I could talk about this album for hours on end. I was pretty certain based on the singles when they were released that this would be one of the best albums of this year. When the whole album came out, I was 150% sure that this is the case. As I clocked in spin after spin of Liminal Rite, I grew more and more enamored with it, with each subsequent listen. There's something wildly alluring about the coherence, depth, authenticity, and power with which the ideas present are propelled towards us. 

It's poetic on an epic, larger than life scale, with everything to offer to virtually any metal fan. I also think that by now they earned the right to declare themselves as the first deathgaze band out there, because, let's be serious, no one does it (to my knowledge) and even if someone did, they sure aren't close to this in any way. Sure, Liminal Rite may be lacking in terms of production, but that's an easy fix when songwriting is at such masterful levels.

While this is a bold claim, I believe that Liminal Rite will go down this decade as one of the landmark records in the genre, similar in impact, praise, and significance as was Ne Obliviscaris's Portal of I last decade. They share some common features musically so I think the comparison is more than appropriate. 

After a long silence, Kat Hunter a.k.a. Lack the Low, brought back some of that much needed musical magic which we first experienced on One Eye Closed. This time around though, she outdid herself, with God-Carrier.

God-Carrier runs the gamut from powerful and surreal, through expansive and profound, all the way to diaphanous and soothing. It does all of these and more with an elegance and wit that's rarely encountered.

While the subtle and soft tonalities of the album may belie its complexities, they are the perfect complement for the intricate and poignant arrangements which we witness. 

God-Carrier is definitely an album unlike any other in its stylistic vicinity.

While I thought that Bleed from Within signing to Nuclear Blast and releasing a subpar follow up to Era in the form of Fracture would spell the end for one of the finest bands in the groove metal/metalcore/melodic-death segment - I was wrong.

This year they released Shrine, and while its production was pretty bad for their stature and label affiliation, it was everything we needed as a sequel to Era. 

It's got all the heavy, head-banging riffage, the sweet rolling grooves, the hypnotic lead melodies, and of course, and orchestral backdrop to really kick that epic feeling home.

Don't expect this record to change your life, but trust me when I tell you it's all the fun this kind of a record should be.

While Saor doesn't bring anything new to the table, it does bring the most refined version of its own product to date.

Origins really hits home with some mad nostalgia and wistfulness of things that I've never experienced with sweet folk tinged melodies and all the riffs you could ask for as an accompaniment for added weight.

Origins also is home to what is easily one of my absolute favorite songs of this year - Aurora. I'll be damned if I didn't already listen to it 40 times on repeat. The latter half of it is pure magic and it even wringed a few tears out of my eyes. 

If you like your metal with a strong Scottish atmosphere, look no further.

Papir definitely have a vibe going for them. 7 isn't about fancy phrasing, wild songwriting, super complex structures, or anything of the sort. 7 is all about vibes.

Boy does Papir sure deliver on the vibes. I haven't heard something this soothing and relaxing in years. I can't say I'm particularly impressed with 7 on a strictly musical level so as to have it warrant an album of the year placement, but emotionally it speaks to me like very few things.

The emotional charge this record boasts is second to none. There's an intense serene and angelic texture that permeates every layer, alongside a sense of otherworldliness in a way in which these things aren't usually paired together.

I'm also left feeling a sense of nostalgia and longing for places I've never been to, and things that don't exist. It's beyond words. It's beauty personified as sounds.