My Top 10 Albums

10. Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1 (Nachtmystium) [2008]

#10

The rate at which Nachtmystium has evolved is astonishing. For the majority of their existence, they have been a fairly straightforward United States black metal band. Their early releases are characterized by the raw aesthetics of black metal, and it was only on their 2006 album, Instinct: Decay, that there was a hint at the evolution Nachtmystium was about to undergo.

Don’t go into Assassins, expecting a black metal album because that’s not what you’re going to hear. This is an album that pulls together the many influences of the band members to create a very unique sound. It has been said that this album is what Pink Floyd would sound like if they were a black metal band. To be honest, as silly as that sounds, it probably is one of the more accurate ways to describe this release.

The album starts off with a homage to Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days” from the album Meddle (which the title of Assassins pays tribute to), before jumping into one of the strongest tracks of the album, the title track. It displays some of the numerous styles Nachtmystium pulls together on this album; a strong black metal influenced section, a slower melodic section with an amazing buildup, and some very cool sounding psychedelic sounds at the end.

The album never really hits a weak spot. “Your True Enemy” is the most classic sounding Nachtmystium song on this album, a very aggressive, brutal, and fist pumping track. “Code Negative” is a slow, melodic number with some tasty guitar solos, and the “Seasick” trilogy that ends the album drifts from calm guitars to saxophone solos, and ends with an epic viking-sounding chant.

Obviously when a band goes through such a drastic change as Nachtmystium did, it’s going to leave some people feeling left behind. Assassins is no different. Despite the high praise many publications have given it, there has been some severe backlash from fans who are angry to see one of their favorite bands completely change. This reaction is understandable, but for the open-minded metalhead, this is an incredible album that successfully draws on many influences and wraps it into an enticing package that may not get out of your head for a long time.

9. Traced in Air (Cynic) [2008]

#9

The tension is literally palpable as this album begins. The guitars fade in shredding atonally as tribal drumming begins that gradually grows in intensity. The opening track, “Nunc Fluens”, finally climaxes by resolving into a beautiful guitar riff. This auspicious opening track is only a sign of what’s to come. Over the next half hour, Cynic weaves a fascinating maze of intertwining guitar and bass parts that leaves my jaws hanging open, even dozens of listens after first hearing it. This is technical metal at its absolute finest.

Cynic had a lot to live up to coming into this album. Their first album, Focus, came bursting into the scene in 1993. It has gone down in metal history as one of the finest technical death metal albums released. Unfortunately for us listeners, the band dissolved fairly soon after the release of the debut. Therefore, as the follow up was announced for release in 2008, 15 years of expectations came along with it.

It was then up to Cynic to meet this near impossible challenge. Instead of taking the easy route and releasing a Focus II, which definitely would have pleased most fans, they took it upon themselves to evolve their sound into something more, to better themselves. Traced in Air is a continuation of the ideas present on their debut, an evolution of their already very unique sound. Cynic essentially dropped the “death” part of their sound, mostly because the death growls are near absent on this album. This is a progressive metal album in the truest sense; “progressive” in this context meaning forward-thinking and revolutionary.

As is to be expected when you have a decade and a half of expectations building up to an album, some fans’ hopes were not fulfilled. However, anyone who went into the album with a somewhat open mind came away astonished by the excellence of Traced in Air. It doesn’t matter if Cynic doesn’t release another album, or if it takes another 15 years to do so. They haven’t released just one genre-defining album, they now have released two. How many other bands can claim that feat?

8. F♯A♯∞ (Godspeed You! Black Emperor) [1997]

#8

“The car’s on fire and there’s no driver at the wheel. And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides. And a dark wind blows. The government is corrupt, and we’re on so many drugs, with the radio on and the curtains drawn.”

This spoken monologue is the first thing the listener hears as they start Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s masterpiece. Though it has been said so many times by essentially everyone who has written about this album, F♯A♯∞ is the soundtrack to the apocalypse. Other monologues spread throughout the album elaborate on the dystopia this album describes.

The true story isn’t told by the spoken word however, it’s the half classical and other half rock soundscape that paints an image of the world in our mind. Songs drift beautifully for minutes on end, the songs slowly become louder and faster and just as it feels as if your heart can not beat faster, they resolve perfectly and drift back into the quiet noodling of earlier. True, this description can be applied to many post-rock albums but Godspeed has truly perfected this style of writing to deliver one of the most awe-inspiring albums I’ve heard.

Reaction to this album is almost universally positive, and for good reason. Words can not do justice to the beauty and horror that this album creates. Listening to it is the only way to understand it. The album closes with this spoken word:

“But do you think the end of the world is coming? No. So says the preacher man, but…I don’t go by what he says.”

Maybe there’s hope for us after all.

7. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (Neutral Milk Hotel) [1998]

#7

It’s easy to understand why there’s an abundance of criticism over this album. The people that love it hype it up so much, going as far as to claim the abstract lyrics hold “the meaning of life in them”, that when someone finally listens to it with impossibly high expectations they are confused by its simplicity and occasional borderline absurdity that they end up “not getting it”.

It’s a shame that this happens often, because Jeff Magnum has created an incredible piece of art with this album. The emotions that can be expressed with just an acoustic guitar and a slightly out of key voice is amazing, as this album demonstrates. The album flawlessly flows through different sounds. Some tracks are simple folk songs with just guitar strumming and singing while others are shoegaze influenced rock. There’s even an instrumental consisting of only a horn ensemble. Despite all of this, the album retains an inherent simplicity and accessibility that makes it easy to listen to.

The real highlight is perhaps the lyrics. Due to their very abstract nature, much debate has been centered on them. Some claim there’s a deep meaning while others argue it’s nonsensical and has no meaning whatsoever. But does it matter? They are beautiful to listen to and that’s the important thing. The two themes that run throughout the album are the innocence of youth, and the Holocaust (Magnum read The Diary of Anne Frank before writing the album). The lyrics in “The King of Carrot Flowers, Part 1″, the title track, “Holland, 1945″, and “Ghost” are simply unmatched in beauty.

It’s impossible to accurately describe the album. In fact, I recommend listening to it without reading anything about it first, so that you don’t get the wrong idea of what it really is. I leave you with these beautiful lines from “The King of Carrot Flowers, Part 1″:

“And Dad would throw the garbage all across the floor/As we would lay and learn what each other’s bodies were for/And this is the room one afternoon I knew I could love you/And from above you how I sank into your soul”

6. Bath (maudlin of the Well) [2001]

#6

What does the term progressive metal mean? In order to be truly “progressive”, a band needs to build on what has come before and create a new, unique sound. This is what every progressive metal band should strive to do. However, the term “progressive metal” increasingly has come to describe a narrow range of music, one filled with lots of virtuosity and solos, but little of anything new.

Thankfully, maudlin of the Well’s often hailed masterpiece Bath, fits the true definition of progressive. The songs are overflowing with originality. Ideas and sounds that one never imagined before are brought to life here, and they aren’t included just to be “different” but instead because they fit the flow of the songs and sound natural. In fact, the organic and flowing sound of this album is part of what makes it special. Bands often switch between heavy and quiet sections because they can, and more often than not these abrupt changes to do not make sense musically. maudlin of the Well, on the other hand, transitions between these two styles effortlessly and blends them to form a cohesive hole.

The opening track, “The Blue Ghost/Shedding Qlipoth”, drifts in a dream like state for six minutes before the full band comes crashing in. Other highlights include the most straightforward (if you could call it that) song here, “They Aren’t All Beautiful”, as well as “Heaven and Weak”, “The Ferryman”, and the absolutely heart-wrenching closer “Geography”.

If the mindless instrument wanking with overblown lyrical concepts of “progressive metal” starts to get on your nerves, give yourself a breather with the organic, natural, and flowing nature of Bath.

5. Melancholie² (ColdWorld) [2008]

#5

If someone wants to prove to you that extreme subgenres of metal are nothing but garbage and annoying noise, look no farther than this album. If this won’t convince them that black metal can be beautiful and emotional, nothing will.

The sound of ColdWorld is one of cold, chilling black metal accompanied by ambient and electronic influences. The compositions are always engaging, whether it be through the great riffs or the occasional string orchestration. The lyrics, or at least those that can be understood, perfectly fit the cold yet inviting sounds of this album.

Though honestly, this album is very  easy to describe and requires very little writing to do so; simply look at the cover art! Now imagine the music that would be used to describe such an evocative scene. That is the sound of Melancholie².

4. Kid A (Radiohead) [2000]

#4

It’s hard to write for some of the albums on this list, because everything that can be said about them already has been said by countless people in countless publications, and in much better writing than I could ever accomplish. Kid A is one of those albums. So I’m taking a unique spin for this segment, and will only use quotes from other reviews to express my opinion.

