Monday, December 24, 2018

Albums of the Year 2018


When looking at a certain scene from year to year, over a fairly long period of time (lets say, around five years), patterns start to rise and also the path a genre follows over time becomes more apparent. Trends come and go. Old bands get older, new bands pop up like acne, the system changes on many levels and the fan should be ready to adjust and follow. For the first time in years, I was actually disappointed by many bands I expected more from and was also impressed by bands out of my radar, while the situation outside the musical borders is clearly affecting festivals, artists and news websites.

Saturday, December 22, 2018

2018: Top 15 non-metal albums

15. The Field - Infinite Moment
Genre: minimal techno, trance, edm


14. Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch
Genre: industrial rock


13. King Dude - Music to Make War To
Genre: neo-folk, post-punk


12. Bruce Lamont - Broken Limbs Excite no Pity
Genre: industrial, electronic, goth


11. Pensees - Completion
Genre: future garage, trip-hop, experimental


10. Figure - Asylum
Genre: dubstep


9. Various Artists - We Out Here
Genre: jazz


8. Old Tower - Stellary Wisdom
Genre: dungeon synth, dark ambient


7. Mouse on the Keys - tres
Genre: contemporary jazz


6. Author & Punisher - Beastland
Genre: industrial doom


5. God Is An Astronaut - Epitaph
Genre: post-rock


4. Xylouris White - Mother
Genre: Folk, avantgarde


3. Fire! - The Hands
Genre: jazz


2. Merzbow & Hexa - Achromatic
Genre: noise


1. Anna von Hauswolff - Dead Magic
Genre: darkwave, neoclassical

Thursday, December 20, 2018

2018: Top 10 Greek metal albums


10. Rapture – Paroxysm of Hatred

9. Mass Infection - Shadows Became Flesh

8. Embrace of Thorns - Scorn Aesthetics

7. Mass Culture - Primal | Ephemeral

6. Nigredo - Flesh Torn - Spirit Pierced

5. Μέλαινα Χολή - Στα βάραθρα της νύχτας

4. Ectoplasma - Cavern of Foul Unbeings

3. Akantha - Apocalyptic Psalms

2. Lucifer's Child - The Order

1. Varathron - Patriarchs of Evil


Monday, December 17, 2018

2018: Top 10 EPs


Out of a total of 77 EP releases I listened to in 2018.

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10. Sanguinary Trance (Austria) - Wine, Song and Sacrifice | Listen

9. Horna (Finland) - Kuolleiden kuu | Listen

8. Μνήμα (Greece) - The Remains of Human Bones | Listen

7. Catacombes (France) - Accueille le Diable | Listen

6. Drottnar (Norway) – Monolith II | Listen

5. Myrkur (Denmark) - Juniper | Listen

4. Profanatica (US) – Altar of the Virgin Whore | Listen

3. Evil Priest (Peru) – Black Seeds… Of Creation | Listen

2. Apognosis (Greece) - Cult of Human Sacrifices | Listen

1. Twilight (US) – Trident Death Rattle | Listen


Friday, December 14, 2018

2018: Top 15 demos


I can never do a proper run over demo releases, but this year it was slightly better than usually, when I totally ignore them. Some of the entries are not pure demos but demo compilations, but it isn't important for me, and probably for no one! Each time I say I will do better on this section the next time I'm on it, for 2018 it is slightly the truth.

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15. Najwyzszy (US) - An Orchestration in Shadows | Listen  
14. Sinira (US) - Dawnless Twilight | Listen 
13. Laudanum (Unknown) – III | Listen 
12. Morannon (Sweden) - Spectral Darkness | Listen 
11. Evulse (US) – Call of the Void | Listen 
10. Estve (Hungary) - Az enyészet ajtaja | Listen 
9. Drekavac (US) - Collection I | Listen 
8. Lathliss (US) - Demo I | Listen 
7. Ancient Morass (Netherlands) - Bog Barrow | Listen
6. Drowning the Light (Australia) - The Vampyre Cipher | Listen


5. Arditi (Sweden) – Bloodtheism

4. Knife (Finland) – Torture… Darkness… The Craft Of Sorrow

3. Staar (Netherlands) – Maanschaduwen

2. Voidness (Greece) – Forest of the Impaled

1. Dispirit (US) - Enantiodromian Birth


More coming.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

2018: Some good albums


I usually would make a really long list (of say, 100 releases), or include a separate group of randomly placed records in the final post, yet this year I'm gonna use a seperate post for it. Here is a collection of various albums I liked in 2018, that all of them couldn't be in the final 25 top list (spoiler alert) but do deserve a mention somewhere, and a few of them were pretty close and right up there. Many of them you might see in other end year lists, and several should be in all of them, right? The upcoming posts are being made as we speak. 


