Nautilus

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2008

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

Without further ado, the list for 2008.

Cynic: Traced in Air

A reunion album 15 years after their debut, it's surprising these masters of jazz fusion-inspired progressive technical death metal haven't lost their roots. Instead, they've stuck to the original formula, and over a decade and a half these accomplished musicians (some former members of the legendary Death) evolved and refined the style significantly. As John A. Hanson of Sputnikmusic wrote (giving the album a perfect score),

While some may have expected the 15 years and band member changes to perhaps cause a giant shift in sound which would have caused either a renaissance or a dilution of Cynic’s sound, all that happened in 15 years was the maturation of Paul Masvidal, Sean Reinart and Sean Malone to the point where Traced in Air sounds like the older, futuristic, spacey cousin of the already futuristic, spacey Focus. Which means it's arguably the weirdest metal album released this year, and almost undoubtedly the best.

The vocals are strange, the death growls making some appearances, but mostly sticking to the computer-like clean vocals they had on the debut album. The music is complex and simultaneously brutal and beautiful, as Hanson noted in his summary, "Traced in Air is essentially the audible recording of the element of Air, in all of its beauty and rage, and one could not ask for anything more." My only complaint is the album is incredibly short (like its predecessor), clocking in at little more than 34 minutes. Top tracks include "The Space for This," "Integral Birth," and especially "Adam's Murmur."

Gojira: The Way of All Flesh

Technical death metal is the order of the day here, and these French masters of the genre also include progressive, thrash, and groove metal elements in their fourth studio album. The lyrics deal with death and its place in the cycle of life, and as always with this band, the environment. I can't praise it enough, so I'll let Chad Bowar of About.com help:

The Way Of All Flesh is a complex effort that takes a few listens to fully unravel and appreciate. Gojira's sound blends death, progressive and thrash metal, and they add a few industrial parts on this CD as well. Some tracks are dense and technical, with waves of riffs and pummeling blast beats that are brutal and intense.
Other songs leave a little more room to breathe, with mellower progressive sections and groovier riffs. The Way Of All Flesh has a lot of diversity in tempos, textures, intensities and song lengths that help keep the listener fully engaged at all times.
There are shorter, focused songs in the 3 to 4 minute range, and more epic and complex tracks like "The Art Of Dying," which clocks in at nearly 10 minutes. . . .
Vocalist Joe Duplantier has a distinctive sound, and his death metal vocals are both intense and understandable. He's brutal, but also uses excellent technique that makes it a bit more accessible. . . .
With The Way Of All Flesh Gojira cements their place as one of the elite bands in extreme metal.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Top tracks include "Oroborus," "The Art of Dying," and "Vacuity," though there is no low point in the record.

Metallica: Death Magnetic

With the help of legendary producer Rick Rubin, the all-time kings of metal return to their thrash metal roots. As I noted previously, the album is definitely their best since Master of Puppets, and quite possibly their second best album ever. It combines the ferocity and power of their early work with the polish and maturity of their later work (St. Anger excluded, though I still think that album deserves its place in their catalog). The Wikipedia article notes something of interest: "The album is the band's fifth consecutive studio album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 in the United States, making Metallica the first band ever to achieve five consecutive number one debuts." That's impressive, but not nearly as impressive as the album itself, which is completely and uncompromisingly heavy, replete with the band's legendary guitar solos. Critically, it's almost universally accepted as Metallica being Metallica again, their best work in at least two decades. My favorite track is "All Nightmare Long," but the only track I can't see as a staple of their live sets is "The Unforgiven III."

Be sure to add your picks for the remaining two 2008 albums in the comments, and come back next week for the last post in the top 50 albums of the last decade, 2009, a year still fresh in memory. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

No. 2208

The Trumpeting Wildebaarq

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2007

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

As I said last week, my list for 2007 has some picks which are very different from those already on the list. So let's get to it.

The Dillinger Escape Plan: Ire Works

You might guess I like strange music, having picked Disillusion last week, and you'd be right. Yes, Dillinger are a metalcore group, but they are the best kind of metalcore: mathcore. While there are some accessible, almost 90's pop punk style moments, these don't serve to make the album mainstream at all. Instead, they seem to emphasize the abrasiveness of the rest of the album. The sound is extremely complex and abrasive, the way I like it, but it's not just aimless complexity. It all makes sense. Both rock magazine Kerrang! and extreme metal magazine Decibel gave the album perfect scores. My top picks include "Black Bubblegum" (which combines mathcore with a dance tune), "Milk Lizard" (which includes brass), and "Horse Hunter" (which is highly counter-intuitive, yet still works).

