LISTMANIA 2018: A YEAR-END LIST FROM BRENDAN SLOAN (CONVULSING)

 LISTMANIA 2018  5 Responses »
Dec 282018
 

 

(For the second year in a row we asked Australian musician Brendan Sloan, the man behind Convulsing (whose new album Grievous has made a fair share of year-end lists itself), if he would allow us to share his YE list of music. As was true last year, this is the most musically diverse list we’ve published — the selections aren’t all metal, but they are all very interesting.)

 

I’ve been counting these down on Instagram, so some of the review text is pulled directly from there, but I’ve tried to modify it to fit this format.

Here’s my weird Advent Calendar of important 2018 releases. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2018: A YEAR-END LIST FROM NEILL JAMESON

 LISTMANIA 2018  6 Responses »
Dec 272018
 

 

(For the fifth year in a row, we’re grateful that Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood) accepted our invitation to share with us and you a list releases from the past year that made an impact on him. His lists always provide welcome discoveries, and this year is no different.)

I have to be honest, this year I really didn’t listen to a lot of new records. I guess there’s a bunch of reasons why, each one more boring than the last. Sort of like most of the year-end lists I’ve seen on social media the last six weeks. Am I just getting too old and burned out to enjoy some of this shit? I mean that seems like a solid enough reason rather than just coming out and saying a lot of “popular” (I guess) metal this year felt disposable, and while a lot of you will rise up to tell me I’m a fucking moron I’d be willing to put a solid six or seven dollars down that you won’t be listening to the majority of your year-end list in two years.

Last year I had a massive list and I still stand by the bulk of it. 2017 was a great year for new music. 2018? I dunno, I’ve been distracted. I haven’t even listened to the new Drudkh yet. I’m sure it’s great. I’m sure a lot of great stuff happened this year and I’m sure a lot of it is under my radar and possibly yours too. I don’t want anyone to have the impression I feel like I have superior tastes to you when I do these lists; I don’t. And neither do you. We all should listen to what we enjoy without having to worry about what some asshole a few seats over is going to think. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2018: A YEAR-END LIST FROM JOHAN HULDTGREN (OBITUS)

 LISTMANIA 2018  7 Responses »
Dec 262018
 

 

(For the eighth year in a row (!), our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine (reviewed and premiered here) is their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you his year-end list, which originally appeared on Johan’s own blog.) Continue reading »

LISTMANIA: VONLUGHLIO’S TOP BDM ALBUMS OF 2018

 LISTMANIA 2018  3 Responses »
Dec 212018
 

 

(Here’s Vonlughlio’s year-end list of the best brutal death metal albums of 2018.)

So it’s that time of year, and I’m so thankful that Islander lets me post at NCS about BDM, and this list, for about six years or so. With that being said, reader, as you know the genre is one of my favorites and every time I can get the opportunity to share the music and write about the bands in this genre, I take it.

I sure do like other genres as well, but the staff writers and guests here at NCS  do a fantastic job of covering just about everything. So that’s why I focus more on BDM, and I also have Blast Family (FB and Instagram) to share the love. There, my year-end list will expand to 50, and I will include my favorite EPs and Non-BDM albums of the year.

So with no further ado, here are my Top 20 BDM albums of 2018. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA: A TOP 10 LIST BY TODD MANNING

 LISTMANIA 2018  6 Responses »
Dec 202018
 

 

(Here’s a Top 10 list for the year by NCS contributor Todd Manning.)

2018, a year of escalating violence, the collapse of logic, and the furthering fall of because. Can we even remember what happened from one week to the next? Narratives battle for your attention like two bikers stabbing each other with rusty screwdrivers. Is this the era Extreme Metal has always sought to narrate? I don’t know, but to paraphrase the Chinese proverb, we are cursed to live in interesting times. Here are the albums that made up my personal soundtrack. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA: PITCHFORK’S LIST OF “THE BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2018”

 LISTMANIA 2018  9 Responses »
Dec 202018
 

 

The last time our year-end LISTMANIA series included a “Best Metal” list by Pitchfork was in 2015. I can’t remember why I didn’t include their list in the following two years, but most likely because I just didn’t notice it. This year, my comrade DGR alerted me to the publication of their list of “The Best Metal Albums of 2018“, and so here we are.

