OUR LIST OF 2012’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 14

Welcome to the Part 14 of our list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. Each day (almost) until the list is finished, I’m posting at least two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the two I’m announcing today, click here.

Most of the song pairings I’ve selected for this series have had something in common — for example, they’ve shared a similar genre affiliation or at least a common nationality. But today’s picks are a complete mismatch, like those last two clean socks you find in your drawer that don’t even remotely go together. But I love both these songs, even though it’s a big stretch to include the second one in the list at all.

BLACK BREATH

This Pacific Northwest band’s 2012 album Sentenced To Life was a big breakout for them. It has received a ton of critical praise and it brought the band a ton of enthusiastic new fans. BadWolf reviewed it for us last March (here), and then later named it to his list of the year’s Top 10 albums (the “no clean singing” version), with these words: “Words do not sufficiently describe how much I love this record’s mix of d-beat, thrash, NWOBHM, and Swedish death metal. . . . [S]eriously, if you have not, go buy this album. Satisfaction guaranteed.”

The album is indeed worth every penny, a smoking-hot blast of crust-punk-meets-death-metal that’s loaded with dark themes and black humor and a fuckload of mosh-worthy riffs. I’ll get arguments about my pick of a song from the album for this list, because there were certainly other worthy candidates on the track list. But for me, this one has proved to be the most infectious:

http://www.facebook.com/BLACKBREATH.MUSIC

“FEAST OF THE DAMNED”

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/01-Feast-of-The-Damned.mp3|titles=Black Breath – Feast of the Damned]

KLONE

Alright, I’ll be honest: it’s a stretch to call this French band’s music “extreme metal”. But I’ve been thoroughly hooked on their releases for a few years now, and their 2012 album The Dreamer’s Hideaway is their best work yet. It’s on that regrettably long list of albums I loved in 2012 that I never got around to reviewing.

However, I did take note of the album’s first single — “Rocket Smoke”. Yes, it has mainly clean singing — and it’s really damned good, a clearly worthy Exception to Our Rule around here. It also includes titanic freight-train riffs that will jack you up something fierce and a mesmerizing melody that will cool you out.

This is progressive metal that packs a heavy punch but will stay with you. It has really stayed with me, and although it might not be “extreme metal” in the minds of many readers, there’s just no way I can finish this list without including it. No. Way.

http://www.facebook.com/KLONEBAND

“ROCKET SMOKE”

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/01-Klone-Rocket-Smoke.mp3|titles=Klone – Rocket Smoke]