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As the second decade of the 21st century looms, I thought it relevant, though rather clichéd, to make a personal top twenty albums from the last ten years. This top twenty, of course being extremely subjective, does not only exhibit albums which feature good musicianship, tone and songwriting but those that have affected me poignantly, emotionally, or have accompanied me through good and bad memories. I may well have left one or two out which later I'd consider pertinent to include, but if they haven't been by now, such belatedness would hardly warrant them deserved placement anyway.

20. Black Math Horseman - Wyllt [2009, USA, Tee Pee Records] Progressive metal/post-rock



1. Tyrant
2. Deerslayer
3. A Barren Cause
4. Origin Of Savagery
5. Torment Of The Metals
6. Bird Of All Faiths And None / Bell From Madrone

As the metal scene becomes awash with post-metal and as black metal bands clasp at post-rock for some semblance of originality in their modern sounds, BMH were the one band for me who have been able to craft something truly interesting from the embers of post-rock. Wyllt is not only an emotional and dark journey, mixing post-rock with progressive metal and ambient sections, but its distant, discordant female vocals also make it a truly eerie experience. As it becomes more and more difficult for metal and rock bands to do something interesting to stand out, BMH did so with a truly innovative début, and the only 2009 album featuring in my top 20.

19. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles [2008, Canada, Different Records] Electronic/chiptune



1. Untrust Us
2. Alice Practice
3. Crimewave (Crystal Castles Vs. Health)
4. Magic Spells
5. XXZXCUZX Me
6. Air War
7. Courtship Dating
8. Good Time
9. 1991
10. Vanished
11. Knights
12. Love And Caring
13. Through The Hosiery
14. Reckless
15. Black Panther
16. Tell Me What To Swallow

The inclusion of Crystal Castles will doubtless have many spitting fire. One of the most hated bands in the indie scene [as far as the elitists go anyway], CC put out a thrillingly varietal début last year of a mixture of ambient, cacophonic and melodic electronic melodies, all tinged with a 90s chiptune vibe. It may well stand out as a complete pariah in this list, but this album is mostly important to me for being significant of a highly difficult period of psychological turmoil last year, got spun to death and ended up as one of my top played albums ever. It must have been due to its disparity with metal and dark ambient twinned with its heavy early 90s feel which made it such an effective companion through the moderate depression I encountered. Originally downloaded from a blog, I remember being more proud than usual to pick it up on CD.

18. Mira - There I Go Daydreamer [2005, USA, Projekt Records] Shoegaze



1. Say When
2. Pieces
3. Highs In The Lows
4. Adrift
5. No Other Way
6. Long Division
7. Window Seat
8. Reset
9. Heavenly Slumber
10. Passerby
11. Nearest Exit
12. Hinterland

Mira's third and final album was by far their most mature. Never being a particularly large fan of bands like Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine, There I Go Daydreamer really nailed the shoegaze formula for me in a way that other albums didn't. Its predecessor, Apart, took a while to get into and understand, but once I'd wrapped my psychosis around the atmosphere that Mira created, it was clear that TIGD had forged the sound perfectly. The shimmering, lush guitars; simple yet textured drumming and Regina's tender vocals created a comfortable but lonely sound like few others in ethereal music since Cocteau Twins' middle period or the first two albums from the excellent Love Spirals Downwards.

17. Aeoga – Zenith Beyond The Helix-Locus [2005, Finland, Aural Hypnox] Ritual ambient



1. Impenetrable-Chimera
2. Permuting-Remote-Shrieks
3. Ash-Breath
4. Reptilevitation
5. Interplanary
6. Burialgae-Resonance
7. Birthcry
8. Owleye-Mandalchemy
9. Impulses
10. Winged-Beings
11. Prism-Mountain
12. Implosion
13. Voidclysm
14. Salamander-Maqet
15. Lustrous-Kosmolesion

I remember originally describing this as "being on drugs without being on drugs". The Helixes Collective have always produced some of the very best material as far as dark or ritual ambient goes. The use of purely organic materials such as animal horns and bone flutes without the use of synthesisers, make Aeoga and Halo Manash's work far more genuine that most. Zenith Beyond the Helix-Locus is one long, undisturbed ritual - a highly evocative and unsettling piece. Ensconcing yourself in its atmosphere is key to understanding and appreciating it and it warrants multiple play throughs to completely understand. If you have the patience and the attention, it truly is one of the finest ritual ambient works produced.

