>2007 meant a lot of superb music in many different genres, so this post is gonna be a bit dark and long. I haven’t really got the inspiration to write inspirational texts about every album right now, so forgive me for the dull writing.
Here’s some 30 albums worth your attention. Not all of them are 100% of course, but they are worth checking out in a world where new music tend to sound like recycled shit.
Nifelheim — Envoy of Lucifer
This is The Album of The Year, without a doubt. It’s still the least good Nifelheim album (so now you know how perversely good I think they are). According to me this band has not released one single bad song thus far. Am I stupid for thinking so? Fuck off.
Black Heavy Metal at its very best.
Alfarmania & Proiekt Hat — Furyfication
This LP (which is a collaboration, not a split) is so dark, creepy and harsh it’ll melt your face and shoot ya mama. Top notch quality warfare and absolutely essential. Lovely cover art as well.
Niellerade Fallibilisthorstar — Skrankverk
This group of hippies is a recent discovery and they truly bring something new to the experimental industrial noise whatever genre, which is very much welcomed by me. The nature of the beast at war with the beast of nature, or something like that.
Their other releases are equally interesting, so make an effort and order them right away.
Erik Enocksson — Farväl Falkenberg
This is a fantastic album. Droning guitar strings, creaking wood, piano… very dark and melancholic, but not that depressing really. It kind of reminds me of Svarte Greiner which I featured on my 2006 list.
This is actually the soundtrack to one of the very best movies last year, Farväl Falkenberg (yes, it’s a Swedish movie, and me ranking it as one of the best is a total breakthough since I generally consider Swedish movies to be pure crap), and it definitely suits the movie perfect. This record might have been released in 2006, but who cares…
Glorior Belli — Manifesting The Raging Beast
This one is so_fucking_good! At times it reminds me of Craft. Mikael Sörling asked me to write a list of my fave things in 2007 on his blog and I sent him a list of my fave black metal albums – and I totally forgot this one! Please kill me and then go buy ten copies of this album.
Watain — Sworn To The Dark
By many considered to be too polished and weak, but songs of this magnitude need a good production. A Go Fuck Your Jewish God style would’ve ruined the magic that reveals itself when listening closely to this amazing album and its fantastic arrangements. Who cares if it’s hyped up to the max? If it’s good it’s good, moron.
And yes, there’s a lot of Dissection in there, which should be quite obvious if you know the relationship between these two bands. This is actually what I wanted Dissection’s Reinkaos to sound like. Can’t wait for the next release.
Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words — Fall, Fall, Falling
Majestic shoegazer drones mastered to perfection by no one but this guy. Totally enchanting.
Deathspell Omega — Fas – Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum
It took me quite a while to get into this one. Ranking Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice and Kénôse as two of the genre’s best albums ever, this one is hard to learn and cope with. When you do you’re rewarded with massive amounts of serious quality.
Om — Pilgrimage
Stunning monotony with that odd spiritual touch attached. These guys are masters at what they do.
Electric Wizard — Witchcult Today
The Wizard never lets you down if you’re in need of some dirty blackened doom. Read my review in Sweden Rock Magazine #48 if possible. I’m too tired to praise them once more right now…
Dinosaur Jr — Beyond
My favourite band of all time got together with the original line-up and created some classic great songs! Obviously not as good as You’re Living All Over Me, but worth buying for sure. I’d preferred a dirtier production, though…
Inquisition — Nefarious Dismal Orations
Yet another totally awesome album from these Colombian masters of Colombian black metal (isn’t it funny with those American (mostly) black metal bands singing in Norwegian or adepting some Nordic ethnic value to their works?). Inquisition are in a world/league of their own.
Jarl — Negative Rotation
2007 was the year when I discovered Jarl for real, thanks to Tommy Carlsson of abisko fame. This tape is so good it hurts and it’s highly original = well worth checking out in a world where most music sounds like brainless recycled shit.
Kool Keith — Sex Style The Unreleased Archives
Whoa, I didn’t even know that this was supposed to be released! Some of these tracks are way up there with the original Sex Style songs, too bad they didn’t release them back then. Listening to them now it’s a bit like the same album all over again, but since that’s a damn fantastic record it’s all good.
