ILX Metal n' Heavy Rock Poll 2018: NOMINATIONS thread - open till Jan. 19th, 2019!

Hamferð - Támsins likam

― pomenitul

i hope these guys become famous and bad so i can snidely refer to them as "hamtaro"

It came out in 2017 but given its impact this year, I'd also like to nominate:

Threatin - Breaking the World

I think it's pronounced 'hamferth'.

Or 'hamferd'. Any Faroese among us?

no, but wikipedia has some light to shed on it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eth

i'm not going to pronounce that letter as a "d" because it might be taken as offensive

i suppose i could do "hamfart", that would be sufficiently juvenile

Ferð is apparently cognate with the German Fahrt and the obsolete English word ferd, which means 'journey'/'voyage' and/or 'army'/'host'/'company'.

Wouldn't be surprised if the ham were cognate with home. So 'the company's trip back to the homeland' or some such.

Likely involves quite a few hamfarts tbf.

Frozen Crown - The Fallen King
HYVMINE - Earthquake
Obliteration, Cenotaph Obscure
Summoning, With Doom We Come
The Lion's Daughter, Future Cult

BTW, even though I got a shit-ton of metal promos this year, I didn't nominate any of those albums. Everything you see above is stuff I purchased on Bandcamp. I would be interested to know which nominated albums other people actually bought.

ASG - Survive Sunrise
awakebutstillinbed - what people call low self-esteem is really just seeing yourself the way that other people see you
Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want
Earthless - Black Heaven
Entropia - Vacuum
High On Fire - Electric Messiah
Sorcier des glaces - Sorcier des glaces
SUMAC - Love in Shadow
Sumac & Keiji Haino - Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous To Look At Face On
The Skull - The Endless Road Turns Dark
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, but I Can't Any Longer.
Turnstile - Time & Space

Tribulation - Down Below
Gorycz - Piach
Khanus - Flammarion
KEN Mode - Loved
Aura Noir - Aura Noire
Demonomancy - Poisoned Atonement
Lie in Ruins - Demise
Deszcz - III
Taphos - Come Ethereal Somberness
Golgothan Remains - Perverse Offerings to the Void
Lychgate - The Contagion in Nine Steps
Black Salvation - Uncertainty Is Bliss

I'm old-fashioned enough that I still like to own music. These were all purchased.

Acherontas - Faustian Ethos
Act of Impalement - Perdition Cult
Ails - The Unraveling
Archgoat - The Luciferian Crown
Ataraxy - Where All Hope Fades
The Crown - Cobra Speed Venom
Daemogog - Anagogic Imposition
Dark Buddha Rising - II
Deiquisitor - Downfall of the Apostates
Druid Lord - Grotesque Offerings
Genocide Pact - Order of Torment
Ghastly - Death Velour
Grafjammer - Schalm & Schabauw
Ilsa - Corpse Fortress
Immortal - Northern Chaos Gods
Lago - Sea of Duress
LLNN - Deads
Morgengrau - Blood Oracle
Mortuous - Through Wilderness
Moss Upon The Skull - In Vengeful Reverence
Nachash - Phantasmal Triunity
Pact - Enigmata
Pharaoh Overlord - Zero
Pink Mist - Pink Mist
Portal - ION
Rebel Wizard - Voluptuous Worship of Rapture and Response
Rites Of Thy Degringolade - The Blade Philosophical
Ritual Necromancy - Disinterred Horror
Scumpulse - Rotten
Sepulcher - Panoptic Horror
Serpents Lair - Perpetual Hunger
Sonic Poison - Combat Grind
Sulaco - The Prize
Urfaust - The Constellatory Practice
Usurpress - Interregnum
Voivod - The Wake
Wolvhammer - Monuments of Ash and Bone

Some quick campaigning:

Sonic Poison is from very late last year and is wonderfully septic death/grind that sounds very Repulsion-influenced. Someone needs to cram this and their Harsh Demonstration tapes onto disc.

The Scumpulse album is a catchy, melodic crust/black/death hybrid that might appeal to Carcass fans.

Grafjammer isn't anything new but if you like early Carpathian Forest or Darkthrone's punky/thrashy era it's worth it. Played with vehemence.

Nachash is really good black metal album, occulty but not tediously orthodox, great epic song structures and it doesn't feel like they only listen to black metal.

Atka - Untitled Album 1

Howling Sycamore - Howling Sycamore

Khemmis - Desolation

Judas Priest - Firepower

Here you go!

