2014 has been a pretty decent year all things considered. Work still to be done but I feel like I can actually do it now. This post though is about the heavy music from 2014 and here's my annual top 40 rundown of the best of the year.
We Wield The Spear Of Longinus
Thank Your For The Demon
New old school death metal band from Mexico that manages to stay away from the million Incantaclones. These guys don't do anything new but their songwriting displays a maturity that is surprising and most welcome. I'm really looking forward to see how this band develops its sound. One of the better debuts of the year.
Universal Path Of Disgrace
Layered and at times, intricate songwriting and Usurpress are heading in a slightly new direction. It's not an immediate, overpowering beast like Trenches of the Netherworld but it is a grower.
Fan The Flames Of Madness
The return of Mirai to Necrophagia has changed things around again for the better. This sounds like the logical successor to Harvest Ritual and it's a fun set of songs.
Angel Blake
Heavy, psychedelic doom metal. 3 long jams and a little over 30 minutes of music. Impressive little debut.
Nothing Hill
This is some massive sounding Finnish death doom that isn’t afraid to take a few chances. These Finns have class.
Tuonen Tähtivyö
Fistula manage to sound heavier and nastier. This is one sick sounding sludge album and that's not a bad thing at all.
Harmful Situation
Slugathor by another name, pretty much. Huge riffs, vocals submerged in muck and some great Finnish death metal.
Cyclonic Mass Consumption
Essentially a re-recording of the previous album "3" with some new band members are 2 new songs. Fukpig play a blackened, noisy grindcore that isn't usually my kind of thing but there's something about this band that I absolutely love. This World Is Weakening is an angry, heavy album that just got a lot of plays.
This World Is Weakening
The band has just moved slightly away from their sludge roots and shades of mid-period Obituary creep in to the sound on Emanations. A bit more death metal than their debut and some really good songs here.
Disfigured Colossus
Lovecraftian Funeral Doom. There's nothing out there that sounds like Fungoid Stream. The use of keyboards and the guitar as a textural element makes for an unsettling atmosphere and the leaden pace only heightens it.
All In One and One In All
Revival Through Arcane Skins
This band had a very good album last year with Endless Night but this year, the band has seriously upped their game. Vacant Face is the kind of schizophrenic, difficult to pin down album that would normally annoy the crap out of me but the band makes all of their disparate influences work. The songwriting has progressed to a point where all of their influences have merged and the band has it's own unique sound. Sort of like a hardcore/ sludge band that loves Tiamat's Wildhoney, Emperor's Anthems and some good old classic rock.
Terminal Burrowing
They took the ho-hum songs from Last Patrol, added, subtracted and messed with them and the result is an album that's actually better than Last Patrol.
The Duke
I haven't seen a lot written about this album. The follow up to the critically lauded debut "Night Sky Transform has more depth. These songs have a muscular swagger to them and some of these riffs are pretty fucking fantastic. They've progressed a fait bit from their cosmic grind sound and this album is all the better for it.
Ravenous Solemnity
Yet another very good Primordial album. Not much else to be said about this one. Would have placed a lot higher in another year.
Where Greater Men Have Fallen
This Chicago doom band had a very promising demo and then a couple of albums that were a bit inconsistent. Of Woe And Wounds is a great leap forward for the band. Apostle of Solitude is rocking out with classic heavy metal tropes added into some pretty massive doom metal. Very good stuff.
This Mania
This is either some really serious shit or a twisted parody. Ride for revenge don't do half measures. The band pay attention to song writing for the first time and the result is an album that is powerful and hypnotic.
Dead Insane
high brow concept album from Akercoke almuni. It's got a strange and captivating mood and the band are unafraid to experiment and move from black and death metal to Antimatter like acoustic songs and spooky spoken word bits. It caught me quite off guard and it's become a favourite.
The F**k Trance
Gaz Jennings from Cathedral with a couple of people from Serpent Cult doing a Maiden meets Witchfinder General kind of thing. It's retro but very enjoyably so and the production gives these songs some real bite.
Immortal By Your Hand
40. Dread Sovereign - All Hell's Martyrs
Epic doom metal. Held together by a passionate vocal performance from Alan Averill. The songs are all a bit too long and not always interesting but Averill delivers one of the stand out vocal performances of the year and helps in making this album more than just another novelty doom project.
We Wield The Spear Of Longinus
39. Mustasch - Thank You For The Demon
Easily their best release since The Latest Version Of The Truth from 2007. This is some catchy, modern hard rock. Nothing more.
Thank Your For The Demon
38. Question - Doomed Passages
New old school death metal band from Mexico that manages to stay away from the million Incantaclones. These guys don't do anything new but their songwriting displays a maturity that is surprising and most welcome. I'm really looking forward to see how this band develops its sound. One of the better debuts of the year.
