#10: “Storytime” — Nightwish — While the record wasn’t exactly the greatest thing I’d ever heard, “Storytime” totally got me really fucking stoked to hear the album. This song is just everything Nightwish is and should be sort of boiled down to a fine paste. And man, they did such a good job of it. This track is like the unholy union of ABBA and Nightwish, thereby creating an Angry Metal Kryptonite that I fall victim for every time I hear it. It’s like I don’t want to listen, but then suddenly I’m knocked onto the floor singing “I am the voice of Neverneverland!” Due to these sort of obsessive compulsions, I cannot deny that this track belongs on this list. But know that it’s grudging.

#9: “The Violation” — Fleshgod Apocalypse — Alright, so I wasn’t blown away by this album as everyone is aware. But man did I love this song. I don’t have a ton to say about it beyond “wow, listen to those orchestrations!” So, wow! Listen to those orchestrations! While the drums kind of piss on the production a lot, the chorus was definitely cool and the song writing was smart, concise and enjoyable. This is just a kick ass song that definitely ranks among the best and most memorable of the year. By the way, it would have been just as (or more) awesome if all that melody had been played on the guitars instead of keyboards. Just a thought.

#8: “FFF” — Shining — I cannot explain why this song really stuck with me more than the others on this album (or this year), but it just did. I think partially it’s because I turned the chorus into a bit of a joke with Angry Metal Girlfriend when she wanted me to do things I didn’t want to do (“Jag säger nej [NEJ!] till diskandet!”) but this track with its creepy 70s sounding keyboards and its creeping pace just settled in under my skin and stuck. The riffs are memorable and slick, and while the solo is maybe even a tad much, the acoustic parts and melodies are just fantastic. There’s a bit of an Opeth vibe going on here and I straight up dig it.

#7: “Frost upon Their Graves” — Crimfall — By now it should be well known that I think that Helena Haaparanta is the most talented vocalist in metal. It’s tracks like this that make me feel that way. While Crimfall‘s newest album was not as good as its previous one, this song definitely kept me coming back and back.. and back…. and back again. This was everything that I was looking for from this band—melodic, epic and well-constructed, and making you want to do a folk dance. I love, too, that it builds up to a crescendo right at the end. So powerful. Just let it sink in for you as you listen. Folk metal lives! And Crimfall is its name!

#6: “On Stirring Seas of Salted Blood” — The Black Dahlia Murder — Holy shit. The riff on this track is just crushing. I think that this was the song that kind of showed that Ritual really was a different beast than earlier albums and this is the song that I come back to when I want to show people how fucking awesome this record is. The chorus is also awesome with the bass work and Trevor growling the words “On stirring seas of salted blood…” Oh right, and the fucking solo. Seriously, this is just a stellar track. Good on these guys for switching it up and writing some amazing stuff this year.

#5: “Antebellum” — The Human Abstract — I wholly expect Digital Veil to be a one shot, now that the vocalist is already no longer in the band and the guys seem to have gotten their neo-classical bug out of their system. But it’s too bad, because this record produced some of the best material of the year. While the production is really not my style, Travis Richter nails home the vocals in a way that sort of walks the fine line between pop punk vocals and Muse and the melodic structures and melodies are awesome. Combine that with amazing guitar work and some progressive composition and this little epic piece is one of the best songs of the year.

#4: “Fight ‘em ’til You Can’t” — Anthrax — OK, rarely do I fall for the single track from an album, but man this one just rocked my socks off. I’m not even a huge fan of Anthrax or a big fan of Worship Music, but this song with its trend-hopping zombie apocalypse theme and still adorably mulleted vocalist just worked its way into my brain like some sort of… zombie song, and stuck there. Eating. My brains. … OK, that analogy sucked, but this song didn’t. Seriously, it was just everything I wanted to hear from these guys and it really worked. So congrats to the boys from Anthrax.

#3: “Klippor och skär” — Vintersorg — So, for the first time in a long, long time Vintersorg reclaimed his ability to write some of the best melodic black metal or.. whatever the fuck this is. Anyway, back in the day we all fell for Vintersorg choruses like “Astral and Arcane” and “Till fjälls” and “Klippor och skär” continues this tradition in fantastic form. While the track may be a tad busy at times (as I complained in the original review), it still inspired me to go and frolic in the forest and has been on constant rotation all year.

#2: “Ego” – Omnium Gatherum — Omnium Gatherum‘s New World Shadows came as a big surprise to both myself and to my colleague Steel Druhm. Neither of us expected the tour de force that was this Finnish melodic death record. But while he was impressed with the title track, the song that I got stuck on immediately was “Ego,” a 4 minute rocker with some of the catchiest melodic guitar I’ve heard in a long time and a fairly straight forward chunkity chunk chunk going on. I never saw the lyrics, but the chorus is like the ultimate pep song for a person on the brink of something (“SO DO IT!”). Add a sweet solo and smart segues and a Eurovision key change in and this is a recipe for success. This song could’ve been #1, but there’s just one that I like just a tiny bit better.

