My Top 10 Essential Metal Albums

While watching Gojira at the Corporation in Sheffield the other day, I was challenged to produce my Top 10 Essential Metal Albums. The albums that I keep going back to, or have some special meaning to me. It's obviously a very personal list and I can guarantee that just about everybody in the world will find fault with it, but that's the point of these things, isn't it?

Dark Tranquillity - We Are The Void Dark Tranquillity's latest album (although it is now five years old), and the one I have played most by a very large margin. I have even played it twice as much as Projector, my previous favourite. Featuring some shudderingly creepy melodeath riffs and covering all the classic Gothenburg bases, you can't go far wrong with this one. It's hard to choose a favourite track of this album, but I guess Shadow In Our Blood or Iridium would take it. Or Her Silent Language, or The Grandest Accusation. One of those, anyway.

Opeth - Ghost Reveries There will always be controversy over choosing a favourite Opeth album, but this is mine, narrowly beating Blackwater Park to the top spot (thanks to my decision to only have one album by any given band in the list). Of all the Opeth albums I have on my iPod (most of them) it's the one I return to time and again for my fix of proggy deathy growliness. The Grand Conjuration is probably the best track, but like We Are The Void there are too many good ones. The cover of Soldier of Fortune is bloody good, too.

Lacuna Coil - Comalies From way back in the days when I was finding my metal feet, as it were, Comalies contains just enough heavy, just enough catchy to get me hooked. This was my gateway drug to a love affair with melodic death metal, of all things. Top track would be Tight Rope, which gives me a little nerdgasm for recognising the game the voiceover samples are taken from.

Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit I heard about Agalloch long before I heard Agalloch, and when I finally did hear them, I wondered why I hadn't looked them up before. Dark and disquieting and epic in equal measure. Favourite track would have to be, um, all the tracks. Seriously, I can't choose between them.

Judas Priest - Painkiller The one and only venture into NWOBHM on this list. As must as Iron Maiden is seen as the pinnacle of British heavy metal, you just can't beat Painkiller for volume or tempo. I did air guitar to the title track a couple of months ago and my left shoulder still hasn't forgiven me. My favourite tracks are Painkiller, obviously, and Night Crawler.

Insomnium - Above The Weeping World Although in recent months it has been pushed aside in favour of One For Sorrow, Above The Weeping World is still Insomnium's magnum opus, and proof that they are still one of the finest melodic death bands in the business. I'm starting to think I shouldn't have tried to include a favourite track. On this one The Gale, Mortal Share, The Killjoy and Devoid of Caring are my choices.

Wolverine - Still One of my favourite albums ever. I first heard Sleepy Town on a friend's shuffle, and wanted to know what the rest sounded like. I was amazed, and have been a fan of the band ever since. Sleepy Town itself is high on the list of favourite songs ever, too.

Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth As grandiose and epic as it is proggy as it is ear pummeling. I originally dismissed Sylosis as being too -core for my tastes based on looks alone. Big. Mistake. This album was one of the surprises of 2011 and still gets regular rotation on my commute. It's hard to pick favourite tracks because the whole album flows so well together, although Empyreal (both parts) deserve special mention.

Eluveitie - Slania Is it folk metal, or is it Gothenburg melodic death with a hurdy gurdy? I don't really know, but it's bloody good. I first heard of (and, indeed, heard) Eluveitie at Bloodstock '08. I rushed to the CD sales tent, only to discover that I had missed the rush and every copy of Slania had been sold in 30 minutes. Inis Mona is the definite highlight of this folk juggernaut.

Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs I originally found out about Ghost Brigade from Last.fm, recommended due to my constant playing of Dark Tranquillity and Insomnium. I'm glad the recommendation engine worked this time! Possibly the most depressing death metal band I've ever heard. Highlights include Into The Black Light and Lost In A Loop.


I was also graciously allowed 5 "honourable mentions" for those albums that I love, but didn't make the top 10. To be honest this was harder to come up with than the first 10. There are so many albums I love  that narrowing it down proved difficult.

One in particular that gets regular plays is Skyforger by Amorphis. A random purchase at HMV led me to discover Amorphis, a sort of hybrid of melodic death and folk that's both heavy as a heavy thing and melodic as an, um, melodic ... thing. Aerolithe by Fall Of The Leafe (which led to the coining of the term "fotling", meaning "listening to Fall Of The Leafe") is another that I throw on a lot when I fancy something a bit more utterly nonsensical.

