The Best Albums of 2014

Okay, let’s get going on what worked this year.

You probably know the rules by now, but for those catching up, all entries for consideration had to be original studio album releases.  No compilations, no re-releases, no live records.  Also, my top ten features eleven records, because first of all it’s my damn list and second of it all, “it goes to eleven.” Clear?  Good.  Moving on.

First off, let’s tip our collective hats to the albums just on the outside looking in, a heftier list this year than in many years past.  2014 featured a pile of killer records and might well be stronger 1 through 25 than any other year I’ve compiled a top ten.  Many of these records would and could content for high honors in any other calendar year.  Here we go (in alphabetical order:)

Arch Enemy – “War Eternal”
Blues Pills – “Blues Pills”
Dark Forest “The Awakening”
Death Penalty – “Death Penalty”
Exodus – “Blood In, Blood Out”
Gamma Ray – “Empire of the Undead”
Killer Be Killed – “Killer Be Killed”
Kontrust – “Explositive”
MaYaN – “Antagonise”
Orange Goblin – “Back From the Abyss”
Pro-Pain – “The Final Revolution” (this was released in 2013 in Europe, but 2014 in the US.)
Reverend Horton Heat – “Rev”
Texas Hippie Coalition – “Ride On”
Transatlantic – “Kaleidoscope” (what a great song “Black as the Sky” is.)
…and many more!

Now, without further delay, we hit the highlights!

HONORABLE MENTION – CROWNED BY FIRE: “Space Music for Cave People”
This is the ultimate in honorable mention, because every song on this EP is dynamite.  The issue is that there aren’t many songs.  There’s only five(?) cuts, and one of them is a cover, so you’re left with four awesome original compositions and nothing else.  Here’s hoping for another full album soon, because this EP, when paired with the previous full album “Prone to Destroy” is an excellent one-two punch.

11 – NIM VIND: “Saturday Night Séance Songs”

Just a couple days ago we were having the conversation on this site about the nature of inner turmoil and how different artists interpret and manipulate their personal conflicts in different fashions for their music.  Here with Nim Vind, we see an artist who has decided that his personal demons should be the subject of generally enjoyable music.  Unleashing the quote ‘fun is the first three letters in funeral’ during our interview earlier this year, Nim Vind represents all that is energetic and catchy about rock and punk.  “Saturday Night Séance Songs” defies any single genre and is simply of a compendium of songs that are fun to listen to.

 

10 – CRIPPER: “Hyena”

Right at the end of the year, a thrash band finally gets the thrash formula right.  Lots of speed and aggressiveness, sure, but also clever pacing and seamless cadence.  Cripper uses the proper amount of open space to let their titanic riffs breathe, leading to a record full of peerless head-banging anthems.  Cripper’s fourth album is their strongest and the finest thrash record of the year.  This is the golden age of the genre reflected with new millennium power and sensibility.

 

9 – JOHN GARCIA: “John Garcia”

It’s rare that the characteristic drone of desert rock is so absorbing that it demands attention and can keep it for an extended period of time.  John Garcia’s solo record accomplishes both of those ends, becoming the crown jewel of what’s been a busy two years for the genre between Vista Chino, this record and Brant Bjork’s Low Desert Punk Band.  Garcia’s rasping melody is a perfect fit for the dry repetition of the riffs underneath, while the grooves themselves are deeply rooted in the blues.  It’s that latter quality that keeps this album moving, and from end to end the experience is uniformly well crafted and on target.

 

8 – EMIGRATE: “Silent So Long”

Let the electronic revolution begin.  Channeling the industrial bent of old and combining it with the current trends in production, Richard Kruspe and company put together the best record in the genre this year.  Fans of Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and Rammstein will all find value here.  Like so many of the best records this year, Emigrate conjures creative hooks that make you pay attention to the songs, while the album’s flow is beyond reproach.  It is explosive in the right moments and quiet when it needs to be, surging between dry emotions with grace and aplomb.  Throw in a couple notable guest performances and you have a record worth telling people about.

 

7 - POWERMAN 5000: “Builders of the Future”

Don’t call it a comeback, they’ve been here for years.  Purists will tear down this record because Spider and PM5K dive so willingly into the electronic metal pool, but longtime fans know that the band has been headed in this direction since inception.  What Spider and company have done here is use some top forty production techniques to make their metal pop, pardon the pun, and culminate in a record that’s both catchy and inventive.  “Builders of the Future” sees Powerman 5000 both explore new territory and get back to basics, resulting in a highly enjoyable and surprisingly bouncy record that retains the crunchy roots of “Tonight the Stars Revolt,” even if keeping them at arm’s distance.

