SEAN GOLYER’S FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2011

 Listmania  4 Responses »
Dec 242011
 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Oak Pantheon is a Minneapolis-based band who we wrote about a couple of times earlier this year (most recently here), singing the praises of their EP called The Void. As a gross generalization, it’s folk-influenced black metal with memorable acoustic and electric melodies, infectious rhythms, and a scarifying dose of Nordic vocals. Sean Golyer is a “behind the scenes” member of the band, and he sent us the following list of his favorite albums from the past year. By coincidence, it includes three bands who made their first appearance on our the year-end lists from Stephen and Kenneth Parker that we posted yesterday.

There have no doubt been a lot of great music releases that I’ve listened to this year — countless more than this list indicates (Absu, Disma, and Wolves in the Throne Room are a few of the bands whose albums are great, but not listed below). However, I decided to take a new approach to my choices this year and compiled a short list of releases that have permanently made it into my collection of music that I listen to regularly, or simply releases that were so stand-out fantastic I couldn’t help but mention them.

I have to admit, the big metal releases this year were not quite as stellar as the past few years (at least not ones from the big names or labels). But that allowed me to open myself up further to bands outside of the genre, or bands that really pushed its boundaries. 2011 will certainly be known as the year that the underground really shined and surpassed anything the big labels put out.

Melancholy is a theme I always enjoy searching for and listening to. I discovered a lot of new bands and I’m also developing a newfound taste in crust, but not a lot of releases stood out enough that they stuck in my playlists regularly.  I’m a man who likes to let the music speak for itself, so instead of me babbling on about my opinions for each band, I’d rather you just listen and take in the music to form your own opinion. Continue reading »

UNDERGROUND METAL FOR THE TRVE CURMUDGEON (Best of 2011 Edition)

 Listmania  23 Responses »
Dec 232011
 

(NCS guest contributor and avid commenter SurgicalBrute provides a Best of 2011 for all trve curmudgeons out there, and I threw in a handful of song clips at the end. Listening to all these albums in a row would be like having a grenade detonate inside your belly while a napalm canister goes off inside your skull.)

I know it’s been a hell of a year for metal, because my credit card statement keeps reminding me. So when I first started writing this, I wasn’t entirely sure what would make it onto my list. While some of my choices were pretty obvious, even from the very beginning, several of my mid-year favorites ended up getting bumped because of some last-minute discoveries. After a little thought, a little time, and a little alcohol (okay maybe more than a little), I finally settled on 15 albums I would call my “must haves” for this year.  There are a few honorable mentions as well, just to round things out.

Most of the stuff I really like tends to fall on the death metal side of things, but there’s a mix of black and even a little doom as well. No, there is no Tech, ‘Core, or Machine Head on here. Yes, I like Disma. No, it did not make my list. Yes, I actually have a very good reason for that.

So, in no particular order, here’s my list…enjoy…\m/ Continue reading »

THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2011: STEPHEN AND KENNETH PARKER (ARKHUM) GIVE US THEIR LISTS

 Listmania  13 Responses »
Dec 232011
 

EDITOR’S FORWARD: I’m a big fan of Portland-based Arkhum and have written about them multiple times at NCS, including this fairly recent post. The band includes two brothers — lead vocalist/lyricist Kenneth Parker and guitarist/vocalist Stephen Parker. Recently, each of them has provided NCS with guest interviews — Stephen interviewing Jason William Walton (Agalloch, Self Spiller) and Kenneth interviewing Izedis of apocalyptic black noize merchants Enbilulugugal.

As part of our year-end Listmania series, I asked each of them if they would let me publish their personal lists of the year’s best albums, and they agreed. Both lists include albums I’ve never heard before — which is a big part of why this Listmania thing is fun — and so at the end of this post I’ve randomly included some music from the albums that were new to me. Here we go:

STEPHEN PARKER’S TOP 11

1. Light Bearer – Lapsus

If anyone out there is a fan of the sludge/neocrust titans Fall of Efrafa, you know who Light Bearer are. The first track I heard was ‘Prelapsus’, and it was amazing. The track starts with the signature vocal magic from Alex CF. His harsh but emotional vocals really set the tone for this entire track. After a lengthy but necessary buildup, the track busts into an orgasmic display of bassist Tom Watson’s vocal range. When you hear Watson and Alex sing/scream the lines “We are the sons of fire, we are the daughters of light”, prepare to have chills from your head to your toes. Continue reading »

GRINDVIOLENCE: ALEX LAYZELL’S LIST OF 10 UNDERDOG RELEASES FROM 2011

 Listmania  7 Responses »
Dec 222011
 


(Here we have a list of recommended 2011 releases from Alex Layzell, the mastermind behind the awesome UK-based Grind To Death blog — and most of this nastiness is available for free download.)

