We have good intentions for 2011, and here’s to hoping we get back on track soon. Speaking of which… best wishes go out to our good friend King for his safe & speedy recovery. Can’t wait until you’re back rocking our souls.

Justin’s List:

I’m not sure if this is saying something or not, but 2010 marks the second year in a row that my #1 album is not of the metal variety (call me a sucker for spacey indie rock). But you know what? Awesome is awesome, so it’s not really up to me. This year’s choice is especially interesting, in that it comes from a local band (one of two to make the list), and one who’s members are practically young enough to be my kids. If they keep writing tunes this catchy, we might just have the next Hum on our hands.

Overall, 2010 was a bit of a dry year. Not to discount any releases on this list, but there seemed to be a lot of half-assing going on this year concerning most things metal (ourselves included). Oh well… here’s to 2011 rocking more better. Onto the rock:

10. Torche – Songs For Singles (Hydrahead)
Despite being the worst vinyl packaging in the history of records, this EP still screams Torche. Which is all it takes to make my list.
Check Out: Hideaway

9. Agalloch – Marrow of the Spirit (Profound Lore)
Not quite as good as “Ashes Against the Grain“, but “Marrow of the Spirit” proves once again Portland can be a cold dead place too.
Check Out: Into the Painted Grey

8. Goes Cube – Coextinction Release 2 (Coextinction Recordings)
Proving they aren’t just a Torche clone, Goes Cube lengthens their songs and tightens their songwriting. And it rules.
Check Out: Crohn’s Attack

7. Nachtmystium – Addicts: Black Meddle Part II (Century Media)
Different?  Yes. Good?  Also Yes.
Check Out: Blood Trance Fusion

6. Thou – Summit (Gilead Media/Southern Lord)
Face Rippingly Beautiful.
Check Out: By Endurance We Conquer

5. Enslaved – Axioma Ethica Odini (Nuclear Blast)
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… better than Opeth.
Check Out: Singular

4. Weye – Friends, Family & Others (Self-Released)
A local band that rivals classic Don Cab in complexity and catchiness. Relapse should take notice and sign a real instrumental band.
Check Out: Great Hall

3. Deftones – Diamond Eyes (Warner Bros.)
It’s not a bad thing that Deftones are wearing their influences (:cough: Meshuggah :cough:) on their sleeves more than ever (enlisting Sergio Vega certainly doesn’t hurt either). Easily the best Deftones record since Around the Fur.
Check Out: Diamond Eyes

2. Cloudkicker – Beacons (Self-Released)
If this is one of the albums that defines “Djent“, I may have just found my new favorite pointless sub-genre.
Check Out: Here, Wait a Minute! Damn It!

1. Lybria – Cycles (Self-Released)
While their influences might be obvious, their songwriting skills are anything but. Deep, catchy, and hypnotic; Lybria is the next generation of rock’s “small step for man.”
Check Out: All of Them!

Ed’s List:

10. Cynic – Re-Traced (Season of Mist)
Not really a “new” Cynic album, but a different interpretation of various songs from 2008’s Traced In Air. As usual, anything and everything Cynic does blows my mind. This became my outdoor jogging soundtrack for about two months over the summer.

9. Triptykon – Eparistera Daimones (Century Media)
Ex-Celtic Frost guru Tom Fischer turns it up pretty damn loud on this kick ass album. The guitars alone are enough to to melt one’s face. The H.R. Giger cover is enough period!

8. High on Fire – Snakes for the Divine (E1 Music)
Just crank the shit out of it.

7. Nachtmystium – Addicts: Black Meddle Part II (Century Media)
A polarizing metal band with an odd history of constant line-up changes, touring issues and drug dabbling. Nachtmystium take a strange stylistic turn here… and it works! Catchy songs, good riffs, and loud production – solid album.

6. The National – High Violet (4AD)
I know, I know… this isn’t metal. But it’s dark, brooding, chilled-out, and amazing. This album should be on everyone’s top 10 list, regardless of genre.

