"ART FOR ART'S SAKE"; A LOOK AT METAL'S IGNORED ARTISTS: PART ONE

One thing that arguably sets your average Metal album part from say a Pop album, or even the majority of Rock albums, is album art. Back when I actually still had a local record store I used to buy a lot of albums based on album art. I wouldn't have developed my lifelong man-crush on Mike “Gunface” McKenzie if I hadn't picked up The Red Chord’s Fed Through The Teeth Machine based on the artwork. I think most of you would be lying if claimed not to have had a similar experience.

If I had known the name of the artist whose work adorns the cover of Fed Through The Teeth Machine, I would have named them and trust me, I looked. The fact that I found nothing is perhaps a sign that the art on the surface of an album is not as well respected as the art found within. Take your favourite album, do you know who did the album cover? I know I don’t.

This doesn't really seem all that fair does it? So to help remedy this, let’s talk art in this first part of our two part feature on some of the best visual artists in Metal.

Derek Riggs

Let’s start of easy. Derek Riggs is possibly the most iconic album artist in all of Metal. Though that may likely be to the fact that he's the core artist for Iron Maiden, one of the biggest bands ever.

Rigg's style is heavily influenced by Science Fiction and Horror art which certainly comes across in his work for the British Metal Super Stars. Incredible landscapes and strange beings aplenty grace Rigg's work and you can almost believe in these fantastical worlds. The Sci Fi influences being no more apparent than they are on Gamma Ray's Power Plant. Truly awesome stuff.

Larry Carroll 

Larry Carroll's claim to fame is his work with Slayer, finding his place on the front of Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss and Christ Illusion. Prior to being contacted by Rick Rubin to work on the trifecta of Thrash brilliance (and Christ Illusion) Carroll's sole work was with political magazines. Yet somehow he managed to create some of the most gruesome and deeply interesting album covers that didn't just focus on gore. In an age prior to Photoshop Larry Carroll  created collages through manipulating Xeroxed images and this style is easily seen on Slayer's detailed covers. Larry Carroll is unlikely to return to the Metal world but his contribution to the genre and unique style cannot be denied. 

Dan Mumford

Iconic artists seem to mainly be relegated to the history books, many of them are no longer active, or at least only working with the same handful of old school true metal bands. Dan Mumford however, with his work with bands such as Biffy Clyro, Protest The Hero, The Devil Wears Prada, THE HELL and well... a huge amount of modern bands outside of the realm of "trueness", makes him a very much a contemporary figure. Dan's bold, cartoony style is unmistakable. Despite being mainly known for his Metalcore album covers, this is not the only place he flexes his creative muscle, working with charities, art galleries and film directors on a variety of different projects doing general arty things, Dan Mumford has his fingers in many paint pots. You may not like the bands he's working with, but you can't deny the guy has talent.

Ed Repka

If we think of Derek Riggs as the king of NWOBHM Art, then Ed Repka, most famous for his depiction of Megadeth mascot Vic Rattlehead, is the king of Thrash Art. His vividly colourful depictions of the comically and satirically grotesque can be found on albums from Austrian Death Machine,  Nuclear Assault, Possessed, Death and many, many more. Repka's brand of supernatural realism has become a staple of Metal album art and is perhaps one of the most replicated styles in its field; the impact the now Art Director of NECA's work has had on album covers is huge. Ed Repka is still an active artist and still takes commission for album covers and basically anything else. If price is no obstacle how cool would it be to have art from the guy who gave life to the most well known mascot in all of Thrash Metal and provided cover art for the Godfathers of Death Metal themselves?
 

Eliran Kantor

While Eliran Kantor is not as big of a name as Riggs or Repka his work is no less spectacular. From the early 2000's Kantor's varied style can be found on bands from a variety of Sub-Genres. Manipulated photographs, classical inspired painting and supernaturally real works graces albums from Testament, Sigh, Kataklysm and a whole range of other modern releases. It his perhaps his classically inspired paintings that are the most memorable, the painterly style adding a sense of grandiosity and importance to every album such work adorns. The art for Kataklysm's Waiting For the End to Come is perhaps the best example of this, highly reminiscent of  Gustave Doré's illustrations for Milton's Paradise Lost, this cover sets the album off to a dark and imposing start even before you've put the CD in the player.

