Well, here we are again. It’s the time of year when we are beginning our year-end LISTMANIA extravaganza. For those of you new to this orgy, our LISTMANIA blockbuster comes in four parts:
First, we re-print assorted lists of the year’s best albums, leeched from other big web sites and magazines, like this one a couple days ago which launched that part of LISTMANIA 2017. Second, we will provide a post in which our readers’ can share their lists of the 2017 albums and shorter releases they enjoyed the most (we’ll be asking for those on December 1, so get ready). Third, we post the year-end lists of our own staff and assorted guest writers. And fourth, I’ll roll out my list of the year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.
And that last list is the subject of this request for help.
In case you’ve become an NCS reader since this time last year, here’s what this Most Infectious Song list is all about:
This is about individual songs, not albums, EPs, demos, etc. It’s also not our list of the best individual extreme metal songs of the year — though some of the songs might actually be among the best of the year. Instead, this is a list of the most infectious extreme metal songs we’ve heard this year. The idea is to think of songs that might produce involuntary physical movement, songs that have got catchy melodies or irresistible grooves, or anything else that sticks the song in your head and makes you want to keep listening to it.
To be one of the most infectious songs of the year, it should be something that you revisit often, something you put on playlists, something you mentally replay at unexpected times — songs you go back to repeatedly for listening. “Most played” might be a good synonym.
I’ve already got my own working list of candidates — as in every other year, there are a ton of songs on there already. I’ll get more ideas from all of our other writers. But I have no doubt we’ll overlook some songs we really liked from earlier in the year, and there are inevitably a lot more than we just never heard at all. And so here’s where I’m asking for your help:
Please leave comments to this post with your own lists of Most Infectious Songs that you think ought to be on our list — or if you’re bashful, you can e-mail your ideas to me at: islander@nocleansinging.com
I’ll then pick what I think are the most infectious tracks of the year and start playing those songs for you in groups of two or three as we get closer to year-end. The first year we did this (2009), I limited the list to 10 songs. In 2010, I expanded it to 30. In 2011 it grew to 39. In 2012 it topped out at 56. In 2013 I worked really hard and got the list all the way down to.. gulp… 73. In 2014, life got in the way and I never finished the complete rollout, though I announced 62 songs before I gave up. In 2015 I stopped at 75. Last year’s list included 71 tracks (you can see all of those here).
As you can tell, I have a really fuckin’ hard time making lists. Of course, I have no idea how many songs we’ll feature this year.
So, please reflect on the songs you’ve found most addictive this year and let us hear from you. By leaving your list in the comments, you’ll also help make this post a way for other metalheads to find good music from the year that’s now rushing to an end. Thanks for your help.
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1. Wolves in the Throne Room – Born from the Serpent’s Eyes
2. Medico Peste – Hallucinating Warmth and Bliss
3. Satyricon – Deep Calleth Upon Deep
For some reasons I’ve listened to the above mentioned songs dozens and dozens of times in the past months
Ulsect – Our Trivial Toil. Ye gods, but the way that chorus thing crashes in is astonishingly confident.
Power Trip – Executioner’s Tax
best song of 2017 hands down
hands down!!!
Anything off the new Kohti Tuhoa record.
Crypt Sermon- De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
yeah yeah it’s a cover, but it beats the absolute shit out of the Mayhem version and it’s my Song O’ the Year.
Acrimonious – Northern Portal or/and Elder of the Nashiym (this probably being my most played song this year)
Ende – The Black Hen’s Blood (that opening riff, so simple, but with a classic feel)
Immolation – Rise the Heretics (that middle part, really epic stuff)
That opening riff in Black Hen’s Blood is quite killer. I prefer Das Hexanhaus a bit more though.
I have listened to that Ende album so many times. One of best of the year. Wish it was avail on vinyl
It’s my number 1 for the year, crazy good and pretty much outa nowhere
Here are some of my suggestions:
Dyscarnate – Iron Strengthens Iron: With this one it’s the groove that really gets me. To me it’s a great example of how you can take one (pretty simple) riff and use variations of it to construct a catchy-as-hell song that makes you want to move your head to it from start to finish.
Witchery – True North/An Unexpected Guest: Couldn’t really separate these two songs off of the latest Witchery album. They just have this really anthemic quality to them; the chorus to True North has more or less burrowed it’s way deep into my brain at this point. As for An Unexpected Guest, the section of the song immediately after the solos is one of the catchiest things I’ve heard all year.
Sign of Cain – To Be Drawn And To Drown: The title track of an album that hasn’t really gotten any coverage. For those unaware, Sign of Cain are a band made up of members of Viscera Trail and Equilibrium with Tomas Lindberg on vocals. If I had to describe their sound, it would be a crustier, somewhat less technical version of early At The Gates meets My Dying Bride. I don’t know whether a song can be depressing and infectious at the same time, but for me this one manages to do both.
