Lantlos - Melting Sun (2014)

After Neige, vocalist of Alcest, left the more black metal-oriented band Lantlos after their last album "Agape," the future of Lantlos was murky. Thankfully, it has been nicely resolved with a complete shift away from black metal and towards post-metal. This isn't the kind of dark, depressive post-metal associated with acts such as Cult of Luna, nor is it technical in any way like Russian Circles. Rather, it's beautiful, bright, expressive, and downright uplifting while being quite heavy at the same time. I like to think of this album as "Shelter's" metal brother. From the winding ambient soundscapes filled with subtle, emotion-laden melodies to the raw intensity of the riffs, this is an album that sets the listener on a journey through forgotten corners of the heart and mind. It's hard not to be completely hypnotized by the vast, immersive sounds of this album, nor is it so easy to restrain your imagination from running wherever it pleases as you're soothed by the calm sounds of, for example, "Golden Mind." Perhaps the most captivating moment on the album is the intro on "Cherry Quartz" which transitions from serene to heavy-as-lead so gracefully and effortlessly it'll likely leave your jaw on the floor. The only fault I could find on this album is the sometimes stale vocals, but it's a minor issue on an otherwise incredible achievement. I absolutely loved Lantlos' second album ".neon" with it's dark atmosphere and Neige's melancholic howls, but "Melting Sun" marks a whole new chapter for the band and I can honestly say I love it just as much. In a word, it's glorious and a unique addition to the post-metal genre.

9.5/10
(Special thanks to Prophecy Productions for providing me an advance copy.)

 

Insomnium - Shadows of the Dying Sun (2014)

Finnish metal is renowned for its melancholic, melodic qualities and Insomnium are one of the best exemplars of these traits. Returning for their sixth album, these melodeath/doom masters aren't looking to re-invent the wheel, having basically settled on their sound starting with their third album, but they are making some minor tweaks. Perhaps the most noticeable tweak is the increased amount of clean vocals. Songs such as "Lose to Night" and "Promethean Song" feature some truly memorable clean choruses that might miff a few hardcore fans, but to my ears sounds like a natural progression of their sound. Another small way in which this album distinguishes itself from its predecessors is the use of black metal-esque blast-beats on "Black Heart Rebellion" and "The River," the latter of which displays an excellent tremolo-picked melody that could have been lifted right from a Woods of Desolation tune. "Ephemeral" is a bit of an odd experiment for the band as it's probably the most accessible song they've made yet, sounding like something modern In Flames might do (not that that's a bad thing by any means). One of my favorites on the album is the single "While We Sleep" which shows off some of the band's best songwriting skills with killer riffs, catchiness, and a soaring outro solo that you can't imagine the song doing without. My other favorite is "Revelation" which is probably the most 'atmospheric' track, especially given its dark, brooding, whispered vocals and beautiful melodies. Where I feel the album falls a bit flat is on "The River" and the title track which are both too long to keep my attention throughout. It also wouldn't have hurt for them to reach out into the musical universe and pull in some more influences (i.e. a folk song a la Agalloch or something doomy like Swallow the Sun) just to make for a more varied record. But those are still minor quibbles since this is probably my favorite Insomnium album since "Above the Weeping World." This album's formulaic approach can be forgiven for the facts that Insomnium are one of the most unique melodeath bands out there and, not least of all, that this is a great album. It might not hold up to the first three records, but it's something fans of the band won't be disappointed in.
8.75/10
(Special thanks to Century Media for providing me with an advance copy.)

