#np

Melodic Black/Death/Power Metal from Finland

Suotana

#MelodicBlackMetal #MelodicDeathMetal #MelodicPowerMetal #MetalFromFinland #FinnishMetal #Suotana #Cmus #Music

Listurnalia is now upon us once again! If you are not ready to be assailed by non-stop lists and bad opinions for the next week and change, I suggest you get fooking ready! Listurnalia cannot be stopped, nor contained. It can only be tolerated and endured!

More than any year in recent history, 2025 saw more seasoned staffers step away from writing duties due to time constraints and life changes. To compensate for the loss of these slackwagoning quitters and shirkers, we added a gaggle of fresh new voices. This made for a bittersweet time around these parts as long-time friends departed and a bunch of untested, unknowns rose through the brutal n00b gauntlet to seize the means of promo production. These greenhorn neophytes have created great havoc at AMG HQ with their terrible taste, inability to follow directions, and steadfast refusal to ignore deathcore.

We’ve been here before, though, and we always straighten out the newbie upstarts. The daily beatings, deprivations, and absence of positive reinforcement will wear them down, and if not, we have plenty of space in the rotpit out back. This is, and will ever be, the AMG modality.

2026 will be an interesting year as the new crew members are shepherded by the olde while everyone is crushed beneath the iron heel of AMG management. Who will make it to 2027? Who will be sold off to Metal Wani for a box of bananas and Gorilla Glue? Place your bets in the official AMG Survival Pool!

As you read the Top Ten(ish) lists below, remember, reading our content is free, but you get what you pay for.

Grymm

#10. Venomous Echoes // Dysmor
#9. Blut Aus Nord // Ethereal Horizons
#8. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#7. Structure // Heritage
#6. Lorna Shore // I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me
#5. Sigh // I Saw The World’s End – Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV
#4. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#3. Am I In Trouble? // Spectrum
#2. Dax Riggs // 7 Songs for Spiders
#1. Paradise Lost // Ascension – I fully expected Paradise Lost to come out with quality music, which has been mostly par for the course in their storied almost-40-year career, and no one could blame them if they decided to coast along on their legendary sound. Instead, Ascension sees them giving a masterclass in songcraft and atmosphere, showing everyone, everywhere, how it’s done. With Black Sabbath now officially put to rest, Anathema long gone, and whatever the fuck is happening within My Dying Bride these days, somebody has to fly the British Doom flag high and proud, and Paradise Lost have done a bang-up job of doing so.

Personal Highlight o’ the Year: Seeing Acid Bath live. I may or may not have cried during “Venus Blue,” and no, I don’t fucking care. 19-Year-Old me was pleased as punch that 48-Year-Old me got to see a legendary band (and one of his personal favorites) come back from tragedy to pay tribute to their fallen bassist and friend, Audie Pitre, by giving it another long-awaited go.

Disappointment(s) o’ the Year:

• Losing so many influential heroes (RIP Ozzy Osbourne, Ace Frehley, and Tomas Lindberg, among too many others)
• My health: I was hoping to be a lot more active this year, but early on, I needed to, in the immortal words of David Lynch, “fix (my) heart or die.”1 Thankfully, after surgery, I feel a million times better, so you should see a lot more of me in 2026. You have been warned.

Song o’ the Year:

• Paradise Lost // “Salvation”

El Cuervo

#ish. Astronoid // Stargod
#10. Ollie Wride // The Pressure Point
#9. Kauan // Wayhome
#8. Zéro Absolu // La Saignée
#7. Mutagenic Host // The Diseased Machine
#6. Asira // As Ink in Water
#5. Bruit // The Age of Ephemerality
#4. Saor // Amidst the Ruins
#3. The Midnight // Syndicate
#2. Steven Wilson // The Overview
#1. Messa // The Spin – In a year replete with comfort picks—progressive rock, synthwave, and death metal abound—how is that Italy’s enigmatic, inscrutable Messa forged my Album o’ the Year? The Spin doesn’t take the trouble to make itself easily approachable. Doom, prog, and post influences circle around velvety melodies that sometimes sound like deliberate songs, and sometimes like jazz improvisation. But it’s these very qualities that belie its subtle allure; only with repetition and attention does The Spin shine. Messa gradually reveals rhythmic motifs, instrumental nuances, and rich compositions that enhance my life on so many days. “The Dress,” especially, is stunning. And though the record’s loungey whimsy defies metal conventions, each track prizes genuine grit through its top-drawer guitar riffs. With the devotion it demands, no record from 2025 was more rewarding than The Spin.

Honorable Mentions:

• Décryptal – Simulacre
• An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City
• Puteraeon – Mountains of Madness
• Hasard – Abgnose

Song o’ the Year:

• Ambush – “Maskirovka”



GardensTale

#ish. Structure // Heritage
#10. In Mourning //The Immortal
#9. Flummox // Southern Progress
#8. Der Weg Einer Freiheit // Innern
#7. Nephylim // Circuition
#6. Besna // Krásno
#5. Messa // The Spin
#4. Labyrinthus Stellarum // Rift in Reality
#3. Gazpacho // Magic 8 Ball
#2. Dormant Ordeal// Tooth & Nail
#1. Moron Police // Pachinko — I was a little nervous when I first read about the length and ambition behind Pachinko, especially in the context of the incredible and very concise A Boat on the Sea. I’ve never been this happy to be this wrong. Nothing in the last decade has overtaken my life as much as Pachinko has, and I’m listening to it yet again as I write this, and will probably restart it once it finishes. Pachinko has a lot in common with Everything Everywhere All At Once, one of my all-time favorite films, as a treatise on the chaos of life and the importance of friends and family. It treats its philosophy of silliness very seriously, laughing in the face of darkness in such a beautiful and inspiring way; it brightens my life every time I hear it. And it does all that in tribute to a dear friend who was gone too soon and too suddenly, and no other eulogistic album has let me feel like its subject’s soul touched mine. An astounding monument to friendship on top of an incredibly accomplished hour of music. Pachinko is a miracle.

