Top Albums Of 2009 10-1

10. Cauldron – Chained To the Night
Although thrash metal has enjoyed a resurgence in the past half decade, and classic power metal never really went away (in Europe anyways), very few bands have chosen to situate themselves upon the fertile stylistic grounds of early 80’s Metal Massacre-era underground metal. These headbanging Canadian thrashers took the New Wave of British Heavy Metal as a starting point, and explored enough of its divergent branches to make a pretty vivid recreation of the most exciting things happening in metal circa 1983 without situating themselves firmly within the borders of a single style. This sort of rote historical recreation could be tiresome in the hands of a lesser group, but Cauldron has the conviction and chops to pull it off and sound great doing it. They are helped by a dirty production job that sounds both clear enough to enjoy individual performances and yet sounds like an authentically 1980’s underground classic. Their approach is simple enough; add a little teenaged Metallica thrash here, some Discharge-style crossover there, a dash of the early black metal of Venom and the neo-classical flourishes of Mercyful Fate thrown in for good measure. This should appeal to anyone who remembers the band Exciter, or who doesn’t think music needs to be played a gazillion miles an hour or sung by Cookie Monster to qualify as true heavy metal.

9. Sonic Youth – The Eternal
Some may have been enamored with the return towards economical rock songs that Sonic Youth made on Rather Ripped, but I’ve always been a fan of the more out-there guitar abuse that Sonic Youth have indulged in for the majority of their three decade career. That is why I am delighted with Sonic Youth’s first release on Matador, which combines all of the band’s best traits into one exciting package. The songs rock with an intensity that was lacking from most of the more languid recent material, and return to the full-on aggressive rock sound of the band’s late `80’s peak while nearly matching early `00’s records Murray Street and Sonic Nurse in terms of crystalline production and noisy distortion jams. There are just as many hummable tunes on The Eternal as were on Rather Ripped, but the music is much more interesting this time around. Not only that, but Kim Gordon’s vocals on “Sacred Trickster” and “Malibu Gas Station” actually make these songs better, while “Anti-Orgasm” even contains a compelling duet between Thurston and Kim.

8.Black Pyramid – Black Pyramid
Black Pyramid’s debut platter reaffirmed my faith that there was still plenty of inspiration left within the well of straight Black Sabbath/Pentagram worship. Stoner Doom as a rule is a style of music entrenched in primitivism and very few of the bands that work within it are able to transcend their influences in a way that keeps the music interesting without straying outside the sonic parameters established by the forefathers of blunted out ‘70’s hard rock. Black Pyramid is one of these bands. They succeed largely though conviction, inspiration and demonic chops. Darkly compelling gongs such as the standout track “Worm Ouroboros” provide a classic combination of beefy riffs and wah-wah guitar leads while evoking an addictive atmosphere of mythology and mysticism. This is perfect listening for a session of H.P. Lovecraft stories or a game of dungeons and dragons in a smoky basement.

7. Crystal Antlers – Tentacles
Crystal Antlers’ eponymous debut EP garnered them a fair share of hype in the underground rock press, and for good reason. With Comets on Fire seemingly an interminable hiatus, someone had to pick up the torch of ragged, chaotic west coast psych. Unlike Sleepy Sun, who border on the currently burgeoning trend in indie rock towards rootsy dressed-down folk rock, Crystal Antlers’ raw and aggressively weird take on psychedelia incorporates mechanistic influences such Japanese noise and “21st Century Schizoid Man”-era King Crimson. Their sound places them somewhere on the fringe of a number of different musical styles, but their brand of psychedelic garage-prog should appeal to fans of all kinds of underground rock.

6. Black Math Horsemen – Wyllt
As if there weren’t enough awesome rock bands with the word ‘Black’ in their name already, here comes another. Produced by former Kyuss bass player Scott Reeder, Wyllt boasts a guitar sound as compelling as anything Sonic Youth has put to tape in the last decade. While songs like “Deerslayer” and “The Origin of Savagery” boast huge riffs and explosive climaxes, it’s really the sustained vibe of darkened psych (and blackened psyche) which permeates the whole album which makes this one an addictive trip into the abyss. Although murky at times, the jamming never overstays its welcome, striking the right balance between atmosphere and economy. Heavy psych just got a whole lot blacker.

