Martedì 30 Dic 2014, 9:32
It is once again time to list some stuff. It is also once again time for me to wonder why the hell I always leave making this list to the last couple of weeks before the year ends. One would think that I'd learn something from a mistake I have now made for five years in a row… oh well. I recently went through my lists from 2012 and 2013, and I am surprised by how well they still hold up in 2014 (in the lists from 2009 to 2011 things start to get a bit funky). I guess my taste hasn't changed that radically over the last three or so years in terms of disliking things I have liked in the past, but the scale of my listening habits has definitely grown in terms of new interests. As always, this year's list is very much all over the place, but that is how I like it. This is a true representation of the type of stuff that I enjoy listening to on a daily basis. None of the albums listed made it because I thought they deserved to be included, but because I wanted them to be included.
This year I decided to do a top 20 of demos, EPs, and splits instead of a top 10 because there was simply too much great stuff released this year. I had around 50 or so good ones to choose from, so even a top 20 was a bit painful. The full-length list is again a top 50 but with an extended honorable mentions part (last year I had 15, this year 25). I would also like to remind that many of the releases especially on the EP list can be found for cheap, or even pay-what-you-want, on Bandcamp and often can be streamed in full.
Full disclosure: albums by the bands A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Arizmenda, Body Hammer, Endon, Human Bodies, Mortuary Drape, Nazoranai, Nihill, Skullflower, Theologian & Wrekmeister Harmonies are nowhere to be found here although I am sure they would have at least warranted consideration to be included. This is simply because I haven't had the time to get around to listening to them. The new Wrekmeister Harmonies, in particular, should be amazing from what I have heard and read.
Top 20 EPs, demos & splits
Honorable mentions: Boddicker, Hygiene, Iron Lung, Saccage and Vuimago
http://i.imgur.com/mGnk0tm.jpg
This last spot was a toss-up between Passive and Boddicker's False Flag. I decided to go with Passive because there is a bunch of other grindcore releases higher on this list but no other hardcore releases. Qualm reminds me of a less harsh Quincunx with its relentlessness and s/m theme.
19. Gnaw Their Tongues & Alkerdeel - Dyodyo Asema
http://i.imgur.com/YZLJtXe.jpg
Anyone who is familiar with the earlier works of the two bands involved with this release should have a pretty good idea of the kind of filh they are capable of creating. Dyodyo Asema is a single 19 minute track that is a combination of Gnaw Their Tongues' noise black metal and Alkerdeel's blackened sludge with plenty of additional atmospheric elements to further enhance the hellish soundscape.
http://i.imgur.com/BTwvv4E.jpg
Bölzer got a massive amount of hype around them following the release of the brilliant Aura last year. Unfortunately, Soma doesn't quite live up to its predecessor in my opinion. Both of the songs on this EP feel rather uneventful and underwhelming in comparison to Aura, but there are still enough of those twisted trademark Bölzer moments to make it stand out of the masses.
17. Mutter - Trashed Body
http://i.imgur.com/S7P3DLC.jpg
This may be the most perplexing thing I have heard all year. One review that I read described the music as "a bizarre but highly creative synthesis of black metal aesthetics, power-electronics, and industrial", though I am not so sure about the black metal aesthetics part. For the most part the EP consists of blaring electronics, a drum machine that blasts at cybergrind speeds, and some dude yelling and screaming on top of that combination. If you like that sort of thing, give the EP a listen.
16. Baths - Ocean Death
http://i.imgur.com/LNXQuRd.jpg
I haven't listened to Baths' earlier material that much, but from what I can remember his earlier stuff has a very childlike and joyous feel to it. This EP is much darker, which shouldn't be that hard to conclude from the title, and more up my alley. The instrumentals are simple downtempo electronic tracks but full of fun little details like birds chirping and all kinds of cracks and bloops. One aspect that I particularly enjoy about Baths' music is the surprisingly extensive use of vocals. Usually I don't like high vocals such as this but they bring the music a lot of character. Perhaps the best example of the use of vocals is on the title track in which the vocals are throughout the song sampled into the instrumental track.
http://i.imgur.com/AAqQCrt.jpg
This split got a spot here as soon as I had heard the first few seconds of the track Ease by Whirr. That song is so ridiculously cool. The rest of the stuff is as enjoyable as I have come to expect from both bands, too, but I can't get that one song out of my head.
http://i.imgur.com/5hraxws.jpg
In spite of the band name, мища is a US punk band. They play a kind of vicious screamo / emo violence that is reminiscent of the greats of the style from the 90s such as Orchid.
http://i.imgur.com/kQLUEAV.jpg
Even though Nadja has, at least according to Aidan Baker, slowed down its release schedule, they still released three full-lengths, a live album, and an EP in 2014. Tangled is one of my favourites from the bunch, and is an unexpected experimentation by the band. As opposed to Nadja's usual drone doom, the EP is a collection of short, fast, and heavy punk songs.
http://i.imgur.com/Vslefup.jpg
No-nonsense old school death metal from the always amazing New Zealand scene. The four songs on this EP are exactly the kind of Incantation worship with hints of black metal that I enjoy the most in death metal these days. This is a really impressive first EP, though I wouldn't be surprised if the band featured veterans of the scene (I have no idea who the members are).
11. Urzeit - Der Zweite Drei
http://i.imgur.com/2YEljwp.jpg
Urzeit is a relatively new black metal band that consists of members from the bands Ash Borer and Hell (not the UK one). They play raw black metal with an obvious punk edge, though their mix of the two styles is far more to my taste than that of many others who combine black metal and punk. Usually bands working within this realm play boring punk songs with lo-fi production and croaked vocals, but Urzeit's formula is very different: relentless black metal songs with the occasional mid-paced bit thrown in.
