Hey, guys, I posted my 2016 metal lists with a lot of thoughts on the year in metal over at Metalfi where I'm an active poster. I'm posting it here as well if anyone would like to take a look. It's long-LOL.
Ours is the Century of Death ……….
Gathering my impressions about the year, making order out of chaos, the above-incomplete quote- rather captured my imagination as a as a caption for metal in 2016. It should be written in a
Gothic romantic font dripping with blood. It might be the caption for this year: 2016 has certainly been a year of death-metal and otherwise.
Listening in 2016
I opened up the Pandora’s Box of investigating the origins of death metal. Several Headfiers gave me some great lists and ideas. Thanks to Zyklonius in particular for his contributions.
Writing a list in the beginning of a new year with the hindsight of reading the many blog lists feels a bit like cheating. We get to watch patterns and it’s given me the opportunity to go back and play catch-up on some of the trending releases that seemly come from nowhere. So much great metal. And, each new album I discover is unbelievably good. Where does it end?
2015’s
Abyssal’s Antikatastaseis made a big impression and I added dissonance to my listening this year.
Ulcerate and
Zhrine left a big mark on my listening.
By October, I thought my AOTY favorites were set in stone:
CUL, Ulcerate, Subrosa, Vektor, Inter Arma, Zhrine and Neurosis.
Then, late in the year, like a twist in the plot of a murder mystery, I got sidelined by a blackened doom album that completely rearranged my metal world. Black metal surged for me in the waning weeks of 2016. I’ve bought so much music in December, that I’m still processing a lot of it, and I’m sure my impressions will change into 2017.
The sheer number of quality releases scares me. This is too much music to keep up with. But,when it’s this good, what’s a metal fan to do?
Here goes:
Top 2016 Metal albums
Honorable Mentions:
- Summerlands-S/T
- Anciients-Voice in the Void
- Kvelertak-Nattesford
- Predatory Light-S/T
- Dark Tranquity-Atoma
- Jute Gyte-Purdurnace-Such a strange, wonderful and challenging listen
- Vairnaja-Varenvalaja
- Deathspell Omega-The Synarchy of Molten Bones
- Ustalost (atmospheric black metal)
- Wadgefluster: folk pagan metal that just missed the top 30
- Ultha-Converging Sins
- Messa/Belfry
- Alcest/Kodama-Another top year casualty
- Oceans of Slumber-winter
- Vektor-A remarkable achievement that fades from my favor at year’s end....but, clearly a landmark
- Departe/Failure Subside-I need more time with this one to rank
- Blood Incantation/Starspawn-I haven't spent enough time with this one, yet to rank
30. Cough/Still They pray
I’ve just started with this one; Classic Electric Wizard styled, larger than life, drugged out psychedelic, cosmic doom with a member from Windhand sans female vocals. In fact, Jus Osborne of Electric Wizard fame produced this beast and his mark is all over this album. This is sinister doom; uglier and nastier than Messa-massive planetary-sized riffs with vocals that are nearly blackened. This is the kind of doom that get the MarkM sign of approval.
29. Cobalt/Slow Forever
I was disappointed at first after expectations from two of my favorite albums:
Gin and
Death Mask. It’s too long and I think the first CD is stronger than the second. But, it’s a grower and it holds up surprisingly well, and earns its place as one of 2016’s most unique and, indeed best albums of the year.
28. Wode/S/T
A traditional black album with modern production. It’s thicker and meatier than
Murg (my second pick for a classic black metal sound further down the list) with a fuller low-end and chock full of great riffage. This is a most satisfying black metal album that doesn’t forget how to rock big, ugly and hard with great melodic sensibilities not unlike Watain.
Really, this should be a top ten album, but there are just too many bands to compete for a few spots. Their time will come.
27.
40 Watt Sun/Wider Than the Sky
The Pitch: If you’ve seen this on the lists, but haven’t heard it yet and are curious, then think about what an unplugged Katatonia would sound like? Great for early morning/late evening listening.
