ANDY SYNN’S CRITICAL TOP 10 OF 2011

 Listmania  18 Responses »
Dec 152011
 

(This is the fourth in Andy Synn’s week-long series of posts looking back at albums released this year. Andy previously provided his lists of the year’s Great albums, the Good ones, and the most Disappointing ones, and tomorrow we’ll have his Personal Top 10. Today, we have his list of “The Critical Top 10”. For more explanation of what all this means, plus Andy’s picks for the year’s best EPs, visit this location.)

So here’s the penultimate list of the week, the first of two ranked top-tens. This list will include the albums that I think are the very best of the best, the ones that best combine creativity, artistic ambition, song-writing, and performance. Regardless of my personal feelings and preferences, these are the albums that I think are critically superior to others. Though the ranking of them was difficult (as it always is when trying to compare artists and albums across metallic sub-genres), I’ve tried my best to give a sense about the critical and objective factors that led to each record earning its respective position on this list.

Although the potential candidates for the list were unavoidably influenced by my own listening tastes — I do, after all, only really tend to select the albums that I feel best qualified and most inspired to review – I have done my best to keep personal preference as far away from these judgements as possible, something that I hope will become clear when you see tomorrow how different the list of my top ten “favourite” albums of the year is from today’s list.

So here are the ten releases I think best represent the year critically. The ten that, ultimately, would be my choices to represent the year in metal music for posterity. Some of them have appeared quite commonly on other lists, albeit perhaps weighted differently, while others have largely been ignored by other sources thus far. Enjoy . . . Continue reading »

KRODA LIVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Nov 192011
 

In July I reviewed the new album, Schwarzpfad, by Ukrainian black metal band Kroda. I tried to sum up my thoughts with these words: “Schwarzpfad is without doubt one of the best albums I’ve heard this year and one of the most memorable black-metal albums I’ve ever heard — an immaculate marriage of beautiful, folk-influenced melodies, black ‘n’ roll strut, and bestial voraciousness. It’s a brilliantly conceived, complex work that yields something new with every listen. Highly recommended.”

As the end of this year approaches, I haven’t changed my mind — Schwarzpfad is still one of the best albums I’ve heard in 2011, and certainly among the handful I’ve listened to most often.

On February 20, 2011, Kroda performed at the Metal Point Fest in Khmelnistkiy, Ukraine. Two days ago, the band uploaded the entire 33-minute set to YouTube, and I spent my early waking moments this morning (my first morning back home after vacation) watching and listening to it. It includes three songs: “Schwarzpfad II (Universal Provenances)”, “Schwarzpfad III (Forefather of Hangmen)”, and “Schwarzpfad IV (Heil Ragnarok!)”.

The smoke-shrouded performance was filmed from multiple camera angles, and although the video quality isn’t razor-sharp, it’s suitable for this music. The audio quality isn’t razor-sharp either, with particularly noticeable distortion in the bass-end, but fuck, the songs are so damned good and it’s so motherfucking cool to see Kroda performing live that it’s a small price to pay.

As I remember, Schwarzpfad was written and recorded by one man — Eisenslav — but he recruited some talented brothers to bring about this live performance. The video is after the jump. Bang yo fucken heads. Continue reading »

KRODA: “SCHWARZPFAD”

 Album Reviews  19 Responses »
Jul 042011
 

About two months ago, thanks to a laudatory Facebook post by Agalloch, I found out about a Ukrainian black-metal band called Kroda. They had just begun streaming a not-completely-final version of their fourth album, Schwarzpfad (“the black path”), for a limited time. I was completely enthralled by the music and had that stream on a nearly continuous loop for as long as it lasted.

Eventually, the stream ended, I began experiencing withdrawal symptoms, was admitted to a hospital for observation, was ultimately released, and was a broken man for weeks afterward until Schwarzpfad became available for unauthorized download at the end of May.

I’ve listened to a shitload of other music since then, but I continue returning to Schwarzpfad. It’s more than 50 minutes of music, but I’ve lost count of how many times it has kept me company. It’s way past time for me to repay Kroda for all that pleasure, and for much more to come, with a few words of heart-felt praise:

Schwarzpfad is without doubt one of the best albums I’ve heard this year and one of the most memorable black-metal albums I’ve ever heard — an immaculate marriage of beautiful, folk-influenced melodies, black ‘n’ roll strut, and bestial voraciousness. It’s a brilliantly conceived, complex work that yields something new with every listen. Highly recommended.

Okay, I wasn’t being completely honest when I said “few words”; there are more words after the jump, plus music, of course. Continue reading »

KRODA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  17 Responses »
May 012011
 

Assume that you’re a near-slavish fan of Agalloch. Now assume that you saw this post by the band on its Facebook page, preceding a link: “New KRODA album sneak peak. It is awesome!” What would you do? As a near-slavish fan of Agalloch, I clicked on that link with my trusty mouse. That took me to a web page for a Ukrainian black metal band called Kroda. On that page was a music player streaming five songs from a forthcoming album entitled Schwarzpfad (which Google Translate tells me is German for “black path”).

The player was preceded by this cryptic verbiage: “Don’t download this promo-version due to low bitrate and because this mix miscontains something. Furthermore, please, don’t upload this promo-version to mp3-traders portals as ‘album’. Respect musicians and their wish to give you possibility to listen new material for free before it is officially released. The promo-player will be active only ’til 02.05.2011. Schwarzpfad album will be released via PURITY THROUGH FIRE in closest time.”

I’m really only guessing about what that means, but my guess is that some of the mixing and mastering remains to be done for the songs as they’re delivered via the player (though it sounds finished to me). I wondered why Kroda bothered to put up the stream with those kinds of reservations. But Agalloch vouched for the awesomeness of the music, even in its not-entirely-finished state, so I started listening.

I listened to every song. And then I started over and listened again. Why? Because it’s . . . awesome. And it doesn’t sound quite like any black metal I’ve heard this year. I figured out a way to embed that player here on our site (after the jump). Check it out now, because if that cryptic note is correct, the stream is about to evaporate. Continue reading »

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