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!

 

Triple Threat

Whalerider - Thanatos

Mixing elements of stoner, grunge, psychedelia, and some cool ass classic rock, comes Germany’s newest rock titans Whalerider with their debut riff heavy record Thanatos, an album full of maturity and layered heavy rock songs, that keeps you attached to the journey, that mythical beast of an actual album, rather than a few songs and some filler; Thanatos is something which you have to listen to from start to finish, no skipping.

Easing you into the record with a bit of dubstep feedback, the album begins in earnest with riffs aplenty on ‘What’s In Your Head?’ showing signs of things to come with faded spaced-out vocals mixed with some heavy pounding drums and guitars leading the way. It’s the combination of spaced out jamming and gut-busting riffing that becomes Whalerider’s signature move. Singer Max Feibel shows off a great vocal range throughout, especially when growling “Let me be your entertainment” on the heavy-psyched-out ‘Feed My Affection’. His vocals are a glue which links the ranging musical styles together so well, easily switching the heavier with the slower with the trippier, and back to the heavier again. The underlying moments of Whalerider lie in their stoner rock mentality, roaring through a track such as ‘Self-Destruction’ with seemingly effortless joy and power.

Thanatos is an excellent album which may find itself high up on anyone’s end of year lists.

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Sumer – The Animal You Are

A slightly different beast for Heavy Planet here, but one that we couldn’t let go unnoticed.  Hailing from South-Eastern England, post-rock-metal-progressive newcomers Sumer have released not just an fantastic debut record, but a journey which encapsulates your very being, gripping and tightening with every riff, pulling you in every direction of laid back spaced out jamming to full throttle heavy-on-the-riffs destruction.

The band have echoes in their sound from the likes of Pelican, Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster, and Tool all rolled into one enormous acid trip, but yet there is something about Sumer which makes them stand out from their predecessors, whether it’s the joint vocals of Ian Hill and Tim Bonney, or the compact instrumentals of ‘Progenesis’ that twist round your soul in a death grip. Perhaps it is the band’s ability to carve out an album of heavy-light-heavy songs which never meander off from their course and into self-righteous unnecessary warbling: Sumer keep things tight, with a technical ability that is an impressive sound to behold.  

Songs can be isolated and highlighted, in particular tracks such as ‘Pinch, Cut’ has particular heavy passion screaming out, but it’s vital that The Animal You Are is heard as a collective sound, as it was intended. Take your time and lose yourself for a while in the technical audacity of Sumer, but just remember to take a breath now and again.

The Animal You Are is released through Wild Heart Records.

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Mage – Last Orders

Stoner-Doom can be too heavy a beast for many, the sheer thunderous destruction of the sound can collapse many young bands in the practice room, crushed under their own riffs. Not for Leicestershire, England’s own Mage however, on Last Orders they become the gods in the clouds that weild the whip, rather than those who feel its wrath (in other words they’re really good at what they do).

Getting no further than two tracks in and already the pummelling will have weakened out the herd of pretenders and passersby, working in elements of sludge and metal riffing into their arsenal, Mage are a scary beast to try and control. The band state that they are compelled by the power of the riff and black magic, and it’s abundantly clear on Last Orders as a track such as ‘Beyond’ feels like a planet is lying on your chest as waves of thick sludgy doom swarm at your feet, it’s often a suffocating listen: a record for the sadomasochist in us all.

Mage’s second record as a band is dark, heavy, venomous, crushing, but all-in-all, quite majestic. Crush your bones!

Last Orders is available through the ever increasingly brilliant Witch Hunter Records

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Zac's "Double Dose": Bang OK Bang / Whalerider

Bang OK Bang: Chemicals 


Bang OK Bang have created the most intoxicating groove I've heard yet this summer, and all you have to do is push play below to hear it. The song is entitled Above the Surface, available on their debut EP, Chemicals. Although rough around the edges Above the Surface is stellar in songwriting and sludgy exectuion and has this listener hooked. This Nashville, Tennessee duo have combined what they call "dirty noise and bone grinding rhythm" with some southern soul that's sure to please all of the Heavy Planet family. Be sure to get a digital copy for yourself over bandcamp, its free and so far my favorite EP of 2012!

 

Members: 

Abby Hairston - Drums 

Ben Lowry - Guitars // Vocals

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Whalerider: Was it Only a Dream? 


Whalerider is a four-piece from Nürnberg, Germany. Their debut release "Was it Only a Dream?" combines bass heavy and groovy riffs with droning psychedelia. The EP has a somewhat polarizing structure, beginning with a deviously catchy, grunge influenced anthem and slowing fading into a blue abyss of atmosphere and finally to a watery grave. As the record progesses the music takes an introspective look, relying more and more on an airless melancholy... very much resemblant of the world only whales know. And all of this is portrayed in a matter of twenty mintues... Take a dive with Whalerider and "...ease the pain of waiting for a new Soundgarden album". Was it Only a Dream? is currently streaming over at bandcamp, get over there and download your copy today.

 

Members: 

Daniel Schwarz - Drums 

Max Feibel - Vocals // Bass // Drones 

Patrick Auch - Rythm Guitars // Backing Vocals 

Sahba Yadegar - Lead/Rythm Guitars // Art Work

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