Shenandoah

I am a goddamn visionary. Seven years ago, I wrote on my old blog about the first volume of 'Rogue's Gallery' (here, it still exists and it's probably full of embarrassing shit), and one of my main points of criticism was, and I quote myself, "WHERE THE HELL IS TOM WAITS?".

Well, here he is.

I don't write much, but when I do, you'd better take notice. Stuff will happen.

2012 in review - top 66 albums of the year (final part)

And finally...

10. PALLBEARER Sorrow And Extinction
Pallbearer's 2010 demo made doom-friendly ears prick up all around the world - here was a band appearing seemingly out of nowhere (or Little Rock, Arkansas, which is similar, though a fertile breeding ground for awesome bands like Rwake and such) and giving the genre as a whole a huge kick into the next level. Their first full-length doesn't disappoint in the least, proof being that it was one of the first records on this list to be released in 2012 and it's still fresh in my memory, and that of everyone else who has heard it, as it will be for many years. With an emotional weight and impact similar to that of 40 Watt Sun (and armed with a similarly fascinating voice, that of Brett Campbell), Pallbearer build upon a very solid traditional doom foundation some of the most devastatingly intense and soul-searching heavy music I've heard within this genre in a while - I've placed them slightly above Saint Vitus on this list, and that means something. What genre, you ask? Well, you pick, as long as there's doom tackled at the end, because Pallbearer easily fit into anything from funeral to traditional to, I don't know, fuckin' majestically awesome. Whatever. Just dive in and hear it for yourself.

9. NIHILL Verdonkermann / ASH BORER Cold Of Ages

Well, these are no-brainers. Not just because they're so trve-kvlt and evil that they'll suck your brains out and feed them to Satan on a platter made of your carved out skull, but also because everything these two bands have done so far has been absolutely amazing and pushing the darkened envelope of black metal ever forwards. I had drooled on Ash Borer before and Nihill's bloody scary 'Grond' remains on my weekly playlist to this day, so they both just had to not fuck everything up on their new albums for me to bow down and worship. And they didn't. Plus, Nihill will play live for the very first time at this year's Roadburn, so grab a cup of someone else's blood and get your sorry ass down there. And KNEEL.

8. NACHTMYSTIUM Silencing Machine

Nachtmystium have earned a strange reputation among those who strive to be the truest cave troll in their mom's basement, just because they've dared to make records that don't sound like a swarm of bees, or because they're American, or because they write kickass tunes, or whatever. The fact is that they don't seem to give a shit about scene rules, and another fact is that no other black metal record released in 2012 is more malicious, more slithering under your skin like a black plagueworm, and at the same time more filled with memorable songwriting and bold steps towards other genres and movements. Fusing the more grim approach of their first albums with Sanford Parker's amazing electronic work and a remarkable integration of unthinkable (for lesser bands, that is) influences like The Cure or Fields Of The Nephilim, Nachtmystium offer true soul-emptying odes to barren desolation and misery like 'Borrowed Hope And Broken Dreams', 'The Lepers Of Destitution' or the supremely catchy title track, with its NIN nod and everything. Rules be damned.

7. LEONARD COHEN Old Ideas

Leonard Cohen is now 78 years old, but his spirit, his wit and his supremely wise observations on life, love, loss and joy are permanently young, to the point of making us all feel old by comparison with the unbelievable vitality of his song and lyric writing ability. Eight years after 'Dear Heather', the great man, in the midst of a flurry of activity, with world tours, live albums, DVDs and the whole nine yards, has managed to find yet another place of peace and contemplation, from which mature, seasoned and perfectly flowing songs like 'Going Home' (with a fantastic sort of separation between Leonard the performer and the real Leonard as puppet-master), 'Show Me The Place' or the upbeat, bittersweet 'Darkness' magically appear, like treasures being thrown out of Leonard's window on the tower of song. We are living in the same age as one of the most unique crafters of word and song ever, people. Let's make the most of it.

6. MATT ELLIOTT The Broken Man

Matt is no stranger to drowning his songs in unbearable amounts of misery and woe, but usually they're wrapped in his by now typical, uncommon approach to songwriting, multi-tracked and filled with chants and layer upon layer of guitarwork and eerie electronics. On 'The Broken Man', Matt pays respect to the album title and concept more than ever before, it's as if he himself gave up on trying to dress things up too, and the result is his most uncluttered and understated album ever - which only heightens the impact of these long, drawn-out songs that are nevertheless packed tothe brim with subtle, far-reaching details. The 12 minutes of 'Oh How We Fell' that open the album do feel like the most resigned, shattered soul, murmuring its last emotionless reflections. It's the expression of abject failure, and it hits like a ton of bricks. The quiet repetition of the words "if it's dead" during the line "and how is one supposed to mourn if one is not entirely sure what has died? and if it's dead why can't i cry?" is simply savage, delivered in such a way that it seems your heart is being ripped out of you through your throat, while the near-deadpan delivery of "this is how it feels to be alone" on 'Dust Flesh And Bones', a line that could be disastrous in the musical hands of a lesser artist, sounds solemn and crushingly sincere. Every Matt Elliott album so far, especially the aptly titled 'Drinking Songs', sounds like the final thing you'll ever hear in your life before you die underneath the sheer weight of misery, but 'The Broken Man' is truly the sound of giving up. It goes further enough to wonder how he'll ever follow this up. I'll be eagerly awaiting, as usual.

