THE ILM METAL POLL 2011 RESULTS (All lurkers/non metalheads welcome to join in!)

*Picks George up off the floor*

Well I just heard In Solitude for the first time through this, and on the same day it was announced they're touring. I might go because of this poll, just sayin'.

thank the mercyful fates!

Glad Liturgy wasn't top 10. Kind of annoying how critics who almost never listen to metal were so apeshit over it.

but those tr00 kvnts who hate them for being hipsters are equally annoying. I really like both of their albums. Who cares if HH-H is a pretentious twat

Liturgy - The only nominated album that I had actually heard! 'Veins Of God' is great, and I like the rest just fine.

xxp ha, I'm not a critic obv, but point taken.

Don't be a hipster, ASR.

16. Falloch - Where Distant Spirits Remain (874 Points, 27 Votes, 1 #1)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IWhiHgOInPw/Tn9jm0ZTcJI/AAAAAAAAAMk/dWPpB0oXyas/s1600/Falloch-Where-Distant-Spirits-Remain-Artwork-2011.jpg
Spotify
http://www.last.fm/music/falloch

Falloch was formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 2010 by Andy Marshall and Scott McLean

Their sound draws inspiration from a variety of musical styles such as atmospheric rock, metal, post-rock, scottish folk as well as minimalist composers such as Arvo Pärt and Yann Tiersen.

Having a deep connection with nature the band is named after the Falls of Falloch waterfall in Crianlarich. Falloch (“Falach” in Scottish Gaelic) means “hidden/in hiding”.

They started recording their debut album ’Where Distant Spirits Remain’ in 2010. Upon completion they managed to secure legendary producer Ronan Chris Murphy (Ulver, King Crimson etc.) to master the album in early 2011, with the chance to sign to the revered Candlelight Records following shortly after. Their album was released on 26th September to a great critical reception.

http://ripplemusic.blogspot.com/2011/08/falloch-where-distant-spirits-remain.html

With it coming down to the last days of August, the temperature here in Arkansas is still reaching a hundred and five degrees on some days. After going through the miserable heat wave that took several peoples lives when it got as hot as a hundred sixteen degrees at times, I was more than welcoming winter to completely destroy us and bury me in snow. While the majority of humans will say they love winter during the horrible summers and adore summer when they have to drive to work in the freezing cold, I’ve always been the type of person that could live in the winter-esk conditions, forever. So, what goes good with snow, freezing temperatures and icy roads? If I had to choose a new soundtrack to this coming winter, something that literally embraces winter for everything it is, Falloch’s debut record “When Distant Spirits Remain” is that record that will have you freezing to death.

Creeping very slowly out of the harsh winters of Glasgow, Scotland, this two piece atmospheric/post-rock/folk duo, does a spectacular job of setting a mood and sticking to it. “Where Distant Spirits Remain” paints a picture, a picture that may not make you literally freeze, it will place you in a position of whether or not you should cover up with a couple blankets while this record is spinning. From front to back, this record makes me think of snow mountaintops, lakes that are frozen over and old churches that have been abandon for years. Not to mention, even though this record does have speed and chaos, it’s presented in very small doses and those doses are lethal yet very enjoyable.

The one thing that always came back to my mind while this record was playing is that it’s a soundtrack, it could easily be used in a silent film and even in the background to some films. Even though it can get pretty intense with heaviness and pure

“Where Distant Spirits Remain” is magical, it’s passionate and without a doubt in my mind, this record is the most gorgeous yet honest records I’ve heard in the last several years. Even though I am very confident in knowing Falloch recorded this record inside of a very warm, comfortable studio, I can’t help but want to think that these two guys might of recorded it inside of an empty shack in the middle of nowhere. Now, while several tracks on the record such as “Beyond Embers and The Earth” and “To Walk Amongst The Dead”, may be driven with pure power and heaviness that may lead you to believe these two men could produce a very promising black metal record but it’s the sections of melody that tug at your heartstrings. In all honesty, for a debut record, I haven’t heard anything as flawless and down right gritty as this record is, that’s just the facts to.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, any record that can place images of beautiful landscapes and monstrous mountain covered in pure white snow, that record deserves props on many levels. Hell, even a record that could sooth everything out in my life and tell me everything is going to be okay, that’s a record that will stick with me for a very long time. So the final verdict is this - seven tracks, that’s all this duo needs to give you before you fall madly in love with what they’ve done on this record. Some might argue that Falloch seems to be confused as to what genre they want to be but at the end of the day, you can call them what you want, folk, post-rock, black metal with folk influence, all I know is that Falloch has created a masterpiece, hands down. “Where Distant Spirits Remain” – The one record that can kidnap you and place you into a better situation than you might be in right now.