So I recently received via pigeon mail an invitation by Islander to do a best of 2011 list thingy (do these things have an official name yet?), but truth be told, despite agreeing to it I didn’t want to do a best of list, because I produce one on GTD anyway, and there is no point in reproducing or rewording the same set of material twice when the material itself is likely to be ignored and clog up the precious resource known as the internet. Secondly I haven’t really given much thought as to the hierarchy of my favourite releases, nor is the year quite over yet, thus a month is sufficient time to tilt my listening schedule in favour of one band against another, or for a whole new game-changing release to explode on my radar.

So what do I intend to do with this assignment I have willingly agreed to do and in fact from my previous experience found to be quite rewarding given the community response (please set my family free now Islander, I have done as you ask! )? After much thought and deliberation the answer manifested itself quite clearly: Compile a list of 10 underdog bands whose 2011 releases cemented their names in the grind order amongst the regular merchants of grindviolence (on my playlist).

The problem is, this year dozens of newcomers have carved their names into my fragile mind. Not wanting to pick my favourite 10, what criteria do I establish to narrow it down to 10? arghhhhhh it’s no easy life being fair and ethical (fuck this shit I am going to beat a whale to death with a golf club!). So I thought, fudge the lot of ya,  first 10 to come to my head win. Maybe if I am feeling exceptionally festive and have plenty of time to kill in-between being a student, a terrible blogger, and general commitments, I may do a part 2 of this list, but we will have to see.

Without further ado here is a first-come, first-serve mental list of undercard bands who gave me such a savage musical beating in 2011 that it’s my turn to unleash these Baskerville hounds on your unsuspecting ears! Continue reading »

BADWOLF’S #1 ALBUM OF THE YEAR – CORMORANT’S “DWELLINGS”; and AN INTERVIEW

 Interviews, Listmania  18 Responses »
Dec 222011
 

(Yesterday, BadWolf revealed 19 of his Top 20 albums of 2011. Today, he unveils his No. 1 album of 2011 and interviews the top band’s vocalist/bassist/lyricist, Arthur Von Nagel.)

Cormorant’s Dwellings secured my Album of the Year status on the first listen. It’s a staggering achievement, one I’ve already covered in depth on this site [here].

In the following celebratory interview, Cormorant bassist/lyricist/vocalist Arthur Von Nagel broke down a few of Dwellings’ tracks, talked about Cormorant’s future, dished about his recent engagement (congratulations!), hinted to Cormorant’s touring(ish) future, and even dropped some super-kvlt metal recommendations.

BW:  How are you, my man?

Cormorant:  I’m doing very well, yourself?  I’m on cloud nine this whole week.

BW:  I bet you are, you lucky dog. Successful engagement, oodles of critical acclaim. You’re having ‘the best week ever.’

Cormorant:  The engagement was beautiful.  And yeah I’m really glad that so many people are enjoying the album.  The band Timeghoul just wrote to us to congratulate us on the album and then I died happy. These dudes are my heroes, you know?  It’s really an honor.  And then NPR list us with all these bands we look up to and have been influenced by.  It’s just fantastic and I can’t thank everyone enough for the kind words and support.  This album was a labor of love.

BW:  You can totally hear that. On both of them, I think. Well, know not think.

Cormorant:  Haha, well Metazoa was a different animal.  It was a more hopeful and excited record. Dwellings is just bleak in comparison. Continue reading »

REV. WILL’S TOP 20 LITANIES OF 2011

 Listmania  12 Responses »
Dec 212011
 

Hah! I Am Not Real, I Stare At Choo From A Painting

(Here we have a best-album list from a prolific writer who seems to have a nom de plume for every site he frequents. In his posts at NCS he’s “Willard Shrapnelspear”. At The Number of the Blog, he’s “Rev. Will”. At PopMatters and Pure Grain Audio, he’s Dane Prokofiev. I’m probably leaving out some . . .)

For the sake of those curious to know, the guy in the painting above was Frédéric François Chopin.

The flaw of any personal “Best of” list is as much its strength as it is a quirk, however oxymoronic this may sound. As the legendary Cosmo Lee once said on Invisible Oranges before he left our blogosphere for good, “the only list that matters anymore is your own”. It’s one of those common sense conclusions we all know and arrived at in our heads long ago, but we were all just waiting for some prominent Internet blogger to type it out.

