Best of 2019

Looking over my favorite albums from this year, I confirm what I already knew: I listened to a lot of metal in 2019, and not much else. But what a diversity of metal!

Land of the Dead is the most unpolished effort--one guy in Norway screeching into a microphone with simple piano and guitar melodies underneath. I would call it amateurish if I didn't like it. But somehow it stirred deep emotion in me, and almost moved me to tears. The Bleakness of Our Constant is the product of another one-man act, but with different aesthetic goals. While Land of the Dead conjures magical, Tolkienesque landscapes, The Bleakness of Our Constant is a journey inside the mind of one man suffering deep turmoil. It is equally personal and sincere. The "doom" vocals, far from being a gimmick, are a natural outgrowth of the album's throbbing heart.

The next albums in my top set, Tarot and Prokopton, represent the school of metal that hits melodies hard and kicks ass. Prokopton has terrific orchestral arrangements: you could listen to it without the vocals and enjoy it tremendously. But you shouldn't listen to it without the vocals, because the vocalist is one of the best that I heard this year. The first time that I heard "If I Should Die," I had to pull my car over because I was so astonished by how completely she owned it. Tarot relies more on its guitars, although its vocalist is also quite good. I'm astonished by Tarot's dramatic range. Most of the albums that I listen to sink deeply into a single mood...the good ones communicate it well, and the bad ones make a mockery of it. Tarot takes its listeners on a kaleidoscopic journey, through the heights of ecstasy to the humiliation of death. By the end of the album, when the vocalist sings, "For nature is calling, my heart compelled--every branch, every leaf has a story to tell," I felt deeply moved.

Tamsins Iikam is the most recent addition to this list, and also the strangest. This is pure doom metal--there is nothing soft or reassuring to grab hold of. The lyrics aren't in English, but the music's emotional register is unmistakable. This is what despair sounds like. Now, a lot of albums--especially doom metal albums--try to set this mood. What sets Tamsins Iikam apart is that, like a Shakespearean tragedy, it grasps and expresses the beauty of despair...how despair has the power to reveal our deepest, and sometimes noblest, human traits. It's difficult to listen to, but also lovely.

Which of the five is the best? I'm not going to say because I don't know. But regardless of whether you think you like metal, I would be astonished if at least one of these five doesn't speak to you.