Welcome to the 8th Part of this evolving list of Most Infectious Songs from releases that appeared in 2016. To see the previous installments of the list and to learn the grounds for selection, click here.
I’ve again decided to group three songs together in this episode of the list rather than two, and I’ve again amused myself (and hopefully you) by combining tracks that I feel have a certain kinship among them, even though each one is distinctively different from the others.
RIPPER
Experiment of Existence, the new album by the Chilean band Ripper, was for me a big highlight of 2016. We got the chance to premiere a full album stream, and that was preceded by a review from Todd Manning (aka Allen Griffin) that included these words of praise:
“This release in many ways appears to channel the savagery of groups like Possessed, Dark Angel, and particularly Pleasure to Kill-era Kreator. Yet, one thing that quickly becomes apparent to the listener is the precision of execution. One hesitates to use the term ‘technical’ for all the baggage that comes along with it, but this difficult material is performed flawlessly. The aggression, though, is never compromised. This is neither Watchtower nor Voivod, just a death/thrash hybrid performed at the highest standard.”
“[T[hey don’t push the limits of their sound too far in a ‘progressive’ direction even though they certainly have the talent to do so, but they also don’t dumb things down in order to find the easiest path to brutality. And while Ripper certainly fall into the thrash category, some sort of nostalgia factor is the least of their appeal. Experiments of Existence grabs the torch of early Kreator, Pestilence, Death, and their ilk and carries it burning into modern times.”
The album is loaded with infectious songs, but the one I thought best deserved a place on this list is the opening track, “Magnetic Solar Storms” — and here it is:
https://unspeakableaxerecords.bandcamp.com/album/experiment-of-existence
https://www.facebook.com/ripperchileoficial/
HOBBS’ ANGEL OF DEATH
Many of the songs on this list come from much-heralded 2016 albums that have made the rounds among numerous year-end lists posted here and elsewhere. But this next one comes from an album that should have received far more attention. In my estimation, it was one of 2016’s best releases, and it came from a surprising source — an Australian named Peter Hobbs whose name became engrained in the underground during the ’80s but who hadn’t released a new album in more than 20 years.
I wrote a long review of this marvelous comeback record, Heaven Bled, but I think I’d rather quote the distinctive words of our Norwegian contributor Gorger from a summary he included in Part 2 of his year-end list on our site earlier today:
“In 2017 we can finally congratulate Hobbs’ Angel of Death with the 30th anniversary jubilee. And what better way to celebrate than to hear Heaven Bled, a surprisingly vital and impressive thrasher! The band bring together proto black metal and Teutonic thrash, early American thrash, and various forms of early black/thrash, along with some traceable seasonings of mid-nineties black metal and a teaspoon of testy death metal like no one else, and present it all wrapped up in a killer contemporary organic production with an honorable respect for the ways of yore. It’s an energetic cascade of multifaceted diversity with virile frenetic deathrash riffs and testosterone-rhythms, interspersed with howling adrenaline-filled solos and a dash of jet-black arrogant furore. Hell yeah!”
Hell yeah indeed.
I’ve picked a song called “Walk My Path” for this list. It isn’t nearly as thrashy as other tracks on the album, but it’s been stuck in my head ever since the first time I heard it. It begins in violent and dramatic fashion, sounding perhaps more like blasting black metal than anything else, and then it begins to transform and alternate with a galloping, warlike, heroic, melodic guitar passage — eventually highlighted by magnificent, echoing solos. In this particular song, Hobbs reached for epic heights… and succeeded in grasping them.
https://hobbsangelofdeath.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/HobbsAngelOfDeathOfficial/
VEKTOR
It became something of a running joke around here that every time we’d post a year-end list during LISTMANIA that didn’t include Vektor, one of the band’s apparently rabid legion of fans would surface to proclaim the list invalid… because no Vektor. We won’t have that problem this time.
Austin Weber lavished praise on Terminal Redux in his NCS review, from which I’ll excerpt these paragraphs:
“This record is both a grower and a truly epic experience, one that draws strength and diversity through its cascading delivery of shifting moods and styles from song to song and moment to moment, bringing to the table a strong prog-oriented mindset behind their thrashing rifftastic bliss.
