One of the most powerful, profound and beautiful works of catharsis to emerge this year, ‘Sunbather’ is all the more remarkable for its originality. Taking their shoegaze-inflected black metal / post-rock fusion in myriad new directions, the San Francisco outfit come flying out of the blocks with ‘Dream House’, a whirlwind of mournful atmospherics and relentless percussion, and they don’t look back. Stitched together by hazy and quietly menacing interludes it’s captivating from start to finish, vocalist George Clarke turning in an incredible performance that’s grounded in textbook black metal rasp, but imbued with immense anguish. Uneasy listening doesn’t get much better.

The musicians in this quartet can play anything they want convincingly. Whether it's prog metal (opener "Pretelethal"), edgy emo ("Gravity's Union" and "Dark Side of Me") Thin Lizzy-influenced arena rock ("Away We Go"), cosmic, acoustically driven ballady ("Iron Fist"), Pink Floyd-ian rock ("Hard Sell"), and even '80s pop ("Number City," which contains a horn section and actually invokes memories of Wham!). While that last one may terrify those who have been with the band from the beginning, it shouldn't. A listen to "Key Entity Extraction V: Sentry the Defiant" should convince them that their knotty brand of prog-punk metal is alive and well. Album-closer "2's My Favorite 1" is a big, explosive rock & roll love song that not only throws CC's original love of Rush into the mix, but showcases their seemingly effortless ability to construct massive hooks that don't let go. On Afterman: Descension, Coheed and Cambria prove that while they may be more accessible than ever before, it's not for lack of adventure or musical ambition, it's because of them.

'Disarm The Descent' is a record which seems to have been written with the understanding that it would be perceived as the new standard-bearer; the record that would carve in stone the sonic legacy of Metalcore's banner band, or stand as the line of demarcation between the old guard and the shape of pinched harmonics to come. 'Disarm' has answered the call and then some, and Killswitch have offered a record that will suffer incalculable assassination attempts while it delivers track after track of calculated fury; seemingly unaware of the internet arrows that fall well short of their intended mark.

...Like Clockwork is the first Queens Of The Stone Age album since 2007's Era Vulgaris and, according to its founder constant, Joshua Homme, "...like clockwork was the only thing that didn't happen. " After a "manic year, " Homme and the current version of the Queens -- veteran Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Shuman and Dean Fertita--along with the outgoing Joey Castillo and returning associate Dave Grohl, decided to embrace The Beast, "ride shotgun on our emotional bandwagon... hold the horrible, lick the lunacy" and, instead of shying away from uncomfortable or painful subject matter -- face it head-on. Along with Grohl, they picked up known associates Mark Lanegan, Nick Oliveri , Jon Theodore (now drumming full-time in the current live incarnation), Sir Elton John, Trent Reznor, Alex Turner and Jake Shears. Whatever happened -- out there, in whatever desert arroyo, former meth lab, decommissioned missile silo, nuclear test site, underground laboratory, convergence of brain waves and gamma rays, QOTSA emerges with not only their best work to date, but one of the most ambitious, fully realized classic rock albums in recent memory.

This album is so deep as the dark layers of the ocean, as the layers of the human mind. It is literal and allegorical the same time. A multilevel album that explores the depths of the ocean (instrumental version) and the human subconsciousness (vocals version) The music is beyond description. It follows the trip to the dark depths with great relevancy, firstly with speed, power and complexity and eventually with slow, doomy and dire metal. The lyrics are influenced by Andrei Tarkovsky' s film "Stalker". If you watch this movie all of the mysterious lyrics come to sense. This is not just an amazing album. This is Art. 10/10

Light Bearer are not stuck in any one strict heavy music genre, but open to everything. What I mean by that is there is no formulaic style to the songs on this album. But to try to give an idea of where they are coming from I’d draw comparisons to unconventional post metal/hardcore bands like Isis, Red Sparowes or Amenra. The two years of development of ‘Silver Tongue’ has brought interrelated and interwoven changes which seamlessly merge with it’s narrative. Would it be OK to use a word like ‘beautiful’ with such aggressive heavy music? With a personality and style well and truly all their own. The cello goes very deep on ‘Matriarch’, a dark slow passage accompanied by very sorrowful singing. Which leads into a crow like vocal sound on the opening of ‘Clarus’, but switches to a church like hymn. These passages lead nicely into a more confrontational ‘Aggressor & Usurper’ which has a real decent ascent and descent throughout. Like an orchestral piece this song has changes which go from a macabre sounding piano and violin. Then to real all out frenzied coarse type hardcore. The final track ‘Silver Tongue’ starts in a completely different manner. It could even be radio friendly in the very beginning. But like a symphony it has changes from a very layered slow pulsating heavy hardcore rhythm to an ambiance with orchestral like percussion. Light Bearer have now set a high standard other bands will have to struggle to match.

