Top Albums of 2009 [column]

It was a hectic year, and trying to come up with a top 10 list to close things out seemed like an almost overwhelming task. Where there really 10 albums that stood out to me? Well, when I finally sat down to build and rank a list, I realized there was, and then some. There were obvious picks, and happy surprises, and a couple that came out of left field and completely blew me away. At the end of the day, this represented, to me, the best 2009 had to offer.

So, without further ado...

Best albums of 2009...

10 (tie).

Taking Back Sunday
New Again
(Warner Bros. Records)
30 Seconds to Mars
This is War
(Virgin Records)
Eyes Set to Kill
The World Outside
(Breaksilence Records)

And in a cheat of sorts, a three-way tie for the No. 10 slot. Taking Back Sunday sounds positively invigorated on New Again, Snarling through an enjoyable mix of high-energy tracks with the typical trademark tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Check out the catchy-as-hell “Summer, Man,” the melancholic “Where My Mouth Is” and infectious “Swing.”

While a daunting task to follow-up the break-out A Beautiful Lie album, 30 Seconds to Mars didn’t try to make a sequel, and instead crafted one of the most interesting albums of 2009. From the slow build of “Escape” to the explosive anthem “Kings and Queens,” the band continues to surprise as an alternative standard bearer.

Finally, the sophomore release from Eyes Set to Kill. The beauty of the music that Eyes Set to Kill are beginning to craft is in the juxtaposition of the various elements continues to mature. Whether it’s the dual-vocal approach, the quieter piano moments sandwiched between stutter-stop riffing and thunderous groove, or when the parts pull into one mass attack (executed to perfection on “The Hollow”), the band never seems to get lost or overdo it with the individual elements.

9.

Pearl Jam
Backspacer
(Universal Distribution)

"When somethings broke, I wanna put a bit of fixin on it; When somethings bored, I wanna put a little exciting on it; If somethings low, I wanna put a little high on it; When somethings lost, I wanna fight to get it back again."

Pearl Jam’s recent rocker, Backspacer follows in the footsteps of 2002's Riot Act, and while the band has, in many ways, moved away from the raw power of Ten or Vs. (something I think it tried to recapture with the self-titled album a few years ago), it’s still able to put out a raucous collection of music, continuing an almost 20-year streak and pretty much solidifying a spot as one of the most reliable rock bands of the last, well, 20 years.

8.

Thursday
Common Existence
(Epitaph Records)

"When I first saw you there were guns in the river; Black birds of warning circling high above the marquee where the blue notes of lovers mixed with the loneliness of others turned our breath into snowflakes as we whispered in the gutters."

Thursday seemed to have rediscovered and recaptured the energy and emotion so prevalent on the band’s first two albums and channeled it into one raging beast of an album. While the band sort of drifted off into mellower, experimental fare gradually over the past couple of albums, Common Existence is a true return to form. From the abrasive album opener “Resuscitation of a Dead Man” to the slow-burn dirge of closer “You Were the Cancer,” every song is a Thursday masterpiece.

7.

Slayer
World Painted Blood
(American Recording)

"Like a storm that devastates; Religious power instigate; Take religion to my confession; There is no filter on my aggression; With a blister open wide; To keep the massacre alive; I got cold devastation; With my moral imperfection."

What World Painted Blood does manage to do, is far outshine the band’s more recent releases (2001’s God Hates Us All and the oft-overlooked 2006 release Christ Illusion), and it does so by pulling from a deep bag of tricks, strung together to craft their best offering of the new millennium. There’s a little bit of everything on here: Tom Araya’s schizophrenic vocal delivery on the blistering “Hate Worldwide” and deliberate “Public Display of Dismemberment”; the pure thrash bliss of “Unit 731”; the punk aesthetic of “Snuff”; the chilling dirge of “Playing With Dolls”. Truth be told, the band almost seems to have taken a page out of 1990’s Seasons in the Abyss, shifting between the roles of chaotic thrash masters or slowing things down to sound like the metallic bringers of death.

6.

Mastodon
Crack the Skye
(Reprise Records)

"The screaming arrows tear through my soul; In the dawn your face is haunting; White ghostly dreams."

