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

also - wtf @ katatonia barely cracking the top 30!!!

Yeah, wow @ Oneida. I mean that was my overall fifth favorite album of the year, but no way was I voting for it here!

oneida are totally not metal but I think oneida dudes are in knyfe hits and they cover "running free" so oh well.

mind you, the album is first class

and I'll just say it again - the blut aus nord album is really special. check it out if you have any interest at all. masterpiece.

also - wtf @ katatonia barely cracking the top 30!!!

It kind of mirrors the album's sales. I was one of two people who gave it a Pazz & Jop vote, too.

Hey guys remember to go vote in !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~~~FINALLY - 2009 ILX Albums 'n' Trax Poll voting thread ahoy~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (ballots due TOMORROW)

I'll start the top 20 about midday prob, will try finish by midnight UK time so americans at work can see it.

Thanks again for all your hard work!

oh and since i didnt do it upthread, thx to glenn for all the work he put into this, esp considering i was a chump and didn't send in my ballot on time.

Glenn rules!
JJ can you change thread title to 20 (Final Day Of Poll Results) now?

Everyone reading feel free to have a guess at predicting what will make it as well as what you think of the poll and the albums in it so far.
Good conversation on the thread makes it all worthwhile especially if ilxors then discover stuff they may otherwise have missed.

The top 20 might have albums you will be surprised are in it, surprised at being lower than you thought, higher than you thought and maybe even something you expected to make it wont. Perhaps the order will surprise you.

It was very close btw so no runaway winner like last year.
So lets the predictions and suspense start now!

And finally for tonight

A recap of 100-21

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
40. Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem
39. Immortal - All Shall Fall
38. Marduk - Wormwood
37. Pelican - What We All Come to Need
36. Orthodox - Sentencia
35. Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know
34. Nile - Those Whom the Gods Detest
33. Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse
32. Drudkh - Microcosmos
31. Goatwhore - Carving Out the Eyes of God
30. Gay Witch Abortion - Maverick
29. Jesu - Opiate Sun
28. Katatonia - Night Is the New Day
27. Tombs - Winter Hours
26. Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs
25. Absu - Absu
24. Funeral Mist - Maranatha
23. Pissed Jeans - King of Jeans
22. Oneida - Rated O
21. Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue With the Stars

Amesoeurs/Absu/Funeral Mist is my favorite run so far. Maranatha slipped a little ways down my list, in the end, but that was due to other greatnesses, not my getting sick of it at all. Amesoeurs I liked a few songs better than others. Blut Aus Nord I cooled on in the same way I did with their last album: the more attention I paid to it, the more samey it started sounding to me. Which is the opposite of what happens to me with Deathspell Omega, to whom Blut Aus Nord are often compared.

Sadly, most of the bands I personally care about have now gone by. But not quite all, and there's something very interesting waiting to happen with one of them...

But you guys will have to wait to find out who he means..

So, any thoughts about big hitters (as in mainstream-ish or long-term popular acts) yet to place? Slayer? Lamb Of God? Pearl Jam? Mastodon? We've already had Megadeth, of course...

― Neil S, Thursday, 21 January 2010 17:27 (Yesterday)

thinking mastodon will make top ten
lamb of god and slayer in top twenty

― D@n P3rry is the drummer on Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age (jjjusten),

Join in the guesses. Will they all make it? Who will make the top 10? Any surprise omissions or placings?
You will find out friday...

Oh and anyone wanting to write blurbs? pm them to me.

you forgot to mention my deep hope that pearl jam eats shit in this poll xpost

Apparently I missed something re: Pearl Jam.

There's always gonna be disappointments for some people, john. (thanks for changing the title)

Who would you like to see in the top 20? (everyone can answer that)

I love that Pissed Jeans record, and I'm glad it posted high. In lieu of any new Jesus Lizard material (and I'm unsure if that would be a good thing anyway), its the best noise rock going IMO.

I'm going out on a limb - number one will be Converge.

I still think it will be Baroness or Sunn0)))) personally.

Will you be waiting until our North American friends are about, Pfunkboy? If so I'll actually be able to get some work done this morning!

Yeah another hour til I start posting i think, so speculate away!

Fingers crossed for YOB, but it'll probably be Baroness.

what about the top twenty in general? what do you guys hope to be in it or expect to see in it?

Before I post the top 20 here are what the big magazines had in their lists of 2009 so you can see what critics thought of last year.

