2023 |
Panopticon The Rime of Memory | 4.5 |
where scars was a little unfocused and ...again was a bit messy, rime is austin's vision
delivered with perfect clarity and precision.
as others have said - a culmination of the band's collective efforts over the years, this
is panopticon tuned to a razor edge
some of the very best emotional work he has done in his whole career - enduring the snow
drought should go down as a black metal classic |
Valdrin Throne of the Lunar Soul | 4.5 |
late year contender for 2023 best in black metal. up there with stormruler's recent LP. look
nowhere else for combining the bombast, melodicism and fury of 90s symphonic black with
modern sensibilities and incredible leads. if you jammed moonlight sorcery, give this a go |
Shylmagoghnar Convergence | 4.0 |
these guys do epic like almost no other band without sounding too cheesy. i think the real deciding factor is how committed you are to hearing 67 minutes of atmoblack with glossy production |
Insomnium Songs of the Dusk | 3.5 |
continues their trend of releasing frustratingly good-but-not-great material |
Ch'ahom Knots of Abhorrence | 4.5 |
genuinely great dissodeath. integration of latin tribal influences could have been more seamless, but brings enough to the table to maintain an interesting listen throughout |
Crystal Coffin The Curse of Immortality | 4.0 |
might bump, super solid mix of styles make up this groovy and atmospheric meloblack album |
Wayfarer American Gothic | 2.5 |
death's dynamic shroud After Angel | 4.0 |
Thantifaxath Hive Mind Narcosis | 4.5 |
this one sounds like they took their sound, heard oranssi pazuzu's last album and took that sound and made it half the centerpiece. equally psychadelic, oppressive, depressing and explosive |
Sermon Of Golden Verse | 4.5 |
a remarkably enjoyable concoction of several different prog sounds |
Olde Throne In the Land of Ghosts | 4.0 |
some good old fashioned slightly folk inspired atmospheric black metal fun. smacks of windir in a spot here and there |
2022 |
Misthyrming Með hamri | 4.5 |
Destroyer 666 Never Surrender | 1.0 |
High Command Eclipse of the Dual Moons | 4.0 |
Johnny Booth Storyteller | 4.0 |
releases like this really leave you wondering why these guys haven't released more, they
seem incapable of writing bad material |
Abduction (UK) Black Blood | 4.0 |
Birds in Row Gris Klein | 4.5 |
fuckin hell man they managed to improve across the board, phenomenal release |
Daeva (USA-PA) Through Sheer Will And Black Magic… | 4.0 |
a firm reminder that despite its immediate early 90s swerve into VRY SRS KVLT, black metal has been and always will be a fun genre |
Aenaon Mnemosyne | 4.0 |
if you wanna hear near every subgenre under the sun done at at least an 8/10, plus some jazz, plus some white ward sax action, plus other stuff - this is the album for you |
Orm Intet • Altet | 4.0 |
phenomenal songs when taken in isolation, but the whole album - 90 minutes long - does not justify its monstrous length, despite the inherent quality of each piece |
Gudsforladt Friendship, Love and War | 4.0 |
An Abstract Illusion Woe | 4.5 |
a lotta bands write progressive music with "moments" in mind, soundscapes that build towards a natural peak and then ebb away, but I think I've heard very few albums in the last few years that nail that approach like this one does |
Blackbraid Blackbraid I | 4.0 |
delightful bm album. got a little something for everybody in these new yorkers' take on atmoblack |
Panzerfaust The Suns of Perdition Chapter III | 3.5 |
im a bit with yellow on this but not quite as harsh. a step down in the quality of their previous 2 albums. by panzerfaust standards maybe a 2.5, but by the rest of black metal, a solid 3.5-4. much better than their contemporaries but really below what they're capable of |
Wormrot Hiss | 4.0 |
Sadist Firescorched | 3.5 |
proggy death metal that kind of smacks of traced in air cynic. honestly a lot of fun. the
track ordering, however, is a little weird in that the first few tracks range from fast to
midtempo, but the backhalf is pretty much all slower, more experimental affairs. kind of
unbalanced, but overall a great release
edit: oh ya and that drummer is amazing |
Predatory Light Death and the Twilight Hours | 3.5 |
Nechochwen Kanawha Black | 2.5 |
just a little too scatterbrained and inconsistent in quality to measure up as a great release. some styles are done well and others are quite lacking (the death metal-y sections in particular are very weak) |
Ibaraki Rashomon | 3.0 |
