Inspired by the third installment of The Naked Gun, we decided to compile our favorite albums over the first 3 1/3 years of the 2010s.
Meshuggah: Koloss (Nuclear Blast, 3/27/12)
It’s been a little over a year since the blast of atomic rage that is Meshuggah’s Koloss, and things haven’t slowed down for the band. In addition to touring at home and overseas, the band has dropped a video for “I Am Colossus,” and it’s a reality-twisting piece of stop-motion animation that simultaneously evokes Tim Burton and Tool‘s entire music-video catalog.
Last month ALARM presented its 50 favorite albums of 2012, an eclectic, rock-heavy selection of discs that were in steady rotation in our downtown-Chicago premises. Now, to give some love to tunes that were left out, we have our 50 (+5) favorite songs of last year — singles, B-sides, EP standouts, soundtrack cuts, and more.
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Meshuggah: Koloss (Nuclear Blast, 3/27/12)
“Do Not Look Down”
The average brain of an adult human has 100 to 500 trillion synapses. Each new electric impulse, each wrinkle that develops in our minds, leads to our understanding of the world around us. How this is done is still a mystery, and our experience of music is at the forefront of this complex puzzle. Somewhere between vibrations in the air hitting our eardrums and memory, we each confront and interpret the sounds of our surroundings and perceive the phenomenon of music — that which is made of rhythm, pitch, timbre, and dynamics.
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.
Jerseyband: Forever Hammer EP (8/16/12)
“Not Hammer”
When we last heard from “lungcore” septet Jerseyband, the NYC ensemble had self-released Beast Wedding, a monster of mutated metal that conjoined Meshuggah-like “djent” with unwieldy horn-formed power chords. (Read more here.) Now the unheralded group is back to launch hammers into space with Forever Hammer, a four-track EP that reveals yet another side.
Jerseyband: Forever Hammer EP (8/16/12)
“Not Hammer”
Some brave souls have tried to mix metal and jazz, but you’ve never heard anything quite like “lungcore” septet Jerseyband: four horns, guitar, bass, drums, and all fury.
Though much of the band’s recent material has been more like math metal, constructed with a front-line of horns forming unwieldy power chords, “Not Hammer” is one of the skronkiest, jazziest tunes that the band has unleashed. Download it for free here in advance of the group’s Forever Hammer EP, which is out next week.
Tomas Haake and Jens Kidman of Meshuggah speak to Scion AV about the metallic qualities of dubstep and the band’s intended response for concertgoers.
