Wednesday 9 February 2011

...of 2010

I think this year's edition will be even less interesting than last year's predominantly because I rekindled a love of '80s hard rock, which completely dominated my listening habits (and is certainly to blame for a drought of posts here). There were countless albums I wanted to investigate but never found the time or desire to, more so than usual.

Best Album
Pain of Salvation ~ Road Salt One



Pain of Salvation win by default, really. This album is more conventional than previous full-length Scarsick but in a rock-orientated way, rather than a metal one. The focus is on emotion, with influences from throughout rock's history creating yet another creative album that evoked plentiful spins before it finally hit me. That and I wasn't really in much of a progressive mood at all this year.

Honourable mentions: Alcest ~ Écailles de lune; Atheist ~ Jupiter


Best EP
Murder Construct ~ Murder Construct


With members from Cattle Decapitation, Exhumed and Impaled, Murder Construct could be considered something of a super group. This EP may not actually be as amazing as I thought but I hadn't listened to grind in a while until I heard this and it punched my teeth in. Death metal-articulated grind passages positioned next to straight-forward death metal moments with that dark atmosphere Cattle Decapitation enjoy using nowadays. Has a few quirky moments. Repeated listens aplenty. I'm not sure I actually heard any other EPs this year, come to think of it...

Best Song
Pain of Salvation ~ 'Sisters'

If another band churned out a song like this (someone like Nightwish), it might ruin the nature of sounding too sickly-sweet. Pain of Salvation go there though and make it sound completely genuine and non-cliché, possibly due to Daniel's vocals. The fragility of this song and the colourful climax at the end mark it particularly from the remainder of the album. A very beautiful number.

Honourable mentions: Alcest ~ 'Solar Soul'; Pain of Salvation ~ 'Curiosity'


Biggest Disappointment
James LaBrie ~ Static Impulse


Oh dear. Oh dear. From the mind of Mullmuzzler, the voice of Dream Theater hands us his interpretation of melodic death metal. Really. Compared to the grand Elements of Persuasion, this song features simpler instrumentation (in the melodic death metal vessel) and is entirely one-dimensional throughout. LaBrie's vocals are juxtaposed with Peter Wildoer, who I believe is from shitty Swedish melo death/thrash act Darkane, and his unbearable screams. It's an odd mix and they certainly do not compliment each other. LaBrie additionally tries to inject heaviness into his own vocals to measure up to the heavy riffs but the result isn't very convincing. Perhaps LaBrie should revive Winter Rose; the glam metal revival is fruitful in Sweden at the moment.

(Dis)Honourable mentions: Sabaton ~ Coat of Arms; Forbidden ~ Omega Wave


Best Cover Art
Death Angel ~ Relentless Retribution


Sadly, I never got round to listening to the new Death Angel album but when they announced this as the album art, I was ecstatic and knew most bands would struggle to produce such an arresting image for their release this year. This realisation of the saying 'wolf in sheep's clothing' is so beautifully violet and evocative of Hell that it fits the name of a band dubbed Death Angel perfectly. I'm assuming it's painted, which recalls the classic metal album art of the '80s ~ truly epic scenarios captured with oils on canvas. However, it does look like the most prominent wolf has been based off Courage Wolf. Oh, the Internet.

Honourable mentions: Alcest ~ Écailles de lune; Atheist ~ Jupiter


Best Newcomer
Triptykon ~ Esparistera Daimones



Okay, so they may not be brand new but Tom G. Warrior's Triptykon definitely aren't Celtic Frost, as the photo proves. This full-length is dark and heavy doom metal and essentially a natural continuation from Celtic Frost's 2006 Monotheist. With a great diversity of track lengths, this debut full-length chronicles a journey through anguish. Warrior is clearly enjoying his freedom here.

Honourable mention: Murder Construct

Best Live Show
Transatlantic, Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, 21th May

Prog rock supergroup Transatlantic decided to immortalise their European tour by taping their London concert for a future DVD release. Despite having to endure the mutton-dressed-as-lamb Mike Portnoy crowd-surfing, I was fortunate enough to enjoy hearing all of The Whirlwind in its entirety, executed with excellent attention to detail. The band were down-to-earth and were fully behind the live show, particularly Neal Morse who had tears in his eyes during some of the performance. As a bonus, Pain of Salvation's Daniel Gildenlow was a session member. It did feel as if the audience were there for individual members as opposed to Transatlantic and they could have been more visually enthusiastic, otherwise I'm sure all will agree the show was superlative.

Honourable mentions: Fozzy, The Garage, London, 15th May; Therion, Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, 31st October


Best Festival
Hellfest Open Air 2010, Clisson, 18th - 20th June


Last year, I said I'd probably be listing Hellfest as festival for the year yet again and I was right. This year was particularly exciting for me, seeing Freak Kitchen for the first time ever and enjoying a few of my other favourite bands like Kampfar, Urgehal and Sabaton. UDO, Raven and General Surgery are rare sights in London and it was fantastic seeing Twisted Sister, KISS and Alice Cooper without the hefty price tag that comes with seeing them in horrendously huge venues. Oh, and Bloodbath, Nile, Tankard and Asphyx all deserve mention. Ah, there were so many bands. This year's line up is only looking so-so. Having been for the past four years, I might skip Hellfest this year. I'm not sure I could drag anyone along to it either.

Honourable mentions: Hard Rock Hell III, Prestatyn, 2th - 4th December; High Voltage, London, 24th - 25th July

Best Discovery
Dangerous Toys


Nope. No metal here. Dangerous Toys are the Forced Entry of the '80s hard rock scene. That is, criminally underrated, probably because they too arrived on the scene too late. Fusing hard rock with Southern rock (they are from Texas), they managed to crank out their addictive and infectious self-titled effort, which is flawless. The vocals of Jason McMaster are screeched admirably and the guitars are either creatively melodic or heavy in a Southern cowboy style unique to this quintet. The second album is less in-your-face with some adventuring into different song structures but the final two tracks are such effortless one-two punches. When the third album was released, it saw the band desperately trying to adapt to the nineties scene and the release, interestingly entitled Pissed, is more aggressive musically and lyrically with no sign of cowboy-ness. I haven't heard the fourth album and I don't want to any time soon because after that, there will be no unheard Dangerous Toys releases out there for me. Isn't it sad? The band still play the rare show but from what I can glean, they never leave Texas. If only they would come to Hard Rock Hell...

Honourable mentions: Enuff Z'nuff, Pretty Boy Floyd

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Perhaps next year, I'll get into metal again. I did check out some old school death metal, actually, but maybe this year will be my reintroduction to modern metal. If I can stop listening to the '80s hard rock, the NWoBHM and the old school death metal. And the non-metal stuff I also indulge in now. I have no idea what metal releases are coming out this year. Dream Theater, I assume and...? I'm useless.