Top 20 Albums of 2012

My track record for year-in-retrospect lists is not great. It's rare that I've finished one before the year is out, and last year I failed to even put a formal list together. 2012 continues my trend of spotty year-end lists, as I'm turning this one in almost a month into the new year and devoid of individual album descriptions in interest of finishing it before February. The list itself is relatively unordered, but see the below paragraphs for a taste of what these records are about.

Hip-hop has been on a creative upswing in the last year or so, evidenced by the fact that 3 of the year's best rap albums, the records from Black Hippy members Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Schoolboy Q all didn't make the cut. However, the year also saw the first truly great album from Outkast/Dungeon family affiliate Killer Mike, produced entirely by alt-rap wunderkind El-P, an influx of awesome gay and lesbian rappers, the most exemplary being rapper/producer and Das Racist affiliate Le1f, producer Flying Lotus putting on his rapper cap for an album of stoned, pitch-shifted psychedelic rap that recalls MF DOOM, Quasimoto and elements of Odd Future as Captain Murphy, Meyhem Lauren puting together a hard, funny, classic-sounding and mostly-overlooked second album of 2012 (the first being this summer's solid Respect the Fly Shit) and 16-year-old Barbadian/Brooklyner Haleek Maul teaming up with Chicago production duo Supreme Cuts for a dark, moody future trap album, all of which I could by no means exclude from my year-end list.

Black metal has shown itself to be more than a one-trick-pony over the last 20-plus years, and the black metal records that I loved this year came from pretty much ever corner of the genre. The doomy Coloradans in Velnias brought a folk-flavored, ancient-sounding brew, while Nihill's Verdonkermaan was a lo-fi, occult tornado of riffs and blasts and Ash Borer turned in another LP of long-form, almost post-black metal brilliance (I'd say "transcendental black metal," if that term hadn't taken on a tainted character in the last few years).

The doom-and-drone-influenced post-whatever of Canadians AHNA and Californians Wreck and Reference came out of nowhere this year, and while similar compared to other bands on this list, each band took a unique and unexpected path to turn in an awesome album. AHNA's crusty, drone-sludge howl took my ears hostage with its bass-heavy, dirge-to-blast approach, and Wreck and Reference delivered a jaw-dropping, almost unclassifiable mix of post-punk, Swan-esque doom, drone, and noise that includes clean singing and replaces the usual guitar with an electronics-centered approach.

Grindcore and powerviolence continued their proliferation with another strong year that showed bands looking both backward and forward for inspiration. Cellgraft turned in an Insect Warfare and Assück-reminscent final release of ear-shattering traditional grind, Black Hole of Calcutta mixed the traditional grindcore approach with black metal and thrash for their satisfying second self-titled record, the Canadian newcomers in Violent Restitution blasted on to the scene with a gut-level LP that made them my favorite new grind band of the year, and Sakatat unfortunately heralded the end of their era as a band with their short-but-sweet first full-length. Dephosphorus transcended grindcore with their magnificent, skyward-looking debut LP, Column of Heaven mixed powerviolence and grindcore with noise and unusual instrumentation to tell a disturbing tale about a serial killer that's made more disturbing by its scope and basis in reality, The Kill delivered the snarling, blistering, no-nonsense breakout album I'd always been willing them to make and the Australians in thedowngoing continued their growth as an angular, tech-noisegrind duo with an equal interest in art and destruction.

While (good) indie rock was not as prolific as in years past, a few standbys brought creative and memorable albums to the table. Electronics weirdo Dan Deacon continued his avant-garde mixing of goofy electronic pop and classical composition with a warmer, more expansive album that's presented as a love song to the American landscape, and Ariel Pink (also a weirdo) brought an album that bridged the unrelenting strangeness of his older bedroom-pop material and the higher fidelity and tighter construction of last year's Before Today as well as paid reverence to lost-in-the-shuffle rockers Donny and Joe Emerson.

See below for album streams and samples, and keep your ears tuned in this year for a ton of great announced and already-released albums.

1. Killer Mike- R.A.P. Music (Sample tracks: "Untitled," "Reagan," "Big Beast")
2. Nihill- Verdonkermaan
3. Column of Heaven- Mission from God
4. The Kill- Make 'em Suffer
5. Dephosphorus- Night Sky Transform
6. Wreck and Reference- No Youth
7. Meyhem Lauren- Mandatory Brunch Meetings
8. Velnias- RuneEater
9. Cellgraft- Cellgraft LP
10. Dan Deacon- America (Samples: "True Thrush," "Lots," "USA Parts I-V")
11. Sakat- Bir Devrin Sonu
12. Violent Restitution- Violent Restitution LP
13. Supreme Cuts and Haleek Maul- Chrome Lips
14. Captain Murphy- Duality
15. LE1F- Dark York
16. thedowngoing- ATHOUSANDYEARSOFDARKNESS
17. AHNA- Empire
18. Ash Borer- Cold of Ages (Samples: "Phantoms," "Convict All Flesh")
19. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti- Mature Themes (Samples: "Kinski Assassin," "Symphony of the Nymph," "Baby (Donnie and Joe Emerson Cover)")
20. Black Hole of Calcutta- S/T #2

Top 5 Splits of 2012

5. Robocop/Detroit split: Dead Language, Foreign Bodies

Robocop has emerged as one of contemporary powerviolence's more interesting voices, and part of the reason for that distinction comes from their willingness to experiment with the form. What's normally a down-and-dirty genre gets the audiophile treatment on Robocop's side of this split, and the result is a twitching, mutant punk that incorporates saxophones, echoing noise and whatever else it can wrap its tentacles around into a strange, satisfying experimental powerviolence gestalt. The Canadians in Detroit, while opting for a more traditional approach to powerviolence, ramp up the violence and anger with a moshing, throat-bursting kick-in-the-teeth of a B-side that occasionally gives way to 90's post-hardcore sincerity ("Day After Day," the second half of "Pusher"). All that, plus a Jennifer Lopez cover. A well-made, varied split that also happens to come with some of 2012's best cover art and packaging.

