The Best Metal Albums of 2019
This fucking world went right off the fucking deep end in 2019 and just while it was taking it’s last breath metal threw in a life preserver and rescued us from the fathomless, black pit of existence. Metal is the one good thing that kept delivering this year, even as the nonstop parade of bullshit engulfed the sub-genres of our beloved music, there was still plenty, and I mean fucking plenty, of incredible metal albums and bands that didn’t become out loud and proud fuck heads and boot lickers. Metal is bigger and better than that and for every single edge lord fuck and shitty ass band there’s twenty fold more that are better. 2019 was another exceptional year for metal and if you don’t think so I don’t know how to relate to you.
TOP 25 METAL RELEASES OF THE FUCKING YEAR
25. Hath - Of Rot and Ruin
I'll cling to any new death metal that isn't "old school" nowadays, especially when it's a band that's actually trying to do something somewhat original. Hath take on a melodic, technical, proggy, blackened mish-mash and do it exceedingly well and engagingly. There's a lot of hype around this album right now and it might not be the "masterpiece" it's being heralded as but it's fucking damn good and vastly different then all the old school worshippers everybody is freaking out about.
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24. Sulphur Aeon - The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos
I don’t know how anybody can be so into all this OSDM when bands like Sulphur Aeon are out here just fucking crushing death metal. Sulphur Aeon, the Lovecraft inspired, melodic and moody, death metal purveyors have been topping themselves with each release and now with their third have delivered their best album to date and one of the best death metal albums of the year. Perfect songs and riffs, weird atmosphere, melodic all day, and the perfect blend of the Lovecraft ideas and death metal, never veering too far into the Lovecraft aspect where it overpowers the music. Get on this fucking band.
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23. Devil Master - Satan Spits on Children of Light
Probably claiming the best album title of the year, Devil Master play a rowdy and sleazy mix of punk attitude, rock power drive and black metal that's a bit rawer than similar bands. I'm thinking of Weaponizer or Midnight here. More experimental might be a bit much but their writing and riffing is a bit more creative and interesting than a lot of punk driven black metal bands. Serious fucking non-stop fun and energy. Just what metal needs more of.
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22. Numenorean - Adore
Give me black metal that's changing shit up and pushing the bullshit genre boundaries. Give me something that is even remotely different or at least reaching for other ideas and elements. Give me more stuff like this new Numenorean that makes black metal melodic and catchy and poppy and emotional and dark and miserable. Fuck black metal orthodoxy and the assholes that will surely rage about this. This album is rad and I hope you choke on it.
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21. Kull - Exile
So this is all the members of Bal-Sagoth minus the lead singer. From what I gather it's the continuation of the idea of Bal-Sagoth just without Byron Roberts. I don't know what the story there is but more Bal-Sagoth is a big fucking win for me and this album sounds just like what it promises: Bal-Sagoth with a new singer. All the grand, over-the-top, cheeseball, insanely symphonic black metal fantasy Bal-Sagoth did so well is here in fine form once again. It's super satisfying for a Bal-Sagoth or cheese fan and I'm glad this exists in my ears because it's fucking all over rad.
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20. Atlas Entity - Beneath the Cosmic Silence
A one-man death metal band that is not fucking around with genre conventions. Equal parts technical, atmospheric, post, thrash, and melodic, this album is another blast of fresh air in an overcrowded, old school worshipping genre.
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19. Arctic Sleep - Kindred Spirits
I love when an album comes out of almost nowhere and just blows my brain apart. I'll always be in favor of music and bands that are trying something different and approaching music from all angles as opposed to the current trends and while everybody is lost in moldy death metal riffing, Arctic Sleep is over here just blasting beautiful metal to pieces. I hesitate to even say this but it's similar in execution to the more ethereal (and past couple) Devin Townsend releases. Now all you'll think about is Devin but this is like the wild and eclectic nature of Devin's music if it was more focussed, more moody, and even more nuanced with it's emotional build as opposed to the full on explosion of ideas that is Devin Townsend. This is truly captivating as well, despite by Devin comparison it doesn't feel like hardly anything else out there and even though that obscurity can be hindering it's actually enthralling. It's so many different styles and sounds swirling around that are rooted in metal so it's constantly heavy but it's not like anything you'll be hearing currently. This is awesome. More fresh ideas, please.
