HMaM Global Mod
Post by GL on Jan 1, 2014 13:17:59 GMT -5
Well, this was certainly a refreshing turn-around. Last year, I had to fudge the list to get it to 10 choices with several at the back end that weren't all too good in any respect but I had to get the full list out, whereas this year we get a full, honest deserving 10 that are all very enjoyable. It's refreshing to note that, as well as the fact that we have several surprises here that might be quite shocking but are more than deserving to be here ranked where they are. That more than likely means last year was just a fluke and we're bound to get more good stuff coming in the years to come if the vast amount of quality found this year is any indication.
10. Soulfly-Savages
This seems to be a misprint initially to have the album be way down here after what must’ve been as strong a threesome as the band has recorded, but as mentioned before the dearth of quality releases is more than made-up for this year with an overwhelmingly strong series of candidates this time around which in turn bumps these guys back a few spaces. On the whole, this seems like most normal Soulfly albums in that there’s a strong and pronounced sense of groove and tribal, almost worldly, musicianship on display that’s mixed into a series of vicious, jagged metal tunes that appropriately mix Thrash, Death and Hardcore together seamlessly, but here where this one tends to fall is the fact that the tribal qualities that were normally used to spice things up on previous albums instead tends to dominate the album as there’s a dearth of tight, thrashy moments that are replaced with more spacious, grooved riffing with some of the tribal instrumentation taking center-stage to the point of leaving a lot of the metal off. Still, this is quality material at times and it’s got its teeth when it needs them on several tracks that are ferocious and jagged like the olden days, but it’s not enough to move up this time in a crowded list with competent offerings.
9. Feed Her to the Sharks-Savage Seas
Aussie Metalcore unit offer up their second effort, and surprise it made the list with what’s surely one of the most intriguing spots yet. Based off a more thrash-inspired attack than most other bands, there’s a level of aggression that takes this through the soaring patterns and thunderous blasting drumming that have become part and parcel of the genre in recent years, but with this savage an attack mixed with the grace and melody found within this is where it really gets to the solid points on the list where it seems like a dynamic effort all the way through the different attacks present and generally makes for quite an enjoyable, explosive offering for this kind of style and definitely deserves their placement here on a weaker back-end to the list.
8. Sepultura-The Mediator Between the Head and Hands Must Be the Heart
In keeping with an honest, time-honored tradition of judging everything fairly and giving things a chance regardless of the outcome, it’s with great surprise that not only did this make the list, it’s in the position that it is where it’s higher than the more famous counter-parts below them. This is due in no small part to what is surely the most thrash-inspired offering yet as here seems to be more of an honest effort to produce fluid, dynamic riffs like the good old days. It’s not close yet it’s definitely getting there and is certainly the bands best offering yet in this second-era of the band where it introduces more of a Hardcore stance on the traditional groove/thrash material that the band was toying with nearly two decades ago so to see them go back to those days with fast, jagged thrashers is a great sight. This is certainly a lot more dynamic with its riffing than anything they’ve tried recently and there’s a real loose association that flows throughout the album with plenty of blasting drumming to carry on throughout the whole effort as well as the spiced-up efforts to introduce the same tribal instrumentation their counterparts tried to a lesser degree and lesser success due to that but it’s at least something new. The only thing that’s still off here is the vocals, but we’re getting there, it just takes baby steps to do that.
7. Children of Bodom-Halo of Blood
After a series of pretty lame efforts that tended to sound like weak retreads of their time-woven sound, these once-unstoppable Finnish metal-heads finally deliver a solid, worthy album to the cause that seems to have been inspired in part by the recent success of countrymen Kalmah, who certainly appear elsewhere here despite playing a virtually identical style. This is still savage, speed-drenched Melodic Death Metal with dynamic keyboard/guitar interplay and ripped, hoarse vocals that has always been a part of where the band has come from, but the key difference in recent years was the abandoning of the speed in favor of tough-but-lethargic mid-tempo wrappings that weren’t all that enjoyable and we finally get one here that seems to be more about returning to the thrashing that was once customary in their albums. That also brings back a far greater sense of technicality that showed they were skilled musicians as well and could deliver the goods while displaying incredibly skilled efforts without any difficulty, and for that to come back in style here is warmly appreciated and worthy of placement on here.
