2025: A Year For Serpents [Weekly Mixtape 203]

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2021: Stasis

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Hindsight in 2020

2019

I don't really know what value year end lists have anymore. In the past, they were valuable as a consumer's guide -  once the hype of an album's hype had passed, magazines took a more restrained view of the biggest albums of the year. [It probably helped that at there was less pressure to give an album a positive review at the end of the year - after the tie-in interview had been published.] But as with most things, the internet has made that redundant. The idea of "buying" or "owning" an album is asinine to someone with a Spotify or Apple Music account. [Anyone who doubts that millenials are trending towards socialism should consider the ways their music apps embody Marxist ideas about owning private property.] These days, "best of" lists seem designed to signal a reviewer's coolness - compiling the "best" albums of the year, as determined by the message board or reddit thread you most want to impress.

Credibility is an easy thing to fake if your past opinions weren't publicly recorded through a website or a magazine. [My own past lists included Machine Head and PJ Harvey. I regret nothing.] I try to be honest about my listening habits, and have no interest in being another dittohead parotting public opinion. Like the saying goes: Honesty is my only excuse.

2018

Don't ask me what the best albums of 2018 were. I wouldn't know. I tried to find the time to listen to everything that came out this year, but there just wasn't any.

2017: A Year to Survive

One of the more terrible years of my life is coming to a close. But before I get to say goodbye to 2017, I had to suffer through another fucking holiday season of appropriated pagan traditions, crass materialism and yuppie entitlement. Do you know anyone who hates Christmas? I mean, genuinely despises it? Well you do now.

Among the more useless traditions of the season is the year end list. As people gather around their screens to feel smug about how hip or "kvlt" their music choices are (delivered to them by the ür kvlt platforms of Spotify and Apple), I thought I'd try something a little different. Instead of "the ten best albums of 2017", I revisited releases by the bands who I've been listening to for a decade or more; the bands whose music shaped what I listen to - and in the case of one band, who I am.

2015 was the year...

 ...we lost a legend.

Swedish Death Metal Round Up 2015

2015 marked 20 years since I first embarked down the Left Hand Path (well, I started with Clandestine, but still). Since I first became obsessed with it, Swedish death metal has seen its share of ups and downs - including fickle public tastes turning from one regional scene to another and then back again. But the country remains the most reliable source of high quality heaviosity. And as much as I bemoan the dearth of originality and creativity currently plaguing the scene, I remain quite helplessly drawn to every band that comes out of it.

Best of 2013: Challenging the Orthodoxy

Best of 2013 by Adrian Sol on Mixcloud

Gorguts - Colored Sands

Here's an honest confession: I bought Gorguts' Obscura when it came out, and didn't understand it for years. I appreciated it for its strangeness, and I sung the album's praises to anyone who would sit still long enough to listen, but Luc Lemay's intent and execution were beyond anything I'd heard or could wrap my head around at the time.

Likewise, on Colored Sands, Gorguts present a death metal album quite unlike any that have come before it. It's a work of astounding depth and craftsmanship, taking preconceived notions of prog, tech, and brutal death and throwing them out the window to attain a unique and mature vision of the genre that will stand as a high water mark for years to come. I'm not going to pretend I'm any closer to fully understanding Gorguts, but I've never been so at peace with befuddlement.

Highlights: An Ocean of Wisdom, Enemies of Compassion, Absconders

Deicide - In the Minds of Evil

Deicide has been wildly inconsistent since their 90's heyday. Like a formerly great fighter alternating between wins and losses, you never know what you're going to get from their albums these days. Well, I'm happy to report that their latest is solidly in the "win" column. In The Minds of Evil spices up the meat-and-potatoes approach of the band's early years with vicious hooks and just a hint of experimenting with new sounds. Other than that, it's fucking Deicide, unabashed haters of Christ and servants of Satan. What more do you need?


Highlights: Beyond Salvation, Even the Gods Can Bleed, Kill The Light of Christ

Dark Tranquillity - Construct

At this point the most long-lived and dependable of the Gothenberg bands, Dark Tranquillity continue making stellar albums that take their love for florid melodies into new directions. Boldly entwining keyboards and Michael Stanne's New Wave-ish vocals with their melodic death metal, Construct is a treat for those of us who have both Kreator and Depeche Mode on our iPods.

