As I find myself getting deeper and deeper into metal and noise music in their many forms, I am constantly reminded of the cleansing, purifying power of heavy music. Unlike anything else, I rely on this music to scrape the grime and frustrations from my brain after a long day, almost as if the human mind requires something equally chaotic and destructive as itself to draw solace from. 2017 was an especially trying time for me, and as a result I found myself gravitating towards the noisiest, most brutal and uncompromising records I could find this year. So for those who gravitate towards the beer drinking, good times, thrash metal side of things, you have been warned. Here are my top metal/noise records of 2017, in no particular order.
Hell - Hell
Right off the bat, let me tell you that this album wins the award for most insane guitar tone of 2017, created by what I can only assume is a massive stack of tube amps filled with loose chunks of concrete and nails, carrying with it demonic screeching vocals which boil from the very depths of the earth. A gritty masterpiece, unrelenting and dense, unleashing equal parts doom, sludge, and stoner-metal, and leaving behind a wake of destruction.
https://loweryourhead.bandcamp.com/album/hell-full-length
Endon - Through the Mirror
From the very first moments of this record, the listener is confronted with an overwhelming blast of white noise, a relentless and unceasing inferno that goes on just a little longer than the brain is comfortable processing, almost as if the band made a conscious effort to both challenge and scare off potential listeners from the beginning with a simple warning; "This will not be easy". Blending desperate post hardcore screeches sounding like the excision of some deep sickness, Japanese art-noise sensibilities, and crushing waves of power-electronics, Through the Mirror feels less like an album than a full on mental collapse, the sound of a band leaving behind it's humanity, embracing the raving, drooling animal inside, and revelling in the freedom of chaos.
https://endon.bandcamp.com/
Lingua Ignota - All Bitches Die
Speaking of difficult listens, here's a record that sort of feels like accidentally walking into a room during a sacrificial ritual; You know you shouldn't stay and watch, but a part of you suspects that this experience has the potential to transform something deep within yourself. This is a heavy and unflinching piece of performance art that transcends both genre and medium, a meditation on abuse and survival that is unapologetic and brutal in it's purity. Elements of the ritualistic invocations of later-era Swans come to mind, with the guttural primal screams of a individual communing with an inner self forced to lay dormant for far too long. Moments of all-encompassing rage and blackened noise are contrasted by moments of delicateness and utter vulnerability, a soul laid so bare as to make the listener uncomfortable; as it should. This is important work, and your willingness to traverse such discomforts will reveal one of the most rewarding artistic works of the year, if not this decade.
https://linguaignota.bandcamp.com/album/all-bitches-die
Gnod - JUST SAY NO TO THE PSYCHO RIGHT-WING CAPITALIST FASCIST INDUSTRIAL DEATH MACHINE
A band that often defies any easy categorization, the constantly shifting and evolving entity that is Gnod makes it's next logical step forward in sound, this time absorbing all the horrors and despair of the current social/political/economic environment and responding with an arsenal of molotov cocktails and spiked baseball bats. This is the "fuck you" album of the year, repetitive, hypnotizing bass lines, industrial crashes and a cacophony of sludged out, pissed off guitars trying to be heard over one another, being held together by the contentious punk-rock vocals of a well-aging punk who sounds like he's been in every argument at least once, and won at least half of them.
https://gnod.bandcamp.com/album/just-say-no-to-the-psycho-right-wing-capitalist-fascist-industrial-death-machine
Gravetemple - Impassable Fears
In many cases, the formation of a supergroup often tends to result in something much less than the sum of it's parts. In the case of Gravetemple, this couldn't be farther from the truth. Attila Csihar's vocals sound like the unforgiving judgement of some sort of cosmic, world eating deity, while Oren Ambarchi's spastic six-armed free jazz drumming from hell and Stephen O'Malley's crushing assault of overdriven guitar bring a wave of debris and filth that loom overhead, threatening to crush the listener at any second. This is music for the end times.
https://gravetemple.bandcamp.com/album/impassable-fears
Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
There is no specific order to this list, but if there was, Mirror Reaper would undoubtably take the number one spot. Written amidst the tragic loss of drummer/one half of the band Adrian Guerra, and stretched over one 84 minute long track, this is not casual listen by any means. Grief and regret create are an ever-present sense of gloom surrounding the slowly evolving, soaring guitars and painfully restrained drum crashes, leading this funeral procession crawling slowly towards certain oblivion. The use of recurring melodic themes and motifs feel like the brush strokes of an expert painter, each moment within this genius piece of composition soundly exactly right, like a story coming full circle.
https://bellwitch.bandcamp.com/album/mirror-reaper
Planning for Burial - Below the House
Sitting somewhere between the blackened, doomy shoegaze of Jesu, and the aching slowcore of Bedhead, Below the House provides the perfect soundtrack to staring out your window this winter. Maybe it's the suggestive artwork that looks so much like the suburban home I grew up in, or maybe it's the fact that this was all written in self imposed isolation in Thom Wasluck's childhood home, but the sounds of this album immediately bring to mind memories of being a lonely teenager trapped in a small town, a time when everything was felt so deeply, swallowed daily by introspection and hopelessness and a desperate need for connection. Without contest, this is THE winter album of 2017.
https://planningforburial.bandcamp.com/album/below-the-house-2
Primitive Man - Caustic
A punishing experience to it's core, listening to Primitive Man can sometimes feel like being pulled into a black hole devoid of light or meaning, a world inhabited by nothing but the absolute deepest of darkness. The words "brutal", "punishing" and "crushing" come to mind, not unlike a physical weight pressing down on your chest and allowing for only the shallowest of breaths. And for some crazy reason, I cannot help but revisiting it. In a world of artistic compromise, there is a sort of purity in music willing to commit so fully to a sound so horribly oppressive, like the distillation of every evil thought and ill-wish you've ever had into 78 minutes of scorching, unrelenting hell on earth.
https://primitivemandoom.bandcamp.com/album/caustic