BEST ALBUMS OF 2014: #10 - 1 - THE FINALE

It's finally here, the last part of Pyramid Noise's countdown of the Best Albums of 2014. If you've missed the first two parts, they can be found here and here. As with previous lists you can listen along on 8Tracks here, or at the bottom of the page.

Every album in this section deserves the number one spot. This is not in a "Thanks for showing up, have a trophy" kind of way, all of these albums could have taken top billing for very legitimate reasons. Every last one. This year has been a great one for metal and alternative music in general and the qualitative differences between every album on this list is minimal, if there at all. 

So here we go. The final 10.

10: Artificial Brain – Labyrinth Constellation

Artificial Brain get the award this year for best debut full-length release. This is an album unique in the Technical Death Metal genre, managing to both be otherworldly strange yet catchy as the bubonic plague (ABSORBING BLACK IGNITIIIIOOON!). When you see the grim art, courtesy of the new standard in Metal artists, Paolo “Madman” Girardi, gracing the cover, you instantly know of the madness within. This New York Quintet are not content with sweep picking and riffing at 100mph and calling it tech. This is Tech in the same way H.R. Giger is Tech. It is twisted, pulsating and alive, yet you cannot look away. Angular and inhuman riffing meets with only the sludgiest of Death Metal production to create something truly special on this album. If you only listen to one Technical Metal release this year, make sure it is Labyrinth Constellation. It will infect you like it has the rest of us.

9: Black Crown Initiate – The Wreckage of Stars

Black Crown Initiate get the award this year for best debut fu… wait a second… 

*AHEM*

The Wreckage of Stars follows on from the equally fantastic EP; Song Of The Crippled Bull. These guys play Progressive Death Metal in a way opposed to the modern ideas of Progressive Death Metal; Death Metal with some ambient parts thrown in. Instead Black Crown Initiate mix in Folk, yup, finger picked guitar Folk and some of the catchiest choruses you’re likely to hear in Death Metal with their weirdly groovy Prog Death riffery. (And before you ask, no this isn’t the Ensifirum type of Folk.) Whilst some may argue this makes the album “poppy” I say to them pah! Try not to sing along and headbang with Great Mistake. I dare you. With a little more polish, Black Crown Initiate, with their mix of Modern Extreme Metal and Folk elements, are on their way to becoming the Opeth for a new generation. Whilst it is too soon to hold them aloft to that standard, this is still one hell of an album.

8: Revocation – Deathless

I foresee a future in which Revocation have become a house hold name. It is hard to pigeonhole Deathless and doing so would likely be a grave insult. Revocation have released what can only be described as a Metal album, a really, really, fucking great Metal album. It’s Thrash, it’s Death Metal, it’s Metalcore, it’s Melodic Death Metal; it is METAL. They have somehow made an album that is a gestalt conglomerate of traditional Metal styles, but without making an album that you feel you’ve heard before. Revocation have mastered straight up extreme music in a way seldom seen before and likely not seen again. You have A Debt Owed to the Grave to listen to this album.

7: Cynic – Kindly Bent To Free Us

The release of Cynic’s Kindly Bent To Free Us was met with the sound of an infinite number of jimmies being heavily rustled. Instead of pandering to an audience famous for fearing change however, these Floridians embraced Old School Prog Rock and kicked its ass. Paradoxically, this move away from the heavier side of music has created an album that is far less accessible. The songs are longer and denser, time signature wizardry is more prevalent and nothing is done to sacrifice unabashed progression. If Cynic were a lesser band it would be far too easy to meander and get lost in pretence, but Kindly Bent To Free Us doesn’t waste a single note. To many listeners Cynic was a Progressive band first that had Death Metal elements mixed in. By dropping these distractions Cynic have been able to focus on what they’re really good at. This album cements Cynic as the Progressive Powerhouse that they have always been.

6: Mastodon - Once More ‘Round The Sun

You’re probably tired of hearing about how Mastodon have managed to make their signature sound accessible to a pop-music level without sacrificing their intrinsic Mastodonyness. It cannot be overstressed, however, just got good Once More ‘Round The Sun really is. Not since Oblivion has Mastodon been this catchy, it’s next to impossible to spin this album without getting half of it stuck in your head. Though at the same time, it’s as if those melodies entering your skull had some psychotropic effects. This manages to be Mastodon’s most accessible and yet trippiest albums to date. Impeccably addictive song writing meets Georgian Prog on Once More ‘Round The Sun in a miasma of hash smoke. Mastodon have proved here that the lacklustre The Hunter was not the end of them.

