2014 POLL RESULTS COUNTDOWN - ILM Metal Albums of the Year

Great album, it probably should have been higher on my list, I think it just missed my ballot. I guess I'm not crazy about some of the vocals, but they have many of the same elements of my all-time fave Ufomammut.

Thing i love about metal poll is that a lot of the albums in the lower reaches are albums that were really high on ballots its just that not everyone heard them so they didn't get higher in the poll but it gives everyone a chance to hear them now.
Every year I heard quite a few things I love via here.

Yah I halfway suspect this will end up being my favourite stretch of the poll

it is for a lot of people whilst others just like to get to the top 20. different strokes etc

77 Skull Fist - Chasing the Dream 171 Points, 5 votes
http://i.imgur.com/wwOHP2p.jpg
spotify:album:2FgrtusUOSMIoUh0RkuY79

j3ff to thread

In a lot of polls (i think higher turnout may be the cause) albums low on peoples ballots scrape the top 100 and the handful of votes that were all high albums we get here dont place in those polls and thus make them less interesting.

Is that an ILM thing or a metal thing or just smaller amount of voters?
Or do we all have our own individual tastes rather than voting for the same big bands or this years hype bands?

It's just that the ILM metal community rules above all others.

haha no need for ilx backslapping ( i hate that part of ilx) but is there a statistical reason? I guess that's one for Glenn and Seandalai. What do you both think?

76 Myrkur - Myrkur 173 Points, 6 votes
http://i.imgur.com/YZVehT3.jpg
http://open.spotify.com/album/6whUmfg024Gl38G9ckicQz
http://myrkur.bandcamp.com/album/myrkur

I believe there was a wee bit of controversy due to sexism in some quarters?

Anyone got the full story?

Polls are weird bcz they tend to reward reach over devotion, if u get me...? Like, event albums that are highly publicized and build a buzz and get a lot of ppl to hear them tend to do well even if a majority of ppl don't really rate it that highly...if you hear a high profile album and don't hate it you almost feel like you ought to put it on yr ballot (or at least I do) even if it is somewhere down in the twenties or thirties, BUT it's precisely that ubiquity that allows it to do better than someone's #1 or #2 pick that only can get three or four others voters to care...

That's why I like the longer rollout' it just happens that ppl like me, Fastnbulbous, La Lechera, yournullfame, sund4r, and even EZ--all our pet albums tend to be the ones that wd be the first to be cut

xxp

All wiki say is Myrkur is the one-woman black metal musical act of Danish musician Amalie Bruun.[1] Myrkur is signed to Relapse Records; initially the real-life identity of the person behind the project was kept unknown

its great stuff anyway. Another nice discovery due to this poll

All this reminded me (not to change the subject off Myrkur) that Dorthia Cottrell from Windhand released a solo album within the padt week...has anyone heard it? Is it any good?

xp interesting I might listen to that

I'd recommend this album to sund4r

next one up btw is a huge shock low entry

The Dorthia Cottrell album isn't out until March. First track, "Gold" came out this week and is amazing. I guess you'd call it Americana or dark folk or something.

http://www.stereogum.com/1724161/dorthia-cottrell-gold/mp3s/

xposts

I see absolutely no info about this Cottrell album. EZ just answered, cool.

I quite like the Myrkur EP. Not earthshattering or anything, but good. And she's now recording her debut with Kristoffer Rygg from Ulver in Oslo.

75 Opeth - Pale Communion 177 Points, 7 votes
http://i.imgur.com/SxUAua8.jpg
spotify:album:0DLImjuzdrOBQKtYLlf3C5

I assume this is more prog than metal and the older fan just dont care anymore?

This album went up and down my list like a yo-yo. Very mood dependent, but I think it's an improvement over the last one. They only played 2 cuts at the show a couple weeks ago and they sounded great! The fans seemed to be into 'em just as much as the older songs they played.

That Skull Fist was really good, really nailed the style without mocking it. If I'd made an EOY list larger than a top ten, it would've made the cut for sure.

I started reading a lot of chatter about Flight of Sleipnir late in the year thus haven't gotten around to hearing it. (Oh, I guess it just came out, now that I've checked its release date.. So that's why.)

edit: hi, Opeth. Sadly I'm one of those "old Opeth" grumps so I think I may have streamed a couple tracks from PC and that was that. MORNINGRISE FOREVER.

74 Mournful Congregation - Concrescence Of The Sophia 186 Points, 6 votes
http://i.imgur.com/8fEVmvj.jpg
http://listen.20buckspin.com/album/concrescence-of-the-sophia

Until further notice just consider my response to every result, "oh yeah I need to hear that."

I'm with Devilock, there's a ton of albums I apparently missed out on. And I completely forgot Mourthful Congregation made a new album.

Polls are weird bcz they tend to reward reach over devotion, if u get me...? Like, event albums that are highly publicized and build a buzz and get a lot of ppl to hear them tend to do well even if a majority of ppl don't really rate it that highly...if you hear a high profile album and don't hate it you almost feel like you ought to put it on yr ballot (or at least I do) even if it is somewhere down in the twenties or thirties, BUT it's precisely that ubiquity that allows it to do better than someone's #1 or #2 pick that only can get three or four others voters to care...

