Best albums

- Sunn O))) - Black One
The latest album by the drone masters. This time they chose to involve lots of black metal elements and the result is simply amazing. A haunting and frightening album that grows with each listen.

- Vomit The Soul - Portraits Of Inhuman Abominations
I've enjoyed this brutal piece of groovy guttural death metal a lot this year. It's a really impressive debut, and along with Extreme Violence, Vomit The Soul has created the best death metal 2005.

- Ulver - Blood Inside
You never know what to expect from these guys, their discography ranges from raw black metal, Scandinavian folk music and more electronic hard to classify stuff. This is a really impressive and diverse release that really grows the more you listen to it.

- Boris - Dronevil
Boris has released shitloads of stuff this year, really good stuff too. Their stoner rock release Pink is very impressive and their collaboration with Merzbow is stunning. This is their 2CD drone doom release and both the CDs are meant to be played at the same time, they are good separately but the album truly shines when it's played the way it's supposed to.

- Twilight - Twilight
This all star band featuring Wrest (Leviathan) and Malefic (Xasthur) is really interesting. Their self-titled debut is one of the best albums to come from the American black metal scene.
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Runner ups:
Extreme Violence - Ecstasy in Pain, Overmars - Affliction, Endocrine... - Vertigo, Meshuggah - Catch 33, Snowblood - Being And Becoming, Hell Militia - Canonisation Of The Foul Spirit
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Biggest disappointments

- Aborted - The Archaic Abattoir
The Belgian death metallers tried to renew themselves with The Archaic Abattoir, the relentless death metal attacks were replaced with rather melodic tunes with no lasting value whatsoever. And instead of using Sven's solid vocals all the time, they asked crappy metalcore singers to sing some of the choruses.

- Impaled - Death After Life
Impaled released one of the best death metal albums ever with Mondo Medicale, It might have been because my expectations were huge, but the follow up to their 2002 masterpiece fell short. The muddy production and anonymous songs weren't saved by the brilliant concept and lyrics. Was it because of Andrew LaBarre's departure?

- Defleshed calling it a day
Long time runners Defleshed have decided to put the flesh aside and do other stuff instead. Too bad, their latest release Reclaim the Beat was a fast, catchy piece of humorous death metal and their show on M/S No Fear in Stockholm was one of the highlights this year. I'll be one of the people in the crowd that will headbang their necks to hell on December 25th when they do their final gig in Uppsala, Sweden.

Happiest/biggest news

- Attending Wacken Open Air for the first time
The weather sucked, but the music was great. Suffocation and Bloodbath among others made the festival truly worthwhile. The food is also important to mention, Wacken Steak, the most metal food ever made. We Swedes called it Kött med bröd, awesome.

Best live concerts

- Suffocation, Wacken Open Air
The best show on Wacken, their sound tech guy created the best sound I've ever heard in a Death Metal live situation. They mixed old favourites with stuff from the latest album, Souls to deny, creating an amazing setlist.

- The Dillinger Escape Plan, Klubben, Stockholm
This show was intense. Extremely intense. Like being kicked in the face multiple times, but in a good way.

- Sunn O))), Mondo, Stockholm
This night was magical, seeing one of the most hypnotizing and amazing shows on my 18th birthday. Sunn was fronted by Attila Csihar that evening which made it quite spectacular.

- Isis and Jesu at Debaser, Stockholm
Isis is an amazing live band. They play with lots of energy without making any mistakes. Jesu opened for them, they're not as good performers as Isis but seeing this band performing excellent songs off their fantastic debut album sent chills down my spine.