#before my dsbm obsession

[yellowcarnationed]

my idiot son's old form

no makeup + wearing shirt backwards

[reptileshrine]

Top 25 Albums of 2018

As usual, compiling my top albums of the year has been a compelling, exhausting experience, having taken me an actual month of consternation, tweaking, writing, re-tweaking, deleting, and shifting. Too. Much. Good. Music. Even though every year is pretty hard I have to say that, despite my Number 1, which cemented itself relatively quickly and didn’t move despite the competition, choosing a short-list and ranking just a few of the phenomenal albums from this year was more of an impossible task than usual. But here it is, finally. With actual words, albeit the same few adjectives cycled over enough times to amply demonstrate my dwindling vocabulary and ability to use it. Spoiler alert; There is no Mopok, no Spectral Wound, no Andeis, no Panphage, no Sargeist, no Atra Mors, no Forest of Stars, no Paara, no Angantyr, no Moenen Of Xezbeth, among many many others. They could all have been there at some point, but at the time of committing this to the web, they are not. What this list is, is a rank of the albums which I have obsessed over the most, have affected me the deepest, have been turned up loudest on my stereo, and that I feel have pushed black metal into some interesting, transcendent or subversive directions. Behold! My favourite albums of 2018. 25. Make a Change Kill Yourself – IV Cursed Records This is a true masterclass in DSBM. Inspired composition and wretched, grey pall of an atmosphere, that still harbours a sense of hope, albeit an uneasy, precarious one which could drop into a pit of darkness any moment. The wait for new material from this project was well rewarded. (also worth noting how great the Angantyr album was too, but it’s not in my list).

IV by Make a Change... Kill Yourself

24. Majestic Mass - Savage Empire of Death Self-Released / Caligari Cool raggedy stuff that sounds like it’s about to come apart at the seams. I love the cooly melodic garagey rock n roll swagger slung underneath the fuzz. GREAT organ flourishes too. One of my most played albums of the year by far.

Savage Empire of Death by Majestic Mass

23. Everything by Harpag Karnik Erancnoir – Wintermonarchie / Frostfallen / Erancnoir Etheraldine – Shapes of Emerald / Euphony of Heralds / An Eyrie for Serenity Forelunar - Wine and the Limerent Self-Released These three projects offer different rays of light from the prism of Iranian Harpag Karnik. Each is a separate vision of atmospheric post-black metal; Erancnoir the most desolate, Etheraldine the most lush, and Forelunar for conveying deep emotions. Most of these releases are eps featuring two long 10+ minute tracks, which give ample time for the music to soak into you, set a scene and extrapolate their vocative and enchanting motifs.

Frostfallen by Erancnoir

An Eyrie for Serenity by Etheraldine

Wine and the Limerent by Forelunar

22. Enscelados - The Unbeknownst Tyrant Self-Released This mysterious band consists of two un-named international members (though one may possibly be based in Iran, as Harpag Karnik mixed them). They released two pieces in 2018, both one track, with this, the second release, expanding on the intent of the first. The twenty-minute piece uncoils a mobius strip of cosmically fluctuating trance, with a hypnotic beat and swaying riff that locks in for pretty much the full length, save for a small eddy of ambience. A singular vision that is immensely effective.

The Unbeknownst Tyrant by Enscelados

21. Schrat – Alptraumgänger Folter Records Primo old-school. Blistering pace and savage aggression offset by symphonic elements. Smells like 1995, and probably another one that should lead me back to Emperor. I hear some Sons of Northern Darkness in this one too. A+ artwork on this one as well. Love a good moonlit ritual in the forest.

Alptraumgänger by SCHRAT

20. Akitsa – Credo Profound Lore One of my favourite bands that hasn’t released an album that I completely love has just managed to do so (Ash Pool split not withstanding). This has the rawness, the aggression, the wildness and chaos, and the ferocious rocking riffs that have appeared sporadically across all their previous albums, but Credo has all those best bits channelled into a whole album.

Credo by AKITSA

19. Craft – White Noise and Black Metal Season of Mist The stunning return of an old band to a new form. The raging nihilism and wild chaos of previous releases was smoothed right down to a clear sheen for an album almost ironically called White Noise. But it is a surface sheen. Below it lies the same seething violence as before, made arguably more intense by the constraints of the cleanliness. Every song is packing dangerously sharp riffs, delivered with a psychotically dead-eyed precision and coolness that makes for an intimidating experience.

