THKD’s Top 10 Metal Albums of 2016

Long-winded intros are for jabronis, so without further ado and in no particular order, THKD nails the lid shut on 2016 with a list of ten metal albums that grabbed a hold of my crank and kept on yankin.’

THKD’s Top 10 Metal Albums of 2011

WARNING: The following year end rant contains numerous piss poor attempts at humor and a healthy dose of cynicism.  Reader discretion and a grain of salt are advised.  THKD cannot be held responsible for anyone suffering from a severe case of butt-hurt as a result of exposure to this rant.  Thank you for your support.

Azarath – Blasphemers’ Maledictions (Witching Hour, 2011)

What the fuck is going on in Poland?!  I can only assume that the water supply has been tainted with the blood of Lucifer, because the country is responsible for some of 2011’s gnarliest metal albums.  The likes of Stillborn, Vader and Iperyt have all managed to rip my head off repeatedly this year, but there is one band among their Polish brethren that blows them all out of the water.  That band is Azarath.  Blasphemers’ Maledictions is their fifth album, and I’m quite ashamed to admit that it’s also my first exposure to them.  But after listening to this recording thoroughly and repeatedly, I can tell you that you needn’t be familiar with their back catalog in order to know that Azarath is creating some of the most devastating (not to mention most addictive) black/death metal out there today.

Vader – Welcome to the Morbid Reich (Nuclear Blast, 2011)

I hate the term “meat and potatoes death metal”.  I’m not sure who originally coined it (keep an eye out for this person, as they need to be tarred and feathered, stat) , but I hereby move to have this ridiculous piece of jargon forever expurgated from the metal reviewers’ lexicon.  Not only does it exemplify lazy journalism and a lack of capacity for real critical thought, it states the blatantly obvious.  All death metal should have meat on its bones (I’m not sure where the potatoes come in).  It should be raw and bloody and hanging from stainless steel hooks and chains.  It is the music of carnivores and cannibals.

Poland’s Vader are one of the bands that gets wrongfully saddled with this obnoxious term on a regular basis. One would think that being genre pioneers and nearly thirty year veterans of the scene would garner a bit more respect, especially when they’re still capable of unleashing some of the most potent death metal around.  Indeed, the quartet’s ninth studio album, Welcome to the Morbid Reich, is a prime cut of death metal beef.  There isn’t an ounce of fat or gristle to be found anywhere amidst its thirty-seven minute running time, and the music is appetizingly rare and juicy.  It’s one of the most satisfying slabs of DM to show up on the chopping block in 2011, the type of album you can really sink your teeth into.

Alright, I’ll dispense with the silly meat analogies, as I’m sure you’ve all gotten the point by now.  What’s really interesting about Vader is their consistency and unwavering dedication to death metal, traits which are abundantly apparent on Welcome to the Morbid Reich.  According to Metal Archives, the band formed in 1983, and even though guitarist/vocalist Piotr Wiwczarek is the only remaining original member, the fact that the band has stuck to their guns and has released stellar material on a regular basis across nearly three decades in spite of ever-changing musical climates, about a million lineup changes and personal hardships (not to mention the fact that Poland was a part of the Eastern Bloc during their formative years) is beyond impressive.  In this respect, Welcome to the Morbid Reich (whose title references one of the band’s early demos) can be seen as celebration of everything that makes Vader great.

What makes Vader so great, you ask?  First and foremost has to be intensity.  By surrounding himself with a lineup of younger musicians, Wiwczarek has kept Vader lean and hungry, which undoubtedly plays a key role in maintaining the relentless assault of Welcome to the Morbid Reich.  Of course, it could also have something to do with the fact that Wiwczarek clearly hasn’t lost any of his own personal intensity and youthful exuberance for death metal; listening to the album makes it seem quite possible that he had no choice but to hire youthful musicians, as it’s hard to imagine his fellow forty-somethings being able to keep up with him on tracks like “Only Hell Knows” and “Don’t Rip the Beast’s Heart Out”.

