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

this is no attack on anyone really but mention of Mgła is, for entirely musical reasons, a total turn-off for me

Simon, that's totally fair. lj, that is not fair at all.

When you're right, you're Reich

It gestures towards minimalism, yeah.

103 TIE
Coffin Rot - A Monument to the Dead 90 Points, 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/9wXOrXX.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/4xL5sp9akfLTzvI7uZrUtE

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/coffin-rot-a-monument-to-the-dead-review/

This is death metal from Portland, Oregon. I could probably stop there and you would still know whether or not you’ll love this album. That city is absolutely dominating the genre this year, and we should probably just add a “Portland Metal” tag to WordPress as that domination extends beyond the bounds of death metal. You’re probably getting tired of me blabbing about how great the Weird City’s output has been this year, but I could comfortably fill half of my year end list if forced to choose only from records released by Portland bands. And so, I will continue to drink from the fountain until it runs dry — this is just one of the two October 18th releases from Portland that I’ll be covering. But enough of all that. I suggest you grab yourself a bottle of Gold Bond Extra Strength Medicated Powder as you’re about to come down with a painful case of Coffin Rot.

A Monument to the Dead is Coffin Rot‘s first full-length, and several of the band’s members have been busy this past year releasing another debut that Carcharodon covered here. He wasn’t enamored by their take on stoner doom sludge, but I’m here to tell you that they certainly know their way around a Grave. Sounding like a tribute to the debut from those Swedish death metal giants, early Asphyx, and Cause of Death era Obituary, Monument is eight tracks and 32 minutes of groovy OSDM with spectacular vocals courtesy of Hayden Johnson. If you’re a fan of these classic bands, there’s not much here that you haven’t heard before, but Coffin Rot‘s commitment to the style and ability to produce heavy, yet catchy songs in a concise manner make this album more than worth your time.

“Copremesis” opens things with a brief atmospheric intro of the creepy variety followed by big chords that lead into a speedy Swedeath riff. The track’s final minute briefly allows each of the band members to shine on their own, and it really sets the stage for the rest of the album. Doom passages emerge on “Saw Blade Suicide,” “Incubation of Madness,” “Forced Self-Consumption,” and especially “Coffin Rot,” a seven minute Asphyxian bulldozer that closes the album out splendidly. “Necrotized” features some blistering guitar and drums, but slows to a sick groove as Hayden vomits the track’s title during the chorus. I dare you to keep your head still during the opening seconds of embedded track “Miasma of Barbarity” as guitarist Derek Johnson saws you in half with an arsenal of riffs.

In the promo blurb, Coffin Rot states that they wanted A Monument to the Dead to showcase a “clear-yet-crushing production that’s the epitome of powerful — and one which is richly analog,” and the DR 11 and my ears are here to tell you that they’ve succeeded. This has to be the most pleasing sound I’ve heard on a death metal album this year, barely edging out another Northwest band from last week. The vocals and each instrument sound great in the mix, and the openness of the production allows Brandon Martinez-Woodall’s bass to play a prominent role in the powerful music. Drummer Derek Johnson’s performance is a highlight with his frantic and charmingly flawed (read: real) delivery harkening back to the days when bands were bands and didn’t let computers make everything perfect for them. Aside from some tracks having similar flows and structures, I really can’t find much to fault here. This is very good death metal, no more, no less.

Well, Portland has done it again, and I hope it never stops doing it. A Monument to the Dead is a fantastic sounding take on old school death metal, and the songs make it an easily repeatable listen. Coffin Rot resides in the the same territory as Witch Vomit — geographically, qualitatively, and aesthetically — and they’re the kind of band that pairs equally well with a Portland craft beer or a cheap can of Rainier. Please listen responsibly.

103 TIE
Sanguisugabogg - Pornographic Seizures 90 Points, 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/NcPXzVO.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/6rCiBnv1EjAdOL3H2uOGlR

https://www.sleepingvillagereviews.com/reviews/sanguisugabogg-pornographic-seizures-review

