Dec 012011
 

As the end of 2011 approaches, we’ll be reprising once again two of our year-end traditions — and we want your help with both of them.

FIRST, we’re again going to create a list of the The Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs of the year. In case you’ve forgotten, or you’ve become an NCS reader since this time last year, here’s what this is about:

This isn’t a list of the best metal albums of the year. It’s not even our list of the best individual extreme metal songs of the year. Though some of the songs might actually be among the best of the year, creating that kind of list isn’t the objective. That would tax our brains way too much, and frankly this is the time of year when devoting serious effort to anything is just fucking difficult.

Instead, ours is a list of the most infectious extreme metal songs we’ve heard this year. We’re talking about songs that produce involuntary physical movement. Even on a crowded bus, subway, or ferry, your head starts banging, your fingers start tapping, your foot starts thumping, your legs start twitching — different people have got different body parts that start convulsing when they hear something that’s got a groove to it, a catchy rhythm, a memorable melody.

To be one of the most infectious songs of the year, it’s got to be something that worms its way into your brain to such an extent you can’t get it out (and wouldn’t want to) — you mentally replay it at unexpected times and you go back to the song repeatedly for listening. It’s the kind of song that has become one of your favorites for some kind of activity — whether it be drinking or smoking a bowl, working out, humping, rolling down the road in some kind of wheeled vehicle with the volume turned up, doing your laundry, doing school work, doing actual paying work, pleasuring yourself while gazing at a photo of me, getting into the right kind of mood or out of the wrong one, or even just day-dreaming.

We’ve got our own working list of candidates, but no doubt we’ve overlooked some gems. So, here’s what we want: Please leave comments below this post with your suggestions — or e-mail them to: islander@nocleansinging.com

I’ll then pick the winners and start playing those songs for you in groups of two as we get closer to year-end. The first year we did this, I limited the list to 10 songs. Last year, I expanded it to 30 — because it was just too fucking hard to whittle the list down. I don’t know how many songs we’ll feature this year. We’ll see . . .

So, reflect on the music you’ve really been enjoying this year and please let us hear from you.

There’s one more Listmania invitation we want to extend — that’s in the next post.

  47 Responses to “LISTMANIA: INVITATION NO. 1”

  1. I couldn’t get enough of these 10

    Digital Veil–The Human Abstract
    Nascent–Tesseract
    Glass Faces–Corelia
    Blasteroid–Mastodon
    Locust–Machine Head
    In The End–Anthrax
    Musical Chairs–Fair To Midland
    Sumeria–Devin Townsend Project
    Box Up My Bones–Cynic
    Savor The Kill–Darkest Hour

  2. Mors Subita – The Sermon has made fuckin’ minced meat of my speakers.
    Sylosis – Awakening has been doing a good job too, but having as an alarm clock every morning eventually wears it off. The fact that it has been playing to me every morning, while all I really want to do is sleep, for the past half a year or so is actually one of the best measures of musical quality ever invented.

    Then:
    Red Descending – Kings of Torture (what a majestic piece of sympho Death!)
    Amon Amarth – War of the Gods (pure, tangible epic)
    Before the Dawn – Deathstar (anything they do is gold)
    RoutaSielu – Kaipaus (that fuckin’ amazing sharp guitar vs. sharp keys solo is orgasm-inducing)
    DevilDriver – Shitlist (such a build-up, such a groove! (Despite the rest of the album being fairly average))
    Omnium Gatherum – New World Shadows (terribly intelligent, deep, 3 dimensional, rich)
    Chapter7 – Time is Now (More like Hardrock, but catchy and emotional like getting gently raped by a leper)

    That should keep you busy for a while!

  3. The first one that popped in my head was that Devin Townsend song : Juular, I heard that thing and it was stuck in my head for days and no matter how much I listened it wouldnt get out.

    Im not really even a Devin Townsend fan.

  4. I’ll second Juular.

    This year… hmmm…. less obvious really than last year. Less stand-out tracks. What’s been particularly infectious…

    Chimaira – Year Of The Snake
    Chthonic – Takao
    Anaal Nathrakh – Man At C & A
    Scar Symmetry – Rise Of The Reptilian Regime

    Those spring to mind. Can’t really throw my support behind any of the other songs mentioned yet. Not quite.

