#22: Inquisition - 'Bloodshed Across The Empyrean Altar Beyond The Celestial Zenith'
Despite concocting one of the most ridiculous album titles of all time, being named after one of the worst things in human history, and vocals that utterly piss off the average human, Inquisition has created one hell of an album. After a sort of "meh" intro track, tracks 2 and 3 "From Chaos They Came" and "Wings of Anu" verily charge out of the gates, two of my favorite metal tracks of 2016. Just top notch rocking going on here. And it is very metal too. The production sounds very dark to match the music and creative vibe. This is the best sounding Inquisition album, and perhaps even the best release in their not-sparse discography. I have liked others of their's quite a bit in the past, but this one seems to take it to a new level. It is very encouraging to hear an artist progress and extend their creative vision with the benefit of experience and wisdom of one's craft. This is exactly that. Unlike most extreme metal, 'Bloodshed Across the Empyrean..." is not a constant high speed loudness no-dynamics-to-the-roof sonic assault recording. There is an art to their aggression, like just about every great metal band. Toward the middle of the album the tempo and energy slows down, allowing for the buzz of the guitars to shine through more over a slowish midpace throb. These dynamics are very important in music, but even moreso in heavy metal, to set up the heaviness and give contrast to the extreme moments. Rather than try to reinvent black metal like the 3rd wave of black metal bands mostly do, Inquisition improve upon the classic stylings of the past. I cannot think of an album better to introduce someone to black metal with, other than maybe a classic Emperor track. 'Bloodshed Across the Empyrean' has some very catchy moments, the production is dark but clear to the ear, and the songwriting has a classic sound to it, although I admit it is probably more ambitious than most old school black metal in that department. Being a latecomer to the black metal genre (I was always more into the more obvious genres of death metal, grindcore, and industrial), Inquisition has been one of the biggest reasons I have warmed up to the subgenre. Extreme metal has become a rather large umbrella genre over the years, and it is cool to know each of its offshoots. The heavy metal crowd in general is probably a little too much on the traditionalist side, so it is very good that a band like Inquisition can sort of unite so many styles, even if it is just two dudes and a drum machine from the Pacific northwest. Looking back upon 2016, this was actually one of my soundtracks to the summer (especially the aforementioned "Wings of Anu" and the title track!). It fit nicely in to where my life was at, my living situation, my job, etc. They are a light in their own oppressive darkness. A familiar concept for the frustrated, the darkly creative, the misanthropes and other misfits of the world that they are making music for, and themselves. Music is there to help get you by.
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#23: Adrian Belew - 'Flux'
The legendary musician continues his career path, this time not only unleashing a wonderful new solo album but also unveiling an innovative new music app for i-products. While unfortunately I cannot use the impressive new music app because I use androids and pc's, I find it very cool that he designed a powerful new app for live performance that utilizes computer processing. But let's talk about the album titled 'Flux'. The album itself is very fun and humanistic, as much of Belew's work is. It pushes the traditional songform as well as introduces sound design and music experiments on guitars and voice, etc. It all makes for a very nice variety of music. Some of the tracks here are only a few seconds long, others a few minutes, so everything keeps moving right along. There are no long dirges here. It has a very creative feel, as if the tools used to process the sounds were made with some of these songs in mind. At other times, it feels like the technology takes over. Again, some very nice variety here. And the production is nothing less than top notch. Get this if you like prog rock that has both a pop and experimental edge to it. It feels cool listening to it both at home and work, some nice every day music that doesn't get old with repeated listens. It is quirky, thought provoking, and brilliant music. If anything holds it back, it all feels a little scatterbrained and disjointed, save for a few of the more normal tracks. I mean, it isn't even a super long album but it is 44 tracks! But that is part of the charm of this release. It sounds really unique and unpredictable when on random or as part of a shuffle all situation. Pretty cool stuff from one of the older gentlemen of rock music survivors. By the way, I enjoyed this a hell of a lot more than the new KC lineup. I still think it was weird Belew was unceremoniously let got from a band he was a key part of for decades, but maybe it was for the best. Looking forward to what Belew does next just as much as what the Fripp behemoth conjures up on the horizon. #24: Instinct Control - 'Triplete'