5. Sleepy Sun – Live Session
Sleepy Sun’s Embrace was one of the best rock albums of the decade, quietly self-released last year by a band of Santa Cruz hippies who fry brains with equal measures of molten fuzz guitar jams and affecting west-coast acid folk. In 2009 Embrace was re-released on ATP Recordings and Sleepy Sun toured with Fleet Foxes, both of which earned them well deserved exposure in the indie rock press. This year’s iTunes exclusive live EP (the EP part is questionable, as these 5 jams clock in at roughly 45 minutes) takes the template served up on their recorded debut but provides a more telling look at the band in their natural onstage environment. Although all but one of these songs appeared previously on Embrace, this is an entirely new look at a band that Stuart Berman said would trick you into thinking was “heavier than it actually is.” The track selection is the first clue here that this is going to be a facemelter of a live set. “Sleepy Son”, “New Age” and “White Dove” were the key tracks on Embrace, the lengthy guitar freakouts that were bookended by more sedate songs like “Golden Artifact,” and each is presented here in an extended version in which the musicians can run wild. There are no tricks here. Sleepy Sun simply burn the horizon down with their ‘60’s inspired workouts. The rhythm section lays down a bong-rattling din that would make Geezer Butler and Bill Ward nod along in stoned unison while Jimi Hendrix and Makoto Kawabata solo their way into the setting sun. Gorgeous male and female harmonies dance across the scorched soundscape. Sleep Sun’s improvisation is structured yet loose, immediate yet expansive and unhurried yet unstoppable. No one on earth in 2009 commands a better sense of direction and atmosphere in their jamming than Sleepy Sun.

The most noteworthy song here, and the one most likely to garner Sleepy Sun attention from people besides sun-blasted West Coast freaks, is their demolition of the Fleetwood Mac soft rock staple “The Chain” in which the throat shredding dual vocals take centre stage. The result is more Comets on Fire than Stevie Nicks, as the musical attack of the band incinerates any over-familiarity which may accompany the performance of such a ubiquitous song. Often used as a closing number by Sleepy Sun while on tour, here it slides into the second spot, grabbing the listener’s attention early in the performance and providing a nice segue between opener “Sleepy Son” and the astonishing 14 minute version of Embrace opener “New Age” that acts as the centerpiece of the performance. Finally the album closes with an emotionally uplifting rendition of yet another Embrace number, “Oh Lord.” Driven by some sparse piano and sweetly sung vocal harmonies, the song acts as a sort of cleansing ritual, leaving the listener satiated and calm after the draining rock n’ roll excursions that have come before. While the original was restrained and tedious, detracting from the power of Embrace, the live version outdoes the studio version in every way. This performance of “Oh Lord” is raw and emotional, an appropriately poignant sendoff for the set. If you want to sound really cool in a few months when Pitchfork gives Sleepy Sun’s forthcoming sophomore album Super High an 8.7 or something, then listen to them now and discover the best psych rock band in the world.

4. Baroness – The Blue Record
Baroness began life as a group of southern sludgecore behemoths heavily indebted to the likes of Eyehategod and Iron Monkey. 2007’s The Red Album allowed some classic rock 'n' roll influences to seep into their sound. A cleaner production job sacrificed some of their vaunted brutality for clarity, but also showed off some impressive chops married to memorable songwriting. With the second guitarist spot now being filled by new member Peter Adams, The Blue Record continues this trend towards a more classically oriented southern rock sound. Adams and guitarist/vocalist John Baizley both contribute thunderous riffs and compelling fuzzed-out leads that emphasize the exquisite sound of their instruments, while drummer Allan Blickle and bassist Summer Welch contribute performances that balance inexorable force with the grace and restraint of a telepathic rhythm section. While Baroness has not forgotten the power of earthshaking heaviness by any measure, their ever-growing ambition has allowed their monolithic heavy riffs to flow smoothly into delicate psychedelic passages and winding off-kilter jams, all within ambitious prog rock worthy song structures. Yet despite the new subtle new elements Baroness have tweaked their sound with, The Blue Record is an accessible collection of hard rock songs that will please fans of The Red Album as well as newcomers. Anyone with an interest in classic rock (as opposed to metal) should dig this. Clean vocals and harmonies are used along with anthemic hardcore shouts in equal measure, building into choruses that are as catchy as they are explosive. The gorgeous recurring notes of “Bullheads Theme” lends the album a sonic unity and allows the songs to flow beautifully into one another as the record alternately simmers and rages with suite-like uniformity of purpose. The production is bigger than ever, but retains a warm, organic feel. The loose, rustic jams Baroness have become known for come across more like Exile-era Stones than anything on Southern Lord. With The Blue Record, Baroness has created a finely crafted album that is complex and progressive, yet devoid of bullshit or pretention. A classic in every sense of the word.

