The Thurible Presents: Halfway There, 2016 Edition

I've been gone for a while.

I just emerged from several intensive weeks of my master's program, and I've got a week or so of respite before I plunge back in. That makes this the perfect time for a rundown of the best music of this half of 2016; both the free releases I've reviewed and the mainstream stuff I haven't.

8 Best Metal Albums of 2016 (Halfway There Edition)


1. Vektor - Terminal Redux

These aren't in order, by the way, but if they were this progressive sci-fi thrashterpiece would be right at the top, as I imagine it will be still at the end of the year list. Terminal Redux does everything right: the riffs are heavy and complex, the production is crisp and clear, the drumming is fast and relentless, the solos are insane, and David DiSanto's Dani Filth-esque snarl perfectly compliments the band's high-speed aggression. Though not a single song dips under a five-minute runtime (and most go much longer), Vektor pack so much into every track that you're never left waiting for them to end. If you want to hear the best single piece of guitar music of this year, here it is. Hold on to your spacesuits.


2. ColdWorld - Autumn

ColdWorld's Autumn captures the transcendence of sorrow—the way death brings us closer not only to mortality but also to eternity. The superficial simplicity of ColdWorld's songwriting conceals a mastery of atmosphere and melody and an emotional weight that most depressive black metal albums can only aspire to. The artful and subtle use of clean vocals, acoustic instruments, and ambient synths only underscores Georg Börner's incredible skill as a musician, but the soaring, bittersweet melodies at the heart of every track on Autumn are what really make the album so exceptional.


3. Cobalt - Slow Forever

"Nothing sounds like this" is high praise from me. It's even higher praise when I'm talking about a black metal album. Drawing melodic inspiration from Southern rock, Cobalt crafted a black metal record that drips like molasses and rolls like the Mississippi. It's also as angry as drunk ex-marine and hits like a shotgun. Basically, it's the most American black metal album since Roads to the North and I love it.


4. Blood Ceremony - Lord of Misrule

Call it retro metal, occult rock, or scooby-doom: Blood Ceremony are some of the best in metal's newest niche. Lord of Misrule tones down the heaviness a notch or two, but all the other elements that make a great Blood Ceremony album are still around, including the organ and flute work, folk influences, chunky riffs, earworm hooks, and occult-inspired lyrics. Alia O'Brien vocals are, as usual, the standout attraction in this spooky sideshow.


5. Spellcaster - Night Hides The World

Big hooks, big riffs—Night Hides The World isn't short on the things that made classic metal fun and fantastical. Not that Spellcaster are some sort of nostalgia act—there's plenty of modern polish on Night Hides The World and Tyler Loney's clean, full vocals owe more to modern hard rock than to the raspy metal grandmasters of old. Rather, Spellcaster put a fresh spin on classic metal elements, bringing pop sensibilities and 21st century production to the catchy riffs and soaring hooks of speed metal. Good luck getting these songs out of your head.


6. Lycus - Chasms

Lycus are masters of cavernous, menacing funeral doom. Chasms, like 2013's Tempest, is the Oakland band doing what they do best. The songs are long, atmospheric, and strike the perfect balance between beautiful and terrible (as in Ivan the Terrible, not "The Room is a terrible film"). It's an album that demands patience, but full immersion in this slow doom metal procession will take you to mysterious and unexpected places.


7. Castle - Welcome to the Graveyard

Castle aren't the most original band on this list. They borrow the best bits from classic bands like Black Sabbath and Mercyful Fate, but Castle have a knack for making songs that are simultaneously incredibly familiar and completely new. Welcome to the Graveyard probably won't make the top of any end-year lists, but I bet it will get a fair few more spins than plenty of highly-acclaimed albums will.


8. Eight Bells - Landless

Probably the ultimate band to watch from this year. Near-impossible to categorize—Landless incorporates elements of doom, black metal, prog, and the same layered, ethereal vocals used to great effect by Myrkur—Eight Bells push a lot of boundaries. But like Dead to a Dying World, the eclecticism of Eight Bells' style belies the band's unity of  tone and atmosphere. The bleak seascape on Landless cover isn't just stylistic—it perfectly conveys the isolated melancholy that inhabits every song on this fascinating album.

8 Best "Back To Bandcamp" Releases of 2016 (Halfway There Edition)

These are in order, and you'll notice (who am I kidding, no you won't) that some albums I gave a "highly recommended" to aren't on this list, whereas some that were just "recommended" are. Hindsight is a funny thing. Some albums stick with you more than others.


