BRINGING ALL SHITS TOGETHER, RIPPING UP 2012.
Alright, Doomsday is over and seems like I’m still alive. Wait. What? What does that supposed to mean? I mean, am I an alien? Superman? Will Smith? NO! FUCK NO! So what about the Mayan theory? Just a Troll? Fake? Piece of shit? Well, that’s rude! Maybe reading a new article of mine was just your fucking dream and it’s just the eve of 21st and you are still in your fucking pits, dreaming all of this. Hmm. Do you really think so? Yes?? Well, fellas, grow the fuck up now! Just deal with your brilliant life you are heading. And if you were horrified and shit b’coz of that crazy theory, it’s time for you to fucking dance.
Others, lets get started! [Well you can dance too, I never said dancing is offensive!]
2012! I walked on RAMP! Fuck yea. Well, it’s not that cool as it sounds like. I became Radio Jockey of my college radio station, recorded 1 show, which was never aired. My project won a huge prize money from IEEE, which we haven’t received yet. And many more awesome things happened to make this year a quite good one and a depressing one at the same time. Talking about good things, 2012 has been a brilliant music festival. And, above all, the best thing happened this year is this blog I made to keep my shits together. Hey wait, do you remember, 4 months ago I wrote this : Shits which came out this year and has shown NO MERCY ?? If not, then stop fucking around and go subscribe this blog :D.
Considering how many bands and subgenres exist these days, and how many albums were released in this great music year, it’s hard as fuck to make a list of a handful of albums and tag them as my “favorite albums of 2012”. I made it anyway. And just for the sake of being sane, the list is in no ranking order. I love all of them.[Yea I know I’m a big time diplomatic scumbag].
So if you haven’t heard anything new this year, this is gonna make your life a bit easier. And if doesn’t, I don’t give a shit. If you are horrified by the things I have chosen, then I don’t apologize at all. Because, whatever, I’m not forcing you to buy anything and you are not fucking paying me for this.
Okay, here we go.
- IGORRR – Hallelujah [AlienCore]
This is the album for which I’ve been waiting for so long. Otherwise I would have written this article weeks ago. Well, the wait was worth it! Igorrr is the most unrestrained, most sick, most crazy composer I’ve ever known. Screw my “no ranking order list”. Igorrr is on top of all. No period. You think you can find me an artist more insane than him? Then I tell ya, you can get on your knees and start kissing anything which even remotely resembles an ass.[Those who watch DEXTER, would have caught me there. If not, go watch the season finale again.] I have hallelujah’s digital version for now and will get my hands on the CD very soon.
- MESHUGGAH – Koloss [Extreme Metal]
Meshuggah needs no introduction. And I’ve said enough about this album in my very first article of this blog : Meshuggah – The Metallica of Present Time.
- SYLOSIS – Monolith [Thrash/Death Metal]
I discovered Sylosis with Edge Of The Earth (2011), which I highly appreciated. Monolith relies on the power, heavy rhythms, melody and beautiful aggression, moving to various areas, mainly Thrash, Death and but also Heavy and Metalcore, including clear vocals, catchy riffs and prog touches well fed. Needless to say that the sound is huge and perfectly balanced!
- GOJIRA – L’Enfant Sauvage [Technical death metal]
Any GOJIRA album is a good GOJIRA album
- KATATONIA – Dead End Kings [Death/Doom Metal]
Since their inception, Katatonia has been pure, intimate, thoughtful and truly accomplished. Those who have never put an ear to the music of Swedish, may fall immediately in love with their mix rock / metal dismal. This new album with the magnificent voice of Jonas has definitely taken precedence over everything else. The atmosphere that emanates from the music is highly reminiscent of their previous albums. There is so much to learn from this group that I cannot refrain from recommending you to listen to their entire discography.
- TESTAMENT – Dark Roots of Earth [Thrash Metal]
Testament. Enough said! Check out the album review I did a few months ago: TESTAMENT – Dark Roots of Earth
- THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH – There’s No Leaving Now [Indie/Folk]
When people ask me who is my favorite music artist, I don’t hesitate in saying that he is a non-metal artist. And sometimes I fall short of words in admiration of this tallest man. Like Today. Fuck. Anyways, all I wanna say is, I Don’t Wanna Go Heaven, coz I Am Graced Already.
