A Review of Sorts, and a Hello

Hi folks.

It's been a while. And no, not the Staind song. You fucking idiot.

I apologize on behalf of myself and Dave for being so lethargic with respect to this, our lovely blogspot. Our little piece of the internets golf course. This would obviously then be the rough on 13. Full of raccoons and birds fucking.

Anyway, this is for a while ago, however try to enjoy my naïvete.

A lot of new music has hit those lonesome none-too-often visited shelves over the past few weeks and months, most of which has been impressive and absolutely needs to be yelled and screamed about. These include the following new releases:

Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire - Songs of Ill Hope and Desperation
Cruel Hand - Lock & Key
Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle, Pt. II
Melvins - The Bride Screamed Murder
Alcest - Écailles de Lune
Ceremony - Rohnert Park LP
Rosetta - A Determinism of Morality
Watain - Lawless Darkness
Whitechapel - A New Era of Corruption
This Is Hell - Weight of the World

In fact, this doesn't exhaust the list, not nearly. I didn't even include the new Circa Survive, which is not only stunning, but overshadows what so far has been a year not nearly as exciting as 2009. But that being said, I might as well just wait until I make my top 20 listing at the end of the year to talk about that. Instead I'd like to take a look at a few of these records, review them, and hopefully tie them into a larger moral. I've already been thinking a lot about what I feel ought to be considered better than its peers so far this year, and it seems a trend is forming, a trend that I can't say I find surprising.

But of course, that's just me. Let us begin here:

This Is Hell - Weight of the World

I've always really liked This Is Hell. They have a fresh, heavy understanding of the typical hardcore technology, except they tend to wrap it in vocals that are passionate and tired (as if struggling for air; I don't mean that badly), and they don't make music that determinably seems hardcore for hardcore's sake. That is, unlike so many bands I've heard that sound or want to sound a lot like This Is Hell, none seem to pull it off quite as naturally as TIH themselves; it is as if these dudes just picked up their instruments and started playing and hardcore came out. This is the same feeling I get about Minor Threat.

That is very high praise, and I feel it is accurate, if it is coherent. But unfortunately, Weight of the World is not only passive, but a macabre misattempt to do exactly what felt so right on Misfortunes. The vain attempt at guitar solos are hackneyed and disruptive. The songs lack all sort of groove. But moreover, the passion is lost. The songs are forgettable, and if they begin well (as in "The Death of World Class" or "Out Come the Bastards"), they with almost scientific precision seem to end miserably, or at least by the hook, I'm bored, and thinking instead about food or Aristotle. "Bloodlines" sounds like it was composed in the span of a half an hour fiddling around with mosh parts and chugs. I'm not asking for melodicism. I'm only asking for what I ask of any hardcore punk group: write memorable, passionate music. This Is Hell has always I feel had trouble writing music that was catchy, or in less controversial terms, really committed itself to memory. Even technical death metal bands nowadays can manage to do that (cf. The Faceless, Necrophagist, Obscura), and that's technical death metal.

I now realize that, in hindsight, I'm not sure why I felt the way I did about them. I expected quite a lot due to these now soon to be over-the-top characterizations of them, and they let those down utterly. If your music gets kids at shows to hardcore dance, I guess that means you can be successful in hardcore nowadays, which is unfortunate; but I'm not even sure if it'll do even that.

Moreover, TIH can now be seen to be a perfect example of what a label like Rise Records will do to you. I can't say I enjoy anything they have ever put out for longer than 5 seconds. In fact, most of it is horridly uninspired emocore, like Of Mice and Men, or even worse, Attack Attack!, whose popularity is an insult to genuine and honest musicians. The only expection would Emarosa, who's lead singer Jonny Craig, though he be the largest douche in the history of vaginal discharge (I mean, we're talking thousands of years), is an amazing singer, and the rest of the band writes some cool shit. I feel like they are trying to be Circa Survive musically; and that can't be too bad, although if I wanted to hear Circa Survive...

Anyway, I hope you all disagree with me and can find a way to defend This Is Hell, because I don't feel they are anything like Attack Attack! when it comes to work ethic or musicianship. I dig the attempt at solos, at a more rock and roll mentality, and riffs that are plain but solid. But it failed. I hope they can understand this, and put both Grabelle and Rise behind them, and try and move to a home where they can be produced honestly and have their high musical awareness nurtured.

Overall: 3/10; Notable Tracks: Out Come the Bastards.

Whitechapel - A New Era of Corruption

Like This Is Hell, Whitechapel has always had a soft spot in my heart, albeit at times I can't help but feel it a guilty pleasure. When I was first getting into metal, I heard The Somatic Defilement LP, which I felt was musical drivel and putrid. "Having breakdowns is one thing, sounding like a giant breakdown-fart machine is another," was probably something like what I thought upon listening to it. So when This Is Exile, its follow-up, came out, I couldn't help but feel that listening to it at all would be like engaging in musical treachery. But to my surprise, I loved This Is Exile, and only recently, but still eventually, I began to appreciate The Somatic Defilement also. At the very least, it is brutal as fuck.

This Is Exile takes the musical ideas of The Somatic Defilement, and both shuts them up, cleans them up, and altogether makes everything a lot catchier, for better or worse depending on your outlook. I still find myself spinning Whitechapel a lot, and I can only attribute that to their innate talent at writing brutal, catchy songs. If that's a bad thing, then fuck me, I guess.

A New Era of Corruption lives up to neither record, unfortunately, but at least you can tell they were thinking about something specific when they wrote this record. They obviously wanted to stretch out from the confines of their rather limited soundscape-word bank onto new sonic territory, while not giving up on the jing-jing-jing style brutalizations they seem to love so much. That would have been awesome, but if I'm right, they missed the mark. To miss the mark though, you'd either have to cling too firmly to your old ways, or stray so far into uncharted Northwest Territories that you end up sounding like a rip off of [insert technical death/core band here]. The former is much more tolerable, and what they in fact did: it seems they wanted to display some firmer writing chops, but just didn't find the balance enough to keep their songs fun and groovy.

