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

It's safe to say this is Not My Thing without sampling it but I will at some point anyway. Just... not today.

Another late cut from my ballot. Great sound, but only a couple tracks that really stuck with me.

Great stuff, voted for it. Opening track (ignoring intro) is so sick

Would have been much higher up my ballot if it had more of the melodic bits - they have such a cool way with melody buy they're quite sparing about its deployment

I guess we can't all be The Armed

45

Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard - Yn Ol I Annwn

178 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0113610763_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/3lWqeMsizWL9inVetCK7nb

https://mammothweedwizardbastard.bandcamp.com/album/yn-ol-i-annwn

https://everythingisnoise.net/reviews/mammoth-weed-wizard-bastard-yn-ol-i-annwn/

Mammoth. Weed. Wizard. Bastard. Just guess what type of music they play. You’ll probably only need one guess. Although the band contends ‘all band names are stupid‘, I happen to think their name is ridiculous fun, as is their flavor of doom metal. Now, they look to wrap up a trilogy of albums they started in 2015 with their newest effort, Yn Ol I Annwn. This translates from Welsh to ‘Return to the Underworld’, and makes me so happy that this review is in text and not audio since I don’t know how the hell to pronounce that.

I’ve been a fan of theirs for a bit now so not a whole lot surprises me here short of the growth and commitment they show here on Yn Ol I Annwn. This isn’t just doom metal; MWWB‘s tunes also take heavy influence from psychedelic and stoner realms (though I suppose that last part was obvious, huh?). And I do mean realms. See, a MWWB album isn’t just music, it’s a trip. You’re catapulted, pulled, rolled, and dragged all around rifts of riffs, black holes of heavy, and the softest edges of ether. It’s the confluence of these points that make the band not only unique, but a true force to be reckoned with.

With dense music like this, you expect there to be a gruff belter of a voice behind the music, harshened by years of being a weed wizard themselves, but nope! MWWB‘s first, and probably biggest, surprise to new listeners is Jessica Ball’s gentle, serene voice accompanying the unrelenting doomscape. It turns “The Spaceships of Ezekiel” from a dense-as-concrete groove generator to a multilayered, impressive endeavor. Multiply that times six of the eight songs Ball appears on and you have a good idea of how varied this album can get.

I think this is what imago meant by 'Wales' finest'. Sounds pretty rad on paper, I'll be sure to check these guys out.

Toooo lowwwww

I always want to love these guys due to their incredible name but they always just kinda drift past me

The 'Bastard' really clinches it.

They very much exist at the dense, heavy-psych end of doom. In other words, my favourite end. The Spaceships Of Ezekiel may be the hit but most of the other tracks build up to righteous climaxes

44

Tool - Fear Inoculum

179 points, 6 votes

https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2019/08/ToolFI.jpg?w=980&q=75

https://open.spotify.com/album/7acEciVtnuTzmwKptkjth5

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/review-tool-return-from-a-long-hiatus-with-fear-inoculum-879842/

Tool’s first album in 13 years opens like a grievous European symphony drawn in electronic tones; what sounds like the chiming of a hammered dulcimer enters alongside Danny Carey’s tablas, which tag-team with kit drums, heavy electric guitar and bass. Maynard James Keenan, his voice still striking youthful — he turned 55 last spring — sings in prayer-like tones about contagion, venom, and immunity; about mania, spectacle, and exorcism. As Adam Jones’ phase-shifted guitar tones alternately suggest Turkish funk and Norwegian metal, the track unspools, building to a bonecrushing, double bass kick-drum-powered finish.

That’s “Fear Inoculum,” the first of six extended songs, all over 10 minutes long, punctuated by four interludes, on a record that clocks in at one hour, 27 minutes. The music takes its time. “Pneuma” has a pulse that suggests the measured rhythm of yogic breathing: a snaking, vaguely Arabic synth tone appears, then slithers off; heavy metal crescendos and feedback-glazed diminuendos rise and fall like abstracted Led Zeppelin. The brief “Litanie Contre la Peur” (apparently taking its name from an incantation out of Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel Dune) suggests an exercise in extreme voice processing, 808s & Heartbreak run through a screw extruder.

