Some of you will remember that late last fall we actually began our annual roll-out of the list of “Most Infectious” extreme metal songs released during the year that was drawing to a close. Some of you will also remember that the roll-out just sort of… stopped… without even a polite interval of the gas gauge showing “Empty” or coasting for the last dozen yards before the machine just turned into a giant, half-formed paperweight.
There was a reason for this (sort of): I was rudely interrupted by a protracted grind at my fucking day job, and by the time life returned to a semblance of normalcy, so much time had passed that I just gave up on finishing the list. I guess I needed a tardiness support group.
But today it occurred to me that finishing the list might be a good idea. Apart from my obsessive mind’s desire for completeness and a crippling need to rectify the embarrassment of personal failure, I thought it might actually be interesting to re-live some of the brighter metal moments of 2014.
Now, to be clear, I don’t plan to add new songs to the list every day, as I was doing before the list unceremoniously fell into a coma. Our main focus around here continues to be new music, and that’s going to take priority. But as time permits, I do plan to resume the roll-out and stay with it ’til we’re done.
As I see it, from a selfish perspective, there are a couple of silver linings to this cloud of delay. First, I don’t feel the usual pressure to get the thing finished by the end of January, because January is now so far back in the rear-view mirror that it’s just a mirage — so I can take my time to figure out how the list ends.
And second, since about the only completion “deadline” now is the point at which we’ll need to begin the 2015 roll-out, I can just extend the list on and on and on, to my heart’s content. Because I have so much damned trouble making hard choices, this pleases me.
I have lots of ideas, and the bad ones outnumber the good ones as a general matter. I hope this one does turn out to be a good one. But you’ll let me know, won’t you?
The list resumes tomorrow…
P.S. It will be understandable if you’ve forgotten how this list began, so I’m giving you this link, where song streams for the first 25 parts (!) of the list are collected (I’ve also included the complete list so far down below):
https://www.nocleansinging.com/category/mostinfectioussongs2014/
P.P.S. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, this post explains it.
THE LIST SO FAR:
Blut Aus Nord: “Paien”
Fluisteraars: “De Doornen”
Misery Index: “The Killing Gods”
Anaal Nathrakh: “Desideratum”
Goatwhore: “Baring Teeth For Revolt”
Horned Almighty: “Diabolical Engines of Torment”
Black Crown Initiate: “Withering Waves”
Azooma: “Encapsulated Delusion”
Wolvhammer: “Clawing Into Black Sun”
Mantar: “Death By Burning”
Aenaon: “Grau Diva”
Cult of Fire: “Vitava”
Just Before Dawn: “Lightning War”
Centinex: “Moist Purple Skin”
Miasmal: “Until the Last”
Infestus: “Constant Soul Corrosion”
Lord Mantis: “Three Crosses”
At the Gates: “Eater of the Gods”
Bloodbath: “Unite In Pain”
Behemoth: “Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer”
Decapitated: “Blasphemous Psalm To the Dummy God Creation”
The Stone: “Nekroza”
Agalloch: “Dark Matter Gods”
Hoth: “Serpentine Whispers”
Abysmal Dawn: “Inanimate”
Hideous Divinity: “In My Land I Was A Snake”
Aborted: “Your Entitlement Means Nothing”
Enabler: “Sickened By the Wake”
Sólstafir: “Ótta”
Lotus Thief: “Miseras”
Mastodon: “The Motherload”
Ilenkus: “Over the Fire, Under the Smoke”
Thy Darkened Shade: “Revival Through Arcane Skins”
Lvcifyre: “Sun Eater”
LVTHN: “Opposed By the Nameless”
Domains: “Raped By Darkness”
Kriegsmaschine: “Farewell To Grace”
Job For A Cowboy: “Sun of Nihility”
Revocation: “Deathless”
Panopticon: “Chase the Grain”
Primordial: “Where Greater Men Have Fallen”
Vallenfyre: “Dragged To Gehenna”
Derketa: “Troops of Doom”
The House of Capricorn: “Ivory Crown”
Hail Spirit Noir: “Satan Is Time”
Insomnium: “While We Sleep”
Woccon: “This Frozen Soil”
Trepalium: “Moonshine Limo”
Tengger Cavalry: “Summon the Warrior”
Triptykon: “Aurorae”
Majestic Downfall: “The Dark Lullaby”
Machine Head: “Now We Die”
Scar Symmetry: “Limits To Infinity”
22 Responses to “OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: THE ROLL-OUT RESUMES (TOMORROW)”
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2014 is so last year
Aw shit, I guess someone had to say it. 🙂
Its been a long day…dont judge me 🙂
I’m glad, really glad to rediscover what are the songs that you consider the best of the last year because “Most infectious extreme metal songs” is one of my favourite moments here at NCS but I have a question even if maybe is too soon to ask but do we’ll have a 2015 list?
Yes, we will definitely have a 2015 list beginning in early December… unless I get hit by a truck between now and then.
As it is, we’ll be lucky to see you posting the list for the end of the year and go on with the old one, no fucking truck is allowed!
Surely I will be done with this list before December. I’d forgotten how many songs I had already rolled out until I put together the list I added to the post above.
Excellent… I will be looking of or ward to this. Also, in the new Decibel, Islander, you are mentioned as being “enigmatic.” It’s in the foreword… I thought that was pretty cool, especially if you didn’t yet know.
Oh shit, I didn’t know! I will have to look for it. Thank you!
Yep. It’s the new one with Refused on the cover. You are mentioned in the editor’s up front piece.
Thanks again! I’ll be camped out next to my mailbox waiting for it. Please send food and blankets.
That’s what the lorises are for, purportedly.
wat
*forward… Phone typing…
Is it the August issue (which I haven’t received yet)?
Thanks for continuing this Islander. It’s one of my very things you guys do and each of the last few years has added a number of permanent staples (new artists as well as songs) to my playlist.
Great to hear that, and thank you. I’m actually getting excited myself about this. I so rarely get the chance to go back and listen to past favorites, given the press of new things to check out.
This makes me feel better about some things I said I would do and never finished or even started. And it inspires me now to definitely do or not do them.
I admire your… er… decisiveness.
cool, looking forward to it 🙂
this is really a great, pleasant, and courageous decision
You are far too kind, but thank you. Though you may want to reconsider “pleasant” after you’ve listened to my picks for tomorrow. 🙂