It’s been an odd year in music for me, there was a slew of great music at the beginning of the year only to drop off steeply towards summer. It got to the point that in October I was worried I wouldn’t even make a full top 10 at the end of the year. Luckily the last 2 months have been pretty amazing and topped the list up nicely.
I have found myself listening to more music by women this year, I’m not sure it’s a massive change in my tastes or just I’ve found the female artists playing the kind of music I like. Emma Ruth Rundle and A.A. Williams brought a folk influence into my world :O, while bands like Ithaca and Employed to Serve proved that women can be every bit as hardcore as anyone else.
Without further ado were we go. In no order, until they are.
Teeth of the Sea
Wraith
This is a weird one. On my first write up of the year I said that this album was a lock for my end of the year list. By June I hadn’t bothered with it much. I ended up seeing them 3 times in the year and that put the album firmly back on the list, they were stunning, with the live versions of this albums songs becoming proper face melters.
As always with Teeth of the Sea there are some full on tracks this album but there’s a lot of ambient tracks as well, and dear reader, ambient passages are not my thing at all. I started to think that the album was a bit dull.
Well, sometimes I can be a bit slow. Yes, there are slow parts but you need them. You can’t run at full pelt of I’d rather, Jack or Hiraeth, you’d burn the listener out, so instead you have the slow, considered pieces that lead you through the brisk 46 minutes here.
I’ve over described TotS as 65daysofstatic meet Ennio Morricone to score a John Carpenter film, but I doubt I’m going to stop, it gets their sound across well enough to know if you’re interested or not, and you should be.
Gladiators Ready
Alcest
Spiritual Instinct
Pretty. That’s not a work usually used to describe Black metal related music, but Spiritual Instinct, despite having shrieked vocals and blast beats is very easy on the ear.
No big shock for Alcest, who did go Shoegaze on Shelter but they are back to being a metal band, and this album is far more driving and full on than they have been before, with the track Protection being a standout example of the harder style they now use.
The most remarkable thing about this album is the centerpiece track, L’lle des Mort which despite clocking in at over 9 minutes, doesn’t get repetitive and dull, unlike other bands kicking around this year. Twelve years on and Alcest have made their best album yet. This is brilliant stuff.
Protection
Alex Banks
Beneath the Surface
Not all electronic music has to be for the dance floor and not all music not for the floor has to be dull ambient. This is filthy music. Harking back to the turn of the decade this album has a lot of the post dubstep sound going on, lots of breaks and wood blocks but builds on the sound rather than aping it. Banks is a big fan of filthy synth and it’s a wonder to behold. While it’s not an album aimed at the clubs, there’s a few bangers on here, Spiralling could cause a dance floor some early evening damage. Turn it up and annoy the hell out of your neighbours.
In the Silence
Is Bliss
Strange Communication
I normally make a huge fuss about originality in music and I have almost no tolerance for nostalgia but sometimes you have to just shut up and just enjoy the music.
Is Bliss are an out and out shoegaze band. There’s a dash of 60’s psych and a whole boatload of Storm in Heaven era Verve and it sounds magnificent. I don’t have much more to add, it’s a bright and breezy album of loveliness and what more could you want?
Can’t sleep forever
Delta Mainline
Bel Avenir
The Spirit (ualized) of Jason Pierce hangs pretty heavily over the start of this album, it’s impossible to ignore but is no way meant as an insult. The first track builds with some Krautrock until 1 minute 40 when it switches gear and goes full choir and strings. It really is an amazing statement of intent and that’s what you need for an ear catching start to an album.
Visions of Post America is the best example of DM doing what Spiritualized don’t do any more. Opening up with some scuzzy 60’s psych the song locks into the Electric Mainline for the midsection, holding there a while before shooting for the stratosphere as the choir come back and ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space.
In fact the front of the album can overshadow the second half, it took a few listens where I just jumped half way through to get a handle on the no less great back half of the record. It’s just not as full on. But there’s lots on here, we even have a steel guitar led country song with Mountain Music.
So this isn’t the most original sounding album, but they stamp their own personality on it and make it their own. It’s an amazing album that deserves a lot more attention.
Visions of post America
https://deltamainline.bandcamp.com/track/visions-of-post-america
Brutality will Prevail
Misery Sequence
Sometimes I just need music that is just thrown down aggressive. Music for the pit, music for bloody knuckles and clenched teeth. And holy crap do Brutality will Prevail deliver. This is the Welsh band’s fifth album and just showcases what they do best. Shout along lines, huge breakdowns, massive, headbanging riffs. This is the act that got me into Harcore and while it’s not pretty, this huge sludgy heavy sound was something that I really needed in my life.
It’s a short album but that’s a good thing here, get in get out.
It’s not all unrelenting beatdowns though, the second last track Breathless dails the fury down bringing in a female vocalist whose sweet voice offsets the heaviness of the track.
And then smash you with a furious last track to finish the album in style.
Brutal in the best way.
Slither
Cold in Berlin
Rituals of Surrender
How to sum up this album?
There’s a webcomic called My life as a background Slytherin where they make fun of Snape’s wildly melodramatic ways. Here’s a great example.
So what the hell am I talking about? CiB are so fantastically, over dramatically Goth. It’s incredible. I love it. This sounds like if you messed with them you’d get stabbed with an eyeliner, and you’d regret it. Ok, now I’m getting into Uni in jokes. Back to the music.
Ok,CiB play fantastic Goth metal, there’s some Sabbath Doom on the guitars, but this is all about the atmosphere, dry ice and white light but thankfully it has the songs to back it up. I’m not sure fun is a word to use at such a dark album but it absolutely makes me smile and want to throw shapes. You can never fully recover from being a Goth and I don’t think I want to.