Highlights: Endtime Hearts, Uniformity, Immemorial

Ulcerate - Vermis

Like Gorguts, Ulcerate have deconstructed the death metal paradigm to arrive at a vision that keeps some of the genre's intrinsic hallmarks (blastbeats, growling) and ignores its more obvious cliches. Vermis shows that death metal's territory is too vast to be policed, and heretics like Ulcerate roam its far borders challenging the orthodoxy. Let the retro bandwagon take heed and be wary.

Highlights: Vermis, Weight of Emptiness, The Imperious Weak

Cult of Luna - Vertikal

Cult of Luna have been solidifying their position at the top of the doomcore heap for almost a decade now; Vertikal is an accomplished work with elements of kraut rock, prog, and psychedelia adding texture to its sombre and oppressive palate. Whatever influence Cult of Luna took from Isis or Neurosis in the past, they are now those bands' equal.

Highlights: I: The Weapon, Vicarious Redemption, Synchronicity

Necrophobic - Womb of Lilithu

Necrophobic have been an undeniable (if largely unsung) pillar of black metal's second wave, with solid releases stretching over two decades. Womb of Lilithu expands on their hallmarks of blistering speed and frozen melodies with a symphonic flourish that occasionally makes the album sound like a Satanic metal opera. While most eyes were on Watain and their traveling E-Coli sideshow, Necrophobic snuck in with the best black metal album of 2013.

Highlights: Astaroth, Furfur, The Necromancer

Demonical - Darkness Unbound 

Sometime last year, for the first time since Entombed introduced the 15 year old me to the wonder of Swedish death metal, I had had enough of the style. The onslaught of second rate bands flaunting their HM-2 pedals and lack of creativity seemed to mark the end of my interest in the NWOOSDM, and few recent albums seemed to interest me. Luckily, Demonical reappeared to remind me why I loved the style so much. Driven by hooks and a blackened strain of melody, Darkness Unbounds wisely makes sure the Riff holds more importance than any distortion pedal. With no clear successor to Dismember in sight and their peers overly comfortable with wallowing in old school pandering, Demonical deserve to rise to the top of the heap.

Highlights: Healing Control, Contempt and Conquest, Hellfire Empire

deafheaven - Sunbather

The black metal album all your indie friends are talking about. The post rock and shoegaze elements may endear deafheaven to Pitchfork types, but don't hold that against them. Mixing shoegaze with black metal is not exactly new, but where deafheaven really shine is the way they use those elements to create atmosphere. Like the best black metal albums, Sunbather takes you on a journey, one with unexpected twists and turns.

Highlights: Sunbather, Vertigo, The Pecan Tree

Sepultura - The Mediator Between Head and Hands
Must Be the Heart

It can't be easy for Sepultura. Somehow Derrick Greene hasn't accrued the same kind of defenders as, say, Dio-era Sabbath, and the band's popularity has waned except with the die-est of die-hards; and even those would prefer a reunion with Max and Igor back at the helm. Once one of the most important metal bands in the world, the albums since their infamous split have alternated between decent and disappointing, with few memorable moments. Maybe that's why The Mediator is such a surprise; somehow finding a way to make the cerebral death-thrash of Arise co-exist with the wild experimentation of Roots, Sepultura came out swinging at naysayers with possibly their heaviest album in years. The writing may be on the wall for this iteration of Sepultura, but the band seem unwilling to go gentle into that good night, and I for one couldn't be happier.

Highlights: The Vatican, Obsessed, The Age Of The Atheist

Sabazius - The Descent of Man

I probably spent more time listening to this album than any other released this year - and I don't think I listened to it all the way through more than once. No other extreme metal band strove to challenge the status quo and top their past accomplishments like Sabazius. At over 11 hours long, The Descent of Man is less about catharsis and more like an endurance test, taking doom and drone to misanthropic, mind numbing depths. Part performance piece, part musical prank, it's the apex for slow and heavy music. For now.

