2015 POLL RESULTS COUNTDOWN - ILM Metal(ish) Albums of the Year

I just hate pretty much everything involving Mike Patton, sorry.

I'm enjoying the roll-out so far, lots of stuff to explore, particularly given how little metal I have listened to this year (Goatsnake, Windhand, Myrkur, Chelsea Wolfe, FNM umm...)

don't think I have any interest in this but hatred of all things Patton makes me sad

comment on the spin review

Franco • 7 months ago

by reading this, even if you haven´t heard the album, you would think Patton fucked the reviewer´s girlfriend or something like that.

xp give me one album that will change my mind

torn between Suspended Animation and Disco Volante tbh

I have some interest in the FNM, but I'm more interested to see how it places in the RockaRolla EOY list

I'll go with the shorter one then

if you want 'the shorter one' then you'll probably want California tbh...but ok, Suspended Animation it is, enjoy lol

Angel Dust is some sort of masterpiece IMO

it is very good too but i reckon dinsdale might prefer the more out-there stuff

as long as out-there doesn't mean 'Patton does lots of weird noises with his mouth'

time to listen I guess...

uh oh lol

I just hate pretty much everything involving Mike Patton, sorry.

You're not alone.

Relistening to the Shining album. It's just such a shame. They used to be SO good. They'll never make anything as melodically complex and beautiful as 'In The Kingdom Of Kitsch...' (the song) again, will they? They just sound like, uh, Faith No More (with saxes) now lol

jesus christ this is insufferable

59 Fluisteraars - Luwte 250 Points, 8 Votes
http://i.imgur.com/uykPIEZ.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/6OnvbiyStRMxTwhk0amO0q
spotify:album:6OnvbiyStRMxTwhk0amO0q

Bandcamp http://records.eisenton.de/album/luwte

Even though much has been written and recorded when it comes to extreme metal, Fluisteraars are quite extraordinary in their way of arranging and presenting music. With vast influences concerning the ambience and atmospheric aspects of their craft the dutch trinity is not to be easily stuck in just one plain direction. The early on forged term "Windswept Black Metal" recalling imagery of rain, decay, bleakness and intoxication still to date embodies their own amalgamation of intriguing, atmospheric music.

The band's last year debut album titled "Dromers", was firmly rooted in the fertile soil cultivated by Drudkh, Primordial or even Agalloch, nevertheless built its own aura. Excellent reviews at the press, whilst also garnering end of year list entries and other critical accolades along the way, hailed Fluisteraars as one of the new potent stalwarts of dutch black metal.

Blending the welcoming, epic affair of their debut with more harsh and biting effort's more reminiscent of 90s black metal, Luwte captures the band from a slightly different, yet none less qualitative angle. While the band had already shown their effective vigor with time stretching melodic and edgy grandeur, this second album is very much the more ferocious finished extension to it. An unpolished yet elaborate production with final mastering duties taken over by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY perfectly suits the dynamic, intelligent nature of the music.

Sealing the deal the band adds: Fluisteraars takes you on a journey through the mind. A journey where they build the roads, to create the landscapes through which they travel and where they call the seasons. Their strength is drawn from the compelling nature of their music, which captivates you to the point of hypnosis. Leading you unnoticed to the inevitable end of the road, emptiness…

released September 25, 2015

(I gave up)

(I figured)

(Disco Volante now!)

(kidding)

no comments on Fluisteraars ? another album ive not heard

siegbran metal?

I do know that track "de doornen" from fluisteraars which is savage

I like them, not sure if I voted for this one though, maybe in the lower spots as I found it good but not *that* good

Listening to Tyranny now and enjoying them a good deal. Shame I have to leave the house really soon. Wish I didn't.

you did vote for it at #15

seems about right

Fluisteraars is awesome. Previous album was a mix of Moonsorrow/Agalloch, this one is a bit edgier and reminds me most of Trelldom (Gaahls old band). "Windswept Black Metal" is pretty spot-on yeah. Endless songs with excellent drumming, and a great up-close, jam-like sound.

Not that far from Wolves In The Throne Room conceptually, but their sound is a lot less washed out.