5: The Devin Townsend Project – Sky Blue

As much as I personally worship Devin Townsend I was not a fan of Epicloud. Hevy Devy seemed to know what he wanted to do with that release that revelled in 80’s cheesy nostalgia, but I just wasn’t feeling it.  Sky Blue however, the The Devin Townsend Project half of the double Z² release, manages to be what Epicloud wanted to be all along. Sporting some of the biggest choruses of the Canuck’s career Sky Blue doesn’t pretend it’s anything other than it is. A big cheesy, fun album. You can argue all day that he should keep making Metal or reform Strapping Young Lad or whatever, but when Devin releases something as compulsively listenable, that has and continues to actually make the hairs on my neck stand on end, it’s very hard to complain.

4: Every Time I Die – From Parts Unknown

All I want is for everyone to go to hell, there we can be free and learn to love ourselves.

These are the words emanating from Keith Buckley’s tortured vocal chords at the finale of this, the seventh full-length release from Buffalo Hardcore unit, Every Time I Die. I start with this because it perfectly encapsulates this album. From Parts Unknown is the heaviest the band have been in some time, with some thanks going to the production job done by Kurt Ballou of Converge and God City Studios fame. It is, as with many other ETID albums, twisted and lonely, but there is a certain optimism in this album that was missing from the previous release, Ex-Lives. Every Time I Die are mad at the world, at society, at you, for fucking them over and this is no clearer than on tracks such as the chilling and experimental Moor. At the same time though, tracks like Decayin’ With The Boys shows that all is not lost, it’s a full on Hardcore party anthem. It is and ugly album, but it is honest and it is not going to hold back. With From Parts Unknown Every Time I Die knows the world is a screwed up place, but insist you may as well have a party while you’re here.

3: At The Gates – At War With Reality

At The Gates had two hurdles to overcome with At War With Reality. Firstly they had to live up to the almost 20 year old legacy of Slaughter of the Soul. Secondly, those 20 years have been dense with bands heavily influenced by that release. These are bands SgtD of StuffYouWillHate.com would describe as “AtTheGates-core” and it would only be right that the past-masters release a better album than any of these bands ever could. So it must be asked:

Did they manage it?

…

Of course they did, what kind of stupid question is that anyway?

Is it as seminal and important to the development of Metal as Slaughter of the Soul? Well no, but few albums are. It is however the album they were always going to make at this point. A really great one. The latest from the Gothenburg giants mixes together Terminal Spirit Disease, The Red in the Sky is Ours and Slaughter of the Soul to create an album that firmly crushes any and all competition born of the last 20 years. At The Gates have reclaimed the Iron Throne of pedal riffs, as we always believed they would.

2: Soen – Tellurian

Soen fill that void that Tool has left in our hearts. Whilst Cognitive, the bands debut, was a pale imitation of Tool’s sound, Tellurian shows that Soen can match Tool blow for blow. There is something wholly organic about this release from the Swedish Super-group. Something the band must have been aware of when they named their album. Tellurian means “of the Earth” or “Organic” if you will. What started as a band pre-occupied with capturing a certain sound, has become a band freed of any need to enforce that influence. The drum and bass focused sound on this album comes free and easy, ranging from heavy progressive grooves to light and ethereal passages.  This is an ambitions album with every track breaking the 5 minute mark.  Despite this, at no point do these tracks feel more than half their actual length. This is a band made up of truly gifted individuals, including ex-Opeth drummer Martin Lopez and it shows. The new refined sound from Soen on Tellurian shows a band finding themselves in the same way that Tool don’t find time to record a new album.

1: The Contortionist – Language

If I could set a theme in alternative music this year, it would be huge changes in style (That and Prog, this year has been great for Prog.) White Arms of Athena, Cynic, Job For a Cowboy and too many more to even list have come through with albums that completely change how they are perceived. None, however, have embraced this change so fully and with such skill as The Contortionist. Leaving behind past attempts at appearing progressive through interspersed ambient synths, Language is an old style progressive rock album. One filtered through the modern sensibilities of the contemporary extreme progressive world. It would not be too farfetched to call them the new Cynic, high praise indeed, but high praise well deserved.  It is not a heavy album, but it is a beautiful one. One that I believe casts aside the notion that modern progressive bands cannot show restraint or taste when writing music. This album is a river, it ebbs and flows, melodies float in and out. At points there is a small waterfall and the heaviness picks up, only to smoothly transition back into the gorgeous, flowing depths that this release provides. If you had ignored The Contortionist before now, I urge you to drink deep from what Language has to offer.

