Decibel Magazine's Top 40 Albums Of 2009 And Why It Sucks

let me start off by saying i'm no means an expert on ANYTHING. i don't like a lot of black metal or bands that have songs longer than my attention span, so perhaps my opinion is biased. also i haven't heard all these records so perhaps i am wrong, but i am familiar with most of the bands on here and have heard other records not even on here to form an opinion, however skewed it may be. keep your internet thuggery to yourself if you don't agree, i'm not trying to start an argument or say i know everything because i don't. just stating what i THINK is good music over bad. now that that's outta the way, i also have to address the fact that this was released in early november, which means it was printed in october, as the december issue of decibel. how can you establish a best of 2009 list when at the time of print there was about 2 months left of the year? and there's still albums that haven't been released yet.

this was decibel's top 40 as follows:

40 Funebrarum - The Sleep Of Morbid Dreams
39 Millions - Gather Scatter
38 Municipal Waste - Massive Aggressor
37 Javelina - Beasts Among Sheep
36 Suffocation - Blood Oath
35 Goes Cube - Another Day Has Passed
34 Culted - Below The Thunders Of The Upper Deep
33 Krallice - Dimensional Bleedthrough
32 Brutal Truth - Evolution Through Revolution
31 The Red Chord - Fed Through The Teeth Machine
30 Keelhaul - Keelhaul's Triumphannt Return To Obscurity
29 Katatonia - Night Is The New Day
28 Gaza - He Is Never Coming Back
27 Goatwhore - Carving Out The Eyes Of God
26 City Of Ships - Look What God Did To Us
25 Burnt By The Sun - Heart Of Darkness
24 The Gates Of Slumber - Hymns Of Blood And Thunder
23 Funeral Mist - Maranatha
22 Mournful Congregation - The June Frost
21 Altar Of Plauges - White Tomb
20 Asphyx - Death...The Brutal Way
19 The Atlas Moth - A Glorified Piece Of Blue Sky
18 Paradise Lost - Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us
17 Mastodon - Crack The Skye
16 YOB - The Great Cessation
15 Nile - Those Whom The Gods Detest
14 Magrudergrind - Magrudergrind
13 Obscura - Cosmogenesis
12 Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse
11 Immortal - All Shall Fall
10 Isis - Wavering Radiant
09 Marduk - Wormwood
08 Tombs - Winter Hours
07 Slayer - World Painted Blood
06 Kylesa - Static Tensions
05 Cobalt - Gin
04 Napalm Death - Time Waits No Slave
03 Coalesce - Ox
02 Converge - Axe To Fall
01 Baroness -The Blue Record

starting off, i like the nods to suffocation, magrudergrind, municipal waste, and brutal truth. these are all very hard working bands that have been around for a long time. of these i heard the municipal waste record and loved it, so i don't understand how it's so low on the list. the new burnt by the sun record is not only the BEST they've done to date, but also boasted as the LAST record they'll ever release. BBTS is calling it quits and going out on an incredibly intellectual note with heart of darkness. so not just for the ridiculous guitar work and wise lyrics, nostalgic value should have propelled this record into the top 10 easy. i never cared much for goatwhore, but i did hear two tracks from carving out the eyes of god which was enough to say they are definitely on to something, which leads me to believe they were equally as cheated as burnt by the sun. i'm about even with the placement of agoraphobic nosebleed's latest record too, although maybe could have been bumped slightly higher. it's the first record they've put together that has some sort of structure and isn't just grindcore vomit. i've actually acquired and listened to this record MULTIPLE times because it's that good. i've listened to the rest of their discography and it's safe to say this is the only album they have worth buying.

