Top 10 2009 Thread

[Anticitizen One]

Looking back at the black metal albums I've purchased this year, it seems to have been a pretty weak year after Beherit, so Katharsis might crack the top 5 just by default. My top 5 right now would probably look like this:

1. Beherit - Engram
2. Master's Hammer - Mantras
3. Teitanblood - Seven Chalices
4. Weapon - Drakonian Paradigm
5. Katharsis - Fourth Reich

Most of those albums wouldn't even make my top 10 though.

I still haven't heard Mantras. I'm sort of reluctant, for some reason. Beyond that I'd say Seven Chalices is about even with Fourth Reich for me, and possibly my favorite record of the year, though I also don't really think of it as black metal, but more of a mess of proto-death/black. I'll have to try that Weapon album again, but it really didn't do much for me. Like I said though, I think we look for somewhat different sounds -- Fourth Reich is dissonant and incredibly passionate to me. I don't even know how to respond to Eligos' criticisms because I think he's so fucking far off the mark I can only shake my head.

 

[Eligos]

I keep listening to it, and I agree that it grows on you, but it's hardly the best of the year.

 

[Anticitizen One]

Well we disagree then.

 

[Koude Haat]

Death metal absolutely destroyed this year.

 

[Eligos]

Well we disagree then.

I like this. Well-resolved, Commodore.

 

[skeptik]

I still haven't heard Mantras. I'm sort of reluctant, for some reason. Beyond that I'd say Seven Chalices is about even with Fourth Reich for me, and possibly my favorite record of the year, though I also don't really think of it as black metal, but more of a mess of proto-death/black. I'll have to try that Weapon album again, but it really didn't do much for me. Like I said though, I think we look for somewhat different sounds -- Fourth Reich is dissonant and incredibly passionate to me. I don't even know how to respond to Eligos' criticisms because I think he's so fucking far off the mark I can only shake my head.

The issue that you keep raising about dissonance strikes me as odd. I've never overtly looked for artists who uses dissonance specifically; it seems too often like a gimmick. Dissonance is a tool, a means to an end, and it's either used effectively or ineffectively. The the mere presence or absence of dissonance doesn't affect what I think of an album per se.

 

[Anticitizen One]

Just for the sake of comparison to Dodens' list, and leaving out Seven Chalices because I tend to think of it more as death metal, my own top 5 black metal releases of the year:

1. Katharsis — Fourth Reich
2. Arckanum — ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ
3. Tenebrae in Perpetuum — L'eterno Maligno Silenzio
4. Arizmenda — Within the Vacuum of Infinity...
5. Drudkh — Microcosmos

Yeah, no Beherit in there. It is very good, but rendering all else superfluous? No fucking way. Peste Noire's latest would be on my list, but instead it gets a mention because it's not really black metal, to my ears. Famine described it as black 'n' roll anyway, so yeah. Still one of my favorite albums of the year either way.

 

[Koude Haat]

W.A.I.L. - Wisdom through Agony into Illumination and Lunacy
Beherit - Engram
Weapon - Drakonian Paradigm
Drudkh — Microcosmos
Katharsis - Fourth Reich

It was really a shitty year for black metal, the top 3 on my list here are excellent and deserve to be rated highly. The last two are great but i consider them to be weaker releases. I would include the new Graveland but even that was sort of a let down, although i do like it.

 

[Anticitizen One]

The issue that you keep raising about dissonance strikes me as odd. I've never overtly looked for artists who uses dissonance specifically; it seems too often like a gimmick. Dissonance is a tool, a means to an end, and it's either used effectively or ineffectively. The the mere presence or absence of dissonance doesn't affect what I think of an album per se.

