2019 Metal ’n’ Heavy Rock/Heavy Music Poll: RESULTS - Top 100 Countdown

Oh was it? Then yes

Aside from Neech, who voted for this? Talk about a silent majority.

Moving on…

8
Baroness - Gold & Grey
401 points, 11 votes

https://static.stereogum.com/uploads/2019/06/Baroness-Gold-And-Grey-1560171366-640x640.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/6BK62pLb3I24L5zr2zaYoI

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/baroness-gold-and-grey/

It is intimidating thing to sit down with a new Baroness record and try to understand its contours. There’s just so much to take into account. This Savannah DIY metal band turned scattered progressive rock collective are an entirely different beast than they were back when Red came out in 2007 and every bike messenger in West Philly was rocking their shirts; or when Blue dropped in 2009 and hipsters caught wind of their promise; or when 2012’s Yellow & Green elevated them to a new tier of progressive acclaim; or when 2015’s Grammy-nominated Purple presented a band who had quite literally been through hell, and returned bearing iridescent riffs. With their fifth album, Gold & Grey, the shape-shifting outfit hands us the latest frayed chapter in their evolution, its words and notes illuminated like a medieval manuscript. Demons still hide in the margins, but divinity radiates.

Baroness have lived many musical lives since the band first formed in 2003, and cheated death in 2012, when a terrible bus crash derailed their ascent and led to the departure of two members, drummer Allen Blickle and bassist Matt Maggioni. Seven years on from that traumatic accident, they’ve experienced a great deal of healing and growth—both planned and unexpected. This process was first explored on Purple, a barely-closed wound of an album that concealed a certain rawness of spirit, and now, on Gold & Grey, it’s mellowed into acceptance, the scars still prominent, but smoothed with time.

The addition of new guitarist and backing vocalist Gina Gleason completes a lineup that includes bassist Nick Jost, drummer Sebastian Thomson, and vocalist and guitarist John Baizley (an accomplished artist who’s equally deft with a paintbrush as a sheet of composition paper). It can’t be easy to be the new kid in a band with so much history behind it, but Gleason is a natural fit. She makes her presence felt from the onset in the album’s ambitious guitar work; her vocals on tracks like the strange, dreamy album closer “Pale Sun” add both lightness and depth, and harmonize beautifully with Baizley's earnest croon.

I thought their first couple of albums were pretty good but this was an absolute stinker. Horrible production, to boot.

I'm so behind on following this. Too busy with real life. I've been keeping up and listening to as much as I can stand. Cult of Luna was my #1 and Wilderun my #2.

That AMG reviewer otm about Wilderun, though. Every time I listen to it, I appreciate it more. The way they build songs up to epic crescendos and the techniques they use to get there are endlessly entertaining to me. I was never into Opeth and haven't heard very much of their music, but the point of comparison for me is actually Moonsorrow and maybe, like, Styx or something? Anyway, I love this, and am listening to it at least once a week right now. I may go back and explore some of the bands they are compared to after this poll is finished rolling out and I've tried everything that placed.

Cult of Luna was one of the only bands that came out of the whole "NeuroIsis" strain of metal that really grabbed me. "Somewhere Along the Highway" was high on my list of favorite albums of that decade (I listened to it recently for the first time in forever and it holds up well), but I lost track of them as I was seeking newer sounds. Until I listened to "Mariner" last year and probably listened to it a hundred times. If I hadn't discovered it a year after it came out, I would have voted it high on that year's poll. So, I wasn't expecting much when I heard Cult of Luna was releasing an album this year without Christmas, but I ended up loving this, and I think I may have listened to this more than any other heavy album this year. "The Fall" might be the standout track for me. What a great album closer: It makes me want to start the whole thing over again. All of that said; I hope they collaborate with Julie Christmas again. The constant scream vocals are a weak point for me.

purple is amazing, a perfect record. gold and grey is... messier. looking forward to where they land on the next one

I couldn't vote for the Chelsea Wolfe just based on past albums that definitely qualified here. The album is heavy in tone, but not heavy rock or metal. Anyway, I'm glad it did well here, though it should have placed high in the main poll. I'm so glad I dragged myself out to see her live this year. Her performance stood out in a year where I went to a lot more shows than I normally do.

