So, here goes.
10. Glorior Belli - Meet Us at the Southern Sign
This album clicked right away. From the vocals, which I love, to the sinisterism that prevails in the sound. But, what I liked most about it, is that this album is actually very elegant and well thought through.9. Hacride - Lazarus
I had a really hard time deciding on this one, because, hey, top ten have to have the best of everything, right? The best musicianship, the best song compositions, the best lyrics... but for some reason I just could not exclude this little album from my top ten. It's epic, endlessly fun and with enough quality musicianship and freshness of sound and idea to make the cut. Yep. Shine on you crazy epic mothefucker.8. Immortal - All Shall Fall
My history with this band goes way, waaaay back (and not necessarily in the most positive sense of the word), but I didn’t start to really appreciate them until I came here, to MR. And now, they managed to make my top ten. Some people would get a kick out of that. As with the previous album, this one gives me heaps and heaps of shiny good feelings, and fun. I know that maybe that aint exactly what the frostbitten kings had in mind, but what can you do. A deserved spot in my top ten, they did make.7. Ancestors - Of Sound Mind
As a fan of good retro music, and as a person that grew up to the sweet sounds of Hammond, and as a person who digs the hell out of stoner and doom I think I can safely say Ancestors decided to make this album for me. Thanks guys, ‘twas very nice of yous.6. Johann Wolfgang Pozoj - Escape of Pozoj
If someone told me that a local band would be in such exquisite company I would have a hard time believing it. But, times they are a changing and I tend to devote much more of my time to J.W.Pozoj - my ultimate surprise of the year.5. Klabautamann - Merkur
Besides having the greatest cover art this year, I somehow knew before I even heard the album that it would be high in my year-end list. The thing is, this band as well as all the other projects involving Florian Toyka and the Zeitgeister dudes, has never let me down and absolutely everything they put out gets me excited as a little kid. I'm just sorry I didn't have more time to listen to Woburn House, but Klabautamann is my first Zeitgeister love and this just feels right. Not to mention Merkur is one hell of an album that definitely sealed the Klabautamann sound and if you're a fan, you don't even have to know what's playing, you'll just recognize it.4. The Chasm - Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm
If I had balls, this album would have grabbed me by it. I mean holy shit. Simply relentlessly massive, not letting you catch your god damn breath all the way through. And I abso-fucking-lutely love it. Gorgeous.3. Code - Resplendent Grotesque
This would probably be one of my most listened albums in 2009, and in a year that almost made my head explode from awesomeness, that says a lot. I never heard a single note from this band prior to this release, and they managed to make my top three. The thing that made this album stand out is definitely the lyrics. Some of the best I've heard in a really long time. All in all, a seriously addictive album.2. Astra - The Weirding
I know this was supposed to be top 10/20 metal albums, and I wanted to do special, separated lists for top non-metal albums, but the lack of time and the fact that I was buried in outstanding releases did not make that possible. If I did have a top non-metal albums of the year list, this one would be at number one wiping the floor with every other album. All I have to say about this CD is that every single time I listen to it (and I’ve spun it a plenty) I am amazed by its greatness and I stand in awe of wonderful, emotion-full music these guys produced.1. Drudkh - Microcosmos
Not many albums can get me in the state where I have trouble functioning on a normal level, i.e. becoming hostile if someone interrupts my listening to an album. This one has done it for me. From track one to track 6, with the paralyzing Ars Poetica sitting in the middle, Drudkh’s Microcosmos had no real opponent in my world. And I’m happy that one of my favorite bands holds the throne in this fantastic year in metal.Honorable mentions:
Mastodon – Crack the Skye; Gorgoroth - Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt; Cobalt – Gin; Fen – Malediction Fields; Gorod – Process of a New Decline; Argus – s/t; Be’lakor – Stone’s Reach ; Blut aus nord – Memoria Vetusta II; Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way to Blue; Krallice – Dimensional Bleedthrough, Miserere Luminis - s/t; Funeral Mist - Marantha; Napalm Death - Time Waits for No Slave; Solstafir - Köld ; Black Math Horsman - Wyllt ... and like at least a dozen more.
So, that's it. I honestly didn't think I'd be able to make the list, not with this year. I'm sure all of us will remember it as the end of the decade that gave us not just the best albums in a long while, but the year that also produced some new all time classics of this our beloved genre.
Via SlayerM's Certified Ramblings