KERRANG

20 Kylesa - Static Tensions
19 Placebo - Battle For The Sun
18 Leathermouth - XO
17 Lamb of God - Wrath
16 The Ghost of a Thousand - New Hopes, New Demonstrations
15 Steel Panther - Fight The Steel
14 The Wildhearts - Chutzpah!
13 Alexisonfire - OldCrows/Young Cardinals
12 Enter Shikari - Common Dreads
11 Brand New - Daisy
10 Rammstein - Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da
9 The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die
8 Paramore - Brand New Eyes
7 Converge - Axe To Fall
6 Pearl Jam - Backspacer
5 Mariachi El Bronx - El Bronx
4 Mastodon - Crack The Skye
3 Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions
2 Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue
1 Gallows - Grey Britain

DECIBEL

1. Baroness-The Blue Record
2. Converge-Axe To Fall
3. Coalesce- Ox
4. Napalm Death-Time Waits No Slave
5. Cobalt-Gin
6. Kylesa-Static Tensions
7. Slayer-World Painted Blood
8. Tombs-Winter Hours
9. Marduk-Wormwood
10. Isis-Wavering Radiant
11. Immortal-All Shall Fall
12. Agoraphobic Nosebleed-Agorapocalypse
13. Obscura-Cosmogenesis
14. Magrudergrind-S/T
15. Nile-Those Whom The Gods Detest
16. YOB- The Great Cessation
17. Mastodon-Crack The Skye
18. Paradise Lost-Fath Divides Us,Death Unites Us
19. The Atlas Moth-A Glorified Piece Of Blue Sky
20. Asphyx-Death...The Brutal Way
21. Altar of Plagues-White Tomb
22.Mournful Congregation-The June Frost
23. Funeral Mist-Maranatha
24. The Gates of Slumber-Hymns Of Blood And Thunder
25. Burnt by the Sun-Heart Of Darkness
26. City of Ships-Look What God Did To Us
27. Goatwhore-Carving Out The Eyes Of God
28. Gaza-He Is Never Coming Back
29. Katatonia-Night Is The New Day
30. Keelhaul-Keelhaul's Triumphannt Return To Obscurity
31. The Red Chord-Fed Through The Teeth Machine
32. Brutal Truth-Evolution Through Revolution
33. Krallice-Dimensional Bleedthrough
34. Culted-Below The Thunders Of The Upper Deep
35. Goes Cube-Another Day Has Passed
36. Suffocation-Blood Oath
37. Javelina-Beasts Among Sheep
38. Municipal Waste-Massive Aggressor
39. Millions-Gather Scatter
40. Funebrarum-The Sleep Of Morbid Dreams

TERRORIZER

1: Converge - Axe To Fall
2: Cobalt - Gin
3: Kylesa - Static Tensions
4: Blut aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue With the Stars
5: Napalm Death - Time Waits No Slave
6: Mastodon - Crack The Skye
7: Megadeth – Endgame
8: Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse
9: Funeral Mist - Maranatha
10: Immortal - All Shall Fall
11: Drudkh - Microcosmos
12: Beherit - Engram
13: Portal - Swarth
14: Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions
15: Marduk - Wormwood
16: Absu - Absu
17: Tombs - Winter Hours
18: Burnt by the Sun - Heart Of Darkness
19: Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know
20: Anaal Nathrakh - In The Constellation Of The Black Widow
21: Arckanum - ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ
22: Baroness - Blue Record
23: Madder Mortem - Eight Ways
24: The Devil's Blood - The Time of No Time Evermore
25: Archgoat - the Light Devouring Darkness
26: Shining - VI - Klagopsalmer
27: Candlemass - Death Magic Doom
28: Hacride - Lazarus
29: Fuckpig- Spewings from A Selfish Nation
30: Amorphis - Skyforger
31: Brutal Truth - Evolution Through Revolution
32: Greymachine - Disconnected
33: Behemoth - Evangelion
34: Unanimated - In the Light of Darkness
35: Obscura - Cosmogenesis
36: Gnaw Their Tongues - All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity
37: Shrinebuilder - S/T
38: Teitanblood - Seven Chalices
39: Gorgoroth - Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt
40: Evile - Infected Nations

That Cobalt record might be in with a shout.

Are we ready for # 20?

#20 , 253 Points , 13 votes

http://rathausartprojects.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Earthly-Delights.jpg
Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvu3UhXeLg8

This record was received as Lightning Bolt's metal record, and it certainly has some extremely heavy moments.

Really, though, its more of the same, but when more of the same is the crushing grooves and drill-'n-bass played live, its difficult to resist.

Diminishing returns don't really apply to Lightning Bolt: its more a matter of honing and refining an aesthetic defined by pounding a single, brilliant, idea into the ground.

The question of whether it's metal is moot: when you're this good, genre ceases to be an issue.

