Eh I'm particularly looking for experimental things. 80s/90s hip hop isn't my cup of tea anymore.
Sure I can listen to some american artists, and just like you I lately stick to my native performers. Moreover, they turned out to come up with some unique stuff that I fail to find in the US.

In Moscow we have a huge underground and experimental hip hop scene as well. There's a band I listen to every day - Kunteynir (I gave 4 albums the highest score - would be unfair not to do that as I'm a big fan of the artist + you can see them on my userpic)

I'll try to find the links. Just very curious if there's any worthy and unconventional hip hop in Europe.
In Poland and Serbia they have this hardcore approach to rap which can be enjoyable mostly because of the language.
But I can't recall other specific traits that European rappers have.

Gotta say I'm impressed you seem to have not only metal and noise scene there.

That's fine man. We both have the same amount of music ratings. What a funny coincidence I've just noticed.

Agreed about 2015, I felt like I kept having to scrape together releases I liked and 1/4th of my 2015 list I don't care much about. It wasn't such a bad year, but a year of stuff we'd mostly heard before. "Atom for Atom" and Magister Templi's album both stuck in my head pretty well, and the Desecresy album too.. but not much else. And to be fair 2016 doesn't appear to be much more impressive, at least nothing huge on the horizon yet, I've started to listen to music a little bit less lately.

I've been trying to make my listening habits count more, since I also have less time to listen. So, I think this year my pool of favorites will be way smaller and I'll dip into my wishlist more often. All the new metal in the world doesn't really add up to more substance than even just a few 80's metal albums.

Heavy Load's second album is pretty awesome, took me about a year to finally listen to it. The vocalist reminds me of Ride the Lightning/Kill 'Em All at times. Thanks for recommending it!

Hey you might like Division Speed's self titled from last year, I remember you liking Sodom a fair amount from and this has some of that DNA.

Very nice lists, we have similar taste I think. Cheers!

Well I'll direct you to some stuff that I think is pretty cool.

Since you're like me and love Mercyful Fate, then you should check out a lesser known band called Walpyrgus from the US. A bit more hard rockin' and energetic than good 'ol Diamond and Fate, but their songs are really fun and catchy. As of now but they only have a few singles on their bandcamp but they're all really good. Their vocalist is fantastic.

Since you're also like me and love Manilla Road, let me direct you to Eternal Champion. Their album "The Armor of Ire" is one of the best modern traditional heavy metal albums I've heard in a long time. Truly in the spirit of the Road without being talentless impostors. Really talented and creative material, I keep coming back to it.