Monday, July 15, 2024

Arthalos' Best of 2008


20. Falchion – Chronicles of the Dead
19. Stormlord – Mare Nostrum
18. Spite Extreme Wing – Vltra
17. Valient Thorr – Immortalizer
16. Archons – Consequences of Silence 
15. Cynic – Traced in Air
14. Opeth – Watershed
13. The Monolith Deathcult – Trivmvirate 
12. Leviathan – Massive Conspiracy Against All Life
11. Darkthrone – Dark Thrones and Black Flags
10. Amon Amarth – Twilight of the Thunder God
09. In Flames – A Sense of Purpose
08. The Faceless – Planetary Duality
07. Firewind – The Premonition
06. Septic Flesh – Communion
05. Enslaved – Vertebrae
04. Falconer – Amongst Beggars and Thieves
03. Pharaoh – Be Gone
02. Protest the Hero – Fortress
01. Gojira – The Way of All Flesh





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Sunday, December 31, 2023

Arthalos' Best of 2023


~~~~~

This was another year loaded with quality releases, so much so that, like last year, I had to push back some extremely good records and had to picky extra picky in choosing a top 23. For context, I'd rate everything below an 8.5/10 or above. As always, the most important predictor of a high rating is how likely I would re-listen a given album, and how much much I would enjoy it months after I first spun it. Albums released in winter have a bit of disadvantage given that 'time' element, which is why I periodically reassess my rankings and reorder where necessary. The diversity of genres is on point, I even surprised myself for having included so much underground black/death variety, since this niche is typically overcrowded with cavern-mongering copycats lacking inspiration. Yet it was impossible to disavow the efforts of Wyrgher, Vertebra Atlantis, and Valdrin, who showed once again that smaller, underground labels that easily oust the more established mainstream companies in quality and quantity. 

There was a lot of heresay about 2023 being 'the year of death metal', and though it was definitely a stalwart year for veterans joining back into the foray, I found more enjoyment in the backlog of black metal I listened to. My top 50 has a more comprehensive list of everything I enjoyed in that realm in case you were wondering where all the black metal was at. For sure, my tastes veer more towards the unorthodox and innovative, so it's almost a given that bands like Kvelertak, Dødheimsgard, Enslaved and Malorkarpatan ended up where they did. Insane performances all, the Dødheimsgard disc especially mesmerized me every time I spun it. An elegiac, mind-bending ode to absurdism. 

There are also a couple of 'outliers' like the new In Flames and Voyager, records that seem to fit awkwardly between the grim, subterranean subtext engulfing them. As with previous years, I do not give a damn, these records were on repeat until my ears bled dry this year, and they've earned their spot for having some annoyingly catchy songs. Go figure. Finally, although there's a relatively equitable distribution of genres, it would have been nice to see some more standout tech death this year. My craving for noodling guitars and clinical breakdowns that thankfully satisfied by Gorod with one of their strongest outings to date, although Suffocation and Afterbirth (on my top 50 list) also did well. Other popular albums from this space, like the new The Zenith Passage, Nithing or Nightmarer were either mediocre or poorly executed. 

Links to the albums are below, as well as other random lists I've accrued over the year. 



* Top 23 Metal Albums of 2023* 




~ 


You can find a more comprehensive list with short review blurbs that I've written for my top 50 albums over at RateYourMusic. Link to that list over HERE.  

~ 


~ Top Gym Tunes of 2023 (In No Order) ~

2023 was a year of many good albums, but also of many good lifts. 

Coldly Calculated Design − The Faceless (US)
The Grand Conjuration − Opeth (Se)
Somewhere I Sadly Belong − Subterranean Masquerade (Il)
The Secrets of the American Gods − Blind Guardian (De)
We Are the Sun Gods − Gorod (Fr)
Wheels of Fire − Anthem (Jp)
Unleashing the Bloodthirsty − Cannibal Corpse (US)
Motsols − Kvelertak (Nr)
Back to Times of Splendor − Disillusion (De)
The Widow Maker − Carpenter Brut (US)
Fallow Season − Madder Mortem (Nr)


~ Top 10 Books I've Read in 2023 ~


10. Nomadland − Jessica Bruder 
09. Burning the Books − Richard Ovenden
08. The Fall of Yugoslavia − Misha Glenny 
07. Alexander the Great − Norman F. Cantor
06. Why We Sleep − Matthew Walker
05. The Pursuit of Italy − David Gilmour 
04. Snow Crash − Neal Stephenson 
03. Crack-Up Capitalism − Quinn Slobodian 
02. Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty − Patrick Radden Keefe
01. Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World − Samuel Moyn 


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Friday, December 30, 2022

Arthalos' Best of 2022

