The Top Albums of 2013: Honourable Mention

I liked these albums quite a bit. Just not enough to write about them.

Alice In Chains – The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
Altar Of Plagues - Teethed Glory And Injury
Anciients – Hearts Of Oak
Autopsy – The Headless Ritual
Agrimonia – Rites of Separation
The Black Angels – Indigo Meadow
Black Sabbath – 13
Black Wizard – Young Wisdom
The Body – Christs, Redeemers
Boris - Präparat
California X – California X
Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol 3: To See More Light
Crystal Stilts – Nature Noir
Dead Meadow – Marble Womb
Ensemble Pearl – Ensemble Pearl
Four Tet – Beautiful Rewind
Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus
Gorguts – Coloured Sands
Gnaw – Horrible Chamber
Hallow Moon – Hallow Moon
Immolation – Kingdom Of Conspiracy
Inquisition - Obscure Verses For The Multiverse
KEN Mode - Entrench
Kylesa – Ultraviolet
Locrian – Return To Annhilation
Lycus – Tempest
Melvins – Everybody Loves Sausages
Moths & Locusts – Mission Collapse In The Twin Sun Megaverse
Mount Kimbie - Cold Spring Fault Less Youth
My Bloody Valentine – M.B.V.
Nine Inch Nails – Hesitation Marks
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away
Noisem – Agony Defined
Pelican – Forever Becoming
Portal – Vexavoid
Russian Circles - Memorial
Skeletonwitch – Serpents Unleashed
Shining – One One One
SubRosa – More Constant Than GodsThree Wolf Moon - Three Wolf Moon
Toxic Holocaust – Chemistry Of Consciousness
Ty Segall – Sleeper
Vastum – Patricidal Lust
Ulcerate - Vermis
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – Mind Control
Vattnet Viskar – Sky Swallower
Windhand - Soma
Watain – The Wild Hunt
Wolf People - Fain
µ-Ziq – Chewed Corners

Friedhof - Friedhof

Band: Friedhoff
Album: Friedhoff
Label: Sound-Star Ton
Year: 1971

This obscure German power trio released one album of raw axe-worship in 1971, then promptly faded into legend. Named after the German word for “graveyard,” these guys grind out a gloomy but high energy take on hard rock and proto-metal, complete with hot and highly indulgent lead guitar playing, and no attempt whatsoever at anything resembling a song for the radio. They didn’t even bother hiring a singer!

 In much of my research on the band, I’ve seen them referred to as a krautrock band, mostly due to the fact that they are German, from the early ‘70s, and very few people have actually heard the record. This is false. Don’t track this record down expecting to hear anything resembling the endless grooves of Can, the lysergic free rock of Amon Düül II, the mantra-like jams of Ash Ra Tempel or the synthetic dreamscapes of Tangerine Dream. This is a hard rock record, pure and simple, and these guys want nothing more than to melt your face.

Side 1 consists of just two songs, the first of which opens slowly, stoking the flames of a psychedelic jam and building into what is eventually a pretty rockin’ crescendo. Appropriately titled “Orgasmus,” it takes a while to get going, but once that jaw-dropping lead guitar starts to let loose it really cooks. It also takes over 11 minutes to run its course, which should tell you what these guys think of the notion of restraint. Not to be outdone, the second cut “Nothing at All” is even longer, though it generally follows the same formula. A little over three minutes in, the rhythm section drops away, leaving the guitarist to go absolutely mental over complete silence, covering every harmonic corner of his guitar neck and digging into his fretboard as if his life depended on it. It’s an astonishing guitar performance, and if you like heavily distorted wah-inflected leads complete with relentless pick attack, screaming bends and feedbacking amplifier abuse, this might be one of the most exciting things you’ve ever heard. And that’s not even halfway through the song! Soon it’s the drummer’s turn, as he whips out a couple minutes of arrhythmic drum solo that was an occupational hazard to most rock fans of this era. Eventually the full band kicks back in and pummels the message home for another off the rails jam to close out the track.

Side 2 has a few more bite-sized tracks, and a couple like “Undertaker’s Joy” flirt with some pretty catchy lead lines. It’s really just more of the same. Friedhof basically do one thing, but they do it with conviction and a ton of energy, and the playing is pretty accomplished throughout. Although the record is extremely rocking, it’s got none of the strung-out brutality of some of the doomier bands of this era like Sabbath or Pentagram, and at the same time not a whiff of blues purity or progressive ambition sullies their pure single-minded determination to rock out. If you want to hear some absolutely ferocious lead guitar playing that sounds like it was recorded in a dungeon, you’ll dig this. If you’re wondering when the vocals are gonna kick in, best to just give it a pass.

Capital

This is a very interesting article by Damon Krukowski from Galaxie 500 that explores how online music streaming sites like Spotify operate, and what specifically they do for new artists. Nigel Godrich and Thom Yorke made waves this week when they pulled their new Atoms for Peace album and Yorke's Eraser record from Spotify.

http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/8993-the-cloud/

Spotify has released a statement in response to Thom and Nigel's stand that I won't bother linking. Suffice it to say that it doesn't really say anything at all, just bland generalizations and non-specific points about Spotify's so called commitment to investing in new talent. No hard numbers or examples are given. It sounds to me like a lot of the same bullshit that the music industry has been proffering since the internet was invented.

