We Miss Live Music So Much (Beastwars)

By Calen Henry. "Damn the Sky" was the first song where I got Beastwars. From that single track I was hooked and tore through their discography just in time, unfortunately, for them to go on hiatus then announce that singer Matt Hyde was (ultimately successfully) battling cancer.

By Calen Henry.


"Damn the Sky" was the first song where I got Beastwars. From that single track I was hooked and tore through their discography just in time, unfortunately, for them to go on hiatus then announce that singer Matt Hyde was (ultimately successfully) battling cancer.

After all that their announcement of a surprise comeback album, last year's IV, was the most exciting musical moment of 2019 for me. The anticipation was well founded; it ended up being my favourite album last year. It turns out that wasn't the only surprise the band had up their sleeve.

On May 1, Bandcamp's second "all proceeds to artist" day since global COVID-19 quarantine efforts began and bands faced a cascade of gig cancellations, the boys in Beastwars decided to drop a live album. Not just any set either, their entire comeback concert from July 2018 at Wellington NZ's San Fran. As a Canadian fan who is unlikely to be able to catch the band live, it's an incredible gift. Not just a comeback album, but their comeback show, professionally recorded and mixed. It's even got some nice dynamic headroom with a master clocking in at DR8.


Being a year before the release of IV the setlist is made up entirely of songs from their trilogy. They start the set with the Beastwars song "Damn the Sky". From there they rip through some of the best tracks from the three albums in largely chronological order though they save two tracks from the first album, the savage stomp of "Red God" and mantra-like "Daggers" as the one-two punch to end the set. "Daggers" is such a perfect note on which to end the set, with its repeated refrain

Play that song
Play that one we know
Play it loud
Play that one we love

They sound like a different band from the snapshot of despair, grief, and hope captured on IV. By time they got back to the stage Matt was back to full demon-bellowing capacity and the set is a band with fire in their bellies ripping through their back catalog for their hometown crowd. It's magical and kind of perfect for a band with so much mysticism in their lyrics to hear the moment they hit the stage after so much turmoil and a rebirth. To top it off the band have been kind enough to ask for absolutely nothing in return. It's Name Your Price on the band's Bandcamp page.

Riff Spreader Best of April

[Today it's Bandcamp Friday again. From midnight to midnight Pacific Daylight Time Bandcamp are waiving their revenue share for all sales. And they'll be doing the same thing June 5 and July 3. Helping with your shopping list here's Riff Spreader with some of his favorite righteous riffs from April.

[Today it's Bandcamp Friday again. From midnight to midnight Pacific Daylight Time Bandcamp are waiving their revenue share for all sales. And they'll be doing the same thing June 5 and July 3.

Helping with your shopping list here's Riff Spreader with some of his favorite righteous riffs from April. For more recommendations hop over to Twitter where he'll be posting throughout the day.]

Artwork by Sludgework

Artwork by Ian Miller.

There's a new Ulthar album coming out in June on 20 Buck Spin and the new song fucking SLAP [Also look at that incredible album artwork (large version). Enter the forest of penises and balls?]

Artwork by Adam Burke.

Antifascist post-black/doom metal that reminds me a lot of Dead to a Dying World (though I like this more, tbh). It's a shame this wasn't on everyone's radar sooner. It's gorgeous.

Arwork by Rodrigo Pereira Salvatierra.

This Rejoice! For the Light Has Come EP is killer skronky blackened death metal (pay no attention to the weird blackgaze genre tag). Produced by Colin Marston so it sounds great, too.

Artwork by Jason Barnett.

Kombat put out a damn good death metal album this week. But is the kombat mortal? RIFFALITY!

The new Calligram album The Eye is the First Circle is out today via Prosthetic Records. Highly recommended. Listen for yourself here:

Speaking of fucking good, this Wretched Empires EP is everything right now. Allfather's Tom B. doing the yelling. Job well done.

New album from Brazilian black metal band Kaatayra was released today. Killer shit as always.