While many of you are likely aware of the plague pit we keep out back here at the Sleeping Village, a better kept secret is our vomit pit. That's where we go when the going gets...gross. Luckily, Pornographic Seizures, the debut from Ohio's nigh unpronounceable Sanguisugabogg, comes with an appropriate warning on the label: "we are not responsible for any instantaneous vomiting upon listening." Thanks, guys. Long story short, we made it out to the aforementioned vomit pit prior to hitting play on this 4-track grotesquerie , and everyone is for the better because of it.
​
Pornographic Seizures is just that: gross. Obviously. And in that spirit, as is the case of most metal of this variety, it's a bit of a race to see how many negative words I can attribute in a positive light.
Filthy. Putrid. Vile. Disgusting. Shat from the slime-ridden bowels of hell. You can see where I'm going with this: in short, Pornographic Seizures makes one want to explosively surrender the contents of their bowels. And so on. When you take caveman riffs and throw them in the arena with a tight snare, assertive cymbals, and sopping wet gutturals, the result is as massive as you might assume. This is a well-conceived mix of OSDM's blatant aggression, death doom's gloom-ridden atmospherics, and the pulverized-by-wet-concrete application of slam-worth vocal delivery. In the band's words, down-tuned drug death. In any case, it's a filthy/putrid/vile/disgusting mix.

Particularly impressive is the tendency to shift the tempo up or down at a moment's notice, best exemplified on closer "Succulent Decedent." My highlight track, however, would have to be "Perverse/Deranged," which cleverly utilizes the drums to a point most death metal outfits would never consider. For a good chunk of this trick, hammering snare and intriguing fills lead the way--a refreshing change from the riff-centric approach we've come to expect from genre convention. For all the blood and guts strewn about, the instrumentation is relentlessly tight across the board, resembling surgery at the hands of a trained professional, rather than the hands of a chisel-wielding lumberjack. Not to say there isn't a certain lumbering element, so to speak, on the brief-but-hefty "Uningest" and "Turkish Blood Orgy," both of which lean into the thunderous riffage.

At 11 minutes, this release is short, (if not necessarily sweet.) While I've seen some listeners critical of the short length, this particular scribe frankly can't imagine Pornographic Seizures being much longer. I only have so many fluids to expel before I'm little more than a withered husk. Death metal of this visceral variety operates best on the small stage, and here, Sanguisugabogg deliver the goods. Also of note is the production, which, while lo-fi, highlights the best elements with a surprising grace. Unlike their Maggot Stomp labelmates Encoffinized, for example, Sanguisugabogg feels immediately present and accounted for. It's a dynamic mix, no doubt.

Do the 4 tracks herein, tracks, in all their grimy glory, start to bleed into each other? Yeah. But do I give a damn? No, dear readers. Not in the goddamn slightest. If you're coming to Sanguisugabogg for reasons other than immersing yourself in assorted viscera and bodily fluids, methinks you aren't here for the right reasons at all. If, however, you're in the mood to wretch up your intestines, Pornographic Seizures comes highly recommended.

That is me for the day. I'm handing over to pomenitul who may carry on posting today if you guys ask him nicely?

Guys u know the rules, don't post bands with Coffin in the name before 1 pm, it causes me to empty my checking account

Xpost

*Note to Pom. Put the words 'Coffin' as a prefix to every band name from now on*

Haha, I'm should it would improve on some of them.

That write-up for Pornographic Seizures... Can we add it to that poll list of review styles we never want to see.

Coffin Coffins

Coffins Gaahls Wyrd

Are you carrying onwards today, pom? the 4-way tie takes us to 99 at least

Yeah, and I'm gonna post each one separately.

I have no idea how I managed to overlook the Coffin Rot.

the coffin rot one kept growing on me. AMG nails it highlighting the songwriting. songs over tones. my fave blood harvest rec since the first tomb mold

The Sanguisugabogg sounds like pure ooga booga so far. Not bad.

99 TIE
Vircolac – Masque
92 points, 3 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0595568149_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/2bMQAdnFZJaVTlEYVw5LPP

https://toiletovhell.com/review-vircolac-masque/

On their debut LP, Masque, Vircolac build on the flea-bitten death metal sound of their EPs, plunging listeners into the filth and wickedness of medieval Europe. While Masque isn’t a concept album per se, the band’s aesthetic (S K E L E T O N S) and songwriting choices suggest a shared world between tracks. The battering ram blasts and sword n’ board lyrics of “Titan” evoke the chaos of a battlefield—the brute physicality, the commotion of steel on steel (think war metal, but also music). When folks in the Middle Ages weren’t dying over the petty quarrels of royal families, they flocked to houses of God; the processional quality of the somber, doom-oriented sections of “Titan” and “The Long Trail” recalls the echoing interior of a cathedral, built high to strike fear in the lowly.

