Best of 2008 - from #65 to #61

65. general lee - 'hannibal ad portas'
One of my best personal discoveries of 2008, General Lee are a French sludge band that already have a few years of experience, despite 'Hannibal Ad Portas' being their debut album. Like it used to be, you know, when you didn't just post a generic deathcore song on your MySpace and got a record deal out of that. Anyway, it's an album that shows its maturity, developing lengthy songs (six of 'em in 45 minutes) with mastery and entirely appropriate movements, rather than just pasting together bits just for the sake of having long songs. A song like 'Drifting' maintains a real identity through its hills and valleys, impressing both for the dragged-out heaviness of its angrier parts and also for the solid melodic richness of the quieter moments. All this potential surely means that we might be seeing General Lee on more of these end of year lists in the future.

General Lee - 'Drifting'



64. mourning beloveth - 'a disease for the ages'
This sort of doom/death has evolved very little, as a genre, since its first steps in the beginning of the 90s, and that's usually the biggest criticism when yet another new band shows up with another dynamics-less hour-long album of true melancholic misery or something of the sort. However, as in every genre, there's a handful of bands that still keep it alive, not by "evolving" beyond recognition, but simply by applying undeniable quality to everything they do. Irish gang Mourning Beloveth have been at it since 1996, and while you know what to expect of them by now, it is nevertheless always good to receive a new album. The desolate riffs and suffocating heaviness of the slow songs are utterly devoid of any hope, but there is fragile beauty and sensitivity enough (not to mention the acquired taste that is Frank Brennan's back-up clean vocals) to not take it into funeral doom territory. Above all, there is a grittiness, a down-to-eart approach and lack of "woe is me" melodrama to this band that makes you believe everything they sing about, and that is really all the difference.

Mourning Beloveth - 'Trace Decay'



63. north - 'what you were'
North are from Phoenix, and they were threatening to become yet one more instrumental post-rock band with their debut 'Ruins'. The concept seemed cool when Explosions In The Sky and other people first showed up, but it's suffering from an acute case of overcrowding right now, and 'Ruins' didn't really offer anything revolutionary to allow it to jump out of the shelves at you. Next step for North? Meander a bit more in instrumental forgetfulness? Hell no! The quintet cranked up the noise and hired Kyle Hardy to scream like there was no tomorrow, and the result was 'What You Were'. Beard metal at its best, muddy and charging, with enough remnants of their previous post-whatever melodic awareness to make these songs more than just mere exercises in screaming. A huge upgrade for a band that is now very promising, and a case study on how to evolve properly.

North - 'Ghosts Among Us'



62. the devil and the sea - 'heart vs. spine'
Yet another kick-ass debut album! What was it with 2008? Did everyone collectively decide to start a cool band, all of a sudden? Check out that opener, 'Batwing' (right now if you must, it's just below this text) - if that beginning doesn't smash your head in, check your pulse. Way to start a recording career! Plus, when you think you've got The Devil And The Sea all figured out, they throw some curveballs at you, slowing everything down to a massive doom groove, unpleasant and confrontational. The overall feeling is close to that of a band like 16, or even Tombs in the more extreme moments. There's that same sense of gritty reality, of street smarts and of a very real haze of violence that you get from such bands. Throughout the album, those curveballs keep coming, and you get bits of ambient drone, occasional post-metal detours and even some angry noise-rock. All of those rest on the very heart of 'Heart Vs. Spine' - the repetition of finely tuned, lived-in gigantic riffs, menacing, foreboding and fucking awesome.

The Devil And The Sea - 'Batwing'



61. playing enemy - 'my life as the villain'
The unavoidable importance of all the bands in which Playing Enemy's members have played should speak for itself - Rorschach, Deadguy, Nineironspitfire and the colossal Kiss It Goodbye have pretty much shaped a genre of sorts that is now being plundered with the commercial success that none of those have ever had by bands like Norma Jean, August Burns Red or Every Time I Die. Success they may have, but they lack the roughness, the soul and the edge that made all those bands so important, along with Playing Enemy. Unfortunatly, apart from their awesomeness, they also all have one common denominator - none of them last long, and 'My Life As The Villain' was the collection of the final songs that Playing Enemy ever recorded. More musical than the previous EPs, which edged dangerously close to noise territory, the guitarwork nevertheless still feels full of bile and angry suffering, perpetually releasing accumulated tension and frustration. The drumming is precise and much less hazy than the rest of the sound, working like an anchor and pounding away merciless rhythms. Playing Enemy will probably fade into general obscurity like all those bands mentioned in the first paragraph, but at least the small cult following that remains know that we're all in on a big secret.

Playing Enemy - 'Applause And Abuse'

Best of 2008 - from #70 to #66

70. warrel dane - 'praises to the war machine'

Joined by former (at the time, since he's now re-joined the band) Soilwork songwriter Peter Wichers on guitar, Nevermore's frontman put out, with this unlikely pairing, a surprisingly good solo album. More than just quenching the thirst for new Nevermore material, most of the songs on 'Praises To The War Machine' are very much Dane's work, with a separate identity from his main band. Of course, some of it will sound like Nevermore, which would be unavoidable, but overall it's commendable how Dane avoids any obvious references or clichés. With some of the more aggressive moments hitting that rather epic Nevermore quality, like opener 'When We Pray' and its unforgettable chorus or 'The Day The Rats Went To War', it's on the album's quieter but also darker moments that the real gems are to be found. Much more personal than a Nevermore album could ever be, 'Brother', 'August' or 'This Old Man' offer an insight into Warrel Dane like we've never had before, and they are moving, passionate and utterly bleak songs, beautiful without being ballads and with a tremendous impact without being brutal. The icing on the cake are the two covers, Simon & Garfunkel's 'Patterns' and The Sisters Of Mercy's 'Lucretia My Reflection', especially this latter one - although they are rather unnecessary to the flowing of the record, they show the full range of Dane's interpretative powers.

