!!!!!!!! ILX METAL ALBUMS of 2009 POLL RESULTS!!!!!! (FINAL RESULTS NOW IN! LISTENING TO THESE ALBUMS WILL MAKE YOU STRONGER FRAIL INTERNET PERSON!)

Here's an unused review I wrote for the Ancestors record:

Ancestors
Of Sound Mind
Teepee
8
PROG DOOM
Ancestors should have subtitled Of Sound Mind thusly: "In which five LA doom experimentalists add an organ to their repertoire, get positively wacky, and leave any semblance of song structure or easy characterization behind." Their previous outing, Neptune with Fire, consisted of two sludge-paced epics. This one contains two tracks that barely make it over a minute, two of reasonable length, and four that would fill an entire side of an LP, which begs an interesting question: is it harder to write really short non-songs or really long non-songs? Even though no Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, or Iron Butterfly albums were harmed in the making of this recording, Ancestors pilfer pretty freely from the aforementioned bands' catalogs, and create the progressive doom version of a sound collage. The tinkling of a piano here, vocals buried deep in the mix there, disconnected guitar noodling, organ swells, a rumble reminiscent of the way that Sabbath's guitars and drums never quite seemed to line up. The instrumentalists get lost inna Gadda da Vida, and sometimes don't seem to find their way out. It all works together as an entire piece, though. Pretty great stuff if you have the patience to see it through, because even though it doesn't seem like these guys know where they're going, they do.

never heard MM before. listening now. not entirely convinced, but there's definitely an instant 'whoa!' factor and some entirely unique elements there.

the singer has great voice though...reminds me a bit of sam ireland from die cheerleader.

Good review Jeff, thanks for posting that.

#44 , 108 Points , 5 votes

http://burningworldrecords.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/voorkant1.jpg
Gnaw Their Tongues - All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity

Gnaw Their Tongues is a revelation.

― Doran,
Which album are you listening to John? Love this guy tbh

― Vladislav Delap (DJ Mencap),

Seconded, although I'm not sure I've heard anything he's done this year.

― I thought I could make it work because you look a bit like a man (aldo),

Gnaw Their Tongues. I was completely unaware of them until hearing about them on this thread then All The Dread Magnificence Of Perversity turned up at my house for me to review. It isn't necessarily from this year, the post has been so bad in London recently.

It's just breath taking. The use of orchestral samples - manipulated to sound like a full contingent of musicians have just gone mad and started murdering each other with their instruments, Burial Hex-style horrotronix, some blackened vocals but not so much that you could call it ambient BM, more something odd that's influence by it like 'Black One'.

I love it that it's all made by one jovial looking Dutchman called Maurice.

Also it's a fine line in metal with crazy 'evil' titles but I feel a thunder in my chest when songs called shit like 'The Stench Of Dead Horses On My Breath And The Vile Of Existence In My Hands' named after a Gustave Flaubert poem actually live up to their nomenclature for a change.

I bought another couple of albums by him; I'm still completely bewildered by it really. Which is a good thing. Buzzing off it.

― Doran,

Hmm, this Gnaw Their Tongues is definitely interesting. Metal? More like Occult Atmospherics, but close enough. I won't be too surprised if I end up thinking it's a little too staged, and I'm curious to see if I'll find it as compelling once it isn't surprising anymore. But if it holds up, musically, I'll have to decide what I think of the nominal aesthetics and the relationship between those and the music...

― glenn mcdonald,

I think I liked this a lot but need to play it again.

#43 , 110 Points , 7 votes , One #1 Vote

http://vox2.cdn.amiestreet.com/album-art/Mind-The-Drift-by-Big-Business_nlYafKQXdC8x_full.jpg
Big Business - Mind the Drift

anyone heard the new big business?

― borntohula,

After much anticipation, Los Angeles based rock heroes BIG BUSINESS have just released their latest and most epic album to date. Entitled "Mind The Drift," the album is available courtesy of the renowned Hydra Head Records, and was produced by Phil Ek (Built To Spill, Fleet Foxes, The Shins) in his Seattle studio.

