Despite certain pockets of NSBM lunatics feeling emboldened in recent times, it’s extremely heartening to see that one of the year’s strongest black metal debuts, Dawn Ray’d’s eloquent The Unlawful Assembly, carries a staunchly anti-fascist message. Pallbearer continued to push doom’s boundaries (and their growing profile suggests the next couple of years could be even better for them), masked Dutchmen Laster broke new ground within black metal with their progressive second full-length, Employed To Serve managed to make chaotic metalcore sound even fresher than it did in the early ’90s, Ghold kept finding new ways to make sludge sound like music from another planet and Spectral Voice warped death metal into some utterly bizarre shapes, to name but a few.Īs expected for a year rife with escalating political unrest, metal has continued to fight the good fight, for the most part. Amebix man Rob Miller delivered a second album with his Tau Cross project, whilst Bolt Thrower and Benediction alumni reconvened under the guise of Memoriam to deliver a crushing debut, and members of Repulsion and Exhumed teamed up for the inevitably titled Expulsion.īut, as we keep screaming at everyone in earshot, there’s a whole lot more to metal than legacy acts, nostalgia and successful comeback albums, and there’s been a wealth of newcomers keeping the flames burning this year, taking the genre to new and exciting places.
#Best black metal albums 2017 full
Grind-a-holics have been treated to fresh noise from Full Of Hell, Phobia, Death Toll 80k and Looking For An Answer hardcore heads have been blasting new Integrity, All Pigs Must Die and Code Orange LPs thrash fans have had new Kreator, Sepultura and Municipal Waste records to tuck into.Įxtreme prog/death/black legends Akercocke delivered their first new record in a decade, and we saw even more pioneers returning in new projects. We’ve had big releases from heavy-hitters in every subgenre: death metallers have had new Morbid Angel, Autopsy, Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, Suffocation, Immolation and Dying Fetus LPs to chew on black metal fiends have been worshipping new Wolves In The Throne Room, Satyricon, Enslaved, Taake and Blut Aus Nord albums and doom addicts have been skinning up to The Obsessed, Electric Wizard, Iron Monkey, Gravetemple, Pagan Altar, Unearthly Trance and Ufomammut. The last twelve months may seem to have flown past at the speed of your average Napalm Death song, but they’ve also been packed to bursting with all manner of life-affirmingly filthy riffs and righteously rebellious musical statements, much like your average Napalm Death song. It seems like only yesterday we were racking our brains to bring you the best of 2016’s metal releases, and now here we are all over again.