Warrel Dane - 'Brother'

69. torche - 'meanderthal'
Almost universally hailed, 'Meanderthal' is the album that really put Torche on the map, and right from the first listen it's easy to understand why. While maintaining their sludge/doom framework, Torche have meandered (sorry) into a middle-ground territory - the almost pop sensibilities of the melodic hooks, that warm and fuzzy guitar tone and the absolute catchiness of all the material, from the most scorching to the slower stuff, all of them beg to be heard by a much wider audience than what seemed to be reserved for Torche based on their previous work. With riffs to die for ('Across The Shields', 'Speed Of The Nail'), ton-heavy sludgers ('Sandstorm') and exhilirating rock-outs ('Fat Waves'), the closest reference point for Torche is actually Kyuss, these days. That's not a band to throw around lightly, and in this case it's perfectly justified.

Torche - 'Speed Of The Nail'

68. they are cowards - 'demo'
It's only a demo, but it's disgustingly heavy so it gets in the list with all the social grace of a homeless wino, pushing around all the other records until it lands in its place smelling of stale piss. Made up by three former members of Atavist and ex-RedRightHand guitarist Robbo, this Manchester foursome take everything that's ugly about Iron Monkey, Khanate or indeed Atavist themselves and join it into one freewheelin', aggressive and provocative whole. Fat grooves and bruising attitude abound, and promise a whole deal for what's coming next. Which, apparently, is a split with Black Sun. Satan help us all.

Get it free from their website!



67. amenra - 'mass iiii'
Maybe their concert at Roadburn will help Amenra build the following that they would so richly deserve, based on every gargantuan record they've put out so far - 'Mass IIII' is no exception. Relentless and hurtful while still allowing space and time for darkly atmospheric moments, with colossal dynamics that make you feel like someone who's been punching your face in has just allowed you to get some air for a few seconds before resuming the activity and, above all, with the overwhelming sluge hiding painfully beautiful underlying melodies, this Belgian troupe have really done it again with this album. Ignore them at your own peril!

Amenra - 'Razoreater'



66. genghis tron - 'board up the house'
Electro-grind, eh? A few attempts have been made before by a few rather unknown bands, but Genghis Tron really do step up that surreal genre notion to a seemingly unbeatable degree. All kinds of bleeps and scratches and even some beats hover around an insane orgy of mathcore/grind craziness. Go see some photos of how these guys look (I mean, really.) and you can picture them holed up in their bedrooms, fiddling with their laptops for hours until they come up with this stuff. However it is they do, the fact is that it slays and will probably be the starting point for a deluge of copycat "cybergrind" bands all wanting to make a similar kind of hellish racket like this.

Genghis Tron - 'City On A Hill'

Best of 2008 - from #80 to #71

80. dismember - 'dismember'
One of the four horsemen of the apocalypse (well, of Swedish death metal) that still stand strong and proud, along with Entombed, Grave and Unleashed, Dismember offer us yet another slice of bass-heavy, groovy death metal. By now nothing that Matti Kärki's band can offer will sound new, but that's not the point either. Even if they can still raise some eyebrows (like the unashamed Iron Maiden worship on 'Under A Bloodred Sky'), the point of Dismember is that you know what you can count on, and what you can count on is good - eleven more blasts of solid, exciting and no-frills proper death metal.

Dismember - 'Under A Bloodred Sky'

79. inverno eterno - 'póstumo'
You might not expect Portugal to produce a quality depressive/suicidal black metal project, but here they are - Inverno Eterno can slash wrists with the saddest of 'em, and they don't have to pretend that they're German or American to do it. With a very Portuguese display of emotions and lyrical expression, Inverno Eterno offer a desolate but painfully beautiful landscape to each of their songs, mostly within the norm of the genre but with some added flourishes that create their very own personality, like the creepy whistling on 'Depois Que Tu Morreste...' for example. A wonderful surprise, when we'd least expect it.

Inverno Eterno - 'Depois Que Tu Morreste...'



78. blindead - 'autoscopia / murder in phazes'
Featuring some known names from the Polish extreme metal scene, most notably ex-Behemoth guitar player Havoc and vocalist Nick Wolverine (who now screams for Antigama as well), Blindead sound absolutely nothing like those references would lead you to think. With Neurosis as the clear guiding light throughout the seven intricate, interweaved, concept-based songs, Blindead offer a remarkably surprising mix of sludge and technical doom metal, introspective, deep and worthy of several listenes to reveal all their hidden secrets. Bringing to mind Bloodlet at times by their fabulous dynamics, incorporating quieter passages among the stressful atmosphere and for their strained weight of composition, Blindead are a name to keep under a careful watch.

Blindead - 'Phaze I: Abyss'



77. anaphylactic shock - 'two thousand years'
Imagine a blackened Entombed, keeping the full rock-out swagger of the legendary Swedes but adding a bit of kvlt icy darkness to the whole thing. Now wrap that in a sort of post-hardcore atmosphere with truly venom-ridden vocals full of spit and bile, and what do you have? A fucking sexy band that you wish existed? Well, wish no more - Anaphylactic Shock are exactly that, and with their unusual mix of styles, the Dutch gang have been tearing up stages and ears alike with their furious live shows.

