#soundtrack to this beyond the obvious is “drowning in the horizons” and “horizons calling”

[xiakha]

FFXIVWrite 2024 Prompt #2 - Horizon

The first encounter that Xiao had with Empire happened when she was but a babe. She was awoken by the rumble of far too consistent thunder and peered bleary-eyed at distant flashes of lightning in the predawn without the clouds to account for it.

Cannonfire, one of her elder sisters told her. There was a battle at sea. Unlike the trading ships that would sometimes anchor just off-island and send merchants to barter goods and services, those ships held soldiers that bartered only in violence and death. Gods be good, nothing of the sort would darken the shores upon which their clans lived.

But there was no such luck. That very afternoon, white sails approached their small archipelago. A bedraggled fleet of motley vessels anchored themselves a few malms away. Within cannon range. Strange men bearing too many weapons limped ashore, requesting succor, promising riches, implying terrible violence. 

The Matriarch, Xiao’s mother, summoned an emergency council of elders, but it was all too obvious their lack of choices. They had enough to fend off a single ship with some casualties, and they had done so in the past. Perhaps they would be able to defend their homes against the current fleet, albeit with heavy losses they would mourn for years to come. 

But there were other fleets. 

Worse, this one was wounded and tired from a day of battle. Others would be better equipped, fresher to the fight. And if what the Roegadyn with the wide-brimmed triangular hat claimed was true, the island chain was half a day’s sail from a newly established imperial trading route. A battle that the clans would need a generation to recover from would now threaten them at least once every moon. The sailors graciously pledged upon their code that they would never bring their conflicts to the islands if they were allowed refuge.

Empty promises pledged to meaningless words. The council instead counted the swords and pistols on the Roegadyn’s gold trimmed coat. It summed the number of gunports reported by their fishing boats coming home. It reviewed what risks and sacrifices and losses the clans could take. The calculations were grim.

Ere the sun tipped beyond the self-same horizon that the sailors had come from, the council agreed to lend aid to the men, offer hospitality, and open their doors. They graciously allowed the sailors to trade in gold instead of murder. The clans offered freely sons and daughters to join crews and provide comfort so that not all of them would be taken by force, so that they all may live at least a while longer.

It was not until much later that the council realized its gravest error, that they had not traded away their tranquil and humble fishing lifestyle to the Empire, but to the Empire’s parasites. The sailors were pirates, raiding from a distant homeland. The bloodstained gold and goods they proffered were stolen. The clans had allied themselves to a foreign state with no local power save the errant and fickle pirate crews that could not be trusted with the open secret that was the Clan Longbao Freeport. Even the crews that swore by the code readily violated its terms while on the islands. If there was any retaliation against violators, recompense came not to the clansfolk that suffered, and revenge was out of the question, lest the treaties the clans signed with the pirates were revoked.

To their credit, the pirates understood what a golden hamsa the archipelago represented, and warded off imperial vessels long before they could sight the shores. They were primarily looking out for themselves, of course, but the clans were thus able to rebuild their livelihoods up from the disruption. After the freeport was established, a market in the former village square arose. Hospitality and mercantilism became the main trades. The clans genuinely prospered from the existential risk. However it was not lost upon the elders that the foreign men and women now outnumbered the Keepers of the Moon that made up their clans, and their young were leaving with the pirates to seek fortunes away from the islands.

In their number, of course, included the youth favored to become the next Matriarch: Xiao herself.

***

Empire followed her to the shores of Limsa Lominsa. She learned its name proper: Garlemald. But she saw little difference in the actions of these claimed enemies of her claimed allies. In many ways, the Lominsans treated those around them with the same terror and menace as the Garleans were purported to. She found more akin with the plight of the “beastmen” than she did the struggles of the former pirates. Indeed, the only reason she did not simply renounce her ties with the city states completely was that she could not abide the terror that was the primals either. That, and she knew not what vengeance would be wreaked upon her home, still offering hospitality to Lominsan pirates, were she to foment insurrection.

