ATCB's Top 100 Albums Of The Bastard's Decade: 50-41 

Presenting the sixth installment in this ongoing, self-obsessed series. A Spotify playlist featuring all available recommended tracks is being built daily alongside the list, and can be found by clicking here.

50. Imperative Reaction – ‘As We Fall’ (2006)

This album is the closest thing I have heard to rock music made purely with beats, synths and vocals. It has a driving dynamic and energy rarely found in electronic music, which is refreshing enough to easily push the release through the slight edge of repetition that it is bound by. There’s little edge to be heard, but there is also something to be said for music that sounds like it has been spat out by machines rather than ground out by fetid, dirty people. Overall it builds a smooth cyberpunk sensibility that many other acts would kill for – this is arena rock made for near-future hacker antiheroes with chrome implants and mirrorshades.

Recommended Tracks: “Collapse”, “Judas”, “Never Ending”

49. Ministry – ‘Houses of the Molé (2004)

Al Jourgensen returned to the filth and fury of Ministry minus long-term collaborator Paul Barker for an album inspired by his fairly overt loathing for the American administration of the early 2000s. This would eventually become a trilogy of albums with diminishing returns, but ‘Houses of the Molé remains a piercing shriek of industrial metal political outrage. Packed with automated drums and razor-sharp riffs than revolve between mid-paced swing and hypervelocity guitar rounds, it was clear that Mr Jourgensen was mad as hell and wasn’t gonna take it any more. Opening track “No W” was akin to a call to arms, one which opened up a whole new generation to the cleansing, mechanised power of Ministry.

Recommended Tracks: “No W”, “Warp City”, “World”

48. Glassjaw – ‘Worship And Tribute’ (2002)

Glassjaw’s 2000 debut ‘Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence’ was the ultimate breakup album – if the main thrust of your breakup was a desire to render your former other half into their component atomic pieces. For ‘Worship And Tribute’ the band worked in a great deal more variation, both musically and lyrically. There’s still plenty of chaotic ‘post-hardcore’ (bleeeeeah) on display, but this is tempered by a genuinely startling ability to work melodic hooks and almost easy listening-guitar lines into the mix. Daryl Palumbo’s vocals can veer between saccharine croon and wounded animal at the drop of a hat - and while many artists would end up sounding uncomfortably inconsistent from this approach, Glassjaw just sound mercurial. In a way, this is the heaviest pop album you will ever hear.

Recommended Tracks: “Tip Your Bartender”, “Cosmopolitan Bloodloss”, “Radio Cambodia”

47. Paradise Lost – ‘Symbol Of Life’ (2002)

I think few fans would struggle to argue that Paradise Lost’s 21^st century output pales in comparison to the material from the ‘90s. They’re a band who have undergone a shift from gothic metal heroes to an ill-advised but not entirely unsuccessful electronic pop act and then back again. Recent albums have been decent enough, but for my money ‘Symbol Of Life’ marked a transition point for them that might have been worth sticking to. Marking a balancing act between their brief electronic period and their metal past/future, it’s an industrial metal release with gothic overtones that suits both their songwriting and their innate brooding sound. It’s a shame more LPs weren’t produced that followed up on this angle, but then sometimes it is better to keep a decent piece of experimentation to itself, lest follow-up attempts seriously muddy the waters. A bonus edition of the album also concluded with two of the best covers I have ever heard – a really shouldn’t work but does anyway version of Bronski Beat’s “Small Town Boy” and a darkly majestic rendering of Dead Can Dance’s “Xavier”.

Recommended Tracks: “Isolate”, “Pray Nightfall”, “Channel For The Pain”

46. José González – ‘Veneer’ (2003)

It’s not that unusual for an artist to reach greater global popularity with a cover song. What is quite unusual is for the cover to be of a track by another relatively unknown artist. With a version of The Knife’s “Heartbeats”, José González made a decent advertising campaign from Sony more than just a load of balls. Bouncing, brightly coloured balls. It’s lifted off debut album ‘Veneer’, which is a consistent and gently emotive collection of acoustic indie-folk pieces picked out delicately against the backdrop of González’s understated, almost mumbling vocal delivery. It’s not energetic material by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a hell of a chill-out LP and almost custom made for lazy spring days spent lying under trees like other people do in other advertising campaigns.

