SCRAPING GENIUS OFF THE YEAR: GARY SUAREZ’S TOP TWENTY ALBUMS OF 2009

…and what a year it’s been! I wont bore you with a long intro, since we all know nobody reads intros. Hell, most of you wont even bother reading the descriptions of the albums I’ve chosen below, so I see little reason to preface my thoughts with anything meaningful.

So, without further ado, here’s my list!

20. Narrows, New Distances (Deathwish)

Dave Verellen was the voice of Botch. Now he’s the voice of Narrows, which features members of other noteworthy heavy ensembles such as Unbroken and These Arms Are Snakes. New Distances, their truly exceptional full-length debut, hits hard and fast while disregarding neat genre classification, even by post-hardcore’s admittedly fuzzy standards. Frenetic opener “Chambered” sounds downright inviting to modern hardcore fans, with Verellen’s throaty, inscrutable shouts and Sam Stothers’s feverish drum work. On the surface, subsequent cuts like “Sea Witch” appear designed for moshpit brawling, with chugging guitars and those delightfully harsh vocals. Listen more intently, however, and notice some subtle experimentation that never detracts from the overt brutality but enhances it. Though not every track on New Distances is a screamfest, the majority of this aggravatingly brief record is simply ferocious.

19. Divine Heresy, Bringer Of Plagues (Century Media)

Dino Cazares eats babies. This is an incontrovertible fact, referenced here on the site countless times. Still, we should not let that detract from appreciating Divine Heresy’s latest. The departure of vocalist Tommy Vext, woefully marred by violence and verbal mudslinging, has revitalized the project, with scrappy new recruit Travis Neal injecting a nagging sense of urgency as well as some astonishing accessibility with his euphonious voice. As before, Tim “The Missile” Yeung performs his Raymond Herrera impression impeccably, and I guess during those rare moments when I can make out bassist Joe Payne in the mix he does a fine job as well. Cazares remains the star (constellation?), churning out reliable riffs, but Neal certainly gives the pleasantly plump guitarist a run for his money. Clearly, this new Divine Heresy have their hungry eyes locked on the rock/pop charts, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised should their next record catapult them to stardom alongside groups like Stone Sour and Shinedown.

18. House of Broken Promises, Using The Useless (Small Stone)

The Kyuss family tree has grown exponentially since disbanding in 1995. And though Josh Homme continues to be the highest profile ex-member of the seminal desert rock group, the best Kyuss-related release of 2009 not only has nothing to do with that crooked vulture, but doesn’t even include anyone who was actually a member of the band! House of Broken Promises formed out of the ashes of John Garcia’s Unida, with Eddie Plascencia doing double duty on bass and lead vocals. The eleven tracks on Using The Useless are sensational, sleazy, and familiar. Sure, House of Broken Promises aren’t doing anything all that innovative, but they’re doing it a hell of a lot better than Nickelback or Daughtry or just about any other purported “hard rock” band out there right now. “Blister” is on par with anything off Down’s last album, while “Highway Grit” might as well be the unofficial theme song for Sons Of Anarchy. The chorus on “Torn” is so damn catchy and anthemic that it almost seems unfair that you’re unlikely to ever hear it on the radio. Here’s hoping the band tours in 2010 and raises their profile a bit more. Using The Useless is a fucking diamond in the rough.

17. Rise And Fall, Our Circle Is Vicious (Deathwish)

This Belgian quartet’s first album on Deathwish, 2006’s Into Oblivion, showed an obviously talented hardcore act with plenty of promise. Three years later, Rise And Fall delivered on that promise with this arresting follow-up. Beguilingly brutal, Our Circle Is Vicious brandishes polish on its heretofore presumed rusty knife blade. “Built On Graves” starts off as a fever pitched circle pit brawler, but later slows down for maximum showboating and chest-beating. On the despondent, introspective “To The Bottom”, vocalist Bjorn Dossche repeats his guttural disheartened refrain like some sort of hardcore Ian Curtis, leavened with more than a little pathos. The highlight of this tormented collection of tunes is “In Circles”, a spiraling blur of fits and starts, sometimes atmospheric, sometimes enraged. A fine example of what hardcore has to offer these days, Our Circle Is Vicious will reinvigorate your faith in the genre.

