It’s hard to believe we’ve already reached the end of another year packed tighter than Joey de Maio’s loincloth with incredible genre-pushing, eardrum-violating, neckache-inducing metal.
So we can begin to tell the story of a year which saw us give more top marks than any other year so far (and more 2’s and 3’s out of 10, too!), a year that left us inundated with so many great releases, we sought the opinions of our esteemed and respected writing team and we offer forth their albums of the year.
The countdown to the Official Ghost Cult Magazine Album of the Year for 2014 has commenced. Please consume and enjoy the results of our 2014 Writers’ Poll. We hope it will introduce you to some of the incredible works of art you may have missed that we have had the immense pleasure of listening to and writing about this year.
In our first installment we bring you albums 50 through to 41.
50. HARK – Crystalline (Season of Mist)
Genre-bending aggression with doses of Doom, Prog, Psychedelia and Hardcore. Heavy as a very heavy thing.
49. THE HAUNTED – Exit Wounds (Century Media)
“The album is filled with urgency and manages to be relentlessly heavy without compromising on those insanely catchy riffs. The Haunted have come back stronger than ever… easily the band’s best effort a decade” DAN SWINHOE 9/10 Full review here
48. THE WOUNDED KINGS – Consolamentum (Candlelight)
“Favouring lengthy yet subtly evolving guitar workouts that never lapse into repetitive dirge territory,The Wounded Kings go about working their dark, smoky magic with grim elegance… Simply put, The Wounded Kings are the quintessential English doom band “ JAMES CONWAY 8.5/10 Full review here
47. SCHAMMASCH – Contradiction (Prosthetic)
“The quality of this album is obvious right from the beginning. Schammasch have created a record both challenging and endlessly refreshing, a truly remarkable sonic journey from beginning to end.” CAITLIN SMITH 9/10 Full review here
46. AUTOPSY – Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves (Peaceville)
“Tourniquets… continues in gnarly, raw and near sludgy death metal vein, but maintains their run of high quality and in fact tops anything that has come from their return.” CHRIS TIPPELL 8/10 Full review here
45. KROKODIL – Nachash (Spinefarm)
“With a heavy dose of Mastodon in its veins, Krokodil are a groove juggernaut that pummels all in its path with its three guitarists of fury” DAN O’BRIEN 9/10 Full review here
44. INTER ARMA – The Cavern (Relapse)
“The sheer gravity and fulminating power of much of the music here is oppressive yet it carries the weight easily, this blend of raw animal force, aching melody and immeasurable creativity marks out this fantastic band” PAUL QUINN 10/10 Full review here
43. DEVIL YOU KNOW – The Beauty of Destruction (Nuclear Blast)
“(with) all the promise of a powerhouse, and it delivers on all fronts. The songs are well-crafted, nicely developed and excellently executed.” LYNN JORDAN 9.5/10 APRIL ALBUM OF THE MONTH Full review here
42.BLUES PILLS – Blues Pills (Nuclear Blast)
“…a record that understands and curates its heritage and lineage but is fresh, contemporary and massively memorable. This is the record that you’ll be recommending to your friends for months to come” MAT DAVIES 9/10 Full review here
41. ARTIFICIAL BRAIN – Labyrinth Constellation (Profound Lore)
“Technical death metal with sci-fi themes, brilliant, utterly amazing, breath-taking and challenging from the first to the last second.” TIAGO MOREIRA 9.5/10 Full review here
Compiled by Steve Tovey
Pestilence mainman Patrick Mameli isn’t the type of guy who minces words. Ever since he reformed his band back in 2008 it’s been an uphill battle. While Mameli likes to stay in the present many long time Pestilence fans prefer to stick with the band’s classic early 90s material. Obsideo (Candlelight Records), the band’s latest album, is a particularly solid release. Ghost Cult caught up with Patrick and talked with him about the new album, staying true to your musical vision and discussed the rampant conservatism within death metal as a whole.
Throne Of Katarsis have been active since 2002, however, for those not in the know the fact that two of their four members also play in Gehenna should speak volumes about what to expect from these Norwegians. They are traditional black metal in every sense; from the raw production, to the cold sound, right down to the ethereal and slightly creepy atmosphere created by each of their songs.
Sadgiqacea harness the power of legendary bands such as Isis and Neurosis but match it with the sludgy progressive genius riffs that would make Mastodon and Baroness proud to call their own. That is only half the story as Sadgiqacea adds ambient style noises to the mix along with a dose of gloomy reality.
As a man of many talents, Vegard “Ihsahn” Tveitan has long drawn inspiration from many genres of music which has ensured the works of both seminal Black Metallers Emperor, Folk project Hardingrock, the classically inclined Peccatum and his sprawling progressive solo work have all remained at the forefront of innovation.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Scandinavian folk metal, but when a band enters drawing from their own heritage rather than relying on Vikings and Thor, it’s like the first breath after choking. Mael Mordha is that breath of air. Hailing from Dublin in Ireland, this four-piece take their love of doom and throws in a hefty dose of Gaelic folk music. Their interest in Irish heritage doesn’t stop with the music though, from their lyrics right down to their name itself, everything is tied in with ancient Irish events.
Can a mix of grind, punk and thrash ever be melded into a serious record? King Parrot’s Bite Your Head Off seems to answer with a resounding no! Placing an inverted crown in their logo and the potential Darkthrone reference with Blaze in the Northern Suburbs makes the evil in this album more B-movie than Beelzebub. With only one song touching the three-minute mark on this album, the guys have done a great job crafting each song into a short sharp onslaught. Almost as soon as you get into the groove of a song you are immediately hurled into the next, with eleven songs crammed into a mere twenty minutes in true grind style.