Perhaps a controversial choice because it is the least metal of anything I've put so far, but How To Measure A Planet by The Gathering is a long standing repeat listen. A fine work among a body of fine works. More recently, and definitely less controversially, is Woods of Ypres's final album Woods 5: Grey Skies And Electric Lights. Sure, it's depressing, but it's frankness and honesty elevates it from pointless morbidity into something far deeper and more philosophical.

And finally I can't forget to mention Monuments by Sheffield's own Northern Oak, the album I've seen played (in parts, at least) more than any other. If I fancy listening to it, I could put on the MP3s, or I could just pop to a local gig to enjoy it with an ale or five. 

And now for something completely different

If you only watch one metal video this year, make sure it's this one by Agonyst. I won't say any more, lest I ruin the ... experience.

Seriously, watch it. I make no apologies for what happens to your mind.

Half Time Review 2012

It's that time again; June, halfway through the year, the summer solstice. Half the year done with already, but what a cracking half a year it's been, musically speaking. Some surprises, few disappointments, many new and exciting things.

Getting straight on with business, here are my top 5 albums of the year to date. These are the albums I've got most excited about, tweeted about, played over and over and over, and generally got "in to". So, in no particular order:

Cormorant - Dwellings

A complicated mix of progressive black metal, a touch of folk and a good dose of hard rock. Starting the year with style, Dwellings was the first album I bought this year, and is still one of my favourites.

Anathema - Weather Systems

Anathema doing what Anathema does best, following nicely on from We're Here Because We're Here but improving in almost every respect. Heavier, noisier, calmer, cooler, and perfectly orchestrated.

Woods Of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies And Electric Light

Doom, gloom and epic riffs. A collection of utterly miserable, yet somehow wonderfully listenable songs. More than a passing nod to the style of Type O Negative, throw in some black metal influence and add an oboe. Perfect.

In Mourning - The Weight Of Oceans

In Mourning create precisely the sort of melodic death metal I like. From the strident, monumental opening track to the more progressive latter half, this is as much a musical journey as it is an fantastic listening experience.

Krokmitën - Alpha/Beta

Why have multiple songs when you can have a single 46 minute death metal opus? When I first heard of the multimedia event that is Alpha/Beta I was fascinated. Then I heard it, and was amazed.

Of course, the problem with choosing the top five in a year like 2012 is that there are loads that don't quite make the cut, while still being great albums. Some honourable mentions include: Bloodshot Dawn, a cracking death/thrash explosion with some amazing artwork, Sanguine, with their self-titled debut hot on the heels of last year's Bloodstock New Blood appearance, Mortad, female fronted politic death metal with some clout, Gwynbleidd, proving that prog metal really can be all heavy, all the time, and Alcest, whose soporific blackened folk still chills me in two senses of the word.

There are a few albums who I would have liked to have heard this year but haven't. Maybe I'll get round to it later? A.A. Lucassen's Lost In The New Real is definitely on my to-get-round-to list, as is the new Before The Dawn, Phoenix Rising, conspicuous for its lack of clean vocals.

So, that's my quicky round-up for the first half of 2012. Marvellous. And now, on to Bloodstock, where much metal, mayhem and mild inebriation await!

Gwynbleidd - Nostalgia

One album I missed from yesterday's roundup of the last month's listening was the new album from Brooklyn prog death outfit Gwynbleidd. Nostalgia was actually released in 2009 but has taken a while to get across the pond and into my ears.

At first I assumed the band were Welsh, given the rather bizarre name, but no. New Yorkers they are. Well, expat Poles living in New York. The name apparently comes from A. Sapkowski's "The Sword of Fate" and is the name given by some elves to some other guy. I haven't read the book so I can't really elaborate meaningfully on it.

The album itself, then, is an interesting beasty. On first listen, your response is likely to be similar to mine; they sound just like Opeth. Except, they don't. There are many similar elements, downtuned riffs, mournful guitar punctuating the complex bass and drum backing. It's more like taking the heaviest bits of Opeth from Orchid to Blackwater Park, grinding them up and using them to inspire and fertilise a bush of progressive death metal. Sinuous vines of lead guitar weaving in and out of the dense branches of bass and growled vocals, the drum providing a solid, unmovable root and the topmost leaves comprised of the delicate percussion that gives texture and depth. Okay, so the bush analogy is a bit weird, but you get the idea.

The album flows from section to section, passage to passage smoothly and logically. The soundscape it creates sounds more like one long composition than separate songs, and this is definitely an album you'll want to listen to in its entirety. I'm not sure why it's taken so long to hear anything from this band, but I'm glad I finally have.

Holy Flurking Schnit - So much new stuff!

