CDs of 2010
Ξ January 11th, 2010 | → 0 Comments | ∇ General |
So we are 10 days into the New Year, and I’ve already bought 12 CDs. Is that too many? I can never tell, and and I’m gonna say no. I have an overwhelming desire to increase my musical horizons, and listen to everything I can. Plus, my CD collection has some embarassing gaps that is only filled by downloads. I have a fantastic year ahead of me music-wise; new releases from some of my favourite bands (Enslaved, Burzum, Nevermore and let us pray, Morbid Angel and Zyklon!) and loads of others I probably don’t know of as of yet!
My purchases this year have been mainly chance so far. As I explained in a previous post, I have been using a random number generator to pick albums from my wishlist. This has yielded some interesting results so far:
Pharoah – Be Gone: US power metal that enschews the traditonal European cheese for a more NWOBHM approach, gritty and galloping. Enjoyable so far, whether it can stay that way will be revealed.
Earth – Extra-Capsular Extraction: A short release from the masters of drone doom and now drone-infused Americana, their first non-demo release features Kurt Cobain on guest vocals, and is still a meaty 27 minutes. An early snapshot of drone in excelsis
Anthrax – Persistance of Time: A good Anthrax album, but not the greatest, ‘Persistance of Time’ still has a number of excellent tracks and is one of the reasons that Anthrax were considered a ‘Big Four’ of the thrash kingdom. Bettered by ‘Among the Living’ and ‘Spreading the Disease’, but still awesome thrashing.
My others CDs have been shopping finds for cheap. Bolt Thrower’s ‘Realm of Chaos’ has been an embarassing gap in my collection but it is now filled. The latest release from Trigger the Bloodshed is also here now, followed by The Sword’s excellent ‘Age of Winters’. A lot of people have been hard on these bands; one for being too popular with hipsters, and one for being too new and ‘unworthy’ of praise heaped upon their two releases. This new wave of death metal, pushed by TOB, Job for a Cowboy etc has some exciting prospects but will inevitably lead to stagnation without careful observation. I enjoyed both ‘Ruination’ and ‘The Great Depression’ immensely, and believe that they will be able to stay after all the other ‘nu-death metal’ bands have bitten the dust.
Others have been discography-completing purchases. Nine Inch Nail’s ‘Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D’ is Trent Reznor’s remix of ‘Year Zero’, one of his finest and most mature releases. ‘Amputechture’ by the Mars Volta means I have all of their releases now, and have delighted in boggling my mind to their stuff. Wildly inventive yet sometimes overly pretentious, the Mars Volta can be tough to love, but you cannot doubt the quality of their jams. Finishing off my Arch Enemy discography with debut ‘Burning Bridges’ was a no brainer, £3 in my local Fopp record store, and the Acacia Strain’s ‘Continent’ opened to me a band of which I have heard plenty of praise but few actual tracks. Expect reviews of these all to come in the next few weeks