Rather, Creeping Death charge forth like they’re in the Ironman race of their lives, each of the 10 tracks here raging and roaring with deliciously pummeling filth. Which is just fine, really-death metal with a wide breadth of dynamics is great, but by no means necessary. The 13 seconds of eerie ambiance that closes “Consumed,” the final track on Creeping Death’s Wretched Illusions, is the rare moment of open, breathable space on the Texas death metal band’s debut. Somehow when I wasn’t looking, this became an exceptional year for black metal, and Schammasch have a lot to do with that.ĮOne 22. The Swiss band have never been ones to hew too close to the straight and narrow, and their avant garde elements are counterbalanced with a humanity that adds a moving, deeply affecting element to what’s already a spectacular 67 minutes of music. There are Godflesh-style moments of industrial grind, dark beauty in the vein of Imperial Triumphant, the complex transcendence of 777-era Blut Aus Nord, genuine rock anthems and, yeah, even some pure black metal in moments. At the root of everything is black metal, ostensibly, but that’s not really what broadcasts the loudest here. It’s hard to know where to start with an album like Hearts of No Light, because there’s just so damn much going on. Yes, the guitars roar, and yes, this is probably still deafening in a live setting, but put this in your headphones and see how good you feel after being immersed in the duo’s colossal sound bath. While Sunn O))) have never evaded risks, experimentation or swatting at expectations-or if not swatting, gently nudging them away with their colossal vibrations- Life Metal is perhaps the band’s purest work, a massive yet spiritually nourishing piece of music. But they did, after all, title their first of two 2019 releases Life Metal, and really, who am I to argue? It’s also an outstanding piece of work. It’s always been something of a stretch to call Sunn O))) a metal band, seeing as how their heavy drones still have more in common with an artist like Tim Hecker than Iron Maiden (plus their strongest album overall is a graceful and meditative work whose closing track pays tribute to Alice Coltrane).
![greatest heavy metal albums greatest heavy metal albums](http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/105/cover_281122282009.jpg)
Their sound is at once immediate and versatile, whether catalyzed into a soaring ’80s metal anthem like “Give Me to the Night” or the fiery riffs of “Blade and the Will.” Even when Mana in rare moments veers close to being the Vaseline-lens soap opera version of Tribulation or In Solitude, nothing derails the genuine thrills to be found here. The Portland-based group casts a witchy fusion of mid-’80s goth and post-punk with classic heavy metal roar-with just the right amount of glitter-and-hairspray glam to give their gloomy hybrid a proper sheen. Yet in doing so, there’s no way that Idle Hands aren’t having an absolute blast on Mana. You have to admire a metal band that can deliver lines like “ I dream of dragons!” and “ I was only seventeeeen!,” completely straight-faced and, presumably, without any level of self-deprecating satire. Here are the 25 best metal albums of the past year So in some ways, this year ended up being more exciting, simply because there were a lot more surprises in the best way.
![greatest heavy metal albums greatest heavy metal albums](https://www.albumsthatrock.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/The-10-Best-Heavy-Metal-Albums-of-2015.jpg)
There were a number of great debuts, many of which came from bands whose name begins with “I”, as well as some next-level efforts from bands whose promise showed hints of brilliance in past years. Though 2019 didn’t broadcast a lot of obvious ringers from the get-go (save for a few, like Baroness or Inter Arma, what happened instead was a lot of underdog entries from bands whose best work we might not have seen coming. So what was left? A lot, as it turns out.
![greatest heavy metal albums greatest heavy metal albums](https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2015/02/warner.jpg)
As a recap, we had the first new Sleep album in 15 years, a new Deafheaven album, a new Yob album, no less than five Thou releases, a quadruple album (sort of) from Panopticon, and a new Judas Priest album. In hindsight, 2018 was a pretty eventful year for metal, so much so that the harvest this time year very nearly seemed to leave the ground barren.