całość, lecz na pewno efekt widać. Muzycznie zaś, perkusja jak była programowana tak jest, gitary słusznie podążają za tym całym przedstawieniem, a wokal, stracił zdecydowanie i niestety, na pazurze. Jest on bardzo wyrazisty, zrozumiały, wręcz nawet doniosły. Jednak jak dla mnie stracił ten wygłos, który nadawał mistyczności, no i robił z Kieł black metal z krwi i kości, rzecz jasna.

Naturalną jak dla mnie rzeczą jest, że zespół, który robi z muzyki coś innego niż spotykaliśmy dotychczas, a będzie to robił dobrze, zyska te salony. Tym bardziej, że światło reflektorów padło ze strony nie kogo innego jak Pagan Records, a byle czego raczej nie wydają, o czym myślę większość powinna wiedzieć. I nie da się ukryć, Kły zaskakują. Jest to ciekawe, spójne, wręcz w pewnych momentach innowacyjne, mimo podobieństw do wieli innych tworów. Po prostu ja się spodziewałem więcej blacku, mniej tych wszystkich szeptów, szumów, nawet sam nie poptrafię znaleźć terminu na to, co się podczas tego odsłuchu działo. Mówili, że mamy tutaj jakąś Furię, czy nawet czasem Mgłę. Może się nie znam, dla mnie jest to coś zupełnie innego. Może umówmy się tak. Ja już nie pierdolę, a Ty, czytelniku, zapoznasz się z płytą, tylko nie nastawiaj się na typowy atmosferyczny black metal. Z pewnością będziesz mieć ciekawą przygodę z Kły "Szczerzenie". Bo płyta zdecydowanie interesująca.

I've been listening to a few things. Wayfarer is right in my atmospheric black metal wheelhouse. It rules.

And they're from Denver!

Alrakis is the glacial, hour-long blackgaze I didn't know I needed this year. I've seen it described as melancholy a lot, but I think it sounds joyful and dolphin-like.

117 Progenie Terrestre Pura - StarCross 80 Points, 3 Votess
https://i.imgur.com/PPfH5Hj.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/5kT71O1X4RGk2UZFGDk8tZ?si=K0kcwqriQsWMX-NdIaOmtg
spotify:album:5kT71O1X4RGk2UZFGDk8tZ

https://progenieterrestrepura.bandcamp.com/album/starcross

https://headbangerreviews.wordpress.com/2018/06/05/progenie-terrestre-pura-starcross/

Last year, the spacial entity known as Progenie Terrestre Pura took us on yet another trip across the cosmos. It was beautiful, intense, and an absolute joy to listen to that still permeates the album to this day. The band had been promising new material for this season for a while, and they’ve kept their promise! What Progenie Terrestre Pura has done with this EP is basically the antithesis to the beauty of its predecessor, and created an EP that’s rich in story and raw energy!

There’s a certain charm to concept albums no matter what form they take that always captivate me to the fullest extent. It’s always nice to have a story, even if it’s one that has been done before. Progenie Terrestre Pura channels the spirit of classics like “Alien” with this smashing EP, “starCross”, telling a familiar tale of a ship discovering and investigating an unknown signal from an unknown, unmapped sector and the horrors that ensue. It’s a tale that’s perfect for the void of space despite how cliche it may seem now, and I couldn’t picture a better band to carry say a tale. Sure, cosmic black metal has the likes of Mesarthim and Mare Cognitum to propel it forward, but Progenie Terrestre Pura adds a different layer to the mix. “starCross” isn’t the first album to do such albeit certainly the best showcase in my eyes, but it brings in elements of atmosphere combined with industrial factors that bring a technical feel to it all that Progenie Terrestre Pura pulls off without breaking a single sweat. It allows for “starCross” to become a shining example of what this niche style can become, and Progenie Terrestre Pura holds nothing back with this EP being incredibly intense, something that really gets the blood flowing real fucking quick, and a rollercoaster of a story that doesn’t stop for us to take even a quick breather. Everything is set to an eleven here, and the sheer quality of “starCross” is all but undeniable when looked at from any angle.

There are incredibly few bands in the cosmic black metal genre, and Progenie Terrestre Pura barely makes the cut. I say that because while this act definitely has the qualifications for the style, they don’t settle there as they propel themselves forward with a cinematic experience with each album paired with metal that’s all but the most deliciously immersive stuff a blending of atmospheric black and industrial metal can provide. It all then comes to a head with “starCross”, and it’s a trip I feel everyone should get a taste of at least once.

“starCross” releases on June 11th via Avantgarde Music!

I've been told I have to post here. The Alrakis was lovely and perfect for a nap. I voted for PTP and the middle track sounds a bit like what the last Dodheimsgard album was doing except a bit less good but that's OK as the DHG was one of the best metal albums ever

I very much enjoy PTP but they've hit the point of diminishing returns.

I didn't enjoy the Pig Destroyer as much as I was expecting to

116 Iskandr - Euprosopon 81 Points, 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/21ZeaKA.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/5c4VDSzTJeqeMjswl5PXuS?si=AriTF-t0RSmb3vXhOnAAvA
spotify:album:5c4VDSzTJeqeMjswl5PXuS

https://iskandr.bandcamp.com/album/euprosopon

Iskandr now returns with it's second full-length album entitled “Euprosopon”. The album's title expresses the impossibility of the ideal man. However, formulating new concepts of heroism is nessecary to preserve ideas of strife and longing in an age of eternal devaluation. The record departs from previous works in it's more pronounced songwriting, confrontational attitude and triumphant regal flourishes. Euprosopon aims to evoke heroic medieval symbolism, while taking musical cues mainly from Norwegian classics such as Enslaved's “Eld”, the “Dark Sorcery EP” by Aeternus and “...Again Shall Be” by Hades, to enrich it's already established style and sound. Supported by the session drums and production assistance of M. Koops of Fluisteraars, Euprosopon surely will be seen as a definite leap in an attempt to chart a path of noble and austere black metal art.

Euprosopon consists of four tracks, clocking a respectable fourty-five minutes. Battle scarred and worn, the tortured vocals tell, in four cuts respectfully; of defiance in the face of mortal odds, impermanence of kingly might, banishment under pain of death and the resurgence of a new age. The informed listener will detect in the music an increased complexity in composition, range and atmospheric elements. Coupled with an increased clarity in sound while retaining a natural and uncompromising outlook familiar for those who are aware of the previous output of the Haeresis Noviomagi circle, this record will certainly demonstrate the heights this project is yearning to reach.