~~~~~

Another fantastic year, 2022 was where all the unreleased potential from 2021 and 2020 spilled over. Normally, I find it difficult to fill in the last half/quarter of my top 20 lists, not because I don't enjoy those later entries, but rather that I find there is a large removal between the first half and the second in terms of quality. This was certainly not the case this year, and I realized I had such a large bastion of records that the list go up by 30-40 entries. Nonetheless, you can find those non-hierarchically ordered entities in my RYM list alongside short review blurbs. 

Like most of these yearly pickings, it's difficult to find a grand, overarching theme: it's safer to say there was smorgasbord of quality albums from the usual genre suspects... lots of traditional heavy/power, melodic death, some avantgarde/experimental stuff, a small league of varied black metal, and some miscellany. Bands like Shape of Despair, Cult of Luna and Final Light produced some impressive atmospheric material, regardless of whether they evoked a sense dread or majesty, all these bands transported the listener into a plateau ethereal immersion. Cult of Luna, in particular, astonished me so much by raising the bar again after A Dawn to Fear in 2019 that I think it's evident they've become the true inheritors to the Neurosis sound, going above and beyond. 

Sumerlands, Spell and Hell Fire came in guns blazing with trad-heavy, ancient-sounding paeans to 80s metal, inspired by, without mindless recycling riffs. Even Ghost released their most accessible record to date which was somewhat reviled by critics, though personally I enjoyed the shit out of it. More than ever, I'm now ready to pay for one of their extravagant shows. There are also a few records I avoided for a while on account of the hype they were getting across the internet - Cave In and Messa in particular. Upon returning to these albums later on in the year, however, it was evident that they fucking slayed, and between the groovy sludge panache of the former and the morose, oriental charm of the latter there is plenty of inspiration to be found for future sludge/doom practitioners. Immolation, conversely put out the greatest pure death metal album of the year, validated across countless review boards and forums. An impeccable fortress of profanity that should make about 95% of other OSDM outfits wet their pants in terror. The one outlier here is clearly the Final Light debut, an album that caught much less attention than it deserved, which is a shame. It remains a hypnotizing testament to inventiveness across electronic and metal music. 

But nothing could have prepared me for Blind Guardian's masterwork, a record so shocking in how hungry and crushing it was I might consider it the second best album in their sprawling discography. I'd only tie it with Disillusion's Ayam, a record that, as the product of planetary alignment in some oceanborne galaxy, provided me with warmth, comfort, and dreams for days in an otherwise uncompromising universe. Soilwork and Voivod trailed just behind with their most proficient meditations in many years, one melodic and achingly beautiful, the other a challenging remedial pill for our postmodern, cybernetic age. Records I caught myself blasting in the shower over a dozen times. 

As always, thank you for reading. See you all in 2023.

Links to the albums embedded below.



*Top 20 Metal Albums*






~~~~~


I also write short blurbs for all the albums I enjoyed yearly on RateYourMusic. Link to the full, non-hierarchical list of my 50 favorite metal albums of the year here.


~~~~~


Non-metal Albums I've Enjoyed

In no particular order. These records just represent the few samplings I managed to listen in my down time, when I needed something... less heavy. Mostly records by bands I've been following for a while, so it's in no way meant to be comprehensive. 




