TOP 10 TRACKS OF 2012

Let there be no ado about this - a brief countdown of my top 10 songs from this year, more or less rated on how addicted to them I got. Set? Let's dive in.

10. Muse; UNSUSTAINABLE

The first we heard from The 2nd Law, containing (in my opinion) one of the best bits of music Muse have ever written (in the middle section), and all told a breathtaking live intro.

9. The Chariot; FIRST

The highlight of my 10/10 rated album from the mental metalcore pioneers. Metal x spaghetti western is all I'll say. Genius.

 

8. Rolo Tomassi; OLD MYSTICS

Full to the brim of shredtacular riffs and general brilliance.

 

 7. Parkway Drive; DARK DAYS

Brooding from the start, a killer riff, some brutal breakdowns and powerful vocals, it's PWD at their best.

 

6. Biffy Clyro; STINGIN' BELLE

A joyously triumphant song, and that's before the bagpipes come in. It's just awesome.

 

5. While She Sleeps; SEVEN HILLS

Everything that makes WSS good - heavy power with melody, emotion and an anthemic chorus.

 

4. Enter Shikari; GANDHI MATE, GANDHI

An absolute gem that continues to set ES apart. Dubsteppy beats, hardcore breakdowns and a classic Rou rant.

 

3. Marmozets; GOOD DAYS

I'd have settled for a song's worth of the opening sexalicious bass hook, but no, everything's awesome too. Way to keep getting better, guys.

 

2. Baroness; EULA

Lyrically clever, beautifully complex; an outstanding song.

 

1. Muse; SURVIVAL

A rousing, intentionally ridiculous but brilliant piece of Olympic bombasticness.

 

So, something Marmozets didn't win? I am still in possession of most of my marbles. Butt I just loved Survival so much, it was over-the-top, inspiring, but at the same time almost a pastiche of itself. The perfect Olympic theme, and a microcosm of why Muse are modern prog rock/the natural successors to the mighty Queen.

 

 

THINGS THAT WERE SH*T ABOUT 2012

Every year has its shit. This is not to revel in it all, and think that the past year has been so - far from it. But it is worth paying attention to.

Near tragedy struck Atlanta's Baroness, who were involved in a bus crash while on tour in the UK. However, as recently as this week Baroness' John Baizley released a statement of his and the band's intent to get back on the horse, after months of recovery and continuing physical therapy - I wish them the best in their ongoing improvement, and hope they're back soon.

The UK's, nay Europe's, festival scene took a blow in 2012 with the surprise and widespread cancellation of Sonisphere Festival, due to 'a weak economy and some bad luck'. A promising lineup with a classic rock flavour then never saw the light of day, with Kiss, Faith No More and a Queen reunion, with Adam Lambert on vocal duties, sadly biting the dust (sorry, had to). Fingers crossed that it gets back up on its feet soon, as it is often blessed with a killer bill (though were it actually running in '13 it would have much to do to surpass Download).  I would also love to go back to the place that took my festival virginity (lol) in 2011.

The rock world was shocked this last week when it surfaced that lead singer of Lostprophets, Ian Watkins, had been arrested on allegations of child sex offences. Opinions on the band aside, we can only hope these are untrue claims - he will face the court on Wednesday 26th December.

We have also lost a few bands this past year, among them Japanese Voyeurs and Francesqa (others did but I've forgotten them - comment below if there are any more worth mentioning), while legends Alexisonfire also began their final tour, which will end in Hamilton, Ontario on December 30th. Farewell y'all, good luck, you'll be missed.

Lamb Of God's Randy Blythe has been officially indicted on a charge of manslaughter by the Czech State Attorney's Office in Prague. This follows the death of a fan at a LoG show a couple of years back, in which said fan was reportedly knocked off the stage by Blythe having stormed the stage. It's such an unfortunate thing to have occurred, and I hope the case is resolved cleanly.

And finally, ending on a sombre note (for which I apologise), the biggest tragedy to hit the world of metal this past year, if you hadn't heard about it, was the tragic untimely passing of Suicide Silence vocalist and frontman Mitch Lucker. I've only ever listened to a small handful of their songs, so I can't count myself as a real fan, but I do believe that metal fans in general are a community and a family that I do count myself as part of. So I extend my deepest condolences to his wife, daughter and the rest of his family of bandmates, friends and fans - I know their music meant so much to so many and helped them through difficult times in their lives.

 

And so I dedicate a specific award to Mitch Lucker, the Fallen Hero of 2012, for fronting a band whose work helped countless people through difficult parts of their lives. May you rest in peace and may your inspiration forever live on.

BARONESS ARE ON THEIR WAY BACK UP

Following the horrific bus crash involving Baroness and their crew in August, guitarist/vocalist John Baizley released a short statement through the band's official website late last night. While the severity of the injuries suffered by the band means that they won't be completely back in the very near future, as John writes,

"Simply put: it’s time to get back to it." 

