Best of 2013

60+ albums, 600+ songs, and 40+ hours and I've finally assembled a best of list that few to none will care about. If only I had the attention span and ambition for things that actually matter. But enough with self-deprecation...

After delving into such an expansive assortment of records, at least for the amount of time I tried to listen to it all, I realized my list was not a "best of" collection, but more of a top ten(-ish) of what I would listen to again. What I mean is, I can recognize that some of these albums are transcendent, boundary/genre pushing, and extremely artistic, but those may not be the records I reach for when I'm trying to take a break from my usual shuffle mode. So here it is, my list of top 2013 albums I would listen to again and again (as well as some previously alluded to possibly artistic honorable mentions):

If I was younger I would say that I'm going to start off by being a hater, but since I think that is a stupid and idiotic idiom, my sincerest apologies for starting this way. However, I think you know what I'm getting at and the point is Yeezus. How people can even get swept up in something that's too juvenile to be legitimately labeled as a god complex and like it because it's shrouded in massive over confidence is perplexing. It’s not surprising that the masses love it because they clamor for anything (music, politics, relationships, etc.) juvenile masked with over confidence, but that journalists and critics who aren't supposed to fall for that shit hailed the album over so many others. At least I made it all the way through which is more than I can say for that Arcade Fire trash. Moving on...

Honorable mentions (in no particular order):

O'Brother - Disillusion (listen)
Already kind of a melancholic rock band, this album took an even darker turn for O'Brother.

Coilguns - Commuters (listen) 3/5 of The Ocean churning out jams that are more metallic than hardcore. Think Breather Resist.

KEN Mode - Entrench (listen) Even though I've been following these abrasive noisecore guys since their inception, I'm a casual fan at best. This, however, is my favorite release by them.

The Psyke Project - Guillotine (listen) Trudging and noisy metallic hardcore with the only vocalist I've ever heard take a shot at a Jacob Bannon impression.

Sigur Rós - Kveikur (listen) All of their albums have a beautiful air to them, but this one is far more hauntingly so.

Russian Circles - Memorial (listen) Funny that this is only an honorable mention, but it was my go to listen when typing out this list. I appreciate that this album is more ethereal while still maintaining their heavy sound.

Death Grips - Government Plates (download) If these guys are releasing something, it's going on a "Best of" list. It's a combination of Money Store and No Love Deep Web and is the only band putting out stuff that makes me uncomfortable, excited about hip hop, and not completely dismissive of electronic music all at once.

Statues & Life Pilot - Compass (split) (listen) Two Australian metal/hardcore bands in their infancy. Similar styles and showing far more promise than most new American bands combining technical metal and hardcore.

And So I Watch You from Afar - All Hail Bright Futures (listen) Instrumental math-rock that makes me imagine a happy commercial for something I might actually want to buy or perhaps appearing on Saturday Night Live. I know that only makes sense in my head, but it's how they make me feel.

Pelican - Forever Becoming (listen) I really wasn't expecting to like this, and not that I haven't liked their more post-rock leaning albums, but this record is more akin to their heavy post-metal beginnings.

Speedy Ortiz - Major Arcana (listen) This one was a surprise and was very close to making the top. Like a poppy Sonic Youth, but still maintaining that indie noise rock quality.

Ghostface Killah - Twelve Reasons to Die: The Brown Tape (listen) I listened to this version first on accident. Maybe it's because I heard it first, but I like it so much better than the official Twelve Reasons to Die. There's a pretty good chance it wouldn't have even made my list if I had heard the original first since I was reluctant to listen to the album in the first place. The production on The Brown Tape is way more stripped down and relies more on samples than over polished beats. Reminds me more of older Wu-Tang and NYC hip hop. Regardless, I'm glad I gave this album a shot.

Now onto the top 11. Why 11 and not ten? Because I just described 12 honorable mentions, so what’s to stop me from talking more?

11. The Speed of Sound in Seawater - First Contact (listen)
This trio has fine tuned their technical indie rock, and though it’s become a little bit lighter and emotional, the songwriting has gotten better and they are able to turn arithmatic into something pretty catchy at times.