- LIMIT ZERO – Gravestone Constellations [Progressive Metal]
Metal acts in India have been increasing exponentially since past 1 year. Limit Zero is a progressive metal act from Bangalore, India. Limit Zero have a sense of melody and gratify us with some great combination of clean and heavy vocals, beautiful passages, majestically accompanied by well-integrated electro sounds, which inject the compositions, an almost chaotic. Riffs are destructive and wicked and their whole music mixing style is highly impressive and awesomely devised. The group has learned the best of all for us to concoct an explosive report. Watch the playthrough of “Portals” they released last month. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rer2p7mJEhw. Looking forward to see them live very soon.
- THE TONY DANZA TAPDANCE EXTRAVAGANZA – Danza IIII: The Alpha – The Omega [Djent/Grindcore]
Joshua Travis is the man! When I heard their name for the first time I was like “WTF title”. But when I put on my earphones, I realized very soon that this band is no imbecilic business. This is not an ordinary Djent act. TTDTE is huge-ultra-technically-royal-brutally-violent metal band, rightfully portraying the terror of their name. I won’t be surprised if Travis turns out to be an alien one day.
- THE HAARP MACHINE – Disclosure [Tech Death Prog Metal]
It took 5 long years for the mastermind of this project, Al Mu’min, to present this beautiful album. It is basically a concept album based on “socioeconomic policies on our society’s sick capitalism”. Disclosure is full of technical death prog metal virtuoso riffings and clear vocals. Overall, the group members have nailed the album with their varied skill from all the venues of technical death realm.
The Haarp Machine Facebook Page
- NEUROSIS – Honor Found in Decay [Post/Sludge Metal]
Lemmi be straight. This is neurosis. I don’t find myself human enough to critique them. Enough said!
- CONVERGE – All We Love We Leave Behind [Metalcore]
Converge! Enough said.
- CAR BOMB – w^w^^w^w [Mathcore]
Car Bomb is the incarnation of Mathcore pushed beyond its limits. Their official biography says: “Car Bomb combines the polyrhythmic and mathematical madness of Meshuggah and Dillinger Escape Plan with the rage and energetic fury of Coalesce and Converge.” I don’t think I have anything else to say which can make it any more comprehensive. This new album is immensely enjoyable, highly addictive and mathcore–ly groundbreaking.
- THE CHARIOT – One Wing [Mathcore]
Call me a retard piece of shit, but this is the best album cover on 2012. This album has some new ideas, the divine sweetness of the female voice in “your”, some western styles, brutalness, catchiness, openness, punchiness, craziness all over it.
- Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile – The Goat Rodeo Sessions [Classic / Bluegrass]
I’m extremely sorry for not including this album in the original post. This is the group of Gods of strings. It’s totally different from anything I’ve mentioned above. A totally unique album I’ve had in a long long time. Just look at the title “The Goat Rodeo Sessions”. This title is the funniest title ever. Epic too. And So is the album. It’s been playing pretty much constantly on my ZUNE since I have it. I’ll advise you just stop whatever your doing, go get your hands on this album as soon as you can.
Other Albums Worth Mentioning:
- Periphery – Periphery II – This Time It’s Personal
- Wintersun – Time I
- The Algorithm – Polymorphic Code
- Napalm Death – Utilitarian
- A.I.(d) – Solar Feelings
- Between The Buried And Me – The Parallax-II- The Future Sequence
- Monuments – Gnosis
- The Faceless – Autotheism
- Ihsahn – Eremita
- Stillborn Messengers – Sightless
- August Burns Red – Sleddin’ Hill, A Holiday
- Rings Of Saturn – Dingir
- Intervals – In Time
- Dissipate – Tectonics
- Deftones – Koi No Yokan
- Twelve Foot Ninja – Silent Machine
- Cloudkicker – Fade
Merry Christmas.!!
Shits which came out this year and has shown NO MERCY
First I thought of making a list of best albums of 2012 so far. There is hell lotta shits came out in this year, some of which stuck in my mind for weeks. But then I came to realize that I am quite reluctant in making lists. So I decided, I will post those 2012 albums which I have been listening recently. Because I don’t wanna get killed by someone whose favorite album is not in the list. To make things clear, this is not any kinda “top albums so far” or something. This list may turn out to be a little different if you ask me tomorrow. 😛
And yea, this is not in any particular order. I made this list pretty quickly, wrote whichever album came first in my mind. So, here we go. Holy fuck! That “so” rhymed with “go”. I am a fucking poet. 😀
Okay, sorry for that 😛 . Here,
1. IHSAHN – EREMITA – [Progressive Metal]
Former Emperor frontman, Ihsahn, a genius musician, crafted his solo album titled “Eremita”. Groovy riffs, Emperor-era blasts with keyboards, Jorgen Munkeby’s saxophone adding layer of brilliance and beautiful chorus melodies. This is scary, heavy, beautiful and ugly, making this weird shit worth listening.
