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2014 Albums So Far

May 6, 2014 by A.S. Van Dorston

2014-so-far

Wovenhand - Refractory Obdurate (Deathwish, Inc., 2014)April showers of hellfire did indeed bring May flowers of evil. There has been a ton of great new music this spring to document end times, more than I can cover in one place beyond the list. The Woodentops (80s UK indie band influenced by The Feelies and Lee Perry reunite), Triptykon (second album from Celtic Frost’s Tom G. Warrior hits all the right buttons of gothy doom), Bigelf (with Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy on drums, older albums were a little cheesy arena progtastic, but this is more pyschedelic, by far their best), Dopelord (super fun Polish stoner doom)  Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell (influenced by Groundhogs, Stray, Sir Lord Baltimore, Buffalo, with some raucous sloppy energy), Agusa (seventies style Swedish prog via Kebnakajse, Amon Duul II and Colosseum.), Pilgrim, Salem’s Pot, Mos Generator, The Graviators, Hjortene and Kyng. If you missed it the first time, read about the rest of the top albums of 2014 so far in the Winter Album Rundown.

Wovenhand – Refractory Obdurate (Deathwish)
If nothing else on this list, everyone needs to at least hear Wovenhand. It’s David Eugene Edwards’ band, formerly of 16 Horsepower. There’s already over half a dozen albums, all worth having. On the latest and greatest, the basic elements remain, a spooky, gothic mix of Americana, country, folk and gospel, but with a much heavier dose of post-punk. Think Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds/Grinderman, Gun Club, Joy Division and Swans/Angels of Light, but with extra apocalyptic hellfire and brimstone. | Bandcamp

Satyress – Dark Fortunes (Satyress)
This has been on heavy rotation for six weeks now. It’s a killer mix of occult proto-metal, psych, doom and NWOBHM, lead by the impressive pipes of lead singer Jamie LaRose. This is about as great as the impressive debut by The Oath, which lessons the sting of that band already breaking up. Bonus is they’re from Portland, OR, and should hopefully tour at some point. It would be great to see them with kindred spirits Castle, Witch Mountain or Christian Mistress. | Bandcamp

Satan’s Satyrs – Die Screaming (Trash King)
This is filthy, blown-out occult horror doom, kind of an unholy union of Electric Wizard and early Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats. Electric Wiz were such fans that they recruited bassist Clayton Burgess into their current lineup. A great midnight snack while we await the new Electric Wizard album. | Bandcamp

Floor – Oblation (Season of Mist) 
First there was Floor, formed in 1992, pioneering a mix of doom, Melvins-inspired sludge and pop. They didn’t get enough credit for the style, as their official debut didn’t come out until 2002. Steve Brooks and Juan Montoya formed Torche in 2004, and had even greater success, to the point where Brooks rejoined Anthony Vialon, synchronized their guitars back to the famous E-tune with the one long-suffering, half-broken E-bomb string, for much anticipated reunion tour a while ago. His distinct vocals ties together the sound of the two bands, both with the patented E-bombs and low-end tones, but Floor sticking to a slower, doomier style. Most fans of one shouldn’t live without the other. Indeed, a new Torche album is slated for summer! | Bandcamp

Monolord – Empress Rising (Easy Rider) 
You’d think there would be a whole army of bands who combined the psychedelic doomed haze of Sleep’s Dopesmoker (1995) with the perfection of heavy of Electric Wizard’s Dopethrone (2000). Not so. And it’s about time a Swedish band went for that sonic combo. Behold Monolord! Now how about they open for Sleep and Electric Wizard in a U.S. tour? | Bandcamp

Sigiriya – Darkness Died Today (Candlelight)
Can’t believe it’s already been three years since Return To Earth. Guys from Acrimony/Iron Monkey with best songs since peak Acrimony days. | Bandcamp

Lé Betre – Melas (Le Betre)
Bill Goodman, formerly of The Soda Shop, turned me onto this via his new site The Evil Engineer. Swedes with a French name influenced by countrymen like Graveyard, Truckfighters with extra blues. | Bandcamp

Mars Red Sky – Stranded In Arcadia (Listenable)
Released Apr 28 in Europe, but not ’til Jun 10 in U.S. oddly. Another French band, the psychedelic space rock of their 2011 debut was kind of a hit. Dry Hop brewpub near me even named a beer after them: “Biere D’Avril – 7.5% – This collaboration with Une Année Brewery did not want to stop fermenting. So instead of Biere de Mars, we have your new Spring fling – Biere d’Avril. Strong notes of raisin & spice highlight this traditional French farmhouse ale. Spicy Saaz & Strisselspalt hops round out this complex beer.” Are the hipsters going to latch onto stoner/psych next?