6. Trivium-Vengeance Falls
Last time they placed, it was a top spot in yet another weak field and in reality, this is about where they should place as this seems to be where the band is comfortable within themselves these days. It’s not any real surprise that the band is continuing their Thrash-influenced Metalcore with thunderous drumming and a great shift between the growls and clean singing, and once again that’s really what we get once again. There’s a slight difference this time around that doesn’t stand out as much as it really should as the band has matured throughout the years which is present on minor doses here with the band giving the sense of both the technicality they employed at the beginning of their career with the streamlined, mass-appeal styled work that was apparent in their more recent stylings. There’s still numerous Metalcore moments, such as the vast amount of breakdowns, Swedish-styled riffing and those clean/harsh vocal tradeoffs all mentioned above, but finally wrapping all the packages together in one whole summation of their career is to be commended.
5. Hatebreed-The Divinity of Purpose
Gaining in their metallic influence more with each passing release, these Hardcore/Groove masters are finally able to forge these two styles together into an explosive, confident release that warrants the status of such scene veterans. Backed with the Hardcore rhythms of toughened, dueling riffs with those famous shouts atop the music with no end to the devastation laid down by the barreling drumming and energetic bass-lines, the continuing trend in the last few albums to incorporate more of a groove to their music which sounds a lot more like their contemporaries in the traditional metal scene makes it more of a listenable experience for those that don’t like the straight-up Hardcore that can get old quite easily. It can at times sound like they’ve recorded the same album a few times over but that was such a fun album to listen to it hasn’t gotten old yet and there’s still a lot to enjoy here from the familiarity they display.
4. DevilDriver-Winter Kills
As there’s no real way to say this otherwise, I wasn’t expecting this band to have lasted a decade with such a series of obstacles hindering their advancement, but having firmly found their footing over the last few albums it wouldn’t be wrong to assume another decade is ahead of them. Armed with a vicious modernized version of devastating groove metal with far more dynamic and technical riff-work than the majority of the genre’s practitioners and a bouncier, more metallic rhythm section that comes from the rather complex, dynamic drumming that’s been a part of the band from the beginning, topped off with the vicious seething, snarling vocals, and it has an overall vibe of enjoyment quite easily. Managing to incorporate the more recent trend of incorporating melody into the intensity, there’s a rather slight dip here from their past but not enough to hinder this one at all.
3. Heaven Shall Burn-Veto
One of the more destructive and devastating Metalcore acts around, these German warmongers are getting better and better the longer their around and this is certainly among their best efforts. Doused with a series of thrash riffs and an industrial undercurrent in the rhythm section as there’s a fat, heavy sound coming from the repeated rhythms of the thumping bass and devastating, blistering drumming that pounds out a series of dynamic patterns throughout this release, it serves as one of the strongest parts of the album. When placed alongside the savage, dueling guitar work that generates healthy doses of speed, technicality and various amounts of melody it really does create a healthy amount of destruction around it, and those terrifying screams merely complete the picture. This one’s here not for the originality or how creative or experimental it is like some of the others here, but rather the urgency and intensity of the music which scores so well here.
2. Kalmah-Seventh Swamphony
Wow, was this ever a scorcher of an album, and it really helps to derive the fact that these guys have hit their stride and are just really content to exploring what they’ve been doing for awhile now better than anyone could’ve expected. Basically, it’s the Children of Bodom formula mentioned earlier just dipped in extra, extra adrenaline and energy as these guys basically do the same thing only their slower tracks are still much faster than Bodom’s most speed-drenched epics. They’re fast, agile and seemingly content to whip through their paces at a tempo that makes the songs glorious and up-lifting more so than expected, with the up-front keyboards getting a fantastic opportunity to shine throughout this as they shimmer, flurry and generally add an extra bombast to the melodically-charged Death Metal that they employ with some Metalcore thrown into for some fine breaks in the material. The vocals are on-point, the guitars fire through with great abandon and the pummeling, pounding drumming makes for a grand overall package and a worthy contender to the title for the genre’s best in the year.
1. Soilwork-The Living Infinite
There isn’t a long tradition of double-disc albums appearing on my lists in the past, one for the scarcity of the tactic but also for the overwhelming majority that have tried it find it nearly impossible to keep from sounding like one solid album and a host of filler tracks to beef up the extra disc. This is only the second time this has happened and each time it was for the genres’ best spot, leaving no doubt about the first fact’s overwhelming truth, but this one manages to readily flip around the second fact by being the exact opposite as the album genuinely feels like a collection of songs that couldn’t fit on one release and had to have a second disc to contain it all. That makes for one thoroughly exhaustive experience in one sitting especially for the remarkable consistency of the songs throughout the album as this one really does have a uniform sound within of screaming Melodic Death Metal and hints of Metalcore which is mostly what they’ve been producing in their last few efforts so for the trend to get as blown-up as it does here and stay as on point as it does should be rewarded. It really could’ve been one album and the left-overs released a year later but that’s beside the point, this is the genre’s best effort this year.