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Thursday, October 20, 2022

Best Metal Albums of 2003

20. TIE Trauma – Imperfect Like a God | Nasum – Helvete
19. Sargeist – Satanic Black Devotion
18. Septic Flesh – Sumerian Daemons 
17. Green Carnation – A Blessing in Disguise 
16. Killing Joke – Killing Joke
15. Children of Bodom – Hate Crew Deathroll 
14. Intestine Baalism – Banquet in the Darkness
13. Carpathian Forest – Defending the Throne of Evil
12. Katatonia – Viva Emptiness
11. Soilwork – Figure Number Five
10. Rage – Soundchaser 
09. Hammers of Misfortune – The August Engine
08. Dream Theater – Train of Thought
07. Atrophia Red Sun – Twisted Logic
06. Unmoored – Indefinite Soul-Extension
05. Opeth – Damnation
04. Moonsorrow – Kivenkantaja
03. Enslaved – Below the Lights
02. Slough Feg – Traveller
01. Mörk Gryning – Pieces of Primal Expressionism 


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Sunday, July 3, 2022

Best Metal Albums of 2013


(Updated 2024)

20. Cult of Luna – Vertikal
19. Neige Éternelle – Neige Éternelle
18. Oranssi Pazuzu – Valonielu 
17. Witherscape – The Inheritance
16. Gris – À l'Âme Enflammée, l'Äme Constellée...
15. Autolatry – Native
14. Mouth of the Architect – Dawning
13. Gorguts – Colored Sands
12. Sulphur Aeon – Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide
11. The Dillinger Escape Plan – One of Us is the Killer
10. Attacker – Giants of Canaan
09. Iron Dogs – Free and Wild
08. Helloween – Straight Out of Hell
07. The Safety Fire – Mouth of Swords
06. The Ocean – Pelagial 
05. Warlord – The Holy Empire
04. Protest the Hero – Volition
03. Summoning – Old Mornings Dawn
02. Satan – Life Sentence
01. In Solitude – Sister



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Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Arthalos' Best of 2021


This was a bountiful year for all genres at large, and I found myself diversifying into all sorts of avenues of extreme metal, beyond my conventional tastes in prog, doom, traditional and power metal. I probably listened to something in the vicinity of  200-250 new albums this year; the list could have included at least another ten entries that I found to be well worth my time, with all genres well-represented – a testament to sustained quality in songwriting even in the throes of an overlong pandemic. Again, there were stellar performances all across the board. A slew of amazing newsprint progressive power/heavy acts like Edu Falaschi, Silver Talon, Pharaoh and Witherfall take up a large chunk in the top 10, owing not least to the energy and inventiveness that they approached to the niche, managing to stand out amid a throng of fluffy symphonic denizens and Euro power metal. Speaking of symphonic, the only record this year that managed to capture my attention with that tag was the Seven Spires full-length, a wonderful, swashbuckling mirage that wasn't afraid to straddle a number of influences, proving the band should be every bit the successor of the Nightwishes and Epicas of the world. The spectrum, however, was as equally proficient in its musical wizardry as it was epic and memorable, thanks in no small part to groups like Archspire, First Fragment and Obscura, the latter of which stunned me with what seems almost like a perfect 'one step back, two steps forward' approach in the evolution of their style, harkening back to the Gothenburg melodeath etiquette to refresh their established tech death pedigree. Some of these pickings are also grim and beautiful in their own quaint ways, with Sarke, Worm, Thy Catafalque, King Woman, The Silver and most notably Tribulation generating eclectic, forbidding and morose spins on more standardized genre narratives. All in all, this was one of the more memorable years in recent memory, and a lot of musical windfall here provides us with compelling listens well into 2022.

Links to the albums are embedded below.


