Anyways… we made a valiant attempt to get Chris to give us his top 10 picks, but he kept saying something about the Saw 6 soundtrack, so we bumped him down to five. Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!

Mark’s List:

There were so many huge releases in 2009, it was hard to pick a top 10.  The year saw new music from metal’s heaviest hitters (Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Megadeth, Mastodon, Anthrax) as well as comebacks from Alice in Chains and Immortal.  But ultimately, I believe 2009 will be remembered as when the new generation firmly took hold of the metal scene, as demonstrated by the outstanding releases from Skeletonwitch, Scale the Summit and Baroness.

10. Megadeth – Endgame (Roadrunner)
It’s no Rust in Peace Part-2, but with Endgame, Mustaine continues to prove that he can still crank out some great headbangers.
Check Out: This Day We Fight!

9. Slayer – World Painted Blood (American/Sony)
The second album since the return of Lombardo offers a new sound, but the same intensity.  One of the best album jackets/concepts of the year.
Check Out: Snuff

8. Devin Townsend Project – Addicted (Hevy Devy)
In a banner year for Devin, it’s the pop-metal soundtrack to a Anime-dream sequence (most likely depicting flight through a post-apocalyptic Japan).
Check Out: Hyperdrive!

7. Cannibal Corpse – Evisceration Plauge (Metal Blade)
Never ones to disappoint, Alex Webster and Corpsegrinder deliver the year’s most brutal offering.
Check Out: Carnivorous Swarm

6. Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way to Blue (Virgin/EMI)
Seattle’s finest create a comeback record worthy of the memory of Layne.
Check Out: Private Hell

5. Behemoth – Evangelion (Metal Blade/Nuclear Blast)
Negral conjures a maelstrom of demonic chaos that could easily convert anyone into a heretic.
Check Out: Ov Fire and the Void

4. Immortal – All Shall Fall (Nuclear Blast)
The Blizzard Beasts return with an incredible album that captures their focused and raw power.
Check Out: Arctic Swarm

3. Scale the Summit – Carving Desert Canyons (Prosthetic)
An instrumental masterpiece so rich in textures, tones and mood that it gets better with each listen.
Check Out: Dunes

2. Skeletonwitch – Breathing the Fire (Prosthetic)
A dominating statement from the Ohio thrash-masters.  An album that defines the term “thrash metal”.
Check Out: Submit to the Suffering

1. Baroness – Blue Record (Relapse)
Heavily layered with advanced concepts and dynamic playing.  Baroness once again delivers the album of the year.
Check Out: Jake Leg

Chris’ List:

Is a Top 5 acceptable?

5. Converge – Axe To Fall (Epitaph/Deathwish)
A somewhat fresh album from a familiar band that refuses to turn bad.
Check Out: Dark Horse

4. Cave In – Planets of Old (Hydrahead)
A four-song reunion works fine for me. Especially when the four songs kick tall ass.
Check Out: Retina Sees Rewind

3. Mastodon – Crack the Skye (Warner Bros.)
Bringing progress to Progressive Metal.
Check Out: Divinations

2. Baroness – Blue Record (Relapse)
The soundtrack that plays as my brothers and I descend to battle from snowy foothills astride armored polar bears, the perpetual winter sun smoldering unaware on a frozen, indifferent horizon.
Check Out: The Sweetest Curse

1. Propagandhi – Supporting Caste (Smallman)
Fast, angry, complicated. Even more so than before. The band affirms their category-defying musical identity, perhaps at the peak of their powers.
Check Out: Supporting Caste

Justin’s List:

Wow. What a fantastic year for metal. Narrowing this list down was quite a challenge… especially when I knew my top spot was reserved for a non-metal album. GASP! Yes folks… it’s true… my choice for album of the year goes to an indie rock band. But don’t worry… I’m not planning on wearing tight pants or reading Pitchfork anytime soon. In fact, I think I’ll carve “SLAYER” into my arm right now just to prove my self-worth. Eh… nevermind. That shit hurts.

