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Limewire and Kazaa Lite were great. I miss the old private torrent trackers the most though.

Their first was a bit too raw. Bought RtL and MoP, did not buy Black Album but won't tell someone to shut it off if it's playing; for commercial rock, it's far from horrible. Still won't go out of my way to listen to it. It does chap my ass when people call it metal, though. Did not know that about MoP.

As for metal gatekeeping and snobbery, that's one of my favorite games! Let's play! Here are my 2023 AoTY candidates, and yes, I actually purchased all of these:

1. Antrisch - Expedition II: Die Passage
2. Dymna Lotva - Under the Black Wing's Blood
3. Saturnus - The Storm Within
4. Leiþa - Reue
5. ...And Oceans - As in Gardens, so in Tombs

2023 has been an interesting year in metal. Many newcomers with strong openings, some absolutely weird shit, emotions run wild, and more and more and more of depressive black metal upstarts that suck ass than ever before. Not a particularly great year, but there are some real standouts... espcially for the really weird, off-the-wall stuff like that Trollfest flamingo album and that weirdass Panda Kingdom... thing... that came out.

Edit: Fixed a misspelling and wanted to take this opportunity to REALLY ramble about a few things as well as clarify that Black Album is not trash just because of comerciallism; it's fine- it's what became of the band because of it that is the culprit of their asshattery. There are far worse examples in metal. For example: Paradise Lost... Oh my God! What a travesty. A fringe Doom metal band of the so-called Peaceville Three that tried to go commercial and failed in the most cringy of ways. THAT was bad. Metallica at least succeeded in their embracing of jew-media.

...And Oceans' album is liable to be kicked off my top five AoTY list after catching up on unheard media or waiting until year's end; it's very similar to their old shit (in terms of being frenetic and being exhausting to listen to)- just more refined and a surprise return. Saturnus is in the same boat, but actually a really great release and far more refined than their past media. Still not sold on Jensen's vocal style for their particular brand of Doom. For bands like Ahab (speaking of whom, also released a new album this year, haven't heard it yet), sure, it works there, but theirs? Naaah, never thought so. It's still really great music. Doubt they'll release another album this decade, lol.

Atmospheric Black has clearly replaced Melodic Death Metal of old. That genre's dying gasp was Insomnium and Be'lakor, both of which are middling at best. The days of In Flames and Dark Tranquillity are long gone. Gothic Metal also seems pretty dead, although like MDM, it has incorporated itself fairly well into new offerings. IDK, I feel particularly nostalgic to late 90s and early '00s metal, but the last few years have refined and incorporated elements of what I like into other genres in weird bastards that can't be classified easily (i.e. Melodic/Atmospheric/Gothic/Doomy/Elctronic-infused Black Metal). Black Metal- The most fringe of genres, is really taking off, and it's absorbing styles and shit is becoming whack. In some ways awesome, in most ways horrid.

Edit 2: Of course, Thrash (with the same trappings of the last three decades), Power Metal (albeit even nerdier than ever), and standard Death Metal (still with its retarded gore themes) are still bog standard and still going strong. They're fucking gay. There's a reason I don't bother with those genres any more aside from a few guilty pleasures which I won't mention, so don't ask.