BEST OF 2019

February rolled around and I still hadn't created by top ten best list of Bay Area albums of 2019, nor the survey of local releases that comes with it. I hadn't had the time yet, and there was no clear break in activities coming that would allow me to complete the project. It seemed like I might just have to let it go this time.  Then March came around, and not just my job, but my entire industry evaporated overnight, along with my full time hobbies of band practice, playing shows and touring. So if anything good comes from this recent societal upheaval, I will get some backburner projects completed, and the list of 2019 releases will now finally be published!

As for the top ten list, I think it's a pretty good mix of releases, cutting across the spectrum of what the Bay has to offer these days. One black metal LP, two death metal, two punk, two traditional metal, two rock and roll, and one album that I can only describe as "San Francisco Metal," because it's not so easily categorized.

Just like I've said in years past, I make this list because there are NO publications, print, web, or otherwise that solely cover heavy music in the bay. Every once in a while, one of the top bands will garner some national press, but that's it. Decibel included the new releases by Possessed (no. 6) and Vastum (no. 35) in it's top 40 albums of the year. Metal Assault put Death Angel, War Cloud and Exhumed in it's top 20. Maximum Rock 'n' Roll, now a website, is much more interested in international bands than what's going on in it's own backyard. The East Bay Express covers local music, everything BUT punk and metal, it seems: Hip Hop, Disco, Indie Pop, nothing heavy. Someone please tell me I'm wrong.

Not much more to write, I have pretty much the same things to say I did for 2018, 2017 and 2016. Hopefully the bands just speak for themselves.

TOP TEN BAY AREA ALBUMS OF 2019
In alphabetical order 

Asada Messiah: Steel Coffin
November 3, self released
A just fantastic and fun thrash / stoner / M-E-T-A-L album. It's not trying to squeeze into a genre hole, and I like that. Pure San Francisco style metal. Full disclosure: Yes, I drew the album cover for this. 


Exhumed: Horror
October 4, Relapse
Ripping, unceasing gore metal, produced in an airtight, dry as a bone style (that's a compliment) Almost as good as 2017's masterpiece, Death Revenge! The VHS themed artwork is also a big plus. The mood and aesthetic of 80's trash slash horror is well captured. 

 
Glitter Wizard: Opera Villains
April 20, Heavy Psych Sounds
There probably won't be a year when a Glitter Wizard album comes out and it doesn't make the top ten list. Nobody locally is doing anything like this, glam rock with a punk attitude, some heavy metal muscle and some progressive aspirations. Are they taking themselves seriously, or is it a big inside joke? Who cares? Opera Villains is their most pretentious album so far, and that's not a criticism. The whole setup, from the music to the brilliant packaging is fun, engaging, and a step beyond where they've gone before. 


Hell Fire: Mania
March 29, Riding Easy
These are our local boys done good, the up and coming bearers of the torch for old school speed metal. They're working hard and they're gonna go far, and this album is an important step on their journey. 


Hot Lunch: Seconds
March 15, Tee Pee
In the six years since their last LP, Hot Lunch has remained productive, putting out a steady stream of singles, splits and EPs, but obviously they were saving the most epic jams for this album, the longest clocks in at 13 minutes! Somehow still, they don't stray far from their roots as a skate / garage / retro rock gang. Sandpaper screams, nimble guitar, warm fuzzy bass, and the alternately flailing and precise drums hold everything together. Half of the band has moved out of the Bay Area since the record was released, but I'll still give this to 'em. 

 
Kicker: Pure Drivel 
February 8, Tankcrimes
Roadie is like the Larry David of punk, unable to hold back as he rails against the indignities of the modern world, both the small punk world in which we live, as well as the greater world at large. Another solid Kicker album, and with an all star crew of Bay Area veterans driving this boat, a solid Kicker album blows just about every other punk record out of the water. 

 
Los Huaycos: Savage Monstrosities
February 8, Tankcrimes
Manic, quirky hardcore punk created by mostly Peruvians living in exile, which explains the third world flavor. A fun, quick record, excellent artwork and a laborious backstory. 

 
Slough Feg: New Organon
June 14, Cruz Del Sur
This might be the best one since Ape Uprising! Concise, catchy songs, mostly on philosophical explorations. This band is a local treasure that should be valued by everyone.