10. Dead Instrument - See Through Negative
http://i.imgur.com/KyjPBIP.jpg
Dead Instrument are quickly becoming one of my favourite current grindcore groups. They have a level of intensity in their music that is hard to match but also good songs to go with the mayhem they create. Additionally, the band's live show is unfuckwithable. Their vocalist is a freaking madman on stage.
9. Secret Creation - Holding My Carrot
http://i.imgur.com/NssvROV.jpg
If any label other than Colloquial Sound Recordings (or maybe Handmade Birds) released something titled Holding My Carrot, I would most likely skip the release without blinking an eye. However, knowing CSR's track record with other amazing oddball black metal bands, such as A Pregnant Light and Aksumite, I decided to give it a listen. For the label's standards, Secret Creation is straightforward black metal with both a very raw and oddly melodic side. The two may seem contradictory in some respects but come together beautifully on this release. The EP just ends way too quickly at only 9 minutes in length.
8. Street Sects - The Morning After the Night We Raped Death
http://i.imgur.com/2SFwX7f.jpg
This is somewhat similar to the Mutter release that I discussed earlier (17.) in the sense that both bands combine harsh electronic music with some sort of rock if you can call it that. However, Street Sects keep their music a bit less chaotic than Mutter, though not any less hard-hitting or mind-bending. This EP, too, has its fair share of insane drum machine barrages and incoherent screaming on top of electronic shrapnel, but the band evens out the pain with, in some twisted sense, danceable beats.
7. Vermin Womb - Permanence
http://i.imgur.com/EurpiON.jpg
Vermin Womb are a new grindcore band that features vocalist/guitarist Ethan McCarthy of Primitive Man and a bunch of other bands. Just like McCarthy's other projects, Vermin Womb is total filth. The EP is unrelenting pummelling from start to finish with swirling death metal riffs, sweet d-beat bits, and a heavier and chunkier sound than what most doom metal bands can muster.
http://i.imgur.com/ZmOv6nI.png
Another death metal gem from New Zealand. Back in 2012 I wrote that "I have slowly been losing interest in the death metal genre over the years, but bands like Witchrist keep me coming back." This is still very much true, and the recently disbanded group will be sorely missed.
5. Falls of Rauros / Panopticon
http://i.imgur.com/W6VFxnM.jpg
I've never found Falls of Rauros to be anything too special, hence the absence of their new album from my full-length list, but their side on this split is perhaps the band's strongest material that I have heard. For example, the build up and the climax at the end of their side is the first time that their music has really struck me as something spectacular. Panopticon's side, on the other hand, is surprising because it is surprisingly straightforward black metal. After the band's last few rather adventurous albums, I wasn't expecting something quite like this from the band, but at this point I think I ought to just stop even trying to guess what Austin Lunn does next.
4. Akatharsia - Demo
http://i.imgur.com/cuS4zwA.jpg
Another side project that features people from other bands that I like, this time from Lycus and Fell Voices. Akatharsia is very different from those two bands, however. There are moments in the last track that remind me a bit of Fell voices but otherwise the album is more like a raw black metal meets rock 'n' roll meets crust punk kind of affair. The short songs are filled with memorable moments, there's a lot of variety in the material, and the vocal performance is pretty great.
3. Ornamental Headpiece - Masks of Ash
http://i.imgur.com/FQX6zDF.jpg
As one can deduct from the album cover and the rather interesting band name selection, this is again a Colloquial Sound Recordings band. Like Secret Creation and so many other projects on the label, this is another raw black metal project as well. Masks of Ash has a lot of things going on in its short running time of 11 minutes: some d-beat, some mid-paced rocking, some melodic build-up, and lots of blasting. There is nothing that surprising in the music for fans of the label, but Damian Master is so damn good at doing what he does that there isn't really need for curve balls or any extra bullshit.
2. Godflesh - Decline & Fall
http://i.imgur.com/XE10hC4.jpg
This is how you do a comeback after an over ten year recording hiatus. Decline & Fall fits in perfectly with the band's classic recordings with songs like Dogbite, which sounds more like an old Streetcleaner-era B-side than something new. Playing with Fire, on the other hand, flushes all the shitty groove metal bands down the drain with its massive chorus. All the four songs on this thing are brilliant in their own right. This is just what fans of the band were hoping for when it was announced that Godflesh would release both an EP and a full-length of new material in 2014. Though the full-length fell somewhat short of capturing the claustrophobic and bleak sound of early Godflesh, this EP does in my opinion an admirable job at recapturing that feel. The oppressive sound of the band is truly timeless and works just as well today as it ever has.
1. Brutal Blues - Brutal Blues
http://i.imgur.com/ypvkcZy.jpg
"Are you ready for 100% authentic deluxe delta blues from Mississippi? Too bad, because Brutal Blues is a grind band from Norway." I am deeply disappointed. Whether it be Parlamentarisk Sodomi or the almighty astral saviours Psudoku or any other project, one can always be sure that Steinar Kittilsen aka Papirmøllen will come up with something really really odd and awesome. Brutal Blues is musically somewhere in between Parlamentarisk Sodomi's twisted beatdowns and Psudoku's swingy and spastic astrogrind. This promotional video should give a good idea of what to expect.
Top 50 albums
Honorable mentions (aka 75-51 in alphabetical order): Agalloch, Andy Stott, Autopsy, Barghest, Black Monolith, Chest Pain, Cloak of Altering, Coffinworm, Corpsessed, Crutches, Dead Congregation, Eluvium, Have a Nice Life, Khid & RPK, Kikagaku Moyo, Laster, Lord Mantis, Nothing, P.L.F., Punch, Satanic Warmaster, Sharon van Etten, Sun Worship, Whirr and Woven hand
http://i.imgur.com/gPTfusy.jpg
Highlight track: Skatepark Neukölln (for Aliakper Gasan-Zade)
Every once in a while browsing through random Russian music blogs pays off with a gem like Kontékst. The core of the album is a combination of sounds from everyday life and the artist's gorgeous ambient music. The contrast between natural sounds such as birds and children's laughter, and the sounds of, for example, machinery and traffic, is clearly thematic, and these ideas are further developed by the occasional spoken word passage, one of which apparently discusses the dehumanisation of factories. Themes aside, the soundscapes on this album are very detailed and skillfully crafted. Every listen reveals something new in the many layers of the tracks.
