BEST OF 2011

top ten albums 2011 - buy or die

the field 'looping state of mind' (kompakt)
graveyard 'hisingen blues' (strandet)
loops of your heart 'and never ending nights' (magazine/kompakt)
mark e 'stone breaker' (ghostly)
autopsy 'macabre eternal' (peaceville)
sebastian 'total' (ed banger)
locussolus 'locussolus' (international feel)
wooden shjips 'west' (thrill jockey)
necros christos 'doom of the occult' (sepulchral voice)
wolfgang voigt 'kafkatrax' (kompakt)

ten more reasons to drop money

justice 'audio, video, disco' (ed banger)
fucked up 'david comes to life' (matador)
pyramids 'magpie and raven' (aurora borealis)
in solitude 'the world, the flesh, the devil' (metal blade)
usx 'the valley path' (neurot)
little dragon 'ritual union' (peacefrog)
teen daze 'a silent planet' (lefse)
black lips 'arabia mountain' (vice)
frank ocean 'nostalgia ultra' (ofwgkta)
boris 'heavy rocks' (sargent house)

can't stop thinkin' bout you baby..

earth 'pentastar' 1996 (sub pop)
kiss 'music from the elder' 1981 (casablanca)
aura noir 'deep tracts of hell' 1998 (hammerheart)
melvins 'lysol' + 'joe preston ep' 1992 (boner)
pest 'daudafaerd' 2004 (no colours)
black sabbath 'mob rules' 1981 (warner)
moss 'live burial' 2004 (self)
boris 'feedbacker' 2003 (diwphalanx)
goatlord 'reflections of the solstice' 1991 (turbo)
spazz 'skatin, satan & katon' 2001 (slap a ham)

WOLFGANG VOIGT 'KAFKATRAX'

Maybe a slightly too futuristic outcome by this lead figure of Cologne's Kompakt record label, at least for the masses. But this headstrong entity consists of well-structured samples from audio books of famous German novelist Franz Kafka as source material as well as boldly minimalistic beats and basslines, using the human voice to surreal effect and creating an weird and hypnotic feel that characterizes this album. Kafkatrax is a crowning achievement in experimentalism, creating a psychotic-paranoid, “Kafkaesque” atmosphere that took me by storm. A truly amazing art piece!

Buy or die.

LONG WAY FROM HOME

Fenriz (of Darkthrone fame), also known as DJ V.K.O.M. (Vast Knowledge Of Music) just created a compilation of crossgender techno/house tracks, exclusively for Lodown Magzine. This way, lads.

AUTOPSY 'MACABRE ETERNAL'

Autopsy has returned from the grave to feast upon the living once more, and it's a beautiful thing. It's their first full-length album since the band split up even before the official release of their fourth album 'Shitfun' in 1995. Recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley CA, 'Macabre Eternal' includes their first 10-plus minute song 'Sadistic Gratification', basically a piece of pure fucking sickness. This band fortunately decided to make an official comeback after working together on two songs for the special 20th anniversary edition of the debut 'Severed Survival' in late 2008. A five-song EP, 'The Tomb Within', the band’s first collection of newly recorded tracks in over a decade came out last September and saw the original trio of Chris Reifert, Danny Coralles and Eric Cutler joined on bass by Joe Trevisano. Reifert previously said about this horrific creation that they've brewed up the sickest and heaviest material that their rotten souls could possibly spew forth, so this might be the best stuff they've ever did. The EP was just a taste, but this is more like an assault from beyond the grave. 'Macabre Eternal' therefore contains no repeated EP tracks, no Pro Tools, no triggered trickery and nothing less than the pure brutality that Autopsy has always delivered to our ears. Essential and sick to the bone. 'Macabre Eternal' is by any means the most anticipated album this year in my book, with Autopsy offering a sludgy and organic production, heavy-handed riffs and maniac percussion. 'If you like our stuff, you will think this is the best', Eric Cutler recently said. Don't even think to put that into question.

HELLO AGAIN

On my ears. SCUM, FROM ENSLAVEMENT TO OBLITERATION, MENTALLY MURDERED. As always. Thank you, Mick Harris. Photo via Dig Pearson @ Home of Metal.