4. The Afternoon Gentlemen/Suffering Mind

The boozegrind/slackerviolence of The Afternoon Gentlemen is a stinking ball of fastcore, grind and powerviolence pickled in cheap alcohol and crust punk. Pissed-off, irreverent (and in moments like the Fukushima Daiichi disaster-referencing "Nuclear Terror," truly funny: "Leaders speak to calm our spirits/Crust bands write piles of new lyrics") blasting for the burnt-out crusty in all of us. Suffering Mind, arguably this year's king of splits and per-volume one of the most consistent bands working in their genre today, blast out four shots of Insect Warfare and Discordance Axis-inflected shrapnel (one of which is an Assück cover) with the ease of true A-list grind lifers. Together, these two keep the grind alive on ten tracks of low-stakes but highly enjoyable punk noise.

3. Sete Star Sept/Rotgut

Among the year's most controversial extreme music releases was the sprawling, uninhibited noisegrind omnibus that is Sete Star Sept's Vinyl Collection 2010-2012. For most listeners, it was a hard piece to approach because of its sheer size alone, and many walked away from it as perplexed as when they started. As the enjoyable-ness factor of SSS's side of this split (featured on the aforementioned collection) shows, in small bites, the unhinged and left-field nature of these Japanese grinders can be immensely satisfying. On the flip side, Malaysian grind 'n' roll newcomers Rotgut serve up a classic-sounding set of nasty, lo-fi Asian grindcore heavier on attitude than speed (and surprisingly enough, all the better for it). The perfect 2012 split to satisfy your inner Neanderthal noisehound, these tracks sport a sound that would fit in chronologically anywhere from the mid-90's to last week.

2. Gripe/Diseksa: Indefinite Detention

Politically and socially conscious grindcore, by its nature, rests on one side or the other of the line between pertinent and painful, depending on its execution. Thankfully, then, the overtly socially charged Indefinite Detention (and with a name like that, how could it not be?) sits comfortably on the former side—and happens to rule musically, as well. Gripe's outraged, high-caliber grind is one of my personal favorite recent examples of the form, and the lyrical content of songs like the anti-rape "Ballbuster," the title track and "You Can't Spell Dead Without D.E.A." prove that all that griping comes with some very solid arguments. Diseksa (the second set of Malaysians on this list, further illustrating South Asian grind's continued ascendance) smash out raw, boombox-in-a-room-fidelity crust-grind that does fun as well as it does fuck you (and so well that I'm willing to forgive their use of the first "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" sample that I've ever heard). An effortless-sounding grindcore tutorial that, especially at the impossible-to-pass-up price of a free download, is a must-have blastbeat-fest for this year.

1. Cloud Rat/Republic of Dreams

I've already said a lot about this split, but considering how much I love it, I'm willing to say a bit more. Cloud Rat might be my single favorite recent grind act, and considering the fact that they seem to get better with each release, stand to hold that honor for the foreseeable future. The mixture of punk, doom and memorable grindcore riffs on their six tracks stuck with me like nothing else did this year (I liked this record enough I almost considered saving it for my top LPs list instead of top splits) and each track oozes emotion and energy in a manner I've mainly encountered on Pig Destroyer's strongest material and Jon Chang's Discordance Axis and Gridlink releases (and the lyrics are at least up to par with the ones from those records). I'll admit that's it's the second side, by screamo newcomers Republic of Dreams, that was the real surprise for me. Every bit as cohesive as the Cloud Rat side, RoD's side made me love a genre I don't usually pay a lot of attention to, and while I'm too much of a Cloud Rat fan to say that this is the superior side, Republic of Dreams is going to be on my new release radar from here on out. Long on atmosphere and emotionality (and longer on catchy riffs), these tracks swing from one polarity to another with more blasts than you'll find in your typical screamo album. This is a split that's determined to avoid any limitations conferred by the form, and if it isn't sitting somewhere in your record crates/on your shelves, do yourself a favor and buy it as a late holiday/early New Years present. No split even came close to this one this year, and if either of these bands' 2013 releases are anywhere as good as this (Moksha already has a tentative place on HaaSL's Best LPs of 2013 list and I've only heard one song from it) expect to see them both on my lists this time next year.

Doom/Drone Metal Top 5

I feel compelled to write an introduction to this, 'cause it'd be a little weird to just inject you into this list with no explanation, but c'mon; you've read the title, is there really that much more that I can say? Every once in a while it's healthy to not listen to something fast, just like some of that grease in your McDonald's artery-clogger is actually necessary to your diet. Mmm... doom metal grease.

5. Moss- Sub Templum [Longest track: 35:31]

“Ritus,” this record's opener, all ebb-and-flow guitar throb, shimmering, candle-lit keys and arcane whispering, sets the stage nicely for an album full of Victorian, Satanic-leaning drone that's rife with foreboding from front to back.

The second, and second-longest, track on the album, “Subterraen,” realizes the fear and horror that the first track hinted at, like the 20 minutes of exposition in the beginning of horror film finally broken by the audience's first taste of blood. The band howls like some shadowed, lumbering Elder God, with the moments of drone adding to the tension like the details always artfully absent from H.P. Lovecraft stories. He always tells us it's for our sanity, but the wondering makes it work sort of the opposite.

“Dragged to the Roots” continues where “Subterraen” left off, if at a slightly increased lumber than the latter track. The album's unease is brought to a head with “Gate III: Devils From the Outer Dark,” which begins with a weighty guitar crush and builds on the already dark vibe with a spoken incantation similar to that of “Ritus,” the vocalist's British accent heightening the horror. Several minutes into the track, that incantation seems to have borne fruit, with the unearthly howls of the vocalist seemingly channeling the song's title devils. This song more than any realizes the band's Satanic drone vibe, and at 35:31 is the most gratifying on the record.