With lyrics alluding to Ponce De Leon’s mythical search for a fountain of youth, the title of “Invincible” implies air quotes. There’s a weave of mbira and downtuned guitar tones. Echoes of previous songs bubble up: a distended synth line like the one in “Pneuma,” but thicker; distressed vocals like those in “Litanie Contre la Peur,” but more intelligible, with Keenan lamenting time’s mercilessness. There’s a magnificently sick guitar solo, and the drumming’s just ridiculous, verging on super-human, all spiraling polyrhythms and rapidfire blast-beats.

more imago prog

Yayyy! The space is so dense, the arrangements so lush, the vocals so dreamy... I really think they sound so fresh and different compared to a lot of (prog) doom metal. Spaceships of Ezekiel is a masterpiece

Xp to MWWB

I voted this, and I'm not even much of a Toolhead. Just a really solid album all around.

I had a good line about this...'satisfyingly dull' I think it was

If they're capable of turning dullness into a mostly positive quality, that's... quite impressive, actually.

Namaste

kinda think this is the best tool album. had a great time exploring it last year

43

Mayhem - Daemon

181 points, 4 votes

https://consequenceofsound.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Mayhem-Daemon.jpg?quality=80&w=807

https://open.spotify.com/album/76gklSD363XsZ0YlfusDLc

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/mayhem-daemon-review/

A new Mayhem release is the most exciting thing to happen in metal this year. Unlike most other bands who offer refinements and (ideally) improvements on their established sound with each release, Mayhem exhausts a sound on each full-length by exhausting a theme; as the sound’s purpose is to express the theme, the sound’s purpose is fulfilled once the theme is expressed. This means the lazy reviewer can’t merely compare the new Mayhem record to prior ones and base his analysis on that without completely missing the point of the record at hand — Mayhem’s career is an anthology, not an arc.

Nonetheless, the specter of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas lurks behind Daemon. Mayhem has been performing that record live for years now, and Daemon is their most overtly second-wave record since De Mysteriis. Superficially, one can hear “Pagan Fears” in “Malum” and “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” in “Of Worms and Ruins.” Necrobutcher’s bass is mixed high like Varg’s was and even leads some harmonies in “The Dying False King” and “Everlasting Dying Flame” which remind of “Life Eternal” in that aspect. These similarities all are of fleeting importance. The crucial similarity between the two records is the thematic direction: for the first time since De Mysteriis, Mayhem is plumbing the depths of spiritual horror.

Naturally, this is expressed differently on both records. Where De Mysteriis was cold, worldly, curious, and terrified, Daemon is incendiary, aggressive, pained, and enraged. “Agenda Ignis” will remind you of 1349’s best material in a way, and this is because both Mayhem and 1349 are expressing “aural Hellfire,” but Mayhem is concerned chiefly with its effects. This is the key to Daemon: it’s an aural portrait of Hell from the view of a daemon. Poena sensus (pain of sense) and poena damni (pain of loss) — the pains of the damned in Hell — animate each of Daemon’s songs. Teloch’s and Ghul’s guitars play together in harmony and disharmony, flickering around each other like flames licking the night sky — the refrain of “Bad Blood” is one unforgettable example of this. Both guitars begin on low notes, and then quickly shoot tonally upwards in a burst of disharmony before dissipating and repeating the cycle, sonically putting the daemon amidst the flames — Mayhem’s aural Hellfire is thus part of their sonic portrait, not its essence as it was in early 1349.

Narrowly missed my ballot but it's the most electrifying thing they've done in years.

made mine. definitely a highlight of my year. dont' remember what position I gave it though

It’s really good but it’s very much in the Mayhem comfort zone.