My favorite example from the record of this is the song "Breeding Violence" (though other examples may be "A Future Corrupt", and "Murder Sermon"). This song is digitized beyond belief, evidenced by the first few sounds you even hear, and full of fruitless and altogether unclever attempts to symphonize and harmonize. Turning up the reverb and hoping for the best is not exactly what I feel bands ought to be doing if they want to accomplish more by way of songwriting, and I can't help but feel that's all you seem to get out of a song like "Breeding Violence". "Murder Sermon" just sucks. The Acacia Strain need to stop ruining everything: Vincent's vocals have only gotten more intolerable, his lyrics dumber, and their riffs writable in minutes, and thoughtless. In fact, the new Acacia Strain is the worst metal release I've ever heard. I'd rather listen to the shittiest of 90s Megadeth. It is beyond comment further. Okay one more. It makes me want to remove my organs and die.

All of that being said, I still really like this record. The song featuring Chino from the Deftones ("Reprogrammed to Hate") is classic Whitechapel, as are the last two songs on the album, "Necromechanical" and "Dehumanization". Most of the other tunes are not stand-outs but still quite good. The writing aside, Phil's vocals are just as amazing if not better, and although I just knocked the shit out of their writing skills on this record, they do try more practically to utilize the triple-guitar attack with more versatility and poise on this release, which has less to do with writing then with mixing.

This record is not bad, and tons of kids will (and by evidence of their high 43rd placement on the Bilboard 200 chart, definitely do) love this LP. But I think Whitechapel needs to focus either on what they do best, or need to push it just a little further. I must say, as a writer myself, I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I were in this band. It seems like a difficult task to account for 3 guitars and still say, "okay, let's go write better". What does that even mean? Harmonize more? More solos? Have one guitar do X while the other two do Y? Who fucking cares about that really? It's a balance Whitechapel will need to achieve soon if they plan to stay relevant, but I don't doubt that an EP within the next year or two couldn't give them the focus to make an enormous musical change. Want to show us you are all good writers? Then don't go into it narrow-mindedly, and don't be afraid to write stuff that is going to undoubtably piss off your 15-year-old spin-kicking fan base. Or, take a step back, realize that since The Somatic Defilement the music has gotten less and less brutal, and just brutalize the fuck out of yourselves. It should be clear which of these routes I'd prefer, but either ought to be in mind for the composers in this band (exactly who that is, I'm not sure actually).

Overall: 6/10; Notable Tracks: Nercomechanical, Reprogrammed to Hate.


Ceremony - Rohnert Park LP

This record is amazing. There, I came early...I'm sorry.

But it's being amazing is not an immediately, readily derived conclusion. The first song for example, "Sick", is an angry, practically unmusical abhorrent protest of...everything, the lyrics consisting only of lonely distorted shouts of the form "I'm sick of X...sick of Y...sick of Z...". The tempo of the song is barely a dirge compared to their older material, which is fucked-upedly fast, obviously brushing up ever so un-gently with hardcore's more lonely, more masturbatory, second cousins powerviolence and grindcore. This is especially obvious on their 2006 release Violence Violence, though honestly all of their older material is better characterizable as powerviolence. But Rohnert Park is different, and I can't help but think that all of their more religious fans will find Rohnert Park a tragedy, as sad beep-boop, an accident in an otherwise mean and disgusting discography.

But I was never really such a religious fan of Ceremony. I discovered them maybe 6 months ago, and really enjoyed all of their material, especially Violence Violence (which has always seemed so much powerviolencer than their other notable releases), but I listen to way too many bands already, and so they quite unfortunately became lost in the unending earthy soup that is my neatly organized though horribly over-crowded iPod.

However, Rohnert Park has pushed them to the foreground of this retarded overflowing juicebox of an mp3 player. And not simply because Rohnert Park itself is so good (which it is...I'm getting there), but also because with their discography in mind, it is clear that this band is truly committed to this genre, to hardcore, to music that tries to mean something, and flout all boundaries and otherwise predetermined musical normatives, and in general to avant-garde expression, which is by its nature in perpetual suffering from lack of mass attention. Rohnert Park is a hardcore record, in a very old school sense, which yet a very modern understanding. I'm normally quite against doing things that have already been done musically (if I want to hear Miles Davis play over rhythm changes, I own Birth of the Cool, you don't need to imitate his every finger movement for my enjoyment...), but this is not quite a revisiting of a more Black Flag kind of hardcore. For the Ceremony fans, this is still a Ceremony record. "M.C.D.F." or "Moving Principle" are perfect examples. These songs don't seem so un-Ceremony after some reflection, although it is patently obvious that they probably could have been written in the 80s, stylistically-speaking. The guitars are loud, the clang of the bass a heartbeat (albeit a much slower one), the drums beaten to their death (albeit blast beat-less). Vocalist Ross Barrar with practically the same timbre as always, menacingly spitting caustic and frightening shouts, displaying the same sort of emotionality I'm familiar with from their early stuff. Style is not necessarily mutually dependent upon sound.

A Disinterested, Uninformed Opinion Of Black Metal And Why The Band Naglfar Has The Coolest Name Ever

Recently, I was reminded how much I really just cannot tolerate 99% of black metal. It’s the Dane Cook of the metal subgenres. Apparently if you live in any of the Scandinavian countries, rip-off Kirk Hammett’s guitar riffs and dress like a dickhead, you get massive scene points with Satan and are classified as a black metal outfit. At least that’s the way it was. More recently, a black metal act still dresses like a bunch of dickheads and calls themselves Satan’s minions, but the music has become a lot more progressive and jazzy and I frankly don’t know that if even the dark underlord himself has the attention span for 15 and 16 minute songs. The genre has also gotten away from the more mainstream “overproduction” values adopted by bands like *cough cough* Cradle of Filth, who I promise will never be mentioned again. All the black metal that comes out now sounds like it was recorded in a sewer on a Talkboy voice recorder (that is a Home Alone 2: Lost In New York reference in an article/review of black metal…an extremely high level of difficulty.) But for now I digress, because for one, I was never into any kind of black metal to begin with to really defend any one scene, whether it be the older stuff that’s scary and to the point, or the newly defined black metal that’s more progressive than black and depressing and too long for it’s own good. Secondly, I don’t listen to enough of it to truly make a valid point anyway. So honestly you can stop reading right here if you want to, because a majority of this is personal opinion backed by no fact at all other than my own taste. I hereby deny any responsibility for wasting anyone’s time. The five minutes you’ll spend reading about what I (a non-black metal fan) thinks black metal SHOULD sound like, and you’ll never get that time back. So if you’ve chose the red pill, hang tight, if you’ve chosen the blue pill, see you later (a Matrix reference…booyah.)