Artwork by Raymond Wedhorn.

This is completely insane death metal from Encenathrakh. At a reasonable price... [This review from Metal archives sums it up: "I'm happy this exists and everyone must hear it even if they absolutely know they're going to despise it."].

Artwork by Unexpected Specter.

Speaking of putting dope shit on your wishlist for Friday, Hypnotic Dirge just put up the new Feral Light album for pre-order. If you're not familiar with Feral Light, you should fix that. There are 2 tracks streaming here, so now's your chance.

Drown - Subaqueous

By Master of Muppets. If space is mankind's final frontier, the ocean's depths must be something like the birthplace of the end. To some extent it is where life as we know it first began its misguided adventures on Earth, a plane of existence close to our hearts by evolutionary proxy

By Master of Muppets.

Artwork by Adam Burke/Nightjar Art.

If space is mankind's final frontier, the ocean's depths must be something like the birthplace of the end. To some extent it is where life as we know it first began its misguided adventures on Earth, a plane of existence close to our hearts by evolutionary proxy; in another sense it is a world of its own which exists entirely beyond our grasp, elusive and magical in its indomitable vastness. It's a fantastical realm where the cold realities of science and the infinite possibilities of the imagination walk hand in hand into the dark, and many artists have attempted to turn this world we cannot see into something we can hear instead. One-man metal manufacturing monster Markov Soroka (Tchornobog, Aureole, Krukh) more than meets this challenge through the massive, immersive music of Drown; it turns out that the crushing darkness of funeral doom provides a perfect tonal palette for painting the depths of our oceans into a vivid soundscape, and Subaqueous - Soroka's sophomore slab of sea-centric slow-burners - is a beautifully merciless rendering of such a scene, one that you have zero business missing out on.

The point of this genre is to create something that stifles and swallows the listener, and where better to do that than at the bottom of the ocean? Soroka seizes this sonic potential to further a tale that began with Drown's debut, Unsleep, chronicling the drowning of an unnamed protagonist and drawing it out into a collection of aquatic metaphors and tempestuous funeral doom. Purveyors of such aren't known for being particularly sympathetic to the attention spans or time restraints of others, and Drown is no exception. Subaqueous is divided into two colossal tracks, the first of which ("Drowned VI: Mother Cetacean") boasts a duration just shy of 22 minutes while the second ("Drowned VII: Father Subaqueous") clocks in a few seconds over that mark. Both songs cultivate their own mood and atmosphere, achieving a perfect foil relationship along the way, yet the pair are equal in terms of sheer oppressive lethality.

At first blush, "...Mother Cetacean" is the gentler of the two, ushering in its chapter with a serene dance of reverberant atmospherics and gently coruscating guitars. Just as bioluminescence and the pale sheen of pigmentation's absence color the watery deep, a deceptively blithe melody dances along a current of subterranean tone and sustain, instilling the surrounding dark with a sense of vibrancy. However, the dance is deceptive in these dangerous depths - this is the bottom of the ocean, after all; despite the almost jocular nature of "...Mother Cetacean", it is still funeral doom. Guttural bellows and thunderous distortion are interwoven into the ebullience with fluid cohesion, maintaining a delicate balance of wonder and unease perfectly befitting the ocean's floor. Here there is violent life playing a deadly game, and what fleeting light can be found offers just as little in the way of safety as the shadows that linger further beyond in the pitch black hostility of "...Father Subaqueous".

The second, titular half of Subaqueous makes no attempt to convey, promote or else harbor life of any kind; "...Father Subaqueous" is pitiless and unforgiving, a masterful manifestation of the inhospitable realm of pressure and darkness that lurks beneath us all. Here, the growls become ungodly shrieks, and the churning low end rumbling of the guitars has erupted into a monolithic expanse of unbridled fury. There is nothing playful or pleasant here, only a 22 minute view of the screaming maw of the void. Though it is unclear to this reviewer just what exactly might be happening to the story's protagonist at this particular point, it is all but certainly all but unbearable. Where "...Mother Cetacean" brings us somewhere new by incorporating elements which are almost diametrically opposed to funeral doom's customary bleakness, "...Father Subaqueous" harnesses every bit of incessant wrath known to the genre then dials things up to 11 with a splash of black metal.

