NO CLEAN SINGING

THE BABOON’S BEST REPLAY VALUE LIST

Dec 242010

[EDITOR’S NOTE: NCS has developed a close relationship with DEATH METAL BABOON, and especially its Netherlands-based founder and mastermind Niek. He e-mailed me a list of the best albums he reviewed this year for DMB — with “best” being defined based on Niek’s desire to listen to the albums repeatedly. And then I talked him into letting me publish the list here — which is pretty cool since he could (and probably should) have used it for his own site.

The one request he made was that I add my own comments on his selections. Seemed like a cheap price to pay for getting to post Niek’s list, so I agreed. Here’s the list and Niek’s comments about the Top 3. My own comments are identified by name. Plus, I’ve added links for Niek’s favorite songs from the top 3 albums on his list.]

My list is a list of the best albums I’ve reviewed on The Baboon this year. Mind you, these are not necessarily the ones to which I gave the highest marks, although most of the high ones are in here. The ones that are in this list aren’t ranked based on marks either. Instead, I’ve ranked them based on my desire to listen to them again. Call it long-term replay value if you like. With that as the definition of my list, seven albums that I reviewed this year have that long-term replay value and are listed below. (after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

JOHAN HULDTGREN’S 2010 TOP 10

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Dec 242010

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Not long ago, we ran a mini-series about Long Songs that we really liked. The longest, and last, in the series was a powerful, album-length opus by a Swedish black-metal duo called Obitus (our review of the album is here). Through that review, we made the acquaintance of Johan Huldtgren, the vocalist and lyricist of Obitus, and his comments on this site have turned us on to some stunning music.

Eventually, we figured out that Johan was the brother of Fredrik Huldtgren, the vocalist for Canopy — another metal band whose work we had praised earlier in the year. We asked the brothers Huldtgren if they would contribute to our Listmania Week, and they did. In this post, Johan gives us his Top 10 list (it’s more mind-expanding than most lists you will read this year), and a selection of one song from each album. In the post below this one, we’ve got Fredrik’s list.]

10. Ash Pool – For Which He Plies The Lash

Noisy, nasty, primitive, minimalistic, and all around disgusting.

Ash Pool: Holocaust Temple

(the balance of Johan’s list follows the jump . . .) Continue reading »

FREDRIK HULTDGREN’S LIST OF THE YEAR’S BEST

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Dec 242010

[EDITOR’S NOTE: One of the best discoveries we made in 2010 was the music of a Swedish band called Canopy. As we wrote in our review of their 2010 release Menhir, “Canopy has a knack for creating melodic death metal with power grooves and prog-metal flourishes, without ever losing an ominously heavy cutting edge.” It was a powerful follow-up to the band’s excellent 2009 album, Will and Perception. We asked Canopy’s awesome vocalist Fredrik Hultdgren if he would give us a list of his favorite albums from 2010, and he obliged. Read on . . .]

Here is my list for 2010. These are all albums that I thoroughly enjoyed this year. Most of them fall under metal of the more extreme kind, but there are some others in here, too. I chose not to place them in any order, as doing so would be too difficult, so you will have to survive with this as is.

Kveleratak – Kveleratak

Jebus almighty. This album is fucking fun to listen to. Not the most original perhaps, but this is one of those albums that is just perfect to drink to! Mashing hardcore, black metal and punk influences into one huge mix that works so well. Artwork is done by John Dyer Baizley [Baroness] and is, as always, pretty damn cool. I managed to get ahold of the double gatefold vinyl of this release, and the artwork looks even better at such a size!

Rotting Christ – AEALO

Yet another great album by Rotting Christ, probably the act I saw the most of live this year.

Even though I might find the songs a bit monotone on CD (especially the drums!) they transform into a completely different beast live.

(more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

ANDY SYNN’S TOP 10(s) OF THE YEAR

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Dec 232010

[EDITOR’S NOTE: We finally come to Part 4 of Andy Synn‘s review of the year in metal. In previous posts, Andy identified the Great, the Good, and the Disappointing releases of 2010. In this final installment, Andy lists his Top 10 favorite albums of the year as well as a critical Top 10 list. Turns out that the same album is in the top spot on both lists.]

Well ladies and gentlemen, finally we come to my personal top ten of the year, followed by my objective, critical top ten.

