Last year's highlights

So, I thought I'd list some records from last year I picked up and enjoyed.


Alcest: Écailles de Lune
Brilliant post rock tinged with black metal (or vice versa). Contains some melodies I wished would never end. Also saw them live, brilliant!

Burzum: Belus
Already reviewed this one, but I think it deserves a mention. Read the review for more words.

BXI: BXI
Boris and Ian Astbury of Cult fame. What can I say? Atmospheric and very cool.

Earth: A Bureaucratic Desire for Extra-Capsular Extraction
Some of Earth's earliest recorded work, remastered into something amazing. Good, meaty drone.

Electric Wizard: Black Masses
Some of the best stuff happening in doom right now. Delirious and trashy, brilliant!

Hooded Menace: Never Cross the Dead
I enjoy the dirty, rotten sound of Hooded Menace immensely. As I do their uncanny sense of melody to spice things up.

Kowloon Walled City / Ladder Devils / Fight Amp: Lose / Lose / Lose
Already reviewed this as well. Good, rockin' sludge.

Lisa Cuthbert: Obstacles
Ever since I saw Lisa Cuthbert open for Antimatter (actually, Mick Moss & Duncan Patterson playing Antimatter, Anathema and Ìon) I'd been waiting for this album. Absolutely beautiful stuff.

Sailors With Wax Wings: Sailors With Wax Wings
This had flown completely under my radar until a friend told me to listen to it. Goes well with the BXI ep.

The Abominable Iron Sloth: The Id Will Overcome
After getting acquainted with The Abominable Iron Sloth's debut album, I'd been waiting eagerly for some more material from them. A snappy dose of aggressive sludge this is.

The Sword: Warp Riders
Good riffs all around, it's what stoner metal is all about, really.

Thou: Summit
Depressive and dark sludge with searingly beautiful melodies. My personal album of the year for 2010.

Throes of Dawn: The Great Fleet of Echoes
Beautiful, atmospheric metal. It bugs me, that I've managed to not see them live throughout the year.

Triptykon: Eparistera Daimones
If you liked Celtic Frost's Monotheist, this should be right up your alley. Tom G. Warrior has ditched the unnecessary ballast and is doing the best thing yet in his career.

Tuvalu: Tuvalu
With this, their latest, Tuvalu prove again their ability to write excellent music with aspects of everything that's good about progressive rock.

Ufomammut: Eve
Approaching psychedelic doom from a completely different angle than Electric Wizard, Ufomammut sound very much like their name, which is pretty awesome.