Top 5 Albums Of The Year So Far…

Just for fun, I want to share with you my top five albums of the year so far. These albums are great and I think they’ll be contenders for the end of the year list that is just SO much fun to put together. So far we have the following:

5: Exotic Animal Petting Zoo – Tree of Tongues. This awesome gem was an unexpected gift sent to me for review. I’ve never heard of the band until earlier this year and the album just continues to get played to this day. I rocked this shit while in the garage yesterday! It’s really good.

4: Cannibal Corpse – Torture. It just came out but this one is on a continuous loop , I listen to it twice a day at least. The songs on the album are just so fucking entertaining. It takes no time at all to fully enjoy this album for what it is.

3: Plague Widow – 2012 EP. A new band with a big sound. This is how you do death grind. Songs are short, to the point and incredibly heavy. If you haven’t checked out Plague Widow yet after all of these posts I’ve been making you are a fucking retard.

2: Crosses – EP II. Not metal, actually far from it. Chino Moreno/Shaun Lopez/Chuck Doom come together to write some beautiful music. It’s slow & tragic yet romantic. Crosses is one of the best side projects to have come out in recent years.

1: Woods of Ypres – Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light. Words cannot describe my love for this album. The bands final album, Woods V, is a really tough album for me to listen to and sing along to all the way through and not get a tear built up. I miss David Gold and this is his amazing last work of art. This album inspires me, it motivates me, it calms me and it makes me think. Not to mention the tunes are fucking good, this is a different take on doom. It’s not just toned down guitars and growling, it’s singing….really good singing. David’s lowest vocal tone ever, and the fact there are so many instruments contributing to the sound on this album makes Woods V that much more unique. Also, even with all of the heavy death metal put out so far this year, nothing makes me headbang harder then the part on “Alternate Ending” on the 1:48 mark, the doom breakdown is so fucking good. I love this album. RIP David Gold, you’ve inspired more than any man ever has.

WRECKOMMENDATION! VATTNET VISKAR – 2012 EP

Black metal usually is best when it comes from the northern European countries. Very rarely do you hear of an amazing black metal act from the United States. Well from the quiet state of New Hampshire comes a blackened force so loud and full of doom you will be flabbergasted at what you’ve heard. Vattnet Viskar provides us with some of the best black metal/doom so far this year and their label, Broken Limbs Recordings, just put out their latest journey through time and space; life and death. The 3 song EP will not disappoint and the talent from these gentlemen is unimaginable. They are within a genre that is currently flooded with bands trying to imitate and perfect a certain sound yet Vattnet Viskar stands above the rest with their frantic howls and seemingly daunting guitar work. It’s good shit and it’s this weeks Wreckommendation!

For fans of Woods of Ypres, Abigail Williams, Agalloch & other epic blackened ambient doom metal acts of the sort.

Check out their Facebook, Bandcamp and Broken Limbs Recordings page.

Black Metal XXXI – Woods of Desolation, Oak Pantheon, Woods of Ypres, Agalloch & Ulver

EVILE perform “In Memoriam” in memory of David Gold from Woods of Ypres

EVILE performed the song “In Memoriam” for the first time ever in memory of David Gold, the Woods of Ypres frontman who was killed in a car wreck on December 21, 2011. Woods of Ypres was to perform at this event so Evile dedicated this to David, Woods of Ypres, his family, friends and fan. Truly a tear jerker. RIP David Gold, you are heavily missed.

 

EVILE To Perform “In Memoriam” To Honor David Gold From Woods of Ypres

EVILE will be performing their song “In Memoriam” for the first time ever in memory of our fallen comrade David Gold. The performance will take place at the venue that Woods of Ypres would have been performing at the HMV’s Next Big Thing show.

EVILE lead guitarist Ol Drake says: “We were all deeply saddened to hear the news of WOODS OF YPRES‘ mastermind David Gold passing away. Their obvious cancellation of the Manchester show left a big hole in the lineup I was so looking forward to seeing and being a part of. We’ve been thinking of airing ‘In Memoriam’ live for a while, so we’d like to not only play the song for our own reasons, but to also play it at the upcoming Manchester show in memory of David.”