Going back to the point I made about older black metal, and some of the pioneers of the genre, who have guitar riffs that sound like they came from the cutting room floor of Metallica or Megadeth and at most times have very predictable drumming and lyrical content, one band sticks out in my mind that I actually did enjoy the few times I listened to them. That band is Naglfar.

In Norse folklore, the Naglfar was a ship made from the fingernails and toenails of the dead. HOW FUCKING COOL IS THAT?!?!?! I’m not familiar with the whole story or really care in the first place to research it more thoroughly but it’s seriously one of the better band names out of Sweden. They began in 1992, making them one of the earlier acts in the genre. Though a higher caliber in production value, they don’t come across as just a buncha weirdos who grew up hating their parents, putting domesticated animals in the microwave and painting pentagrams on their walls with blood. They don’t overdue it with guitar solos or synthesizers which are also commonplace in black metal. It’s basically pure metal, straight and to the point and that’s probably why I actually like them.

The record that I have is called Harvest, which I’ll talk about. I’ve also heard Diabolical, Pariah, and Sheol, which are also very good albums, despite my lack of interest in delving deeper into the genre. It’s very unapologetic and to the point, without being too abrupt. They have a good balance of elements that defines black metal. The typical black metal vocals aren’t overpowering or boring, the guitars shred, without being overdone, the drums don’t really stand out but they’re not ridiculous either, and there’s a tinge of synth and violins found throughout if you listen for them, but again not overdone. The lyrics are all about the loneliness of life, the solace of death, and reminds you that it’s still cool to talk about the Grim Reaper. Naglfar keeps their music simple, and although there isn’t much that separates them from the rest of the flock, it’s this toned-down style and almost non-uniqueness that makes them listenable. I know that doesn’t make much sense to you unless you’ve heard it to know what it is I’m exactly talking about. I understand that statement makes me sound really fucking retarded and you’d assume the music gets boring, just like a majority of black metal is for me, but it really doesn’t. I’ve listened to Harvest numerous times, and I’ve provided linkage at the bottom for you to check it out yourself. I promise that Naglfar is not going to be your new favorite band, but I think in playing it safe, they’ve done black metal proper, and the new jacks can either learn a thing or two from it, or keep making their “ep”s that are an hour and a half long with 3 songs and are such poor quality it’s virtually inaudible unless you listen at full volume, which with all that noise of multiple layers of sluggish guitar, predictably followed by a solo at the speed of light, but for 5 minutes, followed by more depressing guitar sounds, just makes my head hurt. Either I REALLY don’t get it, or I have really bad taste.

Linkage: http://www.mediafire.com/?l2imko5njji
Standout Tracks: The Mirrors Of My Soul, Plutonium Reveries

Satan is a mean bastard. But he does have a quite impressive wingspan.

Davey Bx

It's Been a Long Time, Coming...

It's been a while.

I feel my strength returning...and uh, my free time going up a wee bit, enough at least to allow me the spare moments here and there to muster up a new post for the first time of the new year. No more procrastinating, there's work to be done, fish to be fried, in the kitchen, beans to not be burnt, on the grill, yada yada, cocaine is good.

If you're wondering whether or not I'll taking the blog in a more avant garde direction this year, I think you've just got your answer.

Anyway.

My idea for this post, as I've consistently told myself over and over and over that I would do once I finally started to write again, was to write an apology: an apology to all the great albums of 2009 I completely missed, and not only that, in hindsight, would have easily cracked my top 20 had I known of them sooner.

But I refuse to make revisions now for obvious reasons. I'm lazy. But seriously, I stand by my list, and instead of corrupting the memory of my past self's ignorance and ego-induced self-pity, I decided I'd just write a few reviews, doing what I can to bolster the fateful few I missed last year. Which unfortunately isn't much because of our low readership. So in order to gain an edge on my competitors, all the mediafire links I provide, which I claim to be authentic, are actually just all lesbian porn. Or are they? You'll have to go find out I guess. Wow...mysterious.

Let's begin at the beginning.

Animals As Leaders - s/t

So this band can be criticized in, as far as I'm concerned, one and only one way: they aren't much of a band, more just a one man show; however, not only would I resist such a criticism, but I'd say even if that criticism were warranted, the album remains one of the more utterly brilliant progressive metal releases I've ever heard. Better than Obscura? Eh, well that might be a bit of a stretch, but if they don't trump them, then I can't think of anything else that could.

The album is a crisp refreshing breath of fresh air. It mixes the standard array of genres one normally finds in a progressive release: metal of course, one's far share of jazz and world, and plenty of impressive guitar face-meltisms. But what makes it unique is, frankly, Tosin Abasi, who is the brain child/genius/originator of the project. He is a frightening player of the instrument, taking inspiration from Alan Holdsworth, modern jazz bop guitars, and guitar wanker non-musicians like Steve Vai, but fair enough: he at least turned out more than okay. In fact, his composition in the genre, his ability to meld new forms of metal which surprise ears as much as they do eyes, is phenomenal and quite unheard of most of the time, literally. I'll be honest, there are only a few progressive bands I can truly say consistently teach me new things and bring me joy, who never bore me; they would probably include Necrophagist, The Faceless, and Obscura, but as of now, head of the pack is Tosin's Animals As Leaders; for anyone who simply can't seem to get into what they feel is just a load of over-hyped, over-composed bullshit, listen to this, and subsequently change your mind.