49. Tension - Westside Grindviolence Forever
http://i.imgur.com/UeY9NZM.jpg
Highlight track: Lashing Out
The title kind of gives away the gist, doesn't it? 21 tracks in 19 minutes and a lot of blasting shit to bits. This is a good album to listen to after Kineskop's Kontékst.
48. Moodie Black - Nausea
http://i.imgur.com/Ms9uYlH.jpg
Highlight track: Death in LA
Noise hip hop. Their sound is somewhere in between the aggression of Death Grips and the mellowness of dälek. I especially like the laid-back vocal style they chose to go with on Nausea, which is somewhat untypical for artists in this genre. Usually the MC of a noise hip hop group just screams his lungs out, but the output here is a bit more refined.
47. Anaal Nathrakh - Desideratum
http://i.imgur.com/PADI7He.jpg
Highlight track: Unleash
Another year, another Anaal Nathrakh album. This is very much business as usual for them at this point. Desideratum is nothing spectacular but still full of strong material. The band does try some new tricks here and there but for my taste they do not work that well. The dubstep bit in the first track, for example, is only annoying.
46. Perturbator - Dangerous Days
http://i.imgur.com/h9WP4C0.jpg
Highlight track: Complete Domination
Synths, Satan, and sweaty leather pants crotches for days. What more could one want in an album? My only gripe with Dangerous Days is that the amount of distortion gets a bit ridiculous on certain tracks. Other than that, this is as good as 80s synth worship gets.
http://i.imgur.com/X3eAkht.jpg
Highlight track: Date
Ai Aso is a Japanese folk artist who I first ran into some years ago because of her Boris connections. However, Lone was the first album of hers that I gave a listen to. While her music may feel underwhelming to some, I like her charming guitar playing, simple synth patterns, and whispered vocals. The simplicity of the music is an essential element in the overall feel of the album (see the title) and any more extra instrumentation or other additional elements would detract more than add, in my opinion.
44. Natural Snow Buildings - The Night Country
http://i.imgur.com/zdYqG4y.jpg
Highlight track: Rusty Knives Valley
The Night Country is a very typical Natural Snow Buildings album. The band has a unique sound, but the magic is unfortunately starting to fade with so many releases that follow the same formula with very little variation. There are a few somber lo-fi folk parts, some hazy ambient, and the majority of the album is the kind of colourful and psychedelic drone that the band is best known for. The band has a knack for developing the mood of their music unlike any other band: the mood even in a single song can seamlessly shift from joyful bliss to falling in a bottomless pit of despair. Natural Snow Buldings are very good at what they do, but eventually they will have to do something new and interesting.
43. Impetuous Ritual - Unholy Congregation of Hypocritical Ambivalence
http://i.imgur.com/4RADDSo.jpg
Highlight track: Inservitude of Asynchronous Duality
Impetuous Ritual dwells in the middle ground between Portal's chaotic sound and Grave Upheaval's indecipherable wind tunnel noise. All three death metal bands share members. It is a testament to how fucked up the other two bands are that Portal is the most listener-friendly of the bunch. While Grave Upheaval takes its lo-fi aesthetic a bit too far in my opinion, Impetuous Ritual manages to keep their music just on the edge of pleasurable, relatively speaking. The album is, of course, far from a relaxing Sunday stroll in the park and more like running for your life after passing through the Seven Gates of Hell. From the first notes to the last, the listener is confined by an impenetrable wall of swirling guitar noise, pounding, almost militaristic drumming, and wild guitar solos that would bring even Kerry King to his knees.
42. DJ Kridlokk - Mutsi
http://i.imgur.com/Pk1g4fL.jpg
Highlight track: Mutsi
I usually stay far away from Finnish hip hop but it isn't all awful. There are actually quite a few good artists around currently who go for a more ambitious sound and more interesting subject matter than most of the more mainstream acts. The best part about Mutsi are the dark and hazy instrumentals that are punctuated by heavy repetition and some pretty phenomenal samples. There is also a lot of variation in the material. Hynät, rahat & ruplat, for example, features harmonica throughout the track, while IDKFA has a surprisingly aggressive tone. DJ Kridlokk's vocals have definitely improved noticeably from his earlier work. The rapping is much more refined and there is some great rhyming. The repetitive choruses irk me in some songs, though.
41. Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. - Astrorgasm From the Inner Space
http://i.imgur.com/bqX8bLN.jpg
Highlight track: Pleasure Mantra of Sorrows
To be honest, much of the music that I have listened to by all the different Acid Mothers Temple assemblies has gone in one ear and out through the other. While there are definitely gems in their massive discography, there is just too much mindless noodling and repetition of ideas in their material. Astrorgasm is similar to the project's other albums in the sense that there is very little that is new to Acid Mothers Temple, but the album has greater variety than typically. I can't remember another Acid Mothers Temple album that had a 16-minute meditative ambient track to go along with the typical psychedelic freak-outs and 70s prog rock pastiches of the band.
40. ACxDC - Antichrist Demoncore
http://i.imgur.com/kCeK0dt.jpg
Highlight track: Overstimulated
There isn't much to say about this one that hasn't been said about other grindcore releases that I have listed over the years. Sick vocals, frantic riffing, lots of blasting, etc. etc. One thing that sets ACxDC apart from many other grindcore groups is their humour. Grindcore is often such a silly genre anyway that more bands should consider taking themselves a little less seriously. For example, the lyrics for Vegangelical are pure gold: "The vegan police put you under arrest / For breaking code 827 / This is your third violation / Now you can't get into veggie heaven".
