The Top 50 Albums of 2011 - 40-31

31. Trap Them – Darker Handcraft
If you feel like Fucked Up has gotten just a little too slick in the past couple of years and you’re looking for some intense but straight-up hardcore uncut by poppy pretensions and ambition, then Darker Handcraft is the record for you. The album clocks in only a shade above half an hour, but the dozen tracks here form one vicious punch to the gut, with hyperspeed thrash beats and furious double kicks nestling alongside sludgy breakdowns and a hardcore barker who sounds like he’s been chewing glass and drinking gasoline. This is heavy as grindcore but still retains a tuneful shoutalong hardcore essence. Listen to “Evictionaries” and you’ll wish you were trashing someone’s apartment.

32. Griever – Inferior
This EP from the up and coming sludge metal outfit Griever boasts an impossibly huge sound, suitable for knocking down walls and ripping roofs from houses. Here they take their cues from spiritual godfather the Melvins, and well as more recent disciples like Baroness, Bison, Fucked Up, Kylesa, and Torche, bands that began with similarly sludge-core styled dynamics and soon developed colossal stadium-sized ambitions. In particular, “The Forgetter” demonstrates Griever’s ability to write a grippingly physical rock song while still retaining a compellingly aggressive shoutalong chorus. What’s more, there’s an understated knowledge of dynamics at work here which is employed at key moments to maximize the concussive power of these songs. A great release by a very promising young band.

33. Blut Aus Nord - 777: The Desanctication
This long-running French black metal project is finally getting some major recognition on these shores for their introduction of avant garde elements to extreme metal. The second release in a planned trilogy, The Desanctication is far more adventurous than its predecessor, but nearly as sonically decimating. The peaks here are soaring and majestic, even introducing a tunefulness that is miles from the ice-in-a-blender sound of classic black metal. More than any band I’ve ever heard, Blut Aus Nord are able to incorporate elements borrowed from electronic and noise music seamlessly into their black metal. Unlike the similarly daring Liturgy, this music is not difficult to get into if you already have a background in black metal. A record that is beautiful and terrible in equal parts, its power is undeniable. An essential listen for any metal fan interested in the future of the music.

34. Ulcerate – The Destroyers Of All
I suppose if Isis got raped by Cannibal Corpse, this is what it would sound like. Over the course of 53 mostly decimating minutes, Ulcerate manages to inject non-traditional sonic dynamics into brutal death metal. It’s an interesting strategy, and one that pays off. By stripping back the uber-technical heavy metal holocaust a bit and making room for some atmospherics, the songs become more memorable and dramatic. They also become impossibly huge, unusual in a genre known for its tendency to go for the jugular. These are compositions, not just blast patterns. The eye of the hurricane breakdown in “Omens” and the Oceanic-like coda of the epic title track are breathtaking. The relative placidity of the slower parts makes the impact of the heavy passages all that much more devastating. Purists need not fear; this is a death metal album through and through, just one that tweaks the formula enough to keep things interesting.

35. Colin Stetson – New History Of Warefare (Volume 2: Judges)
Saxaphonist Colin Stetson’s experimental solo work bears the mark of drone music’s growth in prominence over the last decade, but it cannot be pigeonholed into just one easily classifiable style. Though he has contributed to the work of prominent musicians such as the Arcade Fire, David Byrne, TV on the Radio, Tom Waits, Bon Iver and LCD Soundsystem, Stetson’s own work is a very different beast. Jumping from the solemn, meditative opener to a lurching, pulsing shuffle topped by layers of otherworldly vocal samples on “Fear Of The Unknown And The Blazing Sun” and followed by the avant-jazz shredding of “The Righteous Wrath Of An Honorable Man,” it’s quite clear that Stetson is a restless composer. He likes to try on different hats throughout the record, demonstrating great stylistic range and an intimate command of his instrument. This is a well-crafted record that features all manner of warped sonics and reveals new twists upon every listen.

36. Cauldron – Burning Fortune
This Canadian retro-metal outfit reaches back to a time when legions of denim and leather-clad teenagers fired up by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal turned their youthful exuberance and limited chops towards tackling the complex compositions of the steel lords of Britain. The result was a raw but faithful underground of surging metal charged with a boozed-up party animal spirit that valued Metallica and Mötley Crüe equally. Cauldron’s sophomore effort has a cleaner and thus less charming sound than the awesome Chained To The Night, but fist-pumping metal anthems like “All Or Nothing,” “Miss You To Death” and “Rapid City” prove the band’s skill at writing triumphant crowd-pleasers. What’s more, the musicianship has been upped this time out, as demonstrated most clearly by the facemelting “Eruption”-style lead guitar showcase “Unchained Assault.”

37. 40 Watt Sun – The Inside Room
The Inside Room is a well crafted doom-trudge that doesn’t lose itself in its own sludge. Although the sound is extremely heavy, the mournful vocals balance the density of the riffs very effectively. There is beauty to be found all through this album amid the destruction. The production is massive; the guitars here sizzle rather than bake. There are lots of little flourishes that add sonic variety, such as “Open My Eyes,” which features a gorgeous acoustic coda. Songs here run over ten minutes in some cases, but they don’t ever seem to lose steam or fail to hold interest.

38. Baptists – Baptists
This 4 song EP by Vancouver’s best local band is a crushing sample of their apocalyptic live show. Like a scrappier Tombs, Baptists have ingested a lifetime of underground hardcore which manifests itself in their approach, but a deep understanding of physicality and sonic depth have grounded their sludgy rave ups firmly within the idiom of metal. The best song here is “Bachelor Degree Burn,” a skullcrushing pounder that’s sure to get the pit surging. The best is yet to come; their debut full-length will be out on Southern Lord in 2012.

39. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for My Halo
Unlike the dark psych rock of 2009’s Childish Prodigy, Smoke Ring For My Halo finds Vile trading in the Violators for an acoustic guitar on what is more of a traditional singer-songwriter roots rock record. Vile is joined by his full band on a few tracks though, with the shambolic rockers “Puppet to the Man” and “Society Is My Friend” being the most notable. The whole record has a dusty, road-weary feeling that recalls past travelling troubadours like Neil Young and Tom Petty without sounding too much like anyone in particular. The sound is all Leslie speakers and gentle acoustic strums accompanied by a lyrical, subdued electric guitar and steady rhythms from the Violators here and there. Moreover, the songs feel lived in, with a classic golden production that makes it seem like they could have been recorded any time in the last four decades. The absolutely gorgeous “Baby’s Arms” might just be the best love song of the year.

40. Gates Of Slumber – The Wretch
From the sounds of it, Gates of Slumber have swapped a good amount of the Candlemass in their musical diets out for more St. Vitus. Unlike 2009’s sprawling fantasy doom opus, Hymns of Blood and Thunder, The Wretch is concerned far more with the demons of everyday life. Songs like “The Scovrge Ov Drvnkenness” rail against more worldly problems than ice worms and triumph on the field of battle. The sound here is similarly monochromatic, without the epic, neoclassical flourishes that marked Gates of Slumber’s brand of doom metal previously. What remains is more singular and immediate, a dark and brooding vision of life in the 21st Century. Now six albums into their career, the Indianapolis group may have yet to escape its influences, but as a bit of inspired homage, The Wretch is hard to beat.