 |
1.
|
Trivium - In The Court Of The Dragon
AOTY. Best redemption arc since last year's Abigail Williams. Somehow they managed to fuse their all-too-patchy discography into a coherent style that outdoes every single ingredient. Boys and girls, this is heavy metal of the the 2020s. (10/10) |
 |
2.
|
Stortregn - Impermanence
Is it tech death infused meloblack oder meloblack infused tech death? Or even melodeath infused technical black? Does it prove the senselessness of sub-subgenres in general? Like a painting, it has a solid frame of two extraordinary songs and details over details in between. Go figure them out. (9.5/10) |
 |
3.
|
Massen - Contraesthetic
Imagine folky Meloblack, but of an unseen intensity where a single song has more ideas compressed than some other band's albums. Think of Marvel's Valkyrie playing E-An-Na's Jiana. In Belarus. In Belarusian. (9.5 / 10 simply for the drums) |
 |
4.
|
So Hideous - None But A Pure Heart Can Sing
Someone please fund Mirai Kawashima a decent studio and tell him Post-black is a thing. Let the battle begin. (9 / 10) |
 |
5.
|
Temperance - Diamanti
The one uplifting, poppy, ultra-melodic Power Metal revelation we deserved for making it two years into the pandemic. Compared to their previous works, this is in a league of its own. Besides the italian accents. ( 9/10) |
 |
6.
|
Kalmhain - Thanatos
Post-black surprises, the second. If this one was a movie, it would be Man of Steel meets live-action Invincible meets World War Z. Polished, dramatic, gory, over-the-top. And then there's the relieving, epic finale. God is in the rain. (8.5 / 10) |
 |
7.
|
First Fragment - Gloire Éternelle
If you, like me, consider tech death to be all about the fretless bass, here you are. This is fretless bass - the album. (8.5 / 10) |
 |
8.
|
Beast In Black - Dark Connection
Synths?! SYNTHS!!! Also, more synths. Admittedly Beast in The Black did the "more synths" thing back in the day when we called them keyboards, but managed to +1 them. (8.5 / 10) |
 |
9.
|
Night Crowned - Hädanfärd
Taking Meloblack to its limits again. Can we have more blasts? More melodies? More heaviness? More umlauts? Yes, yes, yes and yes. (8.5/10) |
 |
10.
|
Kanonenfieber - Menschenmühle
So a fellow countryman of mine listened to 1914 and thought "yeah, i can do THAT". Then he did. Blackened, doomy, historical samples and all. On par for sure, but there's the additional uncanny satisfaction in the german lyrics about "fat Bertha" "levelling the earth". (8.5/10) |
 |
11.
|
Leiþa - Sisyphus
So a fellow countryman of mine decided single-handly write a depressive post black album. Oh, and it's the same guy as above. [Anna from Frozen voice:] Wait, WHAT? (8/10) |
 |
12.
|
Wizardthrone - Hypercube Necrodimensions
Expanding the Gloryhammer legacy by dedicating an album to the villaneous wizards - how about yes? (8 / 10) |
 |
13.
|
Cân Bardd - Devoured By The Oak
A welcome counter-example of folk BM not clicking with me. Summoning: infinitely boring. Saor: weird, also boring. But this one is a beautiful work of a art, warm, epic, and with a decent production. (8/10) |
 |
14.
|
Act Of Denial - Negative
Croatian metal exists, we'll have to deal with the fact. Fronted by no one less than Björn "Soilwork" Strid and sounding like old school Soilwork done right, it might just be the product of a closed time loop. Enjoy it before it dissolves into a paradoxical singularity. (8/10) |
 |
15.
|
Grima - Rotten Garden
For those who wish atmo-black was not just extreme metal interwoven with aimless meandering. Also, it has owls, which makes it the best owl feature since that Cult of Luna album that is widely ignored. (8/10) |
 |
16.
|
Iron Maiden - Senjutsu
I don't mind the long song s. They might start writing only 20+ minutes songs, I wouldn't care. What bugs me are the fillers in the middle (the rats in the cellar, you know who you are!) and closing with the most frustrating Maiden song ever. The rest is still pretty good and everything TBOS was not. (7.5/10) |
 |
17.
|
Fluisteraars - Gegrepen Door De Geest Der Zielsontluiking
I don't know a word of dutch, but "Verscheuring In De Schemering" must be my favorite song title this year. Off-road BM. (7/10) |
 |
18.
|
Thulcandra - A Dying Wish
I must admit that I only listened to Storm of the Light's Bane this year. Being obviously conceived as a clone, is this one even close? No. Does it hit that special spot? Yes, somehow still. (6.5/10) |
 |
19.
|
Rage - Resurrection Day
I still haven't given up on this band that used to have a streak of creativity around the turn of the millenium. Nice to hear some decent orchestral stuff from them again, so this album is only here for two reasons: "Traveling Through Time" and the fact you should check out their old albums. (6/10) |