Neil S

Like what I've heard. Kinda gives off a Gravitar/Helios Creed/Hawkwind vibe at points, less of a spastic joy than their other stuff.

― te reo speedwagon (CharlieS),

I like it. it sounds like lightning bolt. but I've come to accept that they'll never really change all that much and that this is OK.

― picture me lolin' (Alan N),

last track does indeed rule. love the little dubby touches on the drums that pop off here and there.

― picture me lolin' (Alan N),

Solid all the way through

― van smack,

I'm guessing noone thought that would be top 20.

I voted it pretty high because I thought it banged hard, seems like the thing to do

sick of not-metal being on the metal poll

No-one has mentioned The Gates of Slumber yet in terms of stuff yet to place - a lot of ppl on rolling metal were gay for it myself very much included. Top 10, I'm calling it

"Sick of"

This is so lame. I remember what people like you said about grindcore etc etc fucking etc when that first came up. Stop whingeing.

Being into metal isn't primarily about being an uptight, rule following stick in the mud.

Curtis is just joking , Doran.

ready for #19?

Sorry Curtis. I am, on the other hand, extremely uptight and unable to perceive humour in any aspect of my shoddy life.

LIGHTNING BOLT

Rhode Island Providence power duo Lightning Bolt exist as temporary royalty in the realm of the senses. Not just their nomenclature but album titles such as Ride The Skies and Wonderful Rainbow give you an idea of the elemental kingdom they oversee. Brian Chippendale plays drums and sings simultaneously with a microphone in his mouth while Brian Gibson plays bass and from this deceptively simple set up they create, marshal, amplify and then unleash a projectile jolt of "heavy metal" that nods briefly to hardcore, punk, psych rock and black metal as it hurtles past. Speeding like a Japanese bullet train constructed of whale carcasses, stalactites and diamonds. Of course they don’t deal in idyllic, sylvan or even red in tooth and claw notions of nature but that of vast weather systems, tectonic shifts, batholithic ruptures, cave collapses, mega tsunamis. Gibson’s bass is run through an impressive array of FX units that conjure up a massive sound out of which solidifies battleship heavy riffs and surprisingly user friendly hooks while Chippendale’s octopodalic drumming forms not just a rhythm but another layer of fizzing texture. While the pair are often described as noise or as having a very ‘difficult’ sound, their latest album Earthly Delights shows that they are more then capable of producing righteous rock (Transmissionary) and gentle aqueous Frippery (Rain On The Lake I’m Swimming In) when they feel like it. However, mainly their noise is akin to a single span suspension bridge in a violent earthquake – the roads rippling and buckling as the giant cables snake free.

BROADRICKWATCH

At the weekend when the car has been washed and the tax returns filled out, what better way than to relax with an amyl nitrate enema followed by a session snorting enough meow meow plant food to subdue Boris Johnson’s hairstyle. If consciousness can be maintained, what better way of spending the rest of the afternoon than lying on face down on the kitchen floor listening to releases by Birmingham's finest son Justin Broadrick?
Everyone’s favourite urban avant nihilist turned country dwelling ray of sunshine, the hardest working man in bleakcore, JB has returned with a new Jesu EP Opiate Sun which contains some of his most uplifting and positive work under that moniker to date. Losing Streak not only has an extremely overdriven country rock chord progression but also features an experiment with what appears to be Kanye West’s favourite plaything – autotune!
Actually it looks like we spoke to soon! JB was obviously saving up all his bad vibes to pour into the insanely good Greymachine project. Along with Aaron Turner of Isis, Dave Cochrane of Head Of David and Diarmuid Dalton of Jesu they have released a deeply unnerving album Disconnected on Hydra Head, which bears some relation to Godflesh, augmented by horrortronix, atonal synth sounds and improvised guitar noise. Let’s hope he’s saved some bleakness to one side for the Godflesh reformation later this year.

ONEIDA

A mad man's breakfast. Jaw dropping.

i seem to recall someone or other proclaiming the GoS top ten fodder up above. but i could be wrong, of course.

Lightning Bolt disc is far from their best (that would be Wonderful Rainbow, no?), imo.

still can't believe Coalesce didn't do better tho--i thought they had serious fans hereabouts.

next please.