This archaic atmosphere is strengthened by the album’s production, which splashes a coat of mud over Brendan McConnell’s guitars without obscuring any details. As on past releases, McConnell seems at home in the grime, penning addictive riffs that reside somewhere between tech death and a bunch of rabid weasels fighting in a ditch (that is to say, they’re loose without being sloppy). There’s a meanness, a confrontational sound to the guitars that staggers through the album like a piss drunk peasant, culminating in the nauseous “Tether & Wane.” Far from the band’s usual blackened death metal style, this track flirts with noise rock, dissolving into shuffle beats and boisterous basslines that challenge the audience to a dizzy tavern brawl.

Like mongrel hounds, each song contains multiple bloodlines, influences that converge to create new beasts. Colin Purcell’s crisp, deliberate drumming in “Masque of Obsequious Venality” is a far cry from the murk of the preceding music; it’s this adventurous quality that lets the album burrow into the skin so effectively. Whether channeling Pallbearer‘s melodic doom or getting spooky with witchhouse-certified synths, Vircolac avoid the static songwriting that makes so many extreme metal albums a chore to listen through in full. Some songs wither and fade with a whimper. Some approach madness and return unscathed, while others succumb to the poison, crashing dead with little warning.

Furthering the Irish tradition of shamelessly appropriating Romanian culture.

j/k, this is a fine debut.

Next up is an album I would have totally voted for if I wasn't in the business of pretending that I'm a purist asshole.

99 TIE
Vesperith – Vesperith
92 points, 3 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0044698170_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/2514BwGIRKVsandyOm6GY2

https://deadrhetoric.com/reviews/vesperith-vesperith-svart/

Music, in all of its forms, is meant to make the listener feel something. In the case of much of the more extreme metal scene, it’s a vehicle for delivering riffs. High-energy material that fuels the rage within. But for some avenues of black metal, it’s been veering in a more introspective, cosmic, and atmospheric approach over the years as well. This is the type of setting that Vesperith nestles into.

This is one of those releases that qualifies more as a journey than an assemblage of tracks. It’s about ambience and mood more than seeking out that ‘killer’ riff in each track. In fact, the music that occurs over the course of Vesperith feels akin to letting your mind wander into some equally dark and dreary places and providing a soundtrack for it. That’s not to say that there’s no moments of ethereal wonder to enjoy (as “Quintessence” can attest to), but for the most part, this has a degree of minimalist to it. It’s about that slow burn and descent into dread as you stare up at the stars at night. The shifts between quiet and furious really are what set things up the best. Some tracks have some monstrous blastbeats and blackened rasps going on (“Fractal Flesh”), while others like “Refractions,” work to build things up slowly and drench them in atmosphere. The quiet doesn’t necessarily mean peaceful, with some eerie sounds and moods keeping you on your toes as you eagerly await what is coming around the next corner.

All the work of one Sariina Tani, Vesperith sets itself apart from others within the black/post-black community with her dedication to crafting an atmosphere that absolutely takes you to another realm. The change-ups between gloom, mystery, and chilling fury are impressively done for a debut album, even if by its own nature, it’s something you really need to be in the right mood to fully appreciate. Best absorbed in one sitting from start to finish with the lights down low.

My #10 (Vircolac), and then something I really should have voted for but forgot (Vesperith)

It's safe to assume lj voted this, maybe tt as well. Who else? Either way, album is spellbinding as advertised.

xp well then.

99 TIE
The Cosmic Dead – Scottish Space Race
92 points, 3 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1219705606_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/4MKNaPwkRRC4xQkf8YEnVK

http://freq.org.uk/reviews/the-cosmic-dead-scottish-space-race/

The cover of The Cosmic Dead‘s new album Scottish Space Race appears to be making an impassioned plea for national independence, depicting as it does a Scotland that is so independent it has become an island away from all the bullshit going on in the rest of the UK. And right now I can’t exactly say I blame them. But it’s not a political album. It’s a Cosmic Dead album. A journey into space fuelled by caffeinated tonic wine. A Bucky Rogers In The Twenty-first Century, if you will.

As one would expect from Scotland’s finest psychonauts, Scottish Space Race is an epic psychedelic onslaught. Don’t be fooled by the mere four tracks on offer — clocking in at about seventy-five minutes, there’s plenty of Cosmic Dead goodness to go round. And those tracks really do need to be that long to fit all of it in.

No idea who these guys are, but I approve of that cover.