5. Atheist – Jupiter (Season Of Mist
A fierce mindwarp of progressive thrash, and their first new album in years. This record is a puzzle, but when it starts to make sense you will be spinning it non-stop.

4. Intronaut – Valley of Smoke (Century Media)
Intronaut kicks my ass. Ever since picking up “Void” a few years back I have always gotten excited about their new releases. “Valley of Smoke” turns up the psychedelia and even adds clean vocals into the mix, but the band sounds just as tight and crushing as ever. And Danny Walker might just be my new favorite drummer too.

3. Cloudkicker – Beacons (Self-Released)
This solo project of Columbus, OH-based guitarist Ben Sharp has some of the most interesting and mind-blowing guitar acrobatics of any instrumental rock or metal album I have heard in recent years.

2. Agalloch – Marrow of the Spirit (Profound Lore)
Incredibly expansive, dark, and thoughtful melodic black/doom metal. In my opinion one of America’s most underrated and gifted outfits.

1. Anathema – We’re Here Because We’re Here (Kscope)
Good grief… what an album. For those unfamiliar, Anathema was one of the “Peaceville 3” (along with Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride) who helped forge a new and very bleak emotional style of British doom metal back in the early 90’s. They have since moved into dreamy, atmospheric rock territory… with breathtaking results. Very well-written and a completely surreal listening experience.

Mark’s List:

It’s hard to select my top 10 albums of 2010, because quite frankly, I didn’t like 10 albums this year. There’s really only one album that I felt was worth anyone’s time and that’s Cloudkicker’s Beacons. It’s an interesting picture of the current music industry when the best and brightest offering of the year was done by a single guy with no budget, no distribution, no touring and no label. I’m sure I missed a lot over the year, but almost everything I did hear illicited a reaction somewhere between indifference and disappointment. So instead of “Top Albums“, I’m submitting my “Top Trends of 2010“. It’s been fun, but here’s hoping 2011 is better.

Metal bands playing entire albums Live

Ask yourself this question: what is a more annoying trend? Bands playing with “symphony orchestras” (Metallica, Kiss, Dream Theater, Scorpions), or bands playing their albums live “In their entirety” (Judas Priest, Megadeth, Slayer, Metallica, Life of Agony, Opeth). In the case of Opeth, they pulled it off and gave us one of the most stunning DVD/CD packages of the year. On the flipside, Priest stumbled through a pedestrian version of British Steel, Mustaine struggled with Rust in Peace and LOA’s River Runs Red was just plain embarrassing.

“Comeback” albums

Everyone loved Diamond Eyes by the Deftones, and I thought it was pretty damn good too, but then I realized, “hmm, I don’t care about the Deftones anymore” and that was the end of it. I felt the same way about Danzig’s Red Deth Saboth. Good album, but Danzig’s ship has sailed LONG ago and even if the album was the next Lucifuge, I doubt I would’ve listened to it that often. Some say metal fans are the “most loyal” and will follow a band even after a few letdowns, but I say that’s a ton of bullshit and those people that do are normally assholes that spend most of their time trying to justify St. Anger, and convince you that Volume 8: The Threat is Real “isn’t half bad”.

Popular Black Metal

Probably the fact that we’re even talking about it on an American metal website means that Black Metal has gone too mainstream, but 2010 saw the genre really seep into popular culture. Luckily, Nachtmystium’s follow up to Assassins was so disappointing and non-metal that no one will start talking about the “New Wave of American Black Metal” anytime soon. Until the Light Takes Us was a critically-acclaimed documentary discussing the early days of the genre, and although I found it quite dull, the fact that it was made and put into small-run theaters shows that people are intrigued by the culture.

Dead Metal Icons

RIP Ronnie James Dio and Peter Steele. (Probably some others that I can’t think of or that weren’t that popular)

Break-out Albums

Call this the “Curse of Mastodon”, but it seems that when a metal band is about to make a real splash onto the mainstream scene, they release an album that is incredibly dull. This year saw quite a few with High on Fire’s Snakes for the Divine, Lair of the Minotaur’s Evil Power, and the aforementioned Nachtmystium coming to mind. One might call Fear Factory’s Mechanize a “comeback”, but we thought it just plain sucked, much to the chagrin to a few FF fans that decided that we were hurting the band’s feelings.

