1.Dying Fetus - Make Them Beg For Death

2.Leiþa - Reue

3.Sarcoptes - Prayers To Oblivion

4.Melancholia - Book Of Ruination

5.Sworn - A Journey Told Through Fire

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1.Insomnium - Anno 1696

2.Sorcerer - Reign Of The Reaper

3.Ignea - Dreams Of Lands Unseen

4.Soen - Memorial

5.Within Temptation - Bleed Out

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1.Sleep Token - Take Me Back To Eden

2.Einar Solberg - 16

3.The Ocean - Holocene

4.Sermon - Of Golden Verse

5.Haken - Fauna

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1.Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

2.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

3.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality

4.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath Vol. 4

5.Black Sabbath - Sabotage

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1.Pallbearer - Heartless

2.Warbringer - Woe To The Vanquished

3.

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1.Mercyful Fate - Mercyful Fate

2.Mercyful Fate - Don't Break The Oath

3.King Diamond - House Of God

4.King Diamond - Abigail

5.King Diamond - The Eye

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1.Shylmagoghnar - Convergence

2.Sacred Outcry - Towers Of Gold

3.Fires In The Distance - Air Not Meant For Us

4.Cattle Decapitation - Terrasite

5.Moonlight Sorcery - Horned Lord Of The Thorned Castle

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To Celebrate Metal Hammer's Tumultuous Albums of the Year list, I'm releasing my top 25 Albums of the year early. It might change once the Awards come around.

1.Saturnus - The Storm Within

2.Insomnium - Anno 1696

3.Miserere Luminis - Ordalie

4.Æolian - Echoes Of The Future

5.Sacred Outcry - Towers Of Gold

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As 2023 is coming to an end, and I grow one year closer to death, also YouTube Music seems to have jumped on the "recap" train following Spotify's template. It's not as accurate as Spotify, telling me not much more than 65% of my listening being simply "heavy metal" (unlike Spotify which separates into subgenres, but I still prefer YouTube Music for various reasons), 8% rock, 2% indie, 2% pop, and 2% reggae. My top "moods" were 39% dramatic, 39% sorrowful, 14% energising, 3% uplifting, 3% happy. My 5 top artists were Impaled Nazarene, Senshi, Bloodywood, Kypck, and Turmion Kätilöt.

I'm a bit surprised by some of these stats, such as electronic music not appearing among my top genres (I still listen to Shpongle a lot and will do so until I die), "angry" not being one of my top moods, and alternative metal being so heavily featured among my top bands, but I can't fight the stats, I guess. Here are my most listened to songs in 2023 according to YouTube Music's recap.

1.Bloodywood - Aaj

2.Arkona - Kob'

3.Bloodywood - Gaddaar

4.Anamnesi - La Precessione Degli Equinozi

5.Senshi - Evil In Dem Eyes

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1.Fires In The Distance - Air Not Meant For Us

2.Tomb Mold - The Enduring Spirit

3.Cattle Decapitation - Terrasite

4.Church Of Misery - Born Under A Mad Sign

5.Kalmah - Kalmah

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1.Ensiferum - Dragonheads

2.Insomnium - Songs Of The Dusk

3.Insomnium - Argent Moon

4.Moonsorrow - Tulimyrsky

5.Equilibrium - Waldschrein

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1.Rivers Of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name

2.Sulphur Aeon - The Scythe Of Cosmic Chaos

3.Slugdge - Esoteric Malacology

4.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

5.1914 - The Blind Leading The Blind

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1.Sacred Outcry - Towers Of Gold

2.Sulphur Aeon - Seven Crowns And Seven Seals

3.VoidCeremony - Threads Of Unknowing

4.Panopticon - The Rime Of Memory

5.Afterbirth - In But Not Of

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It is very hard to understate how much Scott Burns' talents have given to the world of metal music. He might disagree about the following statements, but his work defined one of the most admired and revered eras of death and thrash metal, vastly influencing the sonic imprint that was to be copied for generations to come, and his skills were far and beyond just the engineering.

1.Agent Steel - Unstoppable Force

2.Whiplash - Ticket To Mayhem

3.Crimson Glory - Transcendence

4.Death - Leprosy

5.Terrorizer - World Downfall

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The best album art of 2024. I usually gravitate towards album covers based on these factors:
-Level of detail (Foreground, background, etc. One dimensional album covers don't work for me usually)
-Art style (Renaissance is cool, power metal fantasy cartoons are not)
-Colour scheme (Vibrant colours but not too wacky or fluro)
-Winter, space, large scale visuals
-Contrast (Through colour and actual landscape)
-Abstract/paradoxical

No particular order, they are all great

1.Solbrud - IIII

2.Eternal Storm - A Giant Bound To Fall

3.Infected Rain - Time

4.Darkspace - Dark Space -II

5.Borknagar - Fall

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