Albums Of The Year 2014: Pete's choices

I started off with the intention of simply doing a Top Ten, but when I sat down and looked at what came out over the past 12 months, the list soon grew and grew. There are so many great new bands coming out all the time that it's hard to keep up, but we at Heavy Planet are striving to make sure the best of the new underground crop are brought to your ears. Also what's great about this list is that it's truly international with bands from Mexico, Germany, USA, Wales, Greece, and French-Canadian all rocking to the same beat, whether it's Sludge, Stoner, or Doom, it's a sound that unites us all. 

Anyway, here's my favourites from this year, plus look out at the end for my favourite artwork of the year.

20. Grifter - The Return Of The Bearded Brethren 

The ever brilliant Grifter returned with their grooviest most solid record to date. There weren't many better records which made me dance my ass off this year!

19. Black Khox - AKAB

Tremendously aggressive assault to the senses from Quebec City's latest aggressors started the year off on a high note and has stayed in my senses ever since.

18. Sigiriya - Darkness Died Today

 Superb husky vocals coarsing through thick heavy riffs was exactly what we needed to hear, and Sigiriya delivered with ease. Only great things to come from these guys.

17. Planet Of Zeus - Vigilante

Opening track 'The Great Dandolos' has made its way into every playlist i've created throughout the year; just simple, great, thick, rock. Nice!

16. Mothership - Mothership II

It may have only been released at the very tail end of the year, but with these riffs and songs about suprise transexuals, there was no way it wasn't going to make it onto this list. It'll probably kick in just how good this album is once 2015 is fully under way.

15. Horsehunter - Caged In Flesh

There isn't a great deal of Doom on this list, but the debut record from these Australians is too stunning to disregard. Search for a dark place in your soul to bury it.

14. MuckRaker - Karmageddon

 Politically charged Helmet-inspired riffs have had me thumping my way around my work and home-life for the second half of the year with great pleasure. RISE UP ALL YOU LOGGERHEADS!

13. Monolord - Empress Rising

Long relentless driving riffs; what more can you ask for?

12. Leather Lung - Reap What You Sow

Thrown my way courtesy of Seth's Sunday Sludge, these Bostonians tick all of the right boxes, so long as those boxes are marked dirty, angry, and full of weed.

11. Gurt - Horrendosaurus

Gurt have the knack of making you feel extremely violated with their demonic vocals and down right dirty guitars. Horrendosaurus was a record i needed to play with the curtains closed.

10. Sumer - The Animal You Are

This record stands out on my list as it's essentially post-rock (just a bit heavier), a genre which no other record this year in the genre has stood out from. Sumer are the new leading light in the British scene, and The Animal You Are is a spellbinding listen.

9. Face On Mars - Face On Mars

Another recent release which has had such an impact on me, knocking many other stoner psych rock records out of the park, and with just being their debut, it makes their effort all the more praise-worthy.

8. The Picturebooks - Imaginary Horse

This visceral blues record from the German duo is a soul clenching record which focuses heavily on vocals and stripped-down laid back sounds that becomes a mesmerising listen. It encompasses your body with every listen. Essential is an accurate description.

7. Cardiel - Local Solo

When this South American duo's debut full-length kicked its way into my ear drums, it was impossible to shift, blending ferocious elements of punk, stoner, psycho-dub, it became an eternal ear-bleeder which brought you back for more and more and more.

6. Rhin - Bastard

Full of sledgehammer riffs and venemous vocals, Rhin's Bastard is a record so full of potential and experimentation that it's suprising it can be contained. Echoing the early excitement of a young Melvins, Rhin are sure to be covering patches on everyone's leather/denim jackets the rebel world over. Awesome record!

5. Bar De Monjas - In Fuzz We Trust

The best Fuzz record to come out this year, by far. Packed full of frenetic head-banging party riffs, Bar De Monjas saw their potential flowing through their demo and grabbed it with both hands (well four of them, they are a duo afterall). Often showing as many pop elements as rock, In Fuzz We Trust was the party record of the year.

4. Mother Corona - Reburn

The Oxforshire bands' second record has been a huge grower on me, having initially made a solid impact with their heavy 70's stoner riffs, repeated listens have revealed greater levels to their musicianship with great songwriting and layered instrumentation that makes Reburn the complete stoner rock album this year.

