H.P. Buttcraft's Top 10 Metal Albums of 2015
December 16, 2015
No. 10.
Band: Alda
Album: Passage
General Info:
Year of formation: 2007
Label: Bindrune Recordings
The American Pacific Northwest has had a tradition, if you want to call it that, of patenting the Cascadian Black Metal sound. Bands like SKAGOS and WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM are the most notable bands of this genre but there are plenty of other bands that follow this style, one of them being Tacoma, Washington's ALDA. "Passage" is a very moody and atmospheric release and it grows on you really quickly as this record is much more about creating sounds that you can feel without going overboard with Black Metal. Listening to this record is like setting up camp in the middle of the forest during autumn and letting the natural landscape possess your spirit. The organic tones of the cello playing and folk guitar certainly give the music on "Passage" an authentic, homegrown feel that is beneficial to anyone who feels trapped within an urban cage of skyscrapers and street traffic. ALDA takes all of us hiking into the woods on one of the best records of 2015.
No. 9.
Band: Dødheimsgard
Album: A Umbra Omega
General Info:
Year of formation: 1994
Label: Peaceville Records
Norway's weirdest members of the Black Metal old guard put out "A Umbra Omega" around a time of the year I had really gotten bored with all of the Black Metal and Death Metal I had been listening to from random independent artists. So when I heard "A Umbra Omega", not only was I satisfied with the weirdness of this album, I understood that only a select few people could really get why this album was so beautiful. The song structures are schizophrenic and the vocals are, well, they're just really damn weird. But if you are already a DHG fan, chances are you welcome their weirdness with open arms. But the brand of weirdness is extremely memorable and everything on this record sounds meticulously mixed. This wasn't simply a Black Metal album but more of a progressive jazz-rock fusion melted into a Black Metal album. "A Umbra Omega" was odd but really captured a more evolved and experienced form of DHG and Norwegian Black Metal as it moves ever further into the twenty-first century.
No. 8.
Band: Kauan
Album: Sorni Nai
General Info:
Year of formation: 2005
Label: Blood Music
I came across this record pretty late into the process of putting together my top 10 list by seeing it on a Top 10 list from another Metal website. The music of KAUAN is a mix of Melodic Funeral Doom Metal with Post-Rock and Folk sung entirely in Suomi. KAUAN released something that is incredibly rich with melodic sorrow and melancholy ambience with "Sorni Nai". The music and lyrics are inspired by the Ural Mountain range in Western Russia, its subzero temperature and bitter winds and he tragic loss of those poor souls who dared to venture into these frozen cliffs. The cello and piano really make this music enjoyable and the heavier mores are further apart from each other because of the bereavement of the album's slow tempo.
No. 7.
Band: Mechina
Album: Acheron
General Info:
Year of formation: 2004
Label: Independent
This album was recommended to me from my fellow staff writer for Metal Temple, Daniel Fox. From the cover, I was expecting a Djent record for meatheads a la PERIPHERY. What I wasn't expecting was the epic story arc that surrounds "Acheron" or the massive production quality MECHINA put into the music on here. The glitch effects on the instruments and the score of symphonic keys and strings over the 10-string electric guitars gave the music for this science-fiction epic the cinematic treatment it deserved. Listening to this album was exactly like playing a well-put together video game or seeing a $200 million-dollar budget blockbuster action film because the music dares you to stretch your imagination around its Industrial Djent music. I would even compare the production on "Acheron" to the same insane level of quality that you could hear on WINTERSUN's "Time I". I was quite pleasantly surprised with the eclectic usage of female vocals on songs like "On The Wings of Nefeli", which really helps transport the listener to exotic alien planets from beyond the galaxy. This album from MECHINA is bound to excite you.
No. 6.
Band: Baroness
Album: Purple
General Info:
Year of formation: 2003
Label: Abraxan Hymns
Honestly, I haven't gotten a chance to listen to the entire record at this point, seeing as how I am writing this list prior to its official debut. I became a huge BARONESS fan back in 2009 when they released "Blue Record", which is still one of my favorite albums of the 2000's. It was a shock to me that BARONESS was involved in a nearly fatal bus accident while on tour for their previous album that left multiple band members badly injured. I was anxious that the band wouldn't get to put out another record. Fortunately for all of us, "Purple" is exactly what most other music critics have labeled it: it's the band's a return to form. For "Purple", BARONESS drew from their traumatic experiences of being nearly killed and going in and out of hospital rooms to come up with eccentric but beautiful songs that are memorable and inspiring. BARONESS has put together some really uplifting and catchy music that blends 1970's Progressive and Classic Rock, Post-Punk and Sludge Metal together to make a style that is so idiosyncratic to the band's identity. Despite not hearing the album in its entire glory, the return of BARONESS is in full swing and I am extremely happy to hear them once more.
No. 5.