The Kobolds and Sahagin at least had more fight in them than her clans had, but that was because the land that they lived on was more valuable to the Lominsans than their lives were. Their crisis was actively existential, instead of passively. But if the “beast tribes” were eliminated, would the Lominsans be satisfied with just Vylbrand? Or would their thirst for conquest continue to the horizons that their ships oft sailed past to seek fortunes and to raid Imperial ships? The Thalassocracy was after all as much a weapon of war as it was a government, if it were not more so. That they did not turn against the other city-states in the same manner in which they preyed upon the Kobolds and Sahagin was a matter of convenience apparently. There were retired pirates that first cut their teeth raiding Ul’Dahn vessels still living the quiet life in La Noscea after all, their trespasses largely forgotten if not forgiven. At the least, she would refuse to aid in the overt destruction.

Xiao was aware there was talk behind her back, that she was unlikely to achieve a rank higher than Storm Captain, that even that rank was more honorary than duty bound. There were none under her command, partially because her activities under Maelstrom were primarily dedicated to primal slaying and being the Warrior of Light, mostly because she was considered too much of a liability to be allowed more than a squadron. After all, she was “too soft on the beastmen” because she refused to drive them back with lethal force, and she rarely slayed any save their primals, leaving even their most tempered captains to slink off to lick their wounds if she could help it.

The only time she was to be disciplined by Maelstrom High Command was for insubordination and assault of a superior officer, charges that were dropped when Xiao made it clear she did not have the words to defend herself, but she did have her axe. Her run through Hullbreaker Isle made it clear that she could deflect direct fire from a cannon with an intimidating amount of ease and could make even the most seasoned captain yield in single combat. The inter-city-state politics that was disciplining the Warrior of Light also became a sticking point. Thus the commander that had ordered the slaughter of Sahagin spawnlings that Xiao stopped was instead tried and convicted before the Admiral. Indeed, it would be difficult to argue that the new accord struck between Kobold patriarch, Za Da and Admiral Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn would have happened had it not been years of Xiao’s interventions to defend the Kobolds against her own.

But she was still in this way a perpetuator of the harm that Empire committed.

***

The sins of Empire started back at her once more upon the Azim Steppe. Her greatsword lifted above her head in triumph, the peoples of the Steppe arranged kneeling around her in defeat and supplication, Cirina and her allies all roaring in victory, Xiao was visited by a dark impulse. What was stopping her from usurping Mol rule? She could easily bring her blade down upon Cirina’s head; she could ride back to Mol Iloh and slay Temulun and any that would stop her. Was she not khagan? The entire Steppe was under her rule. She could bring them all the bear against Doma, the conquest would likely be easy. After all, the point of all of this was to rout the Imperials, and the Xaela tribes were the army that they were looking to raise to do so. And with the Domans conscripted and Hien disposed of, what was to stop her from taking the rest of Othard? She could establish a dynasty after “uniting” much of the East, possibly a viable challenger to Garlemald.

It could have been the advent of the long and bloody reign of the khagan, warlord, and possibly Empress Longbao. The horizons were hers to conquer, to chase.

But even as the thoughts occurred to her, she dropped them in horror. She hadn’t the temerity, the bloodthirst, the greed. Oh, it was true she loved a good challenge, and she didn’t shy from contests of strength and of will, but with conquest, would she be fighting against ever greater odds, or would most of her time be spent policing her previous conquests? She saw how Garlemald operated. Ala Mhigo made it clear how miserable it was. They passed by the archipelago she hailed from, a glimmer in the distant horizon, on their journey to the far east. The Kraken's Arms’ helmsman pointed it out as the freeport that bore a similar name to Xiao’s, to which the Warrior of Light dismissed any relationship. But were she to declare herself a conqueror, how long would it be before she returned to her home with blade in hand and fire at her back?

How fortuitous it was then, that the Imperial forces decided then and there to converge upon the Naadam, before Xiao could ponder anymore her newfound authority.

***

Years later still, in Garlemald proper, the Ilsabard Contingent may have met with little Imperial opposition, but they also provided little succor. 

The first full day and night they had spent in Garlemald was fruitless. Sure, they were able to ascertain that at least some survived the horrors of the Telophoroi, said survivors were not forthcoming about seeking aid. The overall mood in Camp Broken Glass was low. 