 
Vale: The Burden Of Sight
May 24, The Flenser
Relentless, Bay Area style crust punk black metal, more metal than the demo. Like a little nephew in the Ludicra / Ails lineage. 

 
Vastum: Orificial Purge
October 25, 20 Buck Spin
Here is Vastum doing what they do best: Big, heavy, hairy riffs. Lyrics so disturbing I'm afraid to even read them. "Abscess Inside Us" might be the Bay Area death metal track of the YEAR!


OH, HEY! I DID SOMETHING! 

Isotope: s/t
April 5, Carbonized
My only release of 2019. 



TEN HONORABLE MENTIONS: ROCK AND METAL
In alphabetical order

Death Angel: Humanicide
Razor sharp production doesn't save this from being well… just another new Death Angel album, their fourth in what I will call the "Will Carroll" era. Based in the Bay Area thrash metal tradition, it goes a little of course with some too catchy choruses and groove metal breakdowns. Kind of like the last one.

Hysteria: Night Closing In

The most current lineup of Hysteria being half of Hell Fire, including the singer, it's hard not compare them, Hysteria being a little catchier and slower of the two. It's almost like two Hell Fire albums in the same year. Two split personalties of the same band.

Leather Glove: Perpetual Animation 
A madman cut loose to do a solo project. Greg Wilkinson from Brainoil, and my bandmate in Deathgrave, did the guitars and vocals, with a variating lineup of drummers. Ominous grindo death metal, it provokes feelings of anxiety, confusion, and eventually utter dread.

Old Grandad: s/t
Mission drug rock stalwarts returned with a new release. Less bludgeoning than their past releasing, more subtlety. They have multiple vocalist and one sounds kind of like Kermit the Frog! 

Possessed: Revelations In Oblivion
OG Bay Area death-thrash delivering the goods. Straight ahead, competently played, lacks the quirkiness of their 80's releases of course, not breaking any new ground here, but you can only invent this shit for the first time once, and they did pretty much invent it. 


Praying: I'm No Healer Indie fuzz stoner noise doom, it's still heavy, but it's kind of a breath of fresh air from all the chewing on broken glass bleeding out in a gutter in hell death doom that The Bay has been known for latley!

 
Swamp Witch: Dead Rituals
Four songs clocking in at about ten minutes each, very heavy and focused, a big leap forward for this death/doom/sludge band! They are not entirely Bay Area, but I'm gonna let it slide.

Sweet Chariot: Lean Into The Breeze
Byrdsy / Stonesy twangy rock 'n' roll. As comforting and laid back as a tall can of Tecate and a Burrito on a sunny afternoon.

War Cloud: State Of Shock
While I enjoyed their debut album, it was a dose of rock and roll comfort food, this record shows War Cloud going outside of their comfort zone, picking up the pace, going from a merely rocking level to a ripping level, and getting more adventurous with the songwriting.  

BAY AREA BEST OF 2018

 

I'm doing pretty good, thanks for asking! Why? I didn't get my annual survey out until January 26 last year, and this one is out by the 12th!  Most people get their year end "best of" releases out of the way in November, and then wash their hands of it. I'd like to say that my list is delayed because I'm waiting for any last minute stragglers to wash up on the beach in late December, and a few did, but the real reason is that I don't start working on this thing until late in the year, and if you read the whole damn list, you will see how exhaustively comprehensive it is.

Now, you may get the impression, at first glance, that this is a top ten Bay Area METAL releases list, and it usually ends up leaning towards that,  just because I'm kind of a metalhead and those are the releases that are the most on my radar. But most punk bands don't really seem to make it to LP stage nowadays anyway, the typical life cycle of a Bay Area punk band being demo in the spring, a seven inch by the fall, and broken up by winter. So the best PUNK releases of 2018 will mostly be found in the other list, the top ten new band's demos, singles and EPs.

Most of what I said last year about my motivations remains relevant, so here it is again.

…and much more importantly, no one makes a list of the best Bay Area releases of the year, because there are no magazines or blogs, as far as I know, that focus solely on the SF Bay Area heavy music scene. The East Bay Express made a top 12 list, which contained zero punk or metal releases. As one of the sole print publications covering alternative culture around here, couldn't they do a little more? As in, anything?

