OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 20

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  5 Responses »
Jan 162015
 

Welcome to Part 20 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

Since we’ve reached a nice round number with Part 20 of this list, do you think it’s a good time to stop, especially since we’re more than two weeks into January? Nah, I don’t think so either. Here are two more skull-clubbing songs.

VALLENFYRE

This first song that I’m adding to the list today was a really tough call. Not because we weren’t going to have a Vallenfyre song on the list — that was a foregone conclusion — but because the band’s 2014 album Splinters was loaded with potential selections. I’m partial to the song from the album we premiered (“Odious Bliss”) and for a long time I just sort of assumed that the album’s opening track “Scabs” would be the pick. But as I got closer to writing this post I changed my mind. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 19

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  4 Responses »
Jan 152015
 

 

We’ve arrived at Part 19 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

Such an overused word, “epic” is. A couple of years ago I promised one of my then co-writers that I would stop using it. Add that to the list of promises broken. If the list of broken vows weren’t already so long, I’d be disturbed by my lack of faithfulness: These two songs are epic.

PANOPTICON

I went on at excruciating length about Roads To the North when I reviewed the album. I will be more brief here. I’ll quote only a part of what I wrote after I noted some differences between this new album and works that preceded it, because it’s relevant to what I’m doing today: Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 18

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  4 Responses »
Jan 142015
 

 

Welcome to Part 18 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

I failed to post another installment in the list yesterday, due to the annoying distractions of the job that, unlike this one, actually pays me for services rendered. However, I’m resuming the rollout today with two songs by bands who are among the best-known in the American extreme metal scene and who both released very strong albums in 2014. The cover art for both albums is also wonderful.

JOB FOR A COWBOY

Andy Synn review JFAC’s new album Sun Eater for us, and I thought he hit the nail on the head:

The struggle for credibility and acceptance by the Death Metal elite has been a long and arduous one for Job For A Cowboy. Their Deathcore roots and that name certainly tend to prompt a rather knee-jerk reaction from a certain section of the Death Metal community, despite the fact that the band’s purposeful progression from internet darlings to legitimate contenders has been an absolute joy to behold. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 17

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  4 Responses »
Jan 122015
 

Today we come to the 17th Part in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

As you may have noticed by now, I have fun not only picking the songs for this list but also deciding which songs to combine in each installment. There’s usually some kind of thematic connection, whether in the style of the music or otherwise. But today there really is no connection — other than infectiousness, of course, and a similar hair-raising power in the vocals.

DOMAINS

For reasons I don’t understand, the 2014 debut album by the Spanish band Domains didn’t appear on many year-end lists. I assume this was solely a result of being too far under the radar, because Sinister Ceremonies really was one of the year’s best and most interesting death metal albums. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 16

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  10 Responses »
Jan 112015
 

 

We present Part 16 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

Yes, it’s true that we had twerking and clean singing in the last installment of this list. But today we’re getting back to music that’s incinerating, and it burns with a black flame.

THY DARKENED SHADE

In Liber Lvcifer I: Khem Sedjet, the Greek black metal band Thy Darkened Shade created one of the year’s best albums. The music is intricate, technically impressive, and completely engrossing throughout the album’s extensive length — and it’s alive with passion and blazing energy.

The album is also home to one of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs — “Revival Through Arcane Skins”. As I wrote in my review, one of the album’s most arresting features is the prominence and nimbleness of the bass, and that’s definitely a striking feature of this song in particular — that, and the jaw-dropping guitar and drum performances. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 15

 Exceptions to the Rule, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  8 Responses »
Jan 102015
 

Welcome to the somewhat delayed Part 15 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

Because of interference by my day job, I missed adding an installment of this series yesterday, but we’re rolling onward with it today. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed both of the songs in this edition, and I’m pairing them here because both songs are also inextricably linked in my head with the videos that were released for them.

MASTODON

I still think Once More Round the Sun sports one of the best album covers of 2014, by Oakland-based artist Skinner. The album as a whole reflects the band’s continued crossover movement, which began with The Hunter, into the realm of hard rock — albeit with both prog-y and sludgy ingredients still quite evident in the mix. I don’t begrudge them the decisions that led to these two albums, though I don’t consider either one of them unqualified successes either.

Despite those misgivings, Mastodon remain a phenomenal live band, I still get quite a kick out of the vocal tag-team among the band’s three vocalists, and they still turn out some highly infectious songs that are still heavy enough to get their hooks in my head. Which brings me to the next addition to this list. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 14

 Exceptions to the Rule, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  8 Responses »
Jan 082015
 

 

Today we bring you Part 14 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

Some of you might question the appearance of today’s two songs on a list whose title includes the words “extreme” and “metal”, appearing on a site whose name abjures clean singing. I have a simple answer for you: It’s my list, and there’s no fuckin’ way I’m leaving these songs off of it.

SÓLSTAFIR

Last month Iceland’s Sólstafir paid a visit to Seattle and performed a show at a cozy venue called Barboza, and I watched it from the second rank of people in front of the stage. I’d seen the band’s amazing set at MDF last year, but it was this show that made me realize something I hadn’t yet admitted to myself — that they are, right now, my favorite band on the planet. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 13

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  3 Responses »
Jan 072015
 

Welcome to the lucky Part 13 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

I missed a day in the rollout yesterday because of my fucking day job. To make up for that, we’ll have an extra-strong, double-dose of ass-kicking to begin the day.

ABORTED

We posted not one but two reviews of Aborted’s 2014 album, The Necrotic Manifesto, one by BadWolf (here) that accompanied our premiere of a full-album stream and one (here) by TheMadIsraeli. We could have posted five reviews, because everyone among the longest tenured staffers around here (including me) agreed — and its rare for all of us to agree on anything — that the album was fantastic. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’s MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 12

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  3 Responses »
Jan 052015
 

 

Today we present Part 12 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

Today’s songs come from two outstanding albums by death metal bands who are quite skilled at putting a vigorous bludgeoning on your ass — and doing it in the context of actual songs that prove to be quite memorable.

ABYSMAL DAWN

Abysmal Dawn’s Obsolescence came loaded with highly infectious material, and so morbid that it might have been hand-delivered by the grim reaper. I think “Inanimate” is the most infectious track on the album, but only by a hair. It had lots of competition all around it. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 11

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  3 Responses »
Jan 042015
 

 

Today we present Part 11 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

Today’s additions to the list are both by bands from my neck of the woods, i.e., the Pacific Northwest. One band has become a name known worldwide, the other is one whose name deserves to become much better known.

AGALLOCH

I’m long past caring about what kind of genre label should now be applied to the music of Agalloch, especially because I’m not sure a genre label has yet been invented that would suit the music on their latest album, The Serpent & The Sphere. It splices together so many strands of disparate music, from folk to prog to black metal to rock to doom, in contrasting and often surprising ways. It’s both complex and simple, both thunderous and sublime, a work that’s both earthy and mystical, and Billy Anderson’s production masterfully brings the band’s songwriting creativity and instrumental skill to vibrant life. Continue reading »

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