The Metal Thread Genre • Page 315

Did anyone hear Palm's album this year - To Live Is To Die, To Die Is To Live?

I highly recommend it. Crusty/grindy stuff ala Nails or Trap Them, but with some Hatebreed beatdowns and even a tiny bit of At The Gates-esque melodeath too. Plus, produced by Taylor Young. Weird but awesome.

 

Alright, so... I've expanded my original AOTY list to be a Top 100. A lot, I know, but I'm pretty extra and I loved a lot of shit this year...

1. Pig Destroyer - Head Cage
2. Vein - Errorzone
3. Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
4. Jesus Piece - Only Self
5. Cane Hill - Too Far Gone
6. Psycroptic - As The Kingdom Drowns
7. Harms Way - Posthuman
8. Yashira - Shrine
9. Cult Leader - A Patient Man
10. Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
11. VEXES - Ancient Geometry
12. Conjurer - Mire
13. Portrayal Of Guilt - Let Pain Be Your Guide
14. High Tension - Purge
15. Outer Heaven - Realms Of Eternal Decay
16. Leeched - You Took The Sun When You Left
17. Harakiri For The Sky - Arson
18. Behemoth - I Loved You At Your Darkest
19. Sevendust - All I See Is War
20. Dodsrit - Spirit Crusher
21. Aborted - TerrorVision
22. At The Gates - To Drink From The Night Itself
23. Pagan - Black Wash
24. Rivers Of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name
25. Fucked & Bound - Suffrage
26. Super Unison - Stella
27. MOL - Jord
28. Palm - To Live Is To Die, To Die Is To Live
29. Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It
30. Alice In Chains - Rainier Fog
31. Svalbard - It's Hard To Have Hope
32. Polyphia - New Levels New Devils
33. Wiegedood - De Doden Hebben Het Goed III
34. Turnstile - Time & Space
35. Mammoth Grinder - Cosmic Crypt
36. King Nine - Death Rattle
37. Lifesick - Swept In Black
38. Black Tongue - Nadir
39. Genocide Pact - Order Of Torment
40. Sinsaenum - Repulsion For Humanity
41. Soul Grip - Not Ever
42. Secret Cutter - Quantum Eraser
43. Will Haven - Muerte
44. Unravel - Eras Of Forfeit
45. Homewrecker - Hell Is Here Now
46. Endless Swarm - Imprisoned In Skin
47. I Am - Hard 2 Kill
48. Azusa - Heavy Yoke
49. Joy - No Light Below
50. Mongrel's Cross - Psalter Of The Royal Dragon Court
51. Bruise - Grief Ritual
52. Baptists - Beacon Of Faith
53. Candy - Good To Feel
54. Nightmarer - Cacophony Of Terror
55. A Perfect Circle - Eat The Elephant
56. Primal Rite - Dirge Of Escapsim
57. Red Apollo - The Laurels Of Serenity
58. Sectioned - Annihilated
59. Skeletonwitch - Devouring Radiant Light
60. Vamachara - Despondent
61. Wolf King - Loyal To The Soil
62. Of Feather And Bone - Bestial Hymns Of Perversion
63. Burn In Hell - Humanity Plague
64. Bone Church - Bone Church
65. Frontierer - Unloved
66. Gorod - Aethra
67. High On Fire - Electric Messiah
68. Ill Natured - Twisted Visions
69. KEN Mode - Loved
70. Mindforce - Excalibur
71. Afgrund - The Dystopian
72. The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
73. Crippled Black Phoenix - Great Escape
74. Anaal Nathrakh - A New Kind Of Horror
75. Glacial Tomb - Glacial Tomb
76. Graf Orlok - An Examination Of Violent Cinema, Vol. 1
77. Respire - Denouement
78. Sigh - Heir To Despair
79. Tomb Mold - Manor Of Infinite Forms
80. Uniform - The Long Walk
81. Sinistro - Sangue Cassia
82. Obscura - Diluvium
83. Khorada - Salt
84. In Vein - Currents
85. Horrendous - Idol
86. An Autumn For Crippled Children - The Light Of September
87. Birds In Row - We Already Lost The World
88. Tribulation - Down Below
89. Uada - Cult Of A Dying Sun
90. Violet Cold - Sommermorgen, Pt. 1: Innocence
91. Agrimonia - Awaken
92. The Armed - Only Love
93. Gillian Carter - This Earth Shaped Tomb
94. Forming The Void - Rift
95. LLNN - Deads
96. Mantar - The Modern Art Of Setting Ablaze
97. Morne - To The Night Unknown
98. Oceans Of Slumber - The Banished Heart
99. Ostraca - Enemy
100. Ghost - Prequelle

 

I really like the newest God Complex ep.

