Consequence of Sound's Top 25 Metal Albums of 2015
The heavy metal renaissance is in full effect.
Published: December 09, 2015 15:30
Source
WINDHAND'S third full length, 'Grief's Infernal Flower' is doom metal's most anticipated album of 2015. Produced by Jack Endino (Nirvana, High On Fire, Soundgarden, etc) 'Grief's Eternal Flower' is simultaneously massive, heavy and personal. Front-woman Dorthia Cottrell firmly establishes herself as one of the best vocalists of the genre by perfectly balancing beauty with enormous power. The twin guitars of Garrett Morris and Asechiah Bogdan weave together 9 songs worth of perfect riffs over top the colossal rhythm section of bassist Parker Chandler and drummer Ryan Wolfe. While the first two WINDHAND albums were underground classics, with 'Grief's Infernal Flower' WINDHAND have cemented themselves as one of the premier bands of our time.
Lore is the third full-length album by Elder and a watershed moment in the band's history. Joining the interplay of heaviness and melody which has become the hallmark Elder sound are a host of new meanderings through uncharted kosmische territory; krautrock, prog as well as classic heavy rock and doom can all be heard unfolding throughout the record's five songs. By giving equal credence to riffs and atmosphere, Lore bypasses genre constraints, the group's penchant for progressive songwriting and melody shining more brightly than ever. ------ US buyers can preorder the vinyl and CD here: www.armageddonshop.com/search.php?artist=ELDER European buyers can preorder the vinyl and CD here: www.stickman-records.de
Horrendous' third full-length album. Cover art by Brian Smith. Produced at Subterranean Watchtower Studios in the summer of 2015. We are all very proud of the album and feel it is our best work to date. While our composition process has always been spread out over several separated writing-specific sessions, one thing that separates Anareta from our past work is our recording process. We recorded all the songs over one continuous period (the recording sessions for The Chills and Ecdysis were more spread out)–Matt and Jamie stayed at Damian’s house/studio for weeks on end and the three of us lived, breathed and dreamed of nothing but the album during that time. It was our entire lives for over a month (two months if you include the mixing and mastering stage), and we think this complete dedication to the record is one of the factors that really made it turn out so well. There was a lot of magic in the air once we finished the foundation of the record, and each day we built off of the prior day’s creative energies and inspirations until it bloomed into something immense.
Known as America’s most prominent noise figurehead, for nearly 20 years under the moniker of PRURIENT, Dominick Fernow has created a sonic entity unlike any other in the realm of experimental, ambient, and noise music respectively. Throughout a massive repertoire that consists of full-lengths, EPs, splits, singles, limited cassette runs and 7” releases etc. PRURIENT is one of the most important artists to define and reinvent the genre of noise music which in turn has made Fernow one of the premiere visionaries in the entire genre of experimental music. Throughout the years PRURIENT has been known to constantly shape shift its sound into many mutations and incarnations within the noise genre through massive layered walls of sound consisting of harsh feedback, tortured vocals, meticulous sampling, machine-like industrial pounding, entrancing synth work, enticing beats, and waves of electronica to create an aura that treads the fine line of harsh noise extremity and atmospheric beauty. PRURIENT’s first full-length album since the 2011 game changer “Bermuda Drain” sees Fernow deliver the most ambitious and massive PRURIENT album to date. A double-album clocking in at a near 90-minutes entitled “Frozen Niagara Falls”, the new PRURIENT album is set to define Fernow even more as a master within all the genres PRURIENT tends to crossover into. In what encompasses moments familiar from the entire PRURIENT catalog along with creating something entirely new and different from what PRURIENT has previously done, “Frozen Niagara Falls” (in which its journey began to manifest in late 2013 and was finally completed on Valentine’s Day 2015) could very well be recognized as the PRURIENT magnum opus.
