Rock/Metal
Reviews
Odreshenik
I love everything Aaron Turner does. This records is a bit more experimental than other SUMAC work and I really liked that. It has a that catharsic feeling to it.
Odreshenik
I love their heaviness with a pinch of lightness throughout the record.
Odreshenik
Love the density and the instrumentaion on this one.
Karl
Been following these guys since their demo last year... New album was perfect, infernal Black/Death metal with raw sensibilities. They 100% lived up to the hype, and another success by the people of Blood Incantation/Spectral Voice.
Karl
With hundreds of bland Goregrind bands coming out, Cystgurgle truly distinguishes themselves through some amazing Last Days of Humanity worship. The ping snare is truly the highlight in this mess. Really bad production, but it really gives the drums a punch. Real caveman hours.
Tedesco
Classic, raw black metal played to perfection. Lamp of Murmuur outdid himself on this debut album, with amazing riffs, a blistering cold atmosphere and production straight out of the 90s.
Karl
Perfect album of USBM deniers. Put this on and see them fall head over heels, especially for Darkthrone fans or the Norwegian scene in general. It's one of the few cases of how Black metal can use melody and feel not too clean. It is also the perfect amount of rawness that does not hinder the music.
Annie
I thought that not only was this album atmospheric, but its genuinely beautiful. It just carries you on an emotional journey floating in the soundscape.
Annie
Black metal that not only can be aggressive and raw, but also can bring out that old Finnish folk element to bring you into another world.
Quorton
This one of course reflects my biases for black metal, melodic black metal and traditional heavy metal like the other ones, however this one made consensus like I rarely saw. It tops lists of many publications, regardless of focus, for a reason. This one can be recommended to nearly anyone into metal regardless of preferences.
Quorton
Malokarpatan is the perfect example of the new tendency to play a type of black metal from before the Norwegian classics, when it was not yet clear how the genre should sound like. Krupinské Ohne is strange, occult, funny and sounds sometimes like an Italian 70’s horror movie.
Quorton
US-power metal is back from the 1980s with full force. This genre was something exciting and it is therefore as exciting to see a band carrying the torch with so much great songwriting and memorable moments like it is done here on Ravening Iron.
Quorton
The year has been amazing for melodic black metal. You can’t leave the Greeks out of this with their new, triumphant, heavy metal tinged approach that hopefully foreshadows a continued trend and not just a few amazing albums, like the 2018 Varathron and this release here.
Tedesco
One of the more unorthodox and interesting black metal releases of the year, Brii mix elements of tribal ambient and psytrance with atmospheric black metal.
Tedesco
Blackgaze and screamo have always had high musical overlap, but the two genres have never been combined this well.
Sophie/Alice
This is my favorite Haino album, either solo or with Fushitsusha. The variety on display (noisy electronics, drum machines, hellish guitars, and frightening vocals), make it his most compelling work, in my opinion.
Sophie/Alice
This is a hybrid of slowcore and post hardcore, in the vein of Lowercase or Unwound. However, it differentiates itself well from those two with incredible compositions and interesting sounds. This album is executed wonderfully, and is stunningly cathartic.
Sophie/Alice
MSW is the mastermind behind his project, Hell, which combined various metal subgenres. This does the same, but with a focus on doom metal. The violins and female vocals add a tender and melodic touch at times, juxtaposing the heavy crushing melancholy of the rest of the album. Fantastic listen.
Sophie/Alice
This is the most lyrically dense and rich album I think I've ever heard, taking extreme nihilism and mixing it with dark humor. The instrumentation is heavily piano focused, and the songwriting is fun, contrasting the bleak worldview outlined by the words. One of my favorites from this year.
Mack
In a single song DIS manage to pull together bits of dark ambient and noise and black metal and basically every other style of heavy music you could imagine. The result is like being pulled behind a car for twenty-eight and a half perfectly paced minutes, and I love it.
Mack
Horse Lords make math rock not by filling their songs with guitar solos and time signature changes, but by making music that actually sounds like math. Each song is like a fractal of rhythms and melodies from afar, and only by focusing in on a single instrument do their details reveal themselves.
Mack
This shit fucks. This shit just really fucks. It fucks. It fucks so hard dude. It fucks.
Kramz
It's a long journey of groovy and heavy space rock that never lets up. All of the different psychedelic textures that they manifest in their guitar work makes their style sound fresh throughout the entire duration of the 72 minute runtime. long story short, this album and a blunt.
Kramz
really tasteful mixture of neo-psychedelia, shoegaze, and glitch. some tracks are very reminiscent of older animal collective material. it's easy to just get lost inside these enveloping soundscapes
Honourable Mentions
Karl
Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin kynsi
hawkon
The Cult of Dom Keller - Ascend!
Dragged into sunlight - Terminal Aggressor II
Häxenzijrkell - Die Nachtseite
Old man gloom - Seminar VIII: Light of Meaning
Perhaps - 7.0
Shit & shine - Goat Yelling Like a Man
Sodom - Genesis XIX