Honorable Mentions:

• Hangover in Minsk // Party is Over
• 1914 // Viribus Unitis
• Bianca // Bianca
• Fange // Purulences
• An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
• Blindfolded // What Seeps Through Threads

Song o’ the Year:

• Moron Police – “Giving up the Ghost”



Non-metal Albums of the Year:

• Lorde // Virgin
• Jonathan Hultén // Eyes of the Living Night
• Shayfer James // Summoning

Mark Z.

#ish. Malefic Throne // The Conquering Darkness
#10. Urn // Demon Steel
#9. Teitanblood // From the Visceral Abyss
#8. Shed the Skin // The Carnage Cast Shadows
#7. Guts // Nightmare Fuel
#6. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#5. Perdition Temple // Malign Apotheosis
#4. Paradise Lost // Ascension
#3. Revocation // New Gods, New Masters
#2. Death Yell // Demons of Lust
#1. Abominator // The Fire Brethren – It took me a few years after hearing this Australian duo’s last album, 2015’s Evil Proclaimed, to realize I was wrong about them. Their raw and relentless black-death metal wasn’t just good, it was fucking awesome. With their long-awaited sixth album, The Fire Brethren, Abominator has conjured flames that reach higher than ever. As always, the enraged rasps, scorching riffs, and endlessly pummeling rhythms are like plumes of hellfire shot directly into your ear canals. But amidst the bludgeoning is some genuinely great songwriting, with deep-cutting hooks (“The Templar’s Curse,” “Underworld Vociferations”), flashes of melody (“Progenitors of the Insurrection of Satan”), thrashy breaks (“Sulphur from the Heavens”), and just enough variety to keep everything hitting as hard as possible. It’s not for everyone, but for those into Angelcorpse and other music of that sort, The Fire Brethren is the type of album you just can’t get enough of.

Honorable Mention:

• Blasphamagoatachrist // Bestial Abominator

Song (Title) o’ the Year:

• Omegavortex – “Dystopian Worldrape”

Song o’ the Year:

• Fugitive – “Spheres of Virulence”



Carcharodon

#ish. Dax Riggs // 7 Songs for Spiders
#10. Novarupta // Astral Sands
#9. Atlantic // Timeworn
#8. Structure // Heritage
#7. Agriculture // The Spiritual Sound
#6. Igorr // Amen
#5. Messa // The Spin
#4. Abigail Williams // A Void Within Existence
#3. Cave Sermon // Fragile Wings
#2. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#1. Grima // Nightside – In each of 2019, 2021, and 2022, Grima released an album and, in each of those years, I listed said album (#5, HM, and #10). But this year, the year in which I have listened to the least metal and, of course, written the least since I started here in 2018, is also the year that Grima got everything dialled in to just what I want from a Grima album. On Nightside, the duo struck the perfect balance between the traditional influences of 2019’s Will of the Primordial and the propulsive, frozen atmosphere of Frostbitten (2022). The combination gives Nightside an almost hypnotic and weirdly tranquil flow, offset by Vilhelm’s rasping vocals, which remain among the best in the BM game. Every time I come back to this record, and the title track in particular, it’s even better than I remember it being, and I always end up spinning three or more times back-to-back. An album that can keep playing that trick deserves its #1 spot in my book.

Honorable Mentions:

• An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
• Gorycz // Zasypia
• Psychonaut // World Maker
• Wardruna // Birna

Songs o’ the Year:

• Messa – “Fire on the Roof”



• Novarupta – “Now Here We Are (At the Inevitable End)”

Mysticus Hugebeard

#10. Orbit Culture // Death Above Life
#9. An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
#8. Qrixkuor // The Womb of the World
#7. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#6. Panopticon // Laurentian Blue
#5. Blackbraid // Blackbraid III
#4. Arkhaaik // Uihtis
#3. Kauan // Wayhome
#2. Wardruna // Birna
#1. Thumos // The Trial of Socrates – I recall groggily stumbling upon Thumos’ The Trial of Socrates at work one early morning, and I’m not sure if I’ve grown attached to it or it’s grown attached to me. It looms in my periphery, routinely interrupting my listening schedule for just one more spin. This gargantuan dive into ancient Greek philosophy and justice is melodically rich, laden with atmosphere, and fiercely intelligent. I love how this album stimulates my curiosity. I pore over The Trial of Socrates like a madman, piecing the puzzle together with feverish glee but never quite feeling finished, because every re-listen yields new shapes, new colors, new ideas. It eggs me on to research various topics on ancient Greek history or philosophy, and even made for an unlikely study partner during my long preparations for the German A1 exam. I always feel smarter by the end of it—hubris, I’m sure, but The Trial of Socrates genuinely sparks my imagination in ways few albums do. Time to go listen to “The Phædo” for the zillionth time.