Blood Farmers – Headless Eyes (Resurrection)
This was such a great surprise for me, the first new album from NYC’s original occult doom band in 19 years unexpectedly came out of nowhere with no warning, just like a proper Z-horror movie monster should. Their amazing 1991 demo Permanent Brain Damage was clearly a big influence on Electric Wizard, and their official 1995 self-titled debut on Hellhound is a cult classic. You can buy the remaster along with the new one, which sees them sounding better than ever, at the link below. | Buy

Dwellers – Pagan Fruit (Small Stone)
Out today! SubRosa fans take note, Dave Jones and Zach Hatsis both played with that band. Dwellers are much different of course, focusing on hard/stoner rock rather than doom, but do share some progressive psych tendencies. A big step from Good Morning Harakiri (2012). | Bandcamp

Jeremy Irons & the Ratgang Malibus – Spirit Knife (Small Stone)
Small Stone is nailing it this year, kind of like Rise Above did last year. They have the great debut from The Socks and are also coming out with the new Greenleaf next week and Wo Fat next month. Like Sigiriya, Dwellers, Swedish psych rockers Jeremy Irons & the Ratgang Malibus have have significantly stepped up their songwriting from their second album Bloom (2011). Sprawling guitar heavy epics and even some sticky melodic hooks (“Sworn Collision”). | Bandcamp

Fu Manchu – Gigantoid (Redeye)
One of the original stoner rock architects, I’ve taken them for granted over the years, as they always had solid but not amazing albums. This is still meat and potatoes rock ‘n’ roll, but definitely a step up from Signs Of Infinite Power (2009) along the lines of the last Monster Magnet. | Bandcamp

Lantlôs – Melting Sun (Prophecy)
I’ve gotten pretty sick of shoegazy stuff lately, as I cannot get into the last Alcest nor The Horrors. But the latest from this German band feels much more substantial.

Vestal Claret – The Cult Of Vestal Claret (Cruz Del Sur)
Lots of people loved Bloodbath (Nine, 2011/2013). The Connecticut band features Philip Swanson formerly of Hour Of 13. I’m on the fence whether this one is as great. It seems to drift from occult doom to more traditional metal, which they certainly do just as well, just depends on what you’re in the mood for. Their Satanic/occult lyrics are just as provocative as ever. | Bandcamp

For the most part there is so much written about these bands already so I don’t know how useful it is for me to add to the pile. But when I watch (mostly FFD through) Fuse News and VH1’s Top 20, I see what most people are listening to. Some sort of okay pop, R&B and indie, a whole lot of landfill. Aside from some toothless mainstream stuff, heavy and hard rock ‘n’ roll is pretty much non-existent in the popular consciousness. Despite the blips in popularity last year of Black Sabbath and Queens of the Stone Age, rock is truly underground. But you know what? That’s no tragedy. Rock has survived artistically in the financially challenging lean years in the 80s when the best bands were touring in vans, sleeping on floors and eating ramen, and will continue to flourish again as a true underground subculture.

Of the 167 albums I’ve got in my 2014 list so far, I’ve included a snapshot of the top 100 below. I also keep playlists on Spotify and YouTube. Check ’em out along with my 2014 list after the jump. Also, I ran out of gas for now in writing my Psych Prog piece, but you can see the list of the nearly 300 albums by going to Lists and selecting “Psych Prog” for genre. Enjoy! 