No Horses - No Horses

Band: No Horses
Album: No Horses
Label: Self Released
Year: 2008

One of my all-time favourite local bands is this dearly departed Vancouver by way of Prince George roots rock unit. They released this lone album and raised and appropriate amount of hell in dive bars around BC and beyond during their heyday, before drifting off, as so many good bands do, to disband and get real jobs and raise families. But what they left behind is a reverent vivisection of Crazy Horse's unhinged and sloppy roots rock replete with wailing solo's, nicotine and whiskey-tinged gang vocals and tales of drunken debauchery. What's more, the were by all accounts a force to be reckoned with onstage, although sadly I never caught them when they were active.

"Grab Yer Coat" kicks in the door like a double-barelled shotgun blast, opening the album with a furious barrage of bent guitar notes and crashing drums set to lyrics about waking up hungover after a night of drinking alone. This is dark, depressing stuff, a worm's eye view of the rock n' roll lifestyle from veterans who have been doing it so long it's long since lost it's fun and hardened into a habit. Tracks like "Tombstone Eyes" and "Winter Park" weave tales of drugged out losers and hard working grinders down on their luck together with jangly country-rock guitars and a tough as nails rhythm section. You can almost smell the acrid smoke and stale booze sweat of the bars where this stuff was honed. "Shakedown" even offers a glimpse into the hard reality of making a living playing music, with it's images of a road-weary band tearing apart an empty venue on a Monday night, and it's refrain of, "Don't let 'em shake you down, don't let 'em fuck you on your guarantee!"

The Neil Young influence looms large here, as it does over the work of similarly rustic flannel-bedecked Vancouver rockers like Ladyhawk, Featherwolf and Red Cedar, but like these other bands, No Horses add enough personality to their work to avoid mere mimicry. The band 's tales of life on the road center the band geographically and name check bars and gigs and people, lending the songs a sense of authenticity. These feel like real stories about real people and places. What's more, the burnt out and wasted vibe here recalls a sort of alternate reality Rolling Stones circa 1972 if the Stones were just another band grinding it out on the circuit instead of English lords holed up in a mansion in the French countryside.

The album's centerpiece is a character portrait of a vagrant alcoholic in Prince George that may or may not be based on an actual person. "The Great Tabor Mountain Fire of 1961" opens with a plaintive acoustic figure before lurching to life with a wobbly, whammy-heavy guitar solo. As the song builds over 6 minutes, the vocals become gradually become more frenzied as the tale reaches it's climax. It's spine tingling, chilly stuff, and the band matches the tone of the story by rocking the hell out as the backing vocals burn a vicious hook into your head. Balls out rock n 'roll doesn't get much better than this.

No Horses toured up and down the west coast for over a decade, but this record is all that remains of their career, as the band members have all gone on to other things. But their self-titled record is a hell of a legacy, a harrowing portrait of rock on the wrong side of the tracks and a testament to the power of some dudes, some beer, a drum kit, a bass and a couple of guitars. Don't let anyone tell you they don't make great rock anymore. They're just not looking hard enough.

Update

The aftershocks of the bus crash Baroness suffered in August are continuing. Apparently the band will continue on with a new rhythm section after bassist Matt Maggioni and drummer Allen Blickle departed amicably as a result of the fallout from the crash. The deets are here.

How this will affect their sound remains to be seen. They just capped a run of three straight amazing albums with a double album, last year's brilliant Yellow & Green. If they didn't release another note of music ever again, they'd still be a significant figure, but either way, how they rebound from this will have a profound impact on their legacy.

Duality

In the tradition of Plato, and because I'm basically really lazy, here is a dialogue for you. It's a conversation about music and things that I had with a friend.
 

Me - I don't get upset over pop music like some people do. There's no point. It'll always be there, whether it's LMFAO or BSB or whatever.
 

Friend - Yeah. I actually like listening to stuff like that sometimes. Its nice to let my mind shut off and bounce.
 

Me - Pop has it's place. It's functional music. I love some stupid trashy music.
 

Friend - But in my mind, really good fucking music is like poetry, it evokes something.
 

Me - I realized the other day that I can enjoy music on two levels. One being the level most normal people do. And that's the level that lets me enjoy virtually anything, so long as other people are there too. I would never listen to some of the music that people I enjoy hanging out with like. But when I'm with them, I can have a lot of fun, whether it's pop or country or rap or whatever.
 

Friend - Hmm interesting.
 

Me - The second is the work I do as a scholar. And this is serious business. It's work and I treat it as such. I mean, I enjoy it, but I think about it intensely. And I write. Sometimes. Not as much as I should.
 

Friend - I can see how that would work.
 

Me - Anyways, I just became aware of the disconnect. Like for instance. This girl I like and I have in part bonded over "classic rock." Except we have different definitions of what that means. What she really wants is to hear songs her parents liked when she was young. And that could be anything from folk to soul to rock to disco, so long as it was recorded before 1980. Stuff she can sing along to in the car. And I have rigorous aesthetic definitions of such things that I adhere to in my writing and thinking about rock music and what that means. But I don't do that when we're hanging out because then I would be an ass. So instead we sing along to "Let's Get it On" by Marvin Gaye in the car at 2am.
 

Friend - Cute.
 

Me - Fuck yeah, it's adorable. Point is... I've been able (and I'm just realizing this now) to seperate my own very serious thoughts about music with what's actually playing, and basically enjoy music on a human level with people. I used to listen to a lot of really terrible rap at the spag, because that's what everyone liked. And I was able to have fun with it. And I hang out with a lot of serious music nerds who can be total assholes and have no sense of humor about music, and are frankly pretty nasty for no reason about stupid shit.
 

Friend - Do you think they are actually really that angry, or do they feel like its their "duty" as these cerebral indie fucks to get angry?
 

Me - Well probably, but here's an example. So many people give Nickelback shit. And it's like, whatever, if they weren't doing it, someone else would.
 