Official Site - http://falloch.com/

Creeping very slowly out of the harsh winters of Glasgow, Scotland

Great album from Scotland for a change too

Whose #1 was that?

I didn't like that Liturgy album; there I said it.

I wish the black metal voting contingent was a little more vocal. It's not my thing (for the most part), but I'd love to have people with more interest and knowledge discuss their thoughts on these records.

15. Krallice - Diotima (899 Points, 28 Votes)
http://cdn.stereogum.com/files/2011/07/Krallice-Diotima.jpg
http://www.last.fm/music/krallice

Krallice is a New York-based black metal project featuring the guitar work of notorious progressive/experimental metal musicians Colin Marston (Gorguts, Behold… the Arctopus, Byla, Indricothere and others) and Mick Barr (Crom-Tech, Orthrelm, Octis and others), along with Nick McMaster and Lev Weinstein of death metal band Astomatous.

The musical style of Krallice could be described as fairly clean by black metal standards, with long, dynamic songs containing some distinctive progressive metal influences. They’ve been compared to Weakling in some ways, although their music focuses much more on progressive song structures and less on the dissonant droning of Weakling’s Dead as Dreams. They released a self-titled album in 2008 on Profound Lore Records and a follow-up, Dimensional Bleedthrough, on the same label the next year. Double vinyl releases of the two albums were put out by Gilead Media in 2009 and 2010, respectively. A third album, Diotima, followed in 2011, once again on Profound Lore; a vinyl edition, once again by Gilead Media, is expected to ship around September 20, 2011.

Review

by Phil Freeman

The third album by New York-based arty black metal band Krallice is the group's best work to date. Though the songs were mostly written during the same sessions that produced their previous releases, they seem to exhibit evolution, and a gradually expanding sonic palette. The basics of their sound remain the same -- high-pitched tremolo guitar, blasting drums, rumbling and surprisingly full (for black metal) bass -- but some of these songs, the title track and "Telluric Rings" in particular, are downright progressive, their complex structures and pulsing rhythms as reminiscent of Mahavishnu Orchestra or early-'70s King Crimson as of Mayhem or Marduk. The vocals, depending on who's handling them (sometimes it's guitarist Mick Barr, other times bassist Nick McMaster), are either a harsh scream or an ursine roar; the latter is more effective for being unexpected. Krallice, like fellow Brooklynites Liturgy, aren't all that interested in preserving black metal in the amber of tradition. They're taking what they like from the genre and amplifying its power by adding elements from prog rock and minimalism, then stretching the songs to extraordinary length (12-15 minutes at times) in order to push the listener toward cathartic transcendence. At their best, they're an overwhelming sonic force, and Diotima is their best album to date.

assuming the liturgy cover is an explicit reference to

http://image.lyricspond.com/image/s/artist-slayer/album-god-hates-us-all/cd-cover.jpg

it was this overlay cardboard card that came over the "real" cover to god hates us all when i bought it in a store

Phil's review you chose for that Krallice record is really good. kudos.

i hope he doesn't mind. I'm taking them from amg if possible, if not, I try to find a good review.
I still want jeff to post his Turisas Decibel review

and yeah lurkers! delurk and give us your opinions!

