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Metal Chris’ Favorite Black Metal Albums of 2019

It’s the week after Christmas but before New Year’s and everyone has been posting their year end lists. I figured I’d join in the fun this year with a few of my own. This is my black metal list but I also have a death metal list (here) and a doom/stoner (here). I definitely listened to these genres disproportionately the most in 2019. The albums are not ranked so they’re in order of release date. They’re not meant to be “the best albums of the year” but they are my personal favorites of the year, the ones I kept coming back to listen to again and again.

Veldes – Flameless
Self released January 4, 2019
Veldes is from Slovenia and their sound is perfect to put on the headphones for a solo walk through the woods. They blend the epicness of bands like Saor with the attachment to nature akin to the Cascadian black metal bands and somehow make it all really catchy and moving at the same time.

Rotting Christ – The Heretics
Released February 15, 2019 by Season Of Mist
One of the earliest and most famous of the Greek black metal bands, Rotting Christ has changed their sound several times over their 30+ year history. These days they blend elements of that classic Hellenic black metal epic sound with gothic and melo black metal elements. Sometimes their albums are far off the mark but The Heretics hit the bullseye with unique and diverse songs. Their local tie in is their rendition of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem “The Raven” which you can hear on the player below.

Ellende – Lebensnehmer
Released March 29, 2019 by Art of Propaganda
Lukas Gosch is the mastermind and sole member of Ellende, everyone else in this Austrian band is a hired hand. There have been a lot of bands playing the post-black metal sound since Alcest started blending shoegaze with black metal over a decade ago, but while some of these bands have veered far into hipster territory Ellende has managed to keep enough brutality and mournful sorrow in with the atmospheric elements to keep the band firmly in the more black metal than gaze side of the spectrum.

Misþyrming – Algleymi
Released May 24, 2019 by Norma Evangelium Diaboli
The black metal scene in Iceland is very strong right now and 2019 saw a slew of great releases by bands like Sinmara, Andavald and even a Wormlust / Skáphe collab album, however Algleymi by Misþyrming rises above them all as the island nation’s stand out release in 2019. This album is aggressive and melodic and the songs are diverse and creative so that it warrants multiple playthroughs without becoming boring. Misþyrming translates to “mistreatment” but this album is anything but.

Батюшка (Krzysztof Drabikowski) – Панихида
Self-released May 26, 2019
A public schism and ensuing legal battle over the name Batushka have resulted in multiple versions of the Polish band after their debut album, Litourgiya, was released in 2015. Both versions of the band released albums this year but Krysztof Drabikowski showed that while the other version may have better marketing and production, you can’t beat or imitate the feel of his songwriting. Continuing the band’s sound of combining Gregorian monk style chanting with black metal, Панихида is the rightful sophomore album from one of the most unique sounding bands in black metal right now.

Yellow Eyes – Rare Field Ceiling
Released June 28, 2019 by Gilead Media
The only fully American band on this list, Yellow Eyes have a very distinct sound drenched in distortion but with a foundation in melody that is somehow both off putting and infectious at once. The band is from New York City and Rare Field Ceiling‘s sound is perfect listening while wandering a bleak urban landscape. I also have some personal attachments to this album that I won’t get into here, but this is a release that I’m sure I will be enjoying for years to come.

Voidsphere – To Exist | To Breathe
Released July 25, 2019 by Amor Fati Productions
Black metal fans have always loved the genre’s underground collectives such as the Norwegian Inner Circle, Les Légions Noires and the Black Twilight Circle. Voidsphere is my favorite of the ПРАВА КОЛЛЕКТИВ (Prava Kollektiv), a group of bands that have been putting out releases that are dissonant and dark, even by black metal standards. Voidsphere is distinct in that their songs are all lo-fi, very long (around 20 minutes plus), and basically sounds like you’re endlessly falling into a black hole over an eternity.

Asagraum – Dawn of Infinite Fire
Released September 13, 2019 by Edged Circle Productions
Asagraum is an all female black metal band but don’t let stereotypes fool you, this release is the most aggressive on the list. It isn’t all fury akin to Medea though as there are breaks where the band shows their ability to slow down a bit to build up tension. This adds a needed dynamic contrast to the blasting. Solid riffs and raspy vocals are the standard of this Dutch band.

