Since the reincarnation of Heathen Harvest we have annually asked our journalists to contribute their top three albums of the year in preference order. For wont of a new format in the latter half of the 2010s, we decided to do things slightly differently and order the list by genre: we asked our journalists to submit three albums with no order preference and let the list form itself. This way, we get a rounded and ordered breakdown of the albums and styles that we felt were most relevant to the underground in 2016.
Surprisingly most albums in this list only received one mention, which is testament to the varied and discriminate tastes of our reviewers. Only two albums received more than one mention: Horse Cult’s Day Dreams and Night Mares and Haus am Rand’s Meel, which deserve special acknowledgement as a result. Overall, our Best of 2016 exists to serve the reader with recommendations which will have passed them by, and to offer thanks to those artists who inspired us enough to write about them here. Thank you for giving us these special musical markers to remember 2016 by.
A word about genres: genres are slippery things. What one may categorise as being in a particular genre, another may feel should be categorised elsewhere. In addition to this, music fans can disagree about which subgenres fit inside others. We feel that the categorisations in this article are the most accurate and fair they can be. For some albums it was easy, for some not so, but this is an unbiased – and hopefully informative – spread of what we think the top end of the underground has to offer.
JUMP TO GENRE
Ambient
[ambient, dark ambient]
Classical
[neoclassical, medieval]
Darkwave
[darkwave, neoclassical darkwave]
Electronic
[electroacoustic, electro-industrial, synthwave, witch house, vaporwave]
Experimental
[industrial, martial industrial, power electronics]
Folk
[neofolk, dark folk]
Indie
[slowcore]
Metal
[black metal, death metal, doom metal, folk metal]
Pop
[art pop]
Punk
[post punk]
Rock
[post rock]
Ambient
Ambient
Biosphere – “Departed Glories”
Ambient
A near-total departure from Biosphere’s signature Arctic drift, Departed Glories may be evidence that Geir Jenssen can make a masterpiece from anything, even— in this case— old Polish field recordings and deliberately confusing music apps. To describe the end result as haunting would be boring and simplistic; Jenssen processes folk memory and renders it into impersonal single tones and amorphous choirs. Any individual voices that might crawl out of muddy pools of sound are mercilessly tamped down into a larger hum. Departed Glories unfolds slowly, and the atmosphere it invokes is so thick you can almost touch it. Drawing inspiration from atrocities ancient and modern, it’s an exquisite example of how time and technology and intent can bury hurt and memory, or transmute these things into something else entirely. Rebecca Brooks
Irezumi – “Thirty”
Ambient
Loss, aging, and fear of the future are the lines that underscore Irezumi’s first album in eight years. Dedicated to the artist’s late brother, it’s an exercise in restraint that still manages to evoke a full range of emotions. Far from background music, Thirty is immersive: it’s ambient music you can’t help but be drawn into, writing your own story as you listen. In case you haven’t cried enough over the past year, give Thirty a listen. There are plenty of tears to found within, but a surprising amount of hope as well. Rebecca Brooks
Dark ambient
Apocryphos – “Stone Speak”
Dark ambient
When the claim was made last year that Robert C. Kozletsky was a veteran dark ambient artist, a few people may not have been fully convinced. Yet, a year later Robert’s main project, Apocryphos, has truly proven itself to be indispensable. Fresh off the release of the collaboration with Atrium Carceri and Kammarheit, entitled Onyx, Robert returned earlier this year with his sophmore Apocryphos album, Stone Speak. Stone Speak was lauded by many as an instant classic. The subtlety is only equalled by the voracity of the sounds on this opus. Apocryphos focuses on the theme of ghost towns and the stones which are left to tell the tales of forgotten times. Stone Speak will be particularly pleasing to fans of Scandinavian dark ambient artists like Northaunt and Kammarheit, yet there are enough quality soundscapes here for any fan of dark ambient to find something they like. Michael Barnett
The Human Voice – “Silent Heart”
Dark ambient