Of the other albums on this list, none can convey the constant sense of dread and unease that this album does, even with the genre's proclivity for producing unsettling sounds. Whether your perfect soundtrack to an October evening alone with Lovecraft, or just a drone record for when you've got an hour and fifteen minutes to kill, Sub Templum is a perfect example of doom metal done right.

4. Earth- Earth 2 (Special Low Frequency Version) [Longest track: 30:21]

If you haven't heard Earth's first LP, Earth 2, and can't or don't want to spend the money or time to buy or download it, I've got a solution for you.

Find an old rotary telephone, hook it up to a landline (preferably a poor one, for maximum effect,) and call up a friend who has recording software. Once the call connects, make a series of deep, long buzzing sounds with your mouth like “bzzzvvvvvvvv, bzzzzvvvvvv, bzzzzvvvvv” and have your friend record them through the telephone. On another track, have your friend record you screaming, with several seconds of space between each. Next, have him or her loop your buzzing over 15 or 20 minutes, and have your screaming come in at around the 7 minute mark and last for around 1 minute intervals, returning every 3 minutes. Drive over to your friend's house and play the track with the computer's subwoofer at maximum volume, and you have just created your own Earth 2 (Special Low Frequency Version).

Joking aside, this is a great album. It's just not one that's always particularly easy to listen to. Its run time totals 1:13:00, its track listing has only 3 songs, and its musical content, as described in the introduction, consists of only electric guitar and voice. Being one of the pioneers of the drone doom style, this record's strength doesn't come from its variety, but rather from some spiritual and emotional quality created by the tone and repetition of the guitar, cauterized by the screamed vocal interjections. As the album nears its middle, one feels as if one is deep in some intense form of meditation, both ready to speak in tongues and reach perfect Zen consciousness.

Like some of the greatest films of 40 years ago, this album is best experienced through a healthy suspension of disbelief. As long as you don't go in to the experience demanding a perfect album, you'll find something arguably better: a great one.

3. Sleep- Dopesmoker [Longest track: 1:03:32]

This album holds the dual honors of being both the most melodic record on this list and the least melodic record that Sleep have ever produced. While it may sound fairly tame on a list bookended by the piercing, Lovecraft-inspired Satanic howl of Moss and the extreme, deathgrowl-vocaled crush at the heart of “Sangre/Humanos” from Corrupted's Llenandose de Gusanos, this record singlehandedly derailed Sleep's career, seemingly on an upswing since the success of Sleep's Holy Mountain.

Their label redlighted the album because of its length, lack of multiple tracks and sheer extremity compared to their previous efforts. Even re-cut as the inferior Jerusalem, the label wouldn't accept it, and the band, refusing to compromise further, retreated into inactivity and eventual disbandment. Bootlegs of the Jerusalem cut of the album surfaced in metal circles, but it wasn't until 2003 that the album received a proper release as Dopesmoker, packaged with the bonus of a never-before-released live track called “Sonic Titan.”

It's a tragedy that this album took so long to release, not only because the band might have continued making records if Dopesmoker had been well-received, but because it's a damn good album. It trades in all of the melody and most of the Black Sabbath worship of Holy Mountain (still the band's finest moment) for even slower riffs, a droning vocal delivery that's admittedly jarring on first listen, and a silly-yet-triumphant narrative about a stoner exile mirroring the biblical Jewish one which follows a caravan of “weed priests” in search of a stoner Holy Land (hence the alternate title.)

It takes a listen or two to get used to this incarnation of Sleep's sound, and one can understand why a label would initially balk at releasing it, but upon further listens it becomes apparent that Sleep were on to something. The tragedy is doubled by the fact that none of the members' post-Sleep output compares to their former band's catalog (sorry, High on Fire fans), and one is left only to wonder how awesome, stoney and droney a fourth Sleep album might have turned out to be.

2. Boris- Absolutego [Longest track: 1:05:35]

I'm not one to mince words, so we might as well get one thing out of the way: There's more Earth worship on this record than a picnic full of druids. Due to that fact, it might seem strange that Earth 2, a major inspiration for this album, is all the way at the four spot, while this record is one position away from number one. However, there are a few things that this record boasts of which Dylan Carlson's album is in short supply. Two of the more important of those things are drums and Japanese people.

Absolutego also carries a sense of importance and propulsion that keeps your interest better over one hour-and-five-minute track than any of the fifteen-minute to half-an-hour pieces on Earth 2. The feedback-flooded droning spaces are well tempered by peaks of discernible riffs, pounding drums and cathartic howls.

The real surprise, however, is that while you'll be pleased every time the band's playing reappears on the track, this is the rare minimalist metal performance where you're not just waiting for it. Boris' strength on this album is the ability to convey emotion through both negative and positive space, exuding as much energy when they're letting their guitars feed back as they are when they're playing them.

1. Corrupted- Llenandose de Gusanos [Longest track: 1:13:55]

What makes an album the best doom metal release ever (for purposes of this list, anyway; you can't really expect me to choose)? The longest, slowest song ever written? One single riff, repeated over the full playing time of four discs? Real honest-to-God monks, chanting in the key of that riff for half of one of those discs? Guest vocals from serial killers?

It's undeniable that all of those things are cool, but unfortunately that was a trick question; the truth is, the real secret is that the band making the record has to be Corrupted. Corrupted's mixture of sludge vitality and doom creep, all cut liberally with a streak for drone and the avant-garde, make them the perfect group to achieve a proper balance between doom metal and its relative genres without sounding boring or self-serving.

Despite that balance, the album itself opens on what many headbanger dictionaries would define as a boring note. For the first five minutes of “Sangre/Humanos,” we as listeners are given nothing more than plaintive piano-plinking. At around the five-and-a-half mark, that plinking is joined by a low-register mumbling. Those two rather un-metal neighbors keep each other company until the near-maddening point of almost the 17-and-a-half minute mark, when finally, serendipitously our old friend feedback makes an entrance, ushering in the belles of the ball, doom metal riffs themselves. When those leaden riffs begin to land, it's like the entire fragile world built by the last fifteen-plus minutes is beginning to disintegrate in clouds of smoke and feigned ambience. The cathartic entrance of these elements makes the preceding 17 minutes, which on paper seem incredibly tedious, become absolutely essential to the gravity of the rest of the composition.