interesting drumming and guitarwork weighed down by uninteresting vocal work and an overly long runtime |
I Am The Night While The Gods Are Sleeping | 2.5 |
black metal paint by numbers. like taking 30 black metal influences and doing them fine enough but not worthy of comment |
Malthusian/Suffering Hour Time's Withering Shadow | 3.5 |
malthusian side is snore but the suffering hour is great as always |
Tomarum Ash in Realms of Stone Icons | 3.0 |
longwinded, bloated, and lacking in dynamics that make the length of the tracks justifiable. cool moments scattered about, but largely averages out to a lot of blast beats |
Old Nick Ghost O'Clock | 3.5 |
genuinely at a loss for words listening to this. the collective effort of people who said "Goat Horns wasn't quite cheesy enough" and yet it's just a fucking blast |
Vanum Legend | 2.5 |
the last album was interesting but this one is just slow, plodding and uninspired. sounds like black metal that's been put through a brita filter |
Undeath It's Time...To Rise From the Grave | 4.0 |
groovy, catchy riffy extavaganza. could listen to a hundred more of these |
Saidan Onryo II: Her Spirit Eternal | 4.5 |
black metal + yay melodies a la ghost bath except it's good instead of terrible |
This White Mountain The Final Sorrow | 4.0 |
hits some pretty massive highs on Bleak Future. modern atmospheric with a depressive lean |
Ultha All That Has Never Been True | 4.0 |
Very solid bm album. Mixture of a lot of sounds and some genuinely unsettling atmosphere at times. Album would be a lot stronger in my mind if they had reordered it or added a bit more intensity to the end of the album, as it loses momentum as it goes |
Abbath Dread Reaver | 3.0 |
a perfectly fine bm release but never really elevates itself above 'dumb but fun' |
Kvaen The Great Below | 4.0 |
Supremely solid speedy, blast-focused black metal with folk leanings. Excellent vocals and diverse inspirations elevate this above your standard blast-y bm a-la Vorga |
Black Fucking Cancer Procreate Inverse | 4.0 |
excellent album. reminds me a lot of the intensity of black curse. going to revisit, probably going to bump up the rating later |
In Aphelion Moribund | 3.5 |
great album. has a bit of a dip in the middle, but as an album that is an amalgamation of
all sorts of black metal sounds with a focus on mid-tempo riffing a-la immortal or high-
paced like necrophobic, it pulls off everything excellent with a surprisingly sinister vocal
performance to boot |
Vanir Sagas | 3.0 |
this is about as blatant of amon amarth worship as you could get
also who tf tagged this as black metal |
Death Was Looming I Am... | 4.5 |
best bm i've heard so far this year (though admittedly it swings between death and black so not totally honest). the thrashy bridge 60% of the way through The Monster You Will Become is some of the most fun i've had listening to music in 2022, and the Roads to Judah Deafheaven homage on Awake is executed to perfection |
Inclination A Glimpse Through The Lens | 4.0 |
short and sweet and absolutely killer. these dudes don't reinvent any wheels but their wheels are rock solid |
Amorphis Halo | 4.0 |
A Pale December Death Panacea | 4.0 |
hard to describe this. really a huge grab bag of subgenres centered around a black metal core. there's some tech death, there's some dissodeath, there's some doom, there's some groove-y sections. on paper it sounds confusing, but it really works |
Vorga Striving Toward Oblivion | 4.0 |
Wiegedood There's Always Blood at the End of the Road | 4.0 |
Aequorea Dim | 2.5 |
ill be the voice of dissent here - I found that this did not coalesce into anything
interesting for a significant amount of its runtime, and the drums were particularly
noticeable. they sounded programmed to me but apparently they have a drummer |
2021 |
Ethereal Shroud Trisagion | 4.5 |
Eternity's End Embers of War | 4.0 |
absolutely masturbatory in terms of guitar work but it works???? awesome album |
Khemmis Deceiver | 4.0 |
not a lot to say here, which is praise as opposed to criticism - innately excellent band delivers yet another excellent album with a few new bells and whistles |
Swallow the Sun Moonflowers | 4.5 |
Stormkeep Tales of Othertime | 4.0 |
not the most unique romp out there (some influences played a little TOO straight, like
Windir and Summoning), but what it lacks in originality, it more than makes up for in
execution and polish
"outshined Emperor" lmao get out of here |
Der Weg Einer Freiheit Noktvrn | 5.0 |
doesn't quite rise to Finisterre but even as a crazy fanboy I didn't expect them to do that.
