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

YOB or Mastodon, probably the former.

Powerwolf still haven't placed, so I'm holding out hope.

Bullet aren't going to make it, are they?

9. The Gates of Slumber - The Wretch (1,085 Points, 32 Votes, 1 #1)
http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/thegatesofslumbercover.jpg
http://www.last.fm/music/the+gates+of+slumber

The Gates Of Slumber is a doom metal band from Indianapolis, USA. They play old school style of doom metal in the traditions of Saint Vitus, Cirith Ungol, Candlemass and the likes. Their band name is taken from the Cianide song Gates of Slumber from the album A Descent Into Hell.

Review

by Eduardo Rivadavia

The greatest misconception about the Gates of Slumber is that the Indiana trio is your typical, run-of-the-mill doom band, but anyone who's actually spent time with the group's discography would beg to differ. As of its very first album, the trio has in fact been experimenting with different metallic varieties, ranging from traditional ‘70s vintages to energized ‘80s flavors to a few psychedelic, semi-thrash, and even downright foreign musical elements to, sure, good old-fashioned doom as well. But it wasn't until album number five, 2011's indicatively named The Wretch, that the Gates of Slumber truly embraced the style with which they've been most closely associated for all it's worth -- possibly with the desire to ground themselves in metal's most unpretentious underground tenets once again, following the higher creative ambitions flirted with on 2009's Hymns of Blood and Thunder. Whatever the group's motivations, The Wretch certainly indulges in some of most brazen and unapologetic Saint Vitus worship heard in some time, as evidenced by the grimy snail's trail left by slothful juggernauts such as "Bastards Born," "Day of Farewell," the title track, and the 13-minute colossus "Iron and Fire" in particular. Other offerings do pick up the pace somewhat (see "The Scovrge ov Drvnkenness" [sic], "To the Rack with Them," and the only serious galloping ghost, "Coven of Cain"), but still never leave the Vitus aesthetic behind, and the mildly psychedelic trip undertaken by "Castle of the Devil" -- in obvious tribute to Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan" -- is seriously about as far out as TGOS get here. All of which may well leave some listeners upset at The Wretch's overall lack of invention, but will probably convince others that the Gates of Slumber fully deserve the doom credentials alluded to by their moniker, once and for all.

I wish Kuma's Corner were closer. I'd order a YOB.

YOB
Smoked Gouda, Bacon, Roasted Red Peppers, Roasted Garlic Mayo - $13

Mastodon
BBQ Sauce, Cheddar, Bacon, Frizzled Onions - $13

Absu
10 oz. Patty, spicy tomatillo salsa, pepperjack, red onion/avocado relish, queso fresco, trio of breaded deep fried chiles - 13.00

I have enjoyed the Mastadon on multiple occasions, but the High on Fire is my personal favorite in spite of the hot sauce typo

High On Fire
Siracha Hot Chili Sauce, Prosciutto, Roasted Red Pepper, Grilled Pineapple, Sweet Chili Paste

I saw Gates Of Slumber open for Pentagram a couple years back. A solid show, but they didn't have a tenth the charisma and presence of Pentagram. Maybe that experience affected my view of their albums.

it's kinda interesting how some of these albums get highly rated for doing adventurous/interesting/bold/new stuff and some for embracing traditional tropes, almost like doom metal standards

the YOB is good there! Still have to wait a long time for a table.

I guess ulcerate isn't going to place then? that's the way it looks to me. would be a shame as this album has grown on me tremendously over the past few days. I probably would have given it the #1 spot if I were voting today. oh well.

anyway, forgot where I read it, but if "deathspell omega playing death metal" sounds good to you, listen to the destroyers of all immediately. this album totally kills.

Wish I had voted, 'cause at least I would have gotten Motorhead to place. C'mon people - Motorhead record should at least place every year ...

(I misspelled Mastodon too, so classy!)

xp High On Fire is indeed my favorite burger there. Looking forward to their next album too :)

Gates of Slumber album is fucking great!

Mastodon burger at Kuma's is fucking great!

alan n otm; the ulcerate album kicked so much ass

so much trad doom on here

As in too much doom? Never! I hope people check out Obrero, Glitter Wizard, Green & Wood even though they didn't make the list.