58 AEVANGELIST - Enthrall to the Void of Bliss 255 Points, 8 Votes
http://i.imgur.com/VTN7FV7.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/1NKhSrQIRDRF4sVJ4H26Bq
spotify:album:1NKhSrQIRDRF4sVJ4H26Bq

http://listen.20buckspin.com/album/enthrall-to-the-void-of-bliss

The 4th gate of the Aevangelist has opened within the physical dimension. Witness cataclysmic Black Death Metal force in which slithering arcane horrors conjoined with bizarre mysticism spawn a suffocating cacophonous sprawl. Having unleashed previous (and future) documentation via the French Debemur Morti label, ‘Enthrall To The Void Of Bliss’ represents the initial Aevangelist transmutation for 20 Buck Spin; the American based band’s first scripture to fully release domestically in the United States.

Cycling through recent years Aevangelist have mercilessly assaulted listeners via audial deformation and twisting sepulchral composition. 2013’s Omen Ex Simulacra brutalized with punishingly dense yet accessible riffs in the Murk, and this specter looms large on ‘Enthrall…’, whilst layer upon layer of ghoulish keys and madness-stricken vocals act as flesh bricks to shape a hellish tower of the damned. Smeared with a warm, wet production, the inherent chaos of ‘Enthrall…’ becomes omnipresent.

The curtain has been pulled back to reveal the grotesquery summoned by the Aevangelist synod and once stirred cannot easily be shut again. 20 Buck Spin is pleased to bequeath this vulgar contortion of occult rancor upon the human race. Virulently presented on CD, LP and Digital torments.
credits
released October 9, 2015

http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/10/album-review-aevangelist-enthrall-to-the-void-of-bliss/

Black metal outfit Aevangelist actively defies comprehension. Their creations exist on a plane of sonic nihilism and dark dada. Every note, every instrument, every gurgling growl and hideous shriek, is texturally equal, creating a vacuum of depraved noise that’s truly unprecedented, defying all expectations of recorded vibration. On its fourth full-length, Enthrall to the Void of Bliss, it’s as if Aevangelist sought to defy its own humanity by creating an album so demented, so dissonant, and so brutal that it couldn’t have been made by humans, but rather trans-dimensional soundscapists set on breaking the very idea of what a song can be.

Rarely does music so instantly and totally affront the listener. Even by the standards of black metal, a genre unafraid to dabble in the weird and weirder, Enthrall lives in a harsh and unearthly world all its own. “Arcanæ Manifestia” opens the album with an entangled arrangement of standard instrumentation (blast beats, sludgy speed guitar) and a variety of other, unorthodox tonalities not easily identifiable. Emanating from the right channel comes a demented harp; played haphazardly, it stops, starts, and stutters, sometimes (but not always) falling in with the chord progression, an independent force separate from the other instruments. It is the most discernable and memorable aspect of Enthrall because the harp never leaves, instead haunting the right speaker for the duration of the record.

Meanwhile, vocalist Ascaris uses his throat in unhealthy ways. At the end of the first track, he holds a single guttural note for a minute straight in an impressive feat of circular breathing. On “Emanation”, he channels a man whose esophagus is being ripped out. You hear the gasping for air, the hacks and hurls, and the wet slosh of his vocal cords straining to maintain this sickening putridity. It’s slightly comical, but mostly terrifying. Ascaris even sings on occasion, his distant croon sounding like a cross between Martin Gore and the whispering wind on a strange winter night. The outlier here, “Alchemy”, with its deep electro pulse and airy atmosphere, helps to stagger the record’s repetition. “Souls like water, souls like water,” Ascaris sings. For a moment, Aevangelist offer a reprieve. Then it’s back to the brutality.

Melodies and typical song structures are introduced throughout the album before being quickly buried under chaos. The songs beg to be discerned: Once you acclimate to the layers of noise and overdubs (the percussion is stacked to cacophonous levels), peculiar details peer out. At their root level, “Cloister of the Temple of Death” and “Gatekeepers Scroll” are chord-based guitar songs with verses and solos. However, the dense recordings are full of intricacies in the guitarwork and vocals that are otherwise disguised in the fray. Multi-instrumentalist Matron Thorn is the master behind this orchestrated madness. His tasteful harmonic guitar licks, notably on “Cloister” and lengthy closer “Meditation of Transcendental Evil”, can only be picked up by a keen ear.

