Year-End Lists

Top 25 of 2025

 

  1. River Cult – High Anxiety
  2. Secret Cutter – ///
  3. Psychonaut – World Maker
  4. Collapsed Vein – Pain Communion
  5. Ghostsmoker – Inertia Cult
  6. Drowned in Silver – Mothers
  7. Corvus Corone – Buried in the Autumn Shade
  8. Stone Machine Electric – Faces
  9. Messa – The Spin
  10. Рожь (Rye) – Знание
  11. Malevich – Under a Gilded Sun
  12. Daevar – Sub Rosa (review)
  13. Breaths – Death Can Wait
  14. APRS – Radio Nocturna Vol.2
  15. Fryktelig Støy – Incandescent
  16. The Grasshopper Lies Heavy – Heavy
  17. Remaining Warmth – Before the Years
  18. Bog Wizard – Satanik Panik
  19. Entrøpia – Down in the Swamp of Human Bleakness
  20. THRONE – Ossarium
  21. Conan – Violence Dimension
  22. Nomadic Rituals – Fust (review)
  23. Wren – Black Rain Falls
  24. Primitive Man – Observance
  25. Hell – Submersus (review)

 

 

Top 24 of 2024

 

  1. VLKN – First Sparks of Eternal Decay
  2. Vibora – Zaldi Beltza
  3. SoftSun – Daylight in the Dark
  4. One Eyed Ancestor – Binate
  5. Rot Coven – Nightmares Devour the Waking World
  6. Daevar – Amber Eyes (review)
  7. Vægtløs – Aftryk
  8. Al-Namrood – Al Aqrab
  9. Deveikuth – What You Are, We Were, What We Are, You’ll Become
  10. Inward Cold – From the Grave to Victory
  11. Oldd Wvrms – Abysséphale
  12. Bismarck – Vorukasha
  13. Bleakheart – Silver Pulse
  14. Offernat – Where Nothing Grows
  15. Brume – Marten
  16. Bog Wizard – Journey through the Dying Lands
  17. Reverb on Repeat – Reverb on Repeat
  18. meth. – SHAME
  19. Charles East – Dislocated
  20. Hemiptera – Demo MMXXIV
  21. Temple Witch – Ocean Thousand, Mountain Thousand
  22. Hvile I Kaos – Lower Order Manifestations
  23. Corvus Corone – The Finality of Winter
  24. Olhava – Sacrifice

 

 

Top 23 of 2023

 
Honorable Mentions:

  • Messa – Live At Roadburn
  • Solar Temple – The Great Star Above Provides

Two gorgeous live albums — both recorded at Roadburn — dropped on the same day in April 2023. Both are worth completely immersing yourself in, whether you’re already a fan of either band or not.

 

  1. Ocean Districts – Phantom Islands
  2. Tide Harvester – Palemoon Spelltone
  3. Left to Starve – Vapaj za Mogu​ć​im
  4. Spider Kitten – A Pound for the Peacebringer
  5. Medicine Horse – Medicine Horse
  6. Void of Light – Enshroud
  7. They Grieve – To Which I Bore Witness
  8. healthyliving – Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief
  9. Stomach – Parasite
  10. Finsterforst – Jenseits
  11. Dirge – Dirge
  12. Corvus Corone – Abandoned in Spring
  13. 71TONMAN – Of End Times
  14. Portrayal of Guilt – Devil Music
  15. Ex Everything – Slow Change Will Pull Us Apart
  16. Ahab – The Coral Tombs
  17. Anatomy of Habit – Black Openings
  18. Slow – Abîmes I
  19. Body Void – Atrocity Machine
  20. Sâver – From Ember and Rust
  21. Рожь (Rye) – В​с​ё
  22. Cultura Tres – Camino de Brujos
  23. Hellish Form – Deathless

 

 

