🌶️🥇💿 To The Teeth half year lists: best death, best black, best metal (plus a special announcement!)
Best heavy music of the year so far
My number one is from last year, I know! But it came out very late in december, after I (and most other outlets) had published a year end list already. Ustalost, Will Skarstad's (Yellow Eyes) solo project, not only totally deserves to be on my list (as I predicted), it deserves to top it: Before the Glinting Spell Unvests is melancholic, transcendental, nostalgic, warm and intense. I think the way it hits me is very personal. It has exactly the kind of lo-fi but open production I like, wherein you can hear every pluck on a snare and every sigh in the mic and still feel you're on another planet. And melodically there's so much to discover - probably enough for another whole year. And bonus: with the weird but beautiful Sunrise Patriot Motion the Skarstad brothers are twice in this list. If they manage to put out a new Yellow Eyes this year too, I'll go nuts.
Anyway. The list!
Ustalost - Before the Glinting Spell Unvests
Satan - Earth Infernal
Haunter - Discarnate Ails
Terzij de Horde - In One of These, I Am Your Enemy
Ghost - Impera
Katharos - Of Lineages Long Forgotten
Porcupine Tree - Closure / Continuation
Sunrise Patriot Motion - Black Fellflower Stream
Doldrum - The Knocking...
Krallice - Psychagogue
Darkher - The Buried Storm
Inanna - Void of Unending Depths
Kostnatění - Oheň hoří tam, kde padl
Mournful Congregation - The Exuviae of Gods I
Et Moriemur - Tamashii No Yama
Svrm - Червів майбутня здобич
Primitive Man - Insurmountable
Thou & Mizmor - Myopia
Astral Tomb - Soulgazer
Vanaheim - Een Verloren Verhaal
White Ward - False Light
Wilderun - Epigone
Amorphis - Halo
Mystifier / Lucifer's Child - Under Satan's Wrath
Star One - Revel in Time
Some more thoughts: Satan surprised me (heh 👿) a lot. To be honest, I didn't expect to like it very much at all. Their other (comeback-)records were cool enough, but not really my cup of tea. This one: holy hell, so many riffs, so many great leads, such good songwriting, so much fun! Same goes for Ghost. I thought Prequelle was boring and they were done. Impera? Amazing again! I did expect to love new Haunter and Terzij de Horde albums, but not that they would be this near-perfect. Katharos, Inanna, Vanaheim, Svrm, Et Moriemur and Doldrum were completely new to me, they won me over with a great mix of nostalgia and innovative music. Porcupine Tree is just great in all ways - as expected.
I really liked new Cave In, but.. it missed something? I don't know. Maybe I'll get into it more and it will make the list in december. Same more or less goes for Falls of Rauros, Cult of Luna, White Ward and Blut Aus Nord.
Best death metal of the year so far
This is the year I kind of fell back in love with death metal. It's never been out of rotation in my home, but this year, oof. It was the hardest list to make. Not a lot of these made the big list, but I'm jamming most of them a lot regardless. The #1 spot was easy - I have loved Haunter since Thrinodía and they just get better and better.
Haunter - Discarnate Ails
Inanna - Void Of Unending Depths
Astral Tomb - Soulgazer
Hath - All That Was Promised
Ataraxy - The Last Mirror
Tomb Mold - Aperture of Body
Artificial Brain - Artificial Brain
Aeviterne - The Ailing Facade
The Chasm - The Scars of a Lost Reflective Shadow
Cosmic Putrefaction - Crepuscular Dirge for the Blessed Ones
Honorable mentions: Undeath, Sadist, Bedsore/Mortal Incarnation, Immolation, Tzompantli, Desolate Shrine, Assumption, Obscene. I didn't include Et Moriemur because it's not really death metal. But what is it? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Best black metal of the year so far
Ok this was also a hard list to make. Ustalost and Terzij de Horde were easy. The newest Krallice album made a huge impact the first weeks, but it's a little bit too fresh to say if it will stay the rest of the year (I think so). Katharos might be a bit too retro to keep that high position for the rest of the year, although, it's so good that maybe I won't let it go so easily. I wish Kostnatění, Svrm and that beautiful little Sadness ep were longer.
Ustalost - Before the Glinting Spell Unvests
Terzij de Horde - Cheiron
Katharos - Of Lineages Long Forgotten
Doldrum - The Knocking, Or The Story of the Sound that Preceded Their Disappearance
Krallice - Psychagogue
Kostnatění - Oheň hoří tam, kde padl
Svrm - Червів майбутня здобич
Sadness - Our Time is Here
Mystifier & Lucifer's Child - Under Satan's Wrath
White Ward - False Light
Honorable mentions: Hulder, Al Namrood, Vital Spirit, I Am The Night, Moribund Dawn, Inexorum, Vanum, Negative Plane, Wiegedood & Predatory Light.
Non-metal plus rest of the year
🍦 My favourite non-metal albums of the first half of the year: Silvana Estrada, Rosalía, Nilüfer Yanya, Big Thief, Calexico, Lucky Fonz III, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Sault, Bad Bunny, Joe Rainey and 40 Watt Sun (although I really wish I loved that one more than I do).
I’m looking forward to the rest of the year because of: Altars, Conjurer, Pestilent Hex, Behold! The Monolith, Mantar, Inhuman Condition, Imperial Triumphant, Critical Defiance, Charlotte Wessels, Oceans of Slumber, Wake, Wailin' Storms, Witchery, Arch Enemy, Krisiun, Ithaca, Sedimentum, Triumvir Foul, Fleshrot, Amon Amarth, Reeking Aura, Liminal Shroud, Conan, Soulfly, Hell Fire, Spirit Adrift, Aeternam, Dreadnought, Morbid Evils, Russian Circles, Soilwork, The Halo Effect, Machine Head, Blind Guardian, Bloodbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Behemoth, Fallujah, Gaerea, Stratovarius, Stake, Lamb of God, Queensrÿche, Devin Townsend, Psychonaut and whatever this year will surprise us with.
That announcement... 🥁🥁🥁
🌶️ This year will see the first To The Teeth release! 🌶️
That's right. I'm excited. A date isn't set yet, but after this summer I'm releasing a digital compilation called The Taste of Teeth. It wil feature tracks from bands that made a big impact on me during the time I've been curating the playlist, since around 2015, so it's going to be full of some stonecold TTT classics. There's black, there's death, there's prog, there's post, there's heavy, there's stuff I don't know what to call, it's a lot. Plus... some of it will be completely new and unreleased. I can't wait until it's out!
Cheers, Peter
(To be sure, again: this week's new heavy stuff is in the playlist. We've got Municipal Waste, Hulder, Conjurer, Greg Puciato, Bloodbath, Esoctrilihum, Charlotte Wessels, Al-Namrood, Massacre, Stratovarius and much more!)