Another colleague or fellow midwestern musician... this is mostly included because I bought the album at the live show after being sort of astounded. The live performance is where Instinct Control will totally explode your mind. A sound generated by a reel to reel making feedback loops, strapped around a guy's neck and tweaked out by knobbery. I bought this CD album at the show and have just recently started listening to it. If you like or accept atonal, non-musical extremely weird sounds, be sure to check it out... otherwise, avoid it like the plague, it is way off the beaten path. This is definitely abnormal material... but scientifically generated; demonstrating the interior workings of sound itself. When I saw it live it was at a wonderful noise and weird music fest in Rock Island, IL, called Weirdtown. My band Ampyre got to play it (check us out!) and Instinct Control was one of the later or even headliner acts. Very cool and intense stuff. The live performance made the room, speakers, mixer, everything, seem like it was melting. A palpable electrical smell was in the air, and maybe the mixer WAS actually melting a bit. The western IL venue Rozz Tox has not seem to have reported any mixer melting out of the usual, so I guess it is ok. If you like feedback and loop manipulation on an advanced scale, this is can't miss material. Exotic, even otherwordly sounds await... just on the other side of this dimension, through the electrical portal. find out more at their facepage #25: APED
http://www.apedtheband.com/new-album Some of you might say, hey, that's a friend of your's band, that's not very objective. Well, I might say, hey, i didn't get to hear all the music i would to like to have heard, and I heard this because it is free on bandcamp... 'Aped' by Aped the band from Chicago. But really, it's on here because it's just really damn good, catchy rock music that shows off some chops and mines some fertile territory while putting their own spin on it. Thrash has some classic heavy rock albums, but most of it is a little more firmly "within the genre". Which means, it doesn't really transcend its genre. Some albums though just have another level of being memorable. The guitar hooks and more than capable rhythm section drive home the message of some clear lyrical philosophies and themes. The vocals are guttural but clear, matching the music. There is plenty of play with dynamics and guitar sounds which enhances the depth of the heaviness. This collection of songs fits the classic vibe of the best of 80's Metallica, Megadeth, and even Slayer. If you are a fan of heavy metal both old and new, check this out! Well, shit. It's already the 11th day of 2016 and I have no official "Best Of" list out, that all important contribution where budding tastemakers, cultural purveyors, bored music freakazoids, and other assorted miscreants put forth their truly enlightened positions on music and why you should hear what is actually good.
And I haven't done that yet for 2015, and I usually do something like that. But I feel like there is so much out there that is good or worth writing about that I have not properly heard everything just yet. But I do know for sure what I liked most during the year of 2015. That one album that I keep going back to is.... Cherubs - '2YNFYNYTY' The return of an underground noise rock band, well respected in the 90s. From the south. One of the weirder of the noise rock bands in the vein of the Unsane monolith stacked brick riffs... I honestly don't know a whole lot about this band other than they have a lot of that rock x-factor vibe, so much energy is in their songs that it really cannot properly be captured. And they do funny interviews, very witty and full of personality. 2YNFYNYTY exudes rock intensity, but there is something more to it lurking beyond its blown out, distorted horizons. Not so much alien as imbued with life and unquantifiable energies. The riffs are there, catchy as ever. However, unlike some noise rock bands, there is enough variety and ebb and flow between compositions that it makes the effort truly an album's worth of memorable listening... which rarely seems to happen anymore. There is so much going on in the layers of loudness that can be heard within, it is refreshing; referencing everything musical, as well as pure texture. Its sounds are both visceral and visual, image-conjuring even in their duller points. It is not unlike My Bloody Valentine's 'Loveless', except it is denser and less ethereal, more down to earth. Very similar in that it can be an adventure just sliding around multiple bands on an EQ to see what will happen as you catch glimpses into parallel dimensions. This is not a very revealing recording, as its murk masks some of what is going on, as it reveals itself more upon each listen. That doesn't mean it doesn't have a lot of sunny qualities to it, or a lack of space. Its all there. One of if not the best album of 2015, in this guy's maybe not so humble estimation. The vocals top it all off with extra unique, soulful punk delivered rants and observations from a higher source. Could even unify rooms of not necessarily like-minded people, it is so broad in its scope. That is, if everyone is into great envelope-pushing music that will not win them any bonus points at the water cooler during small talk... but will garner them a gold star for sure in the bigger picture. Unreleased Aphex Twin & AFX tracks on Soundcloud To make a long story short, Aphex Twin released