Anaphylactic Shock - 'Holy Land'



76. harvey milk - 'life... the best game in town'
It would have been a shame if Harvey Milk had bowed out during the seven year period of inactivity they went through. Even if their past legacy would ensure them a place in the hearts of the few who ever subjected themselves to the skewed freakery of their first two albums or the punishing bar-brawl rock-out of their third, there is way too much talent here to just put away, especially when the mighty Joe Preston (ex-Melvins, ex-High On Fire, ex-Earth and ex-Sunn O))), the man's resume reads like the coolest discography in the world) jumps aboard to lend his bass to the proceedings. Aaron Turner's Hydra Head wasted no time, and helped the guys put out 'Life... The Best Game In Town', which is a sort of celebration of everything Harvey Milk have ever done. There's the athletic dynamics of their early tunes coupled with the hard-hitting, to-the-point approach of their latter work, and everything flows perfectly in a gung-ho Motörhead-like fashion. Even their cover of Fear's 'We Destroy The Family' is put through the Harvey Milk processor, making it something very much their own. Unique and highly addictive, don't miss this.

Harvey Milk - 'A Maelstrom Of Bad Decisions'



75. flogging molly - 'float'
California's coolest Celtic punks march on, with yet another album that should come with Guinness coupons, such is the mug-raising quality of their pub tunes. Infused with an extra sense of melody as opposed to the punkier early records, 'Float' doesn't lose, nevertheless, any of its exciting drive. On the contrary, all the songs are even more infuriatingly catchy, and it's one of those records that you'll hum all day if you have the poor sense of putting on in the morning! If any bone in you is tickled by The Pogues or the Dropkick Murphys, or any aspect of Irish musical culture for that matter, you absolutely need this.

Flogging Molly - 'Requiem For A Dying Song'



74. caïna - 'temporary antennae'
Andrew Curtis-Brignell, the sole member of Caïna, achieved with 'Temporary Antennae' what might seem difficult - to follow-up his classic debut 'Mourner' with a record that doesn't even try to follow the horrid creepiness of that album but manages to still create an enveloping ambiance very much its own. Even if it takes a while to catch on, courtesy of less inspired opening tracks, by the time the warped-out 'Tobacco Beetle' comes on you're on your own again, lost within the confines of Andrew's mind. 'Temporary Antennae' is a crawling, dark beast to tackle, but one which offers within its Burzumic core a strange beauty and a bizarrely welcoming atmosphere as well. Light and dark, conflicting extremes and metamorphosis, and one more musical victory for Caïna.

Caïna - 'Tobacco Beetle'



73. akimbo - 'jersey shores'
...where Akimbo take their fascination with deep-sea horror to a whole new level. After those three songs about the Megalodon in 'Elephantine', 'Jersey Shores' is a concept album about a string of strange shark attacks that occurred in 1916, and it's damn near the closest approximation of such a hideous event as you can have without actually ending up in the belly of the beasts. Concept albums are a tricky business, especially for a band that is more known for its über-riffs than exactly their extraordinary storytelling abilities, but Akimbo pull it off in huge style. Telling the tales from the perspective of the victims themselves, Akimbo introduce some droning rhythms and all kinds of warped effects to their already respectable arsenal, lending a whole new weight to Jon Weisnewski's monstrous screaming and the band's punishing sound. Eerie but still in-your-face, 'Jersey Shores' is where Akimbo went up the evolutionary ladder, two steps at a time.

Akimbo - 'I Think I'm A Werewolf'



72. *shels - 'laurentian's atoll'
Although 'Laurentian's Atoll' is an EP, the breathtaking care and attention to detail that it has benefited from, as well as the sheer sparkling beauty of the music makes it very worthy of integrating this list. Showing that it is still possible to innovate within the post-rock spectrum, with truly unusual dynamics and a heightened sensitivity in the quieter parts, *shels sweep all the Pelicans of this world to a corner. The most interesting quality about these 37 minutes is the dream-like feeling of the music - a hazy, even unfinished ghostly appearance of these songs which sees them turn more into "pieces" than actual songs. Sometimes it feels almost free-form but without slipping into over-the-top esoterica, flowing wonderfully like your weirdest but most wonderful dreams would.

*shels - 'Wingsfortheirsmiles'



71. treponem pal - 'weird machine'
Marked, for better or worse, by the death of legendary bassist Paul Raven (Ministry, Killing Joke, Prong) during the recording sessions, 'Weird Machine' transformed into the best epitaph and most dignified homage a musician can get - a wonderful album, full of his own talent for people to remember him by. It's nevertheless unfair to reduce this album to Raven - 'Weird Machine' sees Treponem Pal return in sparkling form, showing everyone how industrial metal should be done. With the mighty Ted Parsons on drums, vocalist Marco Neves uses his animalesque voice like few times before, creating a cyber-metal record free of all the pitfalls and cumbersome mistakes that this genre usually suffers from once you step outside the absolute classic bands (see: every band that Raven has played in). Maintaining a very musical, structured approach to the machinery-like environment, Treponem Pal dropped a true bomb with this album.

Treponem Pal - 'Mad Box'

Best of 2008 - from #90 to #81

90. earth - 'the bees made honey in the lion's skull'
Now that all the hipster kids have discovered drone through Sunn O))) or Boris and turned it into a trend, it's a welcome fact that Dylan Carlson has returned to show everyone that this sort of thing has been around way before everyone started paying attention to the mysterious men in robes. Fortunately, Earth aren't merely rehashing 'Earth 2' over and over, regardless of the temptation to cower in the shadow of that timeless classic - 'The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull' is still abstract and hard to get your head round, but it's simultaneously Earth's most musical record so far as well, which is also the result of a heightened importance of the remaining band members. Drummer Adrienne Davies and organist Steve Moore play a role as essential as Carlson's, and together they mix a skewed sort of beauty with the punishing slowness that they are known for.