So slowly, but we can hope surely, Baroness is far, far from over, and will be returning soon. The full post from John Baizley reads like this;

"Simply put: it’s time to get back to it. Since my belated and thankful return to the USA (after our painful test in motorcoach-aeronautics) i can definitively say i’ve exhausted my reserve of potential leisure activities (there’s not that many of them, after all). in recent weeks, i’ve come dreadfully close to boredom, and in those moments i can’t help but focus on my glaring physical infirmities. television offers little respite from this relative stasis; i’m sure by now i have sampled every biker-meth-dealer-zombie-low-talking-cop-crime-scene-serial-killer-real-housewife soap opera that is currently being broadcast (and there’s no small number of them). i’ve tried to fill my weekly routine with as much physical therapy as possible but the truth is, PT is not fun, and its benefits come with a great deal of mental/physical/spiritual pain and struggle. furthermore, i believe am getting a touch of Stockholm syndrome when it comes to my doctors and therapists (the highlight of my week should NOT involve a clinic). music might be the best therapy i have right now. perhaps it’s both the cause and the cure (the thought has crossed my mind); but i feel lost without it. Pete and i have just spent a long week surveying our musical wreckage and, surprisingly, we are quite well and intact. sure, there’s some substantial obstacles to overcome before we write, record or perform any time soon; but we still have everything we need to get “back in” that particular “saddle again”. Most of my peers are familiar with such high-school-gym-teacher poeticisms as “risk equals reward” and “no pain, no gain”; but did any of us every really believe there was any real wisdom in those adolescent platitudes? i didn’t. i am, however, starting to understand the essence of these and many of our other favorite cliches.

as odd as it might be for me to write these “updates” after 10 years of personal silence on the internet, i feel that i owe everyone who’s voiced or given their support to  Baroness a brief synopsis of our situation and more importantly a heartfelt thanks. honestly, it has made this ordeal much easier on me. what little publicity that surrounds our crash has given voice to so many people who have shared their own stories of injury, trauma and struggle with us, and has furthered my own faith in the communicative and universal strength of music. as every singer on every stage has nightly said, “we wouldn’t be where we are without you.” thanks everyone. we look forward to seeing you soon. here’s a short clip of a song we wrote.

j. "

And that clip accompanying this note is a wonderful acoustic rendition of Stretchmarker, taken from the Green Album, part of their recent double album Yellow & Green, my 5* (before I switched to the /10 system) review of which can be read here.

ALBUM REVIEW - BARONESS; 'YELLOW AND GREEN'

BARONESS; YELLOW & GREEN

★★★★★

Stunningly perfect progressive metal from Georgia's finest. 

n.b. I actually wrote this a month ago, when the album came out.  Yet for some reason, it has sat, with several others, as a draft for that month, unpublished, gathering internet dust. Until now...mwuhahaha. Ahem. On with the review, with those other half-finished ones on their way in coming days, including The Gaslight Anthem,'s Handwritten and Frank Ocean's Channel Orange. I don't just do rock.

The latest offering from heavy rock/metal quartet Baroness - or rather, offerings, as it is a double album - is a quite simply beautiful slice of music. Combining swirling melodies, stellar riffage from the more sludgy side of metal with psychedelic effects-laden oddity and strong vocals married to great lyricism, Yellow & Green  rhythmically flows from stonking song to stonking song. As it's a double album, I'll review Yellow and Green as two different entities. 

Yellow
Tonally darker in comparison to Green, we're led into this first disc amid echoing tones into the riff-heavy lead single Take My Bones Away - a good, proper rocky song, with its anthemic chorus, fuzzed up solo and riffage ahoy. That in turn flows into the more sombre sound of March To The Sea, which in many ways is a pattern that Yellow follows - sombre melodies into  more classic-sounding rocky affairs, all with a dark undercurrent running through it.  And underlying all of that is a style that Baroness have made their own, a uniqueness in their sound. From usage of unusual and varying time signatures that contribute to the changing flow of the record, echoing guitars, punchy and prominent bass - each element of the music is given its own time to shine. The song Twinkler, my favourite from Yellow, is carried by a brooding acoustic melody and what sounds like a baroque-esque flute - case and point of the distinctive sound Baroness possess.  

Green
Like Yellow, we begin with an instrumental intro track, but the Green Theme works on a different wavelength. It still has the echoing guitar, but bursts into a triumphant cacophony of an almost Queen-like solo, ebbs a little, then bursts back into life once again. It sets the tone for Green, with less of the inherent brood of the first disc and more lilting harmonies - not to say there aren't hints of that, but the overall tone compared with disc 1 is brighter - these hints come in the forms of things like darker lyricism to a more upbeat song (always a trickier combination, but it works well)  in tracks like Psalms Alive and Collapse, but songs like Board Up The House and Mtns. (The Crown & Anchor)  have the greater sense of positivity. There's more riffage, the best in the album, from The Line Inbetween, and instrumental tracks to be had in Green as well; Stretchmarker and closing track If I Forget Thee, Lowcountry provide echoey, resonating semi-acousticness that are quite lovely. The latter in particular is a frankly beautiful close, bringing the tempo right down, with just the faintest suggestion of Yellow to tie the two together as it finishes. 

All in all, I think this is a perfect album. It's incredibly well-formed - rather than just a collection of songs, each song carries on from its predecessor. I hate to repeat myself, but it really does flow. There are some excellent songs there; Back Where I Belong, Eula and Psalms Alive are just 3 but in reality they're all superb. Don't be put off by the tag of metal, because this transcends a lot of genres in establishing Baroness as a brilliant band with a sound that is distinctly them. It's too early to say now, but this may be my album of the year.

Tom Castle, Copyright THE NOISE August 2012

BARONESS INVOLVED IN BUS CRASH

One of my new favourite bands, Baroness, have been involved in a serious crash after their tour bus allegedly fell 30 feet off a viaduct between Bristol and Southampton. Relapse Records, the band's label, issued the following;

"Baroness have been involved in a motor coach accident in the Bath area of England. All band members and personnel on board are currently receiving medical treatment. The band had performed in Bristol last night and were traveling to Southampton for a performance at Talking Heads this evening."

More as I hear it, my thoughts go out to everyone caught up in it, and I sincerely hope no-one is injured. x