10. Coalesce – Ox (Relapse)
15 years in, Coalesce continue to be one of the freshest sounding bands in the hardcore and metal community.
Check Out: Wild Ox Moan

9. Slayer – World Painted Blood (American/Sony)
Fast and raw… just how you probably like it. I know I do.
Check Out: Psychopathy Red

8. Converge – Axe To Fall (Epitaph/Deathwish)
As dynamic as it is heavy, Converge’s latest offering kicks you in the teeth before tucking you into bed. Awesome.
Check Out: Axe to Fall

7. Scale the Summit – Carving Desert Canyons (Prosthetic)
Remember the kind of music you and your friends were churning out in your early 20s? Yeah… it sucked compared to this.
Check Out: Sargasso Sea

6. Goes Cube – Another Day Has Passed (The End Records)
The Campbell’s Chunky Soup of the metal world… hearty and damn tasty!
Check Out: The Only Daughter

5. Baroness – Blue Record (Relapse)
Blue Record is one of those rare “all-emcompassing” albums. Great artwork, great music, great everything.
Check Out: The Sweetest Curse

4. Mastodon – Crack the Skye (Warner Bros.)
Like your beard, Crake the Skye really grows on you. And it totally rules.
Check Out: Oblivion

3. Revocation – Existence is Futile (Relapse)
These guys made me fall in love with shred all over again. When are we going to see the Existence is Futile tab book? (or vinyl for that matter… nudge nudge wink wink Relapse).
Check Out: Dismantle the Dictator

2. Skeletonwitch – Breathing the Fire (Prosthetic)
I Can Has Metal?
Check Out: Repulsive Salvation

1. The Life and Times – Tragic Boogie (Arena Rock/Hawthorn Street)
A non-metal album was my top choice of the year? Damn straight. Call me what you will, but me and my cred stand behind this decision. This band and album are absolutely amazing.
Check Out: Tragic Boogie

Honorable Mention:

Cave In – Planets of Old (Hydrahead)
Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way to Blue (Virgin/EMI)
Burnt By the Sun – Heart of Darkness (Relapse)
Buried Inside – Spoils of Failure (Relapse)
Propagandhi – Supporting Caste (Smallman)
Immortal – All Shall Fall (Nuclear Blast)
Cannibal Corpse – Evisceration Plauge (Metal Blade)

Mark’s Review:

If you read my bio, you’ll find that I’m that metal guy that’s into prog. If it’s technical, complex and musically advanced, I’m a fan, and although I’m quite immersed with the new Transatlantic, if you add a heavy component to it, then I’m all in. So it’s a mystery to me why I’ve never been able to get into Between the Buried and Me. These guys are as technical as hell, and can pretty much dominate any style of music, but I’ve never really enjoyed any of their albums. Their last album, Colors, featured some good songs, but it took me many, many listens to wrap my head around it. This usually means two things: 1) This is the sign of something great and complex, or 2) This just isn’t very good to begin with. The Great Misdirect gives me that similar feeling, lots of great moments that are wasted in a song-writing style that seems to feature a public display of talent over anything else.

Recently, a reader on MetalSucks.net stated that BTBAM is “the Lebron James of music“. I can see the correlation; James is an amazingly flexible athlete that can fine-tune his game between power and finesse to overpower anyone on the court. And just as he can seemingly perform anything humanly possible in order to win basketball games, BTBAM has the same level of talent in the musical realm, jumping through different genres and tempos with ease. The difference is that while James doesn’t feel like he has to use ALL the moves in his arsenal every time he touches the ball, every BTBAM song plows through riffs and song passages like a 2-year old does toilet paper. Almost every song on The Great Misdirect is jam-packed with a schizophrenic number of time changes, riffs, breakdowns and almost nothing resembling a song structure. While many will feel that this isn’t needed in the prog world, the songs get a bit tiresome and boring when you feel like they are just constantly changing themes for almost ten minutes with no payoff in sight. Tracks such as Obfuscation start off strong, but quickly degenerate into a chaotic and confusing pool of notes. It’s a shame, because that song, as well as Swim to the Moon and Fossil Genera feature some truly inspired and signature moments (although Fossil’s calliope-intro conjures a few chuckles and thoughts of bad Umphrey’s McGee). It doesn’t help when I’ve never been a fan of Tommy Rogers’ vocals, which I feel are forced when growling, and not technically sound when singing. Regardless, after sitting through four epic songs and two tracks that basically serve as intros, the album leaves me with feelings of both utter admiration and extreme confusion.