With two full lengths and a handful of splits & EPs, Yellow Eyes have honed their distinctive black metal style: unpredictable, narrative-driven compositions that shift fluidly between melodic fanfare and unsettling dirge. The guitars and drums rage like a passing storm, with short moments of respite before the oncoming surge. Their new album, Sick With Bloom, encloses the listener beneath a canopy of atmosphere and mood that hangs without interruption until the album’s closing moments. This is enhanced by the inclusion of numerous field recordings captured during the album’s production at an isolated cabin in the northern woods of Connecticut. You can feel the surrounding wilderness seeping through into the music. A sound elevated by the vibrations of ancient growth and echoes of nature’s power. Sick With Bloom was recorded on tape, mixed, and mastered by the band themselves, brothers Will and Sam Skarstad. The album also features M. Rekevics (of Fell Voices, Vanum, Vorde) on drums.
Deafheaven’s sublime 2013 album *Sunbather* was an alloy of black metal aggression and shoegaze melodicism as beautiful as it was punishing. Opening with a murmur of ambience before giving way to the sound of church bells and Slayer-like thrash, *New Bermuda* pushes the band’s formula even further, juxtaposing twinkling guitars with searing growls (“Baby Blue”) and lurching, hardcore-style breakdowns with chord progressions that could’ve come from a moody English alt-rock record circa 1988 (“Gifts from the Earth”). It’s an adventurous blend from an extraordinary band.
Liturgy is a Brooklyn-based, self-styled “Transcendental Black Metal” band whose yearning, energetic music exists in an uncanny space between avant rock, black metal, fine art and shamanic ritual.
Matt Pike’s telltale growl cuts across relentlessly grimy guitars and punchy drums.
Luminiferous: A nine-track venture into those signature sky-shredding riffs of Matt Pike, pummeling bass work of Jeff Matz, and hellish gallop of Des Kensel, Luminiferous is the unequivocal culmination of the band’s characteristically unhinged yet entirely focused savagery. Make no mistake, though. This is not some casual revisit to formula for the Oakland-based trio. Building on those tendencies of its last two predecessors, Lumifierous finds Pike at his most vocally daring yet, infusing the explosiveness of sound with his melodic but no less scorched vocal stylizations. Beginning with the whiplash rhythm of “The Black Plot,” Luminiferous charges forward with abandon, only briefly slowing its churn with “The Cave,” and its descent into a psychedelic and ethereal haze. Whether with the breakneck anthem of “Carcosa,” the blistering thrash of “Slave the Hive,” or the roaring sonic gauntlet of “The Sunless Years,” Luminiferous represents yet another definitive stroke of heavy metal mastery for this inimitable band that’s been breaking and rewriting the rules for years now. Further proof that heavy metal’s throne remains occupied with only one band, Luminiferous is a crowning achievement for High On Fire and an undeniable declaration that their reign isn’t likely to end anytime soon.
SUMAC is a new band who’s main core consists of Aaron Turner (Isis, Old Man Gloom, Mamiffer) and drummer Nick Yacyshyn from Baptists. Bass player Brian Cook (Russian Circles, Botch, These Arms Are Snakes) also joins the duo (as an auxiliary member) and did all the bass tracking on the band’s debut album entitled “The Deal”. An album consisting of steamroller crushing heaviness and methodical free-range technicality. SUMAC came to form when Aaron Turner had the urge to create music that’s heavy and colossal once again, wanting to bring back the heaviness aspect that he incorporated in Isis, and what he currently does in the OLD MAN GLOOM collective, into a wholly new and different band unlike anything he has previously done before. With one of the goals for SUMAC was for Turner to write some of the heaviest music he has ever written, he found the ideal partner with Baptists drummer Nick Yacyshyn, one of the best drummers in heavy music today. With SUMAC, Yacyshyn allows himself to showcase and expand his drumming talents even further as it is with SUMAC where we will really witness the true talent of this drummer. The duo would enter the studio in Seattle late summer to track “The Deal” with Mell Dettmer (Wolves In The Throne Room, Sunn 0)) etc.) where they would be joined by Russian Circles/Botch/These Arms Are Snakes bassist Brian Cook who would ultimately lay the pulse down for the album (which would be mixed by Kurt Ballou of Converge at Godcity Studios and mastered by Mikka Jusslla at Finvoxx Studios in Finland). Overall, “The Deal” is an absolutely crushing album that stands its own ground which will bring some familiarity with Turner’s repertoire and bring back that classic Hydra Head Records forward-thinking sound and vibe.