White Noise and Black Metal by Craft

18. Vilkacis – Beyond the Mortal Gate Psychic Violence Feral, raw atmospheric, melodic primal black metal with a spiritual theme, from the visionary M. Rekevics. A torrent of euphoric anguish that feels like a cathartic expulsion of squalid bitterness. Comparisons can be made to related USBM bands Fell Voices and Ash Borer for their strung-out electrically charged atmospheres, while simultaneously channelling the more abrupt aggression of Vrasubatlat bands.

Beyond the Mortal Gate by VILKACIS

17. Knokkelklang - Jeg Begraver Terratur Possessions Elevated blackened trance with a liquid ambient outro. The tone and layers of sheet noise riffs verge on DSBM, but there is a buoyancy to the rhythm and a cosmically searching direction that keeps this album cerebral.

Jeg Begraver by Knokkelklang

16. Urfaust – The Constellatory Practice Ván Records Otherworldly transcendental occult music, from these masters of a form of atmospherics which has always dwelt in a liminal space between doom, BM, and the greyed industrial rock of post-70’s UK; it is highly atmospheric, but of a form well outside the more popular Burzum riff-styled post-metal inspired atmoblack. My favourite release of theirs since Drei Rituale Jenseits des Kosmos.

The Constellatory Practice by Urfaust

15. Selvans – Faunalia AvantGarde Music My expectations were high for this, given Lupercalia was one of my favourite albums of 2015. Three years later, Selvans surpass that achievement with this gothically toned, medieval opus that has outshone the similarly ambitious Forest of Stars album for me, in the grand blackened-classical-concept album stakes. Faunalia is grandiose, but never overblown, trip through a stunningly complex yet coherent tapestry, woven with acoustic folk instruments, woodwind, strings, layers of vocals plus primal pagan black metal aggression to bind it together.

Faunalia by Selvans

14. Thy Dying Light – Forgotten By Time Death Kvlt Productions My introduction to Death Kvlt and the work of Azrael and Hrafn’s many bands. Forgotten by Time is a compilation of previous releases but makes for a cohesive album in its own right, mixing several styles of raw old-school black metal, and a dungeon black ambience to arresting effect. It starts off in spitefully violent fashion, and compels to the end.

Forgotten By Time by Thy Dying Light

13. Délétère - De Horae Leprae Sepulchral Productions This Québécois band, whose line-up features Atheos from the infamous Foretresse and Monarque, tells the conceptual story of a leper destined to become a Plague prophet of Centipèdes. It does so through raw, melodic, orthodox black metal in a style which flashes glimpses of Csejthe, Horna, and of course Fortresse. The opening series of gothic organ riffs is obliterated by a thundercrack of guitar which ushers in over an hour of epic rush. The speed and density of the drums and riffing could potentially be very claustrophobic, but each track finds space to expand and develop into passages of rage, elation, hysteria, heroism, and fevered mania. So yes, the concept works, and in Atrum Lilium might just offer my favourite song of the year.

12. Acathexis - Acathexis Fallen Empire / Entropic Recordings A fitting end to a stellar run of albums this year from Fallen Empire, whose shuttering will leave a black hole that is unlikely to be filled in the same way. December’s swansong releases gave us the immense Death Fortress (somehow not in this list), Lubbert Das (waaaait for it), the dissonant Guðveiki and Serpent Column, and this; Acathexis. An album by a band curated by Fallen Empire itself, who played Déhà’s demos to Jacob Buczarski (Mare Cognitum), and then to vocalist Dany Tee (Downfall of Nur). A supergroup was born, and a stunning album of emotionally arresting, nuanced, inspired atmospheric black metal has been created. The guitar composition is sublime, drawing from every corner of the black metal spectrum, underpinned, pushed and pulled by Jacob’s excellent drum work; the instrumentals given life, death, elation and despair through the incredible range of vocal performances from Dany Tee.

Acathexis by Acathexis

11. Adaestuo - Krew Za Krew World Terror Committee The band comprises three members; Hekte Zaren providing vocals, multi-instrumentalists P.E. Packain / Vainaja (of Horna, Saturnian Mist, Neutron Hammer, Sargeist) and VJS (also Sargeist, Nightbringer, Kult ov Azazel) – their credentials are cosmic, and that is spretty much where they keep the tone of this album. The majority of it is ritual dark ambient and drone, spiked with three explosive black metal tracks. More than just a black metal album, this is alternate devotional, ritual offering and violent ordained execution.

