9. Destroyer 666 – Defiance

This is about as close to black metal as I can get without feeling uncomfortable. You know, that same feeling you get around somebody who’s holding scissors that shouldn’t be allowed to hold scissors. I can’t remember exactly why I decided to give it a listen in the first place, but it had something to do with a description I read somewhere that it was “Blackened Thrash Metal”…and some doobed out reasoning along the lines of “I like chicken, and I really like blackened chicken, so let’s see how it goes.” My favorite track is definitely “Weapons of Conquest”.

8. Goatwhore – Carving Out the Eyes of God

I had never listened to Goatwhore before listening to this album, but I’m sure glad as hell I decided to check them out…this is fucking demolition derby metal, my friends. The opening track is enough to make me want to strap knives onto my Mazda and enter the ring. “Who needs a god, when you’ve got SATAN!” Fucking aye!

7. Lay Down Rotten – Gospel of the Wretched

If you haven’t heard this album (and you probably haven’t), you’re missing out, plain and simple. If you like Amon Amarth, but you’re looking for something with a little more depth and complexity, look no further. These tracks are juicy, the rhythms will pound you, and you will feel the glory of battle.

6. Jungle Rot – What Horrors Await

There’s something just unbelievably fun about this album. It’s muddy. It’s ballsy. It’s simple. It hits hard. Love it. Who can say no to a track entitled “Exit Wounds”? Yeah, nobody.

5. Revocation – Existence is Futile

Thrashy, beautiful, original. Retro, experimental, solo-tastic. Why haven’t I heard of these guys before? There’s something nostalgic, something familiar about the guitar work here that just feels right, and their performance is tight as hell. Forests and Fjords forever.

4. The Black Dahlia Murder – Deflorate

Yeah, I pretty much love these guys. You can’t watch Majesty and not, really. They love what they do, they’re serious about it, and it fucking shows. I am looking forward to hearing more, especially with a well-acclimated Ryan Knight on the roster.

3. Slayer – World Painted Blood

Now this is an evolution I can get behind. I love the album enough by itself, but, in addition to it being awesome, it gave me a new appreciation for like…every Slayer album ever. When I heard World Painted Blood in its entirety for the first time, it rekindled something inside me that…fucking loves Slayer.

2. Job for a Cowboy – Ruination

Funny how a release I initially cringed at gradually made it damn near to the fucking top-of-my-top-of-the-year, right? Yeah, you heard me: I didn’t even like it when it came out. I soon discovered that my problem was a combination of me being so in love with the quirky, sporadic sound of Doom and the fact that Ruination… sounds nothing like Doom. I just didn’t see eye to eye with the people who praised the departure as an evolution to “real death metal” or whatever the fuck; I like my metal WEIRD, and I think their first two albums are nothing short of genius. I took a step back, looked at all of their releases, and saw the beautiful evolution that has taken place. If you give this album a serious listen, you’re sure to see they haven’t lost those bizarre twisting, jutting foundations that lie at the heart of every track.

1. Gorod – Process of a New Decline

What can I say about this album I haven’t already? Technically impressive, groovin’, quirky, ethereal, brutal…they manage to be tight as fuck and all over the goddamn place all at once. Death metal with a swing beat? Jesus. With my attention span what it is, it takes mad skills to put together an entire collection of tracks I don’t skip to the ends of “after the cool part’s over”. This album gets 8 gold stars and a banana sticker.

Listen to the magic that begins at 2:50 !!!!!

Honorable Mentions (whatever the fuck that means):

Lamb of God – Wrath

Behemoth – Evangelion

Darkest Hour – The Eternal Return

Daath – The Concealers

I really, really like some of the songs on these CDs, I just didn’t like enough of them enough to feel comfortable saying they were among my favorites of the year. They’re definitely good albums, though. After about an hour of trying to decide between the three of them which one got the #10 spot, I says, “Buh, honorable mentions.” I’d venture to guess Wrath is closest to making #10. The album was great, but in its entirety just wasn’t interesting enough for me.

Other than these, of course we got Crack the Skye…I wudn’t really feelin’ that one. Skeletonwitch is awesome, but for some reason I can’t bring myself to enjoy their CDs nearly as much as their live shows. Baroness is good, but I can’t help but feel like they’re overrated. “A Horse Called Golgotha” from Blue Record is definitely awesome, but I didn’t enjoy the rest of the tracks as much. Who knows, as with any metal albums, any one of these CDs could end up being my favorite in a month or two, heh.

Happy New Year – Spread the Love.

This was my second time visting The Basement, and like last time, I had a blast. And I was slightly deaf after it was all said and done. This venue by far, is great for metal! You are literally a foot away from them. I don’t know how that is for the actual artists, but I think it’s awesome.

Hit the jump for me complete run down on each band.

First up was Starring Janet Leigh, they were the most unique act of the show. I really didn’t get into the music a lot. They are pretty technical, but a little too grindcore for my taste. The vocals on the other hand, epic. He hit ever possible octave that you could think. Amazing.

