Best of 2014 - Top 80

This list is in NO PARTICULAR ORDER. All of these records are amazing and should be spinning in your head and bleeding from your speakers 24 hours a day.

1. Viva Belgrado - Flores, Carne
2. Kaddish - Thick Letters To Friends
3. Blue Friend - I Will Be Your Blue Friend
4. Yumi - Epicureans
5. We Were Promised Jetpacks - Unraveling
6. La Parade - Voces Del Exilio
7. Perfect Future - Manifesto
8. Forever Losing Sleep - I Lost Myself Again
9. Courtesy Drop - Stabilize
10. Frameworks - Loom
11. Citycop - Loner
12. Vi som älskade varandra så mycket - Den sorgligaste musiken...
13. Nous Étions - La Manière Noire
14. Fuck, Wolves! - Jetzt ist nicht jetzt, jetzt ist immer.
15. Youth Novel - Turned Around Abruptly Beside a Mirror and Jumped...
16. Celebration - Sompting
17. Ito Project - 遠方より終着 & 喚起 / 契約
18. Downfall Of Gaia - Aeon Unveils The Thrones Of Decay
19. Cara Neir / Flesh Born - split
20. МАЯК - Искусство приводить себя в беспорядок
21. Elephant Opinions - Awakening Will Be A Journey
22. Locktender - Rodin
23. Human Hands - S/T
24. Monte Ida - Devotion
25. Young Mountain - Fragile & We're Drowning In Slow Motion
26. Handwriting! - You're Mad And I'm Still Here
27. Ritual Mess - Vile Art
28. 52 Hertz - Somnolence.
29. Black Love - S/T
30. Aviator - Head In The Clouds, Hands In The Dirt
31. Bag Of Bones - Third Dimension
32. Killeur Calculateur - Book Of Flags
33. Capacities - S/T
34. The Great Old Ones - Tekeli-li
35. As We Draw - Mirages
36. Devil Sold His Soul - Belong ╪ Betray
37. Alaskan - Despair, Erosion, Loss
38. Rosetta - Flies To Flame
39. Sport - Bon Voyage
40. Øjne / Улыбайся Ветру - split
41. Crows-An-Wra - Kalopsia
42. Plaids - S/T
43. Old Soul / Lentic Waters - split
44. Storm {O} - Sospesi Nel Vuoto Bruceremo In Un Attimo...
45. The Tidal Sleep - Vorstellunskraft
46. Iselia - II: Dawn
47. Love American - Hollow Crosses
48. Причал - Отголоски
49. Plebeian Grandstand - Lowgazers
50. My Fictions - Stranger Songs
51. Tetola93 - S/T
52. Mariesena - Ruth
53. We Came Out Like Tigers - Ever-Crushed At Pecket's Well
54. Anopheli - A Hunger Rarely Sated
55. Weakness - Too High To Die, Too Drunk To Care
56. Aleska - Time Is A Curse
57. Flesh Born - Han
58. Jeanne - Demo 2014
59. Svffer - Lies We Live
60. Left Astray - Don't Look For Me
61. Disembarked - Nothing's Wrong Here
62. Nothing - Guilty Of Everything
63. Panopticon - Roads To The North
64. The Hotelier - Home, Like Noplace Is There
65. He Whose Ox Is Gored - Rumors
66. Fearless Leader - Fiercely Loyal
67. Hightide Hotel - Naturally
68. Palmkite - 2011
69. Pianos Become The Teeth - Keep You
70. Tiny Moving Parts - Pleasant Living
71. Charlotte Light And Dark - S/T
72. Jungbluth / Callow - Split
73. Batièn - Frammenti del mio flusso che insieme sono...
74. Manku Kapak - 2 Songs
75. I Refuse - Öffnen ​/​ Atmen
76. Baton Rouge - Totem
77. Sore Eyelids - For Now
78. Under A Sky So Blue / Celebration - Split
79. Remek - S/T
80. Shirokuma - Sun Won't Set

Burweed - Eyes Down South EP

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     Normally, I would be turned off by a band that gets described to me as "Atmospheric Alternative Metal." I was a little hesitant to review, or even listen to this EP request based strictly on that description. Today though, I have the day off and figured, what the hell? Sure glad I did.
     Burweed are from Karhula in the south of Finland. I am sure it gets nice and cold there in the winter. If that is the case, it makes perfect sense that Burweed would create this sort of claustrophobic, haunting bitterness. These four songs float about in a haze of dour and harsh reflectiveness. From soft and listless to a solid wall of noise, this is Post-Metal played right.
     
