yeah. that shit sucked. yo-metal city.EllertMichael wrote:1000% agree.aaron wrote: Artists that should not have released albums in 2015 by artists I used to love/respect:
Vision of Disorder
Favorite Albums Of The Year ? - 2015 edition
Re: Favorite Albums Of The Year ? - 2015 edition
Steam / PSN / Twitter: aaronjohnmiller
-
nullPointer
- 128-bit
- Posts: 799
- Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2013 1:51 pm
- Location: Montana, USA
Re: Favorite Albums Of The Year ? - 2015 edition
Here are my top 5 favorite metal releases from the year of our Lord 2015 in no particular order.
High on Fire - Luminiferous
I gushed a bit about this in the Metalheads Assemble thread, both before and after it's release, and I'm still gushing. In short I'm a fanboy, but even shy of the rose tinted glasses of my fandom, it's hard not to recognize this is one great record. Matt Pike has one of the best guitar tones in modern metal, and his voice carries the gravel, grit, and world weariness of a latter day Lemmy while still having a completely unique voice and vision of his own. He's sober now (or at least off the booze, LOL), and the record has a laser sharp focus and intensity as a result. Matt's soul rending howls on The Cave as he recounts his years of drinking and his road to sobriety are proof enough of that. Long story short this is straight ahead Metal as it should be, no wankery, no posturing, no bullshit; just a pummeling locomotive train of awesome.
The Cave
Sulphur Aeon - Gateway To The Antisphere
This one came out of nowhere and blew me away. These German Cthulhu devotees have whipped up a tasty blend of OSDM, tech death, and Lovecraftian mythos with a delicious blackened edge that sounds like nothing else out there at the moment. I've not seen this album on any other year end list, and it absolutely deserves to be. Lovecraft is a fairly standard inspiration for metal themes and lyrics, but these guys in their single minded devotion to the mythos may have just done it better than anyone else previously. There I said it.
Diluvial Ascension: Gateway To The Antisphere
Gloryhammer - Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards
Let's shift gears, and dine on some cheese ... the glorious pelvic thrusting headbanging cheese of power metal. This is unabashedly a bit of a parody record, but it's done with such earnesty, aplomb, and skill that it comes off as more of a good-natured and humorous homage to the genre of metal most likely to be heard at a LARP gathering. Fun fact: one of my six-year-olds absolutely loves this album. You ain't lived until you've sang about, "tears of the unicorn lost in the rain" doing your best Ronnie James Dio impression with a six-year-old.
Rise Of The Chaos Wizards
With the Dead - With the Dead
DOOOOOOOOOOOM! It's an odd phenomenon, but it's rare that a supergroup manages to rise above anything more than an interesting footnote, but With the Dead seems to have struck on a winning formula. For those fans of doom who pine for the early days of Electric Wizard, look no further than this album. It's all here; thick-as-wet-concrete guitar tone, slow grooving leviathan sized riffs, psychedelic freakout lyrical content, barely held together with pure rock-n-roll swagger. This is another one that caught me off guard, as there were a number of great doom releases this year, but surprisingly and out of nowhere this is the one that's stuck with me.
Crown of Burning Stars
Panopticon - Autumn Eternal
For those that have followed Panopticon, the initial rush of, "OMG, a hybrid of black metal and Appalachian folk?!" has dissipated a bit. But what hasn't dissipated is the consistent skill, creativity, and deftness with which this one-man-outfit births new material. To my ear this is the most 'beautiful' release of the 'Appalachian trilogy,' which is high praise considering the consistent pedigree of Panopticon releases. This is what I like to call a "generous record" in that it rewards deep listening, and you seem to pick up on new threads with repeated listens.
Autumn Eternal
Missed it by that much ...
Nechochwen - Heart of Akamon
This is an utterly fascinating record combining traditional Native American instrumentation and lyrical themes with black metal. It's a very introspective, and yes at times beautiful record, with a completely unique sound. Any other year, this would have easily been top five material, but this year there was only one band doing the whole "black metal meets traditional American folk" thing even better than these guys, and that band was Panopticon.
Lost On The Trail Of The Setting Sun
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
This one is almost a tie for my favorite doom release of the year, and to be honest I go back and forth. With the Dead is doing straight ahead traditional Doom with a capital "D" (not to be confused with retro-doom, LOL). Windhand, on the other ... uh ... hand is doing some really interesting genre expanding sorts of things on this record. Among other things Dorthia Cottrell brings an incredible feminine sensibility to this record that shines like a well polished funeral urn in a sea of decrepit burials. The soulfullness and world weariness in her wonderful voice brings an almost Leonard Cohen sensibility to this recording. The heartwrenching tale of domestic abuse she recounts in Sparrow brings a bitter tear to this crusty old metal countenance. Oh screw it, this is the doom release of the year. No wait, it's still With the Dead. Oh the hell with it, I'm going to go listen to them back to back. Again.
