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

66
Cattle Decapitation - Death Atlas
133 points, 7 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0376496450_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/7pp0eBrLEcmprISZOmY4ve
https://cattledecapitation.bandcamp.com/album/death-atlas

https://thequietus.com/articles/27528-cattle-decapitation-death-atlas-review

Despite a volume of reported warnings from ecologists and other learned academics for decades, the rapid degradation of our planet at humanity’s hand has now become a hot topic. However, instead of dealing with such evidently serious issues in a productive, inclusive manner, we have done what we always do: split into factions to push disparate agendas and argue in circles, all the while our billowing emissions increasingly tighten their death-grip on our collective throat and everything suffers.

To be fair, we probably all deserve extinction, since we have chosen money as our god and our selfishness gets in the way of creating a better, more sustainable world. This is pretty much the underlying nihilistic stance death/grind phenoms Cattle Decapitation have been firing off about on socially conscious screeds such as 2004’s Humanure (replete with striking vegetarian friendly artwork of a cow defecating human remains), 2006’s Karma.Bloody.Karma and on a grander scale, the rightfully acclaimed Monolith of Inhumanity (2012) and its follow up, The Anthropocene Extinction (2015).

As we reach boiling point – environmentally and socio-politically – Cattle Decapitation’s conceptual message has never been more timely. "The core concept of this record is humanity's insignificance despite what we've convinced ourselves," explains vocalist Travis Ryan in the press release accompanying the promo. "That's kind of why this album cover takes place in space, to remind you that 'the universe always finds a way to purge’. In the grand scheme of things, our species is merely a fleeting thought.”

Wow. Very low

Lotta people liked it but no #1s

I loved the singles a lot in isolation but the album as a whole didn't come together for me like the last one did, both due to length and production I think

How does it stack against their previous stuff? It was my first encounter with the band and I didn't get much out of it tbh.

(xp)

voted for this one! think it placed appropriately. for my money their masterpiece is still monolith of inhumanity but this came close and is just the brutal and catchy record about climate change i wanted

The climate change spoken word warnings really made this one. Just like the violins did for Weeping Sores. Lol, I'm doing this metal thing so wrong :)

Awesomely literal cover art imho.

Simon H otm
Was super hyped off the singles but found it kind of a let down compared to their last two when taken all together. Still I threw it on my list at 46.

y'all were right about this funereal presence record

Yes! I’ve been waiting for more people to freak out about it.

That new Pissgrave is literally the first time a cover art has legit stopped me from buying an album. I must be getting soft in my old age.

I love that the narration on that Cattle Decapitation record means the drummer from Phish now has his own page at the Metal Archives.

We've got a tie, ladies and gentlemen! Last one of the rollout.

TIE 64
Krallice - Wolf
136 points, 5 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2009963986_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/4mgiok969U9SPO1fh12HiI
https://krallice.bandcamp.com/album/wolf

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/krallice-new-york-metal-band-wolf-777567/

Think of Krallice as the underground-metal equivalent of a gourmet food truck. Much as that set-up allows a chef to make their own hours and cook pretty much whatever they want, this Queens, New York, band’s M.O. affords them an unusual degree of logistical and creative freedom. They tour infrequently, record all their material in-house at guitarist Colin Marston’s Menegroth studio and release music direct to Bandcamp with little fanfare, at whatever rate feels comfortable to them.

If their methods are humble, the end product is anything but. Krallice’s output — like Wolf, a new 15-minute EP marked by daunting musical density and a diverse range of extreme-metal approaches — is some of the more challenging and surprising in the contemporary scene, a fact that’s reflected in their passionate cult fan base. The more they do exactly as they please, the more their renown seems to grow.

A new Krallice release doubles as a reminder of how tough, and probably pointless, it is to try to categorize the band. Their Bandcamp page contains the self-description “black metal or not.” It’s a terse statement but a telling one. Metal remains taxonomy-obsessed, with acts being slotted into ever-tinier niches, from “tech-death” to “blackgaze,” but the best bands don’t seem to pay the slightest attention to genre (or subgenre) signifiers. Since their inception, Krallice have morphed again and again, drawing initial inspiration from Nineties black metal but gradually growing proggier and more imposingly technical, as heard on 2015’s excellent Ygg huur.