Friend - Yeah, thats why music is so amazing. Its personal. And interesting. And diverse. And fun. And weird. But it's important as fuck. Like I love car rides with my female friends and we turn up Drake or Rihanna and laugh and dance... but If I was constantly surrounded by that I would die. I need someone who if they aren't interested in my tastes, at least be open and receptive to it.

Me - Totally. Look, I LOVE metal. But a lot of people will not listen to it. And that doesn't bother me. It's not like I think some Slayer track is going to make them change their mind.
 

Friend - Haha, thank you.
 

Me - It's just that we spend so much time bludgeoning each other with our musical tastes, like they are clubs. And that's so stupid. For what? So we can be embarassed about liking things? We should be sharing. Most music is a shared experience. Or it should be anyways. It's made when people come together in performance or collaboration, and it's best enjoyed as such.
 

Friend - Come together, collaborate and listen...yep
 

Me - It's always better to be with friends (or even strangers) who are united in their appreciation for a piece of music.
 

Friend - It's all right there.
 

Me - Yup, Vanilla Ice had it right all along.

Sodom - Tapping The Vein

Band: Sodom
Album: Tapping The Vein
Label: Steamhammer
Year: 1992

 

While I was undergoing my education as a novice headbanger in the history of heavy metal, Germany's Sodom was always included alongside Kreator and Destruction as the leading bands in Germany's glorious thrash renaissance of the mid 1980s. Much rawer then their counterparts, Sodom's early work showed off a dungeon-fi recording quality and a heavier Venom influence than their more technically advanced contemporaries, and they are now considered one of the seminal bands of the early European black metal influence.

They underwent a transformation into a ferociusly blunt speed metal power trio, ending up on the more devastating end of the thrash spectrum and having a hand in the creation of modern death metal. Their most important albums, Obsessed By Cruelty, Persecution Mania and Agent Orange chronicled this transformation from 1986 to 1989. Having basically done all that was required of them, the classic lineup of the band then fell apart, leaving bassist and vocalist Tom Angelripper (pretty sure it says that on his birth certificate) to cobble together one itineration of the band after another to continue marauding around the continent to this day. And as far as I knew until recently that was the end of the story.

But to completely write off the reaminder of Sodom's discography would be a grave mistake for any metalhead who knows exactly what they want to hear, and doesn't particularly care if it is groundbreaking or innovative or even relevant. Like Motörhead before them, Sodom has just kept on going, long after anyone except diehards was paying attention. And they are even less popular, but all the same keep out cranking out album after album of furious, technically competent death thrash. Yes, there have been more than a few duds that fail to rise above mediocrity, but there have been several good to great albums in the band's post-heyday such as 1995's Masquerade In Blood and 2001's M-16. Even their most recent album, 2010's In War And Pieces was a potent lead injection that illustrated why this band has kept on plugging. But the best of these is Tapping The Vein, an ultraheavy distillation of everything the band has ever done well married to a dense, ultraheavy production job and a furious batch of songs.

This is the band's most overtly death metal influenced recording, with downtuned riffs and machinegun doublekicks coming to the fore of the band's songwriting. Angleripper's growls are typically lower and more gutteral than on the 80s records, and the superior production brings to life the dead on performances of the three musicians. Coming off a tour with an in-their-prime Sepultura, it's no wonder a little of that influence rubbed off on Sodom, then in the midst of an identity crisis as many of the arena-thrash metal bands were being swept away by grunge and heavy alternative rock bands from above and more extreme underground metal bands below. The opening one-two punch of "Body Parts" and "Skinned Alive" make it clear that these veterans had no intention of retiring quietly though. Not quite as brutal as what Deicide or Morbid Angel were up to at the time, but several megtons heavier than radio-bound Metallica and Megadeth were at the time, songs like "Deadline," "Tapping The Vein" and "Bullet In The Head" rely on ultraheavy chugging riffs instead of fleet-fingered acrobatics or tacky choruses to make their point, and damned if they don't do it too.

So yeah, it doesn't quite live up to the band's classics, and sure, there are more extreme recordings out there. But if you're a fan of classic thrash, and don't mind when things get a little heavier and the production a little bit cleaner, you could do a lot worse than this album. Definately worth a few spins.

Excursion

Seattle's Showbox near Pike Place was the scene of my first great show of 2013 on January 5th. A smoking quadruple bill topped off by the most influential metal band of the past quarter century. Since we were on the road for this one, I've recounted the details of the trip there and back, because that's always half the fun.

After a snafu involving stubhub charging me more than double the ticket prices, (it was recitfied in the end, and I paid normal price. I gladly would have paid 70 bucks for a show of this calibur if the tickets actually cost that much, but not if other people were buying them for 35.) my friend and I departed for the 3 hour drive to Seattle in the mid afternoon. To the strains of Neurosis's excellent 2007 album Given To The Rising, we hit the border as darkness was falling, and spent 45 minutes dealing with the needlessly rude and utterly humorless American border guards. Our own scruffy appearances notwithstanding, the useless secondary inspection turned up nothing of note, so we were free to go. Good thing we're coming into your country to spend money and inflate your sagging economy boys.

A Taco Time stop along the way was soundtracked by the new Converge record. Did you know they have spaced-aged pop dispensers with like 60 flavors and digital touchscreens in the states now? I thought that was freaking awesome.

