The Top 10 Metal of 2012 #4: Woods of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light

How does one recover from desolation? He weeps until he wastes away under Grey Skies and Electric Light...

#4

Woods of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light

When tributes poured in following the passing of vocalist David Gold, we all knew we were robbed of an immense heavy metal talent. The world is short of a man who cut his heart and bled out on stage each night he stood to command it. Woods of Ypres didn't much stand for doom metal ceremony. There's no weepy violin or midnight Chaucer readings heard on Woods 5; just untrammeled woe and "horribleness" which pervades the most adamantine of optimism, snuffing it out mercilessly. I imagine cheery souls listening to five minutes worth would scream for it to be shut off lest it exposed their void,  usually papered over with saccharine platitudes and counterfeit smiles. Woods 5 in essence is a potent cocktail of post-punk minimalism, heart-tearing guitar bravado and gothic riffs cut with middle fingers thrust squarely at the establishment - what finer epitaph for David Gold than the Woods of Ypres' ultimate heavy metal wristcutting romance?

From the review posted at Metal As Fuck:

Though Gold screams at us "We shouldn’t worship the dead!" over and over in the severe black metal cut Adora Vivos – the Woods of Ypres will still see many a fan supplicate before them in testimony of his incredible talent for one of rock music’s darkest artforms. We will miss you, brother. Thank you for everything.

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The Top 10 Metal of 2012

#5 - Killing Joke - MMXII
#6 - The Faceless - Autotheism
#7 - Be'lakor - Of Breath and Bone
#8 - Baroness - Yellow & Green
#9 - Rush - Clockwork Angels
#10 - Barren Earth - The Devil's Resolve
The Honorable Mentions

The Top 10 Metal of 2012 #5: Killing Joke - MMXII

Delusions of Godhood dissolve as we realize we're powerless to avert our own desolation...

#5

Killing Joke - MMXII

Surreptitiously, Killing Joke is part of heavy metal ancestry. They might be invited along as “friends of” to the heavy metal family reunion. They’d be sat in the corner, watching Ozzy Osbourne’s drunken arm slung over Rob Halford’s leather-clad shoulder as he screams obscenities at no one in particular. A few of the bands in attendance – Metallica, Behemoth and Napalm Death to name but a few - would tip their glass toward them in silent tribute. Talking to Steve Hughes earlier this year made the urgency of Killing Joke's musical countdown to our incipient extinction clear. Our civilization’s fundament is at best an unknowable labyrinth, the great benign mother of us all is poisoned and choking and we now have the power to “Google someone’s toothbrush from space” – Steve joked at the time, albeit the humor doesn’t last long. Killing Joke’s inelastic attitude to perfection gives birth to dark children of metal invention. Dark shuffle In Cythera, garrisoned by synthesized dread digs down into their bittersweet proto-industrial days serves as précis for the record – vibrant, abrasive and not completely devoid of optimism. Mostly, though the crunch of bones in the teeth of merciless cogs ring out in their riffs. Jaz Coleman screams a grim portent toward mobs of void minds from their bleak soundscapes: the end isn't near, it's here.

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The Top 10 Metal of 2012

#6 - The Faceless - Autotheism
#7 - Be'lakor - Of Breath and Bone
#8 - Baroness - Yellow & Green
#9 - Rush - Clockwork Angels
#10 - Barren Earth - The Devil's Resolve
The Honorable Mentions

New Header Image by MAK ATTACK art!

Hey all,

Ever since I re-launched Crushtor.net earlier this year I've wanted to adorn it with some kick-arse heavy metal style artwork as a header image. A friend of mine who shares my fondness for metal, mead (well...) and Adventure Time, Michael Kephart painstakingly created the above header image for me. I think he captured my personality well. From our initial correspondence and sketches, it really does speak to me and hopefully will to others.

He takes commissions from all over. I encourage you to consider him for your next artistic project. You can find his portfolio here.