39. Mirel Wagner - When the Cellar Children See the Light of Day
http://i.imgur.com/5zjeQuE.jpg
Highlight track: The Dirt
A bunch of cheerful folk tunes about dead babies, starvation, and other similarly fun subject matters. Mirel's music has always had more depth to it than just dealing with dark and controversial topics, however. There is always an underlying feel of hope that is reminiscent of the old blues line of thinking that the prerequisite for good times is that there are bad times; good times always follow the bad times and surviving adversity is essential to the human experience. Also, it is nice to see a young, talented Finnish artist gain so much attention outside of Finland. One of the songs from her first album was even featured on the release trailer for the new video game Alien Isolation.
http://i.imgur.com/vz7ZvYd.jpg
Highlight track: Mouths
Cystema Solari, Nadja's new and utterly confusing collaboration album with the Italian experimental hip hop group Uochi Toki, deserves a mention here, but there is no beating some good old warm and fuzzy Nadja drone that is devoid of anything too adventurous. The band has experimented so much recently with different styles and collaborators that it is good once in a while to return to the basics. They get bonus points for the album cover. Owls are cool.
http://i.imgur.com/qvyGFEN.jpg
Highlight track: Spider Web
I guess LLLL's music could be described as a Japanese interpretation of what the internet hype machine came to call chillwave. Though I do enjoy some artists in the genre, such as Toro y Moi and Washed Out, I find the gimmicky nature of the movement highly dislikable. There is a reason why genres like chillwave typically only last from a couple of months to a few years: gimmicks get boring after a while and when there is no other substance in the music, people move on. LLLL's strength is in that the band avoids chillwave's usual downfalls quite admirably. The album sounds very modern as opposed to trying to recreate some 80s pipe dream, it has its fair share of effects use but the songs aren't drowned in them, and so on. What is at the center of this album is a bunch of catchy modern pop tunes with the hazy and drowsy atmosphere of chillwave, but the songs could just as well stand on their own, too.
36. Alraune - The Process of Self-Immolation
http://i.imgur.com/EMqq1ml.jpg
Highlight track: Exordium
A great debut album by this Nashville black metal group. It is unfortunate that US black metal as a whole seems repugnant to many these days because of bands like Deafheaven and Liturgy. For example in Finland, bands like Alraune and many others in the scene that get a relatively large amount of publicity in the US go widely unnoticed and/or are simply disregarded as hipster shit. The Process of Self-Immolation is short and sweet. To me, 40 minutes is the perfect album length: there is very little room for filler and the album can easily be listened to several times from beginning to end in one sitting. Musically Alraune reminds me of Ash Borer in the sense that they combine elements from both old school and modern black metal while sounding unlike any other band out there.
35. Diocletian - Gesundrian
http://i.imgur.com/mZSuA52.jpg
Highlight track: Wretched Sons
Diocletian are the third New Zealand death metal group on this year's lists. However, their approach to the genre is very different from Verberis and Impetuous Ritual as the band is more on the black/death side of the spectrum and often draws comparisons to bands like Revenge and Blasphemy. After the doomy opening track, Cleaved Asunder, the band puts the gas pedal through the floor and never lets go. There are a few slower parts here and there, but the album mostly consists of face-rippers, which is exactly what I expect from an album in this style.
34. Protestant - In Thy Name
http://i.imgur.com/O39VnpT.jpg
Highlight track: Carrion
US hardcore meets Norwegian black metal. This combination seems to be one of trendiest in heavy music at the moment. There is an abundance of bands who, to varying results, mix the two styles. Protestant blows all of the other bands out of the water, however. They have been one of the more heavily praised bands in the hardcore scene for quite some time and for good reason with a well-balanced combination of aggression and memorable songs that is on show here as well.
33. Earth - Primitive and Deadly
http://i.imgur.com/MOsGSUv.jpg
Highlight track: There Is a Serpent Coming
Even though Primitive and Deadly is noticeably different from what Earth has done before, the album has that warm, almost homely feel that I have come to associate with the band. Returning to Earth's music always gives me a feeling that is similar to returning to my childhood home after months of being away. It is a difficult feeling to explain, but perhaps someone knowns what I mean. One thing that surprised me about this album is the amount of vocals. Tallahassee , a rare example of an old Earth song with vocals, is one of the band's coolest songs in my opinion because of the fact that it was an oddity in the band's discography. I didn't expect an album from the band in which vocals are a prevalent element on the majority of songs, but I don't object to the vocals as strongly as some fans of the band. Even though Dylan Carlson himself has stated that "the lack of vocals enables the listener to trance out and become one with the performers", the vocals are implemented so well that they don't bother me at any point, really. I am more bothered by certain elements that distract the listener more such as the many guitar solos.
32. Wreck and Reference - Want
http://i.imgur.com/kHSeIKp.jpg
Highlight track: Corpse Museum
With a sampler, drums, and vocals, Wreck and Reference creates some of the heaviest and darkest music around, regardless of genre. Their sound captures a despair that only a few other groups, such as The Body and Khanate, can match. It is odd how a two-man band whose music doesn't even feature guitar or bass can be one of the more impressive acts in heavy music at the moment. The band often plays live with metal bands and is compared to them, but they are very far from what would be generally categorised, or accepted, as metal. They are more like an electronic music group that dabbles in metal. The reason why Want isn't higher on the list is simply because the band hasn't addressed the biggest problem that their songs have had since their debut, Black Cassette, which is still my favourite by the band: the song lengths are simply not ideal. Many of the songs are far too short, which makes them often feel underwhelming and unfocused.