Last weekend I thought I was going to have time to do some writing, but it took me literally all day to go through my albums that I’ve gotten the past few months, add them to my database, look up label and Bandcamp info, listen to them some more to figure out my current rough order of preference. I won’t lie, that stuff is a pain in the ass a lot of times. I do it mostly for my own reference, as it’s still a good way to help me keep track of stuff. But I’ve had doubts that anyone else cares.

When I started my site in 1995, gigantic lists of music were not a common thing on the Internet, and I got a ton of positive feedback from people who used them to get turned on to new things. Now we can’t escape them, and most people suffer from list overload. Nevertheless I do get occasional emails from people asking where mine are. When I migrated to WordPress a couple years ago, I also switched to an actual database. I’ve got five genre fields for each entry, country where the band is from, label, release date, rating and link to buy or Bandcamp. A friend helped me with the preliminary programming, but before it was completed, my site was hacked, and when I restored with an updated template, some of the functionality changed and the customized database queries for the years listed on the side menu stopped working. I’ve offered to pay a couple programmers to help fix it, but both flaked on me. However, you can still find most of what you need by clicking on Lists in the top menu. Eventually I would like to add multiple genre searches and other fields more like Rate Your Music, but it’s a start. I keep my own list there too.

  1. Truckfighters – Universe (Fuzzorama) | Buy
  2. Slough Feg – Digital Resistance (Metal Blade) | Buy
  3. Wovenhand – Refractory Obdurate (Deathwish) | Bandcamp
  4. The Oath – The Oath (Rise Above)
  5. Satyress – Dark Fortunes (Satyress) | Bandcamp
  6. Motorpsycho – Behind The Sun (Rune Grammafon)
  7. Demon Eye – Leave The Light (Soulseller/Megaforce) | Bandcamp
  8. Satan’s Satyrs – Die Screaming (Trash King) | Bandcamp
  9. Floor – Oblation (Season of Mist) | Bandcamp
  10. Monolord – Empress Rising (Easy Rider) | Bandcamp
  11. Gallon Drunk – The Soul Of The Hour (Clouds Hill)
  12. Wedge – Wedge (Wedge) | Bandcamp
  13. The Socks – The Socks (Small Stone) | Bandcamp
  14. Papir – Papir IIII (El Paraiso)
  15. Sigiriya – Darkness Died Today (Candlelight) | Bandcamp
  16. Lé Betre – Melas (Le Betre) | Bandcamp
  17. Mars Red Sky – Stranded In Arcadia (Listenable) 6-May
  18. Helms Alee – Sleepwalking Sailors (Sargent House) | Bandcamp
  19. The Woodentops – Granular Tales (Cherry Red UK)
  20. Bong – Stoner Rock (Ritual)
  21. Blood Farmers – Headless Eyes (Resurrection) | Buy
  22. Dwellers – Pagan Fruit (Small Stone) 6-May | Bandcamp
  23. Jeremy Irons & the Ratgang Malibus – Spirit Knife (Small Stone) | Bandcamp
  24. Triptykon – Melana Chasmata (Century Media)
  25. Fu Manchu – Gigantoid (Redeye) | Bandcamp
  26. Lantlôs – Melting Sun (Prophecy
  27. Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell – Check ‘Em Before You Wreck ‘Em (Rise Above)
  28. Agusa – Högtid (Transubstans)
  29. Bigelf – Into The Maelstrom (InsideOut)
  30. Conan – Blood Eagle (Napalm)
  31. Crippled Black Phoenix – White Light Generator (Provogue)
  32. Dopelord – Black Arts, Riff Worship & Weed Cult (Dopelord) | Bandcamp
  33. Seun Kuti + Egypt 80 – A Long Way To The Beginning (Knitting Factory)
  34. Real Estate – Atlas (Domino)
