Rolling Metal Thread 2012

Haha, I just got an email from N1ck Mc@st3r, the Krallice CD I ordered on August 26th just got shipped yesterday. Now, if only I could get my Thrill Jockey order settled, I'll be happy.

― HAPPY BDAY TOOTS (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, December 6, 2012 4:43 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good news!

Thanks EZ!

This is a band I haven't heard anyone talking about. We played with them in Montreal and they blew me away.

Imagine if Atriarch had Kat Bjelland on vocals. Great death-rock/doom hybrid and catchy songs.

http://showofbedlam.bandcamp.com/

Wow, that's pretty nice! I like the feedbacky, kinda fried guitar tone.

Lol, yeah, he actually apologized a couple times for it getting lost in the shuffle, seemed pretty sincere. Glad I finally heard SOMETHING though.

That's how I felt when my Decibel subscription stopped arriving in the post randomly. I cancelled it and never resubbed; a shame as I really dig the magazine, content and design. If they did a digital edition I'd be all over it.

they do a digital edition now! you can get it on the ipad, at least.

Thanks for that EZ, I see it's in the Newsstand store now. I have an iPhone, no iPad - if I could read it on the desktop too, I'll seriously consider a re-sub. Funny, there's zilch about digital subscriptions on the Decibel website...

I thought they already did this but I guess the previous was just the two guys' column.

Pop Matters The Best Metal of 2012

20 Sigh - In Somniphobia
19 Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pandora’s Piñata
18 Ahab - The Giant
17 Gojira - L’Enfant Sauvage
16 Blut Aus Nord - 777—Cosmosophy
15 Rush - Clockwork Angels
14 Alcest - Les Voyages de l’Âme
13 Atriarch - Ritual of Passing
12 Meshuggah - Koloss
11 Ihsahn - Eremita
10 Krallice - Years Past Matter
09 Devin Townsend Project - Epicloud
08 Dragged into Sunlight - Widowmaker
07 Enslaved - RIITIIR
06 Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind
05 Baroness - Yellow & Green
04 Author & Punisher - Ursus Americanus
03 Panopticon - Kentucky
02 Pig Destroyer - Book Burner
01 Dawnbringer - Into the Lair of the Sun God

I would love it if the new Enslaved was better than the new Rush. But it's not.

You're right, Nate.

Just found out about a Pallbearer/Pinkish Black show happening tonight. Off to Fort Worth I go.

Whoa that Dragged into Sunlight is incredible, thanks for the Popmatters list

Don't think I ever posted the final list I submitted to Decibel – in case anyone is curious, here you go. Probably would be slightly different now that I've heard the stuff that's come out subsequently, but I haven't reformulated yet.

1. Gojira - L'enfant sauvage
2. The Devil’s Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
3. Killing Joke - MMXII
4. Grand Magus - The Hunt
5. Devin Townsend Project – Epicloud
6. Witch Mountain - Cauldron of the Wild
7. Meshuggah - Koloss
8. Paradise Lost - Tragic Idol
9. Enslaved – Riitiir
10. Torche – Harmonicraft
11. Dawnbringer - Into the Lair of the Sun God
12. Jess and the Ancient Ones - Jess and the Ancient Ones
13. Arkhamin Kirjasto - Torches Ablaze
14. Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction
15. Testament - Dark Roots of Earth
16. Christian Mistress - Possession
17. Ihsahn - Eremita
18. Alcest - Les Voyages De L'Âme
19. Venomous Maximus - Venomous Maximus
20. Liberteer - Better to Die on Your Feet Than Live on Your Knees

That's an awesome list. Great minds think alike.

Wow, thanks Jeff!

My top 30 metal albums of the year available on Rhapsody (which omits albums not available on Rhapsody -- Witch Mountain, for instance.)

http://www.rhapsody.com/blog/post/top-30-metal-albums-of-2012

Stereogum’s Top 40 Metal Albums Of 2012
http://stereogum.com/1215082/stereogums-top-40-metal-albums-of-2012/franchises/listomania/

THKD’s Top 20 Metal Albums of 2012
http://thatshowkidsdie.com/2012/12/10/thkds-top-20-metal-albums-of-2012/

The Therion album of french pop songs is er, interesting. I liked "Une Fleur Dans Le Coeur" and "Initials BB".

I've got a list up on Metalsucks that drew the expected amount of ire. Gutted to have to leave off the honorable mentions!