Baroness didn't grab me. I was two years late to the "Purple" party, too, so maybe it'll grab me next year or something.

Yeah, she's wonderful live. I'm glad I hauled my antisocial ass over to her show during the Hiss Spun tour.

I liked blue but never connected with anything else of theirs and I hate baizley's art style.

7
Inter Arma - Sulphur English
457 points, 13 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1396132576_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/2aa2K1vqMD0vqpvPl5idlv
https://interarma.bandcamp.com/album/sulphur-english

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/inter-arma-sulphur-english/

Sulphur English is a tempest. The unrelenting intensity of Inter Arma’s fourth album is common in metal, but its monolithic power is striking for a band long defined by its dynamics. On its previous three full-lengths, the Richmond quintet has tested a theory that the apocalypse would sound more real if it invoked the totality of the landscape: lush gardens of British folk in one corner, the winding roads of Southern rock stretching out in the distance, the wide open skies of prog above. This ability to shapeshift has yielded a catalog that feels vast but interconnected: different topographies along the same map.

On Sulphur English, with little territory left to cover, Inter Arma set fire to it all. The riffs are pummeling and dissonant, as if melting and losing shape in real time. The songwriting operates on a principle of tension and repetition. Less melodic and more aggressive than anything they’ve recorded, it’s a test of endurance through which the band seems to grow more focused with each passing minute. Yet these songs do not simply suggest Inter Arma’s dark unburdening, their primal howl after a series of masterfully composed opuses. Instead, they spiral with the patience and precision of some dismal symphony. With Sulphur English, Inter Arma expose the nightmare world that’s lingered below the surface of all their previous work.

Vocalist Mike Paparo has discussed using these songs to address his struggles with depression, and the record itself is dedicated to two of the band’s colleagues who died in recent years: Bill Bumgardner of Lord Mantis and Indian, for whom the ominous opening track is named, and Adrian Guerra of Bell Witch, whose mournful doom metal echoes through the album’s quieter moments. Its darkness feels personal, lived-in. The bluesy and exquisite “Stillness” and the funeral march of “Blood on the Lupines” touch on the classic-rock-influenced ballads from 2016’s Paradise Gallows; but where those songs were defined by their sweeping momentum, these seem to burrow deeper into themselves, unwilling to transcend.

Am more than prepared for this to be confirmation bias, but has the metal poll always been this US-centric in the past?

This one is fuckin' awesome, although I'm with beard papa re: Cult of Luna (they do it even better).

massive record like being crushed beneath a boulder for an hour

I think so? Not something I'm entirely cool with tbh.

2xp

I've got 16 US bands on my ballot of 50. Pretty sure the overall ratio in this poll is way higher than that.

Only 2 in my top 10. We've already got 4 in this top 10.

I've noticed it throughout the whole roll-out. Not sure what it means, if anything.

Xp, most albums should begin with a song called 'Bumgardner'.

I concur w/ brad's assessments of Baroness and Inter Arma.

I don't think of CoL and Inter Arma as being particularly similar

In the sense that they're both heirs to Neurosis.

Next up: more imago-core that I also voted for.

6
Waste of Space Orchestra - Syntheosis
494 points, 15 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3320415754_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/2si5wwVFSdYlHGyNx7Qdt5
https://wasteofspaceorchestra.bandcamp.com/album/syntheosis

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/waste-of-space-orchestra-syntheosis-review/

In the beginning, there are only faint, oblique details. Scattered hints of an eerie theme repeated by bubbling analogue synthesizers and their faux operatic voices floating in a vast chamber. Syntheosis’ first cut “Void Monolith” leaves the impression of a minimalist prologue for a labyrinthine, perverted science fiction show from the sixties. A depraved homage to Hawkwind and Delia Derbyshire, perhaps. But beneath this ethereal façade, heavier and darker clouds of crumbling riffs stir. And then—the explosion! As the second minute of “The Shamanic Vision” passes by, the coalesced force of Finnish bands Oranssi Pazuzu and Dark Buddha Rising is revealed in its full, utter grandeur. The soundscape is suddenly overwhelmed by a clash of sounds. Malevolent growls of a mad zealot proselytize, recite, and contort while frenzied tremolos and filthy sludge heaviness intertwine with ritualistic rhythms, rolling drums, incisive sitar plunks, and synth-laden drones. It’s a stunning climax to a build-up that announces a record infused with psychedelia, metallic mass, and divination.

