For the Fallen Dreams -- Great Melodic Hardcore

I realize that it's already 2010 and that it would probably be wise to stick to 2010 releases but I happened to stumble on this the other day and really felt the need to write about it. Recently signed to Rise Records in 2007, For the Fallen Dreams has already released two albums and done a considerable amount of touring. Their second album Relentless, sparked my interest because of its similarity to some of my favorite melodic hardcore acts. I do enjoy some heavy chugging from time to time, but with the slew of every god damn hardcore band just jam-packing their albums with it, it just gets old and uninteresting.

Anyway, FTFD caught my attention after listening to their stuff on their myspace because they sound A LOT like old Bury Your Dead (pre-It's Nothing Personal) and If Hope Dies (Life In Ruin, basically one of the best melodic hardcore/metalcore albums I own, it's a shame they threw in the towel). There may be some sections of those heavy chugs and slow generic drum breakdowns, but they're mostly scattered and not drawn out for more than 30 seconds. Their songs are super atmospheric with a continuous array of alternating guitar chugging with energetic guitar licks careening over the surface of everything. Sometimes they even throw in some clean vocals, but mostly stick with the gutteral growling. Songs like "The Call of Perceptions", "A Plethora Of", "Defiance", and "The Pain Loss" are easily their strongest tracks as they combine passionate riffing and severe anger, with the minimum amount of bland chugging and breakdowns. I originally didn't like "Nightmare", but after a few listens it appeared to be a mix of material from Bury Your Dead's Cover Your Tracks and Still Remains' The Serpent because there are gutteral growls mixed with clean singing and an almost electronic feel to the overlapping chorus.

I like the sound. It feels energetic. I like when bands are able to incorporate energy into songs that might otherwise be considered dead and lifeless. And I don't me the type of energy they portray on stage, I'd expect that from any band, but more of an energizing feel that gets you on your feet and makes you physically move to the music. FOFD accomplishes this very well.

Focus Tracks:
Nightmare, The Call of Perceptions, A Plethora Of, Defiance

Top 16 Metal Albums of 2009

1. Between the Buried and Me -- The Great Misdirect
Oh man prog! Hooray for full-length albums with 6 songs and 17min+ tracks. Anyway, I'm totally digging the clean vocals interspersed throughout the album as well as the keyboard/random totally not metal instrument interludes, haha. The album plays like a symphony of chaos, which is really cool. One minute you're listening to dueling guitar solos, then you're relaxing with melancholy clean vocals, and then you're thrust back into heavy duty growling layered with complex drum rhythms, bass solos and classic rock guitar leads. It's a very fun album to say the least.

2. The Black Dahlia Murder -- Deflorate
This is one of those albums I can just put on shuffle and every song on the album is just as insanely awesome as the last. They're making death metal like the stuff they grew up with, even the god damn album artwork is like oldschool death metal. It's faster, cleaner, and just better than anything they've done thus far (and that's saying a lot considering I thought "Nocturnal" was flawless).

3. Sylosis -- Conclusion of an Age
This band simply cannot be put into one subgenre of metal. They create a fusion of thrash, melodic death, metalcore, and prog to create this ridiculously awesome blend of metal I cannot stop listening to. And this is their god damn debut album too!

4. God Forbid -- Earthsblood
Even with the departure of Dallas Coyle, this album is utterly genre defining. The mix of clean vocals and harsh gutteral growls works really well with the neo-thrash oriented sound that they're pushing towards. I also waited so freakin' long for them to release this and it was very much worth the wait.

5. Mastodon -- Crack the Skye
I actually have no idea why this album is so awesome and so far up on my list. I literally cannot put it into words. It just is what it is and that's all I can say. Great album.

6. Lamb of God -- Wrath
I HATED this record when it came out originally. However, after several listens it really grew on me, even Randy Blythe's weird hollering vocals in "In Your Words". I mean they managed to do blast-beats while still maintaining that southern dirt-bag feel of their previous records. I'll still say that NOTHING will ever be as good as Ashes of the Wake, but this came damn close.

7. Goatwhore -- Carving Out the Eyes of God
The title of this record alone could win it a place on my list! It's like pure evil! I like this album a lot mainly because Goatwhore made sure to keep their blackened death metal roots intact, but concentrated on a more thrashy metal album than a blacker one with less production value. Blast beats and grinding guitars a plenty, this album is mixed well and makes me want a goblet of blood to sip while I quietly headbang along to "Razor Flesh Devoured".