Honorable Mentions:

• Night Flight Orchestra // Give Us The Moon
• Mutagenic Host // The Diseased Machine

Songs o’ the Year:

• Disarmonia Mundi – “Outcast”

The Dormant Stranger by Disarmonia Mundi

• Jamie Page & Marcy Nabors – “Do No Harm (Ventricular Mix)”

Do No Harm by Jamie Paige, Marcy Nabors, & Penny Parker

• Thumos – “The Phædo”

The Trial of Socrates by Thumos

Disappointment(s) o’ the year:

• The dissolution of Ante-Inferno: After Death’s Soliloquy topped my list last year, I was genuinely gutted to see Ante-Inferno’s post that they were no more. Still, I shall not weep but rather smile that they happened, because Ante-Inferno was a rare breed of genuinely moving black metal. Just that one album rooted itself so deeply within me, and I will be listening for a long time.
• Arno Menses leaving Subsignal: Man, fuck. Fuck. Remember my nuclear-grade glaze of Subsignal, where I might as well have said Menses’ voice single-handedly justified the entire existence of music? How could I not break down in heaving sobs in the middle of this Denny’s when I heard that Menses and Subsignal have parted ways? It sucks, I tell ya. I will still listen to what Subsignal puts out in the future, because Markus Steffen is a talented musician, but it’s going to be a huge adjustment since Menses is nigh irreplaceable.

Samguineous Maximus

#ish. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#10. Primitive Man // Observance
#9. Motherless // Do You Feel Safe?
#8. Deafheaven // Lonely People with Power
#7. Weeping Sores // The Convalescence Agonies
#6. Between the Buried and Me // The Blue Nowhere
#5. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#4. 1914 // Viribus Unitis
#3. Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl
#2. Crippling Alcoholism // Bible Songs II
#1. Yellow Eyes // Confusion Gate – Yellow Eyes are one of the best black metal bands in the game, and Confusion Gate is their most impressive work to date. It sees the band return to a more traditional atmospheric sound, but with the lessons learned from their explorations of dissonance and ambience. The result is a kaleidoscopic blend of gorgeous melodies, haunting riffs, and a pervasive sense of pathos that only the best art can achieve. Confusion Gate feels like communing with nature from the top of a wintry peak, embodying both impossible grandeur and awesome terror. This is a record that bypasses the analytical reviewer’s brain and just hits me right in the feeling. It offers a unique catharsis in a year where I truly needed it.

Honorable Mentions

• Flummox // Southern Progress
• Hexrot // Formless Ruin of Oblivion
• Ava Mendoza/Gabby fluke-Mogal/Carolina Pérez // Mama Killa
• Strigiform // Aconite

Song o’ the Year:

• Crippling Alcoholism – “Ladies Night”



Spicie Forrest

#ish. Cryptopsy // An Insatiable Violence
#10. Crimson Shadows // Whispers of War
#9. Oromet // The Sinking Isle
#8. -ii- // Apostles of the Flesh
#7. Suncraft // Welcome to the Coven
#6. Suncraft // Profanation of the Adamic Covenant
#5. Chestcrush // ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ
#4. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#3. Qrixkuor // The Womb of the World
#2. Primitive Man // Observance
#1. Wytch Hazel // V: Lamentations – I know, I’m surprised too. But the bottom line is that I’ve been listening to V: Lamentations front to back at least once a week since it released on the most American of holidays, July 4th. For Steel, Wytch Hazel’s latest didn’t have the same staying power as previous efforts, but Lamentations is the first to truly resonate with me. Though musically consistent with their Wishbone Ash-meets-Eagles style, vocalist Colin Hendra brings a new sense of passion to the record, and the interplay between instruments, vocals, and lyrics hits me like a lightning bolt. Very possibly inspired by the core Christian tenet laid out in Romans 6:23-24,2 Lamentations is a masterful portrayal of what it means to perpetually fail, to know you’ll never be good enough, and in the face of a salvation that renders all efforts, deeds, and accomplishments worthless, to keep striving toward the impossible anyway. Even for godless sinners like me, Lamentations is a beautiful reminder that purpose is found in hardship, that the journey is the goal, and that falling down is merely an opportunity to stand up again.

Honorable Mentions:

• Proscription // Desolate Divine
• Apocalypse Orchestra // A Plague upon Thee
• Messa // The Spin
• Bloodywood // Nu Delhi
• Pedestal for Leviathan // Enter: Vampyric Manifestation

Song o’ the Year:

• Yellowcard – “honestly i”

Grin Reaper

(ish) Sallow Moth // Mossbane Lantern
#10. Turian // Blood Quantum Blues
#9. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#8. Lychgate // Precipice
#7. An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
#6. Thron // Vurias
#5. Structure // Heritage
#4. Species // Changelings
#3. Havukruunu // Tavastland
#2. Aephanemer // Utopie
#1. 1914 // Viribus Unitis – I didn’t know Viribus Unitis would be my top album of the year the first time I listened to it, but I knew it would list. 1914’s naked emotion and rousing story of a Ukrainian soldier’s survival through World War I, reconciliation with his family, and inescapable return to war remains as gripping and bittersweet now as it did the first time I heard it. Across adrenaline-fueled riffing, oppressive marches, and somber dirges, 1914 never relents on musical or lyrical weight. Though Viribus Unitis was released late in the year, it quickly became the standard I used to appraise albums while going through listing season. 1914 paints war-torn life with savage grace, supplying devastating melody and grueling crawls that elevate the album to such heights that I’m genuinely moved each time I get to the end. Viribus Unitis is bleak, raw, and human, but for all that, I’m never deterred from listening. Ultimately, 1914 clutches the threads of hope and weaves an aural tapestry that brings tragedy and triumph to life, cementing Viribus Unitis as my undisputed top album of 2025.

