A few years ago Metal seemed mired in nostalgic quicksand, bands getting back together for purely financial reasons to trot out their 'classic album(s)' one more time on tour for the benefit of those who missed out first time or had otherwise refused to move on since then. Sure, it's fun to see 'Master Of Puppets' busted out live from start to finish but the thrill is a fleeting one - imagine if Lars and James could knock out an album today that fit effortlessly in amongst their Cliff Burton-era material and you've got an idea of how satisfying it was to hear Godflesh step back into their glory days. 'A World....' takes them right back to the pummelling industrial bulk of 'Streetcleaner' and 'Slavestate' - jarring drum machine trauma, earthquake basslines and Justin Broadrick's textbook rough-throated bark. Like Carcass' triumphant return with last year's 'Surgical Steel', Godflesh's newie doesn't just remind you how great their old stuff was, it takes you right back into the centre of it and picks up where they left off. Oh and the 'Decline And Fall' EP is pretty fucking great too.
Check out : 'Shut Me Down', the moment you realise that this IS going to be as good as you remembered.
39. Lust For Youth - International
Electropop. There's not exactly a shortage of it these days. We've long since passed the tipping point where the number of decent bands out there justifies the time it takes you to root through them all in search of something good so unearthing a decent electro record always feels like something of a rare pleasure. Lust For Youth are a bunch of androgynous Swedes making exactly the sort of music you'd expect from androgynous Swedes but they've defied the odds and actually knocked out a pretty ace record here - these guys started off as a drone outfit before moving through cavernous darkwave to finally get where they are today, a streamlined synth outfit with the ear for a tune to rival prime era Pet Shop Boys. This is 10 tracks of deftly crafted magic that reminds me of last year's Minks LP 'Tides End' along with Gardens And Villa's equally stellar 'Dunes' from earlier this year, all proof that the genre has the potential to satisfy and stimulate even in such a flooded market.
Check out : 'Illume', starts off like a metro announcement but morphs into something great.
38. The Men - Tomorrow's Hits
Yeah The Men AGAIN, I know. These dudes bust out another classic every year – it’s not that each new LP is necessarily better than the last, it’s more that every release is good in a different way. ‘Tomorrow’s Hits’ pares things back to 70s barroom R’n’R, kinda like Jackson Browne meets The Stooges with a dose of their usual mayhem and mischief. This is their shortest album in terms of the number of songs but each tune is solid enough to stand out in its own right, rollicking garage bluster going up against acid-fried country rock with each band member putting their own unique stamp on things. These guys play more like a unit than ever before which might explain the profileration of side projects poppin up to showcase their more leftfield urges – such as the stonking debut from Dream Police, more of which later – and apparently they’re taking next Spring off to figure out where to head next. With this kind of hit rate you suspect their best years may be ahead of them.
Check out : ‘Pearly Gates’, straight down to business from the word go.
37. Lone - Reality Testing
Lone's stonking 2012 LP 'Galaxy Garden' threw down some modern day fluo flashbombs for the rave-hungry hordes out there but he's gone into this one with a more measured pace, coaxing out a reaction rather than flat out demanding one. 'Reality Testing' tips its hat to Hip Hop and Garage as much as classic era Rave, moving into those nine minute 12" remixes rather than the four minute frontal assaults of yore and the new approach sees him eke out a charm that might have been lost with a more opportunistic angle. This is one to relax and enjoy, losing yourself between the lines as Lone expands on his vast knowledge of beats, breaks and trigger moments to guide you gracefully through a different area of rave hyperspace. I'd love to see his record collection sometime, you just know there's a wealth of treasures there he's drawn from to bring this reality to vibrant, colourful reality and I'm sure there's plenty more in there to inform where he's going to take us next.
Check out : 'Vengeance Video', another early 90s daydream somehow made real.
36. Mastodon - Once Around The Sun
It's easy to take good Metal bands for granted. The noughties was right up there with the 80s in terms of regularity for great metal records with a cluster of extreme bands like Enslaved, Akercocke, Nile and Converge all knocking out strings of records that were so consistently fabulous that you stopped noticing how solid the material really was. Mastodon were in there with the best of 'em, landing perhaps the decade's most universally applauded LP with 2004's 'Leviathan' and they've seen out much of the ensuing decade putting smiles on faces with some stellar follow-ups but with this one they've decided to vary it up a little, polishing up the production and tracking back for some cosmic groove metal and classic 70 reefer rock. What could've been decried as softening up for commercial purposes has actually freshened their sound up nicely - they've replaced the rougher edges with some formidable tug 'n' thrust metallic dynamics and where 'Once Around The Sun' connects it will take your fucking head off just like the old stuff. There's life in the old sea beast yet.