31. A Silver Mt. Zion - Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything
http://i.imgur.com/Lfh52ev.jpg
Highlight track: Take Away These Early Grave Blues
The more music Efrim Menuck and friends make, the more they seem to move away from their early pretty post-rock sound. This album has more of a punk and rock feel to it: the guitars are noisy and heavy, Menuck's vocals are all over the place even more so than usually, and the lyrics are at times surprisingly confrontational. The music does have a lot more to it, though. For example, there are some phenomenal strings on many of the songs, especially Austerity Blues' climax shines in this regard.
30. Mysticum - Planet Satan
http://i.imgur.com/qSZBcZq.jpg
Highlight track: Fist of Satan
After almost two decades of shitty bands like Aborym inhabiting the industrial black metal scene, Mysticum show all these neon goth fuckers and their bullshit EBM how it is done. The band's combination of old school black metal and cold electronics is the way to go. Planet Satan isn't groundbreaking in any way, like their pioneering debut was back in the 90s, but it is nonetheless a respectable sophomore effort. The band's drug-fuelled atmosphere and uncompromising black metal are still in 2014 as fresh as ever. However, the static drum barrage that the listener encounters song after song after song can get a bit tiring after a while.
29. Porya Hatami - Shallow
http://i.imgur.com/CeaT32Q.jpg
Highlight track: After the Rain
Porya Hatami is an Iranian ambient musician, and yet another random blog found that I made earlier this year. I love this kind of ambient albums with very long tracks that are filled with rewarding details for the listener. I always seem to talk about details when I comment on an ambient album, but it is precisely detail that makes some ambient music worth returning to time after time and the lack of detail that makes other ambient music dull in comparison. One example of brilliant detail in Shallow is on the second track, After the Rain. Those bells that come in at around 5:45 are awe-inspiring.
28. Frail Vessel - Frail Vessel
http://i.imgur.com/womgZGh.jpg
Highlight track: Mech Retaliation
Mecha and grindcore? I'm sold. This release lacks the rawness of the band's great demo from last year but far surpasses the band's earlier material in terms of substance over sheer chaos. There is a lot more killer riffing going on here and there are many banging mid-paced sections. Furthermore, the album as a whole is much more coherent than the demo, which was basically a collection of very short bursts of powerviolence and one really long and slow doom metal track.
27. Swans - To Be Kind
http://i.imgur.com/KP2MIz6.jpg
Highlight track: Bring the Sun / Toussaint L'Ouverture
I'm actually kind of surprised about the level of praise this album has got. Not because I think it is awful, obviously, why would I rank it this high if I didn't like it, but because To Be Kind is not in my opinion even close to albums like The Seer or Children of God in terms of impact. Many people are calling To Be Kind the greatest Swans album ever made but, to me, the album feels like a collection of Swans songs that sound like what Swans songs are supposed to sound like. The songs are great but there isn't anything particularly impressive or adventurous about them, which is why the album ends up feeling quite tame and flat in comparison to the aforementioned albums as well as some other albums by the band. This is the same issue that I had with the latest Neurosis album back in 2012.
26. Behemoth - The Satanist
http://i.imgur.com/FynLWU6.jpg
Highlight track: Amen
This is the first time that I have liked a Behemoth album from start to finish. When I say that I mean both their old black metal stuff and their more recent death metal albums. The monolithic sound that they have gone for during their last few albums hasn't been all that succesful, to be honest. For example Evangelion (2009) bores me with its flat material and overly loud drum track. On The Satanist the band has finally pulled together their vision and material. The songs are bombastic but not too much so and full of memorable moments, and the brilliant production work keeps everything together nicely. The drums are especially well mixed: they stay in their rightful place in the background throughout the entire album but still have a lot of oomph behind them. One detail that I love is the use of trumpets on a few tracks. The trumpets are tasteful and complement the songs well. The Satanist is a very impressive modern metal album and definitely my favourite of the band.
25. Eyehategod - Eyehategod
http://i.imgur.com/dRD3RjR.jpg
Highlight track: Trying to Crack the Hard Dollar
Yet another metal band that is returning from a long break in releasing new music. I guess dubbing 2014 as the year of the comeback album isn't far-fetched. This self-titled album sees the band returning with their old punishing and groovy sound that they have rarely deviated from over the years. Eyehategod aren't trying to reinvent themselves here and there is no reason why they should. While this album is far from their strongest material, the album has its fair share of signature moments like the hard-hitting opening punk tune Agitation! Propaganda! and the classic groovy riffing on Trying to Crack the Hard Dollar.
24. Swallowed - Lunarterial
http://i.imgur.com/frEQfUa.jpg
Highlight track: Arterial Mists of Doom
Lunarterial marks the culmination of the Finnish old school death metal revival movement that has been going on for some years. Although there have been several great releases by other bands in the Finnish scene the last few years, for example by Corpsessed and Gorephilia, none of them have been able to create something so undeniably powerful. Lunarterial has a filthy doom metal core that sporadically gives way to bursts of primal death metal. The whole album has a trippy, psychedelic feel to it, which the sprawling 25-minute closer, Libations, especially oozes of. The vocals are far from your typical death metal growls and sound more like some demented combination of Chris Reifert and the Cryptkeeper.
23. Cremation Lily - Fires Frame the Silhouette
http://i.imgur.com/NOprkU2.jpg
Highlight track: Painted Red Lightswitch
Cremation Lily is one of the more interesting noise projects I have come across. Though he can create some pretty hefty walls of noise when needed, the project is clearly more ambitious than your typical run-off-the-mill noise band that is more concerned with doing the harshest possible noise walls instead of actually trying to do something worth listening to. Cremation Lily have always had a very strong atmospheric side to its music that borders on ambient at times. The haunting atmosphere of this album distantly reminds me of Theologian, and there are some very Vatican Shadow-esque synths as well.