Band: Leviathan
Album: Scar Sighted
General Info:
Year of formation: 1998
Label: Profound Lore Records
I have hardly given very much sympathy or respect to Jef Whitehead before or the Black Metal project that he is the sole member of, LEVIATHAN. The man has gotten himself into a small amount of controversy over the past few years, which included getting arrested and charged for violent crimes. I was a much bigger fan of his other project, LURKER OF CHALLICE, a much more ambient side of his songwriting than the raw, crusty sounds the earlier works of LEVIATHAN had. I came to learn that the artist known as Wrest to the fans of LEVIATHAN was a deeply disturbed and tortured individual who had been through deep bouts of depression and traumatic stress and anxiety which makes him fully capable of making genuine art in the form of Black Metal music. So I didn't foresee "Scar Sighted" as an album quite unlike anything I have heard from LEVIATHAN or any of his other releases before. There is a much stronger Metal element on this album that I really liked and every solid was a solid and kept my attention. The brief moments of ambience and the Avant Garde sampling are appropriately arranged and give each song a clear direction. The music from "Scar Sighted" was creative; bleak but still enjoyable. I was ultimately surprised that this was one of the most interesting albums I got to listen to this year.
No. 4.
Band: Misþyrming
Album: Söngvar elds og óreiðu
General Info:
Year of formation: 2013
Label: Terratur Possessions
As dark as "Scar Sighted" was, it doesn't really come close to how wretched and hellish that this album sounded. Purely out of my awe for how demonic the music of Iceland's MISÞYRMING places this album in my top five records of 2015. Get a good look at the fiery cave on the cover because the music will grab you by the throat and lead you down into that hole. You can bet your ass there is something evil and hideous living down in that pit. The music of MISÞYRMING is merciless and its brand of tormented Black Metal builds itself upon its own twisted power, becoming an unholy mockery of popular music. The Black Metal chaos and blasphemy on "Söngvar elds og óreiðu" was a devilishly good listen. 666 out of 10.
No. 3.
Band: Intronaut
Album: The Direction of Last Things
General Info:
Year of formation: 2004
Label: Century Media
In all honestly, "The Direction of Last Things" is the best album that INTRONAUT have put out so far and it is one of the best Metal albums of 2015. Everyone who hasn't given this band a chance yet needs to know that the time has come for you to give your ears a treat. They keep the styles from their newer, much more progressive songs and bring back the Sludge metal vocals, Death Metal drumming and hellstorm distortion that hits like a whirlwind full of hammers. But the jazzy, polyrhythmic grooves and interludes led by Joe Lester's bass and Danny Walker's drum work are still there as well and INTRONAUT really took the time to figure out how it all fit together The involvement of musician and producer extraordinaire Devin Townsend really accentuated what was already amazing raw material in his mixing studio. There is no track on this record that doesn't come through with clarity and purity in tone. INTRONAUT are still fully capable of putting out a remarkable album as they've done several times in the past.
No. 2.
Band: Ghost Bath
Album: Moonlover
General Info:
Year of formation: 2012
Label: Northern Silence Productions
Now that it's been a couple of years since DEAFHEAVEN exploded in popularity, the Shoegaze-slash-Black Metal genre has become somewhat of a new trend in North American underground Metal these days. I had honestly thought that "Sunbather" was the zenith of the genre, both in critical acclaim and popularity. But when I first heard GHOST BATH's single for "Moonlover", "Golden Number", I had to eat every single word I ever said about DEAFHEAVEN. This band did not cut any corners with the music. It doesn't perform any magic tricks with its listeners by creating an illusion of Black Metal, GHOST BATH is unmistakably some of the best Depressive Black Metal I have ever heard. And, as I predicted, even DEAFHEAVEN was unable to follow up "Sunbather" or "Moonlover" with their new album (although I think "New Bermuda" deserves an honorable mention here). The music on here is so emotional and sincere, it creates melodies that can at times are played in praise and vulnerability which gets uplifting when keys are brought into a wall of depressive Blackened sonic fog. All this the while interlaced with someone in the distance screeching in wild tongues that give the character of the vocalist a much more ethereal and inhuman semblance. Although I still feel weird about GHOST BATH lying to their fans about being based out of China, what matters is that this music was haunting, tortured and energetic. Listening to "Moonlover" isn't just a listening experience, it's an ascendancy.
No. 1.
Band: Elder
Album: Lore
General Info:
Year of formation: 2006
Label: Armageddon Shop Records
When I went to ELDER, a Boston-based stoner doom band. After seeing [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNfHfs-P9fU" target="_blank">a video of their set on the last day of the festival, I regretted skipping their performance. ELDER is so insanely groovy and melodic and this record, "Lore", is solid gold, far and beyond the best album I've heard this year. Slick guitar solos, thick bass grooves and hyper-charged drumming. It's better than any acid trip you could hope for. ELDER takes their listeners through the fabric of time and space with their extended length, mushroom-flavored Stoner Metal that rings with lots of influences from Classic Rock and Grunge. The music of ELDER is sweet enough to give you cavities. I don't think anyone can afford to ignore the music of Boston's ELDER any longer.
Honorable Mentions from 2015:
Ahab ' The Boats of Glen Carrig (Napalm Records)
Deafheaven ' New Bermuda (ANTI-)
Iron Maiden ' The Book of Souls (Sanctuary Records Group)
Myrkur - M (Relapse Records)
Sanzu ' Painless EP (Independent)
Secrets of the Sky ' Pathway (Relapse Records)
Tribulation ' Children of the Night (Century Media)
Vastum ' Hole Below EP (20 Buck Spin)
Vehemence ' Forward Without Motion (Battleground Records)
Windhand ' Grief's Eternal Flower (Relapse Records)
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