Venerable DigiCD & Vinyl editions via Eisenwald, with a pro-tape edition (featuring lush risograph printed artwork) under the sigil of Haeresis Noviomagi.
credits
released September 28, 2018

https://www.echoesanddust.com/2018/10/iskandr-euprosopon/

Second of three releases coming out of small Dutch collective label Haeresis Noviomagi on tape, and CD and LP on Eisenwald, German label and distro with a great alertness to local extreme underground scenes that deserve a wider audience. This one is the third release from Iskandr after debut Heilig Land and EP Zon.

We start with a sort of playing at creaking hinges and tentative guitar stabs, and then things begin to jingle and skritter with little bells of nerves and anticipation. An exhaled note of breath imparts something dark into being, and we’re off. The opening track thumps along in a three-four rhythm (an extreme anti-waltz?), the drums shuffling uneasily while emphasising the return to the downbeat, allowing the guitar to gradually build higher tension. The shortest track present, this is still an eight minute jolt to grab you by the face.

Second track ‘Regnum’ leaps out of a stutter at the end of the first, and there are quickly rising plates of riffs with hoarse growls and aggressive drum fills, which evolve into some highly dramatic sweeping passages due to the growling of the foreground vocals and some kind of demonic choir shrieking at the faint edges. One of the screeches sails off into no-mans-land, and a sullen sawing creak croak beckons an acoustic guitar, brilliantly recorded in inky spools, a sort of medieval mediterranean middle earth sound, an elf trapped in a cave for a thousand years, a black metal counterpart to Sabbath’s ‘Orchid’.

And of course, after ‘Orchid’ follows ‘Lord of this World’; so here we have the burst of third track ‘Verban’. It’s got the most dynamic forward motion of the four pieces, with a great drilling piercing high-register riff while those drums continue to load in the compelling fills. Finally, closing track ‘Heriwalt’ appears with more desolate atmospherics. This time the acoustic guitars are more like riffling fluttering moths wings, then an ancient sigil riff is formed out of pushing and pulling buzzing noise, underpinned with a gloomy, ponderous bassline. This precipitates a sliding, crashing section like the fragmentary collapse of an ice shelf, and then in the end the shuffling of the roosting bat moths again signals the gathering dusk.

Like the beautiful monochrome cover image, this is a striking vision of black metal architecture

Way too low. This was one of my favourites by a comfortable mile.

that was yesterday

What can I say, I'm a slow one.

Downing a beer while giving The Sciences another shot. I'm bored out of my mind.

So are most ILXers it seems, since no one is commenting on the 2 BeSt MeTaL aLbUmS of 2018.

Lowest average BPM of any metal poll top 10?

The most laudatory thing I can say about the Sleep album is that most of it is instrumental.

xp

so it would seem, pomenitul

xxp

yes

the Sleep album was so great. Had zero expectations for it. esp the way it came out on RSD at such gouging prices but once everyone heard it they were blown away.

I hope Om make a new album this year

Nobody but us 3 are around but I may as well post the full results for those who care.

Thanks to everyone who participated inc drugs a money and seandalai without whose help this poll wouldn't exist and of course to moka for her wonderful top 20 images!

Rank Name Score Votes #1 Votes
1 Sleep - The Sciences 758.0 18 1
2 Yob - Our Raw Heart 724.0 18 2
3 Windhand - Eternal Return 443.0 14 1
4 Mournful Congregation - The Incubus of Karma 415.0 10 1
5 Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland 413.0 11 1
6 Evoken - Hypnagogia 408.0 12 0
7 Ghost - Prequelle 408.0 11 0
8 Thy Catafalque - Geometria 377.0 10 1
9 Khorada - Salt 358.0 8 1
10 Entropia - Vacuum 355.0 9 1

11 Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love 354.0 9 1
12 High On Fire - Electric Messiah 346.0 10 0
13 Summoning - With Doom We Come 345.0 10 0
14 The Armed - Only Love 334.0 8 2
15 Voivod - The Wake 324.0 10 0
16 Yamantaka//Sonic Titan - Dirt 323.0 8 0
17 Senyawa - Sujud 321.0 8 0
18 SUMAC - Love in Shadow 310.0 8 1
19 Tomb Mold - Manor of Infinite Forms 286.0 9 0
20 Ails - The Unraveling 284.0 7 0
21 Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit 270.0 8 1
22 Pharaoh Overlord - Zero 268.0 7 1
23 Panopticon - The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness I And II 266.0 8 1
24 Khemmis - Desolation 256.0 7 0
25 Urfaust - The Constellatory Practice 255.0 8 0
26 Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It 252.0 6 0
27 LLNN - Deads 237.0 6 1
28 Funeral Mist - Hekatomb 230.0 7 0
29 Pantheist - Seeking Infinity 222.0 5 0
30 mewithoutyou - Untitled 221.0 5 1
31 Kriegsmaschine - Apocalypticists 216.0 5 1
32 Judas Priest - Firepower 214.0 8 0
33 Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) 214.0 6 0
34 A Forest of Stars - Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes 212.0 6 1
35 Mesarthim - The Density Parameter 212.0 6 0
36 Cloud Rat - Clipped Beaks // Silk Panic 209.0 5 1
37 Horrendous - Idol 207.0 8 0
38 awakebutstillinbed - what people call low self-esteem is really just seeing yourself the way that other people see you 206.0 5 1
39 Earthless - Black Heaven 205.0 6 0
40 Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want 203.0 5 0
41 Slugdge - Esoteric Malacology 197.0 6 0
42 DMBQ - Keeenly 194.0 6 0
42 The Skull - The Endless Road Turns Dark 194.0 6 0
44 Ungfell - Mythen, Mären, Pestilenz 193.0 5 1
45 Dark Buddha Rising - II 191.0 5 0
46 Andrew W.K. - You’re Not Alone 189.0 5 1
47 Imperial Triumphant - Vile Luxury 188.0 5 0
48 Agrimonia - Awaken 180.0 5 1
49 Messa - Feast for Water 179.0 5 0
50 Wrong - Feel Great 177.0 5 0