5. BLACK SHAPE OF NEXUS Negative Black
Everyone's tried everything to be the heaviest band in the world by now, so it's hard for something to really stand out these days unless it's really, really special. 'Negative Black' isn't special, 'Negative Black' takes special and fucking stomps all over it. And then spits on its broken corpse, alright? Let's put it this way, when I sent out my best-of lists to the magazines I write for, I mistakenly wrote the title of this album as 'Negative Void', probably because the damn thing is a dark black void that sucks the life out of everyone who listens to it. Check out the review I managed to write for Terrorizer while I was suffering the first assaults by this beast of an album, it's a wonder I remembered any words at all:

"This is a band reaching their sound, and theirs alone. From the feedback-drenched intro, it’s clear B-SON have outgrown any categories or genres. What this massive album stands as, after its 80 minutes have passed, is an exercise in sheer sonic heaviness, and an unsurpassed one at that. Through all the changes of pace, it constantly sounds as if both the instruments and Malte Seidel’s agonizing vocals are all under unbearable strain, about to smash into a million pieces. Each song is a different battle - the colossal ‘10000 Uf’ goes on for 20 minutes seemingly on willpower alone, clinging on to existence by beating on a tortured ton-heavy riff, while the closing title track sounds like Crowbar being forced to play a Khanate song over and over."

4. AMENRA Mass V

Amenra vocalist Colin H. van Eeckhout is one of the most intimidatingly intense frontmen you will ever see on stage. With his back to the audience, Colin sways to the crushing, pitch-black rhythms of Amenra's cathartic pieces, spitting and scratching himself as he howls, screams and roars out evocative words of anguish, sorrow and pain. The biggest compliment that can be paid to 'Mass V' is that it will make you want to do all that while you listen to it even if you're comfortably sitting in your living room. There isn't a safe moment, a second of respite, not a single metaphorical foothold to rest your mind from the relentless assault, and yet, underneath it all, there's a very human frailty that makes everything believable, and much scarier as a consequence. I wrote this for Rock-a-Rolla when the album came out:

"Amenra’s art has always been painted with dark shades of black and grey, and while Mass V is no exception, the sombre hues are more numerous than ever. Throughout four songs in 40 minutes, Amenra are seemingly able to extract, from somewhere deep in their guts, an entire spectrum of human feelings that is rarely felt on any album, whatever genre it might be associated with. Vocalist Colin H. Van Eeckhout is instrumental in this with a career-defining performance - with piercing, anguished screams, quiet spoken parts, fierce growls and even some sober, quietly emotional singing, he’s at the forefront of  very dark and destructive whirlwind of gigantic riffs that would make Neurosis proud and opaque ambiances. The dynamics of Mass V are simply staggering. Amenra know how to pace themselves so that every part of this has its maximum impact – the way the slow down the initial sludge fury of Dearborn And Buried, the slow-burning build up of Boden towards an uncomfortable doom stomp, the uncomfortable shifting beauty of the first half of A Mon Ame that, when you notice it, has already exploded into the cathartic screeches of its second half, and the final all-encompassing climax of Nowena I 9.10, where Colin softly sings, before the inevitable crashing down that follows, “look into my eyes”. Sometimes, Mass V feels so profoundly intimate, that it’s almost like we really are ."

3. PIG DESTROYER Book Burner

I'll put this as simple as possible, because Pig Destroyer aren't a band tha requires many words: the 80s have 'Scum', 'World Downfall' and 'Horrified', the 90s have 'Need To Control' and 'Inhale/Exhale', the 00s have 'The Inalienable Dreamless' and 'Human 2.0', and now the 10s have 'Book Burner', okay? Get on with it.

2. NEUROSIS Honor Found In Decay
Neurosis never make it easy for anyone. Even now that it's apparently "cool" to like them, after decades of toiling in the underground, this massively influential band doesn't succumb to any easy shortcuts or compromise. They will do exactly what they want to do and they will take the time they need to do it. 'Honor Found In Decay' appears five years after 'Given To The Rising', and it's very far from an immediate crowd-pleaser. Even if 'We All Rage In Gold' roars out of the starting gates with a riff thick enough to bury the entire world in dust and smoke, raw and subtly complex song-mountains like the bilious 'Bleeding The Pigs' or the shady 'All Is Found...In Time' require time, dedication and passion, just like all the very best records do. A career-defining performance by Noah Landis in particular, his eerily evocative soundscapes decisively heightening the impact of every song,  is the final piece required for 'Honor Found In Decay' to portray a very deep and very sombre part of Neurosis' essence. It only misses out on the top spot because, well, Michael Gira exists.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
SWANS The Seer

