With the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones set to finally arrive just one short month from now, excitement is of course off the charts. We saw proof of that in the recently released official trailer for the new season, which blasted HBO’s previous record holder for views by twenty million. On YouTube alone, it’s been viewed over 45 million times.

But while the final season of the series is what fans are most excited about, it’s not the only thing they have to look forward to. Just this week multiple new goodies with ties to the show have been announced. This includes a new board game titled Game of Thrones: Oathbreaker, some new books, and even a John Varvatos clothing line.

You can find more info on all of these offerings below, along with a bonus video which looks at the prosthetics created for the show.

Wow! What a suck-fest 2016 was, huh? Lemmy goes and dies in the waning moments of 2015 and it’s all gone to hell since then. Bowie, Brexit, Prince, Trump, Mohammad Ali, ISIS, Leonard Cohen, Glenn Frye, Harambe, Keith Emerson AND Greg Lake, Standing Rock… the list of death, destruction, and atrocities goes on. Hell, The Cubs even won the World Series, so you know the end must be near! Thankfully though, we metalheads had a treasure-trove of great new music in which to drown our sorrows. There were so many great albums released that it was more difficult than ever for me to work up my year-end best-of list! Who would’ve though that Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, and Darkthrone would all drop their greatest albums in decades? Perhaps another seal of the apocalypse breaking? I’ll let you decide that one for yourself. And as for the younger bands, there seem to be great ones crawling out of the woodwork everywhere.

So, without further ado, I present to you my favorite metal albums of 2016 from across all of the myriad subgenres. Keep in mind please, that this is exactly that… my favorite albums of the year. Yours are undoubtedly different. You probably even strongly disagree with some or all of my selections. Which is perfectly fine. Go write your own damn column!

Oathbreaker hails from Belgium and plays a unique blend of hardcore and black metal. Vocalist Caro Tanghe moves effortlessly between sultry clean vocals and a feral scream that will send chills down your spine and the music follows suit.

On September 30, Oathbreaker released its third full length album entitled Rheia via Deathwish Inc. The record is absolutely stunning. You should definitely check it out as soon as possible. In the meantime, here is the first video from the album featuring the conjoined tracks “10:56” and “Second Son of R.”