Krew Za Krew by Adaestuo

10. Alkymist – Spellcraft Ceremony Self-Released/Vinyl-Compvlsion Ritualistic occult atmospheric black metal is the sub-sub-sub genre of bm that I am drawn to, though even then there are different versions of it. In his Alkymist guise, Noctis, aka Adrien Bloß, draws on sinuous repetition and the flickering shadows of candlelight to convey the ceremonial ambience while summoning the night terrors.

Spellcraft Ceremony by Alkymist (CAN)

9. Wayfarer – World’s Blood Profound Lore This album is deep, and seems to have been a bit of a sleeper hit. Took me several listens to fully appreciate the scope and detail of the landscape portrayed across the five tracks. An evocative, moody ride under huge thunderheads brewing over ominously desolate plains. Indeed, one track is even titled On Horseback They Carried Thunder. There is an atmosphere pregnant with danger, pressure building in the air of scratchy guitar melodies as lightning forms in the clouds of bass-lines, both instruments occasionally striking out with lightning flourishes. The whole album is underpinned and accentuated by a parched drum sound that often mimics the galloping of hooves and swirling eddies of dust. The blackened silhouette of a lone rider against muted browns sets an accurate tone for the sound of the album, which absolutely succeeds in expressing the scale and history of the wild Western US.

World's Blood by WAYFARER

8. Kriegsmaschine – Apocalypticists No Solace Everyone talks about the drumming, and yes Darkside has unparalleled visionary technique, but it is what the guitars are doing at the same time that brings out the full effect of them. They remind me of Joy Division with their combination of industrialised urban paranoia, existential dread and hostility, set to rhythmic piston percussion, droning trance guitars, and a raw vocal performance. Both strings and skins complementing each other in a minimal/maximal relationship which results in one of the most captivating and unique experiences in black metal.

Apocalypticists by Kriegsmaschine

7. Everything released by the ПРАВА Коллектив Fallen Empire Records, Amor Fati Productions, and Underground Soundscapes That’s the Prava Kollektiv, currently consisting of four projects: Arkhtinn, Mahr, Voidsphere, and HWWAUOCH with five releases between them in 2018. A group of musicians from somewhere in the world, possibly Russia judging by the Cyrillic they write their name in, and fallen Empire describing them as being “from the North”, but then again, possibly not, since Arkhtinn’s full album is titled in Japanese. Over five years after Arkhtinn’s first demo, they have done well to remain unmasked. Mysterious background aside, the music offers its own open interpretations. Arkhtinn have been putting out two-track demos with one fizzing, burning raw cosmic emission backed with a skein of dark ambient. On their album, they went for the double buzz and gave us two ferocious celestial slices of galactic trance. And where they look up, Mahr’s Antelux album tore it all down, using a similar template of pulsing starfire, grounding it in an earthier, more aggressive, primal, chaotic fashion. Voidsphere made their second offering of To Await | To Expect; two elevated tracks of disintegrating cosmic blackness, channeling all the blackened reverberating energies they could summon from the infinite void, and HWWAUOCH did their full-cap moniker justice by tearing out an Icelandic-style album of howling dissonance.

最初の災害 by Arkhtinn

Antelux by Mahr

To Await | To Expect by Voidsphere

HWWAUOCH by HWWAUOCH

6. Everything released by Haraesis Noviomagi A label that houses one of the most progressive, creative and consistent collectives of musicians operating in the black metal sphere, revolving around O, who runs the label and threads all bands together. He put out six releases this year, featuring each band from their roster plus a guest, and all releases are boundary pushing, third-eye opening mutations of the cosmic black metal order: De Ontkoppeling – De Ontkoppeling The only non-metal album from the collective, but still pitch-black in substance, delivering subterranean bass noise, squalid dark ambient feedback and disintegrating electronics.

Solar Temple – Fertile Descent M. and O. put out their second release as Solar Temple, and it was another blackened helix of coruscating trance.

Fertile Descent by SOLAR TEMPLE

Iskandr – Euprosopon O’s solo project, deals with more rural, pagan themes, influenced by early Enslaved with lyrics addressing his homelands and geopsychology of living through particular environments. Possibly the most traditional sounding black metal of all HN releases, it is also the most radical departure from the core locked-groove hypnotics the rest of the bands channel.

Euprosopon by ISKANDR

Fluisteraars / Turia Split – De Oord Fluisteraars is O, A, and B, and this release is another milestone in their catalogue. Building from a subtle post-black beginning, it soon mutates into the most sublime, elegant, and euphoric astral-black. This stratospheric track is backed with the dank fetid claustrophobia of Turia (a three piece of O., J. and T). A gnarly, gut-churning contrast.

