nocturnal rituals

With the arrival of Digital Veil I now own my top 10 albums of 2011 (Taken with instagram)

1. The Black Dahlia Murder - Ritual. 
2. Protest The Hero - Scurrilous.
3. East Of The Wall - The Apologist.
4. Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth.
5. Adele - 21.
6. The Human Abstract - Digital Veil.
7. Mastodon - The Hunter.
8. Bon Iver - Bon Iver.
9. Russian Circles - Empros.
10. Wolves In The Throne Room - Celestial Lineage.

Guilty Pleasure Of The Year.

Suicide Silence - The Black Crown.
I will constantly rip on this band for being simple deathcore by numbers, with a “hot” fully tattooed lead singer that helps sell records. The only problem is I also find their songs ridiculously catchy. I got into a bunch of hot water earlier this year, by comparing Suicide Silence to Slipknot (‘knot fans are so easy to get butthurt) saying that S.S are just this generation’s Slipknot. The thing is, I like both bands for the same reasons. Heavy simple riffs, delivery that is just on the right side of unintelligible, and lyrics that would most likely resonate with 12 year olds. I mean, You Only Live Once with Corey’s voice would be more Slipknot like than most things Slipknot have done in a years.

Favourite track. - You Only Live Once. 

Top FIFTY of 2011.

1. - The Black Dahlia Murder - Ritual.
Here we have it, my favourite album of the year. In the words of Radiohead, there are no alarms and no surprises here. Anyone who knows me, and anyone who looks at my wardrobe will see that they’re my favourite band. Like I said last night, this is technically joint first with Scurrilous, and showcases the heavier side of my musical tastes. Bias aside, this is one of the finest melodic death metal albums written and shows they’ve come a long way from their debut Unhallowed, the shrine to Slaughter Of The Soul. This album takes that quintessentially “Black Dahlia Murder” vibe and puts it forward in a way that just blew my mind. Start to finish it rips, displaying a bunch of their influences, from the ever present Swedish melodeath on some tracks to the Floridian chugging death metal seen On Stirring Seas Of Salted Blood. This album even works on a slightly concept level, each song describing a ritual. The opener being a fantastic ode to Halloween, and The Window being a song about murdering and molesting children. The lyrics are as tight as ever, as expected from Mr Strnad, with the delivery as well done as the wordsmithing. The guitar work definitely highlights what was so good about having Ryan Knight in the band, letting you know that although he was just finding his place in the band during Deflorate, he’s found that place and rips solos from it. The drums aren’t as straight forward and full of blasts like Shannon is so used to using and as always Brian’s rhythm section is as strong as ever. Even the bass that shows up on hardcore influenced Den Of The Picquerist, which is a testament of how the band are really gelling with their new album. The track Carbonized In Cruciform is the center and highlight of this record, running from acoustic runs to an amazing mid section to the trademark trading of growled and high vocals. I can’t express how much I enjoyed the way the band have found their feet, and I can’t wait to see what comes from it’s predecessor, so whack on The Great Burning Nullifier, rip a bong in time with the solo and rock out to this masterpiece.

Favourite track. - Carbonized In Cruciform.

(I realize I may have overindulged in words, but fuck it, it’s number one.)

Top FIFTY of 2011.

2. - Protest The Hero - Scurrilous. 

This is the second best album of 2011, however I feel as though it’s joint first with the next one. Protest appear to be the second half of everything I love about music. As opposed to the very heavy side of my musical taste, this one compensates for everything else in my spectrum. This band get better with every record, something I love about some progressive bands (putting the progression in prog). Fortress, Scurrilous’ predecessor, was a really big step in the right direction in comparison to the album Kezia (which to this day still remains one of my favourite albums ever). As much as I loved either album they were nowhere near as composed as this album. It takes the fun aspects of Kezia, and blends it with the more in concise writing seen in Fortress. This album also featured some of the lead singers lyrics, unseen until this record. Some find it less mature, in the fact it doesn’t deal with ancient mythology, but I found it great because it showed how they felt about their music and even the scene these days. As per usual, the instruments are tight, the riffs are techy and ten a penny. They put it best themselves with album closer sex tapes, all the editors are hot, and all the journalists are wet, and this album still rules everything. 

Favourite track. -  Tapestry. 

Top FIFTY of 2011.

3. East Of The Wall - The Apologist.
This is a band that have been going for quite a while now, as East of The Wall, and technically under a bunch of other names. In the past two years they’ve really come into their own. With a record out in each of those years, this one better than the last, and with hearing plans to record yet another one this year, they’re becoming one of the hardest working bands about. Sadly they’ve not even broken out of America yet which is a damn shame if you’ve heard this record. Music wise, this record is a mesh of instrumental and non instrumental tracks, with vocals nicely complimenting the tracks that have them in, ranging from a nice clean soothing quality to the fairly more aggressive tone to compliment the brilliant switching between styles of play. It took everything that I liked about Ressentiment and turned it all up a notch and binded it together into what I felt was a more comprehensive and enjoyable listening experience. I cannot wait to see what they do with their future because they deserve to be bigger than they are.

Favourite track. - Whiskey Sipper.  

Top FIFTY of 2011.

4. Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth.
Currently the best thing in British metal right now, Sylosis are picking up the pieces of the UK’s dignity left by bands such as Bring Me The Horizon. The Reading boys do this with their brand of brilliant progressive/melodic thrash metal, following on from the amazing debut Conclusion Of An Age. The tracks on this album are longer, more complex and as cliche as it sounds, more “mature”. The loss of previous vocalist hasn’t really hurt the band either, as their guitarist has taken vocal duties on this record, and although he’s just getting used to performing both live, the tracks he’s laid down for this record are strong as hell. Lovely sweeps as seen in Empyreal and the lovely break towards the middle of the record track Where The Sky Ends go to show how far the sound has come, all whilst showcasing all of the classic elements seen in COAA in between. Some say this album is too long, and if you fall into that category, just split the record into a double album and call it two amazing albums, because nothing this heavy has been written in standard tuning for a long damn time.

Favourite track. - Empyreal.