Top 10 EPs of 2010

Let me make it clear that this list is simply a collection of EPs that I (personally) found to stand above the others this year. If you personally have a different list of EPs that you enjoyed, feel free to comment below. Please take a chance to also check out these groups as well if you haven't already as well.

10) Talanas - Reason & Abstract
A release that showcases a young band that's still finding it's way, normally it's not as different as this. This EP managed to combine the progressive elements of Opeth and Ihsahn with the more brutal and technical aspects of Necrophagist, and pull it off quite well. It seemed that the longer the song, on here, the better the band's sound became, as transitions and playing were more realized and not crammed into short stretches of time.
Highlight: Aorta

9) Terraformer - Terraformer
Instrumental math/post-rock with attitude. I've heard little that sounds as unique as this group does, from this genre anyway. Making use of a very minimal sounding production to bring forth a very natural and angular sound that is always moving.
Highlight: Eva



8) The Advaita Concept - Ontology
Djent, tech metal, progressive metalcore, call it what you want, these guys are still miles ahead of their piers. While this EP is far from perfect, it demonstrates a talent for songwriting and use of melody that really grabbed me from the intro. A lot of djent artists don't sound this good right off the bat, seeing as a lot of them are instrumental, these guys know how to write a catchy song and make it interesting as well.
Highlight: Ontology

7) Triptykon - Shatter
Similar to the full-length album that came before it, this short EP demonstrates a crushing sound that is just heavy and cold. Tom G. Warrior has rarely ever let his fans down, and even though this is, essentially, a short package of B-sides and live tracks, it manages to rise head-and-shoulders above more than a few full-lengths that have come out this year. Nothing this year has been able to top this band's guitar/bass sound yet.
Highlight: Shatter

6) Dopamine - Dopamine
Their last release, but one to really remember. This Chinese trio really knew how to capture shoegaze/dream-pop and meld it with enough black metal to keep it depressing and mournful as well as melodic and captivating. Unlike many of their contemporaries, this EP, and accompanying full-length, were able to keep a song interesting without relying on vocals.
Highlight: Water Edge

5) Grey Waters - Below The Ever Setting Sun
The EP/album that many fans of Austere probably never wanted to hear, the realization of a more rock based sound. Very clean and melodic, recalling elements of Ananthema and Katatonia, the more bleak and dark sounding elements of Austere remain, but are combined with a more "upbeat" sound and clean vocals. These songs are just plain catchy and filled with hooks, something I didn't find in their previous band.
Highlight: Below The Ever Setting Sun

4) worC - When The Day Forms
If you're a fan of djent/tech metal, then you too have experienced the anticipation for this release as I have. Filled with stacatto heavy grooves mixed with clean and ambient guitars to give this album a huge sound. This instrumental release perfectly mixes the sounds of Meshuggah with Devin Townsend.
Highlight: Velacit


3) Ensorcelor - Urarctica Begins
Raw and brutal, yet interesting, more than anything else, entertaining. This three song EP manages to capture so much within it's thirty-six minute time, two songs are over ten minutes. It's crushingly heavy, yet atmospherically dense and dark, it's blackened doom metal, the right way.
Highlight: This Even Doom



2) Look to Windward - Assemble
This one totally blew me away. I wasn't really expecting much from this, and then it just ripped my face off, plenty of influences being shifted around, yet well constructed pieces. The symphonic elements of Dimmu Borgir, the rhythmic tendencies of Meshuggah, the prog side of Dream Theater, the quirkiness of Mr. Bungle, enough to satisfy any fan of progressive music.
Highlight: Danger Eyes


1) TesseracT - Concealing Fate
Melodic, progressive, ambient, unique, and utterly jaw-dropping in it's complete vision. This is an example of modern metal (djent) that's done right, stuttering rhythms, ambient backdrops, and melodic vocals that soar above the music. Even if you're not the biggest fan of modern metal, at least give this one a shot, totally original in their performance while retaining a strong sense of songwriting.
Highlight: Acceptance

Top 10 Music Videos of 2010

As the title says, these are the 10 music videos that I watched this year that I totally became entranced and obsessed with. (Finally figured out how to embed) So here they are and enjoy! Feel free to list some of your favorite videos down below as well.

10) Dark Fortress - Ylem


9) Animals As Leaders - CAFO


8) Deftones - Sextape

7) Triptykon - Shatter


6) Envy - Worn Heels and The Hands We Hold


5) A Forest of Stars - Raven's Eye View


4) Portal - Larvae


3) Otargos - Cloning The Divine



2) Cephalic Carnage - Ohrwurm


1) Nachtmysium - Every Last Drop

Bergthron - EXP. Autarktis

Don't Get Me Started.

