It's been a while
Top 20 Of 2008
1. Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip - Angles
2. Frank Turner - Love Ire And Song
3. E.S.A. - How Pure Would Your Utopia Be? / The Sea And The Silence
4. Scar Symmetry - Holographic Universe
5. Hadouken! - Music For An Accelerated Culture
6. Zimmer’s Hole - While You Were Shouting At The Devil........... We Were In League With Satan.
7. The Music - Strength In Numbers
8. Alkaline Trio - Agony And Irony
9. Meshuggah - Obzen
10. Metallica - Death Magnetic
11. Sonic Syndicate - Love And Other Disasters
12. InnerPartySystem - InnerPartySystem
13. Slipknot - All Hope Is Gone
14. Dragonforce - Ultra Beatdown
15. Rise Against - Appeal To Reason
16. Late Of The Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
17. Memmaker - How To Enlist In A Robot Uprising
18. Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God
19. Bloc Party - Intimacy
20. Opeth - Watershed
1. Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip - Angles
Full on intelligent well thought out funky soulful new school hip hop. Very old school electro in some ways. But every track here is just lyrical genius, and the backing music fits so well. It's rare that an album can knock me off my feet on the first listen and then do it every time I listen there after. Every time I go through this album it touches me in all the same places, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, tears well and I feel that rare thing that I can only get with music. The Beat That My Heart Skipped starts out so well and not to do this track injustice but it is one of the weaker tracks, it's followed by a couple of short hip hop tracks, especially Devopment where he raps the periodic table, no shit. But then comes one of the true gems, Tommy C. This track is about beauty, his intro is good enough but he then goes in to the idea of beauty using Tommy Cooper and his death. You have to hear this track to believe it. Fixed is an attack on UK hip hop and it's fucking wicked. Then the title track is by far and away the best track on the album. Angles is the tragic tale of a suicide and all the story’s that make it up. If this one doesn't do anything for you you must be dead. The remaining tracks are just as good A Letter From God To Man samples Planet Telex by Radiohead and has to be one of the best uses of a sample I’ve heard in a long while. I can't get enough of this album. Therefore it makes it to be my album of the year.
2. Frank Turner - Love Ire And Song
Over the last two years or so I’ve come to love Mr Turner’s debut album a great deal and was really looking forward to hearing this new one and I wasn't disappointed at all. There is less of an outward looking Frank this time and a more introspective one. I knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous has a mantra in it that seems to permeate the whole album. "Life is about love, last minutes and lost evenings. About fire in our bellies and furtive little feelings" Every track here is an understated master class in perfect song writing, life on the road, never growing old or missing your friends and family all get the Frank viewpoint. But one moment will bring tears to your eyes and make you smile at every friend or family member that you've ever lost. Long Live The Queen is about his friend who died in 2007 after loosing her battle with breast cancer. But it's not a lament it's a celebration. And the chorus line will make you wanna sing aloud with tears in your eyes. I can't help but think of Sam when I hear this chorus, and it makes me smile because I was privileged enough to know her. If music can touch you like this it deserves all the praise in the world.
3. E.S.A. - How Pure Would Your Utopia Be? / The Sea And The Silence
How Pure Would Your Utopia Be? Is one mans journey into the void. A void of unending pain or unending pleasure depending upon the darkness with your own soul. The opening track says it all, "I know not what I need but I know what I desire." This has to be one of the darkest journeys I’ve ever been on, the moral dilemma that presents itself here comes from a place of unending understanding. The intro Dialogue is a twisted spoken word piece similar to Godspeed You! Black Emperor's opening track The Dead Flag Blues on F# A# Infinity. Your Blood Is My Blood picks up the beat and takes it on a downward spiral. Paradise Inside / Punishment Defined sounds like Satan’s drum corp on its way to war and Principles Of A Paradisic Resolve stomps its way into your inner ear making you loose your balance. But later tracks such as In Lust We Trust and the title track have the subtleties that go way beyond a distorted beat. The atmosphere in all these tracks is phenomenal. However closing track You Do Not Belong Here speaks volumes about the journey you've just been on. It's like walking in on god, knowing you are unworthy to be in his presence but forever changed and totally different from your fellow human beings because of what you've just seen and heard. I've witnessed the truth, and I love it. My friend Jamie has produced an album that will live forever in my dying mind, caressing the darkness within my soul. Thank you Mr Blacker.