3. Whalerider - Thanatos

Thanatos is a record dipping its toe into stoner and grunge circles, while carrying psychedelic tendencies, and basically it's brilliant. A proper album that you need to fully divuge yourself into. The German group's debut full-length has raised the bar for every band, for them to basically put up or shut up: Thanatos is that good!

2. Hark - Crystalline

Always to be linked back to the missed genius of underappreciated Welsh rockers Taint thanks to frontman Jimbob Isaac, Hark arrived at the beginning of the year like a breath of fresh air to the rock scene, full of intelligent riffs, mind-bending time changes, and songs that can beat you to a pulp. Their sound is youthful, interesting, and hypnotizing. Crystalline is a game changer.

1. Rodha - Welter Through The Ashes

Again back to Seth's Sunday Sludge for putting Rodha on my radar when they released their demo Raw back in 2012, so i've been waiting for this record for two years, and it is everything I had hoped for: aggression, emotion, driving-rhythms, destructive riffs, heartfelt vocals, raw power. It's not just the sludge record of the year, it's my complete album of the year as it encapsulates everything I love, not just about Heavy Planet, but everything I love about music. Own this record!

Top 5 Album Artwork of The Year
Here's a short appreciation of some of my favourite artwork this year.

5. Okkultokrati - Night Jerks

4. Moss -Carmilla (Marcilla)

3. Wolves In The Throne Room - Celestite

2. Monster Magnet - Milking The Stars: A Re-imagining of Last Patrol

1. Grifter - The Return Of The Bearded Brethren

Just look as this sexy bastard. Enough said!

 

LP review: 'Welter Through The Ashes' by RODHA

Two years ago a five track monolithic sludgy-doom masterpiece was released in the form of German group RODHA’s demo EP Raw, gathering a collective to gasp breath and say “Oh Holy Fuck!” as layer upon layer of devastating riffs and pounding mounds of destruction caved in to your skull in a glorious release of energy. Now, a larger collection of people get to stand up and roar from the depths of their guts as finally the band’s debut full-length has arrived, and it redefines the word OHMYGODTHISISSOFRICKINGHEAVYANDAWESOME.

Welter Through The Ashes may well soon be considered a game changer, an album where others spend their carers trying to capture just a hint of their stench, to muster even a fraction of the venomous power which extrudes through every orifice. The record opens with ‘Tresor’, six-and-a-half minutes of massive riffs and hell-spawned vocals, something many bands could only contemplate in their wet dreams, starting with quickened sludge before moulding into a doomier ending; it echoes the soul of what makes RODHA. With Mo Posch’s vocals sounding at their crushingly brutal best, you find yourself gripping your fist menacingly tight as he yells “What the fuck did you expect?” through the record’s face-melting title track.

If you make it further into the record without being completely crushed under the band’s devastation, there’s a sense of heavy beauty in the emotion to be found in tracks such as the empowerment and anger of ‘Overloaded’  (a slightly more polished version than the one found on Raw), and the charging desperation of ‘On Solid Grounds’, create layers to RODHA not found in too many other bands playing at such relentless aggression. RODHA create devastating powerful sounds and craft them into quite impressive moments a singular masterful songs whose essence don’t get lost in the mire, but rather guide it.

The record ends how their demo Raw began, with ‘Bliss’, a song about self-realisation and being fully content with who you are, not living the life of someone else, and it’s a crushingly powerful statement you can scream out as your fist pounds the air in rhythmic death-blows. RODHA have created a truly stunning debut record in Welter Through The Ashes, something which lives up to all of the promise and expectation met with their demo Raw (read what Seth thought about it in his Sunday Sludge). To every band reading this, RODHA have raised the bar, are you ready?

Facebook|Bandcamp

Sunday Sludge: Best of 2012

These year-end lists can make you crazy. What you won't see on my forearm are the half-dozen band names I've carved out entirely. Great as they may have been, I had to cut it to twelve. Shit, I fooled myself into thinking I could pare it down to ten. But there was simply too much great sludge metal slung my way in 2012. Whether it's straight southern thickness, sped-up filth, or dusty bounce laced with sprawling post-metal drift, sludge is more expansive than you thought and too frequently overlooked.

