heavy hitters from 1999

I submitted my music picks for 2009 weeks ago already (see this post for exclaim! year in review info, and then check out hellbound.ca's special year end coverage with a Canadian twist and submit your own top Canadian picks to win a Canadian metal prize pack). I'm not even going to try to play the 'best of the decade' game, but since the year is almost expired, it's about time for my twist on the typical year end lists - a rundown oft what I was into ten years ago.

If you caught last year's 'best of' post you might recall that this is a KEEW tradition, first devised for a new year's eve radio special many years past. This will be my third new year's away from CKMS but here are some of the records I'd be mining for tracks if I was still on the air.

KEEW's best of 1999 (in no particular order):

Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black

Opeth - Still Life

In Flames - Colony

Tristania - Beyond the Veil

Cradle of Filth - From the Cradle to Enslave

Anathema - Judgement

Rapture - Futile

Immortal - At the Heart of Winter

Agalloch - Pale Folklore

Moonspell - The Butterfly Effect

Hypocrisy - Hypocrisy

Iced Earth - Something Wicked This Way Comes

Cathedral - Caravan Beyond Redemption

Amorphis - Tuonela

Lacrimas Profundere - Memorandum

My Dying Bride - The Light at the End of the WorldSolus - Universal Bloodshed

Odyssey - Odyssey

Katatonia - Tonight's Decision

Sevendust - Home

Pain - Rebirth

Skunk Anansie - Post Orgasmic Chill

Korn - Issues

Disclaimers: If I screwed up any of these release dates, so be it. These are all worth mentioning whatever year they were released in. But it's also entirely possible I forgot something good too. What can I say? Memory's not my strong point. You'll also note that I start veering away from the metal canon toward the end of the list. I'm not a purist. I like what I like.

review backlog and honorable mentions

My house is full of CDs. I don't have an epic collection, but it's large and grows at a rate that exceeds my control. If you're the kind of person who reads Philip K. Dick, think of the CDs in my house as related to kipple and you'll get a sense of what I'm talking about. Books are almost as bad, but that's another tale. Part of the kipple factor is that I'm rapidly running out of shelf space. On top of that, of the CDs that come to me for review, I can only squeeze in the time to deal with a small fraction in writing before they're already old news.

Consider this post dedicated to the records that I wanted to review but couldn't find time for when they first came my way.

• Antediluvian - Under Wing of Asael: This brutal (Canadian) monstrosity just entered my life this year, but I gather the demo's a little older than that. Antediluvian performs a kind of blackened doom/grind that could probably annihilate any keyboard or vocal melody that wandered within 100 feet.
• Diablo Swing Orchestra - Sing Along Songs for the Damned & Delirious: Starting out like a cross between the Stray Cats and The Triplets of Belleville, this collection of tracks is as odd as the band name and record title suggest. I can't compare it to DSO's first album (never heard it), and I wouldn't call it exactly enjoyable, but there's a lot of entertainment value here.
• Emilie Autumn - Opheliac: This is one of my favourites of the honorable mentions. The Baroque intro sets a gothic mood but things get a lot messier (in the best of ways) as the record sinks into a nearly sinister electro-groove. Emilie Autumn channels something along the lines of a Kate Bush/Tori Amos/Hanin Elias/Courtney Love techno fusion. At first I thought it was neat, then cheesy, then I realized I was completely won over.
• Epica - Design Your Universe: Epica's always been hit and miss for me, as in I mostly can't get into what they're doing but they usually come up with one or two songs that draw me in. Design Your Universe keeps up that pattern (check out "Martyr of the Free Word"), but there's a little more oomph to this record that I can't quite put my finger on and the uncertainty keeps luring me back to try to figure it out.
• Gwynbleidd - Nostalgia: There's a late-90s Opeth-ish lilt to Nostalgia, a kind of folk-inflected progressive death metal with a few blackened nuances that almost seems to pick up where the Swedes left off to follow a different path. And it works (I'd rather listen to Nostalgia than Watershed).
• Leaves' Eyes - Njord: I could like Njord, but the signature "beauty & the beast" thing Leaves' Eyes banks on isn't enough to carry a record on its own, and its pleasures are overshadowed by unfortunate musical choices - like an out of place cover of Simon & Garfunkle's "Scarborough Fair" and the new metal cheese of "My Destiny" that sounds like LE and Lacuna Coil have been hanging out in the same wrong places.
• Secrets of the Moon - Privilegivm: I missed out on seeing these guys open for Moonspell in Toronto this fall and I regret the unfortunate timing. Privilegivm feels like complex late 80s thrash that fell into a frozen pit of black metal and came out a stronger, more ferocious beast.
• Skitliv - Skandinavisk Misantropi: It's hard to describe Skitliv because inconsistency is one of Skandinavisk Misantropi's strengths. If there's any structure holding it all together, it's a kind of blackened psychedelic doom, but things get more ambient and eerie from there on in. If you're a Maniac (Mayhem) follower or a fan of his sidekicks on this record (including folks from Current 93 and Shining) perhaps that's not too surprising.
• Wodensthrone - Loss: Pagan metal, clan mythology, and a little Old English make Wodensthrone's Loss a dramatic onslaught of primal power. Some of the record's raw edges are smoothed over by melody and synth textures but the result is more weathered than polished. A haunting but visceral blackened vocal track and a persistent rhythmic battery keep the unsettling momentum going with just the right mix of history and present.