  35. Three Dimensional Tanx – Three Dimensional Tanx (Sunstone) | Bandcamp
  36. Cult Of Dom Keller – The Second Bardo (Cardinal Fuzz)
  37. Valley Of The Sun – Electric Talons Of The Thunderhawk (Bilocation)
  38. Pontiak – Innocence (Thrill Jockey)
  39. Kamchatka – The Search Goes On (Despotz)
  40. Kosmischer Läufer – The Secret Cosmic Music Of The East German Olympic Program: Volume Two (Kosmischer) | Bandcamp
  41. Maxïmo Park – Too Much Information (Domino)
  42. Pilgrim – II: Void Worship (Metal Blade)
  43. Vestal Claret – The Cult Of Vestal Claret (Cruz Del Sur) 6-May
  44. Salem’s Pot – Lurar ut dig på prárien (Easy Rider) | Bandcamp
  45. Mos Generator – Electric Mountain Majesty (Listenable) | Buy
  46. Abramis Brama – Enkel Biljett (Transubstans)
  47. Morgue Of Saints – Monolith (Morgue Of Saints) | Bandcamp
  48. Rainbows Are Free – Waves Ahead Of The Ocean (Guestroom) | Bandcamp
  49. Afghan Whigs – Do To The Beast (Sub Pop)
  50. The Graviators – Motherload (Napalm)
  51. Hjortene – Hjortene (Walden) | Bandcamp
  52. Kyng – Burn The Serum (Razor & Tie)
  53. Mexicoma – Obsidian Monolith (Mexicoma) | Bandcamp
  54. Wolfmother – New Crown (Wolfmother) | Bandcamp
  55. Horseback – Piedmont Apocrypha (Three Lobed) | Bandcamp
  56. Mount Carmel – Get Pure (Alive Naturalsound)
  57. Lizardia – Lizardia (Lizardia) | Bandcamp
  58. Eagulls – Eagulls (Partisan)
  59. Child – Child (Child) | Bandcamp
  60. Major Kong – Doom Machine (Major Kong) | Bandcamp
  61. The Wounded Kings – Consolamentum (Candlelight)
  62. Mount Salem – Endless (Metal Blade)
  63. Grand Magus – Triumph And Power (Nuclear Blast)
  64. Slomatics – Estron (Head Of Crom) | Bandcamp
  65. Temples – Sun Structures (Heavenly/Fat Possum)
  66. Wild Beasts – Present Tense (Domino)
  67. Carla Bozulich – Boy (Constellation)
  68. Neneh Cherry – Blank Project (Smalltown Supersound)
  69. St. Vincent – St. Vincent (4AD)
  70. Dark Forest – The Awakening (Cruz del Sur)
  71. Sammal – No. 2 (Svart)
  72. Tinariwen – Emmaar (Anti-)
  73. The Movements – Elephants 2 (Crusher)
  74. Moon Coven – Amanita Kingdom (Transubstans)
  75. Captain Ivory – Captain Ivory (Captain Ivory) | Bandcamp
  76. Gazpacho – Demon (Kscope)
  77. Dead Rider – Chills On Glass (Drag City)
  78. Kongh – Sole Creation (Agonia) | Bandcamp
  79. Goya – 777 (Goya)
  80. Milagres – Violent Light (Kill Rock Stars)
  81. Woodsman – Woodsman (Woodsman) | Bandcamp
  82. Morbus Chron – Sweven (Century Media)
  83. Volume IV – Long In The Tooth (Ripple Music) | Bandcamp
  84. Courtney Barnett – Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas (Mom & Pop)
  85. Lord Mantis – Death Mask (ProfoundLore) | Bandcamp
  86. Woods – With Light And With Love (Woodsist)
  87. Pink Mountaintops – Get Back (Jagjaguwar)
  88. Fear Of Men – Loom (Kanine)
  89. EMA – The Future’s Void (Matador)
  90. Secret Colours – Positive Distractions (Secret Colours) | Bandcamp
  91. Marissa Nadler – July (Sacred Bones)
  92. Radar Men From The Moon – Strange Wave Galore (Radar) | Bandcamp
  93. The Nightingales – For Fuck’s Sake (Nightingales) | Buy
  94. Fujiya & Miyagi – Artificial Sweeteners (Yep Roc) 6-May
  95. Katatonia – Kocytean EP (Peaceville)
  96. Arkona – Yav (Napalm)
  97. Mark McGuire – Along The Way (Dead Oceans)
  98. Elbow – The Take Off And Landing Of Everything (Concord)
  99. The Cosmic Dead – Easterfaust (Sound of Cobra)
  100. War On Drugs – Lost In The Dream (Secretly Canadian)

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