Cloak – The Hunger: As a fan of the gothic tinged extreme metal Tribulation does so well the music these guys are putting out hits the sweet spot. Basically black metal played by guys with a love of 1970s hard rock.
Malokarpatan – V hustej hore na stračích nohách striga chalupu svoju ukrýva: There’s been a lot of buzz around these guys recently, and deservedly so IMO. I love how this song starts out with a intro that could come straight out of Swan Lake and then suddenly turns into a raging thrasher of a track. There’s also this really unexpected interlude midway through that sounds like the aural equivalent of the trip you would experience after eating a bunch of psychedelic mushrooms in the Slovakian wilderness.
That Malokarpatan track is definitely an interesting mix.
Iron Strengthens Iron by Dyscarnate for sure! Putting that on is like a power-up while working out.
Black Mammoth by Fit For An Autopsy deserves a spot too IMO
1) Au Dessus – VI (the first song)
From the album “End of a Chapter
2)) Havukruunu – Jo Nakyvi Pohjan Portit (the solo is so infectious)
From the album “Kelle Surut Soi”
3) Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition – The day they dissect me (osdm + grind +stoner riffs)
From the album ” Raping Angels in Hell”
Barathrum – Hellspawn
Witchery – True North
Belphegor – Baphomet
Sarke – Dagger Entombed
Rimfrost – A Clash under the Nothern Wind
Asagraum – Black Sun Prayer
Asagraum – Carried by Lucifer’s Wings
Gods of Death – Dead Man’s Scream
Cavalera Conspiracy – Insane
F.K.Ü – Friday the 13th Part. 2
Power Trip – Executioner’s Tax
I love that Asagraum record. One of the best of the year for sure.
Amenra – A Solitude Reign
I got a little overenthousiastic, so here’s twenty songs I’ve been listening and nodding my head to a lot this year:
Akercocke – Dissapear (progressive extreme metal)
Cannibal Corpse – Red Before Black (death metal)
Decapitated – Kill The Cult (groove/death metal)
Decrepit Birth – Spirit Guide (technical death metal)
Dyscarnate – Of Mice And Mountains (modern groove/death metal)
Enslaved – The River’s Mouth (progressive/black metal)
Goatwhore – Chaos Arcane (old school extreme metal)
God Dethroned – Annihilation Crusade (blackened death metal)
Gorephilia – Interplanar (death metal)
Immolation – Fostering The Divide (death metal)
Morbid Angel – The Righteous Voice (death metal)
Necrophobic – Pesta (blackened death metal)
Necrowretch – Sprawl Of Sin (blackened death metal)
Paradise Lost – Blood And Chaos (doom metal)
Pillorian – By The Light Of A Black Sun (Cascadian black metal)
Power Trip – Firing Squad (thrash/hardcore)
Satyricon – Black Winds And Withering Gloom (black metal/black ’n roll)
Suffocation – Return To The Abyss (technical/brutal death metal)
Warbringer – Silhouettes (thrash metal)
Wolves In The Throne Room – Angrboda (Cascadian black metal)
Xanthochroid- The spund wich has no name
Archspire – Involuntary Doppelganger
Full Of Hell – Crawling back to God
Obituary – Sentence Day
Converge – Eve
Shroud Eater – Futile Exile
Dying Fetus- anything on the album
Temple Ov Void – Graven Desires
Monolord – Where Death meets the Sea
Year Of The Cobra – The Descent
For Archspire I’d go with Remote Tumour Seeker myself, but that whole album rips.
Although I’m certain a dozen more will spring to mind the moment I hit SUBMIT COMMENT, here are two I don’t even have to think about, since they’ve been constant companions since I first heard them:
SELBST “Instrument of My Own Destruction” Probably my favorite metal album of the year, and this song is close to perfect. A study in how to maintain mean-ass momentum without ever getting boring. I’m always out of breath by the time it’s over.
AKERCOCKE “A Particularly Cold September” It’s really really hard to make a sax (I think it’s a sax?) solo work in a metal song, but this album is chock full of shit that shouldn’t work for me but does. The guitar at the end is sheer epicosity.
Off to check some of the other suggestions. Cheers for the work y’all do!
That Selbst album is so good
So many songs!
The Ones We Lost by Woe – As catchy and anthemic as black metal gets.
Everlasting Lie by Wormwitch – Just rocks so hard.
Attrition by Black Harvest – Whole EP could be on my own personal list of most infectious songs.
Crawling Back To God by Full of Hell – ON BENT KNEES CRAWLING BACK TO GOD
Show Yourself by Mastodon – Of course it’s annoying. But holy shit is it catchy.