Thus begins the doom metal track proper, as much time as it took to appear. What continues to impress me, no matter how many times I listen to this and other Corrupted recordings, are the vocals. Corrupted's vocalist's style, in contrast to that of other bands on this list, seems more suited to a death metal or goregrind recording than the genre the band plays. However, the vocals complement the somber, oppressive atmosphere, creating an occult vibe not unlike Moss's entry at the number 5 spot. The vocals seem carefully weighted to mesh with the piano, guitar and drums on the track, never letting over-emotion or unnecessary aggression draw away from the aggregate.

After the 50 minutes of “Sangre/Humanos” has completely drained the blood from your body, the ambient, 74-minute “El Mundo” hovers over it in disbelief, conveying in pure wordless feeling what the former track did with doom metal and piano.

Overall, what makes Llenandose de Gusanos a cut above the rest of the albums on this list is the ability to distill and amalgamate such a variety of styles and sounds into one cohesive package. While other albums on this list may contain similar components, none live up to the presence and sheer power of vintage Corrupted. If you disagree, then go ahead and tell me what other doom metal band shared a split with Discordance Axis and 324. No, seriously.

Hip-hop Meets Grindcore Top 5

I've said it once, and I'll say it twice: grindcore is tough to pin down. As formulaic as the genre may seem to the untrained eye, no formula can explain anomalies like the inclusion of burly industrial experiments or poetry intros on Agathocles' Razor Sharp Daggers, the bouncy pop-punk/grind hybrid “Ten People” from Damage Digital's Moss, or the closing track to Slight Slappers' A Selfish World Called Freedom, “Vanette,” which segues from swirling noise into a sweet, keyboard-driven ballad dripping with 50s-style charm. And don't get me started on Brutal Truth, Exit-13, or Total Fucking Destruction. Grindcore's a genre that bands aren't afraid to let their other influences roam free in, too, and so it's only natural that hip-hop appeared in the mix by-and-by. The ways that these five selections employ hip-hop and grindcore are diverse as the genres themselves, and serve as a “For Dummies” guide of the way the two styles can be artfully melded together on a record.

5. S.O.B.- “Tukikage”
After their '80s glory days, S.O.B. lost more than a little of their thunder. The 1999 album that this track comes from, Dub Grind, features disappointingly little of either dub reggae or grindcore, although it does manage to pull off a nice experimental trick or two. This minimalist, dub-tinged hip-hop track is one of the brighter spots on the record, and hints at what this album could've been if the band took half of the risks they should have taken in making Dub Grind.

4. Catheter- “False Sense of Judgement”
Sporting the smallest amount of hip-hop of any song on this list, this track serves as an example of the hip-hop appearance as accent, rather than as introduction or “Oh man, can't believe they did that!” hook. The brief, sparse beat that serves as this song's outro is one of those passing things that really doesn't ever get an explanation, serving to illustrate the sort of comfort with the genre grindcore bands have found in the 2000s.

3. Genocide- “Intifada”
Coming from the Mexican group's We Rape the Sky, We Rape the Hell LP (find it here at Cephalochromoscope if you don't have it on your harddrive,) this track is one of the most surprisingly well-produced on this list, and easily the best-sounding thing on Genocide's entire record. The other surprising thing about this track's brooding, Middle-Eastern beat is that it's so good, I'm almost disappointed when the grindcore section inevitably kicks in.

2. Magrudergrind- “Heavier Bombing”
Magrudergrind have always seemed to me a sort of more agile, neo-Spazz, and this reworking of This Comp Kills Fascists track “Heavy Bombing” (possibly the world's first grindcore remix, barring things like disc 2 of Agoraphobic Nosebleed's Altered States of America) does nothing if not prove that fact. Surly, metal-inflected beats build for most of the track, while an MC chants “It's getting' down to the grind/Magrudergrind” before the band explodes onto the track for roughly 30 seconds. Their supremacy doesn't last long, however, as the track gives way to hip-hop again, this time in the form of a dark, 90's style G-funk outro (think Snoop Dogg's “Murder was the Case” or “Serial Killa”) that encompasses the last 20 seconds of the song.

1. Spazz- “Camp Chestnut”
This is the track that started it all. When you think of combining grindcore and hip-hop, this should be the song that immediately comes to mind, sort of the “Bring the Noise” of hip-hop/grindcore pairings. A weird, trashy vocal-loop beat serves as the springboard for what might be one of the strangest collaborations in metal history. Several seconds in, Kool Keith appears on the track and starts shouting out Spazz. And then your mind explodes. Immediately after the explosion of your head, Spazz appears to grind what's left of it into powerviolence-scorched little bits. The full story of how the collaboration came about, as well as the “Autopsy, Def Leppard and Spazz” line from Dr. Octagon's “I'm Destructive” can be found here in this fascinating blog post by former Spazz guitarist Dan Boleri, which illustrates further the strange sort of overlap the two seemingly disparate genres have with each other. No one can quite explain why it works as well as it does, but melding hip-hop beats and grindcore fury seems to be a secret art that certain adventurous grinders are probably going to keep tucked away in their arsenal for the rest of the genre's history.

Awesomely Liberal/Feminist Grindcore Top 5

[AKA Five Kick-Ass Things That Seth Putnam Would Hate the Shit Out Of]

This is a list I've been kicking around for a while because I'm a huge fan of issues of equality, especially in regards to gender and sexuality. I've been meaning to write it up for a while, and with April being National Sexual Assault Awareness month, and today (Friday) being my university's Take Back the Night event, I figured there wasn't a better time than now to put this list out. I've loved the idea for this list mainly because it goes to prove the diversity of a genre most outsiders often misinterpret as single-minded and unintelligent. Personally, I relish the fact that grind is a genre where bands like Regurgitate can release completely thematically abhorrent, gore-drenched slabs of noise (and I mean that in the best way possible, especially in regards to Deviant,) bands like Looking for an Answer and Disrupt can get all vegan and animal rights on us, and Discordance Axis and Pig Destroyer can prove that metal can be smart as hell and still rip you a new asshole. After that sorta lengthy, rambling intro, here you go: my top five favorite liberal and feminist things in grindcore.

5. Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in the Dilapidation

Formed as an all-female grindcore quartet in Tokyo, Japan, there's a number of reasons F.I.D. are awesome, not the least of which is their music. Slightly more important to this list, however, is the fact that they're women willing to make uncompromisingly extreme music completely unrelated to image. Sure, there's been plenty of all-female bands in the past, but in a culture such as that of Japan, where visual presentation is paramount and oversexualization of the female form is encouraged and almost expected, it's not as simple a choice as all that. Adding to their lack of preoccupation with image, and smashing the misconception that F.I.D. is just some all-"GRRRL" novelty band, is the fact that when guitarist Kyoko, whom they recorded their self-titled LP with, quit the band, the girls were unafraid to bring in a male guitarist, an upstate-New Yorker by the name of Ben.

As vocalist Makiko blogged when they first announced their new member's identity: "Some people would think F.I.D. with a boy sucks and is not good anymore. If you think so, it means that you did not appreciate us as a band, that's about it."

Ben echoed this sentiment in a post introducing himself on the band's Myspace: "I had some reservations at first but, thinking about it and we all agree, if you just liked F.I.D. for being an all-female-Asian band, and don't like us now, then obviously the music comes second for you. So long, see ya, we'll keep on thrashing."

F.I.D.- "Visualized"

4. Warsore's "You Rape, You Die"

This one's pretty self-explanatory (as the Youtube video for the song also states.) For a number of very personal reasons I abhor rape, possibly more than any other crime on the planet. However, its sensitive and graphic nature makes it not a topic most people are comfortable discussing, both in their personal lives and, most of the time in their song lyrics. That's why I'm so refreshed to see one of my favorite genres of music tackle the subject.

Warsore- "You Rape, You Die"

3. Brutal Truth's "Anti-Homophobe"

This is the perfect centerpiece for the list, since it's the one item on the list that we know for certain that Anal Cunt vocalist/guitarist Seth Putnam does actually, as I so charmingly put in my subtitle, "hate the shit out of." In interviews he's been quoted bashing the song for its "political correctness," but I'm going to counter that and applaud the track for its honesty. In a genre that can sometimes get stereotyped as overmasculinized, and for a band with such a thick, rough sound, it takes a lot of cajones to say things as baldly as they do, with no regard for sounding cool or tough. Yeah, maybe it's not the "coolest" subject matter, but hell, give me something that really matters over the same old gore lyrics since Repulsion any day (not that I don't love Repulsion, mind you.)

Brutal Truth- "Anti-Homophobe"

2. Napalm Death's From Enslavement to Obliteration LP

Lee Dorrian is one of my favorite things to happen to Napalm Death, ever. Not only did he pretty much perfect the deathgrowl/grindshriek vocal trade-off, but he wrote some of the most progressive grindcore lyrics in the genre. Okay, so it's not all poetry, but From Enslavement to Obliteration, far and away my favorite thing Napalm Death has ever done (especially the cd release, which completes the record with the companion EP "The Curse") tackles political and social issues in a manner seen too scarcely in any genre. Lyrics all over the record discuss issues of race, class and gender; not surprisingly, however, the feminist lyrics strike the biggest chord with me. Classic "Cock Rock Alienation" addresses the sexism inherent in hair metal and arena rock, while "It's a M.A.N.'S. World" discusses modern culture's chauvinist gender biases. And, with possibly my favorite lyrical topic on the album, "Inconceivable?" takes a look inward at how easy it is to ignore one's own sexist tendencies in personal relationships. Add to that one of the most competent and original bands in grind, and you've got what I'd rank as probably the best grindcore record until Discordance Axis, Pig Destroyer, and others took the bar set by ND and Repulsion and raised it into the stratosphere.

Napalm Death- "It's a M.A.N.'S. World"

1. Cretin Vocalist Dan Martinez Becomes Marissa Martinez

Transgender issues are incredibly difficult to discuss in any setting. So, when the vocalist/guitarist of a band who I've often described as the Last House on the Left of grindcore reveals that he's undergoing gender-reassignment surgery for his transition to a woman, one kind of takes notice. It's a colossal decision for anyone to make, and for someone whose fanbase thrives on gore classics such as Cannibal Holocaust and Herschell Gordon Lewis films (read: possibly not the most accepting people in the world) to discuss this decision in an open and frank manner is even more surprising. While it might have alienated some fans, Marissa's strength has only served to make me respect these Repulsion acolytes even more, and is only a grain of sand in my pile of evidence that grindcore is the greatest genre on the planet.

Blabbermouth Article

Marissa With the Band

Cretin- "Daddy's Little Girl"

[Best of 2009: Repost]

Okay, this is a repost of my Best of 2009 just so I have it here, and I guess so you can feast yr. eyes upon it, too, if you so choose. I'll get to posting more soon, I've just been busy these last few weeks.

