Lunes 5 Ene 2009, 2:05
The Top 9 Albums of 2008!
1. Trinacria – “Travel Now Journey Infinitely” (Black/Doom Metal, Noise, Avant-Garde)
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This joint work from members of progressive extreme metal band Enslaved and noise duo Fe-mail tops this year-end list. I’m glad their fellow Norwegian musicians Maja Ratkje and Hild Sofie Tafjord were able to allow Enslaved to explore new musical territory without making too drastic a departure from their own project (and vice versa). This is an album that must be listened to very closely. The clusterfuck of sound that occasionally shows up contrasted against some very mellow parts and the amazing attention to detail could definitely turn this album into an overwhelming experience for its listener despite its commonplace runtime, but every bit of it is worth it. It’s the mixture of genres and the genius collaborative effort in songwriting here that make for a tremendously original work that simply cannot be overlooked. I hope this isn’t a one-shot project, because I’d love to see even more in the way of Noise and Ratkje’s vocals on their next output.
Favored Tracks: Turn-Away, Travel Now Journey Infinitely
2. Have a Nice Life – “Deathconsciousness” (Shoegaze, Ambient)
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If you’re not depressed when you start up this album, you will be by the end (at the very least). Even with the unrelenting dreary ambience of the album, HaNL shies not away from catchiness at opportunistic moments. “Deathconsciousness” is a major achievement for these young musicians and was a very strong contender for the number one spot.
Favored Tracks: Bloodhail, Hunter, The Future, I Don't Love
3. Those Poor Bastards – “The Plague” (Gothic Country)
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This thoroughly enjoyable album would be an excellent introduction to country music for any metalhead being their heaviest, darkest output yet with even further exploration of harsh vocal usage and prominently featured twisted, though often tongue-in-cheek, lyrical content. The overall production really owes itself to the music to make it all the more haunting. There’s a deliberate crackle to the sound with every scream and at times, they’ll exercise the use of dual vocal tracks, but use different production styles for each. “The Plague” is certainly the best album thus far from this impressive, unique band’s rapidly growing discography.
Favored Tracks: Black Lightning, A Curse, Dead Winter Moon
4. Dir en Grey – “Uroboros” (Experimental Rock/Metal, Visual Kei)
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Dir en Grey once again proves they’re the only working Visual Kei band worth listening to. Their music’s depth, experimentation, passion, and variation far surpass anyone and everyone else in their chosen scene. This album is a major step up from their somewhat disappointing nu-metal influenced previous release “The Marrow of a Bone”. Kyo’s vocals come off as impressive as always, excelling with every vocal style he employs. He can go from Swarrrm-like grindcore guttural vocals to singing as high as what should only be natural for a teenage girl in the blink of an eye. At times during the album, he is reminiscent of Mike Patton. The main strong point of “Uroboros” is the heavy variance in songwriting which can be accredited to the band’s genius idea to have members work on songs individually only to come together after two months, polish things up, and then make an album out of it. Something like this could have easily turned into disaster, creating a wildly uneven album, but considering the amazing talents of all the members of the band, the ultimate product was brilliant.
Favored Tracks: Vinushka
5. Esoteric – “The Maniacal Vale” (Doom/Death Metal)
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This has got to be the one of the finest pieces of doom metal this reviewer has ever heard. “The Maniacal Vale” is one of those albums that absolutely must be heard when in the right mood, but when you do listen to it at the right time for you, it’s immensely rewarding. The entrancing melody from the opening riff in “Circle” will hook you and after that, the album just refuses to let you go. Even with such massive songs and having a movie-length total runtime, it manages to stay interesting with an atmosphere that is unrelenting. The only problem (well…“problem”) is that it’s such a massive album. Many would be hard-pressed to make the time to listen to the whole thing in one sitting, which is a shame because the listener really owes it to the music to do just that. Despite the power of the music to make sure the listener stays intrigued (let alone, stave off boredom), most simply aren’t going to have the patience to do just that. Then again, with musicians as elitist and disdainful of the general world populous as those in Esoteric, that very well could be their intention – to deliberately keep the brilliance of their music from touching the ears of such poor appreciators of art.
Favored Tracks: Circle, Silence
6. Ihsahn – “angL” (Progressive Extreme Metal)
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The album starts off with a bang – some intense and pissed-off riffing. And then you hear a raspy voice shout “Bring me my wine!” which immediately evokes imagery of a highly demanding, cruel tyrant. Oh yes, Ihsahn is back.
Favored Tracks: Unhealer, Elevator, Monolith
Read the full review HERE.
7. Enslaved – “Vertebrae” (Progressive Extreme Metal)
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While not as rock n’ rollish as “Ruun”, “Vertebrae” still feels like a natural release in the vein of Enslaved’s progression. So as the evolution of their discography would have you think, “Vertebrae” further goes on to converge the roads of extreme metal and space rock. If you’ve been intrigued in the past years by where Enslaved’s music has been headed, you shouldn’t be at all disappointed.
Favored Tracks: Clouds, New Dawn, The Watcher
8. Opeth – “Watershed” (Progressive Death Metal)
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I must say that this is a bizarre, yet admirable step into a new direction for Opeth. It seems the line-up revamp was a good way for them to continue evolving their sound. There are a wide number of genres touched upon and rampant experimentation for the band. Unfortunately, it feels jumbled and less coherent than what I’m used to hearing from them. I definitely understand what Åkerfeldt was saying at the end of the final track of their live album “The Roundhouse Tapes” when he stated “It’s gonna be evil.”
Favored Tracks: The Lotus Eater , Porcelain Heart
Read the full review HERE.