Well, I've been on me jollies for a bit and come back to a mountain of things I really should get round to posting about. As much a reminder for me as anything, here is a list of what I've been pushing through my ears lately.

In Mourning - The Weight Of Oceans

I've had this colossus of melodic death metal on almost constant repeat for a fortnight, such is its epic scope, kick-ass riffs and progressive noodliness. From the opening track, aptly titled Colossus, I was hooked. Incorporating long, intricate instrumental passages, crushing death metal choruses and even a hefty dose of djent for good measure, it's as perfect a melodeath song as ever you could wish for. Straight on the best-of-year list, I think.

Krokmitën - BWV565 Redux

Following the 46 minute tech death behemoth that is Alpha-Beta, Krokmitën have put out this rather shorter 10 minute single. A tech death reworking of Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D Minor incorporating everything I loved about Alpha-Beta along with those lovely, intricate classical riffs.

Sigur Rós - Valtari

Indulging my more relaxed, chilled out side, I've been giving the long awaited new album from Iceland's Sigur Rós a few spins. And relaxing it is. Although it is something of a step back, stylistically. Gone are the upbeat, lighthearted ditties of Með suð í eyrum ... and returning are the gritty soundscapes of Takk... And a welcome return it is. Easily comparable to the best the band have done before, and once again tragically uplifting in a way that only Sigur Rós seem able to perfect.

Delain - We Are The Others

The long, long, long delayed album from Dutch heavy rockers Delain has finally been released to coincide with a UK tour. Inspired by the tragic case of Sophie Lancaster, already a galvanising force in Britain, this is an album of songs for those who don't fit in. The sound seems to be leaning even further from what is traditionally considered symphonic metal and toward the more pop-oriented direction of more recent Within Temptation albums, incorporating a shed load of catchy hooks, singalongable choruses and some pretty cool cover art.

The Agonist - Prisoners

If there is one word I would use to describe Prisoners, it would have to be "loud". A relentless wall of sound fusing progressive metalcore (I dunno, I just made that up) with melodeath in a way that makes your ears bleed. Alissa White-Gluz is back on vocals, her growls giving any male singer a run for his money while alternating with ease between gutturals and cleans. It's a bit less complicated than I'd normally like, but it's not bad at all. Which is quite something given my usual tendency to run away on mention of the dreaded C word.

Andraste - The Secret Valley

This one I only listened to this evening, just prior to writing this very post. Purveyors of folk metal from Manchester, Andraste produce blackened folk metal with a somewhat jaunty feel. Definitely one to get your feet tapping, your morris dancing, and your tankard needing a refill!

Bloodstock Announcement ... special or not?

After what feels like years of speculation, the final headliner for this year's Bloodstock Open Air was announced on June 6th at 6pm. There has been poll after poll, discussion after discussion, theory after theory of who it could be, and now we know that it's ... Machine Head.

This news seems to have been met with approximately 50% enthusiasm and 50% wailing and gnashing of teeth. The media outlets (Terrorizer, Metal Hammer, etc) are, of course, far more excited than could possibly be deemed necessary, but the fans seem to be split down the middle on this decision.

So terrible has the wailing and gnashing of teeth been that some fans have vowed to sell their tickets and boycott the event. Some are saying that it's the worst possible band that could ever be signed to the festival, and that this is the final nail in Bloodstock's coffin. Of course, they say that every year ...

I have no particular feeling either way because, perhaps controversially, I have absolutely no idea what Machine Head sound like. Like other big names in the thrash scene (Metallica et al), they have simply never interested me enough to pay attention to them. But according to many sources their live set is pretty amazing so it could be alright. And if not, an early return to the tent for an evening of nonsensically loud conversation, hijinks, crudity and many, many beers.

The thing is, I've always seen the festival headliners as something of a crowd puller. A popular, almost(?) mainstream band that will sell a great many tickets to bring in lots and lots and lots of cash so that lesser known bands can be signed and the festival can revel in its status as the best underground festival in the UK. Look at the Sophie Lancaster stage, with bands like Saturnian, Bloodshot Dawn, Alcest, Pythia, Orange Goblin, Witchsorrow, Anaal Nathrakh, Winterfylleth and Evile. Then there's the New Blood stage with a shed load of bands that I've never heard before, but would quite like to. Something has to provide the cash to host this showcase of the best in new metal.

So Machine Head are headlining Saturday. I hope that a lot of people buy day tickets to come for that so that there will be enough money to continue to provide the best metal festival the UK has to offer. And that the nay sayers will indeed sell their tickets so they don't bring the pox of elitist metal douchebaggery down upon us.