1. Heretic Rites - In Satan's Claws
(https://hereticrites.bandcamp.com/album/in-satans-claws)

These guys are going to be huge if there is any justice in the world. With such a unique sound already nailed down by their second demo, Heretic Rites have everything going for them. The hour of occult garage rock is nearly at hand. Let the unbelievers tremble.


2. Ghost Witch - Demo
(https://ghostwitchdoom.bandcamp.com/album/demo)

The Thurible ran one of the first (if not the first) reviews of Ghost Witch's debut demo. In that review, I compared them to Windhand—a fair and common enough comparison, but one that doesn't really get to the heart of what makes Ghost Witch so exceptional. Sure, their brand of doom is slow and melodic, but there's also an ethereal, mysterious quality... no, I can't place it. Whatever it is, Ghost Witch have something special, and they're sure to have one hell of a proper debut.


3. Black Mantra - From The Grave of Madness
(https://black-mantra.bandcamp.com/album/from-the-graves-of-madness-ep)

This Brazillian band's blend of doomy heaviness, stoner psychedelia, and gothic theatrics still gets me. It's a really distinct sound done pretty damn well, which is really all I ask of a band. That Black Mantra chose to blend several different elements I already fancied just sweetens the deal. This is one of the rare albums that I went back to discover that, yes, it was just as good as I remembered. Maybe even a little better.


4. Blackend Horizon - Monotonous Solitude Within Cold Forests
(https://blackendhorizon.bandcamp.com/album/monotonous-solitude-within-cold-forests)

Monotonous Solitude Within Cold Forests makes 8-bit black metal seem incredibly obvious. "How," it demands, "has no one thought of this before?" I don't know. We came up with harmonica black metal first, so we're clearly doing something wrong.


5. Necrolytic Goat Converter - Demo MMXVI
(https://necrogoatconverter.bandcamp.com/releases)

Behind Necrolytic Goat Converter, the Childish Gambino of black metal band names, is Chris Voss, a man that somehow took up recording black metal as personal therapy and ended up writing some of the best black metal tunes of 2016. Combining his love of classic black metal riffs with his more than decent songwriting chops, Voss whipped up some of the best, most straightforward bedroom black metal I've ever heard. And if we're lucky, Chris Voss may find that he's an even better songwriter when he's not conjuring up frosty riffs for therapy.


6. Louisiana Sadness - Swale

Also known as Swamp People: The Doom Metal Album, Swale feels murky, mucky and hazy—exactly the way a band called Louisiana Sadness ought to feel. Part Southern gothic, part bayou sludge, this instrumental record may not be perfect, but when it hits that atmosphere just right on tracks like "Southern Hatred," all is forgiven.


7. Pyre of Ash - Scattered Toward The Glens

This single impressed me with its incredible polish, emotional intensity, and Panopticon-esque atmospheric black metal sound. Pyre of Ash has since released a full EP, which I missed (fancy that). If it's anything like this stellar single, it just might make the overall end-year list.


8. Behold Darkness - Unholy Filth
(https://psalm88.bandcamp.com/album/unholy-filth)

There's nothing particularly original about Unholy Filth as a black metal record, except the production. The mix's emphasis on lower tones gives the album an extremely unique feel, transforming what would be a pretty good, slavishly traditional project into a fascinating lofi listen. It helps that I'm a sucker for anything that this devoted to the Norwegian black metal masters. 

The Thurible's Top 10 Metal Albums of 2015

1. Obsequiae - Aria of Vernal Tombs

It takes a lot for a band in an overcrowded genre like black metal to carve out a sound so distinct that they're instantly recognizable, and even more for that band to move beyond an attention grabbing gimmick to a complete sound. Yet Obsequiae's Aria of Vernal Tombs does both. Combining gorgeous harp interludes with medieval black metal melodies, this album transports the listener to moss-covered ruins and abandoned monastery gardens on the wings of its delicate riffs. Much like Panopticon's Roads to the North did a year ago, this album blew me away with it originality, mastery, and evocative quality. Aria of Vernal Tombs truly is a journey to ages past.

Favorite Track: "In the Absence of Light"

2. Ghost - Meliora

This is it. This is the defining metal act of our generation. Combining doomy hard rock with new-found progressive sensibilities and the same goofy shtick they've been rocking since day one, Meliora finally perfects these Swedish enigmas' formula and delivers one insidious earworm after another. From the triumphant "Spirit" to the equally exultant "Deus In Absentia," Ghost never miss a beat. Whoever Ghost are (I'm not saying some of them show up on this list again, but Tribulation sure sound Ghost-y at times), it's about time the music lived up to the legend. Hail Papa.

