The end of the year draws nigh, and with it comes lists. Many lists, everywhere you turn. Lists of the best of what 2011 has offered us. Back in 2009, when this site was just an ugly, smelly baby a few days old, we wrote a post about year-end lists and why people bother with them. The best reason still seems to be this: Reading someone else’s list of the albums they thought were the year’s best is a good way to discover music you missed and might like.
We don’t do an “official” NCS year-end “best albums” list. It’s just too damned much work. We listened to a mountain-sized pile of new music this year, we liked a helluva lot of it, and trying to decide which 10 or 15 or even 20 albums were the best we heard would be a bunch of effort I’d rather devote to coming up with new posts for this site. Plus, the music that I and my collaborators like is so varied that trying to compare this apple to that orange and decide which one tastes better is a very confusing enterprise.
But mainly, I’m just too fucking lazy.
Fortunately, we have some regular contributors who have more energy, and we’ll be publishing their year-end lists later this month. We’re also inviting some other folks to give us their lists in the form of guest posts for this site. And, as described in this post, we’ll also have our list of the extreme metal songs from 2011 that we thought were the most infectious.
But we ain’t stopping there. If YOU have made your own mental list of the best metal albums you heard this year, we want to see it. Because we’re fucking nosy like that. (details about this invitation are after the jump . . .)
Here’s the deal: In the Comments to this post, or in an e-mail to me (islander@nocleansinging.com), give us your own list of the metal albums you’ve heard in 2011 that you thought were the best. It doesn’t have to be a specific number — doesn’t have to be a “Top 10″ or “Top 20″ list, it could be a Top 2 list.
And it doesn’t have to be a cross-genre list, i.e., the best of all metal you’ve heard this year. It could be the best hardcore albums you heard, or teh best death metal, or the best black metal, or the best grind, or the best folk metal, or the best reggae metal, or the best prog, djent, or whatever-core, or the best rap metal — pretty much whatever you want to do and feel comfortable doing, as long as it fits your definition of metal (except I didn’t mean it when I said rap-metal).
Don’t be shy, and don’t worry about being judged. It ain’t our style to criticize or poke fun at what someone else thinks is great metal. (Even our readers seem to be a pretty tolerant, civilized lot, as metalheads go. The troll repellant we put out seems to work pretty well.) Leave us your lists here or send them to me and I’ll put them in the Comments without identifying you by name, if you prefer anonymity. We’ll use this post as a collecting point for people interested in finding new metal that other NCS readers thought were great.
If you don’t have a list ready yet, no sweat, because you can come back to this post whenever you like and add your list later — or comment on the lists others have posted.
Finally, if you’re willing to put your list in the form of a guest post, with some kind of description of the music and/or explanations of why you think the music is the best you heard, send it on to me by e-mail. Adding links to album covers would be nice, too (see above re me being lazy). I can’t promise I’ll post all guest submissions — I have to retain some minimal discretion about these things — but I did post every guest submission I received on my recently completed vacation, so there’s that.
So start thinking and start commenting (please, and thank you).
58 Responses to “LISTMANIA: INVITATION NO. 2”
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Suffokate- Return to Despair
AAL-Weightless
Decapitated-Carnival is Forvever
Aliases- Safer than Reality
All Shall Perish- This is Where It Ends
Earth Crisis- Neutralize the Threat
Molotov Solution- Insurrection
BDM- Ritual
The Famine- Architects of Guilt
I Declare War- ST
Forgot to Mention-
A Plea For Purging- The Life and Times of APFP
Stray From the Path- Rising Sun
Suicide Silence- The Black Crown
Bury Your Dead- Mosh ‘n Roll
Carnifex- Until I feel nothing
Thanks for these. Nice to see a fellow BYD admirer weighing in. 🙂
The Devil’s Blood – The Thousandfold Epicentre
Textures – Dualism
Shining – VII: Född Förlorare
Year of the Goat – Lucem Ferre
Opeth – Heritage
Decapitated – Carnival is Forever
Fen – Epoch
Venenum – Venenum (Just a demo, but whatever. It KILLS and that’s what matters)
Morbus Chron – Sleepers in the Rift
Born Of Osiris – The Discovery
Regarding The Thousandfold Epicentre and Heritage: I know those albums are not metal, but considering that most fans of TDB and Opeth are metalheads I thought I’d list them anyway.
