TONEwood's Top 10 Albums of 2019

While preparing the write-up for my top 10 albums of 2019, I realised that most of the albums I had listened to only really felt like top 10 material because, as a whole, I haven't felt very strongly about many releases this year.

I had looked forward to the new albums by Tinariwen, The Budos Band, Death Hawks, Lord Gore, Power Glove, Black Mountain, Grand Magus, and more. But they all sounded aggressively "okay" to my ears.

So, rather than doing an elaborate triple-entendre of top 10 metal and top 10 non-metal albums and runner-ups like I normally would, I ended up deciding on a more concise 10 album format with 5 runner-ups.

WULFAZ - Eriks kumbl SECOND PRESSING out now!

WULFAZ - Eriks kumbl SECOND PRESSING out now!

The second pressing of WULFAZ' debut EP "Eriks kumbl" is out now. The new edition is again limited to 50 copies, but this time it comes in a hand-crafted card stock sleeve with a hand-printed lino-block carved image.

KILLING and ILDSTORM Tapes Out Now

KILLING and ILDSTORM Tapes Out Now

Two new releases on TONEwood Music - TT14 and TT15 - are finally available.

TONEwood's Top 10 Metal Albums of 2018

For fear of sounding like a Jerry Seinfeld joke, what's with all the insane death metal albums this year? Though I consider myself to have a broad taste, my greatest worry in making this year's top 10 metal albums has been whether or not the list would be too samey. I decided that censoring or catering the list for any reason wouldn't be right - After all it should only be about which albums were best - subjectively, of course. Now the biggest challenge is gonna be varying the descriptions...

TONEwood's Top 10 Non-Metal Albums of 2018

On a personal level 2018 has been one of the more stressful ones in recent memory for me, with the birth of my first child ranking as probably the biggest change in my life. The way your priorities change has definitely made it harder to find the time to delve into new music. Even so, I've managed to listen to hundreds of new tracks in 2018 - though my year-end list does definitely lean heavily toward bands and groups I was already acquainted with, and albums that released before I became a parent.

From Dungeons Deep - Out September 3rd 2018

Dungeon Synth Compilation Out Soon!
For the uninitiated dungeon synth may seem like just another arbitrary micro genre, but this brand of dark dungeon music is so much more. Taking cues from everything from classic 90s black metal over obscure 8- and 16-bit video games to fantasy roleplaying games and literature, dungeon synth came from humble origins and has since blossomed into a large community, spanning a great deal of influences, styles and sounds.

Dual Cassette Attack - Out July 16th!

New tapes out soon on TONEwood!

On July 16th TONEwood is releasing TT8-1 and TT9-1. The first of those will be Hiemal's 2017 one-track 40 minute album Vespéral, and the latter is Monarch's 2010 EP Netherthrone.