More oldies coming up next

42

Candlemass - The Door to Doom

185 points, 6 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1833682289_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/7GxzesNKtsxGdfN0Ovk1bp

https://candlemass.bandcamp.com/album/the-door-to-doom

https://www.loudersound.com/reviews/candlemass-new-album-the-door-to-doom-is-a-masterclass-in-epic-metal

If you give even the remotest toss about doom metal, the news that Johan Längqvist has returned to Candlemass after a 32-year gap should have made you do whatever the doom equivalent of a happy dance might be. A forlorn foxtrot, perhaps?

Having sung on the Swedish legends’ seminal debut, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, back in 1986, Längqvist could easily have stayed in the shadows and not risked a potentially perilous sequel. But class is, as they say, eternal, and The Door To Doom not only reveals that founder, bassist and chief songwriter Leif Edling is back to top form as a riff-writer, but also that Längqvist’s voice remains his ultimate foil. It sounds, somewhat incredibly, as if he’s never been away.

Never a band to mess with a frankly shit-hot formula, Candlemass begin their 12th album with Splendor Demon Majesty, immediately ticking an important box by kicking off with a lumbering, Sabbathian riff of incalculable hugeness. It all feels like business as usual until Längqvist arrives, backed by some eerie vocal harmonies and underpinned by an ensemble performance that feels exuberant, aggressive and humming with urgency. His voice has weathered brilliantly, the dulcet rasp of old classics such as Solitude reborn with added grit and oomph.

But what really seals the deal is how Edling has conjured songs that perfectly showcase this renewed meeting of creative brains. From the hold-on-to-your-heads explosiveness of that opening track onwards, The Door To Doom proves to be a straightforward masterclass in how to do doom metal properly. And just in case you have any residual doubts, the moment when Tony Iommi himself pops up midway through the superbly named Astorolus – The Great Octopus and lets rip with a solo of life-affirming brilliance will have you howling for more. As grimly dark and monstrously heavy as this album is, Längqvist has the time of his life throughout, and so will you.

Another oldie that narrowly missed my ballot. Johan is their best vocalist imo so this has kind of become their second best album by default.

Not a Messiah fan??

Nope, it's visceral.

It’s really good but it’s very much in the Mayhem comfort zone.

― Siegbran, Wednesday, February 26, 2020 12:13 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

but it's not like they're in their comfort zone that often! and the quality of the songwriting on daemon is just undeniable to me

Last one for today coming then I hand you all back over to pomenitul

41

Mdou Moctar - Ilana (The Creator)

186 points, 6 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0107658170_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/1bbKMkgzgyZ0K3rmMezZ68

https://mdoumoctar.bandcamp.com/album/ilana-the-creator

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mdou-moctar-ilana-the-creator/

Whether it’s stories about African-American legends reared on plantations in rural Mississippi or the apocryphal tale of a young Jimi Hendrix carrying around a broom until his family could afford a real guitar, blues and rock aficionados love a hardscrabble creation story. So it makes sense that in the discourse around one of the year’s most incandescent examples of guitar music, much ado is made about Mdou Moctar’s first instrument. The Tuareg guitarist was raised in northern Niger by a deeply religious family where music was verboten. He made his first guitar from a piece of wood strung with brake wires from an old bicycle, his many hours of practice kept clandestine.

Moctar’s path to the West has been a peculiar one. He began to make his name playing weddings; his first album (2008’s Anar) featured bits of Auto-Tune and made the rounds via Bluetooth swaps between mobile phones. After one of his songs was included on the Sahel Sounds compilation Music From Saharan Cellphones, label boss Christopher Kirkley set out to track down the young musician. When he did, he cast him in a bizarro remake of Purple Rain entitled Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai, the first feature film in the Tuareg language. The project would be heavy lifting for an artist without the instant magnetism and dazzling chops of Moctar, who easily filled the Purple One’s shoes.

