Every year, I hear less and less albums, and I barely cracked the 30 mark this year. As such, I missed out on a lot of albums and am still playing catch up. Regardless, I enjoyed most of the new releases over the past year, and there really was only one album I didn’t enjoy (which was the new Asphyx). My top 15 picks, in alphabetical order are:
Altered Dead – Returned to Life (Death metal from Victoria, BC)
Anatomia – Corporeal Torment (Death/doom from Japan)
Antichrist Siege Machine – Purifying Blade (War metal from Richmond, VA)
Bootlicker – s/t (Hardcore punk from Vancouver, BC)
Decrepisy – Emetic Communion (Death metal from Portland, OR)
Dream Unending – Tide Turns Eternal (Death/doom from Toronto, ON/Boston, MA)
Excruciating Pain – s/t (Grindcore from Vancouver, BC)
Fossilization – He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten (Death metal from Brazil)
Languid – A Paranoid Wretch in Society’s Games (D-beat from Edmonton, AB)
Mortiferum – Preserved in Torment (Death/doom from Seattle, WA)
Outre-Tombe – Abysse Mortifere (Death metal from Quebec City, QC)
Phrenelith – Chimaera (Death metal from Denmark)
Sijjin – Summerian Promises (Death metal from Germany)
Steel Bearing Hand – Slay in Hell (Death/thrash from Dallas, TX)
Worm – Foreverglade (Death/doom from Florida)
Death metal, and especially death/doom seemed to be strong this year. This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who knows what I like. I should make special note that the Languid LP is a very bias choice since I engineered it, but I actually enjoy listening to it quite a lot, and am very proud of the sound I was able to get out of that band. There are some other great releases on Dark Descent Records (who did the Anatomia album) I enjoyed such as Grave Miasma, Craven Idol, and Malignant Altar, but I just haven’t given many listens to the latter since it came out late in the year. The drummer of one of my bands, Azath, also put out an incredible technical death metal record with Aenigmatum. There were a couple compilations that I loved too, including Vancouver post-punks Spectres non-album material and a demo comp of Infestation, the former band of former Cryptopsy vocalist Mike DiSalvo.