Recommended Tracks: “Remain”, “Lovestain”, “Heartbeats”

45. Echo Image – ‘Compuphonic’ (2001)

‘Compuphonic’ is an almost unbearably sweet and glistening synthpop release from a group of Norwegian electro types who have really listened to far too much Erasure. Still, I’m certainly not going to hold that against them. It’s happy, bouncy, poppy and possibly mostly constructed from balloons, bubbles and small cute animals. Your enjoyment of this music may strongly depend on how much you are willing to dance to it flamboyantly in a tight white t-shirt, but despite never having done this (yet) I am perfectly satisfied with placing it this high on my list purely because of the massive corny grin this album manages to put on my face every time I listen to it. Admittedly, my massive corny grins look like slight smirks to other people. But the intention is there.

Recommended Tracks: “Standing Alone”, “Messing With Love”, “Understand”

44. Brand New – ‘Your Favourite Weapon’ (2001)

‘Emo’ is a term that gets a lot of hate these days. It’s also usually used completely incorrectly, even for a genre name that has flitted between different sounds. Perhaps they broke its heart and it had to move on and write some very sad lyrics about the old sound with the new sound. Regardless, Brand New is a band that would have been described as emo in 2001. This is shortly after emo was more like pop-punk, and before it became more like metalcore. It’s almost too confusing for even my mighty brain to handle. ‘Your Favourite Weapon’ is a strong debut of alt. indie rock laced through with wry emotional lyrics and bittersweet nostalgia, coming as nothing more than an album comprised entirely of teenage experiences filtered through a soft-focus Hollywood lens. The songwriting is both very catchy and almost naively fresh, and the easy wit of the wordplay more than makes up for the self-indulgence of the lyrical content. It can pull you back to your youth with shiftless ease, and that’s something to be valued when you’re as aged and misanthropic as me.

Recommended Tracks: “Mix Tape”, “Seventy Times 7”, “Soco Amaretto Lime”

43. Flight Of The Conchords – ‘Flight Of The Conchords’ (2008)

As a rule, I don’t really like comedy music. It’s almost always less funny than it believes itself to be, and typically the actual music suffers from a lack of attention and development. I’d much rather someone try to tell me a joke as is than try to come up with a tune to set it to. Flight Of The Conchords are a massive Kiwi-shaped exception to this. Genuinely great musicians with a fine-tuned ear for genre pastiche and understated, almost apathetic wordplay – given that exposure to their songs is typically granted from a live setting or their equally awesome TV show, it’s especially gratifying that they work just as well from a recorded LP. The material reels between acoustic folk to electropop to hip-hop to ragga, and hits every nail square on the head along the way. This debut release proved less varied but higher in quality than 2009’s follow-up ‘I Told You I Was Freaky’, I suspect simply due to having been more fine-tuned over years on the global comedy circuit.

Recommended Tracks: “Inner City Pressure”, “Boom”, “Business Time”

42. Puscifer – ‘V Is For Vagina’ (2007)

A side project from Maynard James Keenan (of Tool and A Perfect Circle fame) was probably never going to be straightforward and obvious, but many fans were a little bit taken aback by the quasi-industrial country-influenced electronica of Puscifer. Akin to a take on trip-hop that strips out all elements of its UK sound and fries it in greasy but filling Americana, it’s certainly difficult to pigeonhole. This is no bad thing in and of itself - and I suspect its intractability and genre-defying sound is both purposeful and performed with a great deal of glee by Keenan, who mostly steers clear of his trademark soaring vocals to softly sing his way through odd little tunes laden with samples and styles of all kinds. The only thing I can confidently say about Puscifer is that it sounds like absolutely nothing else, while remaining coherent enough to not vanish into an obtuse realm of cult musicianship. It's also a strong candidate for both Worst Album Title and Worst Album Cover of the last decade. 

