I've been listening to a lot of music recently, and I thought I'd share it with the world.

First, my favourite album of the year is "Harvest" by a Swedish blackened melodic death metal band called Naglfar. Try "The Darkest Road" which is actually really accessible. The title track is one of the best tracks I've heard in a long time, and is epic in the most evocative meaning of the word.

Next up, progressive black metal band Negura Bunget, who actually come from Transylvania. Last year's "Om" is a really impressive piece of music, blending the Romanian heritage of the band and the traditional music of their homeland with a more recognisable black metal aesthetic. The result is an hour of the most hypnotic and mystical extreme music I've ever heard. "Tesarul Di Lumini" is a good introduction. For fans of post rock as well as extreme music.

Moving up the extremity curve, Birmingham's Anaal Nathrakh are part black metal, part grind and part industrial. They sound a little like the end of the world. Get blasted with "When The Lion Devours Both Dragon and Child", off of last year's "Eschaton".

And finally, winning the name prize, Rotting Christ are twenty year metal veterans who I only heard for the first time this year. They are Greek, and their ethnicity is apparent throughout their music. I recommend anything on the player, as "Theogonia" is a great album from start to finish, but "Sign of Prime Creation" is my favourite track (mainly because it was the one that made me notice the band).