John Dyer Baizley

Apparently not satisfied with merely being the guitarist from one of the best Progressive Sludge bands out there, Baroness guitarist John Dyer Baizley has continued to develop his first love of Graphic Design, becoming one of the most instantly recognisable visual artists in the Metal world>. While Baizley is a little uncomfortable working on a commission basis, as he told Metal Injection, Baizley has worked with many bands, including high profile work for Metallica. Citing his influences at Art Nouveau meets Black Flag covers with a dash of  Punk artist Pushead, John Baizley has a surreal, comic-like style with thick lines and bright colours. Baizley does not seem to be slowing down with his work, despite claiming there is no money in album covers, so you're sure to see his expressive pieces on many more albums to come. 

That's it for Part One of our Two part feature. Make sure you check out part Two where we'll be featuring even more great Cover artists!

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THE WORST ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS JUMPERS EVER

We can all agree that Christmas is a time of great joy. It's a time of giving and love and snow and presents and food and well... a lot of great stuff. However there is a plight upon this, the most Holy of commercial Holidays:

THE ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS JUMPER.

These things are a plight upon the world and must be stopped. For future reference here is a list of the worst offenders so you can recognise the enemy when you see them. The appropriate course of action normally includes burning. 

10: Didn't even have the good graces to write "Sleigher" on it. Heathens.

9: If there was ever a jumper to punch your Nan in, it's probably this one.

8: Christmas; the season of bestiality and matricide. 

7: The album is a classic, this is just tragic. 

6: Nothing says Christmas like animal sodomy.

5: But it...

4: ...seems to be...

3: ...a theme.

2: There's going to be a new Christmas movie tradition started in my house this year. 

1: It really is that simple. Whoever thought of this should be forced to wear every single one of these things all at once in atonement to my eyes.

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BEST ALBUMS OF 2014: #10 - 1 - THE FINALE

It's finally here, the last part of Pyramid Noise's countdown of the Best Albums of 2014. If you've missed the first two parts, they can be found here and here. As with previous lists you can listen along on 8Tracks here, or at the bottom of the page.

Every album in this section deserves the number one spot. This is not in a "Thanks for showing up, have a trophy" kind of way, all of these albums could have taken top billing for very legitimate reasons. Every last one. This year has been a great one for metal and alternative music in general and the qualitative differences between every album on this list is minimal, if there at all. 

So here we go. The final 10.

10: Artificial Brain – Labyrinth Constellation

Artificial Brain get the award this year for best debut full-length release. This is an album unique in the Technical Death Metal genre, managing to both be otherworldly strange yet catchy as the bubonic plague (ABSORBING BLACK IGNITIIIIOOON!). When you see the grim art, courtesy of the new standard in Metal artists, Paolo “Madman” Girardi, gracing the cover, you instantly know of the madness within. This New York Quintet are not content with sweep picking and riffing at 100mph and calling it tech. This is Tech in the same way H.R. Giger is Tech. It is twisted, pulsating and alive, yet you cannot look away. Angular and inhuman riffing meets with only the sludgiest of Death Metal production to create something truly special on this album. If you only listen to one Technical Metal release this year, make sure it is Labyrinth Constellation. It will infect you like it has the rest of us.