16. Herbst9 – The Gods Are Small Birds But I Am The Falcon [2008, Germany, Loki Foundation] Ritual ambient



1. The Laments Begin
2. Must I Die? (Because Of My Holy Songs)
3. Threshold Of Tears
4. Enenuru
5. The Gods Are Small Birds, But I Am The Falcon
6. White Ashes (Black Smoke)
7. ...And Everything Around Him Answered
8. Shaking Ground
9. Ilimmu

Inspired by a Sumerian hymn to Enheduanna, The Gods Are Small Birds But I am the Falcon took me by surprise. I had already assumed that Herbst9 had peaked with their 2005 effort Buried Under Time And Sand, but The Gods Are Small Birds was more ambient, more focused and included greater use of vocal samples which made songs such as Nanab Ishtar - Exalted Light of Heaven so brilliantly effective. Evoking the gods through incantations related to ancient Sumer, it was a high point not only in Herbst9's catalogue, but also for ritual ambient in general.

Full review, written 2009.

15. Textures – Drawing Circles [2006, Holland, Listenable Records] Progressive metal/hardcore



1. Drive
2. Regenesis
3. Denying Gravity
4. Illumination
5. Stream Of Consciousness
6. Upwards
7. Circular
8. Millstone
9. Touching The Absolute
10. Surreal State Of Enlightenment

Even though 2008's Silhouettes was a more lavish and heavier piece of work, it didn't strike such a successful balance between heavy and melodic as its predecessor. After the comparatively thin Polars released in 2004, Textures raised their own bar several notches and came out with an astounding piece of work which, as far as I'm concerned, beat several genremates into the ground. What made Drawing Circles more interesting and more successful for me over bands such as Between the Buried and Me and SikTh, was the perfect combination of simplicity and complexity mixed with the composite vocals of singer Jochem Jacobs. At first Drawing Circles seemed like quite a raucous affair to acquaint oneself with, but seeing the patterns eventually becomes more satisfying and more nourishing than on a lot of progressive albums. The band manage to tease you to a point of excess with a milligram too much heaviness before switching to softer, mellower sections with clean vocals, and then back again to another intense lashing of progressive barbarism. There's probably not much here to appease fans of purely more traditional metal like Dream Theater or Evergrey, but those looking for something more gritty and more spiked with an abundance of variety could hardly do much better than to look into this.

14. Biomechanical - The Empires of the Worlds [2005, UK, Earache Records] Progressive metal/thrash



1. Enemy Within
2. The Empires Of The Worlds
3. Assaulter
4. Relinquished Destiny
5. Long Time Dead
6. Regenerated
7. DNA Metastasis
8. Survival
9. Existenz
10. Truth Denied
11. Absolution - Part 1: Final Offence
12. Absolution - Part 2: From The Abyss
13. Absolution - Part 3: Absolution
14. Absolution - Part 4: Disintegration

After a particularly alcohol-fuelled day watching Exodus down at the Underworld in November 2006, I had the first - and only one of two opportunities so far - to see Biomechanical. Even though the sound was pretty off during the set itself, it was intriguing enough for me to pick up what was at that point, their latest album, a few days later. The Empires of The Worlds, clearly sounding much better on CD [this one, at least] than live is a frenzied gallop through progressive thrash metal. Fast riffs, blistering drumwork and track upon track of some of the most intense music I've come across. In spite of the fact that most speed metal bores me to death, the combination of progressive thrash mixerd with occasional orchestration made this almost a guilty pleasure, a rewarding listen which isso full-on its akin to aural rape. Empires is a chariot race on speed, a marathon sprinted from start to finish, and by the time Part 4 of Absolution has ended, going through the album in one go can't fail to leave its daunting and unforgiving mark on the exhausted listener. Unfortunately, the long-awaited and long-hyped follow-up Cannibalised two years later fell victim to excruciatingly bad production in a similar vein to Eight Moons, and became unlistenable as a result. When asked if I'm a fan of Biomechnical the answer is a resounding yes, through it's more accurate to say I'm a fan of just one album. But what an album it is.