Universal Path Of Disgrace
37. Usurpress - Ordained
Layered and at times, intricate songwriting and Usurpress are heading in a slightly new direction. It's not an immediate, overpowering beast like Trenches of the Netherworld but it is a grower.
Fan The Flames Of Madness
36. Necrophagia - White Worm Cathedral
The return of Mirai to Necrophagia has changed things around again for the better. This sounds like the logical successor to Harvest Ritual and it's a fun set of songs.
Angel Blake
35. Salem's Pot - ...Lurar Ut Dig På Prärien
Heavy, psychedelic doom metal. 3 long jams and a little over 30 minutes of music. Impressive little debut.
Nothing Hill
34. Koulemanlaakso - Tulijoutsen
This is some massive sounding Finnish death doom that isn’t afraid to take a few chances. These Finns have class.
Tuonen Tähtivyö
33. Fistula - Vermin Prolificus
Fistula manage to sound heavier and nastier. This is one sick sounding sludge album and that's not a bad thing at all.
Harmful Situation
32. Desecresy - Chasmic Transendence
Slugathor by another name, pretty much. Huge riffs, vocals submerged in muck and some great Finnish death metal.
Cyclonic Mass Consumption
31. Fukpig - This World Is Weakening
Essentially a re-recording of the previous album "3" with some new band members are 2 new songs. Fukpig play a blackened, noisy grindcore that isn't usually my kind of thing but there's something about this band that I absolutely love. This World Is Weakening is an angry, heavy album that just got a lot of plays.
This World Is Weakening
30. Serpentine Path - Emanations
The band has just moved slightly away from their sludge roots and shades of mid-period Obituary creep in to the sound on Emanations. A bit more death metal than their debut and some really good songs here.
Disfigured Colossus
29. Fungoid Stream - Prehuman Shapes
Lovecraftian Funeral Doom. There's nothing out there that sounds like Fungoid Stream. The use of keyboards and the guitar as a textural element makes for an unsettling atmosphere and the leaden pace only heightens it.
All In One and One In All
28. Thy Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer I: Khem Sedjet
Occult black metal from Greece. This is the band's second album but first I heard from them. It reminds me of early Root at times particularly with some of the riffs and the vocals. It's one of the few black metal albums that I listened to a lot of this year and has great replay value with the complex songs revealing new details on each play.
27. Take Over And Destroy - Vacant Face
This band had a very good album last year with Endless Night but this year, the band has seriously upped their game. Vacant Face is the kind of schizophrenic, difficult to pin down album that would normally annoy the crap out of me but the band makes all of their disparate influences work. The songwriting has progressed to a point where all of their influences have merged and the band has it's own unique sound. Sort of like a hardcore/ sludge band that loves Tiamat's Wildhoney, Emperor's Anthems and some good old classic rock.
Terminal Burrowing
26. Monster Magnet - Milking the Stars: A Re-Imagining of Lost Patrol
They took the ho-hum songs from Last Patrol, added, subtracted and messed with them and the result is an album that's actually better than Last Patrol.
The Duke
25. Dephosphorus - Ravenous Solemnity
I haven't seen a lot written about this album. The follow up to the critically lauded debut "Night Sky Transform has more depth. These songs have a muscular swagger to them and some of these riffs are pretty fucking fantastic. They've progressed a fait bit from their cosmic grind sound and this album is all the better for it.
Ravenous Solemnity
24. Primordial - Where Greater Men Have Fallen
Yet another very good Primordial album. Not much else to be said about this one. Would have placed a lot higher in another year.
Where Greater Men Have Fallen
23. Apostle of Solitude - Of Woe And Wounds
This Chicago doom band had a very promising demo and then a couple of albums that were a bit inconsistent. Of Woe And Wounds is a great leap forward for the band. Apostle of Solitude is rocking out with classic heavy metal tropes added into some pretty massive doom metal. Very good stuff.
This Mania
22. Ride For Revenge - Enter The Gauntlet
This is either some really serious shit or a twisted parody. Ride for revenge don't do half measures. The band pay attention to song writing for the first time and the result is an album that is powerful and hypnotic.
Dead Insane
21. Voices - London
high brow concept album from Akercoke almuni. It's got a strange and captivating mood and the band are unafraid to experiment and move from black and death metal to Antimatter like acoustic songs and spooky spoken word bits. It caught me quite off guard and it's become a favourite.
The F**k Trance
20. Death Penalty - Death Penalty
Immortal By Your Hand
19. Taurus - No/ Thing
I never really cared for Dark Castle much but this is some very good experimental sludge/ drone/ doom with electronic elements and a vaguely eastern tinge to the heavy heavy riffs
18. The Flight of Sleipnir - V
3 albums in 3 years and TFoS have managed to achieve an amazing level of consistency. The production has been consistently weak and the songwriting has been consistently strong. V might be their strongest outing yet which makes the production even more frustrating. Still it's the songs that count and V has plenty of good ones.