It's been a busy year for Kyuss alumni, with the release of both QOTSA's …Like Clockwork and the long-awaited debut from Brant Bjork and John Garcia's Vista Chino. Not to be left out, Ex-Kyuss bassist Scott T. Reeder has a new project in Sun & Sail Club, a collaboration with Fu Manchu's Scott Reeder and Bob Balch. Aside from having twice the usual amount of Scott Reeders, what's striking about Mannequin is Balch's decision to sing all of his parts through a vocoder. His vocals add a cold, spacey element to the band's driving, muscular grooves. The result sounds like a rabble of aliens tearing through the desert on a blasteroid bent on reaching the Joshua Tree ("It's All Your Fault"). Relying heavily on a vocal effect throughout the album might seem like a gimmick, but Sun & Sail Club tempers their vocoder-heavy performances with refreshing instrumental breaks. The vocoder has been creeping its way into metal for some time, appearing on albums by the likes of Cynic, Mastodon and Nachtmystium. Still, its use here is unique and unconventional, pushing Sun & Sail Club's metal into interstellar territory.

The quality of Preachers of the Night relies solely on its simple catchiness; there’s nothing flashy what so ever on the album, it’s just a fun listen. And when I previously said “Powerwolf’s inevitable fame is starting to take form” in the summary, all that means is that this album will surely pick up more fans when they go back on tour. To know what I mean by that is to know what Powerwolf truly sounds like, for they have great potential within their sound. Nevertheless, there is praise for the Greywolf brothers’ improvement on their lead efforts, although they can put more effort into it if they so desire. After all, they do have that potential. Preachers of the Night may be a simple album compromised with expected outcomes, but the album is enjoyable and possibly a guilty pleasure for some. A must listen for any power/heavy metal fans.

Enter Bushcraft, the band’s first full-length album, eleven songs that cultivate varying degrees of loud and fast, fast and hard, hard and…well, harder. It’s an album of perpetual fruition, payoff meeting payoff with gratifying speed and the rush of riff-borne frenzy. Produced by Kurt Ballou (Converge), Bushcraft has less of the jazz-rhythmic dexterity of its smaller predecessor and more a punk flavored shock of rhythm guitar swells (Betterment), blast beats (Think Tank Breed) and choked frets (Bullets). The immediacy rarely breaks stride long enough to catch its breath, an expressway to yr skull resolved to impact and leave everything in its path to ruin.

Ready for one of the most beautiful ugly sounding albums you’ve ever heard? Then you’re ready for Last Poem/First Light, the new album from New York’s own So Hideous, innovators of blackened orchestral post-hardcore (yeah, you read that right). Recorded with The First Light Orchestra, a ten-person string section, a vocalist, and a tuba player (!), Last Poem/First Light may be the first album ever released to unite fans of Buried Inside with fans of Celeste. “Epic” and “raw” are both terms which get thrown around to describe metal bands all the time, but in the case of So Hideous, they really are the most fitting descriptors. Few bands can sound so furious and so morose at the same time. We promise you won’t regret it.

I'm curious about the new Deltron though.

Nice, Dov.
Tyler was pretty OK. Should see if I track down that Clutch...

Clutch | Earth Rocker
Deltron 3030 | Event Two
Year of No Light | Tocsin

Good call on the Anciients, altho I'd place it higher. That disc blows my little mind.

Was really into the Kids of Bodum for a while, but didn't bother to check it out, thinking it would be the same ol same ol. Worth a listen, you say? Hm.

The Joanna Gruesome? Yech. Too amateurish and shitty-sounding for me.

Anciients was an early favorite of mine too, but like a lot of records that came out early in the year, they either were brilliant and held my interest till 'Poll time', or they eventually got a bit forgotten....I thoroughly enjoy it still though!

This was my first exposure to Children of Bodom and I loved it....Slowly working my way backwards with them....

amateur and shitty sounding is what kind of made me 'fall' for this record....hahah....

You know, if you like the Children of Bodom stuff, you might also like: Haken's The Mountain and Trivium's Vengeance Falls. Both of those are in my top 20 for the year.

Have you heard the new Beastmilk and/or Lumbar records?

I've had that Mogwai Les Revenants sitting on my shelf sealed for the past five months.
I finally was in the mood to spin this and I already like it a lot better than most of their recent crunchier output.

I had given up on them as well... I liked em from the start and then one day just decided I was bored with them and basically erased them from my mind.....I'm a sucker for bands that record soundtracks, and this one was about Zombies, so I picked it up and remembered that I can find space to have them in my life...