Top 10 of 2009 Part 2: 10-1

Here's the follow-up to the first ten of the top twenty of 2009. I don't claim to be a critic so I don't deal in cultural milestones, pop music or any of the other crap your friends at Rolling Stone may be soiling themselves over. This is just music that helped get me through a very exciting and turbulent year. Hopefully if anyone reading this sees something they like I will have gotten some of my favorite bands new fans!

10. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
Another supergroup???? Normally releases like this are massive hype/income generators for the musicians involved (or in the case of Velvet Revolver or Audioslave, mainstream radio rock shit heaps) that fade away once it's time for the main bands to put out a record. Where TCV differs is in the music itself - it's fresh, vital and out of the ordinary. Many fans complained that the band sounds too much like Queens of the Stone Age, but I get the feeling that those people gave the album one or two listens and gave up. If this was put out under the QOTSA name I'd say it was their best release since Songs For the Deaf. As it is, TCV have unleashed a rocking and textured album that recalls not only the best moments in Homme's post-Kyuss catalog, but also includes elements of classic Zeppelin, Cream and psychedelia. Definitely more of a grower than a shower.

Recommended Tracks: No One Loves Me and Neither Do I, Bandoliers, Reptiles, Warsaw or The Last Breath You Take Before Giving Up, Caligulove


9. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
My exposure to electronic/dance oriented music has been very limited, and my knowledge of Sweden's The Knife even more so, so the fact that one of my favorite releases of the year is a sideproject of their singer is kinda bizarre. A friend of mine played me a track off this album sometime in November and I was hooked. The combination of ethereal, haunting vocal melodies and otherworldly atmospheres sucked me in from the first track. The beats and use of texture on this album are exquisite, drawing the listener in one track at a time as each song improves upon the last.

Recommended Tracks: If I Had A Heart, Seven, Concrete Walls, Keep The Streets Empty For Me

8. Porcupine Tree - The Incident
I think Steven Wilson has been spending a lot of time listening to his own solo work. And who can blame him? His latest album, 2008's Insurgentes is a mix of classic Porcupine Tree riffing, psychedelia and ambient noise. The influences on that record have definitely found their way into the 'Tree's latest two-disc offering, a shocking left hand turn coming off of 2007's successful Fear of A Blank Planet. Where the previous album dealt in Meshuggah-esque heaviness, bewildering song structures and the occasional bit of pop, The Incident takes every element of the band's twenty-year career and consolidates them into a single fifty-minute suite. While lacking in some of the great hooks that made albums like In Absentia and Lightbulb Sun so rewarding, The Incident is one great slow-burn of a double album that slowly yields its rewards over time.

Recommended Tracks: The Blind House, Drawing The Line, Time Flies, I Drive the Hearse, Bonnie the Cat

7. Shrinebuilder - Shrinebuilder
This album has the noteworthy distinction of being the second supergroup on the list, the second album to feature Wino and the third to be self-titled. I would also consider it to be the first "meta-doom" album ever released. After all, with a lineup like Wino (The Obsessed, Saint Vitus), Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Al Cisneros (Om, Sleep) and Dale Crover (Melvins), anything they release can be considered kind of a commentary on the past, present and future state of doom metal. The music on here is surprising considering the members' pedigrees - rather than tap into the misanthropic dirges of Neurosis or the rocking swagger of The Obsessed, the album plays out closer to an Om record with multiple vocalists and harmony guitars. Although it's very easy to pick out parts ("That's a Scott riff, that's a Wino riff," etc) it's the way each member contributes to the whole that makes this a compelling listen.

Recommended Tracks: Pyramid of the Moon, The Architect

6. Heaven and Hell - The Devil You Know
This is nowhere near the best recording that Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice have made together, but I'll be damned if it isn't the freshest sounding. Let's dispense with the formalities, this IS the record Black Sabbath would've made if they were still together in 2009. Although it's a flawed album (some of the song structures are repetitive and some tracks are lackluster), the fact that it's this GOOD and HEAVY and springs forth with more life than a lot of bands half their age shows how much the world still needs a working Black Sabbath lineup. And work they do... Dio's on his third chemo treatment for stomach cancer and they already have tourdates booked for June of this year!

Recommended Tracks: Atom and Evil, Fear, Bible Black, Follow the Tears

5. The Appleseed Cast - Sagarmatha
Okay, I said Animal Collective's newest would be the prettiest-sounding album on the list and that was a lie. Sagarmatha by the Appleseed Cast is! Let's just ignore the fact that the artwork on the CD version is a complete joke (the LP sleeve is what's pictured) and discuss the shimmering, orgasmic music contained within. Their brand of indie/post-rock is all-too-commonly imitated in today's musical landscape and it's refreshing to hear that the band can still come up with interesting, vital music that leaves imitators dead in their tracks.