Ad Hominem - Napalm For All
Ævangelist - Matricide in the Temple of Omega
Alkaloid - Liquid Anatomy
All Souls - All Souls
American Nightmare - American Nightmare
Anomalie - Integra
Anvil - Pounding The Pavement
Arkona - Khram
At The Gates - To Drink From The Night Itself
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Author & Punisher - Beastland
Behemoth - I Loved You at your Darkest
Beyond Creation - Algorythm
Black Tusk - T.C.B.T.
Burn The Priest - Legion: XX
Cauldron - New Gods
Clamfight - III
Cloud Rat - Clipped Beaks // Silk Panic
Conan - Existential Void Guardian
Corrosion of Conformity - No Cross No Crown
Crippled Black Phoenix - Great Escape
Dead Alone - Serum
Deathwhite - For a Black Tomorrow
Deceased - Ghostly White
Devil Master - Manifestations
Dimmu Borgir - Oenian
Drudkh - They Often See Dreams About the Spring
Esben And The Witch - Nowhere
Exmortus - The Sound of Steel
Exxxekutioner - Death Sentence
Eye of Nix - Black Somnia
Frost Giant - The Harlot Star
Graveyard - Peace
Gygax - Second Edition
Haan - By the Grace of Blood and Guts
Hate Eternal - Upon Desolate Sands
Hellish - The Spectre of Lonely Souls
The HIRS Collective - Friends. Lovers. Favorites.
Horn - Retrograd
Hyborian - Hyborian, Vol. 1
Ihsahn - Ámr
ION - A Path Unknown
Isenordal - Spectral Embrace
Korpiklaani - Kulkija
Legend of the Seagullmen - Legend of the Seagullmen
Sarah Longfield - Disparity
Marduk - Viktoria
Melan Selas - Reon
Melvins - Pinkus Abortion Technician
Memoriam - The Silent Vigil
Mesarthim - The Density Parameter
Mirrors For Psychic Warfare - I See What I Became
Mob Terror - Superstimulus
Monster Magnet - Mindfucker
Nechochwen - The Ancient Pulse
New Ruins - New Ruins
Obscura - Diluvium
The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
Of Feather And Bone - Bestial Hymns of Perversion
Orange Goblin - The Wolf Bites Back
Outer Heaven - Realms of Eternal Decay
Parasite Inc. - Dead and Alive
Primordial - Exile Amongst the Ruins
Rauhnåcht - Unterm Gipfelthron
Rotting Christ - Their Greatest Spells
Sargeist - Unbound
Satan - Cruel Magic
Saxon - Thunderbolt
Sektarism - Fils de Dieu
Septic Tank - Rotting Civilisation
Sigh - Heir To Despair
Sinistro - Sangue Cássia
Skeletonwitch - Devouring Radiant Light
Skinless - Savagery
Slugdge - Esoteric Malacology
Spiders - Killer Machine
Spiral Skies - Blues For A Dying Planet
Stone Deaf - Royal Burnout
A Storm Of Light - Anthroscene
Sylvaine - Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone
Tad - Quick And Dirty
Tengger Cavalry - Cian Bi
Thou - Magus
Tile - Come on Home, Stranger
To End It All - Scourge of Woman
Trappist - Ancient Brewing Tactics
Uniform - The Long Walk
Unreqvited - Stars Wept to the Sea
Veiled - Black Celestial Orbs
Venom - Storm the Gates
Vitamin X - Age Of Paranoia
Vreid - Lifehunger
Vulcain - Vinyle
Wake - Misery Rites
Watain - Trident Wolf Eclipse
Witch Mountain - Witch Mountain
Witching - Witching
Witchsorrow - Hexenhammer
Wrong - Feel Great
Würm - Exhumed
Ygfan - Hamvakból…
Zeke - Hellbender

Closer - All This Will Be
Senyawa - Sujud
Gouge Away - Burnt Sugar
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Gnaw Their Tongues - Genocidal Majesty
Daughters - You Won’t Get What You Want
Andrew W.K. - You’re Not Alone

I'm just now listening to new Sunwatchers; I might have to nominate this one as well

Gorod - Æthra

Pig Destroyer - Head Cage

I didn't make a list this year but I'll be sure to play the home game. I will say however that this little album I only discovered the other day thanks to another forum's roundup is brilliant enough for me to sneak in here and nominate. A whacked out reimagining of Aspera Hiems Symfonia with a dead ringer for Aldrahn on vox. Apparently they've been around for a while, on Nordvis no less (owner is the aforementioned dead ringer, I think), so I dunno how I'd missed them.

https://stillaswe.bandcamp.com/album/synviljor

Stilla - Synviljor

Actually there's a lot more to that Stilla than I suggested -- it's got some DHG/Moonfog elements, some Blaze in the Northern Sky guitar dirge howling, and a generally weird ambience that makes me think of Hordanes Land. But it's Swedish!

oh wow didn't even know there was a new Stilla this year! Thanks.

