If anything, they've gotten to a level of professionalism and polish now that their experience makes their music really good. They know exactly what they're doing and there's no fat or extraneous moments on that album. It's masterfully done.

Nocturnal Rites - Before We Waste Away

This song is also growing on me more - a sweet stomping, mean anthem from one of my favorite PM acts. Can't wait to hear this album. Song titles are kind of different for them, a bit darker sounding.

Anaal Nathrakh - 'Hold Your Children Close and Pray For Oblivion'

'This is what you wanted, this is what you need'.

Trick or Treat - The Great Escape

I rarely see anyone mention Trick or Treat.

They're a lot like Helloween, not just because of the obvious aesthetic influences, but also because they're extremely swingy--one minute I'll be bored to tears by a song as dull as dishwater, and then, the very next minute, an excellent song (like "The Great Escape," actually) will punch me in the mouth and stomp my face in. It's a weird experience to listen to one of their albums in full.

Light & Shade - You Are

I don't consider this a 2016 album. No one had it uploaded for me to plunder like the dirty pirate I am, nobody talked about it--it basically didn't exist in 2016, so I'm going to consider this album a 2017 album. And with that said, this is probably the crowning earworm of 2017 thus far.

Katatonia - Brave

Good old Katatonia, great stuff.

Origin - Unparalleled Universe
I haven't listened to Origin at all since like, early 2009. I dunno why, I fell off the style I guess. Their total sensory overload approach to tech death had been bastardized so much by terrible bands like Brain Drill and Rings of Saturn that I just soured on them. I heard teaser tracks from Entity when that was new and they did nothing for me, and actually sounded really weak, which was surprising because Antithesis fucking crushed. Figured it's been eight years, maybe I should give them another whirl. This new one is... well, pretty good. I think absence has made the heart grow fonder because I'm having a good time with this despite it being the exact same thing they've been doing since 2002, but I dunno, on first listen I think this kills. Not coming close to touching Hideous Divinity for tech death of the year or anything but it's good stuff.

Dio - Hungry for Heaven

One of Dio's classics!

Machine Head - Old

MH's debut is filled with outstanding tracks. The second most popular one is obviously the 2nd single. '90s post-thrash/groove metal at its best.

Amiensus - All Paths Lead to Death

A surprisingly heavy record for this band.

Iron Maiden - Afraid to Shoot Strangers

Fear of the Dark was not a classic Maiden album but it had several classic songs in it. This is one of them.

Rainbow - "Stargazer"

"All eyes see the figure of the wizard as he climbs to the top of the world.
No sound, as he falls instead of rising.
Time standing still, then there's blood on the sand."

Absu - A Shield with an Iron Face

Black/thrash at its best.

I like Brain Drill and Rings of Saturn, but I'm also a douche so who knows. I agree that Antithesis crushed. Entity was good but didn't reach the level reached previous, and Omnipresent fell flat. The new one is quite good, I agree, but it needs a few listens before actual judgement.

I also agree it's not as good as other brutal death from 2017 such as Hideous Divinity (which also needs more listens) and Maze of Sothoth.

Deivos - Theodicy

I see the review here is quite average, but I don't know why. Sure, it's not Demiurge of the Void, but it's still a solid banger of an album! Plenty of great riffs to be had, and the drumming is tight as fuck, and continues to include cowbells. Nothing wrong here.

Neurosis - Times of Grace

like a ton of bricks

Saor - Aura

I'm going to Scotland in a week, what better music to get myself hyped. I think I like this one most out of the three Saor albums.

Deep Purple - Infinite

Just got it. Into the first song, and there's a machine head speaking.

Vader - Silent Empire

Doing some back catalog review in preparation for potentially two Vader shows I'll see in August and September!

Mgła - Power And Will IV

The best of the early Mgła, in my opinion.

Anaal Nathrakh - In the Constellation of the Black Widow

...

TED NUGENT – Live 1980

Great hard rock

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUzOq_ePAgw

Nasty - Shokka
These guys get the aesthetics all wrong for crossover appeal since they go full out with the whole white gangsta shtick, but they're one of the most metal hardcore bands out there right now. Shokka was damn near my AOTY in 2015, and Love, Give a Shit, and Aggression preceding it all fucking rock face too. Realigion is coming out soon and the preview track is just as good as everything else, so I'm running through some of the back catalog to get pumped. Pretty sure TEA is the only guy here who would care, but Nasty fucking reigns supreme. They're like a less dark but equally brutal contemporary to the metal-approved beatdown bands like Xibalba and No Zodiac.

Race Against Time - Harbinger of Death

Really underrated and largely unknown band of the nwobhm movement. Ranks up there with the best the time period had to offer in my opinion.

Helloween - Power
This is the helloween song that sometimes i love and other times i cant stand and wont listen to for weeks.

Blood Stain Child - Electricity

I feel so ashamed that i love this song but...eh fuck it
(You were not kidding when you said that this grows on you RNG)

Morbid Angel - He Who Sleeps

That riff beginning beginning at 3:08 and culminating at 3:31 is so awesome. Simple yet crushingly heavy. Love this album, artwork is pretty cool too. Really hope the next album is a hark back to this! Most "mature" MA album in my opinion, if you know what I mean.

Morbid Angel - Hymnos Rituales De Guerra

Great percussive, instrumental track from Formulas.

Good album. Shame they got rid of that vocalist, she really fit that style.

Satyricon - Dominions of Satyricon

Great track from Satyricon's second album.

Satanic Bloodspraying - March Of The Dead

Blackened thrash from Bolivia! This was a blind buy back in 2012, and I re-visit it once every year.

Blind Guardian - "Valhalla"

"So many centuries, so many gods: We were the prisoners of our own fantasy."

A good EP though I still prefer their debut.

Heavy,Hell & Metal - Compilation

A killer compilation from 1988

To me it doesn't sound as ambitious as Formulas does, but it might as well be the best consistent Morbid Angel offering.

NP: The Gathering - In Motion #1

Anneke knows how to sing and some of the riffs stand out here and there, but I'm not so sure whether this is really my thing in the end.

Aragorn - Black Ice 7" CD

One of the heavier tracks from the NWOBHM and 1981 in general. The B-side is pretty fuckin' cool too.

Candlemass - Embracing the Styx

Robert Lowe's vocals really shine on this record for mine. There is a pained expression in the phrasing which gives a bleak, harrowing feel to what I consider a fantastic and colossal Candlemass album.

Voivod - Experiment

Voivod back in these days just figured out the code to writing heavy music - just turn everything up loud and fucking bash shit out musically. This has a lot of musicianship and songwriting, but one of its chief identifiers is how brazenly the band just plays this material, just loud as fuck. That's what metal is about really.

At The Gates - Under A Serpent Sun

Slaughter Of The Soul, perhaps one of the most polarizing metal albums around?

Pantera - Floods

A slow, moody number from the cowboys from hell.

Deceased - The Triangle

Vicious and creepy. Really passionate vocal work. I tend to reach for Blueprints the least of all Deceased's albums, having it mentally filed away as "too death metal". And it's true there's nowhere near as much traditional influence but they were still mainlining Venom and Voivod and it spills out everywhere.

Grue - Degenerate Remnants of a Sorcerous Race

This song is so great, man. They're an underground band from the Boston area. I'm not really sure if you'd call them black metal or death metal or what, but they write really aggressive and musical stuff... their shit always gets stuck in my head. This track is from their upcoming album, the only one we can hear right now. So many kickass parts of this song.

https://grue.bandcamp.com/track/degener ... um-preview