Here I present, in no particular order, roughly 30 releases from 2017 that I overlooked or did not make time to review. When starting this website I received several full label discographies and a flood of interest from several underground supporters and this sort of list is an attempt to make good on my own personal commitment to coverage of most everything I receive. Some of these were not reviewed because I felt the score was below 3.0/5.0 and some were overlooked because I had to move onto other things. Reissues, remasters, first-time format issues and compilations aren’t necessarily ‘low priority’ but I don’t think an album released two years ago repackaged with two bonus tracks is worth a separate review. So, these will be ‘mini’ reviews compared to the longer format of traditional reviews but, they are given no less amount of time and consideration.

With every release I do my best to give 5-10 full listens, research the history of the band, listen to all available back catalog, and also explore side-projects and related listening. This is the minimum amount of research I put into every long-form review but for these shorter reviews I will not be focusing on back catalog or side-projects/related listening. Several of the albums listed here have been in my pool of listening for upwards of 6-8 months and have maintained very low scores from me; In an effort to avoid breeding negativity towards artists and inviting trolls and the typical internet metal kid negative element I don’t post reviews for anything that scores lower than 2.5-2.75 which I consider average-at-best releases. So, if you find my thoughts more negative or my scores far lower than usual it is because I would rather pass entirely on a project’s work rather than spend much of my time writing about things I don’t like. Negative critique is the easiest, laziest way to write and gain sour-patch twat followers online. I’m no metal Pollyanna but we’ve all got better things to do than read sassy comments about albums that suck.

Hey! Don’t dive in thinking these all suck. Some of them will but and I’ll be focusing on the positive aspects of their art with the score attached to indicate my personal verdict. Think my opinions are trash and that I suck? Want to totally tell me off, bro? Click away and let’s all live more sensible lives full of meaningful interactions. I’m too old, and bored with people, to care.

Artist	Bastardös
Title [Type/Year]	Bastardös [Re-issue/2017]
Rating [2.75/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Formed in 2009 this Buenos Aires, Argentina based thrash metal band relies solely on the classics for their influence and although folks harshly criticized earlier demos as ‘generic’ their 2015 full-length was heavy and straight forward speed/thrash metal. The style takes a ton of influence from the same place as a lot of 80’s-90’s Argentinian thrash metal but with some extra influence from Bay Area thrash. If you’re a fan of metal en Español or the more traditional side of South American thrash metal this is a good album. Since it was independently released in 2015, finally getting distribution from Satanath/GrimmDistribution makes it worth talking about again as it wasn’t widely hyped when initially released.

Artist	Firebreather
Title [Type/Year]	Firebreather [Full-length/2017]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Firebreather are a stoner doom trio from Gothenburg, Sweden who heavily worship Matt Pike‘s early work in High on Fire. The reason I had trouble reviewing this album was entirely based around not having much to say about it’s style without just plainly talking about it’s resemblance to High on Fire for several paragraphs. Once I’d drafted a review it wasn’t much of a read so I scrapped it. I really enjoy this album and find it fits in right before ‘Surrounded by Thieves’. The riffs are sharp and the mood is flawless throughout, but I honestly couldn’t find the words for this one because it was ultimately too inspired by one specific influence.

Artist	Blackning
Title [Type/Year]	Eyes in the Mirror [EP/2017]
Rating [2.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Blackning are a Sao Paulo, Brazil thrash metal band with members who had played in Postwar and Andralls. Their style is somewhat similar to Andralls on this EP but perhaps leans more towards traditional thrash metal riffing and is slightly less concerned with groove metal. I liked this EP and the Motörhead medley bonus track is a nice touch. The only complain I had was that neither track on the 7″ really stuck with me regardless of how many times I spin it. The title track reminds me of Korzus a bit but I think this band play a style of thrash that needs bigger, better riffs to stand out.

Artist	Global Scum
Title [Type/Year]	Hell Is Home [Full-length/2017]
Rating [2.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Global Scum is the solo project of Austrian musician Manuel Harlander (Tyol) who takes his main influences from Sepultura, Soulfly for the album and created a mixture of death metal and groove metal. The riffs are most reminiscent of the third Soulfly album with some death metal, deathcore and industrial influences throughout. The lyrics are well, pure mallcore angst. I am not one to piss on the music that I listened to as a teenager so I won’t pretend that this wouldn’t have appealed to me back in 1996, but today I’m definitely looking for something else in terms of guitar work. I didn’t end up doing a full review for this album because it scored very low for me personally. If you’re huge on the tribal death/groove metal trend of the mid-to-late 90’s, absolutely jump in.

