Best of 2019

AHOY! It’s AOTY time! 🎶🏆

It’s the last year of the decade. Ever since I started this blog of mine (circa 2015), I’ve been doing a ‘Best of’ list of my favorite heavy music albums released in the calendar year. If you’re curious to see the last years’ lists, then why don’t you take a gander here. Thanks to the digital proliferation of music, more so underground music, it’s never been easier to consume music. Almost all underground labels have released music on Bandcamp and it is, to date, my preferred destination for music discovery.

2019 has been an excellent year for music listening. For me, personally, romping heavy metal from Canada has ruled the roost. Bands like Riot City, Traveler and Smoulder started 2019 strong with their debut albums. On the more extreme side of the spectrum, Dark Descent records has had an exceptionally stellar year with its releases. My criteria for making these lists is replay-value and my own inclination to certain sub-genres. Without further ado, here they are!

Oath of Cruelty’s debut album (even though the band has existed since 2010) was released earlier this month on Dark Descent and it snuck into my AOTY list last minute. Summary Execution at Dawn is a hard hitting death/thrash album. If the mighty Angelcorpse did death/thrash, it would sound like Oath of Cruelty. Or another way of describing them would be if Demolition Hammer had a “war metal” vocalist, then Oath of Cruelty would be it. This influence can be also derived from the fact that most of the members are also part of Blaspherian, a black/death metal band. If I had more time with this record, it would’ve probably been featured higher up the ranking.

Here’s another Dark Descent release! Krypts are Finnish death/doomsters who have gained prominence in the past decade. They are known for their extremely consistent brand of doom-laden death metal. Cadaver Circulation proves just why Krypts are one of the best in this sub-genre. The album creates a suffocating atmosphere while surprisingly maintaining a fairly clear production. The album achieves a really good balance between the slow dreary sections and the more fast paced death-metal sections, all while keeping the listener interested during the 37+ minutes. The album also houses one of my favorite songs of recent time - The Reek of Loss.

Russ Tippins, the axewielder of Satan the cult NWOBHM band, is the primary force behind Tanith. If you aren’t aware of Satan’s glorious work, then you should leave the hall and educate yourself. Being a huge fan of Satan, I naturally had high expectations before listening to In Another Time. Suffice to say, I wasn’t disappointed to say the least. Tanith can be categorized as flirting the fence between traditional heavy metal and hard rock. Each song sounds like a journey. The song writing coupled with excellent guitar work make for quite a listening experience. The dual female and male vocals of Cindy and Russ also make it all the more interesting, as it is not that common in heavy metal music.

From the ashes of the defunct band Vorum, rises a phoenix in the form of Concrete Winds. Vorum burst onto the death metal scene in the 2010s and carved a name for themselves. The band members return with another moniker called Concrete Winds and Primitive Force is their debut album. It’s aggressive, lo-fi, dissonant, mind-numbing and it’s the equivalent of you running into a wall of spikes. I enjoyed listening to Primitive Force many a time this year when I’ve wanted to block myself out from the world. It does the job satisfyingly well. If you fancy extreme subgenres like “war metal” or black/death, then Primitive Force is highly recommended.

We all knew that epic doom was in good hands when Crypt Sermon released their debut in 2013. The Ruins of Fading Light is the band’s sophomore effort. This is yet another Dark Descent release and the album’s announcement was met with great expectations from around the world. I can see why this album has already been featured in several AOTY listicles. The band carries on from where they left off. I do feel they’ve added more melody to their songs though. The choruses are catchier, the vocals seems to have improved even further and the riffs are well…rifftastic. The thematic elements of the biblical times shine right through with the song titles, lyrics and album art. Crypt Sermon have released a complete album for lack of a better word. Any fan of heavy or doom metal will latch onto this release easily!

Smoulder are a new traditional heavy/doom metal outfit from Canada and its fronted by Sarah from BangerTV. I strongly believe that if you listen to “good” music and acknowledge the pioneers of traditional heavy metal, the output as a musician/artist will yield great results. Smoulder is just that. They wear their influences on their sleeves. There is a strong fantasy element in the lyrical themes and the musicianship on the record is exemplary. Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring is a perfect homage to 80s traditional heavy metal and epic doom. This isn’t a rehash of the subgenre though. The band is original in its sound and Sarah’s soaring vocals fit perfectly in the mix. The album only gets better every time you re-listen to it and that’s a super commendable quality of the song writing!

After their debut release, Starspawn, Blood Incantation have become the poster child of death metal in the underground. Seamlessly mixing OSDM and technical death metal (not the modern kind), Blood Incantation were strong contenders to make it to AOTY list even before the release of this year’s Hidden History of the Human Race. The band meets the hype with ease though. It’s astounding how this quartet from Denver, Colorado, have achieved with this album. They love aliens, conspiracy theories and anything related to the cosmos. To accompany that theme, the album manages to create an atmosphere which is dark and psychedelic, and through it, complex yet catchy riffs pierce right through! The album makes Blood Incantation arguably the most sought after death metal band on the planet.

When I first came across Vultures Vengeance, my first thought was “Where’s the comma, man?!”. But that pet-peeve aside, The Knightlore is a heavy/progressive metal masterpiece. The band hails from Italy and they draw influences from the early USPM scene and bands like Manilla Road, Cirith Ungol and Dark Quarterer. The songs are winding and are wonderfully composed. Critics may feel that the slightly drowned out production takes away from songs but I strongly feel it enhances the listening experience. It makes it seem like the album was in a time capsule from 1983 and was dug up recently. I rate this album really highly as the replayability is extremely high, the moment it clicks with you. The band is definitely going places if they continue in this manner!

Traveler are another young heavy metal upstart from the burgeoning Canadian scene. Their debut album came out in February this year and it has been one of my most played albums back-to-front. I was more familiar with Jean-Pierre’s (the vocalist) other band, Gatekeeper, which is another accomplished heavy metal band. What Traveler brings to the table is no-frills heavy metal. The quality on each of the songs is top-notch and can be heralded as heavy metal anthems in their own right. While there may be more technically proficient heavy metal records out there, Traveler gets the balance right. Another attribute of the album is Jean-Pierre’s vocals. He has terrific range which makes the album all the more enjoyable. Traveler’s debut is easily my favorite heavy metal album in recent years. Get in!

The numero uno album for me this year is by this fairly new black metal outfit from Germany called Imha Tarikat. I was initially drawn to the beautiful artwork and took my chances with the seemingly lesser known band. If one was to describe Kara Ihlas, I would say that it sounds like a ballsy-er Mgła with lesser predicatability while retaining that black metal atmospheric sound. The sweeping guitars and the tremolo riffing are characteristics of the album. What I love about this album is that it’s melodic and fierce in equal measure. The vocals will remind you of Okoi’s from Bölzer and by that I mean they are angry, shouty and the echo effects, although used minimally, are tastefully done. The two man band deliver on all fronts and they make Kara Ihlas such a memorable listen for 2019 and beyond! At the risk of starting a controversy, in my humble opinion, this record truly blows Mgła out of the park and this is me making a statement as a huge Mgła fan.