The Sea And The Silence is the second album in a year for Jamie but talk about striking while the iron is hot. From the second you see the cd box you know that something is different. The album covers have always been very claustrophobic. This album looks different because of the beautiful underwater photos. It's like waking from a bad dream where you're drowning only to realise that you really are. The sea is cold, powerful, overwhelming and breathtaking. Just like this artwork. As for the music, well he's upped the production again. This sound very clear and crisp, every piece of distortion perfect and drum pattern clear in the mix. Once again it'll take several listens to hear all the layers and textures of this superb composition. Highlights for me are It's Hard To Sleep, In Hell with the frankly haunting piano section in the middle, The Sea And The Silence is split into two tracks (Pt 1 The Sea) has the sea washing in and out of it with great vocals by Jacqueline Curd and a wicked beat, (Pt 2 The Silence) reminds me greatly of The Gathering for some reason with it's eastern tribal beats and vocals. Dead Fucking Desire has to be one of Jamie’s catchiest tracks with vocals resembling Godflesh (male) and Atari Teenage Riot (female), Randomly Selected Drawbacks Of The Human Condition Pt2 begins with a haunting loop and epic synths then out of the swirl comes an acoustic guitar, once the beat comes in it changes to a very menacing track, until the vocals crest and it turns into the most beautiful track Jamie’s ever made. Almost like a twilight zone version of Clanad. Clearly one of his best. So could I choose between these two albums? Nope they are the two faces of a coin. Totally inseparable. Fucking awesome work mate.
4. Scar Symmetry - Holographic Universe
I can't quite suppress my excitement about this album; you see years ago I fell over myself with joy when I heard Soilworks Natural Born Chaos. The riffs, the solos, the huge melody in perfect contrast with the death metal vocals. I still love Soilwork very much. This album has all the same ingredients. Every track here just fills me up with pure joy. This is the kind of metal that gets the hairs standing on end; I need to sing along to every word. The vocal melodies contrast with the harshest type of death metal growl, the rough crunchy riffs contrast with the sumptuous lead and solo work. Behind all that are keyboards and samples stringing everything together. Timewave Zero, Quantum Leaper, The Missing Coordinates, Ghost Prototype 1, Trapezoid and the stunning ten minute sci fi exploration that is the title track make this one of the best melodic death metal albums I’ve heard in a long time.
5. Hadouken! - Music For An Accelerated Culture
Nu-rave, Grime, Indie, Grindie?. Who knows what to call this? It rocks with its grime influenced old school rave indie tunes. Liquid Lives and Get Smashed Gate Crash are about partying till you puke or get arrested. But other tracks like Spend Your Life and Wait For You are well constructed catchy alternative pop songs. Maybe you could say this band have a bit of an electro punk attitude about them, the back cover reminds me of The Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks. And they have a very individual take on this indie rave thing, I really like it when a band can spread their wings as they see fit and I think that’s what Hadouken! have been allowed to do. Declaration Of War is sheer pleasure.
6. Zimmer’s Hole - While You Were Shouting At The Devil........... We Were In League With Satan.
With three quarters of Strapping Young Lad in the band and produced by Devin Townsend I had to hear this and it's a fucking heavy metal monster. With songs about motorbikes, beer, cock sucking, Necrophilia, learning to read and metal you can't really go wrong can you. The title track says it all for most true metal followers, we like it hard and fast and covered in spikes! Or blood and naked women, either will do. It rocks like a bitch on heat; it also has a slight old school metal sound to it. You can hear the Ac/Dc swagger in some of the riffs. But it's a huge slab of heavy molten metal, horns up heads down!! By far the best song is one that will make you laugh your ass off, it says it will, and I quote "help you to read", The Vowel Song is introduced by Nathan Explosion from Dethklok and is the funniest thing you'll hear all year.
7. The Music - Strength In Numbers
One of the best bands to come out of Leeds ever. Now don't get me wrong the Kaiser Chiefs are good and The Wedding Present are legends but when it come down to sheer genius of song writing and sonic shaping these guys are just great. To begin with I wasn't the biggest fan of The Music because I thought they sounded too much like the Stone Roses. It's only when you realise that their sound is taking what the Stone Roses did and improving upon it that their true genius begins to shine through. The title track is just indie dance at it's best, Drugs is like Trance for indie kids, Idle is the true sound of karmic silence, Fire has an absolute wicked guitar riff swirling around the edge of this total dance floor anthem and the truly funky No Weapon Sharper Than Will is unstoppable. Every track is an absolute triumph. Welcome back The Music, welcome back.
8. Alkaline Trio - Agony And Irony
The brand new studio recording from one of my favourite bands. So it goes without saying that I love it, right. But this is a very different Trio to the last couple of releases. There is a definite pop edge to the sound; nothing here will win awards for innovation. However they have spread their wings a little bit more with some truly beautiful background keys and sound effects, see Over And Out and the retro brilliance of In Vein. Help Me the first single is an anthem from the off, I Found Away is lyrically brilliant with one of the best chorus's on the whole record and Love Love Kiss Kiss is pure pop punk genius. All in all a damn fine addition to their flawless back catalogue.