51 Graveyard - Peace 176.0 5 1
52 Sorcier des glaces - Sorcier des glaces 173.0 6 0
53 Tribulation - Down Below 164.0 5 0
54 Obliteration - Cenotaph Obscure 163.0 4 0
55 ION - A Path Unknown 161.0 5 0
56 Sumac & Keiji Haino - Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous To Look At Face On 160.0 4 0
57 The Body - I Have Fought Against It, but I Can't Any Longer. 159.0 7 0
58 Witch Mountain - Witch Mountain 156.0 5 0
59 Shylmagoghnar - Transience 155.0 5 0
60 Sylvaine - Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone 154.0 5 0
61 Wiegedood - De Doden Hebben het Goed III 154.0 4 0
62 Thou - Magus 152.0 4 0
63 Ancestors - Suspended in Reflections 151.0 4 0
63 The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic 151.0 4 0
65 Alameda 4 - Czarna Woda 150.0 4 0
66 Sepulcher - Panoptic Horror 148.0 4 0
67 Earthling Society - MO-The Demon 148.0 3 1
68 ST 37 - ST 37 146.0 4 0
69 Gnaw Their Tongues - Genocidal Majesty 144.0 5 0
70 Skeletonwitch - Devouring Radiant Light 142.0 5 0
71 Yawningman - The Revolt Against Tired Noises 142.0 4 1
72 Satan - Cruel Magic 137.0 4 0
73 KEN Mode - Loved 135.0 5 0
74 Un - Sentiment 135.0 3 0
75 Koenjihyakkei - Dhorimviskha 134.0 3 0
76 Portal - ION 131.0 4 0
77 Tropical Fuck Storm - A Laughing Death in Meatspace 130.0 4 0
78 Aura Noir - Aura Noire 128.0 4 0
79 Cultes des Ghoules - Sinister, or Treading the Darker Paths 127.0 3 0
80 Cosmic Church - Täyttymys 126.0 4 0
80 Paara - Riitti 126.0 4 0
82 Bongripper - Terminal 126.0 3 1
83 Chapel of Disease - And as We Have Seen the Storm, We Have Embraced the Eye 125.0 3 0
84 Turnstile - Time & Space 124.0 3 0
85 Fluisteraars / Turia - De Oord 122.0 3 0
86 Uniform - The Long Walk 118.0 3 0
87 Lychgate - The Contagion in Nine Steps 117.0 4 0
88 Yhdarl - Loss 117.0 3 0
89 The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir 115.0 4 0
90 envy - Alnair In August 112.0 4 0
91 Cantique lépreux - Paysages polaires 112.0 3 0
92 Hamferð - Támsins likam 108.0 4 0
93 Azusa - Heavy Yoke 108.0 3 0
94 Rebel Wizard - Voluptuous Worship of Rapture and Response 107.0 3 0
95 Hooded Menace - Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed 104.0 4 0
96 Machine Girl - The Ugly Art 100.0 3 0
97 Pale Divine - Pale Divine 99.0 3 0
98 Basalte - Vertige 97.0 3 0
99 Alice In Chains - Rainier Fog 96.0 3 0
100 Black Salvation - Uncertainty Is Bliss 96.0 2 1

101 Anthroprophh - Omegaville 95.0 3 0
102 Closer - All This Will Be 93.0 2 0
103 Behemoth - I Loved You at your Darkest 90.0 3 0
104 Xenoblight - Procreation 89.0 3 0
105 Sulphur Aeon - The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos 89.0 2 0
106 Møl - Jord 88.0 2 0
107 Kevin Hufnagel - Messages to the Past 87.0 2 0
108 Dautha - Brethren of the Black Soil 86.0 3 0
109 Burial Invocation - Abiogenesis 86.0 2 0
110 Windhand / Satan's Satyrs - Split 85.0 4 0
111 Ghastly - Death Velour 85.0 2 0
112 Mammoth Grinder - Cosmic Crypt 84.0 2 0
113 Spiders - Killer Machine 83.0 2 0
114 Svartidauði - Revelations Of The Red Sword 82.0 4 0
115 Dispirit - Enantiodromian Birth 82.0 2 0
116 Iskandr - Euprosopon 81.0 2 0
117 Progenie Terrestre Pura - StarCross 80.0 3 0
118 KÅ‚y - Szczerzenie 79.0 3 0
119 Alrakis - Echoes from η Carinae 78.0 2 0
119 Pig Destroyer - Head Cage 78.0 2 0
121 Wayfarer - World’s Blood 77.0 3 0
122 The Oscillation - Wasted Space 77.0 2 0
123 Protoplasma - - 76.0 3 0
124 Deep Space Destructors - Visions from the Void 76.0 2 0
125 Black Label Society - Grimmest Hits 75.0 3 0

Just missed out

126 Argonavis - Passing the Igneous Maw 73.0 2 0
126 Deszcz - III 73.0 2 0
126 Gouge Away - Burnt Sugar 73.0 2 0
126 Moss Upon The Skull - In Vengeful Reverence 73.0 2 0
130 Haunt - Burst Into Flames 72.0 2 0
131 Respire - Denouement 71.0 2 0
132 Immortal - Northern Chaos Gods 70.0 3 0
133 Neckbeard Deathcamp - White Nationalism is for Basement Dwelling Losers 70.0 2 0
134 Basarabian Hills - Eerie Light of Fireflies 68.0 2 0
135 Uada - Cult of a Dying Sun 67.0 3 0
136 Scumpulse - Rotten 67.0 2 0
136 The HIRS Collective - Friends. Lovers. Favorites. 67.0 2 0
138 In the Woods... - Cease the Day 66.0 3 0
139 Minami Deutsch - With Dim Light 66.0 2 0
139 Star Period Star - Daylight Spending Time 66.0 2 0
141 Divide and Dissolve - Abomination 65.0 2 0
142 CB3 - From Nothing to Eternity 63.0 2 0
142 Sunsunmoon - Demons in Medieval Times 63.0 2 0
142 Usurpress - Interregnum 63.0 2 0
145 Funeral Winds - Sinister Creed 62.0 2 0
146 ASG - Survive Sunrise 61.0 2 0
146 Cauldron - New Gods 61.0 2 0
146 Conan - Existential Void Guardian 61.0 2 0
146 Orphaned Land - Unsung Prophets And Dead Messiahs 61.0 2 0
146 Stortregn - Emptiness Fills The Void 61.0 2 0
146 Witchsorrow - Hexenhammer 61.0 2 0
152 Dylan Carson - Conquistador 60.0 2 0
152 Eigenlicht - Self-Annihilating Consciousness 60.0 2 0
152 Ihsahn - Ámr 60.0 2 0
152 Mare - Ebony Tower 60.0 2 0
156 Gorycz - Piach 60.0 1 1
157 Khanus - Flammarion 59.0 2 0
157 Mamaleek - Out of Time 59.0 2 0
159 Amorphis - Queen of Time 58.0 2 0
160 Spectral Wound - Infernal Decadence 56.0 2 0