Unlike mankind and the oceans that make our invasion of this planet possible, the two tracks which comprise Subaqueous exist in perfect harmony with each other. In the simplest of terms, "...Mother Cetacean" captures the essence of life and light amidst the deepest reaches of said oceans, while "...Father Subaqueous" levels out the album with death and darkness. For an offering rooted in a genre that defies the notion of moderation, Subaqueous is a thing of perfect balance. If funeral-at-sea doom sounds like it'll float your boat and you have 45 minutes to spare - and, frankly, that's a good chunk of us these days - then give Subaqueous a spin. It is well worth your time, and it has already jumped to the top of my personal favorite albums from 2020 thus far.

Riff Spreader Best of February-March

[At the Metal Bandcamp international headquarters the quarantine days blur into each other and everything is running late. But over on Twitter Riff Spreader has been very busy, and here's 15 of his best picks from February and March. As always there's no fash trash. Just righteous riffs.]

[At the Metal Bandcamp international headquarters the quarantine days blur into each other and everything is running late. But over on Twitter Riff Spreader has been very busy, and here's 15 of his best picks from February and March. As always there's no fash trash. Just righteous riffs.]

Artwork by Sludgework

Thankfully antifascist blackgaze band Awenden's new album Golden Hour came through on time. Got around to listening to the full album and while yes, there are blackgaze elements here, there’s also a hefty dose of killer death doom. Way more prevalent than in their debut. I’m really into this.

Melodic black metal from China that incorporates Chinese folk instrumentals with searing riffs and bad ass solos. Did I mention the vocals are great? This kills.

Artwork by Timmmnnn

Oh my, and I cannot stress this enough, GOD. This Nebulium EP Grow is fucking killer. Progressive death metal from the gods.

Just discovered this Widziadło album from a few years ago. This is stellar atmospheric/cosmic black metal.

Artwork by Trez Laforge

Oh shit, Feminazgul just dropped a new album! And.. it's so good.

Artwork by Margoat

Olhava released a new album today that’s probably going to end up being one of the best, if not the best, blackgaze albums of the year.

Artwork by Misanthropic Art.

This Atavisma/Void Rot split from Everlasting Spew Records is just one stellar release among many from this killer label. While you're buying this (you fucking better), peruse the rest of their catalog for several (death) metal gems.

Begotten does DSBM with punk-influenced riffs. Really, really good shit here.

Artwork by Adam Burke.

The new Rotting Kingdom album A Deeper Shade of Sorrow came out today. This is top shelf death doom that you should not sleep on.

Artwork by Tom is the Bastard.

There’s a new 2 song 7” from Ancst and I don’t have to tell you it’s good. Ancst is a b(r)and you can trust. Bit of a different vibe from these guys on this one. I like the branching out. Plus it’s probably the sharpest sounding they’ve been.

Artwork by Al Woody/Healing Ways Artistry.

Native American raw black metal with reverb drenched tormented screams. "Dedicated to all the indigenous people of this brown continent, from the north to the south to the east and the west."

Artwork by Valeria Metsker/Blood Art.

Skam slaps so fucking hard. This is one of those times when I go "oh right, THAT’S why I got into grindcore!"

Is Violet Cold going to be the first black metal band on the radio? Some of this is straight up EDM pop. And by the way it's really fucking good.

Found some stellar antifascist blackgaze by It Only Ends Once. There’s a lot of screamo/skramz influence here, but it also has that DSBM strain running through it that makes it distinctly black metal. Plus fuck fascists.

I’ve been trying to tell y’all that Hagetisse was legit. The new album The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin is next level hypnotic, violent black metal.

