My Year in Metal, 2010 - Favorite EPs and Splits

6. Grave Miasma - Realm of Evoked Doom (Nuclear Winter Records)
This year produced a veritable plague of black/death/doom hybrids. Grave Miasma survive this pestilence via volcanic riffs and a clear conviction that rhythm should not be subservient to atmosphere. Realm of Evoked Doom is a leviathan of unhallowed guitars, propelled by an incendiary drumming. I'll be shocked if Grave Miasma don't use this EP as a stepping stone to greatness.

5. Autopsy – The Tomb Within (Peaceville)
Autopsy return with a glorious goblet of flippy floppy gore. Not a part of my formative death metal years, Autopsy was a taste acquired much later in life. Despite my tardy start, Severed Survival and Mental Funeral have achieved a lofty perch in the ye olde album collection. The Tomb Within strikes my ears with all of the shambling, mangled glory of those classic albums. Autopsy remind us that when death approaches it will not be a precise and clean affair; your end will be a messy spasm of blunt force trauma. Death metal should resemble that final, explosive moment.

4. Fuck the Facts – Unnamed (Self Released)
A perfect encapsulation of the band's brand of melodic mutant grind mayhem in ten and a half minutes. Unnamed showcases the impossible ability to blend riffs, rhythmic diversity, melody and manic memorability into a cohesive package. 2010 was the year Fuck the Facts finally clicked for me. I'm waiting impatiently for the impending Die Miserable, as well as the band's tenth anniversary tour.

3. Wormrot/I Abhor - Split (Scrotum Jus Records)
Wormrot served up my favorite grind album in 2009, and they return to dish out my favorite grind morsel of 2010. I Abhor join the frenzy and admirably lay waste to our ears on their half of this split. Wormrot certify that their astronomical rise is no fluke, spewing an absurdly venomous set of near perfect tracks. Long live the riff, long live Wormrot. The imminent Dirge will most certainly dominate 2011.

2. Altar of Plagues - Tides (Burning World)
Altar of Plagues present a soaring, sonorous and somber evolution of their sound. Tides sails through and beyond the seas of black metal, drifting into uncharted ambient waters. Entrancing, engaging and transformative, Tides has been in rotation ever since I picked it up at the band's victorious NYC show. Their upcoming LP, Mammal, is certainly amongst my most anticipated albums of 2011.

1. Flourishing – A Momentary Sense of the Immediate World (The Path Less Traveled Records)
Nothing this year blew me clear out of my socks like Flourishing's debut EP. Propelled by shattering rhythms and gusts of discordant grinding death, Flourishing batter you with the force of everything from Immolation to Discordance Axis to Gorguts to Gojira. Experimental but entirely cohesive, the EP is packed with brain tickling riffs and memorable songwriting. I can't wait to hear their upcoming full-length. Don't miss out on this one.