Honorable Mentions:

• Walg // V
• Moron Police // Pachinko
• Defigurement // Endbryo
• Ültra Raptör // Fossilized
• Igorrr // Amen

Songs o’ the Year:

• Aephanemer – “Le Cimetière Marin”

• 1914 – “1918 Pt. III: ADE (A Duty to Escape)”

Andy-War-Hall

#ish: Dragon Skull // Chaos Fire Vengeance
#10: Changeling // Changeling
#9: Steel Arctus // Dreamruler
#8: Abigail Williams //A Void Within Existence
#7: Petrified Giant // Endless Ark
#6: Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#5: Structure // Heritage
#4: Lipoma // No Cure for the Sick
#3: Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl
#2: Hexrot // Formless Ruin of Oblivion
#1: 1914 // Viribus Unitis – Immersion defines great music and art for me. It is almost unfortunate how good 1914 are in this facet of their music. Their ability to transport the listener to the battlefield in all its violence, both carnal and psychological, is stupefying. The utter dehumanizing hatred with “1914 (The Siege of Przemyśl),” the ravenous bloodlust of “1917 (The Isonzo Front),” the hellish wails haunting “1918 Pt. 1 (WIA – Wounded in Action):” all portrayed vividly through 1914’s brilliantly caustic and composed musicianship and deeply personal lyricism. When Dmytro Ternushchak bellows “For three days / The Russians attacked / And accomplished nothing but / 40,000 dead pigs” [“1914 (The Siege of Przemyśl)”], it’s all you need to get into his character’s violent headspace. When 1914 mournfully sing in Ukrainian “Це моя земля”3 [1915 (Easter Battle for the Zwinin Ridge)], you grasp how someone could put their life on the line for kin and country. When our soldier sings “My little girl reached out to me / But duty calls” [1919 (The Home Where I Died)]… well, shit, your heart just has to break, right? 1914 don’t play “history metal.” Viribus Unitis is as present and relevant as you can get.

Honorable Mentions:

• Fell Omen // Caelid Dog Summer
• Ophelion // The Jaunt
• Coroner // Dissonance Theory
• Starscourge // Conqueror of the Stars – Betwixt Sundered Seraphim, the Lands Between Bleed

Song o’ the Year:

• Fell Omen – “The Fire is Still Warm”



Lavender Larcenist

#ish Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea
#10. Sold Soul // Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely
#9. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#8. Dying Wish // Flesh Stays Together
#7. Grima // Nightside
#6. Aversed // Erasure of Color
#5. Deafheaven // Lonely People With Power
#4. Ghost Bath // Rose Thorn Necklace
#3. Changeling // Changeling
#2. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#1. Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl – Sometimes you listen to music, and you feel like it gets you. Camgirl was exactly that type of album, and it probably doesn’t say anything good about me. Ever since Crippling Alcoholism’s latest graced my ears and I shared it with my partner, we have been singing “I fucking hate the way I look, yeah I look like a fat fucking scumbag” way too often and mumbling “Mr. Ran away, ran away from family” every chance we get. The album is dripping with the atmosphere of neon-lit back rooms, seedy interactions, and terrible decision-making. It feels like a lens into the lives of those society has left behind, and I can’t help but feel a connection. The self-destructive nihilism, drugged-out sex, and abrupt violence that is all too common in those on the margins of life is something I think more and more we can all relate to, and Camgirl is the art that mirrors society back to us. As a result, it is an album that is just as ugly as it is terrifying and beautiful.

Honorable Mentions:

• Shadow of Intent // Imperium Delirium
• Pupil Slicer // Fleshwork
• 1914 // Viribus Unitis

Song o’ the Year:

• Crippling Alcoholism – “bedrot”

Creeping Ivy

#ish. Nite // Cult of the Serpent Sun
#10. Blackbraid // Blackbraid III
#9. Flummox // Southern Progress
#8. 1914 // Viribus Unitis
#7. Cave Sermon // Fragile Wings
#6. Saor // Amidst the Ruins
#5. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#4. Phantom Spell // Heather & Hearth
#3. Coroner // Dissonance Theory
#2. Messa // The Spin
#1. Havukruunu // Tavastland – On their Bandcamp page, Havukruunu explain the concept of their fourth LP: ‘Tavastland tells how in 1237 the Tavastians rose in rebellion against the church of Christ and drove the popes naked into the frost to die.’ Sounds like the metal album of 2025 to me! But I didn’t crown Tavastland for its lyrics that I can’t understand. As Dr. A.N. Grier has been exhorting for a decade, Havukruunu stands as a model of Viking black metal consistency, having dropped only very good-to-great albums since 2015. Tavastland isn’t a radical improvement over 2020’s Uinuous syömein sota, but it’s an (arguably excellent) improvement nonetheless, making it Havukruunu’s finest work yet. Yes, these fiery Finns forge sounds reminiscent of Bathory and Immortal, but Tavastland seized my attention for its adventurous prog sensibilities. Some of this can be attributed to the return of Hümo, whose bass rattles like the four strings of Geddy Lee. But the prog is deep in the album craft, from the overture-style modulations of opener “Kuolematon laulunhenki” to the extended guitar wankery of closer “De miseriis fennorum.” Now if only I can learn Finnish, I’ll be able to appreciate the killer anti-popery narrative while headbanging to my Record o’ 2025.