Prepare! When I come with no underwear! Prepare!
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis — The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Far from as good as The Proposition (which was their first soundtrack together, I think) which is a total masterpiece. This one features more strings and doesn’t work that well alone, i.e. you need to see the movie as you listen to this album. Still, I like it and it definitiely deserves to be mentioned here.
Primordial — To The Nameless Dead
Spirit and honour, depth and intelligence, but most of all – känsla för feeling!
Reverend Bizarre — III: So Long Suckers
Simply the best classic doom in a very, very long time. Read my blog post here.
Svartsyn — Timeless Reign
An old favourite band of mine returned to form with this one. A bit anonymous at first, maybe, but after a few listens it becomes quite entrancing. The past is alive!
Sayyadina — Mourning The Unknown
I’ve always had a hard time with this band, because I love watching them live and I enjoy sitting at home just listening to the sickening speed, but five minutes after I’ve stopped listening I cannot remember shit. Until now, that is. There’s some truly memorable moments on this one and you should check it out. This is easily the best stuff from Sayyadina so far.
Angelcorpse — Of Lucifer And Lightning
Brutal and grim, the way it should be played – even though it’s not really my kind of death metal.
Funebrarum / Interment — Conjuration of The Sepulchral
Two really good bands who came up with some awesome dark old death metal in a year when death metal was kind of dead… to me anyway.
High On Fire — Death Is This Communion
They are way better live than on record, and that says quite a lot about their live performances since their albums are really good. This one is almost as cool as Blessed Black Wings, and that says a lot!
Gallhammer — Ill Innocence
I was a bit disappointed with this album. I praised them as hell in my old blog, but this debut wasn’t as satisfying as I thought it would be. However, Blind My Eyes is probably on my top five list of amazing songs 2007, so it feels ok to include the album on this list anyway. I think it’ll grow on me.
King Diamond — Give Me Your Soul…Please
Great stuff from the one and only King as always. It’s not Abigail, but it never will be, so… I’m satisfied.
Marduk — Rom 5:12
I lost interest in Marduk in 1995 or something… However, this album must be mentioned because of the vocals. You hear Mortuus (aka Arioch when in Funeral Mist) and he’s the best in the business, so you can’t go wrong there. As a bonus there’s some quality songs here as well, and I even seem to like the slow songs (especially Imago Mortis) this time. How strange.
Neurosis — Given To The Rising
I still haven’t come to terms with this album, but I bet I will within the upcoming year or so. I mean, it’s so much better than their cheesy, boring new age albums of lately (A Sun That Never Sets and The Eye of Every Storm), but it’s nowhere near Through Silver In Blood or Times of Grace. Still, they’ve got the power, they are the pros and you countless copycats cannot compete.
Survival Unit — Fentanyl Martyrs
I’ve never been a big fan of power electronics, but Survival Unit shows what the fuck it should be all about on this double set. Grim artwork and packaging as always. A great farewell.
Sodom — The Final Sign of Evil
The cover art is so ugly I was thinking about censorship when uploading the pic.
This recording came as a total surpise to me. The sound and the performance is so damned perfect I almost cannot believe it when I hear it. The drums should be off beat! And it should sound like it was recorded 25 years ago in a garage with a drunk driver behind the wheels of steel. I love it!
Ocean Chief / Runemagick — The Northern Lights
It’s not their best material, but it’s good enough to be featured on this list. Strange doom from Ocean Chief, dark and gloomy dito from Runemagick. Nothing mindblowing really, but compared to shit like Arch Enemy and Hardcore Superstar it’s a blessing.
Witchcraft — The Alchemist
Absolutely amazing! They recycle with finesse and that’s what separate them from the rest of the retro pack.
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Disappointment of the year? Well, since The Cult Is Alive (2006) was like a bad joke I guess I should’ve known… Too bad, but Darkthrone’s F.O.A.D. is utter crap, especially when you know how extremely awesome they were back in the day.
I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten about some albums, and there’s stuff I haven’t listened to that much yet, so this list might change as time goes by. I’m curious about Zoroaster –- Dog Magic, El-P –- I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, Circle, Acid Mother’s Temple………………..