Déhà - A fleur de peau - I - There Is No Home

By Master of Muppets. Single track albums can be a bit of a tough sell. Attention spans being something of an endangered species, the shuffle button rules over many with an iron fist and the idea of committing more than 3 minutes of one's life to a single song is tantamount to lunacy these days.

By Master of Muppets.


Single track albums can be a bit of a tough sell. Attention spans being something of an endangered species, the shuffle button rules over many with an iron fist and the idea of committing more than 3 minutes of one's life to a single song is tantamount to lunacy these days. So it goes, yet - surprise, surprise - sometimes artists don't particularly care about what you want when they're making things, and sometimes artists do make things which defy today's patience deprived listening climate; Déhà's A Fleur de Peau - I - There is No Home is one of those things. It may not necessarily be your thing, but if it turns out that it is then trust me: it's really gonna be your thing.

Just what kind of thing is that? For starters, A Fleur de Peau is, obviously, a single track album. Sure, it's presented as 'Parts I - VI', with said chapters being given titles and everything, yet this 41 minute ride is solely offered as one cohesive listening experience: if you want to listen to any of it, you're listening to all of it. In the name of full disclosure, I'll also confess that if you've heard some of A Fleur de Peau, you've heard most of it: the track/suite/album largely operates around one core melody, sustained for the entirety of its duration. A Fleur de Peau is a single moment in time stretched out into something sprawling and unforgiving, it does not care about your feelings or your attention span, aside from its mission to strangle the former and bleed the latter dry. As I've stated, this album is not for everyone, but if it's for you it's likely really for you.

Just who is this thing for, anyway? In a word: me. In a few more words: fans of NONE, Vvilderness and Unreqvited. There is no happiness to be heard amidst these shrieks and tremolo-picked guitars, and though the atmosphere that Déhà has created here is as cold and jagged as it gets, it is also tender, wounded in its own right. At its core, A Fleur de Peau is atmospheric black metal of the DSBM variety, with slight traces of sludge mixed in to keep things properly oppressive. Clean, brooding guitars get things started and occasionally resurface along the way, but by and large this soundscape is awash with distortion and screams, a world of sheer despair. Unbridled agony and a plea for its cessation is what Déhà has for us today, and if you haven't been scared off yet it's likely that you've arrived at the doorstep of your musical home.

Normally I'd have more things to say at this point in a review, but ordinarily I'd also have more songs to discuss and these are not normal times, so I don't… Or do I? I really don't, but Déhà does: while you're at his Bandcamp page, check out the recently released Just Stay at Home single posted there. Apparently Déhà hates COVID-19 just as much as the rest of us, his gripes just sound better. Written as a means to vent his own frustrations regarding the coronapocalypse, eventually the track will find a home on a future Déhà album, provided The Great Toilet Paper Famine doesn't kill us all, but for now it's as good a way as any to channel your disgust as we ride out this pandemic in isolated solidarity. Honestly, if blackened post hardcore decrying a plagued humanity doesn't isn't what the doctor ordered, then frankly your doctor sucks.

A Fleur de Peau is, for the millionth time, not for everyone. It is not for the deficient of attention, nor is it for the casual black metal fan. Those without patience or a penchant for pure, pummeling pessimism will find little to love here - and that's just fine. However, those listeners whose tastes dwell in darkness and dream of the end are likely to find something to be cherished in these 40-some minutes, a haunted and hateful home of their own.

Glass Shrine - Lapidary

By Hera Vidal. Lapidary is a term used to refer to the craft of cutting gems or polishing jewelry. It can also mean the conciseness or the precision of an object. Considering how Glass Shrine has chosen this term to title their album, it should come as no surprise that the album should be concise in nature and should reflect the various layers of a cut jewel.

By Hera Vidal.

Artwork by D.L. from Glass Shrines.

Lapidary is a term used to refer to the craft of cutting gems or polishing jewelry. It can also mean the conciseness or the precision of an object. Considering how Glass Shrine has chosen this term to title their album, it should come as no surprise that the album should be concise in nature and should reflect the various layers of a cut jewel.

