LISTMANIA 2024: A YEAR-END LIST FROM JOHAN HULDTGREN (OBITUS)

 LISTMANIA 2024  No Responses »
Dec 312024
 

(For the 14th year in a row, our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine is still their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you a year-end Top 10 list.)

As I usually remark, lists like this are always somewhat arbitrary, it’s ten releases I picked, from the longer list of albums I liked, whittled down from albums I’ve heard released in 2024. If as to underscore that this year I made several lists, this being the NCS edition.

Some of the albums on this year’s list were released fairly late in the year, so there is a risk of recency bias, but that is simply something we’ll have to let time sort out. As at least a few of the releases below I’ve not seen on other lists published here, I hope you find something here you enjoy which you may otherwise have missed. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2023: A YEAR-END LIST FROM JOHAN HULDTGREN

 LISTMANIA 2023  3 Responses »
Dec 282023
 

(For the 13th year in a row, our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine is still their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you his year-end Top 10 list, which originally appeared on Johan’s own blog.)

I rarely include this caveat, but sometimes it’s good to reflect on it. Lists like this are always snapshots in time, it’s the ten albums I picked at the time of writing whittled down from a longer list, and often times which get picked and which get left off is just mood dependent. And that is only the albums which I’ve heard; experience has taught me that I will sometime down the road find albums released this year which could easily have made the list. Regardless I hope you find something here you enjoy which you may otherwise have missed. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2021: A YEAR-END LIST FROM JOHAN HULDTGREN (OBITUS)

 LISTMANIA 2021  2 Responses »
Dec 272021
 

 

(For the 11th year in a row, our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine (reviewed and premiered here) is their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you his year-end list, which originally appeared on Johan’s own blog.) Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2020: A YEAR-END LIST FROM JOHAN HULDTGREN (OBITUS)

 LISTMANIA 2020  1 Response »
Dec 302020
 

 

(Holy hell, it has been 10 years. For the 10th year in a row, our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine (reviewed and premiered here) is their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you his year-end list, which originally appeared on Johan’s own blog.)

This marks the tenth year in a row I get to share a few albums I’ve enjoyed this past year. So as it’s a double-digit anniversary ending in zero I’m going to do something I’ve not done before and expand on my own published list with a couple of very personal albums which I think deserve some added attention. I say personal because these are all made by close friends of many years, but don’t let that deter you, because these are amazing albums in their own right. In alphabetical order: Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2019: A YEAR-END LIST BY JOHAN HULDTGREN (OBITUS)

 LISTMANIA 2019  11 Responses »
Dec 262019
 

 

(For the ninth year in a row (!), our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine (reviewed and premiered here) is their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you his year-end list, which originally appeared on Johan’s own blog.) Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2018: A YEAR-END LIST FROM JOHAN HULDTGREN (OBITUS)

 LISTMANIA 2018  7 Responses »
Dec 262018
 

 

(For the eighth year in a row (!), our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine (reviewed and premiered here) is their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you his year-end list, which originally appeared on Johan’s own blog.) Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: A YEAR-END LIST FROM JOHAN HULDTGREN (OBITUS)

 LISTMANIA 2017  9 Responses »
Dec 262017
 

 

(For the seventh year in a row (!), I invited my friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose new album Slaves of the Vast Machine (reviewed and premiered here) was itself one of the year’s best black metal albums — to share with us his year-end list. Once again, he agreed. This list previously appeared on Johan’s own blog.)

 

Another year has flown by, in my case quite literally, so here we are again with a new edition of “albums I enjoyed this year”. From what I’ve seen of the lists posted here so far, many of my picks haven’t made others’ lists so I guess either my taste has diverged from that of the median NCS:er or you’ve all missed out on some worthy albums; hopefully it’s the latter and this will be useful for you. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): OBITUS — “SLAVES OF THE VAST MACHINE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Feb 132017
 

 

The Swedish black metal band Obitus have done something remarkable: They’ve made a 45-minute album consisting of a single song that’s on the attack relentlessly, and yet it’s a harrowing thrill-ride straight through to the end.

Now you can either skip straight to the end of this post and start listening to our stream premiere, or you can continue reading, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to do both at the same time — or trying to do anything else while listening to this onslaught. For those who might be interested in more of a preview before you throw yourself into the tornado, I shall continue. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: KJELD, WEDERGANGER, ST. LUCIFER, OBITUS, LIBER NULL, DUMAL, AKVAN

 SHADES OF BLACK  13 Responses »
Jan 082017
 

 

I was again torn between writing a “That’s Metal!” post, which I foolishly promised to do on the first Sunday of each month and still haven’t done for December — or January — and compiling another collection of recent music in a blackened vein. You can see how that internal struggle ended.

KJELD and WEDERGANGER

This split by these two distinctive Dutch bands was released on December 16 by Ván Records and is now available on Bandcamp. It includes three tracks by Kjeld and two by Wederganger. I had intended to write about it prior to release, but failed. It’s very good, and deserves more extensive discussion than I’m able to give it now. But with a full stream now available, it can speak quite well for itself. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2016: A YEAR-END TOP 10 LIST FROM JOHAN HULDTGREN (OBITUS)

 LISTMANIA 2016  No Responses »
Dec 302016
 

johan-huldtgren-2016

 

(For the sixth year in a row, I invited my friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose new album Slaves of the Vast Machine will be released in early 2017 by Black Plague Records and Hypnotic Dirge Records — to share with us his year-end list. Once again, he agreed. This list previously appeared on Johan’s own blog.)

As Listmania season is upon us I can only once again conclude that there are many, many albums that I’ve missed. However, this is why series such as these are helpful; without all the other lists I’d never have known what I’d missed. Luckily I didn’t see too many of my picks in the other main lists, so hopefully this list will give you something new to check out. Continue reading »

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