Highlights: Cranking the volume to make your neigbours think they have tinnitus. Causing music critics to rethink their profession. Listening to the whole thing in one sitting and emerging from the other side with your sanity intact.

2012: The best albums from the year the world was supposed to end

 

Napalm Death - Utilitarian

Look back on any of my earlier year end lists, and you'll see that two words are a fixture: "Napalm" and "Death". This may simply be because, as my buddy Jay puts it, "those are my guys," but there's no arguing that Napalm have been on a hot streak since the career (and cred) resuscitating Enemy of the Music Business over a decade ago. Utilitarian, instead of trying to top the bare-knuckled fury of previous album Time Waits for No Slave, sees Napalm indulging their experimental side. John Zorn pops up to throw some hot shrieking sax on an already wild "Everyday Pox"; elsewhere, Barney and Mitch take turns imitating Michael Gira's spooky baritone. Strange off-time riffs abound, keeping listeners on their toes; and throughout, the band that coined the term "blastbeat" show all the young'uns how it's done. A quarter century since Scum was recorded, Napalm Death are still campaigning for musical destruction. These are "my guys" for a reason.
Listen to: Errors in the Signal, The Wolf I Feed, Fall On Their Swords, Everything in Mono

Glissando - The World Without Us

Strange but true: I was looking forward to the third album by these British ambient experimentalists almost as much as any death or black metal album. Anchored by Elly May Irving's ethereal vocals, and fleshed out by an accompaniment of strings and piano, The World Without Us is at once fragile and apocalyptic. Glissando have mastered the art of building their sombre melodies to oppressive heights. In a year of hurricanes and turmoil, this was the quiet eye of the storm. Armageddon never sounded so beautiful. [Also recommended: Richard Knox, the other half of Glissando, put out an excellent ambient neoclassical album called The Rustle of Stars]
Listen to: The Long Lost, Of Silence, Still (II)

Naglfar -Teras

How now, Naglfar? Whither wander thou? Never considered a worthy successor to Dissection, and somehow overtaken in popularity by Watain, despite having a better track record than both. And yet here you are on your sixth album, carrying on with your version of Svenske Svartmetal: Hook-driven; blistering; misanthropic. It's only fitting that the nailship of Ragnarok set sail in 2012, the year the world was supposed to end.
Listen to: Bring Out Your Dead, Invoc(h)ate, The Monolith

Kreator - Phantom Antichrist

It would be easy to misinterpret my contempt of thrash revival as a dismissal of the style itself. If I'm down on these new bands, it's because they've mastered the genre's cliches without capturing its excitement. The same can't be said of Kreator; since 2001, they've made everyone else who peddles the style seem increasingly redundant - and that includes most of the Big Four. With songs as fast and razor-sharp as the band's eighties heyday, Phantom Antichrist is balanced by melodic moments that recall the mighty Dark Tranquillity. As long as Mille is around to keep the flag of hate aloft, I'll never need another thrash band.
Listen to: Phantom Antichrist, Death to the World, Victory Will Come

Narbeleth - Diabolus Incarnatus 

This cult Cubano has delivered on the promise of the excellent Dark Primitive Cult demo, and then some. A throwback to the best of black metal's second wave, this is the coldest record I heard in 2012; and it's from a country that's never seen a spot of snow. A blaze in the Havana sky. Hail! [If you're not KVLT or hip enough to find the cassette tape, fear not: Lord Dakkar has given his consent for you to download it.]
Listen to: Walk Unholy Paths, Raw Hatred

Anathema - Weather Systems

I actually worried that the huge stylistic departure Anathema made on their previous album We're Here Because We're Here would cause such an uproar from fans that it might lead to the band breaking up; instead, it's given them a second life. Weather Systems expands on the onetime gothic doom metal kings' newfound love for soaring, shamelessly pop melodies. Boosted by the mellifluous singing of Lee Helen Douglass, it's more nuanced and textured than its oft-bouncy predecessor. If it seems like it starts to sag near the end, it may be because sustaining the emotional intensity of the album's first half would be nearly impossible; but taken individually, each of Weather Systems nine tracks are perfect. Another stage in the evolution of British metal's most amorphous band.
Listen to: Untouchable Part One, Part Two, The Gathering of Clouds, The Beginning and the End

Abnormality - Contaminating The Hive Mind

Taking the best bits of Cryptopsy, Suffocation, Origin and Cannibal Corpse, Contaminating the Hive Mind is merciless in its blistering assault, whilst being mindblowingly technical. This smokes every other death metal album released this year (and that includes a few of the names mentioned earlier). Abnormality have definitely made a case for their inclusion in the genre's elite. Fast, precise, unrelenting: This is death metal the way it should be.

