Records o’ the Month – January 2014

If it’s late February, it must be time for the Records o’ the Month for January! Yep, new year, same dawdling around with the Records o’ the Month. You see, when you listen to music as hard as we do at AMG, sometimes it takes a while to recover and reflect on all the things we heard. Other times we’re just busy, but mostly we suffer from the fourth deadly sin (look it up or go watch Seven). Since January wasn’t exactly a barn burner of a month, we’ll keep this short and sweet.

Blackfinger_Blackfinger

Blackfinger // Blackfinger – With several diehard Trouble fans on staff and the last Trouble album being such a non-event, the solo project by their former singer Eric Wagner was received with open arms and desperate expectations. Luckily for workplace tranquility, the man delivered a winning combination of classic Trouble, The Beatles and morose psychedelia. It’s also a surprisingly personal, intimate album and Mr. Fisting summed it up thusly: “Even though I’ve been listening to Eric Wagner’s music for two decades, I feel like we barely knew the guy until now.” January’s Record o’ the Month is an interesting piece of music and a must hear for expat Trouble fans looking for a new home.

Runners Up:

Lvcifyre_Svn EaterLvcifrye // Svn Eater – Despite the excessive swapping of Vs for Us, this group of limey blackened death dogs really brought the noise and earned big respect from Steel Druhm as their bastardized crossbreeding of Behemoth, Morbid Angel and Deathspell Omega kicked his ass all over the playground and took his lunch money. Heavy, nasty and raw, Mr. Druhm concluded “Svn Eater is a refreshingly brutal and horrific dose of blackened death and while some bands merely bathe in the sun, these guys eat it, which is WAY more metal!

GD30OB2-N.cdrCulted // Oblique to All Paths – Taking a stroll down paths trod by Godflesh, Neurosis and Swans, Oblique to All Paths really grabbed our man Grymm with its cold, uncomfortable vibe and heavy drone and inspired him to write “it’s way too early to tell at this point, but even if it doesn’t make my year-end list, they sure as shit got my attention and will be keeping an eye of them in the future.”

Indian_From All PurityIndian // From All Purity – No January release caused as much dissension among the AMG staff as this one, with Kronos praising it as the best thing since free beer and carelessly throwing around terms like “Album of the Year” (in January); and Mr. Fisting calling it “Pabstcore” and demanding a score recount for the sake of all Mankind based in Chicago. While opinions differ wildly, this got the highest raw score for the month, so here it is in all its feedback-drenched, doomy, faux-black metal glory.

Editor’s Note: AMG hates this list and all involved in the creation thereof, especially Indian.

« »