Well, I look for certain textures that are, to me, more evocative and perhaps layered. Rawness is beauty, and so forth. I don't have any sort of intellectual response to that because when I say I need "dissonance" in my music I'm trying to simply describe what I intuitively find attractive in music. Lots of music -- not just metal, though it is of course perceived differently within the paradigm of metal (and furthermore within the various genres of metal). To me, Engram is a very simple, well-recorded and enjoyable piece of black metal, but it doesn't inspire me emotionally, intuitively, the way that Fourth Reich does. That album is, to me, totally furious and yes, bleeding with passion and inner fire. When I listen to it, I feel it resonating in my veins and my bones. What more can I say?

Dissonance itself is no more a "gimmick" than distortion on guitars, which is something you do look for, being a metal fan. So I'm not sure why that would strike you as such a peculiar thing.

 

[skeptik]

You are no longer "all right," in my opinion. In fact, I hate you.

He who says "you can't"
Is my mortal enemy,
Now he will learn what he has forbade,
Small, subtle attack begins!

 

[MasterOLightning]

Top Tier:
Krallice - Dimensional Bleedthrough
Kylesa - Static Tensions

Good stuff:
Beherit - Engram
Drudkh - Microcosmos
Xasthur - All Reflections Drained
Nachtmystium - Doomsday Derelicts
Kult Ofenzivy - afkewfaewfia
Trist - Willenskraft

Eh:
Ignovomous - Death Transmutations
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II
Cobalt - Gin
Porcupine Tree - The Incident

Weak stuff:
Merrimack - Grey Rigorism
Altar of Plagues - White Tomb

 

[Anticitizen One]

You are no longer "all right," in my opinion. In fact, I hate you.

He who says "you can't"
Is my mortal enemy,
Now he will learn what he has forbade,
Small, subtle attack begins!

 

[Belligerent]

Eh:
Porcupine Tree - The Incident

Much better then eh

 

[Zarrix]

Something like this I think

1. Porcupine Tree- The Incident
2. Insomnium- Across the Dark
3. Them Crooked Vultures- S/T
4. Mastodon- Crack the Skye
5. Amorphis- Skyforger
6. Paradise Lost- Faith Divides us, Death Unites Us.
7. Isis- Wavering Radiant
8. Kreator- Hordes of Chaos
9. Eluvetie- Evocation I
10. Nile- Those Whom the Gods Detest

Good, but not quite good enough *No Particular Order*

Be'Lakor- Stones Reach (JUST misses, a great Australian Melodic Metal band that everyone should check out )
The Chasm- Fareseeing the Paranormal Abysm
Katatonia- Night is the New Day
Ensiferum- From Afar
Shadow Gallery- Digital Ghosts
Karnivool- Sound Awake
Megadeth- Endgame
Muse- The Resistance

A lot of people here seemed to rate Microcosmos fairly highly. I thought it was fairly weak compared to Drudkh's other albums, which are all great.

 

[-CC-]

I'm just curious why Mastodon has been ranked so highly by everyone..Crack the Skye really sucked!! And don't get me wrong, I'm not a Mastodon hater, in fact I like their old albums and they are great live..but seriously..why the unanimous love for this shitfest of an album?

 

[Belligerent]

Crack The Skye was good, nothing spectacular. Check out the song "The Czar" its pretty cool.

 

[Lateralus14]

That PT album basically makes the top of lists or the bottom of lists. One of the biggest disappointments this year for me.

 

[Hail The Wizard!]

Weak stuff:

Altar of Plagues - White Tomb

How? I really like this album.

 

[CF87]

Amorphis `skyforger.
Novembers Doom `into night's requiem infernal.
Paradise Lost `faith divides us, death unites us.
Lacuna Coil `shallow life.
Candlemass `death magic doom.
These Are They `who linger.
Shrinebuilder `shrinebuilder.
Revolting `dreadful pleasures.
Funebrarum `the sleep of morbid dreams.
Ribspreader `opus ribcage.

I like what I have heard from the new Katatonia,AiC, and Them Crooked Vultures, but have not gotten around to hearing them entirely.

 

[Onder]

He who says "you can't"
Is my mortal enemy,
Now he will learn what he has forbade,
Small, subtle attack begins!