TOP TEN BAY AREA ALBUMS OF 2016
In
Black Cobra: Imperium Simulacra
February 26, Season Of Mist
Possibly the most brutal and relentless album yet! It seems like Black Cobra are almost a victim of their own success at this point, they are so productive, putting out solid album after solid album, that this one went well under my radar until the last minute! Also, they're so busy touring the Euro festival circuit that they barely seem like a local band, only rarely playing at home.
Body Void: Ruins
June 16, Transylvanian Tapes / Dry Couch / Crown And Throne
Muscularly heavy. At times, almost elegant in it's single purpose mission: to smother you with the unyielding weight of it's Earhammer / Greg Wilkinson production. Crushing.
Cardinal Wyrm: Castaway Souls
October 14, Svart
"Interesting doom," finally! Diverse, musical, magical, mysterious.
CCR Headcleaner: Tear Down The Wall
June 20, In The Red
Noisy blown alterna-grunge, butt-hole fuzz. The old Bay Area spirit that I miss: Offensively slovenly dirty, torn, shredded, rolling in beer mud, stained flannel, unapologetic.
Eerie: s/t
July 29, TeePee
Pretty good for hipster tattoo artist black metal! An all star cast of at least half Bay Area musicians, so I'll count it. I don't think they've ever played live?
https://soundcloud.com/actionmedia/sets/eerie-eerie
Glitter Wizard: Hollow Earth Tour
October 21, Heavy Psych Sounds
Their third and best album yet! Bay area mainstays of gay wizard heavy glam rock for ten years now! The songwriting overshadows the spectacle of this time, which is good.
Hammers Of Misfortune: Dead Revolution
July 22, Metal Blade
Hammers veered off an a twisted course over the last few albums that I could not quite follow, too operatic, too pop maybe. This year they came back out of the woods with something I can not only listen to, but can really enjoy! Heavier, faster, thrashier than anything they've done in awhile! Reminds me of why I used to like this band!
Negative Standards: Fetters
June 16, Vendetta / Negative Standards
More black metal, more interludes, but still the same old Nega-stan! Biting, totured vocals about what I can only assume is something very intense and politcal. I think this might have supposed to been a 2015 release, but there were crazy-ass delays at the pressing plant?
Pins Of Light: Home
January 16, Sound And Pressure
Motorhead meets Hawkwind may sound like an over simplification, and it is. Because you forgot that 90's post punk skate hardcore influence with the dual slashing guitars!
Void Omnia: Dying Light
June 20, Vendetta
Cool death / black metal, some really good riffs in there, pretty epic. Great debut from a new band.
Click down below for much more on Bay Area releases that came out in 2016!
SHAMELESS LIST OF BEST RELEASES THAT CAME OUT IN 2016 THAT I PLAYED ON
Hazzard's Cure: Smoke Iron Plunder
December 2, Lummox / Old Goat / Goat Hell
Cronander: Demo Tape
May 15, Self Released
Isotope: Midnight Soldier:
Rust And Machine
The REAL version finally came out in 2016, after a limited run of 50 test pressings for skull fest came out in August 2015.
Owl: Screech:
Harvaark
The full color gatefold cover vinyl edition of the album didn't come out until February, 2016.
SHAMELESS LIST OF BEST RELEASES THAT MY BANDMATES' OTHER BANDS RELEASED
Badr Vogu: Wroth
July 16, Tribunal Of The Axe
Walken: Revel In Abandon
April 14, Old Goat
Floating Goat: Suburban Anxiety / Wake Of Poseidon
November 8, Goat Hell
RELEASES THAT FIT BOTH OF THE PAST TWO CATEGORIES
Hazzard's Cure / Walken: Split 7"
September 5, Lummox / Old Goat / Goat Hell
BAY AREA THRASH DINOSAURS (NOT EXTINCT YET?)
Strangely enough, four old metal band that have been playing in the Bay Area since the 80s have released albums this year... here ya go:
Metallica: Hardwired To Self Destruct
Well Metallica is about 50/50 imitating their imitators at this point, and imitating themselves. Spit out the bone is pretty good, Murder One, the Lemmy tribute, is touching, and Atlas Rise! has cool harmonies lifted from Iron Maiden Hallowed Be Thy Name.
Testament: Brotherhood Of The Snake
Sounds like Testament!