Hærleif Langås, the man behind Northaunt, The Human Voice, and Therradaemon, has delivered yet another brilliant addition to the dark ambient catalogue this year. Silent Heart is the second album by Hærleif’s side-project, The Human Voice. Hærleif has gone to lengths to make Silent Heart a polished gem, with much more depth and atmosphere than on the debut Exit Lines from 2008. Silent Heart is melancholic, dark, lonely, bleak, and any other adjective that would describe the forsaken atmosphere of his music. Yet, unlike Northaunt, The Human Voice is heavily focused on the use of piano. The end result leaves us with an album that is perfect for those late lonely nights. The attention to detail throughout gives Silent Heart an extremely high replay value. Michael Barnett
Nihil / In Slaughter Natives – “[Ventre]”
Dark ambient / Modern classical
The last two years have seen the return of In Slaughter Natives – one of the most influential of Cold Meat Industry’s artists. Ventre, which was created as the soundtrack to a book, is dominated by dark ambient pieces filled with the terror and menace that we would expect from In Slaughter Natives. Nevertheless, it does manage to explore some interesting new territory, with a Middle-Eastern excursion and the avant-garde, cinematic final track demonstrating that Jouni Havukainen still possesses the spirit of experimentation. Colin Robertson
Sabled Sun – “2148”
Dark ambient
Sabled Sun was first introduced to the world back in 2013 with the début album 2145. In the following years Simon Heath has continued developing the Sabled Sun story, even allowing it to cross over into the work of some of his label mates. 2148 takes us on a journey through the fourth year of the protagonist’s travels. This one has some really big plot twists, but I will leave that to the listeners to find for themselves. Sabled Sun started out as a side-project of Simon Heath’s, who is better known as Atrium Carceri. Yet, at this point Sabled Sun is as equal in importance to Simon and the Cryo Chamber label as Atrium Carceri has ever been. This brilliant sci-fi saga should not be overlooked by any discerning fan of dark ambient. Michael Barnett
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Classical
Jo Quail – “Five Incantations”
Neoclassical / experimental
Using an electric cello and a looping pedal, Jo Quail builds up intricate and beautiful compositions. Whereas her previous two albums mixed dark with light, this album is consistently and intensely sombre. The five tracks, which range from restless rhythmic pieces to solemn meditations, take us through some rather difficult terrain. The beautiful, yearning sadness in the final track is heartbreaking. Colin Roberton
Vajra Voices – “O Eterne Deus: Music of Hildegard von Bingen”
Medieval classical music / Plainsong
Originally starting out as a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for recording, this selection of the German abbess’s work from the 12th century exceeded its financial goal and went on to become one of the most accomplished recordings of her work produced in recent years. The female ensembles most prolific in the areas of reinterpreting St Hildegard’s music have been Switzerland’s Sequentia and the USA’s Anonymous 4, but with this album, the septet of Vajra Voices has effectively and impressively bookmarked a niche for themselves within the ever-growing codex of recordings of Germany’s great mystic. O Eterne Deus is a haunting, inspiring and worthy contribution to her oeuvre which is both heartfelt and timeless. Lysander
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Darkwave
Dernière Volonté – “Prie Pour Moi”
Neoclassical darkwave / Synthpop
The release of a new Dernière Volonté album was one of 2016’s pleasanter surprises. This collection of tracks exudes a dancefloor-worthy decadence, due in no small part to the project’s fascination with fin de siècle poetry. Post-punk nihilism, martial influences, French pop theatrics, and Romantic history continue to make for delightful bedfellows for mastermind Geoffroy D. Tenebrous Kate
Hypnopazūzu – “Create Christ, Sailor Boy”
Neoclassical Darkwave, Psychedelic Folk
My favourite record of 2016 must certainly have its origins somewhere in the star-filled depths of space. There’s something inescapably majestic and tranquil about the music born out of a fated collaboration between the geniuses of Killing Joke’s Youth and David Tibet. Things have changed since last time those gents worked together (Current 93’s monumental Nature Unveiled) – no more apocalyptic obsessions or clashing industrial beats, no more music calling upon the primal darkness in man; those have given way to yearning for balance, grandiose arrangements and cosmic bliss coming from the depth of a soul. After all these years, the music those two create retained the ability to engage minds, to make hearts pound. David’s voice sounds as sentimental and touching as ever, while his lyrics, filled with mythological references, sublime and juvenile at the same time, are a perfect match for Youth’s cinematic keyboard passages, swirly bass-lines and intricate arrangements. This is an ultimate celebration of two-fold vision and a single heart creating something that truly exists outside of the confines of space and time! Dennis Gudim