22. Jute Gyte - Vast Chains
http://i.imgur.com/3h6rmMt.jpg
Highlight track: The Inexpressible Loneliness of Thinking
Jute Gyte's take on black metal has to be one of the most unique ones ever. The complexity of the music and the ideas behind it are so foreign to traditional black metal that there is very little in the band's music other than the vocals that would feel familiar even for the most avid fan of the genre. I am not aware of any other black metal projects that combine microtonal guitar work, classical composition, and polyrhytmic patterns, among other things. One of the more curious aspects of the last three Jute Gyte albums is the overwhelmingly disorienting dissonant guitar work. The riffs sound so damaged and jangly and are continuosly warping into unexpected directions that, at least for me, it has almost a physically nauseating effect. The music is as unpleasant to listen to as it is possible to imagine but still at the same time so bizarre and interesting that it is difficult to stop listening.
21. Sun Kil Moon - Benji
http://i.imgur.com/iR25P0X.jpg
Highlight track: Carissa
Mark Kozelek may not have the greatest voice – not that it is awful by any means – but he is such a good story-teller that it doesn't matter. It is apparent on this album that it is the lyrics that come first and everything else follows. Benji features some of the most engaging stories that I have had the pleasure to listen to in some time, which more than compensates for the at times awkward vocal arrangements that are a direct result of the lyrics-first mentality. For example, the opening song Carissa is a truly heartfelt account of the bizarre death of one of Kozelek's cousins that was caused by an exploding aerosol can in a trash bag she was taking out. The instrumentation on the album is simple but effective and complements the words well. The songs mostly consist of only Kozelek's voice and stripped-down acoustic guitar.
20. Aphex Twin - Syro
http://i.imgur.com/FkGoW5V.jpg
Highlight track: CIRCLONT6A (Syrobonkus Mix)
My experience with Aphex Twin has mostly been limited to his two great Selected Ambient Works albums, so I don't really know how this compares to his non-ambient stuff. All I know is that Syro is a really enjoyable collection of electronic music. The album is all over the place in terms of different styles explored. There is everything from breakbeat to drum 'n' bass to techno to disco to funk, and so on. All the different styles blend together beautifully. If I remember correctly, this album consists entirely of new material that has been written in the last few years, which is kind of surprising, because the album doesn't really sound all that modern. It feels more like 90s electronic music with 00s crisp production. There isn't really anything new here, but that doesn't bother me because the music on Syro is still fresh and interesting even if it is built from old ideas.
19. Triptykon - Melana Chasmata
http://i.imgur.com/TMIlLx7.jpg
Highlight track: Boleskine House
Melana Chasmata is yet another addition to Tom G. Warrior's incredible musical legacy. Anyone familiar with Celtic Frost's music and/or the first Triptykon album, Eparistera Daimones, will know exactly what they are going to get here. Although the album is noticeably less pissed off than its predecessor, it is otherwise a very similar combination of Warrior's trademark heavy metal and gothic atmosphere that is created especially with serene female vocals.
18. Ævangelist - Writhes in the Murk
http://i.imgur.com/J8cv0PX.jpg
Highlight track: Ælixir
Ævangelist plays death metal in the same vein as Impetuous Ritual whose new album I discussed earlier (43.). The reason why I have Writhes in the Murk so much higher has much to do with the production values of the album. The production is obviously very dense as is typical for this kind of death metal but it is still surprisingly clear and crisp. Ævangelist aren't hiding behind shitty lo-fi production like so many other bands and instead let their riffs and songs speak for themselves and create atmosphere by other means. The other reason for ranking this album so much higher than Unholy Congregation of Hypocritical Ambivalence is that I find Ævangelist's music to be both even more demented and varied than that of any other band doing this style, which is something that I can appreciate. Just to mention one stand out moment, the noises that begin at the 4:10 mark of the song Halo of Lamented Glory are straight-up nightmare fuel.
http://i.imgur.com/74QwUpv.jpg
Highlight track: Quetzalcoatl
California label Crepúsculo Negro has raised some eyebrows and anger in the underground US black metal scene by allegedly hoaxing money from consumers and featuring some pretty outspoken Mexican nationalist bands. I don't give a shit about the ideology behind the music they produce as long as the music itself is good, and Volahn's obviously is, but the label's alleged actions I don't condone. The music here is very, very impressive. It's raw and melodic at the same time, and the acoustic interludes give the band a feel that is very different from most black metal. There aren't that many black metal bands around who encorporate South American flavoured flutes to their sound. As is typical for tape releases, the recording quality isn't that great, but it is clear enough to have a good idea of what is going on while still being lo-fi enough to fit the raw aesthetic.
http://i.imgur.com/McbviZq.jpg
Highlight track: Vox Tuned D.E.D.
Mess was the first surprise album of the year for me. I remember listening to and liking some of the band's other albums several years ago, but this is the first one by them that I have kept on repeat for a longer period of time. Mess begins with several songs of hard-hitting dance music with pumping beats and obvious nods towards old synth bands and pioneers of experimental electronic music. However, somewhere around Darkslide it takes a turn to the weird with more dark and psychedelic material that form the entirety of the album's second half.
15. Godflesh - A World Lit Only by Fire
http://i.imgur.com/VtFKdZo.jpg
Highlight track: Imperator
I already commented on this album briefly earlier (2. on the EP list). I prefer Decline & Fall over this full-length, but it is still a really nice return to form by Godflesh. There are some songs that are a bit on the weaker side, for example Curse Us All, but the stronger ones easily compensate for that. I have seen some people proclaim that A World lit Only by Fire is better than the band's classic album Streetcleaner. To those people I only want to say: get fucking real. Like the EP, the material here is clearly leaning towards early Godflesh in style. However, the album doesn't quite capture that classic Godflesh feel of absolute despair, which at least for me is one of the main attractions of the band. The atmosphere on this album is far from the dense and hellish sound of Streetcleaner and also from the more minimalist self-titled EP. Of course, there is no need for 2014's Godflesh to sound like Godflesh from the 80s, which is why this point doesn't bother me that much. The album is more than capable of standing on its own in the band's discography.
