The Best Metal Albums of 1989

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best metal albums of 1989

The Best Metal Tracks of August 2019

Creeping Death – “Bloodlust Contamination”

The video for Creeping Death’s “Bloodlust Contamination” has the stylized feel of a DIY VHS video from the ’90s, the Texas-based troupe set loose on their instruments against a red-lit backdrop, and not much in the way of anything else—save for an appropriately pyrotechnic intro featuring some fire-breathing. But they don’t need too much in the way of branding or fancy visuals—the band is such a ferocious unit that their guttural churn pretty much sells itself. They go straight for the jugular and never relent, a song like “Bloodlust Contamination” roaring with raw, meaty riffs and beats that feel like being pelted in the ribcage with heavy, smoothed stones. So yeah, there’s another great new death metal band to know, and they’re already off to a spectacular start.

From Wretched Illusions, out September 27 via eOne


Cloud Rat – “Webspinner”

The brevity and concentration of grindcore tends to make it feel like a low-yield genre. The return on investment looks underwhelming on paper; divide the combined lengths of every Pig Destroyer full-length by the amount of time they’ve been releasing music, and well, it’s a couple minutes a year. The flipside is that this is really difficult music to pull off physically, mentally, psychologically—you have to condition your body and probably give yourself some time to breathe and meditate between hyperaggressive bursts, so 30 minutes every three or four years probably is about as much as any of us can ask. And thus, four years since the last Cloud Rat album, 2015’s Qliphoth, is not that bad in the scheme of things. Especially when you consider the quality of new track “Headspinner.” It’s magnificent, really—blast beats sputter beneath a cascading arpeggio, two elements seemingly in counterpoint to one another in a brief balance of tension and release, which reaches a climax within a matter of seconds. The Michigan band can certainly throw down with the best of them, offering some stunningly intense hardcore that carries the melancholy doom elements of a band like Thou. “Webspinner” is only two minutes long but so many different ideas—Cohesive ones! Melodically entrancing ones! Ass-kickingly furious ones!—that the swiftness with which it goes by is by is really just another thing to be impressed by.

From Pollinator, out September 13 via Artoffact


Mizmor – “Desert of Absurdity”

Summer’s almost over, so we can put the Torche and Brutus records away and listen exclusively to epic, soul-scraping black metal albums that take us to our darkest and most introspective places, right? I kid! I’ll probably never stop listening to that Brutus record. But that doesn’t mean I won’t make room for what’s promising to be one of the most emotionally gripping metal records of 2019. Mizmor’s latest is an album steeped heavily in a personal struggle about the religious values instilled in us in our upbringing and how those ideas often clash with how we actually live. Religion, of course, can bring a lot of positive things to a lot of people, but it’s also ruined a lot of lives, and the idea of being A Force for Good that so often brushes real acts of cruelty under the rug can be hard to square. “Desert of Absurdity” is just a small piece of this overall puzzle, but it’s a compelling entry point, its 10 minutes harboring both a harrowing darkness and a sense of melodic beauty that sets the band apart. This won’t be an easy listen for everyone, but by God it’ll be an unforgettable one.

From Cairn, out September 6 via Gilead


Gatecreeper – “Boiled Over”

Gatecreeper are an interesting band in the realm of death metal in that they’ve made their home state of Arizona such a significant character in their identity as a band. But they do so with a wink; their debut was titled Sonoran Depravation, but its follow-up, more cleverly, is called Deserted. Yet Gatecreeper doesn’t really evoke barren desert landscapes to my ears—a band like Wayfarer or Inter Arma do that more directly with songs that explicitly feature more spacious elements and spooky ambiance. But Gatecreeper aren’t as comically Halloween-y as some death metal bands (see: several bands above, which I absolutely love for the record). I saw them open for Pallbearer back in 2017, however, and they were about as much fun as a death metal band can be in a live setting, comparable to Power Trip in their ability to stir up an audience into a frenzy. Deserted is bound to be an album that surprises some fans and presents some new, unexpected elements, but for now, “Boiled Over” is Gatecreeper at their best and most potent, heavy, gnarly, and just plain kickass.

From Deserted, out October 4 via Relapse


Cloak – “Tempter’s Call”

I feel spoiled. This year we’ve already been given new records by Big Brave, Spirit Adrift, Inter Arma, Tomb Mold, Baroness, Immortal Bird, and so many other great bands, and there’s still four months left to be annihilated anew. And here we are—a new Cloak song. The band’s 2017 debut To Venomous Depths was by far one of the year’s greats, a powerful yet catchy take on traditional heavy metal with gothic rock elements and a touch of black metal ugliness. At any given moment, if I’m to ask myself what I look for in a new metal record, it’s pretty much all there in what Cloak’s debut delivered (as did, to varying degrees, the latest from Devil Master and Idle Hands). “Tempter’s Call” is, likewise, a note-perfect addition to the group’s catalog, a hard-rocking teaser for their upcoming sophomore full-length. And I use the term “hard-rocking” deliberately here, for while this is undoubtedly a heavy metal song, it’s also basically a hard rock song. Hang out between 3:30 and the four-minute mark and you’ll hear some righteous Camaro-rock riffs that, if you ask me, belong in more metal songs. (I’ve gone on record about the significance of Boston’s influence on metal, and I’m not backing down on this one, so don’t push me.) So yeah, looks like we got ourselves a late-summer anthem from a band I didn’t realize I missed this much. Heavy metal is the best.

From The Burning Dawn, out October 25 via Season of Mist


I’ll get back to listing the best metal albums of the month in September, but for now just listen to that harrowing beast of a Pharmakon album.

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