Mastodon continues to push the boundaries of metal, and Crack the Skye further solidifies the band’s post as one of metal’s best new bands. While the album seems more polished and directed than some of the group’s previous efforts, this set is still chock-full of crushing riffs and features two 10-minute-plus epics as the band drifts and lilthes over a musical landscape. A little less stoner-metal, a little more 70s-inspired progressive rock, the band never disappoints as each song impresses more than the last.

5.

Paramore
Brand New Eyes
(Fueled By Raman)

"And the worst part is before it gets any better we‘re headed for a cliff; And in the free fall I will realize I‘m better off when I hit the bottom."

Every band has one of those moments; It’s not necessarily a break-out song or album, but a time where everything falls into place to become a defining moment. This is that moment for Paramore. On this album, the band fires on all cylinders to amazing affect. The music is tight, the lyrics smart and thought-provoking, the songs are catchy at times, deep at others. While All We Know is Falling established the group, and Riot! caught everyone’s attention, it’s Brand New Eyes that proves lead singer Hayley Williams can front a band and command a stage, and the rest of the band continues to craft nice little power pop/punk songs. Of note is the snarling “Ignorance” and “Brick by Boring Brick,” the melancholy of “The Only Exception” and album closer “All I Wanted,” and the near perfection of the album’s best moment, “Turn it Off.”

4.

Lamb of` God
Wrath
(Epic Records)

"Everything you've ever begged me to be; Could never have meant any less to me; Everything you've ever asked me to say; It's so far away from the truth."

Wrath is everything you expect from a Lamb of God album: crushing blast beats and choking rhythm, along with the snarling, haunting vocals of Randy Blyth. The fact of the matter is that, while perhaps not the most innovative metal band out there, Lamb of God has pretty much set the stage to be the best metal act of the decade. Album after album of blistering metal -- at times insanely catchy -- and with little filler, the band’s latest is no different. Opening with a slight curveball with the layered “The Passing,” the band soon explodes with fury with “In Your Words,” grabbing a hold of the listeners’ throats and never letting up. And hey, Slayer is a little predictable, too, but no one’s trying to deny their status as legends.

3.

Silversun Pickups
Swoon
(Dangerbird Records)

"How many times do you wanna die; How many ways; Do you wanna die; Do you feel safe again? look over your shoulder; Very carefully look over your shoulder."

I can’t think of a song in the last five years that has captured my ear quite like the gentle drone of “The Royal We”. It’s like the band somehow recaptured that moment in 1994/1995—the tail end of Jawbreaker and the beginning of Sunny Day Real Estate, with the lo-fi dirge and muddy guitar play. The band is definitely channeling a lot of classic ’90s acts (the aforementioned, and possibly Pixies, or Mudhoney), with just a hint of something like Coheed and Cambria (in the vocal delivery). It sounds like a throwback, but manages to somehow sound fresh at the same time.

2.

Alice in Chains
Black Gives Way to Blue
(Virgin Records)

"And I always paid attention to all the lines you crossed; Forgive this imperfection it shows, and know; I am the child that lives and cries in a corner; Dies in a corner."

The album really picks up where the band left off. Most of the time, you almost forget Layne Staley isn’t still front and center with the group, both a comfort and a curse as a long-time listener. DuVall does a great job continuing in the tradition of the classic AIC sound, managing to somehow emulate Staley but push through with his own style, too. Without going through track-by-track, I’ll simply say that the band does a good job of mixing all the different elements of its sound — with some hard-rockers (“Acid Bubble”), mellow fair à la Jar of Flies (“Your Decision”) and thunderous dirges (“A Looking in View”) — to craft a complete experience. Perhaps not quite the perfect release, it’s exactly what fans were hoping for. And, with the replacement of such a legendary vocalist, way more than most bargained for. In the end, Black Gives Way to Blue is quite the little gem to turn a whole new generation of fans onto the band.


1.

Silverstein
A Shipwreck in the Sand
(Victory Records)

"You broke my heart, You promised me the moon and stars; I fell for your dreams; I fell for your lies; There was no other way; You know I tried. And I knew you could never love me; I had so much sorrow inside; You could never reach; But can I still keep; A place in your heart."

