Lacerated Metal Zine: January 2020

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Arthalos' Best Albums of the Year [2019]

In the final product, I'm happy to say most of the major genres receive some form of exposure and representation on this list. A reflection, as with most years, of the diversity and excellence that different artists can channel across different metal-isms. Death metal gets minimal representation on this list (though the Coffin Rot debut very nearly made the cut) but that doesn't mean there was a shortage of gruesome, choppy material hailing from both Europe and the States. My preferences naturally tilt towards the old school, so the Inferi record feels a bit disjointed within the mix, not least when it was considered among the 'poppiest' death metal albums of the year. Frankly, it was a great exercise in memorable melodic/technical death metal, and somehow made the double snarl/growl vocal formula work. Dreadlord, on the other hand, was easily the Dutchmen's best effort to date, a brutal, scathing panoply of riffs and morose Dissection-esque throngs of melody that cemented it as one of the best the genre had to offer this year, period.

But the broader story here is doom metal and prog. All of Crypt Sermon, Capilla Ardiente, Spirit Adrift and Green Lung delivered bouts of crushing, hazy, epic excellence that should hold a candle to some of the genre's forebears of the 80s and 90s. There were also a handful of solid releases that didn't make the cut to the top but which nonetheless fueled several hours' worth of headbanging back at the pad. Some of my favorite artists on earth like Arch/Matheos and Opeth made career apexes, and the Scandinavian express a la Borknagar and Soilwork was not too shabby either, displaying forth a committed continuation into their renewed artistic paths.

Besides these, there was a swarm of black metal records that proved Guillermo del Toro's aphorism that evil always gestates; but never disappears. While albums like Ilmestysket remained as unfazed monuments to the winter solitude bands like Darkthrone have been conjuring up since time immemorial, Par le sang versé, for instance, uprooted the traditional aesthetics of the genre and embedded it into a seemingly archaic palette, woven together through an impeccable assemblage of melodious tremolos. It was pretty gratifying to be reassured that black metal in 2019 is still the genre stylistically the most mercurial while quality-wise the most consistent.

My last 5 or so picks are somewhat interchangeable, since they were all absorbing, if not wholly bordering on perfection. More generally, however, although there were quite a few enjoyable (and sometimes surprising) releases, the lion's share of extreme metal that reached my ears tended to be rather dull and generic. This is not a novel trend, and it's perhaps a product of the metric shit ton of records that found their way to my iPod. For a more comprehensive list with individual commentaries on each album, please refer to the RYM list I curate annually. I've downsized my list to 50 choices this year to lock on the quality. Compulsive listening remains the key criteria.

YouTube links to the albums embedded below.

Update (January 2021): Added Bethlehem, Vargrav and Mo'ynoq, pushed back the Vulture, Tanith and Gardghastr records.