My Year in Metal, 2010 – Favorite Albums



These are the albums I listened to and enjoyed the most in 2010. Note that the top 10 was previously published here at Metal Injection in December.


25. Sabre - Sabre (Pact Ink Records)
Sabre's self-titled debut is a solid slab of sludge and a shit-ton of fun. Riffs and rhythm throb with life and energy. Crackling guitars often speak in deathlier tones while the energetic drumming pounds the pavement. This lumbering, pulverizing beast of an LP provides an energizing experience while splashing you repeatedly with waves of muddy goodness.


24. Deafest - Earth Turned Skyward (Ninth Meridian Records)
Deafest return with another amazing exhibition of melodic, instrumental black metal. Earth Turned Skyward harnesses the raw, natural beauty of the Rocky Mountains and focuses it into enthralling, weather-beaten compositions. These tunes crawl into my soul and whisper visions of majestic primeval forests, even as mankind chops them to the ground.


23. Landmine Marathon - Sovereign Descent (Prosthetic)
Landmine Marathon have captured the sound of radiating, scorching heat. Sovereign Descent siphons off my anger and feeds it to a raging inferno. The album's martial grooves and excoriating mid-paced massacre actually grew on me as the year progressed. I made liberal use of the album's scalding immediacy to cauterize life's wounds.


22. Flaming Tusk - Old, Blackened Century (High Water Media)
A curiously cacophonous and utterly unique concoction of lumbering sludge and memorable doomy dementia. Dueling guitars dish out splines of splendid riffage in concert with eruptions of vocal fulmination. Spiced with excellent songwriting and singed with a bit of blackness, the album finishes with a bright, nutty aroma.


21. Vit - - (Self-Released)
This stunning album chronicles the cryptic rituals of a Cthulhuesque cult, refracted through a lens of doom, death, sludge and bottomless blackness. Vit have the uncanny ability to mutate melody and dissonance into unfathomable shapes, creating an engaging and ominous atmosphere. Voracious vocals narrate these occult proceedings while colossal riffs rip you limb from limb; you wouldn't want to get caught in the elder God's throat as he digests your soul.


20. Defeatist - Sixth Extinction (Willowtip)
Driven by a peerless rhythmic assault, Sixth Extinction has been a go-to album this year when my soul is in need of aural violence. Defeatist purvey percussion so stunningly complex that headbanging is not an option; I just have to throw my whole body into it. I didn't expect the album to outclass so much of the year's grindcore, but that's precisely what happened. Defeatist set the bar too high for me.


19. Mutant Supremacy - Infinite Suffering (Self-Released)
Mutant Supremacy remind us of the heights death metal can reach when brutality is subservient to songwriting and repulsive riffage. This will be the album you hear while crouching in a dingy bomb shelter during a nuclear attack. As searing heat melts away your skin and radioactivity rewrites your genetic profile, Infinite Suffering will linger in your ears and memory. Mutant Supremacy have crafted an inimitable testament to death.


18. Humanity Falls - Ordaining the Apocalypse (Self-Released)
An experiment in unrelenting and manic creativity, Humanity Falls have unleashed a beast of an album. Gouging out the eyes of grind and death, Ordaining the Apocalypse roils with an indefatigable rhythmic rage. Cathartic, charismatic and crushing, this album is exploding with ideas I find endlessly listenable. [Out now on The Path Less Traveled Records]


17. Hooded Menace - Never Cross The Dead (Profound Lore)
Erupting from the gurgling depths of doomy death, Never Cross The Dead hooks you with tremendous riffs and mind imploding melodies. Hooded Menace convey their vision via lumbering doom and galloping grooves, maintaining a morbid focus throughout. I continually return to these morose tales when in need of funereal entertainment.


16. Decrepit Birth - Polarity (Nuclear Blast)
Polarity was my only real excursion into proper tech-death for 2010. Bill Robinson narrates a mind-expanding journey through the multiverse, with lyrics worthy of a psychedelic Michael Moorcock yarn. Decrepit Birth successfully put songwriting before technicality on this album, creating a cohesive and memorable near-Death experience. There are, of course, an absurd array of amazing riffs, all tinged with astral melodies that constantly evoke Chuck Schuldiner's legacy. Thoroughly enjoyable.


