THE 10TH ANNUAL ILM METAL POLL:2017 RESULTS THREAD

The first concert I ever tried to record was Unsane around the release of Total Destruction. To limit the recording volume of the walkman I was using, I tied cotton balls around the microphone. You can imagine what the results sounded like.

Nickelback?

Unsane are one of the few legendary bands who have reformed and come back as good as they ever were with each album. Such a great great underappreciated band by most people outwith their 'scene' though

luckily ILM metal regulars and metal poll voters do appreciate them as they always make the countdown

24 Lingua Ignota - All Bitches Die 284 Points, 7 Votes, TWO #1s
https://i.imgur.com/oiOymel.jpg
https://linguaignota.bandcamp.com/album/all-bitches-die

https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/kzqzwn/lingua-ignotas-liturgical-noise-is-a-celebration-of-obliteration

Right on.

Two #1s!

Heard this about 5 hours before voting and instantly made it my #6. It's staggering.

All of it is unbelievably intense, but a special mention to the third track, which destroys everything it touches, and will ensure you can never look at the New English Hymnal the same way again

"LORD GOD..."

Yeah, Unsane!

"Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings."

http://www.atomicarchive.com/Effects/Images/WE12.jpg

This was my #1, on paper this is over-the-top gothy hysteria but when it’s executed with an intensity like this I’m all for it.

the Unsane album is so goddamn good

23 Immolation - Atonement 302 Points, 8 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/3J5rxl7.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/5NUH1pgRUS3ikU5DQiHqeX?si=zvC7519LSHODy0JF6upeFQ

http://www.angrymetalguy.com/immolation-atonement-review/

Toooo low

corrreeeect plaaaaacemeeeent

the lingua ignota placement is especially impressive since it was an extremely late ballot addition

Catching up all the way back at Venenum (which is sounding full of ideas and generally great), but excited to see Unsane and Lingua Ignota placing!

the lingua ignota interview linked above is sobering stuff

listening to unsane now! wow it's off to a good start

I know we're still a few minutes away but I was frankly stunned by the placement of the next album

it's converge isn't it

unsane are still good-to-great btw

Falls of Rauros' chord progressions sound like Coheed and Cambria

I don't know if that's meant as a dis or not but it will certainly get brad listening

tt rides with the coheed

Haha definitely meant as a compliment

22 Power Trip - Nightmare Logic 321 Points, 10 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/zJizhQp.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/3suNG9n4WGYQabXhUTkQ70?si=2DAiHXW4RLK0Ly-F0BAV-w

https://powertripsl.bandcamp.com/album/nightmare-logic

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22891-power-trip-nightmare-logic/

this was my initial pick to take the whole dang poll

Left that one off. Liked it and the songs sounded good live but spent too little time with it last year

they were so much fun live even though there seems to be a significant meathead contingent in their fanbase

Hmm...it seems I forgot to vote for this. A solidly furious album. I love that the choice of font for the title is like a film subtitle.

The font is pretty much the only thing I don't like about that cover.

it makes me think of Lynch, so of course I love it.

It makes me think of the opening to a 90s dystopian anime, but I can see Lynch too.

Nightmare Logic works pretty well as an alternate title for Inland Empire.

Anyway, I hadn't heard the album before but it sounds great. Reminds me of early Sepultura.

I remember telling a co-worker who's mostly into 90s alt-rock and older mainstream metal that I was going to see a band that night, and she asked me who it was, so I sent her a link to "Executioner's Tax." She said, "it's just that same riff over and over!" and I'm like, "I know! Isn't it great?"

21 Spirit Adrift - Curse Of Conception 323 Points, 9 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/dUREZfu.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/3h7OBtsmcCxn4HYnIInBSS?si=U5h9ZdDVRCK0UcioBNbWNA

https://spiritadrift.bandcamp.com/album/curse-of-conception

http://www.angrymetalguy.com/spirit-adrift-curse-conception-review/

I didn't hear it on time because I was put off by the Diamanda Galas comparisons but the Lingua Ignota is overwhelming.

Immolation aren't entirely my bag but the feedback solo at the end o the second track was sick, I hope there's more of that

I've been following along and trying to listen where I can. I have a bit of metal fatigue, if I'm honest, and find myself mostly playing a 'this sounds like...' game, which makes me feel old and jaded.
This Lingua Ignota, though. Holy shit.

https://i.imgur.com/ZIw7JwP.jpg

Gotta catch up with Lingua Ignota, shit's fierce.

My hopes of seeing Au champ des morts here are beginning to dwindle.

yeah, I'm listening to Lingua Ignota now and very intrigued

20 Thantifaxath - Void Masquerading as Matter 326.0 Points 11 Votes
http://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Thantifaxath-Void-Masquerading-As-Matter-e1510623464660.jpg
https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/void-masquerading-as-matter

“Ocean of Screaming Spheres” opens Void Masquerading as Matter with a lenticular Escherian riff that detonates in all directions once the drums, bass and vocals kick in, only to focus back into itself as fast as T-1000 de-obliterating. The energy is supernova, the drums fill out the riffs like some kind of laser-strewn galactic skirmish. Then, four minutes in, everything drops out. Makes way for a rather shy piano part. They’re tricksters, these prog guys.

The following track, “Self Devouring Womb,” offers a more pensive vibe, keeping the fusillade of blasts at bay in favor of stranger beats, sometimes tribal, sometimes jazzy. Swamped in synths and uncharacteristically straight-forward, “SDW” is Thantifaxath’s idea of a catchy song. But they remain at their most potent when they’re shredding impossible riffs, as in “Cursed Numbers.” Introduced by the acoustic guitar/violin outro to “SDW,” “Cursed Numbers” is the obvious finisher. Where those evil circus riffs are at their most sinister, the tension is at its most repressed. And, man, Thantifaxath really know when and precisely how to release that tension.

Obligatory 'too low'.

what sort of sick madness is this? oh, the sort of sick madness i vote for :) 'cursed numbers' is truly insane

Great title too.

Terrifying and incredible and extremely weird.