8. Pantheïst - Pantheist (1,187 Points, 30 Votes, 2 #1s)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vQOzHUON9ps/Tm1YV2xe8GI/AAAAAAAABiM/D97eLmFOY2A/s1600/Cover.jpg
Pantheist
http://www.last.fm/music/pantheist

Doom metal band, originally based in Belgium and later in the UK, with progressive overtones and a heavy dose of melancholy. Although originally associated with the funeral doom scene, the band has developed a more complex sound in their later work, incorporating elements from progressive and classic rock alongside the original influences from doom metal, classical and ethnic music. Typical for their sound is the creation of a solemn, mystical atmosphere, to which elements such as atmospheric keyboards, acoustic instruments and semi chanted vocals strongly contribute.

http://www.doommantia.com/2011/05/pantheist-pantheist.html

The UK have given us some incredible metallic talent over the years, including the grandfathers of Metal( Judas Priest and Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden to name a few) and even some of my newer favourites as well( like GraVil) as well. I grew up on the NEW WAVE OF BRITISH HEAVY METAL movement and that was where my love of this music began, so I love all things British metal. Now the Brits have given us a doom metal tour-DE-force called Pantheist.

Dark and foreboding with a very dank atmosphere made in every note they make, Pantheist rumbles like a sauntering Brontosaurus that can crush anything living in front of them. Funeral or even Progressive Doom is an acquired taste, I admit... but when it is this good, metal-heads seem to gravitate to it regardless. With some of the heaviest yet memorable riffs and the most bleak and haunting lyrics I have come across since Novembers Doom – this band shows just how dark metal can get.

Each song seems to blend into one another seamlessly, creating this pained melancholy that is a vortex into someones tortured mind. No one song is better than the other – making this album that is not a concept album, seem like it as it blends all of this into a tapestry of sorrow and doom haunted retrospective into a persons tortured thinking. It is powerful and scary to behold the stark beauty and painful repercussions of a mind that it troubled.

I found that Pantheist to be a band that is truly full of talent, a wall of power... and also having that understanding of the complexity of human emotion unlike anyone I have listened to. I am now going to hunt down the other album of this band right now... I need to hear more from this band. Seriously this is one of my favourite albums at the moment.... I am going through withdrawals right now........9.5/10
Review Written By Daryl Adolph

hey it's not for me to say how much is too much but i'm not really a trad doom guy is all.

Wow, my number 1 is going to place a LOT higher than I thought it would. Even if it shows up next, its a hell of showing based on initial reactions.

Haven't heard the Pantheist, but based on this showing I need to!

damn right you need to. it actually was in the top 5 for ages but fell out near the end.

their 1st album O Solitude is a legendary Funeral Doom album but they've moved away from that kind of music for ages now.

Dare I believe Corrupted can make #1? (Watch them place next)

Pantheist instead of Pentagram maybe?
― uncle acid and the absquatulators (Drugs A. Money)

Good call mate!

I am completely surprised. They didn't appear in any of the other polls that Kerr listed.

Right on! :) I think the Pentagram album didn't have many acolytes around here...

There was a few raves about the Pentagram album when it first came out, but yeah, enthusiasm must have dropped off a lot. There's just so much music competing for people's attention.

Yeah it sort of turned into this, "right on another solid Pentagram album", but then everyone kind of moved on.

You know what else hadn't made it yet? The Psychic Paramount album. I wonder if no one voted for it cuz it want metal (it was my #3)

7. Mastodon - The Hunter (1,253 Points, 33 Votes, 6 #1s)
http://rockdirt.com/images/misc/Mastodon_TheHunter.jpg
Spotify
http://www.last.fm/music/mastodon

by James Christopher Monger

On 2011’s The Hunter, Mastodon abandoned the proggy, conceptual route taken on previous outings, choosing instead to mine the trailblazing, riff-heavy abandon of their 2004 masterpiece, Leviathan. Mastodon's increasingly accessible sound may not land them a hit anytime soon, but cuts like “Black Tongue,” “Curl of the Burl,” and “Balsteroid,” all of which arrive in sequence at the front of the set, show a willingness to write within the parameters of 21st century pop music’s dark side. That’s not to say that the band has pulled its head out of the vastness of space, as there are more than enough tracks here to satisfy fans who prefer the sludgy, drop-D epics of yore to the more organized roar of The Hunter's front end. Fueled by Brãnn Dailor's jazzy, machine-gun drumming, songs like “Octopus Has No Friends,” “All the Heavy Lifting,” and “Bedazzled Fingernails,” despite coming in at under five minutes, are epically arranged, and the surprisingly hummable, bass melody-led swamp monster anthem “Creature Lives” sounds like a Sabbathy, Lovecraftian take on Jane’s Addiction's “Summertime Rolls.” The closest Hunter comes to reaching an apex is on the breathless “Spectrelight,” a relentless three-minute slab of pure unadulterated fury that will probably clock in at around a minute and half live, but it’s an album that doesn’t really need to peak, as it never promises a thing it can’t back up, boldly and loudly.