Death Angel: The Evil Divide
Less thrash, more metal, kind of mainstream, well produced
Vicious Rumors: Concussion Protocol
Kind of fun, typical modern groove metal infiltration
HERE ARE ALL THE OTHER PUNK / METAL / EXTREME ROCK RECORDS RELEASED BY BAY AREA BANDS IN 2016, THAT I KNOW OF... starting with:
BLACK / DEATH METAL
FULL LENGTH
•Absolute Darkness: Future Imperfect Mediocre modern suburban thrash with death vocals, 80's Death influence, Master too
•Atrament: Eternal Downfall Hard, crusty, deathy d-beat. Brutal
•Black Fucking Cancer: s/t Black metal, pretty traditional, with some noisy repetitive parts
•Black Horns: Rise Of An Infernal Sorcery Very raw, blown out, black metal
•Control: The Teeth And The Wounds Brutal as fuck, hard to believe it's a two piece band?
•Fallujah: Dreamless Tech death video game metal, electro space jazz interludes, very spastic, 56 minutes of this shit
•Howls Of Ebb: Cursus Impasse Black metal foundation supports some very weird riffs, sounds and surprises, twisted
•Hemotoxin: Biological Enslavement Fun, suburban death/thrash. Standout: Bleak Prognosis
•Inanimate Existence: Calling From A Dream Too bad the "progressive" tag usually means keyboards. And shitty female vocals.
•Logistic Slaughter: Corrosive Ethics Motherfucking frog vocals and slap bass...
•Necrot: Into The Labyrinth Dirty OSDM, Relentless (would have made the top ten, but it's a compilation of demos, not a real full length)
•Spinebreaker: Ice Grave Very Swedish DM influence, looks like it's being done by hardcore kids, pretty intense
•Void Omnia: Dying Light Cool death / black metal, some really good riffs in there, pretty epic. Great debut from a new band
SINGLES / EPs / SPLITS / DEMOS
•Demon Hammer: Throne Of Chaos
•Heirophant: Inferos
•Infinite Waste / Dendridtic Arbor: Split
•Necrosic: Putrid Decimation
•Palace Of Worms / Thoabath: Split
•Thanatopsis: Your Demise
•Ulthar: Demo
STONER / DOOM / SLUDGE
FULL LENGTH
•Badr Vogu: Wroth Putting a new spin on sludge/doom with dueling guitar noise and experiments
•Black Cobra: Imperium Simulacra See top ten
•Cardinal Wyrm: Castaway Souls See top ten
•Floating Goat: Suburban Anxiety / Spawn Of Poseidon Very good record(s)!
•Forgotten Gods: Twin Sisters San Jose stoner rock
•Hazzard's Cure: Smoke Iron Plunder San Francisco "speed doom." Second album!
•Hornss: Telepath San Francisco desert rock. Second album!
•Lycus: Chasms Funeral doom, but more of a disembowelment and death rock influence
•Neurosis: Fires Within Fires Well, it sounds like Neurosis!
•Oort Cloud: s/t Very spaced out, less doom, more space rock
•Praying: Volume 2-Heavier Rocks Two piece "indie-sludge?"
•Sludgebucket: Shedding Old Skin Mediocre, mellow, funky, eclectic, stoner-ish rock
•Ursa: The Yerba Buena Sessions Standard stoner doom
•Zed: Trouble in Eden Well produced mainstream stoner rock from Sanazay
SINGLES / EPs / SPLITS / DEMOS
•Abstracter / Dark Circles: Split
•Blood Orgy: EP
•Daxma: The Nowhere Of Shangri-La
•Realms Of Vision: Unrevenged
•Serpents Of Dawn: Beloved Unknown
•Worship Of Silence: Amplified By The Sun
THRASH / SPEED / HEAVY METAL
FULL LENGTH
•Ancient Empire: Other World Number one surprise album of 2016! I had no idea!
•Castle: Welcome To The Graveyard Poor man's Christian Mistress
•Eerie: s/t see top ten
•Food Metal: s/t Like "Weird" Al Yankovic's songs about food, except not funny, and shitty nü metal
•Ghoul: Dungeon Bastards Who cares about a Ghoul album? It's all about seeing them live!
•Hammers Of Misfortune: Dead Revolution see top ten
•Hell Fire: Metal Masses Solid debut from SF NWOBHM ragers
•Hellhound: Nothing Left I could only find three songs to stream…uhhh....