Blut Aus Nord – Hallucinogen
Released September 20, 2019 by Debemur Morti Productions
The French band Blut Aus Nord is almost like the Neurosis of black metal in that they have a long history of changing their sound over the years yet continue to put out top notch material. With a title like Hallucinogen you might expect something closer to Oranssi Pazuzu’s psychedelic black metal but the album is not that spacey and has more progressive and melodic influences. They are definitely experimenting with some new things here too, for example the song “Mahagma” sounds like Blut Aus Nord’s take on the Batushka chanting sound.

Vástígr – Aura Aeternitatis
Released September 27, 2019 by Avantgarde Music
The second Austrian band on this list, Vástígr has a modern take on melodic black metal without the campy cheese the sub genre is sometimes guilty of. This is Vástígr’s first release but it is quite impressive. The album cover art perfectly captures the cold and isolated sound of Aura Aeternitatis, reminiscent of trodding through the snow on the side of a mountain with the grim reaper hot on your heels. The catchyness and beauty of these songs have kept me coming back.

Dawn Ray’d – Behold Sedition Plainsong
Released October 25, 2019 by Prosthetic Records
Dawn Ray’d is a UK based anarchist band with a solid anti-fascism and anti-bigotry stance, something that is unfortunately not common enough in black metal. This is the band’s sophomore release and they’ve taken leaps forward with their songwriting. Their sound blends black metal with folk elements and has a certain primitive rawness to it that ties it all together perfectly.

Schammasch – Hearts Of No Light
Released November 8, 2019 by Prosthetic Records
This was a late comer this year but wow what a release by Swiss band Schammasch. These songs weave pure darkness in a very dramatic and gripping way. It is never about any specific riff or drum beat but the overall feel of these songs. No matter the tempo they are dripping in tension, apprehension and utter darkness. The dark vibe they have captured here is distinctly black metal in nature and one I will be relistening to well into the next decade.

December 27, 2019
Categories: Album Reviews, Black Metal . Tags: 2019, 2019 Year End Lists, Asagraum, Batushka, Black Metal, Blut Aus Nord, Dawn Ray’d, Батюшка, Ellende, Krzysztof Drabikowski, Misþyrming, Rotting Christ, Schammasch, Vástígr, Veldes, Voidsphere, Yellow Eyes . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: Leave a comment

Metal Marathon – Days 4, 5 and 6

Ok, so my Metal Marathon posts are a bit behind, but I’m still going to recap them because the shows I saw during those 9 days were just too damn good. This is my second of three posts covering the 11 concerts and I’m going to recap the metal concerts I went to from Tuesday, March 8th 2011 through Thursday March 10th in this post. Three great shows, especially considering they were all in the middle of the work week.

On Tuesday I borrowed a friend’s car and drove to Silver Spring after work to catch a DIY show at the Corpse Fortress. The touring band was Earthling and they were playing with Baltimore based Revolta and the DC band Spine Buster. There was also a surprise set by Ilsa at the end of the night. Spine Buster had just started their set when I got there, and they were pretty entertaining but Harrisonburg, Virginia’s Earthling came out and just shredded for their entire set. They played what must have been the longest set of the night and it was high energy and just a lot of fun to be there for. I hope they play around here again because they really are worth seeing again. If you don’t believe me check out the thrashtastic video I’ve got of them at the bottom of this post. The video quality sucks visually but the audio is great and it’s a killer song! The next band to play was Revolta, a sort of punkish thrash band from Baltimore. I’d seen them a few weeks before at the Candlehaus with Fatal, though they had another guitarist then. Their set seemed a bit short this time, I think there were outside time constraints going on that were made worse since Ilsa was still yet to play. Ilsa did play a good but short set, I think it was basically a practice for their show coming up on Saturday opening for Dropdead (more on that show in my next post). I’m not sure why, but the band’s vocalist, Orion, started puking all over the floor at the end of the set. You gotta admit that it’s pretty damn metal to be barfing your guts out, mic in hand, while your band plays. I’m really glad that I wasn’t the one who had to clean that mess up! In all the show was a lot of fun and the venue was really laid back, even for a house show, and I got to talk to a lot of great people all night between sets. It was really a fun atmosphere and a great experience for my first show at the Corpse Fortress.