     I will give a few R.I.Y.L...

     Aereogramme, Oceansize, Neurosis, Intronaut, Tool, Godflesh, Battle Of Mice, Jesu.

     I don't often find myself in the throes of total immersion in Post-Rock and Post-Metal records. Though, when bands like Burweed are out there creating this sort of perfect reefer smoking morning music, I can't help but be impressed.
    

Sky Burial - Where Four Rivers Flow LP

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     Sky Burial are from Tennessee. That should be enough of a push for you to listen to this.

     'Where Four Rivers Flow' by Sky Burial is the second of two releases I am reviewing for Replenish Records. The label was kind enough to delve deep into my psyche to find out exactly what I had been desperately needing to hear this week, so, I am returning the favor by heaping mass amounts of praise on their stellar roster of bands.
     To me, this record creates the same kinds of emotions that must come from traversing those desolate peaks that adorn the album cover. One minute, you are struggling to find your foothold within deep drifts of snow and ice, lumbering forever forward, toward a certain doom, aware that any misstep could be your last. The next, you are inches from supposed safety as you reach what appears to be a clearing, only to find yourself trapped against a sheer rock wall with nowhere to go but down. That might sound vague to you, I'm not sure. I can say with certainty, if you invest some time in this record, you will discover emotions you probably didn't even know you had.
     Sky Burial rely heavily on atmosphere. These songs ebb and flow through washes of deep distortion and serene melancholy. Imagine if you will, Do Make Say Think and Fall Of Efrafa jamming together as the world crumbles all around them. Imagine Neurosis signing to Constellation Records and touring with Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Basically, this is one of the most potent mixtures of somberness and rage I have heard in quite some time.
     Like I said before, Sky Burial are from Tennessee. Nashville to be exact. When I think of influential birth places for music, I often think of Tennessee. So many amazing bands have been born from that state over the years. His Hero Is Gone and Tragedy came from Memphis. From Ashes Rise and Look What I Did came from Nashville. Generation Of Vipers are from Knoxville. So many wonderful bands have come from that state to kick my ass over the years. Sky Burial are the newest addition to that list.
     I might as well give you some sort of R.I.Y.L. list: Kayo Dot, Isis, Jesu, Red Sparrows, the Ocean, Omega Massif, Asunder. That is just a partial list of the bands that may or may not have been influential to Sky Burial. Either way, this record should appeal to fans of Post-Metal, Sludge, Funeral Doom and the like.
    

Alda - Tahoma LP

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     I received a request from Replenish Records to review a couple of their releases. This new full-length from Alda will be the first of two. Alda are a crushingly epic Black Metal/Post-Rock band from Tacoma, Washington. In the band's own words they claim Pantheist-Animism, environmentalism, the Cascadian bio-region, primitivist practices and general heathenry, music and being an animal in urbanity as direct influences. That sentence seems to do a pretty good job of summing up the band's ideology. I would just like to say, thank you.
     The truth is, I don't really have a great frame of reference when it comes to music like this. I never listened to Black Metal before bands like Weakling and Wolves In The Throne Room first started playing. I have studied the history and I have read all the books and in my opinion, the first two or three waves were generally awful and overrated. Celtic Frost were talentless. Bathory was talentless. Venom was basically KISS without the groupies or connections. I am most certainly aware of the Burzums and the Mayhems and the Emperors and all that bullshit neo-fascist garbage. Shit, I have seen plenty of so-called "Anarchists" proudly wearing their t-shirts over the years. Those bands don't matter to me. None of that matters anymore.
     When talking about modern Black Metal, we need only look to the trees. This is music created out of necessity. The cities are swollen and dying and in turn laying waste to the last threads of natural land we have on this rock. Alda are the sound of Mother Nature fighting back. Imagine the ground opening wide, swallowing whole these crystal castles. Picture strong roots, rising up, reclaiming the jungles, concrete or otherwise. The oceans are boiling, the sky is growing darker with each passing day. There is little left for us to do but fight.
     Anyway, This is an excellent record. I don't see why you wouldn't like this if you have ever been a fan of modern, progressive Black Metal, Crust, Post-Metal and/or Apocalyptic Folk. Wolves In The Throne Room, Ash Borer, Embers, Oroku, Mammifer, Alcest... Yes, I am going to listen to it again. That will make this the 12th time today.

Ashes Forever - Love, Leave, Forget, Repeat

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Got a request from the band to review this one song E.P. ... Um... Holy Shit!!!