Lapidary doesn’t begin with your traditional flavor of black metal. It starts off with what sounds like bird noises and synthesizers in the background. Apparently, this is an album that doesn’t want to overwhelm you at first; rather, it wants to slowly wade you in the atmosphere of the music so you can soak it in. Another thing that one may notice is the backing melody. While your typical black metal elements exist—the blast beats, the tremolo riffs, the harsh vocals—there are also other interesting tonalities that make the album seem more vibrant that what I have listened to thus far. There are some screamo and metalcore influences that are weaved into the music, giving this album more of a punk/hardcore feel. It makes the album sound lively, which is not the point of most black metal.

Now, let’s focus a bit on the singing. Throughout the album, you can hear what sounds like throat-singing and chanting, which adds layers to the harsh vocals and to the music. It’s completely unexpected, but when it comes out, it’s welcoming to the ears. There are also instances of clean vocals, which sound like the kind of vocals that wouldn’t be out of place in surfer rock or, more conveniently, on a Ved Buens Ende album. They are avant-garde, but not the avant-garde that borders on nightmare fuel. I actually enjoy the vocals, not harrowing and warm as they are.

In short, Lapidary is an album that is warm and fuzzy, and sounds like a good time. This album masterfully blends black metal with surfer rock, metalcore, and screamo, giving it a layer of liveliness that black metal seems to lack. It makes it shine and stand out more than anything else. This album shows us that black metal can be fun, and doesn’t need to fall into any aesthetic if it doesn’t feel like it.

Big riffs. Big smiles. The Riff Spreader Best of 2019

[Riff Spreader is a Twitter account run by a friend of Metal Bandcamp (he wrote a few reviews for us years ago). Riff Spreader is "Music recs for the discerning metalhead. No fash trash. Just righteous riffs", which is a purpose we can get behind.

[Riff Spreader is a Twitter account run by a friend of Metal Bandcamp (he wrote a few reviews for us years ago). Riff Spreader is "Music recs for the discerning metalhead. No fash trash. Just righteous riffs", which is a purpose we can get behind. Here's his massive best of 2019 list, look for more Riff Spreader related posts in the future.]

Artwork by Sludgework

2019 was the year of “Caveman Shit,” 20 Buck Spin finally realizing its potential as the best death metal label on the planet, discovering a bunch of artists you loved dearly are Nazis, Mariusz Lewandowski, cosmic death metal, Déhà, and – perhaps most importantly – Riff Spreader.

We made it, y’all. With a whole fucking ass load of incredible music. I tried to make this a small curated list, but 2019 was a year of so many great albums, it almost made it impossible for anything to stand out and break away from the pack. Ignore the rankings and LET'S GO!


50. Hagetisse - De Reis Van Vernielde Zielen
Low key Mories' best black metal endeavor.

49. Misertus - Coil
3 albums in 4 months, but this was my fave. Another prolific force in blackgaze.

48. Green Lung - Woodland Rites
This was the best stoner album of the year, hands down. So much groove. So ear-wormy.

47. Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairvoyance
Listened again and this is probably too low on my list. Tons of killer riffs. I just liked Manor of Infinite Forms way more.

46. Acathexis - Acathexis
Technically released at the end of December 2018, but this is too good not to recognize. Incredible black metal from Déhà and Jacob Buczarski (Mare Cognitum).

45. Haunter - Sacramental Death Qualia
Nobody did weirdo blackened death metal better in 2019. I haven't spinned this one as much as I wanted to, so I suspect this ranking will only go up.

44. Nekroí Theoí - Dead Gods
As a former Evangelical Christian, I relate so hard to JJ Polachek's spiritual journey. It also doesn't hurt that his gutturals bend space/time and the band fucking destroys.

43. Musmahhu - Reign of the Odious
An overlooked death metal gem in the over-crowded sweaty throngs of OSDM bands crawling out of their swampy caves this year. Technically a 2017 release re-issued in December 2018, but I'm counting it. I make the rules.