Sea Bastard - Self-titled

Featuring a member of drone kings Sabazius, I expected this album to be a solid exercise in floorshaking ultradoom. But as much as it delivers on that, what's truly impressive is the songwriting. Writing ten minute songs that stick with you after they're over is a hell of an achievement. Whereas most sludge/doom is monotonous and self-satisfied, Sea Bastard have the gift of The Riff, that precious element that divides great bands from the rest. Doom album of the year.

Troglodyte - Don't Go in the Woods

Origin made a science out of crossbreeding technical hooks with unrelenting blast, and it sounds like their Kansas City neighbours Troglodyte took careful notes. This sophomore album is a half hour of blasting death metal that's as catchy as it is furious. While I was slow in embracing their strange Bigfoot fixation, even a curmudgeon like me can't stop himself from wanting to headbang and throw shit around every time this comes on. Book me on the Discovery Channel: I believe in Sasquatch death metal.

 

Macaroni - A Gift for Corpse

Originality is often overlooked and underrated in the current metal landscape; whereas most death metal bands seem content to merely rehash Morbid Angel and Suffocation riffs, Macaroni (one of Thailand's oldest death metal bands) have embarked on their own path, full of unexpected turns and strange digressions. A unique and accomplished vision that fans of Immolation and Gorguts would be wise to seek out.
Listen to: A Gift for Corpse album preview (unfortunately, my attempts to find songs from this album online proved to be fruitless; take my word, though, it's pretty awesome).

 

I come old friend from hell tonight

2012 saw a flurry of new albums from many of my favourite bands, and I greeted each like the return of an old friend. Testament's Dark Roots of the Earth was an immensely enjoyable album that fell just short of being a classic. Terrorizer's Hordes of Zombies didn't impress many critics, but it fueled many a cab ride to my jiujitsu class. As an exercise in pure distilled rage, it couldn't be beat. Orange Goblin's Eulogy for the Damned would have been the soundtrack to all my nights of drinking with the brahs, if I drank or had brahs. Cannibal Corpse released Torture, a Cannibal Corpse album that made Cannibal Corpse fans happy, this one included. Cryptopsy redeemed themselves in the eyes of fans and critics with their self-titled album, whilst still maintaining their legacy as a band that strives to keep death metal fresh and original. Headhunter D.C. are as no-frills as Brazilian death metal gets; they may not make it to any best of lists, but they did write my favourite new anthem: Hail the metal of death!

Dreams of Consciousness was voted the best metal blog of 2012 by the editors of Dreams of Consciousness metal blog. See for yourself.

Best Albums of 2011

Origin - Entity
Following the exit of guitarist Jeremy Turner and long-time vocalist James King, Origin's sole remaining guitarist Paul Ryan surely faced a quandary. How do you follow Antithesis, the best death metal album of the last 10 years? Is it even possible for Origin to get heavier and faster without becoming one-dimensional and boring?

Luckily, Ryan (backed by drum god John Longstreth, bassist Mike Flores, and former Skinless vocalist Jason Keyser) resisted the traditional sequel mentality ("the same as last time but more so") and opted to tweak Origin's formula by adding groove, melody, and epic slow parts. By not wallowing in past glories, Origin have created Entity, an album that manages to be as awe-inspiring as its predecessor without copying it - and one that perhaps signals the beginning of the next chapter in Origin's stellar career.

Make no mistake: mighty Origin made every other album in 2011 its bitch.