now some things that baffled me. coalesce's record ox being number 3 tells me that someone that is IN the band/is related to someone in the band/the band sent decibel magazine money. every coalesce record sounds exactly the same to me. sort of a snapcase meets botch feel, which is the comparisons i hear all the time. snapcase and botch may have cracked top 20, but i disagree with them being so high. a lot of people jock them because they've been around a long time but they've never done anything groundbreaking in my opinion. like i said, all their songs sound the same to me, it's generic and gets old fast for me. the new napalm death was the biggest disappointment of the year, this record shouldn't even be on the list. slayer will never top reign in blood, this record shouldn't that high on the count, maybe 30-40 just because it's slayer. isis deserves to be there in some way, but not as high because wavering radiant will never be panopticon or even oceanic. they can do much better. was not into wormwood by marduk at all. but again, i'm not that into black metal so this record didn't do much for me. texturally it's good, there's real creative musicianship at work, but again it's just not really my thing. i never liked nile and i never liked mastodon. mastodon just doesn't make sense to me, it seems that their fanbase spends most of their time chugging beer and growing their hair, so maybe if i dropped the straight edge lifestyle and grew my hair i'd like mastodon. needless to say i wouldn't even listen to the new record let alone put it on a personal favorites list.

so my top 10 is like this:

10. Black Dahlia Murder - Deflorate (which isn't even mentioned in decibel. don't expect miasma, but it's still a really well put together record)

9. Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse (like i said, they originally were just a scattered mess of grindcore with a 600 bpm drum machine, but with the addition of a female vocalist and some sort of song structure, this release by them is very mature and tasteful from what it was. comes highly recommended)

8. The Red Chord - Fed Through The Teeth Machine (their best release to date. after fused together in revolving doors, they sort of fell off between a plethora of side projects like dim mak and ladder up the ass, and two non-memorable albums in clients and prey for eyes, but red chord comes back REAL HARD with this one. if you liked all their material to date, you'll like this one the most)

7. Portal - Swarth (perhaps a little shorter in length that a good record should be, but i had never heard this band and don't really know anything about them except that they definitely put out one of the best records of 2009. take a listen, it's pretty bad ass, albeit short)

6. Architects - Hollow Crown (i wasn't familiar with this band either until a few weeks ago when i downloaded this shit. it's really really catchy and in your face. it reminds me of dead and buried or nourish the flame [now known as choose your weapon]. i'm very skeptical of discovering a new band and tend not to give them as much credibility as i should, but this one blew me away.)

5. Burnt By The Sun - Heart Of Darkness (if this isn't in your tops of the year, you're looney. it's an amazing record by an amazing group of guys, and like i previously stated, it's slated as their last release ever so even if you don't like it as much as say, soundtrack to the personal revolution, you should still pick this up)

4. Shrinebuilder - Shrinebuilder (it's only 5 songs averaging 7 and a half minutes a piece, but this shit is incredible. i'm not really sure how decibel magazine looked past this. how coalesce and napalm death's horrid records cracked the top 10 and this isn't even in the top 40 blows my mind. i'm not sure who works at that place but their credibility is really starting to slip with this one. AMAZING record. anyone who likes metal, old or new, will love this. it reminds me a lot of black sabbath or even ronnie james dio's solo stuff, but a lot heavier. epic miss there, decibel.)

3. Obscura - Cosmogenesis (this was mentioned and is pretty high on their list so at least we agree on some things. very progressive death metal here. i'm usually not into concept albums, i usually feel they're kinda self righteous and gimmicky, but this is a very lucid, intelligent release and i think any fan of the heavier side of music would really dig this.)

2. Lewd Acts - Black Eye Blues (i doubt many at decibel are into hardcore "punk", they have a tendency to lean to more metal influenced hardcore bands. but this is an awesome upbeat, and rather surprising release from deathwish inc. i really wasn't expecting much from this but i love this record. there's only one album i loved more this year than this one which means it's pretty fucking good. go get it.)

1. Converge - Axe To Fall (everyone has been talking about this. considering this is one of my all time favorite bands, this is extremely biased, but axe to fall is not only the best release of 2009, but the best of converge's legendary career. they've had plenty of other LP's, splits, and demos since their inception into boston's hardcore scene in 1994, but they've come full circle and made a truely career-defining album with this one. it's changed everything and has set the bar for any up and coming band remotely influenced by converge. this record is like jacob bannon waving his middle finger to the music making masses saying "here you go...beat THAT.")

one more time. this is just my opinion. i'm not a musical expert and haven't heard every album released this year to say i know everything. fact is no one has. you can't listen to every single cd released in an entire year, it's impossible. lastly the only reason baroness wasn't mentioned is because i have yet to hear the blue album, but if anyone has it send a copy/download link my way. i've heard nothing but good things.

spinach.

Davey Bx