Woods of Ypres – The Northern Cold

Black Metal XXVII – Vattnet Viskar, Woods of Ypres, & Watain

Woods of Ypres – Travelling Alone

WEDNESDAY WRECKOMMENDATION: THRAWSUNBLAT

From the cold frigid north comes some unique black metal from Thrawsunblat. Joel Violette (Woods of Ypres) pilots this beast that is a mesh between GOOD folk metal and black metal. Keeping things enjoyable for the whole family! Thrawsunblat is a good listen and I highly recommend it. If you like it, purchase the album! Check out the entire album HERE!

 

Shards of Love: A Tribute to David Gold (Woods of Ypres) Is An Amazing Read.

Rae Amitay from Metal Review wrote out this amazing blog post about David Gold, his legacy and the people he knew. Band mates express their feelings and thoughts and it’s just an extremely touching and emotional article. Here is just a small sample from the post, click here to read the rest. I highly recommend reading this.

On November 27^th, David Gold gave me the opportunity of a lifetime. I’d responded to his announcement about needing a new drummer for Woods of Ypres, and after a few days of discussing my commitment, ability, and willingness to relocate to Canada, David offered me the position with open arms and incredible enthusiasm. Over the course of the next few weeks, I learned to play Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light as I continued to build my friendship with David and prepare for our upcoming shows in the UK. Upon hearing the album for the first time, I knew it was David’s masterpiece, and the most stunning Woods album to date.  I am eternally grateful that I was able to tell him how much I loved his music. For nearly a month, I lived and breathed that record. When I wasn’t playing through it, I was listening to it, always moved by David’s sorrowful voice and beautiful songwriting. Although today marked the first time I’ve been able to listen to Woods 5 since his passing, the songs never stopped running through my head. It hurts me so much that I will never be able to perform these songs with him.

RIP David Gold, I never got the chance to tell you how much I enjoy the album but I love it. Thank you for everything. Check out the review for Woods V: Grey Skies and Electric Light here.

Thank You For A Great Start In 2011.

I was sharing metal news from my Facebook page before I started this blog. I spammed my wall feed to my friends about shit that is coming out, bands coming to town and every once in a while I did a review for an album. Early 2011 I heard some music that inspired me to do this even more. I wanted to find some bands that were new (to me) and share them. The first band to do this was Woods of Ypres. Then it progressed to other bands in many many different genres. I hit up websites and stalked the Metal Injection forum and had some back n forth banter with some people. I love what Metal Injection and MetalSucks does for the community. They are big time blogs doing some big time shit: interviews, exclusives and tons of content. What really made me want to start MY own blog was this duo of blogs that I thought were great. One is Heavy Blog Is Heavy and the other is American Aftermath.

Album Review! Woods of Ypres – Woods V: Grey Skies and Electric Light

Woods of Ypres – Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light

1. Career Suicide (Is Not Real Suicide)

2. Travelling Alone

3. Alternate Ending

4. Lightning & Snow

5. Finality

6. Death Is Not An Exit

7. Adora Vivos

8. Silver

9. Modern Life Architecture

10. Kiss My Ashes Goodbye (Part I)

11. Kiss My Ashes Goodbye (Part II)

Earache Records

I’m going to begin this review with the notes that were found within the promo. Canada’s WOODS OF YPRES push their haunted brand of bleak metal into new dimensions of tortured gloom. ‘Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light‘ defines the sound the band have been striving for, marrying downbeat doom rock with catchy melody and hooky choruses into a sound that promises hope on one hand and delivers desolation on the other. Band mastermind David Gold delivers his dry Nick Cave-esque lyrical approach with a rumbling, rich baritone offset with a heartfelt ‘regular’ vocal, laying his soul bare on tracks such as ‘Career Suicide (Is Not A Real Suicide)‘ or the frail ‘Finality‘. With a rich production courtesy of John Fryer (Depeche Mode, NIN, White Zombie, HIM), the lush orchestration sets the emotions on edge in songs such as ‘Traveling Alone‘ or ‘Death Is Not An Exit‘. Woods of Ypres manage to make music that sounds catchy and upbeat, while crushing hearts at the same time, producing a dangerously addictive combination of self depreciation and eternal hope making ‘Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light‘ a dark curse for those who dare to dream.