That's why I like the longer rollout' it just happens that ppl like me, Fastnbulbous, La Lechera, yournullfame, sund4r, and even EZ--all our pet albums tend to be the ones that wd be the first to be cut

― wonderful about a proletariat-Vorticist version of James Brown (Drugs A. Money),

That Skull Fist was really good, really nailed the style without mocking it. If I'd made an EOY list larger than a top ten, it would've made the cut for sure.

― tongues flowering (Devilock),

I wonder if it's because all magazine lists, P&J etc have a small amount of votes allowed.
In this poll you can have up to 50 votes so those big event albums that ppl dont think are that great but feel they got to include that george talks about could still get in a ballot but lower down and the lesser known albums they do like can get a boost.
All polls could benefit from that I think.

73 Petrychor - Makrokosmos 189 Points, 5 votes
http://i.imgur.com/lovYHS5.jpg
http://petrychor.bandcamp.com/album/makrokosmos

The intersection of cosmic and terrestrial influences, music of and from the stars and how we relate to them from our position on Earth. Rest well and travel far, for though you at times may feel that you are without company, hopefully these sounds will remind you that there are others scattered across the globe, who are on a similar journey. Share in it.
credits
released 10 July 2014

Everything: Tad Piecka

I bought this from bandcamp earlier this year thanks to ilm. Bandcamp thread I think by jeff

spacey black metal that la lechera and sund4r might like

Yeah, I voted for Petrychor. I need to be in the mood for it but it's pretty good in a unique way when I am. Myrkur is up my alley so far, as well.

Is it better than Darkspace III I y/n? Cuz I could not get into that album

I'm glad Petrychor got a showing, it's very enjoyable. Anyone who likes Spectral Lore or Mare Cognitum ought to give it a listen.

I don't think I've given the new Opeth much of a chance, but like others I'm surprised to see it that low, I thought it was pretty popular. I've always thought if Opeth could become more focussed they could be more than just fitfully brilliant and largely dull. Now they have more focus, idk, if I want to listen to ye olde progge I'll actually listen to an album made in the 70s rather someone emulating Camel and what have you.

xpost I find Darkspace incredibly boring, Petrychor are a lot brighter/optimistic sounding than them

I haven't really got into Darkspace III so far either fwiw. Petrychor is pretty different imo, not as harsh and undifferentiated. The ambient electronic passages are longer and more heavily emphasized. There are some longer stretches of cleaner proggy rock.

2xpost

72 Fallujah - The Flesh Prevails 190 Points, 6 votes
http://i.imgur.com/NJDxtrM.jpg
spotify:album:6OuJ8Sq6p9LxBG39PWXoFH

this record is a little much but pretty enjoyable

I remember thinking that album was pretty damned dazzling when I first heard it but didn't give it enough of a follow-up to determine if that was the fireworks effect. Maybe that I didn't come back to it answers the question.

xpost that's another way to put it

brad what metal publications do you read?

infact a question for everybody - what metal publications do you read? print and/or online

i don't read any actually. most of the stuff i listen to is derived from 1) the metal thread, where i mostly listen to people whose tastes align with mine but also occasionally everyone else, which is why i heard a few pretty decent black metal records this year 2) occasionally sift through metallum ratings 3) this one metal album art blog i follow 4)random bandcamps

i mean i should probably actually read more metal publications but i usually have to put a lot of effort into finding metal records i really like

you do seem to have different tastes to a lot of the rolling metal regulars and that is why i was wondering where you heard about stuff

the metal you like seems to be more brutal and technical and a bit different to the emo/pop rock i tend to see you post about. Maybe you like more produced stuff?

71 Inter Arma - The Cavern 190 Points, 7 votes
http://i.imgur.com/ZnryF0Z.jpg
spotify:album:09OwyDCl593yc0blzg6AAk
http://interarma.bandcamp.com/album/the-cavern

I read Terrorizer for a few years but I can't afford it anymore... I mostly go to blogs and get recommendations from friends. Been pretty into slow-tempo "depressive" black metal recently.

70 Towers - II 193 Points, 7 votes
http://i.imgur.com/KKyCZLc.jpg
http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2014/02/11/towers-ii-full-stream/

Most of my metal reading comes from message boards, either metal-archives, NWN, the SomethingAwful metal threads in the music subforum, and here obviously. When they existed, I read Metal Maniacs and random zines like Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Worm Gear, uh ... Pit, and of course Terrorizer, which as mentioned above had to be cut for financial reasons.

I realize zines I used to read migrated to the internet but for some reason I didn't follow them. I'm guessing the internet allowed me to shift my listening to/reading about ratio way in favor of the former. Not sure if that's a good thing but eh.

I really miss Erebus and Teufel's Tomb, two online-only zines I did in fact read.

Er, no, not Teufel's Tomb, that was a zine zine that had an online counterpart, I think. I mean I did like it but that's not what I was thinking of. At some point in the early to mid 00's I lost all my browser bookmarks to a hard drive crash and apparently lost the brain cells required to remember all the stuff I read, as well.

the metal you like seems to be more brutal and technical and a bit different to the emo/pop rock i tend to see you post about. Maybe you like more produced stuff?

oh i listen to everything, man, emo just happens to be the one thing i have a lot of specialized knowledge about. i do like good production! and i tend to gravitate toward brutal, technical death metal yeah, i like the uneven groove that bands in that mode tend to create, like they're building a whirlpool.

Oh yeah and when I remember I check out Stoner Hive.