Metal and Food

Whether its the oppressive popularity of Kuma’s Corner, Melt on Man vs Food, the Grill ‘Em All guys winning The Great Foodtruck Race or a slew of metal cookbooks, for some reason, people have finally realized that metal fans are fat, and that non-metal people that want to seem “edgy” are also fat.

Best things of the Year:

Devin Townsend live solo tour, Kuma’s Insect Warfare burger, The Walking Dead, Southern Tier Pumking, the resurrection of Phil Anselmo, King Buzzo at the World Series, Slayer Christmas lights, Bed-Intruder Song, Mustaine’s autobiography, Soundgarden is back, “basement metal”, Transatlantic at the Park West (and live CD/DVD), Nerdist podcast, Danzig buying cat litter, Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, Behemoth’s videos, Three Floyd’s Apocalypse Cow (and Creeper beer dedicated to Pelican), Slayer on Kimmel, Ed’s Wacken Honeymoon, The Sword – Warp Riders, Tim & Eric Season Cinco

Worst of the Year:

Cynic’s Re-Traced, Dragonforce live albums, Iron Maiden’s lame set-list, Sepultura’s failed reunion, Ozzy’s Scream, Trooloo song, Facebook memes, Lady Gaga dancing to Metal Militia at Lollapalooza, the unnecessary Beatles cash cow on iTunes, Portnoy leaving Dream Theater and the subsequent whining and crying that followed in the all-too pretentious prog community, Metalocalypse going to 30 min, vampire bands, Halford solo tunes, Sirius-XM’s Liquid Metal, That Metal Show being renewed, South Park.

What I’m looking forward to in 2011:

A new Opeth album… Devin Townsend’s Destruction and Ghost… Scale the Summit’s new one… seeing Immortal in February… a possible Maiden:England Iron Maiden tour.

Well, it seems that I just can’t get enough of sold out shows lately. Yet another 3+ hours of standing butts-to-nuts with sweaty metal dudes who have absolutely no concept of the term “personal space”. Oh well, it’s Mastodon… I’ve done it before, and chances are, I’ll do it again next time around.

Surprisingly, the band have continued to stick it out at The Metro (capacity 1,100) these past few tour cycles, rather than graduate to the larger (capacity 1,300) House of Blues (and by now, you should know that if/when Mastodon do graduate to the HoB, someone else will be ghostwriting my review).

Intronaut opened this evening’s performance with a solid set of (their unique brand of) progressive sludge. I’m a fan of these guys, and was happy to finally get a chance to watch bassist Joe Lester work his magic in person. Based on the few youtube clips of I’d seen of the band, I wasn’t really expecting much in the vocal department, but they actually turned it out. The duel-vocal approach served the songs well (as did the massive knob tweaks that happened midway through the first song… come on Metro, sound check should take care of that shit). Intronaut’s setlist was very heavy on Prehistoricisms, and though I would’ve loved to hear something off Null, their brief showing did a great job satisfying my Introneeds. One thing in particular that impressed me, was the general attitude the band conveyed while onstage. No bitching at the sound guy, no heckling the crowd… just honest sincerity. A rare thing indeed.

Kylesa was up next, and though I’d listened to Time Will Fuse Its Worth a few times, I wasn’t entirely familiar with their catalog. So, it’s safe to say, I (more specifically, my ears) was not prepared for the sonic onslaught that followed for the next 45+ minutes. Kylesa are heavy as hell. Two drummers, 3 full stacks, and guitars tuned down to “who-the-fuck-knows-how-low” (and yes… for all you horn-dogs out there… a hot chick with a guitar). Good, good stuff here. Vocals could use a bit of finesse, but it’s easy to look beyond the vocals when a song like Hollow Severer is ripping your face off. I’m definitely going to have to check out their new one soon.