15. StarGazer - A Great Work of Ages/ A Work of Great Ages (Profound Lore)
It took me ages to comprehend this arcane conundrum of death metal majesty, but it was worth the effort. Full of cerebral riffs and esoteric compositions, the album's momentum tilts constantly. Leaning on the thrashier side of death and often flirting with ethereal melody, there's no shortage of ideas to be found. An absolutely absurd bass performance pushes this into the stratosphere.


14. The Secret - Solve Et Coagula (Southern Lord)
The Secret make an immediate and oppressive impression with this grinding slab of blackened hardcore madness. Sporting some of my favorite production and guitar tones of the year, Solve Et Coagula unleashes an absolute shitstorm of righteous riffs and rage. In a bleak and blackened landscape there's nowhere to hide from the album's bludgeoning barrage. Certainly one of the heaviest LPs of 2010.


13. Woe - Quietly, Undramatically (Candlelight)
Quietly, Undramatically is a stunningly organic explosion of misery and misanthropy. The album unleashes a rolling wave of black metal might, driven by a gorgeous rhythmic fusillade . Austere but bombastic, it's given to resounding dynamics. Overwhelming emotions are held in abeyance by metal and malice, contained by unadulterated, rancorous riffage.


12.Inquisition - Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm (Hells Headbangers)
These icy seas of black metal goodness heave with treble-heavy chords, ringing out in absurd, apoplectic and thrashy cacophony. Dagon surpasses Abbath's froggery and his riffs whip all of Immortal's output in this century. The soundtrack to a northern passage in the service of Satan, the album is filled with peculiar bendy notes and irresistible, exuberant melody. Solos sing out with sweet reverb while a pounding martial bombardment propels you into the night. Almost too good to be true.


11. Triptykon - Eparistera Daimones (Century Media)
It took me a good long while to connect with Eparistera Daimones and to comprehend it as an album. Since that epiphany it has wormed into my consciousness, dripping nightmarish visions and monstrous ripping riffage into my soul. Thomas Gabriel Fischer lays bare visceral emotions through these songs, and the album unapologetically mainlines them into your body. Let it consume you.


10. Deathspell Omega - Paracletus (Seasons of Mist)
Although I find Deathspell Omega's music to be fascinating and cerebral, the question for me has always been how much I actually enjoy it. Paracletus affirmatively answers that question for my ears, combining absurd riffs, astral arpeggiations and corkscrew rhythms to create an aesthetically entertaining experience. This is an album to sit and marvel at while your mind tries to untangle its intricacies. Deathspell Omega have risen above their own obfuscation to craft an album of memorable songs.


9. Black Anvil - Triumvirate (Relapse)
Triumvirate is a treatise on movement, with riffs and rhythm that provide propulsion to your ears and body. The album blasts across the soundscape with an ominous and satisfying resonance. Black Anvil give black metal some muscle and show no mercy in beating the genre into submission. The band made good on the promise of their debut album, conjoining songwriting skill with groove, power and wanton speed. I'm still enjoying the hell out of Triumvirate.


8. Slough Feg - The Animal Spirits (Profound Lore)
Mike Scalzi will consume you with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his arse. The man understands that songwriting and riffs form the heart of the metal beast, and The Animal Spirits delivers both in style. As always, Slough Feg craft traditional metal that bangs your head and begs you to sing along. I very nearly killed myself several times while blasting this album in the shower. For an extra challenge, give it a spin in your car; I promise you'll drive better while headbanging and throwing a claw out the window.


7. Weapon - From the Devil's Tomb (The Ajna Offensive)
This dark horse of an album blasted out of nowhere at the end of the year to win over my blackened heart. From The Devil's Tomb is a vile hymn in worship of the mighty riff. Evoking thoughts of Possessed, Kreator, Morbid Angel and especially Dissection, Weapon have crafted an incredible metal monument. Solos are deployed in liberal homage to the Dark Lord, reminding us of bygone glory. Vicious, varied and voracious, From The Devil's Tomb is an album you won't want to miss.


6. Agalloch - Marrow of the Spirit (Profound Lore)
Marrow of the Spirit is an album whose dulcet charms I cognitively resisted, but whose masterful execution I could not deny. Filled with alluring melodies, saporous structures and shattering crescendos, Marrow of the Spirit will needle into your consciousness and ultimately expand it. Vast dimensional spaces are bridged by proggy passages whose effulgence I can't resist. Despite my doubts, the album leaves no saccharine aftertaste. I suspect that Marrow of the Spirit will resound in my ears for years to come.