14. Jute Gyte - Ressentiment
http://i.imgur.com/ktHFenR.jpg
Highlight track: Mansions of Fear, Mansions of Pain
See what I said about Jute Gyte's Vast Chains a few spots earlier (22.). The two albums are very similar to each other, but Ressentiment is even more aggressive than Vast Chains but at the same time oddly catchy, which puts it on top for me. For a long time I debated internally whether or not I should include only one of the albums since they are so similar, but I like both of them so much that I couldn't drop either one.
http://i.imgur.com/vVC0uL1.jpg
Highlight track: Cry
Japan is still weird. Swarrrm's older stuff is already highly experimental and psychedelic in comparison to other grindcore bands out there, but I am at a loss for words with this album. The other half of my brain says that the different parts of the songs just don't make sense together while the other half says that the combinations are perfect. Is combining melodic hardcore with blast beats genius or completely ridiculous? Is putting deep guttural vocals on top of that combination genius or simply silly? I will stick this album here near the top and stop driving myself crazy trying to figure out what to do with it.
12. Hateful Abandon - Liars/Bastards
http://i.imgur.com/D59MVOQ.jpg
Highlight track: High Rise
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever." It isn't that difficult to figure out where the classic opening quote is aimed at with this picture of David Cameron in a swastika shape surrounded by pound signs included in the album's artwork (funnily enough, both of the two bands that I know have used the quote are British, the other one being Anaal Nathrakh). Like the band's other releases, Liars/Bastards is heavily influenced by the industrial pioneers of 70s and 80s and post-punk. These two elements combined with some brilliant atmospheric moments, such as the opening of the song The Walker, and wild psychedelia, like the ending of High Rise, make for one hell of an album. The post-punk influence isn't as immediately obvious as in the music of the band's earlier albums but it's still apparent in the deep vocals, although the vocals aren't nearly as alike to The Cure as on Hateful Abandon's second album.
11. Electric Wizard - Time to Die
http://i.imgur.com/VpTHHzl.jpg
Highlight track: I Am Nothing
Time to Die is the perfect album to worship Satan, do drugs, and kill people to. Though the band is known for their negative lyrics and fittingly dark samples, the nihilism on the album feels extreme even for Electric Wizard's standards: "I Am Nothing / I Mean Nothing / I See Nothing / I Feel Nothing…as I kill you". They are fully embracing on Time to Die the old idea that rock and heavy metal are devil worshipping music that comes straight from Satan to corrupt the youth. This idea comes through, for example, in the album's many samples that mainly focus on the controversial Ricky Kasso case. Electric Wizard has always been equally concerned with substance as presentation, which is the case here as well. If you strip the music of all the distortion and effects, the songs, and especially the riffs, that you are left with are still phenomenal. Their previous album, Black Masses, was a bit of a let-down and the songs on the album felt somewhat uninspired, but Time to Die is perhaps the band's strongest effort since Dopethrone.
10. Ben Frost - A U R O R A
http://i.imgur.com/Cq8CBlE.jpg
Highlight track: Venter
Nothing that Ben Frost has done before or after Theory of Machines has been on par with the ambiance of that album in my opinion, but A U R O R A is a very enjoyable album of noisy electronic music in its own right. This is a perfect example of the type of electronic music that I like the best: noisy, atmospheric, detailed, and experimental. Some of the moments on this album, such as the last few minutes of Secant, are breathtaking.
9. Teitanblood - Death
http://i.imgur.com/ybrkPv0.jpg
Highlight track: Sleeping Throats of the Antichrist
An underground metal band that you like is gaining popularity. Quick! Denounce their new album as overhyped garbage and let that sweet internet cred wash over you. The exact same thing happened with Cultes des Ghoules last year, and it is starting to get a bit old, frankly. Death is about as strong a follow-up for the amazing Seven Chalices as could have been hoped. It is a black/death album in the same vein as its predecessor, but an improvement in every account. This comes through especially well on the atmospheric elements, which are better arranged with the metal than the pretty generic interludes of Seven Chalices and even more grim than before, and the huge amount of memorable riffs that stand out from the noise.
8. Current 93 - I am the Last of All the Field That Fell
http://i.imgur.com/oeegVl3.jpg
Highlight track: Mourned Winter Then
This is quite possibly my favourite Current 93 release of the 00s. David Tibet is once again back to his flamboyant self after 2011's quiet and calm HoneySuckle Æons. I find Tibet's vocals and lyrics to be the most enjoyable when he's raving and ranting like a lunatic. Tibet is from album to album accompanied by an ever-changing assortment of contributors. The list of guest artists is, once again, pretty amazing with people ranging from Nick Cave and guitarist James Blackshaw to John Zorn and electronic composer Andrew Liles, just to name a few. Pianist Reinhold van Houdt is the most heavily featured artist on the album and appears on every song. His playing is the backbone that holds the album together and one of the main reasons why I keep this album in such high regard. Especially his interplay on several songs with John Zorn's saxophone freak-outs is ear candy at its best.
7. Panopticon - Roads to the North
http://i.imgur.com/kal9p3L.jpg
Highlight track: Chase the Grain
Roads to the North is perhaps less adventurous than the last two Panopticon albums that saw the band experimenting heavily with post-rock and American folk music but not as straightforward as the split with Falls of Rauros that I commented on earlier (5. on the EP list). Roads to the North has elements from prior releases by the band, for example the strings and the folk instrumentation that are present throughout the album are such elements, but the core of the album is this time a combination of black metal and Gothenburg melodeath. As so often with Panopticon, it sounds odd on paper, but works brilliantly. The melodic metal, gorgeous string arrangements, Appalachian folk, and varied vocals – there is even some good use of clean vocals – make for a truly exceptional folk metal album.