Featuring the ferocious vocals and bass duties of Jared Warren (ex-Karp, Tight Bros From Way Back When), dominating drumming abilities of Coady Willis (also of the newly revived Murder City Devils), and for the first time, guitar madman Toshi Kasai (also a respected producer in his own right), "Mind the Drift" echoes the band's trademark motor-oil thick, thundering sound, and adds to it layers of spaced out effects, making for the band's most dizzying and progressive album yet. Here's what the people have to say:

"Mind the Drift reveals a serious expansion of the Big Business sound: Though each of these tunes is still built atop a lumbering low-end groove, tracks like “Gold and Final” and the nearly 9-minute “Theme from Big Business II” ascend to trippy psych-metal heights any Hawkwind fan could love." - Revolver Magazine

"The trio organizes a head-banging assault, with snarling bass and cymbal smashes underpinning Warren's burly shouts and Kasai's piercing detours into grandiose metal riffs." - Spin.com

"As evidenced by the plundering beats and awe-inspiring riffage, they're dead serious about songwriting. While the tunes on Mind the Drift follow the same chaotic constructs as their first two discs, there's more of an emphasis on guitar, providing more sonic shades for the musicians to trample." - Headbangers Ball Blog

"The sludge and the swagger known as Big Business are hitting the road again; they've got a new album coming out called 'Mind The Drift' on May 12 via Hydrahead Records, and in an exclusive interview with Noisecreep drummer Coady Willis called the album "the most ambitious thing we have tried yet." For those not in the loop, Big Business is no longer a two-some of just drums and bass. Toshi Kasai has been added on guitar and keyboard. 'Mind The Drift' is the first full length that Big Business has shown off this new three-man stoner-esque heaviness for the masses." - AOL Noisecreep

"Big Business bassist Jared Warren and drummer Coady Willis churn up the tonal equivalent of an oil spill, and write songs too violently catchy for the usual “sludge” and “stoner-rock” tags. Their bleak, queasy third album, Mind The Drift, tries to look beyond the euphoric whiplash of 2005's Head For The Shallow and 2007's Here Come The Waterworks, keeping the dense lows while guitarist Toshi Kasai adds squiggly underpinnings and melodic leads." - The Onion AV Club

"Kasai's presence is easily detected via prominent, quasi-clean guitar lines that undulate high above Willis and bassist Jared Warren's familiar murk and mire. Bits of organ and bizarre vocal moments additionally separate Mind the Drift from its predecessors, and purposeful restraint is evident on nearly every track." - Alarm Press

"Kasai's squealing guitar flourishes supplement the boisterous low tones of "I Got It Online," while the staggering energy of "Found Art" shows a cohesive new three-instrument sound." - The Washington Post

And of course they're in the Melvins too.

The Madder Mortem was my #3. Between Glenn and i, grey, the mentions on the rolling metal thread intrigued me. I was - like many others - blown away by the time I finished the first run through; by the second I was hooked, and joined in the general proselytizing. There is enough of both Faith No More and 70s Priest in their sound for me to get intrigued, but what they're doing is much more than the sum of any influences.

That Gnaw Their Tongues sounds really cool. Another to add to the "must check this out" list, along with Ahab and Dysrhythmia.

I hate the image on the cover of that gnaw their tongues lp so much that I've never checked them (him?) out

I can't say I've heard Madder Mortem, but that is absolutely one of the best album covers I've seen in a long time. The architect nerd side of me just loves seeing buildings like that in weird landscapes. Its like a glipse into a whole other world. I mean, are those stairs to some interdimensional transportation system? Are they interconnected by miles of complicated tunnels underground? Are they just houses? Man, so cool.

I think the cover artist used to be in the band. The founding guitarist, if memory serves.

#42 , 112 Points, 8 votes

http://www.teethofthedivine.com/site/uploads/2009/11/portal-Swarth.jpg
Portal - Swarth

New Portal!!!

http://www.profoundlorerecords.com/mp3/portal_larvae.mp3

Wicked.

― A. Begrand,

Got the new Portal today! All writing assignments immediately postponed 40 minutes so I can spin this sucker post-haste.

So far so great, too. Gotta love these furniture-wearing freakazoids.

― A. Begrand

There is no death metal band on the face of the planet that can even match the aesthetic power that Australia’s Portal emit. Easily one of the most original and unique death metal acts that have ever existed, the world of horror that Portal create holds a power that such films like Fritz Lang’s M, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Murnau’s Nosferatu, and Salvador Dali’s Un Chien Andalou possess. Picture a more twisted, subterranean, and warped Immolation with the catacombic power of Disembowelment, and the unforgiving rawness of Beherit, and this is just a glimpse of where Portal dwell on a musical level. Also known to put on a devastating and surreal live show, one that mirrors the music that the band create, Portal’s surreal and twisted cinematic vision is why they are considered to be the future of death metal. A band that will take the death metal genre, invert it, twist it inside-out, skinning its layers, creating a monster of utter devastation.

