Hail to 2013
Thus...
Wintersun - ST. Completely ott and thus very enjoyable power/battle/prog/everything up to and including the kitchen sink metal. Brilliantly executed and apparently the long gestated follow up is even madder. Huzzah!
Nightwish - Imaginerium. Fab! This is one of those odd albums that come along every so often that, regardless of genre, when you're in the right mood for it, feels like the best album ever made. Gloriously silly and in extra large portions.
Om- Advaitic Songs. Love it!
Baroness - The Red Album/The Blue Record. Top band doing great things. Love their artwork too.
Acoustic Ladyland - Living with a Tiger.
Astra - The Black Chord. Second helping of expansive neo-prog. V good!
Boris - Smile. Ok, I shall 8^D
Muse - The 2nd Law. Very good. I know the notion of some rock bands incorporating dubstep elements in their music arrived with a crashing inevitability, but I think Muse pull it off with taste and discretion here. A strong album.
Diagonal - The 2nd Mechanism. Proglicious!
The Haarp Machine - Disclosure. As you may guess from the name, the lyrical thrust is from the David Icke school of lizard based conspiracy theory, but it's well meant and actually makes sense when it's aligned with some sterling, proggy djent metal with nice arrangements and eastern infused melodies and sounds. Some amazing guitar (and sitar!) work. And at a concise 33 minutes, it doesn't outstay its welcome and demands instant replay to delve into the maelstrom again.
The Contortionist - Intrinsic. Full on djent metal madness. Wheeeee poing chuggachuggachugga briiiiiiiiing aiieeeeee grrrrarrrk glim glim aroooga dunt dunt kaflooey! Like!
Ackercocke - Rape of the Bastard Nazerene. Apparently on hiatus, they remain one of my fave extreme metal bands of recentish years with their heady mix of blackened, melodic Death metal with proggy and occasionally electronic interludes. This debut album from years back suffers a bit from the constraints of a self-released production but still a corker. Think the title panders a bit to the Magic FM massive though.
Beth Hart - Boom Boom Bang Bang. I heard a couple of tracks from an album she recorded with Joe Bonamassa and loved her voice and when I saw this new album as a £1 promo I thought I'd give it a whirl. Nice it is too. Strong songs in the blues, trad r n b redemption from the fallen arena, albeit in something of a 'Later - Jool's' friendly coat, but her fab, damaged-goods voice rises above the backing. Doubt it'll be on huge rotation in my pod, but when I'm in the mood, oh yes! Someone should give her Jimmy Page's phone number.
Bat For Lashes - The Haunted Man. A welcome Chrissy pressie. Very much something of a slow burner and I think I'll always prefer her songs with a more organic coat than the electronic one she favours of late, but a few plays have revealed some excellent songs up there with anything she's done before and I'm looking forward to getting to know this better.
Lord of the Grave - Green Vapour. Aptly named miasmic fug of doom/stoner thrunch and riffage.
Imaad Wasif - The Voidist. Nice mix of folky elements with retro rock stylings and some lush, vintage guitar work.
Jex Thoth - ST. Great, female fronted occult rock.
Ian Skelly - Cut from a Star. After reading nice things about this on Unsung (thanks Andfurthermoreagain!), I was pleased when serendipity provided a promo copy out of the blue a couple of days ago. The ex-drummer of The Coral - a band I'd lost interest in really - turns multi-instrumentalist and produces a very fine slice of psyche/pastoral/folky and even prog-tinged whimsy and charm, evoking shades of early Floyd, Syd, Drake and others of that era. Good songs and lovely, tingly arrangements. Don't know how it compares to latter day Coral, but I like this a lot.
The Creature with the Atom Brain - The Birds Fly Low. Another serendipitous sniff for a quid and v pleased I am too. Excellent Belgian (I think!) 70's hued psyche rock; top tunes and performances and left me hungry for more.
That's me I think.
Have a nice week and a happy new year x
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