There's something about After that makes it my favorite from Ihsahn, and the one I keep coming back to the most. Whether it's the vocals, the melodies, the beautiful saxophone, something here just feels a lot more epic and "whole" than on other releases. Wonderful album. http://tinyurl.com/y8u84r4u

My first encounter with this nightmarish duo, and it still leaves a powerful impression. A macabre carnival of sludge, industrial, black metal, and dark ambient influences, topped off by odd audio sampling and a resplendent female choir. http://tinyurl.com/jm3flnw

I enjoy all that Enslaved have done, but to date I haven't really gotten as much of a "wow!" feeling from the band as I have after first hearing this album. An impressive synthesis of prog and black metal here creates a very intimate, mesmerizing atmosphere that's both beautiful and almost awe inspiring with its more sublime moments as well. I don't think the band have equaled or topped it since. http://tinyurl.com/yabhmm2b

From the ashes of Celtic Frost came a new Thomas Fischer-led band focusing not on the raw, blackened thrash approach that had won him acclaim but rather on... doom? And some gothic? Going more in the direction of the final Frost album, Triptykon proved with this album their commitment to exploring a heavier, more expansive and luxurious sound, at many points made significantly more poignant and meditative from its darker, more melodic undertones. http://tinyurl.com/ybvharmp

Well I'm a sucker for old school acid rock, and thankfully there's been a steady revival of it in recent years that both pays homage to classic bands of the 60s and 70s while also sounding refreshingly modern as well. Enter Samsara Blues Experiment, an excellent example of one such band. Replete with beautiful, jammy guitar lines you can get lost in for days, throbbing bass, and some sweet use of organ to boot. Turn on, tune in, drop out. http://tinyurl.com/ybcahxsy

One of the most blatant examples of a band that flies in the face of convention. What is this album anyway? It seems to be mostly black metal but.... oh wait, what's the neoclassical sounding guitar lick over there? Shit, now they're using native folk instruments? Huh, well it still seems mostly black met--- wait, was that a crust punk track they threw out? Arrrrghhh who cares, it's just SO GODDAMN GOOD and that's all you need to know. http://tinyurl.com/ybynhvxs

Today Ethan McCarthy is most known for Primitive Man, and to a lesser extent Vermin Womb, but not too long ago he was in command of this beast as well. An utter monstrosity of a band, CTTTOAFF can best be described as "blackened doomgrind" or something similar, and this album seems to see them tapping into the absolute best from all three in the process of spewing forth their vile, grotesque machinations. http://tinyurl.com/y9zu7m3m

Oddly enough, I didn't get into sludge via Eyehategod, Down, Melvins, Acid Bath, or any of the others classics, but through... Horn Of The Rhino. I didn't like much previously but this Spanish trio's thundering riffage and the absolutely fantastic vocals of Javier Galvez won me over. It's sad that this band is gone. http://tinyurl.com/pomccrn

This album is a really great example, perhaps the *best example, of how the music of Gnaw Their Tongues can be surprisingly beautiful and almost transcendent at points. Taking a more theatrical, almost operatic type approach, this album sounds a lot more spacious and airy than others, still dark and foreboding, but with added layers of nuance and majesty. http://tinyurl.com/y9z5mw6j

Did you know Finland generates some of the weirdest bands in metal? Ok, well if you didn't, here's one of quite a few testaments to this. With Jumalhämärä it's black metal but... hmm... bouncy and surprisingly groovy? Jazzy drumming? Smothered in a seething psychedelic mist? Wonderful mix between clean and harsh vocals? Yup, sounds like something Apothecary would like. Obscure, underappreciated band and release, but worth your time if you're down with the weirdness BM has had to offer this decade.

One of the best of the "blackened sludge" style to emerge this decade, and forms something of an "unholy trinity" for me together with Hatred For Mankind and Primitive Man's Scorn. Vile, nasty, and all around mean, When All Became None is a gritty blend of black metal fury and plodding, down and dirty sludge antics. While I slightly prefer Coffinworm's follow up to this, there's no denying that here Blood Born Doom and Start Saving For Your Funeral are absolute bangers.