Listen To: Saligia, Swarm, Evolution of Extinction


Abysmal Dawn - Leveling the Plane of Existence
Tech-death at its worst is like an over-choreographed martial arts movie - the acrobatics are impressive, but you're left wondering what the point of it all is. Though undoubtedly playing death metal of the "technical" variety, Abysmal Dawn triumph over their peers by putting their impressive chops in the service of songs that are memorable, the hardest feat in extreme music.

Listen To: In Service of Time, Leveling the Plane of Existence, My Own Savior

Nader Sadek - In the Flesh
Steve Tucker's return to death metal couldn't have been better timed, seeing as his former bandmates in Morbid Angel chose this year to unveil their clusterfuck of a new album. With Cryptopsy's Flo Mounier and Mayhem's Blasphemer, Nader Sadek's debut is as filthy and twisted as crude oil gushing over a nude beach. As far as conceptual death metal albums go, this is a unique and forward-thinking meeting of minds that won't be topped soon.

Listen To: Petrophilia, Mechanic Idolatry, Soulless


Demonical - Death Infernal
With so many great NWOOSDM releases (Feral, Miasmal, Entrails), 2011 was plagued with nostalgia for the good old days of Sunlight Studios. What puts Demonical above every other HM-2 revivalist? Well, probably the amount of times I blasted "March For Victory," THE death metal anthem of 2011. And the rest of the album follows suit, mixing blackened melody with stomping riffs that make you want to raise your fists to the sky, a horn of mead in one and an enemy's head in the other. Like Hypocrisy at their best (and most evil), Death Infernal is perfect for metal festivals and house parties alike.

Listen To: March For Victory, All Will Perish, The Arrival of Armaggeddon, and then listen to March For Victory some more!


Machine Head - Unto the Locust
When I was 15, these guys were the greatest band in the world to me; since then, they've mostly been an annoying reminder of how stupid 15 year olds can be. Over the years, Machine Head - a band that promoted their groundbreaking debut by opening for Napalm Death, Obituary, and Slayer - traded in their credibility by jumping on every bandwagon from groove metal to wiggercore to emo. Though 2007's The Blackening was heralded as a "return to form" by the metal press, to these ears it was more of a cynical attempt at metalcore, while "metalcore" was still a thing. Adjusting my expectations accordingly, I wondered what form the follow-up would take. Certainly the band has noticed the relative popularity of Mastodon and Baroness - would 2011 mark the appearance of a bearded, flannel wearing Robb Flynn, complete with horn-rimmed glasses? Thankfully, they've gone the other way, with 7 songs that draw equally from the members' classic thrash pedigrees as well as classic metal (check out the Manowar steal on "Who We Are"). After indulging in every trend from groove thrash to mallcore, Machine Head have delivered, at long last, a heavy metal album.

Listen To: Who We Are, Darkness Within, I Am Hell


Krisiun - The Great Execution
How does a kvlt South American band best known for bloody pentagrams and uninterrupted blasting age gracefully? By applying the brakes and letting their riffs breathe. Call it the South of Heaven syndrome. Like every band that once vied for the "heaviest, fastest" crown, Krisiun now use speed judiciously, allowing their songs to build from mid-paced gallops before erupting into their trademarked blast. It feels wrong to describe a Krisiun album as "hypnotic," but that seems to be what they're aspiring to. Just as long as they don't abandon the blast, I'm happy.

Listen To: The Sword of Orion, Shadows of Betrayal, The Will to Potency

Vader - Welcome to the Morbid Reich
Like Krisiun, Vader know their popularity lies not in bold re-invention but in dependability. And having pioneered the death-thrash style since the mid-80's, few do it better than these Polish grandmasters. Less manic than 2009's Necropolis, Morbid Reich weaves epic melody into their mix of Slayer and Morbid Angel. A fine addition to a praiseworthy catalogue.

Listen To: Return to the Morbid Reich, Don't Rip the Beast's Heart Out, Come And See My Sacrifice


Primordial - Redemption at the Puritan's Hand
Much anticipated - by me, at least - the new Primordial album carries on from where 2007's To The Nameless Dead left off, with a mix of Celtic folk and blackened doom that somehow manages to be bleak and uplifting at the same time. Over it all, Alan Averill's vocals distill feelings of rage and loss in a way that few metal singers can dream of. The best folk metal you'll hear this year.