Is this a metal album? Not really.
R.E.M. vocals? Kind of.
Their last effort, Inside Room was more of a traditional doom album. With W
ider than the Sky, they use a less distorted, clean guitar sound and create an emotionally charged affecting album of great melancholy.
This is essentially a doom band that rejected the doom genre tag, bucked their label and came out with a melancholic, cathartic singer/songwriter album. It also happens to be one of the best albums of the year.
26.
Subrosa/For This We Fought the Battle of Ages
I've loved this utterly unique, somewhat experimental violin-totting, female fronted doom band since
No Help from the Might Ones. They have a special way of approaching doom with some of the most interesting songwriting and clean singing in the business.
This was a top three album earlier in 2016, but has taken a bit of a dive in my listening lately. I still find it compelling, beautifully crafted gothic/folk tinged/chamber doom, but has taken a back seat to newer albums. That's the nature of the beast in a year with this much good music. It’s still one of the year’s best.
25.
Goatess/Purgatory Under New Management
What the hell happened to this album?! Sadly, it got lost in the shuffle in a year with several excellent doom albums. Pity-more than simply stoner doom, this is an absolute gem with no filler. Every time I listen, I feel stunned by its quality.
You might like this if you like: Sleep, Kyuss, Truckfighters
24. Hammers of Misfortune/Dead Revolution
We all know this album. This is really one of the best albums of the year-how the hell did it get bumped to 24! It should be a top five. I enjoyed this album more than 1
7th street which was a little too prog-cerebral for me-it just didn't quite satisfy. But, I found D
ead Revolution to be a harder hitting 70’s influenced traditional metal/ prog album with some great NOWBHM directness, a winner in every respect. Quality and class all the way.
23. Inquisition/Bloodshed Across the Empryean Altar Behind the Celestial Zenith
Whitenoise, a Metalfi poster put together a massive death metal list for me earlier in the year. He's also an unabashed Inquisition fanboy. Inspired by his continual hyping of this album, this is my first Inquisition purchase since
Ominous Doctrines which I really enjoyed back in 2010. Where the hell have I been? This album rekindled my blackened flame. Not much else for me to add other than great second-wave inspired guitar heroics with enough variety and pacing to keep my interest. I get a little of that Immortal,
At The Heart of Winter vibe.
22. Forteresse/Themes Pour La Rebellion
Dang! I love this album for all the reasons I love Inquisition. But, this is even more epic, triumphant and just makes you feel like a bad-ass warrior. This should be on the next Game of Thrones soundtrack. Classic stuff, here. If this was the only black metal album I bought in 2016, I could be happy. This just satisfies that itch. I think everybody who’s heard this album gives it an enthusiastic “thumbs up”.
21.
Skáphe /Skáphe
The Pitch: CVLT Nations #1 Black Metal album of the year. That was enough to get me to bite. Why is it that dissonant metal sounds better with black metal than with death? I don’t know, but I think it’s true.
I often think of experimental black metal as the aural equivalent to abstract art. Like a painter's canvass, there’s a bleak neutral background over which various paints can be applied. The end result can be just about anything. It either works or it doesn’t. This mostly works. Sounds range from extreme muddy swirls of Ulcerate-like dissonance to quiet, creepy ambient sections. It’s a keeper in a big way. It’s completely unconventional lacking anything resembling typical song structure. It takes a while to “get this” album but every time I listen I hear something new.
You might like this if you like: Blut Aus Nord-Mort
20. Palace of Worms/The Ladder
This is a recent pick up from the end of year lists and it’s a good one. This is forward thinking black metal. But, black metal is only a starting point to explore all kinds of influences. There’s some
Agalloch influence and definitely some
Leviathan, but with a greater emphasis on melody and with less menace.
This is a one man band that starts with black metal and then branches off to a little bit of everything from backing female vocals from
Lotus Thief, synths, goth, punk and traditional black metal riffing. This album takes a while to unwrap. I’m just getting started. All kinds of goodness under the hood with this one.