Intensity is nothing without craftsmanship.  I’ve espoused the virtues of craftsmanship many times in previous reviews, but it is particularly important to address in the case of Vader.  I think we can all agree that Vader’s approach to death metal has evolved little over the years, and while some might equate this with stagnation, I beg to differ.  The fact of the matter is, Vader perfected their sound roughly a decade ago (see 2000’s mighty Litany) and everything they’ve done since has arguably been an attempt to hone and maintain that high level of craftsmanship.  Welcome to the Morbid Reich doesn’t push any boundaries because it doesn’t have to; there’s no need to evolve when you’re already an apex predator.  Vader have wisely chosen to continue to follow their hearts and write great songs in the process, from the smoldering skull-crush of “Black Velvet and Skulls of Steel” to the blistering high-speed bloodbath of “Decapitated Saints”.  Indeed, the band’s knack for penning sharp, concise and headbangable death metal is truly unparalleled.

Welcome of the Morbid Reich is also quite stellar from a production and playing perspective.  The album sounds dark, dense and crunchy as hell without falling victim to the over compression and poor mastering jobs that plague modern metal.  New guitarist Spider brings some serious shred to the table and Paweł Jaroszewicz’s drums have never sounded so full and organic.  Piotr’s rhythm guitar-work is as tight as ever and his vocals are still the heavily accented hell-furnace bellow that Vader fans have come to know and love, if anything it’s gotten even more gnarly with age.  The recording bristles with a calculated precision, yet retains a high degree of warmth and emotion that’s sorely lacking in much of today’s cold ‘n’ clinical death metal.

At this point it’s safe to say that Vader are more than just a band, they’re a death metal institution.  Defiant longevity, quality songwriting and an unwillingness to bend or break in the face of multitudes of obstacles and naysayers has secured them a throne amongst the unhallowed halls of the death metal elite, sitting atop the broken bones and shredded carcasses of a zillion lesser bands.  Welcome to the Morbid Reich is yet another jewel in their collective crown, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that their sound is anything but mere “meat and potatoes”.

Stillborn – Los Asesinos del Sur (Ataman Productions, 2011)

Being previously unfamiliar with Poland’s Stillborn, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when the folks at Godz of War Productions (the band’s PR reps) offered to send me the band’s latest album, Los Asesinos del Sur.  However, knowing full well that Polish metal has an uncanny tendency to kick copious amounts of ass (see: Vader, Behemoth, Azarath, Iperyt, Graveland, Decapitated, etc), I couldn’t resist the opportunity to potentially add another name to my list of elite metal practitioners hailing from the country.  If Los Asesinos del Sur is any indication, Stillborn not only deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as their more well known countrymen, they’re also damn near the top of the heap.

Stillborn’s approach to death/black metal can be likened to that of a mixed martial arts fighter.  The band hits hard and often, alternating between clubbing blows and precision strikes.  The songwriting is sharp and tightly coiled, but often explodes into flurries of violence.  Clocking it at just a little over thirty minutes, the band switches up its attack frequently throughout the album’s ten tracks, making it difficult to determine when and where they’ll hit you next.  Get in, kick ass, get out is the philosophy of Los Asesinos del Sur.  There isn’t an ounce of fat to be found here, songs such as “Hymn of Destruction” “Antonym” and “Kot Wolanda” last just long enough to break bones, rip tendons and fracture skulls.  When the band does stretch songs out past the three minute mark, as on “Blood and Dust” and the title track, they’re still all muscle, never deviating from their intention to inflict as much pain as possible.

To put things in more musical terms, Los Asesinos del Sur is an exercise in concise songwriting with an extremely high level of craftsmanship.  Stillborn are able to fit more cool, crushing riffs into a two-minute-and-forty-second song than most bands are able to muster in twice that amount of time.  Given the band’s nationality, it seems natural to assume that Stillborn learned the lessons of brevity and badass-ness from Vader, but the quartet are by no means a carbon copy of herr Piotr Wiwczarek and Co.  Instead, Stillborn plays a hybrid of a black and death metal that’s largely all their own, leaning more heavily to the death metal side of things in terms of power and production, but seething with pure malevolence and hatred (and the occasional tremolo riff) that most certainly comes from black metal.  In this respect, the sound is probably closer to Behemoth, but Stillborn come off as leaner, meaner and hungrier than Behemoth have been in years.

