Here It Is - The Top Albums of 2017

Another year, another chance to partake in our society’s two favored pastimes – the ranking of things, and the arbitrary judgment of subjective arts.  That being said, let me of course follow with the usual tongue-in-cheek rigmarole about how this list is the definitive list of all the lists you will read, blah, blah, blah.  Oh, and Chris’ list is right, too.  How does that work, when we don’t have a single album in common?  The answer is, it’s our blog.

In all honesty, perhaps more this year than in year’s previous, what I bring to you should not necessarily be taken as unmolested gospel for the best albums of the year.  What you, gentle reader, should glean from this is that these are what I thought to be the best records of the year, and I firmly believe that they are worth your time and exploration.  You may or may not agree with my choices, but let’s have that conversation, and the only way for us to start that conversation is for one of us to make a statement.  Therefore, this is my statement.

The rules, as frequent readers have come to know them, are brief and as follows: all entries must be original studio material.  No live albums.  No compilations.  No cover albums.  No re-releases.  Oh, and I do a top 11, because, say it with me now, it goes to eleven.  That’s pretty much it.  Without further preamble, let’s get to it:

EP of the year: Charcoal Tongue – “24 Hours: My Deterioration”

I’m taking a page from Chris’ book here and declaring and EP of the year, because there were a number of them worth mentioning, and it doesn’t always feel fair to judge an EP against a full album.  Unless that EP is Nine Inch Nails’ “Broken,” it’s hard to go up against records of full sample size.  But that by no means lessens the quality of Charcoal Tongue’s effort, which is very raw but full of promise, as they send out cascades of rock and metal at full bore into your speakers.

Honorable Mention – Serenity - “Lionheart”

Listen, I don’t want to sound all pompous, but I often feel like I’m ‘done’ with power metal as a genre.  Like, most of the bands sound similar to me, the records are similar, and the songs all follow the same progressions and arcs.  Don’t get me wrong, there are many I hold dear, but more often than not, I hear a new power metal record and I shrug and go on about my business.  Serenity’s “Lionheart,” managed to grip my attention several times, and each time I thought I knew what was going to happen next, the band would mix in some new, powerful riff that snapped me right back to attention.

#11 – Life of Agony – “A Place Where There’s No More Pain”

This album is here because of what it is, but also because of what it represents.  From a musical standpoint, it’s a more mature, careful Life of Agony, but that brings it with it a new paradigm, a pleasant shift from the fury of their youth.  It’s well designed and expertly executed.  It also represents the accomplishment, at least in part, of a marginalized segment of the population.  At the risk of making a political stand, no one should be marginalized because of who they are.  There’s a lot of that going around, and it needs to stop.

#10 – ELM – “Dog”

Every year, there’s an album that cracks my list because it throws all the rules of style and convention forcefully out the nearest airlock, and plays music solely based in grit, piss and vinegar.  And for all the artistic vision of the other albums on this list, ELM sits here proudly in blatant defiance of that.  Their record is noisy, overdriven, disorganized, and a pure joy to listen to.  The music is so fuzzy it makes you feel like you’re chewing on a mitten.  And I love it.

#9 – Dead Quiet – “Grand Rites”

In stark contrast to the comparative miasma of ELM up above, Dead Quiet’s “Grand Rites” is a slow-burning, trippy, rising tide of music that gradually consumes your senses with its weird but infectious combinations of drawn-out harmonies, rocking melodies and authentic vocals.  Don’t ask me to put my finger on exactly why I like this album, just know that I do.

#8 – The One Hundred – “Chaos + Bliss”

And we’ve officially hit the first album that requires some specific punctuation if you want to google the title.  I honestly don’t know if rap metal will ever make a comeback, but if it does, this could well be the form it will take.  The One Hundred do an excellent job of combining some of the tenets of that genre with a more mainline take on alternative metal, and a healthy dose of hardcore thus mixing three sounds ranging between forgotten and stale into something new and novel.  The creativity and dare I say bravery of this effort lands it in this spot.

