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

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.

60
Karma to Burn - Appalachian Incantation (352 Points, 19 Votes)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2nHlMeGUjcM/S92gJi9zzBI/AAAAAAAAEdA/YpSiJKr5DwU/s1600/AICard1.jpg
http://open.spotify.com/album/657E9621kTdhJRKedKoGVu

http://www.last.fm/music/Karma+to+Burn

Karma to Burn is an American instrumental stoner rock band. The band was formed in 1994, in Hicksville, West Virginia (actually Morgantown, WV, though this was a running joke also reflected in bios of the band on other Web sites).

Their instrumental album Almost Heathen is widely regarded as on par Kyuss’ Welcome To Sky Valley and Monster Magnet’s Spine of God, as one of the defining albums of the stoner rock genre, although the band themselves referred to their style as malternative.

The band was renown for their live performances and former Kyuss singer John Garcia was a big fan and even tried to sing with the band, however this didn’t bear much fruit as he did not have the time to become a full-time member and Karma to Burn itself wasn’t sure his voice fitted in their music.

Karma To Burn refused to give their songs ordinary titles, instead referring to them by numbers, which allegedly made it easier for a dyslexic band member to read setlists.

The group quietly disbanded in 2002 after bassist Rich Mullins left to play full time in Speedealer.

On February 23, 2009, Karma to Burn reformed with the line-up being the same as when they disbanded. A year after reuniting, Karma To Burn released a fourth full length album on April 1, 2010, Appalachian Incantation, which was produced by Scott Reeder formerly of the stoner rock band Kyuss. Like their previous two releases, this is an instrumental album, though one track does feature Year Long Disaster’s Daniel Davies on vocals

Kvelertak album is amazing, manages to cover a lot of bases too: punk, black metal, hardcore, even some classic rock thrown in there too.

I like that Karma to Burn record, good solid stoner grooves, nothing earth-shattering but a really good record IMO.

59
Lesbian - Stratospheria Cubensis (355 Points, 15 Votes)
http://thesodashop.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/lesbian-stratospheria-cubensis-cover.jpg
http://www.last.fm/music/Lesbian

it’s heavy, melodic, dramatic and dynamic. The Seattle-based quartet’s multifaceted debut album Power Hör on Holy Mountain Records heralds the birth of The New Wave of American Psychedelic Metal. Each of the album’s four tracks shifts moods, dynamics and styles. In any given song, Lesbian deftly lunges from black metal-style blast-beat-and-16th-note-guitar-lines into ’70s styled stoner rock riffing and then leaps into lush melodic passages reminiscent of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The band blends the best elements of many styles of metal: doom, thrash, black, progressive and, yes, even good old “heavy” metal.

Lesbian was formed on a whim in April 2004 by members of Pacific Northwest thunder-sludge bands Golgothan Sunrise, Asva and The Abodox for a one-off set at Seattle’s Funhouse. The response was so overwhelming that guitarists Arran McInnis and Daniel La Rochelle, bassist/vocalist Dorando Hodous and drummer Benjamin Kennedy decided to continue on with Lesbian as their primary focus. The band’s riffs are dissected and cut into vivid and imaginative parts that splinter and shift in shades of light and dark without coming across overly-technical and soulless. The cinematic quality of Power Hör envelops a vast array of moods and ideas. It’s entrancing and psychedelic while utterly pummeling at the same time.

In order to capture the dynamic force of its live sound, Lesbian enlisted the much-lauded ear of producer Randall Dunn, to help the band achieve its musical vision. Power Hör was recorded and mixed at both the legendary Avast! and Dunn’s own Aleph Studio. Stephen O’Malley designed the stunning cover art for the band’s debut, befitting its sonic density and complexity. Incorporated into the layout is a striking logo design by John Santos.

Their second opus entitled “Stratospheria Cubensis” was released in October the 26th of 2010 via Important Records.
Stratospheria Cubensis picks up where 2007's Power Hor (Holy Mountain) left off. The album takes the band and listener on a
darker and more elaborate optimisitc prog-doom journey, each track telling an epic pychedelic story using myriad genres, styles, and timbres. Seldon Hunt's impressive artwork richly supports the albums themes that the band describes simply as "mushrooms in the sky with diamonds."

Recorded and Mixed at London Bridge and Aleph Studios Seattle by Randall Dunn (Master Musicians of Bukkake, Earth,Boris, Sunn O))))
Mastered by Mell Dettmer at Sinister Kitchen
Artwork and Layout by Seldon Hunt
Logo by John Santos

http://www.myspace.com/lesbianwitch

Good band name, not too sure about that cover art tho.

They are a good band. There was a few gushing posts on the rolling metal thread about the album.

58
Melvins - The Bride Screamed Murder (355 Points, 17 Votes)
http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/wp-content/media/2010/05/melvins_album_cover.jpg

http://open.spotify.com/album/5KDnM8zQPlrPHbaGeijdzM

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

Nice fluffy bunny on the Karma To Burn cover.

awesome. I dug the melvins record a lot this year.

I liked some of it but was generally disappointed by it. the my generation cover was embarrassing.

