2025: My Favourites

You may notice I didn't post any recommendations for December of 2025. That's because I don't have any. I had a couple of new releases in my spreadsheet but I didn't listen to them. I was too busy going through the rest of the year to pick out more important albums for this post (December 2025 Playlist); my favourite albums of 2025. It's kind of a Top 25 of 2025 but broken up into a top 3 within a top 10 and then another 15 or so. I valued my time even more this year and dismissed a lot of bands and/or albums quickly and mercilessly. If I don't connect with it, gone. I'm done "trying" to like things. And I don't have to apologize. The albums/releases below represent what did connect with me. Easily and repeatedly. Matching frequencies. Some albums just happen. Some albums become part of you. Some part of you for their runtime (with residuals). Some become part of a memory, a particular time or event. Some become part of you forever. There's a bit of all that to be found every year. Here's what found me in 2025.

My 10 Favourite Albums of 2025. On any given day I felt like this was the best album of the year. Did I feel it THAT hard? If the answer was yes...

AAWKS - On Through the Sky Maze: I saw AAWKS play at least one song from this album months before it came out. "Celestial Magick". They had just shot the video and were SO freaking excited to talk about it. I was too! (Heavy on the Cosmic) was great and I had no reason to believe On Through the Sky Maze wouldn't be too. But it was even better! Bringing in a new bassist ("Grimepup") gave AAWKS a cool new element in his demonic screams and extra filth. That new vocal dynamic really made a difference. Otherwise AAWKS as a whole simply got better. The riffs are just a bit cooler, the vibe is just a bit more psychedelic but also heavier, it hits just a little harder. Psychedlic doom sums it up pretty well. They'll beat you over the head with a flower and the resulting dream trip comes blasting out the speakers. Their use of samples on Sky Maze is very well done. Perfect even. Sky Maze feels more like how it felt seeing them play live in a wine cellar. One of those straight-from-the-amps, on the floor, no monitors shows where the world ceases to exist outside those walls. That's how it feels listening to On Through the Sky Maze; like nothing else exists. I listen to music to block out the rest of the world and I listened to On Through the Sky Maze more than anything else in 2025. What does that tell you? That it's likely my favourite album of the year. Why this isn't at the top of every doom fan's list is beyond me. Dynamic and trippy, heavy-ass psych brilliance.



Dead Meadow - Voyager to Voyager: There's a big sentimentality factor at play here. Bassist Steve Kille passed away from cancer in 2024 but not before laying down his bass tracks for what is arguably Dead Meadow's best album to date. Time will tell but I've got zero complaints. The title track is based on the Voyager spacecrafts but also about connections between voyagers. And I mean, it really hits when you think of the completed album as a message to Steve. From one voyager to another. Even if the late Mr. Kille was still with us this album is mind-blowing regardless. As every Dead Meadow album is, but still. Like AAWKS above, Dead Meadow and this album become all that's necessary to exist when it's playing. Being a long time and literally instant Dead Meadow fan I can feel all the years pulled into one. Tell me "Not The Season" doesn't sound like it could have been on Howls From The Hills for example. I think about music in terms of frequency and Dead Meadow is always tuned to a frequency that resonates with mine. Over decades they've honed this sense of flow, of airiness, of cool that lifts a weigh off my shoulders and hypnotizes me into a state of calm and contentedness. Anxiety fades away and all is good. Voyager to Voyager is so good that I bought the CD AND the vinyl. Psychedelic stoner rock doesn't get any better than this. (okay, maybe Colour Haze.) I do hope they keep going with a new bassist (outside of the few shows they've done since Kille's passing). Or Jason Simon and Mark Laughlin keep going in some capacity because their talents are too good to lose. Take the voyage.