The first list contains the albums that I consider my favourites, in some cases regardless of relative quality, and that I have gone to for listening pleasure most frequently this year. I love these albums despite (and in some cases because of) their flaws.

The second list contains the albums which I think were the most artistically ambitious and successful, performed the best, and contained the best and most interesting examples of song-writing as art. These are the albums which I feel set a gold-standard for objective value this year, regardless of personal feelings towards the music and/or artist.

There will definitely be some expected names on both lists, but also hopefully some surprises! Continue reading »

BADWOLF’S TOP 10: THE YEAR’S BEST ALBUMS

Listmania 21 Responses »

Dec 232010

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Earlier this week, we posted our contributor BadWolf‘s article on the “most listenable” metal albums of 2010. You can see that here if you missed it. Today, we’ve got BadWolf’s list of the ten best albums, selected based on artistic achievement.]

The following is my list of the ten greatest artistic achievements in heavy metal this year—in my humble or not so humble opinion of course. If you want mosh music or workout music—that was the previous list. Any albums that appear on both lists would constitute an unranked objective best albums of 2010 list.

In summary for the lazy, 2010 was the year USBM raped everything in sight.

Because I feel the purpose of top 10 lists is to expand taste, spur discussion, and examine contemporary metal music I have not included any ‘legacy’ acts—sorry Accept, Iron Maiden, Immolation, Blind Guardian et. al., but you don’t need me.

Honorable Mentions – unordered:

Castevet – Mounds of Ash
Enslaved – Axioma Ethica Odini
Intronaut – Valley of Smoke
Woe – Quietly, Undramatically
Nachtmystium – Addicts
Stargazer – A Great Work of Ages
Ihsahn – After
Watain – Lawless Darkness
Triptykon – Eparistera Daimones

(BadWolf’s Top 10 comes after the jump . . .)

THE DEVIL’S FAVORITES: THE TOP 10 OF DEATH’S EMBRACE

Listmania 11 Responses »

Dec 232010

[EDITOR’S NOTE: “Death’s Embrace” is the nom de guerre of one of our most loyal readers, who’s been with us since sometime in the last geologic epoch. Or at least since last November when we started NCS. Anyway, he has a Top 10 list, and now we have it, too, along with his recommended songs from each album. Read on . . .]

These are the albums that got the most replay on my Ipod. And for a couple of albums, I just had to keep coming back to them over and over. They were so good in my mind that I just couldn’t replace them with something else. I also added some links to my favorite tracks off of each album. I am sure that most of you will have some issues with my choice for the best album of the year, but I can’t get it out of my head. I listen to the whole album, beginning to end, at least three or four times a week. It never gets old.

I could not narrow my list down to ten, so first, here are my honorable mentions for 2010:

Daath – Daath

These guys are settling into their current lineup, and their self-titled release shows it. I love the Eyal Levi/Emil Werstler combo. These guys are really coming into their own as songwriters and Sean Z is creating some great vocals and lyrics.

(more after the jump . . .)

LIVING SACRIFICE: OVERKILL EXPOSURE

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Dec 222010

Here, we have a little break from Listmania.

The 2010 release from Living Sacrifice, The Infinite Order, has been one of our favorite albums of the year. It’s an effective combination of death-thrash violence and heavy-as-shit groove. We won’t be giving too much away to reveal that a song from the album will be on our year-end list of 2010’s most infectious extreme metal songs (which we’ll be rolling out beginning next week).

Today, Noisecreep debuted an official music video for the song “Overkill Exposure” from The Infinite Order. The song is a killer, and the video captures the blunt force of the music. Director Michael Dalton told Noisecreep about the video’s thematic origins: “As [vocalist Bruce Fitzhugh] explained ‘Overkill Exposure’ to me, he wanted to make sure I understood the song dealt with some dark content. The message he was portraying on this song was that the dark/evil things we expose ourselves to open us up to more darkness and evil …”

Dalton continued, “When I set out to make this video, I wanted to make sure nothing was pretty and everything had a very eerie feel. What we ended up getting out of that was a story of a man being filled with images of substance abuse, suicide and murder, all heralded in by a raging Living Sacrifice.”

