Best Music of 2018

Fuck. I've been sick for a week so this is gonna suck even more than usual. I barely even reached out for lists. I didn't even write any reviews for months. I wouldn't blame you for not reading this blog anymore.

But I got into a new lab this year and now I'm studying bone fractures and burn recovery so that's good and at least gives me a good excuse for not doing more.

Also my band Great Unclean Ones w/ dudes from Brother Ares and Vile Desecration recorded our first demo that's still being mixed so that was good.

Anyway enough moping and dead promises (more writeups next year I swear), here's some lists, somehow presented even more lazily than years past.

Destructicide, Mortius, Vile Desecration, Steel Bearing Hand (TX) at Springwater 3/11

Destructicide, a new trio from here in Nashville, played a fist pumping energetic blend of death and thrash metal on Sunday night. The solid riffage made a firm foundation for the absolutely sick death growls and hefty but breakneck blastbeats. The sound was tight and impressive, but the guitars were drowned out a good deal of the time, and I can't help but wonder if there wasn't a bassist and/or another guitarist (hell add another 2 and go full Kvelertak) to help fill out the sound. I like what they've got I just want MORE.

I've been meaning to see Mortius for quite some time, and I think I can say they totally meet and blow away all the hype. Between Inferi, Abyss Walker, Abated Mass of Flesh, Chasm of Teeth, and some I know I'm forgetting, it's exciting to see Nashville having its own brood of death metal acts. Out of all these bands, Mortius seems to be the most committed to the traditional style, though they still manage to make me think of a prog-less Necrophagist. They keep things extra fresh by adding in touches of death/doom and even a pinch of funeral doom. Like Destructicide, if you were to give them the "but are the riffs sick?" litmus test, you'd get an "absolutely" response.

Vile Desecration played pure tireless black metal, complete with blastbeats and nonstop shredding. The sound is almost anachronistic, like a 90s black metal band trying to take cues from Bathory and Venom, while still sounding modern, not unlike Destroyer 666. Vile Desecration manages to sound fresh and ferocious while sounding recognizably black metal without sounding outdated.

Steel Bearing Hand from Dallas, TX brought the thunder. These guys play thrash metal, but it's a thrash metal that's girded in death metal and wields black metal like a battleaxe. Steel Bearing Hand are like an Incantation that makes you bust out your best DRI skank moves. If Annihilator decided they wanted to be more like Bolt Thrower, it might sound a bit like this band.

It was great to be back out and at a show again, apologies to everyone whose band I've missed so far this year, I'm still working on making it out more. 

tl;dr Best of 2017

tl;dr best of 2017

Chappy Hull - Gnarwhal

Top 11 albums by bands that start with “P” in 2017

Palberta - Bye Bye Berta

Power trip - Nightmare Logic

Pissed jeans - Why Love Now?

Pile - A Hairshirt of Purpose

Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent

Palm - Shadow Expert

Palehound - A Place I’ll Always Go

Pallas - Pallas 12”

Primitive man - Caustic

Priests - Nothing Feels Natural

PC Worship - Buried Wish

John Judkins - Laser Flames on the Great Big News, Rwake, Protomen

Mastodon: Emperor of Sand

Loss: Horizonless

Elder: Reflections of a Floating World

Pallbearer: Heartless

Spirit Adrift: Curse of Conception

Julien Baker: Turn Out the Lights

Thundercat: Drunk

Amenra: VI

Mutoid Man: War Moans

Zeal & Ardor: The Devil is Fine

Jay Som: Everybody Works

Run the Jewels: 3

Land of Talk: Life After Youth

Chelsea Wolfe: Hiss Spun

BADBADNOTGOOD: Late Night Tales

Double Ferrari: s/t

Cinemechanica: The Martial Arts

Auric: First and Last