CHASE MACABRE'S BEST OF 2010

10~

Alcest
Escailles De Lune [Purchase]
(Prophecy Productions)

I get lost in this record. My awareness of my surroundings and my immediate concerns just wash away in a sea of distorted guitars and synth pads that seems to ride on clouds. The French band sings in their native language, which allows non-French speakers to project their own meaning into the airy, melodically clean vocals, but I think the feeling the record provokes is beyond language. It is transcendence itself.

Crucial Cut: "Ecailles de Lune Part 1" [Stream]


9~

Daughters
Daughters [Amazon]
(Hydra Head)

Too bad this is supposedly the band's last record! Having ditched power-violence for Hell Song's with a sound closer to the Jesus Lizard, Daughters crafted their best release yet. Daughters is like Hugh Hefner donning a silk robe of sexualized hardcore. Less chest-pounding machismo and more hip-bumping beats. I just wish this was the beginning of a long-term relationship and not a one night stand.

Crucial cut: "The First Supper" [MP3]


8~

Comeback Kid
Symptoms + Cures [Purchase]
(Victory Records)

I loved both Wake the Dead and Broadcasting… and felt that Comeback Kid's strength was in their hooks. Their songs were always catchy, they stick in your head and you can easily differentiate from one to the next. The same is true of Symptoms + Cures, and then some. The songs! The hooks too! The fantastic melody in the vocals even as they're being screamed! Are Comeback Kid a pop band or a hardcore band? Who cares!

Crucial cut: "G.M. Vincent & I"


7~

Ludicra
The Tenant [Purchase]
(Profound Lore)

A subversion of the traditional black metal landscape (the wilderness, the woods, the forests, etc.): the city! Pot holes, skyscrapers, rundown industrial buildings, urban blight, constant advertising; immiseration and beauty everywhere. The mundane as the spiritual. The studio apartment as the gates of hell and the temple of God.

Crucial cut: "A Clean, White Void" [MP3]


6~

Nails
Unsilent Death [Purchase]
(Southern Lord)

Unsilent Death is five rounds grinding it out with the heavyweight champ, except the fight is in an alleyway with no breaks, breathers or bullshit bells. Thirteen minutes of non-stop bludgeoning before going down for the count. There is nowhere to run. You'll be covered in blood either way. The question is whether it's on your fists or your face.

Crucial cut: "Suffering Soul" [MP3]


5~

Agalloch
Marrow Of The Spirit [Purchase]
(Profound Lore)

The release of this record was perfectly timed. It's the soundtrack to the changing landscape: fall to winter. It's organic, raw and "wooden"-sounding black metal as Godspeed-esque post rock with acoustic guitars and samples of the wilderness rather than raving lunatics. The record is also an example of USBM spirit: taking old forms without regard for their heritage (or even in deference to them) and reinventing them for entirely new purposes.

Crucial cut: "The Watcher's Monolith" [MP3]


4~

Kylesa
Spiral Shadow [Purchase]
(Season Of Mist)

Kylesa's Spiral Shadow is a Shepard's Pie of all their influences and the result is as tasty as it is varied with it's blend of sludge, '90s indie rock and pop charm. "Don't Look Back" is the best pop/metal song I've heard since "Blood and Thunder" and I can see it, "Forsaken," and the title track surviving on road trip mixes of mine for years to come.

Crucial cut: "Don't Look Back"


3~

Deftones
Diamond Eyes [Purchase]
(Reprise)

The Deftones have been my favorite band since I was 13. So call me a homer, but Diamond Eyes is their best since 2000's landmark White Pony. Recorded after shelving Eros in light of the car accident that put bassist Chi Cheng in a coma (Get well Chi!), the tragedy obviously informed the band's most emotionally present record in 10 years. Chino's melodies soar over Steph Carpenter's patented alternating depths-of-the-earth heaviness and destructive yet melodically beautiful guitar riffs. Sergio Vega fits right in the pocket as the band's hopefully-temporary bassist with drummer Abe Cunningham. Each time I listen to this record, I ask, 'How are the Deftones still this good after more than 15 years as a band?'