Earth - 'Engine Of Ruin'



89. black shape of nexus - 'microbarome meetings'
Black Shape Of Nexus are a band that you can always count on to go by the less obvious route. When the suffocating despair of their self-titled debut is still ringing in our years, they opt to follow it with a limited-edition drone album, removing any trace of doom and just throwing you helplessly into a huge black vortex that will consume you without mercy. Four songs (in the vaguest sense of the word) in 66 minutes that will earn you a medal if you can sit through them all the way through without flinching uneasily in your seat and begging for mommy.

Black Shape Of Nexus - 'Microbarome D'



88. suffocate for fuck sake - 'blazing fires and helicopters on the frontpage of the newspaper. there´s a war going on and i´m marching in heavy boots.'
Yes, yes, the title is a huge pretentious mouthful, but let's leave that alone for now. We've heard all the jokes about the band with that album title, but focus on the music itself and you'll be hugely rewarded. Suffocate For Fuck Sake offer a weird conceptual album based on a girl looking back on her time at a mental institution (complete with interview samples and everything), and the music is every bit as intense as that idea suggests. A difficult emotional rollercoaster, 'Blazing Fires...' sounds like a slightly more oddball Isis, or a sort of Cult Of Luna with the heavy parts amplified in their brutality and the more sensitive parts thrown to an emotional extreme that is hard to take. Dark and beautiful at the same time, it won't be an album you'll forget in a hurry.

Suffocate For Fuck Sake - 'We Are Driving Through Darkness'



87. we are the damned - 'the shape of hell to come'
One of the surprises of the year in Portuguese extreme metal, We Are The Damned served up a potent, punked-up Entombed blast that has made waves in every place that it was given a chance. Fast, loose and devil-may-care in attitude, its razor-sharp riffing was complemented by an enormous revelation - diminute vocalist Sofia Loureiro might look like the (tattooed) teenager next door, but when she opens her mouth, all shades of hell come out at once. Impressive!

We Are The Damned - 'Release The Wolves'



86. javelina - 'javelina'
One look at the beards on most of Javelina's band members will let you guess correctly what you can expect musically from these Pennsylvania natives. Ass-heavy, downtuned sludge is their game, and they practice it with an extra portion of motherfucking giant groove to boot. With Mastodon seriously wimping out on their new album, it's reassuring to know that there are lesser known bands that can crush anyone in their unrelenting pursuit of heaviness, on their debut album on top of it. One of the most cool-sounding blasts of weight of the year.

Javelina - 'Gored To Death'



85. KYPCK - 'cherno'
KYPCK (pronounced Kursk, like the sunken submarine) is the new band of Sentenced's Sami Lopakka, and it's all about Russia - from the overal theme, right down to the lyrics, everything is Soviet about 'Cherno'. What might be a silly gimmick actually works, and it makes you wonder how no one thought of this before - the ice-cold and the militaristic aura of mystery surrounding Russia's culture lend themselves perfectly to some doom. Heavier, slower and more cavernous than Sentenced, while still maintaining a mournful melodic sense, KYPCK seems to be much more than a one-off project, and if 'Cherno' is a valid indicator of what they can do, that's good news.

KYPCK - '1917'



84. wrath of the weak - 'alogon'
A sort of My Bloody Valentine gone black metal, Wrath Of The Weak are one of the best projects of the whole crop that shows that Burzum was a musical entity almost two decades ahead of its time. Taking that blueprint and expanding it through hazy atmospheres full of fuzz and open-wide sonic landscapes, anguished cries in the distance and truly enveloping creepiness, Wrath Of The Weak offer an album that will take its time to sink in, but one that will reveal itself tremendously when it does. Even if that 20-minute monolith of the last track feels like a chore to get through, the previous six will draw you in like a movie. A scary, unpleasant but fascinating movie.

Wrath Of The Weak - 'Chapter I: A Leap Of Faith Ends When You Crash To The Ground'



83. witch - 'paralyzed'
Witch rock harder than you and they're most likely older than you too! Featuring J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr (on drums, not guitar!), 'Paralyzed' is simply a blast of old-fashioned rock'n'roll energy, a sort of more excited and vibrant version of Black Sabbath that make a hell of a racket and seem to have enormous fun while doing it. Full steam ahead tracks like '1000 mph' or 'Space God' remind you why rock music needed to be invented, and they have the huge merit of not taking themselves excessively serious. A majestic, swaggering beast of an album that shows young kids how this kind of thing should be done.
Witch - '1000 mph'



82. poisonblack - 'a dead heavy day'
Three albums in and Ville Laihiala has finally figured out the ideal formula for Poisonblack. If the first album was way too camp-gothy, albeit with some good songs, and the second album was mostly bland and forgettable, 'A Dead Heavy Day' is brimming with memorable choruses, razor-sharp riffs, downbeat lyrics and a healthy rock-out atmosphere. Sounds familiar? While it would be unfair to write this album off as a Sentenced sound-alike, that's precisely what was lacking in the two previous albums, that typical Sentenced icy punch that grabbed you by the neck. Ville seems to have finally stopped running away from his past, and acknowledging his Sentenced years while maintaining what are essentially Poisonblack characteristics (check out the clean-vocal melodies on 'The Days Between', for example) he has finally made an indispensable album.