*Top 20 Metal Albums of 2021*



I also write short blurbs for all the albums I enjoyed yearly on RateYourMusic. Link to the full, non-hierarchical list of my 50 favorite metal albums of the year here. 


~~~~~

As per usual, anything that drew my attention this year that wasn't metal was probably a splurge of synthwave and synth pop, with a couple of rock records that weren't 'heavy' enough to qualify for the metal list. I don't get to explore that much when it comes to these genres, but I do my best to weed through the relevant releases. I've rounded things off with a sprinkle of pop and and punk/hardcore, although truth be told I'm probably neglecting a lot of really phenomenal efforts that unfortunately went under my radar. All in all, the Jess and the Ancient Ones record was the most addictive, something I've listened to intermittently throughout the year. The Finns have clearly injected an excellent sense of folk, psychedelic and prog rock elements into their compositions, filled to the brim with sequences with sequences so catchy and inspiring that the few sentences on this blurb would do them little justice. Reliable acts like TNFO, Steven Wilson and Perturbator also produced terrific music that probably received nods from a large chunk of the metal crowds, while I was pleased to discover a novel set of pop and synth-pop finesse via Actors, Magdalena Bay and Japanese Breakfast, setting the stage for a future cohort of artists to look out for.


*Top 15 Non-metal Albums of 2021*



Bonus: Top 10 Books That I Read This Year

01. Leonardo da Vinci – Walter Isaacson (2017)
02. Black Wave – Kim Ghattas (2020)
03. How Asia Works – Joe Studwell (2014)
04. Capital – Rana Dasragupta (2015)
05. Shock of the Anthropocene – Christophe Bonneuil & Jean-Baptiste Fressoz (2015)
06. Shutdown – Adam Tooze (2021)
07. Sex at Dawn – Christopher Ryan (2010)
08. Empire of Cotton – Sven Beckert (2015)
09. The Darkness That Comes Before – R. Scott Bakker (2004)
10. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick (1968)

Honorable mentions:

- The Nickel Boys – Colson Whitehead (2020)
- Providence [graphic novel] – Alan Moore & Jacen Burrows (2021)
- Down and About in Paris and London – George Orwell (1933)
- Afropean – Johny Pitts (2019)


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Thursday, December 31, 2020

Arthalos' Best Albums of the Year [2020]



All things considered, with the the entire world warped in the Covid-19 pandemic chaos, this was a fruitful year for metal music, but then again it always somehow is. In the end, the leading theme, by an enormous margin, was traditional speed/heavy/doom and classic hard rock. Even though bands with a retro style commemorating the late the 70s and 80s have always drawn me in, this year was a particularly veritable cornucopia of such releases, as represented by my top 20 picks, and many other good albums spilled over into my top 50. Old school won the day. Indeed, in my top 10 alone I have 6-7 releases that can instantaneously trace their lineage back to the sounds of disco and Cold War mania. The Chronus sophomore might be a slight outsider among that motley crew of releases, since they have a much more updated take on trad metal, with quite a few nods to their more infamous countrymen Ghost, but regardless, it was a stellar late entrant into my list. I think I consumed a larger and broader quantity of music this year than the 2-3 years before (although I have no way of accounting for it) though surprisingly this hasn't necessarily enlarged the variety of genres and styles that are always represented to some degree in my picks. 

