GMD Poll: Top Ten Albums of 2004

[The Butt]

Probably not, since the album is over 50 minutes long, but why does it matter anyway? I wish more people were able to evaluate music in-itself and not dwell on the frills. I get that the band brought this on themselves, but some degree of objectivity would be nice.

>"objectivity would be nice"
>ascribes attributes to a literal joke album that arent there and weren't intended to be

 

[Master_Yoda77]

Thinking about Blood Farmers?

Indeed. Great fucking album and super underrated band.

 

[mutantllama]

^Yeah, this probably belongs in the controversial thread but they're the best doom band of the 90s imo

 

[CiG]

Definitely wouldn't go that far, but they're cool. @Master_Yoda77 I wouldn't include it personally, because it really is just a demo reissue when you get down to it.

 

[Krow]

Yeah if anyone has a copy of Permanent Brain Damage they’d like to part with, get in touch.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

>"objectivity would be nice"
>ascribes attributes to a literal joke album that arent there and weren't intended to be

I put far less weight on the artist’s intention then most people do. A work of art transcends its creator. An intended joke can manifest as something profound or visa versa.

 

[Dazed and Brutal]

I put far less weight on the artist’s intention then most people do. A work of art transcends its creator. An intended joke can manifest as something profound or visa versa.

This is definitely the healthiest outlook to have. A prime example, for me, would David Lynch. He's able to create content that allows anyones interpretation to wrong and right simultaneously.

 

[CiG]

The context in which an album was recorded is really interesting to me though.
When it comes to art (or "art" for those people cynical about metal) I think the intention of the artist is pretty important, especially if the piece is a joke because that tends to come with an offensive element.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

The context in which an album was recorded is really interesting to me though.

It can be, certainly. That said, if a work of art has a great sound in and of itself, that always trumps context.

When it comes to art (or "art" for those people cynical about metal) I think the intention of the artist is pretty important, especially if the piece is a joke because that tends to come with an offensive element.

TBH with regards to Velvet Cacoon, I think the whole "it was a joke" argument is overstated. They were perpetual liars. What reason is there to take them seriously when they claim the whole thing was a joke when they've already proven to be liars? That's irrational. Then, when you consider that they still released several more albums, and then the members continued in a new, but very similar group thereafter, it seems less and less likely that the thing was intended to be a full-on joke. I mean, how many other black or death metal bands to think have BSed doing satanic rituals and other such stuff. How much do you really give a fuck if the music is good. I think it's an easy attack for people to jump on who don't like the band or who don't like atmospheric black metal to begin with. Now, if you don't like the music in-itself, fine. However, it gets tiring discussing stuff that has nothing to do with the music every time the album comes up.

 

[CiG]

I actually found a very cheap copy of that album on Discogs last night (with free shipping due to the seller being in Australia) so I'm thinking of buying it. I'm trying to be less of a douche tbh.

 

[Sleestaks]

Weird year. On the one hand, it was an easy list to make because there's a small group of albums that are among my favorites of all time, dark horses in a lot of cases -- and then a steep dropoff into oblivion; on the other, many of my favorite bands of the day, especially my beloved Scandinavian blacksters, were putting out either mediocrity or unwelcome changes, e.g.: Vintersorg, Borknagar, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Marduk.

That said,

01. Deathspell Omega - Si monumentum requires, circumspice
02. Anata - Under a Stone with No Inscription
03. Enforsaken - The Forever Endeavor
04. Lunar Aurora - Elixir of Sorrow
05. Leviathan - Tentacles of Whorror
06. Spite Extreme Wing - Non Dvcor, Dvco
07. Suffocation - Souls to Deny
08. Pig Destroyer - Terrifyer
09. Yyrkoon - Occult Medicine
10. Rotting Christ - Sanctus Diavolos

To expand a bit, let me first say that any year featuring a Lunar Aurora album is more than likely gonna be a year in which my #1 is decided on that basis alone. I can't call them underrated or unappreciated, but I never feel they get the credit they deserve for creating their own utterly warped and idiosyncratic universe. On top of that, the second half of their discography features albums that sound so different from one another yet maintain that creepy Lunar Aurora vibe and remain alien to almost everything else out there.

