Yeah, it’s that time again – a rundown of music over the last 12 months. Updates to the site have been pretty infrequent this year; I apologise – my workload has been erratic to say the least. Next – year, back in business with more posts, more updates.

It’s been a particularly brilliant year once again; Kvelertak being one of the sleeper highlights with their self-titled debut; not to mention Adebisi Shank claiming the Keep It Fast best album of 2010 with their second effort; a record that twists their raucous cacophony of dance-punk chaos into new realms. There’s been some fantastic gigs also in the form of AC/DC blowing everyone away at Download Festival, not to mention Rammstein at Wembley back in February and Less Than Jake’s stupid antics in both Oxford and Cambridge.

Top 5 albums of 2010

Mose Giganticus – Gift Horse

One of the most ridiculously pompous offerings I’ve heard this year – Mose Giganticus is a one-man project of grandeur and electronical flamboyance. The mash up of Mastodon-stomping battle metal and squelching keyboard bleeps, theatrical synth-rock ostentation and some of the best vocals I’ve heard all year make ‘Gift Horse’ a surprising, colossal breakdown of eclectic sounds and noises.

Dinosaur Pile-Up – Growing Pains

I’m not sure if grunge is supposed to be ‘cool’ anymore but Dinosaur Pile-Up are trying to drag it back with a weird juxtaposition of apathy and mid-90s heavy rock gruffness. ‘Growing Pains’ is nothing new; in fact it borrows so much from Dave Grohl he should think about contacting his lawyers – but it’s the power, the passion the face-melting riffs that make this one of those albums that’s never in its case because it’s permanently in your cd player.

Pulled Apart By Horses – Pulled Apart By Horses

Awesome radical, awesome totally bodacious! We are so macho! Yeah buddy! Yeah! Huh! Yeah! Huh! Alright! Ultimate Power! Maximum life! The dumbest record I’ve heard all year, but one of the best and a worthy top-three place to a Leeds based outfit, who should never change their stupid grunge-punk roots for anyone. Need a band for a house party? Ring these boys up and get the beers in.

Kvelertak – Kvelertak

A writer on the website metalsucks described Kvelertak’s self-titled debut as a feel good record and one that made him so happy, despite an obvious misanthropic view of life and everything. He’s bang on – ‘Kvelertak’ is such a fantastic record; the mixture of 70s rock ‘n roll, with black metal and hardcore is a noisy chaos of high fiving, drink-fuelled chants of ecstasy and it will make you grin so much, your head will fall off.

Adebisi Shank – This Is The Second Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank

Still impossible to describe – half the time you’re wondering if you’re listening to a lost Super Mario Brother’s track, before it descends into something that sounds like Battles and Lightning Bolt joining forces to create a punk rock band. “Like having a kaleidoscope forced into your brain during an electro storm, Adebisi Shank are anything but predictable” – The very future of instrumental rock music, an incredible second album by three musicians I could listen to all day.

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Other notable album highlights include

Hero Destroyed – Throes (Botch-style metallic chaos, packed with dangerous riffs)
Horseback – Invisible Mountain (menacing noise terror with gravelly vocal drawls)
Caliban 666 – Full Blown Chaos (Powerful Swedish death metal)
The Cast Of Cheers – Chariot (Tappy math-rock meets dance-punk experimentation)
Jogging – Minutes (gritty punk rock racket mixed with a post-hardcore churn)
Ice, Sea, Dead People – Teeth Union (lo-fi punk created by 3 dudes who can barely tune their instruments and still sound awesome)
The Continuous Battle of Order – Pttrn Skrs (experimental noises combined with someone re-tuning a radio in a storm)
I’ll Eat Your Face – Irritant (Bitching two-piece grindcore assault, available for free download)
The Austerity Program – Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn (Depressingly gaunt and dense punk done by the best Steve Albini impersonator)
And So I Watch You From Afar – The Letters EP (Their best work to date – not so much post rock, as an ADHD explosion of sprawling instrumental pleasure.)
Worrier – Source Error Spells (Les Savy Fav trying to play Liars songs combined with electronic drum slaps)
Middle Class Rut – No Name, No Color (Rage meets Brand New vocal styles backed by Queens of the Stone Age riffs.)

Top 5 gigs of 2010

5. Killswitch Engage – Download Festival, Friday
Adam D dressed as a transvestite superman, alongside Howard Jones and his epic set of pipes, Killswitch roar through a tight set of contemporary heavy metal. Adam D steals the show with his stupid antics, but never puts a foot or hand wrong regarding playing ability, along with his desire to headbutt all our girlfriends in their….ahem….vaginas, their version of ‘Holy Diver’ is a fitting tribute to the late Ronnie James Dio.