After the somewhat lackluster Black Cascade, the Weavers struck back with this triumphant return to form. I honestly consider this their best black metal album, more so than the debut or Two Hunters. It's got what those two have but it also expands upon the greater senses of harmony and ambiance that the band had played around with previously, into an experience that is both harsh and thunderous but also extremely dreamlike and majestic, merging these two sides of the coin better than ever before. http://tinyurl.com/ybfmj4eq

The second installation in Blut Aus Nord's enigmatic 777 trilogy, after Sect(s) The Desanctification finds the band turning the knob down on the black metal speed and agression and turning it up on the midpaced, industrial hypnotism. The result is an experience nothing short of ominous, claustrophobic, but also irresistibly entrancing. One of the best albums that "industrial black metal" has to offer. http://tinyurl.com/ydcuyarz

One of a large number of projects from Dutch master Maurice de Jong, Aderlating embraces the drone and dark ambient angles perhaps more than any other work in the guy's discography. This album can only be described as a nightmarish journey through the halls of the unconscious mind, and is one of my absolute favorites for the genre. https://tinyurl.com/y9tqokcj

Full Of Hell have never really been your "usual" grind band, as they demonstrated right from the start with this debut. Loaded to the brim with sludgey grooves, abrasive noise and industrial influences, and of course good old fashioned grind violence, this album is a powerful demonstration in how to make grind that's riproaring and fun while at the same time being inspired and having a healthy dose of creativity. Still my favorite from the band. http://tinyurl.com/y9aq732m

Ah yes, Grandpa Apothecary can clearly remember the day when this came out about 7 years back and started causing an uproar. The Swedes in Terra Tenebrosa are difficult to classify, but getting down to the nitty gritty, their bizarre sound is essentially a combination of black metal, sludge, industrial music, and dark ambient. Headed by a mysterious individual who goes only by "The Cuckoo," The Tunnels is something akin to the nightmares of Salvador Dali. https://tinyurl.com/ydhj2ymy

This was the first album I ever heard that really told me that black metal in the 2010s was going to take a significant turn for the experimental and the unorthodox. I still think it's their best, on Kosmonument the riffing is just tighter and more memorable, the electronic effects are more mindbending, and the bass lines are just fatter and more spacious than anywhere else in the band's discography. A highlight for black metal for this decade, without question. http://tinyurl.com/y9jcvrcy

Harm's Way were a band that really helped me get more into hardcore, via their hard hitting fusion of the genre with delicious, pummeling sludge undercurrents. The result is nothing short of energetic, powerful, and savage. Beware: this one is a banger. https://tinyurl.com/ycvm8sy5

There are few bands I can think of in the metal spectrum who are as all around fun as Virus are. Incredibly bouncy, catchy, and almost danceable at points, this bizarre slice of dissonant, Avantgarde metal with subtle shades of black and doom metal influence is one of their absolute best. https://tinyurl.com/y83hh95g

Every year seems to have a small handful of albums that really seem to pop out of nowhere, but just leave your mouth wide open and watering with how spectacular they are. For 2012 this debut from Hail Spirit Noir was probably the prime example. Emerging from the hidden regions of Greece, this band's inaugural album is a fun carnival ride through trippy space rock soundscapes and a bouncy, almost playful black metal edge. One of the rare releases that never gets boring no matter how many times you play it. http://tinyurl.com/y7j4tjmb

I remember this album really took a lot of people by surprise in 2013. Though some may have known the band earlier from their debut, I don't think even those who did were expecting them to improve so drastically with this sophomore effort. Amazing melodies, phenomenal drumming, and a delicious, ensnaring Eastern aesthetic helped to make this one of the standout black metal releases of the year, and probably of the 2010s as a whole. http://tinyurl.com/qay687w