Rwake - The Return of Magik: There are few bands that tear my body apart from the inside out and Rwake are one of them. That sounds visceral, and it is, but it's a beautiful viscerality. I might have made that word up. It fits though. This Arkansas sludge-with-twists outfit took their time bringing this album to us. Their last effort, Rest, was released in 2011. It was more than worth the weight, oops, wait. Besides, Rest was enough to keep me occupied for way longer than 14 years. When you listen to The Return of Magik and feel its density, its scope, its primal heaviness and raw, almost cosmic emotion twisting and churning and expanding and contracting, the time between albums becomes irrelevant. I really wish I wasn't so shit at discerning lyrics though. I'd also have to write them down to make sense of them. Which is a shame because I haven't seen a lyric sheet anywhere and I know this shit is DEEP. I can make out that much. I can feel that much. Rwake has always been that way. I enjoy their long compositions that move and flow from ethereal and thoughful to earth-splitting sonic assaults with abstract, poetic lyrics that tickle my nervous system. The title track especially reshapes my atoms. It's crazy. I mean, I just found the lyrics for that one and goddamn there's a lot to unpack there. Spiritual and philosophical in ways that feel true in ways too complex to explain here, or fully comprehend even. Feeling. That's what it's mostly about. Rwake makes me FEEL. Pain is simply an intense stimulus interpreted by our brain. Pain is an energy necessary for balance and survival. For me, The Return of Magik is all about energy. As a reflection of life, multi-directional and multi-dimensional, some of that energy is painful. Rwake take the painful and pleasureable energies to craft psychedelic sludge masterpieces as complex and interconnected as the captivating album cover. This album has definitely been woven into my being. I am grateful for its existence and thankful to its creators.



Conan - Violence Dimension: All the friggin' time when I'm on reddit someone in the doommetal subreddit will post something about looking for FUCKING HEAVY bands, not necessarily in those exact words. Every time, without fail, someone brings up Conan. With good reason! Conan are FUCKING HEAVY! Tuned down to the floor with hammerblow riffs driving a permanent sense of turmoil and dread, Conan crack the very firmament into a million jagged shards, blowing a hole in the event horizon into the abyss. You cannot escape the Violence Dimension.



Goya - In the Dawn of November: I've been a Goya fan for years. Their style of sludge appeals to me very much. It doesn't hurt that I'm almost the exact same age as frontman Jeff Owens (+/- a day I think) and I seem to connect to his lyrics quite a bit. At least the ones about like, depression and stuff. Maybe not being in love with a corpse. This album has a nice of mix of "fun" feeling and definitely not fun. It kinda comes down to the riffs too though. These riffs are cool, dudes. The tone is bonkers too. Gnarly. Conan-level gnarly at times. Those solos can rip too!



Hell - Submersus: Oh, sweet Satan, what could be heavier than Conan? HELL!!! Hell, Submersus could be the heaviest album on this whole list. Earthquaking, bone-breaking, brain-smoothing heaviness. Plodding riffs and feral screams send shivers down your spine and stimulate baser senses. It's not pure oppression however. The second half of "Gravis" shifts the gloom and doom into more choral territory. Harmonized monk-ish voices chant as one imagines the world ending outside the cathedral walls, fireballs raining from the sky. Meanwhile, peace inside. Accepting fate. That's why we listen to heavy, nuanced blackened sludge doom laced with tortured emotion. To feel at peace on the inside with chaos and suffering all around.



M.E.L.T. - Innervate/Obliterate: And now for something completely different. I not even sure how to classify Pittsburgh's M.E.L.T.. High-energy psych-leaning garage/fuzz rock with plenty of ambition? Like a more acidic version of The Atomic Bitchwax. A little crazy but tight as fuck. I tell ya, when those rippin' riffs and fucking sick bass grab hold of you, your body will move. It will groove, it will sway, hips will shake, heads will bob, toes will tap. It's impossible to remain still. It's just incredibly fun to listen to while letting the dynamic tunes directs how your mind and body move through the ether. It's one of those albums that sounds less serious than it is. It's a little kooky at times but that's what's so great about it. A seriously and deliriously great time.



Turtle Skull - Being Here: Until the vocals come in on the title track that opens the album you might think it was another Dead Meadow song. That's where the "pop" in the "psych doom pop" comes from in the descriptor on Turtle Skull's bandcamp page. Their bright and soothing creating a care-free feeling with something of a nostalgic edge. Fuzzed-out guitars generate waves through the flowerchild atmosphere of "Apathy". Even a song like "Heavy as Hell" with its drony, dark riff is lifted up by the harmonized vocals. I mean, take a look at that artwork. It's pretty cool, mate. It captures the music too. Complex, balanced, flowing, trippy, grounds you in the present. Let go of distraction and be here, with Being Here.



Verona Florrist - Verona Florrist: Having just wrote about Toronto's Verona Florrist in November words are not coming easy. Part of that is this debut album of powerful and psyched-up doom/sludge has a tendency to leave you speechless. The way things ebb and flow and swell and blow your hair back is tremendous. It's hard not to get hypotized by this aura of cool creativity. The kind of cool that's cool because it's not trying to be cool. These are dynamic songs from musicians that were pretty fuckin' locked in when I saw them live. Vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Joe Narducci obviously put a lot of effort into this but it feels so effortless to listen to it. Debut album of the year in my opinion.