Dark Days
Whitechapel
The Valley
My first reaction to The Valley was shock. Even as a long term metal fan the is a filthy, aggressive album. It’s such a dark album with some bile filled lyrics I found it off putting. I was never much of a fan of the macho bullshit side of Metal and this seemed unnecessarily grim.
Turns out context is everything.
This is an album about the vocalists youth, made from passages of his mother journal, a mother who was a schizophrenic and drug addict and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his stepfather.
Suddenly it’s clear that this isn’t just another Edgelord metal album, this real and make the rage and hate wrapped up in here make more sense, makes it easier to connect with. I mean, the second song, Forgiveness Is Weakness opens with lines
“He is finally dead, Come celebrate this day,
It was slow and full of pain. Good riddance”
And from there it gets more fucked up. This is not easy listening.
But I haven’t even talked about the music. As I said at the opening, this is a fantastically ugly album, it’s rage and hate funnelled through a huge assault of riffing and blast beats, but if that’s all there was I wouldn’t be writing this. There is a slower side to The Valley, almost tender. Hickory Creek is soft enough to give off a bit of an Alice in Chains vibe and is the only song with fully clean singing. It’s something I find I need with really heavy albums, I need a counterpoint, a break intense pummeling and this album balances it well.
If you like extreme metal you really should give this a go.
When a demon defiles a witch.
Employed to Serve
Eternal Forward Motion
I’ve heard that your taste in music is meant to mellow over the years. It hasn’t for me though, I find myself leaning into the harder side of metal these days. Maybe it’s a jaded thing but this is where I get my kicks and other types of music just don’t have the same rush.
Saying all that, when this album came out and I think I listened to it once and went “That’s a bit shouty” and didn’t go back to it.
Luckily I managed to see them live over the summer and holy hell did they click. They are a force of nature live, and suddenly the album was getting serious play over the summer. This very nearly was my album of the year, but as the autumn kicked in I found myself listening to it a little less, but that has nothing to do with the quality of the album. This is such an aggressive album, burning fury, machine gun riffs, screams and bellowed rage.
Now, it’s not all 1000 miles an hour, the album does have it’s slower tracks, which stops everything blurring together but it’s only slower in comparison.
If you want some righteous anger, this is your place to find it. This was almost my album of the year but was just held off by the next band.
Force fed
Numenorean
Adore
And here it is, the moment you’ll all been waiting for, my album of the year.
Numenorean are a Blackgaze band for Canada, this is their second album and should rightly be held up as much as Deafheaven as far as I’m concerned.
The thing that struck me most about this album is how much more melodic it is than most Blackgaze, the slower interlude songs are almost goth in places, with tinges of Fields of the Nephilim in places. (I’m probably not selling this to many people 😀 )
It’s incredible to see a band grow so much from their first album, the songwriting shines. The way they mix the clean and melodic with the harsh Black Metal sound is my favourite of any on the Blackgaze bands.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what the rest of their career will being us.
Adore
Bonus reviews!
The Cure
Live in Hyde Park
I find that I only listen to a live album once or twice before I get bored of it and lose interest. To be honest, this one is no different in that respect, what is different is that I was at this gig and it was one of the best I’ve ever been to. I’ve found that the live album can make me reassess gigs I’ve been to negatively (Bowie at Glastonbury being the best example of this) but that’s not happening here. This is the Cure grandstanding just how amazing they are and I’m glad I was up the front for it.
Enrico Sangiuliano
Biomorph
I discovered Enrico’s album Biomorph from 2018. It’s big room techno with some trancy synths that stop the whole thing being really boring. This is just an album of propper bangers. Love it.
EP’s
A.A. Williams
This ep was released in January and I’m still listening to it about once a week. It’s insane that this is A.A’s debut release. This is a perfectly crafted ep, four songs sitting on the edge of Goth tinged indie and shoegazing. The confidence and self assurance she shows is breathtaking and I can’t wait for more material. If you like Chelsea Woolfe or Emma Ruth Rendel you should love this.
Control
Curse these metal hands
Pijn and Conjurer got together to form a supergroup for a one off performance at Arctangent festival. They put those 4 tracks on this EP, and it is brilliant.
The first track is a lot lighter that the rest, big singalong bits and some Brian May guitar parts, it’s a lot of fun.
The next three tracks are more what you would expect from these two bands, head down riffing that’s atmospheric and heavy as hell. Let’s hope there’s another collaboration.
Disappointed.
There were some big disappointments this year, that Tool album was always going to be a bit of a let down after a 13 year wait but fucking hell. Almost every song should have had about 5 minutes edited off them. If you’re going to have songs clocking in over 11 minutes please do something interesting. Maybe I’m just not into “hypnotic repetition” but it gets tedious really quickly. Which is a pity, there is a great album in here.
(Edit) Have just realised that Teeth of the Sea do “hypnotic repetition”, they just do it well so, IDK, just don’t be boring?
65daysofstatic made an album with the aim of taking the feeling of dread in the air and turning it music. What we got was a rather soulless mostly ambient record. I know they’ve been working on algorithmic song construction but for me this has lost anything to emotionally attach to, there’s nothing to get your teeth into, it’s almost completely faceless. But to be honest, that may have been the point.
The Cult of Luna made a great album but made 1 hour 20 minutes of it. I just can’t stay involved in such grinding music for that amount of time and it puts me off ever putting the album on. Which is a shame as it’s good stuff.
The National released an album, it’s a pity it’s 2010 since they released one I’ve enjoyed. I used to love them 
Anyway. To sum up, not a gold standard year but pretty damn great.
4 stars.
The ways of exile 