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2014
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Thumbs up: +23
The 50 albums worth remembering that I've come across from 2014.

Created by: Neachy | 22.01.2014


1. Arizmenda - Stillbirth In The Temple Of Venus
(9.5) (Psychedelic Black) Ear-piercing perfection. This one has topped his debut LP for me after numerous listens.
2. Dead Congregation - Promulgation Of The Fall
(9.5) (Death) Pure, fantastic death metal. What a year for death metal.
3. Vanhelgd - Relics Of Sulphur Salvation
(9) (Death) The riffs. Bow to the fucking riffs, pleb.
4. Horrendous - Ecdysis
(9) (Progressive Death) Their debut was a great take on OSDM in the vein of Entombed. Here they have leveled up and found a sound all their own. Extremely impressive Progressive Death.
5. The Great Old Ones - Tekeli-Li
(9) (Post-Black) TGOO have emerged to join the elite of French metal. What is created here is as haunting as it is magnificent.
6. Impetuous Ritual - Unholy Congregation Of Hypocritical Ambivalence
(9) (Avant-Garde Death) Murky, evil goodness.
7. Emptiness - Nothing But The Whole
(9) (Blackened Death) The riffs on this album are fantastic but I think it's the mood conveyed that really won me over. The band doesn't seem overly concerned with being 'heavy' or showing off in a technical way. Excellent pacing, use of distortion and growled vocals.
8. Slugdge - Gastronomicon
(9) (Blackened Death) Fantastic record. Thought it started off a bit slow with the first two or three tracks. "The Sound of Mucus" really caught my attention and I was hooked from there.
9. Ophis - Abhorrence In Opulence
(9) (Death Doom) The modern masters of Death Doom have returned with a follow up to 2010's masterpiece with an album that is damn near just as good.
10. Rishloo - Living As Ghosts With Buildings As Teeth
(9) (Progressive/Alternative) I had almost forgotten that I could enjoy progressive metal so much until I heard this album. Loved it on my first listen and love it more with each subsequent listen.
11. Assumption - The Three Appearances
(9) (Death Doom) Death Doom done exquisitely just right.
12. Teitanblood - Death
(8.5) Death/Black
13. Infestus - The Reflecting Void
(8.5) (Atmospheric Black) An amazing, varied album. Emotional, progressive, almost jazzy passages meld seamlessly with some of the best black metal riffs I've heard.
14. Morbus Chron - Sweven
(8.5) Progressive Death
15. Yob - Clearing The Path To Ascend
(8.5) (Stoner/Psychedelic Doom) This album would be a solid 9 if I didn't dislike the first ten minutes of the track 'Marrow' so much. The rest of the album is satisfyingly heavy and hypnotizingly psychedelic.
16. Occultation - Silence In The Ancestral House
(8.5) Doom/Heavy
17. Coffinworm - IV.I.VIII
(8.5) (Blackened Sludge/Doom) Coffinworm creates an ominous and vitriolic sound here. There's a good amount of variation in the songwriting so despite an often trudging pace, it never feels monotonous. The vocals vary between deep, chesty growls and ear-ripping, vein-bulging, throat destroying screams.
18. Mayhem - Esoteric Warfare
(8.5) (Black) Mayhem always meets or exceeds expectations. This band is still at the top of their game after 25+ years. A rarity in extreme metal.
19. Suffer Yourself - Inner Sanctum
(8.5) Funeral Doom
20. Swallowed - Lunarterial
(8) Blackened Death/Doom
21. Ego Depths - Oligoria Blodd
(8) Funeral Doom
22. Gnaw Their Tongues - Dyodyo Asema [Collaboration]
(8) Experimental Blackened Sludge/Noise/Drone
23. Skáphe - Skáphe
(8) (Ambient Black) This release was revealed to be another project of Alex Poole of Chaos Moon, Esoterica and Krieg fame. He seems to be channeling Mories with the filthy sound and texture of this black metal.
24. Plebeian Grandstand - Lowgazers
(8) Blackened Hardcore
25. Taurus (US) - No/Thing
(8) Avant-Garde/Psychedelic Sludge
26. Epistasis - Light Through Dead Glass