Maybe I’m the wrong type of prog fan to truly enjoy The Great Misdirect. As we’ve seen with the rise in popularity of other Victory bands as well as iwrestledabearonce and The Human Abstract, the current trend in technical music is to mash as many riffs and parts into a song as possible. You can say that this is a rebellion against standard song-writing structure, pushing the boundaries of what is “progressive”, or a commentary on the media over-saturation of American youth. No one denies that BTBAM are a group of very talented individuals, but after listening to almost an hour of attention-deficit inducing songs, I have a hard time really getting into their music.

Mark’s Rating:

King says: “Between the Buried and Meh”

Ed’s Review:

When a band advances so far into the expansive and sometimes flamboyant world of progressive metal, they’d better be damn good at it or else face a sea of snobbery from the mighty subculture of geeks that live & breathe this type of music (as Mark can confirm, just stand in line and eavesdrop a bit on your way in to a Dream Theater concert and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about). What’s interesting about Between The Buried and Me is that they didn’t always play material so diverse or detailed as on their new opus “The Great Misdirect” – their roots are actually based in precision-oriented thrash and grindcore music, which makes it an odd pleasure to see a band move so far outside of the hardcore box without getting completely hung out to dry by their old-school fanbase (that is, if you consider 2002 “old-school”).

“The Great Misdirect” is BTBAM’s latest effort to explain the cosmos in just under an hour, and they have pulled out every damn trick in the book and then some. The band has always favored marathon session song structures elevated to dizzying technical heights, often intentionally confusing the listener with several peaks and valleys, sometimes going as far as to expand a single riff to so many variations it could easily send the Dillinger Escape Plan running for the nearest box of tissues. So it should be no surprise the band has taken this formula one step further on “The Great Misdirect” for better or for worse. BTBAM have never necessarily been the sum of their parts – simply put… with this band, it’s actually the parts that either strike or don’t.

I absolutely adore the opening track “Mirrors” with it’s free gliding clean guitars, part jazz and part space rock, and I’m even hearing some mid-90’s indie/emo touches here – a hell of a way to draw in listeners during the first five minutes of an opus. Obviously things change immediately, taking a quick turn for the extreme and pretty much staying there for the rest of the album. “Obfuscation” features the band’s usual pummeling grind metal mixed with a chanting chorus that contains none other than a bit of Dragonforce-esque riffage (yikes) and a fantastic drum/bass/lead breakdown just after the five minute mark that sounds like a hyperactive King Crimson mixed with The Mars Volta back when they were on a lot of drugs. Thankfully the band avoids using the polka gimmick as much as on their previous album “Colors“, instead favoring more airy, layered, psychedelic passages during their mellower moments that have more in common with Porcupine Tree and Katatonia than Mr. Bungle. A great example of this is “Disease, Injury, Madness” where vocalist Tommy Rogers layers several clean vocal tracks to achieve a psychedelic wonderment that would make prog gurus like Adrian Belew and Steven Wilson quite proud. “Desert of Song” returns briefly to the swingy, carnival-style polka the band likes to experiment with (a bit useless in my opinion… Mike Patton did it a lot better 10-15 years ago) which leads the band directly into smashing out the final 18-minute epic “Swim to the Moon“.
Although I love the Don Caballero-style intro and the next few space metal sections, the track quickly falls into a plethora of jam sessions pieced together (smells like Dream Theater) and even going as far as to include a brief drum solo (???). So yeah, the band lost me there. With that being said, the guitarists do a phenomenal job throughout the album, and although I think vocalist Tommy Rogers has a slightly generic “death growl” voice, I think there is a lot to be admired about his clean vocals and I actually look forward to hearing more of them in the future.

The songs on “The Great Misdirect” are well-executed for sure, but could they be considered cohesive and genuinely well written? It’s debatable to say the least. I’d prefer to say there are several “sections” of these songs that are impressive, if not downright mind-blowing. But to call this an “album”, or anything other than a long string of brainy sections glued together, is probably an overstatement. But I think few could argue that this is a very enjoyable listen nonetheless.

Ed’s Rating:

King says: “Between the Buried and MORE COWBELL!!!”