Triptykon - Melana Chasmata (2014)

Coming on the heels of 2010's critically acclaimed "Eparistera Daimones," Triptykon, fronted by Tom G. Warrior of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost fame, have returned with another dark, brooding monster of an album in "Melana Chasmata." The oft-repeated phrase "don't judge a book by its cover" certainly doesn't apply to this album as the sick, twisted art of H.R. Giger perfectly matches the music. And the album doesn't waste any time revealing its sinister nature to the listener. Right from the opening of "Tree of Suffocating Souls" with its heavier-than-lead thrash attack and Warrior's trademark commanding grunts through the hauntingly beautiful "Waiting", "Melana Chasmata" is truly a beast of an album that hearkens back to the old days of Celtic Frost. The real genius of the album is its ability to seamlessly weave black, doom, thrash, death, heavy, and avant-garde metal into a singular, monolithic package that almost goes beyond genre classification. In that sense, Triptykon still hold firmly to the pattern established by Celtic Frost on such albums as "Morbid Tales" and "To Mega Therion" which influenced an incredibly wide range of bands and even spawned entire genres. The difference here is that Triptykon, especially on this album, have taken the classic Frost sound and expanded it into the territory of avant-garde with a heaping dose of dissonance and drawn-out, hypnotic tracks that make me think of such nightmarish things as Inferno by Dante. Indeed, the whole album is a trip through hell. "Altar of Deceit" is perhaps the heaviest track on the album, and perhaps the most violent part of the trip through hell, and features gargantuan riffs that sound like Black Sabbath on steroids. Another highlight for me is "In the Sleep of Death" which features some truly demented, almost psychopathic vocals that just plain creep me out (in a good way though). It is also worth mentioning bassist Vanja Slajh's beautiful, siren-esque singing which complements Warrior's fierce growls perfectly. And of course let's not forget Warrior's morbid lyrics which, as usual, fit the music like a glove. While I enjoy this album more than its predecessor, it's not perfect. "Black Snow" is probably my least favorite track here as it goes on for far too long than it should. Otherwise, "Melana Chasmata" is a fantastic achievement that shows not only shows Warrior/Triptykon's relevancy in the incredibly crowded world of modern metal, but also stands out as a uniquely dark and, in a very odd way, beautiful artistic statement.
9/10

(Special thanks to Century Media records for sending me a promo copy.)

Animals as Leaders - The Joy of Motion (2014)

Instrumental progressive giants Animals as Leaders have returned with their third offering and boy does it pack a wallop. After the excellent, yet slightly unsatisfying "Weightless" in 2011, "The Joy of Motion" sees the band less willing to experiment and more focused on delivering something both powerful and memorable. With 12 songs and no filler, it's an incredibly dense album that offers enough variety amongst the stellar musicianship to keep listeners happy. Most songs here are reminiscent of the band's earlier work, but a few have brand new elements such as the stomping grooves of "Physical Education" and the Latin flavor of "Para Mexer." But regardless of whether it's new sounds the band are incorporating or if they're relying on the same basic jazz fusion/prog metal admixture that brought them to fame in the first place, this is simply a phenomenal album. While it doesn't reach the heights of the debut, at least in my book, it does come pretty close. Once again AAL have proven their worth and set the bar astronomically high for other bands and musicians. If you haven't heard this masterpiece yet then it's about time for you to go over to Sumerian Records' official channel and prepare to have your jaw hit the floor.
9.5/10

 

Crosses - Crosses (2014)

With "Koi No Yokan" in late 2012 and "Palms" last year, Chino Moreno has been quite busy as of late. Now we have "Crosses" which, similarly to his 2005 project "Team Sleep," is an experimental electronic side project. As usual, Chino sounds fantastic. His vocals perfectly fit on every song whether it's more on the dark, reflective side or more on the pop side. Though the album is a bit too long and not entirely consistent in quality, it does feature some excellent songs, "Bitches Brew" and "The Epilogue" being chief among them. Given the length I think it's more of a grower so I highly recommend giving it a good number of listens before deciding on a final score. Fans of Grimes, Chvrches, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, and, of course, Deftones should feel right at home with this album.
8.75/10

 

Kuolemanlaakso - Tulijoutsen (2014)

