0:25-5:27
BEAR MACE (Chicago)
Xenomorphic Conquest
— Mark Sugar has helped create a chomping beast of massive riffs, snarling vocals that bely the groove and insanely good guitar.

6:27-14:56
SILVER KNIFE (Belgium)
Sundown
— The Belgians mix genres so breathtakingly effortlessly, moving from one and building to the next. Light and dark, sweet and evil, and a hurricane to blow you away.

15:21-20:28
EXPANDER (Austin)
Cryptosteal
— Futuristic imagery created within in industrial cage, morphing to industrial to metal and back to noise without taking a breath. Relentlessly on the move.

20:58-25:19
ARS MAGNA UMBRAE (Poland)
She Who Splits the Earth
— Dense and foreboding, sometimes dreamy atmospheric, churning slow pace malevolence within melodic black metal.

25:49-30:43
TEMPLE OF DREAD (GER)
Commands from a Black Soul
— Running thrash stumbling forward to a death roar.

31:05-37:08
OV SHADOWS (Sweden)
I Djävulens Avbild
— The Swedish know frost, this one with moody mutterings, tribalistic drums, and layers of melody.

37:28-41:34
NYKTOPHOBIA (Germany)
Yearning from an Uncharted Grave
— Riffs soar high, because this is German and German can only do epic to the epic degree.

42:22-46:15
UTZALU (Oregon)
Separation Trajectory
— Apparently Oregon is a fantastic breeding ground for steel-tipped daggers of raw.

46:39-51:03
INCANTATION (PA)
Propitiation
— Over 30 years and a solid decimating technical death offering with modern funeral doom breaking it apart.

51:26-END
THE SPIRIT CABINET (Netherlands)
Devils in the Details
— Finally some heavy metal, powered up and a vast range of glam, death vocals, theatrical and pagan.

0:25-6:15
QUESTION (Mexico)
First Fragmentation
— A slam, a swirl, tempos inhale and exhale, grim death is elevated by a joyous soul. Moody but direct. A winning album here.

7:35-12:32
HAVUKRUUNU (Finland)
Kunnes Varjot Saa
— Ethnic folk-influenced spacy alien black metal with raging guitars and evil imagery via the Finnish guttural vocalist.

13:16-18:13
KRALLICE (NYC)
Feed on the Blood of Rats
— Another genius album by NYC giants who pull apart black and death with ambient and prog; and still manage to feed the riff monsters.

18:48-22:10
TERMINAL NATION (AR)
Orange Bottle Prison
— Massive impact in a chaotic package of political hardcore and booming death. Those boots are flying.

22:35-30:32
DRAINBOW (Austin)
The Death Owl in The Tower of Flints
— A trippy capsule of storytelling 70’s and modern death and black weaved into a beautifully melodic and proggy roller coaster ride.

31:04-36:04
ATRÆ BILIS (CAN)
Ectopian
— A debut album from Atrae Bilis is groove death, full on neck-bracing riffs, dynamic lurching tempos, and technical prowess. This is a fun album.

36:35-42:47
NUG (Ukraine)
Radiance Сяйво
— It’s a big deal for me to play post-metal because I don’t (usually) like it. This is a stream of consciousness blending so many different genres and creating a wonderfully strange meditative and proggy atmosphere.  And it just ROCKS.

43:03-47:13
MESARTHIM (AU)
Time Domain
— Last year, this band made into my Best Modern Black Metal list with eclectic electronics and a shrieking vocalist surprisingly hypnotic and emotional.

48:29-52:24
ROPE SECT (GER)
Eleutheria
— A solid offering of rolling, warm, soothing, haunting post-punk.

53:08-END
VASSAFOR (NZ)
Emanations from the Abyss
— This dude is NZ is in Temple Nightside, who I played last week. He’s into murky evil shit all around.

0:25-7:33
WELL OF NIGHT (Ohio)
Black Alder Sacristy
— Ohio’s repression beats musicians into creating malevolent black metal. This debut is battering with a splattering of beauty and hella riffs.

8:34-13:46
SEPULCHRAL CURSE (Finland)
From Within The Bowels Of The Earth
— The vocalist is guttural and deranged screeches clawing at a bleeding sky. Miserable death with melodic and evil all at once.

14:14-20:36
DROUTH (Portland)
A Crown of Asphodels
— Portland is apparently the hellmouth. Dense and suffocating black metal with crisp guitar solos and dynamic tempos.

21:05-28:03
FACELESS BURIAL (AU)
Speciation
— A fierce and desolate landscape is a perfect atmosphere for a dizzying, shifting, charging death.

28:51-36:51
BEDSORE (Italy)
Brains on the Tarmac
— Cavernous proggy death with cinematic atmosphere and psychedelic melody. Strange and Italian.

37:19-44:27
FIDES INVERSA (Italy)
The Visit
— Relentless black metal with a tiny thread of melody and major twists of dissonant.

45:32-49:15
TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE (AU)
Blood Cathedral
— Muffled sounds just sound so evil. The vocals are strangled and struggling to emit from the crust of hell. Don’t forget those riffs before it gets buried underground again.

49:45-53:45
ANGEL MORGUE (NH)
Raped in Church (Touched by God)
— Heated sexy throated words rising, the earth shakes with bass and drums.

54:06-END
MOLDÈ VOLHAL (Norway)
Beyond The Red Horizons of a Thousand Battles
— Folk beaten into you with Norwegian black boots.

0:25-6:23
GAEREA (Portugal)
Null
— A stunningly produced Portugal black metal album with crisp edges around each instrument, and even though a lean to melodic, it remains icy and sharp.

7:24-12:04
HAAPOJA (Finland)
Kulmapoimu
— Finnish black metal is lined with a gravelly vocalist, pummeling pace and a mist of melancholy guitar that creates space.

12:56-19:25
IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT (NYC)
Transmission to Mercury
— My #1 album of 2018, they are already back. Still sophisticated and avant garde, multidimensional in concept and imagery. Stunning.

19:49-24:13
HIGH SPIRITS (Chicago)
Midnight Sun
— Another jaunt for Chris Black, speaking with the souls of 80’s rockers

24:49-32:03
DRAGHKAR (CA)
At the Crossroads of Infinity
— Groove and death with serpentine heavy metal guitar solos and passages of black metal.

32:31-37:15
BULLETBELT (NZ)
Impaler
— A blast of riff thrash with a charismatic sharp edge of a vocalist even within the ballads.

37:54-42:30
SPIRIT POSSESSION (Portland)
Twin Tongued Pathways
— Ulthar bassist and vocalist is part of this duo, creating a completely different sound. Distorted, raw black metal with the energy of thrash that lends to groove, and modern electronic.

42:55-46:12
SHEZMU (CAN)
Ode À Hathor
— Shezmu is a mean death and black mix often collapsing into slowed-down passages, but pummeling outward to dense.

47:05-55:51
SEVENTH (CAN)
Disheartened
— French-Canadian black metal is as romantic as you expect: black metal sweetened with melody and organic instrumentation.

56:09-END
RITES OF DAATH (Poland)
Shrines of Seclusion
— Poland proves to be angry and heated in a cavernous