Black metal folk are supposed to be too misanthropic to be loquacious about their love of black metal. I don't love nor dislike the Liturgy album. I like some typical "hipster" stuff. It's just an odd choice for a gateway album for non-metalheads.

that fen album isn't bad but the vox are sort of a turnoff, like i find myself skipping ahead through some songs on albums to check for growly vox b/c most of the time those just don't work for me. more my problem than the band's or genre's, maybe.

14. Absu - Abzu (901 Points, 26 Votes, 1 #1)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YpIILwwmMKw/TsjsN6c2mxI/AAAAAAAAAhY/HL3hic7h_LA/s1600/Absu%2B-%2BAbzu.jpg
spotify
http://www.last.fm/music/absu

American black metal band with a sound informed both by thrash and death metal.

Review

by Eduardo Rivadavia

Like a hibernating curse resurrected out of the depths of antiquity, Texan extreme metal mummies Absu returned from a nine-year recording hiatus in 2009, bearing an eponymous fifth album that fully reconfirmed their status as the world's preeminent -- OK, possibly only -- true purveyors of "mythological occult metal." Never mind that, though: the point here is that Absu have always stood alone, at first for being one of the few American bands to deliver convincing post-Inner Circle black metal during the early '90s, but later because group leader Proscriptor simply refuses to leave his mausoleum without draping his songs in mystifying layers of dense, Lovecraftian arcana. Released in 2011, the curiously named Abzu is no exception, and though apparently assembled quickly relative to its predecessor and marked by a brief running time (just 36 minutes, of which 15 are covered by one epic suite), it too has the regal bearing of a major musical "event." It's also rich in both extreme metal fundamentals and enough amusing quirks to once again distinguish Absu's vision from most of the competition, including piercing squeals ("Earth Ripper"), blackened thrash breakaways ("Skrying in the Spirit Vision"), and Spanish guitars ("Circles of the Oath"), not to mention the oft-recurring Celtic music ingredients. Thematically, the latter track delves into the Kabbalah, another, "Abraxas Connexus," into Gnosticism, and the spectacularly named "Ontologically, It Became Time & Space" into...who the f**k knows (though one suspects a mixture of Greek mythology, the Sothis mythos, and dark matter physics) while conically veering between Bathory and Behemoth and beyond. To put it simply, it's irresistibly confounding. And then there's the aforementioned epic, "A Song for Ea," which unfurls all of six distinct songs within a song, immersed one and all in Sumerian religion and specifically the mythical Abzu, from whence all of the earth's fresh subterranean waters supposedly flow. Catch the drift? Bottom line is that Absu's intriguing musical visions may fade into lengthy silence now and again, but whenever they emerge with something new, fans of thought-provoking black metal would do well to listen up.

I am prob one of the black metal dudes but tbh most of the stuff I liked this year has already placed - I mean I could say that I was meh about liturgy and disappointed with that krallice album I guess.

What about Absu?

we're closing in on the top 10 yet noones chatting. Where are the metallers?

13. Blood Ceremony - Living With the Ancients (1,014 Points, 31 Votes, 1 #1)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tB06cmneeAQ/TXlOOf_X4eI/AAAAAAAAFGI/QL3__zoKNUE/s1600/BCLWTA.jpg
http://www.last.fm/music/blood+ceremony

Canadian retro-rock quartet Blood Ceremony plod the same groove worn deep by Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, and other blues-rockers in the late '60s and early '70s. Their debut CD was a pretty decent effort, except for the vocalist, who was flat and tuneless. She's gotten better on this one, and her flute playing has improved, too; she multi-tracks herself on "Coven Tree" to excellent effect, sounding almost Ian Anderson-ish as the band cranks up the ultra-analog blooze/proto-metal riffage behind her. This record's sound is impeccable; it really could have been recorded in 1971. They even get the boxy drum sound right, something modern retro-rockers never manage. The lyrics are satanic hokum, calls to the Black Mass and whatnot, much like the similar Sabbath Assembly project, which set hymns written by post-hippie cult the Process Church of the Final Judgment to acid rock riffs. Living with the Ancients will absolutely appeal to fans of early-'70s proto-metal, but Electric Wizard fans should check it out, too; the band's songs have a similar incantatory power.