The next show on my list was Rotting Christ and Melechesh on Wednesday the 9th of March at Jaxx. If you go to a lot of metal shows in the DC area you’re going to find yourself at Jaxx sooner or later and fittingly this was the only venue I’d be at twice during my Metal Marathon. Some people complain about various aspects of the venue but at the end of the day, they are the only place in this area that will play any number of international metal bands and if it wasn’t for them I’d surely have seen a lot less of my favorite bands from Europe and even farther away. This night was a perfect example of this fact when the Greek band Rotting Christ headlined a show with Israel’s Melechesh. Two great black metal acts that happen to not be from Scandinavia. The tour also features the Polish black metal act Hate but they weren’t able to make it to this gig, the first show of the tour. When I got there Melechesh was getting ready to play and I quickly secured a spot in the very front. These guys are one of my favorite bands these days and I was really excited to get to see them again. They had played their first US concert ever at last year’s Maryland Deathfest (my extensive recap of that is here) and this night’s show at Jaxx was going to be their second US show. Their set at MDF had been cut short and they had a new album out since then too, so this concert’s set was longer and featured new material too. Simply put, they hit the stage and just killed it. Yeah I’m pretty biased about these guys but even most of the people I talked to afterwards said they also thought Melechesh had put on the better show. Their sound is certainly black metal but with a distinct middle eastern bent and they have some really catchy riffs that really make the sound work. That all said, Rotting Christ didn’t put on a bad show by any means. Their set was heavy with a lot of songs from their latest album, Aealo, which is ok but I think their album previous to that, Theogonia is the best of their 20+ year career. They did play several songs from that too, but the last time I saw them they were touring in support of that album and the setlist was just superior. They didn’t play much of their older material though. I was hoping they’d play some of their classics like Under The Name Of Legion and Sorrowful Farewell but I guess they’re trying to appeal more to their newer fans. I enjoyed the material they did play and combined with the set by Melechesh would say this show was definitely worth the price of admission.

Thursday the 10th of March was the sixth day of my nine day Metal Marathon and since my car was in the shop I found myself in need of a ride to see Atheist play at Sonar in Baltimore. Luckily one of my readers, a really cool guy named James (who I’ve run into at a few shows now after this night) gave me a lift in the pouring rain up to Charm City. This show was a bit of an odd line up. While I was there to see Atheist and catch opening act Revocation, I didn’t care about some of the metalcore opening acts, A Life Once Lost or Last Chance To Reason. This show was the first time I’d seen Revocation and they certainly come from the Galder school of on stage facial expressions. They were making all kinds of faces during their highly energetic set. I’d heard they were a good band live but even so I didn’t expect them to be that entertaining. They also played a cover of the Death classic Pull The Plug which is always a good way to get extra points from me. My only problem with their set was that they weren’t the last support act for Atheist. After they played A Life Once Lost hit the stage. I wasn’t familiar with their material but it seemed to be pretty typical metalcore, which I’m not a fan of and after a couple songs I’d heard enough and found my way to the bar for a beer I’d gladly enjoy out in the hall. After some good conversations out there, I went back in while Atheist was setting up to get right up front for taking some pictures. Atheist is a progressive technical death metal jazz fusion band. Yeah, that’s quite a description but pretty much sums them up. They were around in the late 80s/early 90s Florida death metal scene but broke up in 1994. They reunited in 2006 with guitarist Kelly Shaeffer sticking to just the vocals because he was unable to continue playing guitar due to some medical issues. I saw them play at Jaxx in July of 2009 but this time they had an album of new material, their first in 17 years, and this was the first tour that they’d be playing any of the new songs live. Luckily the new album, Jupiter, kicks ass and fits in with their older songs perfectly. The set was pretty awesome except for two things really, they skipped over Mother Man which was on the setlist, and their final song, Piece Of Time, was totally screwy due to technical difficulties. Those are my two favorite Atheist songs so that kinda sucked, but otherwise the show was great. They have a unique sound that fans of either technical heavy metal or jazz will enjoy, not just people who are fans of both. The band is really tight live and it sure is fun watching them play those kick ass tunes in person. The audience begged for an encore but guitarist Chris Baker came out on stage and said they couldn’t because of the technical difficulties they were having. Sort of a shitty way to end the night but what else could they do?

Well, that’s what I did on days four, five and six of my nine day Metal Marathon. You can read about the Metal Marathon plan here or about the concerts I saw on the first three days here. My next post will be covering the four concerts I went to in the final three days. So stay tuned to hear about my impressions on concerts by Meek Is Murder, Dropdead, Trap Them and Apocalyptica in my next post. Until then you can check out some of the videos I shot over days four, five and six of the Metal Marathon below or go to my YouTube page to see all of them. You can also check out my Flickr set here that has pics I’ve posted from this awesome string of concerts.