Serpent Column - Invicta

wow, so many of mine are in already. only a few slipped through the cracks

Altars of Grief - Iris
Between the Buried and Me - Automata I and II
Bonjour Tristesse - Your Ultimate Urban Nightmare
Chrch - Light Will Consume Us All
Dautha - Brethren of the Black Soil
Eigenlicht - Self-Annihilating Consciousness
Eneferens - The Bleakness of our Constant
Harms Way - Posthuman
High Tension - Purge
Huntsmen - American Scrap
Kalmah - Palo
Mammoth Grinder - Cosmic Crypt
MØL - Jord
Respire - Denouement
Ultha - The Inextricable Wandering
Vein - Errorzone
Visigoth - Conqueror's Oath

I'm a bit disappointed neither you nor imago have tried to make the case for Tropical Fuck Storm yet tbrr

Anyways, a few more noms:

CB3 - From Nothing to Eternity
Dylan Carson - Conquistador
DMBQ - Keeenly

they're slightly too much not for this thread xp

yeah I'm not gonna do that. gonna work like hell to get them into the 77 tho

it is a done deal imo but yeah, think top 20

A Forest of Stars - Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes
Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa - Tales from Hydhradh
Altar of Perversion - Intra Naos
Basarabian Hills - Eerie Light of Fireflies
Benthik Zone - Causa modicum temporis spatium
BHL/Kallathon - Camino de Guerra
Dispirit - Enantiodromian Birth
Dunnock - Little Stories Told by Ghosts
Echtra -BardO
Ehnahre & Hadean - Rites for Winter
El Efecto - Memórias do fogo
Esoctrilihum - Pandaemorthium (Forbidden Formulas to Awaken the Blind Sovereigns of Nothingness)
Estuarine - Sic Erat Scriptum
Faal - Desolate Grief
Geryon - Astomatous
Grave Upheaval - (untitled)
In the Woods... - Cease the Day
Inhumankind - Self-Extinction
Kły - Szczerzenie
Mahr - Antelux
Mamaleek - Out of Time

Marax - The Abyss of Illusions
Monolithe - Nebula Septem
Monotheist - Scourge
Nahtrunar - Mysterium Tremendum
Nishaiar - Igewanda
Nishaiar - Irix Zerius
Onirism - Falling Moon
Ophidian Forest - votIVe
Panegyrist - Hierurgy
Soldat Hans - es taut
Spectral Lore/Jute Gyte - Helian
Urarv - Argentum
Vihameditaatio - Demo I
Vihameditaatio - Demo II
Volahn/Xaxamantza - Gods of Pandemonium
Vouna - Vouna
Yhdarl - Loss

wow is that Sepulcher good!

1914 - The Blind Leading the Blind
Akitsa - Credo
Alrakis - Echoes from η Carinae
Amorphis - Queen of Time
Anachronism - Orogeny
Atavisma - The Chthonic Rituals
Avslut - Deceptis
The Beast of Nod - Vampira: Disciple of Chaos
Blood Red Fog - Thanatotic Supremacy
Cantique lépreux - Paysages polaires
Carpe Noctem - Vitrun
Cemetery Urn - Barbaric Retribution
Chaos Echœs - Mouvement
Cosmic Church - Täyttymys
Craft - White Noise and Black Metal
Cult of Occult - Anti Life
Cultes des Ghoules - Sinister, or Treading the Darker Paths
Death Fortress - Reign of the Unending
Décembre Noir - Autumn Kings
Entropy Created Consciousness - Impressions of the Morning Star
Fórn - Rites of Despair
Hissing - Permanent Destitution
Hyperdontia - Nexus of Teeth
Immortal Guardian - Age of Revolution
King Goat - Debt of Aeons
Krakow - Minus
Kroda - Selbstwelt
Lik - Carnage
Malsanctum - Malsanctum
Mortis Mutilati - The Stench of Death
Mylingar - Döda Drömmar
None - Life Has Gone On Long Enough
Nachtlieder - Lynx
Outre - Hollow Earth
Soliloquium - Contemplations
Spectral Wound - Infernal Decadence
Sunless Dawn - Timeweaver
Uada - Cult of a Dying Sun
Undersave - Sadistic Iterations​.​.​.​ Tales of Mental Rearrangement
Wiegedood - De Doden Hebben het Goed III