Enthrall to the Void of Bliss is perhaps best approached like a noise record. It doesn’t offer hooks, its riffs are lost in murk, and the morbid non sequitur lyrics are rarely discernible. The experience is in the totality of the sonic chaos and the act of making sense of it. In this way, Aevangelist are black metal impressionists. This is not a pleasant album to listen to in the traditional sense; yet, it remains endlessly affecting.

Essential Tracks: “Arcanæ Manifestia”, “Meditation of Transcendental Evil”

xpost (I mean, WITTR is more washed out than Fluisteraars)

another album ive not heard

57 Lightning Bolt - Fantasy Empire 265 Points, 9 Votes
http://i.imgur.com/YgPS33u.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/1HN2Y71apfstJXoWxDPTJO
spotify:album:1HN2Y71apfstJXoWxDPTJO

https://thrilljockeyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/fantasy-empire

Over the course of its two-decade existence, Lightning Bolt has revolutionized underground rock in immeasurable ways. The duo broke the barrier between stage and audience by setting themselves up on the floor in the midst of the crowd. Their momentous live performances and the mania they inspired paved the way for similar tactics used by Dan Deacon and literally hundreds of others. Similarly, the band’s recordings have always been chaotic, roaring, blown out documents that sound like they could destroy even the toughest set of speakers. Fantasy Empire, Lightning Bolt’s sixth album and first in five years, is a fresh take from a band intent on pushing themselves musically and sonically while maintaining the aesthetic that has defined not only them, but an entire generation of noisemakers. It marks many firsts, most notably their first recordings made using hi-fi recording equipment at the famed Machines With Magnets, and their first album for Thrill Jockey. More than any previous album, Fantasy Empire sounds like drummer Brian Chippendale and bassist Brian Gibson are playing just a few feet away, using the clarity afforded by the studio to amplify the intensity they project. Every frantic drum hit, every fuzzed-out riff, sounds more present and tangible than ever before.

Fantasy Empire is ferocious, consuming, and is a more accurate translation of their live experience. It also shows Lightning Bolt embracing new ways to make their music even stranger. More than any previous record, Chippendale and Gibson make use of live loops and complete separation of the instruments during recording to maximize the sonic pandemonium and power. Gibson worked with Machines very carefully to get a clear yet still distorted and intense bass sound, allowing listeners to truly absorb the detail and dynamic range he displays, from the heaviest thud to the subtle melodic embellishments. Some of these songs have been in the band’s live repertoire since as early as 2010, and have been refined in front of audiences for maximum impact. This is heavy, turbulent music, but it is executed with the precision of musicians that have spent years learning how to create impactful noise through the use of dynamics, melody, and rhythm.

Fantasy Empire has been in gestation for four years, with some songs having been recorded on lo-fi equipment before ultimately being scrapped. Since Earthly Delights was released, the band has collaborated with The Flaming Lips multiple times, and continued to tour relentlessly. 2013 saw the release of All My Relations by Black Pus, Chippendale’s solo outlet, which was followed by a split LP with Oozing Wound. Chippendale, an accomplished comic artist and illustrator, created the Fantasy Empire’s subtly ominous album art, and will release an upcoming book of his comics through respected imprint Drawn and Quarterly. Brian Gibson has been developing the new video game Thumper, with his own company, Drool, which will be released next year. And, of course, Lightning Bolt will be touring the US in 2015.
credits
released March 24, 2015

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20174-fantasy-empire/
8.0

Lightning Bolt have been around for close to two decades. In that time, they haven't really changed their basic formula: Brian Chippendale still bashes his drums with chaotic precision and bassist Brian Gibson manages to make four strings sound like many more. From the beginning, their mix of mayhem and heaviness brought to mind Harry Pussy and Black Sabbath playing at the same time. But they somehow showed up in big features in magazines that didn't normally care about noise, and in the record collections of people who felt pretty much the same.

The musical landscape around Lightning Bolt has shifted more than a few times during this period, but the duo continue full-throttle with the kind of triumphant blitz they served up when they first emerged from Providence, R.I. When Lightning Bolt started in 1994, future Black Dice member Hisham Bharoocha handled vocals and guitars for the band, and the difference between the two groups is instructive. Black Dice came out of the same punk/art-school world as Lightning Bolt but they chose a more winding path—from violent punks to noise mongrels to psychedelic noisemakers to gleeful DFA electronic tweakers. LB have remained tunnel-vision focused. The respect for the initial approach suggests an endless possibility in a few gestures, a sensibility that runs counter to the over-stuffed, ADD, and of-the-moment world we live in.