A dear friend of mine, himself a brilliant musician, told me when we were still both on our first listens of 'The Seer', that it had been a while since he had listened to a whole album and reached the end with the notion that he had understood very little of what he heard. This is very true of the first times you allow 'The Seer' to rape your ears for its astounding length of two hours, but let's not give the wrong idea here. Nothing about this colossal tour-de-force is particularly complicated, or pretentiously avantgarde, that horrible word. Not at all. It's just that, such is the strength of its atavistic, stark, visceral attack, that even for us seasoned lovers of heavy and confrontational music, it's hard to take this all in one go. 'The Seer' is much more than just an album by a band. It's a lot of things. It's a challenge -  because it is, so far, the epitome of everything that makes heavy music great, all of the components that every band has ever used, taken to their logical extreme. After months of listening, it still feels like I'm just scratching its surface. It's an investment - because it isn't music that you just put on, because for those two hours you can't do anything else, just sit and let it wash over you, beat you, disorient you and discard you. It's a compilation - of everything that makes Swans, alongside the #2 of this list, Neurosis, the most important and decisive band of the past couple of decades, from the infuriating repetition of 'Lunacy' that opens it to the brain-destroying 23 minutes of the intimidating 'The Apostate' (we're on a ladder to god / get out), everyone in the band, plus guests that include Akron/Family (most of Michael's band in his The Angels Of Light incarnation) and, unbelievably, Jarboe, in a staggering everything-coming-together whirlwind, put on intense performances as if their very lives depended on it. Finally, it's a landmark - for Michael Gira himself, judging by the man's words used to describe the record: "It took 30 years to make. It's the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I've ever made, been involved in or imagined. But it's unfinished, like the songs themselves. It's one frame in a reel. The frames blur, blend and will eventually fade," Michael said about it before it came out, and I wouldn't be able to imagine a better description of it. Actually, after each listen to 'The Seer', I'm not able to imagine anything at all for a while - I'm left a bare, dried up, empty shell of a man, incapable of coherent thought or movement. And then, I listen to it again.

2012 in review - top 66 albums of the year (part 4)

20. ENSLAVED RIITIIR
I had all but given up on Enslaved, remember? Because I've always loved Enslaved to bits, I was prepared to just kinda forget about them until they got off their prog kick of the past two meaningless albums. But then, they didn't, and everything clicked all the same. Songs rage, twist and progress, Herbrand sings wonderfully and his vocals actually feel like they're part of the song (!), while Grutle croaks more majestically and extremely than ever. 'RIITIIR' was album of the month for Terrorizer and I was the purveyor of praise, so here's that review for your re-reading pleasure:

"Let’s all try to ignore the fact that the (admittedly awesome, but still) artwork looks just like Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’ and focus on what’s essential. It doesn’t take long to realize it, either, as the first couple of minutes of opener ‘Thoughts Like Hammers’ offer a precious insight into the remarkable hour that follows. A brief second of feedback announces the arrival of a cascading wall of guitars, then a distant, muffled gang-roar is heard, as if the Vikings, such an important image in Enslaved’s history, are coming out of the mist to invade, and then a huge, huge riff drops, simple but devastatingly potent. Grutle croaks majestically as if he’s doing ‘Eld’ all over again, and suddenly Herbrand’s clean vocals also kick in, this time not trying to be soaring or epic, just simply delivering a titanium-strong melody that is fully interweaved with both the song and Grutle’s harsh vocals, at long last. The song then mixes and matches all these elements, and more, for the duration of it’s almost 10 minutes, and that’s when you realize you’re hooked, regardless – and this is the kicker – of whether you liked the disappearance down the prog-hole of Enslaved after the ‘Ruun’ album. Of all the many different avenues the Norwegian band has taken in their career, this seems to have been the hardest to consolidate – though they were widely praised, there was something clearly lacking in ‘Vertebrae’ and ‘Axioma Ethica Odini’, two records of which even a vocal detractor such as yours truly will admit to being a necessary climb, if the summit they helped reach was this. Conceptually more abstract than usual (RIITIIR is in fact a made up, “Norse-ified” word meant to signify “the rites of man”) yet dramatically concise in the evocative power of its songs and the oneness of its songwriting, ‘RIITIIR’ has it all: aggression, immediacy, depth, catchiness and staying power, to a degree that makes its 67 minutes seem like a few exhilarating seconds you must repeat as often as possible."

19. BLACK BREATH Sentenced To Life

There's no fooling about with Black Breath. No need to complicate things. They were born with their style fully solidified, so they will keep hammering away at it with the catchiest and most relentless songs this side of 'Wolverine Blues' after a night out with 'Seizures In Barren Praise', destroying stages everywhere (Roadburn included) and just generally being awesome. That's all we really need.

18. SEIROM 1973 / GNAW THEIR TONGUES Eschatological Scatology / DE MAGIA VETERUM The Deification

The usual gamut of Mories releases this year sees the man pursuing different paths for each of his projects, including the creation of a whole new entity that is shockingly different from everything he's done before. Seirom, which, you will notice, is Mories backwards, is indeed the reverse of his usual musical persona - vast swathes of consumingly beautiful (!!) soundscapes, full of longing, grief, melancholy and nostalgic vibes for a past that's gone, but not gone enough for us to not remember it. It's like The Angelic Process and My Bloody Valentine and Nadja all rolles into one healing mass of droning peace that will wash away all your sins. All the sins, of course, that you can find on Gnaw Their Tongues - though Mories' main vehicle had taken somewhat of a turn towards cleaner pastures (with 'L'Arrivée De La Terne Morte Triomphante' in particular), it's as if Seirom took all the clean bits away and left only the grime. 'Eschatological Scatology' is further pushed into the realm of utter terror once more, filthy black doomnoise for you to smear yourself with shit and commit atrocious murder-suicide rituals to. Or just listen to it, I don't know. De Magia Veterum runs the risk of going by unnoticed with the strength of the other two releases, but don't overlook it, as it's a supremely chaotic and complex blast of industrial black metal that goes one step beyond the already amazing 'The Divine Antithesis'.