10. Crash of Rhinos - Knots (listen)
These guys fall in there somewhere between Hot Water Music style post-hardcore, technical indie rock, and abrasive screamo (of the skramz variety). Their second release, and first full length, also shows off an improvement in their songwriting skills, keeping things expansive, like on the EP, at times, but also fine tuning some neatly packaged tracks as well. My favorite, though, is the out of character, stripped down “Lean Out”.

9. The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer (listen)
I kind of didn’t even want this album on my list, but it’s my fault for having such astronomical expectations. They have been one of my favorite bands for quite a while now, but I can’t let go of Calculating Infinity. Not that I don’t appreciate everything after, but I want them to top it and I’m not sure that’s possible, at least to me. Option Paralysis was starting to tread CI’s crushing waves, but OOUITK trekked out towards a different journey. It’s not the technical craftsmanship that impresses on this album, because we know that DEP can do that. It’s also not the pop sensibilities that creep in through the edges because DEP has overtly tried to make us all aware that they are capable of that. No, it’s the nuances somewhere between those two ends of the pendulum that are surprising and inspiring as well as proving that they are still inspired. That’s why this album makes the list. That and the fact that I played the hell out of it when it first came out.

8. How to Destroy Angels - Welcome Oblivion (listen)
This may not be a popular opinion, but if I formulated one of those, then people might suspect head trauma, but I think Welcome Oblivion is the best thing that Trent Reznor has attached his name to since the turn of the century. I still listen to post-2000 Nine Inch Nails, but as the heaviness has started to slowly seap out, songs are becoming pop soaked and sometimes he even writes something down right happy. Not that a man with his success shouldn’t be allowed to express some sort of cheerfulness, but in the world I grew up in NIN is bleak and devastating. While not as devastating, How to Destroy Angels certainly is bleak, but also really soulful. And Mrs. Reznor’s vocals float like an apparition over Trent’s classic subdued style singing whenever he decides to chime in.

7. Capsule - [A] (listen)
Usually, when a band decides to experiment with slowing down their sound, they opt to explore this style with longer more drawn out songs, but what has ever been usual about Capsule? This EP is like being on the nod after listening to their previous full length, No Ghost, but it’s over so quick that you’re forced to chase the dragon and get pummeled all over again.

6. Gorguts - Colored Sands (listen)
Much like hip hop, I lost interest in true death metal long ago. I think the last time I even got turned onto any kind of death metal was when someone first showed me Gorguts. That was about 7 years ago, some 5 years after their last full length. And as any top 10 list that Gorguts has been on this year will remind you, this is their first album in 12 years. It’s phenomenal. It’s technical, it’s brutal, and it’s got all of your favorite Gorguts traits. Don’t have any? Go get some. The only reason this album isn’t higher on the list is because I’m still not as big into death metal as I was before I had a driver’s license.

5. Native - Orthodox (listen)
When I saw these technical Midwestern skramzers in the early spring of this year, I was excited at how much heavier the new material sounded. I was really anticipating this record. Then when it came out, I thought it was good, but it wasn't as much of a departure from Wrestling Moves as I was expecting and I didn’t feel it was a representation of what I had seen several months earlier. Then I saw them again this past fall and realized that they just bring the heavy live. I’m okay with that. This album is relatively high on the list because it’s interesting, but not so interesting that it’s distracting, and it’s sort of heavy, but not terribly abrasive. These characteristics make Orthodox an easy go to album when I’m just not sure how I’m feeling.

4. Horselover - Neon Cannibal (listen)
I really like this EP simply because I should have a biased opinion towards liking it, but I truly feel that if I didn’t have any sort of connection with one of their members (their guitar player did my band’s CD layout) I would still like this band. Horselover actually broke up at the end of last year shortly after completing this EP, but finally released it posthumously this year. It’s got the feel of Daughters/Botch music with vocals that sound like Jonathan Spencer of Scarlet/Spitfire. I love all of those bands so Neon Cannibal is like the high school quarterback of my music library (ahem, it gets a lot of play?)

3. Palms - Palms (listen)
This seems like an obvious choice for someone like me, right? Deftones, Isis, why wouldn’t I like it? Yeah, but I didn’t at first. I thought Chino’s vocals stuck out too much, and I also wanted to hear what it would be like during the heavier Isis moments with Chino’s screams and that never happened. Something all music lovers learn, though, it’s the albums that grow on us that mean far more to us over time. It also helps that I’m hungover a bit, and with only 6 songs this can get played a lot throughout the day.