Recommended Tracks: The Road West, One Reminder An Empty Room, Like A Locus (Shake Hands With the Dead)

4. Katatonia - Night is the New DaySo their last two albums were kinda nu-metally (kinda as in "hey, let's play heavy like Tool and swear a lot to captivate American audiences!") but not really that bad. As a fan of the band's great albums Last Fair Deal Gone Down and Tonight's Decision, though, I longed for the day Katatonia would return to a more textured, atmospheric sound and Jonas would go back to crooning as though his heart had been torn out and stomped on. While still a natural progression from 2006's The Great Cold Distance, NITND finds Katatonia in a very dark, desolate place. The band finds solace in the sadness of Jonas Renske's vocals, Anders Nystrom's heavy riffs and the deep, dark blanket of synths provided by newcomer Frank Default. The most exciting thing about this album, though, is wondering how the hell they're gonna follow it up!

Recommended Tracks: Forsaker, The Longest Year, Onward Into Battle, Nephilim

3. MF Doom - Born Like This
Doom went into obscurity for a good four years only to reappear in early 2009 with this dark, angry and cynical release. Sure, there are some recycled beats and tracks here and there but it's all capped off by Doom's insane flow and cryptic, scathing and humorous lyrics. The production is uniformly good and the inspired guest spots (including Ghostface, Raekwon, Empress Starhh, Bumpy Knuckles and others) help to set this album apart from so many others released this year.

Recommended Tracks: Gazillion Ear, Ballskin, Batty Boyz, Angelz, Microwave Mayo

2. Doomriders - Darkness Come AliveI like Doomriders' first album, Black Thunder. It sounds like Danzig and Entombed had a little too much whiskey one night and had a baby and then let a bunch of street punks adopt it. It was a fun little record, backed up by a tight and fun live show. I honestly wasn't expecting a followup, and certainly not one this good. Darkness Come Alive makes Black Thunder look like an anomaly, the difference between graduating middle school and graduating college. While BT was a fun-time party record, Doomriders seriously up the ante on their second release, crafting an album that manages to be both stone-cold serious and fun at the same time. The riffs are fantastic and diverse, covering ground between old-school heavy metal, tough-guy hardcore and stoner rock without seeming derivative or forced at any time. The vocals scream and yell with passion and venom. This album is so good I almost wish Nate Newton would quit Converge and tour with Doomriders full time.

Recommended Tracks: Come Alive, Crooked Path, Lions, Blood Avenger

1. Church of Misery - Houses of the Unholy
Everything about this album is perfect. From the excellent, Blue Note Records-inspired artwork to the crushing but clear production, Church of Misery's third full-length album swaggers confidently out of Japan into the U.S via Rise Above Records (now distributed by Metal Blade!) and we are all better people because of it. They take elements of Eyehategod, classic heavy metal (Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Sir Lord Baltimore [who see a hell of a cover on this album]) and a weirdness associated only with the Japanese and make a miraculous, clever and blood-soaked album that should be mandatory listening for any fan of doom metal. Every element, from the artwork to the serial killer themes to the music itself, coalesces in a way that somehow manages to one-up every other album that came out this year.

Recommended Tracks: El Padrino (Adolfo De Jesus Costanzo), Blood Sucking Freak (Richard Trenton Chase), Born to Raise Hell (Richard Speck)

Honorable Mentions:
Dalek - Gutter Tactics
The Gates of Slumber - Hymns of Blood and Thunder
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Parlamentarisk Sodomi - De Anarkistikske An(n)aller
Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II

Top 20 of 2009: 20-11

Yeah, I know we're already half a month into 2010 but that's given me ample time to reflect upon the bounty of musical riches that 2009 gave us. This list went through a lot of editing and reflection to get to it's present form and I hope readers get something out of it.

20. Candlemass - Death Magic Doom
Was it really three years ago already that Candlemass announced Solitude Aeturnus vocalist Robert Lowe would be joining their ranks? In that time the band has toured the world (including the U.S. for the first time in seventeen years), put out an EP and this confident, eight-song full-length release. The music is aggressive, dark and intense, probably some of the strongest material this band has ever put out. DMD also finds Lowe coming into his own as Candlemass' mouthpiece, delivering an assured, malevolent and confident vocal performance that outshines 2007's King of the Grey Islands.

Recommended Tracks: Demon of the Deep, House of 1000 Voices, Hammer of Doom

19. Big Business - Mind the Drift
These guys are busy, between touring with the Melvins and as themselves it's a wonder they have any time to write and record new Big Business material. it's a good thing they do, because this record has some of the best material the band has ever written. With the addition of Toshi as a full-time guitarist (rather than just a live player), BB has the opportunity to explore all sorts of textural nuances they never could have otherwise in a duo context. Rather than just play rhythm, Toshi plays screaming lead licks and textures that compliment the already massive wall of distorted bass.

