2019 Metal ’n’ Heavy Rock/Heavy Music Poll: RESULTS - Top 100 Countdown

lol

86
No One Knows What the Dead Think - No One Knows What the Dead Think
108 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3606671825_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4GzUTmMLRXeoUgKLtZ8sq9
https://nooneknowswhatthedeadthink.bandcamp.com/album/no-one-knows-what-the-dead-think

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/no-one-knows-what-the-dead-think-no-one-knows-what-the-dead-think-review/

The New Jersey grindcore project No One Knows What the Dead Think boasts impressive lineage, with vocalist Jon Chang (ex-Discordance Axis, Gridlink) and guitarist/bassist Rob Marton (Discordance Axis) tireless veterans of the underground grind scene. Throw in accomplished drummer Kyosuke Nakano (ex-Cohol) and the trio on paper is a force to be reckoned with. A fresh project crafted by expert hands presents an enticing proposition for starved grind fiends. I have a healthy respect for Discordance Axis and a particular soft spot for the underrated and insanely brilliant Gridlink, so anticipation for this one runs high. Can No One Knows What the Dead Think move beyond past glories to deliver their own grind scene shaking statement of intent?

Nailing the artful balance of paying homage to the past and forging confidently into the here and now, No One Knows What the Dead Think create some of the most exhilarating grind I’ve heard in ages. Taking the raw, controlled chaos and unhinged weirdness of Discordance Axis and combining this influence with the ultra modern sheen, melodic underpinnings, and finely tuned extremity of Gridlink‘s brilliant swansong, Longhena, the band add their own imprint and cutting edge songwriting to the equation. And the results are unrelenting and pretty damn impressive across the board.

I like both of these albums but dont think I voted for them

xp

no idea what this is

Nü Discordance Axis, which was never my cup of tea to begin with.

once again if you're into this sort of thing, no one really does it better imho

So I gather. I haven't really given it a fair shake tbf.

i voted for this record bc it rocks. it is not as good as gridlink's longhena or as da's the inalienable dreamless but, y'know, what is

85
Krypts - Cadaver Circulation
109 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3735133420_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/3EBUPAuXZyTM4qI7yIXqIa
https://krypts.bandcamp.com

https://grizzlybutts.com/2019/05/22/krypts-cadaver-circulation-2019-review/

Seeming newcomers as they formed in 2008 the origins of Krypts traces as far back as 2003 as Helsinki area teenagers formed a melodic death/thrash influenced band (Self-Hate) that’d re-brand itself as The Beheading in 2006 releasing one last demo before dissolving. From that dissolution seeped a more serious and mature, some might say tasteful, approach to ancient death metal that was more in line with the surge of Helsinki area acts that’d form in 2007 such as Goretexx, Solothus, Swallowed, and the infamous Hooded Menace. There’d been old school death compatriots stirring between Stench of Decay and Ascended but each would prove fairly inactive despite promising demos and smaller releases. Krypts would begin as a duo in 2008 and quickly release their infamous, mind-rending ‘Open the Crypt’ (2009) demo soon after. At the time nobody was sure which of these young doom obsessed death metal bands would have any staying power beyond this fruitful phase of demo tapes and deeply formative independent EP releases but it was quickly clear that Krypts and Hooded Menace were among the most ‘ready’ to commit to style and composition but the much younger Krypts would take a few more years to develop. Second guitarist and co-songwriter  Topi Siirtola (ex-Swallowed, ex-Desolator) would play a fairly key role in pushing their early compositions towards the ‘Krypts’ (2011) 7″ EP and some of those strongest moments would make it onto ‘Unending Degradation’ (2013) though Siirtola had left by 2012. In hindsight these were legendary formative releases and perhaps some of the most memorable modern Finnish ‘classic’ styled death metal of the last few decades. Krypts would beat out hundreds of other records for my best of 2013 list and prove me completely wrong when I’d said their EP wouldn’t lead to anything special back in 2011. I’ve been a die-hard fan of this Finnish death metal band since.

Dunno what to say about this one except Finnish death metal fucking rules.

what a fucking great record. voted for! (not that cover)

this looks dope too!!!!

It's really good! 2019 was a great year for metal imo.

Obligatory: and I didn't even vote for it!