We stopped at the liquor store outside a casino along I-5 so my passenger could mix a JD and coke for the road (as driver, I stuck to cherry coke. In the States, booze is so much cheaper I'd probably be drunk all the time if I lved here.) and enjoyed Featherwolf's Live at the Vogue and No Horses' self titled record as we crested the final hill into Seattle. It's quite a beautiful city as you drive up to it, a jewel nestled next to the water and plenty of green hills surrounding it. An hour to kill before showtime was hardly a problem even in the rain -- we parked the car in Seattle's entertainment district, grabbed a couple of huge American beer cans and headed for shelter from the downpour. Underneath a bridge on the ass end of town, my buddy and I discussed with growing anticipation what awaited us down the street.

Stoneburner was already playing when we entered. I had passed up a chance to see them open for Sleep at Neumo's during the summer, and I'm glad I caught part of their set this time. The showbox is much larger than I expected it to be, but with good sightlines. We watched the almost completely full show from various vanatge points, and got a good view and fine sound from everywhere. Aside from one of the security guards hassling me in the washroom for taking too long in a stall (those things can be used for things besides snorting coke, guy! What the fuck do you think I was doing?) I'd say the venue was fantastic. Stoneburner's heavy sludge reminded me of the Melvins more than anyone else, their slow trudges, deliberate riffs and massive drum fills impressing me more than I had expected. A solid opening act that the next bands built upon.

We watched Black Breath's set from the beer garden. I was a little disappointed with their rendition of "Feast Of The Damned," their set opener and my favourite song from the new album. Whether it was nerves or simply a case of finding the range, by 2 songs in they had the Showbox MOVING, their sludgy yet speedy hardcore resembling nothing if not prime Slayer circa 1985. The old timer at the bar in front of us seemed to agree, sagely nodding his head in amusement. The difference is that ultra thick buzzsaw guitar sound that Swedish death metal bands like Entombed, At the Gates, Edge of Sanity and Grave popularized during the '90s. That monstrously thick tone was on glorious display on this night, although live it was not quite as suffocatingly dense as on record. Bashing out a set of tunes which was comprised heavily of stuff from their excellent new album Scentenced To Death, the 5-piece harnessed barely-controlled dual leads, shatteringly fast thrash beats, dub-tuned ultra distorted bass and gut wrenching growls into a relentless tornado of sound. Closing with their album Heavy Breathing's first track, "Spit On The Cross," they capped their set in suitably vicious (and decidedly anti-Christian!) style.

We headed down to the floor for Tragedy's set. My friend and I had only recently discovered the d-beat happy crew, who had released a modern hardcore classic in 2003 with Vengeance, and just returned from a 6 year hiatus last year with Darker Days Ahead, a slower, heavier record than any of their previous work. The set was a mix of new and old, althought probably heavier on the slow stuff than I would have liked. Understandable given who they were opening for. The quartet showed their stuff admirably though, getting a rumbling circle pit going, and showing off their crusty gang vocals with plenty of heroic monitor stands and epic claw of the gods posing from the frontline. They were tight and heavy, though perhaps less energetic than Black Breath had been.

And then Neurosis hit the stage. Ahhhhh yes... Neurosis. What to even say? Their longtime visual accompaniest departed the band last year, meaning it fell to the 5 musicians onstage to hold the audience's attention. This was not a problem as the whethered crew morphed back and forth between apocalyptic doom, full tilt thrashing, misanthropic sludge, pensive, folky breakdowns, throat shredding primal howls and electronic soundscapes. It was music in constant, inexorable motion, relentlessly laying waste like some slow moving but unstoppable tropical storm front. The band played for over 2 hours, drawing material from throughout it's career, and weaving them all together amid a tapestry of wandering electronics that served as respites from the ultra heavy guitars and exqually powerful growls from Scott Kelley and Steve Von Till. A particular highlight was At The "Well" the best track from their new album, Honor Found In Decay. The deep, manly bellows of the 4 vocalists in the band made the song's brutal climax and spine-tingling experience.

It was nearly 2am by the time my friend and I stumbled onto the street, myself with a brand new vinyl copy of Enemy Of The Sun clutched in my hands. We managed to avoid the bar stars that congregated around the district we were in and made our way out of town exhausted and numbed by the overwhealming force of what we had just witnessed. Emeralds's soothing synth drones on their massive Allegory of Allergies double record provided the necessary cleansing of our distorted decibal detectors as we hit Jack in the Box to fuel up for the ride home. Our encounter with Canadian customs took all of 15 seconds, and we arrived home shortly before 5am. A fantastic night, and one that I won't soon forget.

The Top 50 Albums Of 2012 #10-1

10.     Car Bomb - w^w^^w^w
Holy hell this album is brutal. Car Bomb play Meshuggah-style calculator metal with grinding syncopated downtuned riffs criss-crossing every which way. Vocals are encrusted in filth for the most part, but every so often a snatch of clean melodic singing shines through, though it is usually heavily distorted. Clean vocals can be a make or break proposition with many people, but their used sparingly, and a little goes a very long way here. These bits of tunefulness make the heavy sections all the more jarring and discordant, and believe me, w^w^^w^w  (how the hell do you even say that?) is 99% sonic holocaust. What’s more, Car Bomb have a much more bluntly aggressive, hardcore inspired lurch which Meshuggah’s precise mechanistc pounding lacks. There are very few bands out there that sound like Car Bomb right now. I think that’s gonna change soon.

