Literally no one has ever asked me what an ugly album is.
Having done this for a couple of years now I have put up The Good, The Bad & The Ugly around this time detailing what I have thought rocked and what I thought did not, but I have also put up the third category as well.
Naturally when I first created the segment it was a catchy homage to Sergie Leone's superior movie about men awkwardly eyeballing each other, but it has come to represent a harder to pin down classification for some of the albums I have listened to this year.
Between writing for the Shaman and what I chose to listen to in my own time I have listened to tons of albums this year and for the first time I can actually make a solid ten in each of the categories so I felt it would be a good time to expand and explain myself.
What is an 'Ugly' album in the world of A Brief History of Metal?
An Ugly album is neither Good enough to make the top ten best releases or Bad enough to make the worst, but it worthy of being talked about for good or for bad. Make any sense?
Probably not… but without further ado
The Ugly 2012
10. Southern Badass 'Born In Mud'
Who?
What?
Yeah my thoughts too until the other week when I accepted the album for review. Southern Badass is like Ennio Morricone jamming with Down, Roadsaw and early Metallica. A one man outfit consisting of Arno Bechet and hailing from the humid swamps of… er France.
Essentially a tribute to all things NOLA and Stoner this album is raw and single minded.
And it kicks ass.
Sure it's not the greatest stoner/southern album and there is the same argument that saw Stone Temple Pilots called Stone Temple Plagiarists back in the midst of the grunge explosion, coming as they did from Detroit, but it is unashamed about its desire to plug in, turn it up, drink beer and rock out.
At times it is sublime, at times it is ridiculous. I love the ugly fucker.
9. Ministry 'Relapse'
So mere minutes after the never ending Ministry farewell circus rolled to a stop long enough enough for Uncle Al to finally put out the Buck Satan album he promised back when he was high as a motherfucker, he reformed the band - not a permanent reunion apparently, but a 'Relapse'.
Anyway the album itself is as full on as the George Bush trilogy of Houses of the Mole, Rio Grande Blood and The Last Sucker. Furious full on industrial thrash metal that actually stands as some of the band's heaviest and fastet material.
It was (un)surprisingly good, but whilst Al seems to have focused himself and it is a far cry from the heady smacked up days of Filth Pig, Dark Side Of The Spoon and Animosithwhatever, I still find myself more in love with the Paul Barker era as the man's greasy bass sound dragged Ministry back to the darkness that they thrived on - All the hyper focus on American politics leaves me a little cold.
That said if I had a top twenty this would probably be in it.
8. Kylesa 'From The Vaults: Vol 1'
I don't usually include best of or live albums in these lists (or Iron Maiden's En Vivo! would be seriously bothering the upper reaches of the Good list) but Kylesa's From The Vaults collection throws up unreleased, reworked and rare tracks, not to mention a couple of covers in order to provide enough material for those licking their lips at the thought of a new release.
Anyway as a shameless plug I reviewed it for the Sleeping Shaman so I will point you in the direction of my full thoughts should you want to know in depth what I thought of it.
My Two Cents.
7. Down 'IV - The Purple EP'
To be fair anyone who read my last entry would probably have been expecting Down to end up in a different category... Hell, I did.
I thought mid-way through the year that Down had come to save the end of my year of contrived dreariness by giving me another slab of Stoner/Hardcore/Doom, but sadly that hasn't proved the case. There isn't anything wrong with 'The Purple EP' let me be clear on that... Witchtripper, Open Coffins are great slices of Sludge, but to me it's just bang average from a band who have the quality to turn in greatness.
I get the concept of releasing EPs, Christ I am still waiting for Tool to follow up 2006's 10,000 Days which was for me literally a lifetime ago, so I am all for shorter listening, more regular releases, major touring, but when I am asked to pay nearly album price for six tracks that it sounds like they knocked out in their sleep then I'm a little disappointed. Sure those six tracks are better than a lot of bands manage on full cylinders, but it just feels lacking.
6. Primal Rock Rebellion 'Awoken Broken'
Earlier this year the Iron Maiden website was alight with rumours about an exciting new project featuring Adrian 'H' Smith Axe God, Heroic Goatee Grower and One Third of Maiden's 'Three Amigos' (well more than one third of the ability...). This project was to feature Mikey Whatisface from On/Off British Technical Metal/Screamo/Math/
Well it turns out H is down with the kids. Always one of the more contemporary thinking of the Maiden crew, he put together a project featuring people who probably weren't even sperm when he wrote his first classic, as clearly despite reaching number one in 26 countries (yes, 26 read it and weep) with The Final Frontier, there was an itch that needed to be scratched.
