Top 10 - 2014 / By H.P. Buttcraft

No. 10. Band: Baring Teeth Album: Ghost Chorus Among Old Ruins General Info: Year of […]
December 26, 2014


No. 10.
Band: Baring Teeth
Album: Ghost Chorus Among Old Ruins

General Info:
Year of formation: 2009
Label: Willowtip Records

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I first heard this band play at someone's home in my hometown in north Texas. I completely and fully support BARING TEETH and not just because I have gotten to know a few of the members but because the music is too strange to ignore. I am putting their sophomore album "Ghost Chorus Among Old Ruins" on this list because BARING TEETH is one of the greatest metal bands to come out of Texas ever. I just wish they could've gotten this finished a little bit sooner so I could allow it to sink itself into my veins but alas, I am still trying to explore their music as much as I can. Its unclassifiable and uneasy to hear but it is brilliant in its madness and chaos; which is why BARING TEETH makes my list for this year's Top Ten list.

No. 9.
Band: Black Crown Initiate
Album: The Wreckage of Stars

General Info:
Year of formation: 2013
Label: eOne Entertainment

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If you don't think BLACK CROWN INITIATE is one of the best new bands out there, there is something seriously wrong with you. These guys just understand djent better than most djent bands, understand Melodeath better than most Melodeath bands and also understand technicality vs. expression better than most Progressive bands to come out in the past three years. The music is exploratory, passionate and paint vast emotional spectrums with every instrument and effect. BLACK CROWN INITIATE just pick up the ball in the Metal game and run with it into the end zone! and the crowd goes wild!

No. 8.
Band: Artificial Brain
Album: Labyrinth Constellation

General Info:
Year of formation: 2011
Label: Profound Lore Records

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Although there were a heaping load of interesting death metal records to come out in 2014, ARTIFICAL BRAIN really the death metal cake. The thing about them is that all of this brutal, sci-fi laden death metal seems to come easy to the musicians in ARTIFICIAL BRAIN. Most of "Labyrinth Constellation" plays out like a movie score, taking you to far-off planets and explosions amongst the stars. But this album can be this creative and experimental (and nerdy) without venturing into a progressive style. Its still technical but the riffs and drumming don't get too discombobulated in a way where they sound forced together like non-fitting puzzles pieces that are crammed into each other. And with REVOCATION guitarist Dan Gargiulo on board, you have one of the greatest metal guitar players around so you really can't go wrong here. ARTIFICIAL BRAIN is still melodic enough to be digestible but still brutal and chaotic enough to bring it up to a death metal elitist's gold standard.

No. 7.
Band: Winterfylleth
Album: The Divination of Antiquity

General Info:
Year of formation: 2007
Label: Candlelight Records

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I was hesitant to put this album on this list at all but really, WINTERFYLLETH pull off yet another fabulous melodic black metal album. I am always left in awe at the amount of energy and talent put into the composition of almost every song on this record. There is really only one song on this record I cannot whole-heartedly support but otherwise, the entire album is a superb demonstration in melody, ferocity and imagination. Every riff and blast beat grips at your attention and commands respect. There is some primitive that beckons at the soul of every true metal warrior when you put this record on. The experience of hearing this record this year has been truly divine.

No. 6.
Band: Conan
Album: Blood Eagle

General Info:
Year of formation: 2006
Label: Napalm Records

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Just plain and simply, "Blood Eagle" the heaviest record to come out this year. After being fed up with fuzzy drone metal that is honestly is starting to sound like a boring movie score written by a heroin junkie with a Sunn O)) Model T amplifier, CONAN takes that same tone and forges it into cold, hard, crushing weaponry. "Blood Eagle" kicked my ass as it did with 99% of every metal release to come out in 2014 and it just so heartless with its bass frequencies. This is one of the most tyrannical doom metal records to ever be set loose upon us so I am giving it its rightful spot in my Top ten list.

No. 5.
Band: At the Gates
Album: At War With Reality

General Info:
Year of formation: 1990
Label: Century Media Records

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Does "At War With Reality" live up to the immense catchiness and impact that "Slaughter of the Soul" had? The short answer to that question would be no. I mean after twelve (!!!) years of allowing AT THE GATES signature tones and that legendary Gothenburg style blend into the metal scene, the band had left behind a huge pair of shoes to fill. But the good news is that AT THE GATES seem like they can extensively remember what it was that made their last album so successful. Every song on "At War With Reality" is triumphant, powerful and catchy and you get this warm fuzzy nostalgic feeling upon listening to it as if AT THE GATES were preserved in time for twelve years and then thawed out simply to make this new record.

No. 4.
Band: Darkspace
Album: III I

General Info:
Year of formation: 1999
Label: Avantgarde Music

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There are a lot of black metal bands that deal with bitter cold and eternal blackness. Not many of them do it to such a degree as DARKSPACE does it. DARKSPACE picks up where they left off with their last album on "III I", manning the control stations of the black metal spaceship and thrusting it deep into the abysmal darkness of outer space. This album is meant to be heard from start to finish, if you haven't already told that by the three tracks that are supplied here, each of them over fifteen minutes in length. What makes DARKSPACE so good is that it doesn't try to out do every other black metal band out there in the realms of darkness or evil. They honestly don't even need to try. They know that the bleakness of our galaxy is immeasurable to the human imagination. DARKSPACE has no real competition in the game of ambient black metal.

No. 3.
Band: Woods of Desolation
Album: As The Stars

General Info:
Year of formation: 2005
Label: Northern Silence Productions

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Australia's WOODS OF DESOLATION offered up this magnificent album this year which triumphs over 2013's black metal darling success story, "Sunbather" by DEAFHEAVEN. "As the Stars" does everything that I think "Sunbather' was attempting to do but without the limits of popular music industry standards that DEAFHEAVEN undoubtedly had to live up to. WOODS OF DESOLATION, however, did not hold themselves back on "As the Stars". The music on "As the Stars" is emotional, pure and powerful in its lo-fidelity way of expressing itself. Ask yourselves: do you want to enjoy black metal bathing in the sun or desolating in the woods? I think the choice is clear.

No. 2.
Band: !But A Thought
Album: !But A Thought

General Info:
Year of formation: 2011
Label: Independent

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This band & album are weird. But !BUT A THOUGHT also delivered one of the greatest progressive metal albums of the year. This little-known outfit whose membership spans over three separate continents contains all the splendor of bands like DREAM THEATER, INTRONAUT & MR. BUNGLE with their beastly ensemble of avant-garde and progressive metal. Their lovely lead singer Ayaka Hayashi can be both bitter with her wicked screams and sweet her pristine clean singing vocals while the other musicians have their own flavors of styles and abilities that can range from ten different subgenres metal with a healthy dosage of scat, lounge and fusion jazz and maybe a dash of rockabilly thrown in for good measure. If you are looking for the most beautifully bizarre album of 2014, look no further than !BUT A THOUGHT.

No. 1.
Band: Spectral Lore
Album: III

General Info:
Year of formation: 2005
Label: I, Voidhanger Records

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This was, without a doubt, the single greatest metal album of 2014. "III" doesn't exactly offer up anything new as far as atmospheric, depressive and melodic black metal goes. But what makes "III" the year's best album is that it reminded me about why I love metal to begin with. We all have our shining diamonds in the rough and this one is not just a diamond, it is a magnificent precious stone with unequivocal value to me. The latest offering from Greek one-man project SPECTRAL LORE was my reward for joining the writing staff of Metal Temple when I reviewed this record earlier this Summer. I fell in love with it right away and I can still put it on and drift away into its long, immersive beauty.

Source:
Brobarian
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