3. Om – God Is Good
I’ll be honest, I was skeptical at first. Chris Haikus and Al Cisneros have been THE best rhythm section in rock for a decade and a half, first with sludgecore trio Asbestos Death, then mighty stoner doom kings Sleep, and after a long hiatus, as the only two members of riff-drone mantra adepts Om. So when it was announced that Haikus had left the band permanently, I pretty much gave up hope that Al Cisneros would be able to continue the run of excellence that he has enjoyed with the first three Om albums.

Fortunately, Emil Amos, better known as the shaman behind Portland’s astral travelers Grails, has proven himself a more than worthy successor to the dopethrone since vacated by Haikus. Not only does Emil do a spot-on impersonation of Haikus when the band are in full-on thunder rock mode, but he expands the range of the band’s sound in ways that the studies in dynamics on Pilgrimage and Conference of the Birds only hinted at. Here he pushes Al Cisneros’ bass playing to new heights, the two of them taking more risks in the studio than ever before. Rather than sticking to the bass-and-drums setup that has characterized their sound in the past, Om now incorporates various new sounds into their setup. Opener “Thebes” begins with a calming sitar providing colour and ambience over Cisneros’ delicate bass figures and Gregorian-derived chanting. Soon however, Al’s bass playing becomes far more menacing, and the piece builds in intensity before erupting into a huge sludgy bass march punctuated by Amos’s crashing cymbal work. “Thebes” is classic Om, and serves notice that these guys have plenty to say in their new incarnation as well.

If “Thebes” is meant to assure everyone that Om’s brand of lumbering sludge is still alive and well, Side 2 comes as a total surprise. Far closer to Emil’s work with Grails than Variations on a Theme or Dopesmoker, Cisneros’ bass playing on these tracks is sprightly, nuanced and delicate. If “Thebes” evokes colossal temples crumbling into the Nile, then “Meditation Is the Practice of Death” is the sound of flowers blooming in the desert. A flute weaves across the gorgeous clean bass tones emitting from Al’s trusty Rickenbacker. Like much of Om’s music, the ever-present groove allows one to zone out in a trance, and yet it still rewards close attention. No one in music has a better ear for the groove than Al Cisneros, and the gorgeous phrases that he effortlessly spins off are remarkable for their economy and effectiveness… he still really only plays about 5 notes the whole time. Finally, the two-part “Cremation Ghat” is probably the most un-Om like piece the band has ever recorded, and it demonstrates some of the possibilities of this new and formidable lineup. With a nimble bass figure serving as the core of the first half, Al and Emil experiment with the groove for a while before slipping in some chanting interludes. The second half pulls the groove back and explores texture and space in a manner similar to Grails’ hash caravan ambience. The meter and inflection of this piece is about as far removed from a pounding fuzzbass trudge like “Flight of the Eagle” as you can get, but the sound is still quintessentially Om. Om’s sheer power has not dimmed one iota on God Is Good, but an infusion of new blood has given the band more room to take their ideas and fly with them.

2. Mastodon – Crack the Skye
If you’ve been paying attention to what’s been happening in metal for the last decade, you should be struck by how closely the career of Athens’ Georgia’s finest metal band has paralleled that of the first decade of Metallica’s. Both bands emerged as leaders of a new scene during a fallow period for true American heavy metal. Metallica established the dominance of the thrash idiom in the metal underground and remained its foremost proponent for a decade as shamefully weak hair metal dominated the video waves, and in doing so championed an uncompromisingly brutal musical style into the mainstream while their dogged determination and enormous talent for writing challenging and musically accomplished pieces ultimately won them legions of fans the world over. As the last of the MTV glam metal bands finally choked to death on their own hairspray, it was Metallica who emerged as the biggest rock band in the world thanks to their take-no-prisoners attitude, tireless touring regimen and bottomless well of credibility with their core fans. Mastodon hasn’t reached that point yet, nor is it even likely that they will, but in an album by album comparison, Mastodon stacks up pretty well against the first four Metallica albums, bona-fide classics all.