botb's callout that it is their most post-rock inspired affair is accurate and it's a very
good fit for them, very logical progression from their previous record and an extremely
strong black metal outing
edit: Gegen das Licht is lining up to be the best song they've ever written
edit again: ya it's a 5 |
Sunless Ylem | 4.0 |
Sunless have really elevated their game here. Gonna give it time to digest, but this will probably grow on me. Suffice to say that this one fully capitalizes on their initial mixture of groove, dissodeath and techdeath to make something wholly their own |
Be'lakor Coherence | 4.5 |
Ghost Bath Self Loather | 3.0 |
a remarkable improvement upon their last. the addition of actual lyrics (not just screamed
nonsense) and a general cleaning up of the jarring melodic transitions leaves Ghost Bath
with a serviceable black metal record that is definitely all their own, but still not
necessarily great |
Every Time I Die Radical | 4.5 |
Primeval Well Talkin' in Tongues with Mountain Spirits | 4.0 |
Unto Others Strength | 3.5 |
Strong, strong opening half. Strangely, when they hit the block of the album that sounds
more like Mana, that's when Strength begins to lose steam. They aren't necessarily bad
tracks, just that that style was done better on Mana and the heavier tracks at the front
of this album outshine them handily |
Veilburner Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull | 4.0 |
Lamp of Murmuur Submission and Slavery | 4.0 |
Sleigh Bells Texis | 4.0 |
Sermon of Flames I Have Seen the Light, and It Was Repulsive | 4.0 |
will need more time to see if it stays feeling strong, but overall this is an excellent death/black outing with industrial touches that remind me of Altar of Plagues' last album. |
Trna Istok | 3.0 |
track with gaerea vocals is the best by far, band should just get a vocalist |
Hooded Menace The Tritonus Bell | 4.0 |
Leprous Aphelion | 4.0 |
Wolves in the Throne Room Primordial Arcana | 4.5 |
Lantlos Wildhund | 3.5 |
Ulvik Cascades | 4.0 |
Musk Ox Inheritance | 4.5 |
probably the best august burns red album ever recorded |
Rota Fortunae Hinterland | 4.0 |
Duskmourn Fallen Kings and Rusted Crowns | 4.0 |
Porter Robinson Nurture | 4.0 |
Absolutely the surprise of the year so far. Reminds me heavily of The Flashbulb in terms of both rvariety and execution quality.rPorter has always been successful at huge, bombastic EDM - Nurture shows that he is just as good, rif not even better, at displaying a quieter, more contemplative style. |
Crypts of Despair All Light Swallowed | 4.0 |
Cannibal Corpse Violence Unimagined | 4.0 |
Kauan Ice Fleet | 4.5 |
Devil Sold His Soul Loss | 3.5 |
Sielunvihollinen Teloituskäsky | 4.0 |
Aara Triade I: Eos | 4.0 |
Sanguisugabogg Tortured Whole | 2.0 |
Mare Cognitum Solar Paroxysm | 4.0 |
Stortregn Impermanence | 4.0 |
Pupil Slicer Mirrors | 4.0 |
kinda like if Vein met Nostromo, plus a nice lil garnish of dissonance. shit's honestly wild |
Enforced Kill Grid | 3.0 |
The Crown Royal Destroyer | 3.0 |
Ad Nauseam Imperative Imperceptible Impulse | 4.5 |
the ascending and descending dissonant scales in the title track are unbelievable. this
album has a way of consistently finding ways to reinvent the wheel of disharmony in new
and exciting ways, for nearly an entire hour |
Blurr Thrower Les Voûtes | 3.5 |
Tribulation Where the Gloom Becomes Sound | 4.0 |
Hulder Godslastering: Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry | 4.0 |
this has a lot of different influences spread across its runtime and for a relatively new act, I was consistently impressed with how well all of them are executed and play off of each other |
Vanhelga Enfin Morte | 2.5 |
Antre Dark Spectrum | 3.0 |
Rvbbervvitch Mastvrbations Malveillantes | 4.0 |
Malakhim Theion | 3.0 |
Frozen Soul Crypt Of Ice | 2.5 |
Ancient Mastery Chapter One: Across The Mountains Of ... | 4.0 |
Triumvirate From Beyond the Grave | 3.5 |
Svrm Розпад | 3.0 |
2016 |
Nails/Full of Hell Split | 3.0 |
Full of Hell kind of weak on here. Nails track is a Nails track. |
Saor Guardians | 5.0 |
Deathspell Omega The Synarchy of Molten Bones | 4.5 |
Cultes Des Ghoules Coven | 4.5 |
Tonebox Nocturn | 4.0 |
Myrkgrav Takk og Farvel; Tida er Blitt ei Annen | 3.0 |
Khemmis Hunted | 4.0 |
khemmis understand quite well that what matters are riffs, and they know their way around a riff or two if you know what i'm saying |
Darkthrone Arctic Thunder | 4.0 |
Oathbreaker Rheia | 4.5 |
Second Son of R is probably my song of the year, Caro sounds absolutely unhinged in the climax. I don't usually enjoy that kind of indulgent, un-melodic style of just screaming, but it's well done here, which might be the most surprising thing of the album |
Alcest Kodama | 4.5 |
Danny Brown Atrocity Exhibition | 4.0 |
Insomnium Winter's Gate | 4.5 |
Touche Amore Stage Four | 5.0 |
Norma Jean Polar Similar | 4.5 |
Toxic Ruin Subterranean Terror | 3.5 |
Panopticon Revisions of the Past | 4.0 |
Love it, of course. But everyone saw that coming.
