The Metallurgian's Top 20 Albums of 2014

2014 was a very good year for metal. Probably a great year. Even when some albums leave you a tad to seriously disappointed, there are always records out there just waiting to blow you away. Some are easy to find because people (journalists, bloggers, your friends, etc.) can't stop talking about them, whereas others are left for you to discover if you're willing to dig deep enough. That's how I view this past year. Some of my favorites of 2014 seem to be on everybody's year-end list, while others didn't get anywhere near the attention they deserved.

Year-End Lists: Stereogum's Best Metal Albums

 While I'm finishing up my own list for the best metal albums of the year, let's take a look at what Stereogum came up with.

Their monthly Black Market column makes for a good read and always features at least a few up and comers worth checking out. A list of the 50 best albums feels like a bit much to take in, but it's worth your time. There's some good stuff to be found here.

Year-End Lists: Decibel's Top 40

While I'm still putting the finishing touches on my favorites of 2014, let's take a look at what some others are saying about the year in metal.

Decibel is the only magazine to which I subscribe, and I always look forward to getting the new issue every month. I may not always agree with everything written, but props to Decibel for remaining relevant as a print magazine in this digital age.

Temporary Slowdown

Hey metalheads, I apologize for the recent lack of posts. The last few weeks have been rather hectic - I'm about to start a new job, so I've got things to finish at the old job and things to get in order before starting the new one.
Expect some new posts in the near future as the madness calms down.

Free Metals: Eos - L'Avalé

From what I can gather, Eos is a duo out of Quebec, and that's about all I know. L'Avalé, on the other hand, is much easier to discuss, serving up 33 minutes of raw and atmospheric black metal over the course of its three tracks.

L'Avalé's most multifarious moments reveal themselves rather seamlessly as the fifteen minutes of opening track "Dystopie" play out.

Review: Myrkur - Myrkur

If Enya made a black metal record, I imagine it would sound something like Myrkur, the debut EP from this Danish one-woman black metal project. Since the mystery surrounding Myrkur's identity appears to have been solved (Amalie Bruun, a model who is also in the indie band Ex-Cops), we can now simply focus on the music, which is rather mediocre and amateur-sounding at times.

Review: Yob - Clearing the Path to Ascend

Truth be told, I never could really get into 2011's Atma, but I've rather enjoyed the recent side projects of Mike Scheidt, particularly last year's VHÖL. Yob's latest offering, however, finds the band back on top, not yet ready to relinquish their doom throne to the upstarts that are nipping at their heels.

The four tracks on Clearing the Path to Ascend come in at just over an hour, with the shortest one still over ten minutes long.

Review: Phobocosm - Deprived

Montreal's Phobocosm bring an old-school approach to death metal on their debut album Deprived, yet it doesn't feel stale or derivative. Despite forming in 2008, this is the first I've heard of Phobocosm. It appears that they've spent the last several years honing their dark craft, for this record oozes toxins and pestilence from start to finish.

Free Metals: Keeper - MMXIV

On MMXIV, California's Keeper offer up some of the heaviest, bone-crushing doom that you will hear all year. Within the first couple minutes of "Hours. Pt 1," you'll easily know whether or not this is for you. And if you like what you hear, prepare to be bludgeoned into submission for the next forty minutes or so. At times, this reminds me of Indian's Guiltless, a record from a few years back that stayed in heavy rotation for quite a while.

Review: Pallbearer - Foundations of Burden

Little Rock, Arkansas, doom band Pallbearer came out of nowhere with 2012's critically acclaimed Sorrow and Extinction. While it was a very good debut album, I had a pretty strong feeling that their second effort would be even better.

On Foundations of Burden, five of the six tracks hover around the ten-minute mark. These songs crush and crawl ever so slowly but never feel overly long or repetitive.

Free Metals: Serpents Lair - Demo MMXIV

Danish black metal band Serpents Lair released Demo MMXIV  a few months back, and if these guys keep making music like this, our future could be very dark, indeed.

