Again a year passed.
Picking a list of albums is still hard because of the many good to great releases that came out this year. And it was a lot again that were worth listening.
Over the years I have become more appreciative about other genres. Black metal and more progressive metal gained my interest where brutal slamming death metal disappeared to the background more and more. Still liking some!
It has enriched the variety of music to enjoy but it made it harder to pick a best of list. There is also no time to listen to all thoroughly as I did decades ago.
Some releases just do it for me by the sheer energy they produce with great riffs, like Sammath, Venereal Baptism, Teitanblood, Profane Order, Eggs of Gomorrh.
This same energy level is what I love in grindcore. The love for grindcore goes back to the days of Scum and From Enslavement to Obliteration.
Black metal I really started digging since a couple of years. There are some really good quality black metal bands that know how to pay their gear and know how to write good songs. Typical for black are the vocals, I got used to them and believe they fit the style for what it is. The other typical aspect is the atmosphere they build in the songs. Like clean singing, if it is well done and sparsly used it will add a lot to the experience when listening an album.
The below lists are the ones that stood out after brief scanning of the albums initially and which I remembered to go back to and they were given good amount of attention.
The lists are too long. I can't decide what album is best so I left them all in before deciding who would make the cut.
All albums mentioned below I bought on cd and ripped them to listen when on the road.
Some surprises I found were not in your lists: (Vltimas, Cleric, Reckless Manslaughter, Consumed by Vultures, Ripped to Shreds, Obscure Infinity, Dawn of Disease, Lord Gore, Infernal Conjuration, Festerday, Entrapment, Carnal Tomb, Abnormality)
I hope people like it, pick some from it, buy it and hope to enjoy them as I did.
Best overall:
Musmahhu - Reign of the Odious
Venom Prison - Samsara
Baest - Venenum
Gomorrah - Gomorrah
Orphalis - The Approaching Darkness
Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairvoyance
Vitriol - To Bathe from the Throat of Cowardice
Unfathomable Ruination - Enraged & Unbound
Vltimas - Something Wicked Marches In
Vanum - Ageless Fire
Wretched Fate - Fleshletting
Deus Mortem - Kosmocide
Deathspell Omega - The Furnaces of Palingenesia
Death Metal:
Dictated - Phobos
Embludgeonment - Barn Burner
Hour of Penance - Misotheism
Prostitute Disfigurement - Prostitute Disfigurement
Hate - Auric Gates of Veles
Bodyfarm - Dreadlord
Gods Forsaken - Smells of Death
Sammath - Across the Rhine Is Only Death
Venereal Baptism - Repugnant Coronation of the Beast
Sinners Bleed - Absolution
Altarage - The Approaching Roar
Obscure Infinity - Into the Vortex of Obscurity
Khnvm - Foretold Monuments of Flesh
Consumed by Vultures - Pseudobiblion
Unaussprechlichen Kulten - Teufelsbücher
Ceremony of Silence - Oútis
Vacivus - Annihilism
Horrific Demise - Excruciating Extermination
Nile - Vile Nilotic Rites
Corpseflesh - Rearranged with a 12 Gauge
Mortuary - The Autophagous Reign
Endseeker - The Harvest
Firespawn - Abominate
Order ov Riven Cathedrals - Thermonuclear Sculptures Blackness
Appalling - Inverted Realm
Repugnance - Shrouds of Deceit
Bleeding Utopia - Where the Light Comes to Die
Misery Index - Rituals of Power
Abnormality - Sociopathic Constructs
Witch Vomit - Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave
Goatburner - Extreme Conditions
Disentomb - The Decaying Light
Ad Patres - A Brief Introduction to Human Experiments
Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race
Hideous Divinity - Simulacrum
Disinfect - Abaddon
Omophagia - 646965
Festerday - Iihtallan
Abyssal - A Beacon in the Husk
Black Flame - Necrogenesis Chants from the Grave
Gatecreeper - Deserted
Sentient Horror - Morbid Realms
Reckless Manslaughter - Caverns of Perdition
Ravenous Death - Chapters of an Evil Transition
Obturate - The Bleeding Mask of Dread
Entrails - Rise of the Reaper
Lord Gore - Scalpels for Blind Surgeons
Electrocution - Psychonolatry