Remission was unleashed on an unprepared world in 2002, and was immediately greeted in the underground as that rarest of treasures; a completely new wrinkle in the fabric of metal. Mastodon’s astonishing technicality in service of utter chaos was just as revelatory for a band as unabashedly metal as James Hetfield's punk-inspired rhythm guitar playing on Kill ‘em All was. Already a touring force in the American south where like-minded bands like Pantera, Black Label Society, Neurosis and Lamb Of God had been flying the flag of true metal for a decade or more, Mastodon had the good fortune of emerging on the national stage at a time when aggressive music as far as the mainstream was concerned was making a comeback. As laughable as nu-metal was in retrospect, it at least got people thinking that metal was not a dirty word anymore. Kids whose older siblings had shunned the technicality of metal for the slacker ethos of 90’s hard rock or even hard core hip-hop were pointed in the direction of heavier underground metal by the facemasks and turntables of MTV metal. As a result, the new generation of bands became willing to embrace old-fashioned guitar wizardry and guttural vocals in aggressive music, elements the short-lived nu-metal explosion did not provide.

Mastodon’s early material took as much from hardcore punk, mathcore and death metal as it did from vintage thrash and power metal, but over time the technicality quotient and ambition of the compositions rose to stratospheric levels. The quantum leap in musicality represented by their sophomore effort Leviathan vastly increased Mastodon’s profile, and an ambitious touring regimen gained the band well-deserved props for their blistering chops and intricate live performances. Everything about Leviathan, from the Voivod-esque polyrhythms to the cerebral lyrical conceits of the Moby Dick concept album mirrored the musical growth Metallica underwent on Ride the Lightning. Two years later, Mastodon’s Blood Mountain did little more than consolidate the musical style they had previously established, but merged it with more refined songwriting and cleaner production, thus further expanding their fan base. By now, Mastodon was getting attention in mainstream non-metal music publications and websites in much the same manner Master of Puppets proved Metallica to be a significant cultural force. If not in sound itself, then certainly in musical growth Mastodon has followed the blueprint of Metallica’s career, and they deserve credit for having the skill and ambition to pull it off.

Fortunately, Troy Sanders didn’t get crushed by a bus (although a drunken Brent Hinds suffered serious injuries after getting the shit kicked out of him in 2007) so Mastodon has delivered their ...And Justice for All with their lineup intact, free to let their musical ambition run wild. So… how is it?

Fucking awesome. Sporting just seven “songs” and a concept so convoluted I couldn’t explain it to you if I wanted to (something about Brann Dailor’s late sister, astral projection, Rasputin, regicide and the Bolshevik revolution) Crack the Skye is the kind of prog-rock hokum that a big name rock band hasn’t indulged in since Peter Gabriel was dancing around in a flower costume. But lest that description scare you off, let me assure you that this is a metal album through and through, albeit one whose sound has been heavily tweaked and processed in studio. In another similarity to Metallica, the sound of this record is as indicative of the time it was recorded as the legendarily neutered sound of …And Justice for All was in 1988. Fortunately, Mastodon’s studio wizardry is merely undertaken in service of presenting these astonishingly complex pieces in the best light possible. There’s no vindictive new-member hazing or Lars Ulrich megalomania here, assuming you ignore those “I’M THE BEST GUITARIST IN THE WORLD!” moments from Hinds. Here’s the thing though… he pretty much is. So when the epic solos hit at the end of “The Czar” and “The Last Baron,” you should probably just agree with him. Things can get a little murky during the epics, and even the shorter songs are crammed so full of winding riffs and stop-on-a-dime breakdowns that it’s easy to become disoriented. Listen carefully and explore the finely crafted terrain that these phenomenal musicians have created. You will be rewarded with tiny nuances in each player’s performance with become apparent only with repeated playing. Besides, Crack the Skye never gets so wanky that it loses its scorching momentum. The furious middle section of "Divinations" could be the most powerful groove the band has yet laid to tape, while the title track features a savage vocal turn from Scott Kelly.

Despite all the algorithms, Crack the Skye is Mastodon’s most accessible album to date. Hinds and Sanders have improved as singers on every outing, and now you’ll find real melodies bursting to the surface where once they had been buried amid the muddiness of their previous recordings. The production is clean, sanding down the rough edges enough to make this record palatable to people who still listen to the radio for their rock fix. Hey, Mastodon’s probably gonna come back with a slick self-titled record full of radio hits in a couple years that will be so catchy and simplistic that it will make them the biggest rock band in the world anyways, so just enjoy the over-the-top ludicrousness for what it is; the most refined example of sheer musical ambition and virtuosity this year.