Have A Listen:

Between the Buried and Me – Obfuscation:

Download audio file (Obfuscation.mp3)

Not many bands can say they’ve kept as high a standard as Converge for four albums over eight years. The kind of hype and worship that followed 2001’s Jane Doe threatened to doom any attempt at a follow up, but 2004’s You Fail Me revealed a band with an incredibly clear vision and ability to harness the power of sound. For all the noteworthiness of Jane Doe, to my ears it’s You Fail Me that will stand as a timeless album.

And so it was 2006’s No Heroes that failed me; but only in that it didn’t continue to raise the bar impossibly high. No Heroes is also a great album; its main problem is that it’s almost too similar to You Fail Me.

Thus we come to 2009 and Converge still hasn’t hung it up, but have they dried up? As far as writing absolutely blistering hardcore, no. Axe To Fall opens with songs on par with some of the band’s best speed tracks. I’m scared to drive while listening to the album because I’m sure to careen off a cliff while air-drumming to the breakdown of the title track. Kurt Ballou’s guitar sound is one of my favorites of all time, almost worth the price of admission alone.

In addition to those excellent qualities we expect from a Converge album, Axe To Fall comes with some guest appearances, and nothing says “low on ideas” like “guest artist.” Despite the heavy collaboration with other artists mentioned in interviews, the album comes out sounding pretty Convergey. The extra artists are integrated tastefully, perhaps the one exception being the piano ditty “Cruel Bloom” with Neurosis’ Steve von Till that reminds me too much of Tom Waits. It’s not awful, it just doesn’t fit very well.

As much as a Converge album could ever be described as ‘fun’, Axe To Fall comes close. Fans of Converge have nothing to fear, and those unfamiliar with the band have some catching up to do.

Chris’ Rating:

King says: “Did I not make it clear I was available for guest appearances? Does anyone read my memos?”

Justin’s Review:

Ah Converge… the fine wine of the hardcore world.

In honor of their 2009 vintage, I present you a vino review (minus the booze-talk) that pretty much sums things up…

The _____ is dark, viscous and complex, slowly revealing its richness.  The opening is intense with _____, _____ followed by _____.  Further _____ reveals pronounced _____ of _____, _____, and slightly _____ nuances.

 

Obviously very _____, the feel of this _____ is nevertheless rich, robust and created for longevity.  The _____ is full with well-structured _____ and balanced _____ leading to a long, firm finish.

 

Few pairings in the world are as utterly seamless as _____ and _____.  When paired with _____ in a _____, the _____ was little short of magical.  This impeccably made _____ should provide enjoyment over the next _____ years.”

Remember folks… don’t _____ and drive.

(…and respect the X)

Justin’s Rating:

King says: “I still prefer their 2004 vintage, but the 2001, 2006 & 2009 will satisfy most any palate.”

Converge – “Axe to Fall”

Man… it’s been awhile, but Burnt by the Sun are back (for a limited time only), and showing the metal/hardcore community how the fuck it’s done. If you haven’t followed the fluctuating career of these Jerseyites, Heart of Darkness is as great a place to start as it is absolute proof of their legacy to the genre we all hold dear.

In terms of sheer heaviness, Heart of Darkness easily trumps the band’s previous efforts, yet somehow doesn’t feel quite as aggressive… which I certainly don’t consider to be a bad thing. The songwriting on HoD is remarkably cohesive, and BBTS are able to deliver a rock-solid album as opposed to a collection of good songs (a feat that’s becoming all too rare these days, and one that will always win brownie-points with yours truly).

The album kicks off with Inner Station, a song that could easily be considered the exemplary BBTS track. It’s heavy, fast, aggressive, screamy, rifftastic, memorable, tough, rifftastic, spoken, screamy, heavy, galloping, heavy as fuck, and under 3 minutes long. Sound pretty awesome? It is. And there’s plenty more where that came from. The album also features a (thankfully) rerecorded version of Goliath, which was featured on the split 7″ with Car Bomb from a couple years back. Closer The Wolves are Running is another high point, with riffs on par with Spinner Dunn (God that song rules… I think I’m going to go back and listen to The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good as soon as I’m finished here). It’s also worth pointing out that fans of the band will truly appreciate the production values herein. There’s something about BBTS’s gruff ethos that simply would not work, were they being produced by Adam D or Zeuss. Instead, producer Eric Rachel delivers a fantastically coarse sound… the perfect compliment to the songs themselves.