Norma Loy – “Baphomet”
Darkwave
After 7 years of silence, Norma Loy’s return is as unexpected as it is welcome. Abiding the principles symbolised by the album’s namesake – separating and bringing together – Baphomet successfully takes apart several genres and crafts a collection of songs that celebrate free-thinking and mystery. Both rock – and goth – elements featured on their earlier albums have been tuned down to give way to experimental nature that has always been a part of the band’s DNA. Darkwave rhythms, piano-based numbers, noisy freak-outs, nods to techno, spoken word and ambient, even pop ballads – all of that interlaced, assembled into songs and put to work with an impressive amount of nuance. Strange and minimalistic lyrics, delivered by Chelsea (with the loveliest of French accents), contribute further to the overall mystery that saturates the record. The enigma of Norma Loy has now inhabited a new body, creating yet another ghost in the machine, and is ready to shine on those in search of enlightenment. Dennis Gudim
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Electronic
Michael Idehall – “No Man’s Land”
Electronic / Experimental
I knew nothing about Swedish musician, artist and author Michael Idehall before stumbling across this gem and, just a few months later, I’m wondering how empty the world must have been up to that point. Ant-Zen are definitely a label experiencing a golden age, with their recent releases going well beyond the pounding anthems for which they’d become known. No Man’s Land is a perfect encapsulation of the path the label has taken, pulling influences of early industrial music, the rhythmic industrial sound with which Ant-Zen was synonymous, the dirty textures of darker European techno music and evincing complete indifference to genre rules that once made a host of underground genres, to say nothing of the mail order process, more exciting. There’s an element to No Man’s Land that’s like listening to the internal dialogue of a haunted house, just the spirits sighing to each other in familiar, almost human ways. Bewitching. Kate MacDonald
Justin Meyers – “Negative Space (1984-2014)”
Electroacoustic
I tend to be picky about my “electronic music.” Burial, yes; Aphex Twin, not so much. Thankfully, Justin Meyers released a full-length LP in the beginning of the year that’s been on steady repeat for 12 months. Negative Space (1984-2014) blends musique concrète, electroacoustic, and acousmatic traits with compositional flairs of Stockhausen, Schoenberg, and Stravinsky. For compositions borne out of organ failure and hospitalization, Negative Space manages to be a relatively transcendent release; in a lesser artist’s hands, these compositions could have veered into a depressive drone, but Meyers navigates between field recordings and synthesizers masterfully. There is an overall cinematic feels to this release, with definite emotional transitions and an almost narrative arc that, personally, has made listening to the album on shuffle a literal impossibility. Yet, despite constant returns to these compositions, and in spite of the clarity and vividness of the samples and synthesizers, there always seems to be some new small detail left to be discovered, some new unfolding facet of his recovery. Thomas Boetter
Perturbator – “The Uncanny Valley”
Synthwave
2016 was an amazing year for the synthwave and retrowave genres. The success of the Netflix series Stranger Things catapulted the genre to the mainstream spotlight, while both vanguard bands and newcomers realized incredible releases throughout the year. Perturbator continues to demonstrate itself as the flagship project of the genre, solidified with their new album The Uncanny Valley. A continuation of the narrative from Dangerous Days, The Uncanny Valley shows Perturbator appropriating more cyberpunk and anime/Asian influence into their brand of scifi-heavy synthwave, giving it a more distinct and serious sound when compared to other genre outfits. The album alternates between fast-paced action and sombre movements, giving it a real tour de force journey. Nicholas Diak