Recommended Tracks: “Queen B”, “Momma Sed”, “Sour Grapes”

41. Nine Inch Nails – ‘Year Zero’ (2007)

It has been a strange on again/off again decade for Nine Inch Nails, and following 2005’s disappointing ‘With Teeth’ it was good to have Trent Reznor back to his usual innovative and inimitable self on the viral marketing-tastic ‘Year Zero’. Perhaps reinvigorated by stepping away from his usual introverted subject material and into a dystopian concept album, many of the tracks are discordant beat-driven industrial that harks back to the majestic days of ‘The Downward Spiral’ – a slight letdown that there is glam stomp-tinged filler that sucks the general quality of the release down, but overall it is still the most consistent and harshest release under the NIN banner since the turn of the century.

Recommended Tracks: “My Violent Heart”, “God Given”, “The Great Destroyer”

Gig Review: Damnation Festival 2010

2010 seems to be the year that festivals in West Yorkshire subtly alter their regular venues to be slightly more uncomfortable for the punters. Infest was held in the awkwardly rebuilt Bradford University Student Union, and Damnationfest followed suit by downgrading the rooms utilised in the Leeds University Student Union, so that the expansive Refectory has fallen by the wayside – the far cosier Stylus now acting as the main stage.

There is still a fair amount of room to maneuver for most bands, and it is likely to be a symptom of falling ticket sales or venue preference rather than any organisational issues. But I still hope next year brings a return to the Refectory. It is a somewhat snotty complaint to make, since being sited at the Union means that the festival essentially has an onsite bakery and supermarket. I now firmly believe that these things should be standard for all gigs. Frankly, from this day forward if I can't buy tasty, piping hot sausage rolls at a gig I will be giving them a shit review. Priorities, people.

In any case, on to the bands. I arrived somewhat tardy so missed a good clump of opening acts, but just in time to catch the reunited comedy thrash veterans Lawnmower Deth on the aforementioned Stylus stage. One thing extreme metal festivals cannot be said to possess in excess is a sense of humour, and in that regard it was refreshing to arrive at the proceedings with a blast of good fun. There were balloons flying around and crowdsurf racing involving a chap in corpse paint and a sombrero. Grim and gritty it was not. Not being overly familiar with their material I was at a bit of a loss as to whether their short blasts of punky riffage were particularly apt, but as the crowd seemed to lap it up greedily I am guessing they were anything but a disappointment to the gathered faithful.

From the old school to the relatively youthful, as I moved into (the utterly inappropriately sized) Pulse to catch October File. Every time I catch this band I marvel at how they seem to be slowly morphing into a metal Killing Joke, and this was no exception. Lots of stompy, precise and crunchy guitars and pounding drums. Ben Hollyer's vocals in particular are almost a direct parallel to Jaz Coleman at his most abrasive, and their pseudo-apocalyptic imagery isn't a million miles away either. They manage to stay just on the right side of the influence/imitation boundary by wedging in a good quantity of Machine Head-style grinding beatdowns, but I can't help but feel that by extending their range a little bit they might find their own feet rather than doing an (admittedly very enjoyable) job of swanning about in the shadow of the mighty 'Joke. I resolved to steer clear of the Pulse stage for the rest of the day, since it was clear from the sound in the confined space of the room that no band playing there would be audibly at the top of their game.

But that was just as well, since it was more or less time for a triple whammy of quality acts back in Stylus, which would more or less take me through to the close of the proceedings. It wasn't long before reunited British metal heroes earthtone9 took to the stage, and proceeded to roundly blow every other act out of the water with a rousing and triumphant return performance. I am moderately ashamed to say that I never caught them live in their heyday, but this more than made up for my awful past. The likes of "Star Damage For Beginners", "Withered" and "approx. purified" were object lessons in beautiful brutality, with Karl Middleton's angel/demon vocals a display of primal power for the similarly layered instrumentation to revolve around. The band practically radiated good cheer and a sense of thankfulness at the worshipful reaction they received – it is a rare and beautiful thing when an audience and a band feed off each other in a cycle of energetic enthusiasm until a kind of synchronised mindless joy is achieved, but this was certainly one of those occasions. It is mostly pointless trying to describe et9 to people who haven't heard them before, as they genuinely occupy a niche all of their own. Cerebral but brutal with an almost Eastern feel to the melodies threaded through the towering riffage. Back in the day the British music press (bastards to a man) liked to call them 'art metal' while they masturbated furiously over their ability to coin irrelevant genre definitions. They were also frequently called the 'British answer to Tool', which really is utterly devoid of any meaning.