 

It's pretty good, but I feel like parts of it are just kind of a Harms Way/Code Orange copy. That said I have high hopes for them on a full-length...

 

Yeah it was a bit of good timing for them in that they came on a playlist of recommendations and I rarely check those out.

 

I didn't even like 100 albums enough this year to make a list like that, even considering non-metal genres. Actually that's been true for several years

 

I mean look, I work a corporate office job where 85% of my responsibilities are drone work. 60% of my time week to week is just void space, so aggro music helps a lot and I cycle through many bands and releases. 2018 was just a great year for great heavy music.

 

Honestly I hate recommendation playlists because I'm too self-controlling with my music taste. I rarely find any of those playlists that I like because I'm way too up my own arse about this shit.

 

It was a great year for heavy music. I'm just saying I don't think I care enough to list 100 albums lol. At that point I'd just be listing albums I listened to rather than really enjoyed.

 

Thats a very valid point. I surprised myself with the amount of stuff I enjoyed that much.

 

It's funny, this year I really have no clear-cut favorite AOTY that stands above everything else. In 2016 it was Eternal Champion, last year it was Power Trip. This year I branched out more than previous years, and as a result I ended up listening to a wider range/more genres than ever before. If I had to pick one right this second, I'd probably go with Varathron. Over the next few days, I'm going to be very intentionally revisiting some of my favorites of the year to narrow it down a little more.

Also, this is always a good end of the year list. A list combining the rankings of 87 different publications to create one massive list:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Metal/comments/aajhie/list_of_lists_the_best_heavy_records_of_2018/

 

YASHIRA Drummer Seth Howard Killed in Car Crash

RIP

 

That Varathron album is top tier, I mean not god-tier like their album Walpurgisnacht, but exceptional nonetheless.

Also since I have seen no one talk about this album, the album that dropped from Altar of Perversion this year is criminally underrated.

Intra Naos, by Altar of Perversion

 

Late here but fuck me, Rest In Power. Such an amazing band and I hope that when they're ready, if ever they are, they can come back strong as hell. But of course that's on them and its nobody's place but their's to decide that.

 

Vegans For The Recently Deceased: Jona Weinhofen in vegan controversy

Fuck his past coming back to haunt him, the present's hitting him like a ton of bricks!

Also the guy who threw shade on him and Oli Sykes in one go - absolute class act.

 

I forgot I Killed The Prom Queen was a thing until just now. Ugh. Thanks for a reminder by being a jagaloon, Jona.

 

So much elitism and racism to unpack from one bad Tweet about Asian food.

Reminds me of why I'm embarrassed to tell people I'm vegan..

 

Putting that behind a spoiler as it's my "official statement" on my albums of the year. I did quite a colorful write-up for my standards.

 

Really enjoying the Frontierer and Sectioned albums.

 

So good. Reminds me so much of Ion Dissonance. Also rad that they share members.

 

Yeah, the singer is the only difference I believe and Frontierer is not really a touring band as singer lives in the states while the rest of the band is in Scotland.

 

Ah I did not know that. Well at least there's hope I could get to see Sectioned live down under sometime!

 

Here's a really solid blackened thrash/speed metal release from Knight Terror out of NYC.

FFO Midnight, Venom, Hellhammer

 

https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/ev3wdn/in-2018-death-metal-reigned-supreme

 

Northwest Terror Fest 2019 Lineup Announced

Spirit Adrift, Dawn Ray'd, Dead to a Dying World, Wolfbrigade, Iskra, Thantifaxath, Indian, Pig Destroyer, Cloud Rat, Bongripper, and Gadget? Damn. Might have to think about flying out to Seattle for this one.