Once again, I don't think East Bay Express wrote about a single local punk or metal band. I eagerly await correction! The KQED top ten list DID include Adrenochrome this year, however! Congrats.

There wasn't a lot of attention given to Bay Area releases OUTSIDE of the Bay Area either, with the exception of Deafheaven and Sleep, who were honored by Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. Those two, as well as Mortuous, appeared in Decibel magazine's top 40 metal releases of 2018 list. High On Fire was thrown a bone by Loudwire and the Onion's AV club. You get the idea.


2018 TRENDS
Maybe it's a reflection of our times, but there has been quite a crop of death/doom/blackened metal bands really scraping the bottom for ugliest, foulest, most desperate sounds imaginable. If "screaming at the bottom of a well naked covered in blood while being devoured by rats" describes the mood of your band, then this was your year! I'm running out of words, even with the liberal use of a thesaurus, to describe the bestial foulness of all these releases in the capsule reviews! There are only so many descriptors at my disposal.

There also was a bumper crop of dark wave / death rock / post punk in the scene. It's been building for the past few years, with the Near Dark festival being introduced, and in 2018 I think it hit it's stride with some really strong releases and new bands. I'm no expert in this genre, by any means, but I really do like the stuff. Always liked Siouxsie and the Banshees, and I'm happy to see this scene within a scene growing. It actually seems to be the dominant form of punk in the Bay these days.

Shout out to James Rauh and Josh Carman for suggestions and inspiration when I was making the list! Check out James' incredible survey of Bay Area releases HERE.

OH yeah, and fuck all this top nine bullshit. The format of instagram is gonna dictate how many bands / things you liked last year? Fack ooff.

But now, to the list! 

TOP TEN BAY AREA ALBUMS OF 2018

In alphabetical order

Ails: The Unraveling

April, 20 The Flenser

For those of us who were big fans of Ludicra, possibly the best San Francisco metal band of the past 20 years, this was a long wait! Core band members finally returned with a new project and the elements that formed the classic "grey metal" sound are present in force.

Brainoil: Singularity To Extinction

October 18, Tankcrimes

Oakland's sludge godfathers go a little more death metal / crust on their long awaited third album.

Esses: Offering

July 11, Near Dark

By far the most composed, articulate and crisp of the latest wave of Oakland post punk. Downright collegiate compared to some! Lots of cool influences poking out through the darkness here.

High On Fire: Electric Messiah

October 5, eOne 

Does High On Fire even count as a Bay Area band anymore? None of them live here. Oh, well, they get honorary status, fuck it. This is their eighth album and it might be their third best! I love how fast it gets sometimes, epic, anthemic, the type of metal album we need right now, one of the few on this list that isn't extremely dark and depressing. Now the question remains, will High On Fire ever be able to tour on this material, or will Matt Pike have to stay home and keep getting toes cut off?

Mortuous, Through Wilderness

June 22, Carbonized

Extremely heavy death metal from Bay Area experts. Reeks of that lumbering morbidity perfected by Autopsy and other sludge tomb forefathers. Mortuous takes it there, and then keeps going, almost to a place of elegance.

Nopes: Stapler

July 27, Magnetic Eye

Wow! This is great. This just all all the good points of a great heavy weirdo noise rock album! They are not following any rules here, jumping from style to style like a speedfreak channel surfing. Elements of hardcore punk and snotty alternative rock set them far apart from the rabble.

Serpents Of Dawn: Into The Garden

August 31, Doom Stew

Honestly, this might be the release of 2018 that I was most stoked on. I listened to this over and over again. Gratuitous stony heavy rock, riffs for days, elegant harmonies in just the right (few) places, glass gargling vocals. This all sounds comfortingly familiar, and yet somehow fresh at the same time. Fuck yes! 

Ulthar: Cosmovore

November 9, 20 Buck Spin

Full of weird loping musical passages that come after you like a three legged wolf. You're like, ahhh, I can outrun a three legged wolf! But then you realize you can't. Because it's still fucking faster than you. And it's hungry. And as the first bite of the fangs sink into your calf, and you stumble upon the ice in the Lovecraftian twilight, you realize you were always meant to die this way, born to die this way. It was written in the cosmos.