Pitchfork obviously qualifies for the part of our series devoted to re-publishing lists by “big platform” cross-genre music sites. Founded in 1995 by recent high school graduate Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis, it has been based in Chicago since 1999 and has been owned by the Conde Nast conglomerate since 2015. From its humble beginnings, it now boasts an audience of more than 7 million monthly unique visitors.

It’s fair to say that most of those visitors aren’t metalheads. The site’s reputation historically was closely associated with independent underground music, and in the last 10 years their Album of the Year award has gone to Kendrick Lamar three times, as well as other hip-hop artists. This year it went to Japanese-American artist Mitski. But, as you see, Pitchfork also publishes a list of the year’s best metal. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2018: A YEAR-END LIST BY THEMADISRAELI

 LISTMANIA 2018  5 Responses »
Dec 192018
 

 

(NCS writer TheMadIsraeli turns in the following year-end list, consisting of 20 recommended albums.)

I made it a goal to get back to my old writing output on this site in 2018 and it just… didn’t happen.  For good reason mind you, but I do feel somewhat guilty that I wasn’t more active on NCS this year, especially with the way Islander, Andy, and DGR ground the fuck out of their writing this year. Doesn’t mean I haven’t been involved in the back door of the site in ways, and I’ve definitely kept up with music this year pretty competently.

And so, I’m gonna share my top 20 of the year, and the just kind of ramble about my reflections on the music this year. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2018: A TOP 10 LIST FROM JACOBO CÓRDOVA (MAJESTIC DOWNFALL, ZOMBIEFICATION)

 LISTMANIA 2018  3 Responses »
Dec 182018
 

 

(Mexican maestro Jacobo Córdova has had a busy year, with great new albums released in 2018 by both of his bands Zombiefication and Majestic Downfall — both of which we reviewed, HERE and HERE — but he found time to once again share with us his lists of the year’s best metal releases (and a couple of disappointments)).

Another year, another list, and I want to thank once again No Clean Singing for giving me the opportunity to share my top albums of the year. 2018, for me, was once again a stellar year in Metal releases (will it ever stop!!!). Many highlights and great comebacks took place, but unfortunately I will just pick 10 not to bore you to death (well maybe 15). So with no further introduction, let’s get down to it. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA: BANDCAMP DAILY’S “BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2018”

 LISTMANIA 2018  4 Responses »
Dec 172018
 

 

Our year-end LISTMANIA series usually consists of a mix of lists compiled by cross-genre sites and zines much larger than our own, and year-end favorites assembled by our own staff and guests. This next list, however, doesn’t really fall into either category, but I thought it was well worth including.

Bandcamp, of course, has become a vital platform for the digital release of music of all stripes (and eventually physical merchandise as well) since its founding in 2008. Bandcamp hasn’t yet released its annual compilation of performance statistics for 2018, but their 2017 “Year In Review” reported that 3,500 independent labels were participating on the platform, that more than 600,000 artists had then sold something through the site, and that all-time payments to artists through Bandcamp had reached $270 million. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA: WIL CIFER’S TOP 20 HEAVY ALBUMS OF 2018

 LISTMANIA 2018  10 Responses »
Dec 172018
 

 

(Our year-end LISTMANIA series continues this week, beginning with NCS contributor Wil Cifer‘s Top 20 list.)

Yes, you can re-read the title: It says the top 20 “heavy” albums, not the top 20 “Metal” albums. I prefer for music to be heavy sonically and emotionally, more than I demand that they be metal. I think the more open-minded metal head can certainly appreciate heaviness in many forms, though those represented here are more often metal than not, since I have other platforms on which to rant about post-punk or shoegaze, and albums by Nothing or Marissa Nadler don’t belong in a conversation about heavy music even as good as those albums might be.

In 13 out 20 of these albums, screamed, growled, or otherwise tortured vocalizations are the primary method of delivery. Melody comes in many forms, for me the darker the better. No one sub-genre stole the show here; I think doom and black metal are neck-and-neck; there are also a couple of more hardcore albums, and some with a progressive leaning. The one unifying point is the dark and emotive current that runs through the bulk of these albums, which reflects the fact that I grew up a poor goth child, who was too metal for the clove smokers and too goth for the denim and PBR crowd (however, selling weed in the early ’90s made the most die-hard Cannibal Corpse fans tolerate my Type O Negative). Continue reading »

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