 

6 – RED DRAGON CARTEL: “Red Dragon Cartel”

This is the surprise of the list.  Attentive readers will note that my original review of this record was less than glowing, but like waves crashing against the shore, this record worked and worked and slowly eroded away my doubts.  It takes a few listens, and yes the album still sounds like it’s populated by metal from twenty or so years ago, but this is a wonderfully artistic record.  Jake E Lee re-establishes his reputation as an ingenious riff master, taking the tried and true tactics of days gone by and running through a modern filter.  His riffs are big, mechanical in a good way and generally dominate the entire experience.  This is a pure fun record, which you’re probably beginning to notice is the theme of this top ten.  If it sounds like I’m showering this record with backhanded compliments, just know that I stand by this album.

 

5 – LACUNA COIL: “Broken Crown Halo”

Not so different from Powerman 5000 a couple entries ago, Lacuna Coil was a band that needed to prove to its fans that they could still bring it.  “Broken Crown Halo” still shares the trend in pop sensibilities that the band has demonstrated over the last several records, but the crunch and edge of these songs adds some needed flavor to the proceedings.  Plus, “Cybersleep.”  This might be the song of the year.  Highly cinematic, incredibly well articulated and beautifully sung, while still being clear of the blatant production tweaking that plagues so many similar contemporaries.  Lacuna Coil has put themselves back in step with this record.  The future remains a little murky as the band finds some new members, but at this moment they are as strong as ever.

 

4 – JOHN 5: “Careful With That Axe”

I am a big fan of the old MGM ‘Tom and Jerry’ cartoons.  When I was a kid it was because I enjoyed watching the slapstick antics of a cartoon cat getting hit with anvils (although I found myself rooting for Tom more often than not, because Jerry is a pompous jerk.)  As I got older I really began to appreciate and admire the ability of these cartoons to tell a complete story without a stitch of dialogue.  I tell you that story to tell you this one: I get the same feeling of admiration for John 5’s “Careful With That Axe,” an incredibly listenable instrumental album that uses the timbre of John’s chosen instrument to weave narratives that are cogent and visible.  His riffs and cadences, surrounded by the other instruments that capably fill in the gaps, create remarkably clear imagery throughout the record.  Secondarily, John 5 tells these stories without giving in to the pitfalls of exhibitionist wankery that bog down and plague so many virtuoso records.  This is a great achievement.

 

3 – ANTI-MORTEM: “New Southern”
Every year I succumb to the temptation of a band that sounds like this, the deep chug of overdriven guitar fuzz drawing me in as a moth dances with flame.  There’s nothing technically intricate about “New Southern,” and there doesn’t need to be.  The album excels as a heavily rhythmic, blues-laden affair that capitalizes on the ability to use pulverizing riffs without losing the context of the songs.  This is a throwback record, a nod to the halcyon southern metal of days gone by, but colored with new vigor and populated with gain-fueled thunder.  “New Southern” succeeds at being both catchy and destructive and is a must for any fan who prefers their metal old-school.

 

2 – DESTRAGE: “Are You Kidding Me?  No.”

The decision to put this record at #2 was a matter of degrees.  This is easily the narrowest margin between 1 and 2 in the time I’ve been reporting for this site.  Destrage’s “Are You Kidding Me?  No.” is an exhibition in wild experimentation and subtly brilliant craftsmanship.  It takes a few passes to come to grips with the gleeful insanity of “My Green Neighbour,” but once the album unlocks for you, there’s no looking back.  This record is seeded through with intricate guitar solos, stop on a dime changes in timbre and more versatility in one effort than can normally be found in ten.  Destrage excels in knowing when to push and knowing when to fall back into easy rhythms, and their understanding of the notion that sometimes you need to go outside the box to get the sound you want is the album’s best asset.  There are piles of bands who can’t do anything well – Destrage is a band that does everything well.

 

1 – RED ELEVEN: “Round II”

Speechless and insatiable.  That’s how this record makes me feel.  I have so many incredible words to spend on it that my mind freezes trying to decide which ones to use first.  No matter how much I listen to it, I never seem to burn it out.  “Round II” is not just a metal record, but a near perfect synthesis of metal, alternative and rock.  Red Eleven has strung together harmonies in such a way that the material they’ve crafted is equally engaging whether heard as a symphony or dissected into individual parts.  Equal parts Faith No More, Soundgarden and crazy Scandinavian metal, “Round II” can hardly be summed up in this short paragraph.  Just know that its variety and consistency is its strength, and it isn’t to be missed.