16. 16, Bridges To Burn (Relapse)

Lyrically, 16 is the direct fucking opposite of Hatebreed, an acutely misanthropic foil to Jamey Jasta and his unwavering mantra of positivity. Part suicide note, part diatribe, part doomsday device, Bridges To Burn is a collection of de-motivational, genuinely misanthropic messages supported by caustic sludge rock. Complete with over-the-top artwork from Florian Bertmer, the band’s first album since the 2007 reunion opens with “Throw In The Towel”, a nasty anti-anthem that has Cris Jerue screaming “Quit!” in the face of adversity and betrayal. Throughout this record, listeners are encouraged to give up, drop out, and abandon all hope. Indeed, Jerue’s world is one of crippling disappointments (“You Let Me Down Again”) and personal setbacks (“So Broken Down”). Despite the ample amplified riffage and rhythms, I’ve actually found this more than a little difficult to listen to in one sitting due to the devastating subject matter. Bridges To Burn will suck the fucking life out of you, no matter how tough you think you are.

15. Slayer, World Painted Blood (Sony)

Innovative. Progressive. Revolutionary. World Painted Blood is the best Slayer album since Christ Illusion. Boasting somewhat less impressive cover artwork than its sacri-licious predecessor, the latest from the undisputed kings of thrash transcends the boundaries of the subgenre at a time when so many new groups choose to take the retro route. Tracks like “Hate Worldwide” and “Psychopathy Red” radically revamp the conventions of thrash, challenging our shared assumptions of what a Slayer record should sound like… Oh, who am I kidding? World Painted Blood is the same ol’ shit packed in a shiny new box. But we love this recycled fecal matter, now don’t we? So let’s stop pretending this is anything but chicken soup for the metalhead’s soul and move on down the list…

14. Coalesce, OX (Relapse)

Everyone I talk to sweats Converge’s Axe To Fall like it’s the greatest thing that happened to hardcore this year. In my not-so-humble opinion, that fine record didn’t top this, the first new Coalesce album in a decade. While Axe To Fall provides a continuous, almost relentless aural assault, OX delivers a cornucopia of sonic thrills. Intricate, experimental, and, at times, mesmeric, this record offers more substance in thirty-six minutes than most of your favorite bands do in their entire careers. Somewhat mathy, undeniably tempestuous opener “The Plot Against My Love” lures listeners in before zinging with unexpected clean vocals on the hook to “The Comedian In Question” and the swampy blues intro to “Wild Ox Moan.” The quiet interlude of “Where Satire Sours” gives way to the cacophonous vehemence of “The Villain We Won’t Deny.” And on it goes… There’s plenty to like here on an initial listen, but let it be known that OX is a fucking grower. This is the album that Jacob Bannon and pals probably wish they made this year.

13. Street Sweeper Social Club, Street Sweeper Social Club (Warner)

With the release of this self-titled debut, Tom Morello has proven, despite a distractingly awful collaborator in Boots Riley, he can STILL deliver the goods. Presumably culled from quality material originally intended for an unrealized Rage Against The Machine reunion album, the end result is like an extended Weird Al Yankovich parody: musically on-point and lyrically laughable. Riley delivers plodding quasi-intellectual street verse that doesn’t offer much support for Morello’s funky licks and and militantly angular basslines. So why am I including this as number thirteen on my Best of 2009 list? First and foremost, thirteen is an unlucky number. Secondly, when Riley’s vocals are stripped from tracks like “Fight! Smash! Win!” and “Clap For The Killers”, you can almost hear what Zack De La Rocha would’ve done. Think of the topics! Chavismo, the utter failure of American capitalism, the threat of climate change! Can you imagine? I sure can…

