More Black Metal. This iteration of the genre begins to exhibit some of those features we spoke of before. Whilst “Ethos” is distinctly strident in its heaviness, it brings into play a folky edge that gives the tempo an almost jolly swagger. It’s also effortlessly big in its sound. It avoids Black Metal's usual penchant to be under produced and instead it is very slick in its grandiose production and windscreen presentation. Still nihilistically nasty this is nihilism with both a Hollywood budget and aspirations.

We have had one posthumous release, but this is the final word in final records. By the time this was released, there was nobody left. This is the first MC5 album in 53 years and definitively their last, as the two remaining members alive (Wayne Krammer and Dennis Thompson) both sadly passed away soon after its completion.

For a band with the legacy and historical importance of the MC5, “Heavy Lifting” is actually a fitting swan song. Any notion of it being derivative or safe are swept away when you take into account that MC5 invented garage rock. Without them there is no Stooges and Iggy, no Ramones and therefore no Punk. This album shows simultaneously that everything has changed in 53 years and nothing has changed. It is essentially an eye-spy spotter’s guide to everything musically that they have influenced or been the catalyst for. 

It is an unrepentant rock n’ roll record, that revels in the wonder of soaring guitar, thumping bass and pounding drum. It builds upon their previous two records by showing that they have indeed listened to everything that their year zero has begot. Eclectic, but cohesive enough to feel like a linear whole as opposed to a complication. A fitting full stop to one of the most important bands ever.

Self-described as a spirited manifesto for artistic freedom as well as a grand declaration of war against nostalgic stagnation, this is indeed an oddity of a release. They have already carved a formidable signature into Nordic black metal folklore by being what Gaahl did first before he was conscripted into Gorgoroth. They have never formally dissolved, instead, they have simmered along in the background, reanimated sporadically when Gaahl felt the creative itch.

The point about declaring war on nostalgia is very real here as this is a complete side step away from where the band began. Instead, we get dark avant-garde project that owes as much to free-form jazz as it does to black metal. It is stunningly original and fiercely non-linear. It wanders off into cul-de-sacs of experimental prog that feel drawn from edges of early Genesis, with added bile and bite. Head scratchingly odd but surprisingly intriguing and intoxicating it is one of those records you will be in unpackaging for a long time to come.

Another non-metal entry. “Seldom Seen Kid” and that bloody song will always be an albatross for the arena bothering Mancunian miserabilists. It was a zeitgeist that launched a thousand montages and made Guy Garvey an unlikely household name and national treasure.

They have diligently continued making records (some better than others) but have always struggled with where they go next musically and how far they stray from that anthemic style that become their payday. With “Audio Vertigo” they have put their big boy pants on and tried to do something different.

This is a funk album, it shakes its booty and has a rhythmic afro-beat feel to it. It seems happy to play with convention and dispense with a reliance on communal garden time signatures. Guy seems intent on throwing off his shackles of respectability and his lyrics are more subversive and dryly funny than they have been in years. Rather than a return to form or past glories this is a distinctly left-hand turn into unknown pastures and the sound of band not yet ready to become a nostalgia machine churning out the hit.

This is intrinsically vital noise pop from Norway. It builds from a foundation of black and roll, but does so with a heavy dose of youthful vigour. Its beauty is its raw untapped energy. A feeling of unashamed joy and vigour just burns from the record. It feels more alive and real than probably any other record on this list. An unashamedly hedonistic antidote to everything that is drab and dreary in this world.

Bleak but beautiful highly intelligent doom from Canada. This a tender but desolate emotionally wrought record that is stunning in its procession and its prose. It just works magnificently, and the songs build in crescendos of forlorn glory. It is understated and at times ferociously minimal, but there is so much wonder in its forsaken and austere manner.

A wonderfully expansive album from Belgium. This mixes post rock with doom creating a pleasant and all-consuming noise that is rich in texture and variation. There is a lot going on across its eight tracks and it is consciously cut in two, buffered by the self explanatory titled ‘Interlude’. The first part sounds massive, interspersed with gigantic hocks and colossal vocals. The latter section is much more self-reflective and slight and feels like a descension into a bleak bottomless hole. Still astonishingly intricate it is noticeably more dark and maudlin than the start of the record. Astonishing album.

