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

can I please big up and laud all manner of false metal? ta.

Pearl Jam @ #1 surely.

nooooooooooooooo

My #2 was 200% trve hardkore Dvtch girly metal. Didn't place :-/

#9 , 437 Points , 22 votes , One #1 vote

http://www.kommandot.se/wp/wp-content/uploads/ISIS_wr_hires2.jpg
Isis - Wavering Radiant (Ipecac)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS3NkhjsBf0

ve heard "20 Minutes/40 Years," because it's the first song on the CD that'll come with the last(?) issue of Metal Edge. It's seven minutes long and it's one of the heaviest things they've done in years. I like it more than I liked anything on the last album.

― unperson,

Yeah, every time I say I'm bored with the NeurIsis sound, Neurosis and Isis come along and remind me why they're the best at what they do. Looking forward to the new Isis, silly title and all.

― A. Begrand,

Neurosis and Isis are the masters of the sound. There's always going to be lame imitators but then some of the imitators are very good at it ie Cult Of Luna.
But it's silly to blame Neurosis/Isis for crappy imitators.

― Boring Sign In Name (Herman G. Neuname),

Meanwhile, it's been a day of good post-metal (or whatever you want to call it) for yours truly...first the impressive new Isis, and then my first listen to the new Irepress album, which is really knocking my socks off.

― A. Begrand,

i've been listening to wavering radiant for awhile now, and i really like it. it's very 'isis' but definitely distinct from their other albums. it's about 10 minutes shorter than the last record, and there's definitely an absence of filler, which is refreshing.

aaron turner's vocals haven't sounded this awesome/grating in a loooong time.

― borntohula,

also, i've found there's more emphasis on tight rhythms this time around. the band really sound together.

― borntohula,

wavering radiant is a step up.

I mean, it's still isis, so if you think isis are boring, it probably won't change your mind. but it compares favorably to the best of their post-celestial stuff, imo.

― picture me lolin' (Alan N),

btw anyone who can listen to Slough Feg - "Simian Manifesto" without being overcome by the urge to rock the fuck out is not to be trusted imo

also "Overborne" gives me weird Wasp - Inside the Electric Circus flashbacks - who would have guessed that that would be a good thing?

ah fuck i love this album, do not want to go back to work ;_;

lol @ my comment about krallice which was from before i heard the new one; was totally disappointed that the bassist was singing more (and apparently will be even more in the future according to barr). he's not bad, just super-generic to my ears

Just curious: How many ppl who voted for Ape Uprising didn't hear any of Slough Feg's previous albums?

john does dan rock out to slough feg?

Thijs i own them all apart from the 1st 3 which either arent on vinyl or $200 on ebay. Jeff is a fan also.

If overlap with the Pazz & Jop is any indication, we're working through the truest metal right now. Krallice got only 1 P&J mention, Isis got only 4.

Which one is your favorite?

xp

Hardworlder felt like a bit of a letdown, so I was very happy that Ape Uprising turned out to be so great.

Down Amongst The Deadmen despite not owning the damn thing. But really i love them all.

Ape Uprising was my second exposure to Slough Feg. I'm working my way back now (have the last four). Atavism was my first listen, then I completely missed Hardworlder; I like them both but neither as much as Ape Uprising. I don't care nearly as much for Traveller despite nerd-geeking over the cover illo.

I really think Ape Uprising is too low on NWOBHM goodness and too high on sorta okayish doom compared to their other stuff. Really surprised at the high praise for it, I'm just trying to understand why everybody but me seems to like it a lot; not trying to be a smartass or anything like that.

I really like doom. Got enough of NWOBHM growing up.

Down Among The Deadmen is available on emusic fyi, as is traveller, atavism, hardworlder, and ape uprising.

i dont know why ape uprising is my favorite, but it is.