.....

The approach to Portal’s style of death metal has always treaded the fine line between sheer madness and the intricately artful. Cinematic in scope, like a death metal interpretation of The Cabinet Of Dr. Cagliari or the death metal soundtrack to an ancient silent arthouse flick gone terribly awry, Portal have pretty much transcended the interpretation of what death metal should portray, and simply inverted and twisted it to no end. Even moreso with "Swarth".

Almost serving as the missing link between Portal’s previous abominations (namely “Seepia” and “Outre”), “Swarth” continues to bring the band’s aesthetic to new disturbing levels of unease. Musically, “Swarth” is very labyrinth-like, very claustrophobic and suffocating where twisted counterpoint and scathing dissonance merge with earth scraping atmosphere to unveil the inevitable rising chaos.

And as usual, with every Portal release, what is surely to divide and polarize death metal enthusiasts who either realize the substance, depth, and genius that Portal portray and the ones who simply cannot comprehend or understand the enigma that is Portal. And those who continue to be indifferent and can’t seem to form any kind of opinion or expression because Portal’s music is so fucked, uneasy, and just wrong in a way that it continues to push and tear the boundaries of extremity within death metal like no other band can through the filth, mire, and the utter crawling chaos that unearths itself through each chapter that creates a Portal release as a whole. Nonetheless, no death metal band has created such debate and dialogue as Portal have, and surely with “Swarth”, such debate and dialogue will no doubt continue, confuse, and perplex. Nonetheless, this is how Portal's music, in a way, thrives.

Packaged in a stunning gatefold hard cover Stoughton produced 5 x 5 digi-sleeve, with a 16-page booklet and a designed inner sleeve which houses the CD, tracklisting for “Swarth” goes as follows:

This - Easily one of the most original and unique death metal acts that have ever existed, the world of horror that Portal create holds a power that such films like Fritz Lang’s M, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Murnau’s Nosferatu, and Salvador Dali’s Un Chien Andalou possess. - is one of the biggest BS press release sentences I've ever seen. Kind of awesomely over the top and kind of horrible. Which, coincidentally, is what I think of Portal themselves.

Madder Mortem was my #1 in the Pazz & Jop, too, where it got my 15 points and a total of 0 other points from 0 other voters.

The cover has been my desktop image for months and I haven't even vaguely tired of looking at it.

Really don't get Portal. The other album a couple of 'em put out this year, Impetuous Ritual, wasn't as bad as Swarth, but it wasn't exactly good, either.

sigh.

i really dig portal, and often whine about how they will never (prob) play a show in MN

they dont really set off my bullshit meter at all, but i can see where wearing a cuckoo clock as a headdress might maybe give that impression

i think i voted that album #4? also, that press release sounds a lot like almost every other grarrrrrrr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsKO_r76kfQ press release in the world, just subbing filmmakers for underground superstars/obscure refs

ok dan you are a motherfucker

hahahahahahaaaaaaaa FUCK

Part Chimp isn't too shabby.

the substitution there is for the word https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsKO_r76kfQ btw

OH COME ON

hint: word between "ILX" and "ALBUMS" in the thread title

test:

gay witch abortion

thanks dan plz leave that one alone until after the poll closes

metal

hm

no worries, it is only my upside down cross to bear

Big Business was my #1. Couldn't get over the sludge-prog of The Ayes Have It all year.

lol Dan you wonderful evil bad mang.

#41 , 116 Points , 10 votes

http://www.decoymusic.com/images/album_covers/0001/9201/coalesce_cover_medium.jpg
Coalesce - Ox

Really liking the new Coalesce so far.

― display names have been changed to protect the innocent (jon /via/ chi 2.0),

i've only listened once so far, but the new coalesce is kicking my ass.

― borntohula,

man, the new coalesce is gooooooooooooood.

never liked the vox too much, but like w/meshuggah, I can forgive the angry dude yelling at me in an intense way because the music is so head nodding and SICKK.