(8) (Experimental Black) "Amy Mills's ghastly scream drifts vaporously behind those twisted, lurching grooves and blackened blasts, often trading off with the gorgeously ghostly sound of her trumpet bleating in the darkness, strains of spectral jazziness echoing through the depths beneath the band's complex, metallic assault." Though it clocks in at less than 30 minutes this album packs a dissonant punch.
27. Eden Circus - Marula
(8) Progressive/Post/Alternative
28. Thaw - Earth Ground
(8) (Black/Post/Doom/Sludge/Noise) Just a heavy genre defying punch to the gut.
29. Saor - Aura
(8) (Atmospheric Blackened Celtic Folk) This album was amazing the first couple times I heard it. After a while, with all the tin whistle I began to feel like Celion Dion was going to start singing.
30. Lethian Dreams - Red Silence Lodge
(8) (Atmospheric Doom) Quite a beautiful female-fronted doom album with post-metal tendencies.
31. Fluisteraars - Dromers
(8) (Atmospheric Black) Fans of Drudkh and Agalloch should enjoy this debut album out of The Netherlands. Very melodic with rock sensibilities.
32. Darkspace - Dark Space III I
(7.5) Ambient Black
33. Triptykon - Melana Chasmata
(7.5) (Blackened Thrash/Death) Try your hardest not to headbang throughout this. You won't be able to control yourself.
34. Chaos Moon - Resurrection Extract
(7.5) (Atmospheric Black) The densely layered, heavily distorted guitar takes center stage on most of the tracks. The vocals are fantastic. The percussion is buried in the mix for the majority of the album.
35. Atomikylä - Erkale
(7.5) (Psychedelic Drone Doom) I read Dark Buddha Rising and Orannsi Pazuzu and was very intrigued to hear this. This might be better than anything done in either of those bands.
36. Execration - Morbid Dimensions
(7.5) Death
37. Corpsessed - Abysmal Thresholds
(7.5) (Death) Very strong, mid-paced album. Don't care much for the production but the performance is terrific.
38. Blut Aus Nord - Triunity
(7.5) Industrial Black/Doom
39. Terra Tenebrosa - V.I.T.R.I.O.L. - Purging The Tunnels
(7.5) Extreme Avant-Garde/Ambient
40. Svartidauði - The Synthesis Of Whore And Beast
(7.5) Black
41. Dirge - Hyperion
(7.5) (Post-Sludge) Dirge sits at the top of the modern post metal genre in my opinion. This album solidifies that. Heavy passages that hit you bluntly like a baseball bat compliment brooding industrial parts that let your mind wander.
42. Nidsang - Into The Womb Of Dissolving Flames
(7.5) Black
43. Black Autumn - Losing The Sun
(7.5) Post-Black
44. Nasheim - Solens Vemod
(7.5) Atmospheric Black
45. Agalloch - The Serpent & The Sphere
(7.5) (Atmospheric Blackened Doom/Folk) I found the first 13 or so minutes of this album to be quite boring and unremarkable. However, starting with the track Dark Matter Gods, Agalloch managed to win me over yet again.
46. Nero Di Marte - Derivae
(7.5) (Extreme Progressive) Wasn't expecting to like this. Definitely caught me off guard. Vocals can get pretty annoying but not to the point of ruining the overall vibe. Monotony of overall sound kept this album from being rated higher.
47. Dephosphorus - Ravenous Solemnity
(7.5) (Black/Grindcore) Lots of twists and turns throughout. Very full, crisp production. Vocals often remind me of early Burzum.
48. Grey Widow - I
(7.5) (Blackened Sludge/Stoner Doom) Their bandcamp page says it best: "Nihilistic putrid fuckin hatred". Just a fantastically ugly record.
49. Íon - ION
(7.5) (Ambient Post-Black) This band out of San Francisco combines a psychedelic ambient atmosphere with post-black sounds to create something spacious and hard hitting.
50. Phobocosm - Deprived
(7.5) Blackened Death


Disclaimer: All top lists are unofficial and do not represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
[ More lists by Neachy ]



Comments

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Comments: 15   Visited by: 140 users
09.02.2014 - 18:50
tea[m]ster
Au Pays Natal
Contributor
Lol. we almost have the same summary for WoD...I swear i didn't copy ! Too funny!!
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rekt
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13.02.2014 - 23:54
Neachy
Written by tea[m]ster on 09.02.2014 at 18:50

Lol. we almost have the same summary for WoD...I swear i didn't copy ! Too funny!!