An interesting side note (for those who are unaware)… drummer Dave Witte pulls double duty in BBTS and Municipal Waste (who also have a new… though somewhat disappointing… album out). Dave’s bands are a far-cry from one another, but the dude gets an “A for effort” when it comes to being rad (he’s like the metal Jose Freese).

Anyways… if you haven’t figured it out by now, Heart of Darkness is a must-own. And for you cheap bastards out there, a must-stream.

Justin’s Rating:

King says: “I’ve never gotten Burnt by the Sun… namely because I use SPF 666! Wait… what? Ohhhh… you meant the band… yeah, those guys rule.”

Chris’ Review:

The overall feel of Heart of Darkness strikes a nice balance between modern metal and vintage industrial shred. With songs patched together in an almost grindcore fashion, a few sections are guilty of being unnatural (“Rust (Future Primitive))” or at worst, uninteresting (“F-unit”). More to my taste, some songs stay focused and highly effective (“There Will be Blood,” “The Wolves Are Running”). Deadly precise drums, blast beats and all, guitars and bass alternately huge and surgical, and vocals deceptively complex and varied, keep the theme of ‘well balanced’ going throughout the album.

If Burnt By the Sun wanted their final album to solidify the band’s status as a unique metal voice executed with precision, Heart of Darkness delivers.

Chris’ Rating:

King says: “Come on guys, “Last album?”   I tried that several times and it didn’t help sales at all, so cut the crap.”

Have A Listen:

Burnt by the Sun – Inner Station:

Download audio file (Inner_Station.mp3)

Speaking of old, if Cave In still has any old fans left, I think they’ll enjoy this latest E.P. Perhaps “old” is not specific enough to date a Cave In fan, because the band is on at least its third career under the same name. So, let us say, fans that appreciated both the major label Cave In and the original hardcore Cave In should find something they like on Planets of Old. Speaking as one of those fans, I’m saying that honestly… and not as a promo for Perfect Pitch Black, which was neither perfect nor black. I’ve only had the Planets of Old songs less than a week, and I think I’ve listened to them more times than I’ve ever listened to that last album. The driving energy of these four songs is all I could hope for from Cave In.

A larger question looms… will Planets of Old win new fans for this deserving rock stalwart? No, not likely. However, I doubt Cave In cares, and the music is surely better for it. The uniqueness of Cave In’s style and sound sets them well above mediocre, but at the same time sets them firmly in the category of ‘acquired taste.’

The E.P.’s opener, “Cayman Tongue,” sets a fairly heavy mood but with that great, trademark, crystal-clear vocal of Stephen Brodsky. A balance of screamy vocals and noise-jam interlude is thrown into the song to remind you that this is the “new” new Cave In.

Second track “Retina Sees Rewind” is a little weirder to me; Stephen Brodsky goes full-on Geddy Lee over rapid-fire riffage for exactly two minutes flat (and I think the song is about the movie “Spaceballs!”). An added bonus from this song, and others on this E.P., is the sweet guitar tones that will have pedal-philes leaning into the speakers. Was that an Octavial-Mega-Muff through a Jerk-Store-Super-Chorus?

“The Red Trail” is the lackluster track of the bunch. It’s not that bad, it’s just that other bands, such as Cave In’s incestuous brethren Converge, have recorded better versions of this song over the years. Change the scream vocals back to the trademark Cave In sound referenced above, and I’d probably be loving this.

The driving tempo and riffs continue through “Air Escapes” which may be the least ‘fresh’ of all these songs, but didn’t I say I was an old Cave In fan? Cave In just sold me another record.

Chris’ Rating:

King says: “Singing three octaves higher could make this band a hit. But it’s a good listen nonetheless.”

Justin’s Review:

Unless you’ve been skipping out on paying your internet bill for the last few months, you’ve no doubt read that Boston’s most famous hardcore/indie/metal/space/prog/alternative/punk/pop/rock band are back from their two-and-a-half-year hiatus.

