The Seven is named for the number of genre categories we tried to place it in (this here is a contender for “most difficult to classify” this year). Opethian death-prog contrasts bookend vicious black metal attacks that slow into doomy gothic laments and then restart as ponderous symphonic overtures before extended shredding trades and grungy bends shatter absolutely all context for what the hell year this was released in. Often with these comeback albums you get a little bit too much of everything because the band feels compelled to use all the ideas they came up with during their absence; with The Seven, the result isn’t an overstuffed legacy dud, because this fluid assemblage of styles is a continuation of the nocturnal blend Agathodaimon had nursed for years prior. It’s a triumphant return for Agathodaimon on all counts. And remember, kids: fear is the mother of all gods!

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Two things are certain in life: that Tuomas Saukkonen never sleeps, and never to trust Tuomas Saukkonen when he says that he's gonna focus on Wolfheart from now on. He did for a while, and he's still making music with Wolfheart (see our Melodeath category), but we're at the point where there's more post-break Dawn Of Solace albums than pre-break Dawn Of Solace albums. Flames Of Perdition follows in Waves's footsteps by taking the gloomy Finnish melodeath sound and making it slower and gloomier with a lot of gothic doom injections, especially as Mikko Heikkilä's melancholic vocals command attention over the morose sounds of the North.

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Anonymous ensemble Deathwhite return to the Best Gothic Metal Album category with an eternally grey record; at least tonally, this resoundingly melancholic existence fits the title, but the warm, lush, melodic instrumental textures paint a more colourful picture. Grey Everlasting contains melodic gothic doom mastered by Dan Swanö with beauty to match the enchanting landscape depicted on the landscape; rich baritone vocals reach out longingly through carefully crafted textures, whether sullen and forlorn or more forceful and dense. There are occasional flashes of extremity, at least instrumentally, but for the most part, Deathwhite know that their strengths lie in crafting more subdued, morose atmospheres, and they accomplish this with admirable reliability on Grey Everlasting.

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Hangman's Chair are far from being the band they started out as. Depressing as it still was, their early stoner doom sound was maybe the equivalent of tripping on downers, but A Loner finds them completely embracing the downer aesthetics. The goth sounds at play here seem more fitting for something like coldwave and goth rock, married to a type of doom metal whose punchy bass betrays some of the sludgy stoner of days yore, yet with an ethereal gloom that works with a sense of dread and melody that feels more like a blend of goth and doom rather than mere gothic doom.

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There’s no case of an unlucky number 13 for Lacrimas Profundere; the German veterans’ 13th full-length sees the collaboration of the group (now helmed by guitarist and sole remaining founding member Oliver Schmid) with recently recruited vocalist Julian Larre continue to deliver good results. Larre’s gloomy cleans fit nicely within the melancholic rock outlines of these songs, while the growls aptly accompany Lacrimas Profundere’s ventures into more extreme waters. The lush guitar melodies are as rich as the vocal hooks, and How To Shroud Yourself With Night effortlessly delivers both accessibility and depth.

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Lord Vigo started by playing epic heavy/doom metal with a twist; especially since Danse De Noir, they have been utilizing ‘80s synths and atmosphere to bring their sound closer to darkwave, and We Shall Overcome sees them also introduce some progressive rock to the mix. The album is linked to Rush’s “2112” song, both musically and conceptually. It sounds as if Iron Maiden have collaborated with The Mission to play covers of Candlemass and Joy Division songs, produced by Depeche Mode’s Flood. Lord Vigo take elements that are not unknown, but almost no other band is doing a fusion like this so seamlessly and so successfully.

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Founded in 2000, it took Lux Incerta over a decade to release their debut album, A Decade Of Dusk, and after a further decade of dusk (featuring a multi-year hiatus), they’ve finally produced their sophomore full-length. Don’t expect a successor to Dark Odyssey any time soon, but fear not, as the music on this album is dense and epic enough to get lost in for a few years. Sporting morose gothic doom with dingy doom riffs, moody guitar melodies, and sumptuously bleak baritone clean vocals, Lux Incerta use a formula developed by the likes of My Dying Bride, but the execution here is far beyond what most bands in this genre today are capable, pioneer and imitator alike.

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Rotting Christ's mainman, Sakis Tolis, for the first time presents himself with an opportunity to shine all by himself as he unleashes the debut record of his own newly formed solo project under his name; perhaps it's just as well, given that Rotting Christ have been going on a bit of a stale run as of late. So, what lies in wait on this debut release, Among The Fires Of Hell? On this record, Tolis performs all the instruments (with the exception of Fotis Benardo contributing on drums), vocals, and production himself, laying his foundations around Rotting Christ's gothic-era material, whilst showing off a compilation of his finest-written riffs and recalling aspects of 2007’s Theogonia. This album shows Tolis well within his own domain; his mid-tempo melodic riffing is unmistakable, and here he takes his music to new personal heights.

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The dark prophet has ascended, and the gospel they’re proselytizing is gothic metal of a symphonic melodeath persuasion. The debut record of Saphath has the gloomy cleans and morose atmosphere of gothic metal, combined with choirs (real, courtesy of the band including a choir director), melodic guitar leads, and bursts of intense instrumentation. The end result sounds something like a base of Moonspell with added touches of Cradle Of Filth and Dark Tranquillity, and it pays off well on this first outing for the group, as exciting riffs primed for headbanging are augmented by sombre atmospherics.

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Too much of gothic metal is sultry baritone crooning over maudlin doom riffs, as if we hadn’t already had a Type O Negative. And too much of black metal just is. Not enough metal bands out there pull straight from the post-punk playbook: that existential moodiness in every ground-up Smiths riff, that cool disaffection toward melodies designed to make you happy, that earnest embrace of synthesizers and the alienating darkness they can conjure… that appreciation for how emotional Tears For Fears were even before Gary Jules made them a fixture on every sad vibes playlist. Sunrise Patriot Motion takes the most minimal elements of black metal needed to transform Black Fellflower Stream into something more savage and evil than your average ‘80s goth gem and leaves the rest of the feeling in place; if you took the band’s cousin, Ustalost, and mashed it together with Fields Of The Nephilim, you’d achieve something that sounds very much like Sunrise Patriot Motion. And isn’t that what gothic metal should mean?

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