Dec 282023
 

(For the 13th year in a row, our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine is still their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you his year-end Top 10 list, which originally appeared on Johan’s own blog.)

I rarely include this caveat, but sometimes it’s good to reflect on it. Lists like this are always snapshots in time, it’s the ten albums I picked at the time of writing whittled down from a longer list, and often times which get picked and which get left off is just mood dependent. And that is only the albums which I’ve heard; experience has taught me that I will sometime down the road find albums released this year which could easily have made the list. Regardless I hope you find something here you enjoy which you may otherwise have missed. Continue reading »

Dec 292022
 

 

For the 12th year in a row, our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine (reviewed and premiered here) is still their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you his year-end Top 10 list, which originally appeared on Johan’s own blog.

And without further ado, we turn the floor over to Johan: Continue reading »

Dec 272021
 

 

(For the 11th year in a row, our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine (reviewed and premiered here) is their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you his year-end list, which originally appeared on Johan’s own blog.) Continue reading »

Dec 302020
 

 

(Holy hell, it has been 10 years. For the 10th year in a row, our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine (reviewed and premiered here) is their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you his year-end list, which originally appeared on Johan’s own blog.)

This marks the tenth year in a row I get to share a few albums I’ve enjoyed this past year. So as it’s a double-digit anniversary ending in zero I’m going to do something I’ve not done before and expand on my own published list with a couple of very personal albums which I think deserve some added attention. I say personal because these are all made by close friends of many years, but don’t let that deter you, because these are amazing albums in their own right. In alphabetical order: Continue reading »

Dec 262019
 

 

(For the ninth year in a row (!), our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine (reviewed and premiered here) is their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you his year-end list, which originally appeared on Johan’s own blog.) Continue reading »

Dec 262018
 

 

(For the eighth year in a row (!), our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine (reviewed and premiered here) is their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you his year-end list, which originally appeared on Johan’s own blog.) Continue reading »

Dec 262017
 

 

(For the seventh year in a row (!), I invited my friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose new album Slaves of the Vast Machine (reviewed and premiered here) was itself one of the year’s best black metal albums — to share with us his year-end list. Once again, he agreed. This list previously appeared on Johan’s own blog.)

 

Another year has flown by, in my case quite literally, so here we are again with a new edition of “albums I enjoyed this year”. From what I’ve seen of the lists posted here so far, many of my picks haven’t made others’ lists so I guess either my taste has diverged from that of the median NCS:er or you’ve all missed out on some worthy albums; hopefully it’s the latter and this will be useful for you. Continue reading »

Dec 302016
 

johan-huldtgren-2016

 

(For the sixth year in a row, I invited my friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose new album Slaves of the Vast Machine will be released in early 2017 by Black Plague Records and Hypnotic Dirge Records — to share with us his year-end list. Once again, he agreed. This list previously appeared on Johan’s own blog.)

As Listmania season is upon us I can only once again conclude that there are many, many albums that I’ve missed. However, this is why series such as these are helpful; without all the other lists I’d never have known what I’d missed. Luckily I didn’t see too many of my picks in the other main lists, so hopefully this list will give you something new to check out. Continue reading »

Dec 302015
 

Johan Huldtgren

 

(For the fifth year in a row, I invited my friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose latest release appears on one of 2014’s Elemental Nightmares splits (here) — to share with us his year-end list. Once again, he agreed. This list previously appeared on Johan’s blog.)

The year is once again coming to a close, and as tradition would dictate I find myself scrambling to get this list together. When looking out at all the other lists published so far, I realize how little new music I’ve managed to listen to over the past year. I find myself with the same excuses as in years past — the fucking day job, travel, and other obligations. I did however manage to scrounge up ten releases I thought worthy of inclusion in an end of year list. Continue reading »

Dec 302014
 

 

(Continuing with this year’s edition of LISTMANIA, I again invited Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose latest release appears on one of the Elemental Nightmares splits (here) — to share with us his year-end list. Once again, he agreed. An expanded version of this list appears on Johan’s blog.)

As in 2013 I’ve had a very busy year outside of listening to music; life and work have kept me on the road a lot, and as a result I know I’ve missed a lot of releases this year. That said, I think this year’s list is quite strong, but I’m fairly certain that in a few months I’ll find a few albums that had I heard them earlier, would have made this year’s list. Alas there is little to be done about that, these lists are after all a snapshot in time. So here is the list of my favourite releases from 2014: Continue reading »