Now, confession time. I have championed a lot of British metal in my time but I have never got well with Sikth. I cant fucking stand them, they sound like a mess and I really dislike both vocalists sound. Mikey is actually a really nice guy though and I wanted to like it to give me a new perspective on his sometimes day job, but sadly it was only passable - there were some great guitar parts (and some very average ones) but I struggled to get past the vocals and I know a lot of other Iron Maiden forum members did too. Admittedly it's not the worst thing to come out of the Maiden camp this year (more on that later), but it very much flatters to deceive.
And the fucking name is awful.
5. Emmure 'Slave To The Game'
I have talked about my love for Emmure's 'Speaker Of The Dead' before and it was sadly little surprise that this years follow up 'Slave To The Game' was a pale copy of the 2010 album. It was simply another round of sledgehammer hip hop influenced deathcore. Musically it treads the same path as before, pug ulgy, punch drunk, breakdown heavy, low brow, brutality.
It's perfectly listenable, it's not bad, but it is simply a case of the songs not being as memorable or simply as good as the ones that preceded it. I'm not massively disappointed, I'm not even sure I expected them to be anything more than a passing fad for me and 'Slave To The Game' merely confirms this.
4. Sylosis 'Monolith'
So one of the touted future leading lights of British metal, Reading's Sylosis have been gathering momentum over the last couple of years and despite suffering the loss of original vocalist Jamie Graham after their first album, they have gone from strength to strength both critically and commercially since guitarist Josh Middleton stepped up to the mic.
This years 'Monolith' continued the trend with a barrage of technical metal and intricate melodies. It's good. Honestly.
It's just... it doesn't really excite.
It's brutal, it's well executed, but I don't really care about it. I wish I could, I want to, but...
I loved their first album and went to see them live just after Josh had become vocalist and they were just loud. On stage nothing really happened and the new material seemed to pass me by. Maybe it was the sound in the place, but after a few numbers we went to the bar and didn't hurry back.
This album is the same, it sounds like a ton of bricks, falling in a calculated manner, the vocals are raw, everything is in it's place and yet somehow it feels like something is missing.
3. While She Sleeps 'This Is The Six'
From one great white hope of British Metal to another. Northern band While She Sleeps looked to capitalise on the good will generated on the back of their 'The North Stands For Nothing' debut with the pummeling follow up 'This Is The Six'.
Much like the previous release, the full length set is an uncompromising barrage of heavy.
The lyrics are delivered in a a throat scrapingly raw style, broken with gang vocal style chants which is at least more original in this day and age than the now standard gruff/clean combo. It is a very well constructed album that rocks along at an absolutely ferocious pace.
I have to tip my hat to them, they are developing into a great band and were by far my favourite when I saw them on the Metal Hammer tour with Sylosis and, well whoever else it was... but I have to curb my enthusiasm and say that it is possibly a little raw for my tastes.
It lacks a certain deftness, it's hard to explain because I have appreciated it every time I have listened to it.
I just can't love it.
2. As I Lay Dying 'Awakened'
I talked earlier this year about how I love AILD and had my reservations about this years 'Awakened' due to the contrasting vocal styles, which is exactly why this very nearly took top slot for me.
Make no mistake this is an incredibly heavy album.
At times this is almost back to the monstrously heavy death metal stylings of their debut album and it is incredibly brutal.
Lambesis' vocals are a savage guttural roar from start to finish and the song writing is almost back to their Shadows Are Security best, but then that clean vocal kicks in.
If anything I find the clean vocal harder to accept than anything else.
The breakdowns could level city blocks, the speed riffs melt your face off, but when nearly every song drops into a big girly chorus it just flat out jars.
The irony here is that by trying to produce something with accessible melodies, they have made an ugly mess of what could have been a great album.
1. Meshuggah 'Koloss'
Jeez, what to say about Meshuggah?
They invented their own genre (mathcore, djent, whatever).
They are unrelentingly heavily.
They are uncompromising.
They released a new album this year.
Meshuggah are kind of like Neurosis in the way that they have gone off into their own bubble that frankly doesn't really care what you think.
A few years ago they released a 21 minute track and called it I.
Koloss in the latest piece of technical brilliance from the Swedish masters of metal so complex they can write maths theories on the time signatures, metal so fucking heavy they downtuned 8 string guitars.
A snarling, hulking tornado of an album...
I admire them a great deal, I have more albums of theirs than I'll probably ever need though and the latest one is simply an addition to that collection. I can't put on one of their albums to relax, I can't get friends round and chuck on the new one in company.
It's like an endurance test, headphones on and be awed by the dizzing heights of creativity they reach.
Music to play in the car when I am in an open minded bad mood.
Some times I need to hear Meshuggah... sometimes I couldn't think of anything worse to listen to.
I'll never put it on without psyching myself up first.
It's fucking brilliant. In small doses.
The next instalment… The Bad.
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