I've added links to videos, should you be strangely curious and fancy a listen. Enjoy!
I discovered this album quite late on this year, but it was immediately installed at the top of this list. It's a snarling beast of an album, sounding like Turbonegro and Satyricon got drunk, fucked, and spat out a hairy love-child. Why haven't more bands thought of mashing up punky Rock 'n' Roll with Black Metal? Well, we only need one to think of it, and that band is Kvelertak. It's Viking party anthems for the 21st century. Astonishing stuff.
1 = Kvelertak – 'Kvelertak'
I discovered this album quite late on this year, but it was immediately installed at the top of this list. It's a snarling beast of an album, sounding like Turbonegro and Satyricon got drunk, fucked, and spat out a hairy love-child. Why haven't more bands thought of mashing up punky Rock 'n' Roll with Black Metal? Well, we only need one to think of it, and that band is Kvelertak. It's Viking party anthems for the 21st century. Astonishing stuff.
Listen to Mjød
2 = Anathema – 'We're Here Because We're Here'
Anathema return after a ridiculous seven-year absence, and their new album is a beauty. It'd be amazing to play someone Anathema's first album and then this one in a row; there's no way they'd think that the miserable doom-laden noise was from the same people that make this glorious prog rock. Anathema's progression has been obvious through each release, but this Steven Wilson-produced severs all ties with the gothy-metal past and shimmers out of your speakers. Gorgeous.
Listen to Thin Air
Norway's premier Prog-Black Metallers seemed to lose their footing a bit on 2008's Vertebrae. After the storming Isa and Ruun, Vertebrae ventured a little too much into prog territory, and was... well, a little dull. That is not something you can accuse Axioma Ethica Odini of being, at any point. It's an absolute monster.
3 = Enslaved – 'Axioma Ethica Odini'
Norway's premier Prog-Black Metallers seemed to lose their footing a bit on 2008's Vertebrae. After the storming Isa and Ruun, Vertebrae ventured a little too much into prog territory, and was... well, a little dull. That is not something you can accuse Axioma Ethica Odini of being, at any point. It's an absolute monster.
Listen to The Beacon
It's rather sad that a band are unable to sing about being English without being accused of being racists. When Primordial sing about Irish history, or every band from Scandinavia sing about Vikings, no-one bats an eyelid – but Englishmen start singing about oaks and Albion and it's controversy time. It's all bollocks; Winterfylleth merely mine the ripe seam of English history and produce some stunning Progressive Black Metal.
4 = Winterfylleth – 'The Mercian Sphere'
It's rather sad that a band are unable to sing about being English without being accused of being racists. When Primordial sing about Irish history, or every band from Scandinavia sing about Vikings, no-one bats an eyelid – but Englishmen start singing about oaks and Albion and it's controversy time. It's all bollocks; Winterfylleth merely mine the ripe seam of English history and produce some stunning Progressive Black Metal.
5 = Grand Magus – 'Hammer Of The North'
Now THIS is metal. And we aren't talking average metal here – we're talking wolves-on-the-front-cover basslines-you-can-point-through studded-leather-waistcoat HEAVY FUCKING METAL. Grand Magus started out slow and doomy, and have got faster on every album. By the time of Hammer Of The North, they're now galloping like an unholy cross between Maiden and Priest. Huge!
Listen to Hammer Of The North
6 = Ihsahn – 'After'
While the demise of Emperor was a sad day for any metal fan, it's become clear where the division was. While Samoth continues to churn out cracking black metal with Zyklon and now The Wretched End, it can hardly be called ground-breaking. Ihsahn, however, is not constrained by genre boundaries and continues to bend black metal into strange new shapes.
Listen to A Grave Inversed
You want folk metal? Then come to the home of folk music! Irish doomsters Mael Mórdha really up their game with the new album. While the previous ones have been a bit too much in the thrall of Primordial, Manannán sees them really perfect their blend of folk and doom, with tin whistles keening over huge riffs. The rhythym section is particularly amazing, the bass and drums forming a thunderous gaelic assault, while the guitar and vocals twist out tales of despair and misery that can only come from a rain-blasted rock in the sea.
7 = Mael Mórdha – 'Manannán'
You want folk metal? Then come to the home of folk music! Irish doomsters Mael Mórdha really up their game with the new album. While the previous ones have been a bit too much in the thrall of Primordial, Manannán sees them really perfect their blend of folk and doom, with tin whistles keening over huge riffs. The rhythym section is particularly amazing, the bass and drums forming a thunderous gaelic assault, while the guitar and vocals twist out tales of despair and misery that can only come from a rain-blasted rock in the sea.
