SonikGoat
There are a couple of observations I can make about the albums I’ve chosen for my end-of-year lists. One relates to that most nebulous realm of terminology: the “progressive”. What this term means seems to vary from person to person and album to album, but the differences manifest in interesting ways. Take everyone else’s album of the year, Blood Incantation’s Absolute Elsewhere. The progressive element here lies largely in its bold combination of two distinct styles, blending Death Metal with what I’ll broadly call “vintage-flavored synth-driven Prog Rock”. Another album that adopts a progressive approach is Ontology of Nought by Ingurgitating Oblivion, but the results are markedly different. More on that below.
The other theme in my list this year is that several of the bands are well-established acts with multiple albums under their belts, yet I was either unaware of them or only barely familiar. I’m forever humbled by the sheer number of great musicians and bands I have yet to discover! Finding a band partway through their discography often feels like stumbling upon a treasure trove of musical riches.
Enough! On to the list. Eternal hails to the artists!
10. Civerous – Maze Envy (20 Buck Spin)
This album makes my top 10 ahead of Spectral Voice’s Sparagmos, mainly because I enjoyed Maze Envy’s clearer production style. Both are excellent examples of the Death/Doom dynamic, but Maze Envy stands out with its crisp, crunchy sound. By dialing back the reverb, it opts for clarity over the cavernous aesthetic. Civerous leans more toward the Death Metal side, augmented by skillfully integrated strings and keys that add a horror-film dimension to the powerful juggernaut of crushing, Doom-inflected riffs.
9. Cosmic Putrefaction – Emerald Fires atop the Farewell Mountains (Profound Lore)
Here’s one of those bands I mentioned earlier—one I was unfamiliar with until this year. What an introduction to the name Gabrielle Gramaglia, the mastermind behind Cosmic Putrefaction! This album is a supremely ambitious expression of Death Metal, pushing the genre’s boundaries without ever losing its core zeal. Much like the Civerous album, the progressive element is evident in the interweaving of strings and synths, as well as the melodic touches, which are used sparingly but to great effect.
8. Ingurgitating Oblivion – Ontology of Nought (Willowtip)
This is my first time hearing anything by Ingurgitating Oblivion, so I have no prior work to compare Ontology of Nought to—but what a first impression! This is a complex album, rooted in technical, brutal Death Metal yet incorporating a broad range of influences outside that dogmatic style. It feels less like a Metal album and more like an avant-garde experimental work that happens to include Metal as one component. That said, it absolutely rips, delivering bewildering, Blackened brutality alongside strains of neo-Jazz, haunting chamber Folk, and a nameless flavor of Avant-Metal all its own. The musicianship is equaled by compositional excellence. Honestly, I feel out of my depth trying to describe it. You might just call it…yes, Progressive. It expanded this petty scribe’s understanding of what metal-adjacent music can achieve.
7. Mitochondrion – Vitreseptome (Profound Lore)
Remaining on the cutting edge of Death Metal in a year like this requires all the components of greatness: intensity, aggression, atmosphere, composition, and that elusive “X factor”. Vitreseptome checks all these boxes. Beyond that, it delivers everything in an unrelenting torrent of crushing potency, matching the intensity of anything else released this year.
6. Parfaxitas – Weaver of the Black Moon (Terratur Possessions)
I didn’t listen to nearly enough Black Metal this year, but from what I did hear, Weaver of the Black Moon strikes the perfect balance of ice-shrouded melody and harshness. It’s a benchmark for what I look for in this style.
5. Pyrrhon – Exhaust (Willowtip Records)
Another band I completely slept on until just before this album dropped—and WOW. This reminds me of Portal’s Ion in the compressed intensity of its guitar tone and the elastic, explosive riff work. The New York enclave of bands continues to deliver some of the best extreme Metal of the last decade.
4. QAALM – Grave Impressions of an Unbroken Arc (Hypaethral Records)
I’ve compared this record to several big names, and I know that can front-load expectations, but I mean it only as a compliment to QAALM. What sets it apart is how it weaves these influences into a unique tapestry, making it a rising force in today’s heavy music ecosystem.
3. Thou – Umbilical (Sacred Stones)
This is an explosive, absorbing, exhilarating record. Take off your headphones for this one if you can. It blends Eyehategod’s bottom-end sludge spite, the anthemic quality of Incesticide, and a cathartic energy reminiscent of Amenra or Black Flag. It doesn’t want to you to bow your head, it demands you really look and see things without the greasy filth of modernity smeared across the lens of your perception. It’s not celebratory, nihilistic or drugged. It is raw, unflinching and unforgiving.
2. Ulcerate – Cutting The Throat of God (Debemur Morti)
I don’t have much to add to the mountain of words already spent on Ulcerate, the masters of dissonant Death Metal from New Zealand. The fact that this album ranks ahead of releases by Saevus Finis, Kvadrat, Convulsing, and Replicant says enough. While Cutting The Throat of God doesn’t quite reach the heights of Stare into Death and be Still, it still delivers majestic and crushing Metal that few others can match.
1. Veilburner – The Duality of Decapitation (Transcending Obscurity)
Seven minutes is plenty of time for Veilburner to explore multiple ideas in each song, avoiding repetition and conventional song structures. While comparisons to BAN, Inquisition, and Leviathan might help orient new listeners, Veilburner continues to move further from these peers with each release. Even after this, arguably its best album yet, there’s still so much to uncover in the “Veilburnerverse”.
Metal Eclipse Reviews 