TIE 64
Bölzer - Lese Majesty
136 points, 5 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4274797077_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/0Gg4QDrVUfIHzCUO5Isdzs
https://bolzer.bandcamp.com/album/lese-majesty

http://www.metalstorm.net/pub/review.php?review_id=15342

The Swiss duo Bölzer won a good deal of street cred earlier in the decade with their Aura and Soma EPs, featuring thunderous blends of blackened death metal with a distinctly modern twist. They followed them up in 2016 with a proper full length in the form of Hero, which generated something of a mixed reaction in yours truly. While it moved in a more epic, melodious direction that was quite enjoyable, it did so almost at the sacrifice of the riff heavy, memorable compositions of the band's earlier history, and felt as though it was missing some vital element of forward momentum. 2019's Lese Majesty essentially merges the Hero sound with the more riff driven sound of Bölzer's earlier days, resulting in a formula that feels more balanced, cohesive, and mature. Opener "A Shepherd In Wolven Skin" establishes a style that is more or less followed throughout the rest of the release: catchy and full of energy, but with an underlying sense of harmony and warmth that was lacking with the band's earlier material.

On Lese Majesty Bölzer still retain many of the more epic elements from Hero, but here they appear to have exerted a lot more control over how they're integrated into the music. Particularly notable would be the use of clean vocals, a polarizing ingredient that first reared its head on Hero and seems a lot more refined here, better positioned around the harsh vocals and seeming to be utilized primarily during the climaxes of the compositions. Additionally Bölzer seem a lot more comfortable experimenting with atmospheric, ambient type moments, such as on the interlude-like "Æstivation," a technique I'd definitely like to see them play around with more in the future. With all that said, Lese Majesty still maintains a certain gravity with the upbeat, riff heavy style that forms the bulk of its compositions (see "Into The Temple Of Spears" especially), a gravity that doesn't feel as compromised as it was on Hero.

With Lese Majesty Bölzer really seem to have learned from both the successes and failures of Hero, taking the more dynamic and atmospheric ingredients from that album and using them as more of an embellishment upon their compositions than as the predominant element. The result is a release that sees the band going back to their more riff based fury, but also upgrading that approach with an added sense of nuance and ambiance. Love it or hate it, one thing that can't be denied about Bölzer is their commitment to evolving their craft. Compared to where they were at the start of the decade, the band have grown a lot in terms of sound, and Lese Majesty closes out the decade on a considerable high note for them while also generating much curiosity about just where they may choose to go from here.

I fuckin love Krallice but I...sorta forgot this cool lil release existed

I like the idea of Krallice better than the actual music, but I'm always happy to hear new material by them. As for Bölzer, that review mirrors my own feelings for the most part.

So two EP's were tied? Not often EPs make polls

As a side note, both are EPs, which makes for a rather unusual tie.

xp!

I only voted for one EP but I'm hoping it will top these.

63
Dysrhythmia - Terminal Threshold
142 points, 4 voters

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3804832551_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/72wKTJ6Z4MEIg72x8tStGA
https://dysrhythmia.bandcamp.com/album/terminal-threshold

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/dysrhythmia-terminal-threshold-review/

It’s been almost three years to the day since I reviewed Dysrhythmia’s last album, The Veil of Control. Of course that one appealed to me: it was loaded with virile, complex songs that at times borrowed heavily from King Crimson⁠—specifically, that band’s The ConstruKction of Light era. Dark, heavy, and discordant, it all added up to an enjoyable romp through instrumental prog-metal fields. By not overstaying its welcome (6 songs in 36 minutes), the album managed to hold my attention longer than many other instrumental prog albums. So three years on, the trio has dropped a new album in my lap, Terminal Threshold, complete with some mind-bending cover art. Color me excite.

It’s clear from the outset that things are different for Dysrhythmia this time around. A quick glance at the tracklist is one hint: 8 songs on this one, but only 32 minutes of runtime. No song is more than four and a half minutes long. From the opening fade-in of “Nuclear Twilight,” it’s clear Terminal Threshold is not going to be the same as The Veil of Control. “Nuclear Twilight” is loaded with thunderous toms and jagged, thrash-like riffs. It’s an insanely complex and busy track; thank goodness it doesn’t last much more than four minutes, because I get dizzy listening to it.

No idea what this is but that description sounds pretty cool.

One of my votes

I loved the last one but had a hard time cracking this one for some reason. I'll try again at some point.