Despite having only two tracks and clocking in at about 15 minutes, Demo MMXIV  is well worth your time, and if you've got time to kill, put it on repeat.

Free Metals: Old Graves - Like Straining Boughs

Old Graves is a one-man atmospheric black metal project from Abbotsford, British Columbia. If you think that maybe Alcest and
Lantlôs have gone a bit too soft lately, then Like Straining Boughs should be right up your alley.

The intro to "The Short Way Home" features an instrument not too commonly heard in black metal - the acoustic guitar. It's also used on other parts of the record, adding an extra layer of depth and emotion.

Review: The Proselyte - Our Vessel's In Need

The Proselyte's Our Vessel's In Need is a mélange of sounds with which we're all familiar, yet this five-song EP manages to make the sum of its parts come across as both fresh and genuine.

Upon hearing this Boston trio's new release for the first time, I wasn't really sure what to think. After a few more spins, however, I started to realize just how much of a grower this record is.

Free Metals: Skáphe - Skáphe

Very little seems to be known about Skáphe. The band's American, and that's about all I can find. Not sure about where Skáphe is from, how many members, etc. This self-titled release is available through Fallen Empire Records, but Skáphe doesn't appear to have any sort of social media site of its own. Skáphe plays low-fi, sometimes doomy, black metal that the record label calls "asphyxiating," and I have to agree.

Free Metals: Nolti Nan Gana Nan Nolta - Death by the Venomhammer

Nolti Nan Gana Nan Nolta hails from Edinburgh, Scotland, and plays a mixture of thrash and black metal. The band calls it black thrash and so will we. On the Death by the Venomhammer EP, the trio delivers 4 songs in just over 20 minutes, and my only complaint is that it's not longer.

Review: Panopticon - Roads to the North

Panopticon's Roads to the North can be a bit hard to pin down. Is it black metal? Is it approaching Scandinavian death metal territory at times? And what about the Appalachian folk element?

Previous full-length Kentucky put an interesting spin on black metal by adding bluegrass and folk into the mix, but Roads to the North is not simply a rehash of its predecessor. It takes everything that is Panopticon to the next level.

Free Metals: Conjuro Nuclear - Conjuro Nuclear

Imagine if M83 had grown up in Norway during the second wave of black metal. When I first heard Barcelona's Conjuro Nuclear, Joy Division came to mind, but the more I listened, the more I was reminded of a black metal M83.

Conjuro Nuclear whets your appetite for its sound with opener "Conjuro Nuclear," and for the next half hour, these eleven songs will strangely feel both old and new at the same time.

Review: Bölzer - Soma

Bölzer has been getting quite a bit of attention lately. Despite having only released a demo and the Aura EP, the Swiss(/New Zealand) death metal duo took the Maryland Deathfest by storm and has been generating more and more buzz ever since. Now comes the new Soma EP.  The bad news is that it's only two songs, but the good news is that Soma picks up right where Aura left off.

Free Metals: Wolf Blood - Wolf Blood

Just when I thought I'd heard all the bands with "wolf" in their names, along comes Wolf Blood out of Duluth, Minnesota. I'll admit that I was a bit skeptical and almost passed, but it's a good thing that I didn't - Wolf Blood is for real.

This self-titled cassette begins with "Witch," and you can tell what's in store for you pretty quickly. Wolf Blood play stoner metal with a healthy dose of sludge and maybe a hint of grunge thrown in at times.

Free Metals: Locktender - Rodin

Locktender's Rodin consists of four songs, and each one focuses on a different sculpture by Auguste Rodin. When I first came across this record and its concept, I was intrigued (mostly because of how much my wife and I enjoyed the Musée Rodin on our honeymoon) but unsure of how a band could pull off such an idea. This, however, is not Locktender's first attempt at such a feat. Apparently, this is what Locktender does - they write songs about artists and their works (Franz Kafka, William Blake, Herman Melville, Earl Nightingale, Raphael Gleitsmann).