Want it on vinyl with the rest of my slough feg

#8 , 454 Points , 21 votes , One #1 vote

http://theonlythingiknowforsure.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/zu.jpg
Zu - Carboniferous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-xJcKxcOco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcZlKwbvgCE

Also still haven't decided what I think about the new album on Ipecac by Zu, but I liked the last couple I heard by them, and the new one at least sounds interesting

-xhukk

Got this via email, from somebody named Moogle:

your post in the 2009 metal thread got me really intrigued about this band Zu... I can't find any links to any of their albums anywhere on the web (unless I'm blind!), can I ask where you found their new one and if you could PM me a link?

I wouldn't know how to "PM a link" even if I wanted to, but I got an advance of the new album from their label, to review. Link to their myspace page is below. Previous Zu albums I liked (possibly more than this one since those may have had more of a sense of humor to go with all the undeniably banging and bracing harmelodic fusoid-metal skronk, though I haven't decided for sure yet) were Motorhellington (2001, all-covers Eugene Chadbourne collab) and The Way of Animal Powers (2005). But I get the idea that their apparently recent discovery by Mike Patton and jump up the label ladder to Ipecac will give the new one more visibility. (For sonic reference points, think Blood Ulmer, Last Exit, Gone, Glen Branca, Primus, Lightning Bolt, etc.)

http://www.myspace.com/zuband

― xhuxk,

That Zu album is fantastic.

― A. Begrand,

the new zu album is dope

― 14 karat gold steen computer wizard (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver),

I'll give it another spin then, though I've already listened to it plenty last year for a review.

xp

Zu!

Not my favorite odd combo metal (I loved Noxagt when they had the cellist) but that doesn't mean this isn't great.

my no.1...

I scrawled some words about it way back when:

So 2009 has barely begun, but it looks like we have a winner: Roman bass/drums/sax trio Zu are waltzing off with the album of the year prize. Carboniferous wastes no time in justifying this arguably dubious and certainly premature claim… ‘Ostia’ kicks in with an impossibly sexy live techno throb underpinned by obese bass, before evolving through several larval stages, each more obscenely exciting, twisted and hyperactive than the last.

‘Chthonian’, featuring Buzz Osbourne, is so vastly sludgy that it out-Melvins Melvins and then gets all wildly polyrhythmic and irresistibly danceable, just to make you die from joy. There’s no room for slack here: eight more tracks blaze by, each and every one a killer, big on ultra-precise low-end syncopation, bawdy bludgeon and rhythmically fiendish tangents. Somewhere in there Mike Patton shows up twice, to great effect, but his usually domineering presence is somewhat more diffident, audibly cowed by the monstrosity that this band have become.

The degree to which Zu have been enhanced is almost absurd, akin to bolting an interplanetary rocket booster to a Lamborghini. Their former mathpunkjazzcore was peerless in terms of intricacy and invention, but this is the new and improved 2009 model, in which raging complexity is supercharged by serious heaviness and copious grooves. No dry intellectualism, this – Carboniferous’s natural habitat is the dancefloor/moshpit/boudoir. To reiterate: album of the year. No lie.

yeah, awesome album

some stuff I voted for that I don't imagine will place:
* pulling teeth - paranoid delusions / paradise illusions
* arckanum - ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ
* horseback - the invisible mountain

I also forgot to put Millions in my list of stuff that won't place.

Next entry is the highest placed album with no #1 votes.

Predictions?

#7 , 490 Points , 22 votes

http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/kylesa-static-tensions.jpg
Kylesa - Static Tensions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF_uecAA0M4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w_8KvFCxK0

Got my physical promo for the new Kylesa in the mail yesterday, still such an awesome album. I'm figuring it to end up on my list come end of year.

― jon /via/ chi 2.0,

Kylesa's a contender, that's for sure. I like the new one a lot more than anythnig else they've done.

― A. Begrand,

yeah i like kylesa a lot and an somewhat down w/intronaut.

― He grew in Pussyville. Population: him. (call all destroyer)

Helps that the new Kylesa is so damned good. I'm hoping I can score a ticket for this show when they go on sale tomorrow. I've had horrible luck getting tickets for really popular shows at the Metro.