― picture me lolin' (Alan N),

coalesce fucking destroyed yesterday. danzig might as well have worn a fucking tutu.

― Nanobots: HOOSTEEND (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver),

100 - 41

100. Municipal Waste - Massive Aggressor
99. Tyr - By the Light of the Northern Star
98. Burnt by the Sun - Heart of Darkness
97. Masters of Reality - Pine/Cross Dover
96. Saviours - Accelerated Living
92. Them Crooked Vultures - S/T
Saros - Acrid Plains
Peste Noire - Ballade Cuntre Lo Anemi Francor
Augury - Fragmentary Evidence
91. Revocation - Existence Is Futile
90. Brutal Truth - Evolution Through Revolution
88. Cannibal Corpse - Evisceration Plague
Glorior Belli - Meet Us at the Southern Sign
87. Anvil - This Is Thirteen
86. Vom - Primitive Arts
85. Altar of Plauges - White Tomb
84. 1349 - Revelations of the Black Flame
83. Obscura - Cosmogenesis
82. Doomriders - Darkness Come Alive
81. Gnaw - This Face
80. Jodis - Secret House
78. Blue Sabbath Black Cheer - Crows Eat the Eyes From the Leviathan's Carcass
Behemoth - Evangelion
76. Jello Biafra & the Guantanamo School of Medicine - The Audacity of Hype
Dethklok - Dethalbum II
75. Black Boned Angel - Verdun
74. Megadeth - Endgame
73. SubArachnoid Space - Eight Bells
72. Magrudergrind - S/T
71. Minsk - With Echoes in the Movement of Stone
70. Eluveitie - Evocation I: The Arcane Dominion
69. Voivod - Infini
68. Skeletonwitch - Breathing the Fire
67. Candlemass - Death Magic Doom
66. Melvins - Chicken Switch
65. Hacride - Lazarus
64. Nadja and Black Boned Angel - S/T
63. Keelhaul - Triumphant Return to Obscurity
62. Anaal Nathrakh - In the Constellation of the Black Widow
61. Lifelover - Dekadens
60. Ahab - The Divinity of Oceans
59. Xasthur - All Reflections Drained
58. Bloody Panda - Summon
57. Ancestors - Of Sound Mind
56. Greymachine - Disconnected
55. Jamie Saft - Black Shabbis
54. Wardruna - Runaljod - Gap Var Ginnunga
53. Church of Misery - Houses of the Unholy
52. Jesu - Infinity
51. Dysrhythmia - Psychic Maps
50. Part Chimp - Thriller
49. Pyramids With Nadja - S/T
48. Nadja - When I See the Sun Always Shines on TV
47. Eagle Twin - The Unkindness of Crows
46. Napalm Death - Time Waits for No Slave
45. Madder Mortem - Eight Ways
44. Gnaw Their Tongues - All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity
43. Big Business - Mind the Drift
42. Portal - Swarth
41. Coalesce - Ox

GNAW THEIR TONGUES

There is almost a sublimely awful moment when the psychedelic experience goes wrong. Everything slows to about a hundredth of the speed; all faces and other recognizable objects twist into grotesque parodies of themselves; a perverse confusion of the thoughts occurs like a thousand jabbering voices crying out simultaneously; neural networks become crossed and one ‘sees’ fear and ‘tastes’ insanity. This beastly slump is represented in lysergic clarity by Gnaw Their Tongue’s amazing fourth album ‘All The Dread Magnificence Of Perversity’ which has just been released now on Crucial Blast.

The band is actually one musician, a jovial looking Dutchman who goes by the name of Mories. He is the primary member of the already fairly far out electronic Black Metal outfit Aderlating but little will prepare even the most dedicated follower of all that is fucked up and foul sonically for the bitter tide of GTT – what he describes as “a stinking pile of nightmare”. Most comparison points are only vaguely helpful. At most points it has the sheer visceral impact of Wolf Eyes but nothing here is improvised or even collage. This is scored music that uses complex time signatures, which you can feel at work under all the chaos so perhaps Stockhausen would be a more apposite comparison; except even the most hardy of avant classical fans would shit bassoon shaped bricks if they heard this fucking atrocity. There is a similarity to Clay Ruby the boss of Aurora Borealis’ Horrortronix project Burial Hex except his is a purely electronic project. Astoundingly, nearly all the instruments here were played live by Mories and then painstakingly positioned into the mix. So that’s drop tuned guitars, tubas, trombones, cellos, French horns, bass, timpani and lots and lots and lots of feedback, drone and screeching death summoning noise.

