You may have noticed that on Friday we announced the beginning of our annual LISTMANIA extravaganza. For those of you new to this orgy, our LISTMANIA blockbuster comes in four parts:
First, we re-print assorted lists of the year’s best albums, leeched from other big web sites and magazines, like the one on Friday from DECIBEL, which always seems to become the starting gun. Second, we will provide a post in which our readers’ can share their lists of the 2018 albums and shorter releases they enjoyed the most (we’ll be asking for those on November 29th, so get ready). Third, we post the year-end lists of our own staff and assorted guest writers. And fourth, I’ll roll out my list of the year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.
And that last list is the subject of this request for help.
In case you’ve become an NCS reader since this time last year, here’s what this Most Infectious Song list is all about:
This is about individual songs, not albums, EPs, demos, etc. It’s also not our list of the best individual extreme metal songs of the year — though some of the songs might actually be among the best of the year. Instead, this is a list of the most infectious extreme metal songs we’ve I’ve heard this year. Yes, it’s my list, but I do take into account ideas from others — and the idea here is to think of songs that might produce involuntary physical movement, songs that have got catchy melodies or irresistible grooves, or anything else that sticks the song in your head and makes you want to keep listening to it.
To be one of the most infectious songs of the year, it should be something that you revisit often, something you put on playlists, something you mentally replay at unexpected times — songs you go back to repeatedly for listening. “Most played” might be a good synonym.
As is true every year, I do already have my own working list of candidates — and as in every other year, there are a ton of songs on there already. I’ll get more ideas from all of our other writers. But I have no doubt we’ll overlook some songs we really liked from earlier in the year, and there are inevitably a lot more than we just never heard at all. And so here’s where I’m asking for your help:
Please leave comments to this post with your own lists of Most Infectious Songs that you think ought to be on our list — or if you’re bashful, you can e-mail your ideas to me at: islander@nocleansinging.com
I’ll then pick what I think are the most infectious tracks of the year and start playing those songs for you in groups of two or three as we get closer to year-end. The first year we did this (2009), I limited the list to 10 songs. In 2010, I expanded it to 30. In 2011 it grew to 39. In 2012 it topped out at 56. In 2013 I worked really hard and got the list all the way down to.. gulp… 73. In 2014, life got in the way and I never finished the complete rollout, though I announced 62 songs before I gave up. In 2015 I stopped at 75. The list for 2017 included 71 tracks, and last year I stopped at 79 (you can see all of those here).
As you can tell, I have a really fuckin’ hard time making lists. Of course, I have no idea how many songs we’ll feature this year.
So, please reflect on the songs you’ve found most addictive this year and let us hear from you. By leaving your list in the comments, you’ll also help make this post a way for other metalheads to find good music from the year that’s now rushing to an end. Thanks for your help.
50 Responses to “THE “MOST INFECTIOUS” EXTREME METAL SONGS of 2018: AN APPEAL TO OUR READERS FOR HELP!”
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I really don’t want to go first b/c I’m sure there’s a ton I’m not thinking of off the top of my head. But here’s what I listened to the most (that I can remember right now).
Baest – Crosswhore
Zeal & Ardor – Baphomet
Eye of the Destroyer – Violent by Design
Skeletonwitch – Fen of Shadows
Chapel of Disease – Song of the gods
The Monolith Deathcult – Fist of Stalin
Mutilation Rites – Post Mortem Obsession
Morne – Not Our Flame
Depths Above – The Descent
LLNN – Armada
Psycroptic – Deadlands
Abhorrence – Anthem for the Anthropocene
Outre Tombe – L’Enfer des Tranchees
Mai-Zhang – Red Annihilation
Vermilia – Aiti Maa
Sadistik Forest – The Hour of Dread
Harm’s Way – Call My Name
Black Royal – The Chosen
Ancst – Dysthymia
Immortal – Northern Chaos Gods
Dopethrone – Killdozer
Tomb Mold – Abysswalker
Shining – Svart Ostoppbar Eld
Cemetary Urn – Deathmask Preserver
Mutilated by Zombies – Insanity’s Grasp
Subtype Zero – Blinded by Light
Uada – Cult of a Dying Sun
Messa – Leah
Raider – Phlebotomized
Down Among the Dead Men – …And You Will Obey Me
Euclidean – Increatus
Wolf King – Greater Power
Bailer – Tuesday Blues
Nervosa – Kill the Silence
Veld – Hatred Forever Dispersed
Mutilated by Zombies – Instructions for Death
Monstrosity – Radiated
Koronal – A Gift of Consciousness
Shylmagoghnar – As All Must Come to Pass
Genocide Pact – Structural
No One Gets Out Alive – My Rifle, My Banjo, and Me
House of Atreus – The Madness of Ixion (but any of the others would do…most infectious aoy for me)
Someone has to go first, and thank you for doing so… and with such a big list!