As khagan this year as well, much to Magnai’s chagrin, Xiao wished to rally the spirits of the members of the Eastern Alliance, and she could use a bit of rallying herself. So it was such that she had just sat down with them for a repast when the white noise of the salvaged and repaired radio crackled into a haunting melody. 

The Warrior of Light was struck with a strange cloying sensation. The tune gripped her chest and throat, and were it not so cold, perhaps tears would have welled up in her eyes.

Sadu first noticed the change in Xiao’s expression, “Ah, so it strikes to the quick of even a mighty warrior such as yourself.”

“‘Tis most melancholy.”

Magnai spoke up, likely to one-up Sadu, “Aye, Maxima said ‘tis a traditional Garlean song, its origins date back to before the empire, when the Garleans were first pushed this far north.”

“What’s the song’s name?”

“‘Home Beyond the Horizon.’”

Xiao looked out to what little glow was left of the sunset. She wondered what love she still held for the islands from which she hailed, and how the song was able to kindle that love into a desperate longing. And yet she also felt nauseated. Was this cause enough? Was this homesick desire enough to motivate a people to drive forth on ceruleum-belching magitek and subjugate all that would stand in their way? Was this excuse enough for Empire? 

It was suffering that perpetuated more suffering, greed that perpetuated more greed, war that perpetuated more war. Conquest was a means to its own ends…

All the way to the horizon.

[doomedandstoned]

Top 10 Albums Of The 2010′s

~By Calvin Lampert~

I think it is safe to say that underground metal has enjoyed a period of unprecedented growth and popularity in the last 10 years. But when I am saying this I am not only thinking about the heavy underground; those adherents of the Sabbath sound and this whole new wave of doom metal bands. I am thinking of the fact that (underground) metal has undergone a change in image, too.

Though frequently maligned as hipster bands (or metal for people who don't like metal), acts like Deafheaven have brought metal to a whole new audience and raised awareness of the genre as a genuine form of art that does not just exist for its own sake; that metal fans only go for gore, beer and self-referential horn-throwing. Not that Neurosis and Godflesh haven’t been ambassadors of this mindset for more than three decades already, but it feels that the understanding of metal as art seems to have finally broken through to an audience outside of the traditional metal subculture in the past decade.

I think it is in no small part thanks to some of the bands on this list I have assembled (though I may have forgone obvious picks like Alcest and Deafheaven for more personal choices). And in retrospect, it should’ve been a list of bands rather than records, as most of the artists on this list would’ve have had a claim to a spot on here, with any record they put out. Take that as a hurray for consistency. So, without further ado, my picks for the best and most remarkable records of the decade.

10. Akhlys – 'The Dreaming I' (Debemur Morti - 2015)

The Dreaming I by Akhlys

I can’t help but wonder if Naas Alcameth of AKHLYS (also of Nightbringer, Aoratos and Bestia Arcana) set out with the express intent to create what is essentially a nigh perfect atmospheric black metal record when he started working on The Dreaming I. It damn sure feels like, each strum, syllable, and beat sits at the right place; the pieces of this nightmarish puzzle fit with an unsettling ease.

Photograph by by Kuba Leszko

The sound really does justice to the underlying concept of dreams and nightmares, as you’ll rarely find a record with such an impenetrable atmosphere. Once you hit play you’re soon enveloped by countless layers of swirling guitars, all at the command of Naas Alcameth, and he seems hellbent on suffocating you with them. The Dreaming I is about as close as you can get sleep paralysis-made-music. If you put off black metal as spooky noise made by a bunch hooded esoteric nerds you might’ve found your match in Akhlys. They are just that, they’re dead serious, and the results are impressive.

9. Elephant Tree – 'Elephant Tree' (Magnetic Eye Records - 2016)

Elephant Tree by Elephant Tree

I’ve observed myself growing increasingly apart from most stoner rock as of late, sometimes even antagonizing the genre. I’m afraid I’m just burned out on it and grown embittered, so a record from those genres ending up on my Albums of the Decade list should give you a hint of just how special it really is.

