Metalenema Episode 12-25-19 – Best of 2019

/ Uncategorized / By

Ho ho ho! Metal Christmas! And since you’ve all been such good little boys and girls, we’re going to cram four hours of the best metal of 2019 right up your asses! Ignore everyone else’s lists, since they’re just screen-caps of Nuclear Blast and Prosthetic Records’ online stores! Ho ho ho!!!

[DOWLOAD IT HERE]

A few notable stats from this bountiful year of brutality:

– Four of the year’s best albums were death/thrash, with three of them from the US. Who would have guessed?

– Five additional releases were from long-running veteran underground bands, proving again that greatness has no expiration date.

– Four of our favorite releases were from here in Texas. We got the goods, y’all!

– Black metal as it was intended is alive and well in Northern Europe, with Finland having a shockingly good showing of three bands on our list. Norway followed with two great entries as well.

– Quebec continues to dominate North American black metal unabated, with four releases of their own making the cut, and three of which were on Sepulchral Productions, per usual!

– 2019 was an even better year for metal than we originally anticipated, and it was pretty inspiring to round out this list with so many great releases (including a few we managed to forget, sorry). Hail metal, and let’s keep the machine rolling in 2020!

Top 10 of 2019



1) Sadistic Ritual, “Visionaire Of Death” [ALBUM OF THE YEAR] – A caustic collision of the most violent moments of Razor and Kreator, Sadistic Ritual rushes forward with the death/thrash banner held high and goes for the throat. This one got the most rotation from both The Undertaker and DJ Slitzkrieg, which is why it gets the top spot! 

2) Mystifier, “Protogoni Mavri Magiki Dynasteia” – Brazilian black metal weirdness by way of classic Rotting Christ, this album is a great return to form with a diabolical revitalized lineup.

3) Pentacle, “Spectre of the Eight Ropes” – Durable and deadly, Pentacle continues its crusade for no-frills death metal mastery. 

4) Concrete Winds, “Primitive Force” – A scathing inferno of speed and ferocity, this unit rises out of the ashes of Vorum and ups the ante considerably.

5) Profanatica,”Rotting Incarnation of God” – The best release in years from a band with an already respectable track record. Ledney doubles down on the blasphemy and adds a new layer of evil atmosphere to the proceedings.

5.5) Maiestas,”Purgatorium” –  Firmly planting another flag for Texas, Maiestas reiterates the best moments of Absu with a soaring confidence that captures the adventurous spirit of the Lone Star State.

6) Warmoon Lord, “Burning
Banners Of The Funereal War” – Far more interesting than the usual Finnish output, this one-man endeavor heads back west towards Norway to create a legitimate article of  black metal majesty.

7) Critical Defiance, “Misconception” – Chilean thrash with an East Coast filter, this debut is a throat-punch to the handful of pizza thrash holdouts who still haven’t quit out of embarrassment. 

8) Vargrav, “Reign In
Supreme Darkness” – Another Finnish black metal act that bucks the tepidness trend, Vargrav puts the unabashed love for early Emperor on full display, and the results are most welcome.

9) Teitanblood, “The Baneful
Choir” – The true follow-up to “Seven Chalices”, this new effort from Spain’s most diabolical black/death act is toothsome and massive. Prepare to be overcome.

10) Oath of Cruelty, “Summary Execution at Dawn” – Bare-knuckled brutality and meaty riffs at 1000 miles an hour make Oath of Cruelty a serious death/thrash contender for the foreseeable future.



And the best of the rest:

  1. Imprecation – Damnatio Ad Bestias
  2. Hellvetron – Trident of Tartarean Gateways
  3. Cemetarian – Tomb of Morbid Stench 
  4. Monarque – Jusqu’à la mort 
  5. Délétère – Theovorator: Babelis Testamentum 
  6. Csejthe  – L’horreur de Čachtice
  7. Ossuaire – Premiers Chants
  8. Corpsessed – Beyond Abysmal Thresholds
  9. Hagzissa – They Ride Along 
  10. Mortiferum – Disgorged from Psychotic Depths
  11. Baxaxaxa – The Old Evil 
  12. Ectovoid – Inner Death
  13. Cult of Extinction – Ritual in the Absolute Absence of Light
  14. Musmahhu – Reign of the Odious 
  15. Genocide Shrines – All And-Or Nothing (split tack from Scorn Coalescence)
  16. Förgjord – Ilmestykset 
  17. Excarnated Entity – Stillborn in Ash 
  18. Impiety – Versus All Gods
  19. Black Curse – Endless Wound 
  20. Slutvomit  – Copulation of Cloven Hooves 
  21. Nucleus  – Entity 
  22. Sepolcro – Amorphous Mass 
  23. Mortem  – Ravnsvart 
  24. Drastus  – La Croix de Sang 
  25. Sühnopfer – Hic Regnant Borbonii Manes
  26. Slaughtbbath – Alchemical Warfare