[Okay, I know it's traditional to have these lists done BEFORE a year ends, and I know most of you who do these have had yrs. done for a while, but this damn thing has had me more obsessed than an Ayn Rand protagonist. The list part was easy, but the blurbs were the part that killed me. Not writing them, mind you, but finding the time. With visiting relatives and trying to spend time with people before they and I return to parts unknown, plus that little turning 21 thing, I'd write a one, forget, write another, forget, until I just sat down the last three mornings/nights and banged the rest out. I'm sure mine and yours vary incredibly, and don't forget this whole thing is totally my opinion. But, for better or worse, here it is:]

My Top 15 Albums of 2009

15. Magrudergrind- Magrudergrind

Magrudergrind have been around for almost a decade, but before this year, it felt as if they'd never released their defining statement. Enter 2009's Magrudergrind, a sludgy, fierce grindcore album produced by Pig Destroyer guitar mastermind Scott Hull. This release expands upon the unchained powerviolence of 2007's Rehashed and their split with Shitstorm, creating a sound that settles somewhere between the punk of Spazz and the piercing, controlled assault of Discordance Axis. Bolstered by smart, funny-yet-relevant sampling and a hip-hop tinged sequel to This Comp Kills Fascists track "Heavy Bombing", this record is a sonic "fuck you" that places Magrudergrind amongst grindcore's finest practicioners, and marks them as one of the premiere groups still performing in the genre today.

14. Dan Deacon- Bromst

So, what was the next step for hyperactive Baltimorean composer Dan Deacon, the man who wrote 2007's sugar-high, relatively uncomplicated Spiderman of the Rings, and who in the past has written songs with such absurd titles as "I'm So Gay With the Boner" and "Shit Slowly Applied to Cock Parts"? If Bromst, his layered, gorgeous, and still patently ridiculous 2009 album is any indication, it's to prove to us that a grad degree in music doesn't mean you still can't act like a kid. The high-energy, minimalist composition on his last album has given way to a much more textured album, featuring excellent live percussion performances and more sonic complexity than was thought possible of a Deacon album. This is still Dan Deacon, however, and whether listening to the melancholy slow-burn of "Snookered" or the ecstatic silliness of "Woof Woof", it's pure electronic bliss. As long as his health permits, (Deacon's high-energy, communal performances tragically sent him to the hospital with back injuries in '09) I've got good money on further twists and turns throughout the years in Dan's ever-expanding catalog.

13. Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion

I'm gonna be honest here: Despite Pitchfork's protestations to the contrary, this record ain't gonna change the world. It is, however, probably the first Animal Collective record you can play all the way through around your parents without your knowledge of the definition of 'music' being repeatedly drawn into question (although if this video is any indication, old people still hate the looping electronic drone the band has retained: http://vimeo.com/7906930), as well as the first album that can be considered, at least by Animal Collective standards, truly a pop record. This latest AC incarnation is the bubbling, tribal-percussion-aided, Beach Boys-vocaled, electronic slab of joy that it seems like most casual fans were just aching for them to make. While adorable wife-and-kid love song "My Girls" has been dominating the interwaves practically all year, my personal favorite has to be bouncy closer "Brothersport". At first listen I was disappointed by the lack of acoustic guitar and occasional screaming and vocal histrionics I'd come to expect from their last several efforts, but in the end I've come to a conclusion more listeners to the group than ever have come to this year: Animal Collective have made a very, very good album.

12. Khanate- Clean Hands Go Foul

Let's get things out of the way, shall we? This is one fucking ugly record. There is not one happy millisecond, over all four tracks and the entire 60:09 runtime of this album. The blackened, droning doom metal that this band creates really has no parralel; the late Burning Witch offers some sort of reference point in the tortured (and torturous) vocals, and the painfully slow tempos and minute-stretching reverb have some due to Sunn O))). Yet the sheer hatred, the consuming ugliness over the course of Clean Hands really can't be compared to anyone. It's tragic that this is Khanate's final effort, since this is probably the best thing they've yet released. However, such a dark, unforgiving slab of noise is a fitting swan song for a group of this caliber. It deserves a "not for the faint of heart" disclaimer, but has got a lot to offer for those who've got the patience (and earplugs) to handle it.

11. Washed Out- High Times

Your mission: Buy some old disco 8-tracks (and an 8-track player, unless you've got one lying around your dorm room anywhere; I guess I just forgot mine at home). Borrow a friend or relative's Lincoln Towne Car and leave said tapes lying exposed in the car's backseat window for a summer. Collect the tapes, submerge in cooking oil, and insert in your tape player. The method just described is pretty much the only way you'll hear music comparable to the woozy, sedated tracks on Washed Out's High Times, latest in a crop of diverse artists saddled with the "chillwave" title. Whatever you want to call it, once this record gets to you, you'd better believe these songs will get stuck in your head like an 8-track in a car tape deck for months to come.

10. Wormrot- Abuse

When I think "Grindcore Central", I'll be quick to admit that Singapore is not exactly foremost in my mind. However, if these Singaporeans (as well as their skilled compatriots in Magnicide) have anything to say about it, all that could be about to change. Wormrot deliver a gritty, angry, and punk-fueled blast of a record that's a perfect distillation of classic grinders like Extreme Noise Terror, Napalm Death, and even the late, great Insect Warfare (who more than a few writers have drawn comparisons to in reviews of this record). This disc is a perfect representation of what I love about grind, even going so far as to include a brilliant, tongue-in-cheek cover of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Rich". After almost 25 years, bands like Wormrot continue to prove that grindcore isn't about to disappear any time soon.

9. ABSU- ABSU

Wanna know a secret? Black metal is (still) awesome. ABSU proves it with this, their fifth (and in my opinion, best) LP to date. Instead of the tried-and-true Satanism of most bands in the genre, drummer/vocalist/lyricist Proscriptor draws from Sumerian and Mesopotamian mythology and ideas, keeping the mystery and occultism while giving us some stories we maybe haven't heard twenty times previous. It's hard to say enough to cover this album; sure, the blistering drums, tortured vocals, and crushing guitar are all here in full force, but so are mellotron accompaniment, sung vocals, acoustic guitar, and even some prog-rock synthesizer, though the album never strays far from the death-sprint pace set on the :02 mark of opener "Between the Absu of Eridu and Erech". What you're left with is a dense, atmospheric, energetic and technically excellent record that will appeal both to genre afficionados and plain ol' metal fans and doesn't lose any of its excitement or force on repeat listens. Also, a track is called "In the Name of Auebothiabaithobeuee", which is what I've decided I'll call my firstborn child, if only someone can clue me in on how to pronounce it.