That is not to say that there haven’t been some real stoner rock heavy hitters this decade, such as Gozus Revival, Valley of the Suns Sayings of the Seers or Lo-Pans Salvador, but there’s something to ELEPHANT TREE's self-titled record that just so narrowly sets it apart from the others.

Photograph by Phil Smithies

What that is I am still not quite sure, and I had my fair share of relistens. Maybe it is the tasteful balance act of the production that makes this record so wonderfully ethereal but also ridiculously crushing. Or the sleek as all hell songwriting where every hook fires but the flow remains impeccable. Or the gorgeous harmonic interplay of Jack Townley and Pete Hollands vocals. Or maybe really just the sum of it all.

Whatever it is, Elephant Tree get it so very right and it is a true joy to behold such a well-written and fine-tuned record in a genre that has become all too prone to shoddiness and idle Kyuss worship. If there is any justice in the world, Elephant Tree will be looked back as a classic of the genre.

8. Oranssi Pazuzu – 'Värähtelijä' (Svart Records/20 Buck Spin - 2016)

Värähtelijä by Oranssi Pazuzu

So many have tried to do it. Countless chonged out Hendrix worshippers. Australian neo-psych darlings. But they all failed. Turns out the holy grail of psychedelia was dug up by a bunch of dudes in the frozen wastes of Finland when they decided to throw together black metal and almost every imaginable psych rock permutation under the firmament. Absolute insanity inducing balls-to-the-wall trippiness ensues.

ORANSSI PAZUZU is their name, ego-death squared in hyperspace is their game and Värähtelijä is the latest in a slew of attempts to smear your brain across the event horizon, and their most accomplished one so far. Think Hawkwind trying to interpret the soundtrack of Interstellar with a guy being spaghettified by a black hole screaming on top of it. Huge, plodding riffs and spacey synth fuckery abound.

Film by Shelby Kray

This madness extends to their live shows, yours truly (being completely sober) suffered a sensory overload when they launched into the crescendo of the album opener "Saturaatio" at Roadburn 2016. This band is taking things to the next level, and something tells me that Värähtelijä is just another chapter in an increasingly maddening venture.

7. Conan – 'Blood Eagle' (Napalm Records - 2014)

You can’t really draw a picture of the doom scene in the '10s without CONAN. And I do mean that in quite the literal sense, as seemingly every self-respecting doom fan seems to own at least one Conan shirt and you can’t really go to a gig without seeing one.

By all accounts the band probably could’ve retired years ago and just live off those rad merch designs. But Conan knows no rest -- always writing, always touring, always scheming. Thus the band has fed a steady stream of releases to a cult-like following over the years and narrowing down the output of such an important band to just one record is no small task. My choice eventually fell on the fan favorite, 2014's Blood Eagle.

Photograph by Sally Townsend

Conan had already pretty much established themselves as the emergent sludge-doom act of the decade at that time, but as we know they’re not one to rest on their laurels and Blood Eagle was just them driving the point home and the stake deeper, solidifying a grasp on the scene that hasn’t waned ever since, and they did it oh so righteously, by the primordial might of tonal displacement and drop F glory.

Conan might have the closest thing to a universal doom appeal because they speak to your baser instincts. Songs like "Foehammer" or "Total Conquest" seem like trebuchets aimed at the synapses of your reptilian brain, and I can’t help but admire these noble DIY barbarians, who so deservedly have carved out their place in the canon of the genre.

6. SubRosa – 'More Constant than the Gods' (Profound Lore - 2013)

More Constant Than The Gods by SubRosa

SUBROSA was one of a kind. If one band calling it quits this decade broke my heart, it was them. But before doing so they gifted us three outstanding post-metal records, whose folk and chamber music flourishes felt completely unique, intimate, and anachronistic in a genre dominated by more vast and spacious narratives. They reached inward rather than outward and did so with a no-parts-wasted mentality.

In a world rife with one-trick bands, SubRosa's employ of multiple vocalists and two electric violins felt natural and unabashedly non-gimmicky, and they would reveal the true potential of their sound on 2013's harrowingly beautiful More Constant than the Gods.