Bill&Phil – Dirty Eye
Mastodon – Toe to Toes
Scour – Barricade
Goatwhore – Mankind Will Have No Mercy
Mastodon – Show Yourself
https://selfmadegod.bandcamp.com/track/division-of-lonely-crows
Obviously, I’ll be providing my full list when we hash the thing out with everyone else’s suggestions later, but goddamnit, Antigama’s Division of Lonely Crows is fucking great and I will yell at people about this song every chance I get.
Kreator – Gods of Violence
Firespawn – Serpent of the Ocean
Cannibal Corpse – Code of the Slashers
Warcrab – In the Shadow of Grief
Obituary – End it Now
Havukruunu – Myrskynkutsuja
Decapitated – Earth Scar
Cloak – To Venomous Depths/Where No Light Shines
Acid Witch – Hardrock Halloween
Order Ov Riven Cathedrals – damn this album is blistering. Both tracks 2 (Combination Formula For The Creation Ov Our World Ov Hate) and 3 (Dead Sea Scrolls Revelations) have had many rotations on my player. Hard to name which is more infectious: https://orderovrivencathedrals.bandcamp.com/releases
Ulvegr – Throne Among the Void. What’s so great about this track is it features the usual suspects: blast beats, double bass drumming, raspy vocals, etc. but then just dials right back to a straight alternating bass/snare rocky drum line and shows that simple is still damn heavy and catchy: https://ulvegr.bandcamp.com/track/throne-among-the-void (When Stars Will Turn to Ashes is a fine contender with a similar groove too).
Septic Flesh – Portrait of a Headless Man. The spooky intro is a nice start, but it’s the bounce in the main line that stays in your head.
Two – Calcutta. “And now for something completely different”. I don’t often end up liking many releases from Basick Records enough to buy them, but I like to keep an eye on what they have on offer as I love how they’re not afraid to delve into the borderlands of what could pass as metal. This track caught me from the start, and ends up sounding like gospel music with a strangely desperate undercurrent. There’s only a few “metal” segments in it, but the video made me realize I wasn’t just imaging a dark side to those beautiful vocals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxy1hHLtyHo
One last contribution from my side, from an album that is best listened to as a whole but still deserves a spot on this list:
Spectral Voice – Thresholds Beyond (death/doom)
If we’re talking about songs I’ve awkwardly hummed in the elevator then it would be:
Ulver’s ‘Rolling Stone’ had a great chorus (Poor little sister, I hope you understand, the babe in the woods will be taken by a wolf’).
Death From Above 1979’s ‘Holy Books’ had a great chorus (‘I don’t go no holy books, those ancient rhymes ain’t got no hooks’).
All Them Witches’ ‘Don’t Bring Me Coffee’ had great chorus (‘Don’t bring me no coffee, ‘Cause I don’t wanna hear it, And I don’t like the taste!).
I’m sorry, I like it when they sing.
Premises of a Miracle by Aosoth has been stuck in my noggin since the album dropped.
I also frequently hum El Presidente by GWAR
The River’s Mouth by Enslaved
No Blood Has Honour by Woe
Take My Picture by Exist
In no particular order.
Awaken From the Dark Slumber by Wintersun
In the Light of the Sabbat Moon by Tyrannosorceress
Hi Ball by Aiming for Enrike
Abrahamic Contagion by Dumal
Black Wings and Withering Gloom by Satyricon
Aufbruch by Der Weg Einer Freiheit
Jernhaand by Taake
De Zefepraal van Satan by Kwade Droes
Morast by Wolves Carry My Name
Eremittens Dal by Mork
Isolert by Isolert
X by Au-Dessus
Fyrstens Land by Whoredom Rife
Uhtcearu – “Tower of Silence”
Lęk – “Absencja Ducha”
Irae – In the Name of Satan
That’s the first track that popped into my head. A great black metal earworm.
Wode – Chaos Spell (probably my favorite song this year)
Temple of Void – Graven Desires
Advent Sorrow – Pestilence Shall Come
Spirit Adrift – To Fly on Broken Wings (an awesome exception to the Rule)
Mahalkala – Purgatorium (likewise)
Dumal – Fane of the Clandestine
Rebel Wizard – One I See
Rosk – Infected II
Power Trip – Executioner’s Tax
Wrath of Belial – Traitors
Immolation – Lower
The Black Dahlia Murder – Catacomb Hecatomb (that break in the middle!!!)
