Last April we announced our partnership with f.y.e. for the Decibel Meter, a monthly collection featured both online and in store to make sure you don’t miss any of the essential titles that carry the world of extreme metal into new territory. The October 2017 issue, featuring Myrkur on the cover, is certainly no exception as Amalie Bruun explores the details behind the second blackened/folk/who-cares-about-genres album Mareridt–the Danish word for “nightmare.” It’s a concept explored in depth in the cover story; and fittingly, the topic of this month’s Decibel Meter. See the full list here. 
To bring these sleep phantoms into day terrors, we’ve dreamt up a list of some of the genre’s most haunting titles of late, beginning of course with Mareridt, sure to leave a last and waking impression on the minds of metalheads; as long as you keep the genre labels stay out of it, as Amalie states “I never said ‘I’m a black metal artist.’” Similarly genre-transgressing is the much-anticipated return of Akercocke with Renaissance in Extremis, the first release in a decade from the English progressive black/death gentlemen formerly in suits. Fan of this cut of the metal world definitely shouldn’t miss Thrice Woven, the return-to-form and possible best from Olympian atmospheric black metal leaders Wolves in the Throne Room. And, on a similar wavelength but much newer name, Wildspeaker’s sophomore Spreading Adder strikes like a phantom viber with crusty venom.
This appaarition of the night doesn’t all dwell in the black metal spectrum though; doom abounds! Standouts include: Love from With the Dead, the sophomore release from doom/stoner supergroup lead by Lee Dorian and featuring ex-members of Electric Wizard and Bolt Thrower; the continuation on the deathly path of Paradise Lost with the nightmare witch of Medusa; and swirling fever delirium of darkness that is Incantation’s eleventh evil-drenched master course in death metal excelsis, Profane Nexus. Death purveyors won’t be disappeared, as further apparitions in this list include Cannabis Corpse’ bong-pass-out Left Hand Pass (get the joke, man?!) and Thy Art is Murder’s Dead Desolation.
This list also recent iterations of a few recurring elements in the haunting world of sleep, including, if that hint wasn’t obvious enough, The Haunted’s latest album Strength in Numbers, again featuring the looming spectre of vocalist Marco Aro, while Arch Enemy similarly boasts a cast of legends, including both guitar virtuosos Michael Amott and Jeff Loomis of Nevermore fame. And in the way the dreams blend unusual elements, Eluveitie’s Evocation II – Pantheon is a record of folk/melodic death metal on Celtic/Helvetian history.
For the collectors who dream of vinyl (don’t deny it, we know you’re one of them) this month’s exclusives include Dying Fetus‘ Wrong One to Fuck With in skeletal bone white, Obituary in swamp-trudging green, and Iced Earth’s flame-trapped Incorruptible also in white. While the world “nightmare” most certainly has different connotations to different people, if you would like to delve further into the depths of this phantasmagorian, drift into the depths of this month’s collection at f.y.e.’s website, or head straight to the nearest f.y.e location.