9: Black Crown Initiate – The Wreckage of Stars

Black Crown Initiate get the award this year for best debut fu… wait a second… 

*AHEM*

The Wreckage of Stars follows on from the equally fantastic EP; Song Of The Crippled Bull. These guys play Progressive Death Metal in a way opposed to the modern ideas of Progressive Death Metal; Death Metal with some ambient parts thrown in. Instead Black Crown Initiate mix in Folk, yup, finger picked guitar Folk and some of the catchiest choruses you’re likely to hear in Death Metal with their weirdly groovy Prog Death riffery. (And before you ask, no this isn’t the Ensifirum type of Folk.) Whilst some may argue this makes the album “poppy” I say to them pah! Try not to sing along and headbang with Great Mistake. I dare you. With a little more polish, Black Crown Initiate, with their mix of Modern Extreme Metal and Folk elements, are on their way to becoming the Opeth for a new generation. Whilst it is too soon to hold them aloft to that standard, this is still one hell of an album.

8: Revocation – Deathless

I foresee a future in which Revocation have become a house hold name. It is hard to pigeonhole Deathless and doing so would likely be a grave insult. Revocation have released what can only be described as a Metal album, a really, really, fucking great Metal album. It’s Thrash, it’s Death Metal, it’s Metalcore, it’s Melodic Death Metal; it is METAL. They have somehow made an album that is a gestalt conglomerate of traditional Metal styles, but without making an album that you feel you’ve heard before. Revocation have mastered straight up extreme music in a way seldom seen before and likely not seen again. You have A Debt Owed to the Grave to listen to this album.

7: Cynic – Kindly Bent To Free Us

The release of Cynic’s Kindly Bent To Free Us was met with the sound of an infinite number of jimmies being heavily rustled. Instead of pandering to an audience famous for fearing change however, these Floridians embraced Old School Prog Rock and kicked its ass. Paradoxically, this move away from the heavier side of music has created an album that is far less accessible. The songs are longer and denser, time signature wizardry is more prevalent and nothing is done to sacrifice unabashed progression. If Cynic were a lesser band it would be far too easy to meander and get lost in pretence, but Kindly Bent To Free Us doesn’t waste a single note. To many listeners Cynic was a Progressive band first that had Death Metal elements mixed in. By dropping these distractions Cynic have been able to focus on what they’re really good at. This album cements Cynic as the Progressive Powerhouse that they have always been.

6: Mastodon - Once More ‘Round The Sun

You’re probably tired of hearing about how Mastodon have managed to make their signature sound accessible to a pop-music level without sacrificing their intrinsic Mastodonyness. It cannot be overstressed, however, just got good Once More ‘Round The Sun really is. Not since Oblivion has Mastodon been this catchy, it’s next to impossible to spin this album without getting half of it stuck in your head. Though at the same time, it’s as if those melodies entering your skull had some psychotropic effects. This manages to be Mastodon’s most accessible and yet trippiest albums to date. Impeccably addictive song writing meets Georgian Prog on Once More ‘Round The Sun in a miasma of hash smoke. Mastodon have proved here that the lacklustre The Hunter was not the end of them.

5: The Devin Townsend Project – Sky Blue

As much as I personally worship Devin Townsend I was not a fan of Epicloud. Hevy Devy seemed to know what he wanted to do with that release that revelled in 80’s cheesy nostalgia, but I just wasn’t feeling it.  Sky Blue however, the The Devin Townsend Project half of the double Z² release, manages to be what Epicloud wanted to be all along. Sporting some of the biggest choruses of the Canuck’s career Sky Blue doesn’t pretend it’s anything other than it is. A big cheesy, fun album. You can argue all day that he should keep making Metal or reform Strapping Young Lad or whatever, but when Devin releases something as compulsively listenable, that has and continues to actually make the hairs on my neck stand on end, it’s very hard to complain.

4: Every Time I Die – From Parts Unknown

All I want is for everyone to go to hell, there we can be free and learn to love ourselves.