1. Sylosis – “Edge Of The Earth”
2. Fleshgod Apocalypse – “Agony”
3. Decapitated – “Carnival Is Forever”
4. Vader – “Welcome To The Morbid Reich”
5. Septicflesh – “The Great Mass”
6. Insomnium – “One For Sorrow”
7. Vektor – “Outer Isolation”
8. Absu – “Abzu”
9. Kartikeya – “Mahayuga”
10. Amon Amarth – “Surtur Rising”
11. Evile – “Five Serpent’s Teeth”
12. Azarath – “Blasphemers’ Maledictions”
13. Vale Of Pnath – “The Prodigal Empire”
14. Demisery – “Hive Of Mutation”
15. Revocation – “Chaos Of Forms”
16. Fallujah – “The Harvest Wombs”
17. Skeletonwitch – “Forever Abomination”
18. The Black Dahlia Murder – “Ritual”
19. Immolation – “Providence”
20. Symphony X – “Iconoclast”
21. Cypher – “Tyrian MMVIII”
22. Textures – “Duality”
23. Wolves In The Throne Room – “Celestial Lineage”
24. Hate Eternal – “Phoenix Amongst The Ashes”
25. Atrum – “Opus Victum”
I would like to take this moment to mention (again I know) the new Hypocrisy – Hell Over Sophia DVD and Live 2CD set.
This is a must for any Hypocrisy fan, rare unseen footage, interviews, a great live show, and a documentary including tons of footage from their 2010 South American tour.
I know this sounds like an advertisement but as a die hard Hypocrisy fan I cant let this go unmentioned.
Trust me the same thing is going to happen when the DEATH 2CD set comes out in February.
Here’s an interesting list I received from Heman Phinehas by e-mail:
Kartikeya – Mahayuga
Hellgrind – Inquisition
Mortal Sin – Psychology of Death
The Blame – Born
Forsaken (India) – Hemispheres
Exhumation (India) – Consider This
Galneryus – Phoenix Rising
Traumatic – Point of Rapture
Charred Walls of the Damned – Charred Walls of the Damned
Dream Theater – A Dramatic Turn Of Events
Wolf – Legions Of Bastards
In Solitude – The World, The Flesh, The Devil
Alarum – Natural Causes
Talamyus – Raven’s Call to Annihilation
Eccentric Pendulum – Unwinding the Optics
Powerstorm – Act I
damn..didnt even know Talamyus had a new album
1. Sonne Adam – Transformation
2. Encoffination – O’ Hell, Shine in they Whited Sepulchres
3. Antediluvian – Through the Cervix of Hawwah
4. Negative Plane – Stained Glass Revelations
5. Disma – Towards the Megalith
6. Mitochondrion – Parasignosis
7. Morbus Chron – Sleepers in the Rift
8. Necros Christos – Doom of the Occvlt
9. Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All
10. Ritual Necromancy – Oath of the Abyss
This list reminds me how badly I need to hear Sonne Adam, Morbus Chron, and Necros Christos. I need to see about growing an extra set of ears.
A better brain / brains is what you need. Then, you could play all the albums you wanted to listen to all at once, listen to the noise, but still understand each of them.
Thats an awesome list dude…I agree on almost all of those
1. Septicflesh – The Great Mass. Pure grandiloquent royalty topped with philosophical poetic lyrics. Never heard anything like it on such grand scale. Most likely never will again.
Born of Osiris – The Disovery
Chthonic – Takasago Army
Revocation – The Chaos of Forms
Ghost Brigade – Until Fear No Longer Defines Us
(In Flames – Sounds of a Playground Fading)
And a couple of late arrivals, whom I cannot fully comprehend, are something totally new to me and yet have me hooked big time: Leprous – Bilateral & Solstafir – Svartir Svandar
I liked the new Ghost Brigade a lot. I kept trying to hate it because so much of it sound mass marketable but its so good.
Real songwriting counts for fuck of a lot, doesn’t it?
Top 10 metal (duh) albums in alphabetical order:
Amon Amarth- Surtr Rising
The Atlas Moth- An Ache for the Distance
Battilus- Furnace
Beyond Creation- The Aura
In Solitude- The World, The Flesh, The Devil
Mastodon- The Hunter
Meek is Murder- Algorithms
Origin- Entity
Rwake- Rest
Ulcerate- The Destroyers of All
Thanks to No Clean Singing for turning me onto Ulcerate 🙂
Nice, diverse list full of win. Reminded me of how crushing Batillus is and how head-spinning Beyond Creation is, among other things.
