Arguably the best set I saw this year was at NYC’s Martyrdoom Fest, a four-day affair that went down over the summer at the Brooklyn metal bar/venue Saint Vitus, featuring a bill of underground black and doom metal bands from all over the world, most of which you’d assume were on the no-fly list. Behexen, Forteresse, Mournful Congregation, One Tail One Head, and many more played, and while it’s a spoiled metal fan who would pick a favorite out of everyone there, I’m going to go ahead and say Sargeist were the best. Their furious, incredible performance of what unfurled like a best-of set whipped the crowd into a frenzy, and Doug Moore and I may have lost our collective shit. (I said “arguably” up top because I managed to make it backstage to watch Agalloch the next night.) That set was a special moment, but we were all treated to new Sargeist this year, and the Finnish black metal band have never sounded filthier. Sargeist’s Feeding The Crawling Shadows is a putridly necro, cobweb-cloaked work of hopelessness that, somehow, true to Sargeist fashion, is melodic and catchy as hell. Rarely does black metal sound so totally good and so goddamn evil. –Wyatt [LISTEN]