Top Albums 2012

Top 12:

• Lunar Aurora - Hoagascht
• Testament - Dark Roots of the Earth
• P.O.S. - We Don't Even Live Here
• Panopticon - Kentucky
• Sorry - White Lung
• Keny Arkana - Tout Tourne Autour du Soleil
• Sigh - In Somniphobia
• Obolus - Lament
• Anti-Venöm - Planet of the Apes
• The Great Old Ones - Al Azif
• Ash Borer - Cold of Ages
• Little Sister - Little Sister

Moon Hooch - Moon Hooch

Artist: Moon Hooch
Album: Moon Hooch
Genre: Dance Jazz
Origin: USA (NYC)
Year: 2011

Moon Hooch is essentially club dance music played by a (very talented) jazz trio. The dual tenor saxophones (interweaving, but usually with a 'rhythm sax' and a 'lead sax') have a great raw, live feel; I don't know what the recording for this album was like, but the production and the improvisation fit the band's reputation of live public shows in parks and subways around New York city. It's dance music, so you'll need to bear with the repetition, though the lead sax and the drums progress very nicely through each track.

receive album



Unrelated recommendation: You should definitely check out the new Lunar Aurora: Hoagascht. It's already going to be a tough release to unseat from my album of the year position. I'd post it up here, but I'm sure it's already all over the intertubes by now.

Top Albums 2011

2011 has really been a good year for new music. A handful of new releases (Doomtree, Panopticon, Ash Borer) completely blew me away and made the list without competition. But as I struggled to pare the list down to 20 I realized that this has been an exceptional year across the board. I'm still not entirely happy with some of the albums I had to leave off, but that's what top # lists are all about: sadness and regret. Anyway, like I said everything here comes highly recommended. There's obviously a lot of black metal here; that's just the style I keep up with the most now days.

Doomtree - No Kings

• Minnesota hip-hop crew
  

Panopticon - Social Disservices

• anarchist black metal
  

Ash Borer - Ash Borer

• cascadian black metal
  

La Plebe - Brazo en Brazo

• San Francisco-based mexican american punk
  

Primordial - Redemption at the Puritan's Hand

• Irish folk metal
  

Welkin Dusk - Born Into a Dying World

• blackened crust punk
  

Sims - Bad Time Zoo

• rapper from Doomtree
  

Panopticon & When Bitter Spring Sleeps - split, Panopticon & Wheels Within Wheels - split 2

• 2 more great splits
  

Homestuck - Vol. 8

• electronica (it's the, uh, soundtrack to a web-comic...)
  

Blood Ceremony - Living With the Ancients

• psychedelic rock with satanic lyrics for some reason
  

Deafest - Through Wood and Fog

• depressive black metal
  

Falls of Rauros - The Light That Dwells In Rotten Wood

• folk black metal
  

Dornenreich - Flammentriebe

• German black metal
  

Cloud Rat - Cloud Rat

• thrashcore
  

Star Fucking Hipsters - From the Dumpster to the Grave

• trashy, pop-y punk (also features Boots Riley on a track)
  

Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage

• cascadian black metal
  

Space Arcadium - Personal Universe

• psychedelic trance
  

Tombs - Path of Totality

• atmospheric sludge
  

Trap Them - Darker Handcraft

• grindcore
  

Team Teamwork - Super Nintendo Sega Genesis

• hip-hop video-game-sountrack mashups
  

Vestiges - The Descent of Man

Artist: Vestiges
Album: The Descent of Man
Genre: Black Metal
Origin: USA
Year: 2010

There seems to be some disagreement on the intertubes as to whether Vestiges is a black metal band or a crust punk band or whatever. I'm not sure myself, but they are definitely a good band. This is a dense, full-force album with thoughtful atmosphere, not unlike Fall of Efrafa. And they're touring! Go give 'em some money!

receive album

UPDATE: Vestiges contacted me with a link to their new split with Ghaust. Receive it here!

Gamma Ray - No World Order

Artist: Gamma Ray
Album: No World Order
Genre: Power Metal
Origin: Germany
Year: 2001

If your heart isn't already beating faster 30 seconds into "Introduction" you might have stone heart disease, because this is one of the greatest intros to any album ever made. Gamma Ray then proceeds to belt out 9 tracks of the best German power metal, finishing off with a ballad that I don't hate (a challenging task indeed). I don't listen to power metal as much as I used to, but Gamma Ray remains one of my favorites. Cry for freeeedom!

receive album

The Glitch Mob - Drink The Sea

Artist: The Glitch Mob
Album: Drink The Sea
Genre: Electronica
Origin: USA
Year: 2010

I'm not usually into glitch electronica, but The Glitch Mob blends the beats so naturally that I'm probably mislabeling them based on their name. It's smooth, energetic and exciting. This album would probably have made my best o' '10 list, except that I only heard it for the first time a few days ago. But this is quality music - enough to wake me from my long blogging slumber.

receive album

Top Albums 2010

This year I'm cutting my list down to 10 instead of 20. It felt more appropriate, though I'm not sure if that's because I haven't been putting as much effort into finding new music recently, or if there just really weren't as many awesome releases this year, or maybe I'm just feeling picky and leaving off a bunch of albums that I still like a lot and/or forgot about. Both Megadeth and Iron Maiden made new cds this year! Neither made my list - they weren't terrible or anything, just not top-10 material in my opinion.

