Best of 2007 - from #40 to #36

40. vital remains - 'icons of evil'
I was utterly exhausted, devastated by three whole days of Wacken and a couple of hours away from a whole-day bus+train+plane ride without sleeping, but was still quite pissed off when Vital Remains didn't show up for their gig at the big German festival. And there's a reason - after 1349 played, I couldn't have imagined a better way to finish the whole thing off than a show heavily based on this ugly motherfucker of a record. 'Icons Of Evil' is the perfect companion piece to Deicide's trailblazing 'The Stench Of Redemption' (and Benton fronts the band here too). Everything that makes a good death metal album is here, as 'Icons Of Evil' is simultaneously vast and claustrophobic, sweeping and crushingly to-the-point. The tempo doesn't vary much from halfway through mid-pace and speedy, but this helps the stomping feel, as if each riff and each blastbeat is yet another nail hammered into the body of that christ dude. Perfect Erik Rutan production, typical Benton bile and stellar guitarwork from guitarists Tony Lazaro and Dave Suzuki make this a must-have for any self-respecting death metal fan.

Vital Remains - 'Hammer Down The Nails'



39. om - 'pilgrimage'
Al Cisneros says that there has only ever been one song that just varies throughout his career, and he didn't even write it, he just picked off the air what was already there. I guess that's really all you need to know about 'Pilgrimage', a fantastically peaceful and tranquillity-inspiring record that goes even further in the exploration of the immensely musical effects of humming and vibration than the debut 'Conference Of The Birds'. It's impossible to describe the sense of wonder and discovery that this album will have on you if you give it space and time to develop, so try it for yourself.

Om - 'Pilgrimage'



38. grinderman- 'grinderman'
It's easy to explain - Nick Cave grew a handlebar moustache, picked up a guitar and started writing sleazy rock songs on it, and joined fellow bad seeds Warren Ellis, Martyn P. Casey and mega-drummer Jim Sclavunos on a journey through the dirtiest corners in town. Grinderman's music is energetic like we hadn't heard Nick Cave in a long time. Not that his recent albums haven't been amazing, they have, but it's cool to have Nick sound dangerous again, and sometimes very funny too on top of it. The greasy essence of rock is perfectly captured on the immortal 'No Pussy Blues', but the whole album reeks of sex, drugs, sex, rock'n'roll and just a bit of sex. And judging by the Bad Seeds' latest album, this was a very good kick in Nick's career. Get it on, indeed.

Grinderman - 'No Pussy Blues'



37. hardingrock - 'grimen'
[review published on issue #161 of Terrorizer magazine]
Not that it wasn’t obvious, for the various things they already did while Emperor was 100% active, and for what they contributed to the band itself, but it has been interesting to realize how different the two main musical personalities of the historical Norwegian band really are. While Samoth is still firmly rooted in extreme metal, both as musician and label owner, Ihsahn has been exploring all the sounds that he touched upon already with his Emperor songwriting, if briefly. Due to its experimental nature mostly, his solo and project career has been rather hit and miss, but it has nevertheless been a brave and admirable one. Next up is Hardingrock, a name that sounds strange at first but has an easy explanation, for this band consists of Ihsahn on vocals and guitar, his wife (today known as Starofash) on keyboards, vocals and guitars and a Mr. Knut Buen on a traditional Norwegian instrument called a Harding fiddle. This instrument has a devilish connotation, as the church forbade them to enter churches in Norway, and Buen is one of the top players in the country. As you might have guessed by now, ‘Grimen’ is a folk album, but as with other Ihsahn projects, his penchant for symphonic metal and King Diamond wails plays a part, as well as some electronic dabblings in a couple of songs. For the most part this difficult mix works really well, but perversely it’s the purely folk bits of the album, when Ihsahn steps back into the background a tad (vocals included), that are really exciting, as they sound totally natural and flowing. The vocals are used mainly in a poetry-reciting fashion or softly sung at most, so the fiddle really is the driving force for the songs, and together with the ambient backdrops created by the Tveitan couple, it’s capable of creating diverse moods, either melancholically sad or drunkenly festive. Although unassuming in comparison with the rest, ‘Grimen’ is Ihsahn’s most genuine and consistent post-Emperor release so far.

