Yes, definitely like these playlist articles. re: Tombs…damn! I spent this whole year looking forward to the new Morne (which is good but perhaps a little too smoothed over from what I was expecting), and instead I can’t get Path of Totality out of rotation! Brilliant album…

I actually like a lot of what Hunt-Hendrix has to say here, and he expresses an idealistic, if heavy-handedly written faith in the magic that black metal music can be capable of that I find kind of endearing, and he certainly seems to be a guy who does what he wants and loves what he does, without much regard for anything but the vision he wants to produce through his music.

Unfortunately, I just can’t get into Liturgy, and I really have tried. I really love a lot of the bands more “true” black metallers seem to revile…Wolves in the Throne Room, Alcest, the last Drudkh album, and to a lesser extent Krallice. Liturgy just doesn’t hit me the right way. I may not agree with everything the guy from Woe said, but I’d rather listen to his music than Liturgy’s any time.

To briefly mention a recent column Brandon, I really think that last Peste Noire album is in the running for extreme metal release of the year right now; its so damn good. However, Profound Lore currently has the new Morne on the way to me; I have a feeling about that one…

they certainly have! can’t wait for this one, loved the first after reading about it in this column. makes me want a new Asunder as well; A Clarion Call remains one of my all time favorites. Wonder what Gossard’s been up to these days?

again, i might rephrase that a bit to say there’s more creativity going on in black metal than in other subgenres right now as opposed to simply being “popular”, just my opinion. But Haunting the Chapel doesn’t seem to be the type of column to give updates on Metallica, et al. I read it because it keeps me up with more boundary-pushing forms of metal, which is the type I personally prefer…

what band photo isn’t pretentious?

for some reason i’ve never been able to fully appreciate Xasthur (or Leviathan for that matter)…maybe I should give this one a shot.

Brandon, I see the new Burzum in the frequent rotation section, which I assume means a column is forthcoming. Its leaked and I checked it out yesterday. AMAZING. I liked Belus just fine, but still considered Burzum to have peaked with Filosofem. Not any more…Fallen is just on a whole different level. Can’t wait to pick up the official release, love that album art too. But yeah, I really think its pretty incredible, definitely metal album of the (admittedly young) year so far. We all know the problems involved with praising Burzum, but this time he’s created a musical concept that I think isn’t really comparable to anything else I can think of.

Just remembered…Striborg’s “Southwest Passage” probably deserves a mention somewhere on this thread as well.

I think my only other thoughts on this list are that, personally, I would have had Alcest a lot higher (like top 3, I think that’s just a gorgeous album). Also, since Morne is from 2009, I now must declare the most underrated metal album of the year to be Clair Cassis’ self titled effort. Did you ever hear that one Brandon? Its the folks from Velvet Cacoon up to similar druggy black metal wackiness, maybe a little poppier than VC.

Not much to argue with here, awesome list as always! I will make an argument for Morne’s “Untold Wait” as the most underrated metal album of the year.

the ideology is the one thing that is pretty similar to Striborg…who is awesome…sometimes you need a good dose of nihilism, even if its not well thought out.

for me its kind of the otherwordly aspect. granted, a “growly” vocalist has to get it right for me, and I can be picky about those kinds of vocals (no distortion or effects; many of these vocalists really sound like that!), but when I do like the vocals, its almost like the voice can be a transmission from another world or something, which is something I like to get out of my music. I listen to a lot of punk and indie rock too, and actually didn’t discover extreme metal until later in my musical development, and actually found the vocals to be a big drawing point as they were something different. personally, I tend to find the affected whine of a lot of indie rock vocalists to be a lot more grating than growly vocals, but as you said, its a taste thing.

right now its between this and Alcest for my album of the year so far. one question though…”the day will come” being 20 minutes long? is that an alternate version or something? the only one i’ve seen is a little over 9 minutes.

shit…DRUDKH that is…