This year was a bit more true to form for me, while I listened to a lot of different stuff, metal retook its rightful throne in my heart of hearts. A lot of great music passed through my ear holes over the last twelve months, but in no particular order, here’s my 10 favorite.
These guys put on the best concert I went to this year and then less than a month later dropped probably my favorite album of the year. Psychedelic to the point that I almost feel high while listening to parts of it and as ridiculously heavy as a herd of rampaging wooly mammoths on an ice berg…floating through space.
High on Fire – Electric Messiah
Yeah I’m basically an unabashed Matt Pike fan boy at this point. But even when listening to HoF’s latest with my most critical ear possible I still love it. A few goofy lyrical choices aside, this album rocks…though when most of the songs are about ancient giants emerging from underground to destroy us all, some goofiness comes with the territory. The riffs are giant, the solos monstrous, the drumming is terrifyingly good as always. Also I would lease my soul for Jeff Matz’s bass tone.
This album is just full of bangers; Freddie has made gangsta rap really fun again. It reminds me of hip hop in the late 90’s/early 00’s for some reason…could have just been that was a more carefree time of my life and this album captures that “don’t give a fuck” feel. Great wordplay and catchy hooks over great slamming beats. If ever I have a summer BBQ (without little kids around), this is what I want to be listening to.
I’ll add up all of Beastmaker’s Eps into 1 for this. Even though each EP of ~4 songs each have their own feel and subject matter they all flow together well, which is how I’ve been listening to them anyway. This is Hammer horror inspired, Black Sabbath-esce doom metal and it’s even more fun than that might sound. Every track is just great fun metal, nothing to analyze or contemplate, just put it on and rock out music.
Allfather - …And All Will Be Desolation
These bearded Brits dropped one of the best metal albums of the year, fat groove metal with a hardcore attitude. Endlessly playable, these guys have a knack of always finding a way to surprise you with the power of their riffs. They zig when you expect a zag, and the zig sounds better than anything you could imagine. At times this wanders into Southern groove sludge metal territory, and owns it like it invented the shit. Great pointed political lyrics driven by the force of the riffs are like nails shot into your skull with a compressed air nail gun.
Skeletonwitch – Devouring Radiant Light
With a new singer and a slightly altered direction this band transformed from decent blackened thrash to absolute brilliance. This stayed on heavy rotation for me since the day it came out. Super heavy and yet extremely melodic thrash metal…very catchy at the same time. This album just makes me happy, it’s almost like pop music to me, like someone sat in a room analyzing my tastes to come up with music they thought I would love.
This woman can spit, period. With varied nuances of style, sometimes she’s spitting fire at an almost whisper volume, which is surprisingly effective. The beats are warm and cozy neo-soul inspired grooves and the songs are just good. If this is any indication of things to come, this Chicago rapper has a long and bright future ahead of her.
Vile Creature – Cast of Static and Smoke
Bleak and desolate sludge doom about a future post a nuclear holocaust from a couple of adorable queer kids from Canada. Riffs swirl around like toxic clouds of smoke, yet there’s an edge of hope glimmering somewhere in the fog. Like one last candle that says things will get better somehow. This is blues for the modern age.
Kelly Moran – Ultraviolet
Beautiful music that affects me in different ways. The first time I heard In Parallel I felt the music in my chest, fluttering around like a nervous young love type of energy. This free form music, played on a prepared piano (piano with pieces of metal on the strings for a percussive attack on the notes) always takes me on a different journey depending on my mood and attention level. Sometimes I view it as sad, sometimes as life affirming and joyful…but I always feel better when it’s over than I did when I start it.
Minority Threat – Minority Threat
This album is an explosion of righteous anger, blunt and effective like a baseball bat to the skull. Great hardcore out of Ohio shows some growth from their previous effort Culture Control, but they have a great formula that doesn’t really need improving. Anti-fascist, anti-racist rants over brutal riffs...it works.
There’s a ton of honorable mentions this year; a few came real close to making the cut and a lot that I certainly enjoyed (and will continue to). One thing I need to mention is that there seems to be a lot of great jazz coming out of London lately (Ill Conceived, We Out Here, and 1000 Kings to name a few). Amazing year for music overall. I know I’ve looked at several people’s lists lately that are full of metal albums that I hadn’t even heard of so there’s likely a ton of other great stuff I’ve missed.
Zeal and Ardor – Strange Fruit; Mutilation Rites – Chasm; Janelle Monae – The Dirty Computer; Cavern of Anti-Matter – Hormonal Lemonade; Freddie Gibbs/Curren$y/The Alchemist – Fetti; Ty Segall – Freedom Goblin; Noose Rot – Creeping Unknown; Redbait – Red Tape; Open Mike Eagle – What Happens When I Try to Relax; Cartoonhead – Dead By Now; Jon Spencer – Plays the Hits; Dance With the Dead – Loved to Death; Cosmic Atrophy – The Void Engineers; We Out Here – We Out Here; Slaves BC – Lo, and I Am Buried; Marc Ribot – Songs of Resistance; Ill Considered – Ill Considered; 1000 Kings – Raw Cause
