Well, to be fair it got reissued on CD in 300 copies, so it's rather less dramatic than it sounds. Looks like it could be a good album too. I'll probably check it out at some point in the future.

Weird. Without me, for some totally incomprehensible reason Six Feet Under wouldn't even be listed here.

Also Ex Deo and Bliss of Flesh.
Belphegor, Taake, Nargaroth and Hour of Penance would be "randos" only.

Evry vote counts

I'm only suitable for the ma-mass with Septicflesh.


But seriously, I like that. I see some band names listed here I have never heard before. Maybe I find something great.

That Spotify comment just blows my mind, I can't imagine brand loyalty that intense. And it has to be brand loyalty, because the only reason I can think of that somebody would take the "Spotify-or-bust" route is that some cellphone carriers have a data exception for them (I have T-Mobile, and at least in America Spotify and Pandora don't count against my data cap). But even then, if you aren't paying for premium you're relegated to only listening on shuffle mode and you'll usually only get three or four songs in a row of any given album before it starts playing suggested songs from other albums or other bands entirely (which can be totally nonsensical, see: my Billy Talent marathon being interrupted by Black Tide for some unfathomable reason). Unless you're paying for premium, and if you are that shit ain't free anymore so what the hell reason is there to shun a free service? And if you're on your computer then yeah sure the shuffle problem goes away but there are still ads, and literally nothing stopping you from just typing in "youtube" or "bandcamp" in a search bar and suddenly having more access to more music for the exact same price. So you'll never ever pay for music but only listen on one particular free platform or you WILL pay for music but only on this same platform for seemingly arbitrary reasons.

Please come back and explain this. If you want to willingly deprive yourself of music then I mean hey, go for it, but this comment is making my head spin.

Nah, listening to music on YouTube, that's silly.

As far as missing out on an "insane amount" of high quality, independent music, I'm not too worried. If it's good enough I'll hear it sooner or later and until that happens I have a couple of thousand hours worth of music on my Spotify playlists on this years lists alone. But thanks anyway!

UUUhhh ... sure. I'll try.

First; I don't buy records anymore. I haven't done so in the last, probably ten years. I'm 45 something years old and I used to buy a fair amount of records in the old days. I have some 1500 vinyls+CDs in my collection.

Second; I live in Sweden. We got Spotify available here in 2007 I think. Since then pretty much every other source of music became obsolete. 95 % or more of the music I owned or had on mp3 was available there. So why go through the hassle of ripping CDs and making space for them on hard drives? There was just not any point.

Now, I commute to work with the subway and once at work I sit at a desk working with a computer. I have unlimited data for my cellphone (or something similar, as do most people in Sweden). At home I have Bluetooth speakers and an amplifier that natively plays Spotify. And so can the stereo in my car. And of course I have computers and iPads as well. So there is no place I can be, 24 hrs a day that Spotify and my playlists is not available to me. So why should I feel the need to look for any alternative to Spotify? It cost me about 10€ a month for this. I never said I wasn't a premium user did I?

Edit: Just to clarify, I did of course do a quick listening on YouTube to see what the fuzz was about. What my comment ment was that I only listen, consume music on Spotify.

As far as the amount of music that is available ... any given year there are maybe two or three albums that I can't find on Spotify. But there is so much music there anyway, that it just doesn't matter.

I mean, check out my playlist for 2017, how much music do you really think I miss?

https://open.spotify.com/user/a_l_x/pla ... iRsw4SbCVP

I didn't even list Malokarpatan or Satan's Hallow in my list but you can be damn sure I went to bandcamp and checked them out because of the hype, and I'm glad I did. I also wouldn't have heard Urn's album, which was my 10th choice. Also also there's no Caladan Brood on Spotify so not using anything else for music is automatically wrong.

I know I seldom post here for time reasons, and didn't get a vote in in time, so shame on me.

but not a single point for Kawir?

really?

Very nearly made my list! I have it under honourable mentions in my post. I thought it was a really great album, much better than their last one which disappointed me. I still think peak-Kawir is Isotheos.

I don't pay for Spotify and I can listen to full albums on there. I dunno.

wow, i'm surprised to see nu Suffocation so high up there on that list. i thought the only memorable thing about that album was the one lazy breakdown that made me legit lol as i was listening to it.