Favorite Track: "From the Pinnacle to the Pit"

3. Panopticon - Autumn Eternal

Austin Lunn of Panopticon concludes his three-album love affair with the vast solitude of the Kentucky wilderness in majestic form. On track after track, Lunn captures the beauty and loneliness of dense mountain woods, black lakes and distant white peaks. While Autumn Eternal lacks the bluegrass instrumentation so prominent in Panopticon previous two albums, the rich, post-rock influenced atmospheres are a very welcome addition. As American black metal continues to develop, Autumn Eternal will likely become a touchstone for bands that unite beautiful post-metal melodies with Norwegian black metal's celebration of frost-covered forests glistening on a late autumn night.

Favorite Track: "Into the North Woods"

4. Dead to a Dying World - Litany

It's rare that black or doom metal feels like a work of genius. After all, heavy metal is an unapologetically derivative genre–deeply committed to paying homage and meeting expectations. And while this means that a good black or doom metal band can deliver a dozen solid albums in career, works that completely floor the listener are hard to come by.

That's what makes Litany so special–it's emotional, visceral, masterfully composed, beautifully performed, and most importantly, highly original. There's not a minute of filler on this momentous work, despite its lengthy songs and numerous instrumental passages. Don't let this metal masterpiece pass you by.

Favorite Track: "Eventide"

5. Myrkur - M

I can't deny that Myrkur's first proper album is amateurish at times–some of the transitions are still awkward, and the screamed vocals buried under heaps of distortion and reverb grate just as much as they did on her debut. Yet Myrkur's inexperience is united to an earnestness and a genuine talent for crafting gorgeous atmospheres and melodies that no other black metal band comes close to capturing. Unlike many self-professed "folk" metal bands, Myrkur's integration of Danish carols into black metal feels completely natural, and unlike many recent post-black metal albums, the M doesn't feel like it's being made beautiful against its will. Let the kvltists weep–this Danish model makes more interesting black metal than most scene veterans, and it can only get better from here.

Favorite Track: "Onde Børn"

6. Tribulation - The Children of the Night

The Children of the Night is Tribulation's answer to a black and death metal scene that's forgotten how to make rock music. Like fellow Scandinavian black 'n' rollers Kvelertak, Tribulation infuse their aggressive sound with punk energy and big hooks, producing extreme metal that's surprisingly listenable and even fun. Unlike Kvelertak, however, Tribulation still deliver plenty of black metal menace and theatrics (not unlike another spooky Swedish band that made this list) with their evident love of classic horror and church organs. Heavy metal you can hum along to is back from the dead.

Favorite Track: "Melancholia"

7. Windhand - Grief's Eternal Flower

I'm embarrassed by how little time I spent listening to this album this year, but what few listens I squeezed in left a huge impression. As the 2010s doom metal revival and corresponding hipster fascination with the genre appears to be winding down, Grief's Eternal Flower likely represents the best of doom metal to come–slow, crunchy, and heavy on melody. There's nothing particularly innovative about Windhand, but this album encapsulates all the best elements of the doom revival, from the haunting vocals to the lumbering drum marches and bluesy riffs. In the year of uplifting black metal, doom got even more gloomy.

Favorite Track: "Forest Clouds"

8. Liturgy - The Ark Work

I really, really wanted to hate this album. It's pretentious, pompous, self-important music made by pretentious, pompous, self-important people for a pretentious, pompous, self-important listening public.

Turns out I'm pretentious, pompous, and self-important too, because I can't stop listening to this ungodly smörgåsbord of trendy hipster tripe.

Favorite track: "Reign Away"

9. Elder - Lore

I've heard Elder described as what you would get if prog band from the seventies had been introduced to Mastodon by a meddling time traveler. It's not a bad comparison–Elder combine modern stoner rock's penchant for rugged riffage with the innovation and ponderous song constructions of 70s prog. By injecting high-energy heavy metal into prog rock's meandering opuses, Elder makes their 10-minute apiece songs surprisingly approachable and brings a much needed straightforwardness to a genre notorious for what is essentially musical wankery. There's still plenty of shredding and possibly drug-induced weirdness, but it comes in a package fans of both Rush and Pallbearer should appreciate.

Favorite Track: "Compendium"

10. Ghost Bath - Moonlover

So Ghost Bath's "depressive black metal band from Chongqing" turned out to be a mix of branding and black metal blogs getting carried away. So what? These North Dakotans (spoiler alert) still play some of the best post-black metal around, and Moonlover is a step up from their already excellent debut. If a good sophomore album is more of the same (but better), Moonlover hits all the right notes: more bittersweet melodies, more desperation, more lonely interludes, and much better shrieks–the only major weakness on Funeral. Don't dismiss this controversial act–they're more than Deafheaven in yellowface.

Favorite Track: "Golden Number"