Tags
A Life Once Los, Amenra, Ash Borer, Author & Punisher, Bastard Saping, Between The Buried And Me, Bone Dance, Bosse-De-Nage, cannibal corpse, Car Bomb, coheed and cambria, Column Of Heaven, Coverge, deftones, early graves, Everything Went Black, Gaza, hivesmasher, Homewrecker, hooded menace, Kowloon Walled City, Old Man Gloom, pig destroyer, Serpentine Path, Standing On A Floor Of Bodies, The Chariot, the secret, Torch Runner, veil of maya, War From A Harlots Mouth
An’ lemme jus’ say: Fuck December 21st in it’s ass. Ain’t no ‘pocalypse, mutha’ fuckas.
Man, there were way to many good albums released this year. I listened to as many as I could but there were some that I just couldn’t get to. There are also some that I listened to, just not enough for them to make my final list. I can’t let this slide, however and I want to give a shout out to new releases by Marty Friedman, The Mars Volta, Birds In Row, Code Orange Kids, Downfall Of Gaia and Krallice. I really wish I could have settled down to check these albums out in full, but I just couldn’t get down to do it.
Before we get to my actual list I would like to thank each and every one of you readers. Without you, I honestly probably would have given this up a long time ago. Sure, on this site I give my opinion on music, but it is really you guys/gals that count. I don’t know how I could repay you all for visiting American Aftermath these past two years. You have really made it worth while. Even the haters who talked shit, I appreciate you fucks also.
When it comes to my favorite grindcore bands, Pig Destroyer definitely rank in my top five of all time. This band is fucking ferocious around every turn and when word about their highly anticipated (and finally released) new album Book Burner, a lot of bloggers all over the world jizzed and out heads exploded. I have read a lot of reviews about the new Pig Destroyer record and some have been negative. Some have been very positive and since it’s my turn to tell you folks what I thought about the new album. 
Off to a very good start. The opening song, “The Rise, The Fall” is extremely heavy and grooving. Vocals are amazing. Very strong growls that are intelligible. This is brutal doom/death at it’s best. How I have gone this long without hearing this band is unforgivable. This band utilizes some of the greatest elements in doom metal I’ve heard. That long scream right before the 4:00 mark is amazing. “All, Alone” picks up the pace a bit. Keeping the basic song structure in tact, but upping the tempo quite a bit for the first thirty seconds. After that point the band breaks into the typical doom fashion, only executed so fucking well that it is mind blowing. This vocalist has a good range of highs and lows and is very good at transitioning between the two. The song picks up again for a bit. Buzzsaw guitar work sounds fantastic. This band has a sound that works upon so many different genres of music that they really make their own sound. This song, changing tempos and all, gives of a very melancholic vibe. “The New Reign” is ushered in with one of the most distorted bass lines I have ever heard in my many years of metal. After almost forty seconds, the rest of the band chimes in with a slow, mournful chugging. I have been trying to think of a band to compare Haarp to, and so far the closest thing I can think of would be Hooded Menace, but that’s not exactly spot on. I don’t know of any band that sounds exactly like Haarp, which is a good thing. That means this band is very groundbreaking in their approach to death/doom. The riffing on this song is fantastic, slow and grooving. The vocals are executed perfectly. Very melodic riffing around the 6:00 mark signals a change in the mood of the overall song. “The Blue Chamber Painted Red” has a very ’90s death metal feel to it mixed with guttural-as-fuck vocals. Vocal delivery is perfect. The down-tuned guitar shredding is spectacular. This is straight up head banging madness. I find it great that this guy can growl so low and still be able to enunciate so well. Nice, creepy guitar lead around the 3:30 mark. Has a rather odd sound to it. A strange little section occurs right before the 7:00 mark. Weird. A fucking amazing guitar solo opens up “Peerless.” I am loving this right from the start. This song seems much more upbeat, for the first minute at least. This band has a way of leading me on, it seems. Every time I get into a song that is chugging along, they go and break into the doom. It’s not bad, like I said, it’s just misleading. This song has pretty much the same structuring as those previous to it. Melodic chugging guitars and great vocals. “Minutia” seems kinda like just a filler track. It sounds to