Artist	Father Befouled
Title [Type/Year]	Desolate Gods [Full-length/2017]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

This is one of the best death/doom records from 2017 and it made it onto my best of 2017 list at the end of the year. The only reason I didn’t review it was because I was busy with a set number of things and I didn’t actually buy the record until October that year. ‘Desolate Gods’ is by far the best release from these Atlanta based Incantation influenced death/doom monsters. A notable member of the wall of ‘caverncore’ bands when they began, and one of several death metal projects from Elektrokutioner (Encoffincation, Ghoulgotha, Howling), this project finally received the type of guitar writing needed to sustain it’s relatively simple resemblance. The guitar work is inconsolably doomed, with equal parts Vigna and McEntee, and the sound quality is incredibly sharp compared to their previous discography. For my taste the band hadn’t brought their doom elements beyond what you’d typically hear on ‘Mortal Throne of the Nazarene’ before this album and I think that is the main reason it holds up for me best, despite not being that far from the rest of Father Befouled‘s discography. So, this wasn’t so much overlooked but regrettably not reviewed.

Artist	Teratoma
Title [Type/Year]	In the Inside… Reborn the Flesh [EP/2017]
Rating [2.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Teratoma are a Spanish brutal death/grind band out of Barcelona that have split up and reformed twice so far and this third version of the band began in 2015 after a 13 year break. Their style is a mix of brutal death metal and grindcore not far from Pyrexia, Fleshgrind, and Inhume in a blender. Their mix of simple old school brutal death metal riffing, blasting deathgrind sections, and guttural vocals didn’t really do a ton for me. Something about the mix of the drums sounds programmed and I never really found a groove within the riffing. I am notoriously fickle when it comes to brutal death metal and especially deathgrind, so there is no need to take my opinion on an underground release of this type to heart as it isn’t really to my taste. For this reason, I generally don’t write  brutal death/grind reviews unless I really know what I’m talking about or if I’m familiar with the band.

Artist	Electric Wizard
Title [Type/Year]	Wizard Bloody Wizard [Full-length/2017]
Rating [2.5/5.0]	LISTEN on Spotify!

This band has been important enough for me through the years that I’ve stuck around a decade too long. The last album I bought from them was ‘Witchcult Today’ I’ve been let down by each release since, even with a relatively low bar. And there’s the main reason I didn’t write a review for it, I just sound like a sour fanboy who didn’t like their new direction and sound after a certain point. There are tons of bands that sound like the first decade of Electric Wizard so I don’t make a fuss about not getting into thier new stuff. ‘Wizard Bloody Wizard’ is by no means a bad album, it is very listenable, simple rock music with a sleazy 70’s aesthetic. The riffs themselves aren’t what I’m looking for but I do appreciate some of the moments on this album that intentionally recall their first album. With bands like Cardinal’s Folly, Hymn, Monolord, and Unearthly Trance kicking around, I feel like I’m not being disrespectful in skipping over future Electric Wizard-ry.

Artist	Austral
Title [Type/Year]	Patagonia [Full-length/2017]
Rating [2.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Austral is a Chilean thrash/progressive metal band that uses elements of Latin and South American music in their style. Because they tend to sound like modern Prong and appear to take influence from some groove metal there is a tendency to feel a bit theatrical and awkward throughout the album. The mixture of tribal styles, danceable music influences, and some modern romantic forms of Latin music clashes terribly with heavy metal guitar work most of the time. I do admire the progressive metal feeling of ‘Patagonia’ but I couldn’t find enough reason to come back and re-listen to the album and felt it would be better without the thrash/groove metal guitar work with is not particularly thoughtful, or well composed compared to the progressive metal guitar work. It is also a full hour long, and I couldn’t commit to it’s length often enough to do a proper review. Not outright bad, just not for me.