17. WOVENHAND The Laughing Stalk

Though still very much a lonely anomaly in whatever scene you think Wovenhand belong or should belong to, more and more people are beginning to catch up on David Eugene Edwards' genius - his unique vocals, his labyrinthine compositions, his powerful lyrics that, after a little scrutiny, can be read far beyond their potentially off-putting (for us devil folk at least) biblical inspiration... everything about the man is unusual, impressively heartfelt and incredibly refreshing, even after a ton of 16 Horsepower and Wovenhand albums, and now that its popularity seems to be at an all-time high, it's a good time to release an album like 'The Laughing Stalk'. Not only is it the heaviest Wovenhand album ever, as it had been described even before anyone had heard it, but it's also the one where the various components of the band's sound better amplify themselves, from the Native American influences (the chanting on 'Maize' is astounding) to the somewhat under-appreciated intricate guitarwork the band has always displayed (on the hypnotizing 'King O King', for instance), and even a sort of loose punk vibe, like on the energetic and certainly soon-to-be live favourite 'As Wool'. It all culminates on 'Glistening Black', arguably the best song David has ever written and a showpiece for everything that makes Wovenhand essential.

16. CHRISTIAN MISTRESS Possession

"I was born like this, I had no choice, I was born with the gift of a golden voice," Leonard Cohen croons majestically on 'Tower Of Song', and he could well be referring to Christian Mistress' vocalist Christine Davis. Hers is a voice that was created to sing heavy metal. Not only does her coarse, powerful and very feminine without being whimpy-operatic voice will breathe life into all but the deadest of songs, so fortunately the rest of the band know how to whip out awesome NWOBHM-influences proper metal tunes to accomodate the rare, rough diamond they have fronting the band. 'Possession' is actually so good that Christine blends in the whole amazing musical package rather than stand out like a sore thumb. Get it, get 'Agony & Opium' as well if you don't have it, and just revel on the best true metal on offer these days. Oh, and you know what? I've interviewed her, and her voice is really like that, even when she's just talking. Be still, my heart.

15. SCOTT KELLY / STEVE VON TILL / WINO Songs Of Townes Van Zandt / SCOTT KELLY AND THE ROAD HOME The Ghost Forgiven In Me
Scott Kelly in particular has been a champion for the cause of keeping Townes Van Zandt's remarkable musical legacy unforgotten, mentioning him in interviews and playing his songs live ('Tecumseh Valley' in particular), so it was only a matter of time that something would be done about it. One wouldn't expect, however, that it would be such a fabuous undertaking as 'Songs Of Townes Van Zandt' is. Joining forces with his Neurosis bandmate Steve Von Till and another brother-in-arms of the past few years, the great Scott "Wino" Weinrich, the three men lay down a deep, moving, heart-wrenching tribute to some of Townes' most affecting songs (nine of them, divided equally - three each - between the guys) like no one else could have done. At the same time maintaining a profound respect for the emotional weight of the originals and, in the process, turning each song very much into their own personal versions, Scott, Steve and Wino left a deep mark on 2012 with this special record, that one also hopes will be the starting point for many listeners to go and investigate Townes' body of work. Let no one in our world of heavy music have any excuse from now on to not be familiar with the songwriting genius of Townes Van Zandt. Sandwiched (in terms of release dates) between this and the Neurosis album, Scott Kelly took yet another leap on his ever-blossoming career with his third solo (well, sort of) record, this time with a few familiar friends around to help out. The result is a more expansive record than the stark minimalism of the unforgettable 'The Wake' (2008), but nevertheless still a sombre and intensely personal collection of songs. A particular reference has to be made to closer 'We Burn Through The Night' (which some of you might recognize as the title of Scott's former blog), the song of a lifetime, where the great man sings about his most treasured gift, his family. It'll make you want to rush off and hug the ones you love.

14. CONVERGE All We Love We Leave Behind

If you had just risen from an isolated cave where you had been living for 20 years and someone would show you, say, 'When Forever Comes Crashing', you'd probably be amazed at how awesome that record was, but you'd never believe that this band could keep on building and building and building on their unique brand of fiery hardcore/metal for years and albums on end, be able to reach 2012 still on the peak of their powers (have they ever been off that peak, really?), still charging ahead and doing new things. That's the staggering truth, when you look at Converge's discography, and when you put on 'All We Love We Leave Behind' for the first time, especially as they hit you with one of the biggest sound-leaps of this record straight away, 'Aimless Arrow'. It's still instantly recognizable as Converge, that super-condensed energy, like a lightning bolt captured and coiled to the maximum, sparks flying off all the time as the whole thing threatens to explode constantly, but there's new things hitting you from all directions, most noticeably Jacob Bannon's (further) expanded vocal weaponry. Eschewing the bunch of guests they had on previous effort 'Axe To Fall', this seems to be Converge stripped to their bare minimum, which is still immensely overwhelming, even (even more, I'd say) when they slow down like on the harrowing 'Coral Blue'. Until the riveting finale that is 'Predatory Glow', there's simply too much to absorb, digest and coherently discuss, not for a few years at least. So, take this time to catch up until they hit us with the next chapter of revolution.

13. EAGLE TWIN The Feather Tipped The Serpent's Scale

Similarly to Converge, Eagle Twin are an example of how music can be so overwhelming that it physically tires you after an intense listen to a particular album. This duo doesn't even pretend to try and sweeten things for you - the first four songs are, respectively, 10:17, 10:09, 10:18 and 12:30 minutes long, and not a second of those is wasted meandering around. On the contrary, 'The Feather...' always seems spectacularly dense, as if they've compressed hundreds of giant riffs and beats into an all-consuming blitzkrieg of intensity. Towards the end of the album, the already quite pacey (although strangely doom-laden and foreboding in feeling) sludge-fest speeds up even more, hints of dirty punk even creeping in on the short-and-to-the-point instrumental 'It Came To Pass The Snakes Became Mighty Antlers', where Gentry's scary, full-throated rasp gets a couple of minutes rest. I can't wait to see this stuff played live, and you'd better not stand next to me when I do. I'll probably rip your head off, just because.

