Highest charting Black Metal album on this list. However, if you are expecting something mired in complex ethereal textures then actually you would be wrong. “Absentia” is what a Black Metal album by Iron Maiden would sound like. It is a straight splice between Traditional and Black Metal and cleverly manages to keep the best bits from both. It has Black’s tight and taut atmospherics, but merges it with chunky galloping riffs. There are far fewer layers of convoluted sound than you will find in the other Black Metal albums I have salivated over this year; however, this lack of density is indeed one of its major strengths.

“Absentia” strips everything back to the primary weapon in Heavy Metal’s arsenal, namely the blistering riff. It is chock full of them, Black Metal’s obsession with down-tuning has been left at the door and instead Blaze of Sorrow have crammed their tracks full of blissfully soaring hooks and refrains. The guitar work across the whole album is simply stunning, not showy or over wrought but instead refrained, focused and utterly wonderful. 

This is a relatively straight forward but highly effective album. It shows that you can create something sublime by just sticking to what works. It uses the traits of Black Metal as a syphon to celebrate the simplistic wonderfulness of traditional Heavy Metal. Just majestic!