Rodrigo y Gabriela: 9 Dead Alive
Pixies: Indie Cindy
Eyvind Kang / John Zorn: Alastor: The Book of Angels, Vol. 21
Damon Albarn: Everyday Robots
Floor: Oblation
Wovenhand: Refractory Obdurate
Another year, another torrential downpour of albums across our desks. As always, we encountered way too much amazing music, from Meshuggah to The Mars Volta, Converge, Killer Mike, P.O.S, and many more.
“Kicking”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Torche_Kicking.mp3|titles=Torche: “Kicking”]There’s no actual rule saying that heavy bands have to dilute their heaviness when they indulge in melody — or, for that matter, when they put cutesie My Little Pony-looking dinosaurs on their album covers. For whatever reason, the nerve to attempt either still is rare, as Miami four-piece Torche demonstrates with its third full-length, Harmonicraft.
Newark, New Jersey-based hip-hop duo Dälek crisscrosses sub-genres with abandon, unafraid to broach controversial topics in its music.
Among the thousands of under-appreciated or under-publicized albums that were released in 2010, hundreds became our favorites and were presented in ALARM and on AlarmPress.com. Of those, we pared down to 100 outstanding releases, leaving no genre unexplored in our list of this year’s overlooked gems.
Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.
Bongripper: Satan Worshipping Doom 2xLP (August 13, 2010)
Bongripper: “Hail”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Bongripper-Satan-Worshipping-Doom-01-Hail.mp3|titles=Bongripper: “Satan Worshipping Doom”]
Morrow: Chicago’s Bongripper makes the type of music that you might glean from its name — bleak, crushing doom metal that’s built on stoner riffs and down-tuned guitars. I will preface this by saying that I’m not a huge fan of the genre, but the band already has two strikes in my book for the lame pot-related name and the (presumably tongue-in-cheek) Satanism.
ALARM has two pairs of tickets to give away for the Congress Theater dates (Oct. 8 & 9) of Riot Fest 2010, Chicago’s annual punk/hardcore festival. The entire shindig takes place October 6 – 10, 2010, and this year it expands to the Metro, Double Door, Subterranean, House of Blues, Cobra Lounge, and AAA.
To enter to win, enter your E-mail below for the biweekly ALARM newsletter, the Alarmist.
We’ll contact the winner via E-mail on September 27.
Update: Contest has ended.
On top of another reunion show from Snapcase and dozens of other performances, Riot Fest 2010 features bands such as Bad Religion, Anti-Flag, Propagandhi, Jello Biafra, Smoking Popes, Negative Approach, High on Fire, Torche, Kylesa, Circle Jerks, The Bronx, Corrosion of Conformity, Agnostic Front, and Cap’n Jazz.
Just a year and a half after Static Tensions, psych-sludge quintet Kylesa will release Spiral Shadow, its fifth full-length album, on October 26 via Season of Mist. With the album, Kylesa’s cross-genre sound jumps from Prosthetic Records, which put out its last three discs.
The new album was produced again by Kylesa’s guitarist/vocalist Phillip Cope, who has manned the boards for Baroness and Withered.
Our list of favorites from last year includes devastating dub metal, organ-fueled psychedelic grind, a re-released classic-rock gem from nearly four decades ago, an international assemblage of punk-infused field recordings, and an Indian/surf/metal take on John Zorn‘s Masada material.
Details emerge about new albums from Isis, Tortoise, Akron/Family, and Stinking Lizaveta; Zu announces some dates for a world tour (a pair of which are with Mike Patton); Dark Meat will go on tour with its 17 members; the Scion Rock Fest hosts a spate of crushing metal bands in Atlanta on February 28.
Keep readin’…