― legendary North American forest ape (jon /via/ chi 2.0),

I have never had much use for Kylesa, but I really like what I've heard from their new album. I get really strong Fugazi vibes from several songs, and a few times there's almost a stoney Grails vibe to some of the lead guitar work.

― The Lost Boys Buff Guy Playing Sax (rockapads),

gaK! blah, why'd ya have to go and mention fugazi in the same breath as a great band like kylesa.

people who like fugazi should be loveless.

― scott seward,

Also agree with all the positive pixels spilled about the new Kylesa. They've really come a long way since boring the hell out of me opening for High on Fire in 2005.

― Kickstart My Heartwork (J3ff T.),

so i'm pretty psyched by the first half of the kylesa album. they seem to be doing the improve slightly with each album thing perfectly. i could hear a lot more cool two-drummer stuff on this one.

― He grew in Pussyville. Population: him. (call all destroyer),

So good, and even better live.

I was into that kylesa but not hugely at first. but it was a serious grower for me. like it a bunch.

yeah, damn thing grows on you for sure. my #3 pick! great album period.

I think, like Rwake, I'd really like them live but the record didn't excite me. It wasn't bad or anything - far from it - just not my cup of tea.

#6 , 566 Points , 24 votes , One #1

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k41/slymlym/gin.jpg
Cobalt - Gin (Profound Lore)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnHjKGcEfa4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZooVbizwEk

Meanwhile, I'm still obsessing over the incredible new Cobalt album. Along with the Neurosis, Swans, and crust influences, I kept hearing siliarities to Tool popping up every so often, but I wasn't too sure what an underground black metal band would think if I started mentioning Tool in the interview, but whaddya know, if Erik doesn't start bringing up Tool in our conversation. Gotta love any band that's willing to piss off the USBM scenesters.

― A. Begrand,

^^^so OTM - track two has this really great piercing wash of guitar that Tool do really well. In fact the whole song sounds like something off 'Aenima' but gnarlier.

― Pescetarian Reich (DJ Mencap),

New Cobalt is pretty badass like Abe says. Time will tell if I like it more than 'Eater of Birds'. I think BM dorks will probably get annoyed.
― Pescetarian Reich (DJ Mencap),

Cobalt: myspace
http://www.myspace.com/stinktown666

are both Cobalt and Sólstafir influenced by The God Machine?

― djmartian,

I am really liking Cobalt. Did you guys see one of the two members has been in Iraq since October? :-/

― fwiw (rockapads),
Yeah, and he's reenlisted for five more years, too. He's quite an interesting guy.

― A. Begrand,

Still loads and loads of metal to hear in 09, but the Cobalt is looking pretty darn unbeatable right now. It just keeps getting better the more I hear it.

― A. Begrand,

My #1 right there.

lol I am actually listening this right now. And not b/c of this poll - my itunes queued it up randomly as I clicked on this thread. Creeeeeepy.

My #2

Finally, the top 5! There's only one thing left that didn't cross over to the P&J, but that's not the only surprise left!

No chance that 3 Inches of Blood would be higher than Cobalt. Sad! I love that album!

come on guys post the order you think the top 5 will be before i post #5

It took me some time to get over the stiff and uneven drumming (and the strummy limp-wristed guitars)on Gin, sounds like he's a bit in over his head with the Tool thing, but this is just too good to let that really be a problem in the end. It even fits in with the alcohol / debauchery / Hemingway / Thompson theme, in a wobbly kind of way. Great all-over vibe on this one.

Not posting it unless you guess :)

5-1: Mastodon, Converge, YOB, Sunn0)),) Baroness.

YOB, Converge, Mastodon, SunnO))), Baroness.

Mastodon, Converge, Sunn, Yob, Baroness.

To say it for the 10,000 time, I hope I'm wrong about #1.

Me too... bleedin' baroness.