2. Great Falls - Accidents Grotesque (listen)
I’m not going to be a jerk and equate Great Falls to jazz because they’re hiding smooth grooves amidst complicated time signatures. I mean they could be, I don’t know, I’m not a musician. I am going to be a jerk and equate Great Falls to jazz because compared to every realm of hardcore and metal, Great Falls are playing all of the notes you’re not... and it’s fucking angry. 2/3 of noisecore vets Playing Enemy and one Jesu touring drummer make up this trio of roaring nastiness. It’s very Playing Enemy-esque with a more stripped down recording process, but all of the fury is still there. One of the few voices in heavy music where the anguish feels real (though it may not be, I’ve heard that singer/guitarist Demian Johnston is actually a pretty nice and happy guy). Great Falls writes songs that do have head nodding grooves to them, but it’s a bit unpredictable like they don’t want you to know when to swing your neck back up again so they can hit you over the head with a tomahawk bass. Seeing pictures of past performances, I’m not sure if I mean that figuratively or literally.

1. Heiress - Cvlt Kids (listen)
I don’t know if it’s necessary, but probably should explain that this is an Australian metalcore band, not the John Pettibone fronted hardcore/post-metal band from Seattle. Initially, this album might come off as Every Time I Die/Norma Jean/The Chariot worship. While it does have certain elements of those bands, Heiress doesn’t have the singing or southern blend of ETID, they can actually pull off the late 90’s metalcore style that Norma Jean has always been on the cusp of, but never quite grasped, and they are far more focused than The Chariot. Heiress is more Botch and Don the Reader. Cvlt Kids is filled with angular dissonant riffs and clever stacattos that lead into tight grooves. Whenever Heiress does start to wander into weathered territory, they are quick to switch it up or make it their own before anything devastatingly trite destroys the song. The same can be said about their triumphs at times, too, though. They don’t always hash out the best moments of a song, but this only forces you to listen to it again. The album is so precise and has absolutely no filler which allows every track the potential to be somebody’s favorite on the album.

Kaospilot

In the early 2000's I started getting into screamo a bit.  Not long after, I started playing in a band full of recording snobs (and I mean that lovingly).  Screamo isn't particularly known for its production value so when I would try to show things like Song of Zarathustra or Yaphet Kotto to my bandmates it was quickly criticized, discredited, and disemboweled to the point that I didn't bother listening to it anymore.  Not because I was following a crowd, but mostly because I didn't have anyone to listen to it with, plus I probably (ignorantly) thought I wouldn't be able to translate those influences into what we were doing.  Like a college kid who starts buying Combos as munchies his first semester away because his parents would never allow him to have Combos as a snack at home (also me), now that those band members and I are separated I have once again started to indulge in stripped down abrasive screamo.  It's actually dominating my listening habits lately.

So maybe the recording elitism rubbed off on me a little bit because I'm not exactly delving in the stitched-jeans-held-together-by-patches-of-bands-nobody-has-ever-heard-of-gutter-punk version of crusty screamo.  No, I've kind of eased myself back in by finding a handful of bands that can still make car system speakers shake with thumping kick drums and rumbling bass rather than ear piercing feedback and/or static.  I know that's not very #PFR, but who cares?

I remember the Kaospilot name from my waning years of screamo interest and thought I had heard a few songs through the legendary Level-Plane record label, whom they released a handful of material including a split with screamo giants Neil Perry.  Anything I had heard previously most likely ended up on their 2006 Diskografi (oh, yeah, they're from Norway).  This time, though, I was steered towards their 2008 LP Shadows.  It's still of the noisy screamo variety, but with the aforementioned rumbling and thumping.  There's plenty of dissonant staccato chaos and straightened out rides, but this time it's backed by a fuller more menacing low end.  It's a lot like Off Minor, but with some thicker more lush recordings and the vocals are similar to Scandinavian brethren Refused and Lack.

www.myspace.com/kosepilot

Where They Started: 2001's For Your Safety 7" (?)