These are the words emanating from Keith Buckley’s tortured vocal chords at the finale of this, the seventh full-length release from Buffalo Hardcore unit, Every Time I Die. I start with this because it perfectly encapsulates this album. From Parts Unknown is the heaviest the band have been in some time, with some thanks going to the production job done by Kurt Ballou of Converge and God City Studios fame. It is, as with many other ETID albums, twisted and lonely, but there is a certain optimism in this album that was missing from the previous release, Ex-Lives. Every Time I Die are mad at the world, at society, at you, for fucking them over and this is no clearer than on tracks such as the chilling and experimental Moor. At the same time though, tracks like Decayin’ With The Boys shows that all is not lost, it’s a full on Hardcore party anthem. It is and ugly album, but it is honest and it is not going to hold back. With From Parts Unknown Every Time I Die knows the world is a screwed up place, but insist you may as well have a party while you’re here.

3: At The Gates – At War With Reality

At The Gates had two hurdles to overcome with At War With Reality. Firstly they had to live up to the almost 20 year old legacy of Slaughter of the Soul. Secondly, those 20 years have been dense with bands heavily influenced by that release. These are bands SgtD of StuffYouWillHate.com would describe as “AtTheGates-core” and it would only be right that the past-masters release a better album than any of these bands ever could. So it must be asked:

Did they manage it?

…

Of course they did, what kind of stupid question is that anyway?

Is it as seminal and important to the development of Metal as Slaughter of the Soul? Well no, but few albums are. It is however the album they were always going to make at this point. A really great one. The latest from the Gothenburg giants mixes together Terminal Spirit Disease, The Red in the Sky is Ours and Slaughter of the Soul to create an album that firmly crushes any and all competition born of the last 20 years. At The Gates have reclaimed the Iron Throne of pedal riffs, as we always believed they would.

2: Soen – Tellurian

Soen fill that void that Tool has left in our hearts. Whilst Cognitive, the bands debut, was a pale imitation of Tool’s sound, Tellurian shows that Soen can match Tool blow for blow. There is something wholly organic about this release from the Swedish Super-group. Something the band must have been aware of when they named their album. Tellurian means “of the Earth” or “Organic” if you will. What started as a band pre-occupied with capturing a certain sound, has become a band freed of any need to enforce that influence. The drum and bass focused sound on this album comes free and easy, ranging from heavy progressive grooves to light and ethereal passages.  This is an ambitions album with every track breaking the 5 minute mark.  Despite this, at no point do these tracks feel more than half their actual length. This is a band made up of truly gifted individuals, including ex-Opeth drummer Martin Lopez and it shows. The new refined sound from Soen on Tellurian shows a band finding themselves in the same way that Tool don’t find time to record a new album.

1: The Contortionist – Language

If I could set a theme in alternative music this year, it would be huge changes in style (That and Prog, this year has been great for Prog.) White Arms of Athena, Cynic, Job For a Cowboy and too many more to even list have come through with albums that completely change how they are perceived. None, however, have embraced this change so fully and with such skill as The Contortionist. Leaving behind past attempts at appearing progressive through interspersed ambient synths, Language is an old style progressive rock album. One filtered through the modern sensibilities of the contemporary extreme progressive world. It would not be too farfetched to call them the new Cynic, high praise indeed, but high praise well deserved.  It is not a heavy album, but it is a beautiful one. One that I believe casts aside the notion that modern progressive bands cannot show restraint or taste when writing music. This album is a river, it ebbs and flows, melodies float in and out. At points there is a small waterfall and the heaviness picks up, only to smoothly transition back into the gorgeous, flowing depths that this release provides. If you had ignored The Contortionist before now, I urge you to drink deep from what Language has to offer.

And there it is. The end of our countdown of 2014. It really has been a great year and we can only hope that 2015 provides just as much excellent music.  

Pyramid Noise: Top Albums of 2014 #10-1 from Pyramid Noise on 8tracks Radio.

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BEST ALBUMS OF 2014: #20 - 11

It's finally here, after a few delays we're ready to continue from last weeks' Best Albums of 2014 countdown from #30 to #21 (Not seen it? Click here!) Maybe that album you were so angry wasn't on that list will be on here, or maybe it won't, maybe you'll still be mad and can rage in the comments. It'll be fun.

Either way, it's time for Part 2 of Pyramid Noise's Best Albums of 2014!