And there it is. The end of our countdown of 2014. It really has been a great year and we can only hope that 2015 provides just as much excellent music.  

Pyramid Noise: Top Albums of 2014 #10-1 from Pyramid Noise on 8tracks Radio.

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BEST ALBUMS OF 2014: #30 - 21

I think it’s written somewhere that every story starts at the beginning. However that sounds like bullhooky to me, so instead Pyramid Noise is going to start at the end. The end of the year is approaching and that means end of year lists.

It’s likely no secret to anyone with a function brain suspended in the jar that is the Rock and Metal music scene, that this year has seen more than its fair share of top-notch releases. Over the next week or so Monolith Sound will present our top 30 (yes, 30!) albums of the year. If you want to listen along as you read there will be an 8tracks playlist included at the bottom of every article!

Obviously this list will be objectively wrong to everyone who reads it, including me who will deem in woefully inaccurate as soon as it is posted. Thus comments are not only welcomed, but encouraged. I yearn to be told how wrong I am.

30: Intervals – A Voice Within

A djent album? One of the top releases of the year? In 2014?

Scoff if you will but Intervals, on their debut full length, have in spades what many djent bands completely lack. Song writing ability. Everything you’d expect from a djent album is present but it is married with an ability to write songs that don’t just sound like a series of riffs crammed thoughtlessly crammed together. The album has vocal hooks in spades that will have you singing along on a first listen. The riffs groove and… well… djent without begging for attention like a needy child. Djent is maturing into a more legitimate genre year by year and A Voice Within is part of that charge. 

29: Destrage – Are You Kidding Me? No.

While this album from Italian Prog-Metallers Destrage has tongue firmly planted in cheek this ferociously uncontrollable release is far from a joke. Combining the best parts from bands such as Protest the Hero and The Dillinger Escape Plan, Destrage create an album full of gymnastic feats of prog, whilst still providing hooks that will stay with you for a long time afterwards. In true prog style Destrage refuses to stay with one thing for too long, going from noodley solos, to surf rock, to drum and bass to anything else that takes their fancy in the space of one track. Despite the silliness of their lyrical themes (shooting zombies in the face anyone?) Destrage have crafted an intricately detailed, yet aggressive beast of an album that is almost unique in the metal world. 

28: Falloch – This Island, Our Funeral

I recently visited the desolate Rannoch Moor in the Highlands of Scotland with this album on the car stereo. Never before have I heard an album that so perfectly suits the air of quiet, grim emptiness that instils the Highlands themselves. This should perhaps not be so surprising since Falloch themselves are denizens of the bleak North of Britain. Some traditional Scottish folk instrumentation is blended with a Post-Metal atmosphere (that at times flirts with the edges of Black and Doom Metal) to create a dreamy, emotionally charged journey into the bleak unknown. Whilst some have claimed the album falls into the realm of “background music” I find that the album is instead a majestic soundtrack to dark discoveries among fog drenched rocks.

(For those not in the know here's a picture of Rannoch Moor)  

27: Botanist – VI: Flora 

Black Metal, in recent years, has undergone a kind of renaissance. It has become something far greater than its dark, anti-religious origins and has embraced the weird and the wonderful; mixing itself with a whole range of other styles. Last year’s shoegazey media darling Sunbather solidified Black Metal as a genre that can basically do whatever it wants. Botanist’s plant themed VI: Flora does exactly that and it is beautiful. It is as simple as that. Thematically Botanist seek a return to nature from modern civilisation. The pain of the album comes not from religious hatred or self-loathing, but from the destruction of nature, of our original mother. Replacing the guitar with the sustain powerhouse that is a Hammer Dulcimer (think a cross between a harp and a xylophone) gives the project scope for soundscapes more traditional black metal bands are incapable of reproducing, one that fits the theme of the lyrics perfectly. If there ever was a metal album that perfectly considers the glory and beauty of nature, it is this one.