I couldn't bring myself to rank these from 1 to 12. Some days I find Fistula's angst to be the essential middle-finger to my boss. Other days I catch myself dissecting Canto III Inferno by In the Company of Serpents. And had EYEHATEGOD spewed eight or ten more tracks that sounded as good as New Orleans is the New Vietnam, they may have shot right to number one (what a great fucking song). As it stands, these are the twelve Sunday Sludge-featured albums I returned to most frequently.


-(16)- - Deep Cuts From Dark Clouds

Jerue's bark is more symptomatic of choice than struggle. The only match for this is the low and vile whir of rhythm that's never out of death's reach. Without tricks and without fluff, -(16)- tread the broken ground abandoned by their contemporaries. Ubiquitous pain has evolved into flared indignation, and the resulting sound is -(16)- at their greasy pinnacle.







Fistula - Northern Aggression

Hit the e-brake all you want, but Fistula's in full control. The plod balances the shred and the fury lines every note with napalm. The tempo shifts suggest a bi-polar, manic, borderline personality glitch, but nobody will raise a red flag. The sleeping giant you poked with a stick never woke. Instead, Fistula again showed up without warning. Your skin is bubbling, your left eye is gone, and you're drooling as you sift through the soil looking for loose teeth.





Grizzly - Fear My Wrath

We're rarely met with material this overtly homicidal and self-satisfied. Lyrics can be oft-considered sludge's afterthought, shouted or muffled or buried in brilliant rotting moss. Grizzly's vocal delivery on Fear My Wrath perfectly ensnares listeners by snagging a fish hook in your lip, rubbing your skin raw with sandpaper, and leaving spit-trails of hostility dripping from your hair.






Sonance - Like Ghosts

The forty-two minutes on these two tracks breathe and haunt more like an undying memory, surging and waning beyond your wishes. These ghosts are seemingly within you, not around you. You can compartmentalize the chills, but the lucidity is never sealed off. And when you've been lulled to comfort and feel a cool sigh can be enjoyed, you're jarred by descending sludge terror.






Spider Kitten - Cougar Club

...After eleven months of sifting through some pretty incredible offerings from some pretty accomplished acts, it's difficult to find many that are this complete and this proficient. Cougar Club is thick with mood, heavy on variation, and thoroughly stung with riffs and rhythms that'll knock you flat. Moving forward, waving back, and setting the knob to "simmer" is just the beginning for Spider Kitten.





haarp - Husks

Planting their feet as sludge metal gods, haarp take their time trimming the fat and let the truth simmer. Between the sludge barrages and atmospheric back roads is tempered, expertly-timed black gold. The band's proficient but patient approach is lined with beautifully rich and vile vision. Husks isn't merely another NOLA sludge-metal record; it's a sonic catapult for a band wholly deserving of every accolade they accrue.






HUSH - Untitled I

On Untitled I, despair clouds every luxury. Every happiness is whittled and boiled. The sludge-doom truths pique our senses, but the vexed lyricism here serves as effective a weapon. The songs are strongly-structured, the shifts are well-placed. Ultimately, the songs are smart and despondent, truly questioning where we're headed. Blame doesn't need to be assigned because you know you're guilty. I suppose the first step is admitting you've got a problem. The second step is listening to HUSH.





In The Company Of Serpents - Self-titled

Down-tuned plod melds with Netzorg's withdrawn but enticing vocals. Burying licks under a canvas of fog has the track feeling like a stumble through a misty hamlet, buzzing and grinding like your old man's dusty table saw that he's too drunk to use. What's surprising for this sludge, however, is its groove. The palpable, nod-inducing rhythm is what sets apart ITCOS from their sludge-doom contemporaries. Under an electric blanket, the band's sludgy plod melts into a stoner groove, resulting in some pretty cool sounds.





Pigs - You Ruin Everything

Spin it, say your prayers, and hope your hands don't shake so badly when you wake up.  Pigs aren't gonna cure your ills or pull you from the dry well, they're gonna jump down there with you.  And by the time the police show up, each of these songs is stuck on your tongue.