Sunset Architects – “Home”
Witch House
Under-the-radar release I stumbled upon which I’ve enjoyed tremendously. Paying more than a subtle nod to the soon-to-be resurrected Michigan group Salem, this is an extremely solid album in the sometimes maligned genre of witch house. As someone who thinks that was a very under-rated sound this album was just what the doctor ordered. Certainly not overly-original, but perfectly-crafted. Patrick Duffy
Youth Code – “Commitment to Complications”
Electro-Industrial / EBM
For the title alone, I’m not surprised Commitment to Complications ended up being an integral part of my “soundtrack” for 2016. I can’t recall when or how exactly I first heard Youth Code, but I know it wasn’t long after that I was buying any release I could find of theirs. After seeing them for the first time in August as main support for Tribulation, I found their music was even more intense than I knew on record; only solidifying that I’m a dedicated fan now. Sara and Ryan may not have intended to be a band when they first started Youth Code; but damn am I glad that they are. Ben Manzella
Vaporwave
Haircuts for Men – “You Can Trust Me”
Vaporwave / Instrumental Hip Hop
From the shadows beyond the spotlight, haircuts for men has been quietly crafting some of the best down-tempo trip-hop around. Typically, h4m’s EPs run the gamut from smooth grooves to manic displays of electronic breakbeat and heady experimentation, often sacrificing consistency for versatility. You Can Trust Me is quite the opposite, a five-track EP of head-nodding heartache focusing solely on the quieter, more intimate moments. Illustrating his smoke-wreathed portraits in hazy lines of slow-paced percussion, sepia-tinted ambiance, and minimal muted piano, haircuts for men displays mastery of the introspective side of tuned-down, urban-influenced instrumentals. With You Can Trust Me, haircuts for men downshifts into an enviable gear, and the finely tuned engine hums perfectly. Edward Rinderle
Donovan Hikaru – “Business Travel Bonanza Deluxe!”
Vaporwave
I’m stretching the rules a bit here, as this is a re-release of last year’s Business Travel Bonanza, but it’s now packaged with a brand-new EP titled It’s My Company – I Can Fly If I Want To. The playful title hints at the content: Donovan Hikaru (not his real name…or is it?) creates faux-corporate electro-jazz that has its tongue planted firmly in its market-manipulating cheek. With track titles such as “Celebrating the Merger With Lobster And Steak At Reynaldo’s By The Docks” and “Caribbean CEO Package” (along with a couple of tracks “set” in the tropical getaway paradise of San Tablos), this is an album of irresistibly catchy 80s-flavoured synth and sax, backed by a brilliantly executed concept. The mood alternates from the energetic (“Nighttime Island Dance”) to the whimsical (“Souvenir”) to the introspective (“Mountain Dreams”) with ease, all within the framework of Donovan’s business-executive identity. Relax and enjoy the soundtrack of Donovan Hikaru’s deal-closing exploits as he rises toward world domination through the global language of profit. Edward Rinderle
Western Digital – “Lost Signal”
Vaporwave
Ten tracks lasting twelve minutes combined. It’s stunning to think that an album so short on content sank its hooks into me as deeply as this one did. Lost Signal hints at a mystery described only in the sparsest of outlines: tracks titles like “m shaped cave”, “appear”, and “dune.” The tones, loops, and melodies vibrate with a buried, seemingly ancient quality; Western Digital has used this technique before, on the broken-transmission masterpiece Wasted Digital, but Lost Signal is stripped of any recognizable late-night-TV-sourced samples. Only the atmosphere remains, thick with suggestion; this is a mark of ambient at its highest level. There’s certainly something going on behind the scenes, something alien and surreal, but the corner of the veil has been raised but a fraction, leaving one to wonder at the implications. In spite of its brevity, Lost Signal is the best work of conceptual experimental ambient I heard all year. Edward Rinderle
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Experimental
Industrial
Ait! – “Harmony”
Industrial