On other tracks such as ‘Broken Fingers Point Upwards In Vain’ the ghosts of hallowed composers such as Ligeti and Ravel struggle out of the miasma of disturbing racket as do lolloping rhythms that glue the chaos together. Mories agrees. Kind of: “Yes. But on the other hand, I’m not sure that I want it to hold together. If it’s on the edge of falling apart, it’s much more interesting. Tension is what I like.”

And trust us. That’s the understatement of the year.

I don't really understand all the Coalesce fuss. The vocals bore me.

Did I read that GTT piece in Metal Hammer, John? I read it somewhere.

Yeah, everything that I've posted here is just excerpts of longer pieces that I've written for Hammer, Stool Pigeon, Quietus or Classic Rock.

I've lost everything that I've written about Broadrick and Nadja this year for some reason. I must have left the gate open to the metalgaze pen in my hard drive so all the words could escape.

"I don't really understand all the Coalesce fuss. The vocals bore me."

^This x 1000.

Btw, sorry for not voting and thanks for doing this thread guys. I am reading and enjoying when I'm not stuck in the studio. :)

#40 , 119 , 5 votes , One #1 vote

http://www.fensepost.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/mount-eerie-winds-poem-cover-300x300.jpg
Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem

Inspired in equal measures by the moody TV series Twin Peaks and the dark drones of black metal, Phil Elverum’s third album is yet another epic journey into the mindset of this singular performer and artist. In keeping with the title of the disc, the songs vary between slow synth-driven pushes to brash distorted tree-topplers. Occasionally, he and his cohorts will settle somewhere in the middle, as on the shuffling, haunting “Between Two Mysteries”, a track anchored by a sample from Angelo Badalamenti’s Peaks soundtrack. But within those two extremes that Elverum and band are able to strike the deepest chord, one that haunts, mesmerizes and deliciously chills one’s spirit.

The Microphones dude? Is this really a BM thing?

No not 'really', this is firmly in the 'wuss' department ;) Like it plenty, but I'm not voting for it in a metal poll.

Don't know anything about it. No mentions on the rolling metal thread but noone said anything when it was nominated, it got plenty of votes and it sounds interesting. I guess our metal voters are an open-minded lot.

Really enjoying the Masters of Reality album, it reminds me a bit of Wire believe it or not. I'm listening to it on the ILM metal albums playlist, which I'll try to fully update this evening:
http://open.spotify.com/user/nstewart/playlist/0bPofQLVRFL7VoiAHYaRim

Masters of Reality = Wire + ZZ Top

#39 , 121 Points , 8 votes

http://atlmetal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Immortal-All-Shall-Fall-300x300.jpg
Immortal - All Shall Fall

Speaking of Immortal, new album sounds great (out in Europe tomorrow, hah!). It's got a definite classic thrash / Ride the Lightning-vibe going in tracks like "Norden on Fire" and with the Tägtgren 'empty warehouse decked in ice'-production. Favorite track thusfar is definitely "Hordes to War", with its main riff going back and forth underneath the drums and that huge galloping fast polka bit at the end.

― Thijs,

I liked that Immortal album pretty well on first listen last night, too.

― glenn mcdonald,

#38 , 122 Points , 8 votes

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/reviewpics/marduk_cd.jpg
Marduk - Wormwood

Judging by the new album Wormwood, Mortuus now has total creative control over Marduk. It's nothing short of Maranatha pt. 2, really. Which off course is a good thing.

― Thijs,

Marduk is not bad, but is not that good, either.

― Carl,

The bass outro of 'Into Utter Madness' on the new Marduk is kinda cool. But off course bm is basically all about the treble, right?

― Thijs,

Picked up the Immortal late, I like it well enough but I'm not sure it would have made my ballot. Marduk is still on my "to hear" list.

I was a bit disappointed Marduk didn't do any of the more experimental midtempo stuff when I saw them a couple of months ago. They're touring Holland again right now, I might go and see them on Monday, they'll probably play a different set (plus, yeah, I'm a total Mortuus fanboy). Nice to see this didn't place above the more difficult but superior Maranatha :)

coalesce vox ARE boring. and too loud in the mix.

but I think the music totally makes up for it.