Bergthron is a progressive/avant-garde black metal group from Germany. Despite being around since the mid-90s and releasing five albums, before this one, little is actually known about this group. This new album is one of their shortest and expresses some of their most left-field ideas yet.
Having not been familiar with Bergthron before this album, this album provided an interesting gateway into their albums. There's a definite blackened thrash vibe on here, but there's a much more psychedelic and progressive/experimental touch as well that often twists these more straightforward sounds into more abstract forms. There are also more avant-garde touches of electronic flourishes throughout the disc that manage to move from atmospheric backgrounds to actual parts of a song.
I found that throughout this record, these progressive or avant-garde influences never overtook the more metal aspects of the group. If riffs were more twisted sounding, it still maintained a strong sense of black metal, or the other way around, if a section was pretty straightforward, there was a more odd sounding atmosphere backing it. This album has enough experimentation to keep a prog fan interested, but enough grit and aggression to allow a metal head to headbang to it, hear Harpune 2010 (Loki). It's certainly a blend that works well for this group and is unlike that of a lot of other bands.
Despite all the above being true, there is a very strong presence of melody coursing through this record, and band. No matter how aggressive the track is, there's always a riff to latch onto that will end up taking you into the song. Tracks like Weiße Bestie (Thökk) or Seepest (Naglfar) have a very solid black metal core, with plenty of experimentation, but the riffing is melodic and quite catchy, which is probably why these tracks seemed the most standout to me as gateways into this album.
Overall, this is a solid release that definitely makes me want to check out this band's older material. While I can't say this was as experimental as I would have wanted, it's still very interesting and a good listen. If you like black metal with a bit of experimentation, than you should really try and look into this album.
Overall Score: 7.5
Highlights: 84°03'N 174°51'W (Asgard), Nordpolar° (Jormungand), Experiment Apokalypse (Ragnarök)

Salamandra Eccentric - Human Beast

Someone's Been Looking Outside.

Salamandra Eccentric is a mathcore/black metal project from Russia. There is little information about this project and it's sole member, but this is the project's debut album. I actually found this album and kind of decided to check it out on a whim, no information known.
This album is totally bizarre sounding, it sounds so dissonant and odd. It's a very cold sounding album without warmth, very mechanical and robotic at times, which really didn't click with me. When it comes to black metal, I like there to be something "real" about it, but this felt like a machine was playing black metal and trying to make it sound technical. I didn't feel that this was progressive or technical cause the song called for it, but merely to show off, which didn't really sit well with me.
A lot of this record is just too machine-like for my personal tastes to get into, there isn't a strong enough sense of catchiness or memorability in here to make me want to return to most of these songs. Tracks like About Nightmare or are just too disharmonic and dissonant to make me think that there's any sort of idea to make this memorable at all. There are songs on here that do work better than others however; listening to tracks like Pulse or Handel Suite In D, there is a more prominent use of melody which really enhances the song's memorability.
There's also some stuff on here that I just didn't understand at all. The track For Short..., featured weird semi-melodic instrumental work, not too different from most of the album, but there was a really out of place operatic female voice on top of it that just made it sound god awful. The aforementioned Handel Suite In D is exactly what the title says it is, which turned out to be one of the most straightforward tracks on this album. I realize that at this point I'm kind of chasing my tail with this review, but I just can't get into it.
Overall, I just wasn't really digging this album at all, I honestly expected better from the tag I read. There just wasn't enough on here to make me want to actually listen to this again, it didn't make me feel good at all. If you like really dissonant or weird music, check this out, but otherwise avoid.
Overall Score: 4
Highlights: Pulse, Memory, Kill The Hero

Mania - Mania

The Cover Looks Like Junk, But It Doesn't Sound Like Junk.

Mania is a black/doom metal project from Oregon. Since the project's formation back in 2004, main brain Nate Myers has released one previous full-length and several splits and demos. This is his second full-length, three years since his debut, "The Death of Birth."
This album essentially takes straightforward black metal, doom metal, and ambient music, and blends them together. Within each of those three genres is an abundance of sub-genres, which actually manage to get pulled into here as well. While I'd never call this album progressive, it is certainly adventurous and exploratory. There are moments on here that are blazing blast-beats while other parts focus more on clean guitar lines with more atmosphere.
About half of this album is essentially a black metal record, the kind that has a lot of pounding double-bass and blast-beats kind, while the other half features a slower melancholic sort of tone, the doom stuff. If you haven't guessed by now, it's the cleaner, more soft moments that I find more intriguing about this project, as with a lot of other groups as well. It's in tracks like Lostness and Confusion where the two, heavy distorted black metal and melodic post-rock, combine to ultimately make the song. There's a pretty big post-black metal/blackgaze vibe going on inside as well, with tracks often combining more clean, or acoustic, instrumentation with more distorted, like in the track mentioned above. I'm sure it's also pretty obvious that more experimentation occurs in longer songs, about half the album's songs are under four minutes, while the other half is all over six, you could pretty much deduce which half is which.
The production on here is a hit-and-miss with me unfortunately, with most tracks it works, quite well actually, giving the music a nice raw sort of quality without making it lo-fi. Tracks like Getting Nowhere which rely more on speed and aggression really thrive on that sound, and even a more experimental track like Suspense works well with it. There are quite a few times when feedback actually makes its way into a track, though it's not a major part of any song on here, it works well enough. However, I found that some tracks, especially some of the opening tracks, Numbing, it kind of felt a bit weaker and less effective.
Overall, I'd call this a nice, solid record, it has some really cool tracks that really stick out, but there are others that just sort of fall into the gray. This isn't one of the best record to come from black metal this year, but it stands out none-the-less. I would consider checking this out if you like black metal that isn't too left-field, but a little adventurous.
Overall Score: 7.5
Highlights: Lostness and Confusion, Primal Instincts, Suspense