And only now do I see what gaudio meant by 'not that cover'. My bad:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3857580925_10.jpg

^ this is Cadaver Circulation.

84
The Neptune Power Federation - Memoirs of a Rat Queen
110 points, 3 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3530587935_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/1p6kfac80XHRy5wX93kQeD
https://theneptunepowerfederation.bandcamp.com/album/memoirs-of-a-rat-queen

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/the-neptune-power-federation-memoirs-of-a-rat-queen-review/

I have always loved storytelling. As a child I rapidly ran out of interesting books to devour in the library, and nowadays I get my fill with online free-form role playing. This extends to music as well; a cool concept can really elevate an otherwise unremarkable album. What a good story needs first and foremost is interesting characters though, and The Neptune Power Federation get that. Their vocalist, Imperial Priestess Screaming Loz Sutch, assumes the mantle of a time-travelling space witch for their fourth album, Memoirs of a Rat Queen. 70s space rock that mixes Heart with Hawkwind and AC/DC, a sexy vengeful bombshell on the mic, and a story scattered from the French revolution to boning in a parking lot; what could possibly go wrong here?

I guess we won’t find out, because not much does. That largely comes down to the Imperial Priestess. Like an Oscar-worthy actress, she completely falls into the role. Her character is straight out of a Neil Gaiman novel, a demi-goddess of lust and wrath, of regal rage and justified arrogance, and you believe her every syllable whether she sneers about the deaths of her enemies (“Rat Queen”: ‘Their last words as they fell / were damn that bitch to hell!’) or seduces a mere mortal with her eons of experience (“I’ll Make a Man Out of You,” not even close to a Disney cover!). It certainly helps that her technical skills are off the charts. Her voice is razor-sharp. Some might consider her too shrill, but she conveys supreme passion and power, and with a few momentary exceptions, she is always in complete control of her vocal chords and her role alike.

Listening to Krypts now and it sounds really great so far. It bounced off me before, but maybe I wasn't in the right head space to receive it at the time.

Who voted for the Neptune Power Federation? Doesn't ring a bell at all.

is this some sort of Ghost spinoff

what a fucking awful album cover

Makes you pine for more Lewandowski, eh?

I've got three more for you tonight/today, and I am excited about every single one of them.

As a child I rapidly ran out of interesting books to devour in the library

If you say so.

83
Kostnatění - Hrůza zvítězí
110 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2953025415_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/1Vib5sZB9MxEYCWLztMabe
https://kostnateni.bandcamp.com/album/hr-za-zv-t-z

https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2019/09/06/full-album-premiere-kostnateni-hruza-zvitezi/

Pressed to explain the physical process of bringing Hrůza zvítězí to life, the artist writes: “The album was written and recorded from early 2018 to summer 2019 in various parts of the country where I was living. No studios were involved in its creation. Whereas Konec je všude was written in a quick frenzy during one of the best periods of my life in recent times, Hrůza zvítězí was created slowly and subjected to rigorous criticism from myself and close contacts, due to both the mental burden its writing inflicted upon me and the desire to create a truly inimitable work. I know that every band has caught onto Deathspell Omega’s influence on extreme metal and that almost everyone right now is pushing to coax more chaos, more dissonance out of the genre. If I am moving in that direction as well, and I want to be remembered in ten years’ time, there has to be something truly remarkable about my methods. To that end, I believe I have mostly succeeded.”

A bold statement, and yet who can disagree after hearing Hrůza zvítězí?

i'm super late but this venom prison album is amazing

This guy talks a big game and mostly delivers. Do check it out if, like imago, you're burnt out on Serpent Column and their ilk.

xp

I'm a sucker for all-red bandcamp pages

Anyway, don't sleep on this one, it's definitely one of the least run-of-the-mill metal albums I heard last year!