Featuring Miko Kotamaki of one of my favorite doom bands, Swallow the Sun, Kuolemanlaakso is death/doom band whose lyrics are entirely in Finnish and are based on the poetry of Eino Leino. Not surprisingly, the music is pretty close in style to that of StS, if not a little more stripped down, and while I do prefer StS there are some pretty interesting bits on this album that make it a worthwhile listen. There are quite a few great riffs and Kotamaki's excellent vocals, consisting of banshee-esque rasps and demonic growls, are my highlight of the album. It's pretty much standard death/doom fare except for "Glastonburyn Lehto" which is an odd folky/psychedelic number featuring clean vocals and guitars. All in all, this album is quite good and should be enough to tide StS fans over until the next release.
8/10

 

Woods of Desolation - As the Stars (2014)

Following their masterful 2011 release "Torn Beyond Reason," Woods of Desolation's "As the Stars" is a more than worthy successor, even if they decided to go in a different direction this time around. Whereas the former exudes darkness and melancholy, this one is much like Deafheaven's "Sunbather" in that it's emotional, joyful, and utterly captivating. The riffs, melodies, and vocals are all out to make a bold, triumphant statement about life and they all do a fantastic job of it. Unlike Alcest's most recent album which did away with metal elements (not that that's a bad thing by any means), WoD decided to blend black metal with post-rock and shoegaze in about equal proportions. It may not have the intricacy or concept-album feel that "Sunbather" has, but it does have just as much passion, intensity, and beauty. It's an extraordinary journey that is both brutal and dark as well as uplifting and utterly gorgeous. As of now, I can only see this album being rivaled by the upcoming Agalloch release in terms of best black metal albums of 2014.
9/10

 

Ulver/Sunn O))) - Terrestrials

Both Sunn O))) and Ulver are masters of experimental music, whether it be ambient or drone, and I was fully prepared to have my mind blown when I heard they were collaborating on an album. That didn't exactly happen, but my mind did go on quite a strange and long journey while listening to this. "Let There Be Light" starts off the album with soft, quiet droning pierced by a jazz-like background and, eventually, followed by free-flow drumming. It all goes together very well and creates a distinct sense of foreboding mixed with a certain degree of anticipation. However, once "Western Horn" comes in, that anticipation is gone and all that left is misery. It's an incredibly dark track that has me imagining the darkest scenes of the classic Apocalypse Now film. Everything about it oozes menace and doom. On "Eternal Return" we hear something much more akin to Ulver's most recent album "Messe I.X-VI.X" with strings and dark ambient noodling. The strings let up and eventually we hear the familiar sound of Garm's ethereal vocals which, in my opinion, really complete the album. "Terrestrials," while not as good as "Messe" or Sunn O)))'s most recent album "Monoliths and Dimensions," is a dark, psychedelic trip through the unknown that is sure to send a chill down the listener's spine. It represents the best of what both bands have to offer and I don't think there's much they could have done differently.
8.5/10

 

Within Temptation - Hydra (2014)

At first this album really disappointed me, but after a few listens I've grown to appreciate it. I still consider it a major step down from the phenomenal "The Unforgiving," but "Hydra" certainly has its share of memorable tunes that are some of the best in WT's catalog. The track "Paradise" featuring the one-and-only Tarja is certainly one of the band's crowning achievements and is my favorite off the album. Other tracks such as "The Whole World is Watching" and "Silver Moonlight" are highlights of WT's hard-rock/symphonic rock hybrid sound, and while they may be off-putting to fans of the band's earlier style, they are undeniably catchy and I find it's quite difficult to resist their charms. "Hydra" may not be the band at their peak, but it's a solid offering from a seasoned band that has enough power to stand on its own. If you're deciding which WT album to show to friends/family who are unfamiliar with the band, then this one is a good bet as an entry level piece.
8.5/10

 

Transatlantic - Kaleidoscope (2014)