Artist	Enoquian
Title [Type/Year]	Llamas de gloria primera [Full-length/2017]
Rating [2.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Enoqian is another band from Argentina but this one is modern occult black metal that carries some sonic similarities to bands like The Chasm or Infinitum Obscure. Although some of the guitar work is choppy, the vocals and blasting drums are major centerpiece for this brutal black metal album. If you’re a fan of earlier Katharsis or even Behexen there are some heavy nods to 90’s black metal throughout, though I would primarily consider this album in the realm of occult black metal for theme and sound alike. I didn’t rate this higher because the songwriting has such a limited range that I found myself skipping tracks or looking for other albums around halfway through the album. They’re maybe one album away from being up there in quality with bands like Cenotafio.

Artist	Saintorment
Title [Type/Year]	Defective Mind [Full-length/2017]
Rating [3.75/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Thrash metal is this undeniable thing, this massive existentially satisfying rush, that served as my foundational learning as a self-educated metal enthusiast. These last few years it has gone further underground with only a few bands able to maintain their major/larger label interest. That isn’t to say thrash is in an unhealthy place, the underground is where the genre has notoriously thrived and innovated beneath the trends of generations. Latvian thrashers Saintorment are of the new breed as much as they are of the old school because if they weren’t such violently precise riff-kings with some certain love for Kreator (old and new) their modern metal influenced melodic songwriting could start to feel like an exaggeration of post-Pantera groove metal. The vocalist brings a lot of personality, like an incredibly vicious Sadus-esque take on Sacred Reich and there is some amazing talent here in terms of placing vocal melodies next to riffs. Even if the riffs aren’t always stunningly written their delivery is intense and commanding throughout, it really feels like that 1991 era where thrash was either getting heavier or more progressive while the popular bands lost their way. One of my highest recommendations from this list.

Artist	Tantal
Title [Type/Year]	Ruin [Full-length/2017]
Rating [2.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Tantal are a Russian modern melodic death metal band with some pronounced progressive and thrash metal influences. Their style is fairly typical, the sort of thing you’d hear on Century Media in 2002 when bands like Lacuna Coil and Insomnium were getting bigger but were still fairly ‘heavy’. Their vocalist rests on one tonality that is alt-metal/gothic in tone and though I am generally a fan of female vocalists in metal, her voice is too nostalgic of a cheesy radio metal era for me and the Soilwork-esque chuggy melodeath moments were never my thing. So, I didn’t end up reviewing it because it isn’t a style of music I have ever been able to warm up to personally. I felt my thoughts on it would be worthless or forced in long form. It isn’t bad, I mean when playing it for a friend who loves Evanescence this was mind-blowing for them, just not for me.

Artist	Nadir
Title [Type/Year]	The Sixth Extinction [Full-length/2017]
Rating [2.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Hungarian band Nadir offer a modern combination of sludge metal, death metal, and hardcore influences that most describe as deathcore. Now on their seventh album since 2004, though they put out two albums previous as Dark Clouds, they began their recording career as a combination of metalcore and death/doom after humble beginnings as a hardcore group in the early 90’s. At this point in their career the band mix the sludge of 00’s era Crowbar with death metal and some melodic doom metal influences. The metalcore aspects of the music generally kept me from connecting with the music. Though I am no hater of metalcore, it’s dry sensibilities and lacking tonal expression don’t hold up to repeat listens.

Artist	Wendigo
Title [Type/Year]	Hymnes D’Outre-Tombe [Re-issue/2017]
Rating [2.0/5.0]	LISTEN on YouTube!

Wendigo is an orthodox black metal project from Quebec that, like their surrounding scene, is inherently melodic. This release is a compilation that features a remastered decade old demo ‘Ivresse’ and what appears to be older additional demo tracks. This is an interesting release as it captures a 90’s style of black metal in 2007 but then is indeterminately remastered a decade later while still sounding very rough and lo-fi. I’m not sure the material was worth resurrecting instead of simply re-recording. There are some decent semi-melodic riffs here and there but I couldn’t find any great reason to give this a full review. Some interesting providence for fans of Quebec black metal rarities, though.

Artist	Toxin
Title [Type/Year]	HF [EP/2017]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Heavily inspired by Bay Area thrash these Los Angeles, California youngsters are off to a solid start with their old school thrash metal style. Not to be confused with the classic German thrash band that released ‘Misanthropy’ in 1991, these guys offer a mix of Ulysees Siren and Hallow’s Eve with some hints of brutal thrash growling through. If you’re familiar with the earliest days of Mexican death/thrash band Transmetal the filthy, aggressive style might remind you of ‘Muerto en la Cruz’ but Toxin have their own rhythmic ideas. Hey it’s a good EP but nothing I’d really go nuts over and doesn’t really have enough variety or killer riffs to hold up over repeated listening. They’re right on the edge of finding a professional sound but a few releases away from the focused guitar work that thrash demands.