9. Meshuggah - Obzen
Just like they did with the stunning 21 minute single track ep "I" this is a bit of a celebration of everything they've done before. The first track Combustion is an updated Destroy, Erase, Improve era track, Electric Red sounds like something from Nothing with is time shifting guitar drones and Bleed sounds like something from the Chaos Sphere era with its frantic and dense wall of guitars. And Pravus is so fucking intense it's unreal. The lyrics deal with the deletion of the human soul, the corruption of mind and body. One set of lyrics that stand out are from the title track. "Salvation found in vomit and blood, where depravation lies, corruption, war and pain is god" this ain't no strole in the park. Meshuggah are never ones to sit on their laurels waiting for fame to come they are single handily staring into the maw of eternity and reporting back from the edge of the Event Horizon. If you've never listened to a Meshuggah album before and you're curious enough to brave the dense polyrhythmic metallic structures and labrinythian corridors this is a damn good place to start your journey into the void.
10. Metallica - Death Magnetic
Yeah here it is, the follow up to the frankly diabolical St Anger. I could feel the tension in the car the first time I slipped the disc into the cd player. The first track erupts from the speakers and everything you were worried about is blown away in one big ass fuck off thrash riff. That Was Just Your Life is a stunning introduction to this come back album, every track here is Metallica through and through. Everything they've done is solidified into these songs. And I do mean everything, you can still hear that country twang that came with the Load / Reload albums, the length of the tracks and the prog riff shifts come from ...And Justice For All. In fact if you were gonna best describe this album it would be a perfect combination of ...And Justice For All and The Black Album. Broken, Beat And Scared has a lead riff to die for; The Day That Never Comes is a slow burning song building to a fucking immense head rush of a finish. All Nightmare Long, one of the best tracks Metallica have ever written sits in the middle, followed by Cyanide and the distracting beginning of The Unforgiven III. The Judas Kiss could be a ...And Justice For All outtake, Suicide & Redemption is an instrumental and the full on thrash attack of My Apocalypse closes things. The best thing about the whole album is that when you've listened to it once you wanna go back and do it all over again. Surely a good sign.
11. Sonic Syndicate - Love And Other Disasters
From the same label as Scar Symmetry, In Flames and my favs Soilwork. This is also the album birthed by all of the above. Massive riffs, rough but anthemic vocals breaking into sweet pop laden melodies for the chorus. Solos and keyboards, catchy drum patterns and wicked amounts of atmosphere. However Sonic Syndicate seem the only band that have embraced the true nature of pop. My Escape is totally melodic there are no rough vocals here, the guitars are distorted yes but it's still pop like. But that doesn't matter because the tune sticks, as does Jack Of Diamonds with its hair raising chorus. But other tracks like Power Shift and Damage Control still rip with the best of them. I really like this band and I really like this album.
12. InnerPartySystem - InnerPartySystem
I'd never heard of this band before seeing a video on Scuzz, I know sod about them too. I think they're from LA but I can't quite be sure. Their sound is a fantastic mish mash of rock and dance, think Filter, Pitchshifter or Kill Hannah. Some tracks even remind me of Seabound. Every track here is well crafted and catchy, Die Tonight, Live Forever and Don't Stop are the singles and they are superb tracks but other tracks like This Empty Love and Structure have synths in droves and sound lush and full of atmosphere. A great album.
13. Slipknot - All Hope Is Gone
I quite enjoyed Slipknots first album, I kinda liked one or two of the tracks from their second. The fact that Iowa was one of the biggest selling extreme metal albums ever is testament to their popularity. Vol 3 I didn't even listen to. Wasn't that bothered. So here we are album no four for the masked maniacs. And it is fucking superb. Leave all your preconceptions at the door for this album, that’s not to say they've gone all prog because they ain't but the riffs are sharper, the melody higher, the malice less obvious. But every track is a lesson in perfect surgical metal song writing. Opening track Gematria is hate filled yes but gone has the childish slogans like "People=Shit". The first true sign of genius is the lead single Psychosocial with its killer riff and sing along chorus. Dead Memories, Gehenna, This Cold Black and the title track are all simply excellent metal tunes. However there is one track that will knock everyone sideways. Snuff. A ballad if you wanna call it that. But it's dark, very dark and will make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. This album has surprised me it really has. I'm still not sure why there are nine of them, what do some of them do?