19. Darkthrone/Arctic Thunder
This album drips with metal cred. These two simply know how to write, arrange and produce metal with the skill of veteran master craftsmen. The change-up in vocals work perfectly and give a more black metal vibe with a lot of underground 80’s metal influences. As has been said many times, this is an album of great riffs.
The Underground Resistance was very good, but I actually prefer
Arctic Thunder.
18. Ulcerate/Shrines of Paralysis
Oh, man, this should be in the top ten. I spent a lot of time with Ulcerate. It took me a long time for this one to click, but one it did, it clicked hard. Complex, challenging, claustrophobic and brutal. And, brickwalled as most of us know.
In the final analysis, another more dynamic dissonant album made it into my top ten.
Shrines will definitely stay in my rotation for a long while. I love looking for those tiny shards melodic wormholes through the bleak morass.
17.
Katatonia/The Fall of Hearts
Not much to say here. You’re either in or out. I think this album is brilliant and one of this year’s best. And, it’s definitely a “
metal-fi” beautifully produced album.
16. Lotus Thief/Gramayre
What a special album-an end of the year surprise for me! Some of my favorite albums are of the difficult-to -categorize variety. This one definitely ticks that box, and beautifully illustrates the ways in which metal pushes boundaries. Sometimes described as a heavier W
orm of Ourborus (which appears closer to the top of my list). Songs are inspired by literature-ancient texts and mythology-full of “heady” concepts; the band describes their sound as post black metal with elements of space rock and ambient. In reality, the black metal influence is minimal.
Unique, with some of the best female vocals you’ll hear this side of Enya with a lush warm sound. There is metal to be found here, but it’s not a heavy album. If you’re a fan of beautifully composed and recorded music with great female vocals and lush arrangements, you simply need to listen to this album at least once. One of the most beautiful albums of the year with former
members of Botonist. This album sounds stunning with headphones.
15.
Oathbreaker-Rheia
So, here we go with a supposed poseur, Deafheaven, atmospheric blackgaze album. Hipster/trendy/melodic/wank/blackgaze? I disagree.
Sure, it’s blog end-year list favorite; that’s how I came to Oathbreaker. I’d never heard of them before. I’m happy to call this a crust punk album with post metal influences; vocally, this feels like a hardcore’ish album. Whatever you wish to call Oathbreaker-metal or not-I don't really care because quite simply, this is great heavy music,however you slice and dice the sub-genre pie.
The Pitch: Years ago, I pursued an acting career in L.A. Young actors take audition acting classes. One of the things, I used to hear was that casting directors don’t really know what they are looking for. They have a preconceived idea, but are always looking for something fresh. You might be one of 200 young “Tom Hanks types”. It doesn’t really matter. They have a problem to solve and they’re hoping you’ll come in, read for them and be the answer to that problem.
That’s how I think about this album. There’s a bias. Then, for me at least, a charismatic female vocalist blows you away with a fresh take on a much derided genre. I recognize this album isn’t for everybody. It either works or it doesn’t. Right now, this is an album I’m consistently craving. This album potentially reboots the blackgaze tag, but don’t let the word “gaze” drive you away as its secondary in their influence'ometer. This is an excellent album.
They are a Belgium band. Clean and screamed vocals handled by Caro Tanghe. She's not going to blow you away with technique, but she's a whip-smart lyricist and expressive and "real" with her screaming in the way Kurt Cobain was.
14.
Marttrydod-List
Crust punk with death metal overtones and NWOBHM melodic leads. What’s not to love? This reminds me why I like Converge, Trap Them, Black Breath and all those Kurt Ballou "Entombedcore" albums. It’s short and sweet. My current favorite album to listen to when working out. Adrenalin! Roarrrr!
Be careful with this video-you may start randomly breaking things.
13.
Uškumgallu-VT-X//Rotten Limbs in Dreams of Blood
Lyric: Forgive me not, my visions consume me.