While they could have easily been lumped in with the rest of the dual-vocalist screamo bands that popped up in the early part of the decade, Silverstein offered a little something more. The clear vocals were just melodic enough, and the groove in the guitar work just deep enough, that the band managed to stand out and craft a sound uniquely its own (when you hear a Silverstein song, you can immediately tell it's Silverstein). On this album, everything that made the band unique — each element of its sound and approach to songwriting — seems to have been ratcheted up a notch or 10. Just listen to “American Dream” with its balladic opening that gives way to a hardcore dirge (the spark) that the band is more than willing to douse with enough melody (the fuel) to start, well, a house fire. That driving, hook-laden guitar work pops up in every song, but this time out the band looks to rely on a lot of solid bass work, too, to push the songs forward (check out “You‘re All I Have”). Ultimately, what the band has done a fantastic job of here, is creating a series of moods, dragging the listener on a musical journey through the heartache, betrayal, vengeance and angst—weighty matters to be sure—that are tempered with a lighter mood in the music’s melody.

Top Albums of 2008 [column]

It’s hard to complain when, this year, there were pretty good releases almost every month. And as the year came to a close, I was actually surprised to find that as I tried to cull a best-of list down to ten, I was left with about 20 fantastic albums from which to chose. I did manage to come up with what I saw as the best of the best, but before we get to the main attraction, let's take a look at some of the year's near-misses...

"***"

Firewind - The Premonition
Basically, this is a classic power-metal album—soaring vocals, nothing too loud with plenty of melody, and enough riffs, solos and other various guitar mastery to satiate any metal lover's appetite.

Cradle to Grave - Texas Medicine
Chock-full of thick, meaty riffs, explosive drumming and antagonistic bass licks—not to mention some absolutely crushing groove—the band grabs the listener by the throat with the opening track and proceeds to toss them down eleven flights of stairs.

Seven Mary Three - Day&Nightdriving
The songwriting skills are exemplary: the lyrics are smart, the stories are captivating and the music casually drifts between solid rock and melodic dirges, all with a slight Southern twist.

Kate Voegele - Don‘t Look Away
This album shoots out of the gate with melody and catchy hooks, and never seems to let up. With a voice that betrays her 22 years, Voegele commands attention from the album opener and carries the rest of the album with authority through to the end.

Slipknot - All Hope Is Gone
From the meaty riffs to the thunderous drumming and accentuating added percussion, the turntable scratching to the gang vocals ... just put the title track on and crank the volume to 10 to see all these various elements seamlessly merge together into something no other band on the metal scene has done.

In Flames - A Sense of Purpose
Working within the confines of melodic metal, the band takes more than enough chances and manages to craft such hook-laden tracks that it's almost impossible to resist.

Marie Digby - Unfold
The singer/songwriter incorporates a variety of influences into her songs. There's the usual smattering of pop-rock throughout, but Digby takes a chance or two over the course of the album's journey.

With Dead Hands Rising - Expect Hell
The band sounds tight as hell, tearing through each track with a vengeance; drums and bass shake the listener to the core like a depth charge with a dueling guitar attack taking out anything left moving.

So, without further ado...

Best albums of 2008...

10.

Kingdom of Sorrow
Kingdom of Sorrow
(Relapse Records)

"I turned to stone, once I saw the reflection was my own."

Each track off this self-titled effort spills forth like a avalanche of sludgy, thick sonic turmoil. Jamie Jasta's (Hatebreed) guttural wails merge perfectly with Kirk Windstein's (Crowbar, Down) more mournful howls. From "Free the Fallen" to the one-two opening of "Hear This Prayer for Her" and "Grieve a Lifetime", whether the band tears through the songs or they unfold in a dirge, everything is a perfect melding of metal and mood, anger and harmony, and when they shift gears to a slower, more methodical and melodic approach, the results are equally as good.

9.

Taylor Swift
Fearless
(Big Machine Records)

"And we know it's never simple, never easy. / Never a clean break / No one here to save me You're the only thing I know, like the back of my hand."

Part country, part pop, and catchy as hell. Taylor Swift followed up her smash debut album with the best-selling country album of the year. Sure, the songs still reflect Swift's young mindset, but there's a certain timeless element to them, too. It's all the more impressive that Swift wrote more than half of the album, and co-wrote the rest, which not only puts her in a certain league in the country scene, but well above most of her teen brethren in the pop genre. Mostly love songs, or songs of lost love, there's a song to suit any mood on this album, which makes it one of my favorite on this list.

8.