like 200 tracks early in 2015 that he was sitting on for years and years, dating all the way back to the beginning. Stretched out between all those years of unreleased tracks are some hidden gems, some of his best material. While over half of it is clearly b-sides or spin off versions of already existing tracks (which are always cool to hear!), there is enough material for at the least a double album of cool shit that puts most electronic artists (both beat and ambient oriented) to shame. And you got to hear them on a nearly unpredictable basis during the winter and spring, and they were free. One of my favorite things to happen all year. Almost made his most excellent 2015 "acoustic" EP an afterthought. Cheatahs - 'Mythologies' LP and 'Sunne' EP Move over Tame Impala, these guys are doing it better. If you like blissed out, psychedelic alternative rock, there's few better than Cheatahs over the past 5 years or so. A few years back I usually would see this band's name among the group of shoegaze revival bands mentioned in various publications and websites. First off this year, Sunne EP was released: the 4 songs contained therein topping anything Cheatahs had ever done, even though they were already a fairly established and popular band among shoegaze and alternative rock circles. The EP was bursting with fiery energy and pedal to the metal tempos, while the LP released a few months later dialed it down a couple notches but explored entirely new territory for the band. Cheatahs always had its pop elements, but they are presented in many new ways on Mythologies. The melodies became more complex and futuristic sounding, more pop as well as more psychedelic at the same time, without sacrificing their rock energies. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to hear something forward thinking and maybe even visionary but still in a familiar rock format. Dodheimsgard - 'A Umbra Omega' In a year full of tons and tons of metal, especially of the blackened kind, Dodheimsgard was able to stick out like a sore thumb glowing with bizarre magical powers. I have had this album basically since it was released months and months ago, but I am still trying to figure out what is going on with it. Despite that confusion, I could tell there was some sort of singular and precise vision being conveyed. The vocals were so deranged and different sounding from the rest of the field that it felt like between being yelled at in a different way, and all the avant garde and very creative compositional elements, this was something to pay attention to. And it seems to be worth repeat listens each time, even though I cannot remember everything that is going on. Which ultimately makes it interesting since it leaves some intrigue in the listener's mind, as if there is some kind of unidentifiable purpose in the weird, dark chaos. Now I want to hear it again! Failure - 'Heart Is A Monster' The much anticipated return did not disappoint! I gotta admit though, it sounded much more polished and 90s rock radio than I had thought it would, like what if they had just kept getting bigger and did not have to break up. Well we have come full circle and bands are going back to a more direct, grungier sound... but I have to say, several songs on this album will be a big part of the memories I have of this past summer. The heart is indeed a monster, wanting what it wants. Fits well within their discography despite it sounding a bit out of place in contemporary rock music. Falcon Haptics - 'Scuzzmaster' A one man band from Iowa that used to be called something else, and made one man black metal instead of progged up stoner rock. His drum programming is better than ever, his guitar playing pushing new heights and expanding into different styles, while he actually sings on this instead of producing the usual raspily screamed utterances that is heard often at this time. This is complex yet catchy and obvious, which references 60s and 70s rock while pushing into outer space on the scuzziest bucket of bolts laying around in the desert. A gem in a sea of similarity, this one really sticks out as a classic in the crowded field of stoner rock. The compositions and catchy songs are what puts it on this list even though it is also technically proficient and a little forward thinking. John Zorn - 'Pellucidar' My favorite of the mellow exotica albums Zorn has been producing more and more frequently for years now. The analog production is as if you are in the room but better. Fully clear vibraphones caress your ears, robust guitar tones massage your brain, and seamless rhythms take you to other places on dancing feet. One of the most vivid recordings I have ever heard. A wondrous record that is much more traditional than most of Zorn's ouvre, it is in love with the sounds and luscious tones made by the instruments more than anything else. Simple but powerful and beautiful all at once, I probably listened to this more than anything else this year, even though at one point of my life I would have thought of this as dad or even granddad music. L'Enfant De La Forêt - 'ABRAXAS' I am still impressed by the production, scope, and vision of this album even though I have had it for nearly a year and many more albums have come out with similarities to this. At its best it is exciting industrial-tinged futuristic trip hop sounding material. At