“Look, let’s cut to the chase here, Monuments of Grief is, unsurprisingly, bleak as all fuck. With an album title like that, released under the nom de guerre The Sombre and as the followup to Shapeless Misery, there is no levity, no joy and no whimsy to be found here. Monuments of Grief is just that, a towering obelisk of doom that drags the listener down into a hopeless pit of despair, from whence one can look up at the light but with absolutely no hope of reaching it.” Sweet grief.
“Misanthur was listed as “trance ambient noise” in the cold boundaries of the promo dump and just plain black metal on other sites. Truthfully, both are true. What this Polish duo offers is a hyper-atmospheric breed of black metal with heavy electronic and industrial flourishes, not unlike a blackened version of C R O W N’s latest, The End of All Things.” Kitchen sink-core.
“Belgium is a weird place. Maybe it’s the chocolate or waffles, but any country that offers groups like Neptunian Maximalism, Emptiness, or Amenra & Co. needs to have its cholesterol checked. Spewing out bizarre organic atmosphere with haunting repetition, artists like these have strangely minimalist tendencies that end up feeling bigger than the individual parts suggest. While spanning a broad range of metallic subgenres, it comes across as otherworldly, surreal, and fiercely dark. To add their two cents to these Belgian shenanigans is Wolvennest.” Temple of Weird.
“Self-described as a happy medium between My Dying Bride and Alcest, Ascian bring on the gloom by way of gargantuan riffs summoned at a glacial pace by guitarists P. and T. There be no fluff whatsoever across the remarkably tight thirty-eight minutes that span this album. The mission statement of Elysion is plain as day: to crush all who venture in this overcast wasteland until nothing remains but a faint wisp of soul dust.” Unhappy mediums.
“Band names are important. They can often tell you a lot about a band or artist. Of course, the music matters most but I will frequently, while plumbing the murkier depths of Bandcamp, stick on a track purely on the strength of a band’s name. That is how I came to find Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean, for example. Conversely, a poor name can be a big negative, although, as Gazpacho demonstrate, a stellar band can rise above a terrible moniker. Every now and again though, I stumble across something I want to like simply because of the name. And that is how I feel about Eyeless in Gaza.” What’s in a name?
“2019 was a very good year for doom metal in general. However, I never got to review the real quality stuff, unless you count Hollow Leg which I would call sludge first, doom second. So I set upon Meridians with high hopes to see this changed for the better and claim my slice of the awesome doom pie.” Bone pie.
238 unique releases. 27 overlong lists. 10 collective favorites. And 1 frustrated compiler at the center of it all. That’s right, the meta-list has arrived and #Listurnalia2019 has finally drawn to a close.
The lists continue as GardensTale and Ferrous Beuller regale us with their Top Ten(ish) picks for the year. Pay attention.
Master of Muppets and TheKenWord with their very own Top Ten(ish) of 2019 lists? There goes the neighborhood!
Once they were n00bs, but now they get their own Top Ten(ish) of 2019 lists. They grow up so fast!.
