Joe Farrell Just when you think that maybe you have enough old-school black metal in your collection, along comes Mortem, and you discover that for something of this caliber, there's room for one more after all.

YomaBarr All signs on earth and in hell say this will be a beast. Thanks, Eisenwald!

update: this album bangs! 🙂

dmpete666 Their two demos were album-quality, but I never thought I’d hear any new material from Serpent Lord. So this album is a fantastic surprise 20+ years later! Majestic pagan black metal of the caliber you’d expect from their other bands (Uada, Ceremonial Castings, Mysticism Black). Get lost wandering the depths of the forest on this one!! Favorite track: Forever on the Grounds of Battle.

VenoMal1c3 These guys never disappoint. I don't think they know how.
Technical enough to keep us musicians happy without overdoing it or losing the masses. The perfect amount of symphonics/synths. Great vocals. Still tears your fucking head off.
Love it. Even with the missing lyrics. Favorite track: Apocalypse Canvas.

p.marg The intro feels like me fighting Spotify in court! Favorite track: The Facets of Propaganda.

thekurtaction Impenetrable at first but stuffed with great musicianship and composition. Deathcore for people who like emotional range. Favorite track: Feeding the Meatgrinder (feat. Corpsegrinder).

John Chaos Alexander Astoundly out there Black Metal, I love the experimentation, the sporadic discordance , Yeah! there's something about this I fuckin' love \M/ Favorite track: Divide et Impera.

thornbiter This sounds kinda like someone ritually murdered the remaining members of both Root and Pineal Ventana and then immediately raised their corpses to the task of forming a new band before the synapses broke down entirely. And I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.

BoboDupla Yep, yep, yep. This is indeed weird. But fascinating and inventive. Loving the vibe and the execution of this musical nightmare.

YomaBarr DEBUT OF THE YEAR so far, and I think it will easily make my overall list too. Where did this creature crawl from?

Occult black metal with sax and trumpet in front rather than guitars and batshit crazy. Completely devilish too. Don't listen before bed folks.

Hekatomb? Is that you? Some of the riffs and musical phrases are downright Hekatombian... Another case of great minds thinking alike.

Nocturnal Egg (Jordan) Imperialist est-il conscient de son talent au point de le sous-entendre dans ses titres ? Peut-être : avec Zenith, il atteignait déjà le sommet de sa maturité et la chute n'est pas pour tout de suite — puisse-t-elle ne jamais arriver !
Dans Prime, son troisième opus, il se surpasse au point d'éclipser les concurrents du genre. L'agression y est tempérée par des morceaux de bravoure, des ambiances spectaculaire et de la théâtralité dans le chant : on voyage de planète en planète ! C'est superbe ! Favorite track: Beneath The Sands Of Titan.

iceveiled Strap in for another supernova of Gargantua-infused interstellar black metal from Imperialist! Probably their best effort since Cipher, and certainly their best produced album to date. Can't wait for the next one! Say it don't spray it, slick! Favorite track: Starstorm.

nothingface023 Incredible job, gents! Starstorm is such a killer track. Favorite track: Starstorm.