Fantasy Empire is their first LP in five years; it's also the first recorded in a proper studio—Pawtucket's Machines with Magnets—and you can tell. The sound is bigger and more defined; they haven't cleaned things up, exactly, it's just easier to figure out what's leveling you. You can make out deeper textures and striations, and the greater detail lends variety without shifting away from the blown-out repetition. There's also a larger dynamic range—just when you think a song's gotten as big as it possibly can, they pile on more sounds like live loops, synthesizers, tape constructions, and bass overdubs. Rather than serving as a compromise, the shifts that come with higher production values are positive.

Some of Lightning Bolt's mid-period albums grew dull after repeat listens, or made you think about how you'd rather see the music performed live. Wonderful Rainbow from 2003 had an almost pop catchiness to it, and you get that here, too. With a few listens, there's a feeling of anticipation for certain breaks or shifts or, as at the end of "Over the River and Through the Woods", head-bangs. And more than any of their records, if you play it loud, and close your eyes, it's very easy to imagine being in the same room as the Brians. (They've been doing some of the songs at their shows since 2010, and the album has a very broken-in feel to it.)

Unexpectedly, Chippendale's vocals have gotten stronger, as he's moved from the early chirps and howls to legit contact-mic crooning. His voice has typically been another strand of noise; here he feels like more of a proper singer, one who can compete with everything going on around him. At the start of "Over the River and Through the Woods" he clears his throat like Celtic Frost's Tom G. Warrior, and later in the song, he's a strangulated Ozzy. On "Horsepower", he approximates a swaggering demigod on the riff party, while "Runaway Train" sees him turn into a metal circus barker. The band's last full-length record, 2009's Earthly Delights, had a metal edge to it, and as the comparisons above suggest, Lightning Bolt go further in that direction on Fantasy. This is noise doom, more or less, the crystalline tone and soloing on "Dream Genie" is the stuff of Steve Vai heaven, and "Horsepower" brings to mind Geddy Lee howling into a maelstrom kicked up by Sleep. This is also their most flat-out rock'n'roll album to date, and their best since Wonderful Rainbow.

Most of the tracks have an anthemic forward march—these songs are built for speed. That's especially true of the massive 12-minute closer, "Snow White (& The 7 Dwarves Fans)", whose tongue-in-cheek title nails the essential Lightning Bolt aesthetic: part punk rock, part adult fairytale. They're still doing what they've always done, but Fantasy Empire is the best they've done it in a long time, and the new sheen makes everything seem magic again.

I don't think I had Ævangelist on my ballot but it's a great record.

Lightning Bolt have been around for close to two decades. In that time, they haven't really changed their basic formula

this was the only problem with this record

you didnt like it?

This poll is turning some infinite cataloguing at work into a pleasantly foresty endurance test.

My highlights so far (though I've still about ten left to try) are:
Black Cilice
Kylesa - Lovely shoegaze! The run from Falling to Growing Roots is especially effective.
Caïna - that one 'Orphan' track
Sannhet/Gannnet

Placed so far:
Nameless Coyote
KEN Mode
Thou & The Body
Akhlys
Mastery
Lightning Bolt

56 Envy - Atheist's Cornea 269 Points, 9 Votes
http://i.imgur.com/uJNyyvN.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/0LHxJ82ikbDre4IJfdsnM6
spotify:album:0LHxJ82ikbDre4IJfdsnM6

https://envy.bandcamp.com/album/atheist-s-cornea

Despite its relative brevity (at 43 minuntes it is Envy's shortest album since their early 90s thrash days), Atheist's Cornea is easily the band's most progressive work. Beginning with a punishing pummel, holes of light are gradually punched open to reveal an uncanny series of dynamic, emotionally charged epics. Not only does Atheistʼs Cornea showcase some wholly unexpected new turns for Envy, it also often reaches transcendent heights that could overwhelm a major blockbuster film — all while vocalist Tetsuya Fukagawa sings, screams, and speaks like his life depended on it. Atheist's Cornea is the purest, most distilled example of Envy's brand of brilliance. It is also their bravest album, taking new risks with a much welcomed, broader vocal palette and an instrumental experimentation that navigates blistering shifts from impenetrable noise to poetic, pin-drop introspection with astounding grace. Envy have finally mastered the art of being effective and efficient without sacrificing an ounce of either – a truly inspired evolution from a band whose mastery of both remains unparalleled.
credits
released May 15, 2015

http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/07/album-review-envy-atheists-cornea/

