Ok, lets get this proverbial party started with a bit of introspective, insular atmospherics. Eye is the solo incarnation of the voice of Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard’s (a regular on this list) Jessica Ball. Her day job is specialising in ethereal doom but separated from her band mates she casts her net much further. You could almost say this is an Indie rather than a metal album as it certainly brings to mind early Lush (before they got swept up in Britpop) and the late lamented Mazy Star. It is a rich, opulent and Gothic record that is more than happy to show off its songwriting credentials. Potentially envisaged purely as an exercise in musical release, it has very much grown legs and purveys the potential to become its own distinct musical universe.

More ethereal and atmospheric metal, this time from the exotic setting of the Faroe Islands. This is a grand and distinctly operatic album full of big flourishes and intricate touches. It builds in momentum, shifting from claustrophobic to impressively widescreen in the space of a single track. It veers more on the side of metal than previous releases, but it still manages to wide build in a distinctly unique way.

It would not be my 100 countdown without some down right nasty old-school death metal. Hailing from Arizona, Gatecreeper are part of a cabal of young American death metal acts that are outright rejecting the technicality that has swept into the genre and returning it to its feral roots. This is a frenzied and frantic celebration of brutal heaviness. It is unrepentant in its gnarled malice and the vocals are spat out like toxic waste hidden in a (vegan) hot dog. Crushingly corrosive.

There is actually a fair bit of non-metal in this year's countdown and quite a lot of it in the upper echelon. This is our first visit to outside of the confines of planet metal but to be honest St. Vincent is by no means a stranger to my countdowns. This is pop with a blackened heart and venomous bite. One of the greatest guitarists of her generation, she has returned the raucous rock to her vernacular after a couple of albums that stayed firmly in electronica. This is a wonderfully expressive record that bounces along with an inbuilt sense of purpose. Whilst previous releases have felt like art statements this seems happy to just be fun.

Unashamed traditional Metal. Hammer welding big songs with gargantuan choruses and galloping guitars. Grand Magus do this chest-beating Viking stuff so well and whilst Sunraven does not see them deviate from that trajectory it still manages to add something from their already impressive cannon. Quite simply, it is all monumentally catchy and adds a spring to your step.

It is not quite clear where Norna fits in metal’s labyrinth of sub-genres. They are probably too noisy and brittle to be post metal but there is a whiff of both intelligence and experimentation that differentiate them from more standard offerings. Whatever it actually is, this is a dense record full of sludgy riffs and circular refrains. That aforementioned streak of intelligence means that it doesn’t get bogged down in its thickness and instead there are obvious flares of real creativeness that keep it interesting.

The Italian’s are the originators and foremost purveyors of Symphonic Death Metal. This is their finest work for years and certainly their first record where the two facets of their persona seem in perfect balance. Everything here feels grand and opulent. The symphonic sections don’t feel like synth-driven samples, It feels like a real orchestra is there, striking beside them. Marvellously melodramatic and fantastically flamboyant.

An absolute oddity from Beijing. This is one of the strangest and intriguing albums on the list, and that’s saying a lot. Modern prog metal with a hand firmly in the electronics draw. It is fascinatingly diverse and you can see the breadth of vision throbbing out. There are parts where it becomes downright impenetrable and others where it is distinctly indescribable. But in the main this is an intriguing record that holds onto its cultural baggage and contrives to do something very different to usual metallic fusions. Very much an album to be nurtured.

For many of us it felt inevitable that the tragic death of Trevor Strnad would spell the end of The Black Dahlia Murder. After all his colourful charisma was very much at the heart of their appeal. However his bandmates took time to grieve and to adjust and made the decision that they should continue.

Brian Eschbach has put down his guitar and moved into the spotlight and Ryan Knight has returned after 6 years in exile. What is so edifying and entertaining about this album is that it sounds and feels definitively like a The Black Dahlia Murder record. It is still fiercely melodic death metal, with the emphasis on a blistering two guitar attack. It is comforting in its familiarity and the overall complexion is that Trevor’s life has been both celebrated and honoured by continuing on as if he was still here.

More Death Metal, this time from Belgium. Aborted have been doing this for nigh on thirty years but really for most of that it has been Sven "Svencho" de Caluwé and an ever-changing cast of bandmates. They have grown a loyal following by playing straightforward horror fixated death metal. “Vault of Horrors” is a sort of concept album, putting to brutal music the plots of various horror movies. It isn’t particularly inventive and doesn’t move the genre along in any way but it is unashamedly enjoyable.

Our first slice of Black Metal. Now I will be using a lot of words like transcendental and atmospheric and progressive to describe the black metal albums coming. Not this, this is extreme face-ripping jagged edge black metal that is harsh as hell. It just accelerates from track one in a billowing cloud of frenzied antagonistic hatred. The guitars are down-tuned and it feels like a veritable love letter to the raw fringes of the fabled Nordic second wave. It is contoured with evil but does so with a level of stripped back simplicity. The sound is not packed and instead the shrill guitars and screamed vocals have space to breathe. A stunningly good example of potent powerful full pelt Black Metal. 

