High on Fire Live in London 2013

I give you, Mr Pike

An pleasant cudgelling. A righteously refreshing bludgeon to the head. A welcome assault by an angry bear wielding a sackful of half-bricks.

You know what you’re signing up for when you lay down your notes for tickets to a High on Fire show.

Top 10 Emerging Classic Albums

This is a bit of a suspense killer but hey, I needed a pic

Over on Sawtooth Wave, hhbrady poses the following excellent question: what albums are you still listening to at least once month from the past few years?

Nothing from 2011 is allowed onto the list. Essentially, it’s a challenge to name your top 10 emerging classic albums. Which recent records will be hailed in the same breath as Reign in Blood, Master of Puppets or Number of the Beast in another decade?

The Quietus Top 40 Albums of 2010

I’m a big fan of The Quietus. It’s a site run by genuine music lovers and talented writers. While never ashamed of its intellectualism, it’s not pretentious or hip for the sake of it. The Quietus is one of the few “proper” music sites that covers metal without falling into the cliches and kult bullshit that permeate Terroriser, Metal Hammer, Decibel et al which seem to be marketed at moron teens.

Hardcore Sucks, Motorhead, Kvelertak and Inter Arma

Inter Arma - Sundown. You need to listen to this.

No gold, sadly. Tragedy were just too thin-sounding for my taste. That’s a problem I have with a lot of hardcore. There’s buckets of aggression and speed but the guitars lack the heft of metal and leave me cold.

I guess that’s why I am quite partial to sludge due to its fusion of hardcore/crust with the supremely thick tones of Sabbath-worshipping doom.