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Studio LP's:
- Opeth - Watershed: To be fair, this year it was extremely difficult to pick a clear #1. I actually toyed with numbering these first 4 albums as 1a-1d, since each one is utterly astounding. But after shirking that idea and forcing myself to really choose, Watershed clearly rose from the pack. I am at a loss to explain how the hell these guys are so damn good. Album after album, Mikael Akerfedt and co. churn out pure progressive death metal bliss, everytime setting an impossible standard, only to somehow crush it on the next go 'round. This album is no different, despite half the line-up changing since the last. Once again, Opeth take us through a world of new textures and structures, all with that classic Opeth combination of delicate beauty and thunderous roaring fury. They've somehow managed to take their monstrous sound to another level of complexity, and indeed "The Lotus Eater" and "Hessian Peel" have got to be two of Opeth's best songs of all time. The entire album is a masterpiece, thoroughly satisfying from start to finish. There is no way they can top this one. Is there?
- The Mars Volta - The Bedlam In Goliath: Talk about an appropriately titled album, this album is relentless. The first song "Aberinkula" comes flying out of the gates at full speed, and TMV takes it from there, keeping the high octane progressive rock coming almost non-stop for the full 75 minutes. Practically every song is full of unexpected twists and turns, sudden stops and just as sudden leaps back into frenzy. Seriously, you need to take a nap after listening to this album, its insane. With such an emphasis on energy, its easy to overlook the depth to this album, as I will admit I was guilty of at first. It took me several listens to really get into it, but the more I listened the more I could hear the jaw-dropping brilliance amongst the chaos. I was particularly glad to see this, after their somewhat disappointing last album, 2006's Amputechture. Its tough to ascertain whether or not this album is as good as the utter perfection that was their first two albums, Deloused In The Comatorium and Frances The Mute, but I would be hard pressed to put my finger on a concrete reason why it shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath with those two.
- The Sword - Gods Of The Earth: Since their flawless monolithic cruncher of a debut, 2006's Age Of Winters, I've been eagerly awaiting The Sword's sophomore effort. This album definitely delivers the goods, and takes a nice step forward. The thick, heavy riffs are still in full force, but they've been intertwined with some really nice progressions and smooth time signature changes. The songs feel a little bit faster and more complex. The only slight downside is that I think the production value could have been a tad better, the mix is a little off. The highs are bit too far up in the mix, everytime there is a flurry of cymbals, its kinda right up in your face. But no matter, its one juggernaut of an album.
- Meshuggah - obZen: After being blasted for programming the drums instead of playing them live in the studio on their last two releases, 2003's EP I and 2005's Catch Thirty-three (both dubbed by the band as "experiments"), Tomas Haake and crew return with a vengeance on obZen. This is, in my opinion, Meshuggah's best album to date, the uncompromising raw power and drive of Chaosphere infused with the textures and subtle finesse of their recent experimentation. The slick delivery yet undeniable punishing force of such tracks as "Combustion", "Bleed", and "Pravus" showcase what could possibly be the pinnacle of Meshuggah's brand of progressive math metal. If they ever find a way of putting out an album that tops this, it'll probably kill me.
- Supercontinent - Vaalbara: I have to give a shout out to Soundweave for introducing me to these guys, hailing from the great city of Ann Arbor, MI. This album delivers some brutal post-metal fantasticness, akin to early Isis or Pelican. Also like early Isis, its mostly instrumental, although not entirely, as rough shouty vocal snippets work their way in here and there on about half of the songs. Its not a perfect album by any means, but for a debut release its incredible. I would say its better than Pelican's Australasia and not quite as good as Isis' Celestial. That's some pretty heavy company, I expect good things from these guys.
- Russian Circles - Station: RC's previous release Enter, was a monumental feat of instrumental metal perfection. And while that kind of debut sets impossibly high expectations, this sophomore effort holds up reasonably well. It has some slightly longer mellow passages than what they featured in the first album, which balance out nicely with the heavy winding riffage. Its not the classic album that Enter is, but its still an admirable effort.
- Cranium - Phantasmagoria: OK, now this is a FUN band. Instrumental, heavy, fast, progressive, jazzy, and executed with a total disregard for time signatures. I challenge anyone to find one single measure of 4/4 anywhere in this album (or in their previous album Pragmatics, for that matter). These guys are sometimes hard to keep up with, but you gotta love that kind of energy.
- Metallica - Death Magnetic: As I detailed in fairly thorough fashion with my review of the album, a lot of emotional baggage came with this one. The album most certainly has its flaws, but for me it signified enough of a positive turnaround for the band that I felt it deserved to crack the top 8. Ah, the eternal hate-yourself-for-still-hoping type of optimism that only a true Metallica fan can appreciate.
- Steven Wilson - Insurgentes: I am a HUGE fan of Porcupine Tree, for which Wilson is the front man and main song writer, but I have never been much into any of his side projects. This album, however, did pique my interest a bit. There are a couple standout tracks that could easily have fit in on a Porcupine Tree album, but much of the album is a bit more mellow and ambient. Its definitely a mood album, and its pretty rich with texture. Its not anything that I will probably put on often, but its an interesting effort worth hanging onto.
- Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Calibration: Omar's solo stuff does tend to be a bit more bizarre than his work with The Mars Volta, but this one is essentially a TMV album on electronic acid. Its a pretty fun listen if you can sit through the passages of electronic weirdness, although I would say that its still not as good as his previous solo effort, Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo.