    • Keep thinking . . . Need more from you!

    • Oh yeah, Year of the Snake, I forgot about that one. It’s so fuckin’ groovy I can’t begin to describe it.

    • What’s that Anaal Nathrakh song? I don’t remember it being on my copy of “Passion.”

        • Thanks!

          That song sounds like Anaal Nathrakh decided to write a Meshuggah song. It’s pretty good though, and it’s just one more reason why I should’ve subscribed to Decibel several months back… I’d also like to add “Paragon Pariah” to my list of most infectious songs.

          Time for a rant: I was listening to Gnaw Their Tongues and apparently some of the people on YouTube are too elitist and/or hiptser to enjoy Anaal Nathrakh… one guy even said something like “The band members would commit suicide while listening to Cradle of FIlth.” I would give you the exact quote but I’m lazy and tired and want to go check out Helm’s metal-related blog. But I found that to be extremely annoying since AN and CoF have very, VERY little in common… especially when it comes to the number of likes they have on FB… I think AN have under 20K and CoF has over a million. Great job elitist hipster… you know your stuff [end sarcasm]. I would also like to mention that I to some degree, am an elitist hipster (although I don’t dress like a hipster, unless liking winklepickers is a hipster thing, but I don’t own any… yet).

          I feel kinda better. 😛

  5. Amon Amarth – For Victory or Death (I burned out my Ipod and my voice with this song)
    Midnight – Shock ’til Blood (pretty much any song off of this album)
    Suidakra – Biróg’s Oath (token mellow song, but this track really stands out on that album)

  6. Hmmmmmm

    Vallenfyre – Ravenous Whore
    The Fucking Wrath – The Question
    Revocation – Beloved Horrifier
    Glorior Belli – The Great Southern Darkness

  7. Darkest Hour – Love as a Weapon, coupled with the video.
    Ghost Brigade – Divine Act of Lunacy ” MAARCHING THROUUGH FIIIRE, WITHOUT ANY WAATEEER…!!”

    Had you asked me for the ‘most infectious song of the year’ when “Until Fear No Longer Defines Us” came out, I would’ve answered the whole god damn album straight away. Mesmerizing, and I hate to use the word, but fucking MAGICAL!

  8. “Human Waste” from I Declare War’s self-titled release.
    That 1st riff makes me very happy. Whole song is great, especially when the high guitars start getting noodley…

  9. I haven’t gotten a lot of albums this year, that’s what Christmas is for… but I’ll give you some songs that I’ve heard so far:

    Fleshgod Apocalypse – The Violation
    Amon Amarth – For Victory or Death, Destroyer of the Universe, War of the Gods
    Deicide- Witness of Death, Conviction, Empowered by Blasphemy, Into the Darkness You Go

    About Deicide, I can’t exactly remember those songs specifically, but I remember that out of the entire album those songs have been the most played, I may also like Servant of the Enemy as well.

    And this song isn’t really a headbanger, but I heard it last night and it was GREAT:

    40 Watt Sun- Restless

    In case you haven’t heard it, here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IEvmtSxfuI.

  10. I forgot:

    Disma- Chaos Apparition
    Machine Head- Locust

  11. Mastodon – Dry Bone Valley
    Glorior Belli – They Call Me Black Devil
    Burzum – Jeg Faller
    World Under Blood – Dead and Still in Pain
    Skeletonwitch – Any fuckin thing from Forever Abomination. The whole album is infectious.

  12. Please don’t laugh.
    Trivium – Intro+ In Waves
    Skindred- Doom Riff (fuck the whole album really)
    Kartikeya- Neverborn
    Scar Symmetry- The Anomaly
    Bury Your Dead- Slaugherhouse Five (ur MOSSHHIINGGG)
    All Shall Perish- There is Nothing Left

    Other favorites have already been mentioned, including Fleshgod, Machine head, Human Abstract, and Mastodon.