Want to listen along as you read? Then find the 8Tracks Playlist here, or embedded at the bottom of the page!

20: Electric Wizard – Time To Die

We have to face the fact that Electric Wizard are never going to release another Dopethrone. That doesn’t, however, mean that they are incapable of releasing another good album. Dopethrone is pretty much the best Stoner Doom album ever made; it’s hard to top that and highly unfair to dismiss Time To Die off hand, as many fans have done. The UK Stoner Titans continue their ramblings into the world of psychedelia with an album that will lull you into a hypnotic state… whilst gnawing on your jugular. This is pure, filthy, desperate, evil pressed on to wax.

Or it is if you own the vinyl, else it’s burnt onto glass and plastic and that just doesn't have the same ring to it.  

19: The Great Old Ones – Tekeli-li

The cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft is a popular theme in Metal. Nothing is perhaps more metal than realising your own insignificance in the face of monstrous space beasts that will send you completely insane just from looking at them. No, not even Satan is that metal. Few bands however, truly capture the essence of Lovecraft’s nihilistic Cosmicism; the worst offender in my books being Cradle of Filth’s Cthulhu. The Great Old Ones’ brand of Melodic Post-Black Metal, however, captures this aura of inescapable doom perfectly with an album as multi-dimensional as its subject matter. From the brooding string opening of Je Ne Suis Pas Fou to the final, lonely notes of Behind The Mountains, Tekeli-li is a grandiose, yet darkly ambient, homage to one of horrors greats.

18: Fallujah – The Flesh Prevails

While I was not caught up in the same hype avalanche as the rest of the metal community, which may account for its mid-tier position on this list, I still immensely enjoyed Fallujah’s follow-up to 2013’s Nomadic EP. Having shed the last vestiges of their Deathcore past, these San Franciscan’s have embraced a sound that is somewhere between technical and progressive and atmospheric and beautiful. The Flesh Prevails is most definitely a death metal album, though it is so much more than that, but simply calling it a Progressive Death Metal album still does not quite capture what this release is all about. It is an album of lights and shades running parallel, becoming intertwined and tangled and then breaking free of each other; it has all the makings of a modern classic.

17: Unearth – Watchers of Rule

Unearth prove that early 2000’s Metalcore still has the scope to be awesome. Whilst other contemporaries of Lamb of God and the NWOAHM movement are dropping like flies, Unearth are soldiering forth, or rather, they are part of a war charge. Watchers of Rule may not break the rules found in the Class of 2005 Metalcore battle plan, it’s questionable if it even bends them, but it does use them to full, ferocious, effect. Whilst a lot of Metalcore bands write songs based around catchy choruses or simple open string chugging, Watchers of Rule is based on riffs, and there are killer riffs to be found on every track of this album. This is the American four piece, and perhaps even the genre, at its best.

16: Bloodshot Dawn – Demons

If you had told me a few years ago that one of the best Melodic Death Albums of 2014 came not from snow swept Sweden, but from the British Seaside town of Portsmouth, I would have had you burnt at the steak for heresy. 

BURN THE HERETIC, BUUUUURN. 

This, however, is exactly what we find. Bloodshot Dawn, in Demons, have released a relentless metal album. The variety on display here is remarkable and the finger blistering riffs often take you by surprise. This is more than just good old fashioned Melodic Death Metal, the British metalers have taken inspiration from every far-flung corner of extreme music. Bloodshot Dawn’s self-titled debut was a band showing their potential, Demons is a band breaking it wide open.

15: Skyharbor – Guiding Lights

Guiding Lights is the easy listening Djent album you didn’t know you wanted. If Intervals’ A Voice Within (featured on part one of this list) could be said to be Djent filtered through the melodious hooks of pop music, Skyharbor’s sophomore release is filtered through Post-Rock. The focus here is on atmosphere, yes the mainstays of the genre remain, but even those are toned down in order to serve the greater atmospheric goal. All aspects of Guiding Lights have been crafted in a way to create ambience; the vocals range from soaring to soft and haunting, the guitars can go from dirty groove machines to whispers on the wind in seconds and the electronics are suitably chilled. Skyharbor share Intervals’ ability to write expertly realised songs in a genre known for the riff-salad approach, the difference is that Skyharbor just do it better.