10. Soulfly-Savages
This seems to be a misprint initially to have the album be way down here after what must’ve been as strong a threesome as the band has recorded, but as mentioned before the dearth of quality releases is more than made-up for this year with an overwhelmingly strong series of candidates this time around which in turn bumps these guys back a few spaces. On the whole, this seems like most normal Soulfly albums in that there’s a strong and pronounced sense of groove and tribal, almost worldly, musicianship on display that’s mixed into a series of vicious, jagged metal tunes that appropriately mix Thrash, Death and Hardcore together seamlessly, but here where this one tends to fall is the fact that the tribal qualities that were normally used to spice things up on previous albums instead tends to dominate the album as there’s a dearth of tight, thrashy moments that are replaced with more spacious, grooved riffing with some of the tribal instrumentation taking center-stage to the point of leaving a lot of the metal off. Still, this is quality material at times and it’s got its teeth when it needs them on several tracks that are ferocious and jagged like the olden days, but it’s not enough to move up this time in a crowded list with competent offerings.
9. Feed Her to the Sharks-Savage Seas
Aussie Metalcore unit offer up their second effort, and surprise it made the list with what’s surely one of the most intriguing spots yet. Based off a more thrash-inspired attack than most other bands, there’s a level of aggression that takes this through the soaring patterns and thunderous blasting drumming that have become part and parcel of the genre in recent years, but with this savage an attack mixed with the grace and melody found within this is where it really gets to the solid points on the list where it seems like a dynamic effort all the way through the different attacks present and generally makes for quite an enjoyable, explosive offering for this kind of style and definitely deserves their placement here on a weaker back-end to the list.
8. Sepultura-The Mediator Between the Head and Hands Must Be the Heart
In keeping with an honest, time-honored tradition of judging everything fairly and giving things a chance regardless of the outcome, it’s with great surprise that not only did this make the list, it’s in the position that it is where it’s higher than the more famous counter-parts below them. This is due in no small part to what is surely the most thrash-inspired offering yet as here seems to be more of an honest effort to produce fluid, dynamic riffs like the good old days. It’s not close yet it’s definitely getting there and is certainly the bands best offering yet in this second-era of the band where it introduces more of a Hardcore stance on the traditional groove/thrash material that the band was toying with nearly two decades ago so to see them go back to those days with fast, jagged thrashers is a great sight. This is certainly a lot more dynamic with its riffing than anything they’ve tried recently and there’s a real loose association that flows throughout the album with plenty of blasting drumming to carry on throughout the whole effort as well as the spiced-up efforts to introduce the same tribal instrumentation their counterparts tried to a lesser degree and lesser success due to that but it’s at least something new. The only thing that’s still off here is the vocals, but we’re getting there, it just takes baby steps to do that.
7. Children of Bodom-Halo of Blood
After a series of pretty lame efforts that tended to sound like weak retreads of their time-woven sound, these once-unstoppable Finnish metal-heads finally deliver a solid, worthy album to the cause that seems to have been inspired in part by the recent success of countrymen Kalmah, who certainly appear elsewhere here despite playing a virtually identical style. This is still savage, speed-drenched Melodic Death Metal with dynamic keyboard/guitar interplay and ripped, hoarse vocals that has always been a part of where the band has come from, but the key difference in recent years was the abandoning of the speed in favor of tough-but-lethargic mid-tempo wrappings that weren’t all that enjoyable and we finally get one here that seems to be more about returning to the thrashing that was once customary in their albums. That also brings back a far greater sense of technicality that showed they were skilled musicians as well and could deliver the goods while displaying incredibly skilled efforts without any difficulty, and for that to come back in style here is warmly appreciated and worthy of placement on here.
6. Trivium-Vengeance Falls
Last time they placed, it was a top spot in yet another weak field and in reality, this is about where they should place as this seems to be where the band is comfortable within themselves these days. It’s not any real surprise that the band is continuing their Thrash-influenced Metalcore with thunderous drumming and a great shift between the growls and clean singing, and once again that’s really what we get once again. There’s a slight difference this time around that doesn’t stand out as much as it really should as the band has matured throughout the years which is present on minor doses here with the band giving the sense of both the technicality they employed at the beginning of their career with the streamlined, mass-appeal styled work that was apparent in their more recent stylings. There’s still numerous Metalcore moments, such as the vast amount of breakdowns, Swedish-styled riffing and those clean/harsh vocal tradeoffs all mentioned above, but finally wrapping all the packages together in one whole summation of their career is to be commended.