For Merchandise, T-Shirts, Posters, and more: ghostbath.allinmerch.com Reviews: 5/5 - www.metalsucks.net 5/4 - www.slugmag.com 10/10 - www.metal-temple.com 10/10 - www.metal-maniac.com 10/10 - www.kaaoszine.fi B+ consequenceofsound.net 9.6/10 - www.headbangorgtfo.com 9/10 - powermetal.de 9/10 - www.metalimperium.com 9/10 - www.lagrosseradio.com 9/10 - www.rockfoto.nu 4.5/5 - maliciousintent666.blogspot.kr 89/100 - www.metalreviews.com 8.9/10 - www.wavmagazine.net 8.7/10 - www.hipersonica.com 85/100 - www.killyourstereo.com 8.5/10 - www.crossfire-metal.de 8.5/10 - www.thrashocore.com 8.5/10 - deadrhetoric.com "The music treads in more fowl waters on the track “Happyhouse”, which is anything but happy. This saddening display of music always makes me feel worse. The arrangement of the guitars, drums and vocals just seal the deal. Ghost Bath are THE best depressing black metal band right now. Without a doubt...There isn’t enough words, expressions and metaphors to fully explain how wonderful and delightful this album is." - www.headbangorgtfo.com " These morbid young upstarts have gotten an impressive amount of attention for their upcoming Northern Silence debut, Moonlover—a boon for any young project, of course...(we're streaming their excellent new album, Moonlover)" - noisey.vice.com/en_us “Golden Number,” the debut single from the forthcoming Moonlover, is friggin’ SPECTACULAR. Like the lovechild of Celeste and Buried Inside, the song is somehow depressing and uplifting, epic and intimate, and beautiful and ugly, all at the same time. And even at 9+ minutes, it goes through enough shifts to keep the listener on his toes. - www.metalsucks.net "...with the release of Moonlover it’s apparent that Ghost Bath has broadened its horizons while honing in on a truly tragic, beautiful sound that still retains a heavy focus on its bleaker roots...Ghost Bath favors deliberate, precise melodies that kick through their unique mixture of black metal. [...] The vocals retain the tortured, Burzum-esque howl that evokes the depressive black metal comparisons, yet they are mixed thoroughly into the songs rather than standing against them. The harmony Ghost Bath has found within itself and its collective set of sounds is what makes Moonlover such a memorable album." - www.blackmetalandbrews.com "Moonlover proves that Ghost Bath's first LP wasn't a one-off. There are still some indulgent portions on there, but the sheer musicianship and songwriting attention of the guy behind this overcomes a lot of the growing pains of his sound. After a second album with a lot of the same elements, I'm still quite impressed with it." - www.metalreviews.com "GHOST BATH was an underappreciated band in 2014 but with “Moonlover” I think they should expect to start receiving a lot more attention. This year has only just begun and we already have a memorable and fantastic hit straight out of the gates." - www.metal-temple.com "The final song, “Death and the Maiden”, takes a more metal approach. The guitar continues to deliver in-your-face melodies as the drums inflict a mid-paced pounding over the howling vocals, which die down along with the intensity when the blast-beat comes. This is a pretty cool effect, the drums hitting the blast-beat and then everyone else backing off and wandering around it." - www.nocleansinging.com "There is a lot regarding this band that is still uncertain. The member’s identity and even actual location is still as of yet undetermined. Whether or not this is a project of Chinese, US, or mixed origins...Moonlover is melancholic. I am still confused to what this band is in real life but I think I can rest assured that I will know them in dreams and nightmares." - www.tapewyrmmetal.com
sophomore lp - cheaper to buy from the label
CD/LP by Northern Heritage / No Solace 2015. Available at: www.no-solace.com www.northern-heritage.net