(I'll try to use this as an excuse to actually post some new music soon too!)

Sigh - Scenes From Hell

• This album takes everything that I liked about their previous full-length and gets rid of all the garbage, leaving a truly excellent avant-garde black metal album with a very strong brass section that I like even more than Imaginary Sonicscapes.
  

Menace Ruine - Union of Irreconcilables

• The shockingly good Canadian duo return with an album that blends the psychedelic drone of The Die Is Cast with the black noise of Cult of Ruins, bringing the amazing vocals a little forward in the mix (which might be good or bad, I still go back and forth :) ).
  

Ludicra - The Tenant

• San Francisco black metal with a bit of a post-rock feel. Shame on me for not listening to this band years ago.
  

Dessa - A Badly Broken Code

• This actually includes a few songs I don't like, so it's a little surprising I'd find it solid enough to go this high on my list. But the songs that hit me hit hard, and the awesome Doomtree group concert probably influenced me as well. Dessa is America's best female rapper by far.
  

Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. II

• I like this follow-up quite a bit more than Assassins. And I still think the title is a clever pun several layers deep, though I really wish the Pink Floyd reference wasn't the only thing anyone ever says about the band anymore. There are other psychedelic/progressive rock bands to compare to guys!
  

Kylesa - Spiral Shadow

• Kylesa seems to be the most popular crust-rooted sludge metal band, and with this release I think I'd agree they deserve it.
  

Paper Tiger - Made Like Us

• Doomtree producer Paper Tiger's first solo album; it's about what I'd expect, which is to say really great electronic music except for one or two only-OK vocal-centered pop songs.
  

Electric Wizard - Black Masses

• Stoner doom metal heroes Electric Wizard still rock. So heavy, so fun.

Lazerbeak - Legend Recognize Legend

• Doomtree's other producer also made an album this year, it is actually not at all what you might expect (unless you saw the Doomtree tour, which once again was amazing). He sings, he plays simple guitar riffs, it's all rather catchy.
  

Preface to the Dead Sea - Preface to the Dead Sea

• Another crust-based, sludgy, post-metaly band; this one you probably haven't heard of if you aren't from Russia. But it's high quality, and wins the best new band name award!
  

Madness - One Step Beyond...

Artist: Madness
Album: One Step Beyond...
Genre: Ska
Origin: UK
Year: 1979

OOONE STEP BEYOOOOOOND! Happy halloween you guys!

receive album

Municipal Waste - Hazardous Mutation

Artist: Municipal Waste
Album: Hazardous Mutation
Genre: Crossover Thrash
Origin: USA
Year: 2005

All I really have to say is if you like old-school thrash metal or hardcore punk, you'll probably really like this album (it's way better than their more recent albums, in my opinion). I just got back from their concert at Tankcrimes Brainsqueeze, where they played with Vitamin X and Toxic Holocaust. It was a lot of fun!

receive album

Propagandhi - How To Clean Everything

Artist: Propagandhi
Album: How To Clean Everything
Genre: Punk
Origin: Canada
Year: 1993

Propagandhi have become a classic of Canadian punk rock, pushing the skate-punk sound into more political territory. This early album is maybe a little less polished, but the production is solid and the lyrics have an odd juxtaposition of heavy-handed, self-righteous anarchism and not-taking-themselves-too-seriously silliness. The irony is laid on pretty thick with the oft-covered Ska Sucks (a ska song), Haillie Sellasse, Up Your Ass (a reggae song) and the painful I Want U 2 Want Me cover (the liner notes for this song say "we thought it was funny at the time" or something like that; don't worry, the rest of the songs on the album are great).

receive album

Witch Hunt & To What End? - split

Artists: Witch Hunt & To What End?
Album: Split EP
Genre: Crust Punk
Origin: USA & Sweden respectively
Year: 2008

Witch Hunt and To What End? are both female-fronted, aggressive punk bands that came together across the Atlantic for this brilliant split. Witch Hunt is influenced a bit more by '80s British anarcho-punk, while To What End? is straight-up Swedish d-beat. I also highly recommend This Is Only The Beginning..., a compilation of Witch Hunt's early recordings.

receive album

The Empire Shall Fall - Awaken

Artist: The Empire Shall Fall
Album: Awaken
Genre: Metalcore
Year: 2009
Origin: USA

This is a band with a frontman who's more famous for a band I couldn't care less about, Killswitch Engage. That certainly wasn't the reason I first listened to Awaken! I heard the track These Colors Bleed on a local college radio station's metal show that commonly plays this type of metalcore-type music, and I liked it a lot more than I usually do. I have to say that the breakdowns throughout the album don't do much for me, but most of the riffs are quite solid, both the clean and harsh vocals are really good, and the openly political lyrics are neat.

receive album

Hi everyone! I didn't want to be the kind of blogger who does this, but I just moved and started a new job, and so The Chief Commie is going on a bit of a hiatus. I'll start back up with my irregular postings whenever I'm feeling less busy and using my computer at home more; hopefully it'll be soon!

