Back with a vengeance after a brief hiatus in 2002, the CoC Album of the Year competition has crowned a new champion in 2003: Melechesh, whose prodigious album _Sphynx_ shattered all competition. Naglfar's _Sheol_ was second both in terms of total points and individual votes (i.e. number of individual lists mentioned in), with Mourning Beloveth and The Crown completing the top four. Also worth a look is Behemoth's _Zos Kia Cultus_ which, in spite of a relatively modest tenth place in the overall list, still managed an impressive tie for third spot in the Most Consensual Album chart (number of individual votes). The lists:

CoC Writers' Best Albums of 2003

1. Melechesh - _Sphynx_
2. Naglfar - _Sheol_
3. Mourning Beloveth - _The Sullen Sulcus_
4. The Crown - _Possessed 13_
5. Graveland - _The Fire of Awakening_
6. Hate Forest - _Purity_
=. Drudkh - _Forgotten Legends_
8. Septic Flesh - _Sumerian Daemons_
=. Necrophagia - _The Divine Art of Torture_
10. Behemoth - _Zos Kia Cultus - Here and Beyond_
=. Burnt By The Sun - _The Perfect Is the Enemy of the Good_

CoC Writers' Most Consensual Albums of 2003

1. Melechesh - _Sphynx_
2. Naglfar - _Sheol_
3. The Crown - _Possessed 13_
=. Behemoth - _Zos Kia Cultus - Here and Beyond_
5. Mourning Beloveth - _The Sullen Sulcus_
=. Graveland - _The Fire of Awakening_
=. Hate Forest - _Purity_
=. Septic Flesh - _Sumerian Daemons_
=. Morbid Angel - _Heretic_
=. Vital Remains - _Dechristianize_

Gino Filicetti's Top 8

1. Drudkh - _Forgotten Legends_
2. Ulfsdalir - _Grimnir_
3. Hate Forest - _Purity_
4. Graveland - _The Fire of Awakening_
5. Blut Aus Nord - _The Work Which Transforms God_
6. Burnt by the Sun - _The Perfect Is the Enemy of the Good_
7. Nargaroth - _Geliebte des Regens_
8. 1349 - _Liberation_

Pedro Azevedo's Top 10

1. Aurora - _Dead Electric Nightmares_
2. Mourning Beloveth - _The Sullen Sulcus_
3. Elend - _Winds Devouring Men_
4. Corporation 187 - _Perfection in Pain_
5. Behemoth - _Zos Kia Cultus - Here and Beyond_
6. Vital Remains - _Dechristianize_
7. The Crown - _Possessed 13_
8. The Haunted - _One Kill Wonder_
9. Naglfar - _Sheol_
10. Hate Forest - _Purity_

Adrian Bromley's Top 10

1. The Old Dead Tree - _The Nameless Disease_
2. Darkthrone - _Hate Them_
3. Hammers of Misfortune - _The August Engine_
4. Anathema - _A Natural Disaster_
5. Dead Soul Tribe - _A Murder of Crows_
6. Ephel Duath - _The Painter's Palette_
7. Melechesh - _Sphynx_
8. Type O Negative - _Life Is Killing Me_
9. The Mars Volta - _De-Loused in the Comatorium_
10. Darkest Hour - _Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation_

Paul Schwarz's Top 10

1. Melechesh - _Sphynx_
2. Keelhaul - _Subject to Change Without Notice_
3. The Meads of Asphodel - _Exhuming the Grave of Yeshua_
4. Necrophagia - _The Divine Art of Torture_
5. Axis of Perdition - _The Ichneumon Method_
6. The Crown - _Possessed 13_
7. Dissection - _Live Legacy_
8. The Haunted - _One Kill Wonder_
9. Desaster - _Divine Blasphemies_
10. Nevermore - _Enemies of Reality_