From the opening lick of “Kamane Tarhanin,” Ilana (The Creator) elucidates just why our ears would draw a line from 20th-century blues and rock to another continent and a distinct style of guitar playing known as assouf. His first full-band studio album, it finds Moctar in the lineage of fellow Tuareg artists Tinariwen and Bombino. It also posits him as heir apparent to the mesmeric one-chord boogie of John Lee Hooker and ZZ Top circa Tres Hombres. Despite those antecedents, you can hear Moctar pushing further and higher at almost every turn, as when, around the song’s 4:15 mark, he enters with a streaking, white-hot comet of a guitar solo.

Good album, although it feels a little streamlined compared to other Tishoumaren albums I've heard. I miss the raw energy of a Group Doueh, for instance.

my #8

This didn't make the general poll either, did it?

I don't think so, no. Too many guitars?

Great rollout today!

Jorge Elbrecht = my #10! It's s little shocking to me that no one has tried a witch house/black metal hybrid before, it's such a natural pairing. Although Elbrecht dispenses with the c&s bits, it's still very well done

Fly Pan Am = my #2! ON why didn't you tell me?? This has to be one of the most amazing albums I've heard this decade. I'm going to quote Michael B again (who admittedly was a little less convinced): "it's like Stockhausen meets Lightning Bolt"

Misthyrming/Car Bomb = both low on my ballot. Misthyrming seems a bit standard-issue for me (sorry pom) but in the end I couldn't really deny it's power. I think imago p much already nailed my thoughts on the Car Bomb album

I voted for Mdou Moctar too; my #29. I really like "Anna" & "Tarhatezed"

Anna sounds to me like dad-rock Tal National

"Tarhatezed" is amazing. Watch the live KEXP version on youtube

What! All that stuff placed today?? imago has been feeding me lies. I voted for everything DAM just mentioned as well. It was my first time I think hearing Mdou Moctar - what should I check out next? Spacey mantric stuff is great listening when <15 minutes.

Yay for Imprecation, my #1. It did better than I would’ve expected. I think that was the only thing from my ballot that placed today. Looking forward to checking out some of these when I get home.

Fly Pan Am is def my big non-metal indulgence for this year, for those who dug the Stara Rzeka/Alameda 4 stuff in past polls (though FPA is different and actually Mdou Moctar has prob more in common sonically with that stuff)

Earlier this year I drunkenly asked someone on the bus what they were listening to (it was loud) and it was Ghost's 'Mary on a Cross' and because I knew it they gave me a beer. I really like the song, but I didn't vote for it because well, it's very short.

Watch this for incredible guitar. I'm pretty sure if more people had heard it then it would've done very well in the main poll as everyone I've introduced it to has been blown away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZvPoE0EH1o

Yeah wow that video is amazing

That Crypt Sermon cover rules, it just keeps giving. Is the skeleton holding a smartphone with wings???

My 30 and 45 placed (Tool and Misthyrming, respectively). Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard was my 95th choice. I really wish I liked them, they have such a great name.

Oor Neechy or Pomenitul, if either of you wants to put me on the Spotify playlist editing group, I can add stuff after I get out of work. I was planning on using it. It's easier to browse than the thread.

Alright, Spotify playlist is caught up. Listened to a bunch of the Zig Zags record, that was dumb fun. Now on Wormed. I'm getting a kick out of it. I guess I could see how more than 15 minutes of it would be trying, though.

recurring case of a band absolutely killing it live (3 times already) while leaving me cold on record: falls of rauros
gets frustrating. not stoping me from watching them again

will def listen to the fly pan am album

two more placed today from my ballot, disentomb the decaying light and yellow eyes rare field ceiling, my#5

The Drudkh album is great! I didn't vote for it (didn't vote for DsO or Mgla for the same reasons) but I at least should have listened to it. Is this a comp of older material?