#7 – Ember Falls – “Welcome to Ember Falls”

We’ve talked about this a lot through the years, but one of the private and unexpected joys of being a music journalist is those rare occasions when you find something that’s different.  In some ways, this is superior to even finding an album you really like.  This album came out early in the year, and every time I thought about if I had a totally unique listening experience this year, my brain returned to Ember Falls.  Not only is this a quirky record with a lot of different genre mixing and oddly matched cadences, but it’s actually fun to listen to, which separates it from the crowd of albums that want to be different just to be different.

#6 – “Galaktikon II: Become the Storm”

It’s not quite Galaktikon, and it’s not quite Dethklok.  It is, in fact, an amalgam of both, equally representing Brendon Small’s ability to be melodic and forceful in his musical explorations.  There’s probably not a lot I can say here that you at home don’t already know.  This is a great record, and it still strikes me as interesting that one of the year’s best metal albums came from a guy who isn’t necessarily part of the inner metal circle.  There’s a lesson there, to be sure.

#5 – Power Trip – “Nightmare Logic”

The one great thrash record of the year was a really great thrash record.  These upstarts from Texas exercised all the right lessons when constructing this album – great riffs, lot of open space to let them breathe, percussion that has an accurate sense of when to push the pedal and when to lay off.  In a year where thrash spun rather in circles and couldn’t get out of its own way, Power Trip took the flag and ran with it.

#4 – Troubled Horse – “Revolution on Repeat”

I think I finally have this album properly rated.  When I first heard it, it passed by me without much though, but by some Providence, I kept coming back to it.  I spent a month in Waco, Texas one week this summer, and this album was a frequent companion on my travels and travails.  Now that we’ve settled into the winter, I think this is where the record fits in the grand scheme.  Rock fans will love it; it’s loud, it’s tight and the message is on point.  If Graveyard wasn’t going to release an album this year, this is the next best thing.

#3 – Nachtblut – “Apostasie”

And now we come to what might be the most ‘fun’ album of the year.  Which is odd only because so much of the record’s imagery lingers around skulls, darkness and bodies painted black.  I don’t know, maybe I’m reading it wrong; I don’t care, if I'm wrong, I like my version better.  Anyway, there’s a lot of power on this track, and the German band finds ways to integrate the best traits of KMFDM, Rammstein and Combichrist into one gleefully raucous experience.  The riffs are catchy as hell, the drums pound like hammers and the contrasting pacing in the songs between the gothic leads and the industrial walls of noise is perfect.  Bonus points for the band’s cover of the German pop song “Was Ist Denn Los Mit Dir.”  The album would made it on this list without it, but having it just puts it over the top.

#2 – John 5 and the Creatures – “Season of the Witch”

In the history of my year-end top ten lists, there have only been two albums to crack the rankings while not featuring a single lyric.  This one, and John 5’s previous album “Careful With That Axe.”  Unlike so many other virtuoso guitar players, John is trying to not just entertain with his impressive skill, but write songs that actually have movements and sound like songs people would want to listen to.  His variety of styles doesn’t hurt, as he bends from rock to metal to country to ballad and occasionally mixes them with great success.  Part of what made the old “Tom and Jerry” cartoons work so well is that the artists had an amazing ability to tell stories without words.  It’s a rare talent and John 5 taps into that same vein, though through a different medium.

#1 – The Midnight Ghost Train – “Cypress Ave”

No album this year has me coming back to listen to it again and again more than this one.  Robert Heinlein has a great quote in his book “Time Enough for Love” that concludes with “Specialization is for insects.”  Midnight Ghost Train, off the strength of their very solid previous album “Cold Was the Ground,” adamantly refuses to specialize, exploring six or seven different musical idioms within their one album.  They can play rock, blues, metal, hip-hop with brass accompaniment, ballads of hurt and songs of praise.  They are, in turn, comedic and campy and angry and cautious and chastising and thoughtful.  All of that occurs on “Cypress Ave,” before you even get to the best part.  The album’s final cut, “I Can’t Let You Go,” as powerful an expression of the combination of blues and metal and pure songwriting as has ever been recorded.  It’s the best song of the year, on the best album of the year.  If you ignore everything I’ve said up to this point, then I urge you to take heed of this record.  It’s that good.

Album Review: The Midnight Ghost Train - "Cypress Ave"

Well, ain’t this new and different?

