I used to write letters
Ladies and germs, the year groweth long. I present one song from each of the 81st through 100th new musical releases I heard during 2010. As usual, I don't have much time to work on this, so just once sentence about each. Spot two of each of these: self-titled albums, Middle Eastern-themed metal bands, covers (hint: self-covers count) and songs featuring the same Swedish guitarist.
1. Powerglove - "Inspector Gadget" (Saturday Morning Apocalypse, E1): The instrumental cover prodigies' first mass-released album nimbly brutalizes songs from cartoons of their youth, tossing in a little Grieg here to keep it metal.
2. Menomena - "BOTE" (Mines, City Slang): Funky, yearning, sweeping and addictive, the indie-prog trio's sublime follow-up to Friend & Foe only misses that album's kitchen-sink brilliance by a hair.
3. Amorphis - "Sign from the North Side" (Magic & Mayhem: Tales from the Early Years, Nuclear Blast): The Finns celebrate their 20th anniversary by re-recording early tracks in their current uncategorizable style, which in some cases means old Swedish-style melodic death metal gets a pleasing psychedelic overhaul.
4. John Zorn - "Seven Sigils" (Ipsissimus, Tzadik): Legendary avant-garde saxophonist Zorn joins the Moonchild trio (vocalist Mike Patton and bassist Trevor Dunn, both Mr. Bungle and Fantômas alums, and drummer Joey Baron) on this track, but is hardly heard elsewhere on this head-scratcher of a record.
5. Elvenking - "Runereader" (Red Silent Tides, AFM): Coming back strongly after the universally-unloved style change of The Scythe, the Italian folk metal mainstays return to power metal and display unabashed, fluffy pop sensibility, with shockingly good results.
6. Interpol - "Try It On" (Interpol, Matador): With fewer highs and lows than Our Love to Admire, bassist Carlos Dengler's final album with Interpol is another elegantly harrowing urban gothic concoction that requires frequent spins for its teeth to sink in.
7. Triptykon - "Descendant" (Eparistera Daimones, Century Media): Onetime Celtic Frost frontman Thomas Gabriel Fischer's unbelievably strong debut with his new outfit dips into furious black metal and avant-garde artsiness, but at heart it's a punishing, woozy, ash-caked doom record.
8. Arcade Fire - "We Used to Wait" (The Suburbs, Merge): With a strong flow, emotional intelligence and giant hooks everywhere you look, AF's latest reminds me of how much I loved their debut, as well as of how the suburbs felt when I was too young to notice the negatives.
9. Katatonia - "Sold Heart" (The Longest Year, Peaceville): A soft, haunting pillow of ethereal melancholy by my favorite band, the b-side to a single from my favorite album of 2009.
10. Melechesh - "Grand Gathas of Baal Sin" (The Epigenesis, Nuclear Blast): A feral, dextrously violent assault from the Mesopotamian metal masters, although much of their latest album finds Melechesh widening their focus to lofty, cinematic prog/folk heights.
11. Parenthetical Girls - "Young Throats" (Privilege, Pt. II: The Past, Imperfect, Slender Means Society): More infectious, infected pop from the fertile mind of Zac Pennington, who as always never misses the chance to soil a perfectly gorgeous melody with poetically creepy lyrics.
12. King of Asgard - "Vämods Tale" (Fi'mbulvintr, Metal Blade): Guitarist Kalle Beckmann and drummer Karsten Larsson revive the rousing spirit of their pioneering folk/black metal outfit Mithotyn, with all the tremolo picking and shout-along choruses we've missed since the '90s.
13. Marnie Stern - "Cinco de Mayo" (Marnie Stern, Kill Rock Stars): Less go-for-broke than her debut and less mantra-like than her second disc, guitar ace Stern's latest offers a few more (relatively) straightforward rockers while still kicking up a homemade whirlwind of sparkling grandeur.
14. October Tide - "The Dividing Line" (A Thin Shell, Candlelight): Apparently, Fred Norman left Katatonia in order to revive the mid-'90s hiatus project once famous for sounding pretty much like mid-'90s Katatonia, dependably delivering a strong slab of gloomy, mid-paced melodic death.
15. Bassnectar - "Underwater (feat. Tina Malia)" (Wildstyle, Amorphous): Known best for providing the insane levels of low end that gave him his name, dubstep superstar Lorin Ashton doesn't simply pump out repetitive dance jams, he sculpts vivid, evolving textures out of rhythm, here energizing potentially sleepy trip-hop with his signature whirring synths and wobbly beats.
16. Powerless - "Dead Man's Chest" (Battle Hymns, Set Productions): My Sassy Frassy Lassie's dad was born and raised in Croatia, so once in a while I like to check out Croatian folk metal, and while Powerless' lo-fi Ensiferumish power/death galloping isn't as original or affecting an example as the equally obscure doom outfit S.O.M., this tune's got some cool moments.
17. Murder By Death - "Yes" (Good Morning, Magpie, Vagrant): MBD shake off the by-the-book malaise of their last album and follow their hearts back to the rawness and mystery that drew me to them in the first place, where rootsy warmth exudes mirth in the face of misery.
18. Aeternam - "Hamunaptra" (Disciples of the Unseen, Metal Blade): The debut of this Egyptian-themed Canadian metal outfit comes off like a high-gloss cross between Melechesh and Amorphis at their most "Arabian," and that's not a bad thing.
19. Weezer - "Ruling Me" (Hurley, Epitaph): Weezer can still write a great power-pop tune, but Hurley's by no means the stongest album they've ever released, and at times is a little too fucking smarmy and cute for its own good.