Next on the ballet was Woe of Tyrants. The home town heros (in my book). Pretty awesome dudes I might say. I got to hang out with them after their set for awhile and bullshit with them. But back to why I’m really posting this. They, were my second favorite band of the evening. Awesome lick, riffs, breakdown, you name it they nailed it. Vocals = awesome/scary. Every scream, grunt, yell made him look like he was going to pass out. His eyes would go in the back of his head, I got kinda worried their for a few minuets. They really set the pace for the energy level for the crowd.

Now on to For The Fallen Dreams. This was the breakdown-core of the evening. I missed half of their set, so I wouldn’t take my word on anything I say on this one. Wait, yes take my word. Awesome performance, but mainly breakdowns. I was hoping that it would be somewhat technical, it wasn’t. They put on a good show though, lots ‘o energy.

And now for Unearth. We had a little fun during their sound check. The sound dude has only 2 words in his vocabulary, “YEAH” and “CHECK”. His main word of the night was “YEEEAH” (we turned it into a James Hetfield YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHH), everyone in the crowd was getting into it as well. Okay, I’m done with that rant. Unearth was utterly amazing. I’ve never really gave them a listen to, but now, that’s all I’m listening to. Very talented musicians. Guitars were unbelievable, Unearth totally rejuvenated breakdowns for me. Unearth has now been added to my top 5 bands I want to see again, and I will drive great distances for that.

Starring Janet Leigh: Myspace

Woe of Tyrants: Myspace

For The Fallen Dreams: Myspace

Unearth: Myspace

Katie Brutal does a lot of reviews of shows that she has been attending. I on the other hand would rather go to a bar, pick up some ladies. But I’m scarificing that for awhile. So be on the look-out.

Anyway, back to the album. To set things up, they begin the album with I Loathe, a great track. About 1:20 into it, it gets really heavy, and I can’t help but start headbanging to it, no matter where I am. Follow this up with Prey To Anguish, and you have a fantastic back-to-back combo. Prey To Anguish has that really heavy melodic death metal sound that you can just get lost in.

The Wretched of the Earth is track 3, which is pretty good. The shrieking gets to be a bit too much here, but it’s all good. Track 4, Grave New World, is a pretty sweet sounding track. It epitomizes why I like Neaera, it alternates between the ultra brutal growls and the high pitched shrieking, all while keeping a pretty steady double-bass beat and melodic sound in the background.

Age of Hunger is probably my favorite track on this album. Right off the bat it gets into that heavy sound, but the little breakdown about a minute and a half into it is why this song is so badass.

I’m going to leave the rest of the album a mystery for you to explore yourself, and I highly suggest you do so. You can buy the MP3 download from Amazon here. Overall, I’m giving this thing a 4/5, solely because sometimes it can get a little bit repetitive. Check it out!

• Hard Intro? YEP!
• Consistent up paced beat? YEP!
• Deep Grunts and Growls? Nope
• Brutal Breakdowns? YEP!

My rating on this song? [xrr rating=6/10].

Reason for a rating of six you might be asking. It’s a great song, I’m defiantly pumped for this album. But it just seems like it’s a sad and sappy song about an ex-girlfriend er a lover of some type. And ADTR is like, I had a good time when we were together, but I’m going to write a song about how awesome I’m doing, and I’m a better person then you (wait – this sounds like the rest of the their last album). But, it’s still a a great track, with killer mixing and good sound across the board.

So pre-order your copy of their new album, Homesick!

Myspace: A Day To Remember

Pre-Order CD: Victory Records

The song is decent I’d give them that. But that’s it, nothing else when it comes to this video. What in the HELL was the director thinking when he shot this shit?! I mean come on! Dumb fucking birthday hats, and birthday balloons?! No, this is not metal. This is why people are losing respect for metal, because of bands/and directors like this. Yes, it could have something to do with the lyrics, but in all honesty I’d rather have something a lot more dark, and brutal.

And for a great video click for more

Left to Vanish Myspace ,
Buy CD

Going off of Emmures last album Goodbye To The Gallows, I was quite hesitant for this one. I thought to myself can a group really come together for a third consecutive album? So I took a good listen to and took everything in, did it have brutal breakdowns? YEP! Did it have semi-decent melodic melodies? Yep! Gnarly grunt and growls? Yep! Not only did they have all of the key ingredients, but they placed them together all so well.

The CD starts out like all typical metal CD with quick breakdown leading into one hell of a brutal song. There’s just something that gets to me everytime when I hear some awesome drop A tuning where it practiacally sounds like the strings are getting ready to fall off the guitar. I keep trying to find something that I can say bad about this CD, but I can’t. I have not found any flaw to it.

If you are really needing something to get you pumped up for working out or just wanting to go beat someones face in? The Respect Issue is for you; Full of breakdown, fast paced guitar riffs, and gnarly vocals. If you’re not into that kind of thing then why in the fuck are you listening to metal? Seriously.

Sounds like: The Acacia Strain (I wouldn’t tell them that).

Emmure’s Myspace

Buy it here

[xrr rating=7.5/10]