42. Renounced - Beauty Is A Destructive Angel
My little Poison The Well loving heart couldn't believe what it was hearing. A potent distillation of everything I loved about late 90s/early 00s melodic hardcore/metalcore.

41. Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Blut Aus Nord is good at everything they do. Full stop.

40. Kaatayra - Nascido Sob o Signo Incivilizatório
Antifascist, atmospheric black metal from Brazil that deftly sidesteps the pit falls of this increasingly dull sub genre. This one never gets boring.

39. Déhà - Cruel Words
Déhà had quite a productive year, but nothing else of his made my head swim like this one. Perhaps that's why he used his namesake and not another pseudonym. A breathtaking combo of funeral doom, DSBM, and ambience.

38. Nucleus - Entity
I've been slow to warm up to Nucleus, but the mind-bending cosmic riffs driving Entity beyond the stratosphere cannot be denied for long. I came around quickly, speakers blasting.

37. Vale of Pnath - Accursed
It's a testament to their immense talent that they were able to convincingly make a hard turn from the pure tech death of their first 2 albums and steer directly into the waters of black metal without losing who they are.

36. Dawn Ray'd - Behold Sedition Plainsong
The darlings of antifascist black metal, and for good reason. They're not the best in the game, but no one is more inspirational to the movement.

35. Marsh Dweller - Wanderer
Quite a surprising change in direction - from melodic death metal to a daring post-metal opus. The craftsmanship on display from the monster riffs to the atmospheric passages to even the guitar tone is evident.

34. Creeping Death - Wretched Illusions
This was the crossover album of the year. No one else except maybe Witch Vomit was able to lift my spirits and get my head banging after a shitty day at work. Big riffs. Big smiles.

Speaking of Witch Vomit...

33. Witch Vomit - Buried Deep In A Bottomless Grave
The award for most fun death metal album of 2019 goes to Witch Vomit. It's nothing new, but it doesn't need to be if you're able to do the old with this much charisma.

32. Zealotry - At The Nexus of All Stillborn Worlds
It took me a long time to "get" this album, but it kept drawing me back with each listen and became part of my routine listening habit without me even realizing it. It's alive.

31. Have A Nice Life - Sea of Worry
Dan Barrett is a genius. I have intensely loved every piece of music he's ever touched. I haven't spent a lot of time with Sea of Worry, but each spin reveals more and more to love.

30. Wishfield - Wishfield
The album starts out as post-black metal and then suddenly evolves into a heavy alt-rock/shoegaze concoction. There's a lot of aggression and beauty to be found here. A truly unique album that I've come back to a lot.

29. Falls of Rauros - Patterns In Mythology
Falls of Rauros just know how to do the damn thing. They get better with each release, though it's hard to imagine topping the atmospheric black metal perfection of Patterns in Mythology.

28. Mystagogue - And The Darkness Was Cast Out Into The Wilderness
Featuring members of Laster and Gnaw Their Tongues, Mystagogue creates visceral, aggressive black metal wrapped in the sheen of blackgaze. A rapturously hammering experience.

27. Beastwars - IV
It is an injustice that Beastwars has not blown up by now. Meaty, sludgy stoner doom that rivals any of the bigger bands today hawking that sound. But alas, they are only headlining in my car.

26. Wounds of Recollection - You Were A Garden of Empyrean Light
I've been following Wounds of Recollection for a few years, but never expected this. Conjuring early Deafheaven but with a songwriting maturity not found in those releases, this is top shelf blackgaze.

25. Ghostwriter - Burial Grounds
This album is so beautiful. It reminds me of the first time I heard Mazzy Star or "Heaven or Las Vegas" by Cocteau Twins. Plus the artwork is stunning.

24. Caїna - Gentle Illness
An album so personal it feels like trespassing at times. Gentle Illness is a post black metal journey through mental anguishes as diverse as the instruments, noises, and soundscapes that bring them to life.

23. Smoulder - Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring
Trad/epic doom that crawled into my brain and lodged itself there like a parasite on horseback. I played the hell out of this album in the shower for some reason.

