Top 20 Albums of 2019
20. Äera – Schein https://aeera.bandcamp.com/album/schein A relatively late entry, but a worthy one as it was for me, the best post-rock/black metal album of the year and an impressively accomplished first album, incredibly well composed, paced and produced. 19. Oferwintran - Llyfr Coch Hergest https://oferwintran.bandcamp.com/album/llyfr-coch-hergest Based on medieval British folklore and oral stories, this is a brilliant raw, maliciously melodic album, that reminds me of the more bucolic moments among Legion Blotan's discography. 18. Umbra Conscientia - Yellowing of the Lunar Conciousness https://terraturpossessions.bandcamp.com/album/umbra-conscientia-yellowing-of-the-lunar-conciousness Of all the releases of orthodox styled black metal this year, against competition from bands (I probably unfairly, or inaccurately lump together…but at least gives me a chance to name check as honourable mentions) like Drastus, Hagzissa, Ateiggär, Crimson Moon and others – it was this collaboration of German and Costa Rican musicians that created the one that really worked the most effectively on me – released on Terratur Possessions, should give you an idea of just how black, dark and all-consuming it is. 17. Rostorchester - Die Sonne und der Mond in Ketten https://rostorchester.bandcamp.com/album/die-sonne-und-der-mond-in-ketten Not really seen much of this since it released right back at the end of January. Equally very raw and melodic black with a triumphant arc, from Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Go straight to So Verbittert Wie Verwittert and be immediately convinced. 16. Ossomancer – Artes Magickae Pacific Threnodies https://ossomancer.bandcamp.com/releases A truly epic mystical album of blackened conjurations, with the aggressive, trippy trance riffing of Inquisition, the cold tradition of Emperor, combined with the folk- heroics of Falkenbach. A superb concept album. 15. Vástígr - Aura Aeternitatis https://vastigr.bandcamp.com/album/aura-aeternitatis After teasing us all Summer with fleeting glimpses of his arctic masterwork, Order member Þ (aka Thorn Blakfyre) has finally unveiled his full debut Vástígr album - Aura Aeternitatis – and it is a majestic masterpiece of ice-blasted melodies and tundra churning riffs. 14. Thanatonaut – Interstellar https://thanatonaut.bandcamp.com/album/interstellar A true blackening of cosmic metal, as the awesome power of nature is brought to bear on mankind, and its futile efforts to explore the depths of space, and its insignificance in the face of cosmic enormity. 13. Imperial Cult – Spasm of Light https://imperial-cult.bandcamp.com/album/spasm-of-light One monolithic 30-minute cosmic flare of searing noise, hypnotic distortion and captivating rhythms. Those familiar with the label and circle of bands need no further intro to know how good this is. Unfamiliar ears prepare to transcend your cognitive limitations. 12. Peasant – Demo I https://peasantuk.bandcamp.com/album/demo-mmxix Another fantastic project from George Proctor (White Medal, Sump, Gammal Sed…loads more & Legion Blotan main man), and Steve Blackwood (Old Corpse Road, Thy Dying Light live band, and Blackwood Productions). Undoubtedly two of the mightiest Northmen the UK will ever see. The result, is this debut ep – three tracks of heroically melodic gnarled punk. A contorted majesty, like the gnarled roots of ancient oaks. 11. De Douăsprezece Statui ale Stărilor de Umbră ale Sufletului – All 12 albums of the Twelve Statues series. https://ddsasduas.bandcamp.com Can’t (or wont?!) separate these into individual albums, as they are all parts of a single project which is a large aspect of what makes the undertaking so impressive. 12 tracks released in monthly instalments totalling around 4 hours of raw meditative blackened trance. 10. Starless Domain – EOS / Alma / Tome Of The Unreplenished / Starless Domain - Epistolary Of the Fall https://starlessdomain.bandcamp.com/ And another full set - All the Starless Domain releases! Described by the band as Deep Field Black Metal, it is some of the farthest out, exploratory cosmic BM, and another point in the development of a trve kosmiche black metal. Plus bonus Tome on the split, which worked perfectly as a somewhat more abstract complement to the Starless Domain side. 09. Voëmmr - O Ovnh Intot Adr Mordrb https://voemmr.bandcamp.com/album/o-ovnh-intot-adr-mordrb Voëmmr’s second album of derangement and hallucinatory incantation carries two of the more elitist elements of black metal – eschewing being an easy listen and enjoyable in any traditional sense – and warps the form though the occult prism of the Aldebaran Circle. Other projects from the collective, like Black Cilice, Occelensbrigg, and Trono Além Morte put out phenomenal albums this year too, but this one (and one more), push the eerie weirdness that much further. 08. Këkht Aräkh - Night & Love https://kekhtarakh.bandcamp.com/album/night-love Superb album, of raw atmosphere and nostgic reverence, with added imaginative dynamics and album structure. Very refreshing. Excellent Darkthrone-esque riffs. haunting passages of dungeon synth, acoustic interludes. and actual singing. 07. Skáphe + Wormlust https://skphwrmlst.bandcamp.com/album/kosm-skur-hryllingur The band we should be calling SkápLust. Second greatest incarnation of the Icelandic scene this year spawned this psychedelic masterpiece (though the members here are drawn from further afield). This is the kind of dissonant churning BM I like. Not sprawling or chaotic or overplayed that it ever loses focus and momentum. 06. Véhémence - Par le Sang Versé https://antiqofficial.bandcamp.com/album/v-h-mence-par-le-sang-vers Five years after their excellent debut album Assiégé, which recalled the foggy grandeur of their nation’s historical LLN bands, the new Par le Sang Versé retains this background, reimagining it on an epic scale. A rousing mix of ancient folk, raw melody, choral passages, and of course, confrontational black metal. 05. Nyss – Dépayser https://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/d-payser Following up my #1 album of last year in his Över form, Nyss dropped another exceptional, emotional album of baroque post-black metal in his self-monikered guise, and with this I can repeat what I said about Facing Transcendence and describe it as an inspired composition that transcends genres and expectations. 04. Departure Chandelier – Antichrist Rise to Power https://departurechandelier.bandcamp.com/album/antichrist-rise-to-power It is one of the more bizarre and compelling features of this genre that some of the most aggressive, raw, feral spiteful black metal is also capable of getting you right in the feels when it is struck through with mournful melodic melancholia. This album is an exemplary incarnation of that. 03. Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze - Offerings of Flesh and Gold https://bullofapisbullofbronze.bandcamp.com/album/offerings-of-flesh-and-gold A beautifully formed, ritualistic vision of an album that delivered a conscious black metal, expanding and contracting in kaleidoscopic fractal patterns of shimmering noise – and as a bonus, the music was set off with that blinding psychedelic artwork. 02. Degredo - E foi assim no Século Passado https://degredo.bandcamp.com/album/e-foi-assim-no-s-culo-passado Runners up for the second year in a row, this is the best of the Portuguese scene in my eyes and ears. Like a black metal Wicker Man, this is terrifying, unsettling, disorienting and reality-warping rural black metal. 01. Anadavald - Undir skyggðarhaldi https://andavald.bandcamp.com/album/undir-skygg-arhaldi Well, nothing came anywhere near the compelling other-worldiness and tangible delirium of this album. This is number one by a clear margin. And the fact I put Degredo behind this, which is also all those things is saying something. This may well be my favourite Icelandic black metal album of all time. The shadowy atmosphere, the eerie, creeping momentum, even through the ambient spaces, sinister forms swirling through the fog, and the vocal performance of the decade.