Lord Mantis - Pervertor

It's been far too long since Lord Mantis offered a follow-up to their crushing debut, Spawning the Nephilim. The Chicago sludgesters' last output was a hulking mass of putrid sludge that pummeled listeners, but the album as a whole was a little light on creativity. That doesn't seem to be the case with Pervertor, that band's latest work. I haven't heard the entire album yet, but based on the half-dozen tracks I've managed to get my hands on this thing is primed and ready to fuck you up. Razor sharp guitars, drums that grind like one of those backhoes with the jackhammer attachment, and vocals that will literally peel the paint off your walls, Pervertor might be the best sludge album we hear all year. Prepare yourself.



Lord Mantis - At the Mouth

P.S. The vocals at the 1:27 mark are fucking crazy.

Can I just say, fuck technical death metal (for the most part).

This attitude was spawned after reading positive reviews of the new Psycroptic album, The Inherited Repression (yes, I agree that's a stupid title). I gave it a spin and guess what? It's fucking boring. It's basically an exercise in guitar masturbation, and I could barely get through half of the tracks before I had to turn it off and spin some Thou to remind my brain what real metal sounds like.

Psycroptic aren't the only band guilty of hate fucking their listeners to death with widdly-woo solos and hyper blasting drums. Decrepit Birth, Origin, Neuraxis, and countless others have all succeeded by basically doing the same shit. What blows my mind is the fact that a lot of tech death bands get rave reviews from rags like Decibel and BW&BK, but never have I read a tech death review that points to the obvious; this shit is basically impossible to reinvent.

When I think about it, the only tech death band worth listening to is Ulcerate and that's because they abandoned their fappish shred tendencies in favor of slowed down, well paced songwriting. That's really what it comes down to, songwriting. Ulcerate's last album, The Destroyers of All, was great because it was a sludge album with blast beats. They reached outside of the genre box they occupied for years and became something totally different. When I look at bands like Psycroptic I see the same album repackaged and re-released over and over. We get it, you know how to play sweeping solos. How about writing a fucking hook? I know a lot of you might think I "just don't get it," but I do (or at least I'm going to pretend like I do, because fuck you). It just bums me the fuck out that people jump on board with this style.

This is my opinion, take it or leave it. Also, go buy the new Thou 10" To the Chaos Wizard Youth.

Beardo's Top 40 Metal Albums of 2011

Every December I hear people say the same things regarding the releases that came out over the preceding 11 months; "This was a shitty year for metal *cry cry cry*" Well fuck you. Every year is a good year for metal if you know where to look. To all the haters who are more content bitching about the fact that the new Wintersun album still hasn't dropped, shut your goddamn maws! 2011 was a great year for metal, and the following list proves it.

40. Mitochondrion – Parasignosis

39. Agoraphobic Nosebleed/Despise You – And on, and on… Split 12”

38. Primordial – Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand

37. Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All

36. Blut Aus Nord – 777 Sect(s)/The Desanctification

35. Drainland - …And So Our Troubles

34. Ravencult – Morbid Blood

33. Morne – Asylum

32. Trap Them – Darker Handcraft

31. Seidr – For Winter Fire

30. Wolvhammer – The Obsidian Plains

29. Today is the Day – Pain is a Warning

28. Fyrnask – Bluostar

27. Antediluvian – Through the Cervix of Hawwah

26. Thou – The Archer and the Owle

25. Batillus - Furnace

24. Heartless – Hell is Other People

23. All Pigs Must Die – God is War

22. Negative Plane – Stained Glass Revelations

21. Circle of Ouroborus  - Eleven Fingers

20. SubRosa – No Help For The Mighty Ones

19. Trash Talk – Awake

18. Hammers of Misfortune – 17^th Street

17. Atriarch – Forever the End

16. Corrupted - Garten der Ubewussthelt

15. Mournful Congregation – The Book of Kings

14. Lycus – Demo 2011

13. Bell Witch – Demo 2011

12. Wreck of the Hesperus – Light Rotting Out

11. Aosoth - III

10. Disma – Towards the Megalith - Disma dropped a modern death metal classic on our asses this year. Towards the Megalith is a cavernous slice of primal death that makes all of your Black Dahlia Murder albums sound like the soundtrack to Love Actually. 

9. YOB – Atma - The masters of doom delivered the goods in 2011. A strong follow-up to 2009's monolithic The Great Cessation, Atma sees YOB channeling Hawkwind a little more than usual and to great effect.

8. Blasphemophagher – The Ill Command of the Absolute Chaos - Pummeling black death from my favorite Nuclear War Now! band. Words don't do this level of chaos justice. 

7. False – False - 2 twelve minute tracks? Fuck yeah. False accomplished more in two tracks than most black metal bands (Liturgy) could accomplish writing a dissertation. 

6. Indian – Guiltless - Crusty, doomy, noisy, and oh so satisfying. Indian put all the pieces together to form the perfect representation of their sound. Guiltless is a crusher from start to finish. 

5. Ash Borer – Ash Borer - Cascadian black metal done right. Hollow, dark, and beautiful. Ash Borer deserved way more attention than they got in 2011.

4. Barghest – Barghest - Containing members of Thou, Barghest play second wave inspired black metal. The debut album from this NOLA collective is addictive as fuck.

3. Gridlink - Orphan - John Chang rules. Gridlink rules. Grindcore rules. Orphan rules. 

2. Bosse de Nage - II - Post black metal that doesn't play by the rules. Bosse de Nage destroyed the confines of their genre and created something completely new. II is a force to be reckoned with.

1. Wolves in the Throne Room – Celestial Lineage - WITTR finally delivered their masterpiece. Celestial Lineage is the culmination of everything WITTR have ever done right. This album is truly transcendental, and deserves your undivided attention.

 

So there you have it, a great year for metal as illustrated by my spot on list.