Too Soon? Grim Kim’s Best of 2014… So Far

I’m in a tight spot this year since so many of my favorite releases (so far) have come from bands I either work with or know too well to be objective about, but here’s what I’ve come up with as per the MetalSucks Overlords’ request for a mid-term report. I’m sure there will be tons of additions as the year goes on, too, especially once Nuclear War Now! calms down with the reissues and makes with the Death Worship, Bölzer finishes recording their full-length, and I finally get to wrap my filthy little ears around the new Midnight album.

For now, here’s what’s been shaking my speakers since January 2014. I probably forgot about a million things, but that’s what year-end lists are for, right?

Act of Impalement – Echoes of Wrath (Caligari Records)
Alraune – The Process of Self-Immolation (Profound Lore)
Anicon/Belus – split (Dead Section)
Argentinum Astrum – Malleus Maleficarum (Forcefield / Inherent / Anti-Corporate)
Bleed the Pigs – Overcompensations for Misery EP (self-released)
Bog of the Infidel – To Corrupt Your Sons and Lust After Your Daughters EP (Eternal Death)
Bölzer – Soma EP (Invictus Productions)
Dead Congregation – Promulgation of the Fall (Profound Lore)
Derketa – Darkness Fades Life EP (Mind Cure Records)
Diocletian – Gesundrian (Osmose)
Drowned – Idola Specus (Sepulchral Voice)
Eyehategod – Eyehategod (Housecore)
Iron Force – Executed EP (self-released)
Krigsgrav – The Carrion Fields (Naturmacht)
Landskap – I (Iron Bonehead)
Music Blues – Things Haven’t Gone Well (Thrill Jockey)
Nightfell – The Living Ever Mourn (Southern Lord)
Nunslaughter – Angelic Dread (Hells Headbangers)
Nux Vomica – Nux Vomica (Relapse)
Old Wainds – Nordraum (Negative Existence)
Pallbearer – Foundations of Burden (Profound Lore)
Profetus – As All Seasons Die (Svart)
Rippikoulu – Ulvaja (Svart)
Ritual Chamber – The Pit of Tentacled Screams (Nuclear War Now!)
Ruine – Winter 2014 Demo (Forcefield)
Sabbatic Goat – Imprecation of Black Chaos (Vault of Dried Bones)
Sea Bastard – Scabrous (Dry Cough Records, Mosh Tuneage, Black Reaper Records, and Catface Records)
Secret Creation – Holding My Carrot (Colloquial Sound Recordings)
Shroud of the Heretic – Revelations in Alchemy (Blood Harvest)
Skáphe – Skáphe (Fallen Empire)
Sun Worship – Elder Giants (View From The Coffin)
Svartidauði – The Synthesis of Whore and Beast EP (Terratur Possessions)
Teitanblood – Death (Norma Evangelium Diaboli)
Thou – Heathen (Gilead Media)
Trepaneringsritualen – Perfection & Permanence (Cold Spring)
Woman is the Earth – Depths (Init Records)
Woods of Desolation – As the Stars (Northern Silence)