“Like so many things doomy, Hamferð doesn’t move quickly. Back in ’18, these Faroese doomsters—fronted by my golden voiced arch-nemesis and all around begrudging ‘friend o’ the blog’ Jón Aldará—released their second album Támsins likam.” I heaped love and adoration upon it and them. And given my history of fickle tastes that shift like the wind, one can only assume that I hate the followup, right?
“Each year we aggregate the voluminous listery that occurs in these hallowed pages in order to delineate the favorite (or rather, lowest common denominator) records from a given year across the various writers and tastes that we now characterize.” This is what it sounds like when mobs rules.
Steel Druhm dragged a mammoth set of winners up to the peaks of Mount Trve and carved the chosen names into stone. You will now receive them as the Top Ten(ish) of Steel. Rejoice!
GardensTale and Ferrous Beuller unleash their Top Ten(ish) lists in a reckless manner without regard for the safety of others. Wear your safety goggles!
Saunders, Huck and Cherd deliver their weighty Top Ten(ish) lists and try to get along in the process.
TheKenWord and Carcharodon assembled these Top Ten(ish) lists and apparently they stand by them. You can judge if that is the right decision.
Lists are a gift and Doom_et_Al and Dear Hollow have presents to distribute. Prepare for tidings of anger and joy.
“Music that sounds like it is all-important and all-encompassing just strikes a chord with me, transporting me beyond the mundane and into a cosmic realm of endless possibilities. Cognos’ self-titled debut taps into such omnipresence, which is why it caught my eye, but are the aforementioned chords struck or is there naught but dissonance ahead?” Cognos ov the cosmos.
“The phrase “avant-garde” spliced with “metal” is so confusing. Much like similar descriptors “extreme” and “modern,”[1. *shudder*] it’s an extremely broad term that implies much and is much abused. Describing the Children of Bodom-esque Messora to the weird-as-shit Maudlin of the Well, overuse quickly becomes Inigo Montoya’s second most-famous quote: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” So, what does “avant-garde” actually mean? Beats me! Nevertheless, the newest crew to throw their avant-garde hat into the ring is Germany’s The Circle.” Larva-core.
“Ah, the random promo pick. It worked well for Gardenstale, who wrote some fancy algorithm that randomly assigned him a Record O’ The Month in Iotunn. Hoping for lighting to strike twice, Yours Truly dug into his hope chest and unearthed his multi-sided dice set. A quick throw of the d30 yielded The Omega Evangelion, the debut album from Finnish upstarts Byron. What started out as a solo project by ex-Church of Void drummer Johannes Lahti.” Dragons, dice, destiny.