Crucial cut: "You've Seen The Butcher" [Video]


2~

Rotting Christ
AEALO [Purchase]
(Season Of Mist)

Rotting Christ are as rhythmically precise as the marching of a brigade of West Point graduates. The band brings the war hammer of an undead Roman Legion on AEALO, while integrating the sounds of their native Greece mostly in the vocals. While being powerful and exact, the record is also terrifying with the addition of the female and male chanting that ritualizes the band's preparation for battle. This is war music!

Crucial cut: "Eon Aenaos"


1~

Kvelertak
Kvelertak [Purchase]
(Indie Recordings)

The most surprising record of 2010. Kvelertak's self-titled debut has everything: massively huge production by knobs-master Kurt Ballou; giant, utterly catchy riffs; and, most important, memorable and mature songs that I kept coming back to again and again. Never once in the 20 plus times I've spun the record this year have any of the 11 tracks felt any less fresh or exciting as they did the first few. Kvelertak's beer swilling anthems go down just smooth with hefeweisen as they do eggnog. I can listen to this record ANY time. It's that staying power and consistent excitement that puts Kvelertak at the top of my list.

Crucial cut: "Mjod" [Video]

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Top 5 that barely missed the cut:

15. haarp The Filth
14. Harvey Milk A Small Turn of Human Kindness
13. Early Graves Goner
12. Deathspell Omega Paracletus
11. Castevet Mounds of Ash

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Top 5 EPs of the 2010:

5. United Nations Never Mind the Bombings, Here's Your Six Figures
2. Magrundergrind Crusher
3. Throats Throats
2. Trap Them Filth Rations
1. Fuck the Facts Unnamed

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Top 6 most surprising things about the 2010 NFL season:

6. Roger Goodell and the NFL's hot air about being concerned about player safety by suspending and fining players for dangerous hits while simultaneously pushing for an 18 game regular season
5. Michael Vick exiting the dog pound and becoming a franchise superstar quarterback
4. It looks like there will be at least one, and maybe two, .500 or below teams winning their divisions (AFC and NFC Worst/West)
3. The quarterback killing New York Giants defense knocking out 7 QBs: Matt Moore (Carolina), Jay Cutler and Todd Collins (Chicago), Matthew Stafford and Shaun Hill (Detroit), Tony Romo (Dallas) and Tavaris Jackson (Minnesota).
2. Despite all the research that suggests the opposite, firing your coach mid-season seems to give your franchise a boost (Dallas and Minnesota, but not Denver. Sorry Broncos fans!)
1. It took 14 weeks to figure out who the dominant team in the NFL is (The New England Patriots) and that fact still isn't set in stone.

2010 Super Bowl picks:

Idealist: Philadelphia Eagles over the Pittsburgh Steelers (Scumbag Bowl!)
Realist: New England Patriots over the Chicago Bears

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Top 5 records I listened to the most in 2010 that were released before 2010:

5. Burnt By The Sun Heart of Darkness
4. At the Gates Slaughter of the Soul
3. Gojira From Mars to Sirius
2. Keelhaul Keelhaul's Triumphant Return To Obscurity
1. Breach Kollapse

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Records I also enjoyed:
Salome Terminal, Shining Blackjazz, Cephalic Carnage Misled by Certainty, Sailors With Wax Wings Sailors With Wax Wings, Howl Full of Hell, Ion Dissonance Cursed, Get Rad I Can Always Live, Defeatist Sixth Extinction, Norma Jean Meridional, Coffinworm When All Became None, Slices Cruising, The Secret Solve et Coagula, Dishammer Under the D-Beat Mark, Drudkh Handful of Stars , Yakuza Of Seismic Consequence, Ihsahn After, Intronaut Valley of Smoke, Julie Christmas The Bad Wife, Thou Summit, Twilight Monument to Time End, Negura Bunget Vîrstele Pamîntului