No, We Aren't Making These Bands Up: ILM Metal Poll 2010 Results Thread

62
Kvelertak - Kvelertak (342 Points, 20 Votes)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_A5ss3nyKBNA/TSL3BvQ_jrI/AAAAAAAAC3g/LY7gCoK87sQ/s1600/Kvelertak+-+vinyl.jpg

http://open.spotify.com/album/08d7MnYYp9OEsQ8GcnMHOn

http://www.last.fm/music/Kvelertak

Kvelertak shamelessly draw inspiration from every corner of something that could fit into their idea of good hard-hitting and catchy rock’n’roll. Regardless of genre, but always truthful to the basic idea of the band; good songs performed with the tongue-in-cheek attitude of their punk-rock pioneers. Unlike the majority of heavier bands they sing in their native language – adding even more character to their already unique sound.

Releasing their much anticipated debut album, Kvelertak are already well known in Norway for their furious live energy and catchy, melodic, metal-inspired punk rock. Outside Norway they are fairly unknown, as of yet.

Late 2009 Kvelertak inked a deal with Indie Recordings and the search for a producer started. On top of the list was the name of Kurt Ballou of Converge, and it is no surprise the band went ballistic when he agreed to produce the album in his God City studio in Salem, MA.

The story actually repeated itself when it came to finding the right artwork. All time favorite of the band, John Baizley of Baroness, heard a demo while on tour and felt he absolutely had to do the art, which Kvelertak absolutely agreed on.

http://www.myspace.com/kvelertak

There's another I love - "Mjød" was nearly my song of the year.

"Mjød" was one of my most-played tracks last year. I looked everywhere in London for a copy of that damn Kvelertak CD, but it was sold out wherever I looked.

I hear they've been holding out for a really lucrative NA record deal, but everyone in NA downloaded it off torrents six months ago.

You should totally hang around for the last one of the night then EZ

I'm here - had to run out this afternoon and pick up my wife at the airport or I would have been more timely with my comments.

http://treblezine.com/reviews/3559-Kvelertak_Kvelertak.html

I didn't know Kvelertak hadn't been released in the states.

61
Quest for Fire - Lights From Paradise (345 Points, 15 Votes)
http://www.mbvmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/q4f.jpg
http://open.spotify.com/album/5qIUG329Jfo9Q6g7SpMysf

http://www.last.fm/music/Quest+for+Fire

http://www.myspace.com/questforfireband

Ah finally two albums I voted for. Think I've said it before on ILM, the problem is that Burzum songs only have two riffs each. Hvis Lyset Tar Oss and Filosofem were great because they only had 6 and 7 riffs, and all of those were glorious. Belus on the other hand manages 3 great riffs (2 in River, 1 in Kelio), 11 good-to-decent ones, no bad ones. It makes for a frustrating album, really.

Kvelertak was a surprise, I normally dislike this punk/BM hybrid stuff (Khold, new Darkthrone, etc). But this is very charismatic and, uh, kicks ass. In an old-fashioned way yet they do have their own style.

Though note to bands: no more John Dyer Baizley artwork please!

Quest For Fire! Love, love, love that record. Crunchy stoner primitivism. And they're something in Canada - Had a #1 in November on CBC Radio 3’s R3-30 charts. I have no idea what that actually signifies. Maybe Adrien can help explain?

Though note to bands: no more John Dyer Baizley artwork please!

I don't know, I love his stuff and am always happy to see it.

I like his art more than his music.

The R3-30 chart is based on listener requests as well as airplay on Radio 3.

I keep forgetting about Quest For Fire...it was the one Tee Pee album I didn't get sent to me for some reason (and I always get their stuff), so it just flew right by me last summer.

xxp Its becoming a cliche... and also its all awesome so it makes me listen to terrible albums on occasion.

