Top 5 Canadian Releases of 2009

I love being Canadian. And I love Canadian Metal. Some Canadian music makes me ashamed (Celine Dion, Anne Murray, Nickelback), some rocks (Neil Young, Rush), but Canadian Metal makes me proud. Here's the Top 5 Canadian releases that made me proud to be Canadian in 2009.

5. Arise & Ruin - Nightstorms Hailfire (Guelph, ON): Vicious metalcore sans clean vox. I was told by vocalist Ryan Bauchman himself that he will never lighten up his vocals. Good. Hints of doom and thrash work their way into the mix. All this makes for one hell of a live show.

4. Culted - Beyond the Thunders of the Upper Deep (Winnepeg, MB/Sweden): This Winnepeg duo's collaboration with a Swedish vocalist produced some heavy fuckin' shit. Seriously awesome doom with scary blackened vocals. Best enjoyed loud as hell and blazed out of your mind.

3. Ex Deo - Romulus (Montreal, PQ): Some bands create concept albums, some bands create concept bands. Ex Deo is basically Kataklysm doing Roman themed epic metal. Nothing wrong with that! Great music and a history lesson all in one. Battle of the Bands idea: Ex Deo vs. Nile.

2. Buried Inside - Spoils of Failure (Ottawa, ON): Bands like this I find hard to categorize. Pummeling doomy music with hardcore-ish bellowed Neurosis type vocals. The song titles are Roman numerals and I can't understand most of the vocals but they've always been a very cerebral band. I'd like to see a lyric sheet. I challenge you to try and not scream along anyway. This album rules.

1. Titan - Colossus EP (Toronto, ON): More or less in the same vein as Buried Inside but with more variation musically and vocally. "Bangover"-inducing ferocity throughout with just enough breathing room to recover before you pass out. I managed to see Titan live twice in 2009 and both times they kicked my ass! Extra kudos to the band for knocking out the power to a city block during one of their shows. That's fuckin' metal.

Honourable Mentions: 3 Inches of Blood and Bastard Child Death Cult.

Random whatevers.

Just some stuff i've been listening to. I'm not in a "write a review" mindset right now, but I'm bored.

I had a reader ask me about Burnt By The Sun. He asked if I could recommend any similar artists. That's a really hard question. I've listened to the album, Heart of Darkness, about 4-5 times since he asked the other day. I still haven't come up with an answer I'm satisfied with. Maybe because Heart of Darkness is so good, you don't need to listen to anything else! It's heavy, intense, complex. The vocals are passionate. There's new subtle textures I hear every time I listen to it. I hear metal. I hear hardcore. But despite the iTunes tag, I wouldn't consider it metalcore. It's great. I might even listen to it again today.

I listened to the new Every Time I Die this morning. New Junk Aesthetic. It's okay. Pretty typical ETID. It's fun. It's not exactly straightforward riff-wise but it's not hard to listen to either. It was my first go around so I haven't formed a solid opinion yet. But, I have a feeling ETID is more in their element in a live setting. Even on the album the vocalist has a commanding presence that would be awesome to see on stage. Ya never know, they might even come to Kingston!

I listened to the new Black Dahlia Murder album, Deflorate, last night/this morning. First time I heard it I was unimpressed. I must have been having a bad day or something because it's pretty kick ass. Love the vocals. I think I like them so much because it's the kind that I like to scream along to. Like Blood Tsunami and Skeletonwitch. Almost black metal vocals mixed with death growls. I was really into it driving around last night. Until I picked the kids up. I didn't turn it off. Just down. And I wasn't screaming at the top of my lungs.

What else? Samael! Above. That is a loud fuckin' record. I usually don't like keyboards in my black metal but they are well used here. Not dominating. It did seem a little long thoug. There wasn't enough difference between the songs to keep me intensely interested all the way through. And the remix at the end? I was having none of that.

Yesterday's feast also included a band called Culted. I can't remember the name of the album. Beneath something or other Thunder Deep. I think. I feel bad not remembering because it's pretty awesome. Slow, atmospheric, blackened doom. Most of the time I don't have the patience to let stuff like this get where it's going. (if it ever does) Decibel gave it a 9 and most of the band is Canadian so I toughed it out. Glad I did. It sounded bleak and depressing but at the same time, I was tapping my toe and nodding my head. How does that happen? Very nice range of guitar tones. The vocals were tolerable. If you don't like basement black metal vocals, you won't like these. They fit with the music so I didn't mind.

The last thing I've listened to today was Dying Fetus - Descend Into Depravity. Brutal tech-death awesomeness. I saw a video for one of the tracks of this and it really showcases the technicality. Especially bassist Sean Beasley. That dude is fucking amazing. Finger tapping AND sweep picking!! "Hello Jaw. Meet Floor". Amazign musicianship. Brutal brutal brutal vocals. Technical without sacrificing the songs, or being self-indulgent. It's weird. I like this, but I don't like Cynic, Obscura, The Faceless, etc and I do like Origin and Arsis. What is with me anyway? I don't make sense.

I downloaded a Metal Maniacs sampler. Most of it was shit. There MIGHT be 2 bands on it that I would care to hear more of. Surprisingly not Fetid Zombie or Bone Gnawer. Orthrus maybe? and possible Augury. The Century Media sampler should be better.

Ok. Time to read some abstracts of books recommended by Michael Tsarion.