•Kinnefret: The Coming Of Age I simply cannot take anymore of this incessant computerized blast beat shit
•Mudface: The Bane Of Existence I simply cannot listen to any more shit…
•Serpentcrown: Incantations of Vengeance More brutal than expected
•The King Must Die: Murder All Doubt Sounds more like bad hardcore than thrash… I guess this is "modern" metal. Meh.
•Utopian Trap: The Human Price I just can't...
•Walken: Revel In Abandon SF "southern thrash" veterans return after a hiatus!
SINGLES / EPs / SPLITS / DEMOS
•Ghoul: Wall Of Death
•Hazzard's Cure / Walken: Split
•Infex: Killing For Jesus
•Machine Head: Is There Anybody Out There?
•Vhol: Dispatch
•Varnok: Nuclear Death Raiders Of Doom
PSYCHDELIC / RETRO ROCK / PROTO METAL
FULL LENGTH
•Banquet: Jupiter Rose I might like the album better than them live
•Glitter Wizard: Hollow Earth Tour see top ten
•Mondo Drag: Occultation Of Light Not as good as their last one, but that's hard to beat
SINGLES / EPs / SPLITS / DEMOS
•Mesmer: EP
•Thangorodrim: Soul Of Fire
PUNK / HARDCORE/ CRUST
FULL LENGTH
•Didisdead: DID IS DEAD Male femal vocal/, East Bay Punk, reminds me of X a little
•Green Day: Revolution Radio Haha
•Negative Standards Fetters see top ten
•Pins Of Light: Home Barely squeezed out of the top ten... shit...
•Super Unison: Auto Screamo-y post punk
SINGLES / EPs / SPLITS / DEMOS
•Agata: The Blue Line
•Attitude Adjustment: Terrorize
•Cell Rot: Demo
•Cronander: Demo
•Deathgrave / Endorphins Lost: Split
•Fussy: Fussy's In Your Head quirky lo-fi punk
•Isotope: Midnight Soldier
•Leather Glove: Skin On Glass
•Los Huaycos: Ataque Bestial
•Mokosos: Niños Sin Future
•Odio: Un Mondo Libero Dall'Uomo
•Odio: Cassette Single
•Quaaludes: Are The Winners Always Losers?
•Quaaludes: Rejects
•Rapid Decline: Less Power, More Violence
•Rhizome: Demo
•Scythe: Demo 2016: Very weird, especially the vocals, Japanese inspired I assume
•Techie Blood: Demo
•Techie Blood: Second Tape
•Violence: Demo
•Wartribe: In The City
•Your Enemy / Recalcitrant: Split
POST PUNK / WEIRDO / AMBIENT / POP / OTHER
FULL LENGTH
•Alaric: End Of Mirrors Well, it's good, and it's dark! Their second album
•Altar de Fey: Echoes In The Corridor A nice companion to End Of Mirrors, but more punk, classic death rock
•CCR Headcleaner: Tear Down The Wall see top ten
Creative Adult: Fear Of Life Noisy jangly indie rock
•Conan Neutron and Secret Friends: The Art Of Murder A little too goofy for me. Like a silly, lightweight Melvins.
•Ionophor: Sinter Pools Dark, ambient, hints of eletro, could be sci-horror soundtrack, pretty boring
•OVVN: I Love Myself And I Want To Live Weirdo noisy heavy rock
•The Mass: Ghost Fleet Very challenging, progressive, deep
•The World: Managerial Material Oakland band sounds like UK Ska / Soul / X-Ray Spex
•Terry Malts: Lost At The Party Like a cross between British new wave and American surf rock
•Mouth: Deathroll Quick, harsh and sleazy, kind of like a bad one night stand
•Violent Change: 3 Dreamy lo-fi pop stuff, sounds like it was recorded in a bedroom
•Worm Ouroboros: What Graceless Dawn Just as boring as I though it would be, and whispering, god the whispering...
SINGLES / EPs / SPLITS / DEMOS
•Acrylics s/t Tape
•Faith No More: Cone Of Shame
•Tony Molina: Confront The Truth
•Undo: CCCXXXIII Demo
ONE MAN BAND ALBUMS!
•Palace Of Worms: The Ladder Black metal mostly, some really good riffs, but album compartmentalized into the "weird" parts, the "ambient" parts, etc.
•Ritual Chamber: Obscurations (To Feast On The Seraphim) Excessive, long ass album, super guttural vocals, a few good riffs
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