When Envy began to veer from thrash-punk into less rigid forms of post-rock, post-hardcore, post-punk, post-whatever, it wasn’t an easy pill for fans to swallow. Some thought that Envy’s days as a forward-thinking rock band were gone, that they were satisfied to do a victory lap by guesting on a Mogwai track or releasing a split with Thursday rather than try new things. Time will prove those listeners wrong; after all, both collaborations were new things for a Japanese group that started out chugging power chords at a breakneck pace.

Atheist’s Cornea, Envy’s first album in five years, brings the experimentation and the heaviness that longtime fans have clamored for. Tetsuya Fukagawa’s vocals sound pained, shouted with an urgency that leaks blood and calls for fist-raising. The guitars are tremolo-picked like every moment is their last; the drums sneak their way to different melodic fills in each verse.

Stripped down to sheet music, “Ignorant Rain at the End of the World” and “Your Heart and My Hand” would parallel Bach chorales. But, placed in Envy’s blender, they sound more concretely hardcore, pushing the genre’s limits by flipping it on its head with complex progressions rather than tweaking a single aspect into a gimmick. Even at quieter parts, the album glows. “Shining Finger” has a breakdown worth crying to, the tension high and the delivery impeccable, and “Two Isolated Souls” borders on a pop chord progression while still painting the sky with the twinkle of post-rock. It evokes Pianos Become the Teeth and La Dispute as much as it does This Will Destroy You and Explosions in the Sky.

So much of Atheist’s Cornea mixes opposites — not just different genres, but slow and fast, pain and happiness, quiet and loud, concrete and abstract. The album proves to be worth the five-year wait, doubling as an obvious entry point to the band’s catalog. By forming a smooth mix rather than a bumpy exchange of influences, Envy prove they can paint with any color.

Essential Tracks: “Two Isolated Souls”, “Ignorant Rain at the End of the World”, and “Your Heart and My Hand”

Brilliant band. I voted for it (and own it on LP)

xpost

I didn't hate it, but my only real reaction to it was "yep, this is Lightning Bolt".

my #2 (I think), great album, I've listened to this one countless times

That was my reaction too, but persuasive efforts will have been made xp

55 Pyramids - A Northern Meadow 274 Points, 9 Votes
http://i.imgur.com/iSsSJ6a.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/44wi9U9zoN1D1VaEj4GzgV
spotify:album:44wi9U9zoN1D1VaEj4GzgV

https://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-northern-meadow

The Texas-based musical contingent known as PYRAMIDS have become quite the musical entity since emerging, almost from out of nowhere, in 2008 with their debut self-titled LP which was released by Hydra Head Records. A record that generated a lot of buzz and acclaim within experimental and extreme metal, with its references to such genres as shoegaze, black metal, ambient/drone, avant-garde, and industrial music respectively.

Following said debut album, PYRAMIDS would suddenly see themselves collaborating with and receiving contributions from a myriad of musicians (also note that the debut album also featured a bonus disc of re-mixes of said tracks from it, re-mixes done by artists such as Blut Aus Nord, James Plotkin, Colin Marston, and Jesu just to name a few), notable artists such as Faith Coloccia (Mamiffer), Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins), Albin Julius (Der Blutharsch), and Colin Marston (who PYRAMIDS would work on a regular basis with), along with making collaborative albums with Nadja, Horseback, and Mamiffer respectively.

“A Northern Meadow”, the new full-length PYRAMIDS album, is the band’s direct follow-up (that is not a collaboration or split with any other band) to their 2008 debut. For “A Northern Meadow”, joining the PYRAMIDS lineup (already consisting of R. Loren, M. Dean, M. Craig, and D. Willaim) is Colin Marston (Gorguts/Krallice/Dysrhythmia), Vindsval (Blut Aus Nord), and William Fowler Collins. The result being an encompassing album that stretches the PYRAMIDS sound even further into something even more grand and epic; the band’s most stunning offering yet, through an overwhelming sound picture heavy in atmosphere and ambience. One that is dark, dreamy, and lush, yet claustrophobic, mechanically crawling, and surgically cold at the same time.
credits
released March 17, 2015