agree…. exception taste in this list
Cirith Ungol – The Witche’s Game
Cultes des Ghoules – Children of the Moon
https://cultesdesghoulesofficial.bandcamp.com/track/children-of-the-moon
Spaceslug – Vialys Part II
Slugdge – Salt Thrower
Mesarthim – Collapse
Trna – Earthcult
Deafheavan – Tunnel of Tre–Oh Wait…
Agalloch – I Am The Wooden Doors BECAUSE I LIVE IN 2002
Skeletonwitch – Fen of Shadows
High on Fire – Freebooter
I realize it’s not extreme but Ghost – Dance Macabre is one of the most infectious songs fucking ever.
Forgot about Skeletonwitch. Great record, couple of really catchy tunes!
Fuck. I overlooked Ails. I’m a little more partial to Dead Metaphors than The Echoes Waned. Killer album though.
Oh man I’m not ready to make lists yet! Fuck it. Here’s a few, included strictly because once I heard them I couldn’t get them out of my head:
Panphage – Skandinawjo
Slugdge – The Spectral Burrows
Ungfell – Die Hexenbrut zu Nirgendheim
War on Women – Pleasure and the Beast
Ails – The Echoes Waned
Sleep – Sonic Titan (technically not 2018 but whatever)
Tomb Mold – Gored Embrace
Khemmis – Flesh to Nothing
Satan – Into the Mouth of Eternity
Idle Hands – I Feel Nothing
One more, because it’s such a fun, satisfying Lovecraftian crusher:
Revocation – Blood Atonement
Sargeist – Unbound
Woundvac – Crux
Elysian Blaze – The Virtue of Suffering
The Order of Apollyon – Grey Father
Marduk – Narva
Obscura – Emergent Evolution
Apollyon – Past The Reaches of the Sun
1914 – Arrival: The Meuse-Argonne
Necrophobic – Tsar Bomba
Spectral Wound – Woods from Which the Spirits Once so Loudly Howled
Immortal – Mighty Ravendark
Crawl – Black Ritual
Sadistik Forest – Morbidly Majestic
Outer Heaven – Bloodspire
Sargeist – Hunting Eyes
Monstrosity – Cosmic Pandemia
Carnation – Chapel of Abhorrence
Uada – Cult of a Dying Sun
Destroyer 666 – Call of the Wild
Heads for the Dead, either Gate Creeper or Deep Below. \m/
Mire – Solar Being
Battlesoul – All I Understand
The Skull – The Longing
Black Fast – Phantom I Am
Alkaloid – Kernel Panic
Conjurer – The Mire
Visigoth – Steel and Silver
Horrendous – Obolus
Tribulation – Come, Become, To Be
Hissing: Pablum Abundance
Infernal Coil: Bodies Set In Ashen Death
Lifelost: Incorporeal Gate
Scorched: Exhibits Of Torture
Lurk: Elan
Gaerea: Extension to Nothingness
Of Feather and Bone: Resounding From The Depths
Tomb Mold: Abysswalker
Our Place Of Worship Is Silence: The Decay Maxim
Wake: Embers
UN: Sentiment
Once again, for yet another year, I’m floored by how much I’ve missed. Keep going!
Hecate – Une Charogne
Sargeist – Hunting eyes
Convulsing – Relent
Slugdge – Salt thrower
Kriegmaschine – Residual blight
Uada – Cult of a dying sun
Firtan – Nacht Verweil
Even the headless horseman will bang his head to Une Charogne!
Aepoch – Tabula Rasa
Aklash – Cascading Darkness
Ataraxy – The Blackness of Eternal Night
Behemoth – Bartzabel
Hamferð – Hon syndrast
Holy Fawn – Yawning
Horrendous – Soothsayer
Ihsahn – Wake
Imperial Triumphant – Swarming Opulence
Khorada – Ossify
Møl – Penumbra
Slugdge – Crop Killer
Wolvhammer – Eternal Rotting Misery
Zeal & Ardor – Don’t You Dare
House Of Atreus – Zealous Inequity
Sigh – Hunters Not Horned
Wayfarer – Animal Crown
Urfaust – Trail of the Conscience of the Dead
A Forest Of Stars – Premature Invocation
Panopticon – Snow Burdened Branches
Vilkacis – Sixty Three
Austacie – Dans la chênaie
Paragon Impure – Sade II
Part 2
NONE – Life Is Long Enoug
Angantyr – Ulykke er dit nav
Spectral Wound – Imperial Thanatosis
Arkhtinn – 二番
Drudkh – U Dakhiv Irzhavim Kolossyu…
Aorlhac – Infâme Saurimonde
Varathron – Tenebrous
Make a Change… Kill Yourself – Shadows of a Meaningless Reality
Mare – Blood Across the Firmament
Hecate – Une Charogne
Sargeist – Hunting eyes
Cirith Ungol – Witch’s game
Convulsing – Relent
Firtan – Nacht verweil
Slugdge – Salt thrower
Wallfahrer – Wilde Heer
Even the headless horseman will bang his noggin to this.