Photograph by Alyssa Herrman

More Constant is remarkable for its elegant and restrained way of instilling dread. Hardly any harsh vocals, the tempo never goes beyond a steady stride, just those horrific and yet also beautiful violins, plodding guitars, and downright poetic lyrics. And SubRosa seem to feel right at home on either terrain, be it the skin-crawling lead guitar line of "Affliction" or the grandiose outro section of "Fat of the Ram." One can only hope that SubRosa will return one day. A band that was truly novel, and not just a novelty.

5. Tchornobog – 'Tchornobog' (Fallen Empire / I, Voidhanger - 2017)

TCHORNOBOG is many things. Among others, a dark, ancient Slavic deity. In the world of music, a monolithic amalgamation of extreme metal, some Eldritch chimera of cavernous black, death, and doom metal. And the beast of one Markov Soroka, though him stating that the Tchornobog inhabits his head begs the question who might really be in charge?

Photograph by Nona Limmen

Soroka does indeed seem to be guided by spirits since he started the project at the age 14, and eight years of gestation and arduous work culminated in one of the most engrossing, all-consuming records I have come across this decade. Far be it from me to reduce Tchornobog’s remarkability down to the young age of its creator, but Sorokas ambition and execution of those ambitions could run circles around a lot of veteran extreme metal bands. The man is just flat out talented. And that is not even taking his various other projects (Drown, Aureole, Krukh) into account, or his curation work through his own label, Vigor Deconstruct.

As such, Tchornobog ultimately is, among many other things, a bright spotlight shining on a young man who has all the makings of being the next big underground metal mastermind. I’m sure you’ll be inclined to agree as soon as Soroka brings out the grand piano and saxophone on "III: Non-Existence’s Warmth (Infinite Natality Psychosis)" to perform what I’d like to call Lovecraftian Lounge Music. He must have a thing for Demilich too, judging from those song titles.

4. Hell – 'III' (Lower Your Head / Pesanta Urfolk - 2012)

Hell III by Hell

There is a subtle power in melodies, particularly melancholic and sad ones. Doom, and more specifically funeral doom, have long since sought to harness the power of the melody, but I think nobody has been quite as effective or moved me so profoundly with a simple plucked melody as MSW, the singular mind of HELL.

Just one minute into Mourn, the opening (and penultimate) track of Hell III), I am already instilled with a deep sense of melancholy, but also foreboding doom. However, few songs can just thrive from having a good riff or lead -- and there’s 17 minutes yet to go. I’ll spoil you and say that in this time Hell shifts between doom, black metal, neoclassical music, and dark ambient. That’s a lot of territory to cover and it becomes apparent that for how meticulously well crafted its individual parts are, MSW never loses sight of the bigger picture and the transitions between these different sounds are seamless.

Film by Billy Goate

At the danger of sounding like a huge fucking nerd, I really am more inclined to refer to "Mourn" and its follow up "Decedere" as movements rather than songs and if the songwriting doesn’t clue you in you’ll be persuaded by the time Decedere breaks out the operatic vocals and a flute accompanied by a string ensemble. And no matter if he’s performing a contemplative acoustic piece or pounding you in the ground with some absolutely hellish (the band name is apt as can be) blackened doom, MSW always manages to maintain an aura of grandeur. MSW is not just a great songwriter, he’s a veritable composer, and III is his magnum opus.

3. Mizmor – 'Yodh' (Gilead Media - 2016)

Yodh by מזמור

If whatever has come before was bleak, then Yodh is pitch fucking black. This decade hasn’t lacked in dark records (not even taking metal into account -- Mount Eerie's A Crow Looked at Me, Nick Cave’s Skeleton Tree, or The Caretakers Everywhere at the End of Time), but taking on existential dread specifically (and thereby becoming a vessel for it) MIZMOR's Yodh remains unsurpassed in its sheer effectiveness to instill said dread in the listener and is possibly the most harrowing record of the last 10 years.

Photo by Kento Woolery

As befits the theme, Yodh genuinely sounds like the work of a broken man. A miserable slab of glacial funeral doom and grimy black metal, but delivered with a brute strength and conviction that really suggests more defiance than self-pity. I’d be remiss to not point out ALN's incredibly varied vocal performance, ranging from wretched snarls and air-starved bellows to what I can only describe as pterodactyl shrieks, all carrying the same biting vitriol as the instrumentals.