9.     Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind
Although they’ve been relentlessly re-defining hardcore for the better part of two decades now, it took me a very long time to come around on Converge. I was aware of their work and their reputation, but I found their spastic mathy tendencies too chaotic to sit through. I even saw them a few years back, and although I was impressed by their chops and intensity, I still couldn’t get into them. Well, my opinion started to change with their last album, 2009’s Axe to Fall, a record that finally offered the kind of sludgy riffs and suffocating atmosphere I like to complement their highly technical breakdowns. This time out the sound is even bigger and the songs are more memorable, balancing on a razor’s edge of overwhelming aggression and supremely controlled fury. It is quite clearly the most accessible record of their career, but this is no radio bid. “Aimless Arrow” kicks off with the kind of wicked shredding and choppy drumming that Mastodon made its name on, and elsewhere “Sadness Comes Home” has a death grip riff worthy of Neurosis. Perhaps the best song here is the title track, with opens with a subduded bass intro before exploding into more superb explosions of sound and contains the album’s most anthemic moments. The sound here is huge, loud and heavy, thanks to the production work of guitarist and metal’s 2012 MVP Kurt Ballou. Fresh off recording some of this year’s other great records like the new ones from Torche, Gaza, Black Breath and High On Fire, it seems like everything he touches turns to gold. It has been a year of triumphs for the man, and Converge just seem to get better and better.

8. Pallbearer – Sorrow & Extinction
Must be something in the zeitgeist of 2012 which has made mid-tempo undesirable to most bands. It seemed to me like most of the best heavy music this year was being made by hyperactive hardcore units and snail-paced doom metal outfits. Pallbearer fall in the latter category, and the mournful funeral trudge they display on this record is one of the most addictive and emotionally satisfying sounds you’ll hear all year. Anyone can tune their guitars low and play 16 beats per minute, but it takes a special band to take the standard doom template and wring a maximum amount of feeling and depth out of it. Pallbearer shame every one dimensional doom trudge act out there with the very first song on this remarkable full length. “Foreigner” opens the album with a plaintive semi-classical acoustic guitar figure, drawing the listener in and tantalizing with possibility before the apocalyptic mega-riffs drop. And make no mistake, those huge guitars are there, and all over the album. No song is less than 8 minutes long, but they never seem to feel long because they are so well structured and relatable. There are beautiful shimmering passages alternated with molasses-like head nodding groove. Right down to the band’s very name, the whole thing seems tailor-made for funeral bells. There are shades of Forests Of Equilibrium –era Cathedral here as the band makes frequent use of doubling heavily sustained harmony guitar leads over the depressive doom riffs. But the lonely high pitched and heavily reverbed vocals here create an atmosphere of very human sorrow. You don’t need to know what the songs are about to get sucked into this whirpool of sadness. When Pallbearer reach for transcendence, as on “The Legend” or “An Offering Of Grief,” the effect is truly breathtaking. Pallbearer have crafted one of the finest doom metal albums in a very long time.

7.     Black Breath – Sentenced To Life
Black Breath’s debut Heavy Breathing straddled the line crossover thrash and very heavy sludge metal. It was an enjoyable record, but something about it didn’t quite grab me. This time out they’ve shifted gears into a full on hardcore sprint, and with that slight tweak to their sound they immediately grabbed my attention and didn’t let up the whole time. Nearly every song on Sentenced To Life barrels ahead at a breakneck pace and features relentless drumming, serrated bellowing and as thick and heavy a buzzsaw guitar sound as you can imagine. These guys have clearly brushed up on their Entombed and Disfear records, but it’s the quality of the songs and the intensity of these performances that make Sentenced To Life such a satisfying listen. This isn’t just some background noise for speed junkies. Each song contains memorable shout along choruses from a singer who sounds like he’s been guzzling razors and gasoline for about 20 years. Take one listen to “Feast Of The Damned” and try not to turn whatever room you are in into a slam pit. It sounds like fucking Slayer. There are elements of classic heavy metal inserted sparingly amid the relentless onslaught, such as the gorgeous leads that emerge seemingly out of nowehere on “Obey.” Not to mention the fact that the sound of the record is fucking huge. I dare you to call yourself a fan of punk or hardcore or any kind of metal and not love this album.

6.     Purity Ring – Shrines
Many of my favourite records are simply worlds unto themselves. Shrines is kind of like that, a self-contained wonderland where only ghostly synths, skittering drum machines and spectral vocals with only the vaguest hint of a human voice peeking through. I’m not really sure what these songs are about, but whatever is being said sure is creepy. What I do know is that Purity Ring makes some chilling electronic music with just the vaguest bits of pop sunshine shimmering through the snow. Everything here is hazy, sparse and lonely. Yet somehow there are moments of tender intimacy curled up amidst the darkness. I’ve probably listened to this album as much as anything else I’ve heard this year, yet I can’t quite pin down why it resonates with me so deeply. It’s soundtracked some pretty memorable moments in the past year, both good and bad ones, and I’d be hard pressed to cal the record either happy or sad. Depending on my mood, it’s been unsettling, lonely, romantic and joyful. It simply is, a strange world that you can visit whenever you need to look at ours through a different lens.

5.     Blut Aus Nord – Cosmopoly
The third installment of this french bedroom black metal project’s 777 trilogy of albums that began with last year’s Sect(s) [scene] and The Desanctication is also the best of the three. Although avant garde and electronic elements have been creeping into Blut Aus Nord’s music for a long time now, here they are melded more seamlessly than ever before with the band’s ripping metallic fury.

Opener “Epitome XIV” (Cosmopoly continues the track naming scheme of the last 2 records) serves as a palette cleanser, leading off the record with several minutes of absolutely gorgeous textural guitar noise before the extremely synthetic sounding drums begin to march the track inexorably toward the horizon. Bolstered by a crystalline production job, the heavily reverbed and highly melodic guitar leads spiral ever upward, reaching for transcendence. Meanwhile the rhythm guitars are mixed low to match frequency profiles with the underlying synth beds to add colour and fullness. This is a record made for headphones, and the devil is most definitely in the details. It’s absolutely beautiful, and will shatter any notions that this is just another wannabe Darkthrone retread.

