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.
Our friends at Relapse Records are giving away two tickets to the upcoming Dying Fetus and Devourment tour.
If you live on the East Coast or in the Midwest, you’re in luck. Anyone from Philly to Des Moines is eligible to win; all you have to do is specify which show you’d like to attend in your submission. See the full list of tour dates below.
And, as if it couldn’t get any better, the super-heavy, double-headliner tour is bolstered by the mutilating metal of Cannibal Corpse and Vital Remains.
Every Friday, The Metal Examiner delves metal’s endless depths to present the genre’s most important and exciting albums.
Circle of Animals: Destroy the Light (Relapse, 10/12/2010)
Click here to download Circle of Animals’ “Poison the Lamb”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Circle_of_Animals_Poison_the_Lamb.mp3|titles=Circle of Animals: “Poison the Lamb”]
Producer/multi-instrumentalist Sanford Parker (Minsk, Buried at Sea) and saxophonist Bruce Lamont (Yakuza) have long and assorted ties in and around Chicago, where the two reside and contribute to the city’s vibrant underground.
Parker, in addition to his main gig in Minsk, has produced the likes of Pelican, Rwake, Unearthly Trance, Jai Alai Savant, Lair of the Minotaur, and Nachtmystium, and Lamont, outside of Yakuza, recently finished recording a solo album and regularly plays with other experimental metal and noise outfits (Decayist, Sick Gazelle) as well as improvised-jazz players (Jeff Parker, Ken Vandermark, Dave Rempis).
Each man’s résumé is a mile long, and now the two have come together to pay tribute to Chicago’s late-’80s and early-’90s Wax Trax! industrial scene with their new project, Circle of Animals. A diverse and widely recognizable cast of drummers rounds out the lineup on this release, with names like Dave Witte (Discordance Axis, Municipal Waste), John Herndon (Tortoise), John Merryman (Cephalic Carnage), and Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) lending their talents.
Stoner-core veterans Buzzov-en have reunited and will hit the road after a 12-year drought to tour the USA this fall.
For a handful of East Coast and Midwest dates, founding member Kirk Fisher has gathered the band’s original lineup, including bassist “Dixie” Dave Collins (also of Weedeater) and drummer Ramzi.
After the release of the band’s compilation album, Violence from the Vault (Relapse), this year, Buzzov-en is working on a new album called Revelation: Sick Again that will be out in 2011 on Hydra Head Records.
Strip down, way down, the layers of the moody energy of Brooklyn post-rock metal trio Dysrhythmia’s fifth album, Psychic Maps, and you can hear an indication of the agility responsible for the band’s deep intensity.
ALARM leaves no genre unloved in our round-up of 50 albums that didn’t receive enough attention in 2009.
This weekend, we’ll be sure not to miss the unadulterated force of Coalesce as the hardcore four-piece readies its first full-length album in 10 years.
We’ll also catch indie rapper Sole, rapid-fire bluegrass sextet Hackensaw Boys…and a few Bulls/Celtics basketball games, which have ravaged the emotions of ALARM founder Chris Force.
Whirlwind guitarist Kevin Hufnagel, one third of math-metal trio Dysrhythmia and half of atmospheric duo Byla, has released a beautiful, melancholy collection of solo tunes centered on acoustic guitars and percussion.
Toxic Holocaust‘s An Overdose of Death is a thrash-metal, punk-rock, face-peeling, metal-lover’s dream.
As the weather stops being oppressive in the Northern Hemisphere, a number of potentially great albums from countless genres are on the way. Here’s a list of ten that have us excited, including efforts from Isis, MF Doom, Coalesce, Prefuse 73, Mr. Lif, and more.
Don Caballero showcases its gut-crunching rock and complex, layered rhythms in Punkgasm, its second album since reforming, following World Class Listening Problem on Relapse in 2006.