Good to see the Power Trip album rank so high, and you're right - despite half of us having major reservations about modern thrash, when someone does it right (and they fucking did it right) almost everyone guns for it. My assumption is that it's due to so many of us growing up on Metallica and Slayer, even if we now listen to wildly different things. Either way, I definitely fall into the "new thrash? no thanks" basket but I genuinely think it's a contender for album of the 00s so far.

I'm actually surprised to see Hour of Penance get so little attention. I thought they were pretty well liked around here. Maybe just forgotten about since it was released early in the year.

I ranked it at #3. I agree that it's a very cool album. You just get entranced by those riffs.

Biggest take away from the results? Oxbow are on the archives?!

Good to see something I voted for actually make the top ten for once, a little concerned that Pallbearer and Cradle of Filth are so high up but whatever.

Power Trip and Spectral Voice were both really great. Good work dudes. Nothing too awful in the top 10, which is nice.

Empath's data was refreshed last night so we can officially compare the forum top 10 to the review top 10. According to reviews:

10. Zebulon Kosted · You Have No Race You Have No Culture
9. Power Trip · Nightmare Logic
8. Warbringer · Woe to the Vanquished
7. Rebirth of Nefast · Tabernaculum
6. Persefone · Aathma
5. Akercocke · Renaissance in Extremis
4. Immolation · Atonement
3. Septicflesh · Codex Omega
2. Dying Fetus · Wrong One to Fuck With
1. Satan's Hallow · Satan's Hallow
http://www.furia.com/em/releases-year.html

Fanboys really love to give out 100% scores, which makes it super easy to game the system. At least there is some overlap.

Interesting results! I didn't care that much for the Power Trip myself, I guess I'll have to give it another shot. It's fun to see so many albums listed I haven't checked out yet, some blanks need to be filled in, apparently. Also cool to see some love thrown in the general direction of Crom, finishing top 40 ain't half bad!

Here are my picks:

1. Hallatar - No Stars Upon the Bridge
2. Domgård - Ödelagt
3. Taake - Kong Vinter
4. Evilfeast - Elegies of the Stellar Wind
5. Condor - Unstoppable Power
6. Execration - Return to the Void
7. Vallenfyre - Fear Those Who Fear Him
8. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
9. The Lurking Fear - Out of the Voiceless Grave
10. Samael - Hegemony

After submitting I had small changes of heart regarding the order of the albums placed 3.-7. Here's my top 50 list, with comments on every album: https://gospelofcrom.wordpress.com/2018 ... crom-list/

EDIT: And huge props to BastardHead for putting all of this together in such a coherent and well-structured fashion.

I'm more of a lurker than poster and didn't contribute to the original poll, but my top 10 in no particular order would be:

Myrkgrav - Takk og farvel; tida er blitt ei annen (biggest omission imo)
Vintersorg - Till fjälls, del II
Dying Fetus - Wrong one to fuck with
Akercocke - Renaissance in Extremis
Necrot - Blood Offerings
Cradle of Filth - Cryptoriana: The Seductiveness Of Decay
Septicflesh - Codex Omega
Undergang - Misantropologi
Decapitated - Anticult
Aosoth - The Inside Scriptures

Lots of other good ones; bought (and listened to) more new albums this year than in years past.
Interestingly, I only liked 2 of the top 10 on here enough to buy, and really don't understand the top couple spots, but to each their own.

Lich King made a better thrash album than Power Trip in 2017.

Condor and Antichrist did, that's for sure.


EDIT: Not Conan ffs

Why all the bitching about Cradle being high on the list? These aren't the days of Nymphetamine and Thornography. If you actually gave their last two albums a spin, you'd probably be surprised of how tight they sound now.

I haven't listened to much of the new stuff from 2017 so I very much appreciate all the voters and BastardHead for putting this list together and for helping me catch up. I started going through the list today and I am very much digging the Power Trip album. I'm generally not a modern thrash fan but that album rips. I'm hoping to find a few more gems as well.

If I had heard Satan's Hallow at any point before December 31st I guarantee you it would have been in my top 10 and probably top 5.

Same with that Power Trip album.

That's my favorite part of these things, finding albums I completely missed last year.

Thanks to BastardHead for all the hard work putting this together.

I completely missed the cut-off but I'll be sure to get it in for the next one.

Here is what my list looks like.