8. Raekwon- Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... II

A decade ago, the words "Wu-Tang Forever" seemed less than likely to prove true. Two years after having released their baffling disappointing sophomore double album of that same name, the most the Clan had turned out were two underwhelming releases by two of their three worst MCs, U-God and Inspectah Deck, and a Mortal Kombat-style fighting game called Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style. To think now that Raekwon, Ghostface, RZA and company have turned out a sequel to one of the group's best solo records that ACTUALLY lives up to the hype heaped upon it, to think nothing of the fact that it's almost 17 years after the group's formation, is reason enough to stop and take notice. If you're familiar with this album's predecessor, you know exactly what to expect: gritty, Mafioso-style story-raps, heaps of dark, tense orchestral and piano-accented beats, and Rae and co-host Ghostface trading sharp, witty and often politically incorrect verses along with ample help from Clan members and associates. The biggest surprise here, however, is not only that Wu-Tang's resident beatsmith the RZA only supplied a handful of the beats for this album, but that his contributions are hardly the best of the bunch. This album is overflowing with superstar producers and guests, such as Dr. Dre, Pete Rock, the late J Dilla, and Slick Rick, (along with confusing additions like Jadakiss and Beanie Siegel), but the guest assistance bolsters rather than sinks the effort, with Raekwon's lyricism remaining the focus througout. This is an album rap fans have been waiting for for years, and it doesn't disappoint.

7. Real Estate- Real Estate

Full disclosure: I almost missed the boat on Real Estate. The truth is that my total ambivalence about guitarist Matt Mondanile's Ducktails project meant that my expections were extremely low once I heard he was also a member of this group. Luckily, a chance encounter with a track from their (also superb) Reality EP made me sure that I needed this record. The album's lazy, sunny, blue-collar vibe feels like a perfect soundtrack to a suburban New Jersey (where the band hails from) summer: cookouts, cheap beer, old lawnchairs, beach visits and all, rendered in lo-fi, indie-slacker glory. Since the afformentioned EP debuted only a week after this record hit shelves, if things keep up we can expect a lot more Real Estate to come in 2010.

6. Neon Indian- Psychic Chasms

With all of the turmoil in the US this year, it seems fitting something as escapist as the blogger-coined "chillwave" movement enjoyed such relative success. While questionably even a proper subgenre, the term describes thick, lo-fi, 80's-style electronic music, of which this summer and fall saw more than its share. Alan Palomo's Neon Indian project is a perfect distillation of this sound, and one of the pseudo-genre's strongest contributions. Songs such as "Deadbeat Summer" and "Should've Taken Acid With You" hide their outsider longing under upbeat synths and pounding beats which feel borrowed from warped VHS and cassette tapes, creating a pulsing blanket of childhood comfort that I'm eager to wrap myself up in again and again.

5. Mos Def- The Ecstatic

While certainly not hip-hop's most prolific year in recent history, 2009 was the staging area for multiple return-to-form albums from excellent rappers who either disappeared for an inordinate amount of time (see this list's #1 slot) or took an inordinate amount of time to release an album consistent with their former glory (see this entry, entry #8). Mos Def is, to most fans, quickly classifiable in the latter category; while sophomore effort The New Danger holds its own merit on repeat listens, its experimental song structures and chuggy rap-rock beats made it a challenging follow-up to 1998's classic Black on Both Sides. In the years following that record, Mos followed up with the lackluster, abortive True Magic and the equally flat Mos Definite mixtape, making it hard not to be wary of subsequent efforts from the once ridiculously on-point rapper. That's why this record comes as such a revelation; diverse, evocative beats from Madlib, Oh No, Preservation and others, combined with Mos' signature rapping and singing styles, as well as carefully selected guesting by Slick Rick, Black Star partner Talib Kweli, and Stones Throw-signed singer Georgia Anne Muldrow, make for not only Mos' best effort since his solo debut, but one of the freshest hip-hop records in what seems like much too long.

4. Jordaan Mason & the Horse Museum- Divorce Lawyers I Shaved My Head

A word of warning: If you dismiss this record as just some sloppy Neutral Milk Hotel ripoff, you'll inadvertently be bypassing one of the strangest, most inspired and engaging folk records you're likely to have heard all year. Mason and Co. blend NMH's signature horn-accented, confessional folk with the disturbed family tales and vocal stylings of Parenthetical Girls into a unique, unsettling and unforgettable batch of experimental folk songs. Divorce Lawyers is a sprawling narrative record about hermaphrodites, sex, marital problems, horses, shotguns, alternate-reality wars, and, who would've guessed, the Apocalypse. The lyrics and delivery are what really make this album: Mason's not afraid to open the album with the words "My mouth was filled with his ovaries". He's also not skittish to begin another song with the sung proclamation "You fuck like a racehorse", or make the suggestion "You can swallow shotguns if you want to" (from the same song) into a catchy sing-along. Mason's lyrics can be just as sadly beautiful as they are bald or grotesque, such as, "We borrowed their old clothes, and then we undressed / We stole a trampoline and made it our mattress",

and the oddly triumphant lines that lend the album its title:

"Divorce lawyers, I shaved my head / She shaved her head / We are new".

This record leaves plenty of questions unanswered, but if you perservere past all the confused timelines and genders, you're guaranteed to discover one of 2009's true hidden gems.

3. Memory Tapes- Seek Magic

From Memory Cassette/Weird Tapes (get the name now?) recluse Dayve Hawk comes this fantastic dreampop/shoegaze/electronic hybrid of an LP. This is the kind of record that just sucks you into its world; I feel a passenger on the drunken bike ride at the heart of "Bicycle", a witness to the relationship drama of "Stop Talking", lost in whatever the hell is happening in the gorgeous Galaxie-500-esque "Plain Material". The songs employ diverse instrumentation and hazy production that practically build their own worlds in the spaces between your ears. Whatever words you want to heap on it, this record creates the perfect lullaby for a generation of lonely, post-modern college kids. Things may not ever be okay, but at least we've got records like this to hide that fact from us.