“Kid A is easily the most successful electronica album from a rock band.” – allmusic

“This is an emotional, psychological experience…it’s the sound of a band, and its leader, losing faith in themselves, destroying themselves, and subsequently rebuilding a perfect entity. In other words, Radiohead hated being Radiohead, but ended up with the most ideal, natural Radiohead record yet.” – Pitchfork

“Kid A immerses listeners in an ocean of unparalleled musical depth. It is, without question, the first truly groundbreaking album of the 21st century”. – Billboard

“An ardent and successful attempt by the British quintet to divorce and distance itself from its past and to reinvent both itself and our notions of pop music, using soundscapes rather than songs, and instrument choices that are a far cry from the group’s previous forays into its own brand of guitar rock…odd, perplexing, and utterly fascinating.” – Wall of Sound

3. Still (Nine Inch Nails) [2002]

#3

This album is pure emotion. Every note played, every word sung, is dripping with a deeper sorrow than most of us could imagine. Trent Reznor, as many probably know, was going through a hellish time in his life. As he has said, it felt to him as if he was going through the same cycle as the character he created in The Downward Spiral did. Drug addiction and depression was killing Reznor slowly, and this is his chronicle of that period of his life.

He did not accomplish this through the machinery and abrasive industrial sounds  of The Downward Spiral or the complex arrangements of The Fragile. Instead, Reznor stripped down the sound of Nine Inch Nails to its utter core. A piano and an acoustic guitar are often times the only instrumentation in these songs, though simplistic beats and sound effects do appear sometimes to enhance the experience. Reznor’s voice sounds a chill through the spine, this is not a man singing just because he needs something to say, every word comes crying out of his mouth in a desperate plea for help.

Half of the songs on this album are reinterpretations of previously released Nine Inch Nails songs, and they all find a greater meaning in the context of Still. The other half are original songs, mostly instrumental, created with the sole purpose of expressing the feelings he felt at the time. The album ends with “Leaving Hope”, the last song Reznor wrote before entering rehab, and it is possibly the most beautifully sad song I will ever listen to.

It’s a shame this album is so overlooked in the Nine Inch Nails catalogue. It was originally only packaged in with the limited edition of the live album And All That Could Have Been, and now has only recently been available again through the Nine Inch Nails website. It’s unfortunate that so many fans probably don’t even know of this album’s existence, because anyone with a soul will be changed in some way by this album.

2. My Arms, Your Hearse (Opeth) [1998]

#2

Opeth’s first two recordings were promising, but ultimately uneven, albums. Their unique sound that fused together harsh death metal with complex, long compositions and folk influences was an incredible idea, but poor production and aimless songs ultimately kept the first two albums from reaching “classic” status. However, something incredible happened between the second and third album, and when “My Arms, Your Hearse” was released in 1998, Opeth perfected their sound and created their magnum opus.

The album is a concept album about a man who dies and becomes a ghost who grows frustrated and restless as he watches the life of his loved one. He does not believe that his wife mourned his passing. Little does he know that this is because his wife feels a great sadness and is not willing accept his death yet. The story is beautifully told over the course of a year, tying in with the passing of the seasons and both beginning and ending in spring.

The music of the album is the strongest of Opeth’s history. The death metal sections are harsh and unrelenting. Åkerfeldt’s voice deepened considerably after the release of Morningrise, and his growls engulf the listener in a fury most vocalists could not hope to match, while in a perfect contrast his clean voice manages to soothe the listener. In a wise move of Opeth, instead of writing fifteen minute songs that lost focus halfway through, they started to write shorter songs that were able to deliver a much greater impact.

The album works wonderfully as a cohesive whole and each track is much better than the sum of its parts. “When” shows Opeth at their peak, topped only by “Demon of the Fall” which may be their very best song. “Credence” is one of their best softer songs, and “Epilogue” ends the album in a elegant fashion.

My Arms, Your Hearse is an amazing death metal album that I doubt will be topped in its genre. I would recommend it to anyone who can tolerate harsh music, and I ask even those who don’t think they can to give it a try.

1. Colors (Between the Buried and Me) [2007]

Maybe it’s because I’m tired from writing this post for the better part of the last 3 hours or because I’ve exhausted my vocabulary of adjectives, but I can not think of any words to describe this album. My mind can only bring one word to mind. Merrian-Webster dictionary defines “epic” as “extending beyond the usual or ordinary especially in size or scope.” Therefore, in the truest sense of the word, Colors is an epic album, being a sixty four minute long song divided for our convenience into eight movements.

As I wrote in my review of the album on June 10th, 2008: “Colors is emotional, it is breathtaking [from a technical standpoint], it is inspiring, and it is an album that will be incredibly hard for anyone to top.” To be honest, that description may be the best I can do in trying to explain the quality of this album.

This album has kept me going during the toughest of times of my life and has celebrated with me in my happiest moments. It is the sound of a band creating music because they love to, writing what they want and not what they are expected to, and challenging the listener to accept the music for what it is. From the lone piano of “Foam Born (a)”  to the amazing guitar solos of “White Walls”, Between the Buried and Me takes the listener on a sixty-four minute genre-defying experience. Elitists will put down the album for not fitting into their narrow vision of what music should be, but the rest of us have been blessed with this album, a work of art that (hopefully) will always be remembered.

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