Hardingrock - 'Fanitullen'



36. blood and time - 'untitled'
The Latitudes series has been entirely essential so far, with all the artists contributing to this series of limited releases containing exclusive material really capturing the spirit of it, regardless of their musical genre. Be it Shit And Shine, William Elliott Whitmore or Miasma & The Carousel Of Headless Horses, to mention but a few of the most impressive ones, every release has been astounding. However, Blood And Time's untitled five-song Latitudes album might be the best of them all so far. In case you're not aware, Blood And Time consists of Scott Kelly, Noah Landis and Josh Graham, all Neurosis members, and if that doesn't make you rush out and buy the damn thing already, something's wrong with you. Just in case you need more convincing, though - this untitled little gem is the lost link between Neurosis' 'The Eye Of Every Storm', Scott Kelly's solo album and Michael Gira's solo work. It's sombre, it feels quietly apocalyptic, as if you're watching the end of time in slow motion and it doesn't really feel so bad after all. It's like an acoustic 'Through Silver In Blood'. It's like Blood And Time's sole album 'At The Foot Of The Garden' after a bout of depression. I can go on, but you're wasting precious time that you should be using to order a limited copy of this.

Blood And Time - 'Silver Ocean Storm'

A short graphical pause.

If you would allow the shameless plug, I would like to inform you that a new companion blog for our beloved (well, mine anyway) too.many.records. has been created. It's called too.many.photos. and its name is self-explanatory, I would think.

I will try to keep it as straight to the point as this one. If all that matters here is records, then all that matters there is photos. It is not supposed to be a photographer's blog, as I don't think knowing which lens or shutter speed I used would significantly improve your experience of looking at it. It's time to let the images of our favourite musicians do all the talking.

I hope you will enjoy it.

Now, enough non-recordspeak. Onward!

Best of 2007 - from #45 to #41

45. red harvest - 'a greater darkness'
[review published on issue #34 of Unrestrained! magazine, slightly adapted for too.many.records.]
Always a left-field band, Red Harvest have gone one step further into the unusual with this. These Norwegians have been refining their innovative industrialized thrash for well over a decade now, with Cold Dark Matter their most accomplished work to date, but A Greater Darkness is one mean motherload of an album that eclipses everything they’ve done so far in terms of sheer quality. The most phenomenal difference towards the other albums is the threatening, poisonous atmosphere of terror that stains the whole thing. The darkness on this album is indeed much greater than before – check out the coiled, about-to-explode venom of 'Hole In Me' or the dissonant creepiness of 'Dead Cities' for textbooks examples of sonic evil. This unique ambiance is achieved through a slightly different approach to songwriting, as the sound feels much less mechanical than before. The industrial vibe is still present, but invaded by an organic, (post-)human feel. Put it this way: if Red Harvest were a mean robot before, now they are a killer cyborg. This makes the album much more challenging and, seemingly paradoxically, more immediate than any previous work. The immediacy of the beats and the shredding riffs is counter pointed by the insidious melodies and pounding cybergrooves that lodge themselves in your brain after a few listens. The final icing on the cake is 'War Themes', a military march of a song, constituted mostly of sampling and percussion, that is simply obliterating.

Red Harvest - 'Hole In Me'



44. dhg - 'supervillain outcast'
DHG, for those not in the know, is how Dødheimsgard are now known. When I interviewed main man Vicotnik last year he told me that the name change was no big deal. It’s a supplement, we never stopped being Dødheimsgard, we just have two names now,. no big philosophy behind it, he told me, but maybe subconsciously that was done to shed just a little bit of the pressure that was on this band to deliver something. Okay, so this is not a million disc selling band, but within our little world of strange music, the name Dødheimsgard carries a little weight, on the strength of the revolutionary work they left almost a decade ago when, due to millions of problems, the band went on hold for a while. '666 International', for example, was the blueprint for a whole new world of modern, futuristic post-black metal that never really materialized, as the few bands that seemed destined to spearhead it either disappeared, broke up or went somewhere else musically (Thorns, Satyricon, Arcturus). It still sounds wonderfully fucked-up and absolutely brilliant to this day. Well, 'Supervillain Outcast' won't have the same kind of impact, probably, but it's still miles ahead of most supposedly forward-thinking bands. Vicotnik overhauled the whole line-up, arming himself with new vocalist Kvohst, who was also in Code, along the way (and who has since left the band, sadly), but it's the unpredictable quality of the music that still carries the band's sound. The album, and DHG in general, is not as crazy as every review tries to make them seem, but the constant wall of electro-black intensity makes the album so unusual that you won't even know how to categorize it, let alone appreciate it fully. Genius, still, after all these years.



