Leased Wurst Ov Twenny Twelv

I resisted making a "best of" list last year, thinking that it was just too normal and expected.  I just decided on a whim (which is how this blog was started) that it might be fun to look over my past year's picks.  Here they are!  I narrowed them down to 10 and consider them all pretty equal in quality.

Inside Project - A History of Violence

Slaughtered Priest - Confess Your Sins

Lento - Anxiety, Despair, Languish

Atheos - The Human Burden

Trollfest - Brumblebassen

When Tigers Fight - Death Songs

Martyrdöd - Paranoia

Diskord - Dystopics

Unleashed - Odalheim

Horrendous - The Chills

No Zodiac - Population Control

What a nice surprise this was.  No Zodiac are purveyors of Heavily Death Metal influnced Beatdown Hardcore.  The grooves run slow and thick as tar, with enough blastbeats and thrashy moments to keep tensions high.  The considerably seismic guitar tone (I'm guessing A-tuning?) will surely devastate any yuppies or hipsters within a 50 foot radius.  The vocals are a bit run-of-the-mill and could use more neanderthal fury, but they get the job done.  This is what I wish the Xibalba full-length sounded like.  Smash all your Bane and Comeback Kid cd's.  This is the real shit.

 

rigor mortis of the ass

Teloch - Morbid Prayer

Black Metal done in true Norse tradition.  To me, Morbid Prayer sounds half way between the epic, melodic style of early Gorgoroth and the primitive hammering of Darkthrone.  The atmosphere and production are near-perfect for the style.  The songwriting is a bit understated, but works very well.  You all know that prefer the unusual and progressive, but there's always room for humble, traditional offerings.

smells like bigfoot's dick

Lotus Fucker - Forever My Fighting Spirit

A mix of olde tyme hardcore styles covered by a cloud of vicious distortion.  A fusion of familiar American hardcore with the D-Beat/Raw Punk battery of the Swedish and Japanese.  I hear some faint Nordic Black Metal influence, but maybe that's just coincidental.  Sometimes it's up-tempo, sometimes it's rigid and minimal, but always harsh and grimey as the DC/Baltimore streets that birthed it.

ride the snake

Risk - Dirty Surfaces

Remember when I posted Risk's second album?  That was almost a year ago now, which means it's been long enough to post their third (and best) album: Dirty Surfaces.  Everything that you liked (or hated) about Hell's Animals can again be found, only more refined this time.  Here we see Risk picking up the pace and showing that they're a real Thrash band and not middle of the road fence-sitters.  The technicality and lyrics have also been improved making this record better than it's predecessors in every way.

surf westphalia!