If anything, this was a rather dull year for innovative, experimental, idiosyncratic metal music in general. Strange and avantgarde acts like Imperial Triumphant, Ulcerate, Old Man Gloom, Mountaineer - bands who gained considerable attention both in the mainstream and in underground circles - failed to impress me, and mostly exhibited a further marriage of metal and post-hardcore elements as the new frontier for envelope-pushing within the genre. That statement obviously excludes Eden in Reverse though, a dizzying exercise in kraut, space rock, black metal and alien shrooms. Perhaps not my favorite by the Greek mavericks - that would have been a tall order - but certainly an apt contender for the soundtrack for 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I probably browsed more RYM lists than any previous year, and hopefully I was able to at least touch upon the bulk of releases that represented their respective sub-genres. Death and black metal acts (as well as black/death hybrids) seemed to dominate extreme metal enthusiasts' lists, and this is certainly well-earned. There was an enormous quality of solid black and death, though in the end there were only a few that were particularly remarkable for me. UK veterans Anaal Nathrakh and Napalm Death continue to annihilate and terrify with their distinct, by now well-matured panoplies of brutalizing grindcore and industrialized malice, respectively. Meanwhile totally new bands like Ossaert and Serment made lasting impressions with enveloping, icy atmospheric black records. Heavy/doom is well-represented, with Lucifer, Spirit Adrift and Pallbearer blazing trails for a newer, more melodic generation. The Hallas record isn't strictly speaking metal, so it could go into either of my lists below, but it was not only a natural refinement of their debut, but also a fantastic journey across the cosmos with a medley of haunting, psychedelic, synth-driven soundscapes that sounded like the lovechild of Hawkwind and Gentle Giant. Finally, the Bütcher record stands out as the most outlandish of the bunch, but it's retained its delicious speed and manic intensity throughout the year, and deserves a spot on the top 5. 

When push came to shove, though, I think there was only one record that shone through and came the closest to perfection in 2020. The Sölicitör debut was just that, a sublime and unreal merger of equal parts Holy Moses, Vicious Rumors, and Exciter with a fittingly dilapidated production to boast. What an amazing record, channeling everything I love about all those bands at their respective career peaks and more, an absolute ass-kicker from start to finish. No other record this year - and, indeed, few records in the few years - made me want to strap on spikes and leather and cascade the empty streets of my city more. And it's the band's debut? Insane.

Edit 01/2021: Added Ulthar's Providence and Valdrin's Effigy of Nightmares, pushed back the Necrophobic album. 

Edit 07/22: Pushed back the High Spirits record, added the Night record. Edit 04/24: Added Protest the Hero, pushed back Kvaen.

As always, YouTube links have been embedded below.

I've also made a longer list of my favorite 50-60 metal albums of 2020, in non-hierarchical, order over at RYM.


** Top 20 Metal Albums **

Runners-up: TIE Eternal Champion (US) – Ravening Iron  | Pallbearer (US) – Forgotten Days
20. Hail Spirit Noir (Gr) – Eden in Reverse
19. Anaal Nathrakh (UK) – Endarkenment
18. Vader (Pol) – Solitude in Madness
17. Ossaert (Nl) – Bedehuis
16. Armored Saint (US) – Punching the Sky 
15. Ulthar (US) – Providence 
14. Serment (Ca) – Chante, ô flamme de la liberté 
13. Napalm Death (UK) – Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism 
12. Valdrin (US) – Effigy of Nightmares
11. Midnight (US) – Rebirth by Blasphemy
10. Cirith Ungol (US) – Forever Black 
09. Night (Se) – High Tides - Distant Skies
08. Enslaved (No) – Utgard
07. Hällas (Swe) – Conundrum
06. Lucifer (Int) – Lucifer III
05. Chronus (Swe) – Idols
04. Bütcher (Be) – 666 Goats Carry My Chariot
03. Spirit Adrift (US) – Enlightened in Eternity
02. Protest the Hero (Ca) – Palimpsest
01. Sölicitör (US) – Spectral Devastation 


For my non-metal picks, I tried to be a bit more structured this year. I think there was enough interesting material across a swath of genres for me to eke out a top 15. A lot of these albums found their ways into my ears in the last 3-4 months of 2020, and indeed they were quite refreshing to hear after dozens of static black/death metal spelunking. There's a metric ton of 80s-inspired synthpop there, which is what  I suppose my interests lie towards when I'm on the look for something moodier. The production standards on some of those records were insanely gratifying. Other artists (Dool, Ulver, Myrkur) received widespread attention in metal circles due to their associations with the scene, despite, in a lot of cases, having completely evolved from their metallic origins (I'm looking at you, Bergtatt). Never a bad thing. Besides the synthpop frenzy, an eccentric bevy of electronic, pop and rock releases round out the bulk of the list. Honorable mentions include Korine's The Night We Raise and Squarepusher's Be Up a Hello. 