The creepy death disco of the second track shows a definite industrial influence, complete with creepy synths and Vindsval’s robotic French monologue. Soon enough it explodes into a full on assault, but before long the intensity recedes and fades into a mournful slowburning hymn to the gas giants, before ending on a pregnant dropped beat and fading to black. The division between assault and airiness is a line that Blut Aus Nord have straddled many times throughout their career, but here they’ve perfected it.

There are enough moments of sheer beauty here to even convert non metal fans. The gothic tone of the album may unsettle some, but the romantic atmospheric drift of “Epitome XVI” could easily appeal to fans who have never heard a Slayer record, much less a Mayhem one. The crescendos in these 6 to 11 minute long tracks remind me of a number of post rock bands in how they evolve from quiet beauty to triumphant destruction. But what Blut Aus Nord is not anywhere close to the likes of what the legions of Neurosis and Isis clones have been peddling for the last few fears. The preoccupation with texture is clearly shoegaze inspired, but the mechanical precussion pulls the locus of the band’s sound away from guitar-centric genres altogether, birthing a cybernetic hybrid of red blooded aggression, human warmth, and mechanical precision.

4.     Krallice – Years Past Matter
Jaw-dropping feets of technicality married into impossibly brutal arrangements that run for marathon lengths is nothing new for Krallice. The thing that makes Years Past Matter the best album this extreme metal super group has ever made is the newly mastered sense of space and tunefulness that they bring to the table this time out. The album opens with some ominous and ghostly synth ambience before erupting into a jackhammer burst beat that’s straight out of the USBM playbook. But the kicker comes just a few second later, as the beat dissolves into a vast soundscape of epic swelling harmonics before exploding back into a frenzied atonal black metal assault as the drums grind out quadratic equations on your skull. It’s pretty clear here that Krallice don’t just want to kick your ass, they want to END YOUR FUCKING WORLD.

Music as complex and devastating as Krallice’s risks exhausting the listener without space to breather. Throughout the album are limpid pools of shimmering beauty, which exist like an oasis in the endless wasteland of the album’s scorched landscape. Elsewhere there are dark, droney soundscapes which build tension and dread in the listener before Krallice undertake yet another obliterating assault. What’s more, some of the band’s best ever riffs can be found all over this record, such as the off-kilter stomper that opens the album’s sixteen minute finale.  Superbly well crafted and paced, Years Past Matter is a clinic in how to make music that is musically complex and totally decimating without alienating the listener.

3.     Cloud Nothings – Attack On Memory
In the past the Cloud Nothings specialized in short, punchy pop punk tunes. While enjoyable, something about those early records struck me as a little bit lightweight, maybe even immature. The harrowing Attack on Memory is another matter entirely. Urgent, forceful, and emotionally devastating, the depth of this record was only hinted at on earlier recordings.

The album opens with a dark slate clearing track entitled No Future/No Past. For four and a half minutes, the song vamps on a simple piano figure, building in tension and intensity before climaxing in a volley of explosive guitar release and primal howls from mainman Dylan Baldi. Cathartic and gripping, the track is a complete turnaround from the sort of fare that has previously dominated the band’s work. No question about it, this is a statement. It also might be the best song the band has ever written.

Clearly this is an ambitious work from a band eager to grow as musicians. The almost 9 minute long “Wasted Days,” demonstrates the band’s far more accomplished musical approach. In particular, it shows off the band’s viciously powerful rhythm section, which sustains an awesome level of intensity throughout the track without losing momentum.  There isn’t an ounce of filler on this record. “Stay Useless” is a catchy anthem to the joys of being lazy, but still plays with themes of alienation and regret. The album closes with the devastating one-two punch of “Our Plans” and “Cut You.” Baldi pours all his rage, hurt, insecurity, bitterness and jealousy into these two tracks, and the affect is captivating.

This record is heavily influenced by a number of 90’s post hardcore bands like Jawbox, Dismemberment Plan, Fugazi, Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, and even Nirvana. But the quality of the songwriting, and the great performances of the musicians make this record is as good as anything those bands put out. It’s a definite classic, and a must listen for anyone who likes their rock music to have emotional heft as well as physical power.

2.     Japandroids – Celebration Rock
It would be all too simple to point to the Hüsker Dü guitar sound or the anthemic hooks of this record as the reason for its appeal. The Vancouver guitar and drums duo was already known for their spastic high fuzz-low fidelity take on drunken, anthemic rock n’ roll. Their debut earned rave reviews for its sweet but rickety hooks and catapulted them to the top of the indie blogosphere sweepstakes. This time out they seem fully aware of their chance to make the big time, and gave Celebration Rock a more crystalline production. With bigger sound, Japandroids’ exuberance is given room to breathe, and the result is some of the most life-affirming music you’ll ever hear.

This wouldn’t have worked so well had they not packed their sophomore album with a full complement of irresistible tunes. The album contains no wasted space whatsoever, with 8 perfect songs that clock in at just a shade over 35 minutes. What really grabbed me about these songs was how they managed to capture equal measures of elation and melancholy felt by old friends growing older together. “Nights Of Wine & Roses,” “Adrenaline Nightshift” and “Younger Us” celebrate the full throttle credo of living in the moment that young rockers espouse with the knowing wisdom of guys who have grown up. The music is as exuberant as the title suggests, but there is a weary, ragged quality to the music. It sounds lived in, like the band are comfortable with this music, and with themselves. The record is joyously immediate and raw while still expanding their sloppy distortion-drenched racket that they made built their rep on but expanding it into a triumphant call to arms. There is no room for regret or doubt, just the full intensity and sheer joy of living in the moment. When you listen to Celebration Rock, nothing sounds more epic than a drunken night of hilarity your best friends. Japandroids have managed to make lo-fi sound stadium sized.