1. Sunn O))) – Monoliths & Dimensions
The heaviest thing ever recorded. I mean, as far as a composite of all the elements required of a truly heavy album, I’ve never heard anything that can match it. To say it’s the best Sunn O))) album is to do a disservice to these savants. At this point Steven O’Malley and Greg Anderson are on a plateau that very few of us will ever comprehend. Nothing you’ve ever heard could prepare you for this. Seriously, if you haven’t listened to anything by Sunn O))) before, you’ll probably hate this. It took me 7 years to completely grasp what they were hinting at with Flight of the Behemoth, but luckily that whole time was merely an apprenticeship for them, a necessary time of trial and error to prepare them for this sonic momument. Their mastery of the drone and all its composite elements, the texture, the hue and the sheer sonic weight of their sound boggles the mind. Now modern recording technology has been harnessed to the end for which it was always intended. The production is just titanic, and the compositions embrace light to a greater degree than ever before, causing the dark to become that much blacker. Nothing could possibly sound huger than this. The affect is something akin to being sucked from empty, dark and cold space into the crushing abyss of a supermassive black hole, where all theoretical analysis is sucked out of existence.

The record ebbs and flows with grace and subtlety to match its power. The grasp of dynamics that the two masterminds have attainted here is nothing short of astonishing. The growth they have demonstrated over the course of their career from the stone-faced Earth-impressionists of the Grimmrobe Demos to the sonic sculptors of this masterpiece of a musical statement can scarcely be charted by humans. And this time, they bring more friends than ever before to help them. Atilla gets his shining moment on the opening dirge, “Aghartha.” With a voice so deep it seems to be resonating from a place deep within the earth, Attila does not so much “sing” as open his throat and match the crushing weight of the band with his intonations. As the piece dissolves from an agonizing blast furnace into floating nothingness like a rotting corpse on its way to Valhalla, only Attila’s deliberate vocalizations remain as a constant. “Big Church” begins with an angelic choir that pierces the oppressive blackness for a brief moment before the shithammer guitars return once more to crush the will out of any who dare to resist the power of the drone. Gloom and doom are nothing new to this band, but the startling stop and start dynamics of this piece increase the impact exponentially. Even the tolling church bell in the distance which at first seems like a perfunctory nod to the conventions of doom metal comes to be seen with additional listens as an emotional axis around which the rest of the piece develops. “Hunting & Gathering” returns to full on doom-crawl mode complete with gurgling vocals from Attila, serving to erase any memory of past or present, and plaster one’s mind firmly to the cosmic ether. War horns sound in the distance as the heavens split open and a divine power finally makes its presence felt. Ever the wise innocents, O’Malley and Anderson’s doom axes are channeling all of the physical and metaphysical potential of the universe. Through them is run the energy of a trillion supernovas, eons of time and space spiraling outwards forever and ever. Listen to this record loud enough and you’ll wonder if the voice of god could be any louder. But as triumphant as the record has been up until this point, nothing can surpass its arching apogee for sheer ambition. “Alice” is a microcosm for the entire spectrum of human emotion. All of creation can be summed up in its 16 minutes, as events play out in the listener’s mind upon a biblical scale. A truly inspiring example of human imagination, Sunn O))) so thoroughly explode their previous style within this piece as to make quaint notions about a band’s “sound” or “genre” completely irrelevant. You might ask yourself what instruments like tuba or harp are doing on a drone-doom record. A better question to ask is why it takes some scary black metal fans in silly druid robes to make music that is absolutely progressive at a time when technology allows humans to advance the art of musical composition to a degree unsurpassed inhuman history.

Nothing about what these guys do is inaccessible to you or me or anyone else with the time to think about music and the will to make it. But no one has ever done anything like this before, and for that reason I have to say I haven’t heard anything better in music this year. Monoliths & Dimensions is a monument to technological and psychic advancement, a testament to the power of the cosmos when harnessed by the eternal creativity and will of the human spirit. Like the masters said themselves… listen without distraction, maximum volume yields maximum results. Don’t passively hear it, but listen. The drone is inescapable, but for the acolyte, it is merely a sonic signifier to prepare you for your journey into oblivion. Commune with the godhead and you will be saved. Monoliths & Dimensions will stand for all time as an altar before which one may prostrate the living body and merge one’s soul with the eternal holy drone of the amplifier. Amen.