Sunday, December 31, 2006

Albums of 2006

This was originally written and posted on my Myspace blog (the Special Olympics of blogging). I've decided to include it here for posterity's sake.

DEICIDE - The Stench of Redemption

The best death metal comeback in The Year Of The Death Metal Comeback...after ditching half their classic line-up, Deicide V 2.666 unleash a hurricane of technical brutality, epic grandiosity, and succinct songwriting. Oh, and Satan, of course.

NAPALM DEATH - Smear Campaign

Having spent over two decades of campaigning for musical destruction with no sign of slowing down, this is another chapter in the story of a band who've never released a bad album, ever. 
 

VADER - Impressions in Blood

A little tweaking here, a little bolt tightening there, and the death-thrash war machine is ready to go back out and destroy some more cities. Irony is defined as four guys from Poland creating the perfect soundtrack to blitzkrieg.
 

SUFFOCATION - Suffocation

Simply put, with this album, New York's kings of sickness reclaim their throne.
 

LAMB OF GOD - Sacrament

By expanding on their simplistic one-chord mosh approach Lamb of God prove that mainstream metal doesn't have to be dumb or drowned with syrupy choruses. Today's teenage metalheads now have a Pantera to call their own. 
 

MASTODON - Blood Mountain

C'mon, it's not their fault that they're being championed by hipster music journos like Pitchfork and the Village Voice. Besides, how many bands can write songs as technical and asymetrical as Mastodon and still be so headbangingly catchy?
 

SLAYER - Christ Illusion

Wait, weren't Slayer a bunch of old dudes content to hash out bad Hatebreed and Machine Head knock-offs? Who's giving grandpa the PCP and rabies? It took 12 years and the curtailing of their civil rights by religious fanatics, but Slayer finally released an album that sounds like Slayer. Hail Satan, indeed!
 

SICK OF IT ALL - Death To Tyrants

A bare-knuckle return to their roots in the most jaw-breaking way, Death to Tyrants isn't just classic New York Hardcore, it should be remembered as the last NYHC classic.

TOOL - 10,000 Days

Probably the heaviest songs they've ever done mixed with their most atmospheric. Their singer even lives up to the band's name by throwing around and choking awestruck fans.


CELTIC FROST - Monotheist

There's no way a comeback album by a proto-black metal band who went prog, then glam and then broke up could be this good. As religious minded as ever, except this time Tom Warrior has ditched Satan to worship God...flesh. Three words: Cold, sullen, oppressive. Sorry, three more: this fucking rules.