Symphony X: Paradise Lost

Up until this pick, I have neglected to include any power metal, and I'm sure any European readers were foaming at the mouth over that. I'm not a huge fan of the genre, although I do have some favorites (Brainstorm, Firewind, and of course Iced Earth). Hopefully the inclusion of this progressive symphonic power metal band will help (even if they are American). Anyway, the album is epic in concept, epic in scope, and epic in execution. It's absolutely brilliant, from the Carmina Burana-like opener "Oculus Ex Inferni" to the dramatic closer "Revelation (Divus Pennae ex Tragoedia)" which clocks in at 9:17. The vocals are some of the best in power metal as well. The band seems to have backed off the symphonic part of their work a bit, as it had been accused of derailing their music before, and the result is breathtaking: Rather than overwhelm the metal or make it wimpy, the symphonic elements merely emphasize it (much like on a certain Norwegian band's album I picked for 2003). A truly excellent album.

Volbeat: Rock the Rebel / Metal the Devil

These Danes have a unique approach to heavy metal: They combine it with 1950's style rock music (a la Elvis). The approach which could be seen as part of the larger "retro metal" movement, but I object to any comparison which puts them in the same box with the likes of crap like Wolfmother; no, Volbeat's approach is a fusion genre, not a return to a prior metal style. The juxtaposition of styles creates a stunning result, with the seemingly wholesome elements of the 50's rock, including both musical and lyrical elements, twisted into a scary metal interpretation. This is in evidence on top tracks such as opener "The Human Instrument" (which takes a twist on all those I-love-her-but-she-doesn't-know-it 50's songs), the aggressive love song "A Moment Forever" (which includes scatting), the murder story (including a wrongly-accused husband) "Mr. and Mrs. Ness," and especially the mythical "River Queen."

I hope you enjoyed my picks for 2007. Be sure to add your picks for the other two songs for 2007 in the comments, and come back next week for 2008, where I go back to some death and thrash. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

Black Widowers stories by Isaac Asimov

According to the Wikipedia article:

The Black Widowers is a fictional men-only dining club created by Isaac Asimov, for a series of sixty-six mystery stories, which he wrote starting in 1971. . . .
The stories always follow the same convention: the six club members and a guest sit down to dinner, served by the incomparable waiter, Henry Jackson (almost invariably referred to as simply Henry). During the meal it always comes out that the guest has a problem which varies from the personal to actual crimes. The club members try to solve the problem, raising various issues in the course of the conversation but are unable to come to an actual conclusion. In the end, it is Henry, who is highly-regarded by the club members, who provides the correct, and usually very simple, answer, obtained from aspects of the conversation. Asimov intended them to always follow that pattern.

I recently read my second out of the six published collections of these stories (or five and a half, maybe).

I enjoy these stories a great deal. They are very light reading, something to be taken up when you've just finished something heavy (I had just finished The Dispossessed when I picked this one up). While I sometimes don't think the solutions to the mysteries are fair--they can rely on outside information Asimov assumes everyone has--I still enjoy the manner in which the stories are told, through the interactions among the members of the Black Widowers. In all, the series warrants a score of 3 out of 5 stars.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! In honor of the holiday of love, I would like to direct you to "The Gax of Life, a romantic comic by the author of one of my favorite comics, David Malki!. (Yes, his name is spelled with an exclamation mark.) It is hilarious beyond all reason. An excerpt:

It's an important step in one's life when you stop simply taking whomever is drawn in by your horrific squeal and start following your heart.

You do have a heart, right? Or some equivalent organ?

No. 2147

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2006

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

On to the list for 2006.

Amon Amarth: With Oden on Our Side

With their sixth full-length album, these experts of melodic death metal don't do anything they haven't done before. Rather than reinvent the wheel, they have refined it. And why not? Consistency has worked for other greats (see for example Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Exodus, and the list goes on) while innovation has backfired on others (obvious examples include Danzig and Metallica). Refinement is the word of the day for Oden, with the band beautifully blending the brutality of death metal with engaging melodies in ways unmatched by any other practitioners of the Gothenburg style. The standout tracks on the record include "Valhall Awaits Me," "Runes To My Memory," the title track, and especially "Gods of War Arise," though there is not a weak track in sight.

