My Top 10 Albums of 2008

Originally, I wanted to be more definitive and write up a Top 5, but 2008 was such a damn fine year for metal, that I chose to double the list.

For people like me, constructing a best-of list can quickly become an arduous, emotionally taxing process that calls into question the very reasons we enjoy music.  It is for this reason that I have simplified the criteria:  These are the albums that I could not stop listening throughout the year.  I’m not going to waste too much time trying to pin down that which was most innovative, or original because I feel that route to be one big shell-game.  These are the albums that I kept coming back to after sifting through the “merely decent” and “hyped to death” releases that 2008 saw.

Shall we begin?

10. Toxic Holocaust – An Overdose of Death

The thrash-revival movement has reached a certain critical mass by now.  An endless stream of 80’s thrash-derivative bands have been crawling forth from the bowels of America, much like the zombies they often sing about.  It’s getting to the point of overwhelming blandness, but through the endless face-melting shredding and mind-numbing palm-muting, this album managed to cut through the clutter in a big way.  More than any of his contemporaries, Joel Grind has a great grasp on what made 80’s thrash so magical: Vicious hooks packed into quick, catchy songs that fester in your head for months on end.

9. Krallice – Krallice

I approached this record with some reservations.  The hype surrounding this release plus the odd conference of musicians didn’t add up to much expectation from me, but from the moment Wretched Wisdom blasted off to the final emotional climax of Forgiveness in Rot, I was enthralled.  Krallice really fucked with my sense of time.  Their droning but technically complex style of black metal fused with post-rock song structures littered with crescenduous peaks and haunting troughs acted as a strange sort of opiate for me.  Some have criticized Krallice for ripping off now estranged USBM act Weakling, and while Krallice does distantly recall Weakling’s meager contribution to black metal in a number of ways, I feel that this album is another beast entirely.  Krallice is on another level structurally, and emotionally.  Call it “post-black,” if you will.  One exciting record, from a band I hope to see much more from.

8. Origin – Antithesis

Brutal tech-death can be an impenetrable genre: It’s difficult to truly enjoy, unless you like endless instrumental masturbation over recycled thematics rarely extending beyond mindless gore and violence.  Leave it to Origin, a band that I had previously dismissed as just another tedious tech-death group endlessly sweep-picking into the void to cause me to re-evaluate what I can expect from this kind of music.  Antithesis crushes it’s peers on an instrumental level alone.  This album is the fastest, most relentless, and gymnastically complex album I’ve heard in ages, and on top of that, it’s also one of the most listenable.  Each song possesses a structure that allows the listener to appreciate what these musicians are doing.  The crowning achievement of this record is clearly the nine-and-a-half minute epic title track.  Bands like Origin have no business writing songs over three minutes, but they succeed in ways I would not have thought possible pre-Antithesis.  Brutal.

7. Cult of Luna – Eternal Kingdom

I am always intrigued by concept albums.  I think when they’re done right, they can be some of the most potently moving pieces of music one can hear.  So when I heard of the inspiration behind Eternal Kingdom, my interest was immediately piqued.  Eternal Kingdom is based on the diaries of one Holger Nilsson, a former inmate of the demolished mental institution Cult of Luna had chosen as their practice space.  This man was placed there after drowning his wife and his journal entries describe an entirely imagined world in which owl men and tree men all contributed to a fantasy story that explained why Nilsson was innocent of his crime.  Cult of Luna has used this thematic  background to create an expansive, dramatic, warm, and dare I say beautiful epic.  Eternal Kingdom is an achievement to be experienced, not just heard.

6. Motörhead – Motörizer

2008 saw a number of high-profile “legacy” releases, namely from Metallica, AC/DC, and Guns ‘n Roses, all of which had their problems: Guns ‘n Roses’ Chinese Democracy being a bloated piece of over-produced nonsense lost in time, Metallica’s Death Magnetic being a placating stab at their younger days marred by some really stupid production choices, and AC/DC’s Black Ice being a hilariously retarded exercise in geriatric re-hashery.  Who would’ve thought that after nearly three decades of quality rock ‘n roll and all the associated  debauchery, Lemmy Kilmister is not only still alive, but still kicking the pants off all the kids who think they know how to rock.  I will go so far as to say that Motörizer is on par with their supposedly untouchable classics Ace of Spades and Overkill.  Motörizer is a refreshing punch in the neck that has been criminally overlooked this year.