Top 22 of 2022

  1. Lebrique – Head Trap (review)
  2. Psychonaut – Violate Consensus Reality
  3. Terra – Für Dich Existiert Das Alles Nicht
  4. Arche – Transitions
  5. An Evening Redness – An Evening Redness (review)
  6. Chat Pile – God’s Country (review)
  7. Mountaineer – Giving Up the Ghost (review)
  8. E-L-R – Vexier (review)
  9. Private Prisons – Extrication (review)
  10. Satan – Earth Infernal
  11. Chrome Ghost – House of Falling Ash
  12. Druids – Shadow Work
  13. Gavran – Indistinct Beacon
  14. Darkher – The Buried Storm
  15. Ether Coven – The Relationship Between the Hammer and the Nail
  16. Norna – Star is Way Way is Eye (review)
  17. Krvvla – X (review)
  18. Body Void – Burn the Homes of Those Who Seek To Control Our Bodies
  19. The Otolith – Folium Limina
  20. Conan – Evidence of Immortality
  21. Foehammer – Monumentum
  22. Olhava – Reborn

 

 

Top 21 of 2021

  1. Sarin – You Can’t Go Back (review)
  2. Human Failure – Crown on the Head of a King of Mud (review)
  3. Kataan – Kataan (review)
  4. Oryx – Lamenting a Dead World (review)
  5. Pyrexia – Gravitas Maximus (review)
  6. Fluisteraars – Gegrepen door de Geest der Zielsontluiking
  7. Glassing – Twin Dream (review)
  8. Aquilus – Bellum I (review)
  9. Kite – Currents (review)
  10. Sepulcros – Vazio (review)
  11. Comatose – A Way Back (review)
  12. Agnes Vein – Deathcall (review)
  13. Psychonaut / Sâver – Emerald
  14. Olhava – Frozen Bloom (review)
  15. LLNN – Unmaker (review)
  16. Mors Verum – The Living (review)
  17. Boss Keloid – Family the Smiling Thrush (review)
  18. Cave of Swimmers – Aurora (review)
  19. Kowloon Walled City – Piecework
  20. Hellish Form – Remains (review)
  21. Body Void – Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth (review)

 

 

Top 20 of 2020

  1. Atavist – III: Absolution
  2. Megatherium – God
  3. Konvent – Puritan Masochism (review)
  4. Demonic Death Judge – The Trail
  5. Svnth – Spring in Blue
  6. Hymn – Breach Us
  7. Battle Dagorath – Abyss Horizons
  8. Völur – Death Cult
  9. Escape is Not Freedom – Surrounded By the Great Nothing
  10. (a.) Yatra – Blood of the Night (review)
    (b.) Yatra – All is Lost
  11. Kassad – London Orbital (review)
  12. In the Company of Serpents – Lux (review)
  13. Swarming – Primeval Arteries of the Sacred Dead
  14. Plague Years – Circle of Darkness
  15. Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin Kynsi
  16. Drom / Tengri – UR
  17. Primitive Man – Immersion
  18. Ether Coven – Everything is Temporary Except Suffering (review)
  19. Vile Creature – Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!
  20. Hum – Inlet

 

 

Top 19 of 2019

  1. Stone Machine Electric – Darkness Dimensions Disillusion (review)
  2. Problem with Dragons – Ascendant (review)
  3. Candlemass – The Door to Doom (review)
  4. Vesperith – Vesperith (review)
  5. (a.) Horseburner – The Thief (review)
    (b.) Howling Giant – The Space Between Worlds (review)
  6. Barbarian Prophecies – Origin (review)
  7. Primitive Man / Hell – Split
  8. These Beasts – These Beasts
  9. Sâver – They Came with Sunlight (review)
  10. Finsterforst – Zerfall
  11. Trauma – As the World Dies
  12. Naga – Void Cult Rising
  13. Forest of Tygers – I Will Die of Violence (review)
  14. Forged in Black – Descent of the Serpent
  15. Earth and Pillars – Earth II (review)
  16. Dead to a Dying World – Elegy
  17. Aseethe – Throes
  18. Body Void – You Will Know the Fear You Forced Upon Us (review)
  19. Imperial Cult – Spasm of Light (review)

 

 