With a title like that, you know what you’re getting. Black metal baby! This gets tagged with
most ****ed- up album. We all have to have that completely warped album. Here it is.
One their bandcamp page, it states:
Rotten Limbs in Dreams of Blood embodies the psychedelic horror of
mangled existence and corroded life. A source of malignancy and imposition of shame and hatred. this journey
through the labyrinth of madness treats mental disease no longer as a condition but as a body of existence all on its
own.
Yikes. This album is really about exploring insanity and dementia.
Challenging, intense, compelling. I can’t put this one down. Uskumgallu is almost like performance art that verges on noise. But the more I listen, the more I like this album. The production is actually quite good. Enter with caution, but if you can hang with the more caustic experimental, hateful side of black metal, this album is worth listening to. The album mostly stays under control until the last song, which, fittingly, is about dementia and turns into noise.
12.
Harakiri for the Sky-III: Trauma
This one caught me off guard hours before the New Year, winning my
melodic sweepstakes of the year award, I’ve only had this album for a few days, but
I like what I’m hearing so far. Melodic death metal posing as post black metal, but not really blackgaze. You might think about Alcest in a much heavier melodeath influenced ensemble.
The post black genre tag misses the mark somewhat. This is essentially a combination of post black metal, hardcore and melodeth. It’s brickwalled with a DNR of 5, but the production mostly works with its strengths. Meticulously executed by a duo; every moment seems well crafted. Apparently the writing and playing are handled by one very talented multi-instrumentalist.
Interesting, extensive existential-themed lyrics with one of the nicest CD fold outs I’ve seen all year. This first track is about the year after the suicide of a friend and the emotional trauma that event causes with the repeated refrain, ’**** this life! So, right off the bat, you know what your in for: emotionally intense metal; angry, depressive melancholic music.
This is what I was hoping Thranenkind would sound like mixed with a great Dark Tranquility album played through a post-blackened framework.
After 2016, I need a good melodic,atmospheric, yet heavy album to get me through winter. It’s the kind of album, I listen to, then hit repeat. One caveat-it’s overlong with long song lengths frequently approaching the 10 minute mark.
11. Murg-Gudatall
Pure black metal album. Gorgoroth’s
Ad Majorum Sathanas Gloriam from 2006 was the first black metal album I ever bought. That album affected me so much that I went out bought most of their early catalog. This takes me back; Vicious, cold, raw, but with nuance and layers. Great
stuff.
10. Asphyx-Incoming Death
My one fanboy pick. But, the world needs a top 10 OSDM album. Van Brunen is one of my Favorite vocalists.
Hail of Bullets/Of Frost and War and
Asphyx/Death the Brutal Way converted me to the OSDM school. I spent a lot of time this year delving into
Asphyx/The Rack/The Last One on Earth. Van Drunen is about my age which warms my old heart, and must have a larynx made of steel.
Some say, their songwriting suffered with some lineup changes. I’d say this is a remarkably consistent death metal release that seems to pick up steam as the album unfolds. Track after rack of killer death metal. As the man says,
This is true death metal you bastards!
9. Worms of Ourboros /What Graceless Dawn
Yes, another questionable entry into “pretty metal”, but this one is essential. How do I possibly qualify this entry?
Well, it’s released on Profound Lore and the default
Itunes genre setting is metal. That’s good enough for me.
What else? Hmmmm. You’ll hear some light tremolo picking, and slow build ups to doomish climaxes on a few songs. Mostly, this is a captivating kind of tragic folk-psychedelic drone.
Similar to Lotus Thief, with tasteful goth-like female vocals and poetic, literary themes. James Blake is quoted throughout. If not heavy (and truth in advertising, it’s not), it’s dark and poetic music set to candlelight, blood-soaked tears, dead lovers, and tragic tales of loss.
8.