Remember the name. This is the next break-out act. The next band to emerge out of the primordial soup of extreme metal and drag their rotting carcass into the mainstream. The cheer that welcomed their announcement for next year’s bloodstock was louder than for any other band. This is a bruising heavyweight album full of slow incisive riffs that rip through the soul. It realises that metal is at its best when everything is stripped back and just the essential ingredients remain. It is intrusive, aggressive and brims with nihilistic intent. Pure heaviness distilled into an anti-establishmentarian attitude that appeals to the disfranchised masses. This is the sound of the downtrodden and the pissed off and they are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.

As you can guess Tarot is a very metal band name. Therefore there are an awful lot of Tarots doing the business. This Tarot are not the legendary Fins and instead a fairly newly incarnated bunch of Australians. However, you would be fooled into thinking this was a lost 70’s classic as its fundamental retro in its feel and style. Their ravishing of the 70’s gimmick box is both reverential and respectful. The album is packed full of chugging guitars and fiercely melodic vocals. Wonderfully old-fashioned and immaculately rendered in its adherence to the old ways.

It is like these two should always be paired together. The fifth Lucifer album segways astonishingly well from the 70’s obsessed guitar aerobics of Tarot. This is an immaculately beautiful album that brims with sensual promise. Johanna Sadonis acts as a seductive siren enticing the listener into her musical harem. Again, it is a wonderfully accurate reproduction of the hedonistic seventies sound. Rich in warmth and vigour. The choruses are riddled with forbidden temptation and feel authentic and elegant. A wonderful escape back to a simpler time.

Our second slice of Indie. This is The Fall repackaged for the modern era. It is angular, non-linear and wears its lo-fi tendencies on its sleeve. At times it feels like Mark E. Smith fronting Da La Soul, but it then metamorphoses in front of your very ears into something else. It knows its musical history but also knows how to distort and deconstruct that. It plays with melody, always remaining just out of reach of what could be viewed as commercial. As soon as it gets too comfortable with harmonious sounds it retreats back to the off-kilter. This is how I want modern indie to sound, independent and deeply personal.

Sinistro produce sexy doom. They may be now missing their sensuality incarnate lead singer Johanna Sadonis but Sinistro still know how to create sexually provocative metal. It brims with sensuality and newcomer Priscila Da Costa’s voice wonderfully entwines with the slow melodious riffs.

Sixth studio album for probably one of the finest live acts currently stomping through the circuit. Imagine if Motorhead made a black metal album. It would sound like this. Minimal, messy and full of vibrant life. A cacophony of violent intent that feels so wonderful alive and alluring. In your face dirty metal at its best.

Liverpool has never really had a metal scene and certainly no stand out metal acts outside of the world-conquering Carcass. There has been splutterings of life but usually it has ended up snuffed out. Ogun showed that there was stirrings of something special in the early noughties, but real life got in the way before they could make any serious headway or at the very least release anything of note. Time was eked out as karaoke rock act for hire Rockzilla but there was still a veritable itch to scratch. The beast was resurrected in 2022 and suddenly, twenty-two years after they first started making waves on Merseyside we have a Bonafide debut album.

It is an absolute dozer. Thrash but perfected for a more refined crowd. Time is the best teacher and time has taught them how to create immaculate riffs reinforced with steel. Every note is here for a reason. All the fat has been trimmed. Instead we have a slim concise album that understands instinctively how good songs work. The choruses are strident enough to feel voluminous but have a swagger and self-belief that makes them infectious. Good things come to those who wait and suddenly we have a stunningly good Liverpudlian metal album.

Nails made a name for themselves last decade as a triad of almighty accelerated noise. They took the term unlistenable and absolutely inhabited it. This is their first record since they returned from their 2016 hiatus. Those who reveal in their nihilistic noise will be pleased to know that nothing has changed. It is still 101 miles an hour hurtle through impenetrable dirge. The guitars scream, the vocals scream the whole thing is like sticking your head into a food processor. But this is extraordinarily enticing because of its sheer brutality. It is brimming with kinetic and vital energy and its sense of almighty purpose just burns out of it. Noise but bloody lovely noise.

This is a posthumous release as the two creative forces behind this band have now sadly died. It is based on the music that Gared O’Donell created in the months leading up to his death from esophageal cancer in 2021. In the intervening years the remaining members of the band have lovingly taken the raw recordings and honed them into a state for release.

But don’t expect “Do You Still Love Me?” to be filled with maudlin self-reflection. Gared always believed in creating difficult but fulfilling music that circumnavigated genres and existed firmly in its own universe. His final creative endeavours stay firmly within those parameters. This is a sophisticated punk album that mixes melody with obsequious noise. Whilst these are the last testaments of a dying man it is still full of life and shows that Gared enjoyed playing with conventions right up until the end.