Doomtree - False Hopes

Artist: Doomtree
Album: False Hopes
Genre: Hip-Hop
Year: 2007
Origin: USA

Doomtree is the hip-hop collective of P.O.S., Dessa and a bunch of other cool cats. They seriously are the best hip-hop artists in the world, to the point where I almost feel like they ruined other rappers for me. They have released a self-titled album now that is also very good (you should buy it if you like this stuff!), which they say is the music that really represents them. But I think this album might be their best collaborative work, despite being called False Hopes which is what they name a lot of releases that they think of as secondary.

receive album

doomtree site

Astrix - Artcore

Artist: Astrix
Album: Artcore
Genre: Psytrance
Year: 2004
Origin: Israel

This is the most well-thought-of release from Israeli psychedelic trance musician Astrix. It isn't innovative or anything, just good, solid, fast psytrance. Track 2 is a remix or collaboration or something involving Infected Mushroom, though I feel like the music picks up much more toward the second half of the record.

receive album

Evangeli - ...In Sin

Artist: Evangeli
Album: ...In Sin
Genre: Folk Black Metal
Year: 2006
Origin: Sweden

I've been posting a lot of black metal in a row, and I usually try not to do that... OH WELL. Evangeli is a band formerly known as Magog, which changed its name because of another more popular band by the same name, and I've been looking for this album since first hearing some Magog tracks years ago. This is the audio portion of a live CD/DVD that is pretty much the only thing Evangeli released before promptly breaking up, and it includes one of the old Magog tracks as well. Long explanation aside, this is what viking metal is to me. It doesn't have any of the battle horns or whatever (it is a live recording after all), but the song melodies really capture an atmosphere of glorified pagan violence.

receive album

Menace Ruine - Union of Irreconcilables

Artist: Menace Ruine
Album: Union of Irreconcilables
Genre: Black Noise
Year: 2010
Origin: Canada

It's the brand new album from Menace Ruine! If you're familiar with the duo's previous recordings, this seems like a middle ground between the noisy black metal on Cult Of Ruins and the psychedelic drone on In Vulva Infernum and The Die Is Cast. Geneviève's vocals are much more up-front in the production this time around, and I'm not yet sure if it's a good or bad thing. Menace Ruine is still one of the recently formed bands I'm most excited about.

receive album

Fell Voices - Fell Voices

Artist: Fell Voices
Album: Fell Voices
Genre: Black Metal
Year: 2009
Origin: USA

Fell Voices is an atmospheric, "cascadian" black metal band that has only released one demo and this self-titled album. When I first heard the opening track I wasn't overly impressed, but then the second (and final) track came along and blew me away. Not that the first song is bad, it just took me a few listens to get it, while song 2 was love at first listen. The band is probably some flavor of anarchist, and they're from Santa Cruz (where I went to school), so that's something! I'm probably going to see them play in a few days with Ashdautas and maybe again later this month with Altar of Plagues.

receive album

Birushanah - Akai Yami

Artist: Birushanah
Album: Akai Yami
Genre: Doom Metal
Year: 2007
Origin: Japan

Birushanah is a sludge/doom metal band that gets the 'experimental' label for the strong influences from traditional Japanese music. The three long tracks on this, their only full-length release, are great. The bass player is a former member of Corrupted, so expect a similar feel.

receive album

Orange Tulip Conspiracy - Orange Tulip Conspiracy

Artist: Orange Tulip Conspiracy
Album: Orange Tulip Conspiracy
Genre: Experimental Rock
Year: 2008
Origin: USA (LA)

I usually try to avoid reposting albums that have already been offered by my blogging friends, but this is a great album that deserves more exposure. Orange Tulip Conspiracy is sort of a mashing together of the members of Estradasphere and Secret Chiefs 3. I like both of those bands, but this seems like a culmination of their musical ideas, avoiding some of the sloppiness and incoherency that went with their earlier experimentations. I guess arguably that could mean that this release is more 'tame', but I think that would be selling it short. Anyway, if you aren't familiar with these artists, it's a style created by jumping between (instrumental) genres - all kinds of rock, jazz, classical (and even some death metal) show up when least expected. And it's fantastic.

receive album