I loved it, but did not vote for it here. Was my #3 overall, but it and the Fucked Up album were not metal to my ears.

xpost

... and theres my #1!

psychic paramount album is p killer but it ain't metal

six #1s eh?

Glad to see the high placement on Mastodon, seemed a lot of people around here were lukewarm on it. I was really glad to hear them step away from the epics and go back to just tunes. Plus there was a great sense of humor throughout, nice break from the self-serious stuff.

When the singles were released before the Mastodon album, the backlash was brutal, especially for "Curl Of The Burl." Once a band reaches as wide an audience as Mastodon has, there's going to be divided opinions. I think it's a great summary of their strengths from previous albums, and just a couple more simple rockers and space/prog jams don't mean they're not metal. Especially compared to a ton of other non-metal bands on this poll. They're just as fierce live as always, though the sound sucked, but I blame the venue (Riviera).

I think it's the best Mastodon record, but I don't like them much at all, even now. Not my thing, but I can at least see the appeal more with this one than on the last couple.

it's not a bad record but it does feel a little slight to my ears

8. Pantheïst - Pantheist (1,187 Points, 30 Votes, 2 #1s)

Real music :D

musically i really dig that mastodon record (at least what i've heard of it) but haven't been able to deal with anything they've done vocally for a while now.

Did not expect.

Is this your blog? ;) http://www.nocleansinging.com/

6. Esoteric - Paragon of Dissonance (1,344 Points, 35 Votes, 4 #1s)

Funeral Doom Metal band from Birmingham, England

http://www.doommantia.com/2011/11/esoteric-paragon-of-dissonance.html

One of the most consistently good doom bands of the last 20 years has to be Esoteric. These British doomsters have now released 6 full length albums without a dip in quality anywhere. In fact I find it impossible to pick a favorite album from them. From 1994's 'Epistemological Despondency' to this new one with the title 'Paragon of Dissonance' they have always delivered the doomy goods although I don't think they have recorded a 100% classic as yet, they came close with 'The Pernicious Enigma' but still there is always just that tiny, nagging feeling they could do even better.

This new one is the same, so close to being perfect but still lacking that vital element to push it to 10/10 material. Of course there would be many people out there that would be thinking I am wrong and just being too hard to please but this is my opinion and I am sticking with it. This album is huge and I mean 2 CD's worth of huge but it suffers from the Cathedral - The Guessing Game situation of being 2 CD's when one would have made it that much more concise and listenable. Just like that Cathedral album, this effort from Esoteric is a little too long for its own good. The total playing time for this album is some 98 minutes and when you consider there is about 20 minutes total of padding on this album, it could have quite easily on fitted on to a single disc but again as happens with this band, even the padding is good.

The album might run for some 98 minutes but there is still only 7 tracks with the shortest being 7 minutes, the longest 18 minutes. Esoteric are the prog-mans funeral doom band or the thinking mans funeral doom band for the want of another term. The musical scope is just as massive as the sound of the band itself and even the word "epic" seems to understate how grandiose the album is. The thought of a 98 minute funeral doom album would likely send many people in a coma just thinking about it but Esoteric are damn more inspiring than the average funeral doom act. The amount of creative thought that goes into these pieces is staggering but still the sheer length and musical weight of the tracks could prove to be the albums downfall for many people. Even I, a big Esoteric fan had some trouble getting through all of this at first but once I got there, the journey was worth every minute. In comparison to other works, there is not much that is different between this and the 'Maniacal Vale' album. The classical influenced funeral doom element is still the driving force and they continue to clean up their production which oddly doesn't affect the overall, crushing heaviness that some of this album has and there is not many bands that can do that.

The vibe and atmosphere of this album is sheer, flesh-crawling horror but musically, it heads in every direction possible within the funeral doom framework. The opening track, 'Abandonment' is a good example of how they can bleed an idea and still be hypnotic. The first few minutes of this track is just mainly a lead solo with the band being pulverizing in the background. Once the lead work drops away, they head into about 10 minutes of some of the most mesmerizing chilling doom you will ever hear and yet the album has only just began. The track that follows, 'Loss of Will' has more gentle sections of ambience and more classically inspired song-structure. The piano alone is awe-inspiring and the track ends just as it starts to out-stay its welcome. This perfectly executed and well-timed situation isn't always the case on 'Paragon of Dissonance' but these two opening tracks are about as good as it gets. The album is almost split into halves, approach-wise and this is something I didn't really notice at first but disc one is much more ambient and quiet while disc two is heavier and louder and more dramatic.