14. Dragonforce - Ultra Beatdown
Yeah these guys are utterly ridiculous, but there is something about hyper fast power metal that gets me going. I love guitar solos too and these guys go all out to break every rule in the book. Opening with Heroes Of Our Time you really start to find your feet quick if you've heard a Dragonforce album before. However there are two tracks that show some improvement, and they are also the longest. The Last Journey Home and Inside The Winter Storm have a real grasp of the power metal gene this time around; it's not all about speed. The Last Journey Home could almost be a soundtrack to a Final Fantasy game. They ebb and flow perfectly, at over eight minutes each they do give the song room to breath. The cheese factor has been turned up to eleven this time too, namely the song A Flame For Freedom and the beginning of The Warrior Inside. So if you liked Dragonforce before you'll like this, if you didn't avoid. I like it because it's fun.
15. Rise Against - Appeal To Reason
Another fantastic melodic hardcore punk record. If there is a sound emo should be it's this one. Every track is full of vitriolic bile and sung as if it's the last thing he will ever sing. Collapse (Post-Amerika) is about the U.S and its view on global warming. Long Forgotten Sons comes from the same kinda place and Hero Of War is an acoustic lament for soldiers doing a job most don't want to do in the name of freedom. Freedom for who though? I love this band, their passion is unequalled. And the song writing talent is fucking excellent.
16. Late Of The Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
One of the most fucked up albums I’ve listened to in years. Take a pinch of new rave, cross that with David Bowie and The Rocky Horror Picture Show shake it up with a messed up bad acid trip and your somewhere near the mark. Bathroom Gurgle was the first thing I heard by these guys and to begin with I dismissed them completely. It began to make sense once I’d listened to the album. The Bears Are Coming is one of the other stand outs with its weird synths and tubthumping rhythm. Defiantly an oddity. Good though.
17. Memmaker - How To Enlist In A Robot Uprising
From the slightly torn mind behind Izoloscope comes an album that fuses EBM, Techno, Trance, Industrial and Noise into one of the best examples of alternative electronic music I’ve heard in ages. Frantic beats, clever samples, stunning noisy rhythms and atmospheric backdrops make up an album of huge proportions. The first proper track Ascent kicks like a mule on speed, Sneaking Through The Totalitarian Filter slows things down a bit but is dripping with atmospheric bile. Robot Buzz uses Love Buzz as a base; Energon keeps the beat at a heart attack inducing pace, the beginning of The Cydonia Complex reminds me of Izoloscope with its rhythmic noise soundscape but quickly builds into one of the best tracks on the album. This record was built with a single purpose. To kill us all on the dance floor. That it works on every other level as well makes it one of the best alternative electronic albums I’ve heard in ages.
18. Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God
Epic melodic Nordic death metal. Taking their heritage of the Viking legends, namely Thor and giving them the full on death metal vocals and raging guitar riffs, this sounds huge. But you can also hear the legacy of metal flowing in their blood. Echoes of Iron Maiden, Manowar, Slayer, Metallica, Morbid Angel and Black Sabbath all have references here. True balls to the wall heavy metal. Every track sounds battle worn and ready for war, a cold steel grey look in their collective eyes. The album as a whole kicks arse but with the title track and Guardians Of Asgaard, Tattered Banners And Bloody Flags and the awesome Live For The Kill (feat Apocalyptica) as standouts your neck is truly sore by the end. This is epic metal of the best kind. Amazing.
19. Bloc Party - Intimacy
I really loved Bloc Party’s first album, the whole punkish indie was a shot to the heart it really was. But even on that first album they displayed a huge scope of vision. This was built upon on their second album A Weekend In The City. That album I didn't like so much, too many ideas forced through a small hole. The same amount of ideas are here they've just made the hole a whole lot bigger. The energising punkish indie is still here but it's smattered with odd beats, electronics, keys, strings and amazing lyrics. Every track pushes the sound forward, everything is here because it needs to be rather than because they can. Epic, anthemic, honest and beautiful all words that only just scratch the surface of this stunning album. Talons, Mercury, Ares and the single Flux only just touch upon the fantastic tracks here.
20. Opeth - Watershed
The last Opeth album Ghost Reveries was an astonishing work of scope; from the death metal elements through the trademark folk sounds its combination was perfect. However much I loved it though I always return to the misty swamps of Blackwater Park. It had a rougher edge and something spooky waiting in the mist to tear your heart out. It seems that Watershed is walking the slightly twisted path again. The production on this album is flawless, the vocals sounding better than ever. The death metal elements are fewer than I would have liked but when they come they really do slay. By far the strangest record they've ever done, it's also the one that will take a lot longer to figure all its twisted paths. The Lotus Eater and Burden far outclass just about anyone writing heavy music at the moment. A triumph then. A masterwork of haunting beauty and crushing awe.
1. Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip - Angles
2. Frank Turner - Love Ire And Song
3. E.S.A. - How Pure Would Your Utopia Be? / The Sea And The Silence
4. Scar Symmetry - Holographic Universe
5. Hadouken! - Music For An Accelerated Culture
6. Zimmer’s Hole - While You Were Shouting At The Devil........... We Were In League With Satan.
7. The Music - Strength In Numbers
8. Alkaline Trio - Agony And Irony
9. Meshuggah - Obzen
10. Metallica - Death Magnetic
11. Sonic Syndicate - Love And Other Disasters
12. InnerPartySystem - InnerPartySystem
13. Slipknot - All Hope Is Gone
14. Dragonforce - Ultra Beatdown
15. Rise Against - Appeal To Reason
16. Late Of The Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
17. Memmaker - How To Enlist In A Robot Uprising
18. Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God
19. Bloc Party - Intimacy
20. Opeth - Watershed
1. Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip - Angles
Full on intelligent well thought out funky soulful new school hip hop. Very old school electro in some ways. But every track here is just lyrical genius, and the backing music fits so well. It's rare that an album can knock me off my feet on the first listen and then do it every time I listen there after. Every time I go through this album it touches me in all the same places, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, tears well and I feel that rare thing that I can only get with music. The Beat That My Heart Skipped starts out so well and not to do this track injustice but it is one of the weaker tracks, it's followed by a couple of short hip hop tracks, especially Devopment where he raps the periodic table, no shit. But then comes one of the true gems, Tommy C. This track is about beauty, his intro is good enough but he then goes in to the idea of beauty using Tommy Cooper and his death. You have to hear this track to believe it. Fixed is an attack on UK hip hop and it's fucking wicked. Then the title track is by far and away the best track on the album. Angles is the tragic tale of a suicide and all the story’s that make it up. If this one doesn't do anything for you you must be dead. The remaining tracks are just as good A Letter From God To Man samples Planet Telex by Radiohead and has to be one of the best uses of a sample I’ve heard in a long while. I can't get enough of this album. Therefore it makes it to be my album of the year.
2. Frank Turner - Love Ire And Song
Over the last two years or so I’ve come to love Mr Turner’s debut album a great deal and was really looking forward to hearing this new one and I wasn't disappointed at all. There is less of an outward looking Frank this time and a more introspective one. I knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous has a mantra in it that seems to permeate the whole album. "Life is about love, last minutes and lost evenings. About fire in our bellies and furtive little feelings" Every track here is an understated master class in perfect song writing, life on the road, never growing old or missing your friends and family all get the Frank viewpoint. But one moment will bring tears to your eyes and make you smile at every friend or family member that you've ever lost. Long Live The Queen is about his friend who died in 2007 after loosing her battle with breast cancer. But it's not a lament it's a celebration. And the chorus line will make you wanna sing aloud with tears in your eyes. I can't help but think of Sam when I hear this chorus, and it makes me smile because I was privileged enough to know her. If music can touch you like this it deserves all the praise in the world.
3. E.S.A. - How Pure Would Your Utopia Be? / The Sea And The Silence
How Pure Would Your Utopia Be? Is one mans journey into the void. A void of unending pain or unending pleasure depending upon the darkness with your own soul. The opening track says it all, "I know not what I need but I know what I desire." This has to be one of the darkest journeys I’ve ever been on, the moral dilemma that presents itself here comes from a place of unending understanding. The intro Dialogue is a twisted spoken word piece similar to Godspeed You! Black Emperor's opening track The Dead Flag Blues on F# A# Infinity. Your Blood Is My Blood picks up the beat and takes it on a downward spiral. Paradise Inside / Punishment Defined sounds like Satan’s drum corp on its way to war and Principles Of A Paradisic Resolve stomps its way into your inner ear making you loose your balance. But later tracks such as In Lust We Trust and the title track have the subtleties that go way beyond a distorted beat. The atmosphere in all these tracks is phenomenal. However closing track You Do Not Belong Here speaks volumes about the journey you've just been on. It's like walking in on god, knowing you are unworthy to be in his presence but forever changed and totally different from your fellow human beings because of what you've just seen and heard. I've witnessed the truth, and I love it. My friend Jamie has produced an album that will live forever in my dying mind, caressing the darkness within my soul. Thank you Mr Blacker.