#1: “To the Shoreline” — Pain of Salvation — As I commented upon in the review, this song outshone the rest of the record in its geniusity. That’s right, geniusity. It’s like the unholy combination of Camel and Ennio Morricone. Then, make it about as awesome and catchy as possible and you’ve got “To the Shorline”. The biggest problem with the song is that it is short as hell, but actually that might be part of why it was so good. In any case, I’ve listened to this track about a bajillion times this year and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

Ok, so there were of course more than 10 tracks that deserved to be mentioned here. So I decided that I would mention 5 songs here. Three non-metal songs that I really enjoyed, and a couple of tracks that weren’t quite good enough for the list but that I thought deserved a special mention.

Kyarypamyupamyu — “PONPONPON” — That’s motherfucking right. This song just totally rules and if you don’t like it, well, that’s probably pretty understandable.

The Dear Hunter — “She’s Always Singing (Yellow”) — So this year, these guys put out a huge vinyl box set that they released with a number of EPs in the colors of the rainbow. This track is probably my favorite from the whole collection and has a nice 1960s surf rock vibe to it. I dug, dug, dug it. And still really dig it. The guy who writes this stuff is a seriously talented musical omnivore and I’m always impressed by the stuff he’s doing.

My Brightest Diamond — “Be Brave” — Angry Metal Girlfriend turned me onto this lady and I have to say I’m really impressed. This track is dark and progressive and fascinating. The video is weird and hard to watch, but it’s worth giving a shot if you’re a fan of that kind of stuff.

Falconer — “O tysta ensamhet” — So, this didn’t deserve to be on the list because the band didn’t write it, but man this track really rocks my world. It’s originally a traditional song and there are a ton of different arrangements of it and stuff, but I actually loooove this version of it. It totally kicks you in the junk once the guitars kick in. Great stuff.

Shining  — “I nattens timma” — This is exactly the same as the previous Falconer track. It was written by another band in the 1990s, and Shining just did a really great rendition of it. Again, in my time of darkness and horrible burnout, this is a song I was listening to quite a lot.

Related posts:

1. Angry Metal Guy’s Top 10(ish) of 2011
2. Angry Metal Guy’s Top 10(ish) of 2010
3. Angry Metal Guy’s Top 15(ish) of the 2000s

Oh man, the Internetz are abuzz with love for this record already. Apparently everyone and their dog who runs a review website got this album 3 months ago and has been subsequently shitting themselves over the awesome!!!1! that is Thomas Giles‘ Pulse. A bit of background information as to why that might be. Yeah, because this is the vocalist from Between the Buried and Me. Yup. That’s it. I want to state with all certainty that if this were an independent record put out by a dude actually named Thomas Giles who wasn’t in a band that was well-respected even though being associated with a scene that everyone hates, this record would not be listened to by metal guys or reviewed on a metal website. Because this record is not metal. It contains minor bits o’ metal, but it for the large part a progressive-indie-electronica record. So be forewarned.

That said, if this music was released by some dude actually named Thomas Giles who really was just an indie dude making music in his basement, it would still be excellent and it would be pretty unique. In a sense, this is 2011′s response to progressive/symphonic rock and it succeeds tremendously. The music is smart and pop-sensible with amazing and simplistic melodies that catch the listener and stick to him or her like puddy. The writing is concise and each song has its own personality, ranging between piano bits and acoustic indie folk laced with vocal melodies that remind me of The Dear Hunter and Cynic at times (on “Mr. Bird,” for example) and hardcore industrial beats with tortured screams and little-to-no melody at all like “Catch and Release” which screams of Trent Reznor’s angriest moments. And, of course, any number of variations in between bordering on VNV Nation and System of a Down and at times Three or Coheed and Cambria while still maintaining progressive integrity.

So while Pulse in essence maintains what makes Between the Buried and Me the only band with a sentence name that I respect, that is the ability to take a number of styles and turn them into cool songs, Thomas Giles actually is better because it feels more cohesive. Instead of having that kind of copy-and-paste feel that BtBaM has, Thomas Giles has a distinctive and beautiful voice with melancholic melody being sort of the tie that binds. And, of course, this has a hell of a lot to do with vocalist Tommy Rogers.

Pulse is definitely a showcase of the fact that Tommy Rogers is a musical force to be reckoned with on his own away from BtBaM. He shines throughout the album for all the obvious reasons—since it’s self-produced and he wrote and played all the instruments. But the less obvious is that a vocalist of any other kind of caliber would not have been able to hold this album together. Because the voice, as I said, is the thing that holds all of these tracks together. Being the staple which keeps all of these divergent styles in place isn’t easy because it means having to be able to be both dynamic and stable over time. A lot of this is taken care of in the production—obviously filters and reverb and the like are necessary for this kind of project—but I do believe that this is simply about Tommy Rogers being a damn good vocalist with a superb feel for the music and sense of melody.