Vircolac has some great stuff on it, it really should've made my ballot

xp oh shit! My #4!

omg @ that cover

Did Tom secretly submit a ballot?

quick first impression on the vesperith, i sure did look at that cover, read the blurb about charcoal nights and dark embracing and so on... and yet this is giving me an uplifting sundrenched ~vibe~? am i trippin on some contrarian bs or sumthin, idk

The cosmic dead are great

There's an ecstatic quality to it that evokes luminosity, yeah.

xp

Best way I can explain is that the Cosmic Dead are one of the few bands that know how to make 15-20-minute songs that aren't just flexing of technique but actually vehicles for pop ideas. Each song is legitimately trying to do something different, and this is their best album because it culls and refines the best ideas from their past 10+ releases

But it is barely metal and that is my bad (also it was my #5)

Before I post the final one for tonight, I can tell you that it is the most ludicrously named metal band of 2019. Any guesses?

why did i forget vesperith, just a total oversight. would have been near the bottom of my ballot but def there

you best not be dissing wales' finest there pom

xp
we butter the bread with butter?

lol I had to google them to make sure you weren't taking the piss. But their last LP came out in 2015.

As for Wales' finest, I'm not sure I could name a single Welsh metal band off the top of my head.

one is definitely going to place :)

99 TIE
Fvneral Fvkk – Carnal Confessions
92 points, 3 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0221440574_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/5VUp8QhmTsEVLNEoEAKO0f

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/fvneral-fvkk-carnal-confessions-review/

If there was ever a case of a band’s name totally not fitting their style, we’ve found it here with Fvneral Fvkk. When I see that godawful moniker all I can think of is some lo-fi garage black thrash band that sounds like a demon in a metal trash can getting thrown down steel fire stairs. Luckily, this is not what you get here. Made up of members from Crimson Swan, Ophis and Fäulnis, the band operates under Ghostly aliases, and on their debut full-length they deliver a stunningly effective slab of bleak, despondent doom metal in the vein of Warning and Solitude Aeturnus, with a heavy Woods of Ypres influence making it all the more gloomy and glum. Add an overarching concept about clerical sexual abuse and a uniquely minimalist construction, and you have a piece of music that grips you from the first moment and refuses to let go until the album’s final notes fade away. Beautiful and disturbing in equal measure, this one is something else.

omg

it delivers

That's it for tonight/today, folks. I'll be back tomorrow around 2pm (GMT).

This one almost made my ballot btw.

a shame they don't sound nothing like fvkk, imo

When I see that godawful moniker all I can think of is some lo-fi garage black thrash band that sounds like a demon in a metal trash can getting thrown down steel fire stairs.

:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Luckily, this is not what you get here.

;_;

Meanwhile a few minutes with this Devin Townsend album has done wonders dissipating my contrition over the Cosmic Dead placing

What has been everyone's fave discoveries of the day(s)?

haven't listened to a second of anything but it's clearly going to be Cosmic Dead

Here's the recap so far:

99 Fvneral Fvkk - Carnal Confessions 92.0 3 0
99 The Cosmic Dead - Scottish Space Race 92.0 3 0
99 Vesperith - Vesperith 92.0 3 0
99 Vircolac - Masque 92.0 3 0
103 Coffin Rot - A Monument to the Dead 90.0 2 0
103 Sanguisugabogg - Pornographic Seizures 90.0 2 0
105 Deus Mortem - Kosmocide 89.0 3 0
106 Spirit Adrift - Divided by Darkness 88.0 4 0
107 Venom Prison - Samsara 86.0 2 0
108 Devin Townsend - Empath 85.0 3 0
108 Gaahls WYRD - Gastir - Ghosts Invited 85.0 3 0
108 Multishiva - Savupäivä 85.0 3 0
111 Mizmor - Cairn 82.0 4 0
112 Vanum - Ageless Fire 82.0 3 0
113 Ithaca - The Language of Injury 80.0 3 0
114 Veiled - In Blinding Presence 78.0 3 0
115 Dawn Ray'd - Behold Sedition Plainsong 77.0 4 0
116 Nile - Vile Nilotic Rites 77.0 3 0
117 Paladin - Ascension 76.0 2 0
118 Eluveitie - Ategnatos 75.0 3 0
118 Reveal - Scissorgod 75.0 3 0
120 Atlantean Kodex - The Course of Empire 75.0 2 0
120 Fetid - Steeping Corporeal Mess 75.0 2 0
120 Have a Nice Life - Sea of Worry 75.0 2 0

Not to sound like a broken record but you might get a lot from the Multishiva...? it's super short and leaps and bounds beyond Time Messer

xp to imago

Of the stuff I hadn't heard yet, Multishiva and Coffin Rot have piqued my interest the most. I still need to sample The Cosmic Dead.

xp and yeah I think you'd enjoy Multishiva, lj.