The Sea And The Silence is the second album in a year for Jamie but talk about striking while the iron is hot. From the second you see the cd box you know that something is different. The album covers have always been very claustrophobic. This album looks different because of the beautiful underwater photos. It's like waking from a bad dream where you're drowning only to realise that you really are. The sea is cold, powerful, overwhelming and breathtaking. Just like this artwork. As for the music, well he's upped the production again. This sound very clear and crisp, every piece of distortion perfect and drum pattern clear in the mix. Once again it'll take several listens to hear all the layers and textures of this superb composition. Highlights for me are It's Hard To Sleep, In Hell with the frankly haunting piano section in the middle, The Sea And The Silence is split into two tracks (Pt 1 The Sea) has the sea washing in and out of it with great vocals by Jacqueline Curd and a wicked beat, (Pt 2 The Silence) reminds me greatly of The Gathering for some reason with it's eastern tribal beats and vocals. Dead Fucking Desire has to be one of Jamie’s catchiest tracks with vocals resembling Godflesh (male) and Atari Teenage Riot (female), Randomly Selected Drawbacks Of The Human Condition Pt2 begins with a haunting loop and epic synths then out of the swirl comes an acoustic guitar, once the beat comes in it changes to a very menacing track, until the vocals crest and it turns into the most beautiful track Jamie’s ever made. Almost like a twilight zone version of Clanad. Clearly one of his best. So could I choose between these two albums? Nope they are the two faces of a coin. Totally inseparable. Fucking awesome work mate.
4. Scar Symmetry - Holographic Universe
I can't quite suppress my excitement about this album; you see years ago I fell over myself with joy when I heard Soilworks Natural Born Chaos. The riffs, the solos, the huge melody in perfect contrast with the death metal vocals. I still love Soilwork very much. This album has all the same ingredients. Every track here just fills me up with pure joy. This is the kind of metal that gets the hairs standing on end; I need to sing along to every word. The vocal melodies contrast with the harshest type of death metal growl, the rough crunchy riffs contrast with the sumptuous lead and solo work. Behind all that are keyboards and samples stringing everything together. Timewave Zero, Quantum Leaper, The Missing Coordinates, Ghost Prototype 1, Trapezoid and the stunning ten minute sci fi exploration that is the title track make this one of the best melodic death metal albums I’ve heard in a long time.
5. Hadouken! - Music For An Accelerated Culture
Nu-rave, Grime, Indie, Grindie?. Who knows what to call this? It rocks with its grime influenced old school rave indie tunes. Liquid Lives and Get Smashed Gate Crash are about partying till you puke or get arrested. But other tracks like Spend Your Life and Wait For You are well constructed catchy alternative pop songs. Maybe you could say this band have a bit of an electro punk attitude about them, the back cover reminds me of The Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks. And they have a very individual take on this indie rave thing, I really like it when a band can spread their wings as they see fit and I think that’s what Hadouken! have been allowed to do. Declaration Of War is sheer pleasure.
6. Zimmer’s Hole - While You Were Shouting At The Devil........... We Were In League With Satan.
With three quarters of Strapping Young Lad in the band and produced by Devin Townsend I had to hear this and it's a fucking heavy metal monster. With songs about motorbikes, beer, cock sucking, Necrophilia, learning to read and metal you can't really go wrong can you. The title track says it all for most true metal followers, we like it hard and fast and covered in spikes! Or blood and naked women, either will do. It rocks like a bitch on heat; it also has a slight old school metal sound to it. You can hear the Ac/Dc swagger in some of the riffs. But it's a huge slab of heavy molten metal, horns up heads down!! By far the best song is one that will make you laugh your ass off, it says it will, and I quote "help you to read", The Vowel Song is introduced by Nathan Explosion from Dethklok and is the funniest thing you'll hear all year.
7. The Music - Strength In Numbers
One of the best bands to come out of Leeds ever. Now don't get me wrong the Kaiser Chiefs are good and The Wedding Present are legends but when it come down to sheer genius of song writing and sonic shaping these guys are just great. To begin with I wasn't the biggest fan of The Music because I thought they sounded too much like the Stone Roses. It's only when you realise that their sound is taking what the Stone Roses did and improving upon it that their true genius begins to shine through. The title track is just indie dance at it's best, Drugs is like Trance for indie kids, Idle is the true sound of karmic silence, Fire has an absolute wicked guitar riff swirling around the edge of this total dance floor anthem and the truly funky No Weapon Sharper Than Will is unstoppable. Every track is an absolute triumph. Welcome back The Music, welcome back.
8. Alkaline Trio - Agony And Irony
The brand new studio recording from one of my favourite bands. So it goes without saying that I love it, right. But this is a very different Trio to the last couple of releases. There is a definite pop edge to the sound; nothing here will win awards for innovation. However they have spread their wings a little bit more with some truly beautiful background keys and sound effects, see Over And Out and the retro brilliance of In Vein. Help Me the first single is an anthem from the off, I Found Away is lyrically brilliant with one of the best chorus's on the whole record and Love Love Kiss Kiss is pure pop punk genius. All in all a damn fine addition to their flawless back catalogue.