But this year had two breakout albums to end all breakout albums and one of the best (and still under the radar) debuts ever. Nothing further needs to be said about my numbers one and two, but let me pause at this Enforsaken Forever Endeavor motherfucker. Forget everything that comes to mind when you hear the expression "melodic death metal." I hate most of that subgenre too. However I'll take this Chicago-born beast of an album over everything that has come out of Gothenburg, over Heartwork, over Amon Amarth and all the bands with Latin names and serif typeface logos. It definitely has a European style to it, though twisted into an angry, raging, thrashing, HARD ROCKING American kind of death metal. At three minutes shy of an hour long, another factor that should work against it, especially in this style, it never loses momentum and never wastes a riff (or a solo, holy god the solos). The vocals are full of charisma, articulate and actually enhancing the beat by roaring against it rather than floating somewhere in the background. Production is as good as it gets (for this type of metal). I can't recommend this unheralded album enough. (Inexplicably their follow-up, and only other album, sucked balls.)



Apart from that, I'll say Souls to Deny, while lacking the historic (and probably still unequaled) heaviness of Pierced and the fresh out the crypt atmosphere and energy of Effigy, is atop all other Suffo albums when it comes to song identity and songcraft. It's almost as though they went in a more "melodic" direction themselves, if only in the Suffocation way. And "Tomes of Acrimony" is just god damn.

And Yyrkoon should be way more popular. Their last two albums are massive.


HMs:

Lunar Aurora - Zyklus (bumped for the sole purpose of squeezing Rotting Christ's second most evil album into my ten)
Dragonland - Starfall
1349 - Beyond the Apocalypse
Frozen Shadows - Hantises
Cadaver - Necrosis
Chasm, the - The Spell of Retribution
Mayhem - Chimera (will rock out to this occasionally but it's a chore to get all the way through)
Time Machine - Reviviscence: Liber Secundus

 

[Omni]

Can we stop calling Velvet Cacoon a plural they already? It's literally a solo project from a guy named Josh who makes perfume and sells it online as his day job. It's been years since the idea of it being a band or a collective was debunked.

 

[CiG]

It's too grammatically annoying to type about them with that in mind.

 

[Omni]

Also is "visa versa" when you call the bank and ask them to reverse fraudulent bank charges?

 

[CiG]

 

[Satanstoenail]

1. Converge - You Fail Me
2. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine
3. Meshuggah - I
4. Mastodon - Leviathan
5. Violator - Violent Mosh
6. Decapitated - The Negation
7. Mayhem - Chimera
8. Blood Duster - Blood Duster
9. Isis - Panopticon
10. Neurosis - The Eye of Every Storm

 

[Talos of Atmora]

9. Isis - Panopticon

I'm going to give this another listen today. I haven't heard it in a long time.

 

[Bloopy]

1. Danzig - Circle of Snakes
2. Pentagram - Show 'em How
3. Vader - The Beast
4. Pagan Altar - Lords of Hypocrisy
5. Death Angel - The Art of Dying
6. 3 Inches of Blood - Advance and Vanquish
7. Human - Blood Bucket
8. Mayhem - Chimera
9. Saxon - Lionheart
10. Motörhead - Inferno

 

[Anom@nder Rake]

this year is pretty weak compared to one of the best years of 94 from the last pole.

1. Asunder - A Clarion Call
2. Esoteric - Subconscious Dissolution into the Continuum
3. Deathspell Omega - Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice
4. Graveland - Dawn of the Iron Blades
5. Aarni - Bathos
6. Inquisition - Magnificent Glorification of Lucifer
7. Morgion - Cloaked By Ages, Crowned In Earth
8. The Chasm - The Spell of Retribution
9. Drawn and Quartered - Return of the Black Death
10. Lunar Aurora - Zyklus

HM:
Drudkh, Enslaved, The Ruins of Beverast, Nokturnal Mortum

 

[Burkhard]

Not much of interest for me this year, but worse years are yet to come.

1. Autumn - Summer's End
2. Nemesea - Mana
3. Lethal - Demolition (Demo)
4. Nightwish - Once
5. Imperia - The Ancient Dance of Qetesh
6. Soulslide - Dreamshade