Recap
101. Yrsel - Requiem for the Three Kharites (215 Points, 11 Votes)
100. Jucifer - Throned in Blood (216 Points, 10 Votes, 1 #1)
99. Triptykon - Shatter (217 Points, 11 Votes)
98. Westering - Help a Body (218 Points, 9 Votes)
97. The Howling Void - Shadows Over the Cosmos (218 Points, 11 Votes)
96. Blut Aus Nord - What Once Was... Liber I (221 Points, 11 Votes)
95. Year of No Light - Ausserwelt (222 Points, 12 Votes)
94. Cuzo - Otros Mundos (223 Points, 10 Votes)
93. Humanfly - Darker Later (225 Points, 12 Votes)
92. Rosetta - A Determinism of Morality (226 Points, 10 Votes)
91. Les Discrets - Septembre et Ses Dernieres Pensees (226 Points, 11 Votes)
90. Angel Eyes - Midwestern (227 Points, 12 Votes)
89. U.S. Christmas - Run Thick in the Night (229 Points, 12 Votes)
88. Black Tusk - Taste the Sin (229 Points, 14 Votes)
87. Howl - Full of Hell (230 Points, 9 Votes)
86. Sigh - Scenes From Hell (231 Points, 13 Votes)
84. Boris - Variations (232 Points, 11 Votes)
84. Menace Ruine - Union of Irreconcilables (232 Points, 11 Votes)
83. Hellbeard - Scarecrow (234 Points, 10 Votes)
82. Horseback - The Invisible Mountain (234 Points, 12 Votes)
81. Twilight - Monument to Time End (236 Points, 11 Votes, 1 #1)
80. The Ocean - Anthropocentric (237 Points, 10 Votes)
79. Lantlôs - .neon (237 Points, 11 Votes)
78. The Ocean - Heliocentric (240 Points, 8 Votes)
77. Le Kraken - Exalt (243 Points, 13 Votes)
76. Ramesses - Take the Curse (252 Points, 11 Votes)
75. Tweak Bird - Tweak Bird (253 Points, 10 Votes)
74. Celeste - Morte(s) Nee(s) (253 Points, 13 Votes)
73. Darkthrone - Circle the Wagons (254 Points, 12 Votes)
72. Fatso Jetson - Archaic Volumes (255 Points, 11 Votes)
71. Cough - Ritual Abuse (256 Points, 13 Votes, 1 #1)
70. Intronaut - Valley of Smoke (266 Points, 12 Votes)
69. Grand Magus - Hammer of the North (270 Points, 13 Votes)
68. Gnaw Their Tongues - L'Arrivée de la Terne Mort Triomphante (276 Points, 12 Votes)
67. Zoroaster - Matador (286 Points, 12 Votes)
66. Thou - Summit (290 Points, 11 Votes)
65. Titan - Sweet Dreams (298 Points, 12 Votes)
64. Burzum - Belus (315 Points, 16 Votes)
63. Across Tundras - Old World Wanderer (328 Points, 14 Votes)
62. Kvelertak - Kvelertak (342 Points, 20 Votes)
61. Quest for Fire - Lights From Paradise (345 Points, 15 Votes)

Everyone enjoying the countdown so far? Hope you all discover something you really like from it.

Thanks for the chart explanation Adrien! Was really surprised to see that little tidbit on their wikipedia page.

3 albums already with #1 votes btw.

Interesting so far AG - I'm going to check out the Menace Ruine and the Tweak Bird; neither had I even heard of but the samples I heard were solid.

I doubt there's anything bad so far tbh

Some really good albums to come tomorrow too

So now is a good chance for everyone to catch up on listening from the 101-61 albums they've not heard yet or just want to hear again.

Thanks for the chart explanation Adrien! Was really surprised to see that little tidbit on their wikipedia page.

Haha, I actually thought it was just listener requests, but checked wiki to confirm. It's a good countdown to listen to on Sirius.

