WELL. New year, new beginning. And that's hard. I feel lazier than ever since I started the Winter Solstice holidays. I don't celebrate Christmas because I'm not a believer -of nothing, I want to add-, but I have a family which usually follows traditions, which consists basically in have plentiful meals. So we don't believe in nothing, but we eat and drink as hell. Just to pass some days together and have some 'fun'. Typical spanish traditions. Eat and drink if there won't be a tomorrow. Oh well.
That's (basically) why I haven't updated anything in the blog since december 24th (and the drawing was recycled from 2008, haha). Maybe it will sound ridiculous, but I'm not able to draw anything during these kind of celebrations. You get into an spiral of laziness which stops you to do something benefit. It's really depressive.
So here I am, with tons of piled up works. I don't know where to start. And if it wasn't bad enough, it's snowing and I haven't got domestic hot water. Thanks my landlord for being so careful with his tenants.
ANYWAY, these days I have had time enough to do other things, like tidy up my cds and lps (though it might not look like it, it's VERY physical. I have a lot of music, and the room where is it was a total mess). So I put aside my laziness and tidied the cds. And I took the opportunity to make my list of Best of 2009. Here it goes:
MORNE - Untold Wait
I think it has been easily the album which I listened the most the past year. Quite melodic and ambient sludge with Jeff Hayward (Disrupt) on vocals. That album is almost unbeatable. Listen to Eyes, Untold Wait or the ending theme, Sorrow. Goosebumps.
BULLDOZER - Unexpected Fate
Unexpected damn good work, I must say! The return of the italian dirty thrashers scared me a lot, 'cause since the last full-length ('Neurodeliri', 1988) have passed the huge amount of 20 years. 20 YEARS! But well, all the fears disappeared when I pushed 'play'. Intense and full of good riffs as a Bulldozer album used to be. Luckily, all remains the same.
KATHARSIS - Four Reich
Another good album of these blackers. Good, evil and harsh as their last album ('WolrdWithoutEnd') was. This is the black I like the most, primitive and rude.
PROCLAMATION - Execration of Cruel Bestiality
Third part of the tetralogy started with 'Advent of the Black Omen'. Dirty black metal in the same vein of Blasphemy, Conqueror or Morbosidad. Damn great.
TEITANBLOOD - Seven Chalices
The new sensation of the underground extreme metal. Death/black, formed with members of Proclamation. Harsh and chaotic as hell, intense and dark. One of the best spanish bands you can find right now.
KÖRGULL THE EXTERMINATOR - Dogs of War
Blackened thrash from Spain, too. This is their debut (aside of the split with Morbid Yell, of course), and it's f*cking great. They have a Sarcófago and Apokalyptic Raids vibe. And their vocalist, Lillith (also in the black metal band Akerbeltz) is one of the most evil voices you can hear in the scene. Truly amazing. Highly recommended.
OBLITERATION - Nekropsalms
Pretty good second album of this norwegian band. Death old school with a punkish vibe, similar to Repugnant or Autopsy. Morbid and blasting.
ORTHODOX - Sentencia
I was waiting for that album eagerly, the previous ones were reaaaally good. Intense and ambient doom metal, nearly funeral. Delicious.
SARKE - VorunahWell...I know that a lot of people have criticized this project with Thomas from Tulus and the mighty Nocturno Culto, basically because of its clear sound. Well, if you want something in that way but dirtier, you already have Hellhammer and Celtic Frost (aside of TONS of bands copying the sound). That's precisely what it's interesting on Sarke: the mixture of the harsh voice of mr. Culto and the clear sound. So I found the album pretty good, and full of great themes. In fact, 'Old' is an hymn for me. Catchy chorus and riff, it isn't?
Well, there is some more albums I liked this year, like Baroness, Candlemass, Nocturnal or Mournful Congregation...but I must stop now (the list would be never-ending). So that's all folks.
Hope 2010 is so good than 2009.
I have vowed to keep better notes so I can do a year-end list for 2010. I am not a big "list" person, but I think it is of some service to be able to point out just the highlights from a given year. I have so much stuff yet to hear and a lot of stuff from other years that it all gets quite confusing. I think I might simply do a "best albums I heard this year regardless of the year it was actually released" list to make things easier.
ResponderEliminarI was able to find the Morne album after I read that it was your favorite, so I am very much looking forward to its arrival.
This kind of list you mentioned is really interesting too. The past year I also listened to a lot of albums which aren't precisely from 2009, I mean some old stuff from early '90s, specially death metal (in fact, 2009 was 'the year of the reissues' in that genre, maybe because of the repercussion the Death Metal Encyclopedia of Daniel Ekeroth had in 2008), some classic doom with '70s vibe (or directly, from the 70s) and tons of crust/punk. I was thinking in making a list including all these albums, but well...it may be REALLY neverending, I listened too much music and I wouldn't have too much criteria to decide which works should appear and which not. So finally I focused the attention in the releases of the year. It has been a good year in that way. A lot of new releases surprised me (for good).
ResponderEliminarAnd regarding MORNE...hope you enjoy the album as I did. For me it's simply perfect. Can't wait for the next album.