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18. Belenos - Argoat
It's at the point, now on their 8th release, that if you don't know that the name "Belenos" is synonymous with "quality black metal of the highest order" it's on you. Belenos should be hailed as one of the best contemporary black metal bands around, putting out masterful album after masterful album and just dominating the genre with their classic inspired yet always contemporary, melodic, nature and hedonistic focussed style. Always one of the best albums of whatever year it comes out in, this is no fucking different.
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17. Wormwitch - Heaven That Dwells Within
Wormwitch is sneakily becoming a favorite of mine. Melodic black metal with that crust influences. Reminds me of Skeletonwitch if they were slightly folkier and crustier. Super fucking infectious. Super killer.
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16. Borknagar - True North
I feel like Borknagar is a band that is sorely taken for granted. They just always put out killer material, consistently but they haven't really done anything massive in years so there's a sort of casual hype when they have something coming out. Which is fine, so many bands would kill to be in a band with so many talent musicians who just put out solid album after solid album but Borknagar are a treasure. They're so fucking awesome all the time and goddamn I'll always be floored by ICS Vortex's vocal performances, and this album is nothing but awesome performances and simply beautifully crafted songs. The pure emotion on display here has Borknagar producing one of their best albums of their career. Fucking bold statement? Yeah, it's that good.
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15. Disillusion - The Liberation
The only proggy metal band releasing a new album after 13 years that I care about is Disillusion. The bands intricate, progressive, and oh-so-crucially melodic and entrancing debut album Back to the Time of Splendor is a masterpiece and one of the best metal albums of the 2000's, if not ever. Their 2006 album met with less than stellar reviews and since then they've been rather dormant but now, thankfully, they've come roaring back with an album that is in every way the spiritual successor to Splendor. Insanely beautiful and magnificently heavy and melodic, it captures that same spirit but firmly roots the band in 2019, such is the power of truly progressive and thoughtful musician ship instead of just cashing in on your own, self inflated mystique. One of the best of the year. Don't doubt me.
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14. Obsequiae - The Palms of Sorrowed Kings
This one was just right at the fucking top of my anticipated albums this year and if you even doubted that Obsequaie would deliver one of the best albums of the year, nay, decade, you're fucking insane. Fucking master musicianship and beautiful classical and medieval instrumentation woven into searing black metal majesty is what this project does and they fucking own it. Rare is creativity this unfettered in black metal, or metal as a whole and given their trajectory of outdoing each previous album I can't wait to keep getting music from Obsequiae.
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13. Pijn and Conjurer - Curse These Metal Hands
Now this, this right here, is sheer beauty. Combining the hardened, sludge pounding of Conjurer with the post (everything) melancholy of Pijn, these two bands have crafted one of the most uniquely mesmerizing and beautiful metal albums of the year. I love the creative energy of this and the desire to not just do a split release but really collaborate and find a way to make both their sounds work as something new. Simply breathtaking.
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12. Haunter - Sacramental Death Qualia
I'm telling you, the place to go for outstanding, forward thinking, black and death metal is I, Voidhanger, thus proven again by this stellar new release from Haunter. I swoon so easily for bands that even attempt originality and Haunter have gone from more crust influenced areas to weird, progressive, swirling, psychedelic and fucking evil black metal and it's oh so tasty. People are excited about Tool when stuff like this exists?
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11. Warforged - I: Voice
Just fucking blasting out of nowhere is the debut from Warforged. Fucking going all over the place with a massive death metal foundation as it's root, I: Voice handles black metal, tech, prog, and jazz scales all with masterful creativity then throws it all into a sci-fi story blender to make one of the best albums of the year. Fucking massively creative and intensely interesting, this is what I wish we were striving for always.
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10. Coffins - Beyond the Circular Demise
Fuuuuuuuuucking Coffins is so fuuuuuuuuuucking sick. So many nasty, filthy, crunchy, vile riffs have come out of this band over their brutalizing career. Mostly known for their pummeling death/doom combo, Beyond dials back the doom a bit and goes for an all out crunching death metal assault. No band reflects their name as much as Coffins does and this album is another masterful addition to their catalog. n.