5. Ludicra - The Tenant (Profound Lore)
Astonishingly unique and neck-snappingly catchy, The Tenant drops a megaton of riffage on the constraints of black metal and shatters them convincingly. Vocals are drenched in eviscerating anguish, driving these diverse tracks into transcendent realms. The Tenant romps, thrashes and rages, all the while focusing on righteous riffs and solid songwriting.


4. Immolation - Majesty and Decay (Nuclear Blast)
Immolation simply outclass a great portion of the death metal world in my ears. Majesty and Decay roils and rolls like a frigate's deck in a pitched sea battle. Riffs and rhythm unleash rippling broadsides against hapless enemies, no match for the speed and precision of this seasoned crew. The superlative drumming drives this ship though the water like a gale force wind, leaving only carnage in its wake. Majesty and Decay is a re-affirmation of Immolation's enduring legacy. Along the way it managed to renew my faith in the power of death metal.


3. Withered - Dualitas (Prosthetic)
Dualitas is a ridiculous sonic experience. The album is full of battering beats and amphoric tones that resonate in my ears and in my memory. Strange bits of the album's sludgy blackness constantly appear in my consciousness, as if the album's begging to be blasted. There's a deep melancholy seared into these doomed melodies, and the careful composition and songwriting bear that out. Dualitas will leave you shattered but enlightened.


2. Castevet - Mounds of Ash (Profound Lore)
This album is a riffing and rhythmic wonder, imbued with an oscillating martial gait. The soundtrack to my year's caffeination, Mounds of Ash caused countless beats to be hammered out on any available surface. The album is somber but driving, bleak but brilliant. Dissonant melodies swirl in mutant meter, and their appeal didn't attenuate one bit with time. Castevet have laid down a formula for greatness, and I hope they make good on its promise.


1. Darkthrone - Circle the Wagons (Peaceville)
Cause of innumerable absurd sing-alongs, Circle the Wagons is without a doubt the album I listened to and enjoyed the most this year. Playing on the prototypes of all we hold dear in metal, Darkthrone remind us that this shit is supposed to be fun. Fenriz and Ted accompanied me on many a task that required fortitude, perseverance and strength. We mowed the lawn together, battled midtown tourists together, washed dishes together, lifted weights together and even cleaned the toilet together. Let me ask you one thing, “Does it smell like a bowl of fruit?”

Comments

  1. Nice list of choices, although sadly 2010 was not the year for Grindcore, although I recommend you check out new Suffering Mind and Hayaino Daisuki.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A great list, including albums that I've yet to hear! Nice haul, by the way!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your cat looks exactly like my cat.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Dave - Much appreciated. I doubt the concert t-shirt haul will be quite as good this year, however.

    @Shelby - Given the multiverse-manipulating powers of the Tabby, they very well might be the same cat.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Have you seen the Lemmy documentary? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=t-_Ol3XT6F0