So for those of you who are open-minded enough to be able to handle this kind of weird electronica-indie record from the vocalist of a band that you might not even like, this is worth checking out. I’ll go out of my way to say that this is actually probably one of the better progressive records that I’ve heard in a while. And while it’s not perfect—certainly the heavier material is actually a bit of a weakness here (the riff from the track “Medic” is really boring and the melody there could have been better)—the record is full of fantastic ideas, intelligent arrangements and beautiful melodies that will keep you coming back again and again.

Related posts:

1. Ben Levin Group – Pulse of a Nation Review
2. Triptykon – Eparistera Daimones Review
3. Three – Revisions Review

Progressive rock and metal have been looking for a new band to update the genre with something new and original for a long time.  While the progressive metal sub-genre has expanded outward, it seems like progressive rock has been left to whiny emo kids and their pretentious and totally incomprehensible space odysseys.  Though in recent times bands like The Dear Hunter have started to appear, they tend to be far more eclectic, and rock oriented than I think many fans of progressive guitar rock are really looking for.  So when Three burst onto the scene a few years back and was, really, the first band to do something new and interesting with progressive rock since the mid-90s, they began getting some well-deserved attention.

My first contact with this band was 2007′s opus The End is Begun, which I was summarily blown away by.  The record was a re-envisioning of progressive rock like the scene hadn’t seen in a very long time.  The writing was tight, catchy and it popped with energy.  The unique use of backing acoustics and the tremendously crisp and beautiful voice of the band’s leading man Joey Eppard excited me like few other bands have.  So I was, of course, very excited to get my hands on the new album.

This initial excitement gave way to a bit of disappointment when I read the band’s promo bit, which was describing Revisions as a chance to re-work old material and re-record it and not really new material at all.  The record itself was also supposed to be far more leaning towards the singer/songwriter side of the band and not really the more progressive side—I admit, I was worried.

Of course, I shouldn’t have doubted.  Three has been an excellent band longer than I have been a fan of them, obviously (having formed in 1993) and this album is filled with great tracks.  However, the sales pitch of “singer/songwriter” is definitely not misleading in any way, shape or form.  This record is filled with tight, pop-laden tracks with soaring vocals, beautiful melodies and a tenderness that permeates every crevice of the recordings.  The technical aspects definitely take a back seat to much more linear songs with big choruses and even Eppard’s slap-blend guitar playing is much less common, which makes some of these songs feel like they’re lacking an important technical aspect.

That said, this is a band that is tight as hell and really solid song-writers, so it should make sense that their B Sides record (or, well, castaways record) is filled with excellent tracks despite being songs that never really got attention the first time around. While there are tracks on here that I don’t like at all (or am not terribly fond of) such as “Anyone Human” and “Halloween,” tracks like “The Emerald Undertow” and “Lexicon of Extremism” (which is easily the most technical song on the album)  and “Automobile” (the most straight-forward poppy track, in my opinion) still make it great to listen to.

I don’t normally talk about production unless I think it’s bad for some reason, because frankly good production is pretty much a standard when you’re dealing with major bands on labels like Metal Blade or Nuclear Blast.  But this record is especially well-produced and worth listening to for its amazing balance, well-used tricks and cleanness.  It still sounds very full even though it’s so clean and it’s really fun to listen to because of that.

If you’re a fan of the band or a fan of bands like The Dear Hunter or Coheed and Cambria you’ll probably love this record (and their other stuff, too).  And if you’re a fan of Porcupine Tree, Opeth, old Pink Floyd or even progressive rock bands like Dream Theater, you’ll probably enjoy these guys.  Should you start with Revisions?  Probably not, I’d tell you to go back and check out their previous record, but this one is pretty good, too.

Related posts:

1. 3 – The Ghost You Gave to Me Review
2. Things You May Have Missed: Kalisia – Cybion
3. Riverside – Anno Domini High Definition Review

Weekly suggestion: Guilt Machine – On This Perfect Day — Yeah, this record was seriously solid and I strongly suggest you pick it up.

The Black Dahlia Murder – Deflorate — Oh, this is good.  I wasn’t super impressed with Nocturnal, so I’m pleased.  Watch for a review coming soon.
Gwyllion – The Edge of All I Know — Definitely heard better, but a pretty alright record.  Good vocals.
Insomnium - Across the Dark — Watch for this review.  Out on the 7th of September in Europe.
Isis – Wavering Radiant — These guys are ridiculously overrated.
Havok – Burn — See the review.  Great fucking riffs.
Amorphis – Skyforger — Best album of 2009?  So far.
Anaal Nathrakh – The Constellation of the Black Widow — \m/
Propagandhi – Supporting Caste — It ain’t the glory days, but these guys are still the smartest political band around.
Marduk – Rom 5:12 — I’m getting psyched for the new record, are you?
Falkenbach – Ok Nefna Tysvar Ty — Excellent viking/folk metal record.. addictive melodies.
The Dear Hunter – Act III: Life and Death — Excellent.
Amon Amarth – Live in Bochum 30/12/08 — Seriously, worth buying the reissue for this live record.

Related posts:

1. Angry Metal Guy’s Playlist
2. Angry Metal Guy’s Playlist 6/28 – 7/04
3. Angry Metal Guy’s Playlist: 8/2/2009 – 8/8/2009