Metal Night has been in existence for almost a year now, ever since I moved back to Grand Rapids. Chris.....I mean, Demon Scourge......chose Mondays as our day for getting together because it is one of the few nights he has the crib free for some unrestrained and trollish listening experiences. Metal Night has been an absolute pleasure to preside over and not only have I heard some great music, but made some friends along the way. Also, I got sooo hammered a few times.
2011 was an ok year for metal, but mainly notable for some major disappointments by some major bands, like Metallica and Megadeth. Morbid Angel released the years most reviled metal album, though it did make this list. It did not see anything nearly as enthralling as the two previous years. The late Aughts saw extreme metal surge into popularity, and experience a creative blossoming that caught the eye of such highbrow rags as The New Yorker, Slate, perennial phlegmatists NPR, and that trend continues into the Teens. I am hoping that the downturn in quality does not signify a new trend. But, there were many awesome albums released this year, and this is my top 15.
1. Ouroboros-Glorification of a Myth-This is my favorite death metal album of the year. A bludgeoning hammersmash of technical metal glory. Riff after catchy, complicated riff steels your soul and makes you act like a man. Glorious!
2. Negative Plane-Stained Glass Revelations-A weird, cavernous journey in reverberated hell. No other black metal band sounds like this. Soooo good!
3. Morbid Angel-Illud Divinum Insanus-Their most controversial album, and widely panned by many as the worst album of the year, but damn it, I returned to this more than any other. This is filled with just enough old school tunes, and 'Destructos Vs. The Earth-Attack' is my favorite single song. It is a joyous stomp. The lyrics are dumb and corny, but you don't mind when ManOWar does the same thing. This album is not nearly as bad as they say.
4. Krallice-Diotima-Black Hipster Metal, New Yorker Metal, whatever. Krallice has managed to take most of the evil out of black metal yet still make it compelling.
5. Crowbar-Sever The Wicked Hand-Best album in years from the thundering behemoths of Nola super sludge. Heavy as the center of the sun, this is also as hopeful as they ever sounded.
6.Korpiklaani-Ukon Waacka- No real surprises from these folk metalers, just a solid set of tunes. Love this band.
7. Burzum-From The Depths Of Darkness-One of the few instances where a re-recording is superior to the original release. An evil, fucked up trip into teenage sociopath landscapes, retooled for the 21st century.
8. Blaspherian-Infernal Warriors of Death-When neo-thrash got old, the new trend for the kids is recreating old school death metal, which is fine by me. This is one of the best of the batch. Think Incantation meets Immolation. Dank, dark, sick, fucking sweet!
9. Absu-Abzu-Basically starts off in the same vein as their last eponymous titled album, but slightly more jagged and less user friendly. Vicious hellride to the mystical realms of death.
10. Ghost-Opus Eponymous-Released in England in 2010, this did not reach the states until this year and I've been obsessed with it for most of the year. Best album of the year. Probably the best album of the past 15 years. Sickly sweet odes to draw you in to Master Satan.
11.Wolvhammer-The Obsidian Plains-This is a cranky bastard of an album. Apparently its black metal filtered through hardcore, but it comes across as filthy blackened grimy sludge. Exhilarating.
12.Stryper-The Covering-Guilty pleasure of the year. It reminds me of why I liked this band in the first place. It is just great classic metal with fantastic harmonies. Not all the covers work for them, but most do, especially when they stick to classic metal instead of hard rock, and the two original songs sound like old school Stryper.
13.Oranssi Pazuzu-Kosmonument-Weirdest PCP-tinged mind fuck black metal album of the year. A very strange, compelling, uncomfortable trip. Groovy.
14. Origin-Enity-This ultra-fast, ultra technical death metal is not exactly the new sound , but god is it a rush. Jaw dropping musicianship, crushingly fast, fucks your face fast and proficiently.
15. Craft-Void-Craft take a few good riffs and make a universe. Stripped down and beautiful in a godawful ugly way.
Other albums of note: I thought the new Anthrax was pretty good, but paled compared to their older stuff. Joey Belladonna sounded good, but I wish it were thrashier. Despite being universally panned, I though the Lou Reed/Metallica collaboration good, definitely not as bad as its made out to be. Just approach it as a Lou Reed album.
Looking forward to another year of chronicling our adventures in this dimension and the next.
Other albums of note: I thought the new Anthrax was pretty good, but paled compared to their older stuff. Joey Belladonna sounded good, but I wish it were thrashier. Despite being universally panned, I though the Lou Reed/Metallica collaboration good, definitely not as bad as its made out to be. Just approach it as a Lou Reed album.
Looking forward to another year of chronicling our adventures in this dimension and the next.
No comments:
Post a Comment