So here are some Brutal, Technical, Progressive and sometimes Atmospheric death metal works I enjoy or that I believe should be given a try because they're unique and interesting, almost an essentials list when it comes to that style. There are some unorthodox choices as well in the mix that aren't just full-on tech death, some bands also incorporate grind, black, core elements or even jazz. Hope you'll all find something that suits your taste! The list is ordered by years. Feel free to comment and give recommendations! Just refrain from telling me an album shouldn't be featured here... All the albums here are deliberately hand-picked and if it made the list, it's for a reason.

Personal absolute favorites of mine have a ★ beside the genre. And my pics of best album for each year are identified by (best of xxxx) beside the albums.

🇨🇦 = From Canada, My Country! We're quite good at Technical and Brutal Death Metal... Trust me. I mean, you'll see for yourself.

-Guib-

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Guib's Best Tech/Brutal/Prog Death Metal Album Picks

Best Of 2023:
The Zenith Passage - Datalysium

Best of 2024 So Far:
Exist - Hijacking The Zeitgeist

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TAGS: Technical Death Metal, Melodic Tech-Death, Brutal, Atmospheric, Progressive, Blackened Tech-Death, Technical Thrash, Deathgrind, Deathcore, Symphonic, Dissonant Tech-Death, Experimental, Avantgarde, Grindcore, Jazz

Last Updated: April 21st, 2024

1.Atheist - Piece Of Time

2.Nocturnus - The Key

3.Atrocity - Hallucinations

4.Death - Human

5.Suffocation - Effigy Of The Forgotten

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Bassy black metal. Easy enough to understand: black metal with a distinctly pronounced role for the bass and in which the bass is noticeably audible.

Alphabetical order by band, one album per band. Recs appreciated and encouraged. Links for full streams when available.

1.Abigor - Time Is The Sulphur In The Veins Of The Saint: An Excursion On Satan's Fragmenting Principle

2.Aeon Patronist - Mortal Prosternation

3.Aluk Todolo - Voix

4.Angst Skvadron - Sweet Poison

5.Annthennath - States Of Liberating Departure

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The best of 2010-2019. At the end it tuned out to be less diverse than what I thought it would be in terms of musical genres, with mostly black and death metal record filling the spots.
Recommendations more than welcomed.

1.Sutcliffe Jugend - Blue Rabbit

2.Emptiness - Nothing But The Whole

3.Ulcerate - The Destroyers Of All

4.Schammasch - Contradiction

5.Lorn - Subconscious Metamorphosis

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Self explanatory. Favorite metal albums from this current decade. It's probably going to be mostly black, doom, and drone related type albums, as that's mostly what I listen to, but not entirely. Full streams provided when available.

Hopefully this'll be something to return to nostalgically when I'm 40 and we can access the Internet neurologically while we sleep.

1.

2.Ihsahn - After

3.The Body - All The Waters Of The Earth Turn To Blood

4.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

5.Triptykon - Eparistera Daimones

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1.Hwwauoch - Hwwauoch

2.Evoken - Hypnagogia

3.Ars Magna Umbrae - Lunar Ascension

4.Dirge - Lost Empyrean

5.1914 - The Blind Leading The Blind

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Everything I find worthy found of (but not necessarily in) 2018.
I'm not an eclectic person. I listen to extreme metal, underground pop, electronic music and weird stuff. Even better if it's lo-fi weird stuff. Don't expect to find much out of that line here.

List in constant progress
Enjoy... Or not

1.Lemmings Suicide Myth - St

2.Death Fortress - Reign Of The Unending

3.Zebulon Kosted & Stormhammer - The Murderous Kleptocrat Francisco Macias Nguema

4.Urbangarde - Ai To Gensou No Urbangarde

5.Tentenko - All You Need Is cat

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What seems the most important albums for me in chronological order.
I wish I could carry the list year after year to see how my tastes changed and new findings.
I can help but notice that old albums immediately strike me, while in recent times most albums are good but nothing is groundbreaking. We have a tide of releases in the last decades, and standing above the other requires an impossible lot of talent.
Or is it my listen habbits that changed ? I felts I listened to the old albums albums for a lifetime while I'm only surface checking the new ones. Too little time, too little time to truly live...
Also the mixing technology, the sound is too flat nowadays and lack impact and personnality

1.Frank Zappa - Freak Out

2.The Who - Tommy

3.Frank Zappa - Uncle Meat

4.Frank Zappa - Hot Rats

5.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

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Limted to mostly unknown, unsigned and obscure Extreme metal releases.