An album as devastating and ambitious as Los Asesinos del Sur can’t be viewed as anything other than a statement of intent.  The intent is to put other bands on notice. No more resting on your laurels or coasting on your reputations.  No more pretentious, self-indulgent songs and bloated, overly long albums.  No more “Radikult” and no more bullshit.  Stillborn have arrived and they want you fucking dead.

Abominations of Record Collection Domination…

Over the weekend, I picked up a used copy of Napalm Death’s Smear Campaign. While preparing to file it in my CD rack, I noticed that I now owned nine total releases from Napalm Death. This, combined with a recent article about bands with very long discographies, got me thinking, which bands/artists do I own the most releases from?  I decided to take stock of my music, including all physical formats and all types of releases (EPs, singles, collections/best-ofs, etc) to see which bands dominated my collection.  In my estimation, the results were not particularly surprising…

Darkthrone – 15
Danzig – 14
Misfits – 12
Six Feet Under – 11   (I like them, fuck off.)
Johnny Cash – 10
King Diamond – 10
Megadeth – 10
Napalm Death – 9
Cannibal Corpse – 8
Metallica – 8
Neurosis – 8
Vader – 8

Darkthrone, easily my favorite band ever at this point, leads the pack.  However, if you study the results and analyze them further, things get more interesting. Technically, my favorite singer of all time Glenn Danzig dominates with a whopping 22 releases if you combine the Danzig total (14) with the number of Misfits releases I own where Danzig was the vocalist (8).  Danzig’s total jumps up to 24 releases if you include my Samhain boxset and the Black Aria album.  If you really want to stretch, throw in my Danzig VHS and you’ve got the undisputed king of my music collection at 25.

Chris Barnes’ much-maligned Six Feet Under comes in 3rd with 11 releases owned.  I’m bound to get flack for this since about everyone I know seems to hate this band.  But, there is something about their bludgeoning, uber-simplistic sludge-laden caveman death metal that I love, and fuck you if you can’t understand me.  Mr. Barnes’ total increases to 14 if you include the Cannibal Corpse albums I own that he sang on (3).

Johnny Cash obviously sticks out like a sore thumb here, but I’m not afraid to admit that I have been fond of classic-style country music since high school, which started with Johnny Cash’s American Recordings series and working backwards to At Folsom Prison.  I am from the Midwest after all.  My grandmother’s favorite singer was the great Patsy Cline, so a little of that was bound to rub off on me.  I’m glad that it did.

King Diamond and Megadeth tied with Cash for 5th place.  I’ve loved Megadeth since junior high, so I’ve had plenty of time to pile up their releases (I’m excited to finally be seeing them next week, even if it is just MegaDave and some hired guns, but that is neither here nor there).  King Diamond took me a while longer to embrace, but once I did he quickly became my second favorite metal vocalist behind Danzig.  Of course, much like Danzig, ol’ King jumps up several spots if you include my Mercyful Fate stuff, which would bring his total to a fairly impressive 17. Only falsetto is real.

In my opinion, Napalm Death are one of extreme metal’s most consistent bands, and have not lost any of their potency over the years in spite of stylistic evolution and a lack of original members.  I can always rely on ND when I’m in the mood to get some aggression out and headbang myself into a severe neck-ache.  Even their so-called “experimental” phase has its merits and all their albums are pretty much essential.

Finally, we come to a 4-way tie between Metallica, Neurosis, Cannibal Corpse and Vader.  Four bands that in my opinion couldn’t be more different from one another.  Neurosis is probably one of the greatest and most important metal bands to come out of the ’90s and I wouldn’t mind picking up the rest of their releases.  Metallica is one of the bands I listen to the least these days, but of course their discography (specifically the early releases) is heavy metal bedrock and pretty much essential to any collection.  As for Cannibal Corpse and Vader, well they’re basically my two favorite straight-up classic death metal bands so I’m bound to own a lot their releases, although I still have several more albums to go for each one.  Again, the theme of consistency pops up, since I can’t think of many DM bands with more consistent discographies than Vader and Cannibal.

So how about you guys?  Which bands do you own the most releases from?  Are there any of you out there that have ridiculously obsessive collections of a single band? What does it say about you as a fan/listener? Tell me about it.