Ghost Cult once again brings you “End Of Year” lists, memories, and other shenanigans from our favorite bands, partners, music industry peers, and other folks we respect across the world. In this post, Centuries of Decay share their Top 10 Albums Of 2017 with our readers. Thanks dudes!
The Black Dahlia Murder – Nightbringers
This is probably one of the most vicious melodic death metal albums out there right now. It actually gets pretty dark sounding near the end of the album. The final track almost starts to sound a little black metal and is vicious as hell.
Artificial Brain – Infrared Horizon
An incredible display of epic technical death metal. An absolute improvement from their début release. It mixes some rung-out arpeggio chords and almost Gorguts-like dissonance with some classic death/trash. Their covers also have killer robots.
Enslaved – E
Lush, atmospheric and imaginative. It treads into new territory while still retaining that definitive ‘Enslaved’ sound. Storm Son is so good!
SikTh – The Future In Whose Eyes
When I stumbled upon SikTh back in around 2009 I was blown away — by the riffs, the unique double vocalist style and the creativity & originality in general! I don’t think another band does quite what they do. They were on hiatus for a long time and finally came back with an EP in 2015 and this album in 2017 – love it!
Within The Ruins – Halfway Human
Typical relentlessly heavy Within The Ruins – which is exactly what I want sometimes. They’ve also sprinkled in clean vocal elements on this album and I dug it for sure.
Mastodon – Emperor Of Sand
It was refreshing to hear Mastodon’s return to a more proggy, adventurous sound. ‘Andromeda’ and ‘Jaguar God’ are some amazing tracks.
Mastodon – Cold Dark Place EP
Played this disc more than any other this year. 4 nearly-discarded cuts from Mastodon’s last 2 album sessions that ended up being some of their catchiest and most satisfying songs in quite a while.
Soen – Lykaia
Swedish prog metal “supergroup” that has been working hard since 2012 to beat Tool at their own game. And with the current album score at 3-0, they certainly have the upper hand.
Nods to Blackwater-era Opeth add some tastiness as well, courtesy of drummer Martin Lopez.
Septic Flesh – Codex Omega
Massive death metal riffs meet even more massive symphonies. What’s not to love?
Decapitated – Anticult
For obvious reasons, most wouldn’t touch this one with a 10′ pole right now. Which is all the more unfortunate as it’s a great record. Tight as fuck rhythms with some incredibly creative guitar playing. Best judged on its own merits.