Honorable Mentions:

• Am I in Trouble? // Spectrum
• Blut Aus Nord // Ethereal Horizons
• In Mourning // The Immortal
• Oromet // The Sinking Isle
• Wyatt E. // Zamāru Ultu Qereb Ziqquratu Part 1

Song o’ the Year:

• Phantom Spell – “The Autumn Citadel”



Baguette of Bodom

#ish. In the Woods… // Otra
#10. Species // Changelings
#9. Dragon Skull // Chaos Fire Vengeance
#8. A-Z // A2Z²
#7. Apocalypse Orchestra // A Plague upon Thee
#6. Amorphis // Borderland
#5. Dolmen Gate // Echoes of Ancient Tales
#4. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#3. Amalekim // Shir Hashirim
#2. Suotana // Ounas II
#1. Buried Realm // The Dormant Darkness – Melodic tech death? Symphonic power metal? Who knows! Much like my 2025 in general, The Dormant Darkness has a bit of everything in one gigantic clusterfuck. The great news is, neither I nor the album crumbled under all that weight. In a year full of odd twists and turns, my list became more varied and unusual than ever. Buried Realm took this variety and gave me everything I like about metal in one dense package: blazing speeds, soaring guitars, majestic vocals, and relentless fury. It’s also inexplicably well-produced for how many layers there are to deal with. While 2025 was not a particularly star-studded release year—especially compared to most of the 2020s so far—it threw plenty of fun curveballs at me, and The Dormant Darkness exemplifies this with its Xothian fusion of metal subgenres in one big Ophidian I blender ov shred. I would also like to request several Christian Älvestam features on every album, please.

Honorable Mentions:

• Victim of Fire // The Old Lie
• Dawn of Solace // Affliction Vortex
• Dynazty // Game of Faces
• Coroner // Dissonance Theory
• Hooded Menace // Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration

Song o’ the Year:

• Dragon Skull – “Blood and Souls”

Chaos Fire Vengeance by Dragon Skull

Remember the Finnish melodic death and power metal fusion of the late ’90s and early ’00s? Bands like Children of Bodom,1 Kalmah, and Norther were all the rage for a short while. You even had stuff like Ensiferum for a folkier interpretation, or Catamenia2 for the blackened side of things. The truth is that it never really left.3 Suotana is one of the bands keeping this sound alive and well, and they have more history than one might think. They spawned in the mid-2000s but took until 2014 to start putting out material. Now, over a decade later, they’re on their fourth full-length, and Ounas II continues right where predecessor Ounas I left off two years ago. Judging them back-to-back, it seems the collective is only growing in strength.

Ounas II is chock full of great songwriting. Melodic death metal, power metal, and even bits of black metal collide in this crazy Finnish kitchen, with Children of Bodom remaining the clear number one influence. Founding members Ville Rautio and Pasi Portaankorva utilize the dual guitar attack in classic ’80s ways (“Winter Visions,” “Twilight Stream”), while Stratovarius sensibilities color their frantic touches of melodic power—both always positives in my book. The harsh vocals of Tuomo Marttinen are frosty and vicious, similar to their swamp brethren in Kalmah.4 Tommi Neitola’s keyboards are the cherry on top, adding a Bodomesque symphonic bombast layer that occasionally approaches Wintersun levels without going overboard (“The Crowned King of Ancient Forest,” “1473 Ounas”).

Ounas II by Suotana

Dealing with two-part concepts is always a challenging task, but Suotana came prepared. It feels like they’ve improved on all of Ounas I’s already strong qualities: the production has more breadth, the album’s layers delve deeper, and there’s more energy and variety in its songs (“Foreverland,” “Twilight Stream”). However, the most impressive thing about Ounas II is that it’s even denser than its sibling. The album clocks in at 39 minutes compared to the first part’s 41,5 which has the huge advantage of avoiding a bloated ‘B-sides’ feel so common with other double album concepts.6 And despite its tight runtime, the songwriting has plenty of room to flourish, as exemplified by “1473 Ounas.” Furthermore, to complement the Summoning cover that crowned the first part, Ounas II unleashes a cover of Children of Bodom’s “Hatebreeder” as its encore. Whether you imagine it as a proper track or a bonus, it’s a great way to end the record with a bang while honoring your influences.7

Suotana has had a long journey to get to this point, and it’s been more than worth it. Their songwriting is only getting faster and better, which further reinforces its catchy extremities. In many ways, Suotana feels like the melodeath-forward twin to Moonlight Sorcery’s excellent brand of power/black metal. Both bands dress to impress with big riffs, melodic violence, and keyboard bombast in all the right ways. Though the back-to-back experience is great, Ounas II is a package that works wonders on its lonesome too, and I think that’s another mark of success for the band. I’m excited to see what these self-aware wizards pictured above are going to summon from that lake next, Ounas or not.

Tracks to Check Out: “Winter Visions,” “Twilight Stream,” “The Crowned King of Ancient Forest,” and a special shout out to the excellent cover of “Hatebreeder.”

Last Thursday I was at De Helling to capture #FullHouseBrewCrew, #Suotana , #BeforeTheDawn & #Wolfheart. 🖤
The Wolfheart recap reel drops tonight once I’m back in Rotterdam, with the Before The Dawn reel following on Monday.
The full photo set will be online this Tuesday! 📷

Tonight I’ll be back at #DeHelling for #Dvne & #NightVerses. 📽️

Sentynel and Twelve’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023

By sentynel

Sentynel

Is it that time already? Whew. 2023 has raced past me, carried by a blizzard of endless Stuff. I need a goddamn break, which is currently tentatively scheduled for about 2025. As a result, I’ve been desperately behind on my listening for most of the year. I barely scraped together five reviews, all for bands I knew and liked, and was impressed by… one of them. I was nervous about my list all the way through to about November. Fortunately, I have once again ended up with a solid list of great albums, though the best doesn’t quite top last year’s The Otolith. I have lost track of what a normal selection looks like for me at this point, but this year’s big genre winner is apparently instrumental prog, while I felt it was a slightly weak year for post-metal. I also suspect I have more overlap with some of the cooler members of staff than I usually do, amongst all the records you already know are going to be on my list.

