Just for interest's sake, here's the official record of our Albums of the Month (at least all the ones I can remember), starting from the 2013 stipulation that choices should be limited to current/recent releases. Blanks will be filled in if anyone else has a better recall than mine...

2019
June - Arcane Voidsplitter : Voice Of The Stars
May - Of Spire & Throne : Penance
April - Who Dies In Siberian Slush : Intimate Death Experience
January - Vanha : Melancholia

2018
December - Mansion : First Death Of The Lutheran
November - Thou : Magus
October - Famyne : Famyne
September - My Silent Wake : There Was Death
August - Woebegone Obscured : The Forestroamer
July - Hangman's Chair : Banlieu Triste
June - Witchsorrow : Hexenhammer
May - Altars Of Grief : Iris
April - Monolithe : Nebula Septem
March - Procession : Doom Decimation
January - Monads : IVIIV

2017
December - Norilsk : Le Passage Des Glaciers
November - Crust : True Shades Of The True World
October - Mesmur : S
September - Mudbath : Brine Pool
August - Asofy : Nessun luogo
July - Devil's Witches : Velvet Magic
June - Vin de Mia Trix : Palimpsests
May - Mourning Dawn : Waste (EP)
April - King Woman : Created In The Image Of Suffering
March - Doom-metal.com : A Lake Of Ghosts...The Long Shadow Of My Dying Bride
February - Suffer Yourself : Ectoplasm
January - Doomed : Anna

2016
December - Fvnerals : Wounds
November - Soliloquium : An Empty Frame
October - SubRosa : For This We Fought The Battle Of Ages
September - Ennui : Falsvs Anno Domini
August - Lord Vicar: Gates Of Flesh
July - Subterranean Disposition: Contagiuum And The Landscapes Of Failure
June - Monolith: Mountain
May - Goatpsalm: Downstream
April - Mourning Beloveth: Rust & Bone
March - Camel Of Doom: Terrestrial
February - Tyranny: Aeons In Tectonic Interment
January - Oceanwake: Sunless

2015
December - Ixion: Enfant De La Nuit
November - Gribberiket: Knefall
October - Demon Eye: Tempora Infernalia
September - Angellore: La Litanie Des Cendres
August - Doomed: Wrath Monolith
July - Zatokrev: Silk Spiders Underwater
June - Sentio Ergo Sum: Egsegesis Logicae
May - My Silent Wake: Damnatio Memoriae
April - The Slow Death: Ark
March - Mesmur: Mesmur
February - Mekigah: Litost
January - Megaton Leviathan: Past 21 Beyond The Arctic Cell

2014
December - Forever Autumn: Patience Of ðm Fire-Keeper
November - Apneica: Pulsazioni...Conversione
October - Vestige Of Virtue: Sophia
September - Narrow House: Thanathonaut
August - Excruciation: [g]host
July - Zaum: Oracles
June - Doomed: Our Ruin Silhouettes
May - Lethian Dreams: Red Silence Lodge
April - Aphonic Threnody/Ennui: Immortal In Death

2013
December - Sea Of Bones: The Earth Wants Us Dead
October - SubRosa: More Constant Than The Gods
August - Eibon: II
July - Jex Thoth: Blood Moon Rise
June - My Silent Wake: Silver Under Moonlight
April - Astral Sleep: Visions
March - The Prophecy: Salvation
February - Worship: Terranean Wake

Fall of the Grey Winged One - "Aeons of Dreams" was album of the month in late 2002, how nice, ah=)))

edit: exact month - November

Now, that's what I call a good memory...!

Esoteric's "Subconscious Dissolution into the Continuum" was aotm for several months on end back in 2004. Eventually I checked it out and discovered one of the greatest bands ever.

Geez...
Album of the month...
I'd never know that so many doom metal bands exist. I'd rather call this category "Albums if the year" at least, if no "Albums of the Decade".
Good to know that "doom" is real (and living) underground!

....and you're right. Fuck this "Charts"-Bullshit thing of thinking. However, it's very ABSURD when you claim a demo of the year 2001 for "the album of the month" in the year 2015... But hey, it's your site.

Album of the Month is a wonderful idea, and one of the core features of this site, which fortunately haven't been abandoned during the years. I personally love it.

It is not necessarily a charts-way of thinking (which although fuckable according to you is perfectly fine in general) but more a way to highlight a release that deserves it. Since this site was mainly based on reviews since the very beginning, I see nothing inappropriate to "rate" a certain album in such way.

On the previous comment: There are about 800+ doom-related releases in 2015. Seems quite sufficient to make a choice, ah?

p.s. Couldn't understand which 2015-album-of-the-month is a 2001 demo, but I'd see no problem with this either, as I do not think that Album of the Month is (and should be) bound to the actual release date of the album, it has more to do with the review.

=)))

I don't remember which album of the month you're speaking of, but indeed, normally, if we were sober the day we voted, it was linked to a review written that month...

You sure?
We made a 2015 official label re-release of a 2013 demo aotm (Gribberiket). Can't see anything older than that on the list, but maybe you know something we don't?