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20261-a-northern-meadow/
8.0

Denton, Texas’ Pyramids jettison in and out of the fringes of metal. Their self-titled debut from 2008, released on Hydra Head, was a beautiful mess, filled with lush tones that traced jagged musical directions. Sometimes, they were Emperor reconfigured as a dream pop group, other times, they sounded like someone left a drum machine running on a Lovesliescrushing track. Even though black metal and shoegaze were obvious reference points, Pyramids felt alien to both. They were like explorers making up the map as they go. After a series of collaborations with Horseback, Nadja, and Wraiths, Pyramids finally return with their sophomore album, A Northern Meadow. Here, they’ve developed a front-to-back sound that pushes their metal leanings to the forefront, while also upping the enigmatic glow of their debut. This consistency leads to their strongest effort yet.

A lot has transpired in the Pyramids camp between the two records: namely, Hydra Head shut down and Pyramids moved to Profound Lore, Hydra Head’s successor of sorts as a leader in groundbreaking metal. Vocalist and founding member R. Loren concentrated on his label, Handmade Birds, as well as his side projects White Moth and Sailors With Wax Wings, in that period too. Pyramids never really went away, but they hadn’t made a proper album in some time, so it’s no surprise that they’ve changed quite a bit. Meadow commits to layers upon layers of black metal swirls, cascading riffs never ceasing except to leap to another song. They’ve got a better grip on their ambient influences by infusing them into the guitars rather than leaning on electronics. Even their most obviously black metal song, "The Earth Melts Into Red Gashes Like the Mouths of Whales", is smoothed into gleaming waves by how the riffs float and the alternating sonorous voices of Loren and M. Craig. "I Have Four Sons, All Named for Men We Lost to War" is one of their most aggressive tracks, but sifted through their vision, it’s stripped of chest-beating primitivism. It reinforces that beauty and heaviness are not mutually exclusive.

In "I Am So Sorry, Goodbye", some of the self-titled's jagged beauty reappears. It leads off with a chopped riff dripping with melancholy, and towards the end, the melodies break apart and disintegrate like space debris in slow motion. Closer "Consilience" also explores this seductive decay, but in a smoother, more gradual fashion. Guitars spiral ever so gracefully into a black hole, dying slowly but not without one last kiss to the audience. This album benefits from one idea being taken to its limits, as opposed to the free-wheeling of their debut.

For Meadow, Pyramids recruited some crucial names in experimental music and underground metal to augment the core lineup. French black metal genius Vindsval, leader of the shape-shifting but always idiosyncratic Blut Aus Nord, takes over drum programming from D. William, who focuses on electronics. Vindsval drives a black metal pulse beneath the guitars' veil, making him a shadowy figure more in control than it seems. (Funnily enough, Loren does a spot-on impression of Vindsval’s vocals on "The Substance of Grief Is Not Imaginary".) Colin Marston, an esteemed metal producer who also abstracts metal in Krallice and Gorguts, contributes guitar, and his touches are all over the record. He, with original guitarist M. Dean, steer the bands towards death metal in the main riffs of "Grief" and "Sons", and processed through Pyramids, it sounds like Portal with prettier vocals. Vindsval and Marston both contributed to remixes that came as a separate disc on the self-titled record, and their familiarity with Pyramids' vision makes them natural allies.

William Fowler Collins rounds out the guest lineup by providing an ambient undercurrent that runs in and out of the record. This heavy roster of powerful names might send expectations soaring, but where Meadow succeeds is that no personality, from the core group or the guests, dominates. They all fall into and become one with the Pyramids aesthetic. This is in contrast to their Nadja collaboration, which, while excellent, had clear lines where both bands came in. Vindsval’s appearance drew a lot of hype from metal fans anticipating this record, but this isn’t a Blut Aus Nord record outsourced to dudes living in a Texas college town. Pyramids are their own unit, and in owning up to their oddities and making them coalesce, not clash, Meadow becomes their most confident statement.

A Northern Meadow is kind of exhaustive to listen to but it's good stuff

exhausting

Recent listens of note:

Midnight Odyssey - kind of great and aptly embodying of the alluded to silveriness, but at almost two and a half hours across just eight tracks, I’m realistically never going to listen to this.

Faith No More - Opening track is nice. Each song starts to get somewhere and then the weird shouty bravado takes over and I just want to be sick (maybe that’s the point). Made it about halfway through.