Artist	Monads
Title [Type/Year]	IVIIV [Full-length/2017]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Monads are a melodic funeral doom metal band with heavy death/doom influence. Unsurprisingly they are heavily influenced by Mournful Congregation but also very willing to use atmospheric metal trends to stand out. “Leviathan as my Lament” is a nice example of a crossing of atmospheric black metal instrumentation and post-metal guitar technique in funeral doom structure. Their sound has evolved greatly towards melodic death/doom rather than the warm chambers of their 2011 demo ‘Intellectus Iudicat Veritatem’ and I think it will be divisive for folks who got caught up in the hype for that demo. I found this to be too easy listening, the atmospheric guitar work was largely repetitive and shapeless throughout and with no great riffs or differentiating moments I’d generally lose interest before ‘IVIIV’ finished. It is uncharacteristic of me to skip over a funeral doom release as I quite like the sub-genre even at it’s worst, but this one simply did not resonate with me despite trying. Definitely worth trying out if you’re a fan of UK melodic death/doom in the early 90’s as well as the more melodious beginnings of Mournful Congregation or Morgion.

Artist	Dokuga / Systemik Viølence
Title [Type/Year]	Make Punk Raw Again [Split 7″/2017]
Rating [2.5/5.0]	LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Two hardcore/crust punk bands from Portugal on a quick split 7″ release. Systemik Viølence play a style heavily influenced by GISM and The Exploited and generally evokes European hardcore without a huge emphasis on the metallic side of things. Dokuga is about the same just a bit more gruff and direct without the heavy use of samples. I liked the ‘Antifa sawing Trump down the middle’ artwork, even though they aren’t wearing pants, and I like the idea that the bands here think punk needs to be raw and dangerous again… but the songs here are pretty rote. I dunno, I feel like I could just go grab a Crucifix CD or whatever and get about the same experience with better songwriting. I just have next to nothing to say about this release, it wasn’t bad at all though.

Artist	Sodomized Cadaver
Title [Type/Year]	Verses of Vorearephilia [Compilation/2017]
Rating [2.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Sodomized Cadaver are a brutal death metal band from South Wales that have released two EPs so far, one in 2014 and another in 2016. I’ll generally skip over gore themed brutal death metal bands unless they’re pretty amazing in the riff department. The influences are usually too obvious or uninteresting and though I love horror movies and all that but the overuse of shock-devalued gore and rape is bland. This compilation includes both EP releases and ‘Vorearephilia’ is pretty good, very palatable old school brutal death metal that isn’t too cheesy or hilariously brutal but that all changes on ‘Verses of Putridity’. The sharp difference in quality and style seem to stem from staff changes with one person handling the second EP almost entirely. I almost reviewed this compilation but again have very little to say about standardized brutal death releases.

Artist	Funeral Baptism
Title [Type/Year]	The Venom of God [Full-length/2017]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Funeral Baptism are an occult black metal band from Bucharest, Romania that incorporate some atmospheric death metal elements into their sound. ‘The Venom of God’ is their first full-length after a couple of EPs and I felt like they weren’t quite ready to record a full album yet. The guitar work is sometimes under-developed and the drum patterns aren’t arranged in the most effective way. Blasting sections reminiscent of Marduk clash with the mood of the album slightly; It doesn’t ruin the album but I felt like the guitars were written with something more trance-like in tone a la Immortal or Inquisition. By the time I had gotten around to preparing a review for ‘The Venom of God’ I couldn’t really find anything interesting to say about the album, so it has sat in my backlog for about three months without much attention. Probably better served to someone more ‘true’ than I am in terms of this style of black metal.

Artist	Powerhouse
Title [Type/Year]	Adrenaline [EP/2017]
Rating [1.75/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

This Albuquerque, New Mexico thrash/heavy metal band were a quartet for this debut release but have since dialed their line-up back to a duo as they seek a consistent line-up for bigger things. With patriotic slogans like ‘Freedom doesn’t come free’ and all that this is an ‘all-American’ sort of heavy thrash. If you’re really into stuff like Hatchet, Five Finger Death Punch, Fueled by Fire this might be your thing. For my taste in thrash it doesn’t quite go classic heavy metal enough, nor does it really bring any really solid riffs along for the ride. Probably one of the least inspired releases I’ve listened to in quite some time.