Disillusion: Gloria

Yes, Metal Blade had a good year in 2006, with two releases making the list, this one from the strange German avant-garde progressive industrial melodic death metal band Disillusion. Yes, the genre listing is a mouthful, but these guys draw from a wide variety of influences to create something entirely new and engaging. Eduardo Rivadavia from Allmusic elaborates:

Surely one of the most intriguing CDs that heavy metal fans will hear in 2006, Disillusion's sophomore effort, Gloria, uses the group's death and thrash metal roots as mere springboards from which to launch into extremely varied realms of sonic experiment; including alt-rock, industrial, electronic, gothic, ambient and classical tendencies -- all more or less held together under the always convenient, but never entirely functional, description of prog metal. Which is to say that its unexpected twists and turns may prove too eclectic for any but the most open-minded of listeners, and that the thrill of the adventure itself is as central to the experience as the actual music.

My personal picks include "The Black Sea," "Aerophobic," and "Save the Past," though it's so eclectic I doubt any two people would share the same favorites from this disc.

Mastodon: Blood Mountain

I simply can't heap enough praise on this album. It actually took me a few listens to really "get it," but after I did, I realized this is truly a once-in-a-generation triumph (much like Master of Puppets from 20 years prior). These masters of progressive sludge metal taught me, among other things, that drums do not have to be mere background to the music, and they have restored faith in the American metal scene. Praise is nearly universal; according to the Wikipedia article,

Total Guitar magazine voted it its Number One album of 2006, and magazines such as Metal Hammer and Kerrang! have stated that it is every bit as good as the band's previous album Leviathan, if not better. . . .
Blood Mountain was voted the best album of 2006 in the UK Metal Hammer magazine end-of year polls, as well as top in Total Guitar magazine's top 50 albums of 2006. It was also rated the 17th greatest metal album of all time by a countdown recently done by gaming website IGN.

Such disparate sources as PopMatters ("Mastodon has certainly held up its end of the bargain, releasing the most uncompromising major label debut by an American metal band since Metallica’s Master of Puppets and Slayer’s Reign in Blood two decades ago"), Absolutepunk.net, and Drowned in Sound have given it stellar (or perfect) reviews. The whole album fits perfectly together, each track seeming to introduce the next perfectly. The writing of the individual tracks themselves, too, is amazing; each one is built on a simple framework, but with intricacies overlaid which rival even Dream Theater's most progressive moments. Top tracks include opener "The Wolf Is Loose," the dramatic and ominous "Sleeping Giant," the wildly embellished "Capillarian Crest," and the phenomenal "Colony of Birchmen." The only bad thing I can say about it is that I don't understand why, in the age of MP3 players, anyone would have a hidden track anymore--These things are annoying, when incorporated into another track (we don't want blank time on the album, and we didn't even want it on hard copies either).

Be sure to add your picks for the remaining two top metal albums of 2006, and come back next week to see mine for 2007, which has choices much different from the albums already on the list. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

No. 2246

Fear Factory: Mechanize (2010) Review

Fear Factory's new album Mechanize just came out, and since I'm home with a little guy who has an ear infection I've had some time to listen to it.

The good news is vocalist Burton C. Bell is back--so it's true Fear Factory again, something we haven't heard in almost a decade. To tell the truth, I haven't been interested in anything from the group since his exit.

Musically, the album is mostly in the vein of 1998's Obsolete, sticking to the industrial groove metal they know best--but with added elements of melodic death metal. It's as if they're saying, "Fear Factory is back to stay, and we're going to be heavier than ever." As always with this group, the drumming is what really makes it work, and the inclusion of the legendary Gene Hoglan makes it better than ever I remember. The album does have its "soft" moments (which aren't really all that soft), but those are saved for the end, just in case you want to stop it early.

Lyrically, I wish Bell had stuck completely to the dystopian, mechanical visions of the future rather than dealing with real issues such as religion (or he could sing in a different language or in a death growl so I can't understand him). He can't even get a philosophy which makes any sense, on one hand saying God is a lie ("Christploitation") but on the other being concerned about his soul and praying ("Final Exit"). If I understood it wrong, I can't be bothered to find the lyrics.

As a side note, I'd like to tell everyone my philosophy on lyrics: I'd rather not be able to understand them. Ideally, a vocalist will sing in a dead language like Middle English, Old Norse, Latin, or Ancient Greek. Second best is a living language I can't understand. If neither of those works, vocals in an incomprehensible style are fine as well. Fourth best are lyrics which are so vague or abstract they don't make any sense, fifth best are lyrics I can agree with, and sixth best are lyrics I don't agree with but aren't stupid. In dead last place are stupid, comprehensible lyrics in the English language, so congratulations Bell--despite your enjoyable vocal style, you hit dead last on lyrics.