Witchcraft - Idag: Ah, epic, '70s-inspired, folk-tinged proto-doom from one the biggest names in Swedish stoner rock. You could say they helped shape the sound of European stoner rock as a whole as recognizably distinct from their US counterparts. As I've read elsewhere, Idag has all the elements that make Witchcraft the band they are. Wicked tone, powerful face-making riffs, and a mix of Swedish and English vocals crystallize with fluid percussion and psychedelic atmosphere. It's heavy but at the same time you feel like your feet aren't even touching the ground. I hadn't actually listened to Witchcraft in a while but Idag is so invigorating that it shines a brighter light on their whole body of work. How much better would knowing Swedish make it!



Here's where I highlight my most expensive purchase of 2025, especially in dollars per minute. But the digital purchase is Name Your Price.

That would be the very limited lathe-cut 10" vinyl for Uncle Woe's Folded in Smoke, Soaked and Bound. 17 minutes and 18 seconds of doom and gloom. As with most Uncle Woe releases you can feel this fog and general greyness hanging in the air. The solo section on "One is Obliged" can spiral you out of the darkness in a way. It's hard to fully escape at any time with the desperately emotional vocals firmly but gently grabbing hold to lay you down amongst soft mosses in acceptance while a dance of emotion plays out with a backdrop of light and shadow. It's a dense listen, the air made thick but tone and ambiance. Like most Uncle Woe releases, for me at least, it's oppressive but it feels the world world expands outward from your core.



The best of the rest.

Budos Band - Budos VII: Funky instrumental rock centered around a slamming brass section! Not all sax though so I really dig it! Noir movie soundtrack feel but more fun. Listen here.
bunsenburner - Reverie: Slightly weird, heavy-psychic, instrumental stoner rock building momuments of sounds in your mind. Listen here.
Causa Sui - In Flux: More instrumental stoner rock with a heavy psychedelic element. They'll pack a punch and send you on a voyage. Listen here. Or on El Paraiso Records' Youtube channel.
Danko Jones - Leo Rising: This power trio continues to just flat out rock, baby! Listen here.
Dhyana - Four releases!: This Louisiana one-man instrumental sludgy drone doom outfit makes music for practicing Mahayana Buddhism with. Which I do! 2025 saw four great volumes Mozhao, Arahant, Mu, and Madhyamaka. Listen to them all on Bandcamp.
Dope Smoker - Seven releases!: A banner year for the repetitive stoner trio. An EP, The Wolfe and its instrumental version, LXST CΛSSXTTX and its instrumental version and its "purple version", and finally DOOM SHOP and its intrumental version. They've brought in hip-hop influences (and guests) to spice things up from the usual tweaking of their old standards. You either get it or you don't. Listen to them all on Bandcamp.
Futuropaco - Fortezza DI Vetro, Vol. 2: Kind of like Budos, Causa Sui, and bunsensurner all rolled into one. Instrumental, percussion-driven, synth-laden, and psychedelic funky fuzz. It's a retrofied beauty of a soundtrack to a movie that's only in your mind. Listen Here.
Hawklords - Faith: This long-running Hawkwind offshoot has been quite active lately! Epic psychedelic space rock and I love it! Listen here.
Kungens Män - Resande i rockmusik: Would you be surpised if I said this was more instrumental psychedelic stoner rock? Well, it is. And it's worth your time. Listen here.
Miss Mellow - Dancing Through The Earth: No sophomore curse from the psychy, funky, krauty, stoner sounding Miss Mellow! Think sort of like a German version King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Listen here.
Mizmor and Hell - Alluvion: A massive collaboration between two titans of blackened sludge doom! Although I do need to spend more time with Mizmor's own separate release. Listen to Alluvion here.

Honourable mentions to Naxatras, Soufly, Biohazard, Space Witch, and Year of the Cobra.

Stay tuned to this space right here for Playlists of my Favourites of 2025!

In order of release (sort of) Favourites of 2025

Favourites of 2025 in Order of Love (coming soon)

Favourites of 2025 in Order of Love Full albums version (coming soon)

August 2025: Matt Recommends

For whatever reason I do find the summer months to be a little light when it comes to new releases. This August I've got three releases that I'd like to highlight for you. Quite a mix too. With a common thread. Before we get started however, this month's playlist has doom, thrash, nu-metal, hardcore, and more.



Swaamp - II: Trippy, spacey, psychedelic journey lasting for an hour and a half. Blissed out meditations that rock, man. They have THREE monthly listeners on Spotify. Let's make some noise for Swaamp! And go listen dammit! (on Bandcamp though)



Tube Warmers - Volume 2: Not terribly different than Swaamp in general tone but more chill and less rock. Definitely a trip. Easy enough for far out background music too.



Tumanduumband - Hail Satan, Triumph Awaits: The name says it all. Satanic and triumphant. The aptly named Tumanduumband (a two-man doom band) move some heavyweight air plying a sinister style of droning instrumental doom maliciously stitched with dark samples. It is the sound of evil wrapped in a fog as heavy and magical as vaporized mercury descending and spreading through the underworld. Dance with the devil. It takes two to doom.



There you have it. Three trippy recommendations from August of 2025.

Album of the Month - June 2025: Goya - In the Dawn of November

This album deserves a more well written review than I'm able to give you today. I forgot I hadn't posted one yet. But at no point did I forget about In the Dawn of November, the latest (and greatest) album from the mighty Goya. I've been keen on this Jeff Owens outfit since Obelisk came out in 2015 and all their shit is good. But as the kids say, this one just hits different. Maybe it's that bitchin' album art. Or that fucking tone. Or the songs that dig into you, become you, bend you, and crush you.



It sounds massive. Of course. But tone and volume don't mean shit unless you have the riffs to back it up. No worries, my dudes. Goya has the riffs you're looking for. Sludgy and bluesy and crafted into something with character and life. Characters and life factor into the lyrics even. Mourning lovers, depressed and angry people, you know, relatable shit. But sometimes in a fastasy occult/horror context. Like "Cemetary Blues". Or just straight up this-world-sucks mean mugging. "Depressive Episode" for example. And the great thing is, the lyrics are understandable. Which means the singalongs/lip syncing are near constant. It's like a Princess Bride of downer doom. It's got doom, depression, horror, romance, and beefy riffs. Oh, and dig the solos, people. Most often bluesy and sure to enhance the emotional response In the Dawn of November illicits.

It's just bloody fantastic. I'm pretty sure it has found more air time in my head than anything else yet this year. As heavy and dark as it is, it's still really catchy. Catchy doom is the shit. And I am not sick of it in the least. (See track 4, "Sick of Your Shit")

Well, this review exceeded my low expectations and honestly Goya exceeded my high expectaions with In the Dawn of November. I'm high while writing it and it's fair to say Goya were too. Boom! Even more relatable! Now let me go listen to it some more.

Before you go, don't forget to check out my As I Go June 2025 Playlist! Goya is 40 songs in. And tracks from my favourite albums from 2006 take up a good portion of it.

February 2025: Matt Recommends

Most of the February releases I wanted to check out droppped on February 28 so I had to take some time to digest them before throwing some recommendations out into the void. Speaking of the void...

Naxatras - V

It's hard to assign a particular sound to Naxatras. The Greek artists expertly blend prog and psychedelic rock with space rock and a bit of stoner. But V feels like a journey through space. Not emptiness but all the wonderful and awe-inspiring planets and places and processes we may never see. Their use of groove and rhythm on tracks like "Numenia" feel firmyl rooted in humanity and its earthly heart. Best of both scenarios. Anyone who has been reading lately should know how much "escapist" albums pull me in. V does just that. An expansive album able to push away the day to day. Naxatras binges are always a heavy trip.



Year of the Cobra - Year of the Cobra

We kick things up a notch with the newest from Year of the Cobra. Their third album just happens to be self-titled. It does feel like a step up but not a redefinitition that some bands do when releasing a self-titled that isn't their first album. You know what I mean. Again, it's not different from their first two albums just...more. The duo of drummer Jon Barrysmith and bassist-vocalist Amy Tung-Barrysmith (yes, they're married.) have added more emotion, more dynamics, more expression to their already doom-laden stoner heaviness. Amy gets more out of her bass than most guitarists with way more strings and you can really feel how much Jon is locked in. I've been a fan from the start. I feel like i've listened to Year of the Cobra more than Ash and Dust and ...In the Shadows Below combined though. And it's probably not even close. It's a banger.



Uncle Woe - Folded in Smoke, Soaked and Bound

You may also know I'm a dedicated fan of Uncle Woe. Obviously I'm going to include Folded in Smoke, Soaked and Bound. Now, Spotify says it was released February 28 and Bandcamp says March 1 so I'm putting it in February because I already have my three recommendations for March and I HAVE to include this one somewhere. Folded in Smoke is not an album but rather a 10" consisting of two 8+ minutes tracks. The 10" is pretty special and not for the casual collector but it's worth it for a big fan like me. I just love how Rain Fice and Mark Whitworth can move me with melancholy and despair. There's so much emotion and grace. And power. The band really put it best themselves, Folded in Smoke "ponders and sprawls and creeps and whispers and slithers, but still ends up as dead as everything else". Honestly, I'm envious of Rain's ability to make real the intangle feelings we have inside.



Honourable mentions to III by Yawning Balch (so good), and Dark Green by Tumbleweed Dealer (pretty cool). III by Red Eye and The Wolfe by Dope Smoker are pretty good too.

February Playlist -> RIGHT HERE Only Naxatras on this one.

Here's March too. it's pretty much done. MARCH PLAYLIST Year of the Cobra, Uncle Woe and others are here.

2020: My Favourites

It goes without saying 2020 was fucked. But between all the flaming garbage I think I made big personal strides in really discovering what mattered to me. And well, here are the albums from 2020 that mattered to me. Top 20 and Next 20, in alphabetical order, because numbered rankings are pointless.

All these albums are available on Spotify and/or Bandcamp. You know how the internet works.

TOP 20

16 - Dream Squasher (Relapse)
The Atomic Bitchwax - Scorpio (Tee Pee)
Bantha Rider - Binary Sunset Massacre (Bantha DIY, Piranha Music, AimDownSight)
Black Rainbows - Cosmic Ritual Supertrip (Heavy Psych Sounds)
Brant Bjork - Brant Bjork (Heavy Psych Sounds)
Dead Quiet - Truth and Ruin (Artofact)
Electric Hydra - Electric Hydra (Majestic Mountain, Tee Pee)
Gypsybyrd - Eyes of the Sun (Cosmic Stone)
Hymn - Breach Us (Fysisk Format)
Killer Be Killed - Reluctant Hero (Nuclear Blast)
Khruangbin - Mordechai (Dead Oceans, Night Time Stories)
Local H - Lifers (Antifragile)
Moths & Locusts - Exoplanets (NoiseAgonyMayhem)
Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin kynsi (Nuclear Blast)
Psychlona - Venus Skytrip (Ripple)
Sevendust - Blood and Stone (Rise)
Sons of Otis - Isolation (Totem Cat)
Somnus Throne - Somnus Throne (Burning World)
Turtle Skull - Monoliths (Art As Catharsis)
Yawning Man - Live at Giant Rock (Heavy Psych Sounds)

NEXT 20

Acid Mammoth - Under Acid Hoof (Heavy Psych Sounds)
Big Scenic Nowhere - Vision Beyond Horizon (Satin) and Lavendar Blues (Satin)
Body Count - Carnivore (Century Media)
The Budos Band - Long in the Tooth (Daptone)
Deftones - Ohms (Reprise)
Elder - Omens (Armageddon Shop)
Dirt Woman - The Glass Cliff (Grimoire)
Goatriders - The Magician's Keep (self)
Huanastone - Third Stone from the Sun (Argonauta)
IAH - III (self)
Lowrider - Refractions (Blues Funeral)
Lucifer - III (Century Media)
The Pilgrim - ...From The Earth To The Sky And Back (Heavy Psych Sounds)
Pink Cigs - Pink Cigs (Harvest Studios)
The Re-Stoned - Thunders of the Deep (Qiasum Music)
Sepultura - Quadra (Nuclear Blast) 
Spirit Adrift - Enlightened in Eternity (20 Buck Spin)
Thomas V. Jӓger - A Solitary Plan (RidingEasy)
Tombs - Monarchy of Shadows (Season of Mist) and Under Sullen Skies (Season of Mist)
Yatra - Blood of the Night (STB) and All is Lost (Grimoire)

Special Note: Laat maar, ik verhuis naar het bos by Beaten To Death was available on vinyl only in 2020 and I didn't get a copy. The digital mix is being released as 4 EPs in 2021. The first three are crankable as usual.

Favourite 40 of 2018

I read once that on average, people stop looking for new bands to listen to in their mid 30s. I turned 40 late in 2018 and I'm definitely feeling the pull of complacency. Maybe it's just because I'm getting old but my patience level has plummeted. Time is precious and I no longer force myself to listen to something because I feel obligated to. If I wrinkle my nose enough in the first three songs, I'm out. Besides, the endless swarm of new albums and bands that only gets bigger with each passing year is too much to consume. I wasn't giving anything a fair shake. So in 2018 I shrugged my shoulders and said "fuck it." I spent as much time with whatever album as I wanted to. A solid month of almost nothing but the new Corrosion of Conformity? OK! A deep dive into Brant Bjork's solo career? Why would I ever stop?! Weeks of Tomb Mold worship? Oh, Canada! With such a pullback on new explorations, I'm surprised I even had 40 albums I felt deserved to be on my list. I did have some rather unfortunate cuts to make though. Who cares? Anyway, here are the 40 albums that made me happiest in 2018. That's all that matters.

Please note, Clutch's Book of Bad Decisions is my absolute favourite of 2018 but I CANNOT be objective with Clutch under any circumstances.

40. Lucifer - Lucifer II (Century Media) - For some reason I was reluctant to like this. Still busted up about The Oath being a one-and-done? Regardless, I thought this rocked enough to make sure I mentioned it. 

39. Deicide - Overtures of Blasphemy (Century Media) - I was into Deicide before I was into Cannibal Corpse, okay? They're my kind of death metal. Deal with it.

38. Scorched - Ecliptic Butchery (20 Buck Spin) - Again with the my kind of death metal. Brutal. Hard. Dark. Sci-fi themed just makes it that much cooler! 

37. Ulthar - Cosmovore (20 Buck Spin) - Whoa! Death metal again? Ya, man. It was a good year. Ulthar throw a little more technicality into the brutality but do so with just the right dosage. 

36. Bongripper - Terminal (Gilead Media) - Instrumental, leaden doom will bring me pleasure every day of the week. So long as it's done as expertly as these laid back dudes who know how to name a band.

35. Sundrifter - Visitations (Small Stone) - So smooth! This kind of desert rock influenced warmth will take me to my grave. I could listen to these fuzzy-eyed jams til the end of time.

34. Domkraft - Flood (Blues Funeral) - Give me psychedelic doom or give me death! So blissfully easy to completely lose yourself in their dense and textured sound.

33. A Storm of Light - Anthroscene (Translation Loss) - Always been a fan of Josh Graham's work with this band. Thoughtful and hypnotic darkness that repeatedly smacks you in the face.

32. Trappist - Ancient Brewing Tactics (Relapse) - Beer and grind combine to make an intoxicating brew of absolute good times. I got 99 problems but Trappist ain't one! 

31. Monster Magnet - Mindfucker (Napalm) - This is far from the best Monster Magnet album. More rock and less psych isn't usually what Monster Magnet fans ask for but I'm still psyched at how much it rocks! 

30. Extremity - Coffin Birth (20 Buck Spin) - Top shelf death metal and 20 Buck Spin go together like peanut butter and jelly. As in, consumed by me on a very regular basis. This one just plain old tears your throat out.

29. Mountain Tamer - GodFortune // Dark Matters (Magnetic Eye) - You could throw this in with the stoner rock crowd I suppose. It is the riffs that make this so addictive after all. But the real clincher is the "SATAN!!!" scream. I won't tell you when it hits. 

28. Alice in Chains - Ranier Fog (BMG) - Fine. They're a different band since Layne died. We get it. What did you expect? That doesn't mean they aren't still one of my favourite bands EVER and don't deserve it, goddammit! 

27. Dead Meadow - The Nothing They Need (Xemu) - I heard Dead Meadow playing in a record store back in 2001 and bought it immediately. They still connect with my soul.

26. Vile Creature - Cast of Static and Smoke (self) - This heavy-as-fuck Canadian duo made quite the splash in 2018. The nihilism and heft of this crushing slab of catharsis should make everyone want to join their angry queer doom cult.

25. Wiegedood - De Dodden Hebben Het Goed III (Century Media) - I wasn't as enamored with this one as I was with II but there's something bewitching about the tornado of fierce black metal they employ to put the ice in my veins. I can't shake the desire.

24. Khemmis - Desolation (20 Buck Spin) - I saw Khemmis play at Migration Fest and they needed a longer set. Such great songwriting. Power, melody, passion. Even better with beer.

23. Psychlona - Mojo Rising (Ripple) - Sometimes I just need an overdose of psych dancing in oblivion with a god-like profusion of fuzzed-out riffs. It gets my mojo rising. Man.

22. Castle - Deal Thy Fate (Ripple) - Speaking of riffs... This duo really cranks them out. Sorta lo-fi, sorta retro, lotsa headbanging fun. A doomy crunch nodding to classic rock. Catchy as all get out!