13. Naamah - Resensement [2004, Poland, Metal Mind Records] Progressive metal



1. Daydream Part One
2. Severed
3. Not For You
4. Subsistance
5. Red Light
6. Alright
7. Daydream Part Two
8. Subsistance [polish version] [bonus]
9. Twoja [piano version] [bonus]

Resensement was Naamah's third – and up to this point still most recent album. For some reason, one suspects disagreements with the label, the band are still to put out the final album that they've been contracted for. Resensement saw the band change their sound hugely. Ultima, it's predecessor, was an averagely respectable Gothic metal record with meagre production values. Resensement saw the band put out a far more heartfelt and progressive recording, with much higher production values. What made it better than a lot of other progressive metal was that it was actually interesting to listen to in each of its multifarious sections. Every note, line and melody has its own honestly and texture. Ending with the ambient and highly atmospheric Daydream Pt 2, it was truly one of the high points of my musical reviewing when I came across it, and still remains one of my all-time favourites today.

Full review, written 2004.

12. Moon of Steel – Insignificant Details [2002, Italy, Steelheart Records] Progressive metal



1. What Will Remain?
2. I Am
3. After All
4. Grey 0
5. The Wave
6. Details part 1
7. I Hear You Call
8. Forced (Your Way)
9. Waiting For The Moonlight
10. Details part 2
11. Details Part 3

One of 2002's best female-fronted metal albums was also one of its most unknown, and still has garnered hardly any attention over the years. Insignificant Details, Moon of Steel's second studio album since the band put out its first full-length 1989, included a new dynamic and new singer who was also to only feature on their 1999 EP. With it's perfectly woven mix of complex, progressive metal, slow, smooth jazz interludes and some of the very best female vocals ever to fit on a metal album, Insignificant Details was a revelatory turning point for me, and still is one of my all-time favourite metal albums. The music on display is gloomy, dark, lonely and bitterly honest. It remains one of most underrated albums in metal. It's leaving statement “your life depends on that which you can seize and your dreams are not insignificant details” has resonated with me for as long as I can remember.

Full review, written 2003.

11. Forgotten Silence - KaBaAch [2000, Czech Republic, Redblack] Progressive metal/death metal



1. Red Paiom - The Yellow-Blue Snake
2. Rostau - The Sandwaves
3. Al Qáhir - In The Marble Halls (Of Fame) IV.
4. Saqqára - The Sitting Statue
5. FL2C - The Morning In Cairo
6. Vaset - The Breath Of Tasechetaat
7. Memnon - The Ancient Moaning
8. Ipet Isut - The Sunflames
9. Dendara - The Deepest Depth, In The Darkest Dark...
10. Idfú - Under The Hor's Wings ...
11. Syene - The Waterlines
12. As Suwais - One Step To Another World

KaBaAch came at a time of particular musical drought, and I remember on first hearing it thinking that it wasn't my thing at all. The band, still relatively unknown but occasionally still active, put out a string of wildly inaccessible albums in the late 90s with KaBaAch being their most easy to get into. This isn't to say that it's an easy listen at all. Most of the album is a relentless, uncompromising mish-mash of death metal, progressive metal and funk/jazz sections mixed with various unusual ambient interludes. It is what it wants to be - it's so self-involved that it doesn't care if you misunderstand it or dislike it. What's most unusual about this album and its inclusion in this list, is that most of the songs in the album - 7 out of the 12 - are ambient interludes. However, the remaining five are some of the best examples of progressive metal I think of: marvellous song structure, very skilled playing [especially the bass and drum work] and accomplished female vocals by Hanka Nogolová, now spending most of her time in Silent Stream of Godless Elegy. Visiting the band's previous works has proved to be a very difficult experience, not least the highly impenetrable Senyaan, though KaBaAch is the best starting point for those looking for something truly fascinating and different in progressive metal.

