I had a pretty good year in terms of music choices in 2019. Several of my favourite bands released albums, but due to my rather unique living situation and significant amounts of traveling this year, I haven’t actually listened to them yet – to my immense regret. That is why you don’t see JUDAS PRIEST or AMON AMARTH in my album list for 2019, because I haven’t yet procured physical copies of those works. (I have to say that, from what I’ve heard so far of AMON AMARTH’s Berserker album… I’m not really that impressed. I don’t think they’ll ever top With Oden On Our Side or Twilight of the Thunder God.)

Even so, there was plenty of new music for me to sink my teeth into. Here are my top 5 favourite albums of the year.

Oh, and in case Last Redoubt is wondering – the only reason SABATON didn’t make this list is because I thought that VISIGOTH’s latest offering was just slightly better. But it was a tough call. The new SABATON album isn’t their best – that would still be The Last Stand – but it’s pretty damn good even so.

1. TYR – Hel

Everybody’s favourite Faroese metal band is back with a vengeance, with their very first new album in 5 years. The follow-up to 2013’s solid but unremarkable Valkyrja is MUCH better, and the addition of a stable and extremely technically skilled drummer to their lineup has really improved and expanded their repertoire. Stylistically this album is more similar to their more folk-metal earlier albums like Ragnarok and Eric the Red than the more straight-up metal of By the Light of the Northern Star or Valkyrja. With this album, I think they’ve finally found the right balance between all of the elements of their highly unique sound. There isn’t really a single weak song on the whole album; it’s all one solid level of quality, with flashes of true brilliance throughout. I love this band and their output, and I hope to see them perform this stuff live someday soon.

KILLER KUTS: Gates of Hel, Garmr, Against the Gods, Aivur Kongur

2. INSOMNIUM – Heart Like a Grave

Finnish melodic death metal isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and INSOMNIUM in particular can be tough to deal with. If you’ve listened to Winter’s Gate, you might find yourself lost in the very dense and complex music on offer in that album. That was a concept album with a lot of OPETH influences from the Blackwater Park era, and it showed in the sheer density of the music. But this album is far more accessible and straightforward. There are a couple of clunky tracks, but there are also some true masterpieces that put a heavy metal spin on songs of winter melancholy that the Finns sing to each other with almost effervescent joy in their hearts. The addition of a third guitarist has also rounded out the band’s sound, so that they are now more versatile and fluid than ever. “Pale Morning Star” is simply a masterpiece, while the rest of the album ranges from solid to brilliant.

KILLER KUTS: Pale Morning Star, Valediction, Heart Like a Grave, Mute Is My Sorrow

3. ORDEN OGAN – Gunmen

I started listening to this album when I was in Moscow back in early July, and I was immediately hooked after watching the video for the title track. But then the lyric video for the second song on the album came out, and… my word, but it was simply beautiful. I honestly consider “Fields of Sorrow” to be my candidate for the best song that I’ve heard this year. It’s that good. This thing is a concept album that revolves around a lone gunslinger who pursues supernatural entities that killed his wife in a quest for justice that ultimately leads him to his end in a climactic battle between an anti-hero and the evil that he knows he must destroy. It’s sort of like Clint Eastwood from Unforgiven if he were to find himself wandering through the town in Salem’s Lot. A really stupendous effort from one of the best metal bands in Germany.

KILLER KUTS: Gunmen, Fields of Sorrow, Vampire in a Ghost Town, Come With Me to the Other Side, Finis Coronat Opus

4. SCANDROID – Scandroid

Despite what my Loyal Readers might believe, I do not listen exclusively to metal and nothing but metal. I do like to mix things up once in a while. I came across the “neo-synth/retrowave” band SCANDROID off the back of a death metal cover of one of their best songs, and quickly got hooked. Their sound is hard to describe, but it’s exactly what you would expect to hear if we lived in the world of Blade Runner. It’s futuristic and yet retro at the same time, with a healthy dose of synths and orchestral arrangements thrown in. Unlike a lot of the shitty techno and house music that you get these days, there is tremendous vocal and instrumental talent on display here, and the album itself is just pure quality from start to finish.

KILLER KUTS: Salvation Code, Aphelion, Empty Streets, Neo-Tokyo, Pro-Bots & Robophobes

5. VISIGOTH – Conqueror’s Oath

This is a new band to me, I’d never come across their stuff before I watched and listened to their video for “Traitor’s Gate”. They hail from Salt Lake City, Utah, and they are a proud reminder of what can happen when you take the best of IRON MAIDEN and MANOWAR and put them in a blender. Operatic vocals, powerful guitar harmonies, pounding drums, and driving bass lines all serve to support great lyrics about swords, conquest, honour, glory, and war. These guys are unapologetically old-school in their approach to heavy metal, and God love ’em for it.

KILLER KUTS: Steel and Silver, Warrior Queen, Traitor’s Gate

HONOURABLE MENTION: THE HU – The Gereg

I came across these guys because of a recommendation by our resident Badger, who stuck the link to their video for “Wolf Totem” in the comments section for one of my Mondaydact posts back in July or thereabouts. I was immediately hooked on this quite unique fusion of Mongolian throat-singing, folk-rock, and heavy metal. Apparently this group is a collaboration between four of Mongolia’s top traditional musicians, who came up with the idea of fusing some of their culture’s greatest war and praise songs with rock and metal to create a quite unique sound. Not every song on this album is particularly good or interesting, and there are some dull moments, but the good stuff far outweighs the bad. It is a lot of fun to listen to, although the bloodthirsty lyrics can give you pause if you know anything about history, and therefore anything about the exploits of a certain Genghis Khan.

KILLER KUTS: Wolf Totem, The Great Chinggis Khan, The Legend of Mother Swan, Yuve Yuve Yu