Much ado, broski. Sooo I showed you mine… now you post yours hmm?
To quote from the post above: “We don’t do an ‘official’ NCS year-end ‘best albums’ list. It’s just too damned much work. . . I’m just too fucking lazy.” 🙂
I think I need to add Meek is Murder and Beyond Creation to my list if I haven’t yet…
You people have listened to far more new music this year than I have.
I also like the new Atlas Moth album. I just saw them last week with Batillus, who were also good.
What do you mean “you people”?
What do YOU mean, “you people”?
These are my favorites of the year. I’ve decided that I’m not one to judge the “best of”. So, in no particular order:
Skeletonwitch – Forever Abomination
Glorior Belli – The Great Southern Darkness
Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All
Sylosis – Edge of the Earth
Nader Sadek – In the Flesh
Aurora Borealis – Timeline: The Beginning and End of Everything
World Under Blood – Tactical
Omnium Gatherum – New World Shadows
Burzum – Fallen
Mastodon – The Hunter
More good reminders of stuff that I enjoyed a bunch this year — music that didn’t show up on those other lists we’ve been reprinting from other places over the last two days.
I won’t be able to tell everyone my list until after Christmas most likely, or else it’ll be even more incomplete than it is now…
I know what you mean, I’m pretty sure Taake’s new album would’ve made it onto my list if the mail wasn’t so goddamn slow.
Lol, my problem isn’t slow mail though, it’s nearly non-existent income… oh the life of a college student who doesn’t have a job…
Well, to be honest, since we’re taking about Best of 2011 lists, providing a list after the actual end of 2011 has something to recommend it. 🙂
That’s the one good thing about my predicament!
Basically this is based on my iTunes/iPod scrobbles. Very mainstream tastes this year.
1) Omnium Gatherum – New World Shadows (best MDM release since DT unleashed Fiction)
2) Sylosis – Edge of the Earth (modern thrash done right. Epic, massive, tasteful)
3) Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising (consistency is generally under appreciated)
4) All Shall Perish – This Is Where It Ends (bringing back the heavy. Originators crushing their deathcore peers)
5) Textures – Dualism (example of how to be djent without actually being djent, if that makes sense)
5) Unearth – Darkness in the Light (back-to-basics metalcore at its heavy, fast, catchiest best)
6) Anubis Gate – Anubis Gate (prog metal that isn’t wanky, self-indulgent or mind numbingly boring)
7) Revocation – Chaos of Forms (modern metal done right. Far less retro trash, coming into their own now)
8) Born of Osiris – The Discovery (biggest surprise. Interesting, well crafted, ‘progressive’ deathcore?)
9) Anterior – Echoes of the Fallen (may sound a bit dated, but excellent riffs, catchy, no necessary clean vocals = win)
10) Mercenary – Metamorphosis (2nd biggest surprise. This is extremely well-crated, and an improvement over Architect of Lies).
Apologies: Darkest Hour (so much Colony worship), The Interbeing (as if Mnemic was back in form), Insomnium (classy, consistent as always), Xerath (making djent interesting), Ghost Brigade.
Disappointments: Trivium (massive step backwards from Shogun), Threat Signal (break up already), Tesseract (yawn), Scar Symmetry, Pain, Devin Townsend (all meh), BTBAM (Zzzzz)
Sorry for the spelling mistakes. And all the errors — no proof reading. And inexplicably I left off Decapitated. I received the vinyl edition of the album today in the mail and it is starring right at me.
1) Omnium Gatherum
2) Sylosis
3) Amon Amarth
4) All Shall Perish
5) Textures
6) Decapitated
7) Unearth
8.) Anubis Gate
9) Revocation
10) Born of Osiris
… 11) Anterior 12) Mercenary
Holy fuck, I completely forgot that I listened to that Unearth record this year! I literally cannot remember a single riff from it.
I was so charged about the Unearth before it came out, and you hit the nail on the head. For a band that used to be dependable for massive groove and infectious melody. . . I can’t remember the album either. Really disappointing.
Thanks for making time for the descriptions, which were great. I really liked all these albums too . . . except for Unearth, which (as below) just didn’t measure up to my expectations unfortunately.
Okay, I’m gonna post my list ONLY because there are a lot of great albums that I feel have been totally ignored this year, either in general or just when making these lists.