1. Baroness – Yellow & Green

Baroness’s last two albums established them firmly among the first tier of today’s hard rock bands. Although in their early days they churned out swampy sludge in the realm of Bongzilla or Down, their ambition and flair for songwriting led them to incorporate elements of their homeland’s more traditional musics into their ever-percolating brew. Meanwhile they've incorporated more of the psychedelic touches that they and also Kylesa have recently adopted make for a heady brew of the best elements in guitar-based music. The colour theme is appropriate, as they have continually broadened their palette with each successive release. These days they are one of the only acts you could properly call a modern classic rock band, as popular with adventurous metalheads as in the know indie rockers. At this point, it’s silly to even think of them as a metal band, and really they were always too rootsy and naturalistic for something that rigid anyways. They simply are one of the best bands on the planet period.

 

Yellow & Green is a culmination of this evolution, seamlessly melding the Appalachian folk melodies and country twang that they had previously toyed around with to the sledgehammer riff assaults that are their bread and butter. From the very first moment you hear those gorgeous opening notes of “Yellow Theme” give way to the steamroller that is “Take My Bones Away,” it sounds undeniably like a classic.  Unsurprisingly, the riffs are awesome and just about each song has an explosive earworm of a hook. They’ve really developed a knack for the triumphant harmony-laden chorus, as the record is packed with the kind of shoutalongs that will get fists pumping, bodies flying and chests heaving in moshpits the world over. And the whole thing sounds just plain huge. Granted, not everything works, and some people won’t be sold on some of the more adventurous tracks (that disco drumbeat in Cocainium might not be for everyone). But the point is, this is a band at the peak of it’s powers, and they are determined to stretch out to the limits of their abilities, challenging expectations and striving to shatter conceptions of what a heavy band can sound like.

I feel like this is the best album of the year because we need Baroness. There should be a big, super successful stadium filling band that actually kicks ass and isn't afraid to push the limits of their sound. It's that world conquering ambition, taking the risk of falling flat on their faces, that makes Baroness so special. These guys are doing spiritually for rock now what Led Zeppelin was doing 40 years ago. And I know a lot of old fans might be disappointed in how commerical the mix is, how low the guitars are compared to the vocals, and the lack of rough edges in the recording. I get that, and I understand why it's not for everyone. It's not always for me either. But they've been pushing this way for quite a while now, and you have to hand it to them for having the balls to write a record that really does sound like it could conquer the world. And that's why there was nothing I liked better this year.

Currently the band is recoving from some very serious injuries sustained in a tour bus accident just a couple months after the album was released. Here’s hoping they get back to it soon. We need more like them.

The Top 50 Albums of 2012 #20-11

20. Witch Mountain – Cauldron Of The Wild
Witch Mountain emerged from a long hiatus with last year’s well-received South Of Salem. This year they decided to get all productive on us, releasing another record to capitalize on the momentum built by their reformation. Siren Uta Plotkin's powerful pipes take centre stage here, but equally impressive is the rhythm section’s controlled feel for the song, be it a doom trudge, a death grip riff, or behemoth groove. Guitarist Rob Wrong meanwhile gets to stretch out and lay down some tasty fuzzed out leads all over this bad boy. Throughout the playing is sharp, the songwriting is compelling, and Plotkin’s bewitching vocals are immediately recognizable and instantly unforgettable. It all adds up to the most addictive and replayable stoner rock record of the year. At a time when straightforward hard rock seems to have slumped into complacency, Witch Mountain has proven that there’s still some life left in the old beast yet.

19. Hundred Waters – Hundred Waters
Hundred Waters make beautiful and dreamy electronic music that incorporates alien hooks and a feel for texture into an easily digestible package. I found the gentle, percolating synths and ethereal vocals on this album to be absolutely irresitable. Although its ghostly qualities are similar to other futuristic pop acts like Grimes and Purity Ring, Hundred Waters are never as dark or as willfully weird as either of those two artists. They are also not as interested in grabbing you with a hook, instead being content to let explore sounds and textures, closer to drone music than the kind of future pop those artists are hinting at. The mood here is calm and tranquil, the perfect backdrop for relaxation and a fine launchpad for the imagination.

18. Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage
Gojira’s technical precision and capacity for outright brutality are above reproach. Since the late 90s, these French environmentalists have been decimating eardrums and championing green initiatives. On this, their fifth full-length, they add even more variety to their vocabulary, such as the dead-on staccato riffing of the title track to the mind-expanding tones of “The Wild Healer.” Upon your first exposure to the band, you might be a little overwhelmed by the all out ferocity and deathly precision of their sonic assault, but subsequent listens show this to be Gojira’s most dynamic record to date.

17. Andy Stott – Luxury Problems
Andy Stott’s newest album did something for me I thought was impossible… it made me enjoy the kind of pulsating four on the flour dance beats that electronic dance music is built upon. Let’s get this straight. I don’t dance, and I don’t like the kind of utilitarian, insistent drivel that drives people to gyrate in dimly lit rooms on MDMA. I HATE that shit.