4. Them Crooked Vultures – Download Festival, Friday
“It’s difficult to describe the intense wave of euphoria I felt during their set and thinking back to it now, I wish that I could feel like that all the time.” – Said euphoria may have been the several pints of Tuborg, but quite honestly Them Crooked Vultures were a surprising highlight of experimentation, noisy jamming and high-octane rock from Mr. Grohl, Mr. Jones Mr. Johannes and Mr. Homme.

3. Rage Against The Machine – Download Festival, Saturday
Rage Against The Machine were perhaps the best sounding band of the entire Download weekend – everything was spot on. Their performance was electrifying; with everyone in the vicinity of the main stage bouncing up in the air like the ground was made of rubber. Just as entrancing, if not more so that AC/DC’s set the night before – all of which are American dreams.

2. Rammstein – Wembley Arena
From the explosions, to indoor fireworks during ‘Du Hast’, to setting someone on fire during ‘Benzin’, the constant roar of the flamethrowers, Til dressed as a giant metallic angel for ‘Engel’, ticker-tape falling from the sky, keyboardist in a sparkly suit and then riding a dingy into the crowd; Rammstein know how to put on a show – and how.
1. AC/DC – Download Festival 2010, Friday
Well, who else was it going to be? This is how you do a rock show – this is why they’re regarded as the greatest live band ever. Stupendously overblown rock ‘n roll destruction.

Other Gig Highlights

Rock Sugar (weird Glee-style rock/heavy metal mash-ups have never sounded so good. Journey mixed with Metallica? Queen mixed with Motley Crue? Oh good god yes. Jess Harnell and Rock Sugar max out the Pepsi Max stage with their anthemic sing-alongs.)
Slash (credit to Slash for writing some brilliant songs from his debut which sound fantastic live, but vocalist Myles Kennedy steals the show with his superb vocals, making their four, yes FOUR Guns N Roses songs sound incredible.)
Billy Idol (performing in the rain, shorting out all the microphones, yet still sounding punk as fuck – the Idol is on form and manages to lift the spirits of a nearly drowned Download festival audience.)
Airbourne (like a younger, faster AC/DC, Airbourne are all over the place. With their vocalist/guitarist deciding to climb the rigging of the second stage just to perform a solo at the top, everyone watching is suddenly an Airbourne fanatic.)
Pulled Apart By Horses (I only saw half of their set in a small pub, but my god, were they amazing. Ultimate power, MAXIMUM LIFE!)
Less Than Jake (Playing a large amount of their Losing Streak/Hello Rockview material is always a big win to my ears and the Gainesville lot tore through nearly every album of their long and brilliant career with such enthusiasm and energy.)

Musical moments of the year

30 second one-note piano bit on ‘Blodtorst’ by Kvelertak.
“HUH!” on ‘Sultans of Satan’ by Kveletak.
The breakdown on ‘I Punched A Lion In The Throat’ that leads into the cry of “ULTIMATE POWER!” by Pulled Apart By Horses.
The disgruntled anger of The Austerity Program throughout song 27; plus the drum machine breaks.
Keith Buckley’s vocals on ‘We’ve Got A Situation Here’ by The Damned Things – brilliant stuff.
The bass and sampled cheering on ‘Masa’ by Adebisi Shank just before it goes completely batshit insane.
Parts of ‘Release The Bees’ by Not Squares sounding like Justice crossed with The Prodigy – frightening.
The drumming on ‘S is for Salamander’ by And So I Watch You From Afar.
The keyboard intro on ‘White Horse’ by Mose Giganticus – overblown doesn’t begin to describe it!
The massive shouty chorus on ‘Lifelong Dayshift’ by Middle Class Rut.
The “Yeah” on ‘Traynor’ by Dinosaur Pile-Up (it’s almost inaudible, but I just like it.)

For 2011

A new album by The Drips please.
Down I Go to finish and release ‘Gods.’
Jetplane Landing to emerge from hiding? Please?
Limp Bizkit for Download Festival 2011.
Limp Bizkit to release ‘Gold Cobra.’
Fuck, ANY Limp Bizkit news as long as it isn’t “Wes is leaving again.”
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Cheers, and a happy new year to all our reader(s)!