You seem to have enjoyed it a lot more than I did though. Your comparison to Fen is pretty fitting as well... Are you looking forward to the new Dirge album as much as I am?
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25.02.2014 - 05:41
Alex F
As usual your list will probably be the only "year list" I keep track of, so I'm interested in what you think of the new; Shattered Hope, Nadja, Alkerdeel/Gnaw Their Tongues, Blut Aus Nord, and Slough Feg.
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26.02.2014 - 00:09
Neachy
Written by Alex F on 25.02.2014 at 05:41

As usual your list will probably be the only "year list" I keep track of, so I'm interested in what you think of the new; Shattered Hope, Nadja, Alkerdeel/Gnaw Their Tongues, Blut Aus Nord, and Slough Feg.

I've been really busy the past few months with work and school so my ability to keep up with new releases has suffered a bit. But I'll be back at full capacity in a couple months.I will be sure to check the three of those I've yet to hear (Shattered Hope, Nadja and Slough Feg) and re-listen to the other two for the list. I enjoyed them the first time I heard them but I kind of pushed them aside because they aren't full-lengths.
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09.03.2014 - 02:28
Diverge
I really need to check out Coffinworm. Thanks for the reminder.
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09.03.2014 - 02:35
mz
Written by Diverge on 09.03.2014 at 02:28

I really need to check out Coffinworm. Thanks for the reminder.

Just listened to it tonight for a couple of times. It's even better than their debut. I think you'll like their new record.
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Giving my ears a rest from music.
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11.08.2014 - 22:36
Alex F
The new Epistasis is up there in my "AsOTY" list. Phenomenal. Thanks for inadvertently reminding me to listen to it
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15.08.2014 - 20:11
Alex F
Two things you need to throw on this list would be Merkabah and Profetus
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16.08.2014 - 00:27
mz
I wonder what you think about Impetuous Ritual - Unholy Congregation Of Hypocritical Ambivalence, Mortals- Cursed To See The Future , Skáphe - Skáphe , Los Random - Pidanoma , Howls Of Ebb - Vigils Of The 3rd Eye , Domains - Sinister Ceremonies, Bast - Spectres.
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Giving my ears a rest from music.
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16.08.2014 - 03:21
Lit.
Account deleted
You also need some Goatwhore, brother.
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22.08.2014 - 03:47
tea[m]ster
Au Pays Natal
Contributor
Thanks to you, I checked out Chaos Moon...and I am glad I did. Wow, huge surprise...and thanks for the rec.
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rekt
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08.10.2014 - 16:26
Alex F
This is one of the few lists on MS I actually check up on rather than just looking at once. I still need to check out Fluisteraars and Jute Gyte
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10.11.2014 - 20:49
Alex F
You should definitely get around to listening to Ecdysis by Horrendous. That album is absolutely fantastic, and easily my favorite death metal album of the year
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10.11.2014 - 21:12
Neachy
Written by Alex F on 10.11.2014 at 20:49

You should definitely get around to listening to Ecdysis by Horrendous. That album is absolutely fantastic, and easily my favorite death metal album of the year

I will definitely do that. Been listening to the Ape of God albums today and have been pretty impressed. Have you checked this out?: https://misthyrming.bandcamp.com/releases
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10.11.2014 - 22:39
Alex F
Written by Neachy on 10.11.2014 at 21:12

I will definitely do that. Been listening to the Ape of God albums today and have been pretty impressed. Have you checked this out?: https://misthyrming.bandcamp.com/releases

I've been meaning to check out tAoG albums, but now I'm listening to that Mispyrming you linked and it sounds fucking AWESOME! More Icelandic BM showing the modern bands how it's done. Thanks for the rec.
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