Aside from the lyrics on a few of the songs, this is a very solid album, and the drumming brings it up a notch from prior Fear Factory releases. The album definitely deserves 4 out of 5 stars.

Aardragon

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2005

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

On to the list for 2005.

Candlemass: Candlemass

These Swedes practically invented doom metal, and though they released a lot of less impressive albums in the late 80's and the 90's, they reunited with early day vocalist Messiah Marcolin to release their best album since 1986's Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. (It's only too bad he left the band soon after, and they proceeded to record lackluster material again.) This is epic doom at its finest, as evidenced by such dramatic tracks as opener "Black Dwarf," the "War Pigs"-like "Copernicus," and most especially the brilliant "The Day and the Night."

DevilDriver: The Fury of Our Maker's Hand

Though he started with nu metal band Coal Chamber, and this band's first album sounded mostly like more of the same, Dez Fafara had come a long way by 2005. Specializing in the heavier, faster melodic death-inspired groove metal favored by many groups of the new wave of American heavy metal (see, e.g., Machine Head and Lamb of God), these guys stand out from the crowd. Dez still has all the energy and charisma he always had, but now he has a much heavier, more credible band to match it (though I have always liked Coal Chamber, one of the heavier nu metal bands of its time). The obvious stand-out track is "Hold Back the Day."

Soilwork: Stabbing the Drama

And speaking of melodic death metal, and Swedes, Soilwork also makes the list with their most innovative and experimental album (at least up through 2005). Allmusic's Eduardo Rivadavia explains:

Extreme enough to convince some of the genre's more suspicious fans of their authenticity to the cause, they've also excelled at flirting with its more mainstream sensibilities, and, like every release before it, 2005's Stabbing the Drama is no different. Like a hyper-efficient assembly line, its songs connect components of the band's hometown melodic death metal to elements of neo-thrash velocity, to metalcore's innate simplicity, to even -- gasp! -- sketchy nu-metal devices (see "Weapon of Vanity," "Distance") in order to construct a well-lubricated driving machine that's ever compact and economical.

As always, be sure to add your picks for the other two top metal albums of 2005, and check back next Friday for 2006. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

Rob Zombie: Hellbilly Deluxe 2 (2010) Review

Rob Zombie's newest album, Hellbilly Deluxe 2, came out today, and I'll be one of the first to get my thoughts out there (instead of waiting a year as it seems I usually do).

On the whole, it is a pretty standard Zombie album, which I think is what we really want from him. It's not really a musical continuation of 1998's Hellbilly Deluxe as it's billed, but instead is more in the vein of 2006's Educated Horses. It starts out with "Jesus Frankenstein," certainly one of his better tracks, and one which perfectly illustrates Mr. Zombie's clever sense of humor and knack for riding the edge of self-parody. "Sick Bubblegum" is both catchy and needlessly profane, so some will like it while some won't. It seems it's the only one with a lot of profanity, and was likely written that way to earn the "explicit" label. "What?" combines the circus obsession of early Zombie efforts like "Grease Paint and Monkey Brains" with the style he first explored on "The Scorpion Sleeps," and also adds an element of Ministry's "Jesus Built My Hotrod."

The first weak spot on the album is "Mars Needs Women," a thoroughly boring track, repetitive and unimaginative musically as well as lyrically. But things quickly pick up again with "Werewolf, Baby," a song which reminds me of "(Go To) California" and "Never Gonna Stop" from 2001's The Sinsiter Urge (my favorite post-White Zombie album in his catalog).

"Virgin Witch" and "Death and Destiny Inside the Dream Factory" come next, tracks I could do with or without.

"Burn" follows, a solid rock 'n roll style song with vocal embellishments not unlike scatting. It is a thoroughly enjoyable listen, and will likely please anyone who's a fan of "Foxy, Foxy." Next is "Cease To Exist," a more slow-rolling song and one without any parallel in Zombie's catalog.

My favorite of all, in terms of the humorous images conjured, is "Werewolf Women of the SS," built on the premise the Nazis engineered, well, werewolf women. It's also musically satisfying. Finally is "The Man Who Laughs," a song that it seems Zombie has done several times before--but there's no reason to change it up too much.

As I said, it follows in the vein of Horses rather than one of Zombie's better albums. It definitely has its high points, but it has enough low points in it to hurt the final result as an album. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

No. 2203