I am at a loss for words here. Ashes Forever are a two-piece from New York... They used to be called Don't Give A Fuck. I am definitely digging the name change. Um... I just don't even know what I am listening to... This is basically the sound of the end times. Take everything you have ever loved about all your favorite heavy genres, Psychotically tie them together with tiny bits of string like a schizophrenic Vietnam vet and toss them in a cauldron of boiling phantasm... You would almost come close to what this song is doing to me right now. If you didn't know this was a two-piece band, you might envision what it looked like when Pg. 99 was on stage. There is so much happening throughout the ten plus minutes of this composition. So many twists and turns. The drummer Matt is fucking killing it!!! O.K.  I am just going to go for it: Chaotic Screamo Hardcore, Metal(Post, Thrash, Power, Sludge), Industrial(Like Ministry or Atari Teenage Riot or something), Post-Punk... I don't even want to try to compare this to anything else. It isn't often a band comes around who are doing something completely different and original. I have been floored.

Esokhora - A La Volee

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Ukrainian Post-Rock with Screamy Hardcore flourishes, or Post-Screamo, or Post-Hardcore with Screamo leanings... These songs defy categorization. There have been a few other blogs that have posted this, though none of them seem to have taken the time to actually describe the record. They have all just cut and pasted the Facebook and Last.FM descriptions which I think is pretty lazy. When I first heard this, it reminded me of Envy and Aussitot Mort. The more I listened, the less I heard Envy and the more I hear bands like June Paik, Louise Cyphre or Suffocate For Fuck Sake. Basically this band can go from a sullen, barren dreamscape one moment to a raging, violent suffocation the next. They have shared the stage with other, forward thinking Screamo/Post-Everything bands like Sen Deni, Esazlesa, Date Rape and The Death Of Her Money. I love this. I am enjoying a joint right now while listening to it. I suggest you do the same.

Devil Sold His Soul - 'Blessed & Cursed'

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Oh My... OK. Let me preface this review by telling you I just recently discovered this band from the U.K. and as strange as it feels to be saying this, I am not minding these clean, sing-songy, pretty boy vocals that pop up from time to time amidst the grinding, dirging assault. Well, maybe pretty boy is pushing it. As far as clean vocals go, these guys have managed to retain enough grit that it doesn't fall into that trap of sounding like Underoath or Blessthefall or some fake Metal bullshit like that. It almost feels like those cleaner vocals are adding to the overall atmosphere of the compositions, not detracting.  Which is not something I ever thought I would find myself saying. I know... Plenty of Post-Whatever bands incorporate clean vocals in their songs. Even the traditional screamy Emo bands used a lot of melodic vocal parts to help build a feeling or mood. I am just having a hard time dealing with the glut of overproduced crap that gets passed off as Post-Hardcore or Post-Metal these days.  This band certainly gets lumped in with all these new/newish Post-Metal bands like Cult of Luna, the Ocean and Mouth of the Architect.  And while I can certainly hear and understand those types of comparisons, there is just something about those vocals that sets them apart.  Aside from the random clean parts popping up from time to time, there is this gruff, throat shredding shrieking that really brings to mind more Screamo oriented bands like Celeste, Mihai Edrisch or Madame De Montespan.  Three of my FAVORITE bands of all time!  I guess Devil Sold His Soul is huge, seeing as they have landed on Century Media. A label that seems to wallow in the shitty and could certainly use some new luck to pull them out of their quagmire of signing some of the most astonishingly awful bands in the history of Metal. Anyway, I think I can safely say, if you enjoy lulling atmospherics that lead seamlessly into raging, chaotic screaming Hardcore, you could do far worse. I also recommend checking out their earlier releases. It is quite interesting to see how this band progressed. I would also like to note that they are one band that most certainly benefited from added production.  I believe there were certain elements they were trying to address and nurture in their earlier works that just didn't translate well with the limited production.  These new songs are so lush and full of life. It is a very organic listening experience. And for that I am appreciative. Even with those pretty boy vocals.

Fall Of Efrafa-'Owsla' LP

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Just listen and learn!!  This is gloriously brutal, EPIC, crusty Post-Black Metal, Grinding D-Beat Hardcore Punk from the United Kingdom.  Not unlike mid-period Neurosis with flourishes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and maybe some Tragedy thrown in for that galloping beat.  Staunchly Atheist and Vegetarian, this band is uncompromising in their vision.  'Owsla is pt. 1 in a trilogy of records collectively entitled 'The Warren Of Snares'.  Based on the mythology behind the novel 'Watership Down'.  If you like your Crusty Hardcore with brains...