White Ward have shown that with musical variety, fusion of styles, experimentation, sheer skill of musicianship and refusal to be pigeonholed they can make an album that is absolutely essential listening. Go get yourself some Ukrainian metal!

As perfect as its predecessor, The Harvest takes a large step sideways, incorporating esoteric psychedelia into the band’s trademark heavy sound.

Pike vs The Automaton is a lot of fun. Not as serious or intense as High on Fire: the combination of metal, stoner rock and psych, all mixed into the trademark sludge we know from Matt’s other work, make for a very enjoyable listen.

Wolves In The Throne Room are a special band. This is the pinnacle of their achievements, combining the fury and darkness of their early work with atmospherics and masses of soaring melody to create the perfect whole.

Garmonbozia is an epically fragile, tender and multifaceted album. Repeat listens will be essential.

Dense, melodic death metal that insinuates itself into the listener’s mind. Threading through it is a vibe that embeds the music in its Egyptian themes and origins.

This album absolutely slays. That’s the headline: the most far-reaching, absorbing and bombastically heavy album you will hear this year.

G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! is without doubt Godspeed’s best work since Allelujah!, and is one of their best albums.

Old school death with a modern twist. An absolutely crushing bunch of tunes, heavy enough to cave in your skull.

An accessible behemoth with heaps of guitar melody, Tribulation’s most consistent album yet.

A highly competent and flawlessly executed black metal album that owes a lot to more traditional heavy metal in terms of song structure, production style and guitar melodies.

Endless Twilight of Codependent Love is perhaps a combination of the previous two albums, with the earnestness of Otta and accessibility of Berdreyminn. Sólstafir remain a fascinating, unique band.

Rare Form made some of the darkest, heaviest and most interesting ambient music I’ve heard. A fitting last album.

Thunderingly heavy doom, done 70s style. Play it loud, very loud. All hail the riff.

Musically intricate and furiously heavy, and lyrically the most socially conscious set of songs you will hear all year.

Diverse and ultra-heavy homage to a masterpiece of the ‘90s.

Meditative gargantuan riff metal. Like being hit by a glacier.

A blissful magic-carpet ride of world-inflected trance beats. Perfect for whiling away the time dreaming of foreign travel.

Complex, freeform extreme metal that unapologetically never strays far from the sonic path of the first track.

Antethic’s step into the world of electronica has led to some inspired experimentation and an exciting new direction.

Time Lapse ebbs and flows, inducing a sense of wooziness like all good trance should. Fabulous and mesmeric.