my indie sense is burrrrrrrrning... needs more METAL.
here are my top ten(ISH) (METAL) albums of the year so far:
Arsis - We Are the Nightmare - good step up from United in Regret, overall very solid, but nowhere near as perfect as A Celebration of Guilt or A Diamond For Disease
Decrepit Birth - Diminishing Between Worlds - ZOMG, total brutal tech death masterpiece. There's so many different riff and layers to the music, that you still won't hear all the parts if you listen to this twenty times in a row. It's a bit more melodic than their previous ...And Time Begins, but they still managed to step up the level of t3chnical brutal1ty.
Enslaved - Vertebrae - This only leaked a couple days ago, but I after listening to it a couple times, I can already tell that it's one of the year's best. Very solid album all the way through. Recommended if you like progressive black/death a la Opeth.
Fellsilent - The Hidden Words - total downtuned polyrhythmic Meshuggah worhsip, and I absolutely love it. Really great guitar work.
Textures - Silhouettes - more polyrhythmic goodness. These guys have probably been around almost as long as Meshuggah, and to be honest, I liked this album a lot better than Meshuggah's obZen. Better songwriting, more melodic, easier to listen to
. obZen was still awesome n' heavy, but I just enjoyed Texture's new album more.
Hour of Penance - The Vile Conception - My favorite brutal death album of the year. Appropriate, as they're labelmates with Decrepit Birth. Incredible guitars, drummer's nuts, and great production*. <-- the production on most of today's death metal albums is a major factor on if I will enjoy it or not. Everything on the Vile Conception is so clear and concise, that it's not hard to hear how awesome it is. Hate Eternal would have been on here, but the production was way too loud and muddy for me to enjoy it.
Septicflesh - Communion - I think there's something in Greece's water, because this album is amazing. Great atmosphere, songwriting, production - overall a great surprise and a very solid album.
Soilent Green - Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction - FUCKIN RIFFFFFFFFFFFFS
Genghis Tron - Board Up the House -what HORSE the Band would sound like if they suddenly got all serious and actually pulled it off really well.
Mouth of the Architect - Quietly - If you like Isis/Red Sparrowes/other good post metal band/, you will want to have babies with this album
MY album of the year contenders:
Mirrorthrone - Gangrene - Holy shit. I never heard this guy's previous albums before, but holy shit. This band, which sounds like it has more members than the Polyphonic Spree, actually consists of one dude, his computer, guitars/keyboard/drumkit from hell. Incredible musician, songwriter, producer. Even if you don't like this type of music (progressive black metal), you need to listen to this musical masterpiece. His songs are very heavily based on classical composition style type songs - pretty long, multi-layered, different parts/movements. Amazing listen, and highly recommended.
Evergrey - Torn - Probably my favorite band. I guess it's kind of biased that I have my favorite band as one of my favorite albums of the year, but it is an incredible album. Their sound is dark progressive metal - it's very heavily based on their excellent songwriting skills (and less technical emphasis), but the two dudes with guitars in the band can still fuckin' wail on the guitar. Their singer (yes, he sings) has also got some awesome pipes, very 'soulful'. They've got that distinctive Gothenberg sound, given that they are actually from Gothenberg, Sweden. These guys would win the best heavily-guitar-based album of the year.
Misery Signals - Controller Unless Metallica comes out with ...And Justice For All II, this is my album of the year. These guys take it to a whole nothur lebuhl. Everything about this album is perfect to me: the songwriting, the production, the guitar work, the drummer can kill it. I even love the lyrics. From my ears, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this album. You know something is up when dudes that skateboard and have short hair make better music than all those trve red wine sipping dweebs out there. Well done.