Poisonblack - 'The Days Between'



81. moho - 'chotacabra'
'...He Visto La Cruz Al Reves' might be unbeatable in its blackened sludge/crust attack, but the follow-up doesn't embarrass this Madrid power trio in any way. 'Chotacabra' is dark, foreboding and noisy as hell, enveloping the listener in a pitch-dark atmosphere while still pounding him with monster riffs and scary growled vocals. 'Terror Ultramarino' or the 16-minute long 'Anciago' feel like enormous sea serpents crashing through your boat and eating you up alive. Ouch!

Moho - 'Terror Ultramarino'

...and so it begins - Best of 2008, from #100 to #91

It is by now obvious that this unambitious little blog is going to be a repository for my list-making tendencies, as my ever-increasing writing responsibilities for magazines take hold. So, without further ado, let us plunge into the top 100 of 2008 list. It seems to be the general opinion that 2008 has been a strange year - lots of quality albums but not one to rule them all. Let that not be a stain in the year, however. As is constantly the case, contrary to what the negativity-mongers might spew out, fascinating and heartfelt music is always there, if you know where to look. For the next 100 albums, here's where I think it was, this past year. Let me know your opinions and thoughts about the list as it unfolds!

100. iskald - 'revelations of reckoning day'
Iskald translates literally as "ice-cold", and that's really the best description for what awaits you on 'Revelations Of Reckoning Day'. A young two-piece from Norway, these guys have evolved wonderfully in quality in their mere three years of existence, and while this album doesn't reinvent any wheels, it's a quality slab of mid-paced chilling black metal, with plenty of groove as well as piercing riffage to be found. With songs both in Norwegian and in English and a well-placed armageddon theme to the whole thing, Iskald are making a name for themselves. Count on them to be further up everyone's lists in the following years.

Iskald - 'A Breath Of Apocalypse'



99. helms alee - 'night terror'
Helms Alee is a cool discovery from Hydra Head, but a rather easy one to make as well - it's none other than Ben Verellen from Harkonen (and These Arms Are Snakes for a while back there, too) at the, well, helm of this project, along with two girls who make up the rhythm section. Helms Alee are from Seattle, and it shows. Among the many aspects to their sound, there is an unmistakable touch of the more Sonic Youth-influenced bits of the Seattle sound (proving, for once, that it is still a fertile ground of inspiration!), and that is the secret ingredient that makes all their postrock/Slint-like quietloud parts/occasional sludge/younameit elements come together. It's rock, but with a lot of pop too, the good kind of pop, and a whole lot more besides.

Helms Alee - 'Big Spider'



98. grails - 'take refuge in clean living'
Greatly enriched by Emil Amos' contribution on guitar (he was previously the band's drummer), 'Take Refuge In Clean Living' is yet another step up in the continued elegance that is the evolution of Grails. Listen to it while doing something else and it might pass you by as pleasant background music, but pay attention to the subtle intricacies that go on under the surface and your jaw will drop. From the surprisingly sparse and gracious version of '11th Hour' to the ethnic soundtrack music of 'Take Refuge', Grails surprise and please at every turn. In an age when post-rock means 'we have no vocalist', these people are way beyond that tired classification already.

Grails - '11th Hour'



97. hey colossus - 'happy birthday'
Last years 'Project:Death' got a higher place on my list because of its more immediate impact, but 'Happy Birthday' (oh, such a joyful misleading title) deserves the same praise that I always reserve for this south London band. Less openly metal than its predecessor and gone more the way of the drone and the sludge, their sound remains nevertheless very atypical, with their attacks more firmly aimed and calculated. If 'Project:Death' was the mad serial killer with a sledgehammer, 'Happy Birthday' is the insane scientist that takes you in for hideous experiments in his hidden lab. You die anyway, so...

Hey Colossus - 'Are Nice Men'



96. the haunted - 'versus'
Peter is back and all, but they will never write an album like the first one again, okay? Get over it. Shame, however, that they didn't really follow the left-hand path they had started to take with 'The Dead Eye', a fabulous album that fell largely on the deaf ears of The Haunted's less than brilliant fanbase. So, 'Versus' is a step back, but at least a ferocious one. Easily the angriest record they've done since that classic self-titled debut, it wipes the floor with 'rEVOLVEr' (and obviously with the crappy Marco Aro-fronted borefests) and shows that, even when not at their very best, The Haunted are still head and shoulders above the general throng.

The Haunted - 'Moronic Colossus'



95. the gates of slumber - 'conqueror'
True fucking metal! The Gates Of Slumber sound like Omen would sound if they'd be around today, except with rougher vocals and a thicker overall sound. If it's strangely satisfying to have an album like this come out in 2008, to have an album like this of enormous quality come out on a label like Profound Lore is satisfaction threefold. One for the true headbanger.

The Gates Of Slumber - 'Conqueror'



94. kehlvin - 'holy cancer'
And then, all of a sudden, Switzerland is the hotbed of European metal. From Knut to Zatokrev, from Vancouver to these guys, if you want your music to drag you through the mud with a boot on your face while maintaining a strange sense of beauty about it all, Helvetia is the place to go. 'Holy Cancer' is post-hardcore taken to a violent extreme, it's noisy, it's abrasive, the vocals are shouted like there's no tomorrow for anyone's throat and they don't even resist throwing in some weird droning now and then. Crushing!

