Magnificent in every way. Deeply personal lyrics that touch my pagan heart and bring tears to my eyes. Incredible fusion of the prior album's black metal majesty and new progressive elements. "And as I'm stalked by the shadow of death's hand, my heathen pride is scarred across the land." Perfection.

Airy, spacey, ethereal bliss. At its darkest moments, it is a grey cocoon from which there can be no escape. When choosing to rock, its guitars are a huge, droning, shimmering delight. Truly transcendent.

Disturbed and disturbing lyrics, coupled with manic, upbeat intensity that both clashes and somehow makes perfect sense. Epic and profound. Maybe the greatest singalong album ever.

Takes the trite subject of alien abduction and makes it come alive. More than that, it sucks the listener in and makes the journey intensely personal. A raw, supercharged emotional rollercoaster, backed by first-class progressive metal.

In 2006 I failed to rank this album as #1 of the year, which I now understand it unquestionably, unequivocally was. It just took a while to click with me, and I've been kicking myself ever since. Lush, savage, and impeccably wrought, this debut is a clarion call to pagans everywhere to bask in the fires of Gaia. Extraordinary.

Forget labels like "stoner," "fuzz," or "desert" rock. This is simply one of the most pure, focused, driven rock 'n' roll albums I have ever heard in my entire life. No pretensions, no gimmicks; just perfect songwriting, flawless execution, and unbridled intensity. Listening to this is almost like hearing rock for the first time all over again.

A fine return to form, while also adding in new twists. Namely, vocal duties handled by Danny on several tracks. Who knew he had such a great voice? Proof positive, right here. Now if they would just get around to releasing another album.

Six years before Wolves in the Throne Room would release their debut, and Skagos, Woe and others would follow, Weakling set a new standard for US black metal. Epic, grim, cold and scathing, but not without melodic charms. Hail the innovators!

I cannot say this sophomore album is better than the remarkable debut, but it's nearly as good, only in a different way. However, "I Will Lay Down My Bones Among the Rocks and Roots" is the finest song the band have ever written, a surging, fiery hymn of pagan splendor.

Deceptively simple pop electronica is merely a tool for one of the most emotionally evocative bands of the last decade to lay a smothering pall upon your universe. Absolutely enthralling.

If ever there were justification for seeking out a tiny-production release that’s so cult it’s kvlt, this is it. Primal and visceral, yet eloquent. The sound of pagan fires blazing throughout eternity.

Whispers to the soul with frailty and fragility, whilst wielding the emotional equivalent of an atom bomb. Conjures a grey loveliness that burrows into your very essence.

Frantic, frenetic, gorgeous, progressive genius. Their debut full-length, it injected a breath a fresh air into my musical world, and I have treasured the band ever since.

Jaw-dropping technical wizardry meets impassioned songcraft to form a work of terrifying fury and grandeur. One of the most unique black metal records of the decade.

Old-school Katatonia and Paradise Lost worship does not get any better than this. And yet there is more here, a grace and conviction that is pure and focused, and somehow made all the more charming by these Russians singing in broken English. Spellbinding stuff.

Anathema's synth-drenched cousin. This sophomore release will forever stand as their best. Exquisite, creepy, and scary good. Has grown better with age, like fine wine.

I didn't get into Low until subsequent albums, so had to come back to this one. And while I adore the new material, this thing is just mindblowing. Trance-inducing slowcore at its finest.

Introduction of post-rock elements here blew the doors of this sub-genre wide open. Magical and mesmerizing.

Incredible use of dynamics. Soft parts are beautifully melancholic. Hard parts are shockingly bombastic and brimming with pure, writhing menace. Stunning.

The Swedish dark prog masters tackle the topic of religious cults, and the result is astonishing. A brutal, gut-wrenching ride through perversion, horror, and regret.

Their crowning achievement, at least for me. Diverse, dynamic, and haunting, it runs the gamut from ultra-quiet lows to earth-shaking assaults. Delightfully enigmatic and truly superb.

Breathtaking. Very proggy, yet the vibe reminds me so much of the Still Life album. Polished and beautifully executed. A high point in a career of high points.

While perhaps lacking the dramatic flair of Oceanic, this rock-steady release shows the band further honing their art into an impenetrable wall of remarkable sound. And when the low end kicks in, watch out. So measured and precise, it shows a band at their songwriting zenith, masters of their craft.

Opeth unplugged, and it is even more stupefyingly brilliant than one might expect. Collaboration with Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson probably didn't hurt.

Genre-defying and boundary-smashing brilliance. Hellhammer's drumming is beyond belief. Black metal would never be same.

There's epic, and then there's Moonsorrow. This release is a true journey, an odyssey, a grandiose tale. It is not navigated lightly or easily. But for those willing to step into this world framed by warm folk and searing black metal, majestic pagan glories await.

More than any other Primordial album (and they’re all great), this one best channels everything that makes the band truly special: epic, driving rhythms, wrenching passion, and powerful lyrics. So ridiculously good.

Of the century? That remains to be seen. But of the decade? Oh hell yes, a thousand times yes. A delicious layer of muddy distortion coats the Truckfighters tracks, rendering them devastatingly heavy. The Firestone tracks are nicely gritty as well, and just plain rock with sick abandon. This split served as my introduction to both bands, and while they both went on to release other great material, there is just something magical about these ten songs, strung together, in this exact order. One of my all-time favorite stoner rock records. Flawless and beautiful.

An aural wonder. The distortion level is unearthly and perverse, and when coupled with swinging groove it is unstoppable. The heaviest album ever recorded. Period.

The best convergence of melody and brutality since At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul. Possessed of amazing energy and vitality, and showcasing mind-melting speed and precision. Endlessly fun.

Brutality, thy name is Zao. Between the slightly gritty production, earthquake percussion, and Jesse Smith's flamethrower-and-acid vocals, this release is like a high- octane steamroller crushing your world. The interspersed electronica and clean vocals only serve to make the heavy parts that much heavier.

Bruce Bruce returns, as does Adrian Smith, to form a six-man powerhouse that creates the best album since Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. A modernized sound with a classic vibe. Excellent, powerful, memorable material. Too bad they couldn't continue the magic, as everything since has been sub-par.

Oh the fuzz, the sweet, sweet fuzz. Just as stoner rock was starting to get stale, this album redefined the genre. The guitar distortion is just about perfect, and as if that weren't enough, these Swedes seemingly invented a tuned harmonic disturbance that made notes shimmer and buzz with a cosmic vibrancy I hadn't heard before, and have rarely heard since.