Howls Of Ebb-Circus Impasse/The Pendlomic Vows
One of the crowd favorites at Metalfi. I love this blackened death carnival of the damned. Not much for me to say other than it fits my preference for slightly weird, hard-to –label extreme metal and is great demented fun from a band that have a lot of voodoo magic up their sleeves.
7. Neurosis-Fires Within fires
A top five legacy band for me. It’s too short and feels like an EP. Neurosis albums should be long, exhausting affairs requiring extreme levels of patience, except it’s not.
What it is, is a near perfect distillation of everything they’ve ever done. I continuously forget about this album until I push play and am blown away by the quality-total knockout stuff. They’re masters of the very genre they created owing nothing to anyone except maybe
Swans. We have no right to expect something this good for them this late in their career. Repect.
6. Ash Borer/The Irrepassable Gate
Thanks to my friend Ferday over at Metl-fi for pimping this one. Does anybody do post atmospheric black better? No. Atmospheric black album of the year? Yes. The more listen, the better it gets which is the mark of a great album. Cold of Ages is one of my favorite black metal albums. It's great to see Ash Borer continue to evolve.
5. Zhrine-Unortheta
I read somewhere that Zhrine is for people that want a less technical Ulcerate with more atmosphere. Sign me up.
The post atmospheric-Neurosis meets dissonance is done very well. I’m in.
One of the best releases of the year without question.
4. Inner Arma/Paradise Gallows
Down to the nitty gritty.
This is a massive, dense album that devastated this year. The songs are mini-epics in the same way early Neurosis songs were. Each song is like its own novel creating an entire world with its own culture and mythology. You step into a separate universe with each song and somehow it feels like they create a reality separate from your own that you are willing to believe in the way Tolkein novels suspend disbelief. You just believe in the world they create through song. Each song has its own identity.
Plus, it shatters genres and is creative beyond description. This is a very ambitious band with the chops to back up their ideas.
They probably should have cut Violent Constellations, which is a decent song but not quite up to the standards of the rest of the album. That’s the only flaw I find, but an important one. If it weren’t for that one song, this could be AOTY and maybe it already is.
2. & 3. New Artist Award: A.L.N.
My number 2 and 3 albums go to the collective works of A.L.N., mystery man behind
Mizmor, Urzeit and
Predatory Light (which made my honorable mentions and is
really good).
Urzeit-Amoksha
Clearly, a lesser work than Mizmor (see below), but one of my current favorites. This is stripped down, vitriolic, vile punk-infused black metal. I think of this album as the blackened parts of Yodh with two vocalists. Vocally, this is as raw as it gets. Some of the vocals remind me of
Mortuus from
Marduk. Other times, I get a little sludge
Indian/From All Purity vibe.
Lyrics aren’t available, but apparently, according to the
Nine Circles review, the band is working with the Hindu concept of
Moksha which seems to be a Samsara-like belief being in an endless cycle of death and rebirth; a “damned perseverance” where even death doesn’t relieve the hell of living with yourself. Self-hate is a prevailing theme.........Nice light stuff.
Listening, I get a feeling of scraping; tearing, shredding ones innards from the inside out. Like being beaten, bound and dragged by rope across the desert. This is music by the disenfranchised for the disenfranchised.
Certainly not an easy listen, but with repeat listens, I'm hearing some variety through the chaos. Like Uskumgallu, Urzeit straddle the line between black metal, punk (in this
case) and noise, but keep things from getting completely unhinged under the black metal banner for the most part.
Music doesn’t exist in a vacuum and I find my world outlook and listening mood, like an involuntary twitch, unavoidably affected by world events including the U.S election. I’m not going to throw-up my politics all over this thread, but I’m not going to pretend my perspective on music isn’t tainted by the current climate. As such, I find myself drawn to darker, bleaker more blackened soundscapes than I did earlier in the year. Not to offend anyone's views, but this is currently my post -Trump election soundtrack.