Despite a heavy year, contributing to Angry Metal Guy dot com continues to be one of my favorite hobbies. The other staff continue to have questionable taste, but I’ve found music that brings me joy anyway. We have new writers, I’ve met a couple of last year’s crop, and they’re all pretty chill despite their opinions on music. Everyone continues to put a huge amount of free work into this weird little corner of the internet. And my server load stats confirm that you, the readers, are still out there, using my bandwidth.

Finally, following Twitter’s ongoing trainwreck killing off the review autoposting there, we are now available on a slightly experimental basis on Mastodon and compatible platforms. Simply follow @angrymetalguy@angrymetalguy.com. (Note that comments don’t sync in from Mastodon, so you’ll still need to come to the site in order to tell us we’re wrong.) Of course, RSS and Facebook continue to be available.

#ish. Angus McSix // Angus McSix and the Sword of Power – I’ll defend last year’s Fellowship record to the death as serious music. The sophistication of its writing and the adulthood of its themes proves that upbeat, catchy power metal doesn’t have to be silly or lightweight. I offer no such defense for this record. This is incredibly silly. Honestly, between the track titles and how nakedly the whole thing leans on Winkler’s previous role, I was expecting to write this off as a failed attempt to recapture past glories without the wit—another soulless, forgettable pop-power metal band going through the motions. And yet it works. The fun feels genuine, the runtime too brief to be self-indulgent, the songwriting too varied to be a lazy cash-in. It’s infectious, it’s miles better than the new Gloryhammer record, and I’ve ended up listening to it a lot. I embrace the upcoming savaging in the comments section.

#10. Nuclear Power Trio // Wet Ass Plutonium – Speaking of silly, it’s the guys in creepy dictator masks. As I said when I wrote about this album, after a great EP they’ve stuck the landing on the album as well, cementing their position as serious musicians and not a one-off novelty. Fun, triumphant, soaring, Wet Ass Plutonium is an absolute blast to listen to. The musicianship is fantastic, and in particular I’ll highlight again just how great Putin is. (On bass.)

#9. Sermon // Of Golden Verse – Starring a rather more seriously masked musician, this is an emotional, gripping prog album. The only thing holding this back from a higher list placing is that I haven’t found myself compelled to listen to it all the time, which is definitely a me problem (see intro). The moment I actually do put it on I’m hooked. The dynamic, catchy songwriting has an urgent edge to it that gets under your skin and sets it apart from a lot of other prog metal, which can lack a bit of bite.  I absolutely love the vocal performance here in particular, but the whole thing is written and performed thoughtfully and impactfully.

#8. Ok Goodnight // The Fox and the Bird – In the best tradition of prog, this is a weird album. It tries to do a lot of things and manages nearly all of them. Williams’ charismatic, mood-changing vocals carry this whimsical tale. The first few times I listened I wasn’t sure it was going to stick, but I kept finding fragments of her lines in my head. With a few more listens, the whole thing settled. There are still a few little stumbles where weird and shifting gives way to just disjointed, but I find the rest of the album far too addictively, earwormily interesting to mind too much.

#7. Scaphoid // Echoes of the Rift – I owe this record more complete thoughts than I have space for here—there’s a TYMHM piece due, but see the intro for why it probably hasn’t appeared yet. In short: I’m a huge fan of this sort of pretty, thoughtful instrumental prog. I loved Absent Passages, and Echoes of the Rift is an improvement in effectively every meaningful way. Hobart has developed as a composer, and as a result it’s shorter, tighter, more varied, and more memorable. As with a lot of music on this list, my love for it is in the mood it conjures. It’s thoughtful, meditative, exploratory, and has been a favorite work and travel soundtrack for me.

#6. Sanguine Glacialis // Maladaptive Daydreaming – This record is A Lot. I mentioned it to Dr. Wvrm, who described it as “like Cradle of Filth bodysnatched Epica, then showed up to the studio and found it double booked with Nik Sundin hanging out with a jazz quartet. And instead of throwing them out being like ‘yea you know what let’s do all of it at once'”. Frankly, I have nothing further to add to this bit of poetry. If this sounds utterly horrifying, you’re not going to like Maladaptive Daydreaming. But if you’re maybe interested, know that it’s way more cohesive than it has any right to be and a lot of fun. The main thing holding it back is an inexplicably loud mastering job.

#5. Night Crowned // Tales – Here’s an interesting study in genre and reviewers’ tastes. Thus, who is far more brvtal than me, describes this as “symphonic/melodic blackened death.” I, meanwhile, relate to this as a folk metal album, though one much more interesting than the genre typically delivers. Just listen to that hurdy-gurdy or the styling of the vocals. (The female vocals really remind me of the Witcher 3 soundtrack’s Eastern European folk, for example. It’s notable that the cover art here features the Wild Hunt.) Either way, Tales is a wild ride and a certified banger through and through.

#4. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – This is so pretty. That seems like an odd thing for melodic death metal to be striving for, but there’s really no other word for it. Soaring guitar melodies, sweeping strings, and airy piano tug at your heartstrings. But a core of heavy riffs and harsh vocals keeps it anchored. The two mesh startlingly well. Fires in the Distance really lean into the lilting piano at times—if you’d told me a band were going to put this much piano into a melodeath record and everyone would love it, I would have laughed at you. You’d think it would sound insubstantial against the rhythm section, but it never does. Genuinely beautiful.

#3. Helga // Wrapped in Mist – This record reminds me of Gåte (who put out a good EP this year!) gone atmospheric, both in the folk composition but also in the slightly unusual vocals. There’s also some hints of Meer. It’s been criticized, not unfairly, for imperfectly mixing its folk takes on post-metal and airy dream-pop. I like both, but the more I listen, the less I think that separation is the right lens to view it through. Both these genres are characterized by a prioritization of atmosphere and feeling over immediacy, and that’s where Wrapped in Mist’s success lies. I’ve spoken before about my love of music that feels like a witches’ forest ritual, and this is the exact button Helga presses for me. Wherever it sits among its contributing genres, it conjures that feeling.