14: Ne Obliviscaris – Citadel

This is a hard album to write about. Citadel is complex, it’s progressive, it’s beautiful and, I’ll admit, a little bit wanky. What defines this sophomore effort from Ne Obliviscaris, however, is the tangible skill that has gone into each track. Every journey (I hesitate to use the word song as 5 of the 6 tracks are parts of greater wholes) is wonderfully constructed, climbing the mountains of metal aggression and traversing green valleys in beauteous violin sections; both are executed brilliantly. In this writers humble (but correct) opinion Citadel is the album Fallujah wanted to write. Whilst both bands have written incredible albums, Ne Obliviscaris possess a cohesion of thought and skill in composition that is difficult to match.

13: Perturbator – Dangerous Days

This will perhaps be the only time on this list that a music video is mandatory viewing prior to reading an album’s entry. 

Go on, I’ll wait.

Done? Good.

DID YOU SEE HOW COOL THAT WAS!? THAT’S PURE MULLETED, SHOULDER-PADED BADDASSERY IN MUSIC FORM! This is easily my favourite electronic release of the year. While you may only know of Perturbator for that one track he did on the Hotline Miami soundtrack, the music is worth far more than that limited exposure. His brand of retro-style synth pop sounds like it should be playing in a gothy night club, owned by a bad guy from a late 80’s action movie. It’s dark, sexy, paradoxically cheesy and endlessly enjoyable.

12: Hang The Bastard – Sex in the Seventh Circle

Hang The Bastard are putting the occult back into sludge metal. Sex in the Seventh Circle delivers deranged mix of Doom and Hardcore that hits hard and slow and has groove to spare. Occult themes and imagery are expertly coupled with mammoth stomping riffs and Black Metal style vocals (which makes more sense when you consider their Blackened Hardcore past.) It’s a truly strange mix; Crowbar-esque riffing, Hardcore energy and Black Metal screeches all merge together to form a lumbering, gestalt beast that is out for blood and human sacrifice. And it’s fantastic. Sex in the Seventh Circle is half Hammer Horror, half Hammer Smashed Face.

11: Job For a Cowboy – Sun Eater

I’ll get this out of the way, prior to Sun Eater I did not care for Job For A Cowboy. I saw them live, listened to songs on youtube, I just did not like what I perceived to be their kind of stale, soulless extreme music. So for Sun Eater to make it on this list? That is a big deal. Job For a Cowboy are no longer the Deathcore poster child they once were. Sun Eater has more in common with Technical and Progressive Death Metal (especially evident in that rubbery bass sound that sits high in the mix) than it does with Deathcore. This huge departure in sound has served the Amazonians well, the music retains the aggression and heaviness from their core-cantered past, but the sonic move has resulted in a complex and engaging album. Sun Eater feature top notch performances from every member and proves that a Zebra can perhaps change its stripes, and for the better.

That is it for this, the second part of the Pyramid Noise 2014 countdown! Come back soon for the third and final part! Do you disagree with any of these choices? (Of course you do.) Then let us know in the comments below!

Pyramid Noise: Top Albums of 2014 #20-11 from Pyramid Noise on 8tracks Radio.

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BEST ALBUMS OF 2014: #30 - 21

I think it’s written somewhere that every story starts at the beginning. However that sounds like bullhooky to me, so instead Pyramid Noise is going to start at the end. The end of the year is approaching and that means end of year lists.

It’s likely no secret to anyone with a function brain suspended in the jar that is the Rock and Metal music scene, that this year has seen more than its fair share of top-notch releases. Over the next week or so Monolith Sound will present our top 30 (yes, 30!) albums of the year. If you want to listen along as you read there will be an 8tracks playlist included at the bottom of every article!