What this gig showed is that, more than anything, they were unique and vital. Metal with balls and brains, this is something that we need in 2010 more than ever before. Welcome back chaps. You have been sorely missed.

After I had finished quivering and dribbling stunned praise to anyone within earshot, it was time for Paradise Lost. Another band who I have somehow managed to consistently miss live despite having been a huge fan for the last 15 years or so. It is in a way fortunate that I have used up all of my gloriously positive vocabulary for earthtone9, since this long-overdue viewing was something of a different story.

Musically they were spot-on and captivating. The setlist wasn't particularly objectionable, although their mid-period material stood out a long way as both their best writing and clearly what they as a band enjoyed performing the most – particularly “Enchantment” and “One Second", both of which produced roars of approval from the crowd. Out of their newer material, only “The Enemy” really stood out with its gorgeously hypnotic grind of a middle eight.

So what was the problem? Unfortunately, it's the shitty attitude of a guy called Nick Holmes who just so happens to be the vocalist. You know a performer has an axe to grind when they introduce one of their oldest, most popular songs with "We wrote this years ago when we were kids. I hated it then, I hate it now. Sing along if you know it, I can't be arsed."

Right. Ok, Mr Holmes. The problem is that we can be arsed. Because we've spent quite a bit of cash over the years buying your albums and your merch and hey, also on this here gig ticket. An objectionable attitude is something that can just about be pulled over by the right band, but when your stock in trade is melodic gothic metal you just come across as a right twat. It is quite clear that playing the gig is a bit of an inconvenience for him, and the contemptuous vibe spills right out into the crowd where several pits come very close to turning into outright brawls. To be fair, the rest of the band seem to have no such problem and they more or less carry the gig to its conclusion in a fit state. I had been warned about this particular facet to Paradise Lost performances well in advance, but it still left me with a foul taste in my mouth.

I would say that I enjoyed them, but in spite of this attitude rather than because of it. That is disappointing, because it is shoddy and unprofessional behaviour from an act approaching 20 years in age.

And so on to the headliners, The Dillinger Escape Plan. Perhaps an odd choice for a festival centred on more traditional metal acts, but their popularity is more than apparent by the packed nature of the Stylus stage as their slot approaches. Uncompromising is perhaps the best way to describe the band both on record and live, and it is certainly a wake-up call after the snarky malaise of Paradise Lost. They approach the performance like an invading army, flinging themselves around the stage and throwing shapes as if suffering from some group nervous system disorder. You could believe that from the construction of their insanely elaborate and blindingly intense music as well. The only clue that they are not in fact experiencing some hideously painful contortions of the brain and body is that technically their musicianship is ridiculously adept. As both a critic and a musician I have precisely zero comprehension of how one of the guitarists (either Ben Weinman or Jeff Tuttle, they move around much too fast to actually identify from the somewhat distant position I had occupied) can climb up a 12 foot amp stack, swing his guitar entirely around his body and then leap to the ground while still maintaining a tight, lucid grip on the spasming time signatures that DEP seem to pull out of thin air.

The band as a whole perform flawlessly and with a sense of confidence that is staggering considering that other, perfectly competent bands would struggle to play their material while standing still and concentrating with constipated expressions wracking their faces. If anything the experience is almost too intense, a combination of sound and movement and strobe lights that leaves me exhausted even sat on the floor watching from a balcony at the back of the room. By the time half of their set has passed I am bereft of my senses from a day of heaviness capped with this audio-visual barrage, and crawl home on my hands and knees, muttering obscenities with pupils ten inches wide.

That is a recommendation, in case you were wondering.

(Post-script: Nick Holmes' Twitter feed declared that this gig was his favourite in the band’s history. I would hate to see a performance on a bad day. In addition, several other reviews I have read prior to publishing this have lauded their performance. Perhaps I am being harsh. But the end result for me and several other audience members of my acquaintance was as described, so I will remain steadfast until corrected or made to feel excessively guilty.)