De Oord by FLUISTERAARS & TURIA

Vilkacis / Turia Split - Untitled The one was a co-release with Psychic Violence, borrowing Mike Rekevics’ Vilkacis from their roster to lay down two tracks which manage to best everything on his full album. Throw this into the tub when Final March Into Flame peaks. And again, Turia are on point, this time with an exotic dirge, as faintly eastern melodies judder out of the overblown amps and bind the clattering drum disintegration together.

VILKACIS / TURIA SPLIT by VILKACIS

Lubbert Das – De Plagen And finally, to Lubbert Das, comprised of O. J. and R. Shimmering sheets of guitars bend with a woozy unease, eerie melodies stalk the foreground, and drums switch from pounding to sparse punky rhythms. This cataclysmically raw, primeval darkened churn may almost be the perfect distillation of all other bands from this collective.

De Plagen by Lubbert Das

5. Candelabrum – Portals https://youtu.be/NZZIUD-CSrQ Black Cilice side-project that is as lo-fi as the main band, but less caustic. Mournful melodies are buried beneath a miasma of ritualisic occult noise. Here starts a theme for my favoured sound of 2018. One which has always fermented in the dankest corners of black metal, but bloomed in the most virulent manner throughout last year.

4. Pa Vesh En – Church of Bones Iron Bonehead Productions So, the bloom spreads. Pa Vesh En put out a couple of releases this year, peaking with the sepulchral aural torture of Church of Bones. A pestilent miasma of putrid organ drone, petrified, mournful shrieks, ghastly voice and haunted melodies. It drags atmosphere out the air, grinds it through the earth to suffocate in the airless underground, mummifying this spectral black metal in a cloak of oppressive dirt.

Pa Vesh En - Church of Bones by Iron Bonehead Productions

3. VOËMMR - Sombr Moebrd Signal Rex Blood-curdling, ritualistic old-school crypt-dwelling misfit music of a macabre magick. The lugubrious, sickly swirl of organ a nightmarish carousel ride, spinning into giddiness. That sound of that thing is right up there, leading the dance of the raw drum pulse, waltzing a deliriously contorted path through the candlelight. This album is a constant shimmer of heady reverie, but twisted as fuck, and all the more sinister for the calculated way in which it spools out its gnashing chaos.

Sombr Moebrd by VOËMMR

2. Degredo - Noite dos Tempos Signal Rex The deepest, most far-reaching, umbral, otherworldly, conjuration of the year, and one which I cannot really describe any better than whoever writes the blurbs for the Signal Rex releases. They nail those descriptions every time, but I will try in my own words to describe this rawest of shamanist occult from the collective which I think is currently pushing black metal to its furthest limits; the Aldebraan Circle. Corrupting black metal’s traditional chaotic fury into a subducted trench of lightless trance, Degredo crystalise the primitive momentum of the genre into paranoid fractal patterns of static blackness, and slowly the throbbing sepulchral hypnagogia of this album falls upon the listener. Once the drum beat builds up the world stand still, and the walls move in. The riffs bear resemblance to the slow-motion dirge of SunnO))), but this album stands far out on its own, way down a disorienting hall of mirrors, and out of reach of most listeners. Paralysis. Claustrophobia. Tunnel vision. Darkness. Then clarity, elevation and revelation through staring into this black flame.

A Noite dos Tempos by Degredo

1. Över - Facing Transcendence AvantGarde Music Out of the darkness and into the light. A light of sorts. Overall, one of the less oppressive albums in my list, but certainly the most overwhelming. Mr Þórir Nyss has graced us with several albums from several projects this year, from ethereal post-black atmospherics to unruly, disturbing disharmonic noise. With Över, he and Malduchryst incorporate these elements, along with overt rock, squealing lead solos, doomy lurching, and passages of pure savage black metal to emotionally stupefying effect. The composition of this album is stunning, each track developing in a way which transcends genre limitations and defies your expectations. Take the watery introduction of Will that bleeds into a slow dirgy distorted riff. It picks up into hammering drums, juxtaposed by a twinkling keyboard motif. It slowly builds more intensity into each passage, introduces a lowing operatic clean vocal and the riffing intensifies until it peaks with (one of several) anthemic riffs. The euphoric surge of Över is Transcendence and how the astral elegance of that track is dismembered by a guttural riff and degraded into boiling noise. The liquid ambient riff of following track Owner and Slave that bursts into furious slashing riff and vicious snarl vocal, its proclamation of self-immolation and the subsequent life-loosening drift into harmonic solo and all-consuming climax. Just some of the many moments in this album that kept me coming back to it with obsessive regularity.

Facing Transcendence by Över