Obviously this list will be objectively wrong to everyone who reads it, including me who will deem in woefully inaccurate as soon as it is posted. Thus comments are not only welcomed, but encouraged. I yearn to be told how wrong I am.

30: Intervals – A Voice Within

A djent album? One of the top releases of the year? In 2014?

Scoff if you will but Intervals, on their debut full length, have in spades what many djent bands completely lack. Song writing ability. Everything you’d expect from a djent album is present but it is married with an ability to write songs that don’t just sound like a series of riffs crammed thoughtlessly crammed together. The album has vocal hooks in spades that will have you singing along on a first listen. The riffs groove and… well… djent without begging for attention like a needy child. Djent is maturing into a more legitimate genre year by year and A Voice Within is part of that charge. 

29: Destrage – Are You Kidding Me? No.

While this album from Italian Prog-Metallers Destrage has tongue firmly planted in cheek this ferociously uncontrollable release is far from a joke. Combining the best parts from bands such as Protest the Hero and The Dillinger Escape Plan, Destrage create an album full of gymnastic feats of prog, whilst still providing hooks that will stay with you for a long time afterwards. In true prog style Destrage refuses to stay with one thing for too long, going from noodley solos, to surf rock, to drum and bass to anything else that takes their fancy in the space of one track. Despite the silliness of their lyrical themes (shooting zombies in the face anyone?) Destrage have crafted an intricately detailed, yet aggressive beast of an album that is almost unique in the metal world. 

28: Falloch – This Island, Our Funeral

I recently visited the desolate Rannoch Moor in the Highlands of Scotland with this album on the car stereo. Never before have I heard an album that so perfectly suits the air of quiet, grim emptiness that instils the Highlands themselves. This should perhaps not be so surprising since Falloch themselves are denizens of the bleak North of Britain. Some traditional Scottish folk instrumentation is blended with a Post-Metal atmosphere (that at times flirts with the edges of Black and Doom Metal) to create a dreamy, emotionally charged journey into the bleak unknown. Whilst some have claimed the album falls into the realm of “background music” I find that the album is instead a majestic soundtrack to dark discoveries among fog drenched rocks.

(For those not in the know here's a picture of Rannoch Moor)  

27: Botanist – VI: Flora 

Black Metal, in recent years, has undergone a kind of renaissance. It has become something far greater than its dark, anti-religious origins and has embraced the weird and the wonderful; mixing itself with a whole range of other styles. Last year’s shoegazey media darling Sunbather solidified Black Metal as a genre that can basically do whatever it wants. Botanist’s plant themed VI: Flora does exactly that and it is beautiful. It is as simple as that. Thematically Botanist seek a return to nature from modern civilisation. The pain of the album comes not from religious hatred or self-loathing, but from the destruction of nature, of our original mother. Replacing the guitar with the sustain powerhouse that is a Hammer Dulcimer (think a cross between a harp and a xylophone) gives the project scope for soundscapes more traditional black metal bands are incapable of reproducing, one that fits the theme of the lyrics perfectly. If there ever was a metal album that perfectly considers the glory and beauty of nature, it is this one.

26: Beyond Creation – Earthborn Evolution

Technical Death Metal is not a genre that I can normally appreciate. Much like djent focus has moved away from song writing and towards technical wankery and the guitar equivalent of basement dwelling. Beyond Creation do indeed possess chops to make the most confident of musicians get down on their knees and pray, but this is coupled with an ability to know when best to use it. Tracks are not lightning-quick experiments in spasmodic riff construction and soloing. Rather they are actual songs in which technicality is part of the journey, not its end. This is tech-death that is not only enjoyable by musicians, but those who just like really. Damn. Good. Metal. Finally it would be amiss for me to not mention the fretless bass playing on this album. So there it is… I mentioned it. I won’t attempt to explain it further as mortal words are not capable for describing such things.

