Stereogum's 10 Best Metal Albums of 2019

_______________________________ "Indomitable with a maturity, aggression and complexity, “Sacramental Death Qualia” is the expected step forward in terms of both expressivity and personality. This release is going to impose them on the same audience of bands like Gorguts, Blut Aus Nord, Akercocke, and early Opeth: bands that become reminiscent throughout the album. Mastered by Brendan Sloan (Convulsing), “Sacramental Death Qualia” is a true experience of conscience's awakening; a progressive album where the unrelenting violence of death metal and the obscurity of black metal are sewn together by mind-bending, complex arrangements that are the epitome of change. HAUNTER's compositions constantly morph and evolve with never-ending creativity, chasing forms at the same time ferocious and elegant, destructive and gentle. Acoustic passages of ethereal beauty, where delicate guitars draw melancholic and autumnal melodies counterbalance the band's untamable fury during the most frenetic moments." HAUNTER is: Bradley Tiffin Mark Cruz Cole Tucker Enrique Bonilla

NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THE DEAD THINK: Rob Marton - Guitars, Bass (ex Discordance Axis) Kyosuke Nakano - Drums (ex Cohol) Jon Chang - Vocals (ex Discordance Axis) The definitive ending to the piloted bullet hell grind album series started in 1992, No One Knows What the Dead Think documents eight original stages plus a hard reboot of the Discordance Axis stage Dominion

Funeral Doom titans ESOTERIC return with the monolithic ‘A Pyrrhic Existence,’ the collective’s first new album in eight years. Their undeniable power and time-warping arrangements are unparalleled even by doom metal standards, taking on an almost psychedelic hue at times here. As each of the six songs in this 2CD set roar to life, including the 27+ minute epic "Descent," the gravity swallows’ listeners up as they are pulled into their depths. ESOTERIC are, quite literally, one of metal’s heaviest bands, and the somber ‘A Pyrrhic Existence’ is further proof of their mastery.

Featuring classic 1970s artwork by Sci-Fi god Bruce Pennington, “Hidden History of the Human Race” promises to be both a meditative inquiry on the Mystery & Nature of human consciousness, and a dynamic foray into the realms of progressive, brutal & atmospheric death metal, as revealed by BLOOD INCANTATION. Recorded completely analogue at World Famous Studios in Denver, CO, “Hidden History of the Human Race” expands the sonic cosmos explored on BLOOD INCANTATION’s critically acclaimed debut “Starspawn” (Dark Descent Records) and contains the following new tracks: 1. Slave Species of the Gods - 05:31 2. The Giza Power Plant - 07:06 3. Inner Paths (to Outer Space - 05:38 4. Awakening From the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul) - 18:05

Way 006: Following on from the recent EP "The Winter Silence", D. (Woods of Desolation, Forest Mysticism) returns with the debut full-length, "Into Endless Night", containing approx. 40 minutes of Atmospheric, Melancholic Black Metal. Released as a jewelcase CD with 4-page booklet, limited to 500 copies.

WARLORDS OF THE WORLD TO COME ۞ A dizzying, complex affair that sacrifices nothing in the way of virility over its forty-five minute run time. ۞ Cover art once again by Jane Morris Pack. ۞ AMPHICLASM VIDEO vimeo.com/356340596/9fd72d7ca5 ۞ PERFORMED BY: Theophonos: All D. Lyons: Guest ۞ WITH GRATITUDE TO: M. Chun Mystískaos J.M. Pack H.V. Lyngdal Kostnatění An Isolated Mind / K. Bogges Ripped to Shreds Norma Evangelium Diaboli P. Godfrey & E. Lichtenstein Written and produced December 2017 to May 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Colin Marston at Menegroth: The Thousand Caves, Queens, NY April/May 2019