While their last effort (2005’s Perfect Pitch Black) was a far cry from the spacey-pop stylings of Antenna (which still ruled, despite it’s non-metalness), it found the band struggling a bit to come to terms their “newest” musical direction (a feat they somehow manage to do with each new recording). They wanted to be heavy again, but they weren’t quite ready to commit to a full-on return their old-school HxC days.

Fast forward 4 years, a couple of half-assed side projects (and one decent one) later, and BAM… Cave In are fucking back! Planets of Old is both everything I had hoped for, and nothing I expected at the same time. It’s heavy, aggressive, fast, and pummeling; but altogether different than any heavy, aggressive, fast, and pummeling Cave In songs you’ve heard before. Each one of the four tracks are unique in their own right… and considering the musical ground Cave In have already covered in their 11+ year career, that’s a pretty astonishing feat. Basically, Planets of Old comes in, kicks you in the balls for 15 minutes, and leaves you wanting more.

In another interesting turn of events, longtime drummer J.R. Conners, who left the band shortly after the release of PPB, (replaced by Converge’s Ben Koller… who offered up a noticeably more aggressive and looser approach), is back at the fold, and has surprisingly taken a bit of inspiration from Koller’s frantic style. Moreover, the complexity of the riffs and song structures are toned down from typical Cave In fare, but that just proves (once again) that the band doesn’t need to be playing Juggernaut to justify their position amongst metal’s elite.

In short… if you don’t like Planets of Old… you’re probably wasting your time reading this site.

In “classic” Hydra Head fashion, this one’s only available on vinyl format (for those of us who still listen to records once in a blue moon), but if you’re dying to hear it (and you certainly should be)… the entire E.P. is streaming here.

Justin’s Rating:

King says: “Yeah, this shit pretty much rules… that reminds me… I need to put in a call into my buds at Guitar Hero, and get “Big Riff” submitted for DLC.”

Cave In Live Teaser from Fuel TV:

Sigh.

I’d like to know who the asshole is that’s going around lending some of my favorite bands a copy of “Surviving the Rock ‘N’ Roll Industry The Metallica Way: How to Transform Your Awesome Underground Band into a Boring, Half-Assed, Mainstream Version of Your Former Selves… and Get Away With It.”

Someone needs to find this fucker and give him an elbow to the face. Seriously, what the hell is going on out there? Sepultura, Earth Crisis, Killswitch Engage, Poison the Well, Obituary (yeah… I said it) have all seriously dropped the ball this year. Well go ahead and add Death By Stereo to the growing list of disappointments.

About a week ago, I stumbled upon the video for “Welcome to the Party“… the first single off the Death Is My Only Friend. Damn, was I impressed. Considering that their previous effort (Death For Life) was a garishly overproduced take on modern metalcore, I considered this new single to be a welcome return to form. The video is pretty awesome, the song kicks total ass, and shit… it even has a (ST-inspired) bass solo!

Translation: my expectations were high for the forthcoming album.

But are high expectations part of the problem? Sadly, I think not. To put things in perspective… 2 of the first 7 songs are ballads (one of which is a shitty reinterpretation of a shitty song off the last record). And both of them contain piano and orchestral arrangements. WHAT THE FUCK? Have I entered the Bizarro World here? DBS and orchestral arrangements? The last time I saw these guys live, Efrem Schulz was sporting an 8″ pink mohawk and screaming in people’s faces as he hurled his fat ass off the stage every 30 seconds. Now I have to sit and listen to him croon “I can’t face this world on my own… I keep on searching for your face. I promise that we’ll live forever… forever and a day” for a second straight album? Dude… where’s the spit? Where’s the fire? Even the band’s trademark “Woo-ooohh-ohhhs” seem lifeless this time around. Have DBS finally climbed aboard Desperation Train?

In all fairness, there are a few bright spots on the album… “We Sing Today For A Better Tomorrow” could easily be found on Into the Valley of Death, “The Ballad of Sid Dynamite” is a nice balance of old school DBS and modern hooks, and as previously mentioned, “Welcome to the Party” pretty much rules. But it’s simply not enough to overcome the rest of the lackluster (or downright shitty) songs here.

In conclusion… I’m considering Death is My Only Friend strike two. DBS had better stop pissing in my ear and telling me my brain is on fire.