Here is this year's Decibel EOY list

40 Panopticon, The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness I and II, Bindrune
39 Hate Eternal, Upon Desolate Sands, Season of Mist
38 Cosmic Church, Tattymys, Self-released
37 KEN mode, Loved, Season of Mist
36 Monster Magnet, Mindfucker Napalm
35 Wake, Misery Rites, Translation Loss
34 Thou, Magus, Sacred Bones
33 Zeal and Ardor, Stranger Fruit, MVKA
32 Devouring Star, The Arteries of Heresy, Dark Descent
31 Corrosion of Conformity, No Cross No Crown, Nuclear Blast
30 Sepulcher, Panoptic Horror, Edged Circle Productions
29 Svalbard, It’s Hard To Have Hope, Translation Loss
28 Horrendous, Idol, Season of Mist
27 Abhorrence, Megalohydrothalassophobic, Svart
26 Visigoth, Conqueror’s Oath, Metal Blade
25 Mortuous, Through Wilderness, Tankcrimes
24 Portal, Ion, Profound Lore
23 Mournful Congregation, The Incubus of Karma, 20 Buck Spin
22 Sleep, The Sciences, Third Man
21 Funeral Mist, Hekatomb, Norma Evangelium Diaboli
20 Outer Heaven, Realms of Eternal Decay, Relapse
19 Varathron, Patriarchs of Evil, Agonia
18 The Atlas Moth, Coma Noir, Prosthetic
17 Tomb Mold, Manor of Infinite Forms, 20 Buck Spin
16 Satan, Cruel Magic, Metal Blade
15 Chapel of Disease, …And as We Have Seen the Storm, We Have Embraced the Eye, Ván
14 Deafheaven, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, Anti-
13 Voivod, The Wake, Century Media
12 Haunt, Burst Into Flames, Shadow Kingdom
11 At the Gates, To Drink from the Night Itself, Century Media
10 Pig Destroyer, Head Cage, Relapse
9 Khemmis, Desolation, 20 Buck Spin
8 Immortal, Northern Chaos Gods, Nuclear Blast
7 Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Wasteland, Rise Above
6 Skeletonwitch, Devouring Radiant Light, Prosthetic
5 Judas Priest, Firepower, Columbia
4 Evoken, Hypnagogia, Profound Lore
3 UADA, Cult of a Dying Sun, Eisenwald
2 Tribulation, Down Below, Century Media
1 YOB, Our Raw Heart, Relapse

Out of this only four albums have yet to be nominated: Devouring Star, Svalbard, Chapel of Disease, and Haunt

xxp right?! love that record, even the dude's crazy raspy voice

also might as well do this
Chapel of Disease, …And as We Have Seen the Storm, We Have Embraced the Eye
Caustic Vomit - Festering Odes to Deformity

I'll round it out:

Devouring Star - The Arteries of Heresy
Svalbard - It's Hard to Have Hope
Haunt - Burst Into Flames

One more:

Uncreation - Overwhelming Chaos

Un - Sentiment

Abigor - Höllenzwang (Chronicles of Perdition)
Abstracter - Cinereous Incarnate
Aeternus - Heathen
Assumption - Absconditus
Autarcie - Seqvania
Bloodbark - Bonebranches
Cân Bardd - Nature Stays Silent
Carpathian Forest - Likeim
Carved Cross - The Yawning Abyss of Perdition
ColdWorld - Nostalgia
Délétère - De Horae Leprae
Elderwind - The Colder The Night
Funeral Winds - Sinister Creed
Hellevaerder - Aan De Aarde Teruggegeven
Kalmankantaja - Tuulikannel
Krisiun - Scourge Of The Enthroned
Kwade Droes - De Duivel En Zijn Gore Oude Kankermoer
Make A Change...Kill Yourself - IV
Necrophobic - Mark Of The Necrogram
Nécropole - Solarité