its worst it is truly horrifying horror music. I really hope this guy gets to score a horror flick, as I would check it out just because it would probably be a lot better than many horror movies based on its sounds alone. This album is truly cinematic sounding, gritty, real, surreal, floating, grounded, spooky, nocturnal music. To balance out the slower, dark soundtrack movements, there are a few more intense rock moments that give it just enough variety without taking it out of its particular context. Loop - 'Array 1' EP I really wish there was more Loop this year than just 3 new songs and 1 new drone track, but this is what we got and it was really damn good. Very dark yet warm sounding shoegaze music from some of the originators of the sound. I love the new lineup and approach from Robert Hampson and company. Very highly recommended and super detailed production values. Cannot wait for 'Array 2', let's hear that ASAP. Come on! I'm addicted to these sounds. Magma - 'Slag Tanz' This was the year of Magma for me, as I got to see them live and now fully understand their music. It took a few years, but I finally got it. Live, they were one of the tightest and most musical bands I have ever witnessed, despite the difficulty of their music and their more advanced age. They must practice like every day... Slag Tanz was a departure for them, carving up basically what was once probably one long song into smaller, only a few minutes long pieces or movements. Bordering on EP territory rather than bloated prog rock tome, this album pushes the limits of being concise within a larger form. One of their best albums. Mastery - 'V.A.L.I.S.' This one man black metal band seems to be pioneering a new type of sound within a genre that is so intense and fast that it is not easy to comprehend what is going on. Even more abstract than most of the more obtuse extreme metal bands, the music is difficult to describe, as it must be experienced. Sonically, it is on its own in some kind of other realm of perception. Streamlined into only the more aerodynamic sounds of distortion and world ending clatter, this will take you places you never even dreamed (or nightmared) of. Meat Beat Manifesto - 'KASM02' EP One of my all time favorite electronic music artists released new music, so I'm probably gonna have it on my year end list! One of the reasons that I make electronic music is Jack Dangers, always an inspiration and always producing top notch sounds. This one is more meditative and mellow than much of his work, but it retains all of the futurism. Melvins reissues of Ozma, Lysol, Bullhead, and Eggnog on vinyl Because, fuck yeah! That's some of the best punk rock and metal ever made in an era full of great music. These 4 albums were really in need of a remaster and these did not disappoint. Some of my favorite albums from one of my favorite bands presented most properly with a new master on new vinyl. Primitive Man - 'Home Is Where The Hatred Is' EP A simple reminder just how dysfunctional things really are. This is one of the heaviest bands around today and they continue to delve into their own sound. Sloppy and monstrous heavy metal with nihilistic vocals. Only for the tortured and malshapen minds of the outcast misfits of society. Ringo Deathstarr - 'Pure Mood' This would potentially be my album of the year if the production was anywhere near as good as the production demonstrated on their main shoegazer competition, Cheatahs' Mythologies LP, and the universe of sound and tight riffs heard on Cherubs latest 2YNFYNYTY LP. Other than those two releases, any record resembling anything of a pop format on my list is second to this. I just love most of the songs on here and they are dripping with psychedelia and shoegaze elements. Definitely going into My Bloody Valentine territory but overtly retaining their own persona. At least half this album is going to stick with me for a lifetime. Lyrically it is rather childish but I still love this more than most albums I have heard in recent years. While it is ultimately a love letter to the 90's and far from a perfect album, somehow I have really enjoyed it despite these realizations. Definitely in my top 5 of 2015. Thou and The Body - 'You, Whom I Have Always Hated' Crushing. Covers of early NIN. Two different sludge bands in one (I like Thou way more, but somehow this works). Torturously heavy, just like being in love. Resides in that nihilistic territory of Primitive Man, but more refined. Battles - 'La Di Da Di' The closest the band has come to matching the sound of its early live shows and initial trio of EP releases, which is beginning to make me a fan again. It is still a little too cartoony and overproduced for my tastes, but this music is upbeat, interesting, positive, and makes me productive at work so I am including it here. My favorite LP by them. King Midas Sound with Fennesz - 'Edition 1' This is the direction I would like to hear from Massive Attack, almost sounds like a lost album from them. Since they are due for a new one, this takes its place and is maybe even better than what they would do, if they did anything last year. Plus Fennesz! What more could you want? Really advanced sounds here. ... Next are some albums I just recently acquired and listened to a few times, that I feel will be enjoyed in the long run... just not so much in 2015... Onirik - 'Casket Dream Veneration' Crafty, well constructed black metal. Very well done. Very European. Vastum - 'Hole Below' A perfectly aggressive death metal album full of chops. An appropriate follow-up to 'Patricidal Lust'. Lychgate - 'An Antidote For The Glass Pill' Black metal with real pipe organ! Holy shit, this is ridiculous and executed with no cheese somehow. A grower. Jute Gyte - 'Ship of Theseus' So, hearing Mastery early in the year, I figured I wouldn't hear anything like it until another Mastery album. But, lo and behold, here comes Jute Gyte, dropping a similarly harrowing existential nightmare of unpredictable atonal futurism. Both albums are near perfect and seem to be creating a new type of futuristic metal more blackened than death. Arca - 'Mutant' Some really "new" sounding electronic music, the beats have been so abstracted that they are not always beats exactly. Floating pseudo familiarities swirl around the stereo field. Disorienting but not malevolent. Cruciamentum - 'Charnel Passages' I was instantly infatuated with this album, a classic extreme metal sound referencing all kinds of points from the past but in non-generic ways. I just like the overall sound of this and they got doing the extreme thing very right. Grimey and dark, heavy, mysterious, menacing yet inviting with tons of energy. Snail - 'Feral' This might be my favorite straight up stoner rock album this year, in a year with great albums by Clutch, High On Fire, and other genre heavyweights. Snail have been around for almost as long but keep on keepin' on even though they have perennially gone virtually unnoticed. Each of their albums sound like their own particular vision on the genre while still progressing their craft, somehow not sounding like the stoner rock factory formula completely. Kelela - 'Hallucinogen' EP If you haven't guessed by now, I like futuristic sounding stuff. This sounds like R&B from the future. Kelela pushes her sound which debuted a couple years ago further into innovative territory while sounding more human than her more popular contemporaries. Hopefully on the next LP the sound she has been pioneering will be met with a more mature lyrical approach, as I think it would take her to the next level. Serocs - 'And When the Sky Was Opened' Heard a few technical death metal albums this year, and while I am not currently into the genre as much as I used to be, I found this album to be thoroughly hooky and extreme, and BRUTAL. It also has some quieter moments to give contrast to the brutality of this band's sounds... so it doesn't sound like the same thing for 50 minutes or whatever. Helton and Bragg - 'Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel' One of the best experimental drone oriented albums of the year. I don't know, just got it and it sounds amazing, not much else to say about it right now other than I was captivated upon first listen. Will review later. But what I do remember for sure is they take these 2 instruments into new territories one might not imagine of these two devices. Holly Herndon - 'Platform' A critics darling for good reason. She tops her first album somehow... Very advanced digital signal processing of samples of her lovely voice, but this time arranged in a more musical manner rather than musique concrete. Might be the most futuristic sounding thing on here yet! Another one that I have not heard much but that I know should be mentioned, not just because other music writers liked it, but because it's something everyone should hear. Nevoa - 'The Absence of Void' Yet more black metal! But this is blacker than most! Extreme, yes! Unlistenable, no! Perhaps a good starting point if you are looking into getting into the 3rd wave of black metal before the 4th wave hits (and with bands like Mastery and Jute Gyte the 4th wave might already be hitting!). Misþyrming - Söngvar elds og óreiðu No idea what is going on with those words, and I have heard this less than even some of these on the tail end of this list. So why is it on here? Instant impact, instant impression. It's that good. I just haven't figured it out yet. Henry Kaiser - 'Plane Crash 2' I suppose this is my jazz inclusion for the year. Some years there's more jazz that I've discovered, but I always find at least one really good one. Another great one was by Atomic, but I'll write about that later as I didn't find it quite as memorable as I'm finding this so far. If you don't know Henry Kaiser, his music is almost unidentifiable. It is guitar, but ran through many alienating effects, so much so that the uninformed music listener often thinks he is a horrible guitar player, which is not the case. One of the more virtuosic but out of the box guitar players in music history. I call him jazz because I don't know how else to describe it. Very experimental weird sounds coming from traditional instruments, a definite stretching of the envelope yet again for Kaiser, but this time more beautifully recorded. It has been nearly a month since 2014 drew its final breath, so I am nearly ready to write about my favorite albums and most intense live music experiences. But yet, I am writing about it, already. There are some albums I haven't totally digested yet, because of the great blessing and curse of Year End Lists (ultimately, it's a good thing, but it sure does slow down my year end list presentation).
