GoM's top ten 2016 and a buncha other good stuff
Was gonna do a compiled Q2, 3, and 4 because I missed them but I got tired of doing it so this is just my top 10 and all my 4s and up, with a few particularly good 3.5s sprinkled in. Tried to cram a bunch of stuff in over the last week or two but there was a ton of stuff I missed that I wanted to check. Felt like a more metal year than usual for me (no one is surprised) but there are a coupla none m/ bullshit picks to show I'm not totally a one trick pony. Top 10 are ranked, the rest not so much. |
| 58 |  | Chelsea Wolfe
Hypnos / Flame
The two new tracks are excellent, particularly the opener, while the other two are re releases or demos. |
| 57 |  | Novembre
Ursa
Doomy/proggy/melodic metal. It's a little dragged out and the clean vocals wear out their welcome but it's quality. |
| 56 |  | Slice the Cake
Odyssey To the West
It's hard to call them deathcore anymore, though a lot of the riffs aren't far removed, but Slice the Cake has only gotten more ambitious over the years with this being the ultimate culmination of their proggy theatrical metal sound. . |
| 55 |  | Wode
Wode
Melodic black metal with hints of NWOBHM |
| 54 |  | Howls of Ebb
Cursus Impasse: The Pendlomic Vows
Impossibly pretentious, but infectiously excellent fucked up death metal. A little more straightforwardly setup compared to The Marrow Veil, but not far behind it in quality. |
| 53 |  | Reptilian
Perennial Void Traverse
Early early Darkthrone/Obliteration worship but we don't get too many of those so I'm happy to enjoy this vaguely derivative work freely. |
| 52 |  | Zealotry
The Last Witness
Similar to Blood Incantation in that it encompasses much of death metal's history without being too derivative. |
| 51 |  | Elysian Fields
Ghosts of No
Dream pop. Swiped it from one of Pots' lists. |
| 50 |  | Slaughterday
Laws Of The Occult
Basically Autopsy worship with a slightly more ethereal approach. |
| 49 |  | Vektor
Terminal Redux
It's certainly impressive, but I had to bump it way down the list because it's really hard to come back to consistently from how tediously huge it is. Still great. |
| 48 |  | Sylvaine
Wistful
Delightful shoegazy post black metal. |
| 47 |  | Gorguts
Pleiades' Dust
It's not hard to mess up the "one long song" approach, but it is difficult for Gorguts to mess up anything so. |
| 46 |  | Ariana Grande
Dangerous Woman
An album chock full of pop bangers. |
| 45 |  | First Fragment
Dasein
besides Fallujah, this is about the only tech death that was worth much of a damn this year, mostly by actually being fun to listen to rather than tediously precise. |
| 44 |  | Sojourner
Empires of Ash
One of the better Summoning worship bands to come out recently. No one's going to be able to match Caladan Brood who actually topped Summoning themselves, but this is respectable as is. |
| 43 |  | The Hotelier
Goodness
It's not half as good as Home, but not many things are. There's still a lot to like here. |
| 42 |  | Garroted
In the Court of Nyarlathotep
Death metal, I actually don't remember this one a ton but I liked it a lot. |
| 41 |  | Drudkh / Hades Almighty
One Who Walks With the Fog / Pyre Era, Black!
A strong return for Drudkh, sits just behind the split with Grift but well above Furrow. |
| 40 |  | Be'lakor
Vessels
The more accessible side to melodic death metal. |
| 39 |  | Silent Planet
Everything Was Sound
post hardcore/metalcore. kind of like a mix between architects and underoath. |
| 38 |  | Cradle of Filth
Dusk and Her Embrace - The Original Sin
A long lost version of Cradle's original masterwork. Arguably superior to the original. |
| 37 |  | Coldworld
Autumn
I much prefer the cold paysage like approach to Melancholie but Autumn is surprisingly good once it gets going. Post black metal. |
| 36 |  | Numenorean
Home
Pretentious attitude aside, this is some slick post black metal. |
| 35 |  | Departures
Death Touches Us, From The Moment We Begin To Love
A little less punk flavored but no less emotionally powerful outing from the melodic hardcore outfit. |
| 34 |  | Carnifex
Slow Death
These days to find good deathcore you have to dig through the dregs to find anything remotely worthwhile and even the old school trailblazers have gone out of style. All except Carnifex. This is deathcore at it's purest, more powerful form. |
| 33 |  | Mare Cognitum/Aureole
Resonance: Crimson Void
It's like listening to a black hole. |
| 32 |  | Echo Tail
Drowning the Pacific
User project, really sick stuff so give it a listen. Prog rock as well as multiple other styles mixed in. |
| 31 |  | Inquisition
Bloodshed Across The Empyrean Altar Beyond The
There's no one that does black metal like Inquisition and Bloodshed felt fresh while being stripped down somehow. |
| 30 |  | Norma Jean
Polar Similar
Some of the only great metalcore this year. |
| 29 |  | Nox Formulae
The Hidden Paths to Black Ecstasy
Ritualistic black metal. Not as good as Serpent Noir from last year, but a worthy followup from the same mastermind. |
| 28 |  | Mare Cognitum
Luminiferous Aether
Continued refinement of mare Cognitum's spacey atmospheric black metal, similar quality to their side of the split with Aureole. |
| 27 |  | Drudkh / Grift
Betrayed By The Sun / Hägringar
Drudkh are definitely working hard to recover from the failure that was Furrow and perhaps the albums before it for some. This tops their previous split with Hades Almight handily with the opener being one of their most memorable songs to date. Grift's side impresses as well, the more depressive take fitting in surprisingly well next to Drudkh's style. |
| 26 |  | Usurpress