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Labels

3 Inches of Blood1 7 Degrees Records1 A Storm of Light1 Abbath2 Absu1 Abyssal Vacuum1 Acephalix2 aftermath music1 Agalloch1 Agrath1 Altar of Plagues4 ambient1 Amon Amarth4 Amorphis1 Anarkhon1 Ancient Wound1 Ancst1 Anhedonist1 Animals as Leaders1 Aosoth2 Apostasy Records1 Arsis1 Assück2 astrogrind1 At The Gates1 Atakke2 Ataraxy1 Augury1 Aural Music1 Australia1 Autopsy2 Avantgarde Music1 Backslider1 Bandcamp4 Bandit1 Baroness5 Barren Earth1 Basilysk1 Batillus2 Be'lakor2 Beansidhe2 Beaten To Death3 Belgium1 Berlin1 Bindrune Recordings3 Black Anvil10 Black Cobra1 Black Metal73 Blender Theater3 Blood Harvest4 Blood Incantation1 Blood Music1 Bloody Panda1 Blue Bedroom Records1 Blue Record1 Blut aus Nord2 Bolt Thrower2 Bosse-de-Nage1 Botanist1 Bowery Ballroom1 Buckshot Facelift1 Burning World1 Burst4 Cake Shop2 Canada1 Candlelight1 Cannibal Corpse2 Captain Cleanoff1 Carcariass1 Carcass4 Castevet8 cats1 Century Media1 Chepang1 Chronicles of Chaos1 Chuck Schuldiner1 Cicada the Burrower1 claustrum1 Cloud Rat2 Cobalt2 Code6661 Coffinworm1 Concussion1 Coney Island High2 Converge1 Convulse1 Convulsing1 Creator-Destructor Records1 Crom Dubh1 Crucifist1 crust4 Cryptic Shift1 Curandera2 Cynd1 Cynic1 d-beat1 Dååth1 Dark Descent Records6 Dark Tranquillity1 Darkane1 Darkthrone2 Deafest5 Death2 Death Angel1 death metal79 Death Toll 80K1 Deathspell Omega1 Debemur Morti2 Decibel2 Decrepit Birth2 Defeated Sanity1 Defeatist8 Demilich1 Denmark2 Dephosphorus2 Desecresy1 Disappearer1 Discordance Axis1 diSEMBOWELMENT1 Disma3 Disrotted1 Dissection2 Don't Give a Fuck1 doom33 Down2 Dream Theater2 drone1 Drown1 Drugs of Faith1 Dry Cough1 Dunkelheit Produktionen1 Duplicate Records1 Dying Fetus1 Dystrophy1 Earache4 Eight Bells1 Eluveitie1 Emperor1 Enslaved3 Entombed2 Epoch2 Europa3 Exhumed2 Explosions In The Sky1 Falls of Rauros1 Fen4 FLAC1 Flaming Tusk4 Flourishing6 flowing downwards1 folk1 folk metal2 France1 From Exile1 Fuck the Facts5 funeral doom6 Funeral Moth2 Fuoco Fatuo1 Gattaca1 Gaza1 Germany1 GetOverHere1 Gigan1 Gilead Media4 God Dethroned2 Gojira5 Google Music1 Google music beta1 Gorephilia1 Gorguts3 Gorod2 Gramercy Theater2 Grand Ballroom1 Grave Miasma1 Graveyard Hill Records1 Grind and Punishment1 grindcore35 Grindcore Karaoke1 Guns N' Roses1 Gustavo Santaolalla1 Gwynbleidd1 Gygax1 Haftvad Records1 Halo of Flies1 Handshake Inc.1 hardcore11 Heaving Earth2 heavy metal2 Heavydeath1 Hells Headbangers2 Hellthrasher Productions2 High Command1 High Water Media1 Highline Ballroom1 Hivelords1 Holy Grail1 Hooded Menace2 Horrendous3 Horror Pain Gore Death Productions2 Howls of Ebb2 Hreilia1 Human Remains1 Humanity Falls2 Hybreed Chaos1 I1 I Abhor1 I Voidhanger Records2 Ill Omen1 Imbroglio2 Immolation8 Immortal4 Impiety1 In Flames2 Incantation4 industrial2 Inexorum1 Infernal Stronghold1 Infestus1 Ingrowing1 Inquisition2 Interviews1 Intronaut2 Inverloch1 Invertia1 Invictus Productions2 Ipsissimus2 Irkallian Oracle1 Iron Bonehead1 Iron Bonehead Productions1 Iron Maiden4 Irving Plaza4 Isis1 Katatonia3 Khthoniik Cerviiks3 King Giant1 Krallice10 Kreator4 Krypts4 Kylesa4 Lamb of God2 Landmine Marathon4 Last Rites1 Laster1 Latitudes1 Lavadome productions2 Lay Down Rotten2 Legion1 