Where You Should Start: Shadows is easily the superior recording, but I also believe the songs are more thought out and better written than previous material.  If you like it then check out Diskografi as it has everything else Kaosplilot ever did.  If you're more of a screamo purist then definitely start out with Diskografi.

Songs:

Band of the... whatever: Shapes

Let's try going with impulsive.  If I can't immediately overreact with music that's new to me then I feel like what's left of my impetuous anticynical youth will perish and my transformation to bitter old man will be complete.  Seriously, new music is like my brand new toy on Christmas day or, if I were a credulous college co-ed, my new set of Hello Kitty key chains.  I'll play (with) it for days, but, in my advanced years, by the time I'm ready to show it off to my friends I'm either over it or worried that they have had that toy for months or even years.  Then I'm just the nerdy poor kid bringing a bucket to the sandbox while everyone else is playing with their Star Wars figurines.  Or worse, I make a reference to my 80's childhood Star Wars toys when everyone else is globally interconnected playing The Old Republic.  So we're gonna stop with the second guessing, the over analyzing, and the "will this be relevant?"  Who cares  It's blog.  I'll be like the rest of you who post another person's thoughts or images and reblog faster than a lonely match.com spinster refreshing her inbox (yeah, you can take it that way, too).  I'll be impulsive.

So, let's get impulsive with Shapes.  From Birmingham, UK, Shapes started off as an aggressive math rock band with quite of bit of shout-alongs mixed in among the buried, and most of the time absent, singing.  They focused more on the loud and sometimes disjointed rhythms of technical indie music.  They had that kind of Dischord Records feel going with the tones of Fugazi and the technicality of Faraquet.

On their second record, The Pasture, The Oil, Shapes looked to beef it up and tech it out some more even taking a page right out of The Fall of Troy's playbook.  Actually, the slightly ugly truth about Shapes is I could exhaustively list bands that they sound like, but they never let any of their influences fester around long enough to allow themselves to be deemed copy-cats.  They're more of an amalgamation of technical aggression that sounds strangely familiar while still maintaining some freshness.  It's never quite clear what direction they're about to swerve towards so if their music doesn't allow you to tap your foot or nod your head for an extended period of time then at least Shapes keeps the listener guessing.  With this release, they also moved the vocals up in the mix though they are still sparsely used.

With their latest effort, Monotony Chic, they take a more conventional approach to heavy rock music.  The technicality and speedy spastic changes are still there, but they also play with a little bit of space.  On this record, Shapes sound like they are dragging their guitars through the mud creating a dirtier and slower version of themselves.  It's similar to that underground Louisville rock sound, specifically Young Widows.  This style allows for more layers and fleshed out songwriting ideas rather than sledding down the Matterhorn hoping the next line they jump to continues the flailing journey rather than bringing it to a messy and abrupt ending.  Another interesting addition are the lower cleanly sung vocals which add even more depth to their new rock 'n roll leanings.

weareshapes.tumblr.com
facebook.com/weareshapes
weareshapes.bandcamp.com
bsmrocks.com

Where They Started: 2008's Get Your Learn On

 Where You Should Start: The Pasture, The Oil is probably the most interesting musically, especially technically, but Monotony Chic shows a lot of growth and is the most accessible.  It'd be a coin flip if all of their material wasn't available for streaming on bandcamp.

Time for Some Songs:

Von Wolfe

Mitch Hedberg once said (or probably repeated the joke many times, actually), "Because of acid I now know that butter is way better than margarine.  I saw through the bullshit."  Now, I'm not suggesting the guys in Von Wolfe are on acid, but if they were it would make sense because they have drafted up a blueprint of bullshitless southern hardcore that is more honest, soulful, and heavier than the trendy song and dance acts of similar sounding bands.

When most think southern tinged metallic hardcore there's most likely going to be an echo of Every Time I Die riffs bouncing across ear drums.  That's definitely an accurate comparison as Von Wolfe is a very riff heavy band with a noticeable twang. The difference (other than actually being from the south) is Von Wolfe channels a more traditional hardcore influence rather than Lynyrd Skynyrd making out with Poison the Well in an I-10 rest stop stall.  There's not any singing or any attempt to water down the metallic riffs so that they'd feel comfortable floating down the Chattooga River like Maylene.  No, Von Wolfe's brand of hardcore is more along the lines of pissed off bands like Cursed, or some of the straightened out moments of Converge.  The vocals are also a bit on the Cursed side and have that overdriven coarse scream of fellow southerner Josh Scogin of The Chariot.