1. Faustcoven - Hellfire and Funeral Bells
2. Svartidauði - Flesh Cathedral
3. Pallbearer – Sorrow and Extinction
4. Revenge - Scum.Collapse.Eradication
5. Hell - III
6. Derketa - In Death We Meet
7. Mgla - With Hearts Toward None
8. Anhedonist – Netherwards
9. Elysian Blaze - Blood Geometry
10. Knelt Rote – Trespass
11. Inverloch – Dusk… Subside
12. The Great Old Ones - Al-Azif
13. Genocide Shrines – Devanation Monumentemples
14. Shever - Rituals
15. Ævangelist – De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis

http://www.metalsucks.net/2012/12/04/grim-kims-top-fifteen-metal-albums-of-2012/

The only album on your list I've heard was Derketa, but I remember liking it - kinda Incantation-y, the way they blended death and doom.

so is this year's krallice record showing up on any lists? it's prob my favorite since the first one but i feel like there's gotta be some effect for very consistent, prolific bands where they drop over time relative to things that are new and interesting.

Hmm. http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2012/12/10_best_metal_albums.php?print=true

Krallice is on that list!

indeed!

I know nine of Kim's picks, so I'm proud. Plus the Voice list is baffling.

I wrote the Voice's (well, VVM's) year-end metal list a couple of years in a row. There are three or four excellent records on this year's version.

If those are the writer's top 10 albums of the year, that's fine, she liked what she liked. However, I think, and this is going to be an opinion that is going to get me yelled at, if you're doing the official list for a major publication, there are other factors that need to be considered – consensus amongst the other writers that cover that genre for the publication, a view of the potential legacy of the album, whether or not it's the "best" of the year or just your favorite.

a view of the potential legacy of the album

^^almost impossible to judge IMO

You also have to keep in mind the readership you're writing for – something that Pitchfork is excellent at, despite any other criticism I may have of them. Although I guess VV is in a transitional state right now and don't really have a focused readership.

Yeah, the legacy thing is tricky, but it's certainly possible to say "is the third Dethklok album (which I liked!) REALLY going to have any sort of lasting impact, or is it just a thing that is fun right now?"

it's certainly possible to say "is the third Dethklok album (which I liked!) REALLY going to have any sort of lasting impact, or is it just a thing that is fun right now?"

haha well point taken (on dethklok at least lol)....but you know what i mean, i guess i get uncomfortable when ppl make all these grand predictions like MUSIC IS DIFFERENT NOW about stuff that has been out for a month, and time generally makes fools of us all when it comes to what ends up mattering

also, as a non-metal dude regular on this thread, i'm kind of assuming that picking Dethklok on your best of list is a clown/false metal move beyond belief?

I mean, it's a good album, and I would definitely include it in my, say, top hundred of the year, but top 10 seems rather shortsighted.

if you're doing the official list for a major publication, there are other factors that need to be considered – consensus amongst the other writers that cover that genre for the publication, a view of the potential legacy of the album, whether or not it's the "best" of the year or just your favorite.

I don't want you to think of me as yelling. I want you to think of me as disagreeing in a calm and reasonable tone. (You fucking idiot.)

- What constitutes "a major publication" in 2012? There are no publications that could truly be considered "major" anymore, in my opinion. If you mean "a publication read by lots of other critics ready to snipe and throw darts" (which is really what "major" means in this context), then say that, even if it makes the world of music criticism look exactly as petty and dominated-by-dickbags as it is.

- If you're seeking consensus, don't ask one person to compile the list. Do it with ballots and a group of voters numbering in, at minimum, the double digits. Otherwise you're pretending to objectivity. A one-person list has no obligation to anyone but the list-maker.

- Albums made with some sort of "legacy" in mind are frequently awful. Timid, overthought, and dull as fuck. That's what we have indie for; there's no need to let thoughts of "legacy" and the like pollute metal, which should always remain (or at least have the potential to be) the soundtrack to a 14-year-old boy thumping his scrawny chest in his bedroom.

Maybe he should have said longevity rather than legacy.

re 'years past matter':

i still like the krallice a lot and have played it dozens of times, but i can't say i understand it much when it's not playing - hard to even remember, compared to the previous one. i wonder if that might not have an effect on its list placeability.

Longevity is a ridiculous concept w/r/t music too. How many times do you have to listen to an album all the way through before you think you've gotten your money's worth (assuming you paid for it)? If you pay $15, do you think the album "owes" you 15 plays? Or a given time-span of enjoyableness? Does it have to be good now, and still good five years from now? Have you ever put a record back thinking, "Sure, I might like this today, but what am I gonna think about it when I'm 40?"

which should always remain (or at least have the potential to be) the soundtrack to a 14-year-old boy thumping his scrawny chest in his bedroom.

this is kind of depressing!

Longevity is a ridiculous concept w/r/t music too.
By longevity I mean some essential quality that compels repeated listens. Seems pretty non-controversial that this would be a desirable value.

Albums made with some sort of "legacy" in mind are frequently awful.
Seemed like Jeff was talking about a list-maker estimating (post-hoc) an album's potential legacy going forward, which is a different thing entirely from the artist's intent, so no conflict there.