Oh, yep, he year is going to an end…
I prefer lists of albums, but if u insist)
Born to Murder the World – Genesis Misconception (!!!)
Rebel Wizard – The Poor and Ridiculous Alchemy of Christ and Lucifer and Us All
LIK – Dr Duschanka
Kvalvaag -Mare
Immortal – Into Battle Ride
Horizon Ablaze – Ghost of a Previous Nightmare
Demonical – Towards Greater Gods
Cist Injected Obsession
Sentient Horror Enter Crypts Below
“Luring needle” / Ezkaton
“The Conscious Observer” / The Breathing Process
“Mother Culture” / Avast
“Weaponized Madness” / Grethor
“Asubha” / Chambers
“Calamity Choir” / Fragments of Unbecoming
“Pulsar” / Kultist
“Duu.velsbé.rreg” / Asgrauw
“Wave State” / Khôrada
Rivers of Nihil – The Silent Life…..That riff…need I say more…
1. Madder Mortem – Stumble On
2. Master’s Hammer – Fascinator
3. Sulphur Aeon – Cult of Starry Wisdom
4. Agos – Through the Strait of Messina
5. Alice In Chains – So Far Under
Where’d you hear that Sulphur Aeon track?
Morne – Scorn
Erdve – Atraja
Kobra and the Lotus – Let Me Love You (sorry, but it’s so damn catchy!)
Gaerea – Absent
Twilight – This Road South
Autokrator – Against Flesh and Blood
Viscera/// – Marauders
Embra – Astral Cord Severance
Alkaloid – Kernel Panic
The Armed – Witness
Besra – Dwell in Gloom
Between the Buried and Me – Millions
Dead Empires – The Form
Deafheaven – Glint
Ghost – Rats
Irreversible Mechanism – Footprints in the Sand
The Ocean – Silurian: Sea of Scorpions
Oceans of Slumber – At Dawn
Piah Mater – Sprung from Weakness
Prognosis – Downfall
Rivers of Nihil – Subtle Change
Rolo Tomasi – Rituals
Slugdge – The Spectral Burrows
Windhand – Grey Garden
Zeal & Ardor – Ship on Fire
And so, so, so many more songs I know would earn a spot on this list if I’d only found more time to listen to them.
Bloodbath – Bloodicide
Craft – Darkness falls
Depravity – Insanity reality
Dreadful fate – Death sentance
Funeral mist – Cockatrice
Master boot record – Skynet
Necrophobic – Mark of the necrogram
Necrophobic – Tsar Bomba
Noose rot – Worship the crypt
Stark denial – Stark denial
1914 – Stosstrupp
Vanhelgd – Så förgås världens härlighet
Cipher – The singularity
The Ocean – Permian (The great dying)
The ugly – Usurpator vitae
Atomwinter – Catacombs
The monolith deathcult – Fist of stalin
Anaal Nathrakh – Forward!
Kaoteon – Venom of exalt
1914 – The 100 Day Offensive
Aeolian – Immensity
Thrashist Regime – Laughter, Then Madness, Then Death
Sargeist – Unbound
Stortregn – Through the Dark Gates
Necrophobic – Tsar Bomba (favorite of the year)
Decembre Noir – Barricades
Amorphis – Wrong Direction
Vreid – One Hundred Years
Mol – Ligament
Omnium Gatherum – Over the Battlefield
Mantar – Age of the Absurd
Tribulation – Lacrimosa
Alkaloid – Kernel Panic
Barren Earth – Further Down
Nattravnen – Corvus Corax Crown
Wormlight – Wrath Of The Wilds
Burial Hordes – Throwness And Fallenness Of Being
Nigredo – Mental Glimpses At Cosmic Horrors
Ascension – Ecclesia
In Purulence – No Retreat
Morgengrau – Wolves Of Thirteen
Slugdge – War Squids
Oblivion – Concrete Thrones feat. Eddie Hermida
A Scar For The Wicked – Unholy
Vanhavd – Om Den Vulgara Farsens Nonsens
Grimorium Verum – The Resurrected On The Devil’s Hands
Varathron – Luciferian Mystical Awakening
Mire – Lightless
few of the killer ones superb musicianship
Sweet and short list:
Kunstzone – What The Mouth Conceals
Zeal & Ardor – Don’t you dare
Cypecore – The Alliance
Cvlt Ov The Svn – The Murderer
Infectious indeed.