Whether you agree or disagree with the lyrical message — that when we watch movies or TV filled with violence and evil, we ourselves risk becoming infected by it — the video is a good one. You can watch it after the jump. Continue reading »

GOBLINS MAKE “BEST OF 2010” LISTS, TOO

Listmania 9 Responses »

Dec 222010

[EDITOR’S NOTE: SoCal’s Nekrogoblikon is an NCS favorite. If you doubt that, go here. And today we’re favored with a retrospective on the year that’s almost ended from one of the goblikons — Timbus, who helped bail us out while I was on vacation in November. To see his previous post, visit this location. To see what he thought of the year in metal, simply light your heads on fire and continue reading. I’ve heard a grand total of two albums on this list — which is awesome . . . more discoveries lie ahead.]

The past few years have been an interesting time to be in the metal scene. Technicality has made a comeback in a big way and combined with a giant improvement in modern metal production, has produced some of the most intricate, precise, heavy, fast, dense, mind-bending, ferocious music ever created. If someone had gone back in time with After The Burial‘s Rareform or Periphery‘s self-titled and given me those albums say in 1999, I would have probably shat my pants and said that nobody could possibly do this. Arguably, this response would have been correct, since most metal albums nowadays are heavily, heavily quantized (every note of the drums and guitars aligned with a grid).

Anyway, the point is, metal music is moving forward and we’re quickly approaching the second decade of the third millenium. EPIC AS FUCK, YOU GUYS. I have been asked to provide my view of the best albums of 2010, and so I shall. First though, a disclaimer:

I do not listen to a large number of bands on a regular basis. I am not really one of those people that will actually check out every album stream or new release that comes (though I do read Lambgoat pretty regularly). I will check out lots of things, but it takes something visceral and unexplainable to get me to incorporate a new album or band into my regular rotation.

Therefore, if I’ve left out an awesome album or 50, this is why. Also, despite the fact that this blog is called “No Clean Singing”, I unfortunately must admit I listen to very few bands nowadays that don’t have at least “some” clean singing. There haven’t really been very many good straight-up death/black/grind releases in a while, so I have to make do with all sorts of other shit. (see the shit that Timbus makes do with after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

ANDY SYNN’S LIST OF 2010’S MOST DISAPPOINTING RELEASES

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Dec 222010

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Here’s Part 3 of our UK contributor Andy Synn‘s retrospective on the year in metal. This one is all the bad news. We have a feeling there will be a few reader disagreements. Don’t hold back on the comments! We want to be entertained!]

Andy Synn’s List of 2010’s Most Disappointing Releases

First things first, this was honestly the hardest part of the series to put together. Just because these albums are in the “Disappointing” section doesn’t mean that they are bad per se, merely that, for whatever reasons, I found the release to be a disappointment.

Perhaps it was due to previous standards set by the band themselves, perhaps statements from the band promised something they eventually failed to deliver, perhaps it’s something more intangible. In each case I have provided some reason’s for my overall disappointment, which will hopefully go some way towards mollifying the lynch mob I am expecting this section to attract!

Either way, please read on… and don’t kill the messenger! (yes, do read on, after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

AGALLOCH LIVE

Concert Reviews 8 Responses »

Dec 212010

Last Saturday night, I saw Agalloch in concert in Seattle. I was with mi hermana in metal and one of the co-founders of this site, Alexis. The bands that preceded Agalloch — Alda, Waldteufel , and Allerseelen — were immensely interesting and completely outside my usual comfort zone. For me, it was like a door opening to another world. But as good as they were, they were really only a prelude.

I distrust hyperbole. I discount superlatives. We live in a linguistically enthusiastic time, and over-the-top words like “awesome” are used so often (including by me) that it’s become difficult to adequately express truly exceptional reactions to just about anything. But I’ll try anyway.

I’ll say it briefly, but from the heart: I’ve never heard live metal better than Agalloch’s performance. A very few shows I’ve seen are in the same league, but none has been better. It was a long set — one that began at midnight and lasted almost an hour and a half, but I still wasn’t ready for it to end. I was dazed for long after the show ended.

I feel sorta shitty saying all this, because Agalloch doesn’t tour extensively, and most of you will never see and hear them on stage. So it seems like a form of gloating to say what I said. But that’s not how I meant it. What I meant to do was express my honest feeling, as a way of encouraging you, if you do ever get the chance, to see this band live.

If I get my shit together, I will write in more detail about the bands that preceded Agalloch’s set, but for now, I have only a few words about Agalloch and a bunch of half-assed photos — after the jump. Continue reading »

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