161 Lie in Ruins - Demise 54.0 2 0
162 Blackwater Holylight - s/t 53.0 2 0
162 Esoctrilihum - Inhüma 53.0 2 0
162 Gygax - Second Edition 53.0 2 0
162 Ilsa - Corpse Fortress 53.0 2 0
166 Convulsing - Grievous 49.0 2 0
167 Mansion - First Death of the Lutheran 49.0 1 0
167 Mindforce - Excalibur 49.0 1 0
167 Rites Of Thy Degringolade - The Blade Philosophical 49.0 1 0
170 Craft - White Noise and Black Metal 48.0 2 0
171 Deiquisitor - Downfall of the Apostates 48.0 1 0
171 Three Knee Deep - Wrong World 48.0 1 0
173 Ataraxy - Where All Hope Fades 47.0 2 0
174 Mortuous - Through Wilderness 46.0 2 0
175 Al-Namrood - Ten Years of Resistance 46.0 1 0
175 Uncreation - Overwhelming Chaos 46.0 1 0
177 None - Life Has Gone On Long Enough 45.0 2 0
178 El Efecto - Memórias do fogo 45.0 1 0
179 1914 - The Blind Leading the Blind 44.0 1 0
179 Demonomancy - Poisoned Atonement 44.0 1 0
179 Gorod - Æthra 44.0 1 0
182 Cadaveric Fumes - Heirs Of Hideous Secrecies 43.0 2 0
182 Weedpecker - III 43.0 2 0
184 American Nightmare - American Nightmare 43.0 1 0
184 Archgoat - The Luciferian Crown 43.0 1 0
184 Blosse - Era Noire 43.0 1 0
184 Candy - Good To Feel 43.0 1 0
184 Dimmu Borgir - Oenian 43.0 1 0
189 Visigoth - Conqueror's Oath 42.0 3 0
190 Sojourner - The Shadowed Road 42.0 2 0
190 Unreqvited - Stars Wept to the Sea 42.0 2 0
192 Anvil - Pounding The Pavement 42.0 1 0
192 Sectioned - Annihilated 42.0 1 0
192 Severoth - When the Night Falls… 42.0 1 0
192 Taphos - Come Ethereal Somberness 42.0 1 0
196 Drudkh - They Often See Dreams About the Spring 41.0 3 0
197 Vein - Errorzone 41.0 2 0
198 At The Gates - To Drink From The Night Itself 41.0 1 0
198 Soldat Hans - es taut 41.0 1 0
198 Sonic Poison - Combat Grind 41.0 1 0

201 Ophidian Forest - votIVe 40.0 1 0
201 Spiral Skies - Blues For A Dying Planet 40.0 1 0
203 Dunbarrow - Dunbarrow II 39.0 1 0
203 Feminazgul - The Age of Men is Over 39.0 1 0
203 Golgothan Remains - Perverse Offerings to the Void 39.0 1 0
203 Inhumankind - Self-Extinction 39.0 1 0
203 Stone Deaf - Royal Burnout 39.0 1 0
208 Atavisma - The Chthonic Rituals 38.0 1 0
208 Spectral Lore/Jute Gyte - Helian 38.0 1 0
210 Varathron - Patriarchs of Evil 37.0 3 0
211 Geryon - Astomatous 37.0 2 0
211 Q'uq'umatz - Kukulkan 37.0 2 0
213 Distorted Harmony - A Way Out 37.0 1 0
213 Magim - Ignis 37.0 1 0
213 Totalselfhatred - Solitude 37.0 1 0
213 Vargrav - Netherstorm 37.0 1 0
217 Vouna - Vouna 36.0 2 0
218 Anaal Nathrakh - A New Kind of Horror 36.0 1 0
218 Délétère - De Horae Leprae 36.0 1 0
218 HWWAUOCH - HWWAUOCH 36.0 1 0
218 Legend of the Seagullmen - Legend of the Seagullmen 36.0 1 0
218 Mahr - Antelux 36.0 1 0
218 Veiled - Black Celestial Orbs 36.0 1 0
224 Chrch - Light Will Consume Us All 35.0 2 0
224 Crippled Black Phoenix - Great Escape 35.0 2 0
226 Abigor - Höllenzwang (Chronicles of Perdition) 35.0 1 0
226 Holy Grove - II 35.0 1 0
226 Saxon - Thunderbolt 35.0 1 0
226 Tad - Quick And Dirty 35.0 1 0
230 Beastmaker - EPs 1-10 34.0 1 0
230 Nishaiar - Irix Zerius 34.0 1 0
232 A Storm Of Light - Anthroscene 33.0 2 0
233 Convocation - Scars Across 33.0 1 0
233 Threatin - Breaking the World 33.0 1 0
235 Ling Tosite Sigure - #5 32.0 1 0
235 Sigh - Heir To Despair 32.0 1 0
235 Thee Oh Sees - Smote Reverser 32.0 1 0
238 Closet Witch - Closet Witch 31.0 1 0
238 Serpent Column - Invicta 31.0 1 0
238 Skeletal Remains - Devouring Mortality 31.0 1 0
238 To End It All - Scourge of Woman 31.0 1 0
242 Caustic Vomit - Festering Odes to Deformity 30.0 1 0
242 Erdve - Vaitojimas 30.0 1 0
242 Melvins - Pinkus Abortion Technician 30.0 1 0
245 Jute Gyte - Penetralia 29.0 2 0
245 King Goat - Debt of Aeons 29.0 2 0
245 Necronomidol - Voidhymn 29.0 2 0
245 Shining - X (Varg Utan Flock) 29.0 2 0
249 Corrosion of Conformity - No Cross No Crown 29.0 1 0
249 Cult Leader - A Patient Man 29.0 1 0

251 Daemogog - Anagogic Imposition 27.0 1 0
251 Panegyrist - Hierurgy 27.0 1 0
253 Monster Magnet - Mindfucker 25.0 2 0
254 Arkona - Khram 25.0 1 0
254 Estuarine - Sic Erat Scriptum 25.0 1 0
254 Eye of Nix - Black Somnia 25.0 1 0
254 Frozen Crown - The Fallen King 25.0 1 0
254 House of Atreus - From the Madness of Ixion 25.0 1 0
254 Lovebites - Clockwork Immortality 25.0 1 0
254 Madder Mortem - Marrow 25.0 1 0
254 Ostraca - Enemy 25.0 1 0
254 Sarah Longfield - Disparity 25.0 1 0
263 Deceased - Ghostly White 24.0 2 0
264 Altars of Grief - Iris 24.0 1 0
264 Det eviga leendet - Lenience 24.0 1 0
266 Black Viper - Hellions of Fire 23.0 1 0
266 Nachash - Phantasmal Triunity 23.0 1 0
266 Orange Goblin - The Wolf Bites Back 23.0 1 0
269 Mylingar - Döda Drömmar 22.0 1 0
270 Eosphoros - Eosphoros 21.0 1 0
270 High Tension - Purge 21.0 1 0
270 Urarv - Argentum 21.0 1 0
270 Venom - Storm the Gates 21.0 1 0
274 Svrm - Лихиї вітри стогнуть без упину 20.0 2 0
274 Zealotry - At the Nexus of All Stillborn Worlds 20.0 2 0
276 Eneferens - The Bleakness of our Constant 20.0 1 0
276 Onirism - Falling Moon 20.0 1 0
276 Rotting Christ - Their Greatest Spells 20.0 1 0
276 Sektarism - Fils de Dieu 20.0 1 0
276 Wormlight - Wrath of the Wilds 20.0 1 0
276 Würm - Exhumed 20.0 1 0
282 Aeternus - Heathen 19.0 1 0
282 Pink Mist - Pink Mist 19.0 1 0
282 Ulthar - Cosmovore 19.0 1 0
285 Benthik Zone - Causa modicum temporis spatium 18.0 1 0
285 ColdWorld - Nostalgia 18.0 1 0
285 Criminal Instinct - Sweet Dreams 18.0 1 0
285 Infernal Coil - Within a World Forgotten 18.0 1 0
285 Psycroptic - As the Kingdom Drowns 18.0 1 0
290 Autarcie - Seqvania 17.0 1 0
290 Deicide - Overtures of Blasphemy 17.0 1 0
290 Embrace of Thorns - Scorn Aesthetics 17.0 1 0
290 Faal - Desolate Grief 17.0 1 0
290 Howling Sycamore - Howling Sycamore 17.0 1 0
295 Lago - Sea of Duress 16.0 1 0
295 Monotheist - Scourge 16.0 1 0
295 Primordial - Exile Amongst the Ruins 16.0 1 0
298 Mongrel's Cross - Psalter of the Royal Dragon Court 15.0 1 0
298 Ritual Necromancy - Disinterred Horror 15.0 1 0
300 Ultha - The Inextricable Wandering 14.0 2 0

301 Black Tusk - T.C.B.T. 14.0 1 0
301 Deathhammer - Chained to Hell 14.0 1 0
301 Wild Hunt - Afrterdream of the Reveller 14.0 1 0
304 Arsis - Visitant 13.0 1 0
304 Hyborian - Hyborian, Vol. 1 13.0 1 0
304 Monolithe - Nebula Septem 13.0 1 0
307 Churchburn - None Shall Live… The Hymns of Misery 12.0 1 0
308 Faustcoven - In the Shadow of Doom 11.0 1 0
308 Kwade Droes - De Duivel En Zijn Gore Oude Kankermoer 11.0 1 0
308 Storm {O} - Ere 11.0 1 0
308 Voodus - Into the Wild 11.0 1 0
312 Lecherous Nocturne - Occultaclysmic 10.0 1 0
312 Rauhnåcht - Unterm Gipfelthron 10.0 1 0
314 Exxxekutioner - Death Sentence 9.0 1 0
315 Gost - Possessor 8.0 1 0
315 Scorched - Ecliptic Butchery 8.0 1 0
317 Drawn And Quartered - The One Who Lurks 7.0 1 0
317 Gotsu Totsu Kotsu - The Final Stand 7.0 1 0
319 Kroda - Selbstwelt 6.0 1 0
319 Runemagick - Evoked From Abysmal Sleep 6.0 1 0
319 Skullcave - FEAR 6.0 1 0
319 Vihameditaatio - Demo I 6.0 1 0
319 Vreid - Lifehunger 6.0 1 0
324 Elderwind - The Colder The Night 5.0 1 0
324 Inexorum - Lore of the Lakes 5.0 1 0
324 Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard / Slomatics - Totems 5.0 1 0
327 Between the Buried and Me - Automata I + Automata II 4.0 1 0
327 Echtra - BardO 4.0 1 0
327 Morgengrau - Blood Oracle 4.0 1 0
330 Bonjour Tristesse - Your Ultimate Urban Nightmare 3.0 1 0
330 Carpe Noctem - Vitrun 3.0 1 0
330 Scaphe - Factory Gleam 3.0 1 0
333 Ehnahre & Hadean - Rites for Winter 2.0 1 0
333 Entropy Created Consciousness - Impressions of the Morning Star 2.0 1 0
333 Pact - Enigmata 2.0 1 0
336 Nahtrunar - Mysterium Tremendum 1.0 1 0

results playlist top 125 albums https://open.spotify.com/user/pfunkboy/playlist/3Cm5jEJuD1TlGtVB0sTZ8I?si=y4_-uaWmSKyE-65QrmGGkQ

Thank you pollrunners + Moka!

Thank you pollrunners! Found a couple of really great things in this rollout (namely Alakris and Imperial Triumphant) and plenty more I still need to check out.

You can post your ballots now as the tradition goes

Here?

Thanks to the poll runners. Cheers, everyone.

Thank you poll runners/Seandalai/Moka's beautiful art contributions. Enjoyable roll-out!

I couldn't get my shit together to vote, but nice job. YOB would have been my #1, fwiw. Lots of good stuff and lots I need to investigate. Kudos.

Love the images for the top 20 - nicely done.

yes pomenitul. in here

my ballot
Yob - Our Raw Heart
Sleep The Sciences
Ghost - Prequelle
Thy Catafalque - Geometria
Mournful Congregation - The Incubus of Karma
Evoken - Hypnagogia
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Wasteland
KHôRADA - Salt
Entropia - Vacuum
Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want
Dispirit - Enantiodromian Birth
SUMAC - Love in Shadow
Turnstile - Time & Space
Panopticon - The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness (I and II)
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
High On Fire - Electric Messiah
Windhand - Eternal Return
Sumac & Keiji Haino - Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous To Look At Face On
Sorcier des glaces - Sorcier des glaces
Dark Buddha Rising - II
Wiegedood - De Doden Hebben het Goed III
ASG - Survive Sunrise
Tropical Fuck Storm -A Laughing Death in Meatspace
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, but I Can't Any Longer.
Jute Gyte - Penetralia
awakebutstillinbed - what people call low self-esteem is really just seeing yourself the
The Skull - The Endless Road Turns Dark
Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Senyawa - Sujid
Anthroprophh - Omegaville
Earthless - Black Heaven
Khemmis - Desolation
ST 37 - ST 37
Yawningman - The Revolt Against Tired Noises
Alameda 4 - Czarna Woda
Pharaoh Overlord - Zero

1. Ungfell - Mythen, Mären, Pestilenz
2. Iskandr - Euprosopon
3. Fluisteraars / Turia - De Oord
4. Burial Invocation - Abiogenesis
5. Messa - Feast for Water
6. Kriegsmaschine - Apocalypticists
7. Paara - Riitti
8. Hamferð - Támsins likam
9. Severoth - When the Night Falls…
10. Basalte - Vertige
11. Sunsunmoon - Demons in Medieval Times
12. Imperial Triumphant - Vile Luxury
13. Atavisma - The Chthonic Rituals
14. Vargrav - Netherstorm
15. HWWAUOCH - HWWAUOCH
16. Argonavis - Passing the Igneous Maw
17. Evoken - Hypnagogia
18. Convocation - Scars Across
19. Funeral Mist - Hekatomb
20. Skeletal Remains - Devouring Mortality
21. Cosmic Church - Täyttymys
22. Esoctrilihum - Inhüma
23. Tomb Mold - Manor of Infinite Forms
24. Wayfarer - World’s Blood
25. Dautha - Brethren of the Black Soil
26. Xenoblight - Procreation
27. Det eviga leendet - Lenience
28. Convulsing - Grievous
29. Mylingar - Döda drömmar
30. Eosphoros - Eosphoros
31. Wormlight - Wrath of the Wilds
32. Svrm - Лихиї вітри стогнуть без упину
33. Infernal Coil - Within a World Forgotten
34. Horrendous - Idol
35. Lago - Sea of Duress
36. Mare - Ebony Tower
37. NONE - Life Has Gone On Long Enough
38. Stortregn - Emptiness Fills the Void
39. Churchburn - None Shall Live… The Hymns of Misery
40. Voodus - Into the Wild
41. Shylmagoghnar - Transience
42. Varathron - Patriarchs of Evil
43. Scorched - Ecliptic Butchery
44. Svartidauði - Revelations of the Red Sword
45. Skullcave - FEAR
46. Ultha - The Inextricable Wandering
47. Hooded Menace - Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed
48. Carpe Noctem - Vitrun
49. Urfaust - The Constellatory Practice
50. Drudkh - Їм часто сниться капіж

Hello everyone! Sorry I wasn’t around for the rollout, it’s been a busy week. Glad you enjoyed the images!

Here’s the album if you want to see the full top 20 in image form:

https://m.imgur.com/a/uwvR6Cc

Great stuff, Moka! Very evocative images.

My ballot, weighted. (Bold did not place - virtually nothing this year!)

The Armed - Only Love
Summoning, With Doom We Come
Khorada - Salt
Shylmagoghnar - Transience
Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It
Closer - All This Will Be
Yhdarl - Loss
Blosse - Era Noire
Sectioned - Annihilated
Ails - The Unravelings
Alameda 4 - Czarna Woda
Slugdge - Esoteric Malacology
Ungfell - Mythen, Mären, Pestilenz
LLNN - Deads
Azusa - Heavy Yoke
Deszcz - III
Urfaust - The Constellatory Practice
Voivod - The Wake
Ling Tosite Sigure - #5
A Forest of Stars - Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes
envy - Alnair In August
Fluisteraars / Turia - De Oord
Dark Buddha Rising - II
Lychgate - The Contagion in Nine Steps
Machine Girl - The Ugly Art
Ostraca - Enemy
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, but I Can't Any Longer.
Funeral Mist - Hekatomb
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Paara - Riitti
Yob - Our Raw Heart
Spectral Wound - Infernal Decadence
Mesarthim - The Density Parameter
Gnaw Their Tongues - Genocidal Majesty
Funeral Winds - Sinister Creed
Windhand - Eternal Return
Protoplasma - -
Messa - Feast for Water
Orphaned Land - Unsung Prophets And Dead Messiahs
Storm {O} - Ere
Mournful Congregation - The Incubus of Karma
Cadaveric Fumes - Heirs Of Hideous Secrecies
Gost - Possessor
Hamferð - Támsins likam
Panopticon - The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness I And II
Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard / Slomatics - Totems
Necronomidol - Voidhymn
DMBQ - Keeenly
Q'uq'umatz - Kukulkan
Windhand / Satan's Satyrs - Split

My ballot:

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Wasteland
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Horrendous - Idol
Chapel of Disease - ...And as We Have Seen the Storm, We Have Embraced the Eye
Voïvod - The Wake
Satan - Cruel Magic
Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want
Obliteration - Cenotaph Obscure
Tomb Mold - Manor of Infinite Forms
Sleep - The Sciences
Sulphur Aeon - The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos
Burial Invocation - Abiogenesis
Khemmis - Desolation
High On Fire - Electric Messiah
Imperial Triumphant - Vile Luxury
Svartidauði - Revelations of the Red Sword
Messa - Feast for Water
Judas Priest - Firepower
The Skull - The Endless Road Turns Dark
Haunt - Burst Into Flame
Sepulcher - Panoptic Horror
Cult Leader - A Patient Man
Pale Divine - Pale Divine
Agrimonia - Awaken
Convulsing - Grievous
House of Atreus - From the Madness of Ixion
Esoctrilihum - Inhüma
Black Viper - Hellions of Fire
Mortuous - Through Wilderness
Urfaust - The Constellatory Practice
Eneferens - The Bleakness of our Constant
Ulthar - Cosmovore
Psycroptic - As the Kingdom Drowns
Embrace of Thorns - Scorn Aesthetics
Yob - Our Raw Heart
Mongrel's Cross - Psalter of the Royal Dragon Court
Deathhammer - Chained to Hell
Arsis - Visitant
Varathron - Patriarchs of Evil
Faustcoven - In the Shadow of Doom
Wayfarer - World’s Blood
Evoken - Hypnagogia
Windhand - Eternal Return
Drawn And Quartered - The One Who Lurks
Runemagick - Evoked From Abysmal Sleep
Witch Mountain - Witch Mountain
Entropia - Vacuum
Weedpecker - III
Vein - Errorzone
Deceased - Ghostly White

My overall year-end list (which changed a lot due to listens from this poll - loved Alameda 4 - even though it's not metal - and Ails, Shylmagoghnar and a couple of others moved higher up, thanks to more listens) - https://rateyourmusic.com/list/mctsonic/2018-faves-cranking-music-up-over-the-worlds-din/

Weighted - by the way ;-)

Many thanks to the poll runners and Moka for the images!

Good year for doom apparently.

Could someone please post my ballot if you can? I seem to have neglected to save it anywhere

Ultros

A Forest of Stars - Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes
Mamaleek - Out of Time
Urfaust - The Constellatory Practice
Koenjihyakkei - Dhorimviskha
Mournful Congregation - The Incubus of Karma
El Efecto - Memórias do fogo
Eigenlicht - Self-Annihilating Consciousness
ION - A Path Unknown
Dispirit - Enantiodromian Birth
Soldat Hans - es taut
Ophidian Forest - votIVe
Entropia - Vacuum
Spectral Lore/Jute Gyte - Helian
Yamantaka//Sonic Titan - Dirt
Yhdarl - Loss
Ungfell - Mythen, Mären, Pestilenz
Nishaiar - Irix Zerius
Voivod - The Wake
Iskandr - Euprosopon
Serpent Column - Invicta
Ails - The Unraveling
Geryon - Astomatous
Moss Upon The Skull - In Vengeful Reverence
Panegyrist - Hierurgy
Kły - Szczerzenie
Estuarine - Sic Erat Scriptum
Protoplasma - -
Sunsunmoon - Demons in Medieval Times
Hamferð - Támsins likam
Urarv - Argentum
Onirism - Falling Moon
Zealotry - At the Nexus of All Stillborn Worlds
Benthik Zone - Causa modicum temporis spatium
Faal - Desolate Grief
Monotheist - Scourge
Basalte - Vertige
Wild Hunt - Afrterdream of the Reveller
Monolithe - Nebula Septem
Ataraxy - Where All Hope Fades
Vouna - Vouna
The Armed - Only Love
In the Woods... - Cease the Day
Aura Noir - Aura Noire
Sorcier des glaces - Sorcier des glaces
Vihameditaatio - Demo I
Inexorum - Lore of the Lakes
Echtra -BardO
Scaphe - Factory Gleam
Ehnahre & Hadean - Rites for Winter
Nahtrunar - Mysterium Tremendum

Thanks!

I'm a metal plastic tbh. tt is way more metal than me. That said, plenty of what I've heard would be added you his ballot; some, such as Alameda 4 or Voivod, would be pretty high

The Armed - Only Love
Machine Girl - The Ugly Art
Dark Buddha Rising - II
Azusa - Heavy Yoke
Lychgate - The Contagion in Nine Steps
Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It
Shylmagoghnar - Transience
Mesarthim - The Density Parameter
Urfaust - The Constellatory Practice
Progenie Terrestre Pura - StarCross
Koenjihyakkei - Dhorimviskha
Inhumankind - Self-Extinction
Protoplasma - -
A Forest of Stars - Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes
Summoning, With Doom We Come
Q'uq'umatz - Kukulkan
Cadaveric Fumes - Heirs Of Hideous Secrecies
Agrimonia - Awaken
SUMAC - Love in Shadow
Basarabian Hills - Eerie Light of Fireflies
Erdve - Vaitojimas

*to this ballot

For an album that didn't place Mamaleek got mentioned a hell of a lot

I think they got released too late in the year to make much impact and I don't think I mentioned them, but Moss Upon the Skull and Zealotry are both very good if you like twisted and gross death metal

Not a big death metal fan, but Moss Upon the Skull is a band name that deserves to be listened to.

Hope everyone has found some good new to them albums

Earthling Society - MO-The Demon
The Armed - Only Love
ST 37 - ST 37
The Oscillation - Wasted Space
DMBQ - Keeenly
Alameda 4 - Czarna Woda
Sumac & Keiji Haino - Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous To Look At Face On
Pharaoh Overlord - Zero
Yamantaka//Sonic Titan - Dirt
Minami Deutsch - With Dim Light
Yawningman - The Revolt Against Tired Noises
Star Period Star - Daylight Spending Time
A Forest of Stars - Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes
Ails - The Unraveling
Deep Space Destructors - Visions from the Void
Dylan Carson - Conquistador
Windhand - Eternal Return
Divide and Dissolve - Abomination
CB3 - From Nothing to Eternity
ION - A Path Unknown
Melvins - Pinkus Abortion Technician

My weighted ballot which might actually be different if I made it today:

LLNN - Deads
KEN Mode - Loved
The Armed - Only Love
The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
Shylmagoghnar - Transience
Skeletonwitch - Devouring Radiant Light
Pig Destroyer - Head Cage
Dimmu Borgir - Oenian
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Agrimonia - Awaken
Aura Noir - Aura Noire
Behemoth - I Loved You at your Darkest
Sleep - The Sciences
Immortal - Northern Chaos Gods
Entropia - Vacuum
Funeral Mist - Hekatomb
Kriegsmaschine - Apocalypticists
Windhand - Eternal Return
ASG - Survive Sunrise
Summoning, With Doom We Come
Ancestors - Suspended in Reflections
Evoken - Hypnagogia
SUMAC - Love in Shadow
Tomb Mold - Manor of Infinite Forms
Xenoblight - Procreation
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Paara - Riitti

This was my ballot:

Gorycz - Piach
Tribulation - Down Below
Khanus - Flammarion
Aura Noir - Aura Noire
Uncreation - Overwhelming Chaos
Lie in Ruins - Demise
Demonomancy - Poisoned Atonement
Kriegsmaschine - Apocalypticists
Taphos - Come Ethereal Somberness
KEN Mode - Loved
Ghost - Prequelle
Golgothan Remains - Perverse Offerings to the Void
Deszcz - III
Lychgate - The Contagion in Nine Steps
Black Salvation - Uncertainty Is Bliss
Hooded Menace - Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed

My weighted ballot:

Pharaoh Overlord
Sulphur Aeon
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats
Sleep
High on Fire
Ails
Voivod
Ghost
YOB
Senyawa
Funeral Mist
Horrendous
Khemmis
Mournful Congregation
Tribulation

Thanks for the poll!