And here are a few recent entries that did make the final review cut:

Katatonia - Night is the New Day

Sacrifice concert review (note: the original text referred to my one-ear deafness from standing next to the right hand monitors. oh well. click here for a few more rough photos from the show.)

Drudkh - Forgotten Legends

Paradise Lost - Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us (the Hellbound version)

Semen Datura - Einsamkeit
Sopor Aeternus - Es reiten die Toten so schnell

These Are They - Who Linger

xmas and holiday music: the (sort of) metal version

Exclaim!'s rundown of the Top Ten Worst Metal Christmas Albums.

I only agree with the "top ten worst" designation because xmas albums really can't be much other than bad, nostalgic, or both. But as far nostalgic holiday travesties go, some of the records on the Exclaim list are pretty alright.

Space in Your Face on CKMS always did a great Metal Christmas show. SIYF's online playlists are horribly out of date, but here's an example of "Christmas in Your Face" 2002.

My xmas playlist tended to have a slightly different flavour. So before xmas eve turns to xmas day, here's a little KEEW holiday nostalgia:

Type O Negative - "Red Water (Christmas Mourning)"

Extreme - "Christmas Time Again"

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - "Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24"

King Diamond - "No Presents for Christmas"

Korn - 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" (x-rated version)

London After Midnight - "Sally's Song"

Jim Reeves - "Dear Senor Santa Claus"

Elvis Presley - "Blue Christmas"

Roger Whittaker - "Darcy the Dragon"

"Santa Jaws" (I can't find the music online!)

Happy holidays (if you get any).

trouble interview plus exclaim's best of the year

Bruce Franklin from Trouble and I engaged in a very conversational interview last week. We talked about downtime, the current line-up, playing live... read it at Hellbound if you're interested.

I still remember the first time I heard Trouble back in the early 90s (a friend included them on the 'best of the year' tape mix he made for himself). I was immediately hooked. Soon after I was digging through the record stacks at Dr. Disc and found myself a copy of the Psalm 9/self-titled album, which I still proudly possess. According to Bruce, my introduction to Trouble was fairly typical:

"I think a lot of people actually picked up on us around the same time you did because that was our first major label release and that’s actually our biggest selling record and we toured for a year straight then. So I think a whole lot of people got turned onto us on that record, and did what you did and went back and found some of the older stuff. It’s just cool, that’s happened with me with old bands."

You can find the rest of the interview with Bruce Franklin here: Trouble: Nowhere Near Endtime.

Plus Bruce shared his recent music playlist.

Speaking of best of the year mixes, I've submitted my selections to Hellbound, so keep your eyes open for Hellbound's special end of the year features coming up in the next week or two. In the meantime, you can check out Exclaim's year-end picks, which have been out for a while. A couple of my choices made it to the Aggressive Tendencies top ten, including Katatonia's Night is the New Day.

the devin townsend project

A few weeks ago I interviewed Devin Townsend, getting him to talk (it wasn't hard) about his new four-album opus under the name Devin Townsend Project. Two albums are out, two more to fall in May, and they'll end up covering pretty much the full spectrum of musical intensity and volume (or so, I gather).

The interview is split up in two parts, with the main chunk posted at Exclaim, alongside my review of the Addicted album (the December print issue has a longer review, but no interview).

Part two, a little more business-oriented, just went up at Hellbound.ca.

Happy reading.

remembering the "Energizer" Adrian Bromley

Over at Hellbound Sean Palmerston has posted a wonderful tribute to Adrian Bromley, who died a year ago today.

I had an eerie moment reading the intro - somehow we both met Adrian in 1995 while backstage at Molson Amphitheatre for a Fear Factory interview, yet it was some time yet before Sean and I met each other, and many more years before we both ended up writing for the same publications, eventually culminating with Adrian's unparalleled Unrestrained!. The man definitely had a way of bringing people together.

Tonight I raise a glass (or a few) to Adrian, memories, and metal.

things to do in december

Of the many things you might do with your time in December, here are two possibilities...

I highly suggest you drop by Lens Factory Gallery to check out Mark Coatsworth's ABANDON: BAFFIN ISLAND photography exhibit. Here's a short excerpt from what the artist has to say about his own work:

ABANDON: BAFFIN ISLAND is a story of politics, culture and ecology in the furthest reaches of Canada's far North. It is also a continuation of my previous ABANDON exhibit, examining the successes and struggles of a society in connection with the loss and destruction of their natural environment.

You already missed the opening reception, but the exhibition continues December 9 to 31 at Lens Factory Gallery, 1040 Queen Street West, Toronto (Wed-Sat, 11am - 6pm).

If you're at home wrapping gifts, baking goodies, or engaging in other holiday activities and need a little festive soundtrack music, you can check out xo for the holidays: volume II for free. The compilation features xmas music by a range of artists, including Caravan of Thieves and The Backsliders among others.