Victhor The Viking

Positiva is an incredible bad from Spain.  Their new album Prodigal Songs is an incredible musical masterpiece.  From start to finish it is nonstop rock ‘n’ roll.  Below is a excerpt of a review of the album at the Obelisk:

For the most part, Prodigal Songs stays well within the realm of revivalist ‘70s-style guitar-led rock. Guitarist/vocalist Miguel Moral is a former member of Bilbao crushers Rhino, though if anyone comes into Positiva expecting that same kind of metal destruction, they’re going to be in for a big surprise. The vibes are immediately, well, positive, with opening cuts “Brother Eagle” and “Undying Shore” losing none of their rock edge for the good times they incite. When the band delves into Grand Funkery, they earn a comparison to Blood of the Sun or Firebird, but the double guitars of Moral and guitarist/vocalist Julio Ruiz set them apart from their American and British sonic compatriots. Still, there’s a good amount of rock and roll shuffling going on through “Waiting in Vain,” “Catch the Fire,” and “Groupiedom,” and that’s got to come from somewhere.

Read the rest at The Obelisk.

I could not close out the year without adding a few albums that are pretty damn good.

Astra’s debut album The Weirding is an incredible album.  Astra is a straight up progressive rock band from San Diego.  And when I say progressive rock I do not mean this weird modern shit but something that could have been recorded in the early 70’s.  If you are going to Roadburn make sure you take time to check them out.

Nachtmystium’s put out an superb metal album a few years back that is a high point of the decade.  Assassins: Black Meddle, Part 1 is Pink Floyd and Darkthrone’s love child.   The last three songs on the album are epic!  Nachtmystium put on a hell of a live show too.

Another tattooist/artist/musician, Danial Higgs and Lungfish are a band I just got turned onto this year.   So I did not want to include them in the my top 10 even though they are pretty damn bad ass.  Being from the tattoo world I did not know that the Lungfish Danial Higgs and the Tattooist and Artist Danial Higgs were the same person.  My favorite Lungfish album to date is probably 2006’s Love is Love.  I am just got hep to them so I am way into them right now.  Great album!

Doom supergroup Shrinebuilder are a powerhorse force of doom greatness.  Shrinebuilder features Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Wino (The Obsessed, St. Vitus, Spirit Caravan) Al Cisneros (Sleep, OM) and Dale Crover (The Melvins). This self titled LP is doom at it’s finest.  Each member adds a little something to each of the songs.  Killer.

Danny Barnes is one of the most prolific song-writers in the music business today.  With his albums with the Bad Livers and his solo albums he just keeps putting out more and more stuff every year!  2006’s Oft Mended Raiment is a smorgasbord of sound and wonder.   I love the use of samples on this record along with Danny’s high lonesome vocals.  A contrast that works will.  Also this years, Pizza Box, is awesome!  He is the master of the claw-hammer.  The highlights for me are the title track, Sleep, and Charlie.  Danny is an awesome story teller.  Many Hailz Danny.

I could go on and on but I won’t…I can’t wait for the next.

There is prog and then there is prog. During the 80’s and 90’s prog kinda went on the wayside. There are bands out there that are called prog, but none of it really jumped out at me and said, “Wow that is awesome!”  Then something must have gotten in the water in Europe and the UK, because seemingly out of no where there has been a progressive rock explosion.  From Sweden you have Witchcraft, Graveyard (which I consider both to be prog and more than doom), Seina Root, and Asteroid.  Germany has it’s own resurgence of Kraut rock with bands like Samsara Blues Experiences.

And then there is the U.K.  Along with neo-heavy folk band Circulus and space rock upstarts Litmus, Brighton’s Diagonal have picked up where Van der Graaf Generator, Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Yes left off.  There debut self-titled record is a progressive rock masterpiece!  Right from the first song you know it is going to be good.  Alex Crispin’s vocals are awe inspiring!  The beautifully maudlin start to Child of the Thundercloud is epic and the harmonies during the whole song are luscious.  Then midway through the song it takes a psychedelic turn.  Luke Foster’s drum fills through out the whole album remind me of John Bohnam on Physical Graffiti.