The last time we saw The Midnight Ghost Train, they were an effective but nevertheless straight-ahead, up-and-down sludgy metal band, populating their lyrics with beer and the misgivings of adventurous youth. Their previous album, “Cold Was the Ground” was Clutch on steroids, bold and unrestrained by the tempering of that other band’s jam influence.

Now this…..

This is, in layman’s terms, fucking great.

“Cypress Ave” purposefully keeps a close watch on the gas pedal, never applying too much pressure and allowing the car to roll down the street with a dangerous slow burn, prowling along with a rumbling engine rather than screaming down the lane with coal-burning stacks.  We set the pace early with the measured thump of “Tonight,” a song that is both temperamental and yet careful not to give in totally to the promise of unbridled ferocity.

The albums brims with this kind of maturity, whether the dirty nastiness of “Bury Me Deep,” (which, as an aside, reminds us all that Midnight Ghost Train hasn’t forgotten how to deliver a solid masher,) or the punk/thrash roots of an instant crowd favorite like “Red Eyed Junkie Queen.”

It happens again and again throughout the album’s length, culminating in “The Echo,” a blues-y roll up of genre tropes which knows when to punch hard and knows when to fall back to create anticipation.  Worth noting – fans of a certain age (sigh, that includes me,) may hear the opening desert guitar strains and instantly start to call to mind memories of “The numeric transmission five-triple-zero was received, without interruption, for eight full days….”  (if you don’t know what we’re talking about: to the Google machine!)  This kind of meticulous song writing shows a development on the part of Midnight Ghost Train that many may not have seen coming, and arrives as a remarkably pleasant step forward for the band.

If there is a fault to be had in this new step, it’s that the album revels in this new style so much, it may go to the well once too often.  All of these songs work as individual cuts, but as a full-length album, some of the cuts run together.  Make no mistake, however, this is a 1% complaint on a 99% album.

BUT WAIT!  THERE’S MORE!

In truth, we’ve only covered about half the experience, cherry picking one theme to discuss it first.  And while that half of the record is brilliant, it is this other face that outshines the accomplishments we’ve discussed above.

The Midnight Ghost Train has thrown caution and reservation to the wind, opening up their music to a hundred new influences that color the record from beginning to end.  Aside from the move away from baseline growled vocals, the first sign that we as listeners are in for a new experience comes from “The Watcher’s Nest,” which still bristles with the band’s idiomatic power, but trades in much of their ferocity in exchange for a borderline acoustic approach that switches on and off with aplomb, adding an emotional dimension to the music that we haven’t seen before.

That’s just the kickoff, though, to a section of “Cypress Ave” that feels more genuine than perhaps any other album this year.

To write the premise of “Break My Love” on paper, it would sound ridiculous.  A loud, smash-y rock band that likes to take…interesting…band photos is going to write an open-mic-blues-club-poetry-slam-style break up song with no lead guitar line and a vocalist who sounds like he swallowed a bag of gravel…and it’s going to be awesome.  But it is!  It’s clever and different and funny and damn it all, it’s honest.

Which gives way to the jazzy rhythm and breakdown of “Lemon Trees,” a song that builds into an explosive second half, which in turn dovetails into “The Boogie Down.”  The latter song features horns and a guest appearance by rapper Sonny Cheeba (as opposed to Sonny Chiba, star of the classic but slightly overrated martial arts film “The Street Fighter.”)  And yet, as odd as all that sounds, once again, Midnight Ghost Train surprises by making every new twist and turn work.  There’s something infectious about the thin horns of “The Boogie Down,” playing a simple hook, that transforms the song from a trial balloon to a genuine experience.

To complete the effect, we close with the dour and emotionally powerful “Black Wave,” coming down from the bright moments that we rode through previously and planting us firmly back on earth.  The entire exercise of this album section has a vibe like we’re experiencing a ‘week-in-the-life’ series of moments with the band – there’s up and downs, and many different styles of experience all still tied together, however loosely, in the musical paradigm of Midnight Ghost Train.

None of these songs, whether what we talked about in the first half, or what we’ve discussed here, is a throw-away, which is even more amazing.  Each cut is a fully developed track that spans minutes and is given its proper time to breathe, create and properly play out.  “Cypress Ave,” as a result, is many things.  The Clutch part is still in there, but there’s also Kyuss, Orange Goblin, The Sword, John Lee Hooker, just a touch of Miles Davis, and maybe a dash of Aloe Blacc or Mos Def (or both.)  And yet, in the end, “Cypress Ave” is irrevocably The Midnight Ghost Train.