5. Hatebreed-The Divinity of Purpose
Gaining in their metallic influence more with each passing release, these Hardcore/Groove masters are finally able to forge these two styles together into an explosive, confident release that warrants the status of such scene veterans. Backed with the Hardcore rhythms of toughened, dueling riffs with those famous shouts atop the music with no end to the devastation laid down by the barreling drumming and energetic bass-lines, the continuing trend in the last few albums to incorporate more of a groove to their music which sounds a lot more like their contemporaries in the traditional metal scene makes it more of a listenable experience for those that don’t like the straight-up Hardcore that can get old quite easily. It can at times sound like they’ve recorded the same album a few times over but that was such a fun album to listen to it hasn’t gotten old yet and there’s still a lot to enjoy here from the familiarity they display.
4. DevilDriver-Winter Kills
As there’s no real way to say this otherwise, I wasn’t expecting this band to have lasted a decade with such a series of obstacles hindering their advancement, but having firmly found their footing over the last few albums it wouldn’t be wrong to assume another decade is ahead of them. Armed with a vicious modernized version of devastating groove metal with far more dynamic and technical riff-work than the majority of the genre’s practitioners and a bouncier, more metallic rhythm section that comes from the rather complex, dynamic drumming that’s been a part of the band from the beginning, topped off with the vicious seething, snarling vocals, and it has an overall vibe of enjoyment quite easily. Managing to incorporate the more recent trend of incorporating melody into the intensity, there’s a rather slight dip here from their past but not enough to hinder this one at all.
3. Heaven Shall Burn-Veto
One of the more destructive and devastating Metalcore acts around, these German warmongers are getting better and better the longer their around and this is certainly among their best efforts. Doused with a series of thrash riffs and an industrial undercurrent in the rhythm section as there’s a fat, heavy sound coming from the repeated rhythms of the thumping bass and devastating, blistering drumming that pounds out a series of dynamic patterns throughout this release, it serves as one of the strongest parts of the album. When placed alongside the savage, dueling guitar work that generates healthy doses of speed, technicality and various amounts of melody it really does create a healthy amount of destruction around it, and those terrifying screams merely complete the picture. This one’s here not for the originality or how creative or experimental it is like some of the others here, but rather the urgency and intensity of the music which scores so well here.
2. Kalmah-Seventh Swamphony
Wow, was this ever a scorcher of an album, and it really helps to derive the fact that these guys have hit their stride and are just really content to exploring what they’ve been doing for awhile now better than anyone could’ve expected. Basically, it’s the Children of Bodom formula mentioned earlier just dipped in extra, extra adrenaline and energy as these guys basically do the same thing only their slower tracks are still much faster than Bodom’s most speed-drenched epics. They’re fast, agile and seemingly content to whip through their paces at a tempo that makes the songs glorious and up-lifting more so than expected, with the up-front keyboards getting a fantastic opportunity to shine throughout this as they shimmer, flurry and generally add an extra bombast to the melodically-charged Death Metal that they employ with some Metalcore thrown into for some fine breaks in the material. The vocals are on-point, the guitars fire through with great abandon and the pummeling, pounding drumming makes for a grand overall package and a worthy contender to the title for the genre’s best in the year.
1. Soilwork-The Living Infinite
There isn’t a long tradition of double-disc albums appearing on my lists in the past, one for the scarcity of the tactic but also for the overwhelming majority that have tried it find it nearly impossible to keep from sounding like one solid album and a host of filler tracks to beef up the extra disc. This is only the second time this has happened and each time it was for the genres’ best spot, leaving no doubt about the first fact’s overwhelming truth, but this one manages to readily flip around the second fact by being the exact opposite as the album genuinely feels like a collection of songs that couldn’t fit on one release and had to have a second disc to contain it all. That makes for one thoroughly exhaustive experience in one sitting especially for the remarkable consistency of the songs throughout the album as this one really does have a uniform sound within of screaming Melodic Death Metal and hints of Metalcore which is mostly what they’ve been producing in their last few efforts so for the trend to get as blown-up as it does here and stay as on point as it does should be rewarded. It really could’ve been one album and the left-overs released a year later but that’s beside the point, this is the genre’s best effort this year.