The Regal Tribe
The album cover is bonafide classic OSDM cheesey goodness but the music is a little more interesting that you'd expect with some fairly dynamic songcraft and progressive elements. |
| 25 |  | Insomnium
Winter's Gate
The naysayers of this album have mostly argued that it's exciting across its runtime but forgettable after and they're right. However, I don't think that's as much of a problem as it should be. I chalk it up to the concept story idea across one long track tactic a la Crimson and take it as it is, which is top tier melodic death metal. |
| 24 |  | Winterfylleth
The Dark Hereafter
Folk black metal. It's a bit too short at 5 tracks with one being a strangely by the books and stale Ulver cover, but it's still quality. |
| 23 |  | Alcest
Kodama
I've never been as enamored with Alcest as others, Escailles took a while to grow on me and the rest range from whatever to pretty good. This is about as close to Escailles quality as they've ever been. |
| 22 |  | Waldgefluster
Ruinen
A surprisingly eclectic slab of black metal that traverses folk and post effortlessly with call backs to the quality of Ulver at their prime (at least as far as their metal days go). |
| 21 |  | Darkthrone
Arctic Thunder
It's fuckin Darkthrone man. It's not a pure return to the unholy trinity's style of black metal, but there's a little bit of first wave in there as well as doom and heavy metal and speed and thrash and all kinds of cool shit to make...well Darkthrone. |
| 20 |  | Hail Spirit Noir
Mayhem In Blue
Very very trippy psychedelic/prog black metal. |
| 19 |  | Wedrujacy Wiatr
O Turniach, Jeziorach I Nocnych Szlakach
Absolutely gorgeous folk black metal, my major qualm being that I think the production doesn't suit the more aggressive passages, making them feel a little too muted. |
| 18 |  | Sleepwalker (JPN)
5772
Noisy black metal that blends more styles into it than that description would suggest. |
| 17 |  | Selvans / Downfall Of Nur
Selvans / Downfall of Nur
A really interesting split between a pair of great black metal acts. Their disparate sounds, folk bm vs. more straightforward atmospheric bm, could've made for an odd pairing but they worked very closely together to make this and it sounds focused. |
| 16 |  | Deathspell Omega
The Synarchy of Molten Bones
Chalk another one up for the masters of the dissonant weird as fuck sub subgenre of black metal. Who cares whether it's an EP or an LP, it rules. |
| 15 |  | A Tribe Called Quest
We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your service
Hip hop. I don't really know anything about these guys, but I thought this was pretty tight. |
| 14 |  | Eneferens
In The Hours Beneath
A strong improvement on the vaguely undeveloped but solid record from either earlier this year or late last year. Post/folk black metal with a slight funeral doom tinge. |
| 13 |  | Teitanblood
Accursed Skin
Really tight EP of bestial black/death. I think one track is a re-release while the other is new but not totally sure. Either way it rules. |
| 12 |  | Krallice
Prelapsarian
It seems like every other full length from Krallice is really sick and then the next is somewhere between passable and respectable. This is near the top of their discog, though I'm not ready to call it their best yet, technical but tasteful black metal. |
| 11 |  | Run the Jewels
Run the Jewels 3
This is super fresh so this is a pretty loose space as I'm not certain how it holds up just yet, but so far it's a pretty sick followup to the last two records which I loved. A little more spacious and chill compared to them as well, kinda like the latest Little Simz record. |
| 10 |  | Cadaveric Fumes
Dimensions Obscure
This marks the beginning of my top 10 of the year.
Psychedelic death metal that's one of the most instantly listenable extreme metal release of 2016. Shame it's just an EP. |
| 9 |  | Fallujah
Dreamless
It's hard to find gems in the tech/prog death pool but Fallujah will always remain well ahead of the pack. Plagued by production issues in the past, Dreamless fixes that issue but is mostly held back by taking less risks, though it's still full of vibrant modern metal that's worth the listen. |
| 8 |  | Destroyer 666
Wildfire
Black/thrash/m/ madness. |
| 7 |  | Yndi Halda
Under Summer
A magnificent return for post rock after big names like Godspeed and Explosions in the Sky put out whatever and decent quality records respectively in recent years. |
| 6 |  | Moonsorrow
Jumalten Aika
A triumphant return after the slight misstep that was Varjoina, Jumalten Aika is everything a folk/black metal album should be. |
| 5 |  | Blood Incantation
Starspawn
A melting pot of death metal across the ages, but startling unique despite that. |
| 4 |  | Ulcerate
Shrines of Paralysis
A post metal heavy return from the the masterminds of modern death metal that doesn't slack on riffs. Easily their best since Everything Is Fire. |
| 3 |  | El-Ahrairah
El-Ahrairah
Raw experimental black metal that's concise in terms of the song lengths but dynamic in sound. Some of the tightest and most memorably black metal you'll ever hear. |
| 2 |  | Cultes Des Ghoules
Coven
Black metal in the form of a stage play about witchcraft, full of meaty first wave riffs and dynamic vocals that span the gauntlet from deranged snarling to possessed cackling. |
| 1 |  | Saor
Guardians
A more polished followup to Aura that lacks the boisterous production and drumwork of Austin Lunn, but the melodies are substantially more memorable and affecting. The final three tracks here are utterly masterful. |
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