2. STILLBORN MESSENGERS – SIGHTLESS – [Djent Metal/Hardcore]
Stillborn messengers is a french Hardcore, Metalcore, Djent metal act. They released their first EP this year. Sightless has astonishing guitar riffs, heavy drums, amazing and intense vocals, heavy, brutal and beautiful at the same time.
3. MESHUGGAH – KOLOSS – [Progressive/Tech Metal]
Here, GO! -> Meshuggah – The Metallica of Present Time.
4. AHAB – THE GIANT – [Nautical Doom Metal]
Ahab is a nautical doom metal band from Germany. It is difficult to find a band as dark, as slow, as strong, as brutal and as ridiculously heavy as Ahab. If the link is not dead yet, listen full album here.
5. THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH – THERE’S NO LEAVING NOW – [FOLK]
Apart from other albums, this one’s no metal. Here GO! – > I Don’t Wanna Go Heaven, coz I Am Graced Already – THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH
6. TESTAMENT – DARK ROOTS OF EARTH – [Thrash Metal]
Testament! Enough said.
7. GOJIRA – L’ENFANT SAUVAGE – [Technical Death/Thrash/Groove/Progressive Metal]
Here, GO! -> Any GOJIRA album is a good GOJIRA album
8. PERIPHERY – PERIPHERY II – THIS TIME IT’S PERSONAL – [Progressive/Groove/Djent Metal]
American Metal band Periphery, popular with their Djent sound, released their second album last month. Periphery II is a lot heavier and catchier than their first release. Many would say “vocalist sounds gay”, “their sound’s no heavy” and blah blah blah.! But, I love Periphery and I love Periphery and I love Periphery and I think you’ll like them too.
SHITS I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR [Upcoming Releases]:
SWANS – THE SEER KATATONIA – DEAD END KINGS SYLOSIS – MONOLITH
Meshuggah – The Metallica of Present Time
When knowledgeable people begin to talk about progressive/tech-metal, Meshuggah is always one of the first bands to be spoken of. Meshuggah unequivocally needs no introduction. Spanning their 22 year career, inventors of “djent”, inspiration of almost every djent metal band out there, this Swedish band is doing something more diverse, making all these wannabe Meshuggah bands obsolete.
Djent (silly word for “sounds like Meshuggah”) is one of the most dominant sounds in metal today (at least for me :P), and it’s a sound Meshuggah pretty much created. After releasing ObZen in 2008, they have been quite low whistle. Now they have returned to their rightful throne with 10 new tracks in their latest studio album titled “Koloss”, blended with poly-metric jazz fusion and death metal aggression. If you love djent sound and if your veins were animated when you listened to “ObZen”, it is so impossible NOT to listen Koloss.
A little more than a month ago Meshuggah were happy enough to release the tracks “Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion” and “Don’t Look Down” to the world as a sneak peek preview of what Koloss is gonna be like. These two tracks with nerve thrashing riffs and with Tomas Haake’s lyrics over it is the perfect combination for the fans and enough to build fury and hunger for the full length album release. The album opens with “I am Colossus”, sheer anxiety, exhausted, but unstoppable. “The Demon’s Name Is Surveillance” and “The Hurt That Finds You First” are the fast ones, absolutely vicious. And then come the gems of Koloss – “Marrow” and “Demiurge”. When I heard them, I was like, yeah this is it. This is Messuggah. This is some serious shit. This is heaven. This is kick-my-ass-every-damn-time-I-hear-them. 😀
I don’t know if Koloss is the “best” album Meshuggah has ever made, but it’s by far the damn craziest, and is surely an early contender for the best album of 2012. A kid today, hear the songs “Morrow” or “Demiurge” or “Do Not Look Down” or “Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion” and might think, “ohh, this sounds like ..[a djenty band].,” but someday day he will realise this is a trillion times better, especially after they’ve had the album stuck in their head for weeks.
“Koloss” was one of my most anticipated albums of 2012, and after digging through every nook and cranny I could find, I was absolutely justified in feeling that way. In short, Koloss is everything it needs to be — a treat for fans like me and a bible for the bands just getting into the genre. Okay now enough said, Meshuggah lovers will seek out for Koloss, and to those who don’t, the “Koloss” will come seeking..
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBmCaRP_oDk&w=320&h=220%5D
Resolute Whimsy 