While I haven't listened enough to prog rock supergroup Transatlantic's previous albums to do a proper comparison, I can say that "Kaleidoscope" is great in its own right. It's a catchy, upbeat album strongly influenced by Yes, Genesis, and others. Each song has a unique identity and is extremely well-written. This especially applies to the gargantuan 32 minute title track which flows smoothly and is simply an astonishing piece of musicianship. In fact, it might be one of my all-time favorite prog epics. Another excellent track on the record is "Black As the Sky" which features some truly masterful keyboard playing. The other tracks are quite good too, but there's a fairly significant quality gap between them and the former. All in all, it's a great record and probably Mike Portnoy's greatest post-DT accomplishment.
8.5/10

Cynic - Kindly Bent to Free Us (2014)

Cynic may be best known for their unique blend of death metal and jazz fusion as seen on their critically acclaimed albums "Focus" and "Traced in Air" but as we saw on their EP "Carbon Based Anatomy" the band have shifting their sound in new directions. This shift is even more evident on their third album "Kindly Bent to Free Us" where prog rock has taken the place of metal although there are some vaguely metallic-sounding bits. While many bands still sound great even after shifting genres and, indeed, some bands even need to do this to retain their artistic integrity, in Cynic's case I can't say the results have met my, or many other fan's, expectations as far as quality goes. Whereas the Cynic on "Traced in Air" sounds self-assured and inspired, the Cynic on this album has been reduced to a shadow of itself. Many songs simply meander aimlessly and fail to impress beyond a few interesting bits and pieces. Some of the lyrics even border on self-parody. The exceptions to this are "Infinite Shapes" and "The Lion's Roar" both of which are solid, memorable tunes. However, even those standouts pale in comparison to such legendary Cynic songs as "Integral Birth" and "Veil of Maya." That said, this is by no means a bad album. In fact, for a prog rock record "Kindly Bent to Free Us" is admirable and I think most Cynic fans should find something on here that they truly enjoy. Sean Reinert's drumming is excellent as always and Sean Malone's bass instrumentation is undoubtedly the musical highlight of the record. It's just that by Cynic standards this is a letdown. I'm not necessarily saying they should go back to their previous sound. I just hope they rediscover the same inspiration they had when making their last two full-lengths and go on to make something great again whether it's metal or not.

7.5/10

 

Most Anticipated Albums of 2014 + more

Note NNote: I'm only counting what's been confirmed as coming out this year.

1. Opeth

2. Mastodon

3. Devin Townsend

4. Wintersun

5. Epica

6. Anathema

7. Animals as Leaders

8. Sabaton

9. Insomnium

10. Overkill

11. Testament

12. Johnny Cash

13. Ian Anderson

14. Swans

15. At the Gates

16. Steven Wilson

17. Wolves in the Throne Room

18. Panopticon

19. Nokturnal Mortum

20. Agalloch

21. Tycho

22. Scar Symmetry

23. Dimmu Borgir

24. Ne Obliviscaris

25. Textures

26. In Flames

Really hoping for:

1. Tool

2. Metallica

3. Electric Wizard

4. Threshold

5. Moonsorrow

6. Iron Maiden

7. Nightwish

8. Meshuggah

9. Stars of the Lid 

10. Enslaved

11. Baroness

12. Radiohead

13. Massive Attack

14. Portishead

15. Deftones

16. Blind Guardian

Top 25 Albums of 2013

And now without further ado (and before I forget), here's my ranked list for last year. It was a pain to rank these as 2013 was an incredible year for music, but after much mental wrestling, I somehow managed it. Enjoy!

1. Alice in Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
2. Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused to Sing
3. Scale the Summit - The Migration
4. Dream Theater - Dream Theater
5. Amorphis - Circle
6. Deafheaven - Sunbather
7. Riverside - Shrine of New Generation Slaves
8. Chvrches - The Bones of What You Believe
9. Ghost - Infestissumam
10. Carcass - Surgical Steel