Fluisteraars - Very elegant. The washed-out atmospherics remind me a little bit of Botanist. Nice as it is though, there’s not quite enough here to hold my attention. Music to write to.

AEVANGELIST - Churning metallic rhythms. Christmas bells/children’s toys. Has the right kind of horrible discordance to be interesting, but somehow fails to take off into something properly distinctive. It has little chimes.

54 Gnaw Their Tongues - Abyss of Longing Throats 277 Points, 8 Votes
http://i.imgur.com/NlWlGsY.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/4U0ukN16XOO6tdMGjUWHtv
spotify:album:4U0ukN16XOO6tdMGjUWHtv

https://gnawtheirtongues.bandcamp.com/album/abyss-of-longing-throats

http://thequietus.com/articles/18893-gnaw-their-tongues-abyss-of-longing-throats-review

The latest missive from the pit where Gnaw Their Tongues lurks gets at once medieval and modernist on every square centimetre of the willing supplicant's disease-ridden flesh. Taking up the challenge so successfully laid by the likes of Khanate to make listening to music as actually unsettling and terrifying an experience as being immersed in a brutally realistic horror film can be, GTT's torturer-in-chief (and indeed sole member) Mories lays out his latest master plan for the subjugation of humankind.

While there's plenty of metal squatting and thrusting at the heart of Abyss Of Longing Throats, from frenetic blast beats to the occasional grind of what might be sampled guitars, Mories also draws on an unholy and unheimlich alliance between the full-spectrum crushing breathlessness of doom and the mechanised clang of industrial beatings, but of the purer Neubauten and Throbbing Gristle strain rather than anything involving Nine Inch Nails' pop metal with 'roid-rage approach. Leavened with harsh martial percussion and brooding orchestral swarms, the sound is thick with menace and heavy on the misery quotient. When one nihilist assault ends another flensing of the ears awaits; the pressure is both relentless and structured so as to maintaining the listener's attention, like a ball gag and spike-lined gimp suit and with about as much room to breathe.

This suffocating mood of bleak malevolence is of course already familiar from a thousand black metal opuses, and anyone who regularly finds themselves with Bathory's 'Equimanthorn' as a welcome earworm should feel, if not at home, then in uncomfortably familiar surroundings at least. Mories has been refining his particular ingredients through a long apprenticeship in the disquiet arts, and with a host of alternate, often surprisingly beautiful alter-egos such as Seirom to assuage his happier side, can be grimly satisfied with the rich seam of mire and murk that Abyss Of Longing Throats proffers so convincingly.

As with the deeply harsh films of Jörg Buttgereit or Nagisa Oshima, it's necessary to step into Mories' world of biblical brutality and let go so completely that disbelief is dropped like a dead weight, never mind merely suspended, in order to take in more than just the battering schlock effects that Gnaw Their Tongues could be presumed to deliver while actually delivering so much more beneath the skin of the hardcore horror show. Just as Buttgereit's anti-hero(ine)s' activities in the Nekromantik movies are depicted with such convicting realism as to make for utterly uncomfortable almost-snuff viewing, or Oshima's similarly transgressive yet tender brutalities in Ai No Corrida (In The Realm Of The Senses) are inflicted with a politicised nihilism that stretches well outside the film's boundaries, so Abyss Of Longing Throats seizes the listener's gaze and demand either full and rapt attention, or to be left in the darkness to its own nefarious devices.

It's this uncompromising attitude which makes Mories' oeuvre so disquietingly satisfying. While being cast into the inferno for all eternity would be insufferable torment in the extreme, at least if the devil may have all the best tunes, then Gnaw Their Tongues has devised the most suitable soundtrack to a season – or more – in hell.

lol i think i forgot to vote for envy. love that record except for the post-rock deluge it kinda sinks into in the middle

Lightning Bolt! I voted for that! I always found Envy to be boring tbh

I wanted to like Pyramids but not my thing straight up.

imago alert: not sure if you voted for Aevangelist or not, or how aware you are of the project, but a source (which will remain nameless for now) mentioned how often it gets compared to a certain Mr Kalmbach's works (also how offtm such comparisons ultimately are, though the description of the album should still allow for some intrigue to be generated)

(Though I suppose tangenttangent's verdict prob bears weight here too)