For more recs, check out the 2018 releases from the labels in this list.

Non-metal

Listen queue: Haeiresis, Eosphoros, Carpe Noctem, Psicosfera, Ars Magna Umbrae, Dysylumn, Sorcier Des Glaces, Dauþuz, Mare, Imperial Triumphant, Aseroe, Spite, Wolvennest, Mask, Plaguestorm, Mahr, Kosmogyr, Foehammer, Bismarck, Famyne, Morphinist

1.Cult Of Occult - Anti Life

2.Imperial Triumphant - Vile Luxury

3.Esoctrilihum - Pandaemorthium (Forbidden Formulas To Awaken The Blind Sovereigns Of Nothingness)

4.Esoctrilihum - Inhüma

5.Entropia (POL) - Vacuum

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1.Akhenaten - Golden Serpent God

2.Akitsa - Credo

3.All My Sins - Pra Sila - Vukov Totem

4.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

5.Antlers - Beneath.Below.Behold.

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1 album per band per subgenre
work in progress, updating as I go through the song-by-song ratings on RateYourMusic.com
I will typically update my black metal faves - https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6924
and my death metal faves - https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6298
prior to updating this one

1.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

2.King Diamond - Abigail

3.Voivod - Dimension Hatröss

4.Mastodon - Crack The Skye

5.Lykathea Aflame - Elvenefris

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I'm trying to find as many albums as I can this year, and I'm building the list day after day. It should end as a top list, but now it's under construction and I'm just tracking a couple of stuff. I'm not focusing on "good" records, but more on whatever strongly catches my attention.

(+) favorites
★ most played

1.Night Verses - From The Gallery Of Sleep

2.Cauldron - New Gods

3.Imperial Triumphant - Vile Luxury

4.Messa - Feast For Water

5.OddZoo - Future Flesh

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* Updating this as I get around to doing song-by-song on RYM.
* 1 album per band
* limiting this to actual black metal releases, as opposed to releases by bands that were, at one time, black metal.
>> Some bands really do incorporate a lot of both death metal or doom (or avant garde or folk, etc) and black metal in their albums, so I consider them to be 'black metal adjacent' even if it might not be 'purely black metal'

1.Weakling - Dead As Dreams

2.Caladan Brood - Echoes Of Battle

3.Deathspell Omega - Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum

4.Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi

5.Altar Of Plagues - Teethed Glory & Injury

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Heavy, Doom, Black, Death, Thrash, Prog, Power...these are my favorite 100 albums of 2018... STAY METAL!!!

25 Honorable Mentions:

Mortuous - Through Wilderness
Arkheth - 12 Winter Moons Comes the Witches Brew
Lychgate - The Contagion In Nine Steps
Wolfheart - Constellation Of The Black Light
Cosmic Church - Täyttymys

1.Imperial Triumphant - Vile Luxury

2.Shylmagoghnar - Transience

3.Altars Of Grief - Iris

4.Horrendous - Idol

5.Sepulcher - Panoptic Horror

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1.Wayfarer - World's Blood

2.Basalte - Vertige

3.Weedpecker - III

4.Vilkacis - Beyond The Mortal Gate

5.Convulsing - Grievous

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In alphabetical order, by band name with subgenres for easier browsing
Updated when I hear new good shit
Enjoy

1.1914 - The Blind Leading The Blind

2.Abhorrence - Megalohydrothalassophobic

3.Aborted - TerrorVision

4.Abysmal Torment - The Misanthrope

5.Æpoch - Awakening Inception

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