Panphage - Jord
Progenie Terrestre Pura - StarCross
Raani - Henkikutsu
Sear Bliss - Letters From The Edge
Shining - X (Varg Utan Flock)
Sojourner - The Shadowed Road
Stortregn - Emptiness Fills The Void
Svrm - Лихиї вітри стогнуть без упину
Totalselfhatred - Solitude
Trna - Earthcult
Ulvegr - Vargcult
Witchfyre - Grimorium Verum
Yith - Immemorial

And these two from December 2017:

Eldamar - A Dark Forgotten Past
Evilfeast - Elegies Of The Stellar Wind

Pantheist - Seeking Infinity

Don't forget to add your nominations to the Spotify playlist! Don't be afraid to give it a listen as well! You never know what you might discover!

https://open.spotify.com/user/pfunkboy/playlist/0mWZOMQIfPnXb7wuSFQsr9?si=owPgNIFHS7-3Uelj2UlZ-w

Ohhms - Exist

All my nominations are on Bandcamp, except one:

https://gorycz.bandcamp.com/album/piach
https://khanus.bandcamp.com/album/flammarion
https://kenmodesom.bandcamp.com/album/loved
https://auranoir.bandcamp.com/album/aura-noire
https://demonomancy.bandcamp.com/album/poisoned-atonement
https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/demise
https://deszcz.bandcamp.com/album/iii
https://bloodharvestrecords.bandcamp.com/album/come-ethereal-somberness
https://golgothanremains.bandcamp.com/album/perverse-offerings-to-the-void
https://blood-music.bandcamp.com/album/the-contagion-in-nine-steps
https://blacksalvation.bandcamp.com/album/uncertainty-is-bliss
https://uncreationgods.bandcamp.com/releases

which would you recommend to listen to first?

I'm pretty sure jjj banned Peste Noire one year despite the fact he enjoyed the actual music.

To be clear on this, can we get nominations removed for anti-christianity or disproportionate violence in the lyrics?

I assume any extreme non-racist material is fine. Bands who openly oppose Islam would make for an interesting litmus test.

pomenitul 'making excuses' was an unkind reading of what you were saying, sorry about that. I didn't consider the angle you're taking as my attitude towards racists and anti-semites is without nuance or sympathy, they made the choice to be that way and I don't care about the why.

I've just made the personal choice to not to listen to certain bands on ideological grounds, while a) admitting I can only be less than pure in that regard and make exceptions if and when I want and b) leaving anyone else to draw their own lines. Incidentally I'd think Burzum was absolute dull dogshit on a musical level even he wasn't the way he is and I've never heard an avowedly leftist BM band that wasn't a bit poor. So it's not all about politics.

As far as the poll's concerned I think we can all parse the difference between OTT violence, cartoonish anti-christianity and actual racism/hate speech. I'm not clamouring for anything to be removed as again, anyone else can make their own decisions. But even if we combed through every nom and removed anything even slightly dodgy, this is a poll on an obscure music forum, it wouldn't be the thin end of the wedge.

pomenitul - i've thought a great deal about this myself. in the past i was in theory a "separate the artist from the art" kind of person but in practice i can't actually do this sort of thing. my personal guidelines is "no cadaver synods" - if someone's dead they get a free pass. when the artist no longer lives i can generally separate the artist from the art. having said that, however, i am so repulsed by florent schmitt that i am unable to do this in his case.

regarding anti-islamic music - thoughts on someone like abu lahab?

I'm not sure that I'll be seriously participating in the poll (I'll probably follow it, but doubt that I'll vote), so please discount my vote-to-ban yesterday accordingly. People who are more serious about the poll should have more say.

As far as anti-Islamic BM goes, I assume bands that come from Muslim-majority countries would be acceptable (Ayat, for instance). Jewish BM bands heavy on the anti-Judaic (but not antisemitic, obv.) rhetoric would probably be alright as well. Basically any theological contestation from within the community at large is fine, so Abu Lahab (which I wasn't familiar with btw, I'll have to check his stuff out) would be fine in my book. These are easy enough. But what about a European band like Taake? If your goal is to blaspheme against all monotheisms, where do you draw the line? (The 2007 Swastika scandal gave us a pretty good sense of where their allegiances lie, though Hoest argues that their entire shtick 'is built upon provocation and anything evil'.)

things were much easier in the old days with totally pished metal bands on lilos in swimming pools

when the average metalhead would be inspired "hey I could do that".

The discussions around Slayer back in the 80s were the same, it’s really nothing new. All the arguments back and forth are well-worn.

