Their music, which takes cues from Demilich and Cynic without ever exactly being tech-death, is similarly expansive, and they have long ago graduated beyond using the Souls series for source material. They take their name from an item from Bloodborne, a formless something used to create a doorway into a literally infinite warren of dungeons that players can explore forever without ever truly understanding it. Alongside Blood Incantation and Venom Prison, they’re one of the few new bands who can stand alongside legends like Death, Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel. Tomb Mold are true giants in contemporary death metal. Let’s start with the big name on this list.

Pre-order buy pre-order buy you own this wishlist in wishlist go to album go to track go to album go to track We’ve gathered a few of the standouts below. Bloodborne seems to be a particular favorite-its themes of cosmic pessimism, body horror, and reproductive trauma seem to have a special resonance. There has been a rising tide of bands across the entire blackened spectrum of extreme music that have turned to the Souls games for inspiration, creating everything from epic power metal to hideous, twisting death metal. Technical complexity, unapologetic elitism, a tone that veers from austere darkness to goofy humor: you can see why metal bands are putting down Tolkien and LaVey and picking up their controllers. Their influence is showing in Souls-like games from independent developers and, increasingly, major studios. And yet, they might be one of gaming’s modern classics. Behind it all is a system of barely comprehensible stats and arbitrary, inscrutable game mechanics.

You die hundreds of times, barely knowing why, or what you are fighting, always suspecting that the world might not be worth saving. The “Soulsborne” video game series-the dark-fantasy Demon’s Souls Dark Souls 1, 2 and 3 and the Lovecraft-inspired Bloodborne-are infamous for their difficulty and bloody-minded unwillingness to explain themselves to the player.

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