10. Atrox - Orgasm [2003, Norway, code666] Progressive metal



1. Methods of Survival
2. Flesh City
3. Heartquake
4. Burning Bridges
5. This Vigil
6. Tentacles
7. Second Hand Trauma
8. Prè Sense

My first clash with Atrox, which seems a fitting way to describe coming into contact with them, was in 2003 when I was sent a promo of Terrestrials. I had read various comments around the internet about the band with regards to how they were just "too crazy" for a lot of reviewers or just too weird to be given the literal time of day. Of course there are many bands in the avant-garde spectrum who produce far more curious and outlandish metal, but for female-fronted metal before the likes of Akphaezya or Ayin Aleph, Atrox was pretty much as crazy as it got. The band never really fell into either the progressive or avant-garde metal camps but more a strange halfway house between the two which the band described as 'schizo metal'. Even though Terrestrials was an accomplished album with doubtless the best lyrics that I have ever come across, it was Orgasm where, under Monika at least, the band perfected their balance of creative intensity and forward-thinking metal. Every track here is a standout, be it the excellently over the top Flesh City ["masturbating teens around every corner"]; the most unusual love song ever Heartquake; or the excellently and usually progressive Pre Sense ["what's so unusual about being unique? We all are"]. After this album Monika left the band to, well, start one with her own pet freak plush and sit in Trondheim making weird artwork. I remember she accepted an interview offer from me which she proposed to do vocally as Rødingen - possibly complete with egg slicer - but for one reason or another the answers to the questions were never forthcoming.

Full review, written 2004.

9. The Moon and the Nightspirit – Regő Rejtem [2007, Hungary, Equilibirum Music] Neofolk/ethereal



1. Regő Rejtem
2. Örökké
3. Avaràlom
4. Szarvaslélek
5. Föld Szive Dobban
6. Csillagnàsz
7. Rögből Élet
8. Éjköszöntő
9. Holdtànc

I remember thinking on hearing track 7 of Regő Rejtem, Rögből Élet, that it was possibly one of the most beautiful songs I'd heard. It was particularly helpful and useful to me in 2008 when I was going through my depressive state, and I ended up delving into the album more and more and with ever greater intensity to the point whereby it became some kind of musical precious stone to me. I absolutely can't stand it when people start talking about albums "helping them through difficult periods” in their lives, and Regő Rejtem didn't do that directly. What it did do, however, was occasionally lift me out of the psychological quagmire that I was spending my time in and make me realise that there were far more aesthetic and uplifting things out there which should always be remembered, no matter how helpless you're feeling. In this way Regő Rejtem seemed to cross the psychological Rubicon with me.

8. Vas – In The Garden Of Souls [2000, USA, Narada] Ethnic/ethereal



1. In The Garden Of Souls
2. Inamorata
3. Samaya
4. Prayer For Soheil
5. Ceremony Of Passage
6. Beyond Despair
7. The Inward Coil
8. Ephémère (Upon The Faded)
9. Lila
10. Unbecome
11. Sevdama

In the Garden of Souls came to me at a time when I was becoming particularly interested in progressive metal. I remember Ashtoreth passing the album to me and my being instantly bewitched by it. Its distant, otherwordly ether grabbed me as something I'd never heard before in stark contrast to the metal I was listening to at the time. It started a trend of interest in other bands such as Stellamara, Lumin and Axoim Of Choice which, though high quality in their own rights, never quite stood up to Vas' calibre. I was rather late in discovering the band since they disbanded after Feast of Silence in 2004, though Niyaz's Nine Heavens is the closest album I've come across in a similar vein, being much more mystical and laid back that their rather energetic self-titled album. ITGOS is still one of the most beautiful and transfixing albums I own, a dark and entrancing piece of work.

7. Dark Sanctuary - L'Être las - L'envers du miroir [2003, France, Wounded Love] Neoclassical



1. L'arrogance
2. L'envers du Miroir
3. Malveillance
4. Les Larmes du Méprisé
5. Profondeur de l'âme
6. Assombrissement de l'âme
7. Silence Macabre
8. La Mort Avant le Déshonneur
9. Larmes et de Sang
10. Vie éphémère
11. Face à une Mort Rassasiée
12. Loin des Mortels
13. La Rencontre Fatale
14. Tout ce Sang Versé

L'Être Las - L'Envers Du Miroir took me quite a while to get into, let alone to understand. It was my first introduction to darkwave and neoclassical music and initially I found it rather dull, being only exposed to the accessible strains of bands such as Nightwish, Within Temptation and Lacuna Coil at that point back in November 2003. On a late journey back from Newcastle, having seen women in skirts and heels tearing themselves apart in the streets and people stealing babies from distraught mothers' buggies as a joke, I remember the album beginning to make sense once Loin Des Mortels came on. The piano, the transcendent strings and the exquisite voice of Dame Pandora made it an enchanting experience exemplified by tracks such as L'arrogance and Vie éphémère. This sparked a heavy appreciation for one of the most musically rich bands in the neoclassical spectrum and one which I had the great pleasure of promoting at St Pancras Parish Church for their final concert in October 2009, six years later.