More after the jump.

MORE THINGS THAT KICKED ASS IN 2011

Here is some more greatness of 2011. More personal opinions that hardly matter but I feel as though they should be shared. Here are some more “best of 2011″ mini-lists. An award ceremony if you will. Except there are no awards. The only award is us listening to them and their music.

BEST EP

1 – ††† (Crosses)- †

2 – Deadfall – New Light

3 – Immolation – Providence

~

BEST RIFFS

 1 – Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising

2 – Crowbar – Sever The Wicked Hand

3 – Woods of Ypres – Woods IV

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BEST BASSIST

1 – Dominic “Forest” Lapointe of Beyond Creation

2 – Chris Corey of Last Chance To Reason

3 – Alex Webster of Blotted Science

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BEST LEAD GUITARIST

1 – David Davidson of Revocation

2 – Simon Girard and Kevin Chartre of Beyond Creation

3 – Johan Söderberg and Olavi Mikkonen of Amon Amarth

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BEST DRUMMER

1 – Francesco Paoli of Fleshgod Apocalypse

 2 – Jade Simonetto of Hate Eternal

3 – Phil Dubois-Coyne of Revocation

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BEST SINGER (CLEAN VOCALS)

1 – Michael Lessard of Last Chance To Reason

2 – Joseph E. Martinez of Junius

3 – Chelsea Wolfe

~

BEST VOCALS

 1 – Simon Girard of Beyond Creation

2 – Erik Rutan of Hate Eternal

3 – Johan Hegg of Amon Amarth

~

BEST ALBUM COVER

Revocation – Chaos of Forms

~

BEST INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM/EP

1 – Scale The Summit – The Collective

2 – Russian Circles – Empros

3 – Blotted Science – The Animation of Entomology

RIP David Gold…

I just wanted to share this. This song and his last words with me. I was talking to him about this bullshit article that a blog had posted and he was very mature about the situation. Not one foul thing was spoken and he never blamed anyone or anything.

“Thanks Thomas, but that won’t be necessary. (So-n-so) never asked to have a discussion with me so I don’t think he wants one. It is incredibly hard to do what we do… Things happen. Yet, I don’t wish ill will on anyone. I say that time after time. Everyone’s life has to go on.”

I told him good luck with the new record and hopefully I could meet him in 2012.

“Thanks man! =) Fight the good fight!”

Anytime I talked to him…he just had nothing but positive things to say and was very supportive. Rest in peace David, you will definitely be missed.

If any of his friends or family needs anything, you let me know. I’ll help out as much as humanly possible.

Woods of Ypres’ frontman David Gold killed in car accident.

I regret to inform you all that David Gold from the Canadian Blackened Doom band Woods of Ypres has been killed in a car accident last night. He was only 31 years old.

This hits me hard. Really hard. He is the first artist to support me and what I am doing. He was down with the beard contest and was even a judge for it. I spoke to David on a regular basis through emails and messages and he was always inspiring and uplifting. His music is responsible for the way I write my own music and for this very fucking blog. Woods of Ypres was one of the best things to happen to me this year (musically) and it’s fucking come and gone. Rest in piece David Gold. Shed a tear, listen to some Woods of Ypres, and Merry fucking Christmas…

New Woods of Ypres track: Travelling Alone. (Contest update too)

Woods of Ypres’ latest track can be found HERE.

Speaking of Woods of Ypres, our contest finally ended and I emailed the contestants for their beard pictures. The winner will be announced shortly so stay tuned for that!

Top 20 albums of 2011 – Part II: The Top 10!

Here it is….my overall top 10 of the year.