I personally don’t see the point of “extreme metal (but not too extreme)” but I’m not running this poll. I’ll just nominate and vote and if the results will be sanitized then so be it.

https://i.redd.it/5m36cu4m6mb21.jpg

save us seandalai

I've never heard an avowedly leftist BM band that wasn't a bit poor

ultros, your rym account is how I'd found out about that Sordide record from a couple years ago that I ended up really loving, so it's funny to hear you say this

This study is required reading then:
The Devil is Red: Socialist Satanism in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract:

During the nineteenth century, socialists all over the Western world employed Satan as a symbol of the workers’ emancipation from capitalist tyranny and the toppling of the Christian Church, which they perceived as a protector of this oppressive system. Starting with the English Romantics at the end of the eighteenth century, European radicals developed a discourse of symbolic Satanism, which was put to use by major names in socialism like Godwin, Proudhon, and Bakunin. This shock tactic became especially widespread in turn-of-the-century Sweden, and accordingly the article focuses on the many examples of explicit socialist Satanism in that country. They are contextualized by showing the parallels to, among other things, use of Lucifer as a positive symbol in the realm of alternative spirituality, specifically the Theosophical Society. A number of reasons for why Satan gained such popularity among socialists are suggested, and the sometimes blurry line separating the rhetoric of symbolic Satanism from actual religious writing is scrutinized.

xp lol blame my poor memory. Though to be fair it's been over 2 years since I last heard that album or even thought about it, and apparently I wasn't overly impressed anyway.

hey guys there's no excuse for "I missed the nominations" this time. If you have anything you want to add you're in luck

Can I still nominate Ascension - Under Ether - I didn't see it listed. Also Svartidauði - Revelations of the Red Sword is listed twice.

Also Cult Leader - A Patient Man and Pale Divine S/T, please.

Ugh - sorry - House of Atreus - From the Madness of Ixion , too, please?

Augury - Illusive Golden Age
Holy Grove - II
Dunbarrow - Dunbarrow II
Ulthar - Cosmovore
Psycroptic - As the Kingdom Drowns
Embrace of Thorns - Scorn Aesthetics
Mongrel's Cross - Psalter of the Royal Dragon Court
Deathhammer - Chained to Hell
Arsis - Visitant
Faustcoven - In the Shadow of Doom

added

Astronoid, yes.

Closet Witch - Closet Witch

if it's not too late

got it

I think voting might be able to start around friday/the weekend im not sure though.

Here's an aggregate EOY list, should it spark any last minute ideas:

http://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2019/01/25/metal-journalisms-top-30-albums-of-2018/

Metal coverage continues to fall further from the mainstream: Over the past two years of writing these articles I’ve focused on the trend of metal falling out of favor with bigger, more mainstream publications, especially print newspapers. In the past few years we’ve seen a major contraction in metal coverage – extensive or even cursory – over many websites and publications. Unfortunately this appears to be a trend with no real end in sight, and we can add yet another publication of note to the list who has dropped their coverage and didn’t even bother publishing a year-end list for 2018: UK’s The Guardian. Perhaps it seems strange now that such an institution ever covered metal in any serious way, but given that the New York Times still had a full-time music journalist covering metal up until a couple of years ago, it shouldn’t. It’s a shame that as metal has continued to grow and advance and, ironically, be more accepted in the mainstream as possibly ever, it’s becoming harder and harder to access high-quality writing and coverage on it. In that sense it’s no surprise that what remains feels like it lacks in diversity and curation beyond the biggest names from the biggest labels. In many ways metal journalism is fighting for its life, and for many reasons signs point towards it losing that fight.

So, when's the voting deadline?

It's almost certainly too late, but just in case:

Mansion - First Death of the Lutheran

only the drugs can tell us that, imago.

I've added it, is it imago's band?
Mansion - Attack of the Death Grey Lantern?

the og plan was to have voting end a week after big poll rollout but the delay there has put paid to that most likely as 2018 was so long ago now!

on the bright side there is no excuse for not having heard all the albums you want to now to top up what you heard the entire year since the noms started a month ago

rights the drugs family and I have consulted and it will be a 2 week voting period so the results rollout the monday after the big albums poll.

voting hopefully will start tonight or tomorrow

Nominations now CLOSED.

Voting will be live shortly

The 2018 ILX Metal n' Heavy Rock Poll VOTING + CAMPAIGNING thread! Ballots due Saturday, Feb. 2nd!