Infernal Conjuration - Infernale Metallum Mortis
Carnal Tomb - Abhorrent Veneration
Black Metal:
Dawn Ray'd - Behold Sedition Plainsong
Funereal Presence - Achatius
Mortem - Ravnsvart
Akasha - Canticles Of The Sepulchral Deity
Sinmara – Hvísl Stjarnanna
False - Portent
Calyx - Vientos arcaicos
Misþyrming - Algleymi
Abduction - All Pain as Penance
1349 - The Infernal Pathway
Svartgren - Divlja vatra
Funeral Storm - Arcane Mysteries
Aoratos - Gods Without Name
Ultra Silvam - The Spearwound Salvation
Shrine of Insanabilis - Vast Vortex Litanies
Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult - Mardom
Qayin Regis - Doctrine
Grafvitnir - Venenum Scorpionis
Mgla - Age of Excuse
Tongue - What Do We Know of Horror
Mayhem - Daemon
Abbath - Outstrider
Ænigmatum - Ænigmatum
Yellow Eyes - Rare Field Ceiling
Det Eviga Leendet - Lenience
Wallfahrer - Rattenritual
Vukari - Aevum
Verheerer - Monolith
Véhémence - Par le sang versé
Perverticon - Wounds of Divinity
Nordjevel - Necrogenesis
Technical Thrash/ Death Metal:
Blackwater Burial - The Prison of Belief
Xoth - Interdimensional Invocations
Essence Of Datum - Spellcrying Machine
Equipoise - Demiurgus
Flub - Flub
Freedom of Fear - Nocturnal Gates
Vale of Pnath - Accursed
Contrarian - Their Worm Never Dies
Allegaeon - Apoptosis
Rings Of Saturn - Gidim
Allegaeon - Apoptosis
Demiurgon - The Oblivious Lure
Cognizance - Malignant Dominion
Hannes Grossmann - Apophenia
Crepuscle - Heavenly Skies
Desecravity - Anathema
Singularity - Place of Chains
Continuum - Designed Obsolescence
Hiss from the Moat - The Harrier
Catalyst - The Great Purpose of the Lords
Inanimate Existence - Clockwork
Controversial - Revelation
Fields of Elysium - In Ancient Contemplation
Eschaton - Death Obsession
Progressive Death/ Black:
Raptvre - Monuments of Bitterness
A Novelist - Folie
Obsequiae - The Palms of Sorrowed Kings
Nucleus - Entity
Immanifest - Macrobial
Phlebotomized - Deformation of Humanity
Vircolac - Masque
The Great Old Ones - Cosmicism
Immortal Bird - Thrive on Neglect
Shabti - Trembling and Shorn
Hath - Of Rot and Ruin
Cattle Decapitation - Death Atlas
Shadow of Intent - Melancholy
Kull - Exile
Haunter - Sacramental Death Qualia
Grindcore:
Exhumed - Horror
Unsu - Darkest in the Sun
Phobia - Generation Coward
Besta - Eterno Rancor
No One Knows What The Dead Think - No One Knows What The Dead Think
Distaste - Deibel
Theories - Vessel
Keitzer - Where The Light Ends
Birdflesh - Extreme Graveyard Tornado
Thrash:
Urn - Iron Will of Power
Legion of the Damned - Slaves of the Shadow Realm
Inculter - Fatal Visions
Overkill - The Wings of War
Sadistic Ritual - Visionaire of Death
Critical Defiance - Misconception
Invicta - Halls of Extinction
Oath of Cruelty - Summary Execution at Dawn
Insanity Alert - 666-Pack
The Bleeding - Morbid Prophecy
Ultra Silvam - The Spearwound Salvation
Barbarian - To No God Shall I Kneel
Possessed - Revelations of Oblivion
FreaKings - Rise of Violence
Bloodthirst - I Am Part of That Power Which Eternally Wills Evil and Eternally Works Wrong
EP:
Rotten Pope - The Aufhocker
Fleshmeadow - Daymares
Man Must Die - Gagging Order
Vader - Thy Messenger
Wormed - Metaportal
Noisem - Cease to Exist
Ogarya - Inclination
Ripper - Sensory Stagnation
Suffering Hour - Dwell
Xantam - Altered State
Ripped to Shreds - 魔經 - Demon Scriptures
Oniricous - La maldición
Eggs Of Gomorrh - Outpregnate
Critic - Éveil de l'esprit
Hate Manifesto - Herald of Triumph
Mother's Tomb - Absent Not Dead
Ingested - Call of the Void
Honorable mentions:
Organectomy - Existential Disconnect
Superstition - The Anatomy of Unholy Transformation
Sun Worship - Emanations of Desolation
Cirith Gorgor - Sovereign
Sorcery - Necessary Excess of Violence
Prolapsed - The Condemned
Concrete Winds - Primitive Force
Iron Flesh - Forged Faith Bleeding
Defecrator - Abortion of Humanity
Pissgrave - Posthumous Humiliation
Beheaded - Only Death Can Save You
Pathology - Reborn to Kill
Paroxysmal Butchering - Amygdala
Antropomorphia - Merciless Savagery
Parental Advisory - Aetas Anthropophagorum
Oblivion - Oblivion
Nihility - Thus Spoke the Antichrist
Entrapment - Imminent Violent Death
Cosmic Putrefaction - At the Threshold of the Greatest Chasm