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

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)

Envy - oh wow, this is amazing! Very twisty and intricate.

Yay, Gnaw Their Tongues was very high on my ballot. Hideously bleak and heavy, but still plenty melodic.

I should have voted for Pyramids but I forgot.

There's not a lot wrong with Gnaw Their Tongues objectively but with the relentless deluge of material over the past ten years that's all bleak, all evil, all the time I've more or less stopped paying attention.

Gnaw Their Tongues was in my top ten. Initially reluctant, its charms became apparent to me very quickly. It really does stand apart from a lot of DIY BM by dint of its sheer horror, its impressive and maniacal embrace of the lower musics. Brilliant work.

Maybe the new collabo with Dragged Into Sunlight is a bit of a change. Anyone heard that yet?

53 Ad Nauseum - Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum Est 278 Points, 9 Votes
http://i.imgur.com/GOOWrnQ.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/2a8ytXWW5ikvh9BI9IyeXQ
spotify:album:2a8ytXWW5ikvh9BI9IyeXQ

https://lavadome.bandcamp.com/album/nihil-quam-vacuitas-ordinatum-est

Ad Nauseam have put an enormous effort into creating a record without compromises. The material itself has been in the making for at least 5 years and mirrors all the hardship for complex artistic growth and perfection in an impressive, lively collage of 8 songs. The final outcome can be easily labeled as extreme art of highest calibre possible, unchallenged.

With that being said, Lavadome is more than proud to become the medium which will submit, unearth and physically channel the artistic elegance and dinkum extremity of this record into the chaos of our fleshly plane.

http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/66890/Ad-Nauseam-Nihil-Quam-Vacuitas-Ordinatum-Est/

Review Summary: A musical conundrum of the highest calibre.

Although it was usually a call for admiration some two decades ago, a metal band boasting extreme technical skill on their debut album is rather common these days. Understandably, the listeners’ enthusiasm for frequent tempo changes, odd time signatures and ostentatious arpeggios played at inhuman speeds has waned, and many bands hoping to distinguish themselves from the crowd are pushing the fold of innovation to the extreme. However, avoiding the perennial comparisons to Gorguts and/or Deathspell Omega seems to be a challenge for just about any band that opts for a complex and dissonant take on either death or black metal. Ad Nauseam aren’t immune, either. From the opening measures of “My Buried Dream”, it’s clear that the aforementioned acts have had a profound influence on the Italian four-piece, but Ad Nauseam manage to mould their influences into something that is faithful yet idiosyncratic, with an intensity that few can match.

The level of proficiency displayed on Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum Est comfortably usurps my ability to dissect and analyse the theory behind it in any great detail. Unorthodox chord progressions and chromatic leads constitute a good portion of the guitar work, bearing resemblances to that of acts such as Ulcerate, Artificial Brain and even Portal, but sounding imitative of none of them. Ad Nauseam combine the visceral, bludgeoning and oppressive nature of their contemporaries with an academic panache. This is enriched by the inclusion of atonal backing strings reminiscent of composers like Alfred Schnittke, exhibited most vividly in the closing minutes of “Key to Timeless Laws”. Now, lacing your compositions with string sections that flirt with serialism can very easily come across as contrived and pseudo-intellectual, but the manner in which the band integrates them is both tasteful and mercifully sporadic. With the bells and whistles confined to climaxes and interludes, the core instrumentation still drives the majority of the album, skirting the line between accessibility and total bedlam but never drifting too close to either end of the spectrum.

Underneath the disorienting presentation are arrangements that have been methodically composed, revised and fine-tuned. Each song is rapidly evolving into something different, and though refrains and hooks are present, they can be rather difficult to decipher on account of the eccentric material and seamless transitions. Thus, it probably comes as no surprise that Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum Est requires several astute listens before everything begins to unravel in a way that makes sense. Yes, it can still feel a little disorderly at times, but any such moments are few and far between. Aural respite comes in the form of melodic ceases, in which notes and chords often ring freely to create a palpable air of suspense, before the band shifts into gear and repeatedly catches you off-guard. The inclusion of these musical ceasefires also brings to light how beautifully produced the album is - each instrument has an equitable place in the mix, as well as crisp and clear yet organic timbres across the board. Combine the acute balance and rich textures with spacious mastering and you have what is arguably the best death metal album of 2015, so far.