Their debut EP, Life's a Beach, is fast, heavy, relentless and very well recorded.  Sure there's some breakdowns and a couple of two-step moments, but nothing that feels trite or worn out.  There isn't much on the record that strays from their formula, but with only an EP's worth of material it doesn't get old and requires a few extra spins to indulge in the havoc (listen to it below).

www.facebook.com/vonwolfefl
vonwolfe.bandcamp.com/

Let's Talk About Noisecore

Noisecore is like a less refined (in a good way) version of tech metal and also similar to metalcore, but without any of the breakdowns or singing choruses (soooo, early metalcore).  The first noisecore record I had ever heard was Deadguy's Screamin' with the Deadguy Quintet.  After the departure of Tim Singer and Keith Huckins, Deadguy's sound took on a faster more dissonant off-beat direction (perhaps because of the addition of Jim Baglino from Human Remains) and also Pops' vocals were far more screechy and less intelligible than Tim Singer's angry yells.  Though, I'm sure there were some really good noisecore records before this, Screamin'... is a good barometer to measure current noisy bands against.  Some other noisier bands from the late 90's early 00's included Burnt by the Sun (also boasting Human Remains alumn), Anodyne, and Playing Enemy.  It was about that time that Calculating Infinity really took off and As the Sun Sets second album that featured shorter grindier songs came out.  As a result, bands that may have headed in the noisecore direction gravitated more towards tech metal or pseudo-grind.  I bring this up because in the past year or so I have heard of a few newer bands that tackle the noisecore sound with the caustic nostalgia of the turn of the century.

Kiss the Sky Goodbye
I've heard rumors that Baltimore, Maryland is grimy and dirty and kind of dangerous.  If that's true then Kiss the Sky Goodbye embodies the nature of their hometown as they tear through 5 tracks on their 2009 Ignite Records debut EP Fuck.  KTSG only slow down to produce the somber outro on the final track, but by then their noisecore cyclone has already shredded your ears.

Panic Candy
I guess I heard this band on one of the many Mecha Organa compilations, but just overlooked it.  When I finally noticed this band is on bandcamp while doing a search for bands that sound like Converge.  It's somewhat of an accurate comparison, but Panic Candy, from the suburbs of Boston, is a little more unhinged and chaotic and bring about far more shifts in their music per song.  Vocals similar to the above Kiss the Sky Goodbye, that overdriven screech, though not as high pitched.  Panic Candy also uses a bit more double bass, yet also a little (only slightly) less breakneck speed.  Their debut self titled EP came out at the end of last year.

Meek is Murder
The only full length of the bunch, Meek is Murder definitely uses their time to explore aspects of noisecore other than just going fast and seeing how many changes they can legitimately slam into a song in under 2 minutes (though there is plenty of that, too).  Meek... shares some similarities with Inevitable End and the vocals kind of have that Chris Colohan of Cursed if he were really paranoid vibe.

Band of the Week - Rinoa

When I started Scrape and Scatter there were a handful of bands that I wanted to share right from the beginning.  I don't think I've even gotten through half of them.  Rinoa was definitely on the shortlist and since this (ugh) "blog" has been going they've broken up and started various other bands in different genres.  Well screw it, they're still good enough to talk about.

From a cursory glance at the track lengths on An Age Among Them and the atmospheric intro on the first song you could guess that Rinoa would have a lot in common with bands like Isis.  While there are some similarities between Rinoa and post-metal, especially repetition, they also have the straight ahead simplicity of a band like Will Haven.  Throw in some unexpected melody and it kind of sounds like if Will Haven had some assistance from fellow Sacto native Stephen Carpenter of Deftones writing guitar parts for them.  Now "straight ahead," "simplistic," and "repetitious" may sound slightly boring, but where Rinoa cast that assumption aside is with unpredictable chord progressions which isn't an easy feat when most of their songs are in a 4/4 time signature.  The vocals and song structure are akin to that of Japanese screamo legends Envy.  Don't worry, for once this English remake isn't a watered down version of the Japanese original.  If there is one complaint it's that the vocals can be a little too monotone.  I'm not saying that they needed to be trite and "pretty" or mainstream, but it could be argued that the melodic parts suffered from a lack of vocal variance (though I think they're just fine).