9. Meshuggah - Obzen
Just like they did with the stunning 21 minute single track ep "I" this is a bit of a celebration of everything they've done before. The first track Combustion is an updated Destroy, Erase, Improve era track, Electric Red sounds like something from Nothing with is time shifting guitar drones and Bleed sounds like something from the Chaos Sphere era with its frantic and dense wall of guitars. And Pravus is so fucking intense it's unreal. The lyrics deal with the deletion of the human soul, the corruption of mind and body. One set of lyrics that stand out are from the title track. "Salvation found in vomit and blood, where depravation lies, corruption, war and pain is god" this ain't no strole in the park. Meshuggah are never ones to sit on their laurels waiting for fame to come they are single handily staring into the maw of eternity and reporting back from the edge of the Event Horizon. If you've never listened to a Meshuggah album before and you're curious enough to brave the dense polyrhythmic metallic structures and labrinythian corridors this is a damn good place to start your journey into the void.
10. Metallica - Death Magnetic
Yeah here it is, the follow up to the frankly diabolical St Anger. I could feel the tension in the car the first time I slipped the disc into the cd player. The first track erupts from the speakers and everything you were worried about is blown away in one big ass fuck off thrash riff. That Was Just Your Life is a stunning introduction to this come back album, every track here is Metallica through and through. Everything they've done is solidified into these songs. And I do mean everything, you can still hear that country twang that came with the Load / Reload albums, the length of the tracks and the prog riff shifts come from ...And Justice For All. In fact if you were gonna best describe this album it would be a perfect combination of ...And Justice For All and The Black Album. Broken, Beat And Scared has a lead riff to die for; The Day That Never Comes is a slow burning song building to a fucking immense head rush of a finish. All Nightmare Long, one of the best tracks Metallica have ever written sits in the middle, followed by Cyanide and the distracting beginning of The Unforgiven III. The Judas Kiss could be a ...And Justice For All outtake, Suicide & Redemption is an instrumental and the full on thrash attack of My Apocalypse closes things. The best thing about the whole album is that when you've listened to it once you wanna go back and do it all over again. Surely a good sign.
11. Sonic Syndicate - Love And Other Disasters
From the same label as Scar Symmetry, In Flames and my favs Soilwork. This is also the album birthed by all of the above. Massive riffs, rough but anthemic vocals breaking into sweet pop laden melodies for the chorus. Solos and keyboards, catchy drum patterns and wicked amounts of atmosphere. However Sonic Syndicate seem the only band that have embraced the true nature of pop. My Escape is totally melodic there are no rough vocals here, the guitars are distorted yes but it's still pop like. But that doesn't matter because the tune sticks, as does Jack Of Diamonds with its hair raising chorus. But other tracks like Power Shift and Damage Control still rip with the best of them. I really like this band and I really like this album.
12. InnerPartySystem - InnerPartySystem
I'd never heard of this band before seeing a video on Scuzz, I know sod about them too. I think they're from LA but I can't quite be sure. Their sound is a fantastic mish mash of rock and dance, think Filter, Pitchshifter or Kill Hannah. Some tracks even remind me of Seabound. Every track here is well crafted and catchy, Die Tonight, Live Forever and Don't Stop are the singles and they are superb tracks but other tracks like This Empty Love and Structure have synths in droves and sound lush and full of atmosphere. A great album.
13. Slipknot - All Hope Is Gone
I quite enjoyed Slipknots first album, I kinda liked one or two of the tracks from their second. The fact that Iowa was one of the biggest selling extreme metal albums ever is testament to their popularity. Vol 3 I didn't even listen to. Wasn't that bothered. So here we are album no four for the masked maniacs. And it is fucking superb. Leave all your preconceptions at the door for this album, that’s not to say they've gone all prog because they ain't but the riffs are sharper, the melody higher, the malice less obvious. But every track is a lesson in perfect surgical metal song writing. Opening track Gematria is hate filled yes but gone has the childish slogans like "People=Shit". The first true sign of genius is the lead single Psychosocial with its killer riff and sing along chorus. Dead Memories, Gehenna, This Cold Black and the title track are all simply excellent metal tunes. However there is one track that will knock everyone sideways. Snuff. A ballad if you wanna call it that. But it's dark, very dark and will make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. This album has surprised me it really has. I'm still not sure why there are nine of them, what do some of them do?