8. Sacred Mother Tongue -- The Ruin of Man
I was thinking about this album throughout the writing this list, but I really thought this came out in 2008. Anyway, this is Andy James' melodic metalcore band from the UK and it is a testament to the fact that James is capable of writing and crafting good supporting riffs as well as ultimate guitar wankery. The riffs are beefy and original, the vocalist is very energetic, and of course the solos are top notch. Not to mention that they're a fairly new metal act (formed in 2005) and yet it sounds like they've already found their own sound and perfected it.

9. Megadeth -- Endgame
Okay, fine, I'll put Megadeth in here even though I've heard "Headcrusher" enough god damn times on Liquid Metal that I could shoot myself. That aside, this is a really good album surprisingly. 2007's Sleepwalker was such a forgettable album, other than the "Sleepwalker" single, that I was kind of just assuming that was it for Mr. Mustaine. However, he comes back with something like this and I'm already like, Okay Dave, what else do you have up your sleeve, I'm ready! Kind of like the Lamb of God thing, this album was really good, but of course NOTHING tops Rust in Peace.

10. Animals As Leaders -- Animals As Leaders
What can I say, I'm a sucker for shreddy prog metal. In a nutshell: Tosin Abasi is a maniac on guitar and Navene Koperweis is a monster on drums. It also gives me the chills when I listen to it. That is all.

11. Dying Fetus -- Descend Into Depravity
I posted awhile ago that Dying Fetus made it onto the Billboard 200 charts and for good reason. This album is extremely well done, especially for a technically death metal/grindcore band. It's still technical as all hell, but it feels more moshable and slam danceable. Granted, I get metal-neck in about 2 seconds after trying to keep up with the unforgiving tempos, but it's soooooooo worth the effort.

12. Steel Panther -- Feel the Steel
I have this guilty pleasure for really gay hair metal, but an even bigger one for satirized/comical hair metal. I love comedy and metal, so there's no doubt I would LOVE these guys. Steel Panther's lyrics continue to make me laugh, even after the 10th time I've heard them. "Turn out the lights before you suck my dick / someone must have hit you with an ugly stick / I wanna fuck but you make me sick / turn out the lights!" or "50 cent's a fag and so is Kanye West / shooting hot sperm on each others' chest." I think 2 examples will suffice.

13. Lazarus A.D. -- The Onslaught
Probably some of the most energetic new-school thrash I've heard in a long time. It's a classic 4-piece with searing guitar solos and some righteous drumming that adds the necessary double-bass ferocity to the mix. It's also important that these guys aren't just making rehashed Kreator/Metallica songs, everything is very original and I believe they're pushing thrash to new heights.

14. Divine Heresy -- Bringer of Plagues
I hate Dino Cazares with a fiery passion, but I can't deny that Divine Heresy is one of my favorite bands due to Tim Yeung's unreal drumming technique. After 2007's "Bleed the Fifth" (which for the longest time I thought was Bleed the Filth) I didn't think these guys could get any faster. I guess I was wrong.

15. Cannibal Corpse -- Evisceration Plague
The song "Evisceration Plague" is incredibly catchy, which I find hilarious when talking about Cannibal Corpse. I was kind of sad to see that none of the song titles are ridiculously violent sounding, other than "Skewered from Ear to Eye". Other than that though, the music really varies from track to track and actually has some hints of tech death sprinkled here and there. Very headbangable too, like where there's an actual rhythm to it that you just have to hear to understand. "Evisceration Plague" and "To Decompose" are great examples of those.

16. Job For A Cowboy -- Ruination
JFAC's Doom EP got me into the deathcore genre like 4 years ago, so I was actually really surprised to find that Ruination isn't deathcore at all! It's actually full fledged death metal with hints of The Black Dahlia Murder and Decapitated. I hate saying this because it's a stupid overused phrase, but I truly believe this is a very mature release from these young dudes. It shows how far they've come in terms of song structure, lyrical content, and overall brutality.

*I really hate lists because I can never decide what's truly the best.

**I also might have included Dream Theater on this list, but I still don't have the patience to sit through Black Clouds & Silver Linings.