Listen to On Impulse, probably the least technical track on the album, and which could be also its best: it is an enormous flood of for-whom-tolled bells, with both an Ezra Pound uneasiness and a William Carlos Williams serenity locked inside. It is musical catharsis, musical rootedness, musical history written right in front of your ears. Notable Tracks: CAFO, On Impulse, Modern Meat, Song of Solomon.

Amesoeurs - s/t

This band is, like Alcest, pure French deliciousness. Both bands have figured out this unique formula, which incorporates post-rock, black metal, and folk in a way I can't quite describe. It's very beautiful, and to be yet considered black metal, even if only to some qualified extent, is pretty impressive just for the black metal genre, which, let's face it, is an odd place to be musically. I mean, I suppose I'm not an expert on the black metal "scene", unless that's a misnomer already, but so far as I can perceive it, most of it is "just too much". Personally, I really like Immortal, Emperor, Behemoth, Wolves In the Throne Room, and some select others, but although all of these bands have something very unique going for them respectively, they partake in a genre which requires...well, a lot. Just think about the line between one's standard brew of death and one's standard brew of (foreign, say Scandinavian) black: I'd argue it's not so far as most would like to say. Lower vs. higher vocal style, each uses blast beats like it was their breakfast of champions, although black to an alarming (though pretty awesome) extent, and uh...I don't know, less Satan vs. more Satan?

But Amesoeurs are a completely different experience. It can certainly be heavy at times: for example, in the song, which I particularly love, "I XIII V XIX XV V XXI XVIII XIX - IX XIX - IV V I IV". (I know, right?) It drives like most black metal (with some sort of folk-twist), but suddenly, a swung cascadian march halts everything: and then you notice here, as in many other places on the record, this bands amazing ability, all too forgotten in modern music, to build, to begin with an idea, and make something new of it, with nothing but itself. It is a leftover scrap of an older jazz and jazz-rock generation, that perhaps seeped its way into the French music scene in the 1960's, when being black jazz musician in America was nothing like being one in France. There are these jazz undertones, but more predominant in Amesoeurs's unique amalgamation is the indie rock and kraut rock pleasantries, which I feel, even if you don't find indie rock appetizing a priori, if you have a taste for music that does more than just br00talize your dick off, you'll absolutely love the subtly, the classical sensibility almost, of every painstakingly deliberate note. I hear Joy Division, Venom, and The Police all souping into the gorgeous whole, not at all equal to its parts, that is this band.

I'm so overwhelmingly impressed with this band, it's difficult as fuck to contain. Please check it out and agree with me. Notable Tracks: Heurt, I XIII V XIX XV V XXI XVIII XIX - IX XIX - IV V I IV, the rest of the album.

Pelican - What We All Come to Need

So this record I "included as an honorable mention" in my earlier list, because I "listened to it thoroughly and determined it to be yet inferior to those records I happened to include on the list instead". Yeah, okay.

Basically, for that reason, my review for this record will be the apologeticest. Whatever, you get it. Did I listen to it before making my official top 20 list? Yes. Did I still only kind of listen to it though? Uh...

But this, though still behind the obvious brilliance that is Austalasia, is their best record in quite a long time, and honestly, should change exactly how much you felt you liked City of Echoes. Something very drastic has changed; they have obviously decided to return to the less-so-simple formula that produced the amazing compositional genius that is almost the entirety of their earlier work, but they have also brought a new glimpse into the stark, grimy trepidation and toil that is the characteristic sound of the "post-metal" genre. In fact I think the cause is simply this: whatever happened on City of Echoes that freed them from some sort of innate need to include layer upon layer of caustic soundscape and distortion-breeding-further-distortion sensuality never fully left; however, the net effect on What We All Come to Need is a wholly different Pelican: a love-child of the old and new, while simultaneously maintaining a freshness of composition we seem to get time and time again from such experienced, likely introspective and caring post-metal/post-music musicians, who shun the too often assumed illusory necessity for lyrical interference, among other traditional compositional methods.

Okay, so what about the actual music. If you never again even look at a Pelican record, or .mp3 file, or whatever, you must, I beg you, at least listen to the opening track on this record: "Glimmer", a 7:31 musical experience I find appropriate to compare with the sheer elation and sadness I experience from any Ravel piano piece; the sort of thing happening on a track like "Glimmer" has been happening since the dawn of Western music, at least evident in "good" Western music, and that is the use of contrast, and arguably also the element of surprise. The end of this track is the most heart-lifting momentous occasion; it is numbing and sensuous simultaneously; the oceans dry up and re-condense directly over you; there's a weight, a breath. "Specks of Light" is another good, though probably not nearly as good, example of such a phenomenon on the album. They are learning, so it seems, to take their time.

I doubt people will flatter this record to the same extent to which I just have, but I feel that's mainly because I think this record is just that difficult to listen to in a laid-back manner. It's work. It makes demands of you. To enjoy such an experience is something I've had to learn to love, and of course I'd be still lying if I said I always do enjoy it. Something I just need to hear some Agoraphobic Nosebleed and jump around like a fucking idiot. It's fun, and I think their new record, e.g., sounds good too. But that aside, if I'm as convincing as I think I am, i.e. only semi-convincing, then just try to meet their demands, and if you can't, think less of yourself. Okay, just kidding. But try, at the very least because you love me. Notable Tracks: Glimmer, Specks of Light, What We All Come to Need.

Here is a link to my mediafire page, where at you can delve into what I've so far had the time to upload to it, including however these three newly reviewed jems. Or maybe you'll just find folder upon folder of .jpegs of me baked a wedding cake. Minds will be blown.

www.mediafire.com/amostbitterseason

Remember kids, stay away from meth and Hegelian metaphysics.