These not making more lists proves there is no justice in the world:
Cauldron- Burning Fortune (Newer Canadian band, trad metal)
Belphegor- Blood Magick Necromance (I’ve seen it on only 1 other list. Sad)
Turisas- Stand Up and Fight (SERIOUSLY, this is a great album. I think a lot of people just heard the title track, which was rather weak, but the rest is just great.)
Vader- Welcome to the Morbid Reich (I thought more people liked this band, and the album is top notch Vader)
Destruction- Day of Reckoning (I guess people just didn’t like it much? I know everyone knew about this one,
Destruction is too big a band for people to not have…)
Tyr- The Lay of Thrym (I think the rather boring nature of their first 5 or 6 albums put people off, but golly gee, this album is so different. Not boring, but extremely fun, catchy, great songs.)
Rotten Sound- Curses (Only a few have recognized this album for its greatness. I’m not even a grindcore person but I love it.)
Tsjuder- Legion Helvete (didn’t get much press, maybe that’s why it made few lists?)
Children of Bodom- Relentless, Reckless Forever ( I know a lot of people have something against this band just because they have an audience among…a certain fanbase type… but really a great return to form.)
And some others that have gotten their fair share of love:
Obscura- Omnivium
Septicflesh- A Great Mass
Toxic Holocaust- Conjure and Command
Decapitated- Carnival is Forever
Warbringer- Worlds Torn Asunder
Exhumed- All Guts No Glory
Hate Eternal- Phoenix Amongst the Ashes
Really glad you took the time to do this. Just a few random thoughts:
I don’t know anyone who’s a fan of death metal who didn’t rave about the new Vader, and yet I haven’t seen it on the “best of” lists of any of the bigger net sites and zines. I do not fucking get it. Can anyone explain??
Turisas and Tyr I think are victims of a prejudice among many metal critics against folk-metal and battle-metal in general. Again, I don’t understand why these genres are so ignored among the more widely read and influential blogs and zines.
Rotten Sound has also been omitted from lots of critics’ lists, but I saw it in DECIBEL on the personal “best of” lists of Greg Mackintosh of Vallenfyre and I also saw it on several musicians’ lists that appeared in MetalSucks this week.
One album that melted my face I have not seen on any list, on any site, is Cavus, Fester and Putrefy. Why?
A good question. I have a half-written review of Fester done, and sure as hell need to finish it. I remember Cavus from the second MISCELLANY post we ever did, 18 months ago:
https://www.nocleansinging.com/2010/07/17/miscellany-no-2-2/
But I haven’t heard their newest, nor have I heard Putrefy. I clearly need to sleep less and listen more.
Here’s my list of the best metal albums in 2011:
1. Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All
2. Mastodon – The Hunter
3. Decapitated – Carnival Is Forever
4. Textures – Dualism
5. Primordial – Redemption At The Puritan’s Hand
6. Mitochondrion – Parasignosis
7. Obscura – Omnivium
8. Septic Flesh – The Great Mass
9. Abysmal Dawn – Levelling the Plane of Existence
10. Insision – End of All (ep)
Random thoughts: Decapitated’s is yet another death metal album that every fan of technical death metal I know really liked, and yet I haven’t seen it on many year-end lists by writers. I’m having trouble figuring that one out.
Also, nice to see Abysmal Dawn on your list. I thought Vince Neilstein said it well when he put them on his list at MS: “Abysmal Dawn aren’t reinventing the death metal wheel, but hot damn are they really fucking good at rolling along with it. Abysmal Dawn’s forte is writing excellent songs; instead of using their technical skills as a focal point they use them only to better serve each song as a whole. . . . Good songs are really important, and Leveling the Plane of Existence has tons of ‘em that kept me coming back for more all year long.” (and bravo to him for including Decapitated, too.)
I don’t understand at all why Decapitated was omitted from most people’s lists. The second i heard i knew it was in my top ten regardless of what else i would have heard after that.
Honourable mentions for me would be:
Esoteric – Paragon of Dissonance
Rotten Sound – Cursed
Absence of Light – Vyom Chakra (solely for being the first extreme metal album released by a Kenyan band)
Kenyan metal? Now that is something I must check out.