With a song title like Deathwatch you would imagine something being epic and grim.  But the grace that comes through the speakers is astonishing!  I am a sucker for a Fender Rhodes so I was instantly sold.  The spastic bass and sax on Cannon Misfire are too groovy for my mind to comprehend.  I would keep and eye on Diagonal.  If there debut album is this good, there is no telling what they can do.

From avant jazz to avant metal, if you do not have Trinacria’s Travel Now Journey Infinitely, then you are missing out on something unique and spectacular. Trinacria was originally a composition by Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved and Maja S. K. Ratkje and Hils Sofie Tafjord, commissioned by Rikskonsertene for a concert series. It is a pleasant cacophony of metal, doom, and industry.

I personally think it is stands out in the because it has quite a mix of music on it. Part I: Turn-Away is colossally doom. Iver Sandøy’s blast beats and the sound effects add volume and weight to Part II: The Silence. Grutle’s vocals on are perfectly grim as always. I think the highlight of the album for me is Part IV: Endless Roads. A 10:00 minute doom masterpiece!

Great album all around. Hail to Trinacria.

What can I say about Tom Waits that hasn’t already been said. An incredibly prolific songwriter of Avant-garde and strangely beautiful jazz (and I use jazz lightly).

I put Alice and Blood Money together because seem to be from the same mold. Alice is contains songs written for a play of the same name. The play is tail of forbidden love between Lewis Carrol and Alice Liddell, for whom he wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Each song tells it’s own story and each song has a unique flavor. From the title track to alluringly tragic Flower’s Grave to the volkstümliche musik inspired Kommienezuspadt, each song on Alice leads the listener on a ride through the looking glass.

Blood Money is also contains songs for a play. This one is an adaptation of the play Woyzeck by Georg Büchner. Where Alice mournful and languishing, Blood Money has a dour and surly feel to it. The production on Blood Money does not seem as polished as Alice which adds to it’s ambiance.

Out of Tom Wait’s double aut album’s these two are my favorite and they are two of my favorite albums of the decade.

When I first heard Kid A I was like, “What the Fuck?” I was not sure if a dug it or not. I listened to a few times and then put it back on the shelf. Then about 6 to 8 months later I came back to it and boom! It hit me. Wow this is a groovy album! The songs are so complex but also simple. (I know weird). Take A National Anthem for instance. The song does not change that often in chord structure, but the different layers of instruments adds so much to the song that it sounds more complex than it really is. The baritone sax is killer.

Thom York’s vocals rival the greats like David Gates, Brad Delp, and Jon Anderson. Jonny Greenwood’s use of guitar effects has a lot to do with the oddness of the album.

Radiohead’s Kid A is truly a masterpiece.

Lucker of Chalice is the shit. Period! Wrest (Jef Whitehead) is one of the best all around musicians in extreme metal. He is one of the best drummer out there. His blast beats are fucking insane! His guitar work is chaotic and beautiful. As for vocals, creepy as fuck!

This self titled album is one of my favorite albums of all time. It so melancholy and creepy I can listen to it every day and not get tired of it. The album starts off with the funeral march I, and quickly moves into hypnotic drone of Piercing Where They Might, but my favorite song on the album has got to be the 10 minute epic This Blood Falls As Mortal Part III. The samples add so much dimension that I could meditate with this song on repeat for hours.

This album and the Leviathan album A Silhouette in Splinters go hand in hand even though the Lurker of Chalice album is a little more metal.

If you are looking for another The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide this is not it. But if you are in the mood for some misanthropic meditation, then Lucker of Chalice is your album.

Out of all the country artist out today, Ryan Adams, in my opinion, is one of the most prolific and talented artist out there.  His album Easy Tiger is not only one of my top albums of the decade but one of my favorite albums of all time.  From the opening guitar riff of Goodnight Rose is a country to the melancholy sound of Oh My God, Whatever, Etc. to the country rock of Halloween Head, Easy Tiger has a little bit of somethin’ somethin’ for any music fan.

The caliber of musicians that Ryan has playing with him on this album is incredible.  The background vocals that Sheryl Crow adds to the song Two is surprisingly (me not being a Sheryl Crow fan…at all…not a bit…seriously) a nice touch that song needed.  Playing steel pedal on the album is Jon Graboff, who I think is one of the best steel pedal players out there.  Incredibly haunting.

If you like alt. country, Easy Tiger is a must have album.