Full review, written 2003.

6. Riverside – Second Life Syndrome [2005, Poland, Inside Out] Progressive rock



1. After
2. Volte-Face
3. Conceiving You
4. Second Life Syndrome
5. Artificial Smile
6. I Turned You Down
7. Reality Dream III
8. Dance With The Shadow
9. Before

Discovering bands like Fates Warning and Riverside quite early on in my progressive metal initiation became problematic. What bands like these did was showcase a certain skill for maturity and intensity in metal, especially lyrically, which is hard to top. Most metal bands - in fact most bands in general - are poor at writing lyrics. It was the stark personal feel to Riverside's lyrics which was the first thing that caught my attention, followed by the sincerity of both the melodic and heavier sections, not to mention that painfully beautiful, highly Pink Floyd-esque guitar solos. Second Life Syndrome has been nearly impossible for the band to top, following it with the weaker "difficult third album" Rapid Eye Movement and the stronger Anno Domini High Definition. Riverside were another band that I had the opportunity to promote in London a couple of times, both to very high audience turnouts. In both cases it was refreshing to see a down-to-earth, relaxed and affable group of band members rather than the prima-donas that one comes across all too often in promotion at either end of the spectrum.

5. Catafalque - Dialectique [2007, Turkey, CTF Records] Gothic metal



1. Seasons
2. The Ordeal
3. Red Lights
4. Fading Beauty
5. Together With All The Pain
6. Blamed
7. Crimson Dust
8. Butterfly Inside
9. Ballerina
10. Bringer Of The Night

After the release of Sirenia's At Sixes And Sevens Gothic metal became tired, frayed and withered. It was the last truly good Gothic metal album in the accepted old style. The huge amount of ensembles jumping on the female-fronted bandwagon afterwards meant that that the sound had reached saturation point and there was little originality left in the pot. 2007's Dialectique saw Catafalque change sound from gothic/doom into a more atmospheric type with greater use of emotion and keyboards. The songwriting and production were all of a very high quality, though the jewel in the album's proverbial crown was undoubtedly Özge Özkan 's vocals, being soaring, genuine and heartfelt.

Dialectique is so exquisitely emotional that it almost transcends any other Gothic metal album made. These days it's so rare for albums to come across as emotional: indeed, a lot of the time I almost forget that the point of music is to make people feel something. Dialectique takes you through a dodectet of perfect Gothic atmospheric numbers and doesn't drop for a moment. The music doesn't have to be big, complex and pretentious to be emotional and effective, because Dialectique accomplished more with its simplicity than most other albums could hope to after years of careful preparation.

4. Opeth - Deliverance [2002, Sweden, Music For Nations] Progressive death metal



1. Wreath
2. Deliverance
3. A Fair Judgement
4. For Absent Friends
5. Master's Apprentices
6. By the Pain I See in Others

Deliverance was always supposed to be Opeth's heaviest album. Or maybe that was just a selling point put out for promotional reasons, the original intention being to release it at the same time as Damnation. Deliverance was not necessarily their heaviest effort, it included more prog rock and melodious influences than their works during the Candlelight years - but one thing which Deliverance does remain is their most consistent album. Every track on the album is a dark, complex, opaque and beautiful work. There are many moments to commend here, be it the accessibility of the title track with its repetitive complex outro; A Fair Judgment with one of the best and most emotional guitar solos I have heard; or the unexpectedly beautiful prog rock section in the middle of the otherwise gruffly heavy Master's Apprentices. In spite of two more strong records since its release, Deliverance is still my favourite Opeth recording - with Still Life, of course, a respectably close second.