Artist	Kamikaze Zombie
Title [Type/Year]	Night of the Nuberus [EP/2017]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Alabama crossover thrash/horror themed hardcore punk/metal folks Kamikaze Zombie are exactly the sort of energetic punkish band you need to warm up a crowd before the main event. Their style is fairly close to that of Ghoul in some respects but is far more rooted in classic punk music and the vocalist has a Gary Meskil kind of hardcorish grunt that is flat considering the attitude/theme of the music. I like this sort of death metal/punk rock mixtures and they remind me of old groups like Deadhorse, Skeletal Earth and F.U.C.T. when they yank the thrash out. No strong feelings about this release either way.

Artist	Ifernach
Title [Type/Year]	Maqtewek Nakuset [Reissue/2017]
Rating [2.75/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Another fine Quebec based black metal record this one coming with themes of indigenous culture, shamanic mysticism and naturalist philosophy. In doing some reading up on this band I found every reviewer and website really glossed over it’s sound, painting it as heavily 90’s and second wave in style. I’d only suggest it is minimalist, punkish and lo-fi atmospheric for a modern black metal album. The beats can range from something post-Darkthrone to Falkenbach depending on the mood of the song and the guitars are largely a crackling atmospheric noise generator. His 2018 EP is a bit more audible but for whatever reason I like this 2016 EP, picked up by Nekrart Productions in 2017 and reissued, more. If you loved the themes of Wayfarer‘s music but didn’t love the post-rock influences, Ifernach offer similar revenge for the butchered and mistreated native people of North America.

Artist	Doomster Reich
Title [Type/Year]	Drug Magick [Full-length/2017]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Polish proto-metal influenced psychedelic doom metal maniacs Doomster Reich came back with a bang on their second full-length and I completely missed out on the release until recently. I like to think of their style somewhere between the spaced-out thump of Finnish traditional doom metal and the quirky jams of UK groups like Cathedral and Arkham Witch/The Lamp of Thoth. Eccentric in their use of guitar effects and spaced-out vocal performances, the trouble that I have with ‘Drug Magick’ is it’s use of repetition and constant mid-pace on some very drawn out songs. They really need to toss out that wah pedal and move on. I feel like I’m missing out on some of the appeal here because I don’t get high, and that is a bad sign because I typically don’t have any problem warming up to stoner music’s fire.

Artist	Enoid
Title [Type/Year]	Livssyklus & Dodssyklus [Remaster/2017]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Swiss solo black metal project Enoid began as Pest in the late 90’s and were briefly known as Organ Trails before renaming as Enoid. In the years since he has released seven full-lengths and in time for the decade anniversary of the project Ormenos has remastered ‘Livssyklus’ (2006) and ‘Dodssyklus’ (2007). Enoid play a brutally blasted form of semi-melodic second wave black metal typical of Swedish/Norwegian styles that is not far from early Satyricon or 1349 but ventures into some norsecore tendencies here and there. The redeeming qualities here on this compilation lie in the cleaned up sound and in the generally strong guitar work. If you’re a fan of stuff like Nightbringer but also Watain, that same sort of orthodoxy is present here in perhaps simpler form. I think ‘Livssyklus’ completely mops the floor with most of ‘Dodssyklus’ with better guitar work and less obvious drum programming. Even though I liked this listen I did not see any great motivating factor for writing a full review.

Artist	Esoteric
Title [Type/Year]	Esoteric Emotions – The Death of Ignorance [Remaster/2017]
Rating [4.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Esoteric are one of the great legends of extreme doom metal and highly influential in use of psychedelia and death metal within the funeral doom niche. This 1993 demo from the band has been remastered professionally before (2000) but this time Greg Chandler has re-done the remaster himself to great effect. The aged glory of the demo is preserved but carefully preened over in a respectful way. This is perhaps one of my favorite funeral doom related recordings but I kept putting off listening to/reviewing it because I’d already bought/enjoyed the 2000 remaster for years. Here I think the redone artwork and remaster are actually worthwhile in direct comparison, but didn’t feel a full review was appropriate for this release.