12. Food, Food (Molsook)

This stellar self-titled, vinyl-only debut on the Molsook imprint makes several nods to the good old days of grunge, yet would also be quite at home next to Bison B.C. and even classic Melvins. The riffs are deep and grimy with ever-present support from a potent rhythm section. Frontman Johnny Fink screeches as much as he screams his lyrics on powerful uptempo cuts like “Cascadia” and “March Fourth,” though the band really hits its stride on the ten minute low-n-slow sludgefest “Love.”. Here, the bass rumbles and roars over the spare-sounding drum kit, while Fink plays dissonant guitar, sometimes stepping out of the mix completely to let Jeff Grant and Ryan McLennan show off. This five-song LP is a mean motherfucker that will please fans of Mastodon and Mudhoney alike. The year’s best album you haven’t heard.

11. Lamb Of God, Wrath (Sony)

The emotive finger-plucked guitars that kick off instrumental album opener “The Passing” falsely imply that listeners are about to experience a mellower, less brutal side of the Richmond, Virginia based Christian act. Nope. This is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Lamb Of God: Desensitizing Unadulterated Metallic Bliss. Dueling guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler wail on their respective instruments with tactful meandering on divine tracks like “Grace” and “Reclamation.” Even drummer Chris Adler’s trash-can snares on “Fake Messiah” can’t derail Randy Blythe’s throaty proclamations decrying false prophets and their wicked ways. Sodden with deep reverence and oozing passion like blood from a stigmata, Wrath is a lyric poem of Jesus Christ’s enduring love set to music.

10. Kowloon Walled City, Gambling on the Richter Scale (Perpetual Motion Machine)

I first raved about this up-and-coming San Francisco noise rock band when I heard their Turk Street EP about a year ago–and I haven’t stopped since. Gambling on the Richter Scale, the band’s full-length debut, cries out for attention while damning everyone to hell. Like some improbable West Coast version of Unsane, Kowloon Walled City spew thick, gelatinous chunks of high-concept seediness all over hardened sludgy, bass-driven growlers. On bludgeoning songs like “Sleep Debt” and “Paper Houses”, frontman Scott Evans screams his withered heart out in true hardcore fashion, yet the music creeps at a sluggish pace heavy with an ever-present sense of dread. The title track calls to mind the everyday horror of living on a faultline–both figuratively and literally. I had high expectations for Gambling on the Richter Scale, and they were not only met but exceeded. Let’s hope that Kowloon Walled City tour somewhere other than California next year, because these songs deserve to be heard loud and live by as many people as humanly possible. Oh, and did I mention you can get it for free? Yeah. You’re welcome.

09. Emmure, Felony (Victory)

Though Jamey Jasta’s Kingdom Of Sorrow topped my year-end list in 2008, I wasn’t particularly dazzled by the new release from Hatebreed this year. In fact, when it comes to toughguy hardcore, Emmure are 2009’s reigning champions of moshpit machismo. As a New Yorker who has spent a fair deal of time at bars in Astoria, I strongly identified with “Bars In Astoria” and its menacing refrain “Don’t forget / I know where you sleep at night.” “First Impressions” shows Frankie Palmeri channeling Black Flag-era Henry Rollins and Despised Icon’s Steve Marois, while “R2deepthroat” sadistically skewers rivals The Acacia Strain (“Ask your girl / What my dick tastes like”) much like Nas did to Jay-Z on the immortal diss track “Ether”. Notably, Emmure incorporate more elements of gangsta rap in their deathcore mix this time around, moreso than on Goodbye to the Gallows and its formidable follow-up The Respect Issue. This is a welcome change from the multitude of pig squeals and inhales and helps explain why the band continues to foster a devout following. Maybe this qualifies as a “guilty pleasure” amidst my more brainy picks, but I really can’t get enough of Felony.

