The shoegaze revival is in full swing. Glare are another bunch of American youngsters recreating a sound that in its initial existence burned brightly for a few select years in the late eighties. This is a lusciously unrushed album. It is gorgeous in a leisurely delivery with guitars rolling out in a slow and languid manner. There is lots to get lost in here, protracted melodies and dense textured sounds that wash over you like waves. It borrows little pieces of inspiration from those who have bulked up the genre through Black and nu-gaze movements but in the main this is an unhurried and lingering album that gently reveals itself.

OK! This album shouldn’t be here. I usually disregard cover albums but for three essential reasons it has slipped through. Firstly, it is bookended by two new original numbers, so that technically redefines it as an album with mostly covers which could be argued is different. Secondly, it covers unknown cult punk and noise outfits, so to most listeners, it is new tracks. Finally, it is really good. Really, really good. Midnight are the bastard inheritors of Motorhead’s crown. They play rock n’roll, nasty and nihilistic rock n’roll but rock n’roll all the same. This is a fun album; heavy, marauding and obscenely inappropriate but at the end of the day, fun. Short pithy tracks showcase the joy of loud anti-social music. There is a lot of despair on this list. Whilst it is not bottled sunshine, it is just a fabulous exercise in enjoyable repulsive heaviness.  

The extraordinary thing about Paradise Lost is that (aside from a never-ending revolving door of drummers) it has remained the same four lads that gathered in Halifax in 1988 to create music that combined their loves of Iron Maiden and Sisters of Mercy. That thirst to create new music has never left them, and while other heritage acts put less and less emphasis on crafting new music, Paradise Lost have remained doggedly focused on expanding and refining their repertoire. This is album seventeen and continues their recent trend of focusing on the metal side of their persona. “Ascension” is chock full of seriously chunky riffs. Heavy, meticulously grating and pulsatingly pulverising. It would not be Paradise Lost without the despairing gloom, and it is a wonderfully downbeat album that is thick with desolation and hopelessness. Nobody does misery with such panache and whilst every bunch of Scandinavians and their pet husky are now doing goth metal, Paradise Lost remain the masters of the craft. 

There hasn’t been much Black Metal this year so let’s have a slice of the classic Nordic stuff from the heartland of Bergan. Helheim have been around since the nineties but haven’t pricked the public perception like other outfits such as Mayhem, Emperor and Enslaved. Which is a real shame as they are a highly proficient unit who brilliantly marry the atmospheric with jagged coarseness. They also exercise an intriguing and rather unique approach to songwriting. Core members V'gandr and H'grimnir each write their own tracks, respectively performing vocals on the ones they have written. Essentially, the album is split into V'gandr and H'grimnir halves. What could up an incoherent mess actually turns out to be a genius collusion, meaning the album is a fantastic melting pot of progression and aggression. It is full of dramatic stirring passages that then descend into a spiralling chasm of darkness. Stirringly evocative and brilliantly executed.

Hailing from Finland, Amorphis are the last word in dependability. Fifteen albums and thirty-five years in they continue to produce metal that is drenched in both soaring guitar and enriching synths. It the relationship between the two that gives their material such a melodic cinematic feel. It is big widescreen metal, full of anthemic refrains and fist-pumping passages. Everything feels sumptuous and big and it is that accessibility that makes it so enticing. Heaviness with added catchiness they have yet again proved they are unsurpassed songwriters.

More Black Metal determined to push the boundaries of the genre. This time it is from Turkey via their German base. Consisting of raw energy and emotional depth this is a suffocatingly intense album that encases the listener in perpetual noise. It is a punishing but enriching experience that harnesses the brutal totality of this style. Every track is its own tempestuous ecosystem, swirling in a brooding cacophony. The album showcases Black metal at its insular and effecting best. Hauntingly harrowing and full of polarising passion.

It has taken twenty years, seven albums, a few false starts and several lineup changes but Bleed from Within can now safely say that they have moved from “on the way”, to “arrived”. Their special guest slot at next years Bloodstock seals their slow but steady ascent up metals greasy pole. “Zenith” also plays its part by positioning them as purveyors of high quality, high tempo modern metalcore. It is brimful of big songs with crushing guitar and top-notch choruses. It doesn’t claim to reinvent or invert anything. Instead, it presents heavy metal as infectiously enjoyable. The anthems that they needed to push them into the big league are starting to gel and the most exciting thing about “Zenith” is that it makes us feel excited about what they will do next.

Yet more Black Metal, and yet again another outfit playing with the parameters of the musical form. This a psychedelic-tinged layered soundscape of diverse instrumentation. It sprawls across six tracks with sparkling synthesisers offsetting the gnarly guitars. It feels like a beautiful marriage between perfection and decay. Sections of beauty which are then overawed by hectic unhinged distortion. A thoroughly interesting album that gives up new secrets on each listen.  

Now this one ain’t an easy listen but it has so much to give the listener if they just work with it. It is a complex jagged cathedral of sound that feels brittle and impenetrable on first listen but slowly unveils itself over several listens. It feels like you are intruding upon some form of ritualistic tribal ceremony as opposed to listening to an album. At the heart of it are drone-like passages that feel organic and primordial. The simplistic percussion and chanted vocals add to the circular feeling of being trapped in some form of primitive time loop. Challenging and bordering on listenable, it manages to be intriguing enough to keep pulling the listener back in and by doing so it slowly but surely reveals its beauties within.  

