Awards 2019

2 reviewers shared their picks for 2019.

Goat

1.
Devin Townsend - Empath
2.
Cult of Luna - A Dawn to Fear
3.
Borknagar - True North
4.
Deathspell Omega - The Furnaces of Palingenesia
5.
Inter Arma - Sulphur English
6.
Evergrey - Evergrey, Shattered Sun and local support(Fierce Atmospheres and Legacy Black)
6.
Evergrey - The Atlantic
7.
Esoteric - A Pyrrhic Existence
8.
Altarage - The Approaching Roar — Dark, brooding, chaos.
9.
Nile - Vile Nilotic Rites — Egyptian excellence, as (nearly) always.
10.
Arch/Matheos - Winter Ethereal — Prog excellence that has only grown and grown on me.
11.
Hannes Grossmann - Apophenia — Yet another excellent release from the sticksman.
12.
Lacuna Coil - Black Anima — The Italians' best in decades! Reckless is still lodged firmly in my head.
12.
Leprous - Pitfalls — Poppy, sure, but so, so beautiful.
13.
Deus Mortem - Kosmocide — One of many, many excellent black metal releases to come out this year.
14.
Wormwood - Nattarvet — A terrific mixture of black metal styles.
14.
Lacuna Coil - Black Anima — The Italians' best in decades! Reckless is still lodged firmly in my head.
15.
Tool - Fear Inoculum — It's far from perfect, but Maynard and co's comeback is a more than solid album that touches greatness at points. Invincible alone is one of their best ever songs.

1.
Opeth - In Cauda Venenum — Opeth continue to make music that I enjoy but cannot love as much as their older material. Each new release manages to raise my hopes then let me down anew.
2.
!T.O.O.H.! - Komous (EP) — A long time to wait for a mere reflection of past glories, drowned in bizarre choices.
3.
Candlemass - The Door to Doom — The Langquist comeback resulted in a solid but strangely lacking album that couldn't help but be something of a letdown.
4.
Lice - Woe Betide You — Kvarforth plus Teitanblood should be a winning formula, but this missed the mark and is hard to recommend.
5.
The Meads Of Asphodel - Running Out of Time Doing Nothing — For a project I once worshipped, Metatron and the boys are running very low on gas indeed.

1.
Liturgy - H.A.Q.Q — I wish I could take this band half as seriously as it takes itself.
2.
Pensees Nocturnes - Grand Guignol Orchestra — Clownful, and not altogether without demented charm, but a serious step downwards for this band.
3.
Pissgrave - Posthumous Humiliation — Life is a joke, the Pissgrave boys say, so why not put a destroyed human face on the cover and watch Pitchfork fall over themselves to declare it profound?

0
— A truly spectacular year for metal, especially black metal. There was so much to listen to, and so much to write about, but you can't cover everything, and hopefully this site (and yours truly) helped introduce you to some new things, and gave you something good to read if you were already aware of it. The internet has been a boon for underground music in many ways, helping spread the word if not always provide deeper understanding - hopefully we at MR did both. On a personal note, it's been a better year for me. I'll hold off on calling it a great one, because we are about to face a new decade, and things can always improve. Here's to improvement in every walk of life, and may 2020 bring us all blessings both musical and otherwise. Thanks to you for reading, and thanks to Alex and Andy especially for helping to keep the fires burning. RIP – Peter Hobbs, Richard Brunelle, Louis Dambra, Nature Ganganbaigal, Scott Walker, Daniel Rumbol, David Bellamy, Ginger Baker, Clive James, Sid Haig