Top 15 EPs of 2014 by Gary Lukes.
There were a lot of albums released in 2014 and often singles, EPs, and demos get overlooked in the sea of releases. Regular site contributor Gary Lukes waded through the shorter (and not so shorter) releases that 2014 gave us to bring you his top 15 essential EPs of the year…
Once finished scroll back up and click here to check out his list of top 15 demos of 2014, some killer stuff came out.
15. Pist – Riffology
Mancunian groove-merchants Pist wield a firm handle on hard rocking, riffy stoner; providing the ideal summer soundtrack for the Orange Goblin-inclined. Despite being recommended to you in the heart of winter.
Site: http://www.pistband.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pistband
14. Dismal – Dismal
Sometimes you can judge a book exactly by its cover, and this is just as you’d expect. Twenty-seven minutes of bleak Scouse sludge that’s about as pleasant as herpes and not nearly as catchy. Bass heavy and laden with a lifetime of regrets, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dismaldoom
13. Anthropomorphic Soul – Seed of Hate
Fucked-up, progressive death metal. Anthropomorphic Soul are a one-man project from Portugal, mechanised by a glitchy, filthy heart. Shot through by squalls of saxophone and smothered in a grimy mechanical sheen, this is technical death metal that’s more concerned with atmosphere than agility.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anthropomorphicsoul
12. Bog Oak – A Treatise on Resurrection and the Afterlife
Occult doom sermons ranging from raging black metal to fuzz-drenched sludge. A trecherous slog narrated by the versatile vocals of Julie Seymour, who lurches anywhere and everywhere; from frayed croaks and screams to celestial cleans.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bog-Oak/384359481667899
11. Of Spire & Throne – Toll of the Wound
The sound of a stripped-back Esoteric reciting Godflesh’s ribcrushing riff-manifesto. These Scottish doomlords drag columns of stone-cold sludge across a bleak soundscape using three tracks of bowel-loosening proportions.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ofspireandthrone
10. Unfathomable Ruination – Idiosyncratic Chaos
Two tracks of technical, grinding death metal for fans of Disgorge (USA). The title track alone is enough to leave you slamming around your sitting room and striking fear into your furniture. Along with bands like Gorgasm, Unfathomable Ruination are proving there’s life in (brutal) death yet.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Unfathomable.Ruination.Official
9. Binah – A Triad of Plagues
Straying way below the radar, UK old school supergroup Binah unleashed a trilogy of Swedish sepulchral sermons earlier this year. Displaying an urgency and expertise beyond their debut, this is death metal carved straight from the bone.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/binahUKDM
8. Tongues – Thelésis Ignis
Four tracks of bleakness that crooks between blasting avant-garde black metal and dissonant, doomed death. It’s a slow-burner that really buries its claws by the halfway mark. One to keep an eyeball on.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tungerne
7. Torrid Husk – Caesious
American atmospheric black metal that scrimps on the brooding and jumps straight for the jugular; like Wodensthrone being force-fed amphetamines. Melodic, raw and so steeped in atmosphere you can almost feel the fog growing out the grove and gnawing at your ankles.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/torridhusk
6. Into Darkness – Transmigration of Cosmic Creatures into the Unknown
Unleashed so late last year, this morbid piece of wax passed many by. Featuring two members of the formidable Fuoco Fatuo, “Transmigration of Cosmic Creatures into the Unknown” is more than just a mouthful; it’s dual tracks of decrepit Italian death metal that summons the spectre of a more driven Derkéta. Well worth your attention.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IntoDarkness
5. Temple Desecration – Communion Perished
Dirty and distorted blackened death metal from Poland. The crude, chasmic groove contained within should appease anyone used to worshipping at the altar of Grave Miasma and Void Meditation Cult.
4. Barren Altar – A Monument to Endless Suffering
Rabid blackened doom that sounds like it crawled from the same foul swamp that spat out the likes of Coffinworm and Goatsblood. This is black metal coated in seething sludge and left to coagulate somewhere close to the Californian coastline.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BarrenAltar
3. Svartidauði – The Synthesis of Whore and Beast
Clawing at the veil and beckoning us back into the breach, 2014 has seen the Icelanders grow their wretched roots; and this EP has their tangled tendrils reach even further afield. Svartidauði return to conjure two further contortions of chaotic black metal. Warped and utterly wonderful.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/svartidaudi
2. Bölzer – Soma
Because: it’s motherfucking Bölzer. What “Soma” represents isn’t so much of a leap forward, but a slow advancement on the declarations laid down so far. “Labyrinthian Graves” even releases some of the shackles, its twelve minute runtime allowing the song a chance to breath, soar and burn up into the atmosphere. Thirty years into the genre’s existence, the Swiss duo are still finding ways to freshen up death metal’s corpse. Whether they’re tarting it up with blackened blemishes or lavishing it with those typically giddy riffs, it’s a disturbingly beautiful sight to behold.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/B%C3%96LZER/108657105834227
1. Necros Christos – Nine Graves
An EP longer than most band’s full-lengths (not that we’re measuring), this is forty further minutes of doomed occult middle-eastern blasphemies; all ambitiously crafted through an old-school death metal construct. If this really is the German’s swansong, then they exit existence with a suitably evil epitaph.
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