Top 10 albums of 2014 Matthew Green

//Top 10 albums of 2014 Matthew Green

Matthew Green Top 10 albums 2014 metal end of year list metal gigs

Matthew Green sent over his Top 10 albums of 2014 but after he commented “now i look at it, it’s not the worlds most underground top 10 but it is at least honest!”.  So here is his list, honest and no f**** given…

Top 10 Albums of 2014

by Matthew Green

Honourable mentions to The Wounded Kings, Pallbearer and Origin.

10. Foo Fighters – ‘Sonic Highways’

Blah blah blah Foo Fighters blah blah blah Dave Grohl blah blah blah massive commercial juggernaut sell-out easy listening tosspots blah blah blah I love it blah blah blah fuck you.

Stream at on Huffington Post here, and buy it here

9. Floor – ‘Oblation’

I bought a very expensive Floor boxset a few years ago but couldn’t get into it- the songs felt directionless and seemed more intent on wringing every ounce out of this ultra-downtuning malarkey than on entertaining me but all that has changed with this- still it comes from the deepest sludge but now there is magic, deftness and sprightliness with melody and at last I’m giddy with joy.

Buy it here

 

8. Hatriot – ‘Dawn of the New Centurion’

There’s nothing new or innovative or  confusing about this- no boundaries are stretched, no envelopes pushed but god damn if my neck isn’t snapped and my head banged by this. Before he returned to Exodus, Zetro stayed frosty in this band with his sons who have spent a literal lifetime absorbing the best of what the Bay Area has to offer and then volleyed forth this riff-fuelled beast to make me smile.

Buy it here

 

7. Conan – ‘Blood Eagle’

What I like about Conans brand of Doom is that there’s very little Black Sabbath in it- they dredge it up from some long forgotten, stagnant pond and make you forget that it is made by the hands of men- but sifting this primeval muck reveals fresh phlegm every visit.

Check out the full album stream on Terrorizer here and buy it here

6. Cannibal Corpse – ‘A Skeletal Domain’

Modern Corpse is very hit and miss for me- I like the last 3 or 4 albums but I haven’t returned to them, maybe Rutan’s production? But this one has force fed me my own testicles and had my begging for my cock as pudding- as any successful Corpse album should.

Buy it here

5. Thantifaxath – ‘Sacred White Noise’

So many albums that lurch out from the crypts of the underground have me searching for a way into their potential glories, whether it be raw production, labyrinthine compositions or wilful obscurity. This though had me hooked into its tumbling insanity from the off and the fact that this kind of hooky catchiness is so rare in today’s extreme metal scene makes me love it even more.

4. Winterfylleth – ‘The Divination of Antiquity’

If I were a stag, standing firm against the stinging sleet on the moors or an owl gliding at night over fields of virgin snow or a hare loping through the mist and soft drizzle of an April morning, this is surely the only sound that my bestial mind would conjure to accompany me- even better when I’m sat in the warmth of my listening chair.

Buy it here


 

3. Exodus – ‘Blood In, Blood Out’

I love Exodus but, more particularly, I love the riffs of Gary Holt. How one man can almost single-handedly write album after album of pure thrash poetry I’ll never know- but I fall toy knees and thank the gods of metal each and every time that he does.

Buy it here

2. At The Gates – ‘At War with Reality’

We’ve all learnt, through bitter disappointment, not to pin our hopes on comeback albums but occasionally one bucks that trend of despair and this one does so spectacularly. Such a strong set of songs, that seem to bridge that 19 year void seamlessly, it was impossible to imagine- yet here it is, purring and glistening and crushing all at once.

Buy it here

 

1. Mastodon – ‘Once More ’round the Sun’

In music, if whatever genre, it’s all about the songs- and Mastodon have the songs. That they also have the riffs, the choruses, the heaviness, the gloss, the grit, the energy, the solos, the sweetness, the melancholy and the joy is fantastic and satisfying- but it’s their mastery of the art of songwriting that kept me coming back to this album again and again and again.

Buy it here

By |2014-12-26T00:00:00+00:00December 26th, 2014|Top Tens & More|0 Comments

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