It takes a lot to look at your past work and go "this is not good enough, I'm a lot better than
this", and for someone who puts as much of himself into his records as Lunn, these albums may not
necessarily hold the same value or connection for him that they previously did, but Lunn has still
meticulously gone back over these dark horses of his discography and completely reworked
them.
Social Disservices especially sounds a lot different, since his recording situation for that
was so miserable. What was previously a muddled, incoherent, messy album now sounds born again,
newly sinister and haunting.
Once rough gems of an otherwise consistent and excellent discography (yes, even Kentucky), new
life has been breathed into these albums - they now sound a lot more cohesive, focused, and well-
rounded. If you didn't like these albums before, definitely give them a shot now. |
Coldworld Autumn | 3.5 |
an above average bm release, but nothing more |
Be'lakor Vessels | 4.5 |
Nails You Will Never Be One of Us | 4.0 |
Gojira Magma | 4.0 |
Minor Victories Minor Victories | 4.0 |
Ashbringer Yūgen | 3.5 |
Katatonia The Fall of Hearts | 4.0 |
Gorguts Pleiades' Dust | 4.0 |
Vektor Terminal Redux | 4.5 |
White Lung Paradise | 4.0 |
Howls of Ebb Cursus Impasse: The Pendlomic Vows | 4.0 |
The Zenith Passage Solipsist | 3.0 |
Moonsorrow Jumalten aika | 4.5 |
Rorcal Creon | 4.0 |
Cobalt Slow Forever | 4.5 |
Amon Amarth Jomsviking | 3.5 |
The Body No One Deserves Happiness | 3.5 |
Panopticon / Waldgefluster Panopticon / Waldgeflüster | 4.0 |
Outline In Color Struggle | 2.0 |
how is it that there are so many bands that bring several grown men together and have the lyrical depth of a 14 year old girl? the definitively subpar metalcore album |
Obsidian Kingdom A Year With No Summer | 3.0 |
Sarah Neufeld The Ridge | 4.0 |
I get the sense that Neufeld couldn't be boring even if she tried |
Destroyer 666 Wildfire | 4.0 |
Iotunn The Wizard Falls | 4.0 |
Graveland/Nokturnal Mortum The Spirit Never Dies | 3.0 |
graveland's side is kind of embarassing, but the mortum tracks rule |
Rotting Christ Rituals | 2.5 |
Obscura Akróasis | 3.5 |
Textures Phenotype | 2.5 |
come on guys this is really just lazy meshuggah worship 50 characters 50 characters |
Hyperion (SWE) Seraphical Euphony | 4.0 |
Fuath I | 3.5 |
warmed up to this. it's hypnotic, in a way. in a weird sense, it's relaxing black metal. |
Bea5t Empathy Is a Gift | 3.5 |
Chthe'ilist Le Dernier Crépuscule | 4.0 |
Wildernessking Mystical Future | 3.5 |
Entropia (PL) Ufonaut | 4.5 |
Borknagar Winter Thrice | 3.5 |
Abbath Abbath | 3.0 |
Nadra Allir vegir til glötunar | 4.0 |
Krallice Hyperion | 4.0 |
2015 |
Baroness Purple | 3.5 |
SikTh Opacities | 4.0 |
Batushka Litourgiya | 4.5 |
Awe Providentia | 4.0 |
this is some primo shit, really polished, mature sounding black metal. totally overwhelming
atmosphere |
Neurotech Evasive | 4.0 |
awesome take on modern dance music, kind of a mix of light industrial aesthetics with modern
trance |
Oneohtrix Point Never Garden of Delete | 4.0 |
Intronaut The Direction of Last Things | 3.5 |
Bersarin Quartett III | 3.0 |
Grimes Art Angels | 3.0 |
VVOVNDS Descending Flesh | 3.5 |
Imbaru El Inherente Sentir en los Árboles | 4.0 |
wonderful neo-folk with a distinctive yet subtle ethnic flair |
Horrendous Anareta | 4.0 |
Ulvesang Ulvesang | 4.0 |
Abigail Williams The Accuser | 3.0 |
Abilgail Williams strip back their sound a bit on this album, but what we're left with is a highly middle of the road black metal record. They may have been more cheesy and hate-able on previous releases, but in doing away with their symphonic elements over time, they have slowly become a totally unremarkable black metal band. |
Kauan Sorni Nai | 4.0 |
Havukruunu Havulinnaan | 3.5 |
Panopticon Autumn Eternal | 4.5 |
Austin Lunn sounds refreshed on this release.
