Baroness‘ Yellow & Green was an astounding record. It ended up in my top 5 on last year’s list, and I’ve kept listening to it ever since. I was super stoked to see the band tour, however, with the bus accident that left them with multiple serious injuries and even caused two members to leave the band, it didn’t look like it would happen anytime soon, save for the occasional local gig. However, the band are back!
Somewhere between the massive gritty riffing of sludge and the pissed-off fury of hardcore lies Boston’s Zozobra, a project started in 2006 by Cave In and Old Man Gloom‘s Caleb Scofield. Initially concerned with more upbeat atmospheric sludge along the lines of Baroness and Intronaut, the project has since turned towards powerviolence levels of aggression, not out of place on a playlist featuring the likes of Nails or Early Graves. The band’s new album Savage Masters — out now on Brutal Panda Records — is the band’s most aggressive and blistering album to date. Scofield wrote up a track-by-track breakdown of the album for us, which you can read below.
Anciients01. Raise The Sun
02. Overthrone
03. Falling In Line
04. The Longest River
05. One Foot In The Light
06. Giants
07. Faith And Oath
08. Flood And Fire
09. For Lisa
To simply discuss Anciients as only the sum of their parts would be to do them a complete injustice. Here on Heart Of Oak this Canadian quartet take on a sludgy sound that is equal parts technical and progressive, with bands like Intronaut, Baroness and even Opeth all being submerged and absorbed into their murky swamp waters. Still, in execution, Heart Of Oak is so much more than that, it’s a meticulously crafted and instantly satisfying piece that may be the biggest surprise of the year so far.
I’ve been keeping an eye on Anciients for a while, checking out tracks here and there, but I don’t think much could have prepared me for the vicious face-stomp of their Season Of Mist debut Heart Of Oak. Early Baroness and Intronaut collides here with more riff heavy bands like The Sword or even High On Fire, all conglomerating to a sound whose sole purpose is to dredge up the sludgiest riffs possible and clean them up to sharpen them even more.
It’s not some big surprise that Georgian sludge group Baroness were going to be having trouble getting back on their feet following the tragic bus crash that hospitalized the band and crew while touring the UK last year. Members were all sorts of cut up, bruised, and broken, but luckily they’ve been on the path to recovery. Frontman John Baizley got right back up and started playing acoustic shows left and right and continued doing his much sought-after artwork. It’s good physical rehab, at least.
Some of the other members of the group were not so ready to get back on the wagon though. Drummer Allen Blickle and bassist Matt Maggioni (far right and center right above, respectively) have parted ways with the group, leaving the guitar duo John Baizley and Peter Adams.
One thing that has always fascinated me about metal or even music in general is how album artwork can affect the way we perceive the music. For instance, the colours that have been so central to the story-line of Baroness have always been quite indicative of their approach in my mind; the striking sharp red of their debut, the slightly cooler but still extremely vibrant blue of the follow-up and the subdued and more soothing yellow and green that adorned their latest. So I was extremely intrigued by the cover art adorning Altar Of Plagues’ upcoming album Teethed Glory And Injury which is miles away from the standard ‘black and white nature shot’ that tends to be the ‘go-to’ for most bands surrounding the atmospheric black metal sound.
It’s no secret that I’m a rather big fan of the Georgian sludge metal acts like Baroness and Mastodon, but while those two bands have decided to strip away their sludgey exterior for radio rock jams and progressive metal tendencies respectively, there still remains one main Georgian sludge act that has stayed true to the heavier format. Kylesa, the Savannah, Georgia quartet (with two drummers) have always please my ears, and now that they are fast approaching the three year mark since their last full-length studio LP, they have just announced the release date and title for their next album, as well as the first single.
Not only was Kvelertak‘s 2011 self-titled debut a critically lauded and widely successful album (as far as extreme underground music can be, anyway), the artwork emblazoning the cover is somewhat iconic. Baroness‘ John Dyer Baizley outdid himself with Kvelertak, so it’s no surprise that the band would reach out to him again to create the cover art for their much anticipated sophomore followup Meir.