Love,

Zachary

DISCLAIMER: Defend Music

We here at insteadofclothes felt obligated to post a disclaimer of sorts. Occasionally, when either Zach Baran: Attorney At Law, Davey Bx, or any other contributing writer review a piece of music, we may post a download link to the album, for you to check out for yourself. We don’t HAVE to do this. In fact, sometimes just the ripping, zipping and uploading process of sharing albums is time consuming, mind-numbing and frankly, kind of annoying. But we are true, genuine lovers of music and if we get our paws on something that we really dig enough to write a stellar review on, then, of course we want the fucking world to hear it, just as much as the artists that made the record. If you like it, that’s great. If you think it sucks, then it sucks. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, that’s not what we're hear to bitch about. We are just a middle man, bringing you nothing more than opinions on what we think good or shitty music is.

We're very well aware that this is the internet, where people can come and go as they please, do whatever they want, with little to no consequence. We can’t make anyone of you do anything. But we felt the need to say that if we post a link to download an album that was reviewed herein, PLEASE don’t just burn it to CD and throw it in a folder somewhere. If you really, REALLY dig something that we’ve posted, please support these bands. Without these musical spectacles there would be no blog. All we're asking is to give credit where it’s due. If something strikes you enough to go that extra mile to burn a copy and keep for yourself, we ask that you go out and buy it, and support the bands that are bringing you these amazing works that we love so dearly. Sometimes the lines get blurred and we forget that they’re people too, just like you the readers and ourselves. They have bills to pay, families to feed and keep a roof over, tour vans that need gas, studio time to record more songs for you to hear. All these things cost money and they don’t receive dividends checks from their production companies if we don’t buy their music. So please, don’t just pirate shit, especially if you love it like we do, or if it speaks to you, moves you. Support these awesome and talented individuals by buying their cds, rock their tees, go to their shows, friend them on myspace. If you like a cd that you acquired from insteadofclothes, go fucking buy the thing. We do not promote the piracy or copyright infringements carried out everyday on the web. People like that steal from the artists we love to hear, and if they don’t get paid, they have to get regular days jobs. When that happens, we never hear from them again. All we ask is that you not be so cheap and don’t allow good musicians to fade away because their dreams were suddenly fiscally out of reach because of the internet. Don’t let good music die.

Peace, love and stage dives.

The Writers @ insteadofclothes.blogspot.com

In Review: This Comp Kills Fascists

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Top 20 of 2009

Hey guys.

So it's actually past due that do my top 20 releases for 2009, considering that it's 2010 now. Thankfully nothing has really been released yet in 2010 that already makes talking about 2009 obsolete, or "so last year, like, oh my god". You know what I mean.

To prologue my discussion, I must say it was kind of difficult really figuring out the right number of albums I wanted to include in this list. Originally, it was restricted to 15. But in light of certain circumstances (also known as "falling in love with Obscura's Cosmogenesis all of a sudden"), I needed to include a bit more. This year was pretty amazing for underground music, and so will 2010, as I will discuss, if we can all forget that both Creed and Limp Bizkit are scheduling releases next year. If you didn't know that until right now, I'm really sorry you had to know at all, but it's better this way I promise. Otherwise you would have had to find out the day or the week they both come out and then fall into a depression which would have likely caused some sort of mass genocide. So you're welcome.

Another caveat: this list isn't restricted to metal and hardcore like I usually like to do things here. But as you'll see, most of this list is still metal and hardcore. Oh lol is me.

Here we go.

My Top 20 of 2009

20. Tombs - Winter Hours

This band, like a few on this list, is very new to me. I've had an awakening recently, to a whole new world of sludgy, hardcore (but not really), groovy metal, that has by far impressed me more than anything I've really heard this year. This album is melodically deep, and yet harmonically, a giant tsunami of howling guitars and...well, dead fish. But seriously, as a typical example of post-metal/post-sludge/post-whatever-the-fuck, it's rather unique, among a collection of classmates, who, let's face it, share too much between each other be totally different. Winter Hours is a very coherent record, which is always a plus with me, as you'll see with some of the other albums on the list. Notable Track(s): The Great Silence, Gossamer, Filled With Secrets.

19. Lewd Acts - Black Eye Blues

This was a solid release from a band which was remotely new to me up until a few weeks ago. Very much in the Deathwish ilk: it's the more modern metallic brand of hardcore, which is unmistakably well-produced and absolutely mind-punching. Notable Track(s): Penmanship Sailed, Young Lovers, Old Livers.

18. Krallice - Dimensional Bleedthrough

Krallice is another band which is remotely new to me; I only discovered them due to their place on Decibel's Top 40, which, say what you want about it, has so far been the best listing of albums from this year, hands down. (Go check out metalsucks.net's version for example, and if you find that list more accurate then we have basically nothing in common.) Anyway, this record is a bit of work for the listener; one needs to really sit oneself down, and just listen to it, distraction-free. The songs are long, brutal, and surprisingly for a black metal release, very beautiful. The welcoming, melodic, yet also strangely distonant obligatos from the layers of guitars sort of lull you into a state of utter numbness. If only I had had more time with this record, I know I would have listed it higher. Highly recommended if you like good music. Notable Track(s): Dimensional Bleedthrough, The Mountain.

17. Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect

Since I already reviewed this, I won't say too much; for those who know BTBAM well, The Great Misdirect was about as good as the self-titled, though doesn't really stand up to The Silent Circus through to Colors. Of course, I'm more a fan of that latter collection's sound, and it's admirable that they are trying to branch out, away from their more core/scene roots, to kids who normally wouldn't even know they existed. And maybe they'll even get some kids into death metal proper just by way of this record. That very awesome fact aside, the music itself is incredible as expected, more experimental and more altogether genre-less, and for this, deserves recognition. I wouldn't go this far, but Swim to the Moon could be their most impressive composition to date, and it being the closer on the LP really let's it all sink in. You almost hear their entire history wrapped up in the extra dimensions of every note, like they were playing to all these years just to make that song. But yeah I'm not going to go that far. It's amazing nonetheless. Notable Track(s): Swim to the Moon, Fossil Genera (A Feed from Cloud Mountain).