He may not have the anger or feeling of
political
dejection that drove the fury and brilliance
of Collapse, but he finally seems to have
found his
voice from other influences. This is as
collected as he's ever been, and it's a
remarkable thing to
behold. Expanding and experimenting has paid
off - Sleep to the Sound of the Waves Crashing
is
something he never would have done before, and
sounds like the song all of New Bermuda wished
it
was.
Oh, and Autumn Eternal (the track) absolutely
fucking slays |
This Gift Is A Curse All Hail The Swinelord | 3.5 |
this is like Time to Burn meets Deathspell Omega, but not quite as great as that could sound |
The Oh Hellos Dear Wormwood | 4.0 |
Totem Skin Weltschmerz | 4.0 |
Kowloon Walled City Grievances | 3.5 |
Deafheaven New Bermuda | 4.5 |
Indian Handcrafts Creeps | 3.5 |
George Clanton 100% Electronica | 4.0 |
VI De Praestigiis Angelorum | 4.5 |
some of the best black metal i've heard this year |
The Black Dahlia Murder Abysmal | 3.5 |
Botany Dimming Awe, The Light Is Raw | 4.0 |
Amorphis Under the Red Cloud | 3.5 |
The Wonder Years No Closer to Heaven | 4.0 |
The Nietzsche Intro to Advanced Poetry | 2.5 |
Soilwork The Ride Majestic | 4.0 |
Beach House Depression Cherry | 4.0 |
Myrkur M | 2.5 |
Wolfheart Shadow World | 3.5 |
this album just shows that amon amarth is a band that could have one member and still work |
Chelsea Wolfe Abyss | 4.0 |
Krallice Ygg Huur | 3.0 |
ChugChugWob Redemption | 2.0 |
We Lost the Sea Departure Songs | 4.0 |
The Black Twilight Circle Desert Dances and Serpent Sermons | 4.0 |
Bad Bad Hats Psychic Reader | 3.5 |
Cradle of Filth Hammer of the Witches | 4.0 |
bansheebeat Lumine | 4.0 |
Mutoid Man Bleeder | 3.5 |
Howls of Ebb The Marrow Veil | 4.0 |
Dispirit Separation | 3.5 |
Ingrain Aembers | 4.5 |
Serpent Noir Erotomysticism | 3.5 |
Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld Never Were The Way She Was | 4.5 |
Tribulation The Children of the Night | 3.0 |
Bosse-de-Nage All Fours | 4.5 |
Akhlys The Dreaming I | 4.0 |
In Cauda Venenum In Cauda Venenum | 4.0 |
Chapter V: F10 Syndrome | 4.0 |
Nils Frahm Solo | 3.5 |
Liturgy The Ark Work | 2.5 |
Der Weg Einer Freiheit Stellar | 3.5 |
Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly | 4.0 |
Galar De Gjenlevende | 4.5 |
Ghost Bath Moonlover | 2.5 |
Melechesh Enki | 4.0 |
Enslaved In Times | 4.0 |
Leviathan Scar Sighted | 4.5 |
A Forest of Stars Beware the Sword You Cannot See | 3.5 |
Ethereal Shroud They Became the Falling Ash | 3.5 |
Lords of the Trident Frostburn | 3.0 |
Misthyrming Söngvar elds og óreiðu | 4.0 |
Napalm Death Apex Predator - Easy Meat | 4.0 |
Desolate Shrine The Heart of the Netherworld | 3.5 |
Mechina Acheron | 3.5 |