Best of 2016

[Godflesh]

There were so many good releases that I could not make a top 10 list, this year either. When I started looking back, I soon decided to make a playlist for all weeks of the year instead, because it would do injustice to other great albums to leave them unnoticed. So I picked a top 50 of LPs + top 10 EPs/singles. Even then there are many great releases left out.

It is so difficult to put the records in any order inside the top 10, or on the next dozens, that I was thinking of leaving even the number 1 record of 2016 undecided. However, whilst listening to whole 2016 once more through to get the categories in some order, the number 1 album of the year once again convinced me by these:
- the amount of sheer passion and beauty
- the complete and total lack of filler in the course of near 70 minutes (pay attention 'Tallica!)
- the craftmanship required to make all those 15-minute songs work without filler and hold the listener's attention and keep the dramatic structure intact and progressing. The album became much more than should be possible to make from the predefined building blocks.
- the number of layers on the album, I wonder how long this record keeps unfolding
- the number of goosebumps still induced when I play it
Thus there can be only one:

- - Moonsorrow: Jumalten Aika - -


ALBUMS 1-10
- Blood Incantation: Starspawn
- Borknagar: Winter Thrice
- Khemmis: Hunted
- Mizmor: Yodh
- Moonsorrow: Jumalten Aika
- Oranssi Pazuzu: Värähtelijä
- Spiritus Mortis: The Year Is One
- Thy Catafalque: Meta
- Vektor: Terminal Redux
- Witherscape: The Northern Sanctuary


11-20
- Abbath: Abbath
- Brant Bjork: Tao of the Devil
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Skeleton Tree
- Church Of Misery: And Then There Were None...
- Djevel: Norske Ritualer
- Insomnium: Winter's Gate
- Neurosis: Fires Within Fires
- Radiohead: A Moon Shaped Pool
- Saor: Guardians
- SubRosa: For This We Fought the Battle of Ages

21-30
- Anagnorisis: Peripeteia
- Ihsahn: Arktis
- Krypts: Remnants of Expansion
- Negură Bunget: ZI
- Opeth. Sorceress
- Setentia: Darkness Transcend
- Uada: Devoid of Light
- Vainaja: Verenvalaja
- Viikate: XII - Kouvostomolli
- Woven Hand: Star Treatment

31-40
- Asphyx: Incoming Death
- Kate Bush: Before the Dawn (live box set)
- Cult Of Luna & Julie Christmas: Mariner
- Death Angel: The Evil Divide
- Grey Aura: Waerachtighe Beschryvinghe Van Drie Seylagien, Ter Werelt Noyt Soo Vreemt Ghehoort
- Lasten Hautausmaa: II
- Mouth Of The Architect: Path of Eight
- Perturbator: The Uncanny Valley
- Ulcerate: Shrines of Paralysis
- Urfaust: Empty Space Meditation

41-50
- Astronoid: Air
- Baby Woodrose: Freedom
- Darkthrone: Arctic Thunder
- Grand Magus: Sword Songs
- Rïcïnn: Lïan
- Rotting Christ: Rituals
- Scum: Garden of Shadows- Steve 'n' Seagulls: Brothers in Farms
- Sumac: What One Becomes
- Thrawsunblat: Metachtonia
- Ulver: ATGCLVLSSCAP

TOP 10 EPs & SINGLES (these should not go unnoticed outside the top album list)
- Almyrkvi: Pupil of the Searing Maelstrom -EP
- Candlemass: Death Thy Lover -EP
- Grave Pleasures: Funeral Party -EP
- Hellacopters: My Mephistophelean Creed -Single
- Horrendous: Sentenced -Single
- Melvins: War Pussy -EP
- Monolord: Lord of Suffering / Die in Haze -EP
- Pallbearer: Fear and Fury -EP
- Sepulchral Curse: At the Onset of Extinction -EP
- SubRosa: Key of the Eidolon -Single

10 BIGGEST POSITIVE SURPRISES (outside the top lists):
- Anthrax: For All Kings
- Blood Ceremony: Lord of Misrule
- Gatecreeper: Sonoran Deprivation
- Graves At Sea: The Curse That Is
- Madder Mortem: Red in Tooth and Claw
- Megadeth: Dystopia
- Metallica: Hardwired... To Self-Destruct
- Suicidal Tendencies: World Gone Mad
- Vinum Sabbatum: Apparitions
- Withered: Grief Relic