16. Coalesce - OX

Needless to say, I'm not as much a fan of Coalesce as my peeps at Decibel and Lambgoat. But I really like this record, despite being altogether unknowledgeable about their earlier releases (they were a prominent influence in the 90's, and since 1999 hadn't released anything until OX). It carries a refreshing power of thought, a clarity of presentation. It is both relentless and restful, and you get a bit of each in every song (as if every song is a microcosmic Converge album). It is not to be loved for technicality (which is more or less lacks) nor its songwriting, to be frank (which to some extent tends to blend each song into each other, almost bordering on monotony). But I enjoy OX for almost every other imaginable reason one could like a record, all summable in a single statement: it just sounds good. Notable Track(s): The Purveyor of Novelty and Nonsense, We Have Lost Our Will.

15. Nile - Thom Whom the Gods Detest

I could choose to make another risky statement here and say this record is by far Nile's best to date. And well, I am going to make that statement. This record trumps what, for me, could be the only other contender for that title, its predecessor Ithyphallic, only because it does everything that Ithyphallic claims to do so much better. The production is even better, the tunes are that much catchier, everything is at least as brutal if not more so, and the technicality is more or less the same (although regardless, produces catchier tunes). It's hard to just start listening to this record and then all of a sudden like Nile if you haven't before. That is, this record isn't groundbreaking for them, nor experimental. It's Nile. If you didn't like Ithyphallic, you can try and like TWTGD, but I don't think it's going to stimulate the ol' hypothalamus anymore then before. (Honestly, not sure if that even makes sense, and don't care.) But prove me wrong, and check it out. Notable Track(s): Those Whom the Gods Detest, Permitting the Noble Dead to Descend to the Underworld, Utterances of the Crawling Dead.

14. Mastodon - Crack the Skye

I have been a huge Mastodon fan since I first started listening to metal. In fact, sludge and its various incarnations is one of my favorite brews thereof. But that being said, Crack the Skye is not a sludge record. Actually it leans more toward progressive rock than anything, similar to how The Great Misdirect relates to the rest of the BTBAM discography. So in light of that, I have to admit, it took me a while to really start liking this release. But I went to see them perform the entire album live when they came around to Philly with High On Fire, Converge, and that cartoon-metal thing, and I was amazed. Since then, I think I see the point of this album: it is probably the most impressive display of songwriting they've ever produced, though it sort of removes the record from the metal genre for me personally. But that does not matter, or at least it should not. The concept behind the record is sort of bewildering, and honestly I don't care. The music tends to strike me like a classical composition does; every song fits like a puzzle piece, each necessary, each something new, each contributing equally to a unified whole which altogether does not nor could not equal its pieces individually. This is meant to be listened to as one giant song really. But in light of human limitations for patience (all to common in myself), here are the Notable Track(s): The Last Baron, Divinations.

13. Obscura - Cosmogenesis

I have literally only recently (about 4 days ago) started really listening to Obscura's Cosmogenesis, and how I've overlooked it for so long is now totally beyond me. I guess I just didn't get it. The way the bass, beautifully manned by fretless-extraordinaire Jeroen Paul Thesseling, mixed with everything else just made it all seem so much more from outer space than even The Faceless' Planetary Duality, another amazing record by the way. And I guess I didn't dig that. All I know now is that this record is utterly mindblowing, and really gives Necrophagist a run for their money in terms of best-technical-death-band-shredding-presently. Why? Because you can hear all of the elements of a band like Necrophagist, including their actual former guitarist, but with a more progressive rock-minded composition style, which results in the highlight of the record for me: their ability to know when and where the "tech" in tech-death should come in to play. Universe Momentum, by far the most technically exhilarating tune on the album, hits you like a stampede of arpeggiated goodness. But then, you're given Incarnated, which is my favorite track as much for itself as for its placement: it is literally the least technical song on the album. You are in this way taken on a sort of roller coaster, and the main architects are frontman Steffen Kummerer, and Thesseling, whose bass work is probably the best in metal right now, along with Alex Webster of course. Truly phenomenal LP. Notable Track(s): Universe Momentum, Incarnated, Noospheres.

12. The Black Dahlia Murder - Deflorate

I think that most considerations for best albums of the year would end up excluding this record, simply because, to be honest, The Black Dahlia Murder just does not usually produce groundbreaking material. It is more accurately described as some of the best melodic death metal ever to come out of America though, and that's kind of fucking cool. And moreover, Deflorate could be their best LP to date. The technical aspect of the band got a huge shot in the arm from ex-Arsis Ryan Smith, whose refreshingly good solos really gives the band something they never really had. And songs like A Selection Unnatural (written mostly by bassist Bart Williams) really shows that the compositions are following along accordingly. Of any of their records, every song tends to fit more cohesively together than on earlier releases; each song follows naturally from the last. Nocturnal (Deflorate's predecessor) did a nice job of this too I feel, but this record accomplishes it better, to put it squarely. Notable Track(s): Black Valor, I Will Return.

11. Burnt By the Sun - Heart of Darkness

Not much need be said about the musicianship and intensity with which these guys approach their unique mixture of hardcore and insanity. It is their last record ever, and they certainly leave the music world (or the small subset of it that listens to music that matters) with an amazingly memorable record. I’m still quite new to this band, being familiar with only one other of their records (Soundtrack to the Personal Revolution, which is another classic: I immediately fell in love with their sound). But from what I do know of good music, and how it is supposed to be executed, let’s just say BBTS knows their fretboards. “Inner Station”, the back-breaking opener, is evidence enough: the backbeat is almost nauseating in its sensory-usurpation: you get sucked into it like a giant hardcore-vacuum (whoa). Of truth. Anyway, please check this out; I know my friends have really heard nothing from this band, and I haven’t been yelling and screaming about them enough around them. Notable Track(s): Goliath, Inner Station.