Wasn't that impressed with the debut lp but this one is really great.

Friday night, dude. In the pub already.

maybe we should resume monday for the top 10

Now this is more like it. The Blood Ceremony record is fucking awesome, just nails that sound perfectly. My #2.

And listening to Corrupted via Subsonic while wearing an Uncle Acid shirt.

Oh no, I'd rather see it wrap up today. Also, if you wait til Monday it'll be running along with the big ILM poll and that will definitely suck away attention.

Blood Ceremony rock. From my blog (not that anyone but Nate seems to like my write-up):

You know how I said I like retro-80s metal? I like retro-70s metal just as much, if not more. Throw in a dash of proggy hard rock from the era (there’s flute on this thing, in more than one song) and you’re tailoring it more and more to my personal tastes. I’ve also come to really enjoy female vocalists fronting heavy bands, something I could never have imagined as a teenager when I had Lita Ford and Warlock to chose from (I’ve come around a bit on Doro, but not fully) and little else. It seems like more and more the genre is opening up to the idea of female strength and power as valid expression. Kudos to meatheads like me, acknowledging the obvious. Long aside aside, this is a record that, if you told me was lost in a vault after a 1972 recording session I would believe without a shadow of a doubt. Rich and thick sound, with some amazing vintage organ work, Blood Ceremony’s leap from their debut to this album is as big as any I have recently seen. I can’t wait to see where their Hammer films and Devil worshiping asses go from here.

Thats a great and very OTM write-up.

I knew the retro/occult rock of Uncle Acid, The Devil's Blood and Blood Ceremony would score big so I broke my own rule of no non-metal and voted. #15 for Blood Ceremony, bloody good stuff. It's almost proto-metal, like elements of Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull...

yeah, I like that.
xp

thanks guys.

I enjoy seeing peoples reviews on the albums placing here

anything I've written up in one place (as opposed to say, Turisas, where my thoughts are spread over lots of blog posts) I'll share here.

Yah, it's better than my blurb from my stoner primer:

In 2008, Toronto, Canada's Blood Ceremony issued their self-titled debut album that features Jethro Tull-inspired flute and female vocalist Alia O'Brien. Named after the 1972 Spanish horror flick Ceremonia Sangrenta, the band mines hundreds of occult themed films as inspiration for their songs. Their second album improves on everything, vocal performance, songwriting and impeccible analog production worthy of the Swedes.

EZ, can you post a link to your blog? Definitely want to keep up with it!

It seems like more and more the genre is opening up to the idea of female strength and power as valid expression. Kudos to meatheads like me, acknowledging the obvious.

<3, although "valid" is kind of a scratchy word imo

to your credit, you did call yourself a meathead!

sure: http://lightbulbhead.tumblr.com/

I just posted a beavis & butthead thing (relavent! They're metal heads!) that made me smile.

12. 40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room (1,049 Points, 27 Votes, 1 #1)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E-zIa8-eVlQ/TbbP63u3JYI/AAAAAAAAAzM/W7cRs9QDiKc/s1600/40wattsuninsideroom.jpg
http://www.last.fm/music/40+watt+sun

40 Watt Sun is the music project of singer/guitarist/songwriter Patrick Walker, best known for his previous band, Warning. 40 Watt sun sees Patrick Walker accompanied by drummer/percussionist Christian Leitch, previously best known as the guitarist and founder-member of London-based band The River, and bass player William Spong.

They made their live debut at a small, intimate show at the scream lounge, London, on the 20th December 2009 playing with the London-based band Wake.

The music is characterized by distorted guitars, down-tempo rhythms and strong melodies, and by Patrick Walker’s introspective lyrical themes and poignant vocals.

Their debut album, The Inside Room, was recorded over three days and nights at the library studio in London, produced entirely by the band and engineered and mixed by bassist William Spong. It features five new songs of original material. A bonus song features on the vinyl release. It was released on Cyclone Empire on March 4th 2011.