10 DISAPPOINTMENTS / LETDOWNS
(I mean, these are not bad albums. Most are still good and I enjoy listening to them too, but they should've been better to meet the potential and expectations, and they should have kept the album quality consistent throughout the whole album. I could throw on any of them, like the new AA/Blues Pills/Opeth any day and enjoy them with a smile, but by their own standards they could be and should be more. The stellar disappointments were not bought and I have done my best to forget about those, except the blindly bought 40 Watt Sun, from which I somehow cannot find anything that gives me pleasure. These are the enjoyable slight letdowns from my own shelf):

- 40 Watt Sun: Wider Than the Sky
- Amon Amarth: Jomsviking
- Blues Pills: Lady in Gold
- Bölzer: Hero
- Crippled Black Phoenix: Bronze
- Gorguts: Pleiades' Dust -EP
- Lord Vicar: Gates of Flesh
- Melvins: Basses Loaded (I expected more of the concept with 6 different bassists)
- Opeth: Sorceress (had promise and potential for more from a fanboy point of view, but it still made my top 30, so it's a great album nonetheless - I have a feeling this is a transitional album between the great Pale Communion and the next album on which they perfect this next transition)
- Witchcraft: Nucleus

[perennial_quest]

Awesome list man!
I wish I had more time to do this, but every year I end up with such a long playlist to listen to, I generally give up halfway through. I feel like I can't do a fair review until I have lived with those records for a few years. Well anyway, looking at the stuff I bought and released in 2016, here's a few in alphabetical order:

Cadaveric Fumes: Dimensions Obscure EP
I enjoyed the hell out of this EP. Old school thrash with a progressive edge. The first few EPs were more standard fare but this one looks like promising direction for the band.

Forteresse: Thèmes pour la rébellion
They took a more melodic and faster approach since the Légendes split EP and I quite like it. I wasn't much a fan of the band before, but this one is solid. It doesn't cover new
ground, it's just a well made and performed black metal album.

Gevurah: Hallelujah!
Montréal black metal band sounding very European in approach, very different from the rest of the Québec scene imo. Lots of cues from DSO and other French bands.

Grey Aura: Waerachtighe Beschryvinghe Van Drie Seylagien, Ter Werelt Noyt Soo Vreemt Ghehoort
A damn solid black metal album. Perhaps its own fault is that it is too ambitious for a debut? It just too damn long and I rarely have the time to listen to it as a whole. Still, a great effort.

Hammers of Misfoturne: Dead Revolution
Back with an album closer in style to Locust Years. In no way near the masterpiece of August Engine, but much better than the disappointing 17 Streets.

Heaven's Cry: Outcast
I'm quite new to the band, having discovered them only a few weeks ago. Excellent prog metal, kind of a cross between old Dream Theater without the pyrotechnics (similar sound but more song oriented, without flashy solos), a much heavier Pain of Salvaltion, and a bit of early 90's Voïvod thrown in.

Howls of Ebb: Cursus Impasse:The Pendlomic Vows
Absolutely stunning and inventive black/death metal with an old school sound.

King Crimson: Radical Action (To Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind)
The new 7-piece band (with 3 drummers at the front of the stage) performing rearrangements of old classics from almost every album, and new material as well. They even played In the Court of the Crimson King! I never thought in a million years they would play that again. Last time was 1972 maybe?

Moonsorrow: Jumalten Aika
What can I say? Another solid album. They are one of those band that rarely disappoints, a bit like Enslaved.

Rïcïnn: Lïan
I never thought I would enjoy this one that much. It's hard to define the sound on this one. Avantgarde/prog crossed with a post-rock/doom aesthetic? Electronic music influence is there but kept to a bare minimum. A make or break thing for me (some of you may know that I'm allergic to synth music). Her best performance for me is Orpheus. Her vocal range is simply stunning.

