In just a few days, 2016 will be a thing of the past but I don't think that this year will be easily forgotten. With that, I'm not even talking about the general news, the terror attacks, Donald Trump or other political unnecessaries. No, I'm merely talking about the wonderful world of music and the legends it lost. Bowie, Lemmy, Prince, Rick Parfitt, George Michael and so many others have been booked for the big festival in heaven. 

Yet, 2016 was also a year of musical highlights, both live and on heaps of releases. Perhaps it's the fact that I work for this website but to me, the music inudsitry has never been so varied and so overloaded with albums before. That's why compiling this list is not a rewarding task. I've been writing lists for weeks now. I've been re-listening to albums and I've been re-reading my reviews to the brink of insanity. But here it is, my massive 2016 list

Once again, I'll make it easier for myself by dividing the music industry into three major categories. In 'Breeze', I'll list the calm ones like ambient, dark ambient, jazz and classical music. On 'Wind' we go a bit heavier with post rock, alternative rock and such. Finally, 'Storm' handles the world of metal and other heavy genres. I've based my list mainly on the albums that make the day-to-day playlist, because those are the one that stick. Right, ready?

Although it was a fierce battle for "breeze album of the year", one thing is certain, 2016 was the year of the Belgian drone lords. With CHVE, Dirk Serries, Daghraven and Syndrome, our little country clearly wins. 

2016 was a great year for post-rock, but somehow Lord Kesseli & The Drums delivered us the most played and most satisfying album of the year. Why? I don't know, this is just an awesome album, and so are the other nine...

Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard - Y Proffwyd Dwyll
​Soon - Vol. 1
Slomatics - Future Echo Returns
​Coldborn - Lingering Voidwards​
​Phantom Winter - Sundown Pleasures​
Bismuth - Unavailing ​
​Hyponic - 前行者
Riti Occulti – Tetragrammaton
​Dö - Tuho
​Rorcal - Creon

A lot of doom in the 'Storm' section, but that has one simple reason: it's the genre I listen to the most. Even more so, I haven't been paying a lot of attention to many other metal releases this year. I'll leave those up to my colleagues.

Even though I don't think I've seen that many concerts in 2016, I've apparently seen more than enough bands to make a top 10. 

Telepathy (Antwerp Music City)
Spoiwo (Dunk! Festival)
Sunnata (Antwerp Music City)
Bliksem (Rocktoberfest)
Alkerdeel (Desertfest)
​
The Cure (Sportpaleis)
Russian Circles (Dunk! Festival)
Black Swarm (Desertfest)
Izegrim (Rocktoberfest)
Wolvennest (Desertfest)

And finally, let's throw some nice mentions. Not that we really hand out awards to people but sometimes it's nice to get a big compliment, and as you know, we are nice people here at Merchants Of Air. Hell, we are so nice that I already feel guilty about having to exclude so many great releases in the lists above. 
Oh well, nevermind that. Let's just go over some of the 'Of The Year' Awards.

Festival Of The Year : DesertFest Belgium
​
This was another tough decision to make because Dunk! Festival was awesome again and I really enjoyed both Rocktoberfest and Rodeo Fest. However, since the good people from Desertfest somehow managed to turn all my last year's little wrongs into rights, they succeeded in creating a blast of a festival, never to be forgotten. You can read all about that here. 

Venue Of The Year: Antwerp Music City

A very small venue in Antwerp, which has given me some incredible moments in 2016. With Telepathy and Sunnata they managed to deliver two of the best gigs of 2016, but those were merely the headliners. Their support acts, including Lambs and Hungry Like Rakovitz blasted with tremendous energy through the speakers. It's pretty much always nice in the Music City so this award is truly deserved.

Merchant Of The Year: Wagner

Of course I'm extremely happy with all Merchants Of Air writers and I'm glad that a talented writer like Michiel joined our ranks, but it's Wagner that has had the most influence on the evolution of Merchants Of Air into the webzine we are today. He revived the 'A Small Neat Journal' section with movie reviews, social studies, biographies and much more and his albums reviews are always a pleasure to publish. So yes, Wagner deserves this title...