6. YOB - Clearing the Path to Ascend
http://i.imgur.com/UevuuPZ.jpg
Highlight track: In Our Blood
Back in 2011 I had YOB's Atma as my favourite album of the year. Though in hindsight I would put Giles Corey's self-titled debut to the top spot, Atma still holds up to this day not only as one of my favourites of that year but as one of my favourite doom metal records ever. I cannot yet say that I enjoy Clearing the Path to Ascend quite as much, but I have no reason to believe that with time it couldn't become my favourite record by the band. At first I had listed this album around number 30 but it kept moving up with each listen, finally landing here at number 6. The band's riffs and melodies have long been among the most impressive in the genre, and this album is no different. Mike Scheidt's vocals are more varied than ever, but perhaps a bit too low in the mix. At first I thought that the production was too stifling, in the second track, for example, even suffocating. Now that I listen to the album I am left wondering what was wrong with my ears before. The album's production has grown on me with each listen.
5. Dephosphorus - Ravenous Solemnity
http://i.imgur.com/L6ef3H4.jpg
Highlight track: Astrocyte Portal
When discussing the band's previous album, Night Sky Transform, in 2012, I said that "Dephosphorus are a band that I predict will be imitated to death in the coming years". Well, they haven't been. They should be, though, as they are one of the best things to happen to punk and grindcore in recent years. Their sound is still as unique as ever, combining the best parts of several styles ranging from grindcore to death metal and d-beat. Imagine if Ulcerate played grindcore. That is perhaps the closest I can come to describing their sound. The term "astrogrind" that the band uses for their describing their music is fitting. One of the many highlights of the album are definitely Panos Agoros' vocals that are like a hollow howl and remind me of Martin Van Drunen, except with less growl.
4. Marissa Nadler - July
http://i.imgur.com/qfqJVjH.jpg
Highlight track: Was It a Dream
Marissa Nadler's voice, it is perfect. With this album she has officially become my current favourite folk singer/songwriter. I have liked her previous works as well, especially the particularly dark first album, Ballads of Living and Dying, but July is the one album by her on which everything falls into place perfectly. The main attraction of Marissa Nadler is obviously her ethereal voice, but she is also a very good writer. Her lyrics revolve mostly around lost love and memories of past times – topics that obviously fit her voice very well, and her songs are unforgettable in their elegance. The extra instrumentation, such as strings, synths, and piano, that accompany Nadler's acoustic and electric guitar parts are beautifully arranged, too. Randall Dunn's production work is also fantastic. I love how he utilises reverb and other effects on Marissa's vocals to further enhance the melancholic and haunting feel of the music. A good example of this is, for example, the chorus of the song Was It a Dream.
http://i.imgur.com/11mhDto.jpg
Highlight track: Heavy Rain
I'm a bit disappointed that the band's original idea of doing a straight-up extreme metal album didn't come to fruition here. However, Noise is probably my favourite album by the band since Pink (2006) so there isn't that much to lament. Noise is an impressive collection of the many sides of Boris. There's some fuzz rock, some post-rock, some doomy stuff, some poppy stuff, and so on, and all of the songs are among the cream of the crop of Boris songs in their respective styles. As someone who likes pretty much everything the band has ever put out, I like the idea of combining a lot of the styles that the band has experimented with over the years. This album is a good starting point for anyone intimidated by the band's huge discography.
2. Burial Hex - The Hierophant
http://i.imgur.com/3S8dJ6N.jpg
Highlight track: Winter Dawn
Burial Hex have such an intimidatingly large discography that I put off giving them a listen for years just because of that. In hindsight, I shouldn't have taken this long. The Hierophant is an extraordinary combination of different styles. The opening track, Winter Dawn, sets the tone for the rest of the album by after a serene string introduction morphing into dark ambient, then into a darkwave anthem, and finally closing with the returning strings. The strings keep coming back throughout the album and are always as gorgeous as the first time. The second track, Final Love, is one half horror electronics and one half piano ballad with low guttural vocals and screamed vocals. If the description of the first two tracks doesn't pique your interest, I don't know what will. I don't want to spoil the entire album so I won't discuss the last three tracks. They are as interesting as the first two, to say the least.
http://i.imgur.com/fKq4f97.jpg
Highlight track: Island Sun
Jon Chang went out with a bang once again. The last time that a band of his broke up, they put out an album that is in my humble opinion the single greatest grindcore recording in the history of the genre, The Inalienable Dreamless by Discordance Axis, and now his new (or old…) band GridLink has put out a release that, in time, I believe will seriously challenge The Inalienable Dreamless' throne.
Chang's vocals are stronger than ever, Takafumi Matsubara showcases once again why he is the absolute best when it comes to lightspeed guitar wizardry, and Bryan Fajardo's drumming is up there with the best of them. Teddy Patterson's bass track is somewhat buried in the otherwise stellar mix,so I can't really comment on it. There is also variety in the material unprecedented in grindcore. While your typical grind release would consist of 20-30 minutes of full-on blasting, and perhaps a random sludge metal track, GridLink utilise, for example, strings in several of their songs. There is even an instrumental interlude that is weirdly one of my favourite songs on the album.
The actual grindcore songs are masterfully crafted, and there is just the perfect amount of hooks and repetition to keep the listener engaged. GridLink has built a reputation as a band that releases no filler material whatsoever, and that is definitely the case here even though the album is noticeably longer than their previous releases at 21 minutes. The guitar sound is also one of the aspects that stand out to me the most on Longhena. Although the music is very cacophonous and intimidating, as is usual in the genre, the guitars are crystal clear which makes the album oddly accessible and gives it a sound that is very distinct from other bands. Also, it should be mentioned that when a band manages to get a person of Paul Pavlovich's (see Assück) stature to come out retirement to provide guest vocals, you can be pretty sure that the album is going to rule.
That's all folks. Tune in again next year.