9. Kayo Dot – “Blue Lambency Downward” (Avant-Garde)
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There aren’t exactly songs on this album per se; every track here is, for the most part, freeform. The instruments presented here range from traditional rock, to electronic, to orchestral, and so many others. Because of this, you’ll here tracks that go from sounding like abstract rock and roll to sections that sound like a twisted version of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf”. For a little over forty minutes, the album plods along in a dreamscape; shifting, haunting, beautiful.
Favored Tracks: Blue Lambency Downward, Clelia Walking
Other Things I Heard and Decided to Write a Blurb About:
Ashes Divide – “Keep Telling Myself It's Alright” (Alternative Rock)
Apparently Billy Howerdel was getting antsy about not releasing any music since A Perfect Circle’s third and final (?) album “eMOTIVE” back in 2004 so he came up with this solo project Ashes Divide. The question becomes how he fares without Tool’s frontman by his side. Well, basically “Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright” sounds pretty much like a sub par APC album (that is, it would if there were any). The guitars and song structures all have a tendency to replicate the sounds of Howerdel’s musical past and he does his best to fill in the giant shoes of Maynard James Keenan and falters every once in a while, but overall, he does a decent job. Sometimes his vocals start taking on an almost emo quality which is a little difficult to stomach, the lyrics get a bit painful to listen to (see “Defamed”), and the sound just gets a little too pop-like. One doesn’t quite get the emotional tug that Howerdel’s previous efforts have offered, but anyone who was craving more of A Perfect Circle like me should be pleased enough.
Favored Tracks: Stripped Away, Sword
Avantasia – “The Scarecrow” (Power Metal)
Let it be known that I’m a big fan of the “Metal Opera” saga. But “The Scarecrow” didn’t at all live up to the standards set by Avantasia’s first two albums. There are some strong tracks here (“Twisted Mind”, “Toy Master”), but the album is ultimately marred by several mediocre tracks (that just scream 80’s hair metal) and a few pop ballads that are well-suited for American radio stations – yeah, they’re that bad.
Iced Earth – “The Crucible of Man: Something Wicked Part 2” (Power Metal)
No surprises here. Compositions, instrumentation, etc. are all good and suitably epic but there’s nothing new. I do wish they had at least kept Tim Owens around long enough to do vocals for the sequel. It is a little awkward listening to the two parts of the series one after the other with the vocalist shift. It makes it sound as if the two albums aren’t actually connected and it doesn’t pack the same punch as the first one. Regardless, it’s a passable follow-up to round out the series.
Loreena McKennitt – “A Midwinter Night’s Dream” (Celtic Folk)
Canadian multi-instrumentalist Loreena McKennitt lends her amazing voice and talents once again to classic Christmas songs and poetry, retracing her steps by including the tracks from the “A Winter Garden: Five Songs for the Season” EP and then expanding on them with new recordings. The new songs are a good, long overdue addendum to that all too short EP from 1995. And if you’re thinking this is just another run-of-the-mill Christmas album, you’d be far off. Know that this is infinitely more impressive and enjoyable than other artists who have a tendency to butcher such songs or just come off as tremendously boring. And with the 1995 recordings and the 2008 recordings right next to each other, this acts a perfect testament to show off that her voice has not deteriorated even one bit in thirteen years.
Meshuggah – “obZen” (Technical Metal)
I knew I was going to be unhappy with this release when I read that the band was going to be looking back to their old material to determine how they would go about writing the songs on “obZen”. The “I” EP and “Catch 33” were masterpieces! Why should they ever look back? Meshuggah needed to continue looking forward. “obZen” is not a bad album; the problem is that it lacks any surprises.
Moonsorrow – “Tulimyrsky” (Viking/Folk Metal)
I could have never expected an EP of a band to which I never paid any real attention to be so amazing. I don’t know what exactly possessed me to pick this one up, but I’m all too happy I did. The first track, which comes close to half and hour is tremendously enthralling and intricate. The cover of Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” ranks up there with one of the best covers I’ve ever heard. They completely reworked the song to sound like true Viking metal and made it infinitely more epic than the original. The next two songs are rerecorded songs from their early releases that are also quite good. And the final track is another cover, but this time of a Merciless song, which also improves on the original.
Favored Track: “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
Star of Ash – “The Thread” (Ambient, Electronic, Avant-Garde)
Her debut “iter.viator” pretty much sounded like Peccatum sans the metal. This was by no means bad, but Mrs. Tveitan needed to separate herself from her collaborative project with her husband. With “The Thread” she did just that. She keeps nearly the same level of talent without resorting to incorporating sections that sound straight out of a Peccatum song. Her voice is as ethereal as ever and like before, she has some guest vocals done by Ulver frontman Garm, not once, but twice this time around. There isn’t anything as memorable as “The Nudity of Light” or as engrossing as “In the Throws of Guilt” from her debut, but hopefully her next album will make up for these errors.
Albums I Planned to Review but Didn’t/Couldn't:
Agalloch – “The White”
Bohren & der Club of Gore – “dolores”
Boris – “Smile”
Cradle of Filth – “Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder”
Darkspace – “Dark Space III”
Kawir – “Ophiolatreia”
Mogwai – “The Hawk is Howling”
OhGr – “Devils in my Details”
Those Poor Bastards – “Satan is Watching”
Týr – “Land”
High Hopes for 2009:
Atheist – ???
Bethlehem – ???
Forgotten Tomb – “Under Saturn Retrograde”
Orphaned Land – “The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR”
Pestilence – “Resurrection Macabre”
The Protomen – “Act II”
Shining – “VI: Klagopsalmer”
Sigh – “Scenes from Hell / Tempore Belli / Vanitas”
…looks like a good year for suicidal black metal and death/jazz.