21. Sunnata - Outlands (self) - Oh my goodness have I enjoyed sinking into the ethereal place this album takes me. The psych factor here is sky high. Dangerously hypnotic and completely mesmerizing.

20. Conan - Existential Void Guardian (Napalm) - I'm always down for some caveman battle doom! And with that extra muscle the new drummer brings you know my steering wheel is getting a serious beating! 

19. Slaves BC - Lo, and I Am Burning (Fear & The Void) - I had the pleasure of meeting drummer-vocalist Josh Thieler and he's basically the polar opposite of the gnarly, dark, at times terrifying menace that comes blasting out of my speakers. Only ashes remain.

17 and 18. Black Space Riders - Amoretum Vol. 1 & 2 (Black Space/Cargo) - Not sure how to describe this. It makes me think of 80s/90s goth/emo/new wave but they carry a swagger and a hard edge that keeps it from feeling sappy. And we got two albums of it this year! Did I mention the tags of psychedelic, stoner, prog and space rock on their bandcamp?

16. Corrosion of Conformity - No Cross No Crown (Nuclear Blast) - Pepper's back!!! Not that I didn't like the other lineup (again) but I discovered the band during the previous Pepper years so this return to form hits all the right spots!

15. Tomb Mold - Manor of Infinite Forms (20 Buck Spin) - Funny how I had to go all the way to Pittsburgh to see Tomb Mold when Toronto is two hours down the road. It was worth it to see all their filthy death metal in the flesh.

14. Gozu - Equilibrium (Metal Blade) - I bought one vinyl record in 2018. This one. How was I lucky enough to see them "at home"? No matter. There's stoner rock/metal and then there's Gozu. They are like a drug. A highly addictive, psychedelic, somewhat progressive, hard-hitting drug. With the year's best album cover. (Edit: I bought the Slaves BC vinyl too.)

13. Beaten to Death - Agronomicon (Mas-kina) - Keeping a new B2D album out of the top 10 was hard. But it came out on Christmas Eve. I basically had to postpone this list because it. They are their own brand of melodic grindcore. Crazy good craziness.

12. Skeletonwitch - Devouring Radiant Light (Prosthetic) - I never doubted Adam Clemans as the new singer in Skeletonwitch but now I have fully embraced him. This seems like a more mature album that still rips as hard as they always have.

11. Wolvhammer - The Monuments of Ash and Bone (Blood Music) - Speaking of Adam Clemans.... He kills it with Wolvhammer too. This album takes over my body until I am "The Failure King"! Burly black metal that still hammers the riffs into you forever. Incredible.



Because I thought I did a good job, and because I want to get this thing posted now that it's MARCH, the following blurbs are copied from an original post at Hellbound.ca. Enough procrastinating!!!

10. Cancer Bats - The Spark That Moves (New Damage/Bat Skull) - I was more than pleasantly surprised when this dropped out of nowhere on April 20. (Coincidence?) The Spark That Moves feels like a comeback record to me. They’ve never not been great but this has an energy that supercharged my being in a way they haven’t since Hail Destroyer. It was a daily listen for months. The summer months were definitely the brightest days thanks to their high energy, meaningful, and fun fusion of hardcore, sludge and whatever else they can squeeze in. I saw some these songs live too and let me tell you, dude…

9. Soulfly - Ritual (Napalm) - I would usually leave Soulfly off a list like this altogether due to personal bias (the first tattoo I ever got was a Soulfly logo) but Ritual warrants the recognition due to the change in direction the band takes. Soulfly had been going in a more intense death-thrash direction on recent efforts but Ritual sounds more like Max Cavalera in the mid-to-late ’90s. Late Sepultura, early Soulfly. Not nu-metal though. Groovy? Sure. Tribal? Some. Intensity? You better believe it. It impressed many fans who had given up ages ago and even some that have hung in the whole time.



8. Windhand - Eternal Return (Relapse) - Virginia’s Windhand teased ever so tantalizingly with their half of a split with Satan’s Satyrs. That appetizer was the perfect setup for the satisfying main course. Eternal Return satiates all doom desires. The warm tones penetrate your body while the flowing riffs liquify your bones into a vaporous syrup. Dorthia Cottrell continues her reign among the most affecting doom vocalists of this, or any age in the genre’s evolution. Windhand’s earthly and bewitching doom is a blessing of mood music. The beauty of it is there’s a whole range of moods Eternal Return can amplify or soothe. A potent elixir for all your ills.

