(As part of our annual LISTMANIA series, KevinP brings us his round-up of awards for 2015.)
Here’s my rundown on the best stuff of the year that doesn’t fit into my Top 25 Albums and EP’s of the Year column (which will be published next month).
Best Metal Country: POLAND
How many Polish albums does it take to win the “best of” honors? Apparently 8. 1 to hold the lightbulb… ok, you’re not here for the jokes. This year featured releases ranging from outstanding to solid by Outre, Lost Soul, Blaze of Perdition, Mgła, Infernal War, Manipulation, Ogotay, and Kult Mogil. Greece, who won last years award, had yet another solid year, but was edged out by the big 3 kielbasas of Outre, Lost Soul, and Blaze of Perdition, a trio that’s impossible to beat.
Best Label: W.T.C. Productions
Excellent albums by Devathorn, Acherontas, Amestigon, Barshasketh, Horna, Shrine of Insanabilis, and Kvltist (some of which will be in my Top 25 list). This German outfit consistently puts out quality material and is one of the handful of labels I’ll automatically check out an unknown band on simply because they are releasing it.
https://wtcproductions.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/W.T.C.Productions/
Also a special “tip of the proverbial cap” to Blood Music of Finland, who consistenly doesn’t give a PASKA and does what it wants regardless of genre (you’ll see why down below).
https://blood-music.bandcamp.com/
Best Song: Aenaon – “Ultima Momentum”
While we await their next full-length (tentatively due in early/mid 2016), they treated us to this beauty that doesn’t fit the theme/feel of the upcoming album. The only thing that drives me nuts is that I don’t collect vinyl and want this song on an officially released CD (eventually).
https://www.facebook.com/aenaonofficial/
Most Overlooked Album of the Year: Serpent Noir – Erotomysticism
Even though I was eagerly awaiting this release, I initially wasn’t able to get it to synch to my phone, so I forgot about it. It wasn’t until many months later that I remembered to go back and I’m thankful that I did. But more importantly, I haven’t seen many other people or websites talk about this one either, which is indeed a crime.
https://daemonworship.bandcamp.com/album/erotomysticism
https://www.facebook.com/Serpent-Noir-411409432260637/
Random Weird Album to Check Out: The Black Yo)))ga Meditation Ensemble – Asanas Ritual, Volume 1
If you ever thought, “I need something more dark and evil while doing yoga?”, then this is your ticket.
https://blackyoga.bandcamp.com/
Best Non-Metal Albums of 2015:
5. Dan Terminus – The Wrath of Code
https://blood-music.bandcamp.com/album/the-wrath-of-code
4. Kristian Harting – Summer of Crush
http://dreamjockey.bandcamp.com/album/summer-of-crush
3. Adele – 25
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re sick of hearing about her, blah, blah, blah. Too bad. What’s good is good. You know where to find the album if you want to, but here’s this in case you missed it…
2. GosT – Behemoth
https://blood-music.bandcamp.com/album/behemoth
1. Corpo-Mente – Self-titled
15 Responses to “YOU’RE THE BEST AROUND, NOTHING’S EVER GONNA KEEP YOU DOWN (2015)”
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I completely forgot about that Aenaon release, and that song (chorus) is great. Props for including Dan Terminus and GosT. Perturbator – effect.
After Evita Hofmane’s Wrathrone interview, I came here for the jokes…
In the end of February, in conjunction with my writings on Ma IoN (Formulas of Reptilian Unification) by Acherontas, I actually wrote to the busiest man in metal-promotion using these specific words:
“W.T.C is quickly becoming one of my favorite labels. It seems that everything coming from them is black gold”.
Best metal country : Poland.
We still have month to 2016.
Batushka – that probably will be something big…
https://soundcloud.com/witchinghour-2/batushka-yekteniya-4
Remember, we are fortunate to get access to promos many months in advance. So I know what’s coming out this month already and taken it into consideration 🙂
That depends a bit from label to label, and it’s probably based a lot on the “size” of the site, measured in traffic.
Even if I have promos stretching almost to February, I hardly have time to listen carefully to an album until it’s getting really close to “deadline”. Thus, I find new years eve to be the perfect day for a year summary list.
I presented my list of the 72 best albums of 2014 during January (13th to 26th) this year. Hopefully I’ll be more efficient this time, though.
“the 72 best albums of 2014”
Isn’t that pretty much all the albums released 2014? J/k, but for me doing a list of that many albums would quickly become futile. “Would this album be a #65 or a 64? Ah fuck it let’s put ’em all in a pile”
i have a list entitled “Best 100 Black Metal Albums in 2014”
I heard about 350 albums, but that’s just the
tip of the iceberg (6,579 can you believe it?), and yes, I pretty much just piled them.
Batushka is sounding very interesting.
Big fan of that Corpo-Mente record – really got to spin that again soon.
For non metal records:
“Distance, Light & Sky – Casting Nets” is beautiful.
There are some members from The Walkabouts involved
Cultes des Ghouls put out The Rise of Lucifer this year as well, which is extremely good. (though I am admittedly biased to love everything they do)
Gos T is so fun 😀
Sufjan Steven, Chelsea Wolfe, Gunship, Komara, Our Oceans, Sidewalks and Skeletons… Someone has to listen to some more non-metal music 😉
Pinkish Black, Tatran, The Soft Moon, Royal Thunder, Dawn of Midi, Hey Colossus… Really.