Cannibal Corpse – Red Before Black
Paradise Lost – From The Gallows
Paradise Lost – Beneath Broken Earth (I know, not this year but I saw them 3 weeks ago and it was massive live 🙂
Celesterre – Instinct
The Obsessed – Stranger Things
Acid Witch – I Hate Halloween
Pagan Altar – Portrait of Dorian Grey
Avatarium – Starless Sleep
Devil – To the Gallows
Kreator – Gods of Violence
Power Trip – Executioner’s Tax
Dyscarnate –This is Fire
Dyscarnate – Iron Strengthens Iron
Ajattara – Ave Satana
Archspire – Involuntary Doppleganger
The Monolith Deathcult – This Inhuman Place Makes Human Monsters
Get the Shot – Hellbringer
Gatecreeper – Sweltering Madness
Sol de Sangre – Mas Abajo Del Inferno
Aether Realm – The Tower
Order ov Riven Cathedrals – 6,000 Years of Hate
Devil – To the Gallows
Incendiary – Front Toward Enemy
War Crab – Bury Me Before I’m Born
Unleash the Archers – Cleanse the Bloodlines
Iced Earth – Seven Headed Whore
Warbringer – Silhouettes
Goatwhore – Mankind Will Have No Mercy
Havukrunnu – Vainovalkeat
Full of Hell – Trumpeting Ecstasy
Kreator – Satan is Real
Intrcptr – Sandstorms
Dying Fetus – Die with Integrity
Coldfells – All Night We Flew
November’s Doom – Devil’s Light
Alien Weaponry – Ru Ana Te Whenua
Primal Attack – Halfborn
Devil’s Force – The Devil’s Force
Hideous Divinity – Sub Specie Aeternitatis
Monolord – Rust
Ziggurat – דִּבּוּק
Beyond Grace – Omega Point
Temple of Void – Graven Desires
The Fading – A Moment of Insight
Uhtcearu – Tower of Silence
Sicarius – Serenade of Slitting Throats
Aosoth – Her Feet Upon the Earth, Blooming the Fruits of Blood
Genus Ordinis Dei – Halls of Human Delights
Archspire – Involuntary Doppelgänger
Chelsea Wolfe – 16 Psyche
Nazghor – Malignant Posession
Lor – Dusk
Justin Hate – Infantem
Atrexial – The Hideous Veil of Innocence
Unaussprechlichen Kulten – Firma El Libro De La Muerte
Madrost – The Silence in Ruins
Hellripper – Bastard of Hades
Heretoir – The White
Kreator – World War Now
The Ominous Circle – From Endless Chasms
Beyond Grace – Seekers
Hideous Divinity – When Flesh Unfolds
Gorod – Tony P. Shot
Synaptik – Conscience
Ghoultown – Southern Son (not metal but worth it!)
Whoa, 2017 is a really good year after all. I was very surprised by Kreator because as veterans they could just repeat some of their earlier work but they did absolutely amazing new approach. And as a fan of speed a-la 80s we have Hellripper, and they are just crazy!
This year seems to have spawned an endless fountain of quality metal. It is enormously difficult to distill all of my listening to a few notable songs. However, these are the songs that have rendered my physically unable to sit still; the ones that I enjoy blasting endlessly at home and obnoxiously loud while on the road:
Condor – “You Can’t Escape the Fire” – You can hear the circle pit forming to this one.
Possession – “Take the Oath” – GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES AND PRAISE THE GOD!!!
Wode – “Celestial Dagger” – A more raw, concise, and stripped down approach compared to their debut. It works!
heres something that gets my blood flowing every damn time…
In Twilight’s Embrace – The Hell of Mediocrity
Hexenklad – To Whom Veer Sinistral
Nergal – Orkos Ston Satana
1. Acrimonious – Incineration Initiator
2. Blut Aus Nord – Chorea Macchabeorum
3. Almyrkvi – Vaporous Flame
4. Kawir – Tantalus
5. Horn – Alles in einem schnitt
6. Thy Darkened Shade – Cascade of Nun
Elder – “Sanctuary” from “Reflections Of A Floating World”
Paradise Lost – “The Longest Winter” from “Medusa”
Pallbearer – “I Saw The End” from Heartless
Quicksand – “Illuminant” and “Cosmonauts” from “Interiors”
Mastodon – “Toe To Toes” (might be one of their best songs)
Prong – “Divide And Conquer” from “Zero Days”
The Ruins Of Beverast – “Takitum Tootem!” and “Set The Controls For The Heart of the Sun” (was LATE in 2016, so missed this one last year)
Black Anvil – “As Was” and “Ultra” from “As Was”
Lo-Pan – “Go West” from “In-Tensions” (why no one seemed to talk about this EP this year is beyond me)
Immolation – Fostering The Divide” from “Atonement”
1. Wolves In The Throne Room – Angrboda
2. Lüüp – 9˚=2˚ (Κόγξ ὀμ Πὰξ)
3. Nightbringer – As Wolves Amongst Ruins
4. Locust Leaves – Light (Fos)