We're kinda in the sund4r section of the poll except sund4r says he didn't pay much attention to metal last year so wont have voted for these albums , which he almost certainly would have if he had heard them, as he has liked and voted for them before.

Quite a lot of folk didn't keep up last year either. Was 2019 seen as a weak year?

Because I didn't keep up last year*

(*I didn't keep up as much as I normally would but for different reasons, lol)

I thought it was an excellent year but this may well be predicated on the sheer volume of time spent sampling left and right. So-called bad years are usually those when I wasn't paying attention.

Next up: one of the tautest, most bad-ass listening experiences of 2019.

I think for most people a great year is multiple underground albums getting critical and a bit of commercial success.

Others its judged by mainstream crossover success. And has there been much of the latter recently? Any top 10 albums?

Oh I don't even worry about commercial success, that ship has sailed. For now, at least.

62
Witch Vomit - Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave
144 points, 5 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3910047609_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/5g2ORJKVg3Xp6VKJL3lCKZ
https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/buried-deep-in-a-bottomless-grave

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/witch-vomit-buried-deep-in-a-bottomless-grave-review/

The other day, I was sitting at the kid’s n00b’s lunch table and about to close a deal trading away my Twinkie for Carcharodon‘s bland, British pastry, when Mark Z. walked in like the cool big kid he is and slammed a promo on the counter. “Hey, n00bs. Here’s Witch Vomit if you want it. I’m doing something else.” He promptly picked up another promo with “vomit” in the name and walked away. I tried to act cool, seeing if anyone else was as excited as I was, but when the bell rang, all of my fellow n00bs got up and headed towards Dr. Grier‘s 5th-period class, “How to Avoid Dismemberment.” I, however, couldn’t resist. I ran to the counter, scooped up the Witch Vomit with my bare hands, and poured it into my backpack. I spent the rest of the day watching the clock, longing for the moment that I could run home to my cell, grab a spoon, and see what this brand of emesis tastes like.

Magnifico! And what exactly was the witch eating before she regurgitated the Portland, Oregon band’s sophomore upheaval Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave? By the taste of things, she enjoyed very deeply of early Dismember, early Incantation, and early Autopsy, but it’s the fact that she washed it down with a cold glass of Slayer that really makes this fun. While undeniably an old school death metal band, Witch Vomit writes songs like they’re a thrash band and it’s resulted in a 27-minute long record that never once runs short of energy, groove, or melody. Each track has its own character, and there’s not a single dry heave to be found amongst them—each one expels copious amounts of disgusting substances in various states of digestion for your aural displeasure.

This is exactly what you think it is and it just rips.

ILX is all old geezers. What metal are the under 25s listening to that isnt five finger death punch and slipknot?

xp

Btw I agree that Sund4r (who is likely busy with less frivolous matters at the moment) is missing out on his part of the rollout: Krallice, Kostnatění, Dysrhythmia (I'm assuming here), etc.

magnifico! @ witch vomit is <3

great year all around for dm, particullary for 20 buck spin. hoping 2 more 20bs records placing higher

i voted for witch vomit, pissgrave, krallice and bölzer, btw

yeah but the point i was making is that he missed out last year on hearing these albums so he didn't vote for them this time, otherwise they would be higher.

2 low 4 witch vom. My #10.

Last one before Neechy takes over tomorrow.

61
Falls of Rauros - Patterns in Mythology
145 points, 5 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0940752620_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/0MvxMFo64c8qAaMemUW45U
https://gileadmedia.bandcamp.com/album/patterns-in-mythology

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/falls-of-rauros-patterns-of-mythology-review/

No matter the band or the number of releases they have, when I review them, I start from the beginning. I listen to every track, rank every album, and then proceed onto the newest promo. And each time I’ve sat down to review a Falls of Rauros, I’ve done it this way. And, every time, I’m shocked by how solid a catalog they have. With some bands, you could get away with stopping at their debut and regurgitating those first impressions in a review for every successive release. Other bands evolve so much that what you knew about them on their debut is nonexistent some half-dozen releases, or so, later. Neither scenario is bad if the band is good at what they do. And these Mainers are good at what they do.