A certain thespian poise dominates throughout Syntheosis, the piece originally commissioned for Roadburn Festival 2018 and then turned into a proper studio recording. Highly conceptual, Waste of Space Orchestra narrate a quite demented story somewhere between magical realism and occult horror. The album develops intently and purposefully, tracing the lines of an imagined ritual and its performers, three mysterious creatures that aim “to open a portal that will suck them into a different reality of brain-mutilating color storms and ego-diminishing audio violence.” The three protagonists—The Shaman, The Seeker, and The Possessor—each possess a voice (and vocalist) of their own accompanied by corresponding musical themes, symbols of certain facets of humanity. Not quite demons, not quite angels, but a bit of both. Musically speaking and true to the album’s name, Oranssi Pazuzu and Dark Buddha Rising synthesize rather than just collaborate, pulling various influences in their storytelling. While Waste of Space Orchestra obviously shares traits and stylistic flourishes with both bands, it is ultimately a thing of its own.

My #2.

Listening to the opening track of this album, Void Monolith, grow from near-silence into galactic splendour was one of the most astoundingly exciting musical experiences I've had in a long time. I like to be reminded now and then of just how thrilling music can be. The rest of the album lived up to it too. An amazing work, an amazing collaboration.

Witness the colour storm. Yield!

Am more than prepared for this to be confirmation bias, but has the metal poll always been this US-centric in the past?

― Ngolo Cantwell (Chinaski), Friday, 28 February 2020 18:09 (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Only the past couple of years. We've lost the euro posters and also the lurkers , who judging by their names/email addresses were mostly euro and UK posters seem to have vanished. Plus there was more shorter ballots this year.

But maybe it was just a strong year for death metal?

my #3 btw

Any guesses as to the top 5?

more like waste of space album!!!

(j/k it's good)

I was the #1 vote for WOSO! It was also my number #1 in the main poll - too undeniable to apply ‘separate metal’ rules to. It is a paean to cinematic experience, to the blurry canvas of our future via 1970s science fiction. The heady progressions of every track on this album slink and loom magically. It’s such a sly, creepy little album with infinite replay value. For anyone who hasn’t heard it yet, head straight to ‘Wake Up the Possessor’.

5
Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race
529 points, 13 votes, 2 #1 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0485761639_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/34U0n1oAE5mwgdaIBrcIck
https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/hidden-history-of-the-human-race

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/blood-incantation-hidden-history-of-the-human-race/

Death metal glories in ugliness—rhythm guitars the texture of churned shit, leads like pig squeals, vocals like reverse peristalsis. But Blood Incantation do beautiful things with that ugliness. Their ugliness moves; within 40 minutes on their second album Hidden History of the Human Race, the Denver quartet brings death metal to exalted places, places it hardly ever goes, without ever losing the essential, foul tang of the sound.

It helps that they are incredible players, virtuosic in the most basic sense. In just the first few minutes of the opening epic “Slave Species of the Gods,” guitarists Paul Riedl and Morris Kolontyrsky evoke the cold steel-shavings scrape of Slayer’s Kerry King and the hair-flip theatrics of Metallica’s Kirk Hammett. But their virtuosity comes from their vocabulary, as well: They just seem to think differently than their peers. Great riffs are less the products of finger muscles than the peculiarity of a mind, and there is no question that they are singular players.

You can hear this relative oddness everywhere. They are more fond of harmonized guitars than most death metal bands, which give their suite-length songs uncommon melodic movement and emotional resonance. Ambient synthesizers play walk-on roles at several surprising moments, and clean-toned psychedelic guitar leads often pick up where those synthesizers left off, carrying melodic ideas forward. Even when drummer Isaac Faulk is drilling the music into the earth with blast beats, there is something in the arrangement arcing upward.

Speaking of great death metal from last year…

For anyone who hasn’t heard it yet, head straight to ‘Wake Up the Possessor’.

And try to work out how one vocalist pulled off the whole song!

this one went over/past my head I confess

I voted for the Chelsea Wolfe and Baroness! They aren't as good as some previous releases, agreed, but they were still great albums to me. I don't think Baroness could have topped Purple, it's one of the best metal albums of the decade at least.