7. Secret Cutter - Quantum Eraser (self) - Have you ever seen an industrial metal stamp in action? Bending thick steel into whatever shape the creator desires. Intense irresistible downward force. Complete obliteration. That’s how Secret Cutter destroy you. They crush so hard you’re erased down to a quantum level. It’s a heavy as fuck exercise in sludge, doom, and grind. Spine-tingling vocals set hairs on end as their curiously bent chords mold your skull into new and interesting shapes. Nothing else out there this year hits like the planet smashing sledgehammering Secret Cutter dish out. This music will bruise you.



6. Astrakhan - Without New Growth Process is Bloodshed (self) - RIP Astrakhan. With this release it was made known that Astrakhan was to be no more. The SADness of February’s cold days took a new twist as Sans Astrakhan Disorder. The cure actually comes in the form of listening to the album. WNGPIB is masterful. There’s no term for their progressive, post-, hard-charging, doomy, sludge-into-stoner metal. That indescribability adds to its charm. Serpentine riffs and dynamic intensity take the listener through a lifetime of emotional shifts. Harmonies and vocals stretch your soul like puddy, solos send your mind exploding across galaxies, and the whole package… sadly wasn’t released on vinyl. I’m pretty excited for the guitarists’ new project Brugada though.



5. Fu Manchu - Clone of the Universe (New Damage/At the Dojo) - All that really needs to be said about Clone of the Universe is that there is an 18 minute song on it that features Alex Lifeson of Rush. He doesn’t play for the whole 18 minutes mind you but it’s still way cool. It’s also pretty cool that a band known for short-ish punchy tunes pulled off such a monster track and even embedded it with a new essential Fu Manchu moment. Light the throttle!!! Scott Hill and company do have surprises up their sleeve! Rest assured though the runtime friendly anthems of California-baked coolness that make up the rest of album leave their mark too. Fu Manchu doing Fu Manchu, with an adventurous twist.



4. Sleep - The Sciences (Third Man) - I’ve been a Sleep fan since I first discovered them in 2000. Jerusalem was unlike anything I had heard before. I finally got a chance to see them play back in August. They didn’t play all of Jerusalem/Dopesmoker but they did play some of it. They also played a bunch of songs from The Sciences, their first full-length since Dopesmoker was originally released in 2003. “Sonic Titan” is a holdover from those days given a boost from studio production. The songs range in length from the 3 minute intro/title track to the 14:23 of “Antarcticans Thawed” and every second is unmistakably Sleep. “Giza Butler” might be the second best song they’ve ever written. There’s a riff in there that is my spirit animal. Throw me off a bridge. I don’t care as long as that’s what I hear on the way down.



3. Brant Bjork - Mankind Woman (Heavy Psych Sounds) - This past year or so I have REALLY gotten into Brant Bjork. I loved Black Power Flower and Tao of the Devil but I never really dug into the past. I did this year. Partly due to Mankind Woman. I needed more. And more. As much as I could get. (HPS is actually reissuing most of his back catalogue so….) I can’t even get enough of this album though. Shades of funk and blues. Groove. Psych. Stoner vibes. An overwhelming sense of chill. These are some of my favourite things…about the album. And the lyrics. Songs about life. Diamond hard nuggets of wisdom. “Nation of Indica” is my favourite song of the year for just such reasons. Stay chill, my friends.



2. High on Fire - Electric Messiah (eOne) - My guess is that after dragging his strings around in Sleep and their new material he needed to balance that by making a new High on Fire album as intense as humanly possible. There is a fire burning under Electric Messiah that’s heating those riffs to a rapid boil. Add in the white hot electricity of this trio and you’ll be seeing God. Everything feels 110%. They’ve been at this a long while, and not without challenges, but they bludgeon with such conviction here you’d think their faces were young and fresh. So muscular, so intense, so brilliantly executed. I don’t care how people feel about High on Fire production (I hear nothing wrong here). It’s about the songs. I LOVE THESE SONGS.

1. Yob - Our Raw Heart (Relapse) - Yob’s Mike Scheidt fought a battle with death and won. Our Raw Heart is the result. No album this year made me FEEL as much as this one. As heavy as it is triumphant, it stirs the emotional pot for the duration. “Beauty in Falling Leaves”, the longest track on the album, challenges “Marrow” for most heart-wrenching Yob song ever. It feels like the band really came together on a higher level for this. I’m still baffled there was a time I didn’t even like Yob. Now I can’t imagine a world without their music. Such powerful doom is therapeutic, transporting the listener to a place both of and beyond suffering. To me at least, music like this is essential.

Thanks for hangin' in there.