As previously discussed, Mastodon have come a long way these past few years (certainly since I first saw them play a Remission-heavy set in front of about 50 people at the sorely missed Fireside Bowl), and this evening’s ridiculously ambitious set showcased what the band has been up to since. I (as it seemed most of the crowd) was unaware going in, that Mastodon was planning to perform Crack the Skye in its entirety. A pleasant surprise, as the band pulled out another 10 songs from their back catalog afterwards (though it made a long night even longer… hey… I’m old and my feet hurt). In addition, Mastodon took a page from the “Neurosis Book of Live Performance” by incorporating video and synths into their set. Both of which worked very well and made an enjoyable set even more so (I probably don’t need to mention the playing was spot-on). And guess what? They closed with Hearts Alive. Yep… it ruled. Don’t be jealous. Oh wait… maybe you should be.

Justin’s Rating:

King says: “Back in my day, we didn’t need no stinkin’ video screens to entertain a crowd. Just fog machines, gothic sets, upside down crosses, skeletons, fake blood, a cape and some hairspray.”

Chris’ Review:

My previous experiences seeing Mastodon live had me looking forward to another opportunity to enjoy them at this venue, one of Chicago’s best for its size, usually considered a treat for seeing a ‘big’ band. This long night almost didn’t live up to my high expectations, but Mastodon saved it in the end. Gosh, those guys are good.

Arriving early to see Intronaut allowed us to enjoy their proficient execution of a familiar style of [progressive sludge] (thanks, Justin), but with an aggressive edge to set it apart from the mediocre masses of this genre.

Intronaut’s just-right set was followed by some technical difficulties which was then followed by Kylesa’s set. By this time the main floor of Metro was filling in but still comfortable. Kylesa’s almost straight-ahead style and two-drummer attack provided a great contrast to Mastodon, however, the effect was diminished as Kylesa’s set stretched out a bit longer than necessary.

Even more unnecessary was the interminable set change to Mastodon. As soon as Kylesa finished, the main floor packed in as the rest of this sold-out crowd arrived for the headliner. Don’t accuse me of being old and crabby for saying this, because I’ve been saying it since I was young and crabby: long set changes are a disservice to everyone (except maybe the bar). Why are we punished for actually wanting to see all the bands on the bill? I could show up a couple hours after the show starts and hear the headliner with fresh ears, but as a music lover, a chance to see an evening of well organized, thoughtfully packaged live acts is a main reason I pay the ticket price and truck my ass downtown for a show. On a weeknight, mind you. Alright, that did sound pretty old. While I’m on the old-man rant, another problem at a sold out Metro show is the time spent standing in a butts-to-nuts stress position if you want to be out from under the balconies, where the sound is usually better.

Finally, with the opening notes of Oblivion, Mastodon started their highly anticipated performance. One’s opinion of the main set would probably depend mostly on one’s opinion of Crack the Skye because that’s what they played, from beginning to end. While I like Crack the Skye overall, I think its songs do wander a little bit without hooks, which gave this live show quite a prog-rock feel; enjoyed more intellectually than viscerally. About 3/4 into the set, I had the idea that if this were Mastodon’s debut, this crowd would have lost interest much earlier. The band delivered an almost technically perfect performance as usual (to my ears a couple vocal parts of the new material weren’t quite pulled off live), but the material set the energy level of the set at a fairly subdued feel. As noted in my rant above, my personal discomfort may have had as much cause for this as the music.

After Crack the Skye was completed, Mastodon took a short break and their ‘second set’ which featured material from Blood Mountain and Leviathan (and “March of the Fire Ants“) rocked more confidently. While I may be criticizing Mastodon for taking an indulgent turn with their material, I think the epic closer, “Hearts Alive,” and the fact that I’ve looked forward to hearing it each time I’ve had the chance to see them, tells me Mastodon has earned the devotion this crowd showed.

Chris’ Rating:

King says: “Nice band, but seriously, these guys suck at concept albums. King is not impressed. And why am I not on Letterman?”

Have A Look:

Mastodon – Live at the Metro 4/30/09