With the amount of time and dedication that Ad Nauseam have clearly expended here, it would be a shame for this opus to be dismissed as just another Obscuracore product, because it is so much more than that. Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum Est is a labyrinth of an album that takes time and patience to absorb, and should you afford it just that, your efforts will surely be reconciled.

This was also in my top ten! Right next to GTT I think. Amazing dissonance and great songwriting (and delectable Latin)

xp

Not yet, but it's been duly queued.

I would never have expected something so cutely emo from an album named 'Atheist's cornea'. The track 'Footsteps in the Distance' is beautiful!

Ad Nauseum (spelled incorrectly, or so I'm told) - another very high placement in my ballot.

yeah the Latin could have been even more delectable tbh

cant be often that a posh public school education can come in handy when listening to black metal

52 Monolord - Vænir 283 Points, 10 Votes
http://i.imgur.com/ZJo6GCY.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/3CftcAuSynOsQq1PgNV2eW
spotify:album:3CftcAuSynOsQq1PgNV2eW

https://monolord.bandcamp.com/

http://www.angrymetalguy.com/monolord-vaenir-review/

The first long length from Gothenburg doomsters Monolord, last year’s Empress Rising, enjoyed a surprising level of success and acclaim, the likes of which is usually the result of a combination of solid, but not great music and circumstances which fall under the banner of “hype.” Releasing a second album just a year later and following such a highly esteemed record made more likely the possibility of the enthusiasm bubble bursting. Vænir (named after Sweden’s largest lake) could have easily turned out a dud.

Good news, everyone! Vænir is good! And it’s almost the same as Empress Rising. Nothing else could have been realistically expected. No, sir. Monolord are a rather straightforward entity, mixing doom, sludge, and stoner metal with riffs dating back to Black Sabbath, then adding a touch of psychedelia and fuzzed out, distorted vocals. Does this sound like the description of several other band? Electric Wizard, you say? Indeed, I don’t think there’s a better and more succinct way of describing Monolord’s sound than comparing them to the English doom giants from a parallel universe close to our own. Slightly phased out, not exactly the same, yet clearly recognizable. Sure, sure, there are also traces of YOB and Sleep here, but is that a detrimental notion? As one of our commenters pointed out recently, doom/sludge/stoner is often based on reusing the same elements and riffs over and over again, repackaging them, and spicing them up just a bit. It’s how it goes and Monolord are pretty proficient at it.

The band has the necessary chops for writing relatively memorable songs and a knack for growling, groveling riffs. Case in point: there are six songs on the album and only one that isn’t up to scratch – the short, intermezzo-like “The Cosmic Silence,” which tries to pull a Sabbathian hippie tune à la “Solitude” or “Planet Caravan” and fails at it. But when the band sticks to what they do best, stoning, dooming, and cursing, they are quite good. The opening “Cursing the One” doesn’t mess around and opens with some nice, sweeping riffs, continues leaning on the same nice riffs for nine minutes, and finishes with the same nice riffs. Yeah, like I’ve mentioned before, it’s stoner-doom, it’s repetitive. “Nuclear Death,” “Died a Million Times,“ and the titanic, seventeen minutes long title track are all satisfying, traditional doom songs with some interesting and some less interesting sections (when they go all, like, meditative, like), but it’s “We Will Burn” that steals the spotlight. One of the best, ear-wormiest riffs I’ve heard in a while and a great break and groove hitting somewhere around the fifth minute of the track make it the standout, and not just on this record.

