I didn’t listen to as much newer music as usual this year. For one thing, I didn’t hear too many new bands that really grabbed me, although this might be a problem of age more than quality. Take critical darlings Fleet Foxes, who are currently topping most hipster top tens. They were on Conan the other night and I thought I’d check them out because I’ve heard nothing but good things about them. Yeah, um… they’re soft rock. Like Bread, or America, or the wimpier end of the CSNY catalog soft rock. Male four-part harmonies with acoustic guitars – in other words, boooooooooring. I don’t know, maybe it sounds awesome after a night of clubbing or something, but I lived through shitty seventies AM music once, and I don’t need to do it again. But I guess the fetuses who work for Pitchfork don’t have nightmares about hearing “A Horse With No Name” on the radio for the five millionth time.

The other reason I didn’t listen to much new music is that this was the year of ridiculous reissues: the entire Ace Of Hearts era Mission Of Burma catalog, the entire Factory era New Order catalog, the entire Replacements catalog, R.E.M.’s Murmur, the first two Fripp & Eno collaborations… that’s a shitload of music, right there. More to the point, that music forms a lot of my fondest music memories – New Order and the ‘Mats were the soundtrack to much of high school, and I can’t listen to Mission Of Burma without remembering early university, when I was first introduced to them. It’s hard to believe that I first came to this town to start university twenty years ago. Damn.

And OF COURSE special mention to the mighty Ace Kinkaid (aka my bros-in-law) for finally releasing a record worthy of their prodigious talents. It’s my understanding that the physical CD is in short supply, but you can check it out over the magic of the interwebs. 

Anyway, given all that some stuff did still manage to permeate my consciousness. Mostly the louder stuff. Go figure. In no order:

Cult of Luna – Eternal Kingdom Swedish (I think) avant-garde metal band who kinda-sorta are the godfathers of the ambient metal scene that encompasses bands like Isis and Pelican, Cult Of Luna specialise in a dark, textured metal with a strong emphasis on band dynamics. This one comes with a great story: they moved their rehersal/studio into a space that used to be an old mental institution – LIKE ANY SELF-RESPECTING METAL BAND WOULD – and found a diary left behind from one of the inmates who was imprisoned for drowning his wife. The diary details a Henry Darger-esque fantasy world called The Eternal Kingdom, populated with wild creatures who were presumably the ones he believed responsible for the drowning. So, you know, it’s a family record.

Gojira – The Way Of All Flesh  OUTSTANDING French metal act, who get massive bonus points for naming themselves after Godzilla’s Japanese name. They truck in a pretty technical death-metal vibe (think Meshuggah with better hooks), but instead of the usual Satanic or demonic tropes they sing songs about saving whales and the environment and ecosystems and shit. Seriously. Oh, France – even your death metal has to be fruity. 

M83 – Saturdays=Youth  I was on the fence with the previous M83 stuff I heard, which is basically this heavy-duty maximalist style shoegaze but done with analog synths instead of guitars. Neat idea, but it was something I liked as opposed to loved. On Saturdays=Youth, they take the basic M83 template and then mutate it in the service of a phenomenal 80s pop pastiche that stops just short of slavish imitation. I never knew how much I missed guitars with chorus pedals until I listened to “Graveyard Girl”, which I did somewhat obsessively. Also: Best cover of the year. 

Grails – Doomsdayer’s Holiday  Crazy hash-soaked drone/experimental/general weirdo outfit from America, who cranked out two records this year. This was the second, and it’s a keeper – an album that sounds like the soundtrack to a particularly strong peyote trip in the middle of a blasted desert, except the desert is like your mind, man. It should have been called There’s No Such Thing As Too Much Reverb. Recommended for people, like me, that think Pink Floyd went to shit after Echoes. 

Austrian Death Machine – TOTAL BRUTAL  Big shout-out to R. from GenX for turning me onto this. It’s a side-project from one of the dudes from As I Lay Dying – pummeling thrash metal sung by Arnold Schwartzenegger (OK, not really, but the guy does a pretty good imitation) with lyrics and titles lifted directly from the Arnie Canon: “Get To The Choppa!”, “Here Is Subzero, Now Plain Zero”, “I Am A Cybernetic Organism, Living Tissue Over (Metal) Endoskeleton” and, of course, “Screw You Benny!” Essential.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!  I can’t remember the last itme I liked a Nick Cave record all the way through. Let Love In, maybe. Lately, Nick had been in piano-crooner mode and I had sort of tuned out, because I like the crazy Nick way better than the quiet Nick. Last year’s Grinderman album hinted that crazy Nick was coming back, and this album makes good on that promise. Kicking things off with a tale told from the point of view of Lazarus – yeah, that Lazarus – who is apparently immortal and living in New York, Nick takes us on a crawl through the sleazier parts of his id, fueled by multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis’ unholy racket. Nicest surprise of the year. 

Boris – Smile (Japanese version)   My love for Boris continues unabated. Smile finds Boris still in full-on freak out mode, and still capable of busting out a fifteen brain-melting minutes of the loudest doom this side of Vahalla, but now with some added textures that until now were non-Borisy – machined drum beats, the occasional synth, and general noise terror. They released two versions of this album, and sadly the one we got in North America, while still good, plays it too safe. (It’s also marred by a weirdly thin production that makes it sound like a late MC5 album, instead of the mighty rock juggernaut of Pink.) The Japanese version, done by a completely different producer, is way better: harsher, more experiemental, and just plain weirder. Which is the reason you listen to Boris in the first place. 

Amon Amarth – Twlight Of The Thunder Gods  Reader of Sloth are probably sick of me talking about Amon Amarth, so suffice it to say this album would KICK THE TEETH IN of anything else on this list and then LAUGH ABOUT IT. If Metallica is metal, then this is, like, adamantium or mythril or some other fantasy substance so hard you could use it to saw through James Hetfield’s dick. 

Bison B.C. – Quiet Earth   Another nice surprise, this band came out of nowhere for me this year and punched me on the face with a chunky fist of rock. I guess they used to be a fairly well-known Vancouver band called S.T.R.E.E.T.S., but have since shed the thrash for a more stoner rock/metal groove. AND I HEARTILY APPROVE. This is a band that is all about the riffage, and as such the songs are hilarious compediums of massive riff after massive riff, as if the band is daring themselves to rock out harder every five seconds or so. Every now and then they scream something about wendigos. Needless to say, I love it. 

Farflung – A Wound In Eternity  Another one I’ve talked about on Sloth, so check yourself lest you wreck yourself. 

Honourable mentions: B-52s, Bob Mould, The Melvins, Toner Low, Santogold, The Cure (no, really, it’s not a bad album), Steinski, Brian Eno & David Byrne.