22. Epectase - Astres
Astres initially presents itself as a jaunty 2nd wave black metal album, but then things get very interesting. Sure, it's black metal. But it's also 70's prog rock. And it fucking works.

21. Hath - Of Rot and Ruin
Another stellar death metal release in the vein of Where Owls Know My Name and Esoteric Malacology, and very much on the same level as those two juggernauts. I'm very much enjoying this trend in tech death.

20. Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze - Offerings of Flesh and Gold
Antifascist, anticapitalist black metal that means fucking business. Relentlessly driving black metal riffs and blast beats that wash away into dark ambient passages. Let this one soak.

19. Organectomy - Existential Disconnect
A masterclass in slamming brutal death metal. This one came out in June and it's still in almost daily rotation. Most of the slam I get into fizzles after a couple of weeks. This one has staying power.

18. None - Damp Chill of Life
There was a noticeable lack of DSBM in my diet this year. Blackgaze sort of took over everything. But None makes the case for quality over quantity. Even if I only listened to one DSBM album all year, this was enough.

17. Vukari - Aevum
Imagine how high this album would be on my list if it wasn't so uneven. Even with its flaws, it remains one of my favorite black metal albums of 2019. When it's on, it's fucking ON.

16. Storm of Sedition - Howl of Dynamite
Crusty anarchist black metal that stomps on the gas and does not let up. This shit gives me life and makes me feel invincible. Anarchy and total fucking destruction!

15. Horror God - Cursed Seeds
No other tech death album in 2019 bent my brain quite like this one. There are so many good things going on here it demands spin after spin after spin, and you will happily oblige.

14. Spirit Adrift - Divided by Darkness
After Curse of Conception, I was slightly disappointed by what I believed to be a sophomore slump for Spirit Adrift. Turns out I was hilariously wrong. Seeing the band play this live was a religious experience.

13. Iapetus - The Body Cosmic
This will surely go down in history as a progressive death metal classic, if only within the small circle of the fortunate few who have discovered and loved them so far. Spread the good news, ye faithful.

12. Superstition - The Anatomy of Unholy Transformation
I think it's perhaps the most underappreciated release among a slew of incredible releases from 20 Buck Spin this year. I love these goddamn riffs.

11. Devourment - Obscene Majesty
These pioneers of brutal death metal have not lost a single step in their 20 years of existence. I hope detailed notes are being taken by the younguns in the back.

10. Fit For An Autopsy - The Sea of Tragic Beasts
If you're surprised that a deathcore album is in my top 10, it's because you haven't listened to this one. But I have. Over and over and over and over again. It's powerful, thrilling, and massive.

9. Violet Cold - Kosmik
Violet Cold just keeps getting better and soaring higher. I feel like I've been strapped to a rocket every time I hit play on this album.

8. Cloud Rat - Kosmik
Cloud Rat are grindcore heroes in that even people who don't like grindcore love Cloud Rat. Pollinator is their best effort yet, and that's saying a whole fucking lot. Just stellar in every way.

7. Cosmic Putrefaction - At The Threshold of the Greatest Chasm
Pure cosmic brutality from an artist who mainly traffics in atmosphere yielded probably the most eerie death metal album of the year. No other death metal I heard this year felt like this.

6. Venom Prison - Samsara
Venom Prison has been honing their craft for 4 years, growing more potent with each release until they finally blew the doors off with Samsara. Pummeling, relentless, dense, hostile, and 100% unfuckwithable death metal.

5. Trespasser - Чому не вийшло?
This is, hands down, the best anarchist black metal - pure black metal - I've ever heard. A new bar has been set for this burgeoning sub genre - one that must be cleared by all comers if the genre hopes to thrive.

4. Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race
This would've been number 1 if there was more there there. Still, Blood Incantation is one of the great hopes for the future of death metal, and the hype is warranted.

