Rolling Metal 2019

Revolver Magazine
Top 25 Albums of 2019

25. Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race
24. Wicca Phase Springs Eternal - Suffer On
23. The Devil Wears Prada - The Act
22. SeeYouSpaceCowboy - The Correlation Between Entrance and Exit Wounds
21. 3TEETH - Metawar
20. Ithaca - The Language of Injury
19. Fury - Failed Entertainment
18. Angel Du$t - Pretty Buff
17. Venom Prison - Samsara
16. Une Misère - Sermon
15. Korn - The Nothing
14. Russian Circles - Blood Year
13. Chelsea Wolfe - Birth of Violence
12. Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes - End of Suffering
11. Jinjer - Macro
10. Rammstein - Rammstein
9. Spirit Adrift - Divided by Darkness
8. Brutus - Nest
7. Devil Master - Satan Spits on Children of Light
6. Killswitch Engage - Atonement
5. Baroness - Gold & Grey
4. Knocked Loose - A Different Shade of Blue
3. Gatecreeper - Deserted
2. Slipknot — We Are Not Your Kind
1. Tool - Fear Inoculum

https://www.revolvermag.com/music/25-best-albums-2019

There is some bad, bad music on that list.

Rammstein and Chelsea Wolfe are the only ones that look remotely appealing, although I have to say I'm intrigued by a band named Une Misère.

Oh and Devil Master is supposedly good.

Devil Master are fun as fuck

Way upfront for High on Fire, if me or my ears die tell everyone I loved Cloud Rat

Oh lord man. Good luck hearing for a week lol.

Regarding that Revolver list, I am baffled why that Jinjer thing is so popular these days. They are stupefyingly awful.

I saw a Jinjer shirt at the show tonight and wondered wtf that was

Maybe it was the venue's sound but I wasn't feeling that HoF set; I left early :/

Could be. HoF are one of my fav live bands, but when I saw them at Psycho Las Vegas, the sound was so terrible it muted their raw power.

Sometimes you just aren't in the mood for a show too. Happens to me now and then.

Love that 'oh shit we need to put Blood Incantation on the list or people will think we're squares' move.

I like that Jinjer record pretty well. I'm not sure it would be top-25 for me, but it's easily my favorite thing on the Revolver list, which I suppose is consistent with the idea that it doesn't belong there.

That Revolver list is full of WTF, but cool to see Russian Circles making an appearance. Also kinda surprised to see Brutus up so high on it.

Well, scored algorithmically according to my listening data, Jinjer is in a 19-way tie for my #213 metal album of the year.

Wow was there a lot of good metal this year. I no longer even pretend to keep it all in my head. That's what we have computers for. They report that this is what it has been like for me (so far):

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0wc2cDNOwLQUtQdKCngupo?si=2PCR5rGGS3eRBlRtt-DdTg

Listening to the Cattle Decap and it's not quite what I expected. So far, their 'tenor' got a few lols out of me (not a good sign) and if anything I'd rather the songwriting were grindier overall.

Full of Hell's sound is really bad tonight. I've seen them before and they usually sound better

Just...mush

Atheist was AWESOME. If you love their first two albums...go.

"Piece of Time" was the last song and it ruled. I am so sore.

oh my god

Cattle Decapitation up soon

PopMatters Best of 2019 list:

20. Copperhead - Gazing in the Dark
19. Drastus - La Croix de Sang
18. Ossuarium - Living Tomb
17. Have a Nice Life - Sea of Worry
16. Dawn Ray'd - Behold Sedition Plainsong
15. Yellow Eyes - Rare Field Calling
14. Necropanther - The Doomed City
13. Vimur - Triumphant Master of Fates
12. PH - Osiris Hayden
11. Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race
10. Lord Mantis - Universal Death Church
9. Immortal Bird - Thrive on Neglect
8. Exhorder - Mourn The Southern Skies
7. Esoteric - A Pyrrhic Existence
6. Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairvoyance
5. Baroness - Grey and Gold
4. Inter Arma - English Sulphur
3. Sunn O))) - Life Metal/Pyroclasts
2. BIG|BRAVE - A Gaze Among Them
1. Waste of Space Orchestra - Syntheosis

I like the #1 choice and a few others, but this is otherwise a typical twitter hive mind top 20: heavy on black metal (sorry, when I see black metal titles these days I dibs out instantly), ignorant of every metal subgenre that emphasizes melody save for that mediocre Baroness album as a token selection.

Good list, all things considered.