26: Beyond Creation – Earthborn Evolution

Technical Death Metal is not a genre that I can normally appreciate. Much like djent focus has moved away from song writing and towards technical wankery and the guitar equivalent of basement dwelling. Beyond Creation do indeed possess chops to make the most confident of musicians get down on their knees and pray, but this is coupled with an ability to know when best to use it. Tracks are not lightning-quick experiments in spasmodic riff construction and soloing. Rather they are actual songs in which technicality is part of the journey, not its end. This is tech-death that is not only enjoyable by musicians, but those who just like really. Damn. Good. Metal. Finally it would be amiss for me to not mention the fretless bass playing on this album. So there it is… I mentioned it. I won’t attempt to explain it further as mortal words are not capable for describing such things.

25: Inanimate Existence – A Never Ending Cycle of Atonement

Following on from a Technical Death Metal album, we have… another Technical Death Metal album. Inanimate Existence’s brand of Tech Death shares a lot in common with Beyond Creation. Both know how to write interesting bits of music that degrade into meaningless riff-mush. What slightly pushes Inanimate Existence ahead is their unique approach to song writing.This is a purely spiritual endeavour; both the bands lyrics and arrangements focus on cycles. Riffs come together in a naturally cohesive structure that is brash, but strangely welcoming, aggressive, but hypnotic. (On a less pretentious aside the riff shred like little else I’ve heard.) A Never Ending Cycle of Atonement is brimming in the personality that most other albums in the genre simply lack. 

24: Marmozets – The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets

I did not expect to love Marmozets as much as I do. Printed upon the pages of magazines such as Rock Sound I dismissed them as a band akin to Paramore, but how wrong I was. The Weird and Wonderful is a mixture of straight up punk sensibility, precision mathcore riffing and indie rock hooks. It’s all very easy listening compared to the majority of this list, but that doesn’t stop it from rocking out hard. It would be all too easy to try and play a cynicism card and say that Marmozets are trying to target specific demographics with their brand of brainworm punk. Even if this were the case, however, I would struggle to hate it. This is not only an album for the 14 year old first reaching out into a world of music outside of the pop-sphere, but an album for the jaded 20-something year old that assumes everything in the mainstream music world is likely a bit naff. Guilty as charged I guess. 

23: Krokodil – Nachash

Krokodil describe themselves as “mainly beards and riffs”, I would like to counter point this description by saying that this album is the sound of someone grinding your very soul to dust with the heel of their boot. Sitting somewhere between Sludge and Groove Metal, this British supergroup bring the heavy in a grimy, disgusting way. The grooves are incredibly well executed, the bass work often being given far more attention that normal in conjuncture with absolutely merciless riffing. It’s hard not to rock your head back and forth whilst staring into the middle distance giving it your best Phil Anselmo sneer. Just be careful not to punch anything. 

22: The Devin Townsend Project – Z²: Dark Matters

For the sake of this list, I am splitting Devin Townsend’s latest work, Z^2, into its component parts, as both Dark Matters and Sky Blue are truly different beasts. Dark Matters, the Crazed Canadian’s sequel to fan favourite Ziltoid the Omniscient falls a little short of its predecessor, however it is still an absolute joy. It’s cheesy, it’s silly, it’s about an alien war about little nutsack/bum hybrid looking creatures called Poozers. All the metal elements that Devin was once known for are here, but coloured slightly with the grandiose cheesiness that more recent albums such as Addicted! and Epicloud contained. This mixture does nothing to detract from the album however and only adds to the B-Movie spirit of the album. The result is an absolute romp that deserves to be listened to in one sitting.  

21: ††† (Crosses) - †††

Deftones Frontman Chino Moreno has his fingers in many musical pies and “†††” is one damn tasty pie (try not to think about that metaphor too hard.) A wholly un-metal album (as if that mattered) this self-titled release is an undeniably creepy mix of electronics and more traditional rock instrumentation. There is a gothic atmosphere that permeates this record, though that is not to say that it sounds like The Sisters of Mercy (or even completely like Depeche Mode by whom the group are undoubtedly influenced) circa 1980-something. Rather that there is simply something incredibly sinister about the whole vibe off this album. Electric Organs lay slightly out of tune in the background, pad sounds ripped straight from old horror movies and Chino's voice comes into it's own, letting his haunting croon come into full effect. If there was ever a modern musical equivalent to the ghoul lurking in an abandoned bell tower, it may well be “†††”’s debut album. 

That concludes the first part to this Best of 2014 countdown! Come back on Wednesday 17th for part 2!

(PART 2 CAN NOW BE FOUND HERE)

Monolith Sound: Top Albums of 2014 #30-21 from Pyramid Noise on 8tracks Radio.

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