12. ROYAL THUNDER CVI / GOLD Interbellum
There's a little bit of genius on GOLD's facebook page that sums them up, and to a certain extent Royal Thunder too, more perfectly and concisely than I ever could: "GOLD is a comtemporary rock band that's heavy because of the songs, not the sound." Now then, this doesn't mean that there aren't some mean riffs lurking their heads on these records (Royal Thunder in particular lay down some ragers that even surpass their awesome EP from late 2010 that made me go crazy about them), but it does mean that it's in the songs themselves, deeply rooted in the melodies, the structures and the approach that the heaviness lies. Throughout the energetic rockouts of Royal Thunder, it's the little things that get you and that will weigh on you the most, like Mlny's little sigh at the very end of the colossal 'Whispering World, and the same happens with GOLD, where the luminous, quietly epic final crescendo of 'Ruby' will compress your heart more tightly than any extreme band ever could. The last questions which is why I bundled these two bands together, doesn't have a clear answer. Sure, they both have kickass, versatile, talented girls fronting them, who can both sing and rock out with the best of them, and they even have similar names (Mlny / Milena), but it's a much deeper unintentional connection that I feel between these two bands that led me to join them - they both understand what makes rock music so vital, they are able to extricate the very best of the past decades both soundwise and writingwise, and then are able to come up with contemporary, non-retro amazing albums that are looking forward without forgetting what's behind them. That's the true genius. Oh, and if you need further recommendation from a much more credible source than me, Fenriz himself selected GOLD as his band of the week today, so there.

11. SAINT VITUS Lillie: F-65

"Why do I scream at them? They never listen," Wino wails in his welcoming, typical howl as his first sentence of this album. Well, Wino, my dear lad, a few of us still do, and a few of us waited for over 20 years to hear you belt out those disenchanted, depressive odes on top of Dave Chandler's almighty riffs. Yes, the legacy was already immortal, with the unholy trinity of 'Born Too Late', 'Mournful Cries' and 'V' seeping into our very own blood during all these years, but hey, if we can have one more, why not? And make no mistake, this is one more fantastic album worthy of being stacked against those classics. In 34 minutes of pure fucking doom like only these guys know how to deliver, there's no bullshit about it: it's uncluttered, unpretentious and devoid of any desire to try anything new. The Wino+Chandler incarnation of Saint Vitus was never broken, so fortunately no one tried to fix it, and that 'Let Them Fall' opener, the immense 'Dependence' or, above all, 'The Bleeding Ground' and its riff-of-the-year will surely be hailed as classic Vitus just as all our old favourites are today. Welcome back.

2012 in review - top 66 albums of the year (part 3)

34. WINTERFYLLETH The Threnody Of Triumph
Winterfylleth's true coming of age, a glorious album that is by far their best yet - bleak and intense tremolo-picking savagery intertwines with acoustics and grand sweeping passages that recall the majesty of old Albion with the force of a weary but still grandiose battle roar.

33. MUTILATION RITES Empyrean

A band featuring Tombs' old drummer and Today Is The Day's current bassist can't go far wrong, can it? Fortunately their first album far surpasses the shadow of their other collaborations and stands proud on its own as a meaty, raging crust black metal explosion, full of seethingly furious riffs like those that 'Fogwarning' is ridden with. Amazing prospect for the future.

32. KATATONIA Dead End Kings / PARADISE LOST Tragic Idol / MY DYING BRIDE A Map Of All Our Failures

2012 has kindly given us some of the finest albums of the past few years by other legendary purveyors of 90s misery. Paradise Lost stripped themselves bare and laid down simple, unpretentious and thunderous doom-rock songs like they hadn't done since, erm, ages. My Dying Bride showed further signs of life/death with a colossally bleak album, following the great 'The Barghest O'Whitby' EP with what is, by far, their best full-length effort since 'The Dreadful Hours'. Maybe the next one will finally be on full par with their 90s output. Finally, Katatonia extricated themselves from the boring prog-mire they had settled into for a couple of albums and also returned to a simpler time where fragile, heartbroken melodies and great songs full of sadness and distant hope were all that mattered - check out the outrageously beautiful 'The Racing Heart' as one of the best examples.

31. THE SECRET Agnus Dei

Up the chaos! That seems to have been the motto for the Italian band to be able to follow up their gigantic 'Solve Et Coagula' album from 2010. 'Agnus Dei' is darker, more steeped in grindcores foul juices and more chaotic than ever. The first few listens will fly by in a terrifying blur, with less of the heavy, Trap Them-ish catchiness of the previous album, but once you get used to the darkness, it'll have the same effect.

30. OBELYSKKH White Lightnin'

Dude, that skull has a moustache. How cool is that? That's what 'White Lightnin'' will do to you. After the seemingly endless trip through warped out spacey landscapes that these seven songs make up has come to a close, hair will grow on your face instantly, even if you're long dead. Trippy, heavy and psychedelic, fusing together the best of Black Sabbath, Hawkwind or Ufomammut, it's a ride you can't afford to miss.