Recommended Tracks: Cats, Mice, The Drift, Theme From Big Business II

18. Wino - Punctuated Equilibrium

As a Wino fan, I bought all of the Hidden Hand's material despite my reservations about its' quality and the horrific vocals of bassist Bruce Falkinburg. I was kinda relieved when the band broke up, knowing that whatever project Mr. Weinrich took part in next would probably have less grating vocal stylings. Lo and behold I was right! January 2009 brought us this colossal gem, an album Wino has been waiting his entire career to unleash on the unsuspecting masses. A lot of why this album works has to do with the fantastic rhythm section of Clutch's Jean-Paul Gaster and Joe Blank (RIP), whose drum and bass stylings add a loose, funky classic rock groove to the proceedings. And those riffs! It's refreshing to hear Wino let rip as only he can, unfettered by the restrictions of a lesser band.

Recomended Tracks: Punctuated Equilibrium, The Woman in the Orange Pants, Secret Realm Devotion

17. Vektor - Black Future
For a great deal of 2007 and 2008 you couldn't swing a vintage pair of 1980s Converse Chuck Taylors without hitting someone holding a neo-thrash album. This cute trend, which attempts to emulate the sounds of such bands as Testament, DRI, old Slayer and Exodus, is full of seventeen-year-old losers writing songs about beating up poseurs, rocking out in the pit and wearing daddy's old patch jackets. Where bands like Municipal Waste were content to create their own visual aesthetic and sound based on the bygone era of eighties thrash, countless other bands swooped in to rip off classic artists in an attempt to cash in. This is not the case with Vektor. At first glance, their artwork (and logo!) paint them as nothing more than Voivod rip-off artists. Musically, this is not the case. Vektor, on their second album, whips together a frenzied cocktail of old Voivod, Coroner, Watchtower and Destruction into a potent blend of sonic destruction. Even the production sounds distinctly late eighties, whereas the music itself points squarely towards the future of the thrash genre.

Recommended Tracks: Black Future, Forests of Legend, Hunger For Violence, Accelerating Universe

16. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post PavillionThis is probably the prettiest sounding album on the list, and with damn good reason. It has hooks like a Japanese whaling boat that sink in and (unlike a ship used to kill innocent sea mammals) won't tear you apart. On this release, the band temporarily abandons some of their more experimental/avant-garde tendencies and makes a shimmering alt-pop masterpiece that leaves its sonic imprint on your brain long after the last listen.

Recommended Tracks: My Girls, Summertime Clothes, Lion in A Coma

15. Eagle Twin - The Unkindness of Crows
The twisted, drunken lovechild of Tom Waits and Scott Kelly has noisy baritone guitar intercourse with the heaviest-hitting drummer this side of Dale Crover. The music itself is dense, noisy, twisting and turning, piling Gentry Densley's whiskey-soaked blues baritone on top of some of the heaviest riffs to see release in 2009. These guys deliver live, too, a rare feat for a two-piece built upon such density.

Recommended Tracks: In The Beginning Was the Scream, Storytelling of Ravens, Crow Hymn

14. Converge - Axe to FallConverge take a step back from their brutal 2006 offering No Heroes and decide to paint outside the lines a little bit. This plays out like a combination of their last three efforts, taking the assured, confident songwriting of No Heroes, the dark experimentation of You Fail Me and the unbridled aggression of Jane Doe and combining them in one effort. Guitar solos and melodic vocals on a Converge album? Hell yes. Never worked better before.

Recommended Tracks: Dark Horse, Reap What You Sow, Worms Will Feed/Rats Will Feast, Cruel Bloom, Wishing Well

13. Sunn O))) - Monoliths and DimensionsSunn's new album is like the continuation of the steps made forward on Altar and Oracle. The addition of brass instruments and the continued contribution of Attila Csihar on vocals creates a dark, impenetrable atmosphere that envelops the listener. I'd also like to point out the fantastic artwork - this is a record to be experienced in full at 2 AM, under some otherworldly influences with the album art spread out in front of you.

12. Cable - The Failed Convict
A massively underrated band who's broken up countless times and should be as big as their contemporaries Coalesce and Isis, Cable reunited to play some shows in 2008 and then released this album in late August to almost nonexistent reception. This is a shame, because on their sixth full-length release Cable show a great deal of diversity. The Failed Convict is a concept album about, well, a convict. I won't spoil the story but needless to say, he isn't a very good convict. Luckily for us, the music is great, combining southern rock influences, noisy post-hardcore, sludge and other elements into a diverse and potent stew. And the gang vocals! Holy shit, the gang vocals.

Recommended Tracks: Be the Wolf (holy southern chain gang vocals, Batman!), The Smashing Machine, Men on Mountains, Running Out of Roads to Ride

11. Gnaw Their Tongues - All the Dread Magnificence of PerversityThis is one of those albums that made me feel like taking a shower after listening to it. It's kinda like the audio equivalent of Lars Von Trier's fantastic Antichrist. At first I felt as though I needed a really good reason to justify liking something like this. My familiarity with noise is very limited - I'm not quite sure at times how to judge the genre on its own merits beyond "this doesn't annoy me." The more I listen to this, the more I hear the various layers and sounds Mories has deliberately laid down for the listener to discover. The atmosphere is thick, disquieting and creates an aura of repulsion and sickness that few recordings managed to get across in 2009.

Coming soon: 10-1, Top Movies of 2009 and the Top Films of the Decade!!!!