 *Top 15 Non-metal Albums*

15. Jessie Ware (UK) – What's Your Pleasure? (pop)
14. Rian Treanor (UK) – File Under UK Metaplasm (electronic)
13. Myrkur (Dn) – Folkesange (neofolk) 
12. Dool (Nl) – Summerland (occult rock)
11. Riki (US) – Riki (synthpop) 
10. Ulver (Nr) – Flowers of Evil (synthpop) 
09. Everything Everything (UK) – Re-Animator (art pop)
08. Blaqk Audio (US) – Beneath the Black Palms (synthpop)
07. Black Nail Cabaret (Hu) – Gods Verging on Sanity (synthpop)
06. The Birthday Massacre (Ca) – Diamonds (synthpop)
05. Wailin Storms (US) – Rattle (doom rock)
04. Ludwig Göransson (Swe) – Tenet: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
03. Molchat Doma (By) – Monument | Монумент (post-punk/darkwave)
02. Phantogram (US) – Ceremony (electronic)
01. Assemblage 23 (US) – Mourn (electronic/industrial)


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Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Arthalos' Best Albums of the Year [2012]



This was a pretty varied year, and I'm happy to say both records from bands that have achieved cult status by now and some more mainstream selections are distributed fairly equally. This was the year I started the blog, so naturally I started delving really deep into underground territory, and there are also plenty of great demos and EPs from this all across doom, death, black, sludge and traditional metal that shouldn't go unnoticed by obscurantists. The Sigh album was the first album I heard by them, a seemingly rudderless panoply of metallic oddities strewn together in one of the catchiest patchworks the band has ever made, probably my favorite by them after the flawless Imaginary Soniscape. A lot of  great retro death metal as well, and a longer list would have had even more to show in that regard. Clearly, though, the Necrovation sophomore ranks the most engrossing in that department, a blistering, almost beautiful, at times melodic ode everything you love about old school death metal, finessed to just the pitch where everything feels familiar but still pulsating and fresh. Bands like Dawnbringer, Anthem, and Pharaoh represent a solid heavy/power balustrade, a sign that while traditional heavy and power metal are not as prominent as they were in the 80s, many bands, old and new, are still keeping the style in the present. Some later additions include Carved into Stone, Kentucky and Eremita, all by artists which I came to enjoy in later years, and I'm glad to say they all pop more often in my yearly favorites once I started to weed through their discographies.

**Top 20 Metal Albums of 2012**


20. Gojira (France) – L’enfant Sauvage
19. Panopticon (US) – Kentucky
18. Burning Shadows (US) – Gather, Darkness! 
17. Hail Spirit Noir (Greece) – Pneuma
16. Altar of Oblivion (Denmark) – Grand Gesture of Defiance
15. Horrendous (US) – The Chills
14. Hooded Menace (Finland) – Effigies of Evil
13. Prong (US) – Carved Into Stone
12. Ihsahn (Norway) – Eremita 
11. Spawn of Possession (Sweden) – Incurso
10. Anhedonist (US) – Netherwards
09. Trial (Sweden) – The Primordial Temple
08. Gorod (France) – A Perfect Absolution 
07. Pharaoh (US) – Bury the Light
06. Dawnbringer (US) – Into the Lair of the Sun God 
05. Necrovation (US) – Necrovation
04. Tiamat (Sweden) – The Scarred People
03. Anthem (Japan) – Burning Oath
02. Enslaved (Norway) – RIITIIR
01. Sigh (Japan) – In Somniphobia






Honorable mentions

 Charon (Germany) – Sulphur Seraph
Nekromantheon (Norway) – Rise, Vulcan Spectre
Chaos Inception (US) – The Abrogation
Bauda (Chile) – Euphoria… of Flesh, Men and the Great Escape
Yurei (Norway) – Night Vision
Draumar (Germany) – Gebirge (EP)
Black Table (US) – Sentinel (EP)
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