Film by Shelby Kray

Yet for all its doom and gloom, Yodh surprises with occasional moments of tenderness and outright (if melancholic) beauty, too, such as the acoustic intro of "II: A Semblance Waning" or the massive main riff of "III: The Serpent Eats Its Tail" that feels like the sort of thing Pallbearer would’ve come up with if they had been more into Mournful Congregation than Warning.

All these things combined with thoughtful, introspective lyrics make Yodh into an incredibly powerful and downright visceral record, and if for you the main draw of doom metal lies its emotional potency (as it does for me) then Yodh is an essential listen. Let ALN shout down the very pillars that uphold your personal beliefs of life’s meaning.

2. Pallbearer – 'Sorrow and Extinction' (Profound Lore - 2012)

Sorrow And Extinction by Pallbearer

Warning was the first band to try to bridge the gap between traditional and modern doom metal, and while Watching from a Distance might have a fair claim to be one of the saddest metal records out there, in my eyes it was PALLBEARER who took that formula even further and perfected it with their 2011 debut Sorrow and Extinction. To me, it’s a classic record in both senses. A landmark of post-millennium doom and a throwback to the days of yore, when Saint Vitus and Candlemass were in charge of bumming everyone out; while still maintaining the larger-than-life-feel and sonic heft of modern doom championed by bands like Yob or Neurosis.

Photo by Sally Townsend

But Sorrow and Extinction isn’t just some roided up epic doom sans the operatic vocals, Pallbearer are far too clever to suffer such a pitfall. Granted, Sorrow sounds huge, and while there’s plenty of the heavy stuff to go around what makes Sorrow so great is how catchy it is. There is no weak song on this record (admittedly there’s only five), and while most bands could only hope to one day write a riff as good as "Devoid of Redemption's" main theme, it seems like Pallbearer just comes up with them on a whim, and their ability to do so doesn’t seem to have faded three records into their career -- not even to speak of Brett Campbell's soulful lyrics and passionate delivery.

Film by Billy Goate

Then, of course, there’s the amazing guitar interplay between Campbell and Devin Holt, chiefly on the casket closer "Given to the Grave," whose second half essentially boils down to them constantly trading dramatic leads with each other like the world's most woeful ping pong game.

Sorrow and Extinction is not only a deeply moving yet utterly anthemic record, but also one that successfully marries the past and the present of doom. In that regard, it is a preciously rare and so far unsurpassed record.

1. YOB – 'Clearing the Path to Ascend' (Neurot Records - 2014)

Clearing The Path To Ascend by YOB

Writing about metal without resorting to superlatives is hard. Try to practice restraint in the presence of something whose very nature lacks restraint. I am definitely guilty of that lack of restraint; one has only got to scroll up again to confirm it. But luckily some records are so very superlative that I do not have to take that editorial high road and can fire all the “mosts” and “-ests” at will. In fact, they almost require you to use them. Clearing the Path to Ascend by YOB is one such record. Even among all these preceding superlative records it stands above and beyond.

Photo by Angelique Le Marchand

Clearing the Path to Ascend is so vast, it feels singular. It is one and it is all. When I think larger-than-life sound, Clearing comes to mind first. It has become the very benchmark with which I measure other records. Yob's big and beautiful only consists of four tracks, but they made each feel like a distinct part of a greater journey. "In Our Blood" opens with a recording of Alan Watts telling you it is "time to wake up," before the song slowly rises into a stretched-out draw and crash, eventually unfurling into a manic guitar line.

"Nothing to Win" feels like Yob's own take on Neurosis’ Through Silver in Blood. It is an unrelenting, steady 11-minute march down a highway of broken glass, utterly windswept and viciously hopeless. "Unmask the Spectre" seems to tread similarly bitter paths but manages to wrestle itself free into two grandiose spiraling crescendos.