Listen To: Death of the Gods, The Puritan's Hand, Lain With The Wolf



Neuraxis - Asylon
It's sort of hard to root for Neuraxis - they've got more than a passing similarity to the trendcore bands of the last decade, and their current line-up is bereft of any original members. At the same time, it was hard not to succumb to their goofy Canadian charm when I saw them live (on both the Sepultura and Deicide US tours). Like Abysmal Dawn, Neuraxis root their technical virtuosity in memorable hooks, but meander ADD-like from riff to riff, causing their songs to morph along the way. Like serpents, if you give them half a chance, they'll make their way into your head and nest there for months.

Listen To: Purity, Left to Devour, Trauma

The Ten in 2010

Dark Tranquillity - We Are The Void
It's no secret that Dark Tranquillity have a weakness for synthpop, and their latest album skews in that direction more often than not, leading to accusations that they've lost their balls. Prone as I am to resentment, I've taken criticism of modern Dark Tranquillity to heart. I have to say, though, of all the stuff I've heard this year, nothing has stuck with me as much or as well. Void is at times shamelessly commercial, proving that metal can be melodic and catchy, while still being intelligent and heavy. But DT also throw the listener for a loop with 2 songs of blackened doom ("Iridium" and "Arkangelisk") that are as bleak and epic as anything that Satyricon have written. And of course there's that title track, a neckwrecking 4 minutes that rivals the best of Character in sheer thrashing power. For a band with an already stellar discography, We Are The Void is a fine addition, and one that I'm confident will still hold up in 5 years.


Unleashed - As Yggdrassil Trembles
"VIKING DEATH METAL!" Johnny Hedlund informs us, and there's no arguing with him, since Unleashed 2010 give Amon Amarth a run for their money as Valhalla's house band. As Yggdrassil Trembles completely changed my perception of Unleashed; as I've written about previously, they were previously the Swedish death metal band that mattered least to me, and who I characterized as an also ran that paled in comparison to the rest of the Stockholm scene. Well, I've since reversed my position, because this album simply SMOKES; brutal, concise, and ending with a fantastic cover of Death's "Evil Dead," it puts the recent albums by Dismember and Grave to shame. It's rare that a single album forces you to reassess a band's entire catalog, but that's what AYT has forced me to do. The best part is I'm still only halfway through.


Agalloch - Marrow of the Spirit
Even platitudes from hipster-centric Pitchfork and Stereogum couldn't shame me away from this album. Though Agalloch's new post-rock inclinations are jarring at first, eventually they make perfect sense. Featuring Amber Asylum/Giant Squid/Grayceon cellist Jackie Perez Gratz (who knows a thing or two about mutating strains of metal), Marrow of the Spirit takes USBM from tremolo guitars and blastbeats into the realm where single notes ring the loudest. If you ever wondered what the Red Sparrowes would sound like crossed with Opeth, wonder no further.


Keep of Kalessin - Reptillian
In a year that featured solid albums by both Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, the title of "best symphonic black metal album" belongs to the Keep. What these guys lack in costumes and a video budget, they more than make up in their songwriting prowess and stellar musicianship. And balls, huge, dragon-sized balls: witness their bid to take the song "Dragontower" to the top of the European pop competition Eurovision: They made it as far as the Semi-finals. For a black metal band that spends their time writing songs instead of gussying around in silly costumes, that's huge, and "Dragontower" isn't even the best part of the album.


Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini
In contrast to the sometimes directionless Vertebrae, Axioma Ethica Odini is fantastically direct, and possibly the best Enslaved album since Isa. Axioma is the sound of black metal in 2010, of Vikings embracing a new kind of epic, of prog without the wanking connotations, and of space rock without the lazy stoner vibe. If I ever get chosen to defend the Rylan Star League from the Ko-Dar armada, I can only hope that this album is playing as I take on the mother ship. I'm not sure where Odin fits in to all this, but no doubt the All-Father is listening to Enslaved as he puffs on his pipe and rides through the sky.