***Feel free to add your thoughts. If you say Slayer I will stab you in the jaw.

Divine Heresy: Blending Metalcore with Extreme Metal...Again

I recently picked up a copy of Divine Heresy's sophomore release Bringer of Plagues, as I was excited to see if it was humanly possible for Tim Yeung's drumming prowess to get any faster/technical. After a couple listens I'm still not sure. Not to say that Tim Yeung's drumming skill doesn't excite me, believe me it does, I just don't think he can possibly force his body to get any faster than it already is. The sheer speed of his blasting and drum fills is enough to keep me happy for a very long time. Anyway, the album is a refreshing yet different record from their debut Bleed the Fifth (which for a long time I thought was Bleed the Filth). There is an actual bassist listed in the band roster now, it's Joe Payne formerly of Nile, and you can actually HEAR the bass on a couple of the songs unlike the guitar-centric nature of "Bleed the Fifth". Their portly guitarist, Dino Cazares, has added a few more technical death metal-esque riffs, most noticeably the one in the beginning of "Facebreaker," which sounds like crazy arpeggio sweeping, but has also kept the hyper-speed tremolo picking for the rest of the album. As for the vocalist, Travis Neal (who currently sings for the Swedish melodic death metal band, The Bereaved), sounds exactly the same as Heresy's former vocalist Tommy Vext, except maybe a little less deep and more raspy. He's not a terrible singer in the least, in fact, some of the songs, although clearly depicting total annihilation like "Redefine", almost sound energetic and happy. But I just can't help but feel weird that after firing the first vocalist they wouldn't consider moving in a different direction just for shits and giggles. In my opinion it kind of defeats the purpose of firing Vext in the first place, but I won't go into that. As for songs, "Bringer of Plagues" is easily their best song off of the album, as it starts with a deafening scream and then immediately pummels the listener with unrelenting blasting and an array of razor-sharp shredding. The chorus is catchy, Travis Neal's vocals fit perfectly with the music, and there is just the right amount of beefy riffage mixed with Yeung's double-kick pedals from hell. All in all, Bringer of Plagues is a pretty solid sophomore album for these extreme metallers, helping them flex their technical death metal-inspired muscles while still keeping that metalcore tinge very much on the surface. It's exciting to think where they may take their music for their third album...

Focus Tracks:
Facebreaker, Bringer of Plagues, Redefine, Letter to Mother, The Battle of J. Casey

A Classic Vomitory Release

Considering the lack of new metal out right now, I thought it would be appropriate to explore something old and deadly. Something like Vomitory's debut: Raped in Their Own Blood. Vomitory is known for the menacing brutality, not only from their rude name, but from the sheer grisly nature of their music. I think anything that opens with a song called "Nervegasclouds" should automatically be considering a legendary album. And as soon as that song ends the rest of the album never lets up, you get a face-full of songs like, "Raped in Their Own Blood" "Pure Death," and "Through Sepulchral Shadows." It's like the guys from Vomitory knew exactly how much evil they were capable of spewing out at eager death-heads, the titles were just icing on the cake. A cake made of scorched flesh and blood that is. While the music itself may sound very old-school when compared to acts such as Braindrill whose music is just hyper speed nonsense that makes one's mind tie itself in knots, Vomitory's sound is nothing short of frightening. The production of this album gives me the feeling of classic Norwegian black metal because of how raw everything sounds. Not that raw is a bad thing of course, if anything, the rawness gives them that necessary bit of dark murderous intent that no death metal band should be without. Easily a classic death metal album that hopefully has not been forgotten.

Focus Tracks:
Nervegasclouds, Raped in Their Own Blood, Pure Death, Through Sepulchral Shadows, Perdition.

Austrian Death Machine Is Brootal

So I came across the goofy, 1-man, testosterone fueled, metal band that is known as Austrian Death Machine and I have to say, it isn't too bad. For those of you that haven't heard of this, it's basically a metal tribute to the great action star Arnold Schwarzenegger. Tim Lambesis from As I Lay Dying apparently recorded the vocals, guitars, bass, and drums for the entire album himself, with a little help from As I Lay Dying band mates and some dude who does a pretty good Arnold Schwarzenegger impression. The songs basically quote all of his movies and have the dumbest lyrics I have ever read. But then again, in that sense, the lyrics are basically perfect for this type of album.

"You betrayed me
You betrayed me
Now you're out for blood
To make me your kill
I must put a stop to this
By impaling you with a drill
Screw you
Screw you
Screw you Benny" - Screw You Benny, Austrian Death Machine.