3. After Forever - Decipher [2001, Holland, Transmission Records] Gothic metal



1. Ex Cathedra
2. Monolith of Doubt
3. My Pledge of Allegiance #1 - The Sealed Fate
4. Emphasis
5. Intrinsic
6. Zenith
7. Estranged (A Timeless Spell)
8. Imperfect Tenses
9. My Pledge of Allegiance #2 - The Tempted Fate
10. The Key
11. Forlorn Hope

I suppose this is the best time to admit that I got back into Gothic metal after an abstinence of four years due to watching an episode of Pop Idol. One of the costumes worn by Gareth Gates had a slightly Gothic tinge to it and that led me idly one day to check out Shoutcast, which was in 2002 a far more effective and popular way of finding new music that it is now. On browsing the stations I came across After Forever's Intrinsic, the first female-fronted metal track I ever heard, and this led me to download Decipher over WinMX and subsequently order it from Sonic Cathedral as my first purchase along with Aesma Daeva. Even now Decipher is, for me, one of the most important albums in all of Gothic metal. Though it took time for me to get used to the unexpected male growling elements, it was Floor's vocals, the complexity of the songwriting and the orchestration that were the album's complete strength, and which were hardly ever improved upon by the band themselves or in the genre altogether. Decipher remains one of the most impressive and important albums in Gothic metal - in spite of the band's insistence, even in their early Transmission days, that they didn't make Gothic music.

2. Fates Warning - Disconnected [2000, USA, Metal Blade] Progressive metal



1. Disconnected (Part I)
2. One
3. So
4. Pieces Of Me
5. Something From Nothing
6. Still Remains
7. Disconnected (Part II)

Disconnected is one of the most vital albums I have come across. On a trip to Baltimore in March 2006 I was furnished with a number of Fates Warning CDRs from the No Exit period right up to FWX [though missing out, strangely, A Pleasant Shade of Gray]. Seeing as I was no fan of male-fronted vocals at that particular time, I indifferently played Inside Out and Perfect Symmetry with neither igniting my interest. It was only when I hit Still Remains from Disconnected that anything psychologically snapped into place. The track was probably the first male vocal metal track I had liked since listening to Paradise Lost and Megadeth as a teenager in the mid 90s. What Fates Warning did was lead me away gradually from the monomania I had with female vocal metal and open the gates to other artists such as Symphony X, Opeth, Dream Theater and Riverside. Disconnected was an immense turning point for me and Fates Warning remain possibly my all-time favourite metal band as a result. The maturity in the lyrics, vocals, guitars and atmosphere supersede those of any artist in the same category for me. In spite of the fact that Perfect Symmetry eventually became more important for me and one of my most valued albums of all time, its 1989 release makes it at least a decade too early for inclusion here.

1. The Mars Volta – De-Loused in the Comatorium [2003, USA, Universal] Progressive rock




1. Son Et Lumiere
2, Inertiatic ESP
3. Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)
4. Tira Me A Las Arañas
5. Drunkship Of Lanterns
6. Eriatarka
7. Cicatriz ESP
8. This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed
9. Televators
10. Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt

4chan's /mu/ came through in spades with this one. Majoritively a breeding ground for the largest amount of trolling, spite and verbal cess on the internet, the music board kept whoring De-Loused particularly in the closing months of 2008, much to the respective elation and chagrin of the community. Idly listening to Inertiatic ESP gave me sufficient impetus to spin the album in its entirety and I became shocked by its lyrical and musical complexity, especially for Universal and a category such as progressive rock, which most of the time I'd associated with wet, flimsy and shamelessly tepid music. TMV showed a drive, expression, class and fervor that I had yet not experienced in rock or metal. The album's neat originality, its perfect mixing of rock with the frenetic feel of Latin jazz and salsa made it immediately mesmerising. The sheer talent and virtuosity of each band member induced TMV to scream ahead of any other band I was listening to in the closing months of 2008 by a long way.

They may be called ostentatious and pretentious by some, but progressive music relies on certain mindsets by its innovators for effective experimentation. De-Loused has kept me retreating to its cadences time and time again, be it the bleak beauty of Televators and Cicatriz ESP or the sheer power and dynamism of Drunkship Of Lanterns or Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt. There is no edging the listener in here, no acceleration: De-Loused starts at 60mph and ups the gears progressively, musically and conceptually till its closing bars. For me it is not only a great album of the 2000s - but a legendary one. And that's a word I generally hate to use.