“Vektor always seem to know just when to switch things up, to keep it fresh and give each song its own signature feel and identity. I can listen to Terminal Redux all day and never feel like skipping a song on it. This is truly one of those great bombastic musical experiences that’s high-minded art, yet never hollow or soulless feeling while attempting to accomplish something grandiose and moving.”
Full immersion in the wonders of this album requires dedication and time. It is, after all, a 70-minute-plus close encounter of the third kind. Only if you go in all the way will you finally come to the song I’ve picked for this “Most Infectious” list. It’s a rarity on the list — not the only long song that you’ll find here but one of few, and it may turn out to be the longest. Yet it really is still very infectious… as well as being a mind-bender.
Enjoy “Recharging the Void“:
https://vektor.bandcamp.com/album/terminal-redux
https://www.facebook.com/VektorOfficial/
8 Responses to “OUR LIST OF 2016’s MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 8): RIPPER, HOBBS’ ANGEL OF DEATH, VEKTOR”
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Jesus bloodsoaked Christ I’m craving for the two I haven’t heard.
Another fine aspect of Hobb’s AoD is how all the songs got a very individual touch that still fits coherently together like a knuckle duster. (Now to wait another ten minutes for Recharging the Void to finish before submitting.)
Oh yes, these were the songs i was hoping to see when i saw which bands were to be featured in this article. Completely engrained in my memory were these tunes from the second i heard them as well. Although, i think you could have put any song off Ripper’s Experiment of Existence.
Thanks! And I think you’re right that any of the Ripper tracks could have been picked for this list. The whole album is wickedly infectious.
“Experiment of Existence” is so fucking good, and it’s one of the few albums from 2016 where I can actually REMEMBER that the bass was an important part of the sound.
I purchased Ripper-Experiment Of Existence upon its release and felt then it would be a top 10 fave for the year for me. And it did remain so.
3 years to the month of its release, and I’m still spinning Terminal Redux from time to time. It may have been a grower upon the first listen, but Hood’s balls, every time I click play on it, there’s no turning back and like only the best writing can compel one, it never ends until the void is done charged again. (had to take a break from my Esoctrilihum addiction)
The actual reason I’m writing this is because I feel Recharging the void, albeit a monumentally infectious track, cannot be fully appreciated without the preceding hour of glory. Yet, this not being a novel thought, it just boils down to what gets played again on repeat over the years. What remains infectious, it be chronic right? And for a composition to transmogrify into the kind of virulence that defies the onslaught of time, trends and tenuous loyalties: for me it needs to be an album. So hats off to having being able to choose a song on here.
Question: would it ever be feasible for you putrefacient lot to do a ‘Chronic’ list, of albums that simply endure, or is that something covered in other features like ‘The rearview mirror’? Or chronically infectious albums, where the whole damn thing takes you for a non-stop ride into oblivion?
Also, when the smeg is Caladan Brood ever releasing their sophomore?
(apologies for mixing up me expletives, but just like life being a tragicomedy, one must ever so often attempt to blend the absurd in with the facade of sophistication through unsubtle reference. In comment sections of course, not referring to the high art that is the writing on this putrid site)
Before this blog became an all-consuming endeavor, I used to wear out new albums as the year(s) rolled on from their release, letting time sort out which ones would really endure (because, for the most part, the albums as a whole were so infectious). Now I’m constantly flitting about, paying attention to the next new things, and not living with albums for an extended time like I used to. That’s one thing I miss. And so although the idea of a “Chronic” list of enduring albums is a great one, I’m probably the worst person to compile it. There’s even a big risk that the individual songs I choose off albums like Terminal Redux would turn out not to be the right choices if I kept listening to albums like that as much as I used to. Maybe some of the other miscreants around here would be interested in doing it. (Also, LOL at Caladan Brood reference.)
Thanks for the reply. I totally have the same sentiment towards albums and music in general these days. I guess that’s why I love NCS so much, it allows me to discover so much of what’s good and unknown.
Yeah, Caladan Brood mentioned that they had something in the works, but aeons ago, which brought me to wonder what their other projects were.
And regarding a ‘Chronic’ list, it would be tough indeed, not only because of individual tastes, but in the end, mostly because of individual subjective taste.