08. Goes Cube, Another Day Has Passed (The End)

Curiously strong on the outside yet sweet and melodic at their creamy nougat core, Goes Cube’s toothsome full-length debut beseeches you to take a lick listen. Songs like “I Hold Grudges” and “Bluest Sky” rage into that good night with Kenny Appell’s pitiless drumming and David Obuchowski’s diabolically arranged guitar chords. Yet that same sonic savagery is tempered on the melodious but still-heavy “Saab Sonnet”, as close to emo as Goes Cube are prepared to venture–for now. Bearing a title that reflects their former incarnation as a drum machine band, “Goes Cube Song 30” combine the group’s seemingly disparate loud and soft sides into a poppy post-punk ditty worth losing your shit over. Already in the studio recording a sophomore album, this will not be the last we hear from this scintillating New York trio, and I for one am thrilled about that. You should be too.

07. Cable, The Failed Convict (The End)

Generally speaking, a concept album is only as good as the band that made it. In the case of Connecticut’s post-hardcore power-hitters Cable, it’s no wonder that The Failed Convict works so damn well musically as well as thematically. Chronicling the bloody story of an escaped prisoner named Jim, the record channels all the best qualities of this group that has been around since 1994. “Failure Comin’ Down” succinctly summarizes Jim’s bleak backstory while “Gun Metal Grey” oozes hard bluesy swagger as it describes his jailbreak “past the gun tower” and “beneath the razor wire.” Save for an unanticipated bit of clean singing on “Running Out Of Roads To Ride” and “Outside Abilene”, the vocals on The Failed Convict are raspy and spat, ideal for the gritty pulp nature of Jim’s tale which engages from beginning to the bitter end.

06. Lewd Acts, Black Eye Blues (Deathwish)

Contrasting with the unsettling amount of mind-numbing sonic uniformity dominant in today’s American hardcore scene, San Diego’s Lewd Acts offer a much needed corrective with Black Eye Blues. Sure, the band serve up enough uptempo cuts to fuel the savagely vibrant circle pits we’ve all come to expect at hardcore shows, be they at recreation centers, dive bars, or mid-sized general admission concert venues. Yet Lewd Acts infuse creative growth and artistic progression into a genre largely categorized by its ironic stagnancy. Throughout the album, they do their absolute damnedest to subtly subvert conventional hardcore with extremely well-executed tracks full of cutting melodies and immolating dissonance. This is not to say that Lewd Acts have gone the pop-punk route; rather, they have embraced the nonconformity of their forefathers like Black Flag while shunning the trends and metallic tendencies of their peers. Black Eye Blues is a breath of fresh air that follows a swift kick in the gut.

05. Tombs, Winter Hours (Relapse)

At first, not knowing what to make of this record, I wrote it off almost immediately after a single listen. In retrospect, while nothing ever sounds particularly good on iPod headphones, an album with this many layers deserved to be played loudly on the best stereo I could find. Subsequent listens brought out the desolate beauty of tracks like “Merrimack” and breathtaking single “Gossamer.” Mike Hill, formerly of the short-lived Versoma, screams the lyrics to “Seven Stars The Angel Of Death” as if at the sky itself, with the brilliant rhythm section keeping things grounded. Steeped in atmospheric muck and pregnant with blackened brooding, Winter Hours is the kind of album Justin Broadrick should be making these days. The metalgaze subgenre is still taking form, and whether or not Tombs know it, they’re playing a vital role in the present and probable future of the sound.

04. Pissed Jeans, King Of Jeans (Sub Pop)

In a broad sense, King Of Jeans is a populist album, a violent and emotional reaction to that sense of betrayal felt upon discovering that the slow creep of conformity has irrevocably killed the quixotic fantasies of increasingly distant salad days. Its brilliance lies in a full-on confrontation of the nostalgia phenomenon. “Dream Smotherer” seethes with the repeated closing refrain “I will help you make ends meet / If you will let me get some sleep”, some of the nastiest and truest sentiments of someone begrudgingly settling down for a normal life. Salacious titles like “Request For Masseuse” and “Human Upskirt” offer a rare glimpse into the perverse mind of the married man, left to ponder his fetishes and growing obsessions. Vocalist Matt Korvette’s vitriolic declarations of apathy on “False Jesii Part 2” respond bitterly to Johnny Rotten’s snotty, anti-establishment sneers of “Anarchy In The U.K.” Indeed, Pissed Jeans are The Sex Pistols for thirtysomethings.