Kataklysm - Heaven's Venom
Some bands reinvent, while others merely retool, and there's no doubt that Kataklysm belong to the Bolt Thrower school of "just like the last one, but with different songs." These French-Canadians sometimes come off like a death metal Hatebreed, alternating between chunky moshpit-baiting riffs and blasting melodic death sections. It can get a little samey, and the band seem aware of this, as Heaven's Venom shows them taking slow shuffling steps towards maturity, especially on the epic "Suicide River. In a year sadly bereft of blasting death metal, Kataklysm fill that particular cup for me nicely.


All Out War - Into the Killing Fields
This album is on my top ten because, unlike any other album I heard this year, I was compelled to get up and dance in my kitchen when I first heard it. That, my friends, is sway. Though I rarely listen to hardcore anymore, this album fired me up and took me back to my early 20's when the words "metal + core" had only the pleasant connotations of dogpiles and circle pits. Gloriously pissed off, thugged out, and wielding Slayer riffs like machetes, All Out War are the soundtrack to a bar brawl post-apocalypse.


Killing Joke - Absolute Dissent
While not as earthshaking as their 2002 self-titled album (featuring closet metalhead Dave Grohl), Absolute Dissent is still a modern post-punk masterpiece. Killing Joke are perhaps the only band capable of veering from metal to reggae to synthpop while still retaining their heaviness. Among the albums many gems is "The Raven King," a touching, appropriately bass-driven 7 minute tribute to their recently deceased four-stringer Paul Raven. The pied pipers of industrial malaise, Killing Joke have crafted the perfect soundtrack to dancing into the darkness.


Evocation - Apocalyptic
The wheel keeps turning, and as the gritty overdriven sound of Stockholm death metal comes back into style, there will be an inevitable hankering for the particular brand of searing melodicism that flooded out of Gothenberg in the mid-90s. Enter Evocation, who have stripped down their songcraft till nothing remains but catchy hooks that dig through your ears into your skull and won't let go. Though these days I prefer my death metal rawer and more blasting, Evocation took me back to my late teens when the likes of Sacrilege, Ebony Tears, and Ceremonial Oath were dominating my cd player. Though I'm intensely critical of revivalism, Apocalyptic won me over by being a death metal album from Gothenberg that reminded me why, 13 years ago, that used to be my favourite type.



Anathema - We're Here Because We're Here
No album has confounded my expectations this year like Anathema's We're Here Because We're Here. In the 8 years that they've been gone, Anathema have taken their love for Pink Floyd from their doom metal mantle and lovingly wrapped it around a piano-centric pop dress form that can be described as Coldplay-esque. That's right, Coldplay. At times, it gets gratingly Disney, but goddamn it, when it works (as on the luscious opening track "Thin Air") it's disarmingly moving. And more often than not, it does work. Before you run screaming in the other direction yelling "sell-out," spare a thought for poor Anathema; in this year of progged-out post-black, it should be remembered that these guys were one of the first extreme metal bands to take the chance and stride over those spaced out waters, almost 17 years ago. Though their current relationship to metal can be described as tangential at best, it's still an album I'm glad Anathema were at long last able to finish. Hopefully, it won't be the album that finishes Anathema.

Best of 2009

This was originally posted on my design blog. I decided to re-post it here for posterity's sake.

1) Napalm Death - Time Waits For No Slave

When I was a youngun, two words defined my journey to the dark side of music: "Napalm" and "Death." It's ridiculous to contemplate, but somehow, nearly a quarter of a century after giving the world the blastbeat and a new way to irritate your parents called grindcore, Napalm 2009 are faster, heavier, and angrier than ever. Seeing them live earlier this year was some kind of religious experience.


2) Slayer - World Painted Blood

















The questionable post-rock influence aside, how could a Slayer album not make it to this metalhead's top ten? Half the album is dedicated to the kind of razor-sharp thrash that put Slayer at the top of their game and kept them there. Then there are the strange parts: the fistpumping anthem "Americon", the creepy Pink Floyd partying chez-Lavey interlude in "Human Strain", and the rousing title track with its moshpit-ready breakdown. Is it as good as Reign in Blood? Can anything ever be? It's a Slayer album, and in this new era of hipster thrashers and deathcore poseurs, that's as good as we could hope for.