Looked and digested as a whole then, this is a pleasant if somewhat bland album. It’s the definition of “solid” and it will be liked by many insatiable doom fans, but skipped by passersby of the genre. Looking at the musicianship – Mika Häkki on a pulsing, propelling bass, Esben Willems on hard-hitting drums, and Thomas V. Jäger on buzzing guitars and spaced out, “whoa, dude!” vocals are all seasoned musicians and they don’t miss a beat. Shouldered by just the right type of fuzzy, meaty, yet clear production, they make a convincing case by underlining all the strong points of doom’s appeal. Not the gigantic monster of a sound that, say, Ufomammut have, but it’s still poised to rock your eardrums. If after years and years of consuming doom metal you still have any left, that is.

Are you a fan of Monolord’s first record? Do you wish Electric Wizard released at least three albums a year? Well, then you’re in luck. Monolord will please all but the most nitpicky of doom fans. The equivalent of homemade food, comforting and familiar, Vænir is worth a listen even if it doesn’t bring anything new to the doom table. Or maybe exactly because of that.

And yeah DAM of course, I'll listen to everything that doesn't have the ill sense to piss me off before I've heard a note of it (Bosse De Nage)

Oh look, another one a certain person voted for

Regretting that I missed Monolord's show when they came through town.

Three for three on this run - today is a great day!

In the meantime, Pyramids (never heard of) is proving to be stunning. Like a blearier Jesu.

Well, then you’re in luck. Monolord will please all but the most nitpicky of doom fans.

All doom fans are nitpicky. Just look at the reception some gave the Electric Wizard albums then loved the 'With The Dead' album (2 original members of Electric Wizard with Lee Dorrian) and vice versa

what side did you take imago?

I'm really not the doom expert in my household

Funeral doom, more so. The Tyranny was so good

I meant on electric wizard vs with the dead

I thought you would be all over that album

not that ive looked at your ballot you mightve voted for it for all i know

Oh! Uh nah not heard sozzles. Cathedral are a big gap in my knowledge

With The Dead is life draining, but I guess I can't fault it for that as it must be intentional!

With The Dead > last Electric Wizard. Not better than E. Wiz as a whole, but man did I hate that record.

I like the Monolord record but not as much as their debut.

51 Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful 286 Points, 8 Votes
http://i.imgur.com/JQNV6qt.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/46NbjsFFRfMiNGO3UuqubP
spotify:album:46NbjsFFRfMiNGO3UuqubP

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/apr/02/nightwish-endless-forms-most-beautiful-review
by Dom Lawson

It may be the uninhibited preposterousness of symphonic metal that has kept Nightwish from major mainstream triumph, but they’re headlining Wembley Arena in December, so they are clearly on the right track. Bravely, Endless Forms Most Beautiful eschews the Finns’ usual fairytale comfort zone in favour of a sustained paean to evolutionary science, featuring the surprising but effective presence of Richard Dawkins as a narrator. It’s a change of tack that adds intrigue and substance to the band’s typical bombast and melodrama, resulting in their most ambitious and assured record yet. Newly recruited singer Floor Jansen strikes a fine balance between operatic acrobatics and straightforward, soulful restraint, most notably on twinkling earworm Élan. But it is chief songwriter Tuomas Holopainen’s ear for epic refrains and lavish arrangements that makes Endless Forms such a stirring and defiantly uncool delight.

Did anyone else read Richard Dawson instead of Dawkins in that review?

twenty minutes of lols pls

'poor old horse' + nightwish

I rarely listen to that symphonic stuff, but would totally go see Blind Guardian with Nightwish at the Chicago Civic Opera House or something. Would there be costumes, props and glitter or is my imagination off base?

imago liveblog this album now please

who wants lj to liveblog it?