5. Enslaved – Vertebrae

It’s amazing to see where the mighty Enslaved have gone since their formative years in that ever-infamous 90’s Norwegian black metal scene.  Enslaved have been molting their blackest elements over the years in favor of a more ethereal, trance-inducing progressive sound.  Indeed, the “blackest” element remaining on Vertebrae is Grutle’s harsh, gurgling vocals.  When I first heard Vertebrae, it was a curious experience at best, but I kept coming back to it and appreciated it a bit more with each listen.  Vertebrae requires an open mind and multiple listens to truly appreciate, but I have found this record to be one of the most complex and rewarding listening experiences this year. File this under post-black along with Krallice.

4. Torche – Meanderthal

Meanderthal has gotten a lot of attention from both the established metal and indie music press, and for good reason: This album is upbeat, and triumphant, recalling the best elements of early Foo Fighters, yet uncompromisingly heavy as well.  I cant recall precisely how many times this year I’ve listened to Meanderthal from front to back, only to listen to it in it’s entirety again.  Meanderthal in a sentence could best be described as a pack of triceratops, who got a hold of a gravity bong, stampeding through a mine field.  Believe the hype on this one, it’s massive.

3. Byzantine – Oblivion Beckons

Another album that I could not stop listening to once I got a hold of it.  Byzantine combines the groovy thrash of Pantera with the mathematical precision of Meshuggah and tosses in a touch of the dreaded metalcore in the form of some clean vocals and uplifting choruses spattered about the record for a sound that is varied and unpredictable throughout.  Vaulting, brainy layers of beefy riffs comprise the heart of Oblivion Beckons, but the vocal diversity of front-man Chris Ojeda calls for special mention, who’s screams run the gamut from glass-shattering screeches to bowel-crushingly brutal, with some clean, “core” vocal talent to spare.  Fear not the invocation of the metalcore: Chris Ojeda handles the clean vocals with taste and soul, proving himself to be one of the more versatile vocalists to not be in a band anymore.  That’s right, Byzantine broke up weeks after the release of this fantastic record, which probably explains why this album suffered from a severe lack of press.  Late is better than never, though, so if you haven’t heard Oblivion Beckons, do so quickly.

2. Genghis Tron – Board Up the House

Before Board Up the House, Genghis Tron was a band that got really old really quick.  They sounded like they had found a light switch where one end was grindcore and the other was a sort of synthtronica, and they just sort of fucked around with that light switch for one EP and one fullength.  This was interesting for, oh, a solid 10 minutes at most.  But I felt like this band had a great idea, they just hadn’t realized it yet…  Enter Board Up the House, an album so creative, adventurous, unpredictable, and bloodthirsty that I haven’t gone a month this year without listening to it in it’s entirety.  I got the chance to talk to the fine chaps behind this beast of an album, check out the interview here.

1. Nachtmystium – Assassins: Black Meddle Part I

When I first listened to this album, I imagined the reactions of those most kvlt huddled in their grim forest cabins with their rare Darkthrone demos and spiked maces: What is this trippy bullshit?  Is that a saxophone?  Who dares to categorize this hippy nonsense as black metal?  One reason I have for loving this album above and beyond anything released this year is that it is utterly and deeply offending to the traditional black metal aesthetic “establishment.”  This album breaks all the stupid rules that seem to have stuck for black metal, but is still rooted and immediately recognizable as black metal in parts. Another reason I love this album is it’s sheer psychedelic density, something that has been largely unexplored in black metal.  I consider Assassins a successfull expedition into the unknown, with the spoils of the voyage taking form in songs like Ghosts of Grace, Your True Enemy (probably the two songs I listened to the most in 08) and the three-part epic Seasick: a largely instrumental account of drowning alone in the middle of the ocean.  Some would argue that the Seasick trillogy sacrifices too much heaviness to the point of decontextualization, but the emotional depth of the Seasick trillogy more than makes up for any lack in crunch and acts as a perfectly satisfying ending for the album.  These tracks are the creme of a highly complex, innovative, and rewarding crop of songs.

On the saxophone: Comes out of nowhere, works wonders.  It’s hard to work such an instrument into this kind of music, but it can be done with astonishing results.

All in all a good year.