Metal Reviews

For me:

1. The Ruins Of Beverast - Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite
2. Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II Dialogue with the Stars
3. Sun Of The Blind - Skullreader
4. Altar Of Plagues - White Tomb
5. Peste Noire - Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor

What's yours?

Off the top of my head.

1. Cobalt - Gin
2. Secrets Of The Moon - Priviligivm
3. Absentia Lunae - Historia Nobis Assentietvr
4. Den Saakaldte - All Hail Pessimism
5. Drudkh - Microcosm

Runners up are Ruins - Cauldron, Marduk - Wormwood, Shining - VI. Must listen to that Blut Aus Nord and Altar Of Plagues again. Must get around to listening to that Ruins Of Beverast.

Shit, all I've heard so far is Shining and Behemoth (the latter isn't really black metal, even). Must catch up.

So, top BM of 2009 you mean?

Klabautamann - Merkur
Altar of Plagues - White Tomb
Pensees Nocturnes - Vacuum
Oranssi Pazuzu - Muukalainen puhuu
Ruins of B. - Foulest Semen

Looking at that, it's been a good year for original and creative BM. I didn't even mention the Cobalt, Shining or Otargos (which is very nice, if super-orthodox bm thanks, Goat)

1. The Ruins Of Beverast - Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite
2. Altar of Plagues - White Tomb
3. Astral Luminous - Lunaric Tide
4. Carrion Wraith - Carrion Wraith
5. Panopticon - Collapse

A very good year for black metal, I agree.

Shining
Cobalt
Immortal
Saros
WITTR

No clue about the order. It's all really good. Maybe even Absu, Gorgoroth or Orannssi Pazuzu.

Krallice hasn't come out yet and it will be #1

Immortal
Vreid
Drudkh

IN that order. That's all I've heard. I still want to hear Oranssi Pazuzu and Klabautamann.

Peste Noire
Absu
Immortal
WITTR
Cobalt

New Marduk and Drudkh might get on there after a few more listens. And I agree with noodles that Krallice will probably make the black metal album of the year.

On my top five for sure:

Funeral Mist
Gorgoroth
Absu
altar of plagues

I'll have to listen to others more such as the Ornazzi Pazzuz(?) which was a really good album as well as the immortal

I need to listen to Panopticon's new album for sure.

It's pretty damn intense. I never thought black metal and bluegrass would go so well prior to this.

Immortal
Thy Catafalque
Wodensthrone
WITTR
Klabautamann

Regretfully I haven't heard a few of the albums you guys have listed. Getting to work on that.

New Tenebrae in Perpetuum is also pretty good!

The Stone - Umro (Not only is this the best BM album of the year, but my overall album of the year thus far)
WITTR - Black Cascade
Immortal - All Shall Fall
Cobalt - Gin (Thanks, Zad)

Umm...

Can't think of a 5th at the moment. I have some catching up to do in the new BM department.

Absu- Amy is such a badass song

Pensees Nocturnes - Vacuum
Cobalt - Gin
Peste Noire - Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor
<Code> - Resplendent Grotesque
Shining - VI

Solstafir, Pensees Nocturnes, Shining, Klabautamann, Culted, Oranssi Pazuzu.

But I must relisten them a lot, Oranssi Pazuzu is a real grower, for example.

So far I think the black metal albums I've enjoyed most so far are:

Vreid - Milorg
Sarke - Vorunah
Bulldozer - Unexpected Fate
Beherit - Engram
Weapon - Drakonian Paradigm

Honourable mentions for Nocturnal - Violent Revenge and Peste Noire's Ballade...



Its strange, when I saw them live the new songs sounded absolutely amazing. Awesome technically with lots of catchy riffs and great atmosphere. But then for some reason the cd doesn't impress me as much and a lot of the songs just come off as filler to me. I find I still like songs like I Maldoror and Sulphur, but the rest of the album (or rather, perhaps I should say past I Maldoror it starts going downhill fast) somehow lacks the power and interesting musicianship that I got the impression of when seeing them live. I find the album doesn't really end on the best note either, they could have very easily just ended it with Queen of Rats.

I lied, I think I'll throw in Shining over Klablautamann