25: Inanimate Existence – A Never Ending Cycle of Atonement

Following on from a Technical Death Metal album, we have… another Technical Death Metal album. Inanimate Existence’s brand of Tech Death shares a lot in common with Beyond Creation. Both know how to write interesting bits of music that degrade into meaningless riff-mush. What slightly pushes Inanimate Existence ahead is their unique approach to song writing.This is a purely spiritual endeavour; both the bands lyrics and arrangements focus on cycles. Riffs come together in a naturally cohesive structure that is brash, but strangely welcoming, aggressive, but hypnotic. (On a less pretentious aside the riff shred like little else I’ve heard.) A Never Ending Cycle of Atonement is brimming in the personality that most other albums in the genre simply lack. 

24: Marmozets – The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets

I did not expect to love Marmozets as much as I do. Printed upon the pages of magazines such as Rock Sound I dismissed them as a band akin to Paramore, but how wrong I was. The Weird and Wonderful is a mixture of straight up punk sensibility, precision mathcore riffing and indie rock hooks. It’s all very easy listening compared to the majority of this list, but that doesn’t stop it from rocking out hard. It would be all too easy to try and play a cynicism card and say that Marmozets are trying to target specific demographics with their brand of brainworm punk. Even if this were the case, however, I would struggle to hate it. This is not only an album for the 14 year old first reaching out into a world of music outside of the pop-sphere, but an album for the jaded 20-something year old that assumes everything in the mainstream music world is likely a bit naff. Guilty as charged I guess. 

23: Krokodil – Nachash

Krokodil describe themselves as “mainly beards and riffs”, I would like to counter point this description by saying that this album is the sound of someone grinding your very soul to dust with the heel of their boot. Sitting somewhere between Sludge and Groove Metal, this British supergroup bring the heavy in a grimy, disgusting way. The grooves are incredibly well executed, the bass work often being given far more attention that normal in conjuncture with absolutely merciless riffing. It’s hard not to rock your head back and forth whilst staring into the middle distance giving it your best Phil Anselmo sneer. Just be careful not to punch anything. 

22: The Devin Townsend Project – Z²: Dark Matters

For the sake of this list, I am splitting Devin Townsend’s latest work, Z^2, into its component parts, as both Dark Matters and Sky Blue are truly different beasts. Dark Matters, the Crazed Canadian’s sequel to fan favourite Ziltoid the Omniscient falls a little short of its predecessor, however it is still an absolute joy. It’s cheesy, it’s silly, it’s about an alien war about little nutsack/bum hybrid looking creatures called Poozers. All the metal elements that Devin was once known for are here, but coloured slightly with the grandiose cheesiness that more recent albums such as Addicted! and Epicloud contained. This mixture does nothing to detract from the album however and only adds to the B-Movie spirit of the album. The result is an absolute romp that deserves to be listened to in one sitting.  

21: ††† (Crosses) - †††

Deftones Frontman Chino Moreno has his fingers in many musical pies and “†††” is one damn tasty pie (try not to think about that metaphor too hard.) A wholly un-metal album (as if that mattered) this self-titled release is an undeniably creepy mix of electronics and more traditional rock instrumentation. There is a gothic atmosphere that permeates this record, though that is not to say that it sounds like The Sisters of Mercy (or even completely like Depeche Mode by whom the group are undoubtedly influenced) circa 1980-something. Rather that there is simply something incredibly sinister about the whole vibe off this album. Electric Organs lay slightly out of tune in the background, pad sounds ripped straight from old horror movies and Chino's voice comes into it's own, letting his haunting croon come into full effect. If there was ever a modern musical equivalent to the ghoul lurking in an abandoned bell tower, it may well be “†††”’s debut album. 

That concludes the first part to this Best of 2014 countdown! Come back on Wednesday 17th for part 2!

(PART 2 CAN NOW BE FOUND HERE)

Monolith Sound: Top Albums of 2014 #30-21 from Pyramid Noise on 8tracks Radio.

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