10. Gaza - He Is Never Coming Back

Gaza is officially my newest obsession, unless it's fair to say Obscura stole that spot as of the last few days. I heard this band first (and only other) LP, I Don't Care Where I Go When I Die, and immediately fell in love with their unique style of discombobulated, chaotic, blast-beatdown hardcore. It was one of the few times in my life I got to say, "I didn't know music like this existed." And as good as IDCWIGWID was (whoa, epic acronym), He Is Never Coming Back is like the grand slam home run that culminates the three singles hit by its predecessor. (Man that baseball analogy cost me some dignity and self-respect.) What really helped me understand that was the song Bishop, which is both calmly melodic, serene, and yet at the very same time a whirling undulation of pain and hellishness. Notable Track(s): Bishop, Tombless, Windowless House.

9. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

The metalheads are going to hate me for this one. I try not to divulge my semi-hipster leanings in this blog, but here I can't resist. (Rest assured, I never visit Pitchfork, and I own literally no flannel. Although I was thinking about buying some...) For those who do not know, Animal Collective is a group of 3 (sometimes 4) electronic/freak folk/experimental geniuses who produce an avant-electro-goodness I can't quite describe, besides saying it is literally the only electronic group (besides Nine Inch Nails of course) I actually like. Unlike Obscura's Cosmogenesis, it took me literally five minutes to realize I was going to love MPP, especially once I heard Also Frightened, this sort of cascade of sound that is both euphoric in tone and devastating in presentation at the same time, producing a catharsis I'm going to choose to describe as post-orgasmic. That's pretty fucking high praise if you ask me, yeah...might want to go check this out. Notable Track(s): Also Frightened, Daily Routine, No More Runnin'.

8. Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse

My cousinal cohort Dave has already commented on this, and I could (as you'll see presently) literally not say it any better than he already has: this is the best (and possibly the only good) ANB album. I credit it with finally helping me realize the merit in grindcore, since most of what I had heard before this was either shit, or Pig Destroyer (which actually was amazing). So basically Scott Hull (guitarist, ANB/PD-brain-child) is a genius blah blah blah. The fake drums sound all that much less fake (on earlier releases it is so obviously fake and overdone that it feels almost like a punishment to listen to it). The guitar work is that much more impressive. The songs are so much more intense. And just to emphasize my point, I put this record ahead of so much amazing music already, even though it is basically pure bottled-intensity, and not much more artistically. Notable Track(s): Dick to Mouth Resusitation, Moral Distortion.

7. Baroness - Blue Record

Baroness is often called a Mastodon-wannabeism. I think that comparison is now officially wrong with the release of Blue Record, if the claim ever even had any substance to begin with. Sure it's sludgey and from Georgia, like Mastodon. The difference is now this: Baroness released and utterly brilliant LP, in every facet, whereas Mastodon produced, well, another brilliant record sure, but not obviously so. At least not for me, anyway. It was a move away from what I still feel is a better more coherent record with Red Album. But the change that one witnesses between the two LPs is so stark that it's almost impossible to compare the two. Blue is more rock and roll, harmonized oceanization, psychedelia, trip to Atlantis. Red is more gritty lumberjacked Redwood, Manifest Destination, undiscovered beaches, journey to the Mantle of the Earth. (How's that for imagery?) They are two different stories told for two different reasons, so it feels. It retains some heaviness, but at the same time remains a few inches off the ground, floating in the froth of probably the most original metal-sound in the genre. Now, they have surpassed Mastodon, at least this year. If they ever tour together, I might sacrifice a goat to Thor in rejoice. Okay, maybe not. You get the idea. Notable Track(s): The Sweetest Curse, Steel That Sleeps the Eye, A Horse Called Golgotha, War, Wisdom and Rhyme.

6. August Burns Red - Constellations

Oh no! Not Metalcore! Relax. This is the other surprise for the metalhead readers no doubt. But hear me out. I honestly feel that this record, for maybe one of the only times in metalcore's short history (excluding perhaps the amazing past few records from Killswitch Engage), actually surpasses it's own overly-restrictive misnomer of a genre. For example, I have a friend who, despite listening to absolutely nothing even remotely callable by "metalcore", and who listened to previous ABR albums and didn't find them too gripping, absolutely loved Constellations. Why could that be so? Because it is just good, regardless of whatever predilections a listener could have toward metalcore as a whole. The music is technically interesting, but still retains the necessary shot-in-the-arm style of composition that tends to keep everything going at 500 miles per hour. It is more melodic, more passionate, and vocally more interesting than other releases from this or most other modern metalcore bands. You can make the complaint often made about most metalcore; that is, "it's all the same shit". Well, on this release at least, making that same complaint of it would show either a complete lack of attention as a listener, or complete ignorance of the music. Or I guess immaturity as a metal-listener. Either way, it is just as repetitive as any other metal release; sometimes one needs to search through a metal album thoroughly and thoughtfully to really discover the intricacies therein. So do that; then tell me you don't like it. For what it's worth, I think this record fully re-garnered my interest in bands like ABR. Notable Track(s): Marianas Trench, Ocean of Apathy, Indonesia.

5. Behemoth - Evangelion

And now for something completely different. Not liking Behemoth is probably most analogous to not enjoying chocolate. But...but...but why? This record is nothing short of miraculous, by far the best purely brutal release of the year, unless you are a Suffocation and/or Dying Fetus whore. But what those bands make up for in pure brutality, Behemoth brings to the listener with an added factor which is all too helpful to the death metal listener: catchiness. Sounds unfair perhaps, but it makes sense; let's face it, listening to an entire Suffocation record is like doing homework. It's exhausting. There's nothing or almost nothing there for the first-time listener to really grasp onto, and take with them immediately. That is a huge asset to a death metal release, regardless of the ethical issues one might have with considering something as trite as "catchiness" to be a real factor in differentiating "good" from "bad" music. The guitars are sharp cheddar, the production is their best to date, and every note is so much more precise compared to earlier albums. Warning: Behemoth noobs may suffer from immense eardrum disintegration upon listening. Notable Track(s): Transmigrating Beyond Realms ov Amenti, He Who Breeds Pestilence, Shemhamforash.