Kehlvin - 'God As A Mere Intentinal Object'



93. kowloon walled city - 'turk street'
One of the year's most surprising releases, Kowloon Walled City appeared out of nowhere (well, San Francisco) sporting the name of the Hong Kong enclave that's been overrun by crime. Similarly dirty, this mind-blowing EP will grab you quickly by its furious immediate impact, spearheaded by Scott Evans' steel-lunged vocals. The whole thing was recorded in a day (!) and it's entirely free, from their website. Go get it.

Download the full EP for free



92. enslaved - 'vertebrae'
"What, already??", you protest. Yes, 'Vertebrae' is collecting album-of-the-year accolades left and right throughout the world's extreme music media, but unfortunately it hasn't convinced me to that extreme. It is a great album, surely, and fully deserves its place on this list. However, after suffering the vast and deep effect of the magic of 'Isa' and 'Ruun', both on record and on stage, 'Vertebrae' just feels way too thin and like trying too hard. Basically, if you haven't heard it yet, it's Enslaved gone the way of the prog. Still miles above most (post-)black metal coming out of Norway these days, but Enslaved's standards are very, very high, and this falls a little beneath them. Judge for yourself - if you can stomach that solo in 'Ground', then this is probably your album of the year.

Enslaved - 'Ground'



91. misery index - 'traitors'
Misery Index haven't given us one second of rest in all their releases so far, so why should 'Traitors' be any different? Energized by the new blood of drummer Adam Jarvis and guitarist/vocalist Mark “Lo Sneek” Kloeppel, who have contributed a great deal to the songwriting, veterans Jason Netherton and Sparky Voyles deliver the band's best album yet. Shoving down your throat with great force everything that's wrong in the world, Misery Index are a very serious contender within the grind/death field. Make sure you catch them live, where they slay even more!

Misery Index - 'Partisans Of Grief'

The list in full

For easy reference, here is the full best of 2007 list, with links for each album's review.

It's been some work, but great fun to do. From now on, the blog will resume its regular activity, with posting still frequent. Hopefully.

What did you think of it? What would you change for your own lists? Did you discover anything with my list? Let me know!

too.many.records. - best albums of 2007

Album Of The Year. Neurosis - 'Given To The Rising'
2. Black Sun - 'Hour Of The Wolf'
3. Ulver - 'Shadows Of The Sun'
4. Rotting Christ - 'Theogonia'
5. Primordial - 'To The Nameless Dead'
6. The Angels Of Light - 'We Are Him'
7. Cobalt - 'Eater Of Birds'
8. Deathspell Omega - 'Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum'
9. Pig Destroyer - 'Phantom Limb'
10. High On Fire - 'Death Is This Communion'
11. Orthodox - 'Amanecer En Puerta Oscura'
12. Cephalic Carnage - 'Xenosapien'
13. Lake Of Tears - 'Moons And Mushrooms'
14. Mayhem - 'Ordo Ad Chao'
15. Caïna - 'Mourner'
16. Stinking Lizaveta - 'Scream Of The Iron Iconoclast'
17. Minotauri - 'II'
18. Portal - 'Outre''
19. Evoken - 'A Caress Of The Void'
20. Whiskey Priest - 'Hungry'
21. Naglfar - 'Harvest'
22. Alcest - 'Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde'
23. Dirge - 'Wings Of Lead Over Dormant Seas'
24. David Galas - 'The Cataclysm'
25. Watain - 'Sworn To The Dark' / IXXI - 'Assorted Armament'
26. Tombs - 'Tombs'
27. A Whisper In The Noise - 'Dry Land'
28. Wolves In The Throne Room - 'Two Hunters'
29. The Angelic Process - 'Weighing Souls With Sand'
30. The Great Deceiver - 'Life Is Wasted On The Living'
31. Impaled Nazarene - 'Manifest'
32. Marduk - 'Rom 5:12'
33. Melt-Banana - 'Bambi's Dilemma'
34. Big Business - 'Here Come The Waterworks'
35. Iron And Wine - 'The Shepherd's Dog'
36. Blood And Time - 'Untitled'
37. Hardingrock - 'Grimen'
38. Grinderman - 'Grinderman'
39. Om - 'Pilgrimage'
40. Vital Remains - 'Icons Of Evil'
41. Candlemass - 'King Of The Grey Islands'
42. Atavist - 'II: Ruined'
43. Coliseum - 'No Salvation'
44. DHG - 'Supervillain Outcast'
45. Red Harvest - 'A Greater Darkness'
46. L'Acephale - 'Mord Und Totsclag'
47. Reverend Bizarre - 'III: So Long Suckers'
48. Fall Of The Leafe - 'Aerolithe'
49. Antimatter - 'Leaving Eden'
50. Behemoth - 'The Apostasy'
51. Pantheon I - 'The Wanderer And His Shados'
52. Deathchain - 'Cult Of Death'
53. DoomSword - 'My Name Will Live On'
54. Dark Tranquillity - 'Fiction'
55. Entombed - 'Serpent Saints'
56. Exodus - 'The Atrocity Exhibition - Exhibit A'
57. El Hijo - 'Las Otras Vidas'
58. End Of Level Boss - 'Inside The Difference Engine'
59. Horna - 'Ääniä Yössä'
60. ManOwaR - 'Gods Of War'
61. Dark The SUns - 'In Darkness Comes Beauty
62. Jesu - 'Conqueror'
63. Decayed - 'Hexagram'
64. Hey Colossus - 'Project:Death'
65. The Ocean - 'Precambrian - Hadean/Archaean'
66. The Howling Wind - 'Pestilence & Peril'
67. Trap Them - 'Sleepwell Deconstructor'
68. Unsane - 'Visqueen'
69. Viaje a 800 - 'Estampida De Trombones'
70. Yakuza - 'Transmutations'
71. Scandinavian Music Group - 'Missä Olet Laila'
72. Shining - 'V: Halmstad'
73. Sigh - 'Hangman's Hymn'
74. Ghost Brigade - 'Guided By Fire'
75. Mael Mórdha - 'Gealtacht Mael Mórdha'
76. Ministry - 'The Last Sucker'
77. Anaal Nathrakh - 'Hell Is Empty And All The Devils Are Here'
78. Sear Bliss - 'The Arcane Odyssey'
79. Middian - 'Age Eternal'
80. Amorphis - 'Silent Waters'
81. Akercocke - 'Antichrist'
82. Blood Of The Black Owl - 'Blood Of The Black Owl'
83. Amber Asylum - 'Still Point'
84. Gravetemple - 'The Holy Down'
85. Helrunar - 'Baldr Ok Íss'
86. Boris With Michio Kurihara - 'Rainbow'
87. Bergraven - 'Dödsvisioner'
88. [Before The Rain] - '...One Day Less'
89. Ravencult - 'Temples Of Torment'
90. Wormwood - 'Starvation'
91. Type O Negative - 'Dead Again'
92. Swallow The Sun - 'Hope'
93. Nifelheim - 'Envoy Of Lucifer'
94. Nadja - 'Touched'
95. Down - 'Over The Under'
96. Paradise Lost - 'In Requiem'
97. Elend - 'A World In Their Screams'
98. Mithras - 'Behind The Shadows Lie Madness'
99. In Vain - 'The Latter Rain'
100. Seahorse - 'I'll Be New'

