This was originally written and posted on my Myspace blog (the Special Olympics of blogging). I've decided to include it here for posterity's sake.
DEICIDE - The Stench of Redemption
The best death metal comeback in
The Year Of The Death Metal Comeback...after ditching half their classic line-up,
Deicide V 2.666 unleash a hurricane of technical brutality, epic grandiosity,
and succinct songwriting. Oh, and Satan, of course.
NAPALM DEATH - Smear Campaign
Having spent over two decades of campaigning for musical destruction
with no sign of slowing down, this is another chapter in the story of a band
who've never released a bad album, ever.
VADER - Impressions in Blood
A little tweaking here, a little bolt tightening there, and
the death-thrash war machine is ready to go back out and destroy some more cities.
Irony is defined as four guys from Poland creating the perfect soundtrack to
blitzkrieg.
SUFFOCATION - Suffocation
Simply put, with this album, New York's kings of sickness
reclaim their throne.
LAMB OF GOD - Sacrament
By expanding on their simplistic one-chord mosh approach Lamb
of God prove that mainstream metal doesn't have to be dumb or drowned with syrupy
choruses. Today's teenage metalheads now have a Pantera to call their own.
MASTODON - Blood Mountain
C'mon, it's not their fault that they're being championed
by hipster music journos like Pitchfork and the Village Voice. Besides, how
many bands can write songs as technical and asymetrical as Mastodon and still
be so headbangingly catchy?
SLAYER - Christ Illusion
Wait, weren't Slayer a bunch of old dudes content to hash
out bad Hatebreed and Machine Head knock-offs? Who's giving grandpa the PCP
and rabies? It took 12 years and the curtailing of their civil rights by religious
fanatics, but Slayer finally released an album that sounds like Slayer. Hail
Satan, indeed!
SICK OF IT ALL - Death To Tyrants
A bare-knuckle return to their roots in the most jaw-breaking
way, Death to Tyrants isn't just classic New York Hardcore, it should be remembered
as the last NYHC classic.
TOOL - 10,000 Days
Probably the heaviest songs they've ever done mixed with their
most atmospheric. Their singer even lives up to the band's name by throwing
around and choking awestruck fans.
CELTIC FROST - Monotheist
There's no way a comeback album by a proto-black metal band
who went prog, then glam and then broke up could be this good. As religious
minded as ever, except this time Tom Warrior has ditched Satan to worship God...flesh.
Three words: Cold, sullen, oppressive. Sorry, three more: this fucking rules.
