TOP 50 METAL ALBUMS OF 2014

 

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It’s that time of year, where I face a legitimate heavy metal Sophie’s Choice and somehow narrow all of the extreme releases I’ve enjoyed this year down to 50. 2014 treated me beautifully, with my very first screenplay sale, a continuing dream gig at Decibel Magazine, my own column dedicated to independent bands at About Heavy Metal, and several other projects I’ll discuss in more detail soon. I KNOW YOU CAN’T WAIT. But for now, it’s time to celebrate the end of the year the way journalists and critics know best: LISTS.

There are a slew of truly solid albums not listed here, and honestly, my rankings have fluctuated nearly every day for the past two months since I handed in my initial Top 40 list to the editors at Decibel Magazine. I have no doubt that if I look at this list in another year or decade, hell, even another week, the rankings could shift and shuffle depending on my mood, the cereal I eat, how crowded the subway is that morning, etc. Feel free to inform me how lousy my selections are, how overrated band A is, how album B is obviously the top selection of the year, and how I’ve terribly under-represented genre C.

2014 Top 50 Metal Albums of the Year

1.   YAITW – When Life Comes to Death

2.   Horrendous – Ecdysis

3.   Drunk Dad – Ripper Killer

4.   Pallbearer – Foundations of Burden

5.   Morbus Chron – Sweven

6.   Thou – Heathen

7.   YOB – Clearing the Path to Ascend

8.   Nux Vomica – S/T

9.    Cripple Bastards – Nero in Metastasi

10.  Bastard Feast – Osculum Inflame

11.  Black Anvil – Hail Death

12.  Septicflesh – Titan

13.  Midnight – No Mercy for Mayhem

14.  Vallenfyre – Splinters

15.  Giant Squid – Minoans

16.  Coffin Dust – The Cemetery, My Kingdom

17.  Down – IV: Part Two

18.  Atriarch – An Unending Pathway

19.  The Skull – For Those Which Are Asleep

20.  Wo Fat – The Conjuring

21.  Eyehategod – S/T

22.  Sea of Bones – The Earth Wants Us Dead

23.  Trap Them – Blissfucker

24.  Incantation – Dirges of Elysium

25.  Orange Goblin – Back From the Abyss

26.  Triptykon – Melana Chasmata

27.  Anguish – Mountain

28.  Baptists – Bloodmines

29.  Tombs – Savage Gold

30.  Opeth – Pale Communion

31.  Torch Runner – Endless Nothing

32.  Couch Slut – My Life as a Woman

33.  Funerary – Starless Aeons

34.  Wild Throne – Blood Maker

35.  Mutilation Rites – Harbinger

36.  Bongripper – Miserable

37.  Gatecreeper – S/T

38.  Dead Congregation – Promulgation of the Fall

39.  The Oath – S/T

40.  Secret Cutter – S/T

41.  Cult Leader – Nothing For Us Here

42.  Godflesh – A World Lit Only by Fire

43.  At the Gates – At War with Reality

44.  Gurt – Horrendosaurus

45.  Drawers – S/T

46.  Atta – S/T

47.  The Atlas Moth – The Old Believer

48.  Vampire – S/T

49.  Agalloch – The Serpent and the Sphere

50.  1349 – Massive Cauldron of Chaos

If you haven’t checked it out yet, go buy issue #123 of Decibel Magazine, where the whole staff selects the Top 40 Extreme Albums of the Year.

You can also check out a few of my other picks for the year listed on the 2014 Heavy Metal Awards at About Heavy Metal.

Check out all the other lists popping up around this time also and feel free to send Tweets about my questionable metal taste over to @MisterGrowl.

REVIEW: OKUS - S/T

I don’t know what Okus means, but the first acronym my brain came up with was Only Kill Ugly Saints. The problem is, that omits all the photogenic saints that Okus could behead just with the sharp blade of their music. This Irish four-piece hails from Drogheda, a city that publically displays the severed head of Saint Oliver Plunkett. History says he was executed in London in 1681, but I think he dreamed of Okus’ music centuries before and it incinerated his faith so quickly that he decapitated himself. Their seven song self-titled long EP/short album is mean as hell and feels like it’s putting cigarettes out on your eardrums.

The album is built around a foundation of death-doom but often blasts into ferocious d-beat punk and noisy hardcore. While their bursts of blackened crust remind me of Young And In The Way, they’re more similar to bands like The Secret or Full of Hell who change tempos more drastically song to song, avoiding easy characterization. Okus’ music is so ugly (HOW UGLY IS IT?) I wouldn’t kiss it with my worst enemy’s bloody asshole. If you read this blog you know right now this is pretty much my way of writing a love poem to a band: Bloody assholes. And I typed that up before even noticing one of the members was in a band once called Bleeding Rectum. This really could be love.

My favorite moments on the album were the gut-churning and intimidating as fuck-all “Bodies” and the rabid grinder “Burn It To the Ground,” though “Light Obscene” also features a tasty metallic groove. Every sound on this album feels blackened, like the songs are heretics splashed with tar, covered in asp scales and ash, then burned alive in front of an audience of cheering children. My only concern is that a couple of the songs linger a bit long, like the two minute intro to “Light Obscene” that delays us from getting to the bone marrow of the song, and “Born In Chains” which seems to lumber forward after the third minute. Apart from these choices this is still a focused, vicious release that treats brutality like the art form it truly is. Also, just to save you a weird visit to eBay, you don’t need to live within spitting distance of a severed saint head to appreciate this music. Those heads are dumb expensive, spend the money on this album instead.