Candlebox
Into the Sun
(Silent Majority)

"I‘m in the need, of someone to confide. / Surrendering / 'Cause I'm not as strong as you think."

Into the Sun reminds listeners how missed frontman Kevin Martin's soulful vocals have been in the rock scene. The album is immediately comfortable, and Candlebox manages to string together a collection of songs to rival its best effort. The band shifts from louder material ("Stand") to a more laid-back rock-blues approach ("Bitches Brewin'") but really shines the brightest when it gets melancholic ("Surrendering", "Miss You" and the title-track). Managing to channel the ghost of Mother Love Bone, the band just rocks out in every way imaginable. The best part of this entire album is that Candlebox never sounds dated, and the band was never so huge that the effort might reek of a nostalgia trip. Instead, the group puts forth one of this year’s strongest rock releases.

7.

Eyes Set to Kill
Reach
(Break Silence Records)

"Don‘t mind me, I'm only dying."

Eyes Set to Kill could easily draw comparisons to early Atreyu, From Autumn to Ashes or Avenged Sevenfold—but instead of hardcore vocals, the lead vocals are melodic and haunting. The band's dual guitars offer a thick wall of riffs to pull everything together with hooks galore. The drumming is thunderous without being overpowering. The piano or synthesizer pops up at the most unexpected times for a welcome, added dimension of melody. There's no screwing around on Reach, with the blistering metallic numbers ("Violent Kiss"), some epic tracks ("Young Blood Spills Tonight" and "Darling") with plenty of style shifts, and some catchy songs, too (the title track or "Song 2"). Nothing comes across as filler. A fantastic debut full-length from a band on the rise.

6.

Guns N' Roses
Chinese Democracy
(Geffen)

"So now I wander through my days / And try to find my ways / To the feelings that I felt / I saved for you and no one else / And though as long as this road seems / I know it's called the street of dreams / But that's not stardust on my feet / It leaves a taste that's bittersweet / That's called the blues."

Chinese Democracy isn’t a head-banger like Appetite for Destruction, but was that really what fans were expecting? Instead, the album plays out like a compendium of modern-rock, pulling in elements from all corners of the rock/metal genre and really turning everything on its end. The harder material—the title-track, "Riad N’ the Bedouins", "Better", "Catcher in the Rye", "Shackler’s Revenge"—is all heavy on the guitar. And there's plenty of slower, more mood-oriented material to juxtapose those songs ("This I Love", "Madagascar", "Sorry"). Everything is beautifully over-produced, but in a good way; from the slick, layered guitar attack, to the layers upon layers of vocals, it all just seems to work. In the end, Chinese Democracy is one hell of a journey, with musical peaks and valleys that I doubt anyone was expecting. The guitars sound great, and Axl's voice sounds fantastic; he truly has been one of rock's most-missed vocalists. This album becomes more impressive with each spin. Maybe it will never quite live up to the hype, but it doesn't have to.

5.

Trivium
Shogun
(Roadrunner Records)

"I will never be what they / Want me to / I live by my own path in life / No turning / Back now, I won't be held down / Forced into a shallow grave built upon their empty ways / There's no turning back."

It seems like any album by Trivium will find a place on one of my year-end lists. What's even more refreshing is that the band continues to grow and mature with each release. The band kicked off its career with a solid, straight-forward metal effort, followed it up with an even more intense release, then somehow managed to craft a follow-up to ...And Justice for All (even though the band wasn't named Metallica). With Shogun, Trivium crawled out from under the Metallica-wannabe label and crafted one hell of an epic. The songs are crushing and expansive, the lyrics and vocals stronger than any of the group's previous efforts. And the melody infused throughout is so punishing that you can’t help but bang your head and then shake it as the solos spill from your speakers.

4.

Byzantine
Oblivion Beckons
(Prosthetic Records)

"It’s a long road out of hell when you refuse to do the devil’s work."