1. Midnight – Satanic Royalty
2. God Ox – Abyssal Gigantism
3. Grayceon – All We Destroy
4. The Atlas Moth – An Ache For The Distance
5. Funerary Bell – The Coven
6. Cormorant – Dwellings
7. Moonsorrow – Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa
8. Arizmenda – Without Circumference Nor Center
9. Altar of Plagues – Mammal
10. Ritual Necromancy – Oath of The Abyss
Oooh . . . bands whose music I haven’t heard in company with the likes of Midnight, The Atlas Moth, Funerary Bell, Cormorant, Moonsorrow, and Altar of Plagues. Very promising.
The 2011 metal releases I have most enjoyed so far are (in no particular order) as follows:
Animals as Leaders-Weightless…love the jazz fusion influences
Textures-Dualism…addictive and possibly as good as their previous album
Fleshgod Apocalypse-Agony…the symphonic elements add a lot to the FA sound
Ulcerate-The Destroyers of All…nearly flawless metal
Septicflesh-The Great Mass…simply can’t get enough of the orchestral undercurrent
Within Temptation-The Unforgiving…maybe not exactly metal, but excellent nonetheless
Talanas-The Waspkeeper…difficult to get into at first, but it grows on you
Chthonic-Takasago Army…the black metal is less prevalant in this one=win
Gigan-Quasi-Hallucinogenic Sonic Landscapes…crazy good prog death metal better than Obscura
At first I thought, here’s a list where I actually know all the albums, for a change — and then I got to Gigan. Don’t know why I haven’t spent more time with Gigan. Your description of the music is awfully tasty.
My personal favorites of 2011 in no order.
Condemned Sulaco
Cavus Hate Eternal
Benighted The Human Abstract
Cianide Immolation
Autopsy Indian
Amebix Kartikeya
Sourvein Jungle Rot
Disma Krisiun
American Heritage Rotten Sound
Anaal Nathrakh Mitochondrion
The Atlas Moth Nader Sadek
Batillus Negative Plane
Black Cobra Noisear
Criminal Element Origin
Crowbar Regurgitation
Cruachen Rwake
Diamond Plate Nootgrush
Flourishing Ulcerate
Graf Orlock Trap Them
Haemorrhage Sadgiqacea
Subrosa Taake
Tombs Unkind
Sorry that your two-colmn format didn’t render as I’m sure you hoped it would, and I don’t know how to make that happen, unfortunately.
Lots of these lists are reminding me of albums I really liked, in addition to making me curious about ones I don’t know. Here, for example, are good reminders about the kickass albums from Benighted, Nader Sadek (about whom I have a half-finished post for this weekend), Noothgrush, and Unkind. Condemned and Cavus are already on my to-listen list, and there are 8 other bands on your list who are new to me. Thanks for making time to do this.
Yes, the format did not come out as expected, but no worries…..
I hope you like some of the new artists you have yet to hear.
I really like your Criminal Element post, I wanted to put that on My List, but I dont think they released
anything this year! Their Slayer Cover epidemic is like the coolest cover ive heard!
Proly my favorite band right now, Crime and Punishment pt. 1 and 2 kick Dying fetus and Misery index
to the curb, i must say! thanks for posting that!
2011 favourites, no order.
Abruptum – Potestates Apocalypsis
Sonne Adam – Transformation
Swamp Witch – Gnosis
Wormrot – Noise
Amebix – Sonic Mass
Crows – Severence
Graad – Graad
Ash Borer – Ash Borer
Hebosagil – Ura
Weekend Nachos – Worthless
Weirding – Each Birth Is A New Disaster
Gigan – Quasi-Hallucinogenic Sonic Landscapes
Medo – Materia Negra
Meth Drinker – Meth Drinker
Acephalix – Interminable Night
Brazen Hell – Torment
Amphibian – Poisonous Pleasures
this is a great way to discover everything i’ve missed this year. thanks for a great blog!
Here’s a list I received from Booker:
“Here’s what’s been on heavy rotation for me in 2011:
Sylosis – Edge of the Earth. (http://www.facebook.com/Sylosis) Listening to thrash metal is like coming home – I grew up on this stuff! Yet this is with a modern take keeping the sound fresh and interesting. Full of epic half-time melodies and decent riffage. The guitarist doing vocals is actually a huge step up from their previous dedicated singer in my opinion.