2007 album of the year

neurosis - 'given to the rising'
It was obvious, wasn't it? It's funny that you see Neurosis' name thrown around a lot these days (hell, I'm guilty of that in spades, I can find a Neurosis reference point in just about any album you can throw at me, it's like a superpower or something), but especially by people who can't find anything else to say about an ambient/drone/monolithic riffing/rather unclassifiable record and just lump everything together in the one-size-fits-all "oh, they sound like Neurosis and Isis and Cult Of Luna" dropword. Well, fuck that. Neurosis aren't a band to be lumped in with any other bands, good as they might be, or with any movements, or trends, or anything. As the most essential and primordially true musical entity of the post-Swans era, Neurosis are their own movement. They have followed their own individual way on every single thing they've done and that is why they are so revered, considered so influential and also so misunderstood. As with any musical force of this magnitude, with Neurosis it's much more than just the music. It's the vision, it's the path they take to follow that vision, it's the very resonance of their impact on everyone who has ever listened to them. It's that blood-curdling, soul-cleansing, 30-second scream on 'To The Wind', where Scott Kelly dregs up just about everything he has inside him and just throws it, well, to the wind, as it were.

No other band can even remotely reach the heights of intensity, of total immersion, of oneness with their own art in its every manifestation that this band does in every single release, in every single song, in every single note. Whereas regular-joe bands stagnate and good bands "evolve", Neurosis just keep adding and adding. There's no evolution, so to speak, in their manifestations, since way back on 'Souls At Zero' - what there is, is a spinning cycle of life, death, fire, soul, blood, tears and truth that keeps spinning around itself, somehow like the ouroboros on the cover of 'Through Silver In Blood', keeps devouring itself, but growing and expanding at the same time. 'Given To The Rising' is just that. There's everything - from ravaging fury to unavoidable pitch-black ambient passages, from blinding aggression to delicate darkness, from the fiery directness of 'Enemy Of The Sun' to the tribal mysticism of 'Through Silver In Blood' to the elegiac sombreness of 'The Eye Of Every Storm' to unique dymanics and developments in songs that are as ton-heavy as they are inspiring, moving and touching to behold. It's like going to the moon to watch the final apocalypse from there - you have all the slow, funereal atmospheres developing in front of you, but at the same time the entire event presents itself with the singular beauty of finality. And what you would hear in such a situation would surely be something akin to the first half of 'At The End Of The Road', one of the several tectonic movements on this album that will resonate long, long after you've heard them.

Needless to say, you need this. Everyone does.

Neurosis - 'To The Wind'

Best of 2007 - #2

2. black sun - 'hour of the wolf'
Here's the reason why some people call me a schizo. On the very podium of my favourite albums of last year, there's the direct leap from Ulver's album, the most quietly beautiful release of the year, to this - the most abrasively noisy piece of ugly dirtiness of the year. No subtlety, pleasantries or any kind of remorse in sight, Black Sun just beat you into a fucking pulp until you stop moving and then they keep doing it and doing it and doing it until they're satisfied with the mess you're in. And then they do it for a long while more. Many parts of songs consist of ripping the same THUD! chord out of their instruments for several minutes while spewing forth some words of hatred, while others ooze the sludgiest, grittiest riffs this side of fuck knows what. I had this to say when I reviewed the wretched thing for issue #154 of Terrorizer magazine, and it's pretty accurate still:

With James Plotkin doing the mixing and mastering of the album and Billy Anderson throwing in a mix as well for one of the songs, you can more or less form an idea of what to expect from Glasgwegians Black Sun. Despite that, you’ll never be totally prepared for the filth that’s coming. The easiest reference point would be the Swans’ early output, as the pounding, confrontational nihilism of ‘Hour Of The Wolf’ resonates with the same sense of foreboding evil. The dirty rumble also brings to mind the vicious menace of Eyehategod or Godflesh’s ‘Streetcleaner’, but Black Sun are operating primarily on their own twisted mindspace here. You just don’t fuck with Black Sun - witness in horror as ‘Krokodil’ spirals down into slower-and-slower repetition for the latter half of the song, cower in fear as the furious ‘Stuck Pig’ mercilessly beats you up and finally surrender to the slow-burning heaviness of the 18-minute long ‘A Deputation Of Spastics’. Essential stuff.