#2. Essence of Datum // Radikal Rats – Wildly underrated by some hack at little-known music blog Angry Metal Guy, “a heavier God is an Astronaut do the Mass Effect soundtrack” is right up my alley. Even then, I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve listened to this album. It’s not the world’s most challenging record, which has probably contributed to me reaching for it so often over a difficult few months. But don’t confuse that with a lack of impact. It’s cleverly written and impeccably performed, catchy, interesting and varied. This would be a fantastic soundtrack to a top-notch sci-fi film. (I listened to it a lot while reading the new Murderbot book.) As I said above, this has been a good year for instrumental prog, and the placement of this record despite two other strong contenders in the genre should speak volumes.

#1. Wayfarer // American Gothic – This one shouldn’t come as a surprise if you read my thoughts on Lathe on last year’s list. I’m a sucker for the micro-genre I’ll call industrial bluegrass, and last year Lathe mixed it with post-metal with unexpectedly successful results. Wayfarer, meanwhile, bring in black metal, a genre I normally find myself bored by. Indeed, A Romance with Violence didn’t quite do it for me. American Gothic though absolutely knocks it out of the park. The genre blend is utterly seamless, to the extent that to simply call it black metal does it a disservice. This is the best of bleak country painted with the instrumentation of black metal. Electric guitars pick up melody lines from banjos with a twang. Distorted slide guitars get that pedal steel feeling. There’s even a honky-tonk piano. It’s all deceptively melodic, and it helps there’s a heavy twist of post here. This seems to have put some members of the staff off—the second half is less immediate than the first—but these people are wrong. The atmosphere that results is pitch-perfect. The vocals and the lyrics are great. This is not an album that I expected, nor did I expect to love it like this. But it shot to the top of my list within the first couple of listens, and I love it a bit more with every spin.

Honorable Mentions

• BRIQUEVILLE // IIII – I saw these guys play at ArcTanGent this year and was dead impressed. This is really slow-burn post, but it’s worth it.
• Mutoid Man // Mutants – Another ATG band, although from many years ago. Not a big departure from their prog/punk usual, but a lot of fun.
• healthyliving // Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief – “Bloom” narrowly missed out on my Song of the Year. The rest of the album is also really good post-metal, with a great vocalist.
• Svalbard // The Weight of the Mask – This didn’t blow me away like When I Die, but it’s not for lack of quality; it’s a great album still, it’s just not a huge evolution.
• Tribunal // The Weight of Remembrance – A really solid bit of classic doom. As with any well-trodden genre it takes a lot to stand out, and Tribunal nail it with some great interplay—on vocals and instruments—between the duo.

Disappointment o’ the Year

Repeatedly giving poor-to-middling reviews to bands I like. Also, the production on that Anareta album, which I wanted so badly to love.

Song o’ the Year

Vienna Teng “The Riversitter” – I’m not even going to pretend to claim that this is metal, though I did of course first hear Teng on this very website. She is my favorite lyricist ever, and one of my favorite musicians in general. It’s been a long ten years since Aims, and it’s fantastic to have new music from her again. This is a pretty, moving piece, based on a short story, about not overthinking or overplanning, community, beauty, and building on each other’s ideas. I can’t fully explain why I’ve been so gripped by this song, but it spoke to me. I’m not normally a “same song on repeat” person, but I’ve listened to this song over three times as often as anything else this year.

Twelve

Up until a few weeks ago, I’d have said this was a pretty solid year, all things considered—but alas, here I am, ending the year on a low note. 2023 felt both very long and very quick, and we weren’t too far into it when I realized my contributions to this here blog were pretty much abysmal. Thankfully, my fellow writers and alternate personas are very understanding people, but it’s still rough to realize that the year has ended to mark my lowest output yet here at Angry Metal Guy.

At least the music was solid. While I was off doing who-knows-what offline, a whole bunch of talented and wonderful writers ghostwrote a whole bunch of compelling reviews and recommendations here that have come to dominate my listening. So before I properly dive into sharing my top albums for 2023, I’ll take a second to thank every one of them, from the newest n00b to the oldest olde, for a level of dedication and talent I just didn’t reach this year. I’m looking forward to the next one, and the one after that as well.

Anyway…

#ish. David Eugene Edwards // Hyacinth – Usually there’s a space or two on this list for the most exciting neofolk that comes my way in a given year, but this year was a quiet one on that front. In its absence, however, the dark country tellings of David Eugene Edwards are quickly becoming a favourite. It’s not a style I’m very familiar with—hence the #ish—but owing to the gorgeously ominous storytelling on Hyacinth, that’s something I’m determined to fix in 2024.

#10. Sacred Outcry // Towers of Gold – Life™ works in mysterious ways; when I was unable to review Towers of Gold following my excitement at Sacred Outcry’s debut, I felt pretty badly. Thankfully, Holdeneye’s account captures what is so special about this power metal odyssey better than I’d have been able to at the time. An adventure for the whole family, and an impressively emotive power metal opus.

#9. Theocracy // Mosaic – Speaking of power metal, I also loved Mosaic in a way I haven’t been taken by a Theocracy album in some time. The balance of joyful and serious themes is something the band does really, really well here, and it’s a splash of positivity that I was happy to receive just as the weather began to turn cold. Not to mention it’s impressively heavy on top of it all, and the choruses stick around long after the album is done.