If you’ve been living under a rock since 2014, Falls of Rauros have evolved tremendously and done no wrong by doing so. From The Light That Dwells in the Rotten Wood to Believe in No Coming to Vigilance Perennial, the band has expanded its sound so much that Vigilance Perennial could be a different entity for all I know. And this year’s Patterns in Mythology is no different. FoR continue where they left Vigilance, creating a soundscape of lush textures whose brushstrokes are thunderous black metal riffs, clean and acoustic guitar work, spleen-rupturing rasps and distant clean vocals. Yet, for all the evolution, FoR‘s John Hancock is still recognizable in the bottom right-hand corner of the tapestry.

…and the recap thus far:

61 Falls of Rauros - Patterns in Mythology 145.0 5 0
62 Witch Vomit - Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave 144.0 5 0
63 Dysrhythmia - Terminal Threshold 142.0 4 0
64 Bölzer - Lese Majesty 136.0 5 0
64 Krallice - Wolf 136.0 5 0
66 Cattle Decapitation - Death Atlas 133.0 7 0
67 Pissgrave - Posthumous Humiliation 133.0 5 0
68 Mgła - Age of Excuse 133.0 3 1
69 Warforged - I:Voice 132.0 5 0
70 Black Mountain - Destroyer 132.0 4 0
71 Funereal Presence - Achatius 132.0 3 0
72 Andvaka - Andvana 131.0 3 0
73 Weeping Sores - False Confession 129.0 4 0
74 PUP - Morbid Stuff 127.0 3 0
75 Saint Vitus - Saint Vitus 126.0 5 0
76 Major Stars - Roots of Confusion 125.0 3 0
77 Oozing Wound - High Anxiety 124.0 3 0
78 Motorpsycho - The Crucible 119.0 4 0
79 Deathspell Omega - The Furnaces of Palingenesia 119.0 3 1
80 Amygdala - Our Voices Will Soar Forever 115.0 3 0
81 Nightfell - A Sanity Deranged 112.0 4 0
82 Skáphe + Wormlust - Kosmískur hryllingur 111.0 4 0
83 Kostnatění - Hrůza zvítězí 110.0 4 0
84 The Neptune Power Federation - Memoirs of a Rat Queen 110.0 3 0
85 Krypts - Cadaver Circulation 109.0 4 0
86 No One Knows What the Dead Think - No One Knows What the Dead Think 108.0 4 0
87 Dead to a Dying World - Elegy 107.0 4 0
87 Pharaoh Overlord - 5 107.0 4 0
89 Serpent Column - Mirror in Darkness 105.0 5 0
90 Angel Witch - Angel of Light 105.0 3 0
91 Pinkish Black - Concet Unification 101.0 5 0
92 Putrescine - The One Reborn 100.0 3 0
93 Terminal Cheesecake - Le sacre du lièvre 96.0 2 1
94 Inculter - Fatal Visions 95.0 5 0
95 Drudkh - A Few Lines in Archaic Ukrainian 95.0 3 0
96 Zig Zags - They'll Never Take Us Alive 95.0 2 0
97 False - Portent 92.0 4 0
97 Russian Circles - Blood Year 92.0 4 0
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

Good band

"buried deep in a bottomless grave" has to be one of the most perfect metal album titles

otm

FoR too low!!! I'm so mad I missed their show, my friend who took my ticket assures me they are excellent live, though.

i also meant to listen to falls of rauros before voting and didn't. one of my favorite discoveries from the metal poll a few years ago

i cannot emphasize enough how funereal presence would've been my metal album of the year had i known about it

black metal can and should be ridiculous and fun

well yes :)

should have campaigned. just nearing another full listen-through myself. so good

Btw I agree that Sund4r (who is likely busy with less frivolous matters at the moment) is missing out on his part of the rollout: Krallice, Kostnatění, Dysrhythmia (I'm assuming here), etc.

Ha, I've been thinking I would review the list after the countdown is done and be able to contribute more then. I did enjoy the Have a Nice Life album and the two featured Major Stars songs on Bandcamp. (I've had Magic Hour's No Excess Is Absurd for about 20 years but somehow never got around to Major Stars.) Kostnatění definitely made my ballot. I'm a fan of Krallice and like Dysrhythmia but didn't get around to their 2019 albums yet, on the weird grounds that I knew I would like them and didn't need to rush to hear them. Dysrhythmia/Gorguts guitarist Kevin Hufnagel's new solo album is v good btw: https://kevinhufnagel.bandcamp.com/album/invisible-traces