Review

by Thom Jurek

The reference points for Patrick Walker's emotionally searing, purely melodic brand of doom metal are Justin Broadrick's Jesu project, Bob Mould's bleak rock (à la Black Sheets of Rain), and Michael Stipe's singing at his most nakedly confessional -- though he sounds like no one but himself. Walker's former band, Warning, released one of doom metal's classics in 2006's Watching from a Distance, which created high expectations for any subsequent project. The Inside Room doesn't disappoint. A trio fronted by Walker and featuring engineer William Spong on bass and former Warning drummer Christian Leitch, 40 Watt Sun deliver five songs (ranging from just under seven minutes to nearly 11) that draw on all of his strengths. His protagonists are tortured people; they're literally ripped apart by love, desire, the wish for deliverance, loneliness, and regret. He's unafraid to give them a clear voice, allowing their pain and vulnerability to give them dimension. The pace here is slow to very slow and the guitar is as pronounced as anything in the doom or metal genre, without all the jive, "evil for it's own sake" or faux gothic clichés for lyrics. "I can't see my way when shame is covering my eyes" are the opening words in the album's first track, "Restless." As Leitch's drums plod, accenting each sung line, Spong's bassline adds an element of danger to the clarity in Walker's voice. His guitar lines, from one snail-like chord to the next, reveal the coiled power of chaos that lies just under the surface of his character's frailty. The riff in "Open My Eyes" is spun out one layered, distorted string at a time, with well-placed rim shots and a steady thrumming bassline. The protagonist seeks to express his gratitude to his beloved, all the while seeking to pull her from sinking under the same emotional depths she's pulled him from previously. A subtle second melody creates another series of tensions as the singer finds himself powerless to help affect this change. "Between Times" is the most representative doom tune here, with its words "Carry me over between times/In your red room on quilted blankets/Laying awake in this low light." The gorgeous lyrics (printed in the booklet) are murkier on "Carry Me Home," wrapped in a blanket of fuzz and melancholic menace. "This Alone" is seemingly pastoral in contrast to the rest, but its twinned guitars and basslines underscore the funereal pace of Leitch's drums. It rings, on and on, seemingly forever, even as Walker's voice expends itself, professing love even as it expresses terrible loss and projects total loneliness. The Inside Room is almost monstrously great even as it pushes doom metal to its margins and over them.

Blood Ceremony was my #5 I think...? That album owns!

Liturgy ended up being #11 or #12; I didn't realize that many people were not enthusiastic about it. I thought it was a lock for top 3.

I'm kind of in the 'meh' boat with it myself, though I love 'Returner' which was some sort of preview track for a blog or something. That track p much is all I need from the album, which didn't get any votes from the big poll from me, though I gave lots to 'Returner' in traxx...

so far, pretty impressed w/a lot of these particularly old silver key, grayceon, tombs, rwake, black tusk, blood ceremony, wooden staken, and maybe surprisingly within temptation and nightwish.

40 watt sun is amazing of course imo, i love warning.

I used valid because I think that fans of heavy music have often considered female contributions more than just irrelevant and silly but actually invalid, as in, "you have no right to express yourself in this most macho of ways." That was definitely my sense of the community as a teen in the States in the 80s.

I was a meathead, truly. I didn't even question those assumptions as a teen.

lots of xposts

the female side of metal during a certain period was represented to me, unfortunately, as lita ford and girls crawling around on ratt album covers. also my definition of "metal" was very much "103.5 the blaze" (which a chicagoan might get.)

Big batch of Erik stuff here today!

on 40 Watt Sun:

Slow epic doom has always been a dark, melancholy genre, though one often suffused with anger and frustration. At least I think so, judging by the unintelligible cookie monster growls and screeching black metal howls that are often par for the course. Here, former Warning vocalist/guitarist Patrick Walker eschews those norms for clear, evocative vocals that are as dark, depressing and self-reflective as any I’ve ever heard. This is one of the most personal records to ever welcome me in (most often that level of personal intensity raises a forbidding wall) and allow a glimpse into the mind of one man in excruciating pain. That the subtle hooks and strong melodies make you want to sing along only hurts all the more.

fabulous album