It is instrumental self-indulgence time. There are just two tracks here (so far so prog) and this is a highly convoluted journey through multiple musical soundscapes. It is a constantly replicating kaleidoscope of sound that soundtracks an unmade post-apocalyptic movie. That idea that this accompanies a cinematic narrative allows them to drastically play with the conventions of song structure. What you end up with is swirling cloud of big riffs, scuzzy bass and endlessly fluctuating pace. Big, inventive and thoroughly immersive.

A hidden Mancunian gem, Winterfylleth are without doubt this country’s premier Black Metal act (Cradle of Filth don’t count, what they are doing stopped being Black Metal years ago). They strip away all the malignant doom and satanic pantomime in order to reinvent Black Metal as a strident storytelling tool connecting us with the soul of Albion and our naturalistic roots. They link back to British folklore and the protection of our natural heritage.

In the past, they have brought in dark maudlin folk but with “The Imperious Horizon” they have taken a more anthemic approach and this is their most wide-screen and cinematic record to date. It sweeps in majestic grandeur and reeks of both confidence and splendour. Yes, the guitars still pulsate and the vocals still screech but this is ultimately highly accessible black metal, opening up its charred gates and letting the songs frizzle with opportunity.

This is a simultaneously complex but also wonderfully accessible album that brims with ideas. It is inventive and sumptuously forward-thinking. It weaves a tapestry of off-kilter sonic ideas that convene together to create a post-rock sound that has both heft and grand melodicnness. It is an album that feels as if oceans of thought went into its creation. Every note is meticulously placed and every shift in tone precision engineered. Gloriously dense but also astonishingly rendered.

It’s been quite a while since Nightwish released anything that merited their almost imperious standing in metal’s hierarchy. The last album was a self-indulgent mess and the one before had memorial moments but has failed to add to their legacy.

They are not touring “Yesterwynde” which means they have worried less about how it sounds live and more about making an album that plays to their individual strengths. The best bit is that the songs feel strong. They are rounded and well-sculpted. The record doesn’t deviate too much from their template, but it does allow them to stretch their musical muscles and enjoy the very act of playing. Put simply this is an album that sounds like musicians for the first time in ages enjoying the process of making an album.

I think my tastes are evolving, In the past this list has been guilty of being wall-to-wall power metal. But year by year I am including less and less. There is still decent examples of the genre being churned out, it is just that it is tickling my fancy less and less. Powerwolf are the expectation. They are a Germanic powerhouse specialising in larger than life catholic church baiting deities that major in ridiculous puns and opulent keyboards. This is in the list not because it is earth-shatteringly different but because it is outrageous fun. It bounces, it bops, and it sticks two fingers out at the pope. Ludicrously enjoyable. 

Our third seventies derivative entry.  It wanders around the styles trying them on for style but in the main, It is doom occult rock dripping with erotic malevolence. BUT and there is a but. Hail Darkness don’t exist. Never existed. They are an AI experiment. There is no members, and the intricate back story is all prefabricated. There is a manifesto published that explains the motivations around the process and there is a level of fooled you about the whole thing.

The big issue and the reason it is still here at 68 is that even after it has been revealed that I have been swizzled and it is purely an artificial construct, I still really like the album. I have spent a lot of time contemplating whether to drop it and lots of critics now, knowing it’s a façade, have claimed its rubbish, But the simple fact is that LOTS of us including myself were fooled by it.

Now we know it’s created and concocted by a machine should that change anything? Kraftwerk, one of the most important bands of all time, play computer music. Electro, dance, and rave use exclusively sounds created by a machine. How different is Hail Darkness? The parameters were programmed in in the same way Orbital, Chemical Brothers and Leftfield program their sound. Should we be decrying it or should we see this as the first step in a new world? Because I will stand by the fact I really liked it and it fooled me. Maybe this is the future….

Back to real bands and more power metal, ironically just after I had stated that there is very little power metal. This is the culmination of a project that was initiated nearly twenty years ago. Back in 2006 Wintersun founder and former Ensiferum member Jari Mäenpää stated his intention to create a sprawling complex concept album entitled “Time”.

Its release was constantly pushed back until a ‘first part’ finally appeared in 2012 entitled simply Time 1. The completion of the saga was slated for 2013, but that was subsequently delayed. A non-connected album “the Forest Seasons” was released in 2017 and many assumed that the intentions to bring the Time tale to a finale had dissipated.