The two tracks that take up the remaining 26 minutes of the first CD, 'Cipher' and 'Non Being' are an album by themselves. 'Cipher ' strikes me as being the weakest track on the album. For me, it sounds like almost 10 minutes of musical padding. It is interesting enough while it is playing but instantly forgettable once its done with and over. 'Non Being' however is a major highlight. The marching band drumming coupled with stunning and blistering guitar work is flawless and totally captivating for all of its 16 minutes. The first half of the track produces some of the most despondent doom the band has ever produced and even the second half's droning, buzzing noise that sounds like an amplified electrical storm is mesmerizing. The sound has a appalling kind of beauty about it, it makes you feel on edge and frankly, uncomfortable but I for one, can't turn it off. This is cinematic doom at its best that closes CD number one in pure white noise fashion. The question is can you stand this much distortion and noise for this long? It is a challenge, even for the most hardcore of listeners.

Press play on disc two and you have to sit through the 16 minutes of 'Aberration' which you can hear the band in fully charged doom-metal mode. In fact the whole of disc two is far heavier and merciless in its delivery of three very long bleak, punishing epic doom pieces. I like disc two a lot more than disc one but tracks like 'Aberration' do require some patience and a hardcore ear for doom metal. There is heavier bands around than Esoteric but few are as unforgiving as this. It is pure funeral doom that even fans of Ahab, Mournful Congregation, Evoken, and Thergothon might hear as being overblown. 'Aberration' is certainly another track where ideas are being bled to death and the track could have done with a trim but like I have already pointed out, even Esoteric's padded sections are better than most other funeral doom bands.

Another major highlight comes next with 'Disconsolate.' This track starts off bleak and desolate and continues to build becoming aggressive and intensely pummeling. The last half of the track is almost worth buying the album for one, even just for the stunning lead work that is featured. The album ends on the longest track, the 18 minute 'A Torrent of Ills' which carries a similar vibe to disc one's 'Loss of Will.' Have fun getting through this track too, it is overly long, slightly bloated and extended to the point where I doubt if many doom listeners will even listen to it all without climbing the walls first. It is not that is is boring, it is just so damn uncompromising. When it is all over, nearly 100 minutes later, the feeling I am left with is this is a monumental album as usual from Esoteric but an album where they might have gone way overboard with.

With funeral doom albums like this one, the problem is even if they are good, the length of the tracks means it all starts to sound the same after a while. Funeral doom is not big on variation and Esoteric too are guilty of bleeding the same formula repeatedly. All the songs are written in the same way; split into two or three separate movements and it does get a little predictable. The vocals are used as another instrument of doomed torture and the lyrics, well they are neither here or there but sound great within the songs but you will need to read the lyrics if you are to decipher what they all means. Despite these little gripes and question marks raised, Esoteric have made another keeper and 20 years into the bands existence, there is still no drop in quality. Whether this album is better than or just as good as any of their other albums is up to you to decide. All I know for fans of the band, this is essential and for fans of the funeral doom genre, this will most likely win the funeral doom album of the year from most critics and doom metal writers. I don't know if I would go that far myself but yes, this is a monumental piece of work......9/10.

Ironically what some perceive as slightness has attracted new fans. A friend of mine didn't like any of their albums until this one. I really don't think there's that much of a difference.

lol @ nocleansinging. my sympathies lie there for sure.

seriously it's not clean singing that i mind (i'm a big pat walker fan) but mastodon's attempts at it which just sound like horrible 8th-generation grunge vocals.

Just playing catch up with this poll right now... really chuffed with the high position for the Pantheist record in particular, I'm listening to it right now... vocally it may not be to everyone's taste, granted, but musically it's brilliant in my opinion!

sound like horrible 8th-generation grunge vocals.

Pretty sure I couldn't disagree with this more. I don't think they're the best singers, but they aren't like Scott Stapp or something.

Also: great to see Subrosa chart so high, I've been quite impressed with the selections from that album that I've heard, and I know I definitely should be taking some time out to give that album a serious couple of deep listens.

hmm, this esoteric record has more....shredding than i would have thought.

I like "Be Here" off the Pantheist record but the rest didn't cohere for me.