11. Summoning - Old Mornings Dawn

12. Paysage d'Hiver - Das Tor

13. Queens of the Stone Age - Like Clockwork

14. Russian Circles - Memorial

15. The Ocean - Pelagial

16. Tesseract - Altered State

17. Avatarium - Avatarium

18. Depeche Mode - Delta Machine

19. Amaranthe - The Nexus

20. James LaBrie - Impermanent Resonance

21. Haken - The Mountain

22. Alter Bridge - Fortress

23. Black Sabbath - 13

24. Soilwork - The Living Infinite

25. Ulver - Messe I.X-VI.X

Honorable Mentions:

Sigur Ros - Kveikur

Hammock - Oblivion Hymns 

Night Verses - Lift Your Existence

Revocation - Revocation

Havok - Unnatural Selection

Cult of Luna - Vertikal

Dark Tranquillity - Construct

Intronaut - Habitual Levitations

Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks

Immolation - Kingdom of Conspiracy

Protest the Hero - Volition

Clutch - Earth Rocker

Germ - Grief

The Dear Hunter - Migrant

Caladan Brood - Echoes of Battle

The National - Trouble Will Find Me

Deep Purple - Now What?!

Persefone - Spiritual Migration

Shade Empire - Omega Arcane

My Bloody Valentine - mbv

Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks

Blooc Ceremony - The Eldritch Dark

Leprous - Coal

Anciients - Heart of Oak

Orphaned Land - All is One

The Reign of Kindo - Play With Fire

Pelican - Forever Becoming

Chelsea Wolfe - Pain is Beauty

Goldfrapp - Tales of Us

Kataklysm - Waiting for the End to Come

Nails - Abandon All Life

Iced Earth - Plagues of Babylon (2014)

Having regained their stride with Stu Block's entrance in the band on "Dystopia," metal legends Iced Earth's 11th album is a very worthy successor even if it doesn't quite live up to the expectations set by its predecessor. On "Plagues of Babylon," the band seem to have focused on accessibility in terms of very catchy choruses, simplified song structures, and less screaming. This results in a somewhat more generic sound, but one that eventually grew on me. There are some really strong songs on this album including the title track, "If I Could See You," "Cthulhu" and "Democide." The rest of the songs are very good even if some of them (especially "Highwayman" and "Peacemaker") feel out of place. In terms of innovation, there are guest vocals for the first time (I think) from such metal celebrities as Russell Allen and Hansi Kursch and the songs "Highwayman" and "Peacemaker" have a distinct country sound to them. Otherwise, it's the same Iced Earth sound you know and love. And I can't really fault them for that. At the end of the day, it's just a fun album with some really cool riffs and excellent choruses. I'm not gonna complain too much about that.
8.5/10

 

Alcest - Shelter (2014)

I'm just gonna come right out and say it: I'm a total Alcest fanboy. Therefore, my expectations for this album were sky high before it came out so fortunately it's every bit the gorgeous masterpiece I expected it to be. If you didn't know, Alcest started out as pure, raw black metal on their demo. Then they started with the whole blackgaze thing on their EP "Le Secret" and took a break from harsh vocals on their debut album "Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde." The next two albums reintroduced harsh vocals, but here they're gone once again along with the metal itself. What we end up with is a slice of pure shoegaze/post-rock bliss. I see it as a completely natural and logical extension of their metal sound, yet I understand the sentiment of those who are disappointed with "Shelter" and wished Alcest had stuck with their metal roots. And I admit it did take a couple more listens than normal to really "get" this album, but now I'm at the point where I feel it's fully clicked. Each song feels very unique and portrays a distinct emotion. The emotions range from the pure joy and exuberance of "Opale" to the dark melancholy of "L'Eveil des Muses" to somewhere in the middle of those two extremes with the glorious closing track "Delivrance." Alcest further mix things up by throwing in some fantastic guest vocals from Neil Halstead of Slowdive fame on the track "Away" (which has my favorite melody on the album.) Overall, though I wouldn't rank it as highly as the three albums that preceded it, I am still deeply impressed with "Shelter" and fully expect it to feature on my best of 2014 list. Simply put, this record stands heads and shoulders with the shoegaze classics of the '90's and is an absolutely incredible achievement.
9.5/10