43. coliseum - 'no salvation'
[review published on issue #9 of Rock-A-Rolla magazine]
The fact that Ryan Patterson, vocalist/guitarist for this Louisville band sounds just like Agnostic Front’s Roger Miret is true, but probably misleading as a means to define the band, so let us not reduce them to just that. They do have a general musical framework close to Agnostic Front and a few other hardcore classics, but the great thing about Coliseum is that they sound incredibly angry, more so than most bands in recent memory. The intensity levels throughout the entire album (no, there is no respite) reach worrying levels sometimes, as the average breakneck speed increases even more to help get their desperate message across – there are no rose-tinted glasses here, as the band pummel into you the world like it really is. Some of the songs are metallic enough to recall equal parts of Black Flag and Motörhead at their grittiest, but despite this fiery aggression, there are as many chances to sing along as there are to headbang. Coliseum never lose their sense of melody in the eye of each of these 13 storms, and as such some great hooks are thrown aplenty throughout. When a band has this much to get off their chest, and when it’s done with this much honest, genuine passion, it’s easy to overlook the songwriting element, and the great thing about ‘No Salvation’ is that underneath the violence you have songs, so the album won’t last you for two weeks, it will last you for years. Unassumingly so, this might help shape the more traditional-influenced hardcore to come.

Coliseum - 'Funeral Line'



42. atavist - 'ii: ruined'
Lights go down and then everyone dies. Slowly, painfully, drowned in the sorrow of their worthless, miserable existence. Grrrrrrrrrrurrrrrrrrghdooooooom.

Atavist - 'II'



41. candlemass - 'king of the grey islands'
After yet another bout of Messiah Marcolin insanity, Candlemass, the legendary doom giants who seemed completely revitalized after 2005's crucially awesome self-titled album, were left with an album and no vocalist. A great album, on top of it, with some soaring songs and some near-psychedelic arrangements thrown in among the traditional Candlemass doom that has inspired so many of the bands that we currently listen to. The chosen man couldn't be more appropriate for the job, or more surprising - Rob Lowe, singer for the-other-best-doom-band-in-the-world, Solitude Aeturnus, a band that very fortunately he did not leave. That problem solved, you get everything you usually want from your Candlemass albums, Leif Edling's crushing grooves, even spiced up a bit by those elements. Take the instantaneously recognizable as prime Candlemass 'Devil's Seed', or the dreamy, unusual feel of 'Of Stars And Smoke'. So why isn't this in the top 5, then? Well, because, although it stands head and shoulders above most competition, 'King Of The Grey Islands' has moments where Candlemass doesn't really sound much like Candlemass for real. An adaptation for which there was no time or will would have benefited Lowe as well, as it seems that he's trying to modulate his talents to a structure that was already written for someone else. So, Leif and the boys, here's the deal - 'King Of The Grey Islands' is great, but since we know that the next album, thought since the beginning with Rob in mind and with a better environment around the band, should be a motherload of doom, we'll leave this one here in this already very respectable position and cross fingers. Deal?

Candlemass - 'Of Stars And Smoke'

