Top 10 Albums 2011

Speed demons or sweet feelings. The great gamut of music boiled down to that binary definition for most of 2011.

Music had only two roles: to put fire in my belly or smooth my furrowed brow.

I’m not cut out for new fatherhood, even second time around. My synapses need more help than ever to fire and my cranium is forever creaking, aching.

This list – my top 10 albums of 2011 – reflects this.

No black metal, no doom. Neither hip-hop, post-metal nor bass fuckery. Just various blends of death metal, crust and hardcore, preferably with that heartstarting Sunlight tone, or the polar opposite: the pastoral, the dreamy.

Roundup: Amebix; Masakari; Bastard Priest; Book of Black Earth; Roots Manuva

One of these men now makes actual swords

It’s been a funny few weeks at MDG Manors with the daily soundtrack veering all over the shop.

I’ve dabbled in grind, death, hardcore, hip-hop and a few things that defy description.

I’ve found some real gold in the past week or so, so read on for some tips for sonic satisfaction.

Book of Black Earth – Cold Testament

Road dogs from hell, indeed

Fast, loose and dirty. No, I’m not talking about Mrs M – it’s how I’m taking my metal right now.

It takes something quite special to come between me and my daily worship at the altar of crusty, d-beating death madness.

That something is Cold Testament, the third opus from Seattle quartet Book of Black Earth.

Reviews containing those magic words (crusty, death, punky and blackened) may have drawn me in but little I have read really nails why Cold Testament not only hits the bullseye but proceeds to tear it a new one.