29. NECRO DEATHMORT The Colonial Script

Scraps of Godflesh, NIN, Fuck Buttons, Skinny Puppy and Swans, unbearable tension, claustrophobia, horrifyingly focused and clearly planned bursts of pure darkness throughout, Gnaw Their Tongues with the lights out. Or, to put it another way:
SKKKRRRRRRZZZZZZZZZZZZFFFFFFFFTTTZZZZTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDBZZZKKKTTTGRAAAAAHHHHHHTHUDTHUDTHUD.

28. UNDERSMILE Narwhal / GRIMPEN MIRE A PLague Upon Your Houses / CONAN Monnos

England has an amazingly rich heritage when it comes to doom in all its forms and variants, from Black Sabbath to Iron Monkey, and 2012 has seen the release of three debut albums by English bands that seem set to carry that glorious torch well into the foreseeable future. Neither of them came as a surprise, as all these three bands had previously released EPs of stellarly promising quality, but it's heartwarming to see that all of them confirmed our highest expectations. All of them quite different between themselves too, grouped only under the great banner of UK doom. Undersmile offered a huge nautical nightmare, a droning, sludgy journey of no return across the seas of doom that lulls you into a sense of uneasy peace with the creepy siren-like chants of Taz and Hel, only for them to crush you into a hopeless heap immediately after with gargantuan riffs, backed up by a rhythm section that would, all by itself, make Satan's own bowels twist and turn. They prompted me to use the word "weightmongers" in a review, so make of that what you will. Grimpen Mire plagued us with some of the year's most despair-ridden, hopeless doom, a crushing 42 minutes that won't let up from the first burst of slow hatred that is 'Bloodcult Reborn' until the aptly titled 10-minute closer 'Black Mass Hallucinations'. Swarms of black locusts have been known to invade houses where this thing has been played. Finally, Conan further slashed all the wounds their 2010 EP 'Horseback Battle Hammer' had opened (I even considered it a proper album at the time just to shove it into that year's list) and laid down a ridiculously heavy, bludgeoning album that will give you headaches for years. If you were down the front for any of their gigs this year, your ears are still ringing for sure, like mine are after Roadburn. And if you weren't, well, then you're a bit of a pussy, aren't you?

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27. PROCESS OF GUILT FAEMIN / BESTA Ajoelha-te Perante A Besta

Because it's about time that Portuguese bands rise to the occasion and plant their boots in the faces of bewildered fans outside our own little country in the ass-end of Europe, these two hungry beasts (both puns intended) stepped out of the mire in 2012 with offerings to please any filthy soul looking for unholy noise. On one hand, Process Of Guilt continue on their ever-ascending path with what is by far their best album to date. A dense, almost impenetrable maelstrom of Godfleshian riffs that drip contempt and sweaty testosterone all over you, as vocalist/guitarist Hugo Santos plunges deeper into his bile sack to unleash an arsenal of raging howls and screams that make this tenebrous music all the more human. On the other hand, Besta seemingly operated by the same motto as The Secret and just let loose all the chaos on your face, with barely controlled under-two-minute blasts flying past like a deranged lunatic throwing smashed bricks at you until one of them breaks your nose in half. Don't fuck with the Portuguese.

26. ANAAL NATHRAKH Vanitas

Speaking of broken bones and things you shouldn't mess with, here's Anaal Nathrakh with what will surely prove to be their best record since the über-classic 'The Codex Necro'. Varied, introducing hints of melody and catchiness in the riffs, but devastatingly chaotic all the same, their newfound sense of musicality even makes Dave's usual vocal insanity sound more unhinged than usual. Check out that beastly shriek at the end of 'Forging Towards The Sunset' for proof.

25. REVENGE Scum.Collapse.Eradication

Why? Because fuck you, that's why.

24. LORD MANTIS Pervertor

Last time I interviewed Indian's Dylan O'Toole, he almost spent more time talking about his drummer Bill Bumgardner's band Lord Mantis than about Indian's music itself (he doesn't remember any of the music he's written himself, apparently, but let's stick to the point here), and he had a good reason to. You see, he had heard what would become 'Pervertor' already at the time, and it's an all-consuming feast of obliteration of such proportions that it's hard to think of anything else once you've let it roam free in your mind. Combining nasty, angular sludge as if someone drenched Today Is The Day in sticky mud with the most demonic black metal, 'Pervertor' is one of the year's most confrontational albums.

23. CHELSEA WOLFE Unknown Rooms: A Collection Of Acoustic Songs

Chelsea is beautiful and this is an acoustic album, but don't think the combination of these things amounts to peace, syrupy contemplation of the stars or any of that nonsense. The underlying menace and emotional intensity usually present in anything this woman does seem to take these songs way beyond their deceptively simple form. It's as if she's sifted the ghosts of Townes Van Zandt, Hank Williams and PJ Harvey (I know she's alive, shut up) through the oblique shadows of her 'Apokalypsis' album, and came through with a quietly foreboding outcome on the other side, an outcome that culminates on the harrowing, life-destroying 'Sunstorm', quite possibly the best song of the year, or decade, or whatever. Just listen to it.

22. DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT WidowMaker / SWITCHBLADE Switchblade
It's an odd pair, yes, strictly musically speaking, but one that makes perfect sense in my mind, and not only because they're both split into three more or less untitled parts each. It's mostly because of the feelings evoked by both these records. They both feel fucking evil. There's no screaming of Satan or frenzied blastbeats on any of them, but they both seem to creep up on you with the intent to do the most unspeakable harm possible. 'WidowMaker' starts with a fifteen minute quiet strumming, making you wait for the drop that never comes, at least not until you're plunged straight into hell for 'Part II', a hell from which you won't come up until the mysterious four-piece are done pouring their take on the most malicious doom on you. 'Switchblade' (their sixth self-titled album - they don't bother with titles much), on the other hand, creates tectonic movement grooves throughout its 37 minutes, maintaining a dirge-like quality that will beat you down even harder than any of their previous towering records. The appearance of a sombre, sinister Hammond and Lord Seth's (yes, that one) crypt-demon vocals, plus a few other guests, don't disturb the organic flow of the album, and you'd be hard pressed to even think about the fact that they don't have a bassist anymore. The ending of 'Movement III' could be used to describe what "heavy" means to visiting aliens. And to scare the shit out of them back to their own planet, too.

21. 16 Deep Cuts From Dark Clouds

One of my favourite bands of all time, 16 hit back with a new drummer and further prove they can do no wrong when it comes to bleeding out sludgy sonic misery. 'Deep Cuts From Dark Clouds' is a more shadowy affair than their unforgettably, gloriously bruising 2009 return 'Bridges To Burn', not as immediate and not as instantly gratifying. Give it time to inject its poison on you, however, and the sneaky, underhand menace of little horrors like 'Her Little "Accident"', 'Ants In My Bloodstream' or desperate closer 'Only Photographs Remain' become frighteningly apparent.

2012 in review - top 66 albums of the year (part 2)

Carrying on.

49. ACEPHALIX Deathless Master
Gone is the crusty d-beat part of Acephalix's initial equation, and there's nothing left but good, old, battered & beaten death metal. Simple in its delivery and ferocity, combining the best groove of the Swedish school with the most fetid stench of old Incantation or even Master themselves, Acephalix achieve true greatness with a few smatterings of infectious, subterranean melody and the truly inhuman throat of Daniel Butler, who surely gargles with week-old demon sweat every morning to achieve that despicable roar.

48. TEST Árabe Macabre

These two dudes carry their gear in a van and just take it out and play a gig whenever and wherever they damn well please, often outside venues before "proper" shows, ie, shows for all you pansies who need to get into a building to bang your heads. The frenetic energy of their crusty street-grind is by now legendary in their native Brazil and it's starting to spread, and the fact that they're able to capture that primal and free spirit so well in their first full-length (well, technically speaking, though the thing is only a pleasant 21 minutes long) speaks volumes about the talent available here. And, you know, power duos are replacing power trios as the new cool.

47. STRUCK BY LIGHTNING True Predation

I first started throwing the name of this band around when I was still doing the Band of the Day thing on Terrorizer's website, and it was so long ago that the post doesn't even exist anymore for me to link to it. Their first album 'Serpents' had just come out, so it was in 2009. Was there internet at all back then? Was there electricity even? I don't know, I get confused when my head gets hit repeatedly by vicious sludgy hardcore-of-the-devil (meaning, it's hardcore but it's fucking necro and no, you don't get to wear a cap), like the kind 'True Predation' delivers. Everything 'Serpents' promised, and then some.

46. BARONESS Yellow & Green

I know that's just half the cover, but it's missing the 'Green' part on purpose - it's because all the best bits of Baroness' double-album are contained in the 'Yellow' part. Sure, 'Green' is more elaborate, it reveals itself over time, it's a grower, it's everything a pretentious intellectual git like me should recommend. But fuck that when I can just hum the super-sticky choruses of 'Take My Bones Away', 'Cocainium' or 'March To The Sea' all day long. It's awesome that they're recovering well from their horrifying bus crash from a couple of months ago, and it lends the huge rockouts of 'Yellow' an even greater feel-good factor.

45. THE HOWLING WIND Of Babalon / SERPENTINE PATH Serpentine Path

Bundled together because both of them feature Unearthly Trance's Ryan Lipynsky - The Howling Wind, which consists of Ryan and Aldebaran drummer Tim Call, is already on its third album and it keeps developing their dense, piercing take on black metal, while Serpentine Path is a new entity featuring the entire Unearthly Trance line-up enriched with ex-Ramesses Tim Bagshaw. The result is exactly what you'd expect from these seasoned doom-mongers, crushing and completely hopeless in its delivery of misery. After the release of the album, they announced Winter's Stephen Flam as the new addition to the already stellar bunch, so it seems like 'Serpentine Path' might just be the beginning of a long friendship.

44. THERAPY? A Brief Crack Of Light

Their rock superstar days are long gone, but rather than fizz away and turn into whatever commerciallized crap other bands tend to in order to recapture the larger audiences from yesteyeards, Therapy? don't give a damn and just keep on rocking, their records as brilliant as they've ever been. Opener 'Living In The Shadow Of The Terrible Thing', catchy instrumental 'Marlow' or the deliciously fractured 'Get Your Dead Hand Off My Shoulder' are just some of the many examples of how to write a bloody awesome and creative rock song in 2012. Shame very few of us are listening.

43. BENEATH Enslaved By Fear

Brutal death metal, remember that? How cool it was before it drowned in a sea of mutilated vaginas, splattered internal organs and meaningless hyperblasts? Well, some of the greater activists of the genre still remember how to actually write songs, and one of them is Gísli Sigmundsson (once at the helm of the frankly legendary Sororicide - remember, tape-traders?) and his merry band of men in Beneath. 'Enslaved By Fear' took its own sweet time to appear after our appetites had been whetted by the 2010 EP 'Hollow Empty Void', but its unstoppable power more than made up for the wait.