Yeah, legacy probably wasn't the right word. Longevity isn't quite it, either. I guess I mean its place in the larger picture. If it's an album by an established act, does it significantly up their game, take them in an interesting new direction, set a new benchmark for their corner of the world, serve as the most fully realized example of their vision yet, or is it just plain awesome? If it's a newer act, do they bring something new to the table, provide an exceptional example of the genre they're working in, surprise you, etc. For example, let's look at the Devin Townsend record I put pretty high up on my list. He's been around for a while, put out a million releases, and yet Epicloud serves as a consolidation of all the styles and interests he's worked with over the past two decades, and he executes the results amazingly well. Meshuggah are the long reigning progenitors of "djent," and while they've had missteps in the past (I'm not a big fan of most of their post-millennial work), their latest album cements that they are still the best while bringing in a new, welcome organic production. Pallbearer, who are obviously divisive, certainly work within traditional doom, but with great songwriting and a hopeful undertone that seems fresh. On the other hand, you have Lamb of God, who have basically been on a creative plateau for the good part of a decade (even if their latest is there most polished version of that stagnation), Dethklok, who put out a totally solid, totally derivative death metal album, and Morbid Angel, who did try something new but failed horribly. You have to weigh those against everything else that came out this year and go, well, was said totally solid death metal album REALLY better than all the other death metal albums that came out this year?

As for major publications – I would consider a publication with the Voice's long and storied history, with its wide circulation and prominent website and end of your critic poll and ownership of several other publications with large circulation in major cities to be a major publication, yes. Do I think they should've assigned that list to one writer? No, I don't.

xxp Also, why wouldn't an album "that is fun right now" be one you'd be more likely to return to 5 or 20 years down the line than a less fun one you just think is, ho hum, "important" or whatever? And how, exactly, would you determine which album is "best" (as opposed to your "favorite" -- never understood the difference myself, since neither is objective) other than by how much you actually like the thing? In what way is something you don't like "better" than something you do? Why would you base your list on what other people like? Isn't that kind of chickenshit? Why don't you trust your own tastes? (Don't mean to direct any of these at you personally, Jeff, and I'm not yelling at you either. But I don't think what you're suggesting makes much sense. It also makes for really boring lists. Which there are too many of already.)

Wrote that before your last post, obviously. But I'm still not buying it. "Fun right now" is really underrated by critics; always has been.

heavy metal could get hit by a bus crossing the street at any moment

Honestly have never been a huge fan of year-end lists in general that are supposed to be a consensus of some publication's "brand" or whatever. They pretend the outlet has a voice that speaks for all its contributors or editors, but that's pretty much always a lie in my experience. Individual lists make sense; actual polls can make sense. (And the Voice has Pazz & Jop for that.) Beyond that, it's mainly marketing.

man i could stand to listen to a totally solid death metal from this year

Yeah, certainly fair. And having different voices (no pun intended) out there is certainly a valuable thing. I think maybe my problem with this particular article is that it feels like a marketing-mandated listicle rather than an actual critical evaluation of the best metal albums of the year, but that is, as you pointed out, an entirely subjective thing on my part. If she was the official metal envoy for voice media, like Brandon over at pitchfork, that would maybe be a different story, but as is it feels like they were just like "hey, you write for us and like metal, can you knock one of these things out for us by tomorrow?"

"Fun right now" is certainly a valid criteria, no denying that (and it's something I try to acknowledge in my own writing), but the inclusion of Dethklok just feels kind of lazy. Even though, again, I do really like that record!

I realize we have this sort of "end of year poll LOL" debate every year, but I don't know, sometimes it's valuable to be critical of criticism.

If it's an album by an established act, does it significantly up their game, take them in an interesting new direction, set a new benchmark for their corner of the world, serve as the most fully realized example of their vision yet, or is it just plain awesome? If it's a newer act, do they bring something new to the table, provide an exceptional example of the genre they're working in, surprise you, etc

By the way, I'm not denying that all of these factors might obviously figure into how much you like something -- might make it more compelling, more worth returning to, more fun; might give it more potential for future usefulness. But the trick of criticism (list-making and otherwise) is to figure out how much you like or dislike something, and then figure out why, not the other way around, by marking off variables on a checklist or whatever. There are plenty of great albums that do nothing new at all, always have been. And new directions aren't necessarily good directions.

I don't like the Dethklok album at all, by the way. But I also don't distrust the guy on facebook who tried explaining why he thinks it's one of the year's best metal albums. He's a pretty good critic, and he hears tons of metal. In his world, maybe it is one of the best.

I agree, Chuck. And I feel like, when writing a review of an album, that's the approach to take. But when you're compiling an end of year list, something which by its very nature requires more rumination on why you like something and why that thing is more worthy of promotion at the end of the year (and end of year lists are supposed to take into account how well an album has aged in the intervening time after it's had a lot of time to sit with you), it's pretty valuable to look at those different factors.