10. Chimaira – The Age of Hell – Songs that will make you drive a little faster…each song is great and you will definitely headbang and sing along. The work done on this is some of their best work since The Impossibility of Reason and it’s the last album that Matt and Rob will be apart of.

 

9. Mastodon – The Hunter – Excellent writing that is more prog than thrash/rock. Still very heavy and catchy. Masters of their craft.

 

8. Splattered Entrails – Nauseate – Death slam grind that does one thing and one thing well, be as brutal as possible. Mike O’Hara  makes some of the best slam grind on the internet. Truly speaker destroying and gut wrenching stuff.

 

7. Crowbar – Sever the Wicked Hand – Those riffs, man! God damn. These slow songs really make you headbang hard. Good tunes!

 

6. Suicide Silence – The Black Crown – The most groovin’ album Suicide Silence has ever released! Some great riffs and awesome guest appearances too! The band is tighter than ever and the energy captured by the band is intense.

 

5. Hate Eternal – Phoenix Amongst The Ashes – True death metal that delivers. Running on all cylinders, the machine that is Hate Eternal punishes those who attempt to consume it whole. This album is dangerously fast and the riffs are fucking intense.

 

4. Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising – It’s Amon Amarth…of course it’s going to kick ass! Back with more great riffs, solo’s and amazing screams from Johan Hegg! Surtur Rising is just another chapter of the mighty Amon Amarth in their quest to conquer the world! Seeing this entire album performed live also was another highlight of the year. Great on the speakers and just as amazing live.

 

3. Beyond Creation – The Aura – A surprise tech-death band that I’ve never heard of, The Aura blows me away every single time I listen to it. If you need a band to scratch that Necrophagist itch, Beyond Creation will scratch it and then some. Very satisfying album. Some of the best guitar/bass playing and drumming I’ve heard all year.

 

2. Woods of Ypres – Woods IV: The Green Album – Blackened Doom that caught me off guard. I listened to this album hundreds of times this past year. It has a lot to offer since it’s a long album and it covers many more genres from an angle. The album is one emotional ride and tells a great story. Woods IV has inspired me to not only implement some of this style in my own guitar playing, but to start this blog and tell people of the lesser known bands that are incredibly good. Excellent writing and I just can’t help but sing along.

 

 

1. Last Chance To Reason – Level 2 – “We eat videogames and shit music.” Fuck yes they do. Level 2 is a groovin electric progressive technical metal album with harmonizing vocals, guitars and tons of poly-rhythmic playing all over the place. I love this album. It’s the best of both worlds, amazing metal combined with a layer of video game influence. The song writing is mind blowing and album as a whole is more than satisfying. Level 2 is just simply amazing, it’s definitely the best album I’ve heard this year. What a treat. From beginning to end it’s just a masterpiece.

BEST MUSIC VIDEOS OF 2011!!!!!!

I’ve really never paid too much attention to music videos. I’ve always appreciated bootlegged videos because I love seeing the band in their natural habitat. Nowadays, I try to appreciate music videos a little more. Whether it’s a pro-shot live version or an artsy fartsy video that doesn’t even show the band at all; I’ve come to watch these videos with a different mind set. This year was a great year for videos, there were some interesting places for bands to play that wasn’t a typical empty warehouse or random field. Some videos didn’t even show the band at all but captured the feeling of the song perfectly. These 10 videos were my favorite of 2011 and I hope you enjoy them as well.

10. Woods of Ypres – I Was Buried In Mount Pleasant Cemetery. This video is what got me into the band and what sparked my interest of many many other things. It’s a long song/video but it held my interest after all of these months. Interesting shots and with the combination of the band performing, it makes for one really good video. I find the ending shots to be both odd and cool at the same time, when it transfers to light and dark shots. I wonder why they decided to blur out the sides of the lens though, you can’t see the bassist and other guitarist at all really.

9. Chelsea Wolfe – Mer. The lighting and style of this video is fucking awesome. Chelsea’s voice is so haunting and beautiful at the same time. I really have no clue what’s going on but I like what I’m seeing. I honestly just love the shot when it’s focused on Chelsea singing in front of the two candles on the wall. There is something just mesmerizing about that part of the video.