Check out : 'Chimes At Midnight' beamed in from another galaxy and taped live the summer.
35. Wozniak - Pikes Peak EP
Bubbly neatly under the surface but full of early promise, Edinburgh's Wozniak were one of our standout Bandcamp discoveries in 2014 with this 5-song corker that flits between Mogwai's slowly building cloudbursts and the discordant bliss of early Ride, weaving its way across the shoegaze landscape like a lunar pod exploring a new planet. There's no vocals so the music does all the talking, each track constructing a narrative that draws you in like a short story and neatly makes its point without labouring it. This is like the soundtrack to a working week's worth of partially formed dreams, snapshots that leave a powerful emotional aftertaste when you have to abandon them to get up and go to work. If that's the case then letting these folks loose in full album format promises to herald a thoroughly intriguing mindfuck when they get to attack the canvass of that weekend booze-addled powernap where things start to get really interesting. Their future is a bright one.
Check out : 'El Maresme', a perfect sweep across the landscape of their world.
Check out : 'El Maresme', a perfect sweep across the landscape of their world.
34. Goatwhore - Constricting Rage Of The Merciless
A good metal album is very much like a good curry – there’s always plenty to choose from and the quality can vary but when you get one with the balance just right it hits the spot like nothing else. Goatwhore have been knocking ‘em out for years now but they’ve kept their moves sharp and drafting in extreme metal guru Erik Rutan on production duties gives ‘Constricting’ a lethal finish that will knock your head clean off on first listen. Their reluctance to fully commit to any one of metal’s myriad subgenres allows them to draw on them all to fashion their own heady blend of audio violence which is as distinctive as it is immediately accessible to the passing observer – crank this one up and you’ll soon fall for their Satanic charms and jubilant energy. While acts of their longevity are often prone to complacency Goatwhore have instead closed ranks and fired out a barnstorming career best – may their second wind carry them to even greater heights over years to come.
Check out : 'FBS (Fucked By Satan)' - does exactly what it says on the tin!
33. Eomac - Spectre
Today’s budding Technohead has a veritable Aladdin’s Cave of bleep history at their fingertips, the genre’s ever-evolving musical landscape affording both studied immersion in established sounds or fearless journeying into undiscovered realms. Dublin’s Eomac chooses to stick to the cavernous underworld of electronic music, pitching vibrations that sound like they should be experienced in a nightclub doubling as war bunker, pulses rebounding off imaginary surfaces as they travel through thick cloud of neon-cut industrial fog. ‘Spectre’ stays the right side of heafuck mechanics to remain inviting rather than teeth-chatteringly stark – there’s a depth to these tunes that suggests he favours textural sublevels rather than short term sensual gratification and you’ll find yourself inextricably drawn into the beckoning darkness with each listen. There are plenty of corridors to explore in this underground maze of electronic delights so strap in and start your adventure here.
Check out : 'Shell Of Dark', like you're several floors below the rave wondering what's going on.
32. Swans - To Be Kind
Swans seem to have bagged the sort of universal press acclaim usually reserved for Arcade Fire with this one, not bad work for a band with a collective age of about 8000 but ever more so for a record that basically represents two hours sequestered in a room with only your deepest insecurities and squalid imagination for company. Career revivals can be graceless things at times but Swans actually feel like they've died and come back to haunt the listener, looming in the half light whilst you do your best to ignore them but slowly floating into your field of vision to interrogate and terrify. 'To Be Kind' looks like an unassailable listening experience from the outset but if you lay this one up against 120 minutes playing Candy Crush or arguing on social media it's difficult to argue that you don't have room for it in your life. It WILL turn your brain inside out and force it to do laps of the track until it's at the brink of collapse but sometimes you need a record to do just that. Charli XCX this ain't.
Check out : 'Oxygen'......then have a nice sit down and a stiff drink.
31. Dream Police - Hypnotized
I'm gonna have to start buying in bulk from Sacred Bones if they can keep up this kind of hit rate! Dream Police is basically two of the dudes from The Men on a creative tangent that runs through the same second hand record stores that fed into their main band's last offering but plumps for post punk and analogue electronics over boozy bar rock. The garage gut punch is still there but it's been augmented with keys, synths and some layered effects that sound straight out of the early 80s tape scene, serving up a sound that you can disappear into like an old movie. In places they trip out like Spacemen 3, in others they throb like early Human League and elsewhere still they craft road-weary ballads tailor-made for late night radio sessions in lonely motel rooms. These guys seem able to just soak up everything around them and channel it into something new and dazzling and 'Hypnotized' only adds to an already impressive canon of sounds from an embarrassingly prolific songwriting stable.
Check out : 'Pouring Rain', the spirit of 1981 back on the road again.
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