Lifeforce Records1 Listenable Records1 Lit Lounge1 Ludicra4 Lychgate2 Madison1 Madison Square Garden1 Magrudergrind2 Man's Gin1 Manipulator1 Marduk1 Mare Cognitum1 Martikor1 Marty Friedman1 Martyrdöd1 Maruta1 Maryland Deathfest2 Mas-Kina Recordings2 Masonic Temple1 Mass Grave1 Massachusetts1 Mastodon6 Megadeth1 melodic death metal5 Melvins2 Metal Bandcamp7 Metallica1 Mikael Åkerfeldt1 Milwaukee Metalfest1 Mind Mold1 Mirovia1 Misery's Omen1 Mithras2 Mitochondrion1 Moksha1 Mollusk1 Mono2 Moonsorrow1 Morbid Angel1 Morbus Chron1 Mortal Incarnation1 Mortician1 Mortiferum1 Motörhead1 Mournful Congregation1 Music Hall of Williamsburgh1 Mutant Supremacy5 Mutiny Within1 My Dying Bride4 Nachtreich2 Naisian1 Napalm Death5 Nasum1 Necrophobic1 Necrosemen1 Necrot2 Necrowretch1 neo-classical1 Nephelium1 Nerve Altar2 Neuraxis3 Neurisis1 New Zealand1 Nile2 Nirvana1 No Fashion Records1 noise3 Nokia Theater1 Nordvis2 Nuclear Blast3 Nuclear War Now!1 Nucleus2 NWOBHM2 obituary1 Obscura4 Obsequiae2 Ogg Vorbis1 Olympia1 Opeth5 Order of Orias1 Osmose Productions1 Owen Hart1 P.L.F.1 Pact Ink Records2 Pagan Records1 Pallbearer1 Pantera1 Paroxsihzem2 Peaceville4 Pelican6 Phantom Glue1 Pharmacist1 Phil Anselmo1 Pinnacle of Bedlam1 pirate metal1 Plebeian Grandstand2 Poland1 Polluted Inheritance1 Portal1 post-metal2 post-rock2 PRC music1 Priapus1 Prisoner of War1 Profound Lore10 prog11 Prosthetic2 Psychic Limb3 Pulverised Records1 punk1 Qrixkuor2 Quorthon1 Radiation Blackbody1 random playlist3 Red Album1 reissue1 Relapse8 Revocation5 Ritual Chamber1 Robert Johnson1 Ruins of Beverast1 Sabre1 Saint Vitus Bar1 Sarcasm1 Sarpanitum1 Satan1 Scion1 Scrotum Jus Records1 Selfmadegod Records1 Sentient Ruin1 Seraphic Entombment1 Sesecresy1 Setentia2 Seventh Rule1 Severnaya1 Shadow Kingdom Records1 Shea Stadium1 Siberian Hell Sounds1 Skeletonwitch6 Slough Feg1 Sludge21 Slugdge1 Social Distortion1 Soilwork3 Solar Asceticists Productions1 Soulseller Records1 Southern Lord3 Spectral Lore3 speed metal1 StarGazer1 Stockholm1 Streetwalker1 Suffering Hour1 Suffocation5 Sulaco1 Summer Slaughter1 surf1 Swallow the Sun2 Swashbuckle3 Sweden1 Swedish Death Metal1 Swimming1 Swords of Chaos1 Sydney1 Symphony X1 Taake1 technical death metal7 Temple of Abandonment1 Temple of Void1 Thantifaxath1 The Absence1 The Acheron3 The Ajna Offensive1 The Binary Code1 The Bowery Electric2 The Chance4 The Charleston2 The Communion1 The Faceless4 The Fucking Champs2 The Knitting Factory3 The Ominous Circle1 The Path Less Traveled Records7 The Rolling Stones1 The Ruins of Beverast1 The Secret2 The Studio at Webster Hall5 Thou1 thrash13 Thrawsunblat1 Throatruiner Records1 Throne Records1 Tiger Flowers3 Toad's Place1 Tombs6 Triptykon1 Union Pool2 Unmen1 Unrest Records1 Unspeakable Axe Records1 Urfaust1 Vancouver1 Velnias1 Vendetta Records1 Vex1 Via Nocturna1 Vic records1 viking2 Vile Creature1 Vit1 Vitriol Records1 Vore1 W.T.C Productions1 Wadge1 Wake2 Warbringer2 Washington1 Weakling3 Weapon1 Weedeater1 What We All Come To Need1 Willowtip4 Wisconsin1 Withered5 WITTR1 Woe3 Wolves In The Throne Room5 Woods of Ypres4 Wormrot9 Writhing Mass1 Xaddax1 Xantam1 Xenoblight1 Xibalba1 Year of the Knife1 year-end list9 year-end-list1 Yellow Eyes1 YHDARL1 Yith1 Zhrine1 Zosimus1
Show more