- This Will Destroy You - This Will Destroy You: This is their second album, and, like their first, its not a bad effort but its nothing amazing either. While I like their style, which is in a similar vein as bands like Explosions In The Sky and Mono, I find that their execution still falls short of the standard set by the likes of those two bands. But its solid enough effort to hold onto and throw into the mix
- Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV: While I have not been a fan of Reznor's material in a long time (see The Slip below), I will give him credit for this project, a double-disc consisting of 36 short minimalistic instrumental tracks. Its a bit repetitive and won't get a ton of play, but it does show Reznor's long-lost ability to create some eerily haunting yet soft and spacious tones. Interesting enough.
- Autechre - Quaristice: Slipping this album down to 13 is not intended as a slight, I'm just naturally not that into electronic music, particularly recently. Autechre has typically been an exception in this regard, and this album is definitely interesting. After several albums of long, mind-bending, obtusely evolving songs, this one is a bit simpler and more organic, with a greater number of shorter songs showcasing a variety of styles.
- Nine Inch Nails - The Slip: Also winner of the "Biggest Completely Predictable Disappointment" Award. I don't know why I keep giving Reznor's albums the time of day. I haven't loved anything by him in over a decade, but something in me keeps on hoping.
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Studio EP's:
- Agalloch - The White: As with the studio LP's, this was a tough choice. Either of these first two could have been #1, but I decided to go with the Agalloch EP simply because its a bit more of an impressive endeavor. Agalloch is no stranger to haunting, natural textures, but they really nail it here. Most of the album is fairly minimal, mostly accoustic and instrumental, with well-placed eerie tones and audio clips. There are no thunderous drums or heavy passages, like what Agalloch typically tends to build up to. Overall, its mellower, with more of a focus on conveying a feel, a mood. It all has a bit of an experimental feel, and in my opinion the experiment is a resounding success.
- Red Sparowes - Aphorisms: This easily could have been my #1 pick, and its possible that brevity, if nothing else, is what relegated this one to the second spot. This EP consists of 3 songs, all in the 5 to 6-minute range. And while I would not exactly call this a departure from the typical Red Sparowes style, it does have an increased sense of maturity. The band showed great promise on their first album At The Soundless Dawn, and displayed impressive growth on their second full lenth, Every Red Heart Shines Toward The Red Sun. This EP continues that trend, showing the band's ability to flow from melody to melody in an organic fashion, transitioning between highs and lows smoothly and with purpose. If this is any indication, their next full length could be a monster.
- The Company Band - Sign Here, Here, And Here: Featuring Clutch's Neil Fallon on vocals, this 4-song debut EP indeed could be easily mistaken for Clutch at first. These songs are fairly straightforward rockers, similar to Clutch's slightly earlier work, before incorporating a heavy dose of Hammond-driven bluesiness into their style. Its a slightly simpler sound, but refreshing and fun all the same, its just good solid rock. I will definitely be interested if this side project carries on in the future.
- Tides/Giant - Tides/Giant Split: Mainly, I bought this because I really like Tides. The material here is nothing groundbreaking for them, but its well executed. The 2 Tides songs are typical of their style, one 10-minute'ish slowly developing work of heavy instrumental post-metal goodness paired with a shorter, lighter track. As a bonus, the 1 song by Giant is fairly good too, I may check them out in more depth someday.
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Live Albums:
- Between The Buried And Me - Colors Live: This might be the most impressive live album I've ever heard, simply because I never would have expected a band to replicate such a punishing and dynamic style as well as BTBAM does here. Everything is in perfect balance, the heavy high-tempo parts, the lighter passages with keys, clean vocals, growling death metal vocals, the incredibly dynamic drumming, the fast-pace guitar solos. Honestly, if you were to blindly jump into the middle of one of the tracks, you'd have to listen for a bit before you could tell whether it was the original studio album or this live recording. The DVD footage is stellar, truly capturing the high-octane energy of a live BTBAM set. In addition to covering the entire work of perfection that is Colors, the band plays a second set of 6 songs chosen by the fans, all performed with the same gusto.
- Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Live In Japan: This accoustic duo completely blows me away, I can barely keep up. In this set, they roll through much of their debut album, as well as a couple covers, solos, and other songs. Its impressive to hear them replicate their intricate yet extremely fast style live, especially all the percussive elements they create by wacking on the body of the guitar while playing. The sound quality is astounding, and the playful interaction between the pair and the audience is nicely captured. The package also includes a DVD, which contains an interesting short documentary, as well as some video footage of a couple songs from the performance.
- Clutch - Full Fathom Five: This is a pretty solid set, available in both CD and DVD form, with just a couple track differences between the two. As always, the performances are high-energy and flawlessly executed. Happily, the mix is a bit better than the last two live albums they released from a couple shows in Australia last year. I would say this set still is not as good as my favorite live Clutch album, Live In Flint, Michigan, but its still more than satisfying for any Clutch fan.
- Porcupine Tree - We Lost The Skyline: A gorgeous in-store performance performed mostly solo by Steven Wilson. The 8-song set covers a fairly wide span, reaching all the way back to The Sky Moves Sideways. Unfortunately, he had to go and throw in "Lazarus", but that is more than made up for by awesome renditions of "Stars Die", "Trains", and "Normal". "Normal" is a shortened version of the original, but the performance is mind-blowing, and it features a pretty funny anecdotal lead-in. Its easily my favorite track on the album.