If I wasn't standing on a station platform in the rain in the middle of nowhere I might

we are past the halfway point now too btw

What we really need is Brad to come and explain himself ;)

Headlining Wembley Arena? Isn't that like 80.000 people?

no, that would be Wembley Stadium

50 Misþyrming - Söngvar elds og óreiðu 298 Points, 9 Votes
http://i.imgur.com/lB24vu1.jpg

https://misthyrming.bandcamp.com/album/s-ngvar-elds-og-rei-u

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/things-might-missed-2015-misthyrming-songvar-elds-og-oreidu/

There aren’t many contexts wherein ‘Icelandic’ forms part of a natural phrase to an outsider such as myself. If I think ‘American…’ I complete the phrase with ‘Horror Story,’ ‘Hustle’ or ‘Heartbeat,’ among numerous other affiliated terms. There are but two completions which spring to mind after ‘Icelandic’ for me: ‘beer’ and ‘metal.’ I therefore understandably privilege the overachieving country and am here to impart on you the knowledge of yet more exemplary cultural output. Arising from the igneous, krieg crust permeating the bedrock of all things Icelandic, Misþyrming is largely the work of enigmatic multi-instrumentalist, composer and frontman, D. G. It truly captures the essence of everything I perceive as Icelandic: brutal, cold and harsh, but earthly, beautiful and adventurous too. Söngvar elds og óreiðu is among the best black metal you will hear this year.

It makes for an unusual first listen, gripping you with its frosty, blackened, but ultimately orthodox fingers, before gradually relinquishing its subtler, atmospheric mysticism. It’s a rare album which is immediately striking with its shrieking, chaotic black metal core, but also rewards repeated listens as its avant-garde, melodic and atmospheric qualities stir in its depths. This isn’t just reserved for a few exclusively-ambient tracks scattered throughout (though there is one), but is subtly integrated into Söngvar‘s progression. Opener “Songür heiftar” features unnerving guitar twangs demarcating avant-garde touches used by such bands as Taarenes Vaar, and the tempestuous passages more commonly heard in black metal gradually divulge a dark and mysterious atmosphere.

Transitioning from this first song, Söngvar tracks a wholly satisfying course through its 44-minute length, clasping your attention close to its bosom throughout. The bar is raised by second track “…af þjáningu og þrá,” an even more satisfying slice of atmospheric black metal, before truly introducing the weirdness which elevates the material on “Endalokasálmar.” Despite retaining its brutality, the drums have a definite groove here, and the vocals take on a deeper, more unsettling, tone. It breaks after a suitably explosive climax into an atonal piano melody with a carnival-esque swing. The next track is the dissonant, ambient interlude which while unremarkable in and of itself, fits perfectly the album’s structure. This is juxtaposed by “Er haustið ber að garði,” which I can only describe as if serious black metal met upbeat grind, featuring an awesome buzz-sawing melody. Without devolving into a frowned-upon track-by-track review, things heighten over the second half as all previously utilized styles are drawn together into a couple of lengthier tracks and the album reaches its own climax. It goes such a long way to have a well-paced and digestible runtime as Söngvar does.

Misþyrming_2015

This will inevitably sound pretentious as fuck, but Misþyrming‘s début feels like it flows and breathes, and is almost sentient in its free-form yet precise depiction of Icelandic frostiness. The savage intensity some desire in their black metal is there, but its moody grace and clarity is what consolidates this into an excellent release. When this thing is available for the very reasonable price of nothing at all, there is literally no good reason why you should not be circulating wintry winds through your preferred listening space.

Tracks to check: “Er haustið ber að garði,” “Friðþæging blýþungra hjartna,” “Söngur uppljómunar”

The Nightwish album is great. It's not quite my favorite gothic symphonic metal album of the year, but I think that's mostly because Nightwish are so firmly established in my mind that it's hard to feel surprised by them anymore. Whereas I had lower, and far exceeded, expectations for Imperia, Amberian Dawn and Graveshadow.

Surprisingly low considering the crossover success this record had this year.

never heard of Misþyrming either

Misþyrming is a name your price download on bandcamp btw so no excuses for any of us not to hear it now

well that's much more to my liking than nightwish