a draft of my all-time favorite albums list—a list that constantly changes but includes constants

Top-Tier All-Time Favorite 10 Albums"

"The Wall" by Pink Floyd

"The Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd

"Reign in Blood" by Slayer

"Aja" by Steely Dan
"For Emma, Forever Ago" by Bon Iver
"Jane Doe" by Converge

"Calculating Infinity" by The Dillinger Escape Plan
"Metamodern Sounds in Country Music" by Sturgill Simpson
"Pet Sounds" by The Beach Boys
"Badmotorfinger" by Soundgarden

Second-Tier All-Time Favorite 10 Albums
"Sadness Will Prevail" by Today is the Day
"A Sailor's Guide to Earth" by Sturgill Simpson
"Appetite for Destruction" by Guns n’ Roses
"Grip It! On That Other Level" by Geto Boys
"Picture This" by Do or Die
"Blizzard of Ozz" by Ozzy Osbourne
"Malady" by Malady
"Seasons in the Abyss" by Slayer
"The Satellite Years" by Hopesfall

"The City of Caterpillar" by The City of Caterpillar

Honorable Mention
"Roots" by Sepultura
"Weezer" by Weezer
"Dirt" by Alice In Chains
"Above" by Mad Season
"The Bends" by Radiohead

 

 

Note: With endless caveats and prefaces about how I appreciate and care about the important bands, like the Beatles and Black Sabbath.

 

about another hardcore band's debut

French hardcore band Cleaver wreaks havoc on debut

The chaotic and crude-sounding "No More Must Crawl" debuts the hard-shove hardcore of Cleaver. Songs grind and scrape by in an Adderall-fueled turn, switching impatiently between sludge, choppy heavy metal, dissonant sidesteps, and chord-rolling hardcore.

The sound is a spasming relapse of American hardcore from the late 90s, like Botch and maybe early Converge at a time when Converge's epic album "Jane Doe" floated still on the hazy horizon.

The title track of "No More Must Crawl" echoes the eponymous closer of "Jane Doe." I liked “The Plight,” which opens with loud, dissonant detonations amid chunky power chords before slowing to a bleary slog. And the album’s eruptions of grindcore, like on “Thudding Stares” and “Kyg,” add vitality to these hastily stitched-together episodes of frustrated sonic violence.

Cleaver formed in France in 2018 and consists of Franck Fortina (bass and vocals) and brothers Mathis Garelli (guitar and vocals) and Léo-Paul Garelli (drums). The music shows a lot of promise amid the debut’s rough edges.

Note: This is from a while back.

something about the late full-length album from Anna Sage

The French band finally releases its long-awaited, highly anticipated debut.

Off the rails and whipping toward you, its headlight beaming the anger of God, Anna Sage’s new self-titled album is a thrill. The rapid-fire opening snare on “The Holy Mice” battles a staccato, off-time guitar riff. And the guitar tone is live; the amplifier practically hums in front of you. Feedback sometimes fills voids when the guitars break, like on “Sinner Ablaze.” Thirty seconds in, the song hits a groove, and bass guitar notes slide around the key as the six-string pours out a blurry, dissonant drone. Then comes “The Deadly Mess of a Dying Head,” where the atonal scream-shout vocal rages in cadence—"The wall in their eyes / they fall from their skies / hear ‘em antagonize!"

Anna Sage, a four-piece band from Paris, has issued at least two EPs in the band’s 10 years, but this self-titled album, released April 15, 2022, is the band’s proper debut. You can instantly hear the influence of Jane Doe-era Converge—the caustic intensity, the volume and passion, the mix of straight-ahead rhythms with frequent, chaotic tempo changes. Other hardcore and metal influences include Botch, Will Haven, Trap Them, and Gaza.

“Loveless” includes an oft-repeated sound on the album—dissonant high- or mid-range two-note chords that knead over crashing drums while the vocal smears its shredded personality onto the aggressively mordant sound. “Double Bind” begins much like a Jane Doe song, too, chaos pounding on all the doors and windows. Then around 50 seconds in, the song stabilizes and the guitar jams on a simple riff while the drums ratchet up the tension by slipping in fills and playing just off the beat.

On Anna Sage, the guitar riffs can be thrilling, taking the listener around blind corners and through dark doorways. The drums alternate between imposing order and creating high drama by stopping and starting; the guitars will repeat a riff, but the drums play differently the second time through. One thing I notice, though, is that the album has no big moments, no single part I would play for someone to say this is how good this band can sound. I think this just underscores how consistent this album is and how important the audio engineering and production are to making Anna Sage sound so good.

(posts) Converge's "A Single Tear"

Note: I enjoy the song very much but not the video.

"Concubine/Fault and Fracture" by Converge

Converge perform "Glacial Pace" at Saint Vitus +1