(written by Islander)

It’s the last day of January and therefore I’ve reached the end of this list. It’s still likely that Andy Synn or DGR, or perhaps some other NCS writers, will chime in next week with songs I failed to include, but my work is done, other than compiling the usual wrap-up post listing all the songs in one place, with links to where they can be found.

Approaching the conclusion has increased the internal agonies. There are so many songs I didn’t want to leave out, so many difficult decisions to make, even with a list as long as this one turned out to be. That explains why there are five songs today instead of three or four.

As for why I grouped these five together, it’s because I decided to conclude with variants of black metal, which over time has become my favorite extreme genre. Maybe it’s because I listen to a lot of such variants in organizing my weekly SHADES OF BLACK column, but my list of candidates for this list has been heavy on the metallic black. These five have their own personalities, but I’ve found all of them exhilarating, memorable, and highly likely to spin your minds like a centrifuge.

I’ll save concluding thoughts about this list until the forthcoming wrap-up post. Onward to the music! Continue reading »