# 8. The Ocean // Holocene – I’ve said in a couple of places that I don’t care much for post metal, but I do like it when The Ocean does it. The trend continued this year with Holocene, which felt more experimental, less heavy, and altogether weirder than a lot of their past work. This all works great for me, and I found I kept returning to Holocene as the year went by. “Atlantic” in particular may be one of my most listened-to songs for the year. High defeatism, am I right?

#7. Warfarer // American Gothic – Blistering, beautiful black metal; a heartfelt reason for the anger; influence from the wild, wild West to keep it all fresh. What could there possibly be to not like about American Gothic? In the past, Wayfarer haven’t quite captured my attention, but this album broke through my resistance and pummelled it to the ground within the first four seconds of “The Thousand Tombs of Western Promise.” A phenomenal album, through and through.

#6. Briqueville // IIII – IIII is not an album I expected to list here; in fact, one of the first things I did when I saw Charcharodon’s 4.0 review for it was ignore it. More fool I. I thought I had this list down when I finally spun Briqueville’s latest for the first time and it tore its way up these IIII spaces astonishingly fast. Dreamy, experimental doom atmospheres are not easy to pin down, but the songwriting here is incredible. The time passes so quickly, and then what’s left to do but to spin the whole album over again?

#5. Godthrymm // Distortions – Rounding out the other half of my top doom metal albums of the year is Distortions, essentially because this album is heavy. I love the straightforward style, the well-produced misery, and the way Godthrymm is able to so cleanly convey such powerful emotions. This album is a testament to doom metal done well, and it’s been a welcome companion since the first time I heard it—I was hooked pretty much instantly.

#4. Burden of Ymir // Heorot – If you read my reviews, you already know that the accordion is the way into my heart. This feast of black metal incorporates exactly that, and makes for a heavy, folky journey, an amazing album with a story to tell and a ton of heart. It’s also a sneaky album, the kind that grows on you the more you listen to it, with small details hidden in clever songwriting. It’s hard to ask for more; this is an album that feels made exactly for me.

#3. Angus McSix // Angus McSix and the Sword of Power – Speaking of albums that feel made exactly for me, Angus McSix is some of the most fun you can have listening to power metal. I am a sucker for cheesiness, and Angus McSix’s debut dials the cheese factor up to the maximum. The other, crucial side of the dial, however, is the songwriting. Thanks to that, everything works in a way that makes the album more than the sum of it’s ridiculous concept1. It’s a very strong album, and one that’s only grown on me with time.

#2. Sodomisery // Mazzaroth – I can only imagine that Dr. A. N. Grier and I have dramatically different year-end lists, but his review of Mazzaroth is spot-on, and I’m certain we’ll share this entry. As orchestral black metal goes, this album is grand, heavy, and huge, making for a phenomenal opus that is my top black metal album of the year. The vocal performance, the orchestrations, the songwriting—everything on Mazzaroth is top-tier, larger-than-life, incredible black metal.

#1. Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – It will be difficult to sum up my appreciation for Miracle of Death in the short blurb I have before me. From the first seconds of “Spill the Dark,” this album takes me to a cold, comfortable place. It’s emotional, but it feels like numbness; it’s quiet, but leaves a huge impression. Everything about this album works to create atmospheres of bleakness and hopelessness, and any time I’ve felt low throughout the year, Vanishing Kids has been there2. Miracle of Death is, in that regard, an amazing album, and one that was always going to take this spot on my list. Truthfully, I’m shocked to realize this only came out a couple of months ago—it’s been so right for my 2023 that it feels like it’s been there since January 1.

Honorable Mention

• Suotana // Ounas I – I had a lot of fun reviewing Ounas I, and have had a lot of fun listening to it since. The black/melodeath/power metal thing Suotana does so well lends itself to an extremely fun, energetic album that is just so solid. This is an album done well, and I’m still recommending it to pretty much all of you!

Song o’ the Year

Sometimes, you just need to have some fun. No matter how difficult, irritating, or otherwise negative this year may have been, “Ride to Hell” has been the pick-me-up song to deal with it. This is a terrific power-meets-traditional metal anthem, and the enthusiasm in which Angus McSix performs it is a huge part of the appeal. It’s catchy, it’s fun, it’s wildly addictive—it’s everything you need when times are rough and you don’t know any supernatural motorcyclists in the real world. It’s also a great song when you’re having a good day already and want to make it better.

#2023 #AngusMcSix #BlogPost #Briqueville #BurdenOfYmir #DavidEugeneEdwards #EssenceOfDatum #FiresInTheDistance #Godthrymm #healthyliving #Helga #Lists #Listurnalia #MutoidMan #NightCrowned #OkGoodnight #SacredOutcry #SanguineGlacialis #Scaphoid #SentynelSAndTwelveSTopTenIshOf2023 #Sermon #Sodomisery #Suotana #Svalbard #TheOcean #TheOtolith #Theocracy #Tribunal #VanishingKids #ViennaTeng #Wayfarer

Suotana - River Ounas (Official Visualizer)

https://youtu.be/5Htgkstacx4

#music #metal #blackmetal #deathmetal #Suotana #reaperentertainment

SUOTANA - Land of the Dead (Official Music Video) [Feat. @MoraTheSpectralSiren]

https://youtu.be/epyPvYtvgy8

#music #metal #blackenedmelodeath #blackmetal #melodicdeathmetal #suotana #reaperentertainment

2023 is already looking quality, as #Suotana have released a new single after 4 years!!! 🔥🤘🔥

#HeavyMetal #metal #MelodicDeathMetal #DeathMetal #DailyDoseOfMetal

https://youtu.be/q7VpWJvzL-U