Thanks for organising! Unfortunately Im on holiday so not a lot of time to contribute in this thread but it’s a great result and lots of stuff to try out the next couple of weeks. My weighted ballot:

Kriegsmaschine - Apocalypticists
Chapel of Disease, …And as We Have Seen the Storm, We Have Embraced the Eye
Stortregn - Emptiness Fills The Void
Ghost - Prequelle
Funeral Winds - Sinister Creed
Fluisteraars / Turia - De Oord
1914 - The Blind Leading the Blind
Summoning, With Doom We Come
Cosmic Church - Täyttymys
Wiegedood - De Doden Hebben het Goed III
Alrakis - Echoes from η Carinae
Mammoth Grinder - Cosmic Crypt
Cantique lépreux - Paysages polaires
Basarabian Hills - Eerie Light of Fireflies
Délétère - De Horae Leprae
Abigor - Höllenzwang (Chronicles of Perdition)
Urfaust - The Constellatory Practice
Amorphis - Queen of Time
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
None - Life Has Gone On Long Enough
Alice In Chains - Rainier Fog
Sepulcher - Panoptic Horror
Judas Priest - Firepower
In the Woods... - Cease the Day
A Forest of Stars - Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes
Behemoth - I Loved You at your Darkest
Drudkh - They Often See Dreams About the Spring
Thy Catafalque - Geometria
Funeral Mist - Hekatomb
Immortal - Northern Chaos Gods
Ungfell - Mythen, Mären, Pestilenz
Aeternus - Heathen
ColdWorld - Nostalgia
Autarcie - Seqvania
Primordial - Exile Amongst the Ruins
Sylvaine - Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone
Progenie Terrestre Pura - StarCross
Craft - White Noise and Black Metal
Kły - Szczerzenie
Kwade Droes - De Duivel En Zijn Gore Oude Kankermoer
Rauhnåcht - Unterm Gipfelthron
Sorcier des glaces - Sorcier des glaces
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, but I Can't Any Longer.
Svartidauði - Revelations Of The Red Sword
Kroda - Selbstwelt
Elderwind - The Colder The Night
Shining - X (Varg Utan Flock)
Sojourner - The Shadowed Road
Entropy Created Consciousness - Impressions of the Morning Star
Svrm - Лихиї вітри стогнуть без упину

your presence was missed

My weighted ballot.

1. Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
2. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
3. Yob - Our Raw Heart
4. Voivod - The Wake
5. Spiders - Killer Machine
6. Satan - Cruel Magic
7. Tribulation - Down Below
8. Cloud Rat - Clipped Beaks // Silk Panic
9. Witch Mountain - Witch Mountain
10. Khemmis - Desolation
11. Spiral Skies - Blues For A Dying Planet
12. Stone Deaf - Royal Burnout
13. Slugdge - Esoteric Malacology
14. Summoning - With Doom We Come
15. Veiled - Black Celestial Orbs
16. Rebel Wizard - Voluptuous worship of rapture and response
17. Cauldron - New Gods
18. Funeral Mist - Hekatomb
19. Evoken - Hypnagogia
20. To End It All - Scourge of Woman
21. Sylvaine - Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone
22. The Skull - The Endless Road Turns Dark
23. Skeletonwitch - Devouring Radiant Light
24. ION - A Path Unknown [LP]
25. Panopticon - Scars Of Man On The Once Nameless Part 1
26. Eye of Nix - Black Somnia
27. Horrendous - Idol
28. Deceased - Ghostly White
29. Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
30. Scumpulse - Rotten
31. Sektarism - Fils de Dieu
32. Ghost - Prequelle
33. The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer
34. Unreqvited - Stars Wept to the Sea
35. Judas Priest - Firepower
36. Gygax - Second Edition
37. Mesarthim - The Density Parameter
38. Hyborian - Hyborian, Vol. 1
39. Sleep - The Sciences
40. Graveyard - Peace
41. Crippled Black Phoenix - Great Escape
42. Exxxekutioner - Death Sentence
43. A Storm Of Light - Anthroscene

I had an overall list of 60 which I pared down. I could have probably included a few more had I thought about it - I own well over 100 albums from last year.

The missus asked "is this new Pumpkins?" when I had Uncle Acid on this morning. Obv, it was a compliment and I'm digging the hooks and riffs on this. Prequelle was just what I wanted to hear when I was drunk and cleaning up last night.

I only voted for albums I listened to a significant number of times in 2018 and felt a strong connection with. Mixed:

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Yob - Our Raw Heart
awakebutstillinbed - what people call low self-esteem is really just seeing yourself the way that other people see you
Andrew W.K. - You’re Not Alone
Senyawa - Sujud
Yamantaka//Sonic Titan - Dirt
Kevin Hufnagel - Messages to the Past
-
Alice In Chains - Rainier Fog
Voivod - The Wake
Basalte - Vertige

It's so good. I did a Twitter-length LP review on it.

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats
Wasteland
(@RiseAboveRecord)

That '70s Show returns with doom mostly replaced by genuine pop-craft as if Bowie joined Big Star or Cheap Trick. Crafty types decry glitter's permanence but it's okay when the stuff gets stuck in yer head. #TwitterLPReview pic.twitter.com/1Moyc8hnvH

— Brian O'Neill (@NYC__Native) October 14, 2018

Nice. Also nice solo on "Exodus".

Mournful Congregation have me with the delayed E-bowed lead guitar part in the intro of the first song.

the solos on the last track are great

Yeah, I'm p into the lead guitar sound.

Poll caused me to go back and listen to past year's personal ballots, & I gotta say the 2016 release of the sadly defunct Vektor's 'Terminal Redux' still holds up - probably my fave metal release of the decade.

I wont be doing a decade poll btw as the turnout and enthusiasm for the eoy polls seems to be gone

Panopticon - The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Closer - All This Will Be
Sleep - The Sciences
Senyawa - Sujud
The Armed - Only Love
Portal - ION
YOB - Our Raw Heart
Thou - Magus
Gouge Away - Burnt Sugar
Turnstile - Time & Space
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
The HIRS Collective - Friends. Lovers. Favorites
Sumac - Love in Shadow
Gnaw Their Tongues - Genocidal Majesty
Ghost - Prequelle
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer.
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan - Dirt
Summoning - With Doom We Come
Daughters - You Won’t Get What You Want
Judas Priest - Firepower
Andrew W.K. - You’re Not Alone
Tomb Mold - Manor Of Infinite Forms
Skeletonwitch - Devouring Radiant Light

I didn't write down the other 6 but I think they were Machine Girl, Neckbeard Deathcamp, Pharaoh Overlord, Blackwater Holylight, Thy Catafalque and Usurpress.

Best discovery from this years list is definitely Entropia - Vacuum. Holy shit this is a monster of an album. I wrote them off after not loving Ufonaut but that was so very dumb. This is on another level.

Thanks again everyone for putting this on every year. Really a great place to check out some stuff that passed by me.

cheers gman, glad you made some new discoveries. Entropia i think are capable of something very special.