Well, somehow Luxury Problems takes that one element and weaves a whole tapestry of textures and sounds around it. This has been done before, notably by artists like Cariboo and the Knife, but Stott’s work is even less geared to the dance floor, or car commercials. It’s drab and unsettling, music that sounds closer to a dystopian cyber punk future than any hedonistic utopia. Each track unfolds slowly, gradually adding and subtracting elements while using repetition to create a hypnotic effect. Stott’s brand of dark house music utilizes a similar aesthetic to a lot of the weird electronic stuff I do like; it’s music made for listening to, and it can be unsettling at times. Nobody’s having a good time here.

16. Liberteer - Better To Die On Your Feet Than Live On Your Knees
By working folk instruments and real working class grit into their grindcore, Liberteer have managed to take a familiar template and twist it into something epic. No two ways about it, this record is a call to arms, a battle cry for the downtrodden to take up the mantle of class warfare and attack with relentless blast beats and guttural screams of defiance. Not since Napalm Death christened the genre with Scum has a grindcore record sounded so revelatory, so fresh, and above all so NECESSARY as this . Class war has never meant so much.

15. Grimes - Visions
Sometimes an album is just so good but I don’t really have anything to say about it that hasn't been said better already somehwere else. “Genesis” might have been my favourite song of the year, even if it does sound a lot like the intro to Rush’s “Subdivisons.”
14.Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
Although I knew that GY!BE had never officially broken up, I never seriously expected them to release another album. Then they did. And it’s good. It’s SO good. The best thing about the record is that it truly does sound like the work of a band playing together in a room. The guitars have real edge to them, the strings line the sound with a desperate urgency, and the crescendos thunder with the kind of power this band is legendary for. The quiet passages are equally as intense and unsettling, and never fail to captivate. Their last album, 2002’s Yanqui U.X.O. sounded meticulously crafted, but it lacked energy, a staid re-enactment of a formula that had worked before. Somehow the spark that lit their earlier triumphs was absent. I think Godspeed recognized this, and decided to hang up their spurs until they felt good and ready to pick up where they left off. This time out it feels like their speaking because they have something very important for us to hear. The world now is very different from what it was like in 2002, but we need to listen now more than ever.

13. High On Fire – De Vermis Mysteriis

Would you believe it’s the heaviest High on Fire album yet? After their razor sharp and airtight 2010 album Snakes for the Devine, you might be forgiven for worrying that the Oakland power trio had gotten away from its roots somewhat. Well, Matt Pike and company must have felt so too, since De Vermis Mysteriis is a sprawling, earthy tribute to the power of the riff. Produced by Kurt Balou (who else?) , everything on this album is absolutely gargantuan. What’s more, Pike sounds more comfortable with his legacy as a member of Sleep than ever before. On the 7 minute Madness Of The Architect, he conjures up a riff as ferocious as anything his old band ever summoned. On “Samsara” he allows himself to stretch out, playing a slow-burn guitar solo and exploring tones and colours he hasn’t used since journeying to the riff-filled land. The earth shaking rumble Jeff Matz on the bass, Des Kensel’s primal pummel, and of course Pike’s savage guitar playing combine to summon a sound as powerful as it is primal. With elemental fury these songs bludgeon with a force rarely seen from anyone else. What’s more, De Vermis Mysteriis features some of Matt Pike’s best singing to date – check his bellows in the utterly massive “King Of Days.” Unfortunately Matt Pike checked himself into rehab during the summer, but I am happy to report that as of 3 weeks ago he was in fine form playing with Goatwhore and Ancients at Venue in Vancouver.

12.     Samothrace – Reverence To Stone
The only reason this wasn’t the best doom album of the year was that the Pallbearer record was so good. Samothrace more or less matched that record with a gorgeous statement of their own. But at just 34 minutes and only two (sidelong) songs, Reverence To Stone seems a little slight in comparison to the more expansive Sorrow & Extinction. But, Samothrace understand patience and how to leave an audience wanting more as well as anyone, as it’s been a full five years since their equally masterful debut album Life’s Trade. That they most certainly do on Reverence to Stone, which boasts miles of beautiful guitar terrain as well as a shamanic title to die for. The tones here are magnificent, and Samothrace bring an astute sense of texture and space which allow them to judiciously work beautiful post rock atmospherics with some jaw-dropping shredding guitar leads. Like Pallbearer, Samothrace too work from a solid emotional core, imbuing their work with real feeling as well as sonic heft. I might have wished for a little more material, but it’s far better than larding up a record with unnecessary filler. Let’s just hope they don’t wait so long before gracing us with another record.

11.     Flying Lotus – Until The Quiet Comes
Cosmogramma was a game changer, no question about it. It was impossibly dense, pulling sounds and musical techniques from all over the last century of music. Where else could Flying Lotus go? He must have recognized that he was staring into the void of the future, because Until The Quiet Comes sounds like Flying Lotus meditating on the wisdom he’s acquired at time’s edge. It’s as welcoming and comforting as Cosmogramma was harsh and confrontational.

It’s usually difficult to isolate individual tracks on a Flying Lotus album, as his albums tend to resemble a mosaic, but there are several standouts here. “Heave(n)“ “me Yesterday//Corded” have the kind of mellow drift to them that Tycho used so successfully on his Dive record last year. “Electric Candyman” has a wobbly sort of strut that’s easy to like even before you know Thom Yorke popped in to make an appearance. “The Sultan’s Request” even seems like a tongue in cheek stab at the kind of heavy bass music that’s taken over the dominant perception of electronic music the last view years. Its regal stomp isn’t nearly as aggressive as the dubstep that currently shakes subwoofers. The point is, Flying Lotus is a master of his craft, and if Until The Quiet Comes isn’t as revelatory or groundbreaking as Cosmogramma, that’s only because the rest of the world needed to catch up. It might actually be a little bit more fun to listen to anyways.