2. The Antlers- Hospice

Emotionally, this year, it seems as if there wasn't too much middle ground in indie rock. Either a record was full of escapist bliss or honest, crushing sadness, depending on the artist's coping mechanisms. This record, with its semi-autobiographical lyrics (detailing a failing relationship with a dying cancer patient) and whispy, orchestral musicianship, clearly took the latter route. Yet there's something freeing in the sadness of this album that has compelled me to revisit it time and again.

1. DOOM- Born Like This

MF DOOM is a villain. How else to explain interrupting a bumping hip-hop intro with a silly, cartoonish supervillain skit, or the track "Batty Boyz", where he accuses practically every male superhero in the DC Comics lineup of homosexuality? How about shortening his name to DOOM, for no reason other than he felt like it? Villainous, no question about it; but he's also probably the best thing to happen to hip-hop since the 808. After 4 years of near-silence, one of the beginning of the decade's most prolific (and consistent) rappers returns with an edgy, raw, short (40:28) and inspired collection of tracks that, in true villain style, has divided as many fans as it's gained. Some have dismissed the album's quirks as weaknesses (some of the best songs clock in under two minutes, and some of his best beats feature guest performers rather than himself), but if you keep listening, these oddities end up instead feeling like demented strengths. Also, the aforementioned guests don't hurt either; two of Wu-Tang's finest, long-time partners Ghostface Killah and Raekwon, each leave their mark on "Angelz" and "Yessir!", respectively, while elsewhere Atmosphere's Slug and a relatively unknown female MC named Empress Sharhh, both drop solid rhymes which make coming back to the album easy due to constant new discoveries. DOOM's even crazy enough to sample poet Charles Bukowski on album centerpiece "Cellz", a move which makes clear this is a lot more than just some jokey hip-hop goof-off. The album's darkness is what sets it apart from some of Daniel Dumile's (DOOM's birth name, for those not in the know) other releases; the endlessly tight and constantly referential lyricism has more to say than your average Top 40 rapper could even imagine. Mos Def has even gone far enough to say in an interview "I'd put a million dollars on DOOM against Lil' Wayne", a bet I'd make in a heartbeat, as well. Now that he's back, the self-proclaimed "best MC with no chain you ever heard" shows no signs of stopping, with a Ghostface collab album and a sequel to 2003's amazing Madlib-produced Madvillainy both possible to be released in 2010. I don't know about you, but I'm damn glad the villain's still going to be doing his thing for a long, long time.

Most Anticipated Albums of 2010:

1. Gridlink- Orphan

2. Xiu Xiu- Dear God, I Hate Myself

3. of Montreal- False Priest

4. Los Campesinos!- Romance is Boring

5. Ghostface Killah, Method Man & Raekwon- The Wu-Massacre

Best Songs/Singles of 2009 [No Order]

1.Memory Tapes- "Bicycle"

2. Rainbow Bridge- "Big Wave Rider"

3. Mos Def- "Quiet Dog"

4. The Flaming Lips- "Watching the Planets"

5. Wilco- "Bull Black Nova"

6. Animal Collective- "What Would I Want? Sky"

7. Neon Indian- "Deadbeat Summer"

8. Ghostface Killah- "Stapleton Sex"

9. DOOM- "Gazillion Ear"

10. Dirty Projectors- "Cannibal Resource"

11. Black Moth Super Rainbow- "Iron Lemonade"

12. Atlas Sound ft. Noah Lennox- "Walkabout"

13. Dan Deacon- "Snookered"

14. HEALTH- "Die Slow"

15. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart- "Young Adult Friction"

Top 5 Pop Singles of 2009

1. Lady Gaga- "Bad Romance"

2. Miley Cyrus- "Party in the USA"

3. Jay-Z- "Empire State of Mind"

4. Rihanna- "Russian Roulette"

5. La Roux- "Bulletproof"

Top 30 Hip-Hop Albums... Ever

First off, I fucking love listing things. This is kinda a repost of a Facebook note I made, but I realized I'd left out five truly excellent albums, so I had to expand it to 30. I love all genres of music, from indie rock to grindcore, so hip-hop's certainly not going to be the only thing I'll cover on here. No matter what genres you listen to, though, hope you enjoy it.

My Top 30 Hip-Hop Albums, Chronologically

1. Ultramagnetic MCs- Critical Beatdown (1988)
2. Beastie Boys- Paul's Boutique (1989)
3. KMD- Mr. Hood (1991)
4. A Tribe Called Quest- Midnight Marauders (1993)
5. Snoop Dogg- Doggystyle (1993)
6. Wu-Tang Clan- Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993)
7. Nas- Illmatic (1994)
8. Notorious B.I.G.- Ready to Die (1994)
9. Big L- Lifestylez ov Da Poor & Dangerous (1995)
10. GZA/Genius- Liquid Swords (1995)
11. Raekwon- Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... (1995)
12. De la Soul- Stakes is High (1996)
13. Dr. Octagon- Dr. Octagonecologyst (1996)
14. Company Flow- Funcrusher Plus (1997)
15. Black Star- Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star (1998)
16. DJ QBert- Wave Twisters, Episode 7 Million: Sonic Wars Within the Protons (1998)
17. Lauryn Hill- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)
18. Outkast- Aquemini (1998)
19. Mos Def- Black on Both Sides (1999)
20. Deltron 3030- Deltron 3030 (2000)
21. Quasimoto- The Unseen (2000)
22. Cannibal Ox- The Cold Vein (2001)
23. Antipop Consortium- Arrhythmia (2002)
24. Viktor Vaughn- Vaudeville Villain (2003)
25. Madvillain- Madvillainy (2004)
26. MF DOOM- MM..Food?? (2004)
27. Clipse- Hell Hath No Fury (2006)
28. Ghostface Killah- Fishscale (2006)
29. J-Dilla- Donuts (2006)
30. Dälek- Abandoned Language (2007)