So now is a good chance for everyone to catch up on listening from the 101-61 albums they've not heard yet or just want to hear again.

and if you have spotify, the ones that are up there (and available -- this seems to have become a problem, a bunch of albums used to be up but are no longer "available") are being collected:

http://open.spotify.com/user/cyclades/playlist/0bB5Qbac1UTj1EQPzr2Ord

Some stuff has been removed in the past week? I noticed that 1 track from the Titan album wasn't available, which is pretty damn strange.

a bunch of your spotify links led me to a album playlists that were grey and had a red bar above that said "this album is no longer available"

Give me a link to one that does that so I can check

ok not a bunch, i just went through the list, but there were these three:

92 Rosetta - A Determinism of Morality
82 Horseback - The Invisible Mountain
65 Titan - Sweet Dreams

Only 1 titan song is greyed out
the other albums are fine. Presumably its because they are licensed to the UK but not other countries.
The UK sometimes cant get albums licensed elsewhere.

None of those three albums are available for me on Spotify (UK, subscriber). Pity, as I wanted to hear Titan and Horseback...

I'm in the UK & a subscriber

Today's been great.

Cough was my #1. Being a huge doom metal fan I found this album to be a real triumph of the aesthetic. Slow without being boring, dreary without becoming overbearing, it took all the elements of the genre that I really love and combined them in a tight, very well produced package. A great soundtrack for a rough year.

Starting to check out the rest of these bands, Kvelertak are pretty killer. Thanks to all involved, found myself refreshing this thread all day looking to see the next result.

I am not a subscriber but I am "in the UK" as far as spotify knows...

and its not just some tracks but the whole albums...

I just checked again and it is still working perfectly fine bar that 1 titan track

this is very odd.

Indeed. Maybe Spotify knows I'm insufficiently tru and kult to appreciate these albums.

My finds of the day: The Ocean and Intronaut.

Scrolling through the thread the one thing that's clear is that metal has the best record covers of any genre.

Quest for Fire is my fav cover so far; would hang that on my wall. Tweak Bird cover could be for a chillwave album (note triangle).

My favourite album of those I've been able to hear is Cuzo (speaking as an utter dilettante who only engages with metal via polls).

Yeah, Tweak Bird need to get John Dyer Baizley to do their cover next time around.

That Kvelertak record caught me completely by surprise, and although I was prepared for my initial blown-away feeling to fade, it really never did. It got 2 #3s in this poll, and my #4. Probably the first time I've ever liked the music on a record with Baizley cover art, which I always like, so it's pathetically ironically that I haven't yet seen a physical copy of it person, much less paid for one. I think it's a toss-up for me whether this or Fefe Dobson's Joy is the year's most vividly energetic album. Slightly different versions of "energetic"...

does it have baizley cover art too?

The artwork on Quest For Fire is phenomenal. Has persuaded me to buy album without hearing a note.

It looks very much like the brush work of one of my favourite current painters, Glenn Brown. He's revitalized the whole paint on canvass thing with his approach over here. There was a great feature on him as the Spring cover article (2009) from TateEtc magazine.

http://www.tate.org.uk/images/cms/17559w_glennbrown.theatre_x25770.jpg

My layman's understanding of it is he often "remixes" paintings by using the subject matter and form from one style of painting and mixes it with the highly distinctive brush strokes from another painter entirely. He also uses tiny brushes to create masses of detail.

http://www.tate.org.uk/images/cms/17563w_detailnausea.jpg

He also does "cover versions" of sci fi art. The kind that I'm sure we all remember from pulp novels, annuals, RPG modules etc from when we were young. He got sued for this once.

http://www.tate.org.uk/images/cms/17564w_darkangel.jpg

I couldn't say why but I think he's awesome and more metal bands should use strong contemporary artists. It's funny when you think about it that neither this cover or the Ramesses one or any of the Baizley ones (another trained artist) really scream 'pretentious art metal' they just look pure quality.

Not that I don't sometimes want a werewolf on horseback with a scythe riding into a moonlit castle, but you know what I mean.

(Apologies for the tangent if it's not Glenn Brown.)

yeah that Alex Moulton album from 08 had the best metal sleeve in years despite not being a metal record, ie STEP YR GAME UP METAL

The more I look at that album sleeve, the more I don't think it's Glenn Brown but it certainly owes something to him.

i want all these metal records NOW! it's 3 out of 40 for me so far btw.

You guys made me go dig out the Quest For Fire disc so I could check art credits. It is a painting by Andre Ethier.

You can see more of his stuff here.