#19 , 260 Points , 16 votes

http://www.phantomcityrecords.net/store/images/spin031_liturgy400.jpg
Liturgy - Renihilation (20 Buck Spin)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5J6FcAtAxo

Brooklyn, NY’s Liturgy deal in a style of black metal steeped in the genre’s most basic foundations of buzzing, dissonant guitars and whirlwind percussion, and yet they demonstrate an acute ability to make the sound firmly their own, both modern and ancient. Liturgy’s unique take on the genre only slightly recalls their NYC friends Krallice and the earlier works of the Norwegian wolves Ulver (particularly their 3rd LP masterwork Nattens Madrigal). In some sense Liturgy represents the seeping of black metal into the consciousness of the indie music world at large. The band claim influences ranging from cult black metal figures Vlad Tepes to Angelo Badalamenti to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, all of whom can be distantly identified in Liturgy’s approach.

Renihilation is the band’s debut LP, following two demo tapes and a 12 inch, Immortal Life. The album weaves intricate waves of dissonant dual guitar riffing and complex blackened harmonics between main songwriter Hunter Hunt-Hendrix and second guitarist Bernard Gann. The strange tonalities they seamlessly create providing layers of eerie dimension over which Hendrix’s tortured howls battle to be heard. The ultra-chaotic yet superbly minimalist drumming of Greg Fox, utilizing only a kick, snare and crash symbols, adds a dose of old, raw punk/grind to the mix. Several intros and interludes consisting of vocal pieces and drones break the album up into distinct sections.

Renihilation was recorded and mastered at the Thousands Caves Of Menegroth with Colin Marston of Krallice at the helm. The purposely low-res minimalist artwork recalls the work of German photographer Thomas Ruff in both aesthetic and intent. A photograph of a total eclipse, a massive celestial event, its aura being subdued and defeated by the void the low resolution of the image leaves in its wake – an apt analogy for Liturgy’s ecstatic sonic experiments.

BTW, just got files of the new Liturgy (from NYC). This stuff is really fucking impressive. Need to digest more fully. Sorta indie-fied trance Black Metal from NYC with a nice, original angle.

Check it: http://www.myspace.com/liturgynybm

― Nate Carson,

Listening to _Renihilation_, by Liturgy. Brooklyn blast-metal band, first full album. Wow. Who needs to slow down? Or breathe? Produced by some guy from Krallice; I never managed to appreciate Krallice, but this is magnificent. Ever so vaguely in the same realm as Wolves in the Throne Room, but more like the wolves got distracted ripping some rabbits apart on the way in.

― glenn mcdonald,

tis good

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname),

This Liturgy album is like Parts & Labor as a metal band.

― glenn mcdonald,

I like that Liturgy album quite a bit.

― A. Begrand,

played last night with this BM band liturgy from brooklyn. they were good, nice too. did an elaborate gregorian kind of chant with the help of a loop station. they have an interesting style (imo, and i mean live -- i haven't heard their record yet and i don't know what it's like). a lot of weird pausing, but not like intricate bizarre timing/crazy stops or anything like that, just kinda like weird, heaving pausing before going back into a repetition or going into a change. thumbs up.

― heave haw (roxymuzak),

<3 liturgy!!! dudes are totally super nice for real.

― ian,

Did an email interview with the guy from Liturgy last week, and I came away mightily impressed. Smart guy. Not often you get a fella who goes into great detail describing the similarities between black metal and spectralism.

The drumming on that album is nuts.

― A. Begrand,

Liturgy seconded. Fucking amazing.

― Soukesian,

I think Liturgy is probably the heaviest record I have heard this year

― Sonic Bum,

Ioannis: it's of similar quality to Wonderful Rainbow. They had a total misfire with Hypermagic Mountain but this is them on fire again. (And this isn't the thread for it but they're better than ever live now - especially because they've stopped playing on the floor instead of the stage.)

i don't know, the new one is good and all (i voted for it too) but i just don't see it being up there with their best previous efforts. need to listen to it some more doubtlessly.

Haven't seen Lightning Bolt on stage yet but tbh last time I saw them it was just annoying them being on the floor, too many people and the sound was crap because you couldn't get anywhere near them

xpost

They were in the top five bands at both December ATPs in the UK. The tenth birthday one where they were joined on stage by Afrirampo was phenomenal. So refreshing not to be surrounded by loads of wankered clowns who've just turned up because they've heard there'll be people getting knocked over and "moshing" or whatever. They're a genuinely great band; they don't need a novelty aspect to what they do.

Unlike Monotonix.

Any thoughts on the great album at #19 by Liturgy?

Haven't seen Lightning Bolt on stage yet but tbh last time I saw them it was just annoying them being on the floor, too many people and the sound was crap because you couldn't get anywhere near them

It's for this reason that I've never seen them. I even bought a ticket to see them play here in Dublin a few years ago, but was so put off by the idea of being stuck behind concentric rings of tall hipsters with big hair that I gave it a miss.