25 Best Metal Albums Of The Decade
10. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper (2017)
Joining Sleep's Dopesmoker and Meshuggah's I as an all-time great single-track metal album (thought it's split in two to fit physical media's limitations) is Bell Witch's Mirror Reaper, the most harrowing entry on our list.
To understand this album's background is to understand its anguish. Ex-Bell Witch drummer Adrian Guerra (who co-founded the band in 2010) passed away not long after leaving the group due to ill health. Grief-stricken, they elected to include some of Guerra's unused vocals from an old recording session to create perhaps the most chilling moment on an album full of them, representing "a conceptual turn in the piece, or point of reflection."
Guerra haunts this slow-moving monolith of an album, his fate lending certain ethereal qualities as it crawls from tone to tone. Emotions bleed from every movement and, more crucially, in the space between notes. Mirror Reaper is a sparse arrangement that lets every death growl, mournful howl, and bass thump hang heavy. This makes for a demanding but rewarding listening experience that requires nothing but complete, undivided attention from the consumer. Let it crush you and it will.