me like a just a jam session in which not much was accomplished. This contains just drums and bass. I don’t really see the point in tracks like these, but oh well. I bet the scream at the beginning of “Here In The Dark” was Phil Anselmo’s idea. That seems like a very Phil thing to do. This song actually picks up pace for a bit. I like it. I hate to say it, but this album is beginning to blur together at this point. I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s a great album, but every song is starting to sound the same. This seems to be my problem with a lot of doom albums, after a while, I begin to lose interest after six minutes or so. This is not a result of the album being bad, it’s just my short attention span. Back to the review: Nice chugging riff really curves this song into something interesting. Not as doom-y as it is progressive death metal. Over all, I think this could be my favorite track on the album. It has a superb sound to it as a whole. Very nice. “Plurimus Humilus Ciacco” opens with major feedback followed by a nice little bass run. The riffing in this reminds me of Hooded Menace again. Well, all except the vocals. When this band picks up the pace and hammers down this more death metal-influenced jam, it’s fucking killer. I’m pretty into this song. It gives me the same feeling as the previous for the most part. Nice melodic riffing gives this song a nice overall sound. The riffing on “The Fall, The Rise” is a step above the droning doom riffs that have been ever-so-present on this album, but still not straight up death metal. It does have a pretty killer sound to it, however. Vocal structure is great. Mid-paced and extremely powerful. Good song. Good album. Haarp, you pass the gnar test. Congrats.
“Conjuration of the Maskim’s Black Blood” opens with amazing riffing and unfathomable drumming. The vocals are other worldly. Right off, I got a creepy vibe from this band. Not sure if it’s their image or their music, both amaze me and both make me want to jam this shit ’til the cows come home and turn inside out. Synths give off a very chilling vibe. This band, while remaining in the black metal vein, has branched out and incorporated melodic death and symphonic elements that really set this band apart from anything I have heard before. Fantastic opening track. “Nyarlathotep’s Children of the Void” opens with a riff that reminds me of some ’90s death metal. The vocals are fucking epic. I don’t know what kind of influences or childhood repressed memories this dude has, but they are seriously working in his advantage. Very old school riffing remains along with blast beat drumming and constant tempo changes. One second it’s melodic black metal, then doom. It’s crazy. Vocalist switches up. You can understand him, actually. And to tell the truth, now that I can hear the lyrics, I am kind of afraid of this band. I love that the tracks don’t drag along like a lot of black metal bands do. DOA are straightforward, to the point and killer. “Seething the Flesh in the River of Phlegethon” opens with a fucking fantastic lead guitar line. The eerie synths are back and giving off a creepy, sinister vibe about the song already. The band utilized chugga riffs, which I like. This band is really setting the bar high as fuck. Very unique and quite capable of genre bending, as they are doing so well. Nice solo. I don’t get to say that enough in black metal related subjects, but I’m glad I can now. I think the main reason I love this band is the fact that no two songs sound alike. Every song adds something different to the table. The big, horrible, scary, evil table. You may have seen the utterly disturbing video for “Transformation within Fictional Mutation.” If not, I’d suggest you do so. Really gave me an idea of what DOA were about. And I am seriously worried about crossing these guys in a dark alley. The synths remind me of Cradle of Filth around the Nymphetamine era. Very nice chugga riffing. Not just bullshit. There is a lot of melody in there. Great lead guitar work. Vocals are again sickening. The keyboard solo is fantastic. Might seem a little out of place, but that’s what makes it great. Very creepy guitar solo. Very. “The Ancient Draining Room” opens with another great riff job. Still has a sort of old school vibe to it. The song structure is about the same in all of the songs, but still none sound alike. Great solo. This band is very tight as a whole. They don’t fuck around, they take all of this very serious. And I gathered that all over the coarse of a few songs. “Reanimation of the Dark Ages” picks right up from the end of the previous song. Water running, creepy synths, symbols. Seems like an intro for a Dimmu album to me. Weird.