Mizmor-Yodh
This was a toss-up for AOTY. I read this on a
Nince Circles staff list, and thought I should listen. I didn’t’ really want to, but it kept popping up on blog lissts and finally committed myself to give it a proper listen. Once I did it wouldn’t let go. Two of my favorite genres-doom and black metal tied seamlessly with tasteful acoustic passages. From what I read A.L.N. uses Mizmor as a vehicle for his own depression; masterful album.
It reflects my world outlook right now-bleak, desolate but not with rays of light. A.L.N. said this album is about looking for truth and light in a world where they can’t be found. I’m not that far down the rabbit hole, but I get what he’s saying.
- Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas: Mariner
Not much to say, that hasn’t been said before. Mariner has no flaws. Every single song is perfect. Julie Christmas tops a long list of amazing women providing vocals in metal this year. She transforms one of my favorite bands. This will be an iconic album, perhaps along with Vektor. Mariner in-my estimation-stands head-to-head with the one or two masterful albums of any given year-Abyss, Death Mask, Melana Chasmata, Surgical Steel, Leviathan, Oceanic, Ghost Reveries, Colored Sands. It’s of the best albums of the decade.
Best Non Metal Albums:
- Swans: Glimmer Man
- Kevin Morby:Singing Saw
- Radiohead: A Moon shaped Pool
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds/Skeleton Tree
- White Lung: Deep Fantasy
- Parquet Courts: Human Performance
- Tim Hecker: Love Streams
- Juliana Barwick: Will
- Peturbrator/The Uncanny Valley
The Past Portends the Future
Much like my classic death metal exploration of 2016, last year I decided to research classical music and put together an essentials classical library; something I did with jazz a few years ago and an ongoing project I’d put off.
I think the transition from the Classical Era (1750-1825) to The Romantic Period (1825-1925) is instructive. Romanticism is full of overlaps with today’s metal. There’s a lot of gothic morbidity with all of that medieval gothic architecture with occult iconography pictured in metal album covers. During the romantic era, we find writers like Edgar Allen Poe, Mary shelly and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The writing was full of gloom, mystery, terror, the supernatural.
In the so called dark romanticism of the 1900s, we see metaphysical themes; evil depicted in the form of Satan, devils, ghouls. Black metal in particular, is sometimes seen as an extension of the Romantic period:
http://www.deathmetal.org/article/heavy-metal-as-an-extension-of-the-romantic-movement/
Beethoven pretty much started Romantic classical music with his second “Eroica” symphony. Dealing with his own deafness, it’s commonly believed he cast himself as the resurrecting “hero” of the symphony. He became the theme of the symphony, advancing the story line movement by movement. The age of the self-expression began.
One of the composers that stuck with me was Gusatv Mahler. A lot of metal fans like Mahler. Mahler (1860-1911) was an interesting guy. He was a late Romantic composer.
One of Mahler’s main contributions was psychological. His symphonies were like confessionals. They illustrated his mental state. Like, much metal, Mahler was obsessed with death.
Mahler revered the masters of the past-Bach, Beethoven, Mozart-but innovated with an eye for the future. The classicism of Mozart was intended be beautiful. Mahler took Mozart’s beauty, but added bombast, ugliness and horror. Mahler was a dark dude.
He said a
symphony must be like the world, it must contain everything. He was trying to create a musical cosmos. He said “
the term symphony means creating a world with all the technical means available.”
When I ponder the debates about the very nature of metal, I think about the above Mahler quotes. Looking at the metal albums I’ve listened to this year, I find beautiful, shimmering music that pushes the boundaries of metal. Metal that might stretch the definition too far. But, I also find traditional metal, and, I find harsh, ugly, grim, raw metal. I find the great, big, messy diversity of life itself.
So, as I wrap-up my thoughts of 2016 metal and select from the many great albums this year, I look to Mahler for inspiration. Metal, across its diverse sub genres should be-not like the world-
No, it should be like the universe. It should contain everything with all technical means available.
Leonard Bernstein famously said:
Ours is a century of death and Mahler is its musical prophet.
Now, that’s metal.
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