With Oblivion Beckons, every aspect of Byzantine's sound has been ratcheted up a notch (or 10)—the riffs are thicker and more complex, the drumming more frenetic, the bass meatier and the vocals either grittier, more horrific or melodically haunting. Apart from the band's not-overly-progressive musical approach—there's a nice blend of metal and the nuances of prog without taking it to a limit that would alienate fans of either sub-genre—it's Chris "O.J." Ojeda's vocals that set Byzantine apart from similar acts in the metal scene. He can wail, he can sound like he's screaming from the bowels of hell, and he can also do some fantastic clean vocals (with just enough of a hint of a Southern accent) and somehow marry the two styles into a third monster. Heavy groove permeates every track, and the band’s straight-ahead metal approach harkens to Lamb of God’s delivery, albeit a little less abrasive. That the band is able to incorporate a variety of metal approaches (hints of thrash, an obvious nod to progressive material, the thunderous chug of speed and plenty of tech-inspired riffing) and work it into a cohesive piece, not to mention all of the other elements it throws in for good measure, is a true testament to the talent each member brought to the table.

3.

Children of Bodom
Blooddrunk
(Fontana Universal Records)

"In this shell of life you left me hanging dry / With a smile on my face I'll watch you cry."

This album spills out of the speakers like a wall of sound. Everything is thick, compact and foreboding. The band has incorporated more thrash elements to its repertoire, and it gives the material more of an edge than on its previous album. The rest is vintage Children of Bodom, with killer solos, mind-bending riffs, plenty of keyboards, choking double-bass drumming and a lot of melody to temper the breakneck pacing. With each subsequent spin, the various layers of each song expand before the listener. They like to blend these slower, more melodic elements with a crushing assault ("Tie My Rope" is a good example) to create soundscapes that border on the more accessible orchestrated metal genre.

2.

Metallica
Death Magnetic
(Warner Bros. Records)

"Cause we hunt you down without mercy / Hunt you down all nightmare long / Feel us breathe upon your face / Feel us shift, every move we trace."

This album has grown on me, spin after spin, since its release. Death Magnetic is a completely new monster, and die-hard fans can hear tiny elements from all of Metallica's previous efforts this time around. From the raw ("All Nightmare Long") to the thrash ("My Apocalypse") to the mid-tempo rocker ("The Judas Kiss"), each former album seems represented in some capacity this time out. When Metallica is able to pull pieces from its entire career into one song (like on "The Day That Never Comes") is not only a testament to the band and the album, but also producer Rick Rubin, who's made a name for himself for not only historically bringing the best out of bands, but also for pushing them to explore directions they might not regularly take. There are some really strong elements on Death Magnetic: Kirk Hammett unleashed for the entirety of the album; the crazy groove on the aforementioned "All Nightmare Long"; and check out the spotlight on Robert Trujillo with plenty of bass riffing taking center stage on "Cyanide". This is the "statement" album Metallica needed to make, and it shows why so many bands still point to them as a major influence. Sometimes there's nothing quite as good as a legend out to prove something.

1.

Amon Amarth
Twilight of the Thunder God
(Metal Blade)

"Standing firm against all odds / guarding the most sacred home / we protect the realm of gods / our destiny is carved in stone."

This album just came out of nowhere, grabbed me and just refused to let go. It's punishing metal at its finest; on this album Amon Amarth dialed down the death-metal edge and turned up the epic feel of each song. There's groove and melody and crushing solos... Sure, the title-track kills almost any other metal song to come out this year, but it's the fist-pounding nature of "Guardians of Asgaard" that really captured my attention. And then those moments of pure brilliance, most notably the cello-bridge on "Live for the Kill", that just blew my mind. Heavy metal detailing the life, trials and legends of the Vikings—it might sound ridiculous, but it results in my pick for album of the year.

Notable notables...

Most disappointing music news of the year: Marie Digby lays the foundation for her solo debut with a grassroots effort on YouTube, but after the album's release it is revealed that may have just been a clever marketing ploy by the record company, leaving a lot of fans feeling betrayed with a bitter taste in their mouths.

Most impressive debut album: She & Him's self-titled debut sees Zooey Deschanel's voice instantly capturing the listener as the band takes a musical journey inspired by pop music of the '50s and '60s.

Most underwhelming album: After such high hopes for Ultra Beatdown, Dragonforce somehow managed to craft a solid yet underwhelming retread of Inhuman Rampage.

Best song from a soundtrack (movie or television): The middle-eastern flavor of Guns N’ Roses' "If the World" was the perfect ending for Body of Lies.

Best cover song: Six Feet Under do a version of the Mötley Crüe classic "Bastard", that sounds like it was recorded at the gates of Hell.

Best guest appearance on a song: Colbie Caillat writes and sings with Taylor Swift on "Breathe".