17. Capilla Ardiente - Bravery, Truth and the Endless Darkness
Another band I thought was done but returned with a memorable slab of classic doom metal. Capilla Ardiente has expanded into a proper band and these songs build on the sound created in Solve Et Coagula but this is a huge progression. The roughness has been smoothed over, the songs go through different moods and there's some really fine musicianship happening. This is great, epic doom metal.
16. Greenleaf - Trails and Passes
Some more line up changes and the sound changed a bit too. 70s rock meets 90s alt rock with catchy tunes and pleasant vocals. It's a lot more stripped down compared to Nest of Vipers and I loved it. Swedish stoner rock.
15. Blood Farmers - Headless Eyes
New Blood Farmers album after almost 20 years. The Sabbath is strong in them and this album hits all the right spots. Beautifully crafted, heavy, melodic and atmospheric, Blood Farmers have created something really special with Headless Eyes.
14. Herder - Gods
There's melodies galore here. And riffs. Wrapped up in an aggressive sludge cocktail that is great great fun. Herder came out of nowhere and delivered one hell of an album.
13. The Wounded Kings - Consolamentum
The last couple of albums were pretty inconsistent but Consolamentum has grown on me with every listen. Great doom metal and a memorable vocal performance.
12. Grand Madus - Triumph And Power
Catchy heavy metal. Another great set of riffs and a superb vocal performance. Grand Magus has released some very good albums in the past but they've never sounded this fun.
11. Morbus Chron - Sven
10. Riot - Unleash The Fire
\
The more I listened to this, the more I started to like it. The vocals are still problematic but there's very little of it. Album 3 will be interesting
Damn this is awesome. The band plays with passion and there's an emotional heft to this album that is backed up by killer songs.
9. Howls Of Ebb - Vigils of the 3rd Eye
Cosmic horror death metal. This was the most exciting death metal album I'd heard in a long, long time. Like Voivod and Demilich had a baby.
8. Mekong Delta - In A Mirror Darkly
This one caught me completely by surprise. It's the tightest set of songs Ralf Hubert's done in a long while. The vocals are strong and the music is just solid right through. Heavy metal that's technical without being overbearing. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any links online apart from a full album rip. It's only 40 minutes long.
7. Giant Squid - Minoans
This band has come a long way since Icthyologist. The songwriting is way tighter and the experimentation is nicely integrated. Wow.
6. Godhunter - City of Dust
The melodies on this album. It's strange and catchy and original. Great songs, great use of samples and far superior to just about every high profile sludge release this year
5. The Skull - For Those Which Are Asleep
Eric Wagner's back. He sounds great. As do Jeff Olson and Ron Holzer. With a little help from a couple of veteren guitarists of doom, The Skull has crafted a memorable set of bluesy doom metal songs that stay in my head long after the album's done.
4. Ogre - The Last Neanderthal
I thought this band was done and then one day the promo for this album landed in my inbox. Happy daze. The year's best stoner rock album.
3. Solstafir - Otta
I don't really know what to call this band anymore. It's magnificent music. The songs are epic, melodic and at times just really catchy. It's like Solstafir still has the coldness of their black metal roots but they've somehow made it seem welcoming. Otta is a cold embrace that is tough to resist.
2. Lord Mantis - Death Mask
\
The addition of that dude from Abigail Williams had me quite sceptical to begin with but holy shit. Slightly blackened, slightly industrial, noisey sludge. Haha. It's the year's angriest record and easily stomps all over 2012's Pervertor. Lord Mantis has delivered an angry, ugly and heavy as fuck album that is not for the faint of heart.
1. Thou - Heathen
Louisiana doom of the thickest, filthiest kind but still holds a sense of beauty. Thou managed to top Summit. They had a pretty awesome year with the collaboration with The Body and the Algiers compilation but with Heathen, the band has really moved to another level. They've let in a tiny bit of light into the darkness this time around and the songs are all the better for it. This is the band's best full length yet and that is really saying something.
2014. Not a bad year.
4 comments:
Nice list, varied albeit somewhat Doom/stoner heavy. Quite a few bands that i'd need to check out.
Did you like the new cardinals folly? i liked it a lot.
Question seems to have gone totally unnoticed , one of this year's better Dm releases.Speaking of which, Domains and Drowned were the stand-outs for me, the new corpsessesed is decent too.
Didn't care much for the Cardinals Folly. Was alright in parts but the album as a whole didn't stand up. Yeah, the Question album was great. The Drowned and Corpsessed were pretty good too but I didn't really listen to either one of those too much. Not heard Domains. Will check it out.
Plenty of stuff to check out here. I can never remember enough to make lists but even so I've hardly heard 5% of this. Thanks!
@Dev - i'd be quite interested in your opinion on ride for revenge.
Post a Comment