Listen to Okus over on Bandcamp, where this album is available as a “name your price” download:  http://okus.bandcamp.com/album/okus

And check them out on Facebook over here:  https://www.facebook.com/Okusband

REVIEW: A389 RECORDINGS MMXIII MIXTAPE

Happy Tuesday, motherlickers. A389 Recordings has posted their MMXIII Digital Mixtape, including 40 songs from their roster of excellent, depraved bands. If you work an office job like me but can wear headphones, this mix is the key to feeling like you’re paid to listen to outstanding heavy music. This delusion will lead you through the day and into the crusty fray as cuts from assorted sludge/crust/hardcore/everything-ornery-and-aggressive bands beat you silly and toss you to the sewer crocodiles.

There are a bunch of fantastic new songs here, from lurching psych-sludge (Pharaoh) to the sky-punching crossover attack of Integrity. Just a few quick notes regarding some of the new tracks: The Love Below and Vilipend both sound like they’re screaming on the way to an asylum. Eddie Brock’s new song features vocals that could punch right through Spiderman’s skull. “The Burden” by Junior Bruce is a formidable beast that has melodic tendencies, even if the vocalist’s throat sounds like it’s been shredded with whiskey and ground-up Fiberglass. If I had to choose one band that represents the diversity of this wicked label it would have to be Noisem, who rip, rage, and stomp through the barriers of a thousand sub-genres in their fantastic song “Severed.”

There isn’t a weak link in this mix. From Eyehategod and Ringworm to Mister Growl favorites (Young and in the Way/Ilsa) to dangerous bands already featured on this website (Iron Reagan/Ancient Shores/Cynarae), A389 has got your scarred, crusty ass covered.

Listen to the mix and check out the track listing over at the A389 Recordings website:  http://www.a389records.com/site/

REVIEW: END REIGN - SUICIDE COLLECTION

I did some quick research on Durham, UK in preparation for this review of End Reign’s Suicide Collection, featuring the band's compiled releases over the last several years, and was greeted with a ton of tourist information regarding lovely coastal strolls and picturesque castles. I did, however, also come across a nearby mining museum appropriately called Killhope. This is where I imagine End Reign perform their brand of crusty, dark hardcore; deep in the dusky, dusty bowels of a subterranean labyrinth savaged of its precious metal and left dry, now just a series of cold tunnels waiting to implode under the weight of the earth above. I can safely say the music contained in Suicide Collection is heavier than all those layers of rock and soil above the mine. I won’t say that being in an End Reign mosh pit is more dangerous than being a 19th century lead miner, but the two could be a draw.

Witch Hunter Records has put Suicide Collection together in preparation for a new LP from End Reign expected later this year. The track listing is chronological, starting with the newest tracks first. The opener, “Sacrifice,” is a nasty cut of blackened crust and offers a sneak peak of their new material as the sole demo from the upcoming record. It’s manic and razor-sharp and single-handedly creates buzz on its own merit. The rest of the album, gathered from self-released demos, split albums, and EPs, is consistently awesome, proving that End Reign is not some flash-in-the-pan hardcore group lucky enough to hop on the hype train. Release to release, the material is reliably ornery and absolutely bruising. This music will never, ever wake up on the right side of the bed, and it’s very interested in sharing it’s bad mood with you as loudly as possible. If you’re like me, you’re happiest when you’re listening to others in a bad mood.

Other highlights include the sludgy re-recording of “Release the Wolves,” the versatile ripper “Azrael,” and my personal favorite, “Dream Eater.” Starting with a clean guitar intro that lures the listener into an apocalyptic doom riff, “Dream Eater” mutates into a d-beat thrasher before settling back into a grimy hardcore stomp. When End Reign play at their fastest they remind me of Young and in the Way, another group of misanthropes who make blisteringly heavy music. End Reign leans more into the hardcore camp than punk however, with fist-pumping tempo shifts and chugging breakdowns joining the crusty fray, and use a wider variety of stylistic approaches to shape their songs. Occasionally a riff overstays its welcome (like in “Horror” and “The Freeze”) but even these songs finish strongly after they splinter off into faster paced directions. Geoff Cairns’ vocals sound like they have been scraped raw and now only pure, primal rage remains. You can’t teach or fake the sort of passion on these songs, they feel totally, and terrifyingly, genuine.

I’ll be impatiently waiting for the new End Reign LP to surface, listening to Suicide Collection and urging others to do the same. This collection makes you feel grimier than the black soot and mud covering the original Killhope miners. Forget oil, this music is the real black gold worth digging for.

Check out their entire discography here:  http://end-reign.bandcamp.com/

Pre-order the Suicide Collection tape and keep track of the upcoming LP over at Witch Hunter Records:  http://witchhunterrecords.bigcartel.com/product/end-reign-suicide-collection-tape