8. The Devin Townsend Project – Juular. It’s Devin Townsend, how could this not be awesome? It’s so damn creative and the fact that Devin is dressed up like a crazy old man blowing on some tube while being shackled by some mistress makes it even weirder/better. Where are they going on this train?  Whatever the case may be, it’s intense and soothing at the same time. Townsends vocals are epic man, EPIC.

7. Mastodon – Deathbound. Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood meets complete Muppet mayhem. So fun to watch and the song itself is really good.

6. Suicide Silence – You Only Live Once. A unique music video that places the band in a shooting range. In between the cartoon characters with guns and their targets. The effects are good (except for the arrow) and the video is fun to watch. All of those people at the range are creepy, like Tim Burton’s remake of The Chocolate Factory creepy. Oh man, quality video.

5. Revocation – No Funeral. It’s just Revocation performing in an empty theater. What more do you really need? The video kicks major ass considering there is not much to it. Just some great angles and shots of the band. Very good song and I love the close ups of David’s face while he belts out his vocals. I love watching this band perform, it’s like porn. Metal porn. Stimulates the eyes and ears. Very cheeky video indeed.

4. Valient Thorr – Sleeper Awakes. Good song, funny video! Sing along and enjoy yourself!

3. Last Chance To Reason – Upload Complete. It’s the awesome band performing the awesome song with video games and brilliant camera work. Fuck yes!

2. Motionless In White – Immaculate Misconception. Not really my type of music (I don’t like the clean vocals he does) but the imagery and point Chris is making I 100% agree with. Dee Snyder also makes an appearance and whips the shit out of him. You get to see the band perform, you get to see a crucifixion and there is neon jizz everywhere. Also, I got chills AND got a dose of adrenaline when Chris kicked the FUCK out of that guy in the chest. OH MAN I WANTED TO KICK SOMEONE IN THE C HEST AFTER I SAW THAT!

1. BEHEMOTH – LUCIFER. The images. The costume design. The acting. The effects and the song itself, masterful. Produced and directed by Dariusz Szermanowicz and Grupa 13, they bring forth one hell of a video. Lucifer also is another chapter in the return of Nergal, back from his Leukemia that he went through. Seeing Adam Darski sing his parts is absolutely chilling. This is my favorite song on the album and I’m so glad they made a quality video for it. HAIL BEHEMOTH!!!

Wednesday Wreck-ommendation: Woods of Ypres

Now that my 12 hour shift and daughter’s birthday party is over (Happy 1st Birthday Emily Erin!!!) I now have a couple of minutes to post my Wednesday feature.

It’s no secret that Woods of Ypres is one of my favorite bands I’ve heard this year. Woods IV was amazing and their previous work is equally as good if not better! WoY are releasing Woods V early next year and both songs they have leaked are really good. David Gold’s vocal style is brilliant and the style of Ypres, which they call blackened doom, is one of the best things to happen to my ears in a long time. Woods of Ypres has changed my life for the better and not only did they inspire me to write some kick ass songs, they inspired me enough to start this very blog. I never heard of Woods of Ypres and I wanted to share the news with my friends and community of the lesser known bands.

Woods of Ypres widened my range of music even more and helped me appreciate music that is slower than the usual death metal/death core fast BPM stuff all of the time. Doom is a great genre and I think it’s one of the best. Woods‘ older material is also some amazing black metal. Sit back, relax and listen to some Woods of Ypres.

 

Listen to Woods of Ypres’ new track, “Kiss My Ashes (Good Bye)”

Blackened Doom titans from the north, Woods of Ypres, have a new album coming out on January 30th, 2012. The new album “Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light” will be released through Earache Records and it’s already on of my most anticipated releases of early next year. the song Kiss My Ashes (Good Bye) is a return to that slow doom sound that graced my ears throughout the entire year this year. The guitar solo is out of this world, the riffs are catchy and the great “Whoa” chants are present. Kiss My Ashes (Good Bye) has me wanting MORE Ypres. Late January could not come any faster.