Apart from the fact that I frankly find most mentioned releases uninteresting in the long run, is the Anus/DLA "administration" actually of the opinion that every one of said releases is superior to:
(Only including material that has been frequently heralded by both site and forum)
Gorguts - Obscura, From Wisdom to Hate
Ildjarn - Forest Poetry, Strength and Anger
The Chasm - Everything after From the Lost Years
Deeds of Flesh - Everything after Gradually Melted
Immolation - Here in After, Failures for Gods
Sacramentum - Far Away from the Sun
etc.
or is there some other reason for the exclusion of the above? I count 19 artists 21 releases total, so the reasons are clearly not numerical. Some of the exhibited are albums from long-standing groups, so this is neither a best of by post-1995 metal bands. Despite some justifiable interpretation through appearance thus far, this is not a passive-aggressive post by any means, I'm genuinely intrigued by these omissions (which I have witnessed take place in other similar "official" lists made by this site over the years). Am I missing something here?
Anyway, so as to counter-balance this possibly meaningless post, allow me to state something fairly obvious but which is in need of acknowledgment. Most of the mentioned fall into two categories and share one common characteristic. They're either continuations of unhonored musical experiments from previous years in depth and/or surface, usually concluding in coherent results worthy of some investigation (this is the case with Blizzard Beasts, Animation of Entomology, Alloy and Oath Bound among surely others), or exercises in clearly established compositional and aesthetic standards within Metal (some might refer to this as "genre worship"), often resulting in either an expansion of the borders or a competent slab at the genre of choice (Pyramid of Necropolis, Death... The Brutal Way, Rebel Hymns of Left-Handed Terror etc.). The only thing here which I can honestly deem as somewhat revolutionary is Engram, for it introduces a new direction, albeit using a fair share of previously founded and demonstrated ideas. Nonetheless, the thing all these share is that, being forged and unleashed at a time of mass-takeover in Metal, they are all, as of now at least, unfortunately drowned out in a sea of billions upon billions of contemporary, largely irrelevant Metal-related material (this is particularly true for the stuff that came into being after the turn of the millennial). If these are truly indicative of the spirit of Metal Music, then I suppose it goes to show how it can only ever be grasped by a hand numbered few or the extent to which it has been lost upon the genre's "inheritors" after the end of Black Metal with the death of Euronymous and the release of all the major BM opuses in 1994.