Film by Billy Goate

The death knell of an album closer that is "Marrow" shouldn’t really need much of an introduction at this point. It still feels like I’ll see a link, post or share of it every other day. It has become an omnipresence in the doom scene, and deservingly so. Yob dials back on the gloom and shines all the brighter. "Marrow" is not just hopeful; it is downright ecstatic and by the time Mike Scheidt launches into the grand solo of the track (so very gracefully accompanied by a Hammond organ played by producer Billy Barnett) has ascended to a genuine sermon.

Though Clearing had its fair share of dark moments "Marrow" closes the record on a remarkably conciliatory note and I really think that speaks of Yob as a (metal) band. Call it a big move to offer closure -- a fitting end to such a big record. One that suits the title of ‘Album of the Decade,’ and embodies the spirit of metal that wants to be just more.

Calvin's Choice: 100 Best of the Decade

YOB - Clearing the Path to Ascend

Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction

Mizmor - Yodh

Hell - Hell III

Tchornobog - Tchornobog

SubRosa - More Constant Than The Gods

Conan - Blood Eagle

Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä

Elephant Tree - Elephant Tree

Akhlys - The Dreaming I

Clutch - Earth Rocker

Merkstave - Merkstave

Gozu - Revival

Chelsea Wolfe - Pain Is Beauty

Valley of the Sun - The Sayings of the Seers

Inter Arma - Paradise Gallows

Thou - Heathen

Om - Advaitic Songs

Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper

All Them Witches - Dying Surfer Meets His Maker

Horn of the Rhino - Weight of Coronation

Boss Keloid - Melted on the Inch

KALEIKR - Heart Of Lead

Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus - Spirit Knife

Woman is the Earth - Torch of Our Final Night

Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising

LINGUA IGNOTA - Caligula

Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork

Messa - Feast for Water

Anna von Hausswolff - Dead Magic

Mamiffer - The World Unseen

Samothrace - Reverence to Stone

Primitive Man - Scorn

Fórn - The Departure of Consciousness

Khemmis - Absolution

Bongripper - Miserable

High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis

UN - Sentiment

Cult of Luna - Mariner

Slomatics - Future Echo Returns

MISTHYRMING - Söngvar elds og óreiðu

Dvne - Asheran

Earth - Primitive and Deadly

Mars Red Sky - Apex III (Praise For The Burning Soul)

The Midnight Ghost Train - Cypress Ave.

Panopticon - Panopticon - Roads to the North

Mare Cognitum - Phobos Monolith

Sólstafir - Ótta

Have a Nice Life - The Unnatural World

Furia - Księżyc Milczy Luty

Tardigrada - Emotionale Ödnis

Yellow Eyes - Immersion Trench Reverie

Stoned Jesus - Seven Thunders Roar

Höstblod - Mörkrets Intåg

Ulver - The Assassination of Julius Caesar

Zola Jesus - Okovi

Funereal Presence - Achatius

Wormlust - The Feral Wisdom

Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want

L'Acephale - L'Acéphale

40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room

Vilkacis - Beyond the Mortal Gate

Bossk - Audio Noir

Carpenter Brut - Trilogy

Sumac - What One Becomes

Death Grips - Exmilitary

Red Fang - Murder the Mountains

Lo-Pan - Salvador

Whores. - Gold

Truckfighters - Universe

Greenleaf - Trails & Passes

Bölzer - Aura

Monolord - Vaenir

Dead to a Dying World - Elegy

The Body - I Shall Die Here

Mutoid Man - War Moans

Neurosis - Fires Within Fires

Opeth - Pale Communion

Planning for Burial - Below the House

Triptykon - Melana Chasmata

Graveyard - Hisingen Blues

Saor - Aura

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Egypt - Endless Flight

Emma Ruth Rundle - Marked For Death

Deafheaven - Sunbather

Kadavar - Kadavar

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Vanum - Ageless Fire

Dai-Ichi - Dai-Ichi

Lord Mantis - Pervertor

Ne Obliviscaris - Portal Of I

Loss - Horizonless

Tome of the Unreplenished - Innerstanding

Elder - Lore

Witch Mountain - Cauldron of the Wild

Ahab - The Giant

Alcest - Kodama

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation

Sleep - The Sciences