Put it this way. Black Sun have a t-shirt, that I admit I wear rather proudly, that says 'BLACK SUN.' on the front. On the back, the ugliest skull you've ever seen, black cross on its forehead, slapped in between the lettering 'YOU WON'T LIKE IT.'
Yeah, that sums it up.

Black Sun - 'Disintegrate To Khrist'

Best of 2007 - #3

3. ulver - 'shadows of the sun'
When I first conceived this list, 'Shadows Of The Sun' was well positioned, a top ten record, yes, but not this well positioned. However, in the few months since the first version of the list was dreamt up (and that's the coolest thing about lists that people who argue bitterly about them never seem to get - they're not set in stone, they evolve just like we do and any list is just a picture of a moment), this album has been steadily, quietly and very enjoyably listened to on an almost daily basis, and it seems set to stay that way. It's a perfect situation-album if there ever was one - it's the perfect album to put on when you're going to sleep, when you're on a long journey, when you want to make a certain kind of love to your partner, in the early morning when you feel like being quiet, you name it. As a mood-setting album, there are precious few, ever, that can match it. In yet another one in the long list of Ulver style-jumps (we're talking about a band that has made, among many many others, a phenomenally harsh trvekvlt album with 'Nattens Madrigal' or a trip-hop William Blake concept album with 'Themes From William Blake's The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell'), 'Shadows Of The Sun' was initially thought by its creators, and mainly by chief genius Kristoffer 'Garm' Rygg, as the most sombre album possible, with no percussion at all. Although it does feature a little bit of it, this is essentially the theme of this album - 'Shadows Of The Sun' doesn't drive, rock or pound. It floats. By night. Constituted by mostly plaintive passages, never flashy or flamboyant, at first seemingly freeform but with a very deep and slowly developing structure, it's a record that rarely jumps on you and makes you go 'whoa!', but when it's over, you'll probably breathe a long sigh, think about what you've just listened to, and finally draw out that long, inspired 'whoa' anyway. It's almost wrong to talk about this album in a technical way, in a 'this sounds like that' kind of way, because that's not the point. The piano, Garm's always softly and somberly (and soberly) sung voice, the electronic effects, the intelligent and purposefully vague (yet deeply affecting) lyrics, all of it combines into a complete whole that is one of the most quietly and enduring emotional musical experiences that I can think of. Ever. As a sort of bonus, although it does fit the continuity of the album perfectly (it's not the token 'last song', either), Ulver thrown in a cover of Black Sabbath's 'Solitude' that, well, has to be heard to be believed. If it's not the best cover version of any band, ever, it's damn well close. It's hard to pick apart an album that you won't avoid listening to all the way through, but songs like the simply beautiful 'All The Love' or the discouraged 'Funebre' will maybe be some of those that stand out more, but not one thing sounds out of place in this remarkable album. Is it beautiful, like music?, Garm near-whispers on 'Like Music'. And it's not. It's much more than that.

Ulver - 'All The Love'

Best of 2007 - #4

4. rotting christ - 'theogonia'
This is it - this is the album that Rotting Christ have been hinting at for over a decade and a half. Although they are already part of extreme metal's history, with their historial (and very important for their time) first albums, most notably 'Non Serviam', way back from 1994 (this is how we music geeks notice that we're getting old!). However, the development of their career has seen them waver unstably between their mediterranean metal style (an expression which I don't really like, but it fits as a description somehow) and a mid-90s Century Media-style dark metal, with some good and some less good results. Even in the less inspired albums, though, there has always been something noteworthy, a couple of songs that have made us all wish that they would always be like that. 'Theogonia' marks Rotting Christ's 20th anniversary, and as a celebration, no fan could have wished for more. Sakis has revealed how grueling the preparation for this album has been, with over a year of writing, and it shows. Much like Primordial, funnily enough right down here in the list, 'Theogonia's songs are immense, broad in scope, but not as tormented as Primordial's - here, it's as if you were overseeing a vast green plain, while riding your horse. On the plain, however, there are also armies of evil monsters, because every song has, besides the epic feel, also a very vicious streak, with probably the nastiest riffs since that 'Non Serviam' landmark. Right from the pounding, catchy opener 'Sign Of Prime Creation', the whole album is just addictive. Sakis' deep but raspy growl has never sounded better or fuller, and the songs are so well crafted that a tribal call to arms like 'Nemecic' doesn't need more than 4 minutes and a bit to feel like a 15-minute opus. Like Nile, for instance, it's the way they weave everything into the very body of the songs themselves - there's no need of sword fight samples to make a song feel warlike, there's no need of ethnical instrumentation to give it that Eastern feel, there's no need of warriors' chants or operatics to give the songs a fanfare, boastful atmosphere. All you need is the music itself to make you feel that. They haven't lost their demonic streak either, just check out the short and furious 'Rege Diabolicus' for proof of that. Varied, exciting, rousing, inspiring and totally killer from start to finish - 'Theogonia' deserves the highest praise and demands that Rotting Christ be taken into consideration on the upper echelons of extreme music. Brilliant stuff.

Rotting Christ - 'Nemecic'