OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 12): ASPHYX, SORCERY, GATECREEPER

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  4 Responses »
Jan 162017
 

 

I feel like wallowing in the warmth of a certain kind of guitar tone today, along with a certain kind of delicious death-metal gut churn and head battering.

Yes, you’ve arrived at the 12th part of our growing list of 2016’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. Should you be inclined to explore the tracks that preceded these three beasts, click this link.

ASPHYX

Astoundingly in this day and age, when more venerable metal bands with prominent names are phoning it in than showing they still have fire in their bellies, Asphyx released one of 2016’s mod satisfying death metal records. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 11): CANTIQUE LÉPREUX, WODE, FORTERESSE, GEVURAH

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  11 Responses »
Jan 142017
 

 

There was a time not so long ago, relative to the entire span of my life, when I wouldn’t have considered any of these four songs to be infectious. Certainly 10 years ago, and maybe even 7, I probably would have considered them almost unlistenable. But my own tastes and appreciation for metal have evolved, and now I would get depressed imagining life without these songs. For me, they are all so compelling that I go back to each of them repeatedly, even with as much time as I spend listening to new music. And that’s kind of the main criterion for this list.

To hear the other songs that were added before these, go here. After you listen to these songs, I don’t think there will be any mystery why I grouped them together.

CANTIQUE LÉPREUX

As you know, I get very excited about new music on almost a daily basis. But this song… this song nearly made my heart explode the first time I heard it, and it brings my heart near to exploding every damned time I hear it. How many songs do that to you? Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 10): IN MOURNING, MISTUR, MOONSORROW

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  2 Responses »
Jan 132017
 

 

We have arrived at Part 10 of our growing list of last year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. After the three songs I’m adding to the list today, we’ll be up to a total of 27, with about two and a half weeks left to go before my self-imposed deadline for finishing this thing. To check out the songs preceding these three, click this link.

I probably have some kind of twisted reason for grouping these three songs together, but if I do, it has eluded my conscious mind, and at the moment I don’t have time to plumb the murky depths of my subconscious to determine what it is.

IN MOURNING

On the 20th of last May, In Mourning released the fourth album of their career with Afterglow. My NCS comrade DGR wrote one of his typically lengthy reviews (here), which included a discussion of how the album fits within the band’s evolving discography. I’m going to excerpt his words about the song from Afterglow that I’m adding to our list — “Below Rise To Above“: Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’s MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 9): MITHRAS, BLOOD INCANTATION, VOID OMNIA

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  12 Responses »
Jan 122017
 

 

I know it’s damned late in the day for another post — probably past bed-time for some of our readers across the Atlantic — but I’ll be damned if I let another day go by without resuming the rollout of this Most Infectious Song series. This train must keep on rolling! (If you’d like to see the songs that preceded these three or learn what we mean by “most infectious”, go here.)

I continue to have fun picking combinations of songs for each installment. The three songs in this one are musically quite distinct, although all of them display phenomenal musicianship, but they do have a few things in common. Perhaps the most obvious one is a fascination with SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE….

MITHRAS

I assume I don’t need to provide much of an introduction to the new Mithras album, On Strange Loops. Nevertheless, I assume I’d have to pay some wretched price if I mentioned Mithras without quoting from my friend Andy Synn’s review, so here goes: Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’s MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 8): RIPPER, HOBBS’ ANGEL OF DEATH, VEKTOR

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  8 Responses »
Jan 102017
 

 

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: Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’s MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 7): IHSAHN, CULT OF LUNA AND JULE CHRISTMAS, DISILLUSION

 Exceptions to the Rule, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  7 Responses »
Jan 092017
 

 

I took a break yesterday from my rollout of this year’s Most Infectious Song list but am back at it again today, and every day this week, barring a meteor strike. For those who have just blundered into this evolving list for the first time, you can check out the previous picks and an explanation for what the list is about by clicking this link.