Setentia: Darkness Transcends
A complex album that needs a few spins to show its colors. Highly varied stuff here, it touches about every death metal subgenres there is without sounding incoherent. I've seen many comparisons with Ulcerate, and I honestly don't see the link between the two other than being from the same country. Setentia are much more varied, they toy with fast vs. slow tempos, dissonance vs. melodic, ambient vs. heavy parts. Very promising band.

Stangala: Klañv
Stoner/Doom with celtic influences, sung entirely in Breton. I wasn't much a fan of the debut (too derivative of Sabbath!) but this one adds a lot of other styles to their sound. Just listen to opener Bigoudened An Diaoul, a song that was on the debut but is completely transformed here. They switch style every minute, from stoner to jazz to doom to extreme metal, yet it all sounds coherent.

Vektor: Terminal Redux
Simply the best they ever made, and the previous two were awesome re-writings of the thrash bible. I really wonder what the next one will sound like since the whole band imploded...

Voïvod: Post Society EP
Proving that their return to progressive thrash was no fluke, they put out their best material in years. It's definitely up there with the holy trinity (Killing Technology, Dimension Hätross, Nothingface). They couldn't have picked a better replacement for Piggy than Daniel Mongrain. Can't wait for the new album.

Virvum: Illuminance
This one kinda reminds me of Irreversible Mechanism but with less Neo-Classical influence. A solid tech death album.

Zhrine: Unortheta
Simply the best death/black album this year imo.



DISAPPOINTMENTS:
Ihsahn: Arktis.
I'm afraid I prefer the first 4 to the last 2. The first three songs are excellent, but the rest is hit or miss for me. Not a fan of his mellower songs, and especially not of the two synth-based songs.

Mare Cognitum: Lumineferous Aether
Not bad but I expected so much more after Phobos Monolith. It seems to be lacking solid riffs and focusing way too much on atmosphere. Only the fourth track reminds me of old MC.

Opeth: Sorceress
Even this fanboy wanted to make a good review, but after Pale Communion this could only be weaker I guess? Shit, I even enjoyed Heritage way more than this one. It's not even the pre-release tracks that I disliked (which everyone seemed to hate). It just kinda drags here and there for reasons I do not grasp yet. Maybe the order of the songs? (there's a definite low point halfway through). I really don't know. There's some potential here, but I just don't feel like listening to it again and again.

Witherscape: The Northern Sanctuary
I wanted to like this one so much. I loved the debut, yet I just can't get into this one. I have a hard time to explain why. Some really good songs, but some are really average and feel predictable. Too much mid-paced songs maybe? Too much softer parts? I just don't feel the urge to listen to this one, whereas the debut was in constant rotation.

[Blood Music]

Huge lists!! And glad to see some of my bands on them. I'm in pretty solid agreement with you guys about the disappointments, save Ihsahn's album which I thought was very good. But I think to enjoy it you have to drop Ihsahn being thought of as the prog metal master and be willing to accept some pop/heavy metal, as there are a few songs on there which are just bordering on radio metal. And I don't find anything wrong with that at all cause he does it really well. At the same time, I could see why it would rub some people the wrong way. But yeah, 40 Watt Sun, Gorguts, Bölzer, Mare Cognitum were all looked forward to and big let downs for me.

I still have a lot of 2016 recommendations to go back through.

[perennial_quest]

save Ihsahn's album which I thought was very good.  But I think to enjoy it you have to drop Ihsahn being thought of as the prog metal master and be willing to accept some pop/heavy metal, as there are a few songs on there which are just bordering on radio metal.  And I don't find anything wrong with that at all cause he does it really well.  At the same time, I could see why it would rub some people the wrong way.

Spot on. I think you may have found the reason why I'm not a huge fan of the album.

[Emplate]

I'm in pretty solid agreement with you guys about the disappointments, save Ihsahn's album which I thought was very good.  But I think to enjoy it you have to drop Ihsahn being thought of as the prog metal master and be willing to accept some pop/heavy metal, as there are a few songs on there which are just bordering on radio metal.  And I don't find anything wrong with that at all cause he does it really well.  At the same time, I could see why it would rub some people the wrong way.

Haven't bought it yet, but I remember enjoying one song in particular out of it which had really classic and cool sounding 80s heavy metal riffing.