Sparrow
High on Fire - Luminiferous
I gushed a bit about this in the Metalheads Assemble thread, both before and after it's release, and I'm still gushing. In short I'm a fanboy, but even shy of the rose tinted glasses of my fandom, it's hard not to recognize this is one great record. Matt Pike has one of the best guitar tones in modern metal, and his voice carries the gravel, grit, and world weariness of a latter day Lemmy while still having a completely unique voice and vision of his own. He's sober now (or at least off the booze, LOL), and the record has a laser sharp focus and intensity as a result. Matt's soul rending howls on The Cave as he recounts his years of drinking and his road to sobriety are proof enough of that. Long story short this is straight ahead Metal as it should be, no wankery, no posturing, no bullshit; just a pummeling locomotive train of awesome.
The Cave
Sulphur Aeon - Gateway To The Antisphere
This one came out of nowhere and blew me away. These German Cthulhu devotees have whipped up a tasty blend of OSDM, tech death, and Lovecraftian mythos with a delicious blackened edge that sounds like nothing else out there at the moment. I've not seen this album on any other year end list, and it absolutely deserves to be. Lovecraft is a fairly standard inspiration for metal themes and lyrics, but these guys in their single minded devotion to the mythos may have just done it better than anyone else previously. There I said it.
Diluvial Ascension: Gateway To The Antisphere
Gloryhammer - Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards
Let's shift gears, and dine on some cheese ... the glorious pelvic thrusting headbanging cheese of power metal. This is unabashedly a bit of a parody record, but it's done with such earnesty, aplomb, and skill that it comes off as more of a good-natured and humorous homage to the genre of metal most likely to be heard at a LARP gathering. Fun fact: one of my six-year-olds absolutely loves this album. You ain't lived until you've sang about, "tears of the unicorn lost in the rain" doing your best Ronnie James Dio impression with a six-year-old.
Rise Of The Chaos Wizards
With the Dead - With the Dead
DOOOOOOOOOOOM! It's an odd phenomenon, but it's rare that a supergroup manages to rise above anything more than an interesting footnote, but With the Dead seems to have struck on a winning formula. For those fans of doom who pine for the early days of Electric Wizard, look no further than this album. It's all here; thick-as-wet-concrete guitar tone, slow grooving leviathan sized riffs, psychedelic freakout lyrical content, barely held together with pure rock-n-roll swagger. This is another one that caught me off guard, as there were a number of great doom releases this year, but surprisingly and out of nowhere this is the one that's stuck with me.
Crown of Burning Stars
Panopticon - Autumn Eternal
For those that have followed Panopticon, the initial rush of, "OMG, a hybrid of black metal and Appalachian folk?!" has dissipated a bit. But what hasn't dissipated is the consistent skill, creativity, and deftness with which this one-man-outfit births new material. To my ear this is the most 'beautiful' release of the 'Appalachian trilogy,' which is high praise considering the consistent pedigree of Panopticon releases. This is what I like to call a "generous record" in that it rewards deep listening, and you seem to pick up on new threads with repeated listens.
Autumn Eternal
Missed it by that much ...
Nechochwen - Heart of Akamon
This is an utterly fascinating record combining traditional Native American instrumentation and lyrical themes with black metal. It's a very introspective, and yes at times beautiful record, with a completely unique sound. Any other year, this would have easily been top five material, but this year there was only one band doing the whole "black metal meets traditional American folk" thing even better than these guys, and that band was Panopticon.
Lost On The Trail Of The Setting Sun
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
This one is almost a tie for my favorite doom release of the year, and to be honest I go back and forth. With the Dead is doing straight ahead traditional Doom with a capital "D" (not to be confused with retro-doom, LOL). Windhand, on the other ... uh ... hand is doing some really interesting genre expanding sorts of things on this record. Among other things Dorthia Cottrell brings an incredible feminine sensibility to this record that shines like a well polished funeral urn in a sea of decrepit burials. The soulfullness and world weariness in her wonderful voice brings an almost Leonard Cohen sensibility to this recording. The heartwrenching tale of domestic abuse she recounts in Sparrow brings a bitter tear to this crusty old metal countenance. Oh screw it, this is the doom release of the year. No wait, it's still With the Dead. Oh the hell with it, I'm going to go listen to them back to back. Again.
Sparrow