 

42. IHSAHN Eremita

Yeah, it irks me somewhat to see Ihsahn sort of rubbing shoulders with the whole unbearably pretentious proggy bunch (you know, Devin Townsend, Steven Wilson, Cynic, the lot), but it was rather inevitable given the man's charmingly nerdy approach to his music. In any case, regardless of who he hangs out with, musically speaking, his records are still untouchable. 'Eremita' has it all - it's singularly oblique, jazzy but never meandering, angular but never unapproachable, deliriously creative but always with a hint of dark malice to it. His best solo album to date, no question about it.

41. EARTHEN GRAVE Earthen Grave

One of the biggest surprises of the year. With a cover like that and with a band featuring legendary doomsters Ron Holzner (Trouble, The Skull, Place Of Skulls, Novembers Doom, you name it) and solid, seasoned musicians like Jason Muxlow (The Living Fields, Wintering) to be equally solid and traditional, but Earthen Grave have taken an extra adventurous step with their self-titled debut. Not only is vocalist Mark Weiner is truly a one-of-a-kind find, a unique voice that can elevate songs to a whole new level by itself, but the songwriting is far from obvious. Traditional-sounding and down to earth yet forward-reaching, if that seems possible, they're as much Witchfinder General (whom they cover brilliantly) as they are Hammers Of Misfortune. Oh, and if you really need to use a violinist in your band, give Rachel Barton Pine a call first. She'll surely teach you how to pull it off, based on her unbelievable performance on this.

40. DORDEDUH Dar De Duh

Sometimes a split can really result in two good things. Negură Bunget is still doing great records and going strong, and now we have Hupogrammos and Sol Faur's new band going their own path, and brilliantly so. 'Dar De Duh' has been described as a sort of successor to 'Om', Negură Bunget's 2006 stone cold classic, and in a lot of ways it harks back to that masterpiece, naturally, but at the same time it's also deep into a more elaborate musical path - the detail and intricacy of these compositions is simply staggering, and after listening to it for months now, it feels that we're just scratching the surface. A record for the ages.

39. PIGS You Ruin Everything / RABBITS Bites Rites

I'm not just doing the cute because both bands are named after animals, they really do belong together as the two nastiest, most vicious noise rock attacks of the year. Unsane's 'Wreck' was a bit of a disappointment considering the expectations that preceded it, but fortunately Dave Curran still makes the list with Pigs, a sludgy, chaotic, messy heap of AmRep energy, Jesus Lizard-infused creepiness and old-fashioned bad taste. As for Rabbits, 'Bites Rites' builds on 'Lower Forms' delivered last year, punkier and more hardcore thank Pigs but still very much oozing from the same horrid primordial soup. What a deranged fucking petting zoo these two make up.

38. NAPALM DEATH Utilitarian

Oh, come on. You don't want me to go on about Napalm Death, do you? It's Napalm Death, they're doing their thing, they're still consistent, relevant, essential and damn angry, so you'll sit up and listen when they're making their racket, and that's it.

37. HORSEBACK Half Blood
Though it falls just short of knocking off 'The Invisible Mountain' from the special place that album holds in my heart, 'Half Blood' goes about that task with passion, as Horseback mutates into an murkier, shadowy beast on this. The demonic and the earthly sides of Jenks Miller's band are more fused than ever, and even at their noisiest (which is very fucking noisy, thank you), Horseback are still able to evoke a sweeping, inspirational feeling rather than the one-dimensional pitch-blackness of lesser outfits. AND they'll still scare you shitless afterwards, like on the three 'Hallucigenia' tracks that close out this difficult monster.

36. MGŁA With Hearts Towards None / SVARTIDAUÐI Flesh Cathedral

Are they paired up because they have weird crossed-out letters in their names? They might, flimsy as my reasons to just pile up more and more records onto a supposedly numbered list tend to be, but no, in this case it really makes sense. Mgła means fog in Polish, and that reveals exactly why I've bundled the duo with the Icelandic four-piece (who feature the guitar player for the amazingly promising Gone Postal, put out a new album already, damn you!), because the thick mist these ultra-kvlt albums envelop you is of the same kind. Icy, chillingly emotionless black metal that is, in both cases, deceptively simple - as you peel away at its outer layers of unspeakable bleakness, they begin to reveal their splendour - in Mgła's case, a Watain-esque meaty, epic approach to the black metal art, while Svartidauði take the path of human decay and urban stench as the basis for their hideous odes. Both of them completely mandatory if you've ever raised a pair of horns.

35. BONG Mana-Yood-Sushai

Bong's many releases are usually so sprawling in nature and so hard to encapsulate within the confines of the written word that I tend to look at their work (their mind-altering, mesmerizing live shows included) as just one long, continuous, resonating hum from the earth itself, but 'Mana-Yood-Sushai' is remarkable enough for the hum to vibrate inside me hard enough to jolt me into singling it out as the best thing they've ever done. And no, I'm not high as I write this. You won't need to be high to appreciate this record either, as the blissful sitar-enriched repetition that makes up the half-hour of the first piece and the droning, tribal yet solemnly holy feeling of the 19 minute-long second piece will elevate your spirit all by themselves.