Wolvennest – La Mort
Burial Invocation – Phantasmagoric Transcendence
Manes – Chemical Heritage
Insect Ark – Skin Walker
Ascension – Thalassophobia
Alkaloid – Kernel Panic. That intro is awesome.
Horrendous – Threnody… Instrumental greatness.
The Ocean – Permian: the great dying. Epic.
Slugdge – Limo Vincit Omnia. That riff at 4.35 makes me hit play again and again.
Oh, and Skar’s metal cover of Daughter of the Sea from the latest WoW expansion is a real ear worm too.
Slugdge – Crop Killer
Horizon Ablaze – Insidious
Amiensus – Now Enters Dusk
Gaerea – Absent
Allfather – Lord Betrayer
Altars of Grief – Iris
Mantar – Midgard Serpent (Seasons of Failure)
The Crown – In the Name of Death
Skeletonwitch – Temple of the Sun
Hinayana – The Window
Svalbard – Unpaid Intern
Ancst – Dying Embers
The Atlas Moth – Actual Human Blood
Grave lines – Failed Skin
Allfather – Citadel
Lagos – Dead Sun
Madder Mortem – Moonlight Over Silver White
Imperial Triumphant – Lower World
De Profundis – Opiate For The Masses
Djevel – Banker som doedningeknoker
Funeral Mist – Metamorphosis
Ribbonhead – Gutfuck
All my Sins – Zov iz Magle
Paara – Viimeinen Virta
Glorior Belli – The Apostates
Lustre – The First Snow
Svalbard – How Do We Stop It
Kjeld – Wanskepsel
Crippled Black Phoenix – To You I Give
The Ocean – Permian: The Great Dying
Orkan – I Flammar Skal Du Eldast
Svartmálm – Deytt Ljós
Eagle Twin – Heavy Hoof
A Forest of Stars – Precipice Pirouette
Abraham – Dead Cities
Agrypnie – Grenzgænger
Amorphis – The Golden Elk
Barren Earth – The Ruby
Behemoth – God = Dog
Carpe Noctem – Söngurinn sem ómar á milli stjarnanna
Distances – Perfect Is the Enemy
Hamferð – Stygd
Harakiri for the Sky – You Are the Scars
Karg – Petrichor
Mephorash – 777: Third Woe
Monolithe – Delta Scuti
Skeletonwitch – Fen of Shadows
Sylvaine – Abeyance
The Ocean – Cambrian II: Eternal Recurrence
Wiegedood – Doodskalm
Wolfheart – Breakwater
And also some exceptions to the rule:
Crippled Black Phoenix – Times, They Are a’Raging
Doomina – Sonett
God Is an Astronaut – Epitaph
Riverside – Vale of Tears
Silent Stream of Godless Elegy – Ptakoprav
UADA – Mirrors
Rivers of Nihil – The silent life
Dödsrit – Aura
Wayfarer – Animal crown
Agrypnie – Die längste nacht
Ecloss – L’abattoir des comètes
Solium Fatalis – Threshold
Rivers of Nihil – A Home (and even though it’s an ‘interlude’ track: Terrestria III- Wither)
I was about to post a late addition – then realized I never posted an earlier edition! Ah well, here’s my picks:
Rivers of Nihil – A Home; it seems everyone is going for The Silent Life, which is also fantastic. But the lyric “you can never call this home” drives home every time (see what I did there 😉 ?)
…also, although an “interlude” track, I keep coming back to Terrestria III- Wither
Solium Fatalis – Threshold…mmm…groovy
Aegaeon – Ruination; this song has it all: spasmodic stop-start rhythms, synth work, pick slides, melody and a guitar solo 🙂
Behemoth – Ecclesia diabolica catholica. Killller riff and beat. Seriously, that whole album has been widely under appreciated.
Panegyrist – To Quicke Stone
Imperial Triumphant – Swarming Opulence
Howling Sycamore – Decent to Light
Dewfall – The Abomination Throne
Spectral Voice – Katabatic Depths