With that said, some groundwork has been laid for what to expect from this list. As personal “Best of” lists are shaped by individual experiences from many aspects of everyday life such as work, exercise, play, dating, sleep, philosophical moments and such, every list has its own unique taste that gives you a little hint of how the list-maker has been living his life for the past year. Hence, it is quite an intimate affair for metal writers/bloggers to be showing our lists to the world; it’s kind of like letting everyone know our darkest secrets, but hidden behind the indirectness of lyrics and the subjective nature of the music’s sound.

One exception to this observation, however, would be some of the paid metal writers/bloggers who mainly roll such lists out annually like a toy factory conveyor belt, simply because it is their job to do so. In my opinion, unpaid metal writers/bloggers still make the most intimate lists around. Continue reading »

BADWOLF’S BEST ALBUMS OF 2011 – THE FINAL NINE

 Listmania  3 Responses »
Dec 212011
 

(In this two-part post, NCS and Invisible Oranges writer BadWolf reveals his picks for the Best Albums of 2011. Part 2 comes tomorrow, with the best album selection and a companion interview.)

2011 was such a strange year in metal for me that I’m not sure how to describe it. For years I’ve been all about odd, off-genre switches and progressive mentality, along with high-concept artistic edifice, and all those elements are present in my top 10 albums of the year… in force.

But 2011, to me, was mostly about shifting to minimalism and immediacy. I found myself guided to shorter albums full of straightforward, punchy material. I think the bumper-crop of technical death metal and djent this year has spoiled me, and great artists as well, on showoff guitar work. This was the year for singer-songwriters in metal and great musicians focusing on rock-solid iPod jams.

Without further ado, 9 of my top 10 albums of 2011, in alphabetical order. (#1 to follow later):

Cynic – Carbon Based Anatomy

Yes, this is technically an EP, but there’s more great music in this little gem than most metal bands crank out in the course of a career. My review of this record at InvisibleOranges [here] outlines most of my love for Carbon Based Anatomy. Continue reading »

THE 2011 TOP 10 of VAN666 (ARCHITECTURE OF AGGRESSION)

 Listmania  4 Responses »
Dec 202011
 

(Architecture of Aggression is a South African band who’ve been creating massive, bone-grinding, head-spinning, technically inventive, progressive death metal for more than 16 years (check out this post if they’re a name you don’t recognize). I asked one of the band’s co-founders, Van Zyl Alberts (aka Van666) to contribute to our year-end series of posts on 2011’s best metal, and here’s his list of recommendations.)

1. Pestilence – Doctrine

Brilliant, epic, powerful, technical, and catchy, with great crushing riffs, and jazzy bass lines and guitar solos. A modern Classic. Like a slow cancer that consumes your body, Pestilence reminds everybody that playing as fast as humanly possible, which is the modern trend, doesn’t necessarily make you more heavy. For fans of Old School Death Metal. Continue reading »

NOCTEM: THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2011

 Listmania  No Responses »
Dec 192011
 

(As we continue to barrel ahead toward the end of 2011, we continue our Listmania series, looking back on the year’s best metal. In this post, we have two lists of favorite albums from members of Spain’s Noctem — lead guitarist Exo and vocalist Beleth. Noctem is one of our favorites here at NCS — check out Andy Synn’s review of their fantastic 2011 album here and his interview of Beleth here, and you can watch their new music video for “The Arrival of the False Gods” in this post.)

EXO

1-Obscura – Omnivium

Really liked their previous album, but this one blew my mind, really complex and original at the same time.

2-Decapitated – Carnival Is Forever

These Polish guys still impress me. This album sounds more modern and includes some kind of hardcore influences. The result of a brutal procreation between old Decapitated and Meshuggah. Continue reading »

THE TOP 10 LIST OF TAMÁS KÁTAI (THY CATAFALQUE)

 Listmania  11 Responses »
Dec 192011
 

(Tamás Kátai is the man behind a Hungarian band called Thy Catafalque, whose fifth album Rengeteg is one of my favorite recordings of the year,  for reasons I’ll be explaining in a forthcoming review. Also, a song from that album will appear soon on our list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. So of course, as part of our Listmania series, I asked Tamás to contribute his list of the year’s best albums — and here we have it.)

10. Baaba Kulka – Baaba Kulka

A Polish band with early Iron Maiden covers up to Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son album. Why it’s interesting and worthy of note is that they handle the task with exceptional freedom and taste. My faves are the trip-hopish “Aces High” and the beautifully low-key “Flight Of Icarus”. True Warriors Of Heavy Metal keep out!


Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries