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.