*** Total side note: Is it me, or does the album cover (despite the fact the it does indeed have boobs on it) look awfully familiar? (Link NSFW) ***

Justin’s Rating:

King says: “The next album had better not be called “A Visit From the Dead” or you’ll be hearing from my lawyers!”

Mark’s Review:

“With each release, the goal of our label is to create an oasis of diversity and uniqueness within the industry where fans of all music can find sanctuary and solace from the drab, carbon-copy musical plagues that sweep through commercial culture.“

     - Serj Tankian, discussing his new label, Serjical Strike Records

I find this quote interesting because when prominent members of successful bands start their own labels, they’re never really their own. I’m sure when Universal heard that System of a Down was “taking a hiatus” after their massively successful Hypnotize / Mesmerize stretch, they realized that all those people that bought those records would be searching for a suitable alternative. What better alternative to System of a Down than the lead singer of System of a Down, who’s solo album sounds like System of a Down? And, oh yeah, we’ll give you your own label, so you can “promote it” and sign other bands you like… hopefully ones that also sound like System of a Down.

Which brings me to the new Death By Stereo, which is their first since being signed by Serjical Strike Records. I’ve been a casual fan of DBS since I saw them open for Mastodon and got into their anthem-style hardcore. One thing I liked about them, is that they’re a band that knows who they are, and what they want to present to the listener. Mash some hardcore riffs and punk drum beats with high-energy lyrics about teenage anger and rebellion against society, and everybody wins. So why does the band seem like its acting like a bad System of a Down cover band on Death is My Only Friend?

As Justin said, there’s quite a few ballads on the album, and that’s not the problem, it’s the sense that these songs don’t fit. Last Song and Forever and a Day are complete cheese-fests; so much so, that I had to hold back my snickering while listening. And while Opening Destruction, Welcome to the Party and The Ballad of Sid Dynamite remind me of the older stuff, overall, it seems like once again this is a sanitized version of DBS for the masses. I noticed the vocal lines and melodies for a majority of the songs sound eerily similar, which causes all the songs (and there are a lot of them) run together. Finally, the album ends with 2 of the laziest songs I’ve ever heard. It’s almost like DBS said, “Well, for maximum revenue with iTunes, Serj says we need to have 15 tracks“. Incredibly bad.

Overall, this is quite a disappointment. I’m sure the guys in DBS were flipping out at the chance to put out an album with the backing of Tankian’s label, but after toiling for years and building their underground fan base, it just sounds like they’re trying too hard to impress the cool kids. On Death is My Only Friend, DBS turns out to be what Tankian says he doesn’t want… a carbon-copy band looking to appeal to a commercial culture.

Mark’s Rating:

King says: “Hey Serj, King here… I need some cash and can sing falsetto… call me!”

Have A Listen:

Death By Stereo – Welcome to the Party:

Download audio file (Welcome_To_The_Party.mp3)

I suppose it was predictable that EC’s 2008 reunion tour would result in a reunion album followed by another reunion tour to help sell said album. Less predictable was whether Earth Crisis went back to the studio to do more experimenting with their style or record a nice slice of nostalgia for the ’90s hardcore “kids” that broke out the old windbreakers and basketball jerseys for last year’s tour.

If I had to compare To The Death to their older material (which of course I have to) I’d say Breed The Killers. Some EC fans regard Breed The Killers as the beginning of the end for this band, but I’m one that welcomed the progression from a sludgier, bombastic hardcore to a faster and thrashier style. (I did not welcome the aforementioned “experimenting” that came after Breed The Killers.) That leaves us wondering, if Earth Crisis isn’t giving fodder to the aging pit dancers, will they succeed in drawing new fans to The Discipline? I’m gonna say no on that one. If I had to compare To The Death to something less than ten years old for a younger metalhead… hmmm… think Lamb of God with a lot less technical shit going on and more gang vocals. I don’t think younger fans are going to hear something they’ve been missing, musically anyway.

But credit to Earth Crisis for finding that fine line between self-tribute and ill-conceived reinvention. Most of the songs are concise and energetic, Karl’s vocals are badass as ever, and the trademark guitar and bass tones are there. Opening track “Against the Current” rips a vintage gang vocal breakdown chorus; the opening riffs of “When Slaves Revolt” had me cranking the volume instantly, and how about closing the album with an allusion to the call-and-response outro of the song “Gomorrah’s Season Ends,” the lyric that launched a hundred thousand straight edgers? Maybe a little indulgent, but it slayed then and it slays now.

