BEST O' OH-NINE

Severely delayed, yes, I know, but life, as it is, tends to get in the way, so the holidays combined with various personal detours on the road to the grave bumped "blogging" down on my list of priorities just a smidge. But hey, new year, new attitude, GO TEAM.

So let's just get this out of the way:
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem



Thank you, Phil Elverum, for giving me one of the only albums this year to immediately give me that warm, fuzzy feeling right from the outset that says "Calvin, you're going to live this." Wind's Poem had me at its buzzsaw 'hello' with "Wind's Dark Poem", took my hand and dragged me into its dense foggy flaming forest home. An absolutely blissful union of black metal aesthetic with folk sensibility, it's the dirty little crossover that Elverum's been flirting with for a while and finally decided to embrace, with really stunning results.

(Side note: what is it with sensitive folk musicians and their black metal? Owen Pallett rockin' a Mayhem shirt, John Darnielle's oft-mentioned love of metal, and one of my favourite local artists, Wyrd Visions, who is quite literally plays acousitc black metal (and even did a cover of "Freezing Moon".)

So yeah, there it is, my album of the year. You can sleep tight now. Unless you wanted to see something else in the ol' top-slot, in which case, maybe some honourable mentions will sate your lust:

LIGHTNING BOLT - Earthly Delights



"Skull-fuckingly heavy" feels like a bit of an understatment when talking about
Earthly Delights, but severed head gangbang lead-ski biathalon borders on silly. This one really took me by surprise, and could very well be my new favourite Lightning Bolt album. Crushingly focused and engagingly experimental, it's really an exhausting listen, but ridiculously satisfying. I fucking dare you to not bang your head when the drums come in on "Colossus".

Lightning Bolt - Colossus

NATURAL SNOW BUILDINGS - Shadow Kingdom



Yeah, ok, the cover is fairly hideous, and yeah, I'm a complete Natural Snow Buildings fanboy, but fuck, this is good, ok? Ok. Triple LP, double CD, comic-book... this thing is massive (and boy, was it priced accordingly). Maybe even a bit too big for its own good, but when the drones are as completely engulfing as these (see: "The Fall of Shadow Kingdom"), length is a bit of a moot point. Maybe not the best starting point for new fans, maybe not enough new to satisfy the grumpy old ones, but it's still an undeniably solid slab of thoughtful and charming (yeah, charming. Read the back of the comic, or listen to an interview with the band. Charming!) maelstorms.

RICHARD YOUNGS - Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits



I've already talked a length about how swell this album is, and whaddaya know, it survived the year and made it onto this list. Unfortunately released with a total pressing of less than 300, this is Youngs at his most overtly catchy and pop-oriented. Synth-heavy, layer-heavy, but positively skyward melodies. A depature, really, but which new Richard Youngs album isn't one?

LINK REMOVED. (but on the plus side, this is getting re-released!)

Part 2 coming much sooner than this part took to get here.