Almost made it to the 25:
Taphos – Come Ethereal Somberness
Golgothan Remains - Perverse Offerings To The Void
Wiegedood - De Doden Hebben Het Goed III
Anaal Nathrakh – A New Kind of Horror 
Manes - Sinnets Irrganger
Torture Rack - Malefic Humiliation
Throneum - The Tight Deathrope Act Over Rubicon
Helrunar - Vanitas Vanitatvm 
Ectoplasma – Cavern of Foul Beings 
Craft – White Noise and Black Metal
Xibalba Itzaes – Ah Tza Xibalba Itzaes
Perversor - Umbravorous

A pool of good albums:
Abduction – A Crown of Curses
Abysmal Grief – Blasphema Secta
Akantha – Apocalyptic Psalms 
Augury – Illusive Golden Age
Autokrator - Hammer Of The Heretics 
Avslut – Deceptis
Baise ma Hache – F.E.R.T.
Barren Altar - Entrenched In The Faults Of The Earth
Barús - Drowned
Bloodbath – The Arrow of Satan is Drawn
Bonehunter – Children of the Atom
Burial Invocation - Abiogenesis
Burkhartsvinter – Hohenkrähen
Cosmic Church – Täyttymys
Chaos Echœs – Mouvement
Chaos Invocation – Reaping Season, Bloodshed Ahead
Corpessed – Impetus of Death
Craft – White Noise And Black Metal
Crocell – Relics
Curse Eternal - Antichristian Ceremonial Madness
Death Scepter – Black Trance
Deathhammer – Chained to Hell
Demonomancy – Poisoned Atonement
Drawn and Quartered - The One Who Lurks 
Drudkh - Їм часто сниться капіж (They Often See Dreams About the Spring)
Elegiac – Pagan Storm
Eriphion - Δοξολογία
Evil Warriors – Fall from Reality
Faustcoven - In the Shadow of Doom
Ghastly – Death Velour
Gorod - Aethra
Gortuary – Divine Indigenous Sacrament
Grá – Väsen
Haunt – Grimoires of Undead Power
Harvest – Medieval Satanic Poison
Human Serpent – For I, The Misanthropist
In the Woods… - Cease the Day
Ingested – The Level Above Human
Iskald – Innhøstinga
Iskandr – Euprosopon
Kalmah - Palo
Knelt Rote – Alterity
Knokkelklang - Jeg Begraver
Kraanium – Slamchosis
Krukh - Безглуздість!
Make A Change… Kill Yourself – IV 
Mornië Utúlië - The Dark Mysteries of the Multiverse
Mournful Congregation – The Incubus of Karma
Mythic Dawn – En Svunnen Tid
Nahtrunar - Mysterium Tremendum
Nightbreed – Beyond Inferno
Nigredo – Flesh Torn-Spirit Pierced
Panphage – Jord
One Tail, One Head – Worlds Open, Worlds Collide
Outer Heaven - Realms of Eternal Decay
Outre-Tombe - Nécrovortex
Ritual Necromancy – Disinterred Horror
Rodent Epoch – Rodentlord
Rundagor – The Beastrealm
Sepulcher – Panoptic Horror
Shakma – House of Possession
Skeletal Remains – Devouring Mortality
Solar Temple - Fertile Descent
Spectre – Grim Menace from Beyond
Sulphur Aeon – The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos
Summoning – With Doom We Come
Svederna – Svedjeland
Terrorizer – Caustic Attack
Trollheims Grott – Aligned with the True Death
Urfaust – The Constellatory Practice
Verheerer – Maltrér
Wallachia – Monumental Heresy
White Wizzard – Infernal Overdrive
Wyrms - Altuus Kronhorr
Uuntar – Voorvaderverering
Vultur – Entangled in the Webs of Fear
Γνόφος – Κατάνυξη

Saturday, December 01, 2018

2018 sum up


December has arrived, and with it the summary of the year that is about to die has begun to take form here in the offices of Arson Café. It will probably be a devoted 4-5 posts on it this time, about the same as the last five years or so (look to your right at AOTY). It is indeed the most wonderful time of the year.