You thought we were done?  We’re not quite done.

The record ends with the bonus track “I Can’t Let You Go”...I’m out of superlatives.  The song is out there on bandcamp and Youtube and wherever the hell else.  Just go find it and listen to it.  It’s the perfect ending to an album of multiples phases and ideals – a rolling combination of everything we’ve discussed to this point (okay, perhaps without the rap bit,) compiled into a seamless, undeniably compelling ending.

Find this album.  Listen to it.  Then listen to it again.  And again.  Take it on a road trip.  That’s all I can say.

Now we’re done.

The Top 11 Albums of 2015!

I think by this point we’ve covered everything that needs to be said by way of introductions, so here we go with a recap on the rules of this game: To merit consideration, all records must be composed of entirely new studio material – no re-releases, live albums, re-masters or compilations.  Also, we do a top eleven here, because as we all know, 'it goes to eleven.'  Got it?  Here we go:

Other Receiving Votes) Clutch – “Psychic Warfare,” Iron Maiden – “The Book of Souls”, Mongol Metal – “Mongol Metal” (disqualified only because it was made up of previously released material.)

Honorable Mention) Niche – “Heading East”

A late comer to the party!  Niche blends classic rock and with folk and just drop a psychedelia in a way that harkens back to the storytelling rock heavyweights of yesteryear.  Three part vocal harmony and intricately layered melodies make “Heading East” an absorbing and yet relaxing listen.

11) The Great Game – “The Great Game”

This record doubles as my Little Record That Could for 2015, as it stuck in my memory for most of the year.  For those following, 2015 was the Year I Tried to Hear Something Different, and really, each time someone would ask me what I had heard this year that fit the bill, “The Great Game” jumped back in my head.  Infectious in its liberal deployment of genres and tropes, The Great Game, a band of the world if ever there was one, can tie together a melody with everything from a guitar to an accordion and back again.  This is an expansive effort that can be a challenging listen, but its heart is a passion for experimental music that just plan works.

10) Annihilator – “Suicide Society”

Because very year there’s a record that’s worthy of the cut solely because it’s fun to listen to, more than that it actually possesses novel artistic merit.  Jeff Waters’ guitar tone remains one of the all-time greats, and becomes his de facto signature on every track of this album.  You can say what you want about Annihilator; that they’ve put out some very average records (true) and that they’ve never really tried to change their game plan (also probably true,) but that steadfast dedication to what got them here also means that they can drop a great record at any time.  “Suicide Society certainly isn’t going to qualify for the ‘Something Different’ title like The Great Game does, but it’s a blast to listen to, and damn it, that counts for something.

9) Pentagram – “Curious Volume”

And yet, amidst all the upstarts, we see a second legacy act join the fray and produce their best record in years.  Every metal fan keeps in his or her heart a small, burning love of doom metal, and Pentagram fills that niche will not getting bogged down in the idea that doom must be slow or plain.  Rich melodies, hook-y blues riffs and veteran craftsmanship show those damn kids how we did it back in the day!  (Note: back in the day for me was like, 1992, so I can’t really lay legitimate claim to the ‘we’ there.)  Anyway, Pentagram.

8) Children of Bodom – “I Worship Chaos”

After the shoulder-shrug of “Halo of Blood,” CoB comes back re-engineered as a quartet, which oddly ends up expanding their repertoire rather than collapsing it.  Alexi Laiho ends up writing a couple emotional pieces that no one would have ever expected from the alcohol celebrating, Finnish, metal champions and perhaps most surprising of all, they work!  This is a more mature sound from Children of Bodom while at the same time really bringing their keyboard work back into the fore.  The style is a work in progress for these guys still, but this record shows a ton of promise.