Nociceptor – Among Insects. (http://nociceptor.bandcamp.com/) This one’s hardly had any coverage in the blogosphere at all, yet I’ve had on heavy repeat. Math metal with obvious Meshuggah influences (as does the whole genre) yet with guitar solos and choral vocal arrangements. I’m not sure if they planned it this way but the whole album sounds like ‘groups of 2s’ – the intro track merges into The Fell, Emergence into Botfly, and even the two final tracks Cuntagion and Angus McGillicuddy sound to me like complementary movements, making the album flow together into a genuine grouping of songs.
Mechina – Conquerer. (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mechina/114376106370) This baby’s a keeper. Like the soundtrack to the best sci-fi never made. A concept album (the first in a three-part series), with definite old-school Fear Factory machine-gun riffage (the singer sounds so much like Burton as well) combined with Eastern/Asiatic
influences and even mellowed-out electronica interludes and an orchestral backing. Decent subject matter in the lyrics also makes the concept aspect of the album a strength, as opposed to being too abstract to connect to. Especially with the world as it is right now, I can disturbingly see a nuclear war like this really happening.
Machine Head – Unto the Locust. Everyone knows this one, a great follow up to Through the Ashes of Empires and The Blackening.
Mastodon – The Hunter. I don’t understand the hate out there for this one. They obviously set out to make a record not so full-on and serious as Crack The Skye, and that’s what it is. The Hunter (the song) and The Sparrow also affirms the ability of Mastodon to write some of great haunting ballads.
Well I found out That Media Player will Organize my Metal tunes by year
so I can more easily find the most Infectuous Death Tunes of the Year!
Mind you guys Most of this shit on my List is of The Groovy,
Technical-Thrashy-Brutal-Melodic type of metal, so if your into to
this kinda shit you might wanna check some of this out! Hopefully ill
turn soebody onto something! Im just gonna go by My favorite albums,
as I dont feel like going through every song to find the heaviest ones,
that would take forever! But so far these are my favorite
Cannabis Corpse: -“Beneath the Grow Lights though shall rise!” <–\m/(-_-)\m/
Deivos: -"Demiurge the Void" <—Blasting Cowbell brutallity
Dying Fetus: -"History Repeats" <—-Great cover Album
Vader: -"Return to the Morbid Reich" <—– Finally OG Vader Album
Vildhjarta: -"Masstaden" <—–shit gets heavy! how Meshuggah should sound
Vile: -"Metamorphosis" <—-Progressive
The Rotted: -"Ad Neaseam" <—-Thrashy Old School was Gorerotted
Plasmoptysis: -"Dawn the Plague" <—-These Chinc's are fuckin heavy
Fleshgod Apocalypse: "Agony" <—–Yep
Natrium: "Elegy fo the Flesh" <if you like Fleshgod Apocalypse–Get this
Origin: "Entity" <–Best Origin Album Ever
Neuraxis: "Asylon" <- Great progressive/Industrial sounding DM
Fallujah: "The Harvest Womb" < think you guys turned me on to this too
These albums are all so good itd be hard to pick a # 1 thats why their
not in any particular order, Also theirs other albums I also love from 2011,
but these are the ones in which every song on each album Kicks ass, thats
mainly why I chose these!
Thanks for this. I just listened to a Natrium song based on your description. Damn, how did I not know about this band?!?
Since we’re already a month into the new year, and now that one has had a chance to check out and properly listen to a few albums that one hadn’t since their release, one might as well do this… 😐 [Also, testing more HTML tags.]
In no particular order – Old Man Windbreaker’s 13 favourite music releases of 2011:
Cormorant – Dwellings
Most emotional and cathartic listening experience one has had that one can remember.]
Thy Catafalque – Rengeteg
Music as an artform exemplified. One can’t really say much more about this.
Blotted Science – The Animation of Entomology
Instrumental Progressive Metal / Groove Metal by an 80’s guitarist that isn’t a shred-rock record. And it beats the pants off of the new Animals as Leaders. Also, BUGS!
Amebix – Sonic Mass
One didn’t really get it at first. But it grew on …like Sonic Moss! Eh? …No? Okay.
Devin Townsend Project – Contain Us
Actually, just the four Devin Townsend Project albums. An incredible music journey. An equally incredible, but weirder journey, if one decides to fuck it up by listening to Ziltoid, The Omniscient and Alien right after. 😐
Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All
One always thought Death Metal should to be clear pounding riffs to be heavy – a factor which lead to one becoming bored with the Genre in general. Screw Portal Ulcerate FTW! Also, Jamie Saint Merat is a beast behind the kit. (O_O)
Death Grips – ExMilitary
This album gives one hope for hip-hop and rap (Busdriver and Aesop Rock notwithstanding :D). Then again, one doesn’t listen to much hip-hop… Oh well.