20. In Vain - "Dark Prophets, Black Hearts" (Mantra, Indie): Sometimes, checking something out based on an enthusiastic review can pan out, as this release by a little Norwegian act turned out to be a rewarding alt/prog/doom pileup.
1. Powerglove - "Inspector Gadget" (Saturday Morning Apocalypse, E1): The instrumental cover prodigies' first mass-released album nimbly brutalizes songs from cartoons of their youth, tossing in a little Grieg here to keep it metal.
2. Menomena - "BOTE" (Mines, City Slang): Funky, yearning, sweeping and addictive, the indie-prog trio's sublime follow-up to Friend & Foe only misses that album's kitchen-sink brilliance by a hair.
3. Amorphis - "Sign from the North Side" (Magic & Mayhem: Tales from the Early Years, Nuclear Blast): The Finns celebrate their 20th anniversary by re-recording early tracks in their current uncategorizable style, which in some cases means old Swedish-style melodic death metal gets a pleasing psychedelic overhaul.
4. John Zorn - "Seven Sigils" (Ipsissimus, Tzadik): Legendary avant-garde saxophonist Zorn joins the Moonchild trio (vocalist Mike Patton and bassist Trevor Dunn, both Mr. Bungle and Fantômas alums, and drummer Joey Baron) on this track, but is hardly heard elsewhere on this head-scratcher of a record.
5. Elvenking - "Runereader" (Red Silent Tides, AFM): Coming back strongly after the universally-unloved style change of The Scythe, the Italian folk metal mainstays return to power metal and display unabashed, fluffy pop sensibility, with shockingly good results.
6. Interpol - "Try It On" (Interpol, Matador): With fewer highs and lows than Our Love to Admire, bassist Carlos Dengler's final album with Interpol is another elegantly harrowing urban gothic concoction that requires frequent spins for its teeth to sink in.
7. Triptykon - "Descendant" (Eparistera Daimones, Century Media): Onetime Celtic Frost frontman Thomas Gabriel Fischer's unbelievably strong debut with his new outfit dips into furious black metal and avant-garde artsiness, but at heart it's a punishing, woozy, ash-caked doom record.
8. Arcade Fire - "We Used to Wait" (The Suburbs, Merge): With a strong flow, emotional intelligence and giant hooks everywhere you look, AF's latest reminds me of how much I loved their debut, as well as of how the suburbs felt when I was too young to notice the negatives.
9. Katatonia - "Sold Heart" (The Longest Year, Peaceville): A soft, haunting pillow of ethereal melancholy by my favorite band, the b-side to a single from my favorite album of 2009.
10. Melechesh - "Grand Gathas of Baal Sin" (The Epigenesis, Nuclear Blast): A feral, dextrously violent assault from the Mesopotamian metal masters, although much of their latest album finds Melechesh widening their focus to lofty, cinematic prog/folk heights.
11. Parenthetical Girls - "Young Throats" (Privilege, Pt. II: The Past, Imperfect, Slender Means Society): More infectious, infected pop from the fertile mind of Zac Pennington, who as always never misses the chance to soil a perfectly gorgeous melody with poetically creepy lyrics.
12. King of Asgard - "Vämods Tale" (Fi'mbulvintr, Metal Blade): Guitarist Kalle Beckmann and drummer Karsten Larsson revive the rousing spirit of their pioneering folk/black metal outfit Mithotyn, with all the tremolo picking and shout-along choruses we've missed since the '90s.
13. Marnie Stern - "Cinco de Mayo" (Marnie Stern, Kill Rock Stars): Less go-for-broke than her debut and less mantra-like than her second disc, guitar ace Stern's latest offers a few more (relatively) straightforward rockers while still kicking up a homemade whirlwind of sparkling grandeur.
14. October Tide - "The Dividing Line" (A Thin Shell, Candlelight): Apparently, Fred Norman left Katatonia in order to revive the mid-'90s hiatus project once famous for sounding pretty much like mid-'90s Katatonia, dependably delivering a strong slab of gloomy, mid-paced melodic death.
15. Bassnectar - "Underwater (feat. Tina Malia)" (Wildstyle, Amorphous): Known best for providing the insane levels of low end that gave him his name, dubstep superstar Lorin Ashton doesn't simply pump out repetitive dance jams, he sculpts vivid, evolving textures out of rhythm, here energizing potentially sleepy trip-hop with his signature whirring synths and wobbly beats.
16. Powerless - "Dead Man's Chest" (Battle Hymns, Set Productions): My Sassy Frassy Lassie's dad was born and raised in Croatia, so once in a while I like to check out Croatian folk metal, and while Powerless' lo-fi Ensiferumish power/death galloping isn't as original or affecting an example as the equally obscure doom outfit S.O.M., this tune's got some cool moments.
17. Murder By Death - "Yes" (Good Morning, Magpie, Vagrant): MBD shake off the by-the-book malaise of their last album and follow their hearts back to the rawness and mystery that drew me to them in the first place, where rootsy warmth exudes mirth in the face of misery.
18. Aeternam - "Hamunaptra" (Disciples of the Unseen, Metal Blade): The debut of this Egyptian-themed Canadian metal outfit comes off like a high-gloss cross between Melechesh and Amorphis at their most "Arabian," and that's not a bad thing.
19. Weezer - "Ruling Me" (Hurley, Epitaph): Weezer can still write a great power-pop tune, but Hurley's by no means the stongest album they've ever released, and at times is a little too fucking smarmy and cute for its own good.
20. In Vain - "Dark Prophets, Black Hearts" (Mantra, Indie): Sometimes, checking something out based on an enthusiastic review can pan out, as this release by a little Norwegian act turned out to be a rewarding alt/prog/doom pileup.
posted by SoulReaper at 12:32 PM
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