Top Metal Albums of 2014 Part 2

Still hanging in there? Wondering what musical mystery spot we will be stopping at this time? Well hop on and lets take this ride, while we discover yet more albums of the year, as divined by me. Part one can be found here.

10. At the Gates-At War With Reality

Oh At The Gates! How the metal world has missed you. It has (had) been nearly 20 years since At The Gates Slaughter of The Soul was released. As such there was a vast amount of excitement and trepidation when the Swedish melodic death metal act released their promo video for their new album At War with Reality. I feel that they delivered what was expected, releasing a fine album that continues where they left off with Slaughter of The Soul it is a stripped down death metal album hitting all the “style” points of the genre, Tomas Lindberg keeps his screeching vocals here too. Due to the stripped out nature, and lack of progressive song writing, or musicianship, there is almost a thrashy quality to this album once again. Yet, despite their lack of crafty song writing, or progressive genre bending found in either The Red in The Sky is Ours, or Terminal Spirit Disease At The Gates prove why they are the band that led the way, a no thrills album, but no less thrilling.

9. Falloch-This Island, Our Funeral

Hailing from Scotland, Falloch are an interesting blend of sounds, which I am so happy I discovered this year. They take folkish elements, mining their Scottish roots, and mix that in with blackened metal, and melodic soundscapes. Together, this creates a beautiful haunting album that perfectly invokes rolling hills, and misty skies. A dreamy album to grab a hot beverage, and get lost in and providing something different in the genre. If I had to point out something it doesn’t do well, it’s simply intensity, but there are other bands that have that covered!

8. Arch Enemy-War Eternal

Swedish death metal act, Arch Enemy answered the question that hung over them emphatically. Just two weeks after the band announced their intention to release War Eternal the at the time singer Angela Gossow released a statement that she would be stepping down as vocalist, and welcomed her replacement Alissa White-Gluz, who had been personally head-hunted by Gossow. From this point on, questions would hang over the album. How would Gossow’s departure affect the band? Would White-Gluz be able to deliver what was needed on vocals?

The album was released by Century Media in June, while I admit I haven’t followed Arch Enemy that much-I am familiar enough with their work to happily say that they have not missed a step. White-Gluz does a fantastic job with the vocals, proving she can hang with some of the better death metal vocalists. The song writing provides some memorable hooks and riffs, and everything sits together as an album nicely, in places the guitar work almost threatens to burst into a power-metal-esc riff, but I guess that would always be a danger with more melodic play styles. The production is of similar quality, with everything being given its own place in the mix, but nothing really shines through. A fine and tightly crafted album which sees in the new era of Arch Enemy and White-Gluz rather handily. I for one cannot wait to see where this new look Arch Enemy goes now that they have Jeff Loomis drafted in on guitar.

7. Job for A Cowboy-Sun Eater

Sun Eater is another one of those no thrills, yet solid death metal albums. While it does enough to be considered here and maybe stand as one of the better albums the genre has offered recently; certainly deserving its place in a list albums that would show burgeoning musicians how to construct music for the genre, it does not redefine or break any moulds.

However, that is not a slur to the album, or the work of JFAC. This album shows a great progression, in fact this is the first time I have invested both time and money into this band and it is entirely because of this album. Initially I dismissed them and their earlier work because they were just “another deathcore band” in a genre that was already bloated with cookie-cutter music, so I dismissed them without even a care, or a listen. I am here to atone for that-in fact as I write this, their early work now plays in the background.

Although this new release steps away from the “deathcore” label, and moves more towards “technical death metal.” Riffs that wonder various musical virtues with an almost “progressive” mastery, groove laden bass underpins the whole album, with a production value that is blissful-in fact, in some songs, Nick Schendzielos’ bass playing really steals the show and guttural vocals punch through the mix. Yet, if this album has one quality in spades, it is that it is relentless. That is not to say that it is wall to wall blast beats, or double kick. It is more to do with the pacing of the album, the first few tracks do a good job of allowing the listener to digest what is going on, and become acquainted with what might come and as a whole, the album never seems to go off track, while it might not be filled with 5 star tracks, there is no single track that feels out of place, or bad.

6. Lantlos-Melting Sun

Lantlos are another band whom I only just discovered this year.  They are a blackgaze band, that is-a band that fuses black Metal and shoegaze. critcs tell me that their earlier work has many more “metal” highlights, though I have been too infatuated with this album to venture back through their previous work. Right off the bat, I want to say that I love this album, it manages to meld the dense song structures, and the aggressive entropy of black metal, with the abstract, trance inducing textures and soundscapes of shoegaze. The whole experience feels divine, and I don’t mean that in the superlative sense. The album simply adheres to the “anticipation” build up creating a series of trippy crescendos that ascend the listener to their triumphant euphoric place, guided there by the meandering vocals that add beautifully to the darkening melodious world they were crafted within. (The album art is also really pretty)

So there you have it, another set of 5! I want to wish you all a Happy Christmas and I shall see you not too long after once I have sobered up enough to deliver my final five. Part 3 can now be found here

Keep Rocking \m/

Gary (@thewheelbear)

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