I’ll Eat Your Face – HOT BRAINS TERROR
One didn’t realize the awesomeness of this when it was released… Seriously, The Eels of Love Lake – Eels, Love and Lakes all in one song! AND THEY DON’T EVEN NEED WORDS!
Light Bearer – Lapsus
There’s just something about a 18 minute long song titled Lapsus on a post-metal album titled Lapsus about the Light Bearer’s Lapsus… Also, Alex CF of Fall of Efrafa
Sahara Surfers – Sonar Pilot
DAT FUZZ! Excellent Stoner Rock album if one may say so. One still cannot fathom the exact conditions of the conditions of the guitar and setup under which such tones are produced though (Stoner Rock in general). Also, one was under the impression that the vocalist was male from the first time that one listened to their first album Spacetrip on a Paper Plane, until the first time one listened to the second album and finally decided to look up their last.fm page. 😐
Uneven Structure – Februus | TesseracT – One
An hour-long progressive groove metal / ambient (ambidjent) epic. | Also an hour-long progressive groove metal / ambient (ambidjent?) album full of excellent songs.
The songs on Februus feel more consistent songwriting-wise. | One has the catchier songs and the better fit with the vocalist.
Vildhjarta – Måsstaden
A solid progressive groove metal (djent) album. Or rather, a well-though-out and well-made one. This album presents pretty much the same kind of problem to one as Meshuggah’s Nothing or Catch Thirtythree – inevitable boredom halfway through, unless pooping. The songs have solid grooves, and they present the (fairly) unique style of the band, but they don’t seem to do much more than that even as an album. Also, one didn’t like the clean tone of the guitars too much – but, that’s probably just the mild aversion to all the djent, progressive metalcore and deathcore that one has developed of late.
Honorable mentions:
Sylosis – Edge of the Earth
Thomas Giles – Pulse
Ulver – Wars of the Roses
40 Watt Sun – The Inside Room
Aliases – Safer Than Reality
The Number of the Blog – The Sampler of the Blog: Volume I [Yeah. It’s a cop-out. :P]
Animals as Leaders – Weightless
Cynic – Carbon-Based Anatomy
Being – Arrival (Preview)
Bispora – The Cycle
Beyond the Epilogue – BtE: EP
Burial – Street Halo
Caligula’s Horse – Moments from Ephemeral City & Colossus
Celldweller – The Complete Cellout: Vol. 01
Cloudkicker – Let Yourself be Huge & Loop
CZAR – Old Haunts
David Maxim Micic – Bilo
Decapitated – Carnival is Forever
Dionaea – Still
Ec{c}entric Pendulum – Winding the Optics
Esoteric – Paragon of Dissonance
Evan Brewer – Alone
Ever Forthright – Ever Forthright
From Exile – Just Like You Imagined [That solo on Ruiner…]
Grayceon – All We Destroy
Goddess Gagged – Resurfaces
Kartikeya – Mahayuga
Mechina – Conqueror
Mithras – Time Never Lasts [The reason one did this list. 😀 Yes. You will have to blame this travesty upon the existence of Mithras.]
Midnight – Satanic Royalty
Mitochondrion – Parasignosis [Scared. Oh so scared.]
Odyssey – An Abstract Existence
Paul Wardingham – Assimilate Regenerate [One still doesn’t get the Scar Symmetry comparison though…]
Primus – Green Naugahyde
Protest the Hero – Scurrilous
Random – Todo.s Los Colores Del [Screw The Mars Volta. :P]
Red Seas Fire – Red Seas Fire EP [Nolly Nolly Nolly Nolly Nolly…]
Means End – Means End EP
Scale the Summit – The Collective
Symphony of Science – Symphony of Science Bundle 1.0
The PotT – To Those in the Eyes of God
Unexpect – Fables of the Sleepless Empire
Xerath – II
YOB – Atma
[There were other albums that one didn’t listen to enough, or that one didn’t really like enough to list even here.]
Wow! Helluva list, and I enjoyed your descriptions. The html tags worked well, too.
One thanks you for your compliments.
Yes, the HTML tags were rendered well enough. But, they weren’t rendered exactly as intended. Oh well…
There are bound to be limitations to rendering HTML from comments anyway, right?
It’s not like this
will show up as an embedded image…