Go and live your passion

  It is again that time of the year when we reflect back and prepare the AOTY lists. As usual, I have a Black Metal Top List, Death Metal Top List, and AOTY List of course. And here we go! Here's MY TOP 50 BLACK METAL ALBUMS OF 2024 list - the black metal albums I liked the most, made the best impression, and spent the most time with. Probably this list is too unkvlt, to pretentious, too colorful or contains equally some mainstream hipster albums along with some UG ones. So what?! Did I like the albums? Yes. Are they good? Yes.  In fact, there are 51 names there, starting from 0 because, above all the 2024 releases, there is a release that was recorded live in 2015 and represents a 1999 album. Technically it’s not a new album. However Marduk's Beast of Prey is the most intense and tight thing you can hear in 2024, not only in the black metal sphere. After that comes the whole list with 50 new releases, so in total 51 albums are present there. I can fairly say that Paysage d’Hi...

November brought a lot of new albums and some quality. This is how I can describe it; the present list proves it. It is a long list. I decided to include (almost) everything I liked. A list of 20 and then another 16 that made me a good impression. I wanted to leave the 16 as a reminder to revisit because there is something in them. Slow burners? Nah, they are better in comparison to many in the huge pile. There are more records in my notebook that didn't make the cut, but it is a far too long list anyway. - Ulver delivered in the very end of the month and won over Paysage d'Hiver the album of the month prize! My love for synth Ulver is enormous and it is another magnificent album that transcends me into spaces and times.  - Paysage's new album is fantastic as well, much in the veins of Im Wald. This is the main reason I liked it so much.  - Nekus really completes the top 3 with their cavernous death doom and I can say that it is what the new Spectral Voice should have been....

I decided to make the present list in response to a list with the 50 finest Norwegian albums across time, prepared by a famous metalhead on Threads. The condition: one album per band, in alphabetical order! These are my choices of the finest heresy that I love and I often return to listen.   I started, and I listed down 80+ records. Then, instead of trimming everything down to 50 (because I am lazy about this), I made this list featuring 99 bands and albums. I am throwing everything here just for the history... Your list might be different, and that's absolutely fine.  1 1349 - Massive Cauldron of Chaos 2 Aeternus - Beyond the Wandering Moon 3 Arcturus - Aspera Hiems Symponia 4 Aura Noir - Black Thrash Attack 5 Avmakt - Satanic inversion of… 6 Blood Red Throne - Altered Genesis 7 Borknagar - Borknagar 8 Burzum - Hvis lyset tar oss 9 Cadaver - …In Pains 10 Carpathian Forest - Black Shining Leather 11 Celestial Bloodshed - Cursed, Scarred and Forever P...

Before really sitting and preparing the list with my favorite October'24 releases, I thought it would take a lot of work to select among the hundreds of new albums released this month. However, it turned into an easy task in the end. I selected quickly from my notes what made me the best impression, what brought me some emotion, and what I felt was good. Therefore I ended with a top 21 list, in kind of an order, while I expected a long post with tiers of albums divided by their quality and style... Anyway, here's my list with some thoughts on my top albums released in October 2024. For sure I'll take a few to my AOTY list in December! There was one album that stood above all this month. Absolute Elsewhere is the absolute Album of the Month and a very obvious candidate for AOTY 2024. The album was released on the 3 October and quickly gained popularity. The expectations were high and rightfully so. BLOOD INCANTATION's unique blend of death metal mixed with cinematic-so...

Here comes the flood again. Drowning. Erasing everything on its way. Ladies and gentlemen, the release schedule is at its finest. September 2024 was crazy, literally in every aspect - personal and musical. This time I decided to make this list a little bit different. Because, why not? September was all about black metal. So many black metal releases were out in the past month. Some of them quickly won my heart. That's why I split this list into two parts - The Black Metal of 2024 and The Other of September 2024. It is not that one is superior to the other, but it is more excessive. I know it is exhausting and it looks quite unprofessional not to manage everything in one whole list, but then I was going to land with a very very long list this time.  By the way, did I mention, that I listened to many of klassiks again, being tired of the flood?  I am going to start with my biggest disappointment - the new Unto Others album. It is nowhere as good as their previous works. Soulless...

Overall, August was a weak month, and I am so at peace with that. The release schedule was in the normal levels in terms of quantity. The quality was low, with a handful of decent albums. However, I don't expect even some of the best August releases which I listed below, to stay in time or turn into klassiks.  I gathered 15 pieces to include in the final monthly list, in no particular order. For me, these were the finest August releases. Once again I don't have a clear favourite album of the month. It all depends on the mood, I guess. I must share that the new music doesn't matter much to me nowadays. I am not very excited about it. It just makes me return to the klassiks more and more, finding peace and soothing my soul there. Probably because it was another busy month, I was swamped again, and the music from my past gave me emotions and strength. Yes, it does. OK, another month is gone, and another list with monthly releases is done. ✅  Let's move on. NILE - The Under...

July 2024 included my birthday and another year in my life is now gone. Here I talk about music though, so my quick verdict for the release schedule of the past month is simple - a weak month. A weak summer month in terms of quality and quantity. In fact the month featured not many releases indeed and thanks god. I always talk about the neverending pile of new albums every month, and I felt better in July. It was easier for me to find the grain from the chaff.  Somehow I made a decent selection of top 20 July releases below, but how many of these will stay - I really don't know. Some good UG stuff and I encourage you to check these 20 albums. These are my top choices, the good albums for the weak month of their release. No clear winner as "album of the month" in this list, and this says enough too.  Enjoy! VIMUR - The Timeless Everpresent Release Date: 5 July Bandcamp SIJJEEL - Affiliation of Horrid Containment Release Date: 5 July Bandcamp CEREMONY OF SILENCE - H​á​lios ...