Yearend 2014: Best of The Best Pt. 1

Another year ends. A lake-worth of albums have been released. We may have listened to 0.000348% of them but in the grand scope of things, that's a massive heap of releases we put our ears to! Halifax Collect's contributors and friends have started submitting their lists. Here's the first batch!

Please submit your list in the comment section or start a conversation regarding our picks. What ought to be on there? What did we miss out on? Is one or more of our picks horrid and inconsequential?

Kristján Fenrir - One man noise/doom; also know as K. Fenrir (listen), husband and a beer talker.

1. Sunn O))) & Ulver – Terrestrials (review)
I did not expect anything and was completely open to anything to happen for this release, but somehow Terrestrials is still exactly what I expected. When Sunn O))) and Ulver work together, something amazing is bound to happen!
2. Electric Wizard – Time To Die (review)
These lovers of the black drug return with their 8th studio album, heavier and more misanthropic than ever. Having mastered the power of the riff, Electric Wizard are without a doubt the most important stoner doom band right now.
3. Conan – Blood Eagle (review)
The sheer heaviness, that resembles nothing less than a violent force of nature, is to be reckoned with! Conan are among the heaviest and the grooviest, and Blood Eagle is a great representation of the band's power.
4. The Body – I Shall Die Here
I remember when my friend, John, told me about The Body for the first time. I instantly found them interesting. So loud, so heavy and so misanthropic that it puts most others at shame. The hatred and desperation shine through and makes you question existence.
5. King Dude – Fear
King Dude's 4th album is a great combination of aggressive, beautiful and melancholic songs. To be enjoyed with a candle lit and a whisky bottle in hand.
6. Godflesh – A World Lit Only By Fire
Still heavier and harder than most things, Godflesh rule industrial metal!
7. Behemoth – The Satanist
For some reason I hadn't been paying Behemoth much attention for some time, one of those times when you “forget” about a band because your focus is somewhere else I guess, but I'm glad I checked out this album because it's simply fantastic!
8. Bongripper – Miserable
Bongripper bring forth another piece of insanely heavy grooves and soundscapes that never cease to amaze me.
9. Yob – Clearing The Path To Ascend
Yob is a great band and there's no question about that, but Clearing The Path To Ascend blew me away. There's no specific thing, it's just how the whole album flows so well and every single thing works so well with everything else.
10. Coffinworm – IV.I.VIII
Loud, aggressive and misanthropic. What else could you possibly need from a blackened sludge doom band?


Bogi Bjarnason - Creative writer, free-lance grinder, taxi driver, father and a massive Relapse boner.

1. Black Crown Initiate - The Wreckage of Stars 
The god damned future of death metal. This is how new standards are set.
2. Archspire - The Lucid Collective
Canada is still winning the death metal arms race, and this album proves once and for all that you can play with the skill of Origin while retaining the songwriting prowess of At The Gates.
3. At the Gates - At War with Reality
Do call it a comeback! Slaughter of the Soul it ain't, but it still shows the horde of followers they haven't caught up yet.
4. Job for a Cowboy - Sun Eater (review)
Oh! You'd written JFAC off a long time ago? Write them right back on, for fuck's sake!
5. Misery Index - The Killing Gods
Best effort yet. Pummelling yet beautifully catchy
6. Gridlink Gehena
Suffering from Discordance Axis withdrawal? Here's your Methadone!
7. Today is the Day -  Animal Mother (review)
The art of ageing gracefully.
8. Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun
It's no Remission, but it's no fucking The Hunter either. A return to a leaner form.
Behemoth -The Satanist
The flag bearers  of a whole sub-genre. Bow down to the great horned one!
Icarus - Ascending// Descending
A kiss-of-life to a scene in it's death throes.
Origin - Omnipresent
Origin continues to be the definition of what can be done with two guitars, a bass and some drums.


Kristján Friðbjörn - Guitarist for Klikk (facebook), social justice internet warrior, New Jersey Devils fan, father to none.

Swans - To Be Kind
Perfect Pussy - Say Yes to Love
White Lung - Deep Fantasy
Börn - s/t (review)
Old Man Gloom - The Ape of God
Young And in The Way - When life comes to Death
Trash Talk - No Peace (review)
Shellac - Dude Incredible
At the Gates - At War with Reality
Full of Hell & Merzbow - s/t