Best of 2007 - reaching halfway! From #50 to #46

50. behemoth - 'the apostasy'
[review published on issue #162 of Terrorizer magazine]
Behemoth have been worryingly average for a while now, and the fact that this less inspired (by their standards) period has coincided with a rise in their commercial status, especially in the United States, is a very valid cause of concern for fans of these Polish giants. ‘Demigod’ was a step further into their definitive affirmation as a death metal band, as opposed to their blackened earlier output, but it was a bland, uninspired step which left several question marks on what would be the ideal direction to follow on the next release. Their commercial future might be relatively secure, with the kind of popularity they seem to hold now, but purely musically speaking, a lot hangs on ‘The Apostasy’. So it’s good that ‘Slaying The Prophets Ov Isa’, the first track proper after the moody intro, will kick any lingering doubts and anxieties from your mind with all the violence you could wish for. A clinically precise yet very pleasantly gritty and above all very heavy slab of proper death metal, it nevertheless shoots off in several other directions that elevate it from very good to brilliant status, and sets the norm for what comes next. In a month where I feel like I’ve used the word ‘ethnic’ on every single review, Behemoth show everyone how it’s really done. Much like Rotting Christ’s ‘Theogonia’ or any Nile album, all those influences are entangled in the songwriting itself, instead of someone just plucking a sitar when the drums go quiet. Coupled with frequent tempo changes and the best, most twisted and fiery drumming of Inferno’s career, this melting pot of ultra-brutal death metal, shit-scary vocal layering, Middle-Eastern chanting and tribalism turns a song like ‘At The Left Hand Ov God’ into something very close to a masterpiece. Even better, if that’s possible, is ’Inner Sanctum’, where none other than Warrel Dane wails all over some sick black metal riffing and jazz piano (!), his characteristic voice a perfect and surprising match to Nergal’s deeply resonant growls. ‘The Apostasy’ isn’t catchy, and all the kids who picked up on the band recently will have trouble getting to grips with its complexity and density, but the top-notch songwriting, the sheer weight of the atmosphere and the grinding relentlessness of the whole album make it one of the top death metal releases of the year so far.

Behemoth - 'Inner Sanctum'



49. antimatter - 'leaving eden'
Saddest band in the world, proclaims the sticker on the cd case, but that might be misleading. In fact, the first feeling that you get from 'Leaving Eden' isn't really of overbearing sadness, but of quiet, of solitude and contemplation. This record actually sounds a bit like the more pensive bits of Anathema, which is funny since it's the first Antimatter album to not feature ex-Anathema bassist and songwriter Duncan Patterson, leaving Mick Moss as the remaining founder. It does still have a tie to the Liverpool band though, as Danny Cavanagh guests with a few guitar parts. Somewhat like Ulver's 'Shadows Of The Sun' (coming up later... much later!), 'Leaving Eden' is the perfect album for a silent, dark evening, and even to put on just before you fall asleep. There's the same kind of quiet melancholy in the singer/songwriter-like simplicty of 'Ghosts', the breezy, 70s-like 'Another Face In The Window' or the beautiful instrumental 'The Immaculate Misconception'. I must admit I feared Anitmatter would fade away without Duncan, but that might have actually been a good thing. Wonderful as Antimatter's previous albums where, there always seemed to be a conflict of styles between the two men, and with 'Leaving Eden', Mick Moss has managed to create the most cohesive and coherent Antimatter album to date.

Antimatter - 'Ghosts'



48. fall of the leafe - 'aerolithe'
Sadly, Fall Of The Leafe split up shortly after the release of 'Aerolithe', but at least they left another great album so that we won't grieve too much. Long-time fans of the band will grieve anyway, because there was something special to Fall Of The Leafe. Whether it's Tuomas Tuominen's unique, labyrinthine vocals or the never obvious but nevertheless infinitely catchy song structures and hooks, you can't really find a comparison point for these guys. Mixing all kinds of melodic metal elements and even, why not, a few poppy bits now and then (mostly in feeling), Fall Of The Leafe's songs were often memorable, launching into choruses molded by Tuominen's voice meanderings and coloured by his cryptic, unusual lyrics. If previous album 'Vantage' was where he totally let loose with all his vocal talent, 'Aerolithe' is a more controlled affair, where the music is given space to breathe (ie, he shuts up now and then) and therefore work much better as a whole. Although there isn't a stand-out million-dollar song like 'The Fresco' on 'Aerolithe', the whole album feels more like a complete effort, and still offers a few highlights of incomparable melody, like 'Sink Teeth Here' for example. Sink your teeth on it down there and you'll know what I mean.