Aaron McKay's Top 10

1. Fleshgrind - _Murder Without End_
2. Melechesh - _Sphynx_
3. Coercion - _Lifework_
4. Hatebreed - _The Rise of Brutality_
5. Strapping Young Lad - _SYL_
6. Behemoth - _Zos Kia Cultus - Here and Beyond_
7. Naglfar - _Sheol_
8. Misery Index - _Retaliate_
9. Project: Failing Flesh - _Beautiful Sickness_
10. Vital Remains - _Dechristianize_

David Rocher's Top 10

1. Funeral Mist - _Salvation_
2. Naglfar - _Sheol_
3. Melechesh - _Sphynx_
4. The Crown - _Possessed 13_
5. Moonsorrow - _Kivenkantaja_
6. Leviathan - _Far Beyond the Light_
7. Septic Flesh - _Sumerian Daemons_
8. The Wake - _Ode to My Misery_
9. Dimmu Borgir - _Death Cult Armageddon_
10. Behemoth - _Zos Kia Cultus - Here and Beyond_

Matthias Noll's Top 10

1. Necrophagia - _The Divine Art of Torture_
2. Hate Forest - _Purity_
3. Drudkh - _Forgotten Legends_
4. Disfear - _Misantrohpic Generation_
5. The Crown - _Possessed 13_
6. Melechesh - _Sphynx_
7. Mourning Beloveth - _The Sullen Sulcus_
8. Desaster - _Divine Blasphemies_
9. Revenge - _Triumph, Genocide, Antichrist_
10. Ulfsdalir - _Grimnir_

Alvin Wee's Top 10

1. King Diamond - _The Puppet Master_
2. Iron Maiden - _Dance of Death_
3. Naglfar - _Sheol_
4. Serpens Aeon - _Dawn of Kouatl_
5. Leviathan - _The Tenth Sub-Level of Suicide_
6. Septic Flesh - _Sumerian Daemons_
7. Vital Remains - _Dechristianize_
8. Khanate - _Things Viral_
9. Morbid Angel - _Heretic_
10. Melechesh - _Sphynx_

Chris Flaaten's Top 10

1. Mourning Beloveth - _The Sullen Sulcus_
2. Swallow the Sun - _The Morning Never Came_
3. Edge of Sanity - _Crimson II_
4. Moonsorrow - _Kivenkantaja_
5. Draconian - _Where Lovers Mourn_
6. Slumber - _Formless Serenity_ (demo)
7. The Provenance - _Still at Arms Length_
8. Strapping Young Lad - _SYL_
9. Melechesh - _Sphynx_
10. Windir - _Likferd_

Quentin Kalis' Top 10

1. Dimmu Borgir - _Death Cult Armageddon_
2. Solefald - _In Harmonia Universali_
3. Akercocke - _Choronzon_
4. Opeth - _Damnation_
5. Zyklon - _Aeon_
6. Graveland - _The Fire of Awakening_
7. Melechesh - _Sphynx_
8. Behemoth - _Zos Kia Cultus - Here and Beyond_
9. Naglfar - _Sheol_
10. Moonspell - _The Antidote_

James Montague's Top 10

1. Deströyer 666 - _Terror Abraxas_
2. Skyforger - _Thunderforge_
3. Misery's Omen - _Misery's Omen_
4. Graveland - _The Fire of Awakening_
5. Elend - _Winds Devouring Men_
6. Negura Bunget - _n crugu bradului_
7. Darkthrone - _Hate Them_
8. Morbid Angel - _Heretic_
9. Satanic Warmaster - _Opferblut_
10. Portal - _Seepia_

Jackie Smit's Top 10

1. Burnt by the Sun - _The Perfect Is the Enemy of the Good_
2. Krisiun - _Works of Carnage_
3. Septic Flesh - _Sumerian Daemons_
4. Morbid Angel - _Heretic_
5. Zyklon - _Aeon_
6. Tomahawk - _Mit Gas_
7. Misery Index - _Retaliate_
8. Akercocke - _Choronzon_
9. Nevermore - _Enemies of Reality_
10. Alchemist - _Austral Alien_