82
Skáphe + Wormlust - Kosmískur hryllingur
111 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2349143091_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5xxY2v6SpcP9gqSgbpsWF5
https://skphwrmlst.bandcamp.com/album/kosm-skur-hryllingur

https://grizzlybutts.com/2019/06/23/wormlust-skaphe-kosmiskur-hryllingur-2019-review/

Without scholia in the margins to extrapolate any meaning the entirety of this two sided abyssic, and ultimately psychedelic, experience might hold is lost in the moment. The name of the album makes its atmospheric intentions clear but it wasn’t entirely necessary as the full listen is clarity enough; A twisted stretch of impossibly layered horror psychedelia is appreciably dark in the hands of these oft-experimental black metal musicians. The mark of Skáphe picks up where they’d left off in 2017 with ‘Untitled’ and their song “VII”, an extended vision that’d been their most ruinous and layered at that junction. Between A. Poole‘s guitar presence in Guðveiki. and very recent examination of D.G.‘s Misþyrming in hand, I see both personalities alight within ‘Kosmískur Hryllingur’, particularly on the sixteen minute opening half, “Þeógónía”. Their work is dense, collapsing, inconceivably performed as if pulled from a lifetime of motions and improvised atop brisk and damning session drumming from current Véhémence drummer Thomas Leitner. The harrowing bent that concludes this track feels as if a glitch in the mind, a monstrous epileptic harangue of noise rock and deep-space black metal. It takes another ten listens to begin to understand the structure of this but only one to feel its effects.

This is also stellar, and for very similar reasons.

Really, really need to hear this one. I have been reliably informed it is a treat

still in the george part of the rollout

do we all have a part now lol

i fear for your sakes that mine might be a little higher than usual

not sure why i never heard this album during the year

It's not a split btw, despite appearances.

yo this krypts record fuckin rips!!!!

xp I think that's what put me off hearing it initially!

Alas it would be quite hard to hear it now as we're in a hospital waiting room :/

:(

I hope both of you are alright.

tt with a bit of the old pain and morbidity. with enough hails i think the dark lords will let her live

<3 to tt

Solely one entry remains for tonight, so I pray to the Old Gods that she'll be hale come morning that she may fully partake in tomorrow's leg of the rollout.

rather than listening to music she's reading The Magic Mountain, which she assures me is the most metal book ever written (Brad pls confirm)

Someone is playing a midi file of Debussy from a phone? An old Gameboy? It is metal in its own way. Or, it’ll certainly feel that way after the promised four hour wait. I’m almost definitely okay.

Skaphe and Wormlust album builds to some magnificent horror!

Well if Jute Gyte is in some sense the trvest metal act ever devised then surely it follows that of Mann's novels Doktor Faustus is the metallest of all.

Yeah, Magic Mountain invented black metal

Thank you, pomenitul! I’ll return to ceremonial listening tomorrow, for sure.

my magic mountain remains sitting on top of the other unread books but mordy started his i think

as is his other books i bought

rather than listening to music she's reading The Magic Mountain, which she assures me is the most metal book ever written (Brad pls confirm)

― imago, Monday, February 24, 2020 12:18 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

you know, honestly, yes

along with all the classic russian books

I must away now, but I leave you with a fitting night or afternoon or morning cap depending on where you happen to be at the moment.

81
Nightfell - A Sanity Deranged
112 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3708953741_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/7rJ2wiYSJ74CKAYcBpy8Wn
https://nightfell.bandcamp.com

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/nightfell-a-sanity-deranged-review/

In my mind, Nightfell sounds like Amon Amarth or Bolt Thrower suddenly became depressed and introspective and morphed into an atmospheric blackened death/doom band. A Sanity Deranged presents itself as a cyclical exercise in building tension through the atmospheric and doom elements and the cathartic release that occurs when Burdette drops his gigantic tremolo riffs that would fit snuggly on any classic album from the aforementioned battle-obsessed death metal bands. Coupled with Burdette’s cavernous death vocals, this undulating musical formula places the listener into a relentless trance that makes the record’s 35 minute runtime seem even shorter. Take embedded track “The Swallowing of Flies” as the perfect example of Nightfell‘s strengths coming together in synergistic glory. Beginning with a sorrowful guitar motif played over Call’s constant cymbal work, the track works to create a sense of melancholy before the driving Bolt Thrower groove arrives with one of my favorite metal moments of 2019. From there, the track moves through some blackened minor chords, the hugely distorted bass gets a chance to carry the groove on its own, and some eerie clean arpeggios and background chanting make an appearance. The total package is reminiscent of the slower, doomier moments of Batushka‘s debut.