2014 POLL RESULTS COUNTDOWN - ILM Metal Albums of the Year

I was thinking of about 3pm (2 hours from now) so that west coast Americans dont miss out too much

Glad people are enjoying the poll. Lot of listening and buying can be done over xmas.

Might be a bit late actually as I forgot I have an appointment at the docs to get my blood pressure checked then ive got my prescription to pick up and you can wait over 30 mins in the chemists.

so i'll post #10 before I leave so you have something to discuss

It's the only album in the top 10 without a #1 vote

10 Jute Gyte - Ressentiment 697 Points, 18 votes
http://i.imgur.com/bmxfTr4.jpg
http://jutegyte.bandcamp.com/album/ressentiment

dunno how long i'll be but hope to be back by 4

actually it does have a number 1 vote

in the parallel universe where I voted

BLACK VOID OF LONELINESSSSSSSS

I thought this was his best work when it first came out but didn't end up playing it all that much in the long run and wound up finding it a bit cold. Maybe it's time to pull it out again?

I think the Botanist is the metal album I've listened to the most this year.

need to give the Botanist a really good, full listen - what I've heard is phenomenal

this album is just so goddamn kickass. Vast Chains is perhaps more malign, more creepy, more hidden-in-shades, and sustains a consistently horrifying soundworld, which has its own great appeal (it'd be my number 2 obv, with not much between) but Ressentiment is bold, luminous & utterly dynamic, and features much of Kalmbach's best songwriting (imo) - it's the nameless horror leaping out at your throat, the combination of the principles of the first two microtonal albums (first album more tuneful & direct, second more, um, 'endless moths swarming')

have been listening to some of these btw. Myrkur is really excellent, Comet Control pretty fun as well, and Saor had its moments. will get around to that Krautrock one at some point too

Comet Control are really really good in fact! If not even remotely metal. They're like…really really good noise psych pop

Woah, Jute Gyte is the first extreme band I've listened to for ages that I find truly unsettling. Something about their use of dissonance is profoundly odd and anxiety-inducing. Don't think it'll be on heavy rotation by any means, but impressive certainly.

xp check out Quest for Fire, they feature some of Comet Control's previous band, heavier psych http://open.spotify.com/album/3NbGPpLYhBxqR781rsjpmz

yeah agree with chap there. "the fire of this" from vast chains was the first JG I heard. it is so visceral. those queasy and nauseating guitars.

I'm pleased both Jute Gyte albums made the top the top 20, Ressentiment #10 no less.

I'm pretty surprised considering how bleak and inaccessible they are, even for truly experimental extreme metal. For me what makes them so horrifying is that it all feels very human, rather than trying to convey some eldritch/cosmic terror (not that I don't like that sort of thing). Vast Chains is the severe depression to Ressentiments' self-loathing anxiety.

You say bleak and inaccessible - as above, I've found that people who are not necessarily into much metal have taken to Jute Gyte really readily - it's exceptionally compelling music, and melodically incredibly interesting - dare I say catchy? And yeah, totally agreed on how human it feels - it has the quality of literature, of insane personal struggle. And always - that mocking, drilling, genuinely mad high guitar tone filtering in to dance across the wreckage! Ressentiment is the externalisation of the self-hatred, the blood actually being shed.

For both albums to be in the top 20 is pretty amazing. And let's not forget that Kalmbach himself has said that these albums feel 'primitive' compared to what he's working on right now.

Would kill for Jute Gyte instrumentals. (also, called it!)

save us (from jute gyte), cosmic slop!

I think I'd like to hear instrumental Kalmbach compositions at this point, too.

There are loooooads on his bandcamp fwiw, mostly his neoclassical/dark ambient/electronic stuff, though. Some intrepid soul should listen to them all and report back (not necessarily volunteering)

no sign of Soft Pink Truth yet...

I actually did that earlier this year (went through JG bandcamp that is) but I was only impressed by the BM stuff to be honest. I think in pre-trilogy stuff like Impermanence and Senescence you can hear hints of what's to come...

Dead excited for what the guy's going to do next

9 Earth - Primitive and Deadly 738 Points, 21 votes , ONE #1
http://i.imgur.com/UEMak9d.jpg
spotify:album:58WkmREY5HFMavDGtOnDcT
http://earthsl.bandcamp.com/album/primitive-and-deadly

Were I still a drinking man, I'd spend the weekend with a bottle of bourbon and JG's bandcamp. At the least I'll probably delve into the latter with the metal-archives reviews as a kind of concordance to figure out which is the more metal stuff.

That jute gyte album getting more votes surprised me as pretty much everyone seemed to prefer vast chains. Maybe of course the most recent album was the one heard by more people of course. It did get 3 more votes than Vast Chains

couldn't get on with the lyrics on the earth album at all

vocals i mean...

I liked them

Next one up is an album I thought might have been a potential winner

auto focus you don like Mark Lanegan?

i really wanted too - it was more the mark lanegan tracks i didn't like, i got into the Rabia Shaheen Qazi stuff more.

CS - usually i do but he sounded a bit halfhearted (to me anyhow) on this. bah, probably my ears or something

8 Scott Walker & SunnO))) - Soused 799 Points, 21 votes, TWO #1s
http://i.imgur.com/Hv6byI2.jpg
spotify:album:35QvDKN3TUg5CbKeHKjKho

http://scott-o.com/

http://thequietus.com/articles/16068-sunn-o-scott-walker-soused

An album that sounds fantastic on vinyl

Tried really hard to get into this one, couldn't do it.

I still haven't actually heard this. Something turns me off about it, and I'd go so far as to say the same about Bish Bosch (though I have heard that one). Scott Walker records need 10 years in between to digest.

it's a really uncomfortable listen i think

It's a great album

i mean that in a good way!

7 Darkspace - Dark Space III I 813 Points, 22 votes , ONE #1
http://i.imgur.com/Ls32cS7.jpg
spotify:album:6zrTpLPW6vmaVk6xGa0Fmg
http://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/dark-space-iii-i

Brilliant album this

Darkspace III is one of my favourite metal albums ever and I haven't even heard this yet. What delights await! :D

I was surprised that I found this one a bit... dull, sadly. I love the other three darkspace albums and all for different reasons but I didn't find this one to be too memorable and I am not a fan of the sequencing. feels too fragmented, kills the vibe for me.

still a good listen but easily my least fave darkspace record.

still... "dark 4.20"

http://www.dedleg.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/take_me_to_your_dealer.gif

The title is Darkspace III I??

I hate Scott Walker's voice. Sunn O))) were doing some interesting things on Soused, but Walker's Opera Man bullshit sank the whole thing. The whole second phase of his career has been one of the greatest Emperor's New Clothes scams of all time.

If I like ambient/atmospheric BM but found III to be too much of an undifferentiated wash, is there a chance that I might like this better?

the earth album has been at the top of my playlist ever since i bought it.
i have grown to enjoy the mark l tracks.
but the highlight is easily the track with rabia.
a full length of earth + her could be absolutely fantastic.
getting this album also prompted me to order more from his back catalogue, hex and angels of darkness pt2 - result.

the earth album was... fine? like good riffs and good singing but they didn't seem to interact in any way. and i fucking love mark lanegan. soused was an uncanny first listen but has been difficult to revisit even though it's like the shortest scott walker record in ages. darkspace yawwwwn

so far the top ten is a bummer 4 me

so far the top ten is awesome ;D