Rabbits - Bites Rites 

Bites Rites challenges and antagonizes via immediate, in-your-face hardcore bullying. Rabbits are direct and all ambiguity is checked at the rotting, unhinged door. You don't have to wallow in the mud; sometimes you need to jump in and throw it at others. And if Rabbits don't manage to catch your attention with flaming piles of loose earth, they'll just gnash their teeth and rip off your face.






Rodha - Raw

Employing just five tracks of melded design, Rodha should have little trouble finding a rabid fan-base.  That a band can so strongly assert it's mettle on what they call a demo is nothing short of stunning, and their generosity is a testament to the confidence they have in themselves and one another.  These tracks are heavy, smart, well-structured, and dirty enough for sludge-o-philes to instantly fall into submission.






Make - Trephine

In Metal Songwriting 101, Trephine would be the curriculum's cornerstone. Your head is gonna swell and your skull is gonna pound, but MAKE's death rattle has unparalleled warmth and voluminous complexity.Trephine is the perfect ailment and the perfect antidote, complete with enough syrup to dull the edge.

Sunday Sludge: Rodha - "Raw"

It's only a demo, Seth.  THIS is only a fucking DEMO?!  Six months ago, four Germans started a band with the mission of crafting emotion-drenched stoner-sludge that's heavy on the heavy and light on absolutely nothing.  Hamburg's Rodha gave themselves only 26 minutes on Raw, an apt and appropriate title for a five-track collection that far-exceeds what one would expect from any "demo."  With guns blazing, this debut presents a band loaded with talent and already delivering on promise.

Buzzing like a distant (but not TOO distant) storm, Raw simmers with anguish and holds true to its initial rhythms.  Opening with a panning guitar warble and looming bass pluck on Bliss, listeners may have expected this hammer to drop.  With a crushing delivery, Mo's vocals are young and fresh, but brimming with torment.  Slow sludge is only a fraction of the appeal here; stoner cadence bounces intermittently between those sludge/doom cavities, and screaming "My! Bliss!" establishes a cool, heavy dichotomy.

A thick, quick trot highlights Fast Forward.  Rife with beautiful distortion, the sound moves like a dusty, dented roadster hiding a tireless and pristine motor.  Ardent and focused, Rodha spread electric sludge like a canvas over a splintered wooden frame.  Only the deaf won't be immediately captivated.  The structures on this disc begin to emerge and showcase a young band's talent.

Lies is festering, pregnant-with-thought (and a dose of piss and vinegar), and doom-oriented.  The worst of windstorms combines with the best of fuzz, and the mossy veil exposes more than it hides.  Imagine a live wire tossed into a mud puddle and you can nearly imagine what this song feels like.  Electric and tense, dense rhythms remain constant; the crunch builds and the overall mood remains one of pain on a lonesome, wet walk home.

Slow sludge toil is honored on the lumbering Overloaded.  Stephan's double-kick drum works to crack the sway as fuzz coats and seals alternating tempos.  Flo's bass hovers somewhere just above hell, while a brief and buzzing solo punctuates an otherwise sludgecore-filled delight.  As Mo barks "getting stronger day by day," you wonder just how far this band could go.  After all, this is only a demo.

Doom returns with a fucking vengeful sneer on Thousand Headed Goddess. Drums are patient, forecasting evil and crawling with electric fear.  The slow, buzzing march cracks and succumbs to an up-tempo vacillation that crashes in and chops away at every living thing in sight.  The thick fog of grinding sludge is never out of earshot, however, and Timo's licks know just when to pull back and grip a rhythm that's tranquil and focused.  An electric avalanche closes the collection, spilling out to bury the mire under its own weight.

Employing just five tracks of melded design, Rodha should have little trouble finding a rabid fan-base.  That a band can so strongly assert it's mettle on what they call a demo is nothing short of stunning, and their generosity (it's a FREE download at the bandcamp link below) is a testament to the confidence they have in themselves and one another.  These tracks are heavy, smart, well-structured, and dirty enough for sludge-o-philes to instantly fall into submission.  Let's stay tuned on these guys.  Yes, this was only a demo. High-five, fellas.

Bandcamp Download | Facebook