Bandshirt Of The Year: Duel

Puchased at Desertfest, right before a nice chat with guitarist Jeff Henson, this shirt definitely is the Shirt Of The Year. The interview is still to be published by the way, along with some other nice conversations at that very festival. They're still in the pipeline, due to severe illness immediately after the event. Nonetheless, I adore this old school horror shirt.

Non-musical entertainment highlight of the year: FWF Wrestling Matinee

Wrestling is a life-long fascination of mine and 2016 was the year I finally got to see it live (although, according to my mother, that's not really true. Apparently, I obsessively observed a wrestling event while on vacation when I was a little kid). In 2016, I got to see two events. First, the WWE Wrestlemania Revenge Tour, which was somewhat disappointing. Second, this FWF Wrestling Matinee which was fun from start to finish. Read all about that here.

And why not end with some own-horn-tooting. After all, I've been pretty busy myself. Throughout 2016 I've been working on a number of projects. There were some new Misantronics albums and a video with writer Tamara Williams which I'm quite proud of. I'm also proud of some of my writings for this website, plus the shirt designs. Yet, one topped it off for me, and that was The Metal Deck, a card & quartets game. They're still available if you like one. You can purchase it in our shop.

After I started writing the review for the Necro Deathmort EP, which I was looking forward to very much, I was wondering which releases from other artists I was looking forward to in 2016. Turns out there's quite a bit of exciting stuff coming up this year, not to mention all the exciting stuff I'm not even aware of. So without further delay: this is what gets me pumped this year (in no particular order): 

John Carpenter - Lost Themes Part 2 (facebook)

Last year's Lost Themes was a return to form for the legendary director/composer and to think that there's a Part 2 coming out is very, very exciting indeed

Night School - Blush (facebook)

This band that mixes Doo-Wop, '60s girl groups, garage rock and shoegaze already released a brilliant earworm of an EP (check that out) that was so irresistible that I'm ready for another dose.

Nothing - Tired of Tomorrow (facebook)

Nothing, the shoegaze band that had metalheads going ape-faeces over is up for their second full-length on the very same Relapse that is home to countless deathmetal and grindcore bands. 

Dälek - Asphalt For Eden (facebook)

I can't stand hiphop  (and it's inbred relative, R&B). I know that's pretty limiting for someone who considers himself open-minded when it comes to music, but I just can't help it. However, I love Dälek. Truth be told, Dälek is hardly stereotypical hiphop. If their previous albums are anything to go by, their mix of Hiphop, Industrial, Noise, Shoegaze and Krautrock is sure to be one of the highlights of this year. 

Devin Townsend (facebook)

I love the DTP. I follow Devin with an almost religious fervour. On his tours, I go to several shows in the same week if I have the chance. So if he announces a new album, I go all giddy like a schoolboy...

Wrath of the Weak - ? (facebook)

J. of Wrath of the Weak posted a mysterious message on the WotW facebook page: 'big news eventually'.... I consider WotW my favorite black metal(ish) band ever, of all time. I love it even more than I love Ildjarn. And I frigging looooove Ildjarn. So if that 'big news' means there's new material coming out, that's close to saying 'Bjorn of Merchants Of Air's best album of 2016 already known'.. 

Book Of Sand - several releases (facebook)

Book Of Sand are a highly polarising US act that stretch the boundaries of what can be considered black metal. Taking influences from US folk, Indian and Far East music, implementing exotic instruments like gamelans, blurring their black metal to almost ambient-like qualities: all of it makes for an exciting listen and all new material is much, much welcome

This is just a handful of stuff, no doubt there will be countless of amazing releases. And Merchants Of Air will be your faithful friend to keep you updated. Feel free to comment what you're looking forward to!!

​Björn