Anyhow, as baphomet says - eligibility really depends on when the review was written, rather than the actual release date, though it's almost always a contemporary item. If it's something really old (eg the recent Fallen & Funeral re-releases, it'll usually be considered for classic of the month instead). If it's just that we've only recently discovered something a little older, or taken a longer time than usual to get round to reviewing it, then I don't see any real reason why it should be disqualified.

I couldn't agree more! The AotM has always been a core feature of the site, and there's nothing wrong with choosing older releases for AotM if they haven't been reviewed before, although we rarely do so.

2015
November: Swallow the Sun - Songs of the North
December: Lacuna Coil - Unleashed Memories

that wasn't quite what this thread was all about...

Typical.

I foresee that the new album of the Sorcerer, "The Crowning of the fire king", will enter the list in October.

I played a little with the wayback machine (inspired by Kris) and listed some older album of the months. The gaps might be either because there was no AoM every single month, or because the archive hasn't crawled every single month. I've tried to show explicitly when I was certain that there was no new AoM by listing the months it was the same=)

The month expresses the first month that I'd seen the album listed as AoM and not necessarily the month it was announced as such (but these are mostly correct)

Also there was a year an a half period between 2010 and 2012, right after the current site design was introduced, during which there was no AoM on the title page.


2002
March - Eternal Elysium - 'Share'
May - My Dying Bride - 'The Voice of the Wretched'
July - Pelican - 'Pelican'
September - Reverend Bizarre - 'In the rectory of the bizarre reverend'
October - Orodruin - 'Orodruin'

2003
February - Mournful Congregation - 'The dawning of mournful hymns'
March - The Ethereal - 'From funeral skies' (yey)
May - Pantheïst - 'O Solitude'
July - Skepticism - 'Farmakon'
August - Krux - 'Krux'
October - Wormphlegm - 'In An Excruciating Way...' (November and December - same)


2004
February - Reverend Bizarre - 'Harbinger Of Metal'
April - My Dying Bride -'Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light'
May - Mar de Grises - 'The Tatterdemalion Express' (June - same)
July - Esoteric - 'Subconscious Dissolution into the Continuum'
August - Scald - 'The Will Of Gods Is Great Power'
September - Paul Chain - 'Alkahest' (October - same)
November - Passage - 'Passage' (December - same)

2005
January - Officium Triste - 'Reason'
February - Fall Of The Idols - 'Agonies Be Thy Children'
March - Aarni - 'Bathos' (same until October)
October - Il Sangue - 'Elegia 4: ...In Still Desolation' (!)
November - Isole - 'Forevermore' (December and January - same)

2006
February - Heavy Lord - 'From Cosmos To Chaos' (March and April - same)
May - Celestiial - 'Desolate North' (June - same)
July - Paul Chain - 'Unreleased Vol. 2' (August through October - same)
November - Dolorian - 'Voidwards'
December - Mirror of Deception - 'Shards' (January - same)

2007
February - Indesinence - 'Noctambulism'
April - Glow - 'Dive Into The Sun' (same until September)
September - Demonia - 'Promo 2003' (same until April next year)

2008
(April - new design in the works, no site)
May - Evoken - 'A Caress of the Void' (same until October)
October - Jex Thoth - 'Jex Thoth' (same until February next year)

2009
February - Inborn Suffering - 'Wordless Hope'
March - Heretic's Fork - 'Neanderthal Ballet'
April - Ankhagram - 'Under Ruins'
May - YOB - 'Catharsis'
July - MurkRat - 'MurkRat'
December - Isole - 'Forevermore'
(no info for the missing months)

2010
January - Mourning Dawn - 'For The Fallen'
March - Crowbar - 'Broken Glass' (April - same)
May - Wedding in Hades - 'Elements of Disorder'
June - Red Giant - 'Devil Child Blues'
July - Mistress Of The Dead - 'S/T'
August - Orchid - 'Through the Devil's Doorway'
September - Demonia - 'Divine Tragedy'

(stopped having album of the month on title page)


2012
April - Gallow God - False Mystical Prose
(no info for the missing months of 2012)


Finally some fill in Mike's gaps:

2013
January - Great Coven - Viaticum
May - Mourning Beloveth - Formless
September - Spiral Shades - Hypnosis Sessions

2014
March - Fungoid Stream - Prehuman Shapes

Damn! Nice work!

I wonder what other content is on there that we are missing now. Could resurrect some stuff. By the way, if anybody is of a technical bent like me, I've had good results downloading whole snapshots from that site using this https://github.com/hartator/wayback-machine-downloader

From the nomination of the Passage album, I can tell I was connected to this site as soon as 2004, and probably earlier, but I haven't any point of reference to be assertive about it. Passage came to my knowledge by that time, and I even bought their album, that I eventually sold later on...

Seconded - thanks klamerin!


Actually, we have got chunks (possibly all) of the original content still archived on site. It's just that a lot of links and images etc are broken (reparable, obviously, they're mainly just pathing issues), and many of the external references are no longer valid. We did discuss resurrecting and updating some of the original articles - history of doom, doom faqs, the 150 million rules of doom etc; it's just been the usual question of free time availability that's kept progress on that limited to, shall we say, a slower-than-expected pace!

Edit: Thinking about it, with all the extra historical detail here, the history of aotm might make a reasonable article page rather than just a forum thread.

I think having classic revisited is also will be a good option, it will be like a quick guide for doom newbies..

Fair point!