7) 6:33 – “Deadly Scenes”

Am I cheating here?  I think I might be cheating a little.  If memory serves, there were parts of the globe that got this album in the latter half of 2014, but Kaotoxin Records lists the official release date at January 15th, 2015, so I’m going with them.  Anyway, 6:33 is in that same vein as The Great Game, music designed to go way beyond the borders, except that 6:33’s production is both more compelling and well, this might sound simple, but more fun.  The best moments on “Deadly Scenes” have a jaunty swing in an inverse relationship with how much sense the songs make, which is weirdly all the album’s benefit.  Five dudes in masks with no live drummer playing music that wanders in a hundred directions?  Sold!

6) Cancer Bats – “Searching for Zero”

Following up the singular greatness that was “Dead Set on Living” was a tall order, but Cancer Bats delivered with “Searching for Zero,” an album that eschewed some of the rock overtones of its predecessor to deliver crunchy, ugly riffs circled around personal torment and rebellion.  There’s depth here in the bass tones alone, never mind the slow, churning drudgery that the band mated with it to create an authentic feeling of dread.  It’s rare that a band with hardcore roots can show this much discipline and growth, but Cancer Bats fit the bill.

5) Midnight Ghost Train – “Cold Was the Ground”

I’m starting to sense a theme within my own list, which is that everything I really connected to this year largely fell into one of two categories – different and complex, or ugly and fun.  Midnight Ghost Train swings the needle the farthest in the latter direction, slopping out fuzzy riffs and channeling immense amounts of distortion to create a romp that sounds, well, like I imagine a midnight ghost train would.  What sets this album apart and finishes its showcase is two-fold; first, that if you can sift through the grime, there’s a really accessible metal album underneath and second, there’s a sense of humor here that makes the proceedings lighter than the music would seem at first blush.  An enjoyable ride, and hey, they made a tour poster with a vintage-style nude woman hiding in the shadows on it.  Bonus!

4) Mountain of Wizard – “Casting Rhythms and Disturbances”

Apparently, it’s becoming a trend that I put an instrumental album in my top ten.  Well, here’s this year’s entry, an avalanche of inspired, monster riffs that nod heads and demand notice.  It’s a curious thing when an album can capture attention without speaking a single syllable, and that makes Mountain of Wizard all the more notable for what they’ve accomplished here.  Each of these songs feels like an organic, handcrafted creation, a thoughtful plan executed by musicians who had an idea and then jammed it out a bunch of times until it sounded right.  There’s a lot to like here.

3) Powerwolf – “Blessed and Possessed”

Okay, if Midnight Ghost Train was the ugliest of these albums, then by comparison in the ‘ugly and fun’ category, “Blessed and Possessed” is the most fun.  Don’t get me wrong, every Powerwolf is fun just because of what it is and what the band does, but this album in particular screams ‘road-trip sing-a-long.’  The Christian werewolves have outdone themselves this time, creating a tome of epic anthem after epic anthem, running the gamut from thumping arena rock to heart-pounding chase.  Attila Dorn’s vocals are as resonant as ever, but the brothers Greywolf outdid themselves this time with sharp, poignant riffs and excellent articulation.  Just look at that video!  I mean, doesn’t that look like fun?

2) Graveyard – “Innocence and Decadence”

Okay, at this point, Chris C and I have salivated over this album enough that everyone knows why it’s on here.  “Innocence and Decadence” is the most complete, best composed record of 2015, assembled and executed by talented musicians who display not only a complete mastery of their sound, but a healthy respect for the heritage of it.  So, what’s holding it back from being #1?

1) Shawn James and the Shapeshifters – “The Gospel According to Shawn James and the Shapeshifters”

This would be the answer.  Sometimes, there is an album so raw, echoing with the vibrations of sheet power, that it overwhelms even the best-laid blueprint of its competitors.  “The Gospel According…” may not be a match for “I&D” when it comes to precision or craft, but the pulpit-shaking bellow of Shawn James stirs the listener on a different level altogether.  This is vigorous, commanding music that’s tempered with enough sense of humor to prevent it from being melodramatic.  The fury and bluster of opener “No Gods” is balanced only too perfectly by the stark, cold grip of “Lost.”  Each track has a different character, a different feel, as the down-home riffs and bluegrass instrumentation create a dynamic sound from the album’s beginning to end.  If you are someone who appreciates being moved by music, or if you simply enjoy being absorbed by the album you’re listening to, there’s something for everyone on this record.  It’s the clear choice for Album of the Year.