The Waste of Space Orchestra is lovely and I also voted for it, but on the lower half of my ballot cause I had only listened to it a little bit, very much the kind of blackened psych-prog experimental stuff I like though.

My #3. The expectations were absurd and they exceeded em somehow. Incredible band. Saw em on tour with Demilich a couple years ago and they played one of the best live sets I've ever seen.

welp I know the top 4 but not the order

My 3 favorites of the year, right in a row.
The Blood Incantation I probably listened to more than anything else in 2019.

I thought it would be my AOTY when I first heard it and it unfortunately fell down my ladder but it's still a damn fine LP. I hope they dip further into Middle Eastern riff alchemy.

I do admire how they manage to turn tech death into a less forbidding proposition, although 'Awakening From the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)' doesn't compromise in the least.

Next up: NOT an American band (but some of you assholes might argue there's no difference).

My #6. Also exceeded high expectations. I listened to Starspawn a lot while waiting for this. It's its own thing, and doesn't come off as retro, but it also touches some early Morbid Angel, Death, and Atheist nerves for me. Also has sentimental value as it dropped during a really great week last fall and became the soundtrack to that.

4
Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairvoyance
571 points, 15 votes, 2 #1 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0983660702_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/36jc0OIIO16Z6gtwegfBfc
https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/planetary-clairvoyance

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/tomb-mold-planetary-clairvoyance/

Last fall, Tomb Mold previewed their third album, the sci-fi opus Planetary Clairvoyance, with a limited edition cassette tape. Featuring early versions of two songs from the upcoming record, the demo felt like an artifact from death metal’s late-80s heyday: murky, xeroxed, with little context for the uninitiated. Both songs hovered around the six-minute mark, blasting like wind tunnels. The accompanying liner notes, which attributed duties like “Void Expansion” and “Nebula Observation” to cryptically initialed band members, featured a statement of cosmic gratitude in the place where other bands might list their ‘thank you’s’ or paste their Bandcamp link: “The azure of the heavens is perfect, beautiful.”

“Perfect” and “beautiful” are not the adjectives you might think to associate with a death metal band called Tomb Mold. But since forming in 2015, the Toronto quartet have evolved from typically morbid fascinations (song titles include “Bereavement of Flesh,” “Valley of Defilement”) into grander, more ambitious compositions. Last year’s Manor of Infinite Forms felt like a breakthrough, with guitarists Derrick Vella and Payson Power cycling through their infinite arsenal of riffs over a churning rhythm section. Death metal tends to thrive on history, and Tomb Mold never shied away from hero worship, particularly forebears like Incantation and Finnish weirdos Demilich. It was their energy that made them stand out, their ability to find new extremes in their old-school sound.

Darker, stranger, and more atmospheric than its predecessor, Planetary Clairvoyance extends their gifts beyond death metal, sounding untied to any particular lineage. It’s their tightest record to date, suite-like in its momentum and thematic coherence. Almost immediately, they gesture toward quiet, eerier textures. The opening track, “Beg for Life,” is interrupted by a passage of classical guitar that echoes over ominous fills from drummer Max Klebanoff. An ambient interlude, “Phosphorene Ultimate,” arrives early in the tracklist as a kind of warning sign. Less than 15 minutes into the record, it’s a purposefully arresting choice, meant to remind you that this is not background music: at every moment, Tomb Mold demand you take stock of the world they create, where passages of silence are as integral as the grinding melodies and chaos.

my dudes!!!!!!

Yay for the Blood Inc and Tomb Mold

Both #1-2 on my ballot, in reverse order

My #1. The metal record I listened to the most last year: while working, while jogging, while chilling, while shitposting on ILX. I absolutely love their previous LPs but this one takes it to the next level: even better songs, even filthier vocals, even more of that suffocating, eponymous atmosphere. Even the interludes do it for me, and I admire how utterly economical this record is: not a single one of its 38 minutes is wasted, which is exactly what I want from the genre.

…and I'm more of a BM guy usually.

This was great. Would've probably been top 5 for me if I didn't play the two track demo from last fall into the ground beforehand. Still put it at like #14. These guys rip live, too. You gotta love a singing drummer.