57
Unearthly Trance - V (367 Points, 16 Votes, 1 #1)
http://cdn.stereogum.com/files/2010/09/Unearthly-Trance-V.jpg
http://open.spotify.com/album/7EG5CLhQne2iClvncX5jlv

http://www.last.fm/music/Unearthly+Trance

http://unearthlytrance.com
http://www.myspace.com/utny

Another album with a #1 vote

That's a cool cover. What do they sound like?

crushing doooooooooooooooom

nice, will be listening to that one then!

albeit more of the mid-paced variety these days

56
Trees - Freed of This Flesh (369 Points, 17 Votes)
http://www.musicfearsatan.com/DSK/trees_freed_(big).jpg

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

Trees is a drone/doom metal band from Portland, Oregon.

The mysterious Portland ensemble Trees return with their second offering on Crucial Blast, Freed Of This Flesh, with two new fetid death rituals scraped from the crypt. Each of these tracks averages around fourteen minutes, an extended death-rattle formed from black glacial riffs suspended in space, tectonic percussive rumbles, anguished shrieks of torment and abject suffering, deep guttural demon-toad throat singing, and endless sheets of glistening metallic feedback that spill and drift to the far edges of their extreme time-stretched ambient doom, a crumbling, blighted majesty, noxious ambient blackdoom adrift on putrescent tides. The wretched vocal effluvium creeps formlessly across austere slabs of crushing heaviness arranged into ghoulish constructs of atmospheric dread, moving so slow that the music seems to lose all sense of propulsion at times, becoming lost in a fog of howling amplifiers and buzzing feedback, the guitars stretched into massive decomposing drones, the spaces between infested with controlled bursts of drums that skitter and rumble, almost "jazzy" in a vague sort of way, but still incredibly slow and ponderous. Freed Of This Flesh inhabits the same sort of black-tar depths as the likes of Burning Witch, Monarch, Khanate, and Bunkur while stripping the slo-mo heaviness into their own twisted, skeletal configuration.

I liked everything on the Melvins album but the last track. And I loved the "My Generation" cover; as I said at the time, it reminded me of Fudge Tunnel's cover of Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love."

Never caught up to that Unearthly Trance album - I liked one of their earlier discs okay, but not enough to get excited about a new one.

not sure why a slowed-down cover of "my generation" is so embarrassing?

55
Bison B.C. - Dark Ages (370 Points, 19 Votes)
http://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Bison-bc-Dark-Ages-300x300.jpg

http://www.last.fm/music/Bison+B.C.

When Bison took its first step, amps were scorched and drums were smashed. Born of the ashes of seminal Vancouver skate-thrash band S.T.R.E.E.T.S., Bison are every head banger’s dream. Their riffs are colossal and flow like a mighty river into a sea of fuzzed out shredding. Their message is punk rock angst and revolution, with the occasional nod to white wizards, the king of swine and a mythical beast called the “Stokasaurus”. For their debut album Earthbound they’ve managed to capture their massive live sound on tape with the help of Jesse Gander (The Hive). In a perfect world Bison will be playing with High On Fire at your favorite dive bar, all of your friends will be there and a beer will cost a quarter. By the end of their set their amps will be in a ruined heap on top of the drum kit and somebody will be bleeding. It better be you.

not sure why a slowed-down cover of "my generation" is so embarrassing?

it's barely even a cover iirc, they sing the lyrics to the first verse and that's about it

I reviewed the Unearthly Trance album in Terrorizer but can't find it online, I don't think they put their reviews up

not sure why a slowed-down cover of "my generation" is so embarrassing?

What, have Northern Kings had a record out this year?

Yeah that Melvins album was the first underwhelming record they've released in a long time. It isn't bad, just seemed a lot more "safe" and "Melvins on coast" than usual.

yeah, I'd agree with that. melvins rarely put out anything out-and-out BAD but a senile animal and nude with boots were such a blast. the bride screamed murder pales a bit in comparison.

54
Shining - Blackjazz (375 Points, 16 Votes)
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/shining_blackjazz_jk.jpg
http://open.spotify.com/album/16aH8bxCmT8a2Two46ewqD

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

There are several bands with the samw name
2. A Norwegian band that started out as an experimental jazz group in 1998, and has since evolved into playing their own avant-garde brand of progressive metal. Winner of the Alarm Award in both 2006 (for In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster) and 2007 (for Grindstone).

Shining’s fifth album Blackjazz was released 18 January 2010 on Indie Recordings. The album’s title is meant to describe Shining’s sound, which on Blackjazz became even harder and more intense than ever before. New Shining sounds like Experimental Metal with huge Jazz influence.

Current members are:
* Jørgen Munkeby: sax, guitar, Akai EWI and vocals
* Torstein Lofthus: drums
* Bernt Moen: synths and keyboards
* Tor Egil Kreken: bass
* Even Helte Hermansen: guitars

listening to the lesbian album now. not bad and I like the thrashy touches but I'm not hearing much to differentiate it from the mastodon/baroness crowd. and there are already about a billion similar bands out there so...

yeah, i think that may be a part of it too, i loved the previous 2 tons

xpost

awesome, did not expect shining to place that high!

would have been higher if I'd voted!

n.b. that album is p much the original LJ Metal record

'blackjazz deathtrance' is one of the most amazing songs I heard last year - the damn thing'll take your head off if you let it

see thats why you should have voted

LJ does this every poll

my ballot wd have basically been 1. shining 2. deathspell omega 3. enslaved 4. um