Thank you for the response, and you nailed it with this post. I try not to bring up Warriors work all the time because I'm a rabid Celtic Frost fanboy, but his last two albums have had a profound impact on how we can look at and expand the definition of metal. You are correct in saying however, that few bands have come close to imitating their sound. I think Serpentcult was obviously influenced by these doom albums though (more on Weight of Light than their last album.)

I like your style!

Lot of bands i never expected to see mentioned in this thread i must admit.

I agree with Ares Kingdom, Blasphemophagher. Ares Kingdom is playing a smart style of deathrash, while Blasphemophagher show progression in war metal by letting their albums have good production.

Also Devil's Poison over Bleeding The Priest?

I'd say that Vektor will prove to be very influential in the coming years, particularly as the Municipal Waste style of retrothrash enters its death throes. Hexen's massive style shift between their first and second seems to be influenced by Vektor's approach quite a bit: their first album was a lot more "fun" and retrothrash sounding, but four years later, they've got super-long and progressive songs with very serious and philosophical lyrics. Even Bonded by Blood went for a sci-fi concept album in 2010. Bands might not straight-up copy Vektor, but I foresee a lot of bands adopting their songwriting approach (progressive, complex stuff instead of the more straightforward Exodus/S.O.D. style of most retrothrash) in order to survive.

Nokturnal Mortum's last full-length (yeah, not 2010, but December 26 of '09 is about as close as one can get) was an amazing album, and the rest of the Eastern Bloc scene seems to follow what they do quite a bit. Witness the jumping ship away from Satanism and towards National Socialism that took place during the early '00s, and then the jump to a more P.C. Wotanism/Paganism philosophy in the latter part of the '00s. N.M. was at the forefront of both movements. Maybe this is just wishful thinking, but I wouldn't be surprised if more bands picked up on Voice of Steel's style.

Albums don't have to be "good" to determine the future of metal. I predict that the overwhelmingly negative reception Handful of Stars and Old Silver Key got signals the approaching death of shoegaze/black metal stuff. I believe that if those albums had come out a few years earlier, they would have been highly lauded, but nowadays people are just getting sick of the style. The "OSDM" well seems to be running dry as well. More original bands like Horrendous and Disma might make it through, but I wouldn't be surprised if the style as a whole starts to die off in a year or so. Lackluster reunion efforts of old bands like Uncanny and Interment will precipitate this fall, but the biggest culprit is sheer oversaturation: the death of every artistic movement.

I think Silent Stream of Godless Elegy's 2011 release Navaz is a great of example of folk metal done right with female vocals done right. It sounds very organic unlike the "forced" sound of bands like Korpiklani or Finntroll, and it never sounds cheesy. I think more bands should use this album as an example rather than the more traditional and established folk metal sound which is becoming stale with every passing year.

I found that to be a great album. At first I thought clean vocals on extreme metal would sound off but they managed to make it work.

I know it's just before the 2010 mark, but Nokturnal Mortum's Voice Of Steel will likely be viewed as a future cornerstone in pagan/viking or NS black metal. I feel like it's jut popular and well made enough to be considered a classical of the time period, I could easily be wrong, although I'm not seeing any strong contenders. Now, how many will cite it as a direct influence is another matter.

EDIT: Oops, it was already brought up! Guess I'll have to second it.