Artist	Manipulation
Title [Type/Year]	The Future of Immortality [Reissue/2017]
Rating [2.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Active in the early 2000’s and revived in 2010 this Polish death metal band decided to reissue their self-released 2007 debut with new artwork in 2017. I don’t love the comic book art of the cover but it is an improvement over the cheap 00’s Photoshop art of the original. Manipulation‘s sound would appeal more to fans of the Polish crossover between death metal and groove metal and though the music isn’t unlistenable… the vocalist is one of my least favorite in this style. I would liken it to a cross between when Decapitated went groove and if Vesania was pure death metal. I couldn’t finish my second full listen of this band and decided to shelve the possibility of reviewing it as I had nothing positive to say and it was just a reissue of a decade old album I didn’t like.

Artist	Hak-Ed Damm
Title [Type/Year]	Holocaust Over Dresden [Full-length/2017]
Rating [2.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Although Quebec based black/death metal band Hak-Ed Damm is heavily influenced by Marduk, Dark Funeral and Mayhem their delivery sounds a bit more like a black metal version of Macabre. This was a record I could only listen to once before I shut it off and stopped. Their lyrical shift from anti-Christianity towards World War II themes is perhaps one of the most predictable and boring focuses that are all to prevalent within the unimaginative minds of too many extreme metal folks. I understand they’re catering to a certain demographic but there is no good reason for such rote iteration.

Artist	Glaston
Title [Type/Year]	Inhale Exhale [Full-length/2017]
Rating [2.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

A post-rock band featuring piano as the lead melodic device. The opening track is named “Game of Tones”. Ugh. It is more of a jazz-rock record and sounds like the dreamy parts of Minus the Bear, minus the rock. Fully instrumental and maybe not my thing. I admire the attitude and the emotive piano work, as wandering as it can feel, but I really don’t think I’m enough of a post-rock fellow to be doing proper reviews for it. So, this is wonderful background music or chilled out listening for the jazz/post-rock inclined but perhaps not right for me.

Artist	Garhelenth
Title [Type/Year]	About Pessimistic Elements & Rebirth of Tragedy [Full-length/2017]
Rating [2.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

The cover looks a bit like it could be some sort of Gorgoroth cover band and quite frankly they do take a lot of influence from them, but also show some greater love for groups like Tsjuder and Mayhem along the way. This project was conceived in Iran but eventually relocated to Armenia and no great amount of their heritage shines through their primarily Norwegian influences throughout. I found the drums were poorly programmed and thin while the guitar work is an imitation of black metal much of the time. I understand the style they are going for but I give the same criticism to the similarly less-than-serious guitarists of the early 90’s as well. Reviewing this type of album always overstates my lack of passion for second rate Norwegian black metal as well as tends to insult those influenced by it, so I chose to not give a full review for Garhelenth.

Artist	Sacral Night
Title [Type/Year]	Darkness Process [EP/2017]
Rating [4.25/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Inferno Records Website!

One of my favorite thrash obscurities from last year this French heavy metal band does what many folks dream of by combining Mercyful Fate style heavy metal with death metal instrumentation. They do an amazing job of it as they take influence from Swedish death metal, some melodic death metal and apply it heavy/speed metal structures with wailing King Diamond-meets-Dark Angel vocals. I received this album long after it’s release and never got around to it. Instead of hoarding it and just listening to it I figured I’d find a list to include it on. This is the band to watch in the next few years as they’re onto something really special. I’m surprised they haven’t been picked up by labels known for this type of experimentation by now. Here’s hoping for a full-length.

Artist	Eldamar
Title [Type/Year]	A Dark Forgotten Past [Full-length/2017]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Although I already hyped this album on an end of 2017 list for black metal. I think Eldamar have done something so alluring and special I wanted to mention it again because I regret not fully reviewing it. It is exactly the sort of thing Summoning, Shambless, and Lustre fans clamor for and escapes black metal darkness for a cheesy, epic new age music listening experience. The main reason I haven’t written up a full review for it since first hearing ‘A Dark Forgotten Past’ is a too-long string of procrastination and although I really appreciate the record it doesn’t hold up incredibly well to repeat listening after several months.

Did I miss your favorite underrated 2017 album? I’d like to know if there are any 2017 releases you loved that didn’t get enough recognition. It is always worthwhile to speak up for the lesser known stuff. Please remember you can contribute to my Patreon @ only $1 USD per month ($12 a year) to help keep me in front of the computer writing about metal. Thanks.