It might have taken a decade, but there is finally a successor to 2007’s Romanticismo Oltranzista, and a very worthy one too. Harmony, is a very different beast, less forthcoming and dramatic, more like a dark and alluring fairy tale. (I think it would be the perfect sonic accompaniment to Christina Rosetti’s Goblin Market.) The sound here is much more pared down, more focused on individual elements, than prior Ait! material. At the same time, it’s produced in such a way that the music seems filtered through a heavy auditory fog, or through a layer of dirt piled over your head. The starkness is something that could end up alienating certain listeners, but personally, I welcome the reminder that simplicity of sound in no way diminishes the lushness of the listening experience. Kate MacDonald
Haus am Rand – “Meel”
Industrial / ambient
Jan Carlekev, the slumbering Swedish giant behind acts like Sanctum, Azure Skies and Parca Pace, caught me completely off guard with this release. It’s not that I wouldn’t expect him to produce an album with this kind of dominant presence, but I don’t know that I would have expected it to seem so emotional, or so futuristic. There is a world-weariness to some of the tracks here that almost makes me teary-eyed. The tracks are beautiful and burdened, not the sort of thing that one listens to and then skips along to the next thing. I think of this as electronic music for thought and reflection, the sort of thing that should accompany the smoking of a pipe or the undeniable realizations of the darkest hour. The music is filled with the beauty that comes from quiet strength and perseverance, the most necessary thing in surviving the celestial system crash that was 2016. Kate McDonald
If you’re concerned with genre, Haus am Rand is easy enough to categorize, falling squarely into the industrial category. What’s far more difficult to pin down is how to describe Meel’s atmosphere, constantly veering between nauseous elation and a sense of disorientation that’s nearly catastrophic. Jan Carleklev’s shimmering synths are like shattered points of light, skittering all over a blasted landscape of lumbering beats and distorted, downtrodden vocals. Meel feels like a lot of broken bits of things that have come together and formed something…well, not beautiful, not exactly, but sharp and emotionally jarring in a way that’s hard to describe; like a soundtrack to a half-remembered dream. Rebecca Brooks
Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio – “[Vision:Libertine] – The Hangman’s Triad”
Martial Industrial / Neofolk
Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio are still walking their strange path of kink, occultism and Nietzschean individualism, but on this double album they excel themselves, with the poetry of Tomas Pettersson’s lyrics taking a leap forwards and the collaboration with Sal-Ocin of Empusae adding some wonderfully subtle tribal percussion to the pop-tinged neofolk sound. The first disc is subdued, but the second breaks out into strong philosophical statements that are at one moment strident and proud and the next touching and melancholic. Colin Robertson
Vril Jäger – Vril Jäger
Industrial / dark ambient
In younger years, when I was obsessed with the back catalog of Death In June and had a penchant for provocateur/noise merchant Boyd Rice (aka NON), I still felt their collaborations left something to be desired –more awkward and repetitive than the mechanical and malevolent I had in my imagination. However, Vril Jäger feels like wish fulfillment based upon such my misaligned declarations and battlefield daydreams. Comprised of Kim Larsen of :Of the Wand and the Moon: and Thomas Bøjden of Die Weisse Rose, this collaboration début hits that nail on the head, crafting a work of dark ambience and spoken / sampled word that still feels suitable within the realm of Death In June’s warfront folk. Look to “Maw of Kalki” with its jangling wind chimes, brassy horns of doom, war drums murmurs, with Bøjden’s slow-motion sinister spoken presence, or “Radio Wyrd”s spine-tingling strings and cryptographic dialog recounting the mysterious UVB-76 radio signal just to get a taste of how adeptly these two mastercraft eerie slices of atmosphere. Vril Jager feels like an audio artefact from a long lost army expedition found frozen in some remote tundra, and definitely stands as a great new direction for two accomplished musicians. Vlad McNeally
Power electronics
Genocide Organ – “Obituary of the Americas”
Power electronics / Death industrial
Excellent concept album of sorts from the power electronics stalwarts. Perfectly mastered with excellent use of vocal samples. A coherent work that in many ways seemed to capture the Zeitgeist of 2016 in many way. Edges the new Con-dom release as Tesco’s best of the year in a strong year for the label in my opinion. Patrick Duffy
FFH – “Symbol To Be Forgotten”
Power electronics
The longer FFH operates, the more co