Listen to The Doom Of The Races of Éire
8 = Triptykon – 'Eparistera Daimones'
The next Celtic Frost album in all but name, Eparistera Daimones is a clear spiritual successor to Monotheist. Tom G Warrior continues to redefine heavy; this album is bleak, oppressive and fucking huge.
Listen to Goetia
9 = Killing Joke – 'Absolute Dissent'
Over three decades into their career, and Killing Joke show no signs of slowing up. Absolute Dissent is the first time the original line-up have recorded together in almost 30 years, but you wouldn't think it – it's an absolutely apocalyptic wall of noise. Another three decades please, Mr Coleman.Listen to The Great Cull
10 = Devil Sold His Soul – 'Blessed & Cursed'
One of the finest young bands plying their trade in Britain today, Blessed & Cursed saw Devil Sold His Soul take their post-metal hardcore to a new level, from ambient soundscapes, crashing into dizzyingly heavy riffs. A beauty.
Listen to Drowning / Sinking
This unholy racket tore out of the North of England earlier on this year. It's a coruscating wall of noise, mixing death metal guitars with a fierce electronic racket to produce an EP that spits in your face and kicks you in the nuts.
11 = Nekrodrako – 'Before The Swine'
This unholy racket tore out of the North of England earlier on this year. It's a coruscating wall of noise, mixing death metal guitars with a fierce electronic racket to produce an EP that spits in your face and kicks you in the nuts.
Listen to Roar Of The Swine
Gil Scott-Heron returns with his first album in almost two decades, a time he spent in and out of jails and drug treatment centres. Now he's back, pulling a Johnny Cash, delivering an album that's packed with more soul and gravitas than pretty much every album of 2010 combined.
12 = Gil Scott-Heron – 'I'm New Here'
Gil Scott-Heron returns with his first album in almost two decades, a time he spent in and out of jails and drug treatment centres. Now he's back, pulling a Johnny Cash, delivering an album that's packed with more soul and gravitas than pretty much every album of 2010 combined.
Listen to Me And The Devil
13 = Sabaton – 'Coat Of Arms'
There aren't many bands that can match Sabaton for utterly ridiculous pomp. Although this album fails to live up to the massive The Art Of War that preceded it, it's still fantastic – over-the-top metal anthems about war that are designed to be shouted by thousands of hairy fuckers in a field.
Listen to Uprising
14 = The Atlantean Kodex – 'The Golden Bough'
A massive slab of Bavarian Epic Doom, The Atlantean Kodex are a proper metal band. Ten-minute songs about magic and kings, propelled by monolothic riffs. Buy it. It's fucking huge.
Listen to Temple of Katholic Magick
15 = Negură Bunget - 'Vîrstele Pămîntului'
If anywhere is uniquely qualified to produce Black Metal, it's Transylvania. Hailing from the darkest depths of Romania, singing in their native tongue, Negură Bunget produce folk black metal that is eerie, chilling and majestic.
Listen to Prmont
16 = Ov Hell – 'The Underground Regime'
From my mentioning of Ihsahn, Winterfylleth and Enslaved, it's pretty clear that I like my Black Metal with a twist of Prog. There's nothing progressive about Ov Hell, however – this Norwegian supergroup play some proper, riotous old-school Black Metal. Then again, when your band features Frost, King ov Hell, Ice Dale, Shagrath and Teloch, that's hardly a surprise.
Listen to Invoker
17 = The Shining - 'Blackjazz'
If you've ever wondered why more people don't combine jazz and metal – and let's face it, it's crossed all our minds – here's the answer: Because when you do, it's insane. The proof, should you need it, can be found on Blackjazz, an utterly relentless assault on the ears. There are stories around that US Forces use Heavy Metal tracks as part of a campaign of torture and disorientation against suspected terrorists. Give them two minutes of 'The Madness And The
Damage Done', and they'd be singing like bitches.
Listen to The Madness And The Damage Done
18 = Fear Factory – 'Mechanize'
With the addition of Byron Stroud and Gene Hoglan, Fear Factory have pretty much completed their transformation into a Strapping Young Lad tribute act... but, with SYL no longer active, that's not such a bad thing. This album – their finest in years – is an industrial beast.
Listen to Mechanize
19 = Deftones – 'Diamond Eyes'
After Chi's much-documented accident in 2008, there was a huge question mark over whether or not we'd ever see new material from the Sacramento screamers. Such fears were allayed in 2010, when Diamond Eyes came out, and was easily their best work in a decade.
Listen to Royal
20 = Dommin – 'Love Is Gone'
Sounding like the middle ground between Type O Negative and HIM, with Glenn Danzig on vocals, Dommin are a fantastic nostalgia kick for anyone who spent their teenage years sat in the dark listening to Bloody Kisses. Which is precisely what I did. Just try and ignore the fact that they look just like the goth kids from South Park.
Listen to My Heart, Your Hands
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