I don't understand this at all. The album isn't even out yet and you're concerned with it getting screwed over for AOTY? How can you even know if it's good or not? Maybe, you should be mad at the band for waiting till December 26th to release it?

Oddly enough, I think Horn - Turm am Hang ended up being my favorite, after that there's a lot that are too even to decide.

Never heard a Nortt album but I think anyone who votes for that should be banned too.

Also, I have come up with 10 metal albums that I've listened to this year. I just have to put them in order now.

Also, I have come up with 10 metal albums that I've listened to this year. I just have to put them in order now.

"Hi these are the only ten new albums I've heard all year, please rank them among the best of the best thank you"

But that's okay, he's known since February that Nortt was going to be one of the best releases of the year so I think we should cut him some slack. Not every day a bona fide clairvoyant joins the forum.

I've been apart of these forums for almost a decade. I'm also a full time college student, so I don't have time to just lay in my bed and spend an hour listening to a new album every single day. I enjoy listening to music I already know that I like, which means releases from previous years. But, please, keep going with the insults. This is why metalheads have such a negative stigma around them. Most of them are bullies. Rare to find a genuinely nice person on these forums.

So it's entirely possible to listen to metal at a pretty good clip and still not come up with enough albums to populate a top 10 list.

Anyway, it's time to move on from this. I keep seeing those Spotify year in review things on FB. Has anyone been using those to build your list?

Yep, spreadsheet for life (though just for purchases). I use lastFM to track listens, but not for recommendations. In that regard I've found Spotify's similar artist tool to be the best in the business (that particular algorithm was created by the same guy who runs empath) but I find discovering new stuff on my own is much more enjoyable.

Horn didn't really grab me at all. Rock-y, somewhat light pagan black metal can be really cool, but that particular album maybe went too far with the dry-sounding hard rock riffs. Another similar album from this year you might dig (though I didn't) is Mustan Kuun Lapset - Saatto.

Finally submitted mine. I have a feeling mine may have 2 titles on it that I'm the only votes for. We shall see!

The main way I've been building my list is referring to a spreadsheet I use to log albums. It definitely makes the process easier as opposed to trying to remember everything I've listened to from this year.

Yup, the only thing better than Spotify's Similar Artists feature is MA's own Similar Artists tab on band pages. Last.fm's Similar Artists is okay, but I only use it as a last resort after the other two... it also seems to work better for more obscure artists fsr.

Honestly, if this website didn't exist I probably wouldn't even listen to metal because I wouldn't know where to start and how to find stuff that appeals to my tastes.

I joined this site for precisely that reason. There was nowhere else, and still isn't, that was a) as comprehensive, and b) relatively neutral. Everywhere else just wanted to shill the albums that they were trying to sell, or promote the labels that had paid to be promoted, or reviewed only the bands that would get them clicks. Nobody gave a shit about promoting quality for its own sake, because there's no money in that, I guess.

I'd say 75% of the metal I listen to is dictated by MA, with another 15% from my YouTube feed, and the last 10% split between Shreddit and Spotify's similar artists tab

I rarely use last.fm. Am I missing out? Anything amazing about it that I should know?

I didn't listen to that many new releases this year sadly, mostly sticking with my back catalogue and recommendations. I probably did end up listening to more than 10 albums from 2017 but it wouldn't really be fair to tarnish the results with a bunch of crappy recent "NWOBHM" demos. Really interested in what MA will rank as our top 10 though.

Thanks for putting in the legwork Bastardhead.

I vote for albums where I am the sole vote so I would love to see what releases you favor from this year.

The only two I can think of off the top of my head would be Havukruunu's Kelle Surut Soi and Hermóðr's Ghost of the Cold Winds. If I remember correctly, French black metal band Ende also put out a track that I really liked early this year, though I didn't get around to listening to their full length. I loved both of those albums but I really couldn't think of any others I could put on my list. I've picked through the YouTube channel "NWOTHM Full Albums" too, which has a few really great albums on it that came out this year (Don't Drop the Sword's Path to Eternity, which is cheesy as shit) but there's plenty of crap on there too. Overall, I just couldn't find 10 albums I gave enough of a shit about to send to BH.

I spent most of this year indulging in some of the great underground stuff I missed in 2016, like Kyr or stuff people recommended me, none of which came out this year. I went through a very sudden and rough break-up and my desire to listen to new metal tracks died down. I spending a month or two listening to just Bathory and Immortal. Hopefully I'll break that cycle of sadness in 2018 and enjoy how bands are pushing metal forward.

Or like in the new year because we've still got a couple of weeks, how are you people even finalising lists what is wrong with you?

I've been apart of these forums for almost a decade. I'm also a full time college student, so I don't have time to just lay in my bed and spend an hour listening to a new album every single day. I enjoy listening to music I already know that I like, which means releases from previous years. But, please, keep going with the insults. This is why metalheads have such a negative stigma around them. Most of them are bullies. Rare to find a genuinely nice person on these forums.

I went through a very sudden and rough break-up and my desire to listen to new metal tracks died down. I spending a month or two listening to just Bathory and Immortal. Hopefully I'll break that cycle of sadness in 2018 and enjoy how bands are pushing metal forward.

Because for some of us, there's nothing else that's going to convince them in two weeks that could be stronger than something that they've been listening to all year?