However a good seven years after Wintersun had released anything, missives were suddenly released earlier on in the year that stated “Time II” was 100% complete and would see the light of day August 2024. Those of us who have waited over a decade for this album took this with a pinch of salt. But here it is the second instalment of Time and boy is it worth the wait.

 It is a lavish over engineered monstrosity of an album that goes big from the moment that it starts. No bell or whistle has been spared. Instead, it revels in its overtoppness. This is metal without borders and without any understanding of restraint. Instead, it is gloriously opulent and you can see where the time has been spent. It is immaculately designed and just wonderful.

Goth pop. Yes the two words are not mutually exclusive. This is goth with melody and accessibility. It features on vocals, doom godfather Aaron Stainthorpe having the time of his life. For once he can step away from the stern and the sterile and be camp as ruddy tits. This is a joyous silly album that enjoys being frivolous and frothy. Through away fast food goth with added tartrazine. Magically melodic and outrageously enjoyable. 

Dark Tranquillity are one of the three founding fathers of melodic death metal. Each member of the trinity have gone their separate ways. At the Gates recorded probably the greatest heavy metal album ever and then split (though have subsequently reformed), In Flames embraced alt-metal and have gone to be one of the genre's big hitters and Dark Tranquillity have dabbled with doom, gloom, goth and a splash of electro.

“Endtime Signals” sees them continue to slowly drift back to their original melodic death sound. The keys are still there but they take more of a back seat on this album, allowing the guitars to once again soar and Mikael Stanne’s wonderful voice to be resonant. It's got 14 tracks which may seem a little excessive but it manages to captivate and it doesn’t outstay its welcome, no matter its length!

Vampire-obsessed black metal via Germanic/finish duo who don’t do things by halves. They combine raw black metal with the world of dark synths. The marriage of these two styles leads to a really Gothic and atmospheric concoction that feels brooding as well as being brutal. It rather fantastically world builds, conjuring up imagery of crumbling castles and stalking vampires. It has an almost cinematic quality, though we are talking a black-and-white Bela Lugosi movie rather than anything you would see in IMAX. Basically, if you like stuff that is expansive as well as being malignantly evil then this is really rather good.

This year we are rather bereft of our usual category of “bands that you didn’t realise were still making records making a decent record”. The nearest we can come is this, Satan. Before Venom roared into view, Satan were the North East’s primary contribution to the new wave of British heavy metal. They stood out because they played faster than anybody else and without realising the ship that they were launching, they created the blueprint for what would go on to become thrash.

Like anybody involved in NWOBHM that wasn’t Iron Maiden, Saxon or Def Leppard, they pretty soon hit the rocks and were scuppered by an infinite cascade of diminishing returns. They eventually returned in 2011 buoyancied by adoration from our Germanic cousins who seem to venerate anybody who even thought about picking up a guitar in the late 70s or early 80s. Since a brief reunion to play Waken they have continued and what should be applauded is that arguably the classic line-up is still together.

This is album number seven and their fifth since they got back together. “Songs in Crimson” is distinctly vintage but is far far better than you would expect form a bunch of seventy-year-olds. It sounds like a lost classic for those more innocent days when Metal was simpler, bolder and wore tighter pants. The point is that I love it. It talks to the teenage me who looked reverentially at what NWOBHM created. It is just sing-along track after sing-along track and is crucially enjoyable.

There actually is a lot of Black metal on offer on this year's list, isn’t there! This is from the Italian outfit, and it is a highly ambitious collection of five tracks that essentially merge together into a single pulsating piece of music. This is highly convoluted and massively ambitious black metal. It uses the traits of the genre as a storytelling tool in which to paint an expansive picture. Everything feels big in terms of this record. The sonics are big. The guitars sound big and the aspirations are enormous. Very much a magnum opus.

This is desolate blues. It is stripped back bleak songwriting at its very best. It deals with grief and with loss and it is candid in its relationship with both. But most importantly this is an album that is about healing. It is dark and oppressive but there is always a chink of light, way out. It beautifully balances that impenetrable darkness with the hope of redemption and release. Exquisite, deep and mournful, it is stunning in its emotional literacy.