Have you ever wondered what a Goth Def Leppard would sound like? Well the answer is, surprisingly enough, Hangman’s Chair. This is a fabulous collision of slick eighties production and Gothic brooding. Essentially if the whole of “Hysteria” was the first minute of ‘Gods of War’ played over and over then it would sound a lot like “Saddiction”. It has that hair metal feel, but without the pomp or bubble gum sensibilities. Essentially, this is smooth rock with a seditious undertone. A bit like the nice boyfriend in a teen horror that turns out to be a serial killer. So if you liked The Cure, but always has a secret craving for Bon-Jovi, then this is finally your album.

Another bunch of intrepid Frenchmen playing fast and loose with the rules that govern heavy music. This is symphonic melodic death metal (yes, it is a thing). It is both complex and challenging but it sounds absolutely divine. It is a sophisticated album full of precision-engineered guitar work and dynamic shifts in tone. They bring into play Slavic folk influences which gives it a granular and organic feel. A twisty turny album that is both innovative and versatile. Rather special indeed.

Well it has been one hell of a year for Deftones. They emerged from a three years hiatus (at least in terms of this company) discover that their stock had increased considerably. Summer outside headline shows in several interesting locations were rip-roaring successes and “Private Music” has been their most successful album in a very long time. Couple this with sold-out arena shows next February and a massive outdoor London show next August, the Deftones are riding a wave of popularity that always seemed to elude them.

“Private Music” is good, really good. It isn’t quite at “White Pony” or self-titled levels, but is certainly the best material they have done since the early noughties. The secret is they are no longer trying to be anybody but themselves. It is a supremely confident album that brings together the different shades of Deftones sounds that we have heard over the last thirty years. As always, the key component is their ability to be simultaneously cinematic and noisy. Heavy but also polished this might be the point where they finally become the big deal many of us have always thought they were. 

Instrumental post-metal that views itself as a conceptual journey across the solar system. It is both big in ambition and in scale. It works on a monumentally large canvas, scoping a gargantuan cathedral of interlinking sound. Sometimes immensely heavy but also in other places scarce and sparse, it is a hypnotically entrancing album that feels like a meditation on our finite small part in the cosmos. Brilliantly rendered, it is a breathtaking record that looks up to the skies for both salvation and inspiration.

A highly enticing mix of ambient and doom via a debut album from a bunch of Italians. It is dark, atmospheric and rather compelling. It knits together crunching heavy cyclical riffs and fragile dreamy ambience. These two juxtapositions gel well, creating a solid ecosystem that feels both alien and familiar. It all feels rather detached, mysterious and emotive. Full of textured layers it is an album that absolutely commands repeated listening.

playing with heavy metal’s constructs, or that are subverting and manipulating what my beloved genre should sound like. Well, this one isn’t attempting to rewrite any rule book. This is straight down the line meat and potato metal and its gloriously wonderful for being that. It is a fabulous amalgamation of aggression and melody. This is how I want my metal to sound, cathartically energetic and full of contagious beauty. It’s quite simply a collection of brilliantly written heavy metal songs that understand the need for rousing choruses and soaring riffs. Absolutely excellent.

We are back to the auteurs playing with form and function. This is a tempestuous maelstrom of emotionally charged black prog. It tempers harsh aggression with melodic, vulnerable passages that are full of fragile introspection. The pivet between styles is done really well, avoiding any sense of jarring and instead creating a natural meld between the two states of being. For all its opulent anger, it is a mature and sophisticated album that can understands how to overwhelm and sooth in equal measure.  

Let’s put aside the sophistication for one moment and go big on the brutality. This is old school death metal from one of this country’s foremost pioneers in this style. Benediction may not have gained the plaudits of Napalm Death or Bolthrower but they existed alongside both bands, happily trading members like a deranged wife swap party. This is a brilliantly simple and minimal album that strips everything back to core aggression. It is remorseless, angry and unabatingly intense. It illustrates the beauty of brittle belligerent heaviness and happily builds upon over 35 years in this game. Absolute belter of a record.

An early doors release, this has yo-yoed over the year. Every time it has slipped down the ranking as other records have appeared, I have given it a quick listen, and it has sprung its way back up the countdown. It is a magical, ethereal record. Mournful and husky, it is dry and arid heavy rock album. It does contain riffs but in the main, it is melodic and forlorn. It is haunting rather than heavy and it feels like the soundtrack to a downbeat movie. Overall it is brilliantly constructed and it has held its place on the list for the last eleven months because it is memorable and distinctly moreish.

Happily hanging onto the coattails of Tool and Mastodon, this is an impressively sprawling piece of stoner prog. It is loose enough to have that lethargic sensibility, but it exhibits its prog tendencies enough to lean into a cacophony of complex time signatures. It blends technical procession with raging aggression. It is immaculately constructed, and even the free-form parts feel stringently rehearsed. Complexly textured, it is another album that reveals itself over time.

Mat McNerney (here appearing as Mathew Kvohst McNerney) is rather a metal Renaissance man. He is a constantly evolving creative dynamo, simultaneously weaving his mystical spell across a multitude of different musical vehicles. Terrifically authentic new wave goth outfit Grave Pleasures is apparently still a going concern yet he has this year produced not one but two side projects. Scorpion Milk in 95, but here (just) in the better half of the main list is his other other other band Hexvessel.