The year had plenty of worth mentioning releases. I listened to a lot, I digested only a few.
On the top of my head, I think those are the records I appreciated the most...
Teitanblood - Seven Chalices The epitome of bestiality. Period.
Portal - Swarth Had death metal been in this vein in late 80's, the second wave of black metal wouldn't need to exist.
Oranssi Pazuzu - Muukalainen Puhuu The thing with the so called psychedelic black metal has gone too far but if this hybrid has a reason to exist, this record is the one.
Nefandus - Death Holy Death As if Tiamtü was not enough.
Griftegård - Solemn, Sacred, Severe I wouldn't dream of a doom metal album that would be better than that.
Katharsis - Fourth Reich ....
Grigori - Principivm et finis I had not heard black metal with ritualistic atmosphere for quite some time...until this one.
Furia - Grudzien Za Grudniem I still think that Furia should be as big as Shining.
Funeral Mist - Maranatha Infidels be cursed.
Embrace of Thorns - Atonement Ritual The stench of sulphur is so strong here.
Black metal hasn't left a lot of space for other music for me this year, as there was a flood of quality albums.
Of course the mainstream press that names itself extreme, survived the flood by promoting its beloved cartoonish excrements that they like to think as black metal. Extra points of amusement for Terrorizer that reached new levels in the art of ass licking by sponsoring the comic abomination from Korea (or something like that) known as Chthonic.
AMSG