[Godflesh]

I'm in pretty solid agreement with you guys about the disappointments, save Ihsahn's album which I thought was very good.  But I think to enjoy it you have to drop Ihsahn being thought of as the prog metal master and be willing to accept some pop/heavy metal, as there are a few songs on there which are just bordering on radio metal.  And I don't find anything wrong with that at all cause he does it really well.  At the same time, I could see why it would rub some people the wrong way.

Haven't bought it yet, but I remember enjoying one song in particular out of it which had really classic and cool sounding 80s heavy metal riffing.

If you are not bothered by Ihsahn having pop or heavy metal influences amidst the metal and prog, you should check it out. I didn't like the previous two albums at all, but I do enjoy this quite a lot. It's somewhat different from other albums I own, in a better way than the last two.

[Emplate]

I'm in pretty solid agreement with you guys about the disappointments, save Ihsahn's album which I thought was very good.  But I think to enjoy it you have to drop Ihsahn being thought of as the prog metal master and be willing to accept some pop/heavy metal, as there are a few songs on there which are just bordering on radio metal.  And I don't find anything wrong with that at all cause he does it really well.  At the same time, I could see why it would rub some people the wrong way.

Haven't bought it yet, but I remember enjoying one song in particular out of it which had really classic and cool sounding 80s heavy metal riffing.

If you are not bothered by Ihsahn having pop or heavy metal influences amidst the metal and prog, you should check it out. I didn't like the previous two albums at all, but I do enjoy this quite a lot. It's somewhat different from other albums I own, in a better way than the last two.

Yeah, I actually have listened to it a couple of times from Spotify and been quite intrigued by it. The last two were disappointments to me as well, I didn't even bother to buy Das Seelenbrechen after Eremita. This one has sounded much more interesting, though!

[purplepanda]

Might just be that I've listened to it more but I find I like Eremita more than Arktis
I regard them as being pretty similar sounding albums though

[RevolvingImages]

I think Arktis might be one of my favorite albums of the year. It's up there with The Adversary for me, and I love the way that Ihsahn has stretched his creativity while retaining the ability to write good songs. I also love the addition of Einar Solberg's vocals on some of the songs. Celestial Violence gives me chills every time.

[Slrfyr]

Great lists so far! Finally got around to do my own top 25.
Similarly to Godflesh (great idea!) I didn't order them except for the top three, which were pretty much straightforward for me.
I sorted the other brackets alphabetically.


1: World's End Girlfriend - LAST WALTZ (Virgin Babylon Records)
2: Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä (Svart Records)
3: Swans - The Glowing Man (Young God Records)

4-10:
Alcest - Kodama (Prophecy)
Aluk Todolo - Voix (NoEvDia)
Cultes des Ghoules - Coven, Or Evil Ways Instead Of Love (Under the Sign of Garazel Productions)
Earth and Pillars - Pillars I (Avantgarde Music)
Grey Aura - album with the long title (Blood Music)
Jambinai - A Hermitage (隱棲은서) (Bella Union)
Karg - Weltenasche (Art of Propaganda)

11-20:
2814 - Rain Temple (Dream Catalogue)
Aevangelist/Blut aus Nord - Codex Obscura Nomina (Debemur Morti)
Cicada - Farewell (flau records)
Mesarthim - morse code album (Avantgarde Music)
Mizmor - Yodh (Gilead Media)
Mono - Requiem For Hell (Pelagic Records)
Occams Laser - Purgatory (Kill All Music)
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley (Blood Music)
Riciin - Lian (Blood Music)
SubRosa - For This We Fought The Battle Of Ages (Profound Lore records)

21-25:
Babymetal - Metal Resistance (Toy's Factory/Amuse/BMD Fox records)
Deathspell Omega - The Synarchy of Molten Bones (NoEvDia)
Harakiri For The Sky - III: Trauma (Art of Propaganda)
Hexvessel - When We Are Death (Century Media)
Kikagaku Moyo - The House in the Tall Grass (Guruguru Brain)


Note: the Dynatron EP is waiting for me at home, I expect it to earn a place in this list somewhere