Favorite Records of 2013 - Number 2

Ultraviolet by Kylesa was an album I gushed about earlier this year. They are a Georgia band that has grown past the wall of noise that made up their earlier records. This builds upon their previous record to show a continued progression, not to the mainstream mind you, but a progression to more interesting and rewarding paths. Stoner metal and sludge metal is good, but when a band can use that as a foundation instead of a ceiling, those are the bands that are on to something.

Here is not a record for everyone. It's hard and it's heavy and it's trippy and it's spacey and it hits like a punch to the face. It takes a progressive track. The driving forces behind the band are Laura Pleasants and Phillip Cope. Their trading of vocal duties be it from song-to-song or within the same song keeps a close listener on his feet. Whether they are singing or shouting it remains mesmerizing with the heavy yet melodic music. "Unspoken" channels Megadeth-esque guitar runs with chanting vocals underlaying the main vocal line. It is a record with bottom in the guitars. I love the tone. It's heavy but it grips you not just through power and explosiveness but through strong song-writing. Good metal has good riffs and Kylesa has them by the bushelful. The swirling opening of "Grounded." The chugging Sabbath-esque riff powering "We're Taking This."

Another positive. It is short. At just under 39 minutes it starts, beats your ass, then gets out. I do not subscribe to the more-is-better school. My favorite records are those that do not fuck around. That say what they are going to say and be done with it. It is not brevity for the sake of it but it is knowing when the point is made. That's refreshing.

It astounds me that this record is failing to show up on so many best-of-metal lists. It is number two for me. I find it impossible to fathom there are 25 better metal records than this.

There was ONE record I found better than this one....what will it be!?!

Mid Year Report

Since everybody else seems to be doing it, here's my Top 5 records of the year. It's entirely possible one  or two or all of these will fall off the Top 10 of the year (that happened last year with The Shins) but I doubt it! These records are all really good!! Some hard and heavy stuff...some mellow stuff.

The Eldritch Dark by Blood Ceremony - What happens when Black Sabbath meets Jethro Tull? You get Blood Ceremony. Though front-lady Alia O'Brien is far cuter than either Ozzy or Ian Anderson. I've been drooling over this record on Spotify for a while...the vinyl is supposed to be coming soon, so I will write about it when it shows up. They are from Canada, which is apropos of nothing.

Ultraviolet by Kylesa - This is s good as modern metal gets. Smart, well-written, not super-fast so it keeps a great groove. Kylesa know how to get it mellow before breaking into a sonic tidal wave. Read more here and here (Blood Ceremony here to!)

The Stand-In by Caitlin Rose - And now for something completely different. Sensational country-esque singer-songwriter. I say country-esque because "modern" country is equated with junk like Taylor Swift. This is the real deal. More here.

Impossible Truth by William Tyler - Brilliant record I wrote about here. Guitar instrumentals can get dull in a hurry; this doesn't get dull at all, it's mesmerizing. It's not the kind of record you dance to (I guess you can but it'd be kind of weird) but even though it's wordless it's the kind of record you still pay attention to.

Elephant Stone by Elephant Stone - More Canadians. Psychedelic prog-pop with 12-strings and sitars. Very classic era 90s sounding band. I need to listen to this record more. Wrote about seeing them live here.

There you go. Like I said, I can't really see these records falling off the list. Especially the Blood Ceremony one. If one of them does (or two or three) then that will be great because that means more killer records came out. I expect the new Blackfield will be on my list, that comes out September-ish. Alcest and Anathema are both working on new records. Records I have now that could make the list? Destroy This Place, Arbouretum, Kadaver maybe. It will be fun to find out!!

Kylesa's Ultraviolet is Ultra-awesome

Something must be in the water down in Georgia because they are cooking up some seriously good metal. My nephew Scott got me into Mastodon a few years ago; Baroness' Yellow & Green made my top 5 favorite metal records of the year in 2012. Now Savannah's Kylesa enters my radar like a cruise missile with Ultraviolet. This record will easily make my top 10 favorites of the year and has a very good chance at being number one.

There's many things to like about this record. It is a loud aggressive record that also balances in a great melodic sense. It's not sing along, but it has a great metal groove to it. The vocals like most metal records these day is buried in the mix, which is a slight shame because co-vocalist Laura Pleasants has a great voice for the songs. I like this trend of women showing up in metal bands. Or maybe I am just getting around to appreciating it. But I don't remember bands like Kylesa or other great bands like Christian Mistress, Blood Ceremony and even Black Mountain which use female vocalists to great effect. Ms Pleasants shares vocal duties with Phillip Cope; they bring a nice counter to one another. There's not just the requisite metal screaming but strong singing as well. For me good grooves and good singing are what propels a metal band ahead.

The sound is forward-thinking metal. It's heavy, it has elements of Slayer-ish thrash, and Sleep-esque stoner, but it's modern. Steven Hyden had a great piece in Grantland in which he began talking about the new Queens of the Stoneage record before talking about Ultraviolet and the new Deafheaven and their place amongst the new metal scene (obviously a far greater and insightful piece than my drivel). His most interesting statement is that metal is the last bastion where forward-thinking rock music is being made. I couldn't agree more. That isn't a knock on the more mellow stuff or the garage rock I listen to but testament to the chances metal bands are taking and the challenges they are meeting. Black Sabbath is used as a touch point so often and it doesn't really mean anything. Sabbath were great and their influence on metal is so ingrained that it isn't even worth mentioning anymore. Any band can tune down and play a bit slower and be called Sabbath-esque. On the other hand any band that plays super fast will immediately be compared to Slayer. Hell, I already did it at the start of this paragraph. But the interesting thing about Kylesa is they are building on that foundation instead of just laying out. This album rocks in getting to a good cruising groove, then drops a gear to kick you in the ass again. A percussionist will find a lot to like; it's very drum-oriented and Carl McGinley is a great drummer. Drums are the engine of the band and Kylesa is able to rev very nicely. My only complaint is the production is a touch muddled, but that's the way metal seems to be going these days. I think a clearer production would have been good here.

All the songs are strong, but especially choice cuts include "Long Gone," "Unspoken," "Vulture's Landing" and the fantasticly groovy "Steady Breakdown." Not just a great metal record but a great record period.

Here's "Unspoken."