As for the music, it's really just re-hashed As I Lay Dying songs with less complexity and tons of random-ass guitar solos. I guess you could call it mosh music or just straight up thundering metal that doesn't hold much weight in terms of brilliance. However, seeing as this isn't meant to be serious, each song was written in under an hour, and some songs are called, "Who is Your Daddy, and What Does He Do?" "Get to the Choppa," and "Screw You Benny," how can I not like this? And I mean the album is called Total Brutal, c'mon now. Plus, 7 of the tracks are just the Arnold impersonator doing comical skits with Tim Lamesis. So if you're willing to just have a good laugh or have nothing better to do I would consider checking this out. If anything it's just funny to hear "Schwarzenegger" tell Lambesis that he sounds like a dying moose.


Focus Tracks:
Get to the Choppa, You Have Been Erased, All the Songs Sound the Same, What It's Like to Be a Singer at Band Practice, Screw You Benny, If It Bleeds We Can Kill It, It's Not A Tumor

War of Ages: Melodic Metalcore Masterpiece

War of Ages seemed to start as a very harsh, yet tight Christian metalcore act in 2002. Not that the Christian part necessarily matters because honestly, without reading the lyrics I don't think it's possible to tell. Anyway, every release they've had (I believe the latest is technically their fourth album because their debut was re-released on Facedown records) has become more technical and more melodic, which is a damn good thing. I can't say how annoying it is when metalcore is looked down upon for being too repetitive because all of the bands sound the same. I got my hands on their newest album, Arise and Conquer, and all I can say is, War of Ages brings fresh meat to the table to be fully and heartily enjoyed by open-minded metal fans.

Arise and Conquer is like a non-stop battle of good against evil told through dueling guitars, thundering drums, and a fierce vocalist. This album gives War of Age's band name true meaning. The album really grabbed me as soon as I began to listen, which is always great because no one likes to force themselves to listen to something boring. The album is upbeat and head-bangable, the rhythm isn't uncontrollable and fast so you loose your mind trying to keep up. The thundering and pummeling drumming fuses nicely with the slower yet more melodic and technical guitars so I could really listen to the layers that each song had. Songs like, "Generational Curse" and "Salvation" really illustrate the band showcasing their knowledge of how great melodic metal can be fused with the fury of metalcore to make an amazingly unique sound. And even though this is metalcore, it has enough variety to keep anyone interested to hear more.

Well it looks like War of Ages has it again, they've constructed a well mixed album that blends awesome guitar harmonizing, a vicious vocal performance, perfectly clean melodies, and a sick album cover to top it all off. Compared to Pride of the Wicked, their previous release, I would say that War of Ages has matured in terms of song complexity and branching away from the traditional, old, re-hashed metalcore scene, and formed into a band who has finally found their own sound.

Focus Tracks:
Generational Curse, When Faith Turns to Ashes, Salvation, Sleep of Prisoners, Yet Another Fallen Eve, The Awakening

Whitechapel: Deathcore Take-Over!

Has anyone else noticed the large amount of deathcore bands rising from the bloody carcass of the earth these days? I sure as hell have. Whitechapel's Metal Blade debut: This Is Exile shows us a great example of the deathcore genre and how it's practically taking over with brute force. A solid release on a pretty big metal label, without sounding like every other up-and-coming band. Whitechapel mix just the right amount of gut-wrenching violence with the pummeling blast-beats that death metal drummers are so good for. The whole vibe of the album gives you a feeling like you've been cast into the deepest and darkest pits of despair and turmoil without an escape of any kind. The album cover alone makes me feel like that anyway. It's not even a gorey portrayal of destruction either, it's a person covered in razor wire with a bag over their head, talk about creepy...

This Is Exile is jam-packed with pig squeals from hell, guttural growling like that of Job For A Cowboy and Winds of Plague, a fair amount of guitar proficiency (there are 3 guitarists), although there is still a lot of very fast yet very heavy chugging, and bone-shattering double-bass brutality. This Is Exile is just one of those album that never lets up, just keeps dragging you through the broken glass and torn bodies of the fallen without a second glance. "This Is Exile," "To All That Are Dead," "Daemon (The Procreated)" and "Exalt" are fantastically arranged songs that bludgeon you to a bloody pulp and then feed on your entrails, while "Of Legions" and "Messiahbolical" just give you that eerie feeling of being trapped in a pitch black torture chamber with only the sound of your own breathing to keep you company. The only downside of this album is the constant use of the word "fuck" throughout almost every song, which makes it difficult to play on the radio. Apart from that though, Whitechapel make a definitive impact on the deathcore genre with their primal rage and infernal wrath.

Focus Tracks:
The whole album is a journey, just listen to it all the way through.