www.facebook.com/pages/Rinoa/99207468097

(new projects)
www.facebook.com/ancientsmusicuk
www.facebook.com/pages/Perry-Bryan/168396109906634
www.facebook.com/wearehospitals

Where They Began: 2008's Self Titled EP

Where You Should Begin: An Age Among Them, the only full length from Rinoa is definitely the way to go, but the self titled EP is worth picking up if only for the song "Atlantis."  If you want to round out the catalog the only other release they have is a split with Bossk which contains a track that wasn't released on the EP or LP.

Essential Song: This is what I believe to be their best song, but about 2 minutes are cut from it I guess to make the music video more accessible


Essential Live Video:

Guilty Pleasure of the Week: Taproot - Gift

OK, so we're not all born with a Minor Threat seven inch in our Fisher Price Phonograph.  We all stumble while developing our musical interests and for a time I was into nu-metal.  What's important is that we learn and grow.  What was kind of embarrassing was watching some hardcore bands try to jump on the nu-metal bandwagon to cash in only to later find out that they were blazing a trail that left nu-metal bands scrambling to change their oversized jnco's and fishnets for girls jeans and black band T's.  It was too late for the those who jumped the hardcore catamaran for the nu-metal Titanic, though.  The damage to credibility and fan base had already been sustained.

Anyway, I still have the first 2 Korn records in my library, and rejoiced when Deftones were finally able to shed the "nu" label.  I was curious if any other bands I used to listen to in the mid-90's (even though this came out in 2000) still resonated with me so I went back and downloaded a few (what? I'm not paying for that garbage... again).  First was Coal Chamber.  I had always seen DevilDriver tour dates being listed and didn't even realize it was the same singer.  I checked out DevilDriver (not a fan) and it reminded me to go back and listen to Coal Chamber's self titled debut.  I figured I liked it when it came out, surely there would be a song or 2 that were still listenable.  Nope.  It's really bad, and if you're contemplating the same self-exploratory experiment, I'll save you the time, and details, just don't do it.

A deep feeling of reluctance came over me as I was downloading Gift by Taproot.  I even checked out a song before downloading and wasn't really feeling it, but still followed through anyway.  Then I felt a brief moment of joy before the shame kicked in.  Everything in me was telling me that I shouldn't like this record.  The simple drop D chords that sound too close to Korn's "Blind", the white guy with spiky hair occasionally rapping, the whiny Fred Durst-esque vocals.  None of that could deter me, I still really like this record.  It's just so much heavier than those other depressing alterna-rock wannabe metal bands with singers who tried way too hard to sound like Layne Staley.

Now I'm not saying this record isn't without faults.  There's plenty, but these guys just knew how to write some of the heaviest, yet catchiest choruses.  In fact, sometimes they'll even stumble through the song and it feels like the track should be skipped, but then they pull themselves together and there's that feeling of shame again as you're banging your head (specifically the attempt at a trite screamy pre-chorus on "Now" only to be followed by a much more memorable singing chorus).  That's all that they really have, actually and so many successful artists write crap songs, but the hooks get you. So, string in a little destruction for the chorus and the hit or miss verses won't matter.  The screaming on Gift works best when it's just a one off inclusion rather than yelling through an entire verse or chorus.  The album definitely sputters when it approaches the middle tracks and has a few sparkling moments towards the end, but never quite returns to the consistency of the first 1/3 of the record.

Upon catching up on what Taproot was up to I saw that their latest release had been put out by Victory.  I thought maybe they were one of those nu-metal bands that had experimented with a hardcore sound and that's why Victory was interested.  I couldn't even make it through one song before I realized this was post-2000 Victory and not 1996 Victory so why would they be interested in anything hardcore or even legitimate?

If you have a soft spot for that nu-metal fad, but somehow skipped over Gift, go ahead and give it a spin.  Screw what your elitist friends say.  It's only a problem if after listening you go and get an eyebrow piercing.

(A two week hiatus and I can't believe I chose to write about this and not the Coalesce or Botch ideas I had been throwing around.)