4. As Tall As Lions - You Can't Take It With You

This is as non-metal a record as I could dream to put on this list, but it deserves its high placement. ATAL is generally speaking an indie rock outfit, with obvious krautrock, old school progressive rock, and ambient/experimental influences. But despite the more popish tone of their previous records, they almost totally forsake that simply produce some of most artistically beautiful independent music of the decade, in the ranks with Arcade Fire's Funeral, or Panda Bear's Person Pitch. When I originally reviewed this record, I discerned it to be ever so slightly inferior to its self-titled predecessor, which very obviously retains the pop rock tone of which I speak. But I've changed my mind within the last few months, and so much so that it's almost embarrassing. It blows their whole discography out of the water of the melo-emo-pop and stagnancy to which it is accustomed. (Although I still love all of their tunes.) It is a dark, utterly honest survey of all those certain aspects of the human condition rock bands tend to have driveled over into repetitive boredom, although in a way which completely scares you with its newness, and its cunning beauty. Notable Track(s): Circles, Duermete.

3. Thrice - Beggars

I had actually promised I'd talk about Thrice's Beggars a while ago. Well, here you go. Thrice has been one of my favorite bands for a while now, and since the Alchemy Index releases, I've truly started to respect them as probably the most musically-informed/intelligent rock musicians playing right now. They could have kept playing their old assemblage of pop-punk and alternative rock, which, although not too bad so far as pop-punk goes, was getting old, fast. This record only furthers the successes of the Alchemy Index LPs, and more further emphasizes how right I am about these motherfuckers. The poignance, the grace, the understatement of every song is refreshing to my ears, rusted by technical and heavy music, and the progressive nature of the their understanding of rock music and where it should be going is an inspiration to a musician like myself, who aspires to do the same things in my own little sector of the "rock" phenomenon. Thank you Thrice. Notable Track(s): Circles, In Exile, Talking Through Glass / We Move Like Swing Sets.

2. The Red Chord - Fed Through the Teeth Machine

A lot of people would love nothing more then the following scenario for The Red Chord: burn every copy of Prey for Eyes; release 9 LPs worth of Fused Together In Revolving Doors-like material; win epicly. Well, fuck that. FTIRD happened, it's over, it was fucking awesome, it's not coming back, get over it. Too much evolution has happened between then and now for The Red Chord for them to excusably take that far of a step back, but then again, I am a whore for moving forward with one's music with aggression and deliberateness. In light of this philosophy, Fed Through the Teeth Machine was literally nothing more than I could have ever asked from TRC: something which blows Prey for Eyes the fuck away, and re-solidifies themselves as the real fucking deal in deathgrind. The riffs groove hypnotically, the clarity of composition (that we-all-know-where-we-want-to-go-with-tune-and-we-are-fucking-doing-itness), the ferocity, the frightening mix of melodicism with a bitter sharpness of chord change, all meshes together into a gorgeous example of metal doing almost everything right, and doing it with a clairvoyance into the listener's head I would never expect from anything in music at all. It's brutal, it's catchy, it's [insert generally pleasant adjective here]. Notable Track(s): Embarrassment Legacy, Hour of Rats, Face Area Solution, Demoralizer.

1. Converge - Axe to Fall

Converge is probably my favorite band in modern music. So those who knew this (and those who now know this) won't be surprised at this being number one. And indeed, my cowriter agreed. So literally, this blog is owned by Converge-whores, and proud of it. Converge continually pushes themselves, producing music with forcing a mirror on its listener; producing a sort of inert ugliness and beauty out of thin air, providing the wide pantheon of human emotion tapered out like the light spectrum. As other (good) reviewers of this album have already pointed out, Converge really outshines themselves here, making both a collaborative work (with guys from Genghis Tron, Blacklisted, Cave In, and Neurosis, among others) and a coherent album-wide musical statement, which fits together perfectly despite it's own self-imposed diversity. Jacob's vocals are just as passionate and driven as always, and Kurt Ballou, who seems to have his hand-prints on most of the only relevant hardcore albums released anymore, produces yet another brilliant work for his band. As Converge has always been very good at, this album is an almost unseen mixture of musical technicality and unadulterated passion. Not having this album first on a list such as this means you weren't listening well at all this year (unless you just don't have a palate for it). Notable Track(s): Axe to Fall, Dark Horse, Losing Battle, Cruel Bloom.

So that was the primary list; I hope you found at least a bit of it favorable. Here are a few honorable mentions, which failed to really make the cut, but which I really enjoyed this year nonetheless.

Shrinebuilder - Shrinebuilder

Thursday - Common Existence

Suffocation - Blood Oath

Dying Fetus - Descend Into Depravity

The Dear Hunter - Act III: Life and Death

Wolves In the Throne Room - Black Cascade

Earth Crisis - To the Death

Trigger the Bloodshed - The Great Depression

Reign Supreme - Testing the Limits of Infinite

Brand New - Daisy

The Appleseed Cast - Sagarmatha

Isis - Wavering Radient

Kylesa - Static Tensions

Lamb of God - Wrath (you win, Jon.)

So, what about this coming year? What can we expect? Well, according to the Internets and the latest issue of Decibel, I know I am excited as fuck for some new High On Fire, The Sword, Glassjaw, Genghis Tron, Electric Wizard, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Necrophagist (oh please, let it be true), among many others. 2010 should be just as exhilarating as this year.

So in light of the length of this post, I'd like to reward to all with some music! Here's a mediafire link to a 20-song collection from my own stockpile, one song from each album in my top 20 list:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=c834978e56c64e09ed24a2875c7fa58e3a17c9df98ef6c53a2910e5564f74470

Not every song is what would be the "best" one of the album; that takes away the allure the album has, if it has any, after reading about them, assuming I did a good job of describing them, which I know is a bit of a stretch. But rest assured, the song I chose to include from each album is sick with a "q". So until next we \m/eet.

Be safe, friends.