    Special Achievement award: Andrew W.K.- Party All Goddamn Night (because Fuck You)

  13. Amon Amarth – Destroyer of the Universe
    DevilDriver – Shitlist
    DTP – Juular
    Textures – Reaching Home
    Mastodon – Blasteroid
    Fleshgod Apocalypse – The Violation
    All Shall Perish – Procession of Ashes

  14. “Black Velvet and Skulls of Steel,” by Vader
    “Warschau 2: Headhunter Halfmoon,” by Marduk
    “Evolution of Extinction,” by Origin
    “The Final Insult,” by Wormrot
    “In Blood-Devour this Sanctity,” “Discipline Through Punishment,” and “Impaled Upon the Tongue of Sathan,” all by Belphegor

  15. Textures – “Reaching Home”
    Omnium Gatherum – “Soul Journeys”
    The Human Abstract – “Digital Veil”
    Cipher System – “Communicate the Storms”
    Darkest Hour – “Love As A Weapon”
    Anubis Gate – “Hold Back Tomorrow”
    Fair to Midland – “Musical Chairs” (But the whole album is catchy as hell)
    In Flames – “Darker Times”
    Leprous – “Bilateral”
    Arch Enemy – “No Gods, No Masters”
    Amon Amarth – “War of the Gods”
    Decapitated – “United”
    Mastodon – “Curl of the Burl”
    Voyager – “Seize the Day”

  16. I have never been much of a black metal fan, although that may be changing, but I have been listening to Svarttjern’s new album almost every day since NCS introduced the band to me. I think the entire album is infectious, but I will single out 2 songs:

    Hellig Jord
    Aroused Self-Extinction

  17. The most infectious song of 2011 is, for me, the song “Awakening” from Niburta’s EP of the same name. This Hungarian band mixes something that sounds suspiciously like metalcore with throat singing, jaw harp, flute, and a bunch of other weird shit. I can’t get enough of this song.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnsLTx5TSLo

  18. Livarkahil – “Above All Hatred”
    Vildhjarta – “traces”

  19. How the fuck did you ALL forget Baby Metal’s Dokidoki Morning???

    YOU’RE ALL DEAD TO ME!!!

  20. I’m gonna go with the the whole new “Krisiun” album “The Great Execution” they are fuck’n heavy full of infectuous groove, heavy bass, stupendous drumming, unbelievable guitar solos, They got exactly 10 songs, and the whole album was recorded with nothing but Analog Equipment, Oh ya and they got some Flamenco in their for you Islander!! KRiSIUN rules All!

    • I fuckin love that album too, and you’re right — ALL of it is infectious.

    • this of course is my lazy List, when i am done cleaning my house I will try to come up with one featuring other Metal tunes besides Krisiun!

      • Don’t bother with cleaning. Cleaning is not metal. Unless it’s blood and guts you’re cleaning up. Actually, just leave all that where it is, too, and start working on a song list for me.

        • Wow I wrote a whole badass list last saturday, but I completely forgot to post it, and now it has
          seemed to have disapeared into the oversized anus of my hard drive! And yes bro cleaning can be
          cool cause it gives me a reason to throw on some heavy tunes and just start fucking shit up, but in
          a good way! well Ill try this again, but sorry no Descriptions this time!
          Also No Particular order! well Alphabetacal actually

          Cannabis Corpse: Beneath the Grow lights my chub shall rise
          Deivos: Demiurage the Void
          Dying Fetus: History Repeats
          Fallujah: The Harvest Womb
          Fleshgod Apocalype: Agony
          Natrium:Elegy for the flesh <if you like Fleshgod apocalypse
          Origin: Entity <this ones obvious
          Plasmoptysis: Dawn the plague <this EP is Sick these chinks Are Rad
          Vader: Welcome….. Best one vaders put out in a while… ya Vader Puts out!!!!
          Vidhjarta: u turned me on to this sickness!
          Vile: Metamorphosis …….not what I thought it would be but still a great listen

          Well yep these are my favorites of the Year! All Great Albums that are cool to listen to all the way through!

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