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Hive Mind Narcosis (LP)
THANTIFAXATH
After being alive for 45 years it is rare that an album comes along, and I sit down to listen to it, I get to the end and then I have to re listen to it, only to find I lack the vocabulary to accurately describe what makes this work of art so damn good. Words that come to mind are esoteric, sonic, downward spiral, sinister, dissonant, and avant- garde. Hive mind Narcosis is a hypnotic black metal affair that is remarkable. Somehow it is both familiar and unfamiliar. This is an unsettling spell and a forward thinking vision of black metal that THANTIFAXATH casts into your ear drum. This is a seminal work and one of the best metal albums of the year.
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All Heads Are Gonna Roll (LP)
VOMITORY
Do you have an itch for OSDM that needs a scratch? All Heads Are Gonna Roll with help sooth that.
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Rites Of Percussion (LP)
DAVE LOMBARDO
Legend drummer puts out a solo album of rhythmic and abstract music, and it is good. So glad that this exists.
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Death Folk Country (LP)
DORTHIA COTTRELL
Great late night music. I find myself being able to get lost in the world that Cottrell has painted with her brand of gothic like folk music and bluesy voice. Dark, mysterious and swampy, the parts that make up the whole of this offering is a benchmark of quality and mastery of music.
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Velvet Incandescence (LP)
DAWN OF OUROBOROS
Perhaps I have drunk too much Oakland water, or perhaps it is simply that I can get tired of the same old same old. Whatever the reasons are, Dawn Of Ouroboros have crafted a dreamy psychedelic metal album that seems to be able to combine different styles and bake a cake that is tasty.
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The Inside Room [reissue] (LP)
40 WATT SUN
I love this record, it came into my life when I needed this kind of thing the most. I am so very glad that there is a reissue of this.
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Prosaic (LP)
MIZMOR
I’m going to cheat a little bit, as of this writing there is only 1 song for preview but it sounds great! I am sure the rest of this album is going to be just as good.
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Penetralia [reissue] (LP)
HYPOCRISY
So, Hypocrisy finally gets around to reissuing their back catalog [ including “Osculum Obscenum”, “The Fourth Dimension” and “Abducted]. Penetralia is classic Swedish death metal with heavy doses of anti christianity but by the time they get to “Abducted” they get a bit weirder and more into futurism/sci-fi. Don’t get me wrong, Hypocrisy kept their brutality and both feet planted firmly in death metal through out their 30 year career. If you are not familiar with this band, start with this reissue and work your way forward.
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Aborted From Reality (LP)
STATIC ABYSS
They’re back…and boy do they deliver another excellent slab of metal with both doom and death influence. Great nightmarish atmosphere, ear hook riffs and killer vocals. What more could you ask for.
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Sky Bvrial (LP)
CONCILIUM
Nauseating black metal riffs, beastial drumming, gut churning voices and high on atmosphere, Concilium created a monster of an album.
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Evenfall Of The Apocalypse (LP)
ASCENDED DEAD
Vicious sounding semi chaotic death metal that barely sounds controlled. An excellent release and another one of my favorites for the year.
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Iniquitous Barbarie Synthesis (LP)
IMPETUOUS RITUAL
Otherworldy metal that shares members of Portal and Grave Upheaval. This is a kind of ritual inducing black metal that you can easily get lost in.
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Black Flame Eternal (LP)
CLOAK
This band plays a great mixture of black, goth and synth metal that is easy to digest and leaves you feeling satisfied. Don’t get me wrong, there is genuine darkness, aggression and sincerity of all things metal to be found on this album, as well as cohesion and strong song composition without scarfing the flame of metal. Two horns up!
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Upal (LP)
KOSTNATENI
Unique avant-garde black metal with twist and turns, brutal and beautiful, conventions that have been broken are to be found in these tracks that make up Upal. Top tier multifaceted musicianship abounds and another great album for my best of the year list.
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Purge (LP)
GODFLESH
Pioneering industrial metal icons are back with a new album, buy this, ok.
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Alfold (LP)
THY CATAFALQUE
An ever evolving music project, Thy Catafalque’s approach to making metal that reaches beyond easy genre defining boundaries, and succeeds on this particular album. Most musicians have a hard time combing such desperate elements like folk, electronic and metal into a recipe that works. If you’re looking for a metal album to help cleanse palate, that still has enough aggression and metal to be metal. Look no further.
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Caverns Of Occult Hatred (LP)
VILE RITUAL
Guitars that feel suffocating, guttural vocals, thick drums buried in some kind of sludge while being projected from a cave...it’s that good.
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All Hell’s Breaking Loose (LP)
RAVEN
NWOBH rockers Raven {5 Decades and 15 albums!} created one enjoyable album. Hints of thrash and a dash of speed metal make this one ferocious rocking album. Our amps go to 11.
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P.R.I.S.M. (LP)
SUTEKH HEXEN & FUNERARY CALL
Serious sonic atmosphere nightmare inducing spectrums of black metal that is expressed in a massive cocoon of experimental miasma and mystical passages. Powerful and ritualistic, this is an impressive collaboration and an album that is hypnotically stunning. I am simply blown away by P.R.I.S.M and this also goes into my best of the year list.
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