3. Funereal Presence - Achatius
Funereal Presence crafts metal - not just black metal, even if that is the dominant genre expressed here - teeming with creativity and bold songwriting. It's impossible to distill into a tweet. It must be experienced.

2. Vastum - Orificial Purge
Vastum is on another plane right now. Their brutally dark death/doom is at once familiar and horrifyingly strange. Their influence is widely heard but impossible to imitate because the essence of the music is inextricably entwined with its singularly-minded creators. No one else is doing this because no one else CAN do this.

1. Sadness - I Want To Be There

Sadness is impossibly prolific. If you stop keeping up with his Bandcamp page for more than a couple of months you'll likely find you've missed 2 full length albums. Most artists who release music at this speed suffer from a common malady - an inability to edit. The patently false notion that everything they create deserves to be shared with an audience.

Sadness, however, does not fall into that category. Everything this motherfucker puts out is worth listening to, and the majority of it is as good or better than most post-black/DSBM on Bandcamp. With this in mind, imagine how good one of those releases would have to be to rise so far above its stellar companions as to merit a number one ranking on a 50 album list.

These songs ooze an aesthetic quality that starts the listener out on a frighteningly high plane. The songwriting does the rest. The compositions swell and heave their way upward to dizzying heights, take a moment to acknowledge the view, and then launch into an almost disorienting and exhausting crescendo that completely wrings every ounce of beauty and pain out of a song that a mere mortal can bear.

It's good, is what I'm trying to say.

And that's the end! Phew! I hope you discover something here that you love. And, as always, please support the artists.

From The Metal Archives Vol. 9 - Transcending Obscurity Records

[Welcome to this special edition of From The Metal Archives, meant to showcase two things that happened on the Transcending Obscurity Records Bandcamp page. One, in January ALL albums are available as name-you-price downloads!

By the reviewers from The Metal Archives.

[Welcome to this special edition of From The Metal Archives, meant to showcase two things that happened on the Transcending Obscurity Records Bandcamp page. One, in January ALL albums on the page are available as name-your-price downloads! Two, the label released a massive sampler with 52 tracks meant as a "contemporary annual preview of the new music that we're working with and what you can expect in the times to come".

I also found two earlier death metal releases that were well received by The Metal Archives reviewers. One is better known and more progressive than the other, both are great examples of the breath of death metal found on the Transcending Obscurity roster.]

Artwork by Alex Tartsus.

[The Metal Archives reviewer Chris Jennings said]

One of the UK’s leading death metal acts return with album number 5, and De Profundis haven’t sounded this focused and this ferocious in years. Perpetually progressive, subtly melodic and yet as savage as they come, De Profundis sound rejuvenated here and The Blinding Light Of Faith is an eye-opening blast of technical death metal brutality.

[read Chris Jennings's full review here]

[The Metal Archives reviewer TheStormIRide said]

While band’s lyrical themes may be rooted in the realms of human thought and emotional experience, their music is a real it gets. The band describes themselves as old school death metal, but a more apt description would be the steamrolling, oft-militant school of Bolt Thrower or Hail of Bullets. Despite ascribing to that style, the band brings an extremely varied songwriting style to the table. The seventeen minute album spends most its time hammering your skull with a mix of fast paced, chunky riffing and angular chord progressions, but the band slows things up with a few crawling tempos that could sink ships.

[read TheStormIRide's full review here]

Artwork by Turkka Rantanen.

[Taken from the Transcending Obscurity Bandcamp page:] This is our most ambitious and diverse label sampler yet. The bands have been carefully handpicked to represent what we feel is the best expression for that particular genre and as such this sampler is segregated as per the different styles we're specializing in. There's death metal, grind/crust, technical death metal, black metal, sludge metal, doom metal and of course the avant-garde bands. Here's a rough demarcation of the genres where possible:

Tracks 1-23 - death metal/grind/crust
Tracks 24-26 - technical death metal
Tracks 27-31 - sludge/doom metal
Tracks 32-41 - black metal
Tracks 42-48 - doom/death metal
Tracks 49-52 - avant-garde metal