Some days I include two songs in the installments of this list, and sometimes three, which is what I have today. This is another instance when this particular grouping made sense to me, but I don’t pretend that I have good sense so you be the judge. And if the inclusion of clean vocals in this collection rubs you the wrong way, be patient. Tomorrow I’m returning to much nastier fare.

IHSAHN

I’m going to start with some “Mass Darkness“, which will be found on Arktis, the latest solo album by Vegard Sverre Tveitan, aka Ihsahn. My colleague Andy Synn wrote our review of the album, characterizing it as “easily the most gleamingly melodic, intimately accessible… and, yes, poppy, album that the ever-adversarial artiste has put his name to thus far”, while “still very much a Progressive album underneath the glitz and glamour”. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’s MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 6): GOJIRA AND YLIASTER

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  5 Responses »
Jan 072017
 

 

Here’s Part 6 of this evolving list, in which I’m adding two more songs, one that I would guess will be well-known to most readers and one that may have been overlooked by most, or possibly forgotten because it appeared relatively early in 2016. Apart from the fun of running back through lots of good music over the last year, I entertain myself in putting this list together by deciding how to group songs for each of its Parts. I discovered some interesting similarities in these two songs that I thought would make them a good pairing.

To see the other selections for the list so far, as well as an explanation of what criteria were used in making it, go here.

GOJIRA

We received hundreds upon hundreds of reader suggestions for this list. I aggregated and alphabetized all of them, and that master list revealed that Gojira’s album Magma was the source of more reader recommendations than anything else released last year (narrowly edging Anaal Nathrakh).  But the recommendations were split almost evenly between two songs:  “Silvera” and “Stranded”, with one vote cast in favor of combining “Magma” and “Pray” into a single selection. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 5): GHOST, HAIL SPIRIT NOIR, ZEAL AND ARDOR

 Exceptions to the Rule, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  6 Responses »
Jan 062017
 

 

As you can see, this is the fifth installment in our unfolding list of last year’s “Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs“. As you can also see (or will soon discover), not all of the songs in this installment are extreme, or even metal, and there’s a lot of clean singing as well. Feel free to harumph and harang in the Comments, but I could not get comfortable with the idea of looking back at the most infectious songs of last year without including all of these, and I also found a pleasing kind of twisted symmetry in combining them in a single post.

To see the other selections for the list so far, as well as an explanation of what criteria were used in making it, go here.

GHOST

From my perspective, it’s not worth debating whether Ghost are a metal band or not. There are good arguments to be made on both sides. What I think is beyond debate is the band’s ability to craft immensely catchy songs, and not the kind of cotton candy fluff that makes you sick to your stomach after the fifth or sixth time you’ve heard it, which seems to be true of a high percentage of catchy pop songs. Also, they continue to praise the Devil, and I give them horns up for that. Whether the praise is calculated or sincere is a subject we can debate on another day, or not at all. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 4): SCORCHED, DEATHCROWN, HIGH COMMAND

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  6 Responses »
Jan 052017
 

 

Welcome to Part 4 of our continuing list of 2016’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. To see the first three installments and an explanation of the criteria for making the selections, go here.

None of the three bands in this collection is a household name yet, even in the cramped, squalid households of metal, way out on the outskirts of town, across the railroad tracks and next to the cemetery. But this list isn’t limited to big names, as you probably would have guessed either from past annual installments or from looking at what we write about every week. But who knows? These names may be a lot bigger by this time next year.

SCORCHED

Last October we had the pleasure of premiering a full album stream of this Delaware band’s debut full-length, Echoes of Dismemberment. Allow me to quote from my review, which accompanied that premiere (because if I don’t, who will?): Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 3): MARTYRDÖD AND MANTAR

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  6 Responses »
Jan 042017
 

 

This is Part 3 of our continuing list of 2016’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. To see the first two installments and an explanation of the criteria for making the selections, go here.

MARTYRDÖD

Anyone who saw my review of List won’t be surprised to find a song from the album on this list. I came close to embarrassing myself with how effusively I praised it. Hands down, it’s one of my favorite releases in an incredibly strong year for metal. Continue reading »

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