Fall Of The Leafe - 'Sink Teeth Here'



47. reverend bizarre - 'iii: so long suckers'
That title is well revealing - Reverend Bizarre are no more. What the hell happened to Finnish doomsters in 2007? Two of the finest, most brilliant bands in the entire genre of traditional doom, Reverend Bizarre and Minotauri, have called it quits last year, apparently just because they could. At least they both left monuments to their memory, 'II' in the case of Minotauri (later on this list...) and this little monster in the case of the Reverend. Basically, 'III: So Long Suckers' is two hours (yeah, it's a double) of The Riff. The ghosts of Black Sabbath or Candlemass are summoned to the seance, and all the spirits join together to spew forth mammoth doom riff after mammoth doom riff. And that's it, really. Reverend Bizarre have always kept it simple, you want doom, you get doomed, with Albert Witchfinder crooning all over the slow paced of the beasts that are these seven (for two hours, I repeat!) songs. A worthy funeral for the Reverend.



46. l'acephale - 'mord und totsclag'
Holy shit. One of the major headfucks of the year, 'Mord Und Totsclag' will require some getting used to, even by people who listen to abrasive music daily. L'Acephale combine the atavistic primitivism of old Darkthrone with a viciousness worthy of Funeral Mist to create a severely bruising wall of hellish black metal fury. The vocals are some of the most intense, paint-peeling shrieks heard this side of Dead, and the music reaches Burzumic levels of repetition and creepiness often. The most amazing thing about this record is the creeping unease that permeates it, from the most direct stuff like 'The Book Of Lies' to the unbearable 21 minutes of centerpiece 'Against A Weeping Sea Of Sleep'. That's the best description for 'Mord Und Totsclag - it's unbearable. All props to you if you can listen to it all the way through in one sitting, because sometimes even the music on this album seems to be unable to keep up with itself, like on the insane 'Terror Is Our Tenderness', where the instrumental part sometimes goes down in volume during vocalist's Set Sothis Nox Law shrieking. Phew.

L'Acephale - 'Terror Is Our Tenderness'

Best of 2007 - from #55 to #51

55. entombed - 'serpent saints'
Seventeen years, nine full length albums. Time flies, doesn't it? I'm not aware of the demographics of my readership, but I assume that some of you guys were toddlers when 'Left Hand Path' came out. Man, do I feel old. Entombed, however, don't - 'Serpent Saints' is yet another slab of dirty, heavy Entombed-metal that fits perfectly alongside their past discography. Entombed's career, like almost every band that has had a massive influence towards a genre, has always been marked by those first albums, up until 'Wolverine Blues' more or less. Unlike many of those bands, though, and even if every fan seems to have a different album to pick on, the fact is that Entombed have never released a bad album, not even an average one, if you look at it unbiased by your own expectations. 'Serpent Saints' even sidesteps the more-of-the-same issue (although it's a very wonderful same!) that might have been valid on some other albums, because they're rockier, Motörhead-er than ever and at the same time doomier and creepier and Black Sabbath-er than ever too, with their typical way of not taking themselves too seriously ('Masters Of Death' is very tongue-in-cheek, for example) but still grinding you down with shit-heavy stuff, like the mammoth 'The Dead, The Dying And The Dying To Be Dead'. A metal staple, Entombed are. Here's to the next two decades.

Entombed - The Dead,The Dying, And The Dying To Be Dead'



54. dark tranquillity - 'fiction'
If you happened to have visited my last.fm page, you will notice that I listen to these guys a lot. Quite a lot. As much as I love At The Gates (and I do - I will travel to a couple of countries this summer with the express purpose of seeing them live) and Entombed (see above!), among others, Dark Tranquillity will always be the epitome of what Swedish death metal means and of its importance towards metal and extreme music as a whole. Their intricate lyrics, their catchy but pounding songs, their musical and emotional intelligence, everything is great about this band. So what is the new album doing at #54? Well, this might be the less positive review you will read in this top 100, but when a vaguely disappointing album still makes it halfway up the list, then it's because my expectations are sky high for the band in question, which is the case. Don't get me wrong, 'Fiction' is fabulous, but it's just not enough of a leap from 'Character', as that album was from 'Damage Done' (much more expansive and almost space-like feel), or as that was from 'Haven' (more aggressive and to the point), or as 'Haven' itself was from 'Projector' (creepy electronics, no clean vocals) and... you catch my drift. I have to admit that 'Projector' is still my favourite DT album, and those much-missed Mikael Stanne clean vocals make a return here on one of the songs ('Misery's Crown'), but 'Fiction' doesn't have the same individual album feel as all the other albums from 'The Gallery' until now. However, several brilliant moments like that wonderful last song, the aformentioned 'Misery's Crown' or the typical DT 'Nothing To No One' still make it a highly recommended album. Let's just hope the guys try a bit harder next time so that the record makes it to where it belongs - in the top 5 at least.