Secondly, as the band’s promo material openly states, Earth Crisis is as much about their message as their music (more so than their music, actually, which is Karl’s convoluted explanation of why their last album sucked so bad). True, the message also sells a lot of t-shirts, but Earth Crisis did nothing to distance themselves from the ‘direct action’ ethos of animal and earth liberation groups, preaching “Ultramilitance” before eco-terrorists were declared a top priority for the FBI. (Looking back, apparently both the FBI and Earth Crisis were a bit misguided in early 2001). I can’t think of anything in today’s kiddie metal culture that holds a candle to the social influence of bands like EC in their prime. Whether that was a positive or negative influence is a whole other can of worms (please don’t hurt the worms). For those who didn’t see it in person, To The Death offers a glimpse of the roots of that power.

Chris’ Rating:

King says: “I was almost convinced to stop buying leather vests.”

Justin’s Review:

With their 2008 reunion tour, Earth Crisis rose like the Phoenix (and one could only hope… burning every last copy of Slither in their wake). If the show I saw proved anything, it was that: 1) EC was ready to prove to the metal/hardcore* scene it was 1996 all over again and they hadn’t missed a beat and 2) watching a room full of aging 30-somethings trying to do the windmill is quite amusing. And thank God for the former, because outside of Hatebreed, hardcore just hasn’t been getting through to the kids since Full Collapse hit it big and Tony Brummel started chasing the almighty emo dollar.

So… like a fine, non-alcoholic wine or an aged, soy cheese, EC are back with an older perspective, a new label, and ready to tout their distinct brand of metallic hardcore*, love for all things animal, and “kill your local drug dealer” ethos. And I, for one, am stoked. Karl Buechner’s a much better spokesman for the sXe movement when he’s behind the microphone rather than in front of the television camera. And let’s be honest… Freya wasn’t anything to write home about, so having EC back at the top of the heap is a welcome return. You can probably imagine my excitement when I read that the new material was supposed to be a “mixture between Destroy the Machines and Breed the Killers” (in my mind, the only thing better would be a press release saying “the new shit sounds exactly like Gomorrah’s Season Ends“). Needless to say, my expectations going into To the Death were pretty high. And ultimately, I suppose, that might’ve been the album’s undoing.

Left on its own, TtD is a completely solid effort… great production, classic hXc songwriting, and plenty of mosh (from 0:03 in). Unfortunately, those perks are also what I consider the album’s defining shortcomings.

When compared to previous EC efforts, TtD has far and above the best production. The guitars shred, the bass is completely audible, and the drums sound killer. They’ve even managed to nail what I can only assume is the “Golden Gang-Vocal Ratio”… the perfect quantity of lead to backup vocals. Yet, the end result of this precision knob-dialing is one that I find a little stale. You can close your eyes and for at least 1/3 of the album, and pretend you’re listening to Hatebreed. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but one of the traits that defined the Earth Crisis of the 90s was that of dynamics… and so I find it even more disappointing that EC have harkened back to a more “straight-ahead” approach when it comes to songwriting as well. Though EC still find themselves well beyond 98% of their peers, it’s more “chugga-chugga” than suspended chords and pinch harmonics these days (though for the record, I think “To Ashes” is about as quintessential an EC song as you can get).

Maybe it’s just me. I’ve been told on a few occasions that I’m stuck in the 90s, so it’s quite possible that I’m full of shit and this album rules. Either way, I’d recommend “picking up some change” and heading out to purchase at least a couple Earth Crisis albums circa ‘92-’98 (or 2009 if that’s how you roll).

* Note that “metalcore” was not used once in this review.

Justin’s Rating:

King says: “I still respect the “X”… I’d just like to hear a little more “Y” and “Z” next time around.”

Have A Listen:

Earth Crisis – To Ashes:

Download audio file (To_Ashes.mp3)

Normally, cover albums suck balls… but for some reason, I think Hatebreed might actually pull this shit off.

Review to come…

Fuck Yeah!

I’m not sure how many of you are Converge fans, but I am, and this sounds mighty promising.