1. Persefone - Aathma (98)
2. Der Weg einer Freiheit - Finisterre (95)
3. Fen - Winter (103)
4. Duskmourn - Of Shadow and Flame (69)
5. Mors Principium Est - Embers of a Dying World
6. Threshold - Legends of the Shires (21)
7. WITTR - Thrice Woven (32)
8. Evil Invaders - Feed Me Violence (Rando)
9. Nokturnal Mortum - Verity (8)
10. The Great Old Ones - EOD (A Tale Of Dark Legacy) (186)

Honorable Mention: Anyone of these could have cracked my top

Leprous - Malina (130)
Power Trip - Nightmare Logic (1)
Akercocke - Renaissance in Extremis (59)
Pain of Salvation - Passing Light of Day (53)
Aosoth - V: The Inside Scriptures (33)

My list.

1. Tombs- The Grand Annihilation
2. Power Trip-Nightmare Logic
3. Portrait-Burn The World
4. Mastodon-Emperor Of Sand
5. Integrity- Howling, For The Nightmare Shall Consume
6. Antichrist-Sinful Birth
7. Pallbearer-Heartless
8. Black Anvil-As Was
9. Satan's Hallow-Satan's Hallow
10. Venenum-Trance Of Death

That Tombs album just kicks my ass with so many riffs.

My comment on this was because not all that long ago it was sort of a fad on metal sites to bash Cradle of Filth, even their pre-Midian material. It wasn't until Hammer that I really started to see that tide turning. I guess it shouldn't have surprised me. Since Cryptoriana has been getting mostly positive reviews everywhere I've looked. I guess the Nymphetamine and Thorn days seemed like a long time and I kind of got accustomed to seeing negative shit about them everywhere.

This thread has convinced me to listen to Bell Witch. I honestly don't like doom metal at all, but I'm 45 minutes into this song and really enjoying it. Something about it is clicking with me more than traditional doom. I'm not sure if I'll get bored of the track before it ends, but so far so good.

Also, it has easily the best cover art of the year.

Possibly the latter, also everything since The Vile Conception and Paradogma has been a step down in quality and consistency. For me anyway

It's a matter of perspective; sucking less than they previously did is a pretty low bar to clear. Not to mention that there are just so many better, more innovative and creative albums released in the same year.

But it's the kind of thing that happens when people might only be aware of X number of albums released in a year, listen to Y amount and then only like Z number of those they listened to. I am not surprised to see their name come up at all, but I was expecting them to scurrying in among the detritus from a few low end votes.

Catching up on this one now. Very good stuff.

Hell yeah, good on you for giving it a try. I've seen them play the first half of it live and it's monstrous for just two guys. And yeah, that art is insane.

Quoted for good, When not even thrash fans realize that you know that the world is doomed

Got surprised by the new Akercocke: i tried a lot but never really got into their music beside few early songs, but this album is strangely an exception. Good stuff.

Also i'm an idiot: new Firespawn is amazing and should have been in my top ten. I expected some lazy modern swedeath and instead i got a mauled by a large variety of riffs and Matte Modin's insane drums

Update: After like 3 more listens, I have no problem calling this my biggest "miss" of 2017. This is truly unique black metal and it stands out.

Glad you like them, dude! I totally agree. They were my best black metal album of the year and it's not hard to see why. The repetition is hypnotic and even the final track, which excludes black metal, is just so enthralling. Plus its short run time ensures repeated listens over and over. It honestly doesn't get much better. I can't wait to see what Lorn do next.

I completely agree about the cover art, but I can't understand for the life of me what I'm missing with the music.

same here - i've given the album like three extra chances just because of the awesome artwork, but it just hasn't done much for me musically

Yeah the Bell Witch album didn't do much for me. It is very dynamic and sounds great but it's a just a tad drawn out for my taste. I need to give it more time.

Been going through the list of those I have either overlooked or just completely unaware of and I have to say I am really enjoying Portrait - Burn the World. I have no idea how I overlooked these guys at all. Will be checking the rest of their discography. Still need to give Bell Witch a listen.

its good but not as good as the previous one and i dare say that Luciferian Fullmoon Necromancy is better too

Bell Witch was pretty good, but not an album I'd feel the need to listen to very often. It's a long droning, repetitive piece and also very long. It's not the most fun thing to listen to, although while on I enjoyed it for the most part.

Definitely does have a great cover art. Reminds me of Dark Souls.