Thanks Sleepy! Knew I could count on you. Will def check all of this out. I love PAN. Though I can't say I always get what they're putting out. I really like Pan Daijing's Jade. Kind of noise, kind of ambient.
iiiii is also getting a lot of listens from me. My favoirte songs in the series might be "Fireprayer" and "Crown".
I'm going to be listening to the Kick series for a long time. Is iiii actually my favorite? Maybe! I recently discovered aya cuz of list season and that's extremely my thing. Where do you guys go for your electronic coverage? I know about Resident Advisor but they tend lean a little too far into house and clubby kind of stuff. There's room for that for sure, but it's not always what I'm into. My favorite electronic albums of the last decade are Shaking the Habitual, Black Oragami, and Tim Hecker's Virgins if that gives you an idea of what I'm looking for.
Gotta love my rowdy, scrappy boys. Ever since I heard CHRISTFUCKER, I've been making some insane comparisons in my head. Lately I'm like "This really reminds me of White Light/White Heat". Insane, I know. But this is an insane record. Just total sonic bruising with no regard genre, scenes, or the right way to write and perform a song. I think Lou and John Cale would've approved. Here's another insane comparison. We got a lot of cinematic, large scale metal this year. Like Panopticon or Ethereal Shroud. Those bands are operating in like a Kubrick zone. Like "this is big, important, and everything is going to be taken as far as it will go". That's great. Those bands are great. Kubrick is great. But Portrayal of Guilt are working the zone Sam Raimi was in for Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2. There are limitations, but they know how to flip those limitations into strengths that no one else is flexing. Nothing but good things to say about em.
I think you'll be a Dream Unending man. Funeral death doom that sounds like you're in the Marianna Trench. Gravesend is just some highly effective blackened grindcore. Probably my favorite debut of the year. They definitely have my pick for album art of the year.
I haven't heard that Ferriterium, but I'll fix that soon.
Absolutely horrifying. Recently there's been rumblings about this and he was kicked off of Sargent House. I have no words but fuck Alexis Marshall. He's a weak piece of shit. I'm glad Kristin Hayter had the courage to come forward and kudos to Anthony Fantano for facilitating the discussion. I wish nothing but the best for Hayter.
01. Portrayal of Guilt - CHRISTFUCKER
02. Portrayal of Guilt - We Are Always Alone
But you guys knew that. Much like a Rorschach test, they are what you believe them to be.
02. Panopticon - ...And Again Into the Light
03. Dream Unending - Tide Turns Eternal
04. Succumb - XXI
05. A Pregnant Light - Kiss Me Thru the Phone
06. Full of Hell - Garden of Burning Apparitions
07. Sadness - April Sunset
08. Dodsrit - Mortal Coil
09. Spectral Lore - Ετερόφωτος
10. Fluisteraars - Gegrepen Door de Geest der Zielsontluiking
11. Worm - Foreverglade
09. Gravesend - Methods of Human Disposal
10. King Woman - Celestial Blues
Probably forgetting about a billion others. Metal's just the best.
Favorites not listed are:
A Pregnant Light - I Licked It, Now It's Mine
A Pregnant Light - All Saints' Day 2
Damien Master - Honeyhole 4
Damien Master - Honeyhole 3
Portrayal of Guilt / Chat Pile split
Purple Light - Tropik of Plum
Happy to see someone else was brave enough to put more than one Arca album on their list. I really can't figure out which one is my favorite. I like Arca the most when she has a lot of ideas. And I'm glad you didn't miss out on Lingua Ignota this time around. I might prefer Caligula just a lil more, but I think Hayter proved that she's gonna stick around. I don't see her making the same album twice. My favorite contemporary musician for sure.
I agree. I like MC but I find SL to be more interesting. He has an uncommon grasp on ambience and psychedelia. Ayloss is also my favorite guitar player in black metal. Probably metal as a whole too. And since I listen to metal the most, it's probably safe to say Ayloss is my favorite guitar player.
Cassandra made a very necessary balm of an album.
I'm glad I can point you to some stuff outside your comfort zone! There's always something interesting and worthwhile happening in heavy music. And you don't always have to "get" them. There's gotta be something like "What the hell is lobster hearing here?" every once in awhile.
And SINNER is extremely close to CHRISTFUCKER for me. Ask me for this list again and they might be flipped. Kind of theme there.
01. Potrayal of Guilt - CHRISTFUCKER
The second album Portrayal of Guilt released this year. We Are Always Alone is fantastic but CHRISTFUCKER is the benchmark. It's by far the most thrilling piece of music I've heard this year. And that's not at all a slight against any of the other albums on this list. There are albums on my list that I feel broke new ground for an artist and their are albums that feel like level ups. CHRISTFUCKER is one that feels entirely fresh and new to me. It's difficult to pinpoint reference points. Yes there's noise rock. Yes there's black metal. Yes there's hardcore. Yes there's death metal. But I can say that I haven't heard them stitched together like this before. More so, I don't know if I've heard anyone write songs like this before. I'm not sure what compelled PoG to do it like this, but let's hope they can take us even further out there.
02. Lingua Ignota - SINNER GET READY
03. Arca - Kick ii-iiiii
04. Portrayal of Guilt - We Are Always Alone
05. Regional Justice Center - Crime and Punishment
06. Panopticon - ...And Again Into the Light
07. Low - HEY WHAT
08. Dream Unending - Tide Turns Eternal
09. A Pregnant Light - Kiss Me Thru the Phone
10. Deafheaven - Infinite Granite
11. Full of Hell - Garden of Burning Apparitions
12. Worm - Foreverglade
13. Midwife - Luminol
14. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee
15. Fluisteraars - Gegrepen Door de Geest der Zielsontluiking
16. Pharoah Sanders & Floating Points - Promises
17. Backxwash - I LAY HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES
18. Succumb - XXI
19. Spectral Lore - Ετερόφωτος
20. Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview of Phenomenal Nature
Today, right here, right NOW, mine looks something like:
01. Powerslave, it's just the best
02. The Number of the Beast
03. Piece of Mind
04. Somewhere In Time
05. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
06. A Matter of Life and Death
07. Brave New World
08. Killers
09. Iron Maiden
10. Senjutsu
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