Haeiresis - Transparent Vibrant Shadows

The Factory Has Closed.

Haeiresis is a black metal project from Lithuania. This is the debut album from this project which contains Brooke Johnson (Hesper Payne, The Axis of Perdition) guesting on bass and mainman S.B. of Inquisitor. This album restrains itself compared to S.B.'s main band, but is still not quite traditional sounding.
The riffing on here definitely shows that conventional black metal is not where S.B.'s head was at when he was composing for this record, or at least it doesn't turn out that way. This album appears to borrow more from his proggy side, demonstrated more fully in his main band, as well as a bit of an industrial/dark ambient vibe as well. Throughout the record more abstract riffs are used, as well as melodies, that make it hard for this to be looked at as a trve, kvlt black metal record. There are also too many solos on here to for this album to be put into that box.
The vocals on here are also a far cry from any sort of black metal screams or howls. The vocals, from what I could gather, have been pitch shifted down as well as distorted to make it sound like something out of a weird horror movie. While they didn't bother me, I have to say that they don't always work well with some of the music.
Songwriting on here is strong however, with the more progressive riffing, hear Traces of Decay, and odd vocals, this album does have it's own personality. Most tracks on here are done in a more aggressive and technical fashion, as a result, they're often done in a faster context; but when the music does slow down, hear Emptyroom, it actually allows the music to gain a bit more atmosphere, and ultimately enhances the track itself. There's a really cool dark ambient/industrial atmosphere that lingers around these songs that really adds a unique personality to the overall vibe this thing creates. Really the only thing I can complain about on here is the use of more dark ambient pieces taking up about half of this album, while some, Transmigrating Corridors II, work well even though their long, some others, The Coming Wake, are just dull and uninteresting. Honestly, the only band that I could compare to this one is the masters of the atmospheric black metal sound, The Axis of Perdition.
Overall, this turned out to be a very interesting record that was pretty unique. I could see this being a pretty polarizing record, but i'd say that I lean more towards enjoying it. If you like industrial/ambient black metal, that's also a bit progressive, then definitely check out this album.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: Hallowed But Hollow, Surreale, Emptyroom

Flagellant - Monuments

A Tower of Souls.

Flagellant is a Swedish black metal trio that just released it's debut record. This album caught my attention through the cover and seeing the tag of just "black metal." This came at a point where I was looking for something very basic, black metal with not a lot of deviation.
This is not a clean, unique, or progressive black metal record, this is the stuff that fans of the early 90s bands will probably find enjoyable. With aggressive, tremolo picking dominating these songs as well as a very heavy use of atmosphere, this is traditional black metal alright. Visions of bleak settings with dark skies are painted through this band's use of a more straightforward black metal attack, no deviations on here, it's a record I'm sure Watain would approve of.
The production on here really suits the music well, it gives this album a huge atmosphere that just makes this thing feel monolithic. Even when the band is blasting, hear God of Torment, the atmosphere can even feel like it's engulfing the band at it's most aggressive. I did enjoy how the guitars have an almost crusty feel to them on here, where it sounds like real people are playing this, for obvious reasons I'm bringing this up. A track like The Unseeing Eye really has that sort of punk attitude/vibe that really gets me fired up when I'm listening to black metal, and the crusty tone really enhances that.
There are moments on here where the band do flirt with a more melody than other tracks, hear the almost blackgaze sounding intro of Within The Circle of Ouroboros. However, the melodies used are never overwhelming a song so much that something outlandish, like clean vocals or obvious parts that are meant to be catchy are used, like a chorus in a pop song for example. Other songs on this album don't get nearly as catchy or melodic as that one does, but do make use of a bit of melody here and there.
Overall, this is a very strong black metal record, I don't think it can compete with some of the others that have been released this year, thanks to these guys being a newer group, but this is very solid. A great atmosphere that isn't too overpowering while still giving out punishing black metal. If you like the genre done the old-school, traditional way, than this is an album you're gonna want to check out.
Overall Score: 7
Highlights: God of Torment, Monuments