Look at these crazy bastards! Someone’s gonna get killed!
So I was pretty stoked to see The Sword, live in London’s Camden Underworld. Despite initially being a little lukewarm about Apocryphon, I cranked it hard in the dark days before Christmas. Familiarity bred a comfortable enjoyment of The Sword’s well-worn yet still thunderous riffage.
Oops, my beaver is aflame. Please call the fire brigade.
I’ve squirted a fair dollop of love on the upturned faces of stoner doomsters The Sword over the life of this blog.
Warp Riders was in my Top 10 of 2010 with sharp-edged thrash riffage lacing their stoner/doom and a sweet space opera theme.
I’ll always be fond of their debut Age of Winters (2006) for helping lead me back to the path of metal even if they couldn’t get more on Ozzy and Tony’s dicks if they set up their amps in the Sabs’ pants .
We’ll gloss over the shit in the sandwich that is their dreary middle record Gods of the Earth.
BUT I think I might be getting a bit bored of their shtick. New song Veil of Isis – streaming over at that steaming turd of a mag Rolling Stone (!) – is just a bit by-the-numbers.
It’s by no means bad but the riffs feel recycled from The Sword rather than just from Sabbath while the vocal melody also seems mighty familiar.
It’s reasonably catchy and shit, I prefer it to fucking Lamb of God or some other drivel, but it feels a bit safe, yaknowworrimean?
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?
Graveyard - Hisingen Blues
After a stint revelling in the comfort of nostalgia, dusted off and rescued from a neglected corner of my personal cultural attic, I started to get my heavy back on these past few days.
It’s healthy to have a break from punishing my eardrums every so often.
It allows me to listen afresh to albums that maybe didn’t click because they didn’t match that moment’s obsession.
Even though 2010 has been a great year in music, I found it much harder to write this list than in 2009. Reason? I simply spent more time working backwards than jumping on new records. So as well this list, I’ll post up my favourite albums of 2010 regardless of release date. My top 10 albums of 2010 is exactly that, my list.
Monkey Defies Gravity 