I must be bored.
I’ve been on holidays from work since the 20th of December and that feels like a whole child ago. I have been eating, sleeping, and repeating ever since.
I feel that my writing bones get dustier and weaker if I don’t flex them more often than not - so here I am, returning to a place I once truly loved; writing about music.
My favourites in the heavy genre - two completely subjective concepts - have kept me company on many a cold (or sweltering) night this year. Some have transcended genre and some have brushed the face of the sublime. One or two could be so dumb you will think twice about talking to me again.
Here’s the list, chum(p):
10. The Halo Effect - Days of the Lost
It’s the inevitable and celebrated collab between Mikael Stanne (Dark Tranquillity) and pretty much every In Flames member that was worth a damn. It’s quite literally not allowed to be shit.
9. I Prevail - True Power
If you have to choose one band that does Linkin Park pop-metal this year, make it I Prevail (sorry, Architects.) I mean, Brian Burkheiser croons that he’s “closer to the edge” in a bracing wall of processed sounds on There’s Fear In Letting Go. Throw fists, fuck shit up, guaranteed more hooks and fewer slurs than anything Fred Durst or Jon Davis dropped.
8. Blind Guardian - The God Machine
Blind Guardian’s constant wry Bavarian winking to the nerds of the world continues on their twelfth album? What the fuck? Surely there’s more than that? Nope, just looked it up, there isn’t. Anyone who hasn’t felt the chainmail embrace of Blind Guardian’s particular brand of steel since Imaginations from the Other Side will yearn for that caress of mithril once more. Getting all the orchestral nonsense out of the way, they shake the land like their ersatz Evangelion Unit 04 stalking the front cover. Queen-y, nerdy, ballsy, folksy, and Hansi in beast mode. Top, top notch power metal.
7. Gaerea - Mirage
With Nergal huffing his own farts and seeing Not-God more often than not, these Portuguese black metal merchants snatch the bloodied sceptre of symphonic black metal from him - though “symphonic” implies a staid, professional distance between audience and performer. Gaerea spread their gilded robes like wings and take on a theatricality, like an Orphean chorus rising up from Acheron and dispensing Eightfold wisdom.
6. Ghost - Impera
Oh no! Not Ghost! They’re shiiiiiit!!!!!
Whether you “get it”, are oblivious to it, or strictly listen under pain of Double Secret Irony, Ghost might be the Grand Funk Railroad we need for these times. The world’s biggest liars are asking you to trust them implicitly even as we shiver through winter and hand over our first born sons for slabs of beer. Doesn’t mean we can’t have a bit of fun. Arising out of the slick songwriting chops of Kent, occult-flavoured songs with the soul of Joakim Berg coursing through them peals an almighty funeral bell; a sign we should all come running.
5. Oceans of Slumber - Starlight and Ash
I was a fool. I thought the apex of soul in metal tapped out at Dug Pinnick (King’s X) or perhaps Anneke van Giersbergen (VUUR, ex-The Gathering.) I was wrong. DEAD WRONG. Can you have gospel spiritual metal? Sure you can. Cammie Gilbert-Beverly’s voice can float on clouds or trawl through bogs of bluesy darkness, striking you right in those dreaded feels. Just like The Gathering or Gazpacho, Oceans don’t need to pummel you with riffage more than charm you with it - and that they do in spades.
4. Cave In - Heavy Pendulum
The roiling netherworld depicted in the artwork isn’t far off the mark - this stuff may has well have come from another planet. It throws you before a Mastodon Blood Mountain altar before easing off the pedal(s) having you settle among the sunflowers in a Alice In Chains meets The Stone Roses jam. That’s one song after the other, mind you. (Floating Skulls and Heavy Pendulum.) If you spin this to a heavy music fan and they don’t find something they like, they are lying.
3. Aeternam - Heir of the Rising Sun
Byzantine metal? What’s next, Carolingian metal? Oh, yes, right. Quebec’s Aeternam conjure the impossible on Heir of the Rising Sun, their follow-up to the almighty Orphaned Land killer Al-Qassam. Though Middle Eastern metal can tumble straight into “Open Sesame” and kebab shop parody if handled by lesser composers, Aeternam whisks one away from modernity into the dust and steel of the Byzantine era, guitars raging thick against dervishes of oud and bouzouki. The Fall of Constantinople is the greatest Byzantine epic never committed to film.
2. Wilderun - Epigone
Metal for the world weary, Epigone is WIlderun’s latest triumph. They fuse Devin Townsend’s sombre introspection with assaults of symphony and guitar that darts and weaves between crushing death metal and awe-inspiring prog heroism. Wilderun’s imagination will astound, move, and leave you breathless more often than not.
Honourable Mentions
Amorphis - Halo
Their finest outing since Skyforger, a strong melodic death effort from these Kalevala-obsessed Finns.
White Lung - Premonition
I’m sad that it’s over, but happy it happened at all? For a final (ha!) outing, these Wall-of-Sound punk rockers couldn’t have done any better. I dunno, but this shit rips
Moon Tooth - Phototroph
Cutting down on the heaviness gives rise to noodly bits of guitar goodness, and I’m here for it
Woods of Desolation - The Falling Tide
Aussie black metal recluse does good, bestowing us a post-punk tinged masterwork for the ravenous antipodes.
Revocation - Netherheaven
Bloodthirsty death metal that guts the competition - not that they really had any. But let’s say they did. They would win.
In Aphelion - Moribund
Black n’ roll that emphasises the black - you’ll even get corpsepainted life-long stick-in-the-muds to nod along. Then they’ll have a few drinks and kiss one another. Ironically.
Devin Townsend - Lightwork
A sprawling two-disc platter that captures his inner turmoil and peace in equal measure. If this is the soundtrack to the afterlife, I wouldn’t be mad about it
He Is Legend - Endless Hallway
A worthy successor to White Bat, full of chutzpah and hooks.
Hath - All That Was Promised
If war is deception, death metal is war. Crushingly heavy with a bit of that elusive pathos buried deep within.
Elder - Innate Passage
Psychedelic prog need not be all fuzz and shag carpets. It can be thoughtful as well.
Seventh Wonder - The Testament
Dreamboat Tommy couldn’t not appear here.
1. Disillusion - Ayam
Such is the human condition, the world of art is one of diminishing returns. A fifteen-year-old longhair will think that Piece of Mind is the pinnacle of musical endeavour until they’re exposed to greater and bolder work. That’s not to say we discount youthful enthusiasm - but we shouldn’t be chasing it, either. These Germans have willed into being an album like nature forces weather together; serene blue skies and tempestuous hurricanes that come from everywhere and yet, nowhere. Through the first listen, one can tell there’s a brilliance inside this piece; though repeat listens reveal its true beauty and limitless power. Before long, you’re mesmerised by it. It remains stubborn on the platter - new records be damned. Metal in all its permutations scarcely feels this evocative, this touching, or this human.