Instead of rating albums, I'm sticking with the simple short review format. Since it has been nearly a year since the last post here, I will keep this the same style of short but fun review and forego the ratings, while also letting you know which ones are my absolute favorites of the year (I think there's about five of them). A nearly identical version of this also appears over at the excellent Art Rock Tendencies blog... but this one has a couple extras and is expanded in a few reviews, with Godflesh photos at the bottom for my most memorable live show of the year. Aphex Twin - 'Syro' the long awaited return from one of the most talented creators of electronic music was just as good as most everyone had hoped, showcasing his intricate yet very human sounding beat programming and his advanced sense of melody. I instantaneously likened it to a combination of the style of Richard D. James album and the medium of the Analord series by AFX, and I think that lazy comparison is pretty apt still. Cheatahs - 's/t' this one was my summer soundtrack, bright sounding but rocking noise pop with overt psychedelic shoegaze trappings. Almost like My Bloody Valentine's EPs meet Dinosaur Jr, but not... it reminds me of something familiar though. Crisis Arm - 'Rend' in my opinion, the only band to come close to sounding as out there and emotionally charged as 'Loveless', including the big shoegaze return album 'MBV' (which was quite excellent in its own right). No other band sounds more like actuated shoegaze revivaling as Crisis Arm. One of the best albums of the year. Earth - 'Primitive and Deadly' an Earth album with vocals was not something one would expect, but that they fit in perfectly on perhaps their heaviest work to date while avoiding stereotypes was a rather badass move by Dylan Carlson and company. Especially when considering Mark Lanegan is one of the said vocalists, who instantly conjures a whole other subgenre of sonic mentality. Eyehategod - 's/t' the NOLA stalwarts of sludge and bluesy noise rock return and did not disappoint, churning out one of their best albums yet and continuing to evolve while staying true to their roots throughout. RIP Joey Lacaze, one of my favorite drummers. Floor - 'Oblation' this album in its thunderous complex density is somehow still super catchy and memorable... like an advanced version of Torche. Funereus - 'Return of the Old Goat' old school black metal, which really is just straight up raw rock 'n roll with dark energy. The over the top album cover and simple album title drew me in, then the music locked it down. Giant Squid - 'Minoans' yup, a well executed, sweepingly epic art metal concept album about the Minoans. Godflesh - 'A World Lit Only By Fire' I will probably remember 2014 as the year of the big comeback album. Godflesh teased us with a new EP, then upped the ante with this LP, which was quite good. Stripped down to its bare essence on both, Justin K. Broadrick and BC Greene bring ten tons of gnarled, mangled wreckage sculpted into a terminating goliath. Broadrick reminds us again that he is another lord of the riff and where he comes from. Gong - 'I See You' this is just a really fun album and a lot better than expected. Not that I expected bad as Gong is a great band, but it was a pleasant surprise. Very jazzy yet still prog rock, it's a must have for prog and kraut rock fans. Three albums on my list gave a straight up musical nod to King Crimson in the form of a riff or a cover song, and this is one of those three, lifting a riff straight off of KC's debut. Grumbling Fur - 'Preturnaturals' for the second year in a row, Grumbling Fur released one of the more interesting albums, combinations of the avant garde meet up with varying levels of new wave music that recalls Depeche Mode, but with weirder lyrics. Even if this sounds terrible, at least check out the track "Feet of Clay", which is one of the best songs over the past few years. John Zorn - 'Psychomagia' Zorn threw us a curveball of a fusion styled prog rock album with a whole new lineup of musicians. The ever prolific composer showed his versatility while letting the musicians' own energies shine through. Listened to this for months on end after I got it. Somehow even better than my other favorite Zorn release of 2014, 'Valentine's Day'... which also needs to be heard as another new direction for John Zorn: sinewy Shellac-like avant rock but with better musicians and no annoying vocals. Lawrence English - 'Wilderness of Mirrors' I waded my way through various drones and other weirdness, but this was the main one to emerge as very very interesting. Also enjoyed Saaad's 'Deep/Float' and Sublamp's 'Lianas' quite a bit, but English stole the show. Plebeian Grandstand - 'Lowgazers' this wasn't quite as good as many of these other albums I'm writing about, but I'm including it if for no other reasons than that band name and that damn drummer. Wow. Mark Lanegan Band - 'Phantom Radio' the thing about Mark Lanegan is that he does what he wants to do, and people like that. This album is all over the map and showcases his varied experiences as a person and a musician. "I Am The Wolf" is one of the best singer/songwriter styled songs I've ever heard, stripped down and compelling. Then there's that disco track on there! WTF!? Awesome. Medicine - 'Home Everywhere' I almost wrote this album off as nonsense, that's how bizarre it is in its creation. Instead, it is highly original, envelope-pushing shoegaze/noise pop. I still haven't really wrapped my brain around this one, but trust me, it is interesting to say the least. Futuristic and captivating and like nothing else I've heard before, which doesn't happen very often anymore. Merkabah - 'Moloch' There were a ton of great albums this year, but this one from these Polish avant jazz musicians might damn well be my favorite. They opened the book on King Crimson and studied it well, boiling it down to its elements and interpreting it with noisy drumming, taut guitars that drone when they need to, and a rather intensely evil saxophone. Mouse On Mars - '21 Again' my favorite collaboration album of last year, Mouse On Mars worked with many different other sound artists and produced a varied and interesting work that both sounds like them and others; there may be some filler here over 2 discs, but its still well worth checking out if you like MoM. Mr. Oizo - 'The Church' goofy ass dance music from France, each album is weirder and more booty shaking, however. Sarcastic, weird party music. Murmur - 's/t' I honestly haven't really put this album through its paces yet, but I heard it on a friend's year end list and liked the track he picked quite a bit. Then I found out it has a cover of King Crimson's "Larks Tongues In Aspic" on it, and I was sold. Can you tell I'm a little biased? Noxagt - 'Brutage' one of the most abstractly heavy albums of the year, Noxagt keeps sounding like nobody else out there while not repeating themselves. This time around it's 3 long form noise rock masterpieces that will blow your mind and everyone else's. Sure there's filler in the form of 2 atmospheric tracks that didn't really do much for me at least, but the 3 intense avant rock tracks were all it took as they are some of the most heavy things you'll hear in music. OOIOO - 'Gamel' not sure what to say about this, it's like really really good world music, man. Not the cheesy kind of world music, the good stuff. It's just a fun album I guess? Definitely weird, if you like the Boredoms check it out. Oren Ambarchi, Stephen O'Malley, Randall Dunn - 'Shade Themes from Kairos' I go back and forth about this one and the Merkabah album, it's pretty much a tie for album of the year; both albums came out of nowhere for me, found them on the Quietus list I think. Thought this one sounded so well produced that I bought it on vinyl to hear it in all its glory. And it sounds outstanding and astounding, like good film music should. I was not even a fan of any of these artists works before this, but as a team here, they shined (albeit, darkly). Pallbearer - 'Foundations of Burden' these guys stick to the style of their excellent previous album but make it a little more gothy and perhaps even more DOOM. Super dense and heavy, it is offset by more lively singing. Philm - 'Fire From The Evening Sun' say it with me: Dave. Lombardo's. Drumming. Dave. Lombardo's. Drumming. OK, got it? Dave Lombardo drums here. And it's awesome. Great variety of songs and excellent guitar work too. It doesn't sound like Slayer, but there's already plenty of good Slayer out there. Very original, high energy punk art metal, or something like that. Primus - 'The Chocolate Factory With The Fungi Ensemble' it took Primus wanting to showcase their love for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and them wanting to erase the memory of the Tim Burton version of the movie from the collective unconsciousness with the superb return of Tim Alexander on drums. The whole album is fantastically produced and an adventure in sound. Sure, we'd all like to hear them do Frizzle Fry again, but this is probably more befitting of their maturity at this point. Secret Chiefs 3 (Ishraqiyun incarnation) - 'Perichoresis' another contender for album of the year, this one came from out of the blue, as I expected Book of Souls Folio B to be their next release. Instead, we got something far better than last year's Folio A, an Ishraqiyun album! Some of the most complex yet natural sounding music you can find. Swans - 'To Be Kind' I almost didn't include this because it is to me a not quite as good version of 'The Seer', but I still got a lot from this album. To be able to put out back to back quality double albums is definitely a feat. And Swans were quite capable of pulling it off at this point in their career. The Bad Plus - 'Rite of Spring' avant classical music, or jazz? It's really good, whatever it is. The Bad Plus bring it on this one, interpreting what else but The Rite of Spring. Bring it! The Nels Cline Singers - 'Macroscope' Nels Cline is one of my favorite guitarists, but the 'Singers albums have been a little lackluster lately... until this one. I really liked it, and oddly enough my favorite song from Macroscope is a smooth jazz track. Go figure! Thou - 'Heathen' and 'Ceremonies of Humiliation' one of the best bands in the past decade when it comes to heavy music, Thou climb the mountain one more time and look down upon the deepest valleys, plunging ever deeper into desolation and the reality of our rapidly changing world through drawn out sludge epics. They remain ever prolific, but to me the Heathen LP and Ceremonies EP were the crushingest. Today Is The Day - 'Animal Mother' much better than the previous Today Is The Day release but retaining the excellent production, Animal Mother hearkens back to the peak TITD albums from the late 90s and early aughts. The drumming is super tight, the guitars sound as gnarly as ever, and the rhythm section is hugely encumbered, like a runaway freight train on a collapsing landscape. The variety heard hear is what sets it apart from other death metal and grindcore/sludge bands, as well as the levels of brilliantly absorbed prog rock tendencies. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - 'Hypnotic Eye' another album from out of the blue this year, the surprisingly great sounding toneful and tuneful Hypnotic Eye is my favorite Tom Petty album. I didn't realize how much I liked his music until now, somehow. Another soundtrack to the summer gone by. Vladislav Delay - 'Visa' this guy who lives amongst the European countryside in his own custom studio full of hardware effects continues to push his own envelope into a territory that can only be described as Vladislav Delay. Perhaps as singular a vision as Muslimgauze even, he has developed his own sound and niche and specific methodologies, and continues to make it evolve and breathe. Whirr - 'Sway' yet another great shoegaze album from 2014, one of my favorites. The heaviest but most catchy, hollow sounding but layered shoegazer album of the year. You won't be able to get these fuckers out of your brain. Those were my most listened to albums. Best reissue to me was Soundgarden's, since I got to hear a ton of unreleased material from their heyday and excellent b-sides I had forgotten about. But I don't really include reissues usually. Moving on to my favorite live performance, which was seeing Godflesh live. Their sound translated perfectly to the Metro's PA system here in Chicago, and the venue also provided the perfect backdrop for some amazing projections of various darkly psychedelic, futuristic industrial danceable mayhem. The soundtrack to the end of the world party. There were a ton of heavy, heavy metals this year. Way beyond a ton, several metric shit-tons I think were involved, if it is is even quantifiable. So much so that it deserves its own list. It is much like 2011 was: way more great metal than usual, and a lot of it was very innovative or at least creating its own path, as much as that's possible any more. A lot of what was enjoyable is that it seems like death metal is in some kind of golden age, and black metal is continuing to innovate in the lesser explored territories of musical direction; which is usually dissonance. Several of the death metal bands also explored dissonance, including the big return of Gorguts, the godfathers of death metal dissonance as well as technical wizardry.