03. Mastodon, Crack The Skye (Royal Edition) (Reprise)

Like any other true Mastodon fan, I simply wasn’t satisfied owning the standard single disc edition. The choices of colored vinyl vs black vinyl, CD/DVD Deluxe Edition vs CD/DVD Tunnel Book Edition were too tempting to limit myself to just one disc. In the end, I had to buy them all. (And before you ask, yes, I also have the Crack The Skye custom Zippo lighter, skate deck, pint glass, backpack and distressed leather wallet!) So naturally when Mastodon announced the double disc Royal Edition, I was one of the first to whip out my Capitol One credit card. And God, was it worth it! The packaging is simply gorgeous, as is the “GOLD stamped foiled Digi-book.” The lithograph on this one looks even more mindblowing than the one that came with the Tunnel Book Edition. It even comes with a bonus disc of the Crack The Skye score! Full disclosure: I still haven’t received my copy of the Royal Edition yet, but you gotta admit it looks like it’s gonna be great!

02. Oceano, Depths (Earache)

You knew this was gonna rank high on the list, right? Despite my differences of opinion with others on the MS staff, I stand by my convictions that Depths is the incidentally experimental record of the year. Then again, it is safe to posit that Oceano are wholly unaware of and uninitiated in the legacy of noise that came before them, beginning with the Futurists and Dadaists of the early 20th century, continuing with the Fluxus artists of the 1960s and the avant-jazz musicians of the 1970s, and ultimately exploding worldwide in the latter fifth of the 1900s with performers like Merzbow and Lustmord paving the way for today’s stars like Christian Fennesz and Stephen O’Malley. It is a testament to Oceano that a manifestation of their talent for noise emerges even as they genuinely attempted to write an album’s worth of listenable death metal songs. Cacophonous, adorned with porcine squeals, Depths delivers on the promise of its title and offers an immersing aural experience for fans of La Monte Young and Job For A Cowboy alike. If you can’t appreciate Oceano’s brand of inscrutable noise, perhaps you aren’t as open-minded as you think.

01. Disappearer, The Clearing (Magic Bullet)

Bassist Jebb Riley (also of Doomriders) and guitarist Thomas Moses were both members of unsung Boston post-hardcore band There Were Wires. After that group disbanded, they formed Disappearer, later adding Matt Spearin on drums. Their powerful debut The Clearing is a sludgy metallic maelstrom of noise rock bluster and post-hardcore bellowing. While Moses’ guitar work throughout is impressively melodic and epic, Riley’s thick, overdriven basslines frequently take precedence in the mix. “Etched” exemplifies Disappearer’s cohesively dissonant blend of instrumentation, with Spearin’s deliberate drumwork setting the stage for bone-rattling bass and riffs that practically sing. Though the band’s sound is unique–a particularly gratifying characteristic in this age of disconcertingly neat subgenre classification–presumed influences like Godflesh and Failure can be deduced. Since first buying The Clearing several months back, I have repeatedly come back to this enthralling record, moreso than any other this year. It wasn’t a sure-fire list topper until I saw Disappearer play this material live on their opening stint for Pelican’s current tour. Album of the year? You betcha!

(Dis)honorable Mentions
-Blacklisted, No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me (Deathwish)
-Burnt By The Sun, Heart Of Darkness (Relapse)
-The Catalyst, Swallow Your Teeth (Perpetual Motion Machine)
-The Chariot, Wars And Rumors Of Wars (Solid State)
-Converge, Axe To Fall (Epitaph)
-Dinosaur Jr., Farm (Jagjaguwar)
-Eagle Twin, The Unkindness of Crows (Southern Lord)
-Madraso, Van Horne (Pseudo)
-Moutheater, Ornament (Thrashed)
-Soul Control, Cycles (Bridge Nine)

-GS

[Gary Suarez will be back in 2010. Stay classy, blogosphere! He helps manage the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don’t you follow him on Twitter?]