My Music of 2009 Rundown

Current Tunes: Corrosion of Conformity – Wiseblood

Such a good year for metal! I could have easily done a top 20 list this year, but that’s a bit drawn out don’t you think? I enjoyed this year musically; there were many strong releases and plenty of awesome concerts to go to. So, for 2009 here were my top albums:

1. Isis – “Wavering Radiant”
2. Mastodon – “Crack the Skye”
3. Warbringer – “Waking Into Nightmares”
4. Kylesa – “Static Tensions”
5. The Black Dahlia Murder – “Deflorate”
6. Revocation – “Existence is Futile”
7. Pelican – “What We All Come to Need”
8. Narrows – “New Distances”
9. Baroness – “Blue Record”
10. Slayer – “World Painted Blood”

Honorable mentions: Megadeth – “Endgame” / Immortal – “All Shall Fall”

Also, here are some links to my choices for best songs of the year. A few of these are seriously NSFW, so be careful and all.

"20 Minutes/40 Years" – Isis
"The Last Baron" – Mastodon
"Pussy" – Rammstein (NSFW)
"Into the Grey" – Darkest Hour
"Oil Upon the Sores of Lepers" – Anaal Nathrakh
"Ov Fire and the Void" – Behemoth (NSFW)
"Ocean Metal" – Dagon
"Battle Slut Drinking Song" – Destroy Destroy Destroy
"Gypsy Kids" - Narrows (NSFW)

Such a good chunk of material this year. I fully acknowledge my top albums are a little heavy on the sludge/stoner genre, but those are really the bands that I think produced the most interesting stuff this year. My top album, “Wavering Radiant,” I can conclusively say over the course of the year I’ve listened straight through 40+ times. I wasn’t exactly the world’s biggest Isis fan, but that album put me over the top on them. Now for my top live shows:

1. Neurosis
2. Trap Them / Narrows
3. Baroness
4. Dethklok
5. Mastodon
6. Warbringer
7. Kylesa
8. Torche
9. Skeletonwitch

After getting to see Radiohead twice l and seeing the reunited Rage Against the Machine, I think it’ll hard for any year to stack up to the level of awesome I got in the live show department last year. But this year did me real well, a lot of it on the strength of Scion Fest, which was a real blessing for Atlanta. Out of the ten total bands listed above, I saw seven of them at Scion Fest. I had an especially Mastodon-influenced year; I saw them four times in 2009. Once they fix their live vocals problems, they’ll be legendary.

Now while this year saw lots of fantastic releases, there were also a slew of albums that just fell flat on their faces, and left me utterly disappointed:

Pearl Jam – “Backspacer”
Street Sweeper Social Club – s/t
Municipal Waste – “Massive Aggressive”
Alice in Chains – “Black Gives Way to Blue”
Priestess – “Prior to the Fire”
Rammstein – “Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da”
Skeletonwitch – “Breathing the Fire”

Now everyone knows there are varying levels of disappointment, and this selection of albums definitely embodies that. Pearl Jam disappointed me because I know they’re capable of so much more than putting out mediocre fluff like this. Priestess disappointed me for pretty much the same reason, but they’re worse off because they’re in a position where they need to prove themselves and this year was a step back. On the other hand, Skeletonwitch and Street Sweeper (aka Rage Against the Machine Jr.) albums were enjoyable enough, but they still fell short of my expectations. I would say the same thing about Rammstein’s effort this year, but I can’t exactly say what my expectations were for that band. Rammstein, as corny as they are, usually manage to keep doing something new, but it didn’t feel like that this time.

Now as good as this year was for music, there’s still oh so much to look forward to in 2010 for me. Here’s a list of known (and some speculative) albums that could or will surface next year that I’m excited for:

Dillinger Escape Plan – "Option Paralysis"
Overkill – "Ironbound"
High on Fire – "Snakes for the Divine"
Ihsahn - "After"
Living Sacrifice – "The Infinite Order"
Deftones - ?
Finntroll – "Nifelvin"
Decapitated - ?
Anthrax - ?
Nachtmystium - ?
Radiohead - ?!?!?!
Rage Against the Machine - ?!?!?!

There are still some rumors here and there swirling about Rage doing a new album, but I don’t know what to make of that. Radiohead I do know for certain are going to the studio in early 2010, so that’s promising. Deftones have been through a lot this past year, what with their bassist being in that horrible car wreck that left him in a coma. The whole experience has led to perhaps the strangest thing I’ve seen in a band’s career. They have an entire album done, mixed, recorded, everything (titled “Eros”). But they’re sitting on it, and they’re going to record an entirely new album instead to release in 2010. I’m all for whatever they decide to do, but I think they should reconsider what to do with “Eros.” I want to hear it.

So that’s my music rundown for 2009. Be sure to come back tomorrow for my best of film for 2009!