2013 also saw the return of Carcass, the creators of goregrind and still far better than any other band inspired by their early stuff. This new iteration blends together all their styles as heard on their pioneering early albums, as well as the more technical/thrash/death metal sounds heard on 'Heartwork', and even the more classic sounding 'Swansong'. It also saw the return of weirdos like Antediluvian, Portal, and more of the odd range of bands that started cropping up a few years ago. And there were even some great vintage metal inspired bands like Blood Ceremony, Clutch, and Subrosa. There are so many captivating albums from last year, I can't even remember what I was going to say, thinking about all the heaviness... so let's get on to the actual list.
Wow, that was a ton of the good stuff. A nice even 32 superb heavy metal releases there, and I encourage you to get them all! All of them! hahaha. You may also be interested in these, Honorable Mentions...
EPs of awesomeness:
Although there are some albums on this list that rock very hard, or for some, could be called Heavy (or even Metal), there were so many quality albums that were released in 2013 that I am making two year end lists to kick off the blog version of Questionable Taste (what once was a facebook page for my internet radio station called Through The Cracks, which morphed into some other manifestation of posting some music through the magic of youtube). "Like" the Facebook version of this blog on your Facebook please, if you are into that, so you can get any updates..
The purpose of this inaugural post is to get a list out there as quickly as possible, since this page is not really done yet, and 2014 is now well under way. I cannot even explain how excited I am about music right now, both as a listener and as a musician... it is truly a wonder to be into and follow the routes music is taking currently. Production keeps getting better, the musicians more imaginative and more connected to information than ever, and the cross referencing of ideas is phenomenal. Music is everywhere, and it has never been so easy to get the word out about it. Which is another problem unto itself, to get noticed or even recognition; but I digress. What makes this year different from my tumblr blog about 2012's music is that I am going to just list my favorite albums of 2013, and not worry about a cutoff (the blog format was a top 40). Since I know that I loved more than 40 albums from 2013, I am moving on from that format. Also, I will not do a countdown to #1 album style of blog, as I felt that was too arbitrary a way of doing things, and made me look at music rating too linearly, or whatever... maybe hierarchically is a better way to describe what I was doing. And tier-ing is lame and played out, isn't it? So I suppose I will still rate the albums, as I go through and review them all (albeit more succinctly than last year) alphabetically this time, according to 6 categories. Just like everyone, my taste is difficult to attribute to anything or to sum up, predict, etc. Music is just super subjective like that (which is part of what makes it so great). The things that I have been liking more and more over time are jazz and experimental music, and pop less and less. And I will always love heavy music, innovative and/or adventurous rock and roll, as well as electronic music of the progressive variety (well, prog probably applies to all those other genres too, but sometimes I can find prog to be exceedingly boring or cheesy). So all I can offer here is my expert, completely subjective as ever and convoluted opinion; and hope to turn people on to some music they would not have heard otherwise. Ok, so, the list, is what this is all about... the non-metal list:
And now, for the Honorable Mentions...
Well, that's that, and that was there. 2013 was an incredibly great year for music, and I encourage you to get every one of those albums I just listed, even the Honorable's. Next up, will be my picks for best Heavy Metal albums of 2013! |
AuthorG.M. Bowles Archives
February 2017
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