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9. Lunar Shadow - The Smokeless Fires
Lunar Shadow simply fucking dominates at the classic, epic heavy metal style. Their approach is so directly straight up heavy metal but they take it that one step further with simply beautiful melody and structure so they don't just sound like every other traditional heavy metal worshipping band right now. Epic is right and this album fucking slays.
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8. False - Portent
It's a nice feeling and a great surprise when you hear an album that is simply remarkable that you weren't expecting. That doesn't mean that when you're expecting a band to deliver a remarkable album and they do that that power is any less diminished. I was 100% expecting False to deliver something amazing with their newest album and they certainly did but after actually hearing it it's even more incredible than I'd thought. That's an amazing feeling and False are an amazingly beautiful, poignant, and un-fuckable with, straight up American black metal band. Fucking dazzling.
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7. Waldgefluster - Mondoscheinsonaten
Waldgefluster have been releasing amazing album after amazing album and it boggles my mind more people aren't listening to this band, or at least, talking about them. Mondoscheinsonaten is their fifth album of captivating and masterfully composed atmospheric, German, nature-oriented black metal, and it might be their most beautiful. It might be the most beautiful black metal album of the year. I can't get enough of this band and in a year where black metal and a part of it's fans are determined to make it a less fun and inclusive place while defending absolute garbage people and bands, I'm clinging to bands like Waldgefluster like grim fucking death.
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6. Atlantean Kodex - The Course of Empire
Thank fuck Atlantean Kodex is back with their massive epic doom stylings to lay complete and utter waste to everything that has come before it this year. This album is just that, massive and epic, just like Atlatnean Kodex has always been. It's perfect. It's divine. It's all I was waiting for and now there's more Atlantean Kodex in this world so it's better for humanity all around.
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5. Iapetus - The Body Cosmic
This right here is a prime fucking example of why you should never stop looking for new music. Metal is the benevolent force that is always generous if you're willing to look and bands like Iapetus are a grand fucking gift. If all melo-death was this good, it would the go to genre for all of metal. While intensely hyper melodic, Iapetus throw down on the prog, technical side of death metal but without pomp or endless noodling. These songs are so well crafted and informed by the technicality and catchy nature, it's a goddamn masterwork of melodic metal. Interwoven with beautiful vocals, both harsh and clean, etherial soundscapes, and lush, magnificent acoustic guitars, and best of all, name your own price. Fucking get this in your earholes.
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4. Paladin - Ascension
Hot fucking hell, this album fucking rules. It's an extremely energetic, riff show of power metal, thrashed the fuck up and topped with a little melo-death just for good measure and that makes it super fucking fresh and exciting and all the things I want. It's not eveb fucking around and if I had to pick a top power metal album for the year, this one would likely be it. Power metal continues its dominating streak over 2019.
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3. Xoth - Interdimensional Invocations
I'll just skip all the shit about Lovecraft themed metal and tired tech-death and tell you now that this Xoth album is one of the best you'll find of either all year. Again, striving for something different while mixing all the thrash, death, black metal, and technical prowess yields fantastic results and Xoth running circles around bands toeing the line. More of this. More creativity. More fresh takes. Fuck being boring.
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2. Idle Hands - Mana
Idle Hands debut EP Don't Waste Your Time hit me like a ton of fucking bricks and had I heard it in 2018 it might have made my top spot for the year, or at least, very close to the top. Their debut album Mana, is all the promise and beautiful creativity promised on the EP. Idle Hands mix 80s pop and goth, Killing Joke at their most 80s-ish with a full on metal drive and intensity. It's not like goth metal or anything you've heard before, it's its own beast both 80s goth and metal and it's fucking reinvigorating and exceptional.
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1. Falls of Rauros - Patterns in Mythology
I don't know how to sell you on Falls of Rauros if you aren't already except to repeat, exceedingly, how they're one of the best black metal bands going now and that they outdo themselves with each and every album. My love of this band knows no bounds and this newest album is all the beauty and depths and amazement that is Falls of Rauros.