Dark Tranquillity - 'Misery's Crown'



53. doomsword - 'my name will live on'
[review also published on issue #78 of LOUD! magazine, translated and adapted for too.many.records.]
'My Name Will Live On' is the perfect power metal (well, sort of) album for people who dislike the genre, with no super-high-pitched vocals and cinematic delusions that are characteristic of some of the bands that those who don't like the genre hate the most. With DoomSword, you get the essence of epic, the notion of the enormity and the glory of past battles. After a rather lengthy absence, these Italians show that the sort of form that produced the masterpiece that is 'Resound The Horn' is still intact. Despite the rather tradicionalist look, DoomSword is a bit of an unique band. The seriousness and the sobriety with which they tackle the historical events that their songs are based on leave no doubts regarding their dedication and integrity, and it also injects in their music a believable feeling that is remarkable. For all that, 'My Name Will Live On' is huge in scope - a devoted, focused listen to a song like 'Gergovia' will make us feel in the battlefield itself, led by Vercingétorix (him on the album cover), resisting stoically and heroically to the Roman invasion. The environment around these songs is very heavy, from the sonic destruction of 'Steel Of My Axe' to the irresistibly inspiring 'Once Glorious'. The balance between power, excitement and even beauty is very good. The final cherry is Deathmaster's excellent vocals, sounding like a true leader of men, summoning them into battle. Get your swords ready.

DoomSword - 'Once Glorious'



52. deathchain - 'cult of death'
The loss of former vocalist Rotten, who did a great job on this Finnish band's two first albums, was a blow that some of the fans haven't been able to get over even now, but if they would try to look a bit beneath the surface they would realize that 'Cult Of Death' is actually a great progression for the band. Much more death metal than before, this album will take some getting used to if you were expecting a thrashy affair like their previous efforts, but once you get used to it you'll find a cavernous, brutal death metal album like they used to make 'em in the old days. K.J. Khaos, who also growls for Deathbound and The Duskfall, really goes low end here, and it gives heavy songs like 'Serpent Of The Deep' or 'Necrophiliac Lust' a remarkable potency. For the geeks among us (I know you're out there!), the album feels like a collection of monsters of the week, with each page of the booklet depicting the death hammer (for, erm, 'Deathammer'), that serpent of the deep or the mad exorcist in 'Hour Of The Exorcist'. Kickass album, and great fun.

Deathchain - 'Serpent Of The Deep'



51. pantheon i - 'the wanderer and his shadow'
Pantheon I might feature both Andrè Kvebek and Tor Risdal 'Seidemann' Stavenes, former members of 1349, but take that only as a quality reference point, because there is little of 1349 here, and if this was what the pair wanted to do, then it's great that they left their former band and dedicated themselves to this. Pantheon I practises a polished, complex kind of black metal - note how i used 'complex' as a lame way to actually mean 'symphonic', because that word has become so dirty in black metal circles that I'm afraid you'll just skip to the next review if I mention it. Rest assured, however, that this is symphonic like it should be. There's no ham-fisted sub-Hammer Horror crap here like in the latest Cradle Of Filth efforts or in all of Dimmu Borgir's unbelievably overrated career, in fact the band closest to the way Pantheon I develop their sound is probably Emperor, with all differences duly remembered. To be more accurate, the vast spacey feeling of Emperor with a bit of the rawer aggression of Old Man's Child almost gets us there, but Pantheon I are strong enough to stand on their own merits, and there are a lot of neat little touches, like a few surprising thrash parts, the odd Hestnaes-like clean vocal part or some moments where the fury really steps up, like in the great 'Cyanide Storm'. An enormously classy release of modern Norwegian black metal.

Pantheon I - 'Cyanide Storm'