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By Ross Macdonald

Band – Kvelertak
Album – Kvelertak
Label – Indie Recordings
Release date – June 2010
Sounds like – Superbly tight metallic punk rock + Hendrix + Thin Lizzy + Owls + Mead

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Kvelertak are six dudes making debauched, raucous, filthy metallic rock ‘n roll, that staggers between the harsher side of black metal, to sludge, to hardcore punk, filtered through a Thin Lizzy spectrum of sleazy 70s rock. They also have 3 guitarists for total awesome overkill in the riffage stakes, meaning their sound is huge and a lot of fun.

Nearly all the songs on this self-titled debut are about Viking folklore or Norse mythology meaning that tracks such as ‘Mjod’ (‘Mead’) is the perfect sing-a-long of high-octane rock ‘n roll debauchery to head-bang to whilst quaffing large amounts of alcohol, jumping on someone’s shoulders and stroking each others beards. The opening track (‘Ulvetid‘) is a complete spazz-rock eccentricity of Dillinger riffs and grindcore drum fills, with vocalist Erlend Hjelvik roaring his guts out, whilst the scything guitar attack weaves between dense barriers to a twisting spiral of demented riffs. You can certainly tell they were tour mates with Converge. Despite the scrape of the vocals, they’re still cleaner than Jacob Bannon’s, yet at times seem fiercer and less screeching.

‘Fossegrim’ is a clumsy, yet brilliant mix of trashy guitar wails and rollicking drum patterns than fall over each other in a mad race to begin, whilst vocalist Hjelvik stalks the track, spitting his vocals in short spiteful outbursts; whilst the bizarre organ break fills me with hilarious joy as do the strained backing vocal cries when the track kicks back into it’s crushing assault.

‘Blodtorst’ (‘Blood Thirst’)wins the award for ‘best song with a 30 second 1 note piano solo’; something which raises the songs already ballsy coda from ‘supreme rocking’ to ‘head spasm attack’ fury. They even have time to fit in a bit of acoustic guitar strumming, which doesn’t sound shit in the slightest; whilst the other 2 guitarists wail on their axes like they’re channelling a lost Black Sabbath riff. This build spirals in and out, rising to a suitable cacophony before launching into the tracks final verse on the back of Hjelvik’s vicious echoing roar and a truly fantastic bit of soloing, which must have every listener reaching for the imaginary axe; brutally tight stoner-hardcore punk.

What makes ‘Sultans of Satan’ so ridiculous is the immediate hammer-to-the-face opening that then breaks with a harmonised chorus, which has this powerful warmth to it, whilst the drumming switches from a relentless pounding, to an almost dance-punk beat during the sudden time change. It’s the closest thing to a ‘pop’ track Kvelertak will ever write, yet it’s still sounds so heavy and so charged with these layers and I mean LAYERS of wonderful riffage. At the 2:20 mark, the guitars start to SING like dolphins. Then there’s some cowbell. Then it hits classic rock – then chugging hardcore, fist in the air chanting and even a “HUH!” before diving back into that harmonious hug of a chorus.

There’s a touch of Motorhead in ‘Nekroskop’ – particularly the way the guitars wail with whisky-soaked fire and the sense that the track is sneering down its nose at you through its gutter-like filth barrage. ‘Offernatt’ begins with shrieking nu-metal guitar twangs and throat-shredding roar, before slotting brutally into some churning, spiked metallic rock complete with a filthy, 70s-rock solo for good measure – think Boston playing metal. There isn’t one moment in this record where the guitar work isn’t fucking awesome – ‘Sjøhyenar (Havets Herrer)’ for example; it’s absolutely fantastic; they howl, like wolves – no, like owls – owls hooting into a Fender that has been thrown through an amp.

‘Liktorn’ takes a different approach to start with; beginning as an immediate punch to the face of double-bass drum rattling, accompanied by vocalist Hjelvik screaming like an owl has latched on to his scrotum – it all goes pretty black metal to be honest. Melody is binned for pure scathing, “screaming-in-your-face-terror.” It then mellows out – well, as mellow as Kvelertak can go – so still furious; still grimy, still totally badass rocking with some nice harmonised gang vocals.

It’s difficult to describe just how good this record is, so I’m just going to end by saying look at the cover art – it’s got a fucking giant owl with tentacles coming out of its body, wrapped around saucy wood nymphs. Why haven’t you bought this yet? An outstanding debut album by the best band I’ve heard all year.

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Links

Kvelertak Official Site
Kvelertak Myspace
Indie Recordings

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By Ross Macdonald