3) Vader - Necropolis

No question about it, Vader are the reason that Poland is the new capital of death metal. They've been refining their death-thrash onslaught since 1985, but it's taken them till now to surpass all their death metal peers of that era. Vader have a battleplan and they're following it to the letter: catchy thrash, unstoppable blast, brooding doom, headbanging groove. Trade in your Morbid Angel longsleeves, Vader have taken the death metal throne with album after album of perfect songcraft and flawless execution.


4) Behemoth - Evangelion

In truth, it's hard to say that Evangelion is any better than any Behemoth album since they staked their claim on blackened death in the late 90's. A little slower, maybe, and possibly sorely lacking in the blasting department. Still, this is some evil shit, and on "Fire and the Void" and the epic tribute to the dark one "Lucifer," Behemoth prove themselves masters of the death metal anthem.


5) Cannibal Corpse - Evisceration Plague

I realized a few years ago that exactly one thing has never changed in the 15 years I've been listening to this music: Cannibal Corpse. What douchemonger questions their intention and suggests it's time for a change? Beatdown parts? Female vocals? Synthesizers? That shit won't fly here. Corpse have done exactly what Corpse needs to do... death metal music for death metal people. And long after you've "grown up" and discovered a new love for rockabilly or indie rock, or whatever the hell hipsters will be listening to next, Cannibal Corpse will still be 5 ugly guys making the same ugly music.


6) Coalesce - Ox

Has anyone kept count of the number of times Coalesce have broken up and then reformed? With this most recent comeback, it's impossible to impugn their motives, as A) the kind of migraine-inducing noisecore that Coalesce pioneered in the late 90's is a long way from making any kind of comeback, and B) chances are, Coalesce won't stick around long enough to profit off of it. When the dust clears, what we'll be left with is the career best Ox, an album which showcases Coalesce's unpredictability with bits of rockabilly, prog, and 70's rock interweaved into the gnarliest math-metal south of Gorguts. It's like watching Godzilla take his time chewing up the members of Don Caballero, the Jesus Lizard, and P-Funk, before spewing them across the Tokyo skyline in one atomic breath.


7) Kreator - Hordes of Chaos

Thrash revival? Fuck you, wannabe Williamsburg poseurs. Kreator never went away, and over the course of three albums have defined a new era for themselves. They may never be recognized for their true greatness, or their importance in the development of metal (it was a short walk from the melodic thrash of "Extreme Aggression" to the melodic death of "Slaughter of the Soul"), but Kreator have always rewarded their fans with the catchiest thrash anthems Metallica never wrote, all with that European sincerity that American bands never seem to replicate.


8) Wolves in the Throne Room - Malevolent Grain/Black Cascade


Winter is upon us, and nothing better accompanies long walks through freezing darkness than these Wolves. The definitive voice in USBM, the evil that emanated from Norway in the early 90's echoes through their music. The same necro riff will hammer you over and over till you're hypnotized, accompanied by Nazgul screams and a production that manages to be both raw and all encompassing. Malevolent Grain was the teaser ep, featuring the hypnotic dirge "A Looming Resonance", a 13 minute epic featuring the forlorn vocals of Jamie Meyers (Hammer of Misfortune) breaking through the frost and darkness. Black Cascade followed shortly, 4 songs of the grimmest tree-hugging ever executed in a candle-lit studio. Believe the hype: America finally has a black metal band that doesn't suck.


9) Gwynnbleid - Nostalgia

The best melodic death metal band from the US issues their debut album, and the results don't disappoint, with a folk-influenced epic that recalls the early work of Opeth, Katatonia, and early Dark Tranquility. The maturity that Gwynnbleid display is amazing, and it'll be amazing to see where they go for from here.


10) Immortal - All Shall Fail

Mighty Ravendark returns and engulfs us in its freezing shadow. The best riff-writers out of Norway return at full gallop, with seven of the most headbang-worthy black metal anthems released this year. It's even rumoured that playing these grim and frost-bitten anthems at full volume will combat global warming; I'm willing to do my part.