some shit i still need to get;
TINSEL TEETH - Trash as the Trophy
call this Fuck No-Wave (as in the phrase "Fuck No"). not cutesy post modern ironic posturing, no "color" (except for the blood caked on their flesh during their performance), just psycho-wonky guttural blasts.
LOCRIAN - Crystal World
stunning, morose, and immensely evocative, one of the many dark horses for record of the year.
BLACK SUN - Twilight of the Gods
riffy post-metal (emphasis on "METAL") crossed with the amoral nonchalance of David Yow at his most unrestrained. this band covers more ground then the scavengers of a post-apocalyptic landscape.
SALOME - Terminal
i KNOW this is going to make a shit-ton of top ten lists for the year, and it deserves every bit of praise it gets (as does everyone behind it). I've watched this band from the beginning, and it's amazing how far they've come stylistically in a relatively short amount of time. the songs attack you in a way only the best metal acts do.
EHNAHRE - Taming the Cannibals
Like Albert Ayler deconstructing Onward to Golgotha, this is one of the most challenging, galvanizing bands of the current metal underground.
alright, now that all that's out of the way, here is the my TOP 10 of 2010.
#1
STARKWEATHER - This Sheltering Night
there was no way this wasn't going right to the top. the absolute best release of the year. this is hands down the perfect STARKWEATHER album. if you love them, it has all you love about them and more, and if you hate them... you're a tasteless asshole. Best band in America.
#2
TWIN STUMPS - Seedbed
like a US version of the BRAINBOMBS, this takes the spot as the best noise release for me this year. loudly caustic and caustically loud, this is the sound of modern civilization raping its own soul.
#3
SWANS - My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky
not to call this a "comeback", but this is one fucking hell of a return. taking what he's learned from ANGELS OF LIGHT and applying it to the nihilistic brutality that SWANS defined, re-defined, and now re-re-defined. Pure, scary, beautiful, textural.. a fucking SWANS album.
#4
ZOLA JESUS - Stridulum II
Sensual, hypnagogic, and eerie, in another time this magical young lady would've been the rightful queen of every weirdo out there and Lady Gaga would be just another guinea asshole from LI.
#5
CASTEVET - Mounds of Ash
Dissonant and Avant Garde without losing a shred of intensity and succinctness. richly produced, darkly thoughtful music that continues to reward with every listen.
#6
THE BODY - All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood
if Elias Mehrige's BEGOTTEN was turned into a musical, it would be this record. a shrieking nightmare of fevers and plagues that doesn't kill because you're already dead.
#7
CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG - IRM
this album deserves credit if only for supplying the world with music from BECK that isn't crap (shtorree). the most emotionally compelling pop record since POE's Haunted. anachronistic in the best way imaginable.
# 8
KILLING JOKE - Absolute Dissent
their best record in years. passionate, outraged, cathartic, everything this remarkable band stands for. it doesn't matter which "era" of this band you prefer, this will satisfy.
#9
UNEARTHLY TRANCE - V
UT have delivered their best album here. the whole thing just gels so perfectly, and yes, it means the world to me that it was dedicated to my best friend Lee Altomare. he would've loved this record, and i do too.
#10
ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS - Swanlights
not as unbearably heartbreaking as last year's Crying Light, but still about as gorgeous a piece of music as you'll ever hear. all this and a duet w/ BJORK.
honorable mentions:
INTEGRITY - The Blackest Curse : never in a million years did i think this record would be a good as it is, but here we are. I know it's not Aaron, but he's creatively slumming it in HATEBREED right now, so i'll take this.
KAYO DOT - Coyote
their best release since Choirs of the Eye. just wonderful.
AUTOPSY - the Tomb Within
why didn't this make my top ten? cause there ain't enough of this awesomeness. a blatant yet satisfying tease for their upcoming full length. totally fucking awesome, though.
DEFTONES - Diamond Eyes
still proving themselves to be the ONLY interesting this to come out of the atrocious "nu-metal" fad, by continuing to ignore all the mad-at-my-parents posturing and focusing on death pop and cryptic lyrics. like MESHUGGAH's Destroy Erase Improve crossed with The Wedding Album by DURAN DURAN.
CLINGING TO THE TREES OF A FOREST FIRE - Songs of Ill Hope and Desperation
pay no mind to the sentence fragment name and just enjoy the filth (NOT the new haarp record. yuh-awn).
other good uns':
ARSON ANTHEM - Insecurity Notoriety
THE BASTARD NOISE - A Culture of Monsters
CHILD ABUSE - Cut and Run
COFFINWORM - When All Became None
EARLY GRAVES - Goner (R.I.P. Makh Daniels.)
GRINDERMAN - Grinderman 2
IMMOLATION - Majesty and Decay
JANELLE MONAE - The Archandroid
MIKE PATTON - Mondo Cane
THE SECRET - Solve et Coagula
TRIPTYKON - Eparistera Daimones
don't feel like getting into dishonorable mentions, but i'll say that new releases from HAARP, ASH POOL, CIRCLE OF DEAD CHILDREN (and it pains me greatly to say this), and MELVINS left much to be desired. *shrug*
next year predictions for the list:
DEATHSPELL OMEGA - Paracletus
VIRUS - The Agent That Shapes the Desert
CROWBAR - Sever the Wicked Hand
new ones from PIG DESTROYER, SUTCLIFFE JUGEND, AUTOPSY, KICKBACK, ULCERATE.
jeez i've been here for over an hour. yikes.
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