9. Immortal Bird - Thrive on Neglect

fuck, i completely missed that this record came out

I live the top 6 records for sure, nice to see some love for the BIG|BRAVE record and I think I'm one of the few people that really loves that Baroness record.

I like the Baroness (it's not as good as Yellow & Green but it's better than Purple) and love both Sunn O))) titles, but otherwise that list has nothing to do with my experience of metal in 2019.

I strongly disliked the Baroness and didn't get much out of Pyroclasts but Life Metal will be in my top 50, alongside Blood Incantation, Esoteric, Tomb Mold, Inter Arma, BIG|BRAVE and Waste of Space Orchestra. Maybe Drastus as well.

I definitely have nothing bad to say about Big Brave and Immortal Bird. Two tremendous bands! And 2019 was a great year for death metal.

I've been surprised to see Immortal Bird on so few lists (so far)

I remember really liking that Yellow Eyes record too, should revisit

Wish I could get into Dawn Ray'd cause their politics are great but they leave me cold for some reason

If you're looking for straight-up antifascist black metal, I recall the Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze record being pretty good.

::thumbs-up::

2019 metal releases I liked enough to buy on Bandcamp that will not show up on any year-end lists:

Beastwars, IV
Brand of Sacrifice, God Hand
Catatonic Effigy, Putrid Tendency
Cemican, In Ohtli Teoyohtica In Miquiztli
Decomposition of Entrails, Abnormality
Epicardiectomy, Grotesque Monument of Paraperversive Transfixion
Facelift Deformation, Cybernetic Organism Atrocities
Takafumi Matsubara, Strange, Beautiful and Fast
Organectomy, Existential Disconnect
Retortion Terror, s/t
Smoulder, Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring
Splattered, Carnivortex
Tyrannotophia, Distant

had to look up a couple of those to make sure you hadn't snuck any fakes in

Intriguing. I'll have to check those out.

Pay special attention to Catatonic Effigy. Despite the band and album name, they're extremely avant-garde. Colin Marston's on bass.

Noted, thanks.

Likewise I doubt many of these will pop up on the usual lists but I might be wrong:

Abyssic - High the Memory
Akrotheism - The Law of Seven Deaths
Asphodelus - Stygian Dreams
Desecresy - Towards Nebulae
Herxheim - Cultivating Throne of Fur
HWWAUOCH - Into the Labyrinth of Consciousness
Ignivomous - Hieroglossia
Imperial Cult - Spasm of Light
Kvelgeyst - Alkahest
Nifrost - Blykrone
Omination - The New Golgotha Repvbliq
Ossuaire - Derniers chants
Panzerfaust - The Suns of Perdition - Chapter I: War, Horrid War
Ringarë - Under Pale Moon
Sinners Bleed - Absolution
Troll - Legend Master
Unaussprechlichen Kulten - Teufelsbücher
Veiled - In Blinding Presence

I liked that Ignivomous record.

There's a new Kvelertak song w/ their new vocalist. It's mysteriously overlong but it's nice to have the Ballou production back.

So apparently the drummer from Phish is a huge Cattle Decapitation fan and delivers a spoken monologue on their new album. I never liked them anyway, but a Phish affiliation is just a bridge too far, sorry.

I thought they were strict vegans

Damn, I feel for them:

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/full-of-hells-gear-whole-van-stolen-on-cattle-decapitation-tour/

Btw unperson that Catatonic Effigy album is very good indeed, although I'm generally less enthused by instrumental metal for reasons that I've yet to fathom.

I have to say I'm intrigued by a band named Une Misère.

― Siegbran

I've now listened to this record a few times, it turned out to be metalcore (so much for the intrigueing band name!), but it's...really good! From Iceland of all places.

Old news (but new to me) but consider me off the Absu train:

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/absu-member-says-i-lost-my-band-when-i-came-out-to-them/

god bless melissa <3

That ones new to me too, such a shame.

I love the thought of Jon Fishman on a Cattle Decapitation record, my copy doesn't get here until Wednesday to hear for myself. It's hilarious to see that a member of Phish now has his own page on Metal Archives.

I thought they were strict vegans

I lolled.

Anyone doing a 2019 metal poll?

I hope so.

As advertised, there's some good stuff on this list:

https://www.nocleansinging.com/2019/12/03/2019-a-year-in-reviews-the-good/

Its poorer cousin:

https://www.nocleansinging.com/2019/12/02/2019-a-year-in-reviews-the-disappointing/

(The 'great' is yet to come.)

Found this utterly delightful

http://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/witchbones-the-seas-of-draugen