Musical Warfare’s Top 5 Albums of 2008
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been pretty lazy about purchasing many of this year’s best albums. There are plenty of excellent releases from the past year that I have yet to listen to. Of the albums I have heard, here are my 5 favorites from the past year:
I hadn’t heard of these guys before this year, but “Höstmakter” was impressive from the first listen and has become one of my favorite black metal releases of this year. Sweden’s Mörker plays a style of melodic black metal that is certainly not original, but the music is executed perfectly, particularly on the first few tracks of the album.
Deathspell Omega - Chaining The Katechon
This track was released on a split with S.V.E.S.T. as well as by itself on CD. There’s not much to say other than that “Chaining The Katechon” more than meets the tremendously high expectations set by their previous few releases. The dissonant, chaotic and increasingly complex black metal style displayed on “Fas…” is again present on this release.
This release was one of the few albums I was really looking forward to in 2008, and it turned out to be one of the few that did not disappoint. There are some slight changes in the sound and some new elements, such as the addition of occasional guitar solos, but for the most part Esoteric’s oppressive funeral doom sound is displayed in full force on “The Maniacal Vale.” The tortured, effects-laden vocals, ominous riffing, tempo changes and general songwriting creativity featured on past albums has persevered through the band’s several lineup changes. I was also pleased that the band has returned to their double-CD release format.
Germany’s Farsot is another band I was not familiar with prior to this year, and admittedly I mainly got into because of the album art’s resemblance to Deathspell Omega’s “Kenose.” While the sound and style of the band is nothing groundbreaking, “IIII” is a very cohesive album of aggressive black metal, made more interesting by the lyrical concept that ties it together. The fact that this is Farsot’s first full-length makes it all the more impressive.
As a longtime Meshuggah fan I was obviously looking forward to this release, but after having been somewhat disappointed by some of the band’s recent releases, my anticipation was a bit more cautious this time. “ObZen” did not end up being my favorite Meshuggah release, but tracks like ‘Bleed’ and ‘Pravus’ show that the faster and more aggressive style of earlier releases is not dead yet.
