OUR LIST OF 2010’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 3

Here we have the next two entries on our list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs.  For a full explanation of what we mean by “most infectious”, read this.

In a nutshell, we compiled a list, in no particular order, of the catchiest songs from a wide range of extreme metal sub-genres — not necessarily the best metal of the year (though lots of these songs would qualify for that kind of list), but the ones that most effectively got our heads and other parts of our bodies moving, and then continued to ring in our tiny brains even after they ended.

Our fifth and sixth additions to the list are songs from albums we reviewed earlier in the year, one by Canada’s Kataklysm and one by Finland’s Kalmah.

KATAKLYSM

In our review of this band’s 2010 release, we called Heaven’s Venom “an irresistible onslaught of powerful grooves and dark melody, fist-pumping anthems and mosh-pit missiles.” (more after the jump . . .)

We wrote that everything on the album was big and powerful: “Big-assed, sawing riffs that generate industrial-strength, nail-driving rhythms; those ‘northern hyperblasts’ shot from the drumkit like a cloud of angry hornets; dramatic melodies; and Maurizio Iacono’s distinctive, passionate, grizzly-bear roars.”

Ironically, our favorite song on Heaven’s Venom is one that is perhaps least like all the rest on the album. “Suicide River” features blackened riffing, with dramatic tremolo-picked chords and a melancholy melody in the chorus sections. But the song also pummels with intensity, and we think it belongs on our list of the year’s most infectious songs. Have a listen:

Kataklysm: Suicide River

KALMAH

We thought Kalmah’s 2010 album, 12 Gauge, kicked all kinds of ass. In our review, we wrote: “12 Gauge is filled with thrash-metal speed, hammering rhythms, and enough infectious power-metal riffs to wake the dead and set their heads to banging. But this is melodic death metal, and so 12 Gauge also delivers blistering melodic guitar solos and soaring keyboards. Pekka Kokko’s vocals supply a low-end howl that provides an effective contrast and complement to the melodies.” In a nutshell, we said the album was “just more fucking fun than the law allows.”

12 Gauge is an album filled with memorable tracks, but one in particular stands out as the most infectious, and it’s such a catchy piece of metallic extremity that we thought it belonged on our 2010 list. It’s got one killer riff after another plus a blowtorch guitar solo. It thrashes and spins, it jets flame, it rages, it will make you bang your head. Love this shit. Better than the last Children of Bodom release. Eat it up:

Kalmah: Bullets Are Blind