I was initially hoping the band would return to Baizley for this album, but now I’m not so sure. Obviously Baizley has a very specific style, but it may be running its course. A surreal collage of naked women, flora, fauna, and/or bones is essentially every Baizley piece, and it won’t be long before the these albums start looking indistinguishable from one another; a cover is supposed to stand out, not look the same as everything else. I hate to say it because I loved his past work, but I think Baizley needs to come up with some new ideas. But then again, Baizley has been in recovery from a rough accident for a while now, so he might have been limited in what he could do while his injuries healed. Perhaps he didn’t create this work of art specifically for Kvelertak, but the band wanted something from him anyway and was sold a piece that he had sitting around? It just seems too derivative and phoned in to to be an original work meant specifically for this album. Either that or I’m just sitting here sticking my foot in my mouth.
Whatever the case, the above image isn’t what we’ll see in the final released form of the album. Expect some cropping or moving some of the stuff around to make the artwork more appropriate for the size and dimensions of a typical square album cover. Hopefully whatever they do to it from here will give it a bit more of its own personality. Regardless of what’s on the cover though, the new Kvelertak album Meir jams. Expect a review of it soon (yes!) and get stoked for March 26th.
- JR
I’m not going to go on about how great 2012 was for music, because everyone of my co-writers has already done that and then some. There’s no denying it was great, so let’s just move on. I’m writing this list pretty last minute, as I’ve had my choices locked in for some time, and I thought, “Hey, I’m not confused about anything, so I can push it back as far as possible”, and that was a terrible idea, as I’m now scrambling to get this thing finished, and having a hard time really talking about why I like these albums. However, I was the one who reviewed a lot of these, so if you find what I have to say on each individual one lacking, just go read my review or the reviews of the other albums written by my fellow contributors.
Honestly though, I did not love 2012 as much as everyone else. Maybe it was the events in my personal life that caused me to have such a poor outlook on a lot of the earlier releases of the year, but it’s hard to deny the fact that I just did not connect with nearly as many metal releases this year as I did last year. It’s a shame, but not something I’ve overly thought about, because I’ve found other music to enjoy throughout the year. That being said, I did happen to find a good handful of great albums that I anticipate listening to for many years. Like I said, I’ve had my choices for my list picked out for some time, and that’s because I knew which albums I loved, and which albums I wanted to continually listen to for many years to come. I wasn’t wowed by a lot of the big name bands; I found Meshuggah and Gojira lacking a bit, which were two of my my anticipated albums of this year, but that’s okay. Sometimes you just can’t connect with certain albums. And even though metal wasn’t all that great for me this year, I still love the genre, and it’s still my favorite type of music to listen to. Anyways, that’s why I listen to metal, and that’s really all I have to say on the matter, so here’s my top ten albums of the year.
T’is that beautiful time of year again. A season of good will, understanding and compassion towards your fellow man — a time for giving, loving and appreciating. The cold may have rolled in and the trees may have shed their once vibrant foliage, but the world finds solace in the love and company of others. It’s a time to reflect on the memories of the year and plan ahead for the next.
But most of all it’s a time to listen brutal fucking metal and drink a fuck tonne of Advocaat, because 2012 was full of great releases and now’s your chance to catch on releases you may have missed or may have never even heard of. My first draft of this list was composed of 30 albums, which then shot up to 37 when I realised that I had forgotten to include EPs. Everything from new bands that came out of nowhere to blow my mind (We Are Knuckle Dragger, Bloodshot Dawn, Oddland, Exotic Animal Petting Zoo etc) to the old guard continuing their brilliant legacy (Gojira, Aborted, Napalm Death, Deftones etc) all unfortunately fell by the wayside in the ruthless culling exercise that produced this list. And I regret cutting every single one of them, but alas, if I was talk about every album this year that was great, I’d probably lose your attention pretty quickly. Who am I kidding? You’ve most likely already skipped on to the list and you’re not even reading this bit. I could write anything I want here and no one would notice. Anything at all.