Top 18 of 2018

  1. Huntsmen – American Scrap (review)
  2. Vile Creature – Cast of Static and Smoke (review)
  3. Imperial Triumphant – Vile Luxury
  4. JIRM – Surge ex Monumentis
  5. Brujas del Sol – II
  6. Empress – Reminiscence
  7. Body Void – I Live Inside a Burning House (review)
  8. Beldam – Pasung (review)
  9. Apostle of Solitude – From Gold to Ash
  10. Slow – V – Oceans
  11. Conan – Existential Void Guardian
  12. Fister – No Spirit Within (review)
  13. Krakow – minus
  14. Primordial – Exile Amongst the Ruins
  15. Seventh Genocide – SVNTH
  16. Slaves BC – Lo and I am Burning (review)
  17. Boss Keloid – Melted on the Inch (review)
  18. YOB – Our Raw Heart (review)

 

 

Top 17 of 2017

Honorable Mention:

  • Ever Circling Wolves – Of Woe or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Gloom (review)This incredible album — by a Finnish death-doom band whom I’ve been a huge fan of for many years now — should have ended up near the top of this list, probably at least somewhere in the top five. But the simple fact is, I had written about the album so long ago (way back in May 2016), before the band had hooked up with Cimmerian Shade Recordings and ultimately officially released the record in January 2017, that frankly Of Woe was accidentally left off the overall list of contenders for the year’s top releases. So, pretend this album was slotted in there somewhere, and meanwhile please enjoy the rest of 2017’s best …
  1. Nudist – Bury My Innocence
  2. Ufomammut – 8 (review)
  3. Seventh Genocide – Toward Akina
  4. Flesh of the Stars – Anhilla
  5. Livid – Beneath this Shroud, the Earth Erodes (review)
  6. Weltesser – Crestfallen
  7. Idre – Unforgiving Landscapes (review)
  8. Black Anvil – As Was (review)
  9. Body Void – Ruins (review)
  10. Thantifaxath – Void Masquerading as Matter
  11. Primitive Man – Caustic (review)
  12. Fen – Winter
  13. DeathCrawl – Acceptable Level of Misery (review)
  14. Cormorant – Diaspora
  15. Unsane – Sterilize
  16. In the Company of Serpents – Ain-Soph Aur (review)
  17. Bell Witch – Mirror Reaper (review)

 

 

Top 16 of 2016

  1. Spirit Adrift – Behind-Beyond / Chained to Oblivion (review)
  2. Marsh Dweller – The Weight of Sunlight
  3. North – Light the Way (review)
  4. (a.) Aenaon – Hypnosophy (review)
    (b.) Hail Spirit Noir – Mayhem in Blue (review)
  5. Devil to Pay – A Bend through Space and Time (review)
  6. Hollow Leg – Crown (review)
  7. Wolvserpent – Aporia:Kala:Ananta
  8. MAKE – Pilgrimage of Loathing (review)
  9. The Reticent – On the Eve of a Goodbye
  10. Wretch – Wretch (review)
  11. Slomatics – Future Echo Remains
  12. Cobalt – Slow Forever
  13. Lord Mantis – NTW (review)
  14. Slaves BC – All is Dust and I am Nothing (review)
  15. Graves at Sea – The Curse that Is (review)
  16. Conan – Revengeance (review)

 

 

Top 15 of 2015

Honorable Mention:

  • Derkéta – In Death We Meet (review)
    Over twenty years in the making and originally released in 2012, this album took on a whole new life when it was given a new mix and master for the vinyl release and CD reissue in 2015.
  1. Brothers of the Sonic Cloth – Brothers of the Sonic Cloth
  2. Year of the Goat – The Unspeakable (review)
  3. Norilsk – The Idea of North
  4. Hooded Menace – Darkness Drips Forth (review)
  5. Wrekmeister Harmonies – Night of Your Ascension (review)
  6. Cave of Swimmers – Reflection (review)
  7. Foehammer – Foehammer
  8. Dead to a Dying World – Litany
  9. Primitive Man – Home is Where the Hatred Is (review)
  10. Anicon – Aphasia (review)
  11. Krakow – Amaran / Genesis (review)
  12. Kowloon Walled City – Grievances
  13. Ahab – The Boats of the Glen Carrig
  14. Ufomammut – Ecate (review)
  15. MAKE – The Golden Veil (review)

 

 

Top 14 of 2014

Honorable Mentions:

  • Musk Ox – Woodfall (review)
    I wasn’t sure how to categorize this one, since it’s so different from what we usually deal with around here, but this was quite a remarkable album — and besides, after being published in June 2014, this soon became the most frequently visited review in VOS history, by quite a wide margin!
  • Brimstone Coven – Brimstone Coven (review)
    It didn’t feel right including this with the rest of the current year’s releases, but this Metal Blade reissue was such an improvement over the original version, representing much more clearly how good this band actually sounds, that it warranted a shout-out here.
  1. Pallbearer – Foundations of Burden (review)
  2. Pilgrim – II: Void Worship (review)
  3. The Great Sabatini – Dog Years (review)
  4. Imperial Triumphant – Shrine to the Trident Throne (review)
  5. (a.) Aenaon – Extance (review)
    (b.) Hail Spirit Noir – Oi Magoi (review)
  6. Gholas – Litanies (review)
  7. Cold Blue Mountain – Old Blood (review)
  8. Cave of Swimmers – Cave of Swimmers (review)
  9. Black Tar Prophet – Deafen (review)
  10. Wrought Iron – Rejoice and Transcend (review)
  11. Primordial – Where Greater Men Have Fallen
  12. Agalloch – The Serpent & the Sphere (review)
  13. Indian – From All Purity (review)
  14. Yob – Clearing the Path to Ascend (review)

 

 

Top 13 (+13) of 2013

(Originally published at Valley of Steel)

  1. Satan – Life Sentence (review)
  2. Borracho – Oculus (review)
  3. Devil to Pay – Fate is Your Muse (review)
  4. Seven Sisters of Sleep – Opium Morals (review)
  5. The Bloody Seamen – Ahoy Motherfuckers (review)
  6. Monsterworks – Album of Man (review)
  7. Fatality – Psychonaut (review)
  8. Cultura Tres – Rezando al Miedo (review)
  9. (a.) Hivelords – Cavern Apothecary (review)
    (b.) Sadgiqacea – False Prism (review)
  10. Monuments Collapse / Bréag Naofa – Split LP (review)
  11. Intronaut – Habitual Levitations (review)
  12. Gnaw – Horrible Chamber (review)
  13. Fen – Dustwalker (review)
  1. Brujas del Sol – Moonliner (review)
  2. Cold Blue Mountain – Cold Blue Mountain (review)
  3. The Lion’s Daughter and Indian Blanket – A Black Sea (review)
  4. Corrections House – Last City Zero (review)
  5. Lumbar – The First and Last Days of Unwelcome (review)
  6. Darkthrone – The Underground Resistance (review)
  7. The Ravenna Arsenal – I. (review)
  8. Bovine – The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire
  9. Sleepers Awake – Transcension
  10. Supervoid – Filaments
  11. Neon Warship – Neon Warship
  12. Talbot – Scaled
  13. Old Man of the Mountain – Old Man of the Mountain

 

 

Top 12 of 2012

(Originally published — with some additional commentary — at No Clean Singing)

  1. The Reticent – Le Temps Detruit Tout (review)
  2. Titans Eve – Life Apocalypse (review)
  3. (drama) – Zastor Tišine (review)
  4. Agruss – Morok (review)
  5. Pinkish Black – Pinkish Black (review)
  6. (a.)Anhedonist – Netherwards (review)
    (b.)Obolus – Lament (review)
  7. Hail Spirit Noir – Pneuma (review)
  8. MAKE – Trephine (review)
  9. Vattnet Viskar – Vattnet Viskar (review)
  10. Vulture – Oblivious to Ruin (review)
  11. Undersmile – Narwhal (review)
  12. Solarburn – 13 (review)

 

 

Top 11 of 2011

(Originally published — with explanation of the limited scope of this particular list, as well some brief remarks about each item — at No Clean Singing)

  1. In Solitude – The World, the Flesh, the Devil
  2. Battle Path – Storm & Stress
  3. Wiht – The Harrowing of the North
  4. Graveyard – Hisingen Blues
  5. Oak Pantheon – The Void
  6. De Staat – Machinery
  7. Borracho – Splitting Sky
  8. Batillus – Furnace
  9. Yggdrasil – Irrbloss
  10. The Hanna Barbarians – Syzygy
  11. USX – The Valley Path