14. Dragonforce - Ultra Beatdown
Yeah these guys are utterly ridiculous, but there is something about hyper fast power metal that gets me going. I love guitar solos too and these guys go all out to break every rule in the book. Opening with Heroes Of Our Time you really start to find your feet quick if you've heard a Dragonforce album before. However there are two tracks that show some improvement, and they are also the longest. The Last Journey Home and Inside The Winter Storm have a real grasp of the power metal gene this time around; it's not all about speed. The Last Journey Home could almost be a soundtrack to a Final Fantasy game. They ebb and flow perfectly, at over eight minutes each they do give the song room to breath. The cheese factor has been turned up to eleven this time too, namely the song A Flame For Freedom and the beginning of The Warrior Inside. So if you liked Dragonforce before you'll like this, if you didn't avoid. I like it because it's fun.
15. Rise Against - Appeal To Reason
Another fantastic melodic hardcore punk record. If there is a sound emo should be it's this one. Every track is full of vitriolic bile and sung as if it's the last thing he will ever sing. Collapse (Post-Amerika) is about the U.S and its view on global warming. Long Forgotten Sons comes from the same kinda place and Hero Of War is an acoustic lament for soldiers doing a job most don't want to do in the name of freedom. Freedom for who though? I love this band, their passion is unequalled. And the song writing talent is fucking excellent.
16. Late Of The Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
One of the most fucked up albums I’ve listened to in years. Take a pinch of new rave, cross that with David Bowie and The Rocky Horror Picture Show shake it up with a messed up bad acid trip and your somewhere near the mark. Bathroom Gurgle was the first thing I heard by these guys and to begin with I dismissed them completely. It began to make sense once I’d listened to the album. The Bears Are Coming is one of the other stand outs with its weird synths and tubthumping rhythm. Defiantly an oddity. Good though.
17. Memmaker - How To Enlist In A Robot Uprising
From the slightly torn mind behind Izoloscope comes an album that fuses EBM, Techno, Trance, Industrial and Noise into one of the best examples of alternative electronic music I’ve heard in ages. Frantic beats, clever samples, stunning noisy rhythms and atmospheric backdrops make up an album of huge proportions. The first proper track Ascent kicks like a mule on speed, Sneaking Through The Totalitarian Filter slows things down a bit but is dripping with atmospheric bile. Robot Buzz uses Love Buzz as a base; Energon keeps the beat at a heart attack inducing pace, the beginning of The Cydonia Complex reminds me of Izoloscope with its rhythmic noise soundscape but quickly builds into one of the best tracks on the album. This record was built with a single purpose. To kill us all on the dance floor. That it works on every other level as well makes it one of the best alternative electronic albums I’ve heard in ages.
18. Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God
Epic melodic Nordic death metal. Taking their heritage of the Viking legends, namely Thor and giving them the full on death metal vocals and raging guitar riffs, this sounds huge. But you can also hear the legacy of metal flowing in their blood. Echoes of Iron Maiden, Manowar, Slayer, Metallica, Morbid Angel and Black Sabbath all have references here. True balls to the wall heavy metal. Every track sounds battle worn and ready for war, a cold steel grey look in their collective eyes. The album as a whole kicks arse but with the title track and Guardians Of Asgaard, Tattered Banners And Bloody Flags and the awesome Live For The Kill (feat Apocalyptica) as standouts your neck is truly sore by the end. This is epic metal of the best kind. Amazing.
19. Bloc Party - Intimacy
I really loved Bloc Party’s first album, the whole punkish indie was a shot to the heart it really was. But even on that first album they displayed a huge scope of vision. This was built upon on their second album A Weekend In The City. That album I didn't like so much, too many ideas forced through a small hole. The same amount of ideas are here they've just made the hole a whole lot bigger. The energising punkish indie is still here but it's smattered with odd beats, electronics, keys, strings and amazing lyrics. Every track pushes the sound forward, everything is here because it needs to be rather than because they can. Epic, anthemic, honest and beautiful all words that only just scratch the surface of this stunning album. Talons, Mercury, Ares and the single Flux only just touch upon the fantastic tracks here.
20. Opeth - Watershed
The last Opeth album Ghost Reveries was an astonishing work of scope; from the death metal elements through the trademark folk sounds its combination was perfect. However much I loved it though I always return to the misty swamps of Blackwater Park. It had a rougher edge and something spooky waiting in the mist to tear your heart out. It seems that Watershed is walking the slightly twisted path again. The production on this album is flawless, the vocals sounding better than ever. The death metal elements are fewer than I would have liked but when they come they really do slay. By far the strangest record they've ever done, it's also the one that will take a lot longer to figure all its twisted paths. The Lotus Eater and Burden far outclass just about anyone writing heavy music at the moment. A triumph then. A masterwork of haunting beauty and crushing awe.