Wild Hunt: Afterdream Of The Reveller

April 20, Vendetta

Blackened metal, elegant in it's chaos, like a ballet dancer swerving in a hurricane. If it's a hurricane though, it's is one with many eyes, like Argus. Between each malevolent burst there is some kind of interlude, not to put you at ease, but to set you on edge as you know that there is another blast coming.  Wild Hunt rebounded from tragedy in their lineup and made a career defining album. 

Yarrow: Rebirth

September 11, Transylvanian Tapes

It seems like the Bay Area doom scene is pretty much a race to the bottom, who can be the most miserable, disgusting, wretched, horrible, pulverized band of them all? If Yarrow isn't at the bottom of this heap, they're pretty darn close! Augmented with choice samples ala Eyehategod. Despite the horrifying nature of the band, Yarrow actually somehow comes across as the most FUN or the whole crop, they don't actually seem to take themselves quite as seriously as Abstracter or Body Void. Maybe that's what put them over the edge and got them onto the top ten. 

TOP TEN BAY AREA NEW BANDS OF 2018 

DEMOS, SINGLES AND EPs

In alphabetical order

Adrenochrome: Buzz Or Howl Sessions

February 26, Near Dark

Well, there's a lot of new post punk / death rock out there right now, and it all kind of sounds the same to me, but I don't know what the common influence is, because I'm just not very educated on this style. That being said, I really do like this! The mood is great, and this is especially cool because it's more on the energetic end of things when it comes to dark, bleak-ass music. Hoping for an Adrenochrome album soon! 

Altars: s/t 7" 

August 24, Sentient Ruin

God what a ripper of a seven inch. Utterly unrelenting and pulverizing. Blasting death metal grind.

Deseos Primitivos: Existir

October 23, Self Released?

Chorused out anarchy liberation punk en español

Evulse: Call Of The Void

October 22, Transylvanian 

Extremely heavy DM with a fat low end. The dive bombing guitars add a fun old school element to the proceedings!

Glowing Brain: Demo

September 22, DOD Records

Downtuned, punchy noisy hardcore. This kicks ass! This might be my favorite new band of the year, and I finally got to see them play a show last week too.


Psychic Hit: Promo 2018
October 3, self released
Really cool old school rock metal with soulful vocals and tight songwriting. I see a bright future for them.


Riita: Absolut Santa Rosa
December 30, self released
Hardcore punk from Santa Rosa, Sweden


Shit Coffins: The Continuous Pleasure Of LivingJuly 8, self released
Competent hardcore played by scene veterans. Three quick-ass songs!


Terry Gross: Shameless Imposter
April 5, Valley King
One of my favorite new local bands, intense psychedelic noise rock


These Bastards: Old And Pissed
December 6, self released
Pissed indeed! Frantic hardcore with a sense of humor!


List of other Bay Area releases after the jump!

BEST OF 2016

TOP TEN BAY AREA ALBUMS OF 2016
In no particular alphabetical order

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! 

2015: THE RECAP

2015 was a little different from the past three years in that I did not do a huge month long tour in November, and to the delight of my mother, I was home for Thanksgiving! In fact, I did not do any long tours at all, though I was away for the entire month of August, which included two separate, smaller jaunts with two different bands. Even though I cut back on touring, I managed to hold the line pretty well on my "nights out" ratio with a hefty load of local shows and short mini tours.

To the best of my ability to keep track, and I must admit that my record keeping was exceptionally good this year, I attended 70 live shows in 2015 as an audience member, ten less than last year, and slipping further from my all time recorded high of 118 shows attended in 2011! I blame this decline in attendance to a more vigorous work schedule, a jaded perspective that comes from seeing almost every band I've ever wanted to see already, and not caring about going to see every little punk band that comes through, whether they're any good or not. (Most not.)



In a strange, first time coincidence, the amount of shows I performed was equal to the amount that I attended: 70! I did 70 gigs in 2015 behind the drums for four different bands, which is a slight step up from last year (62), but still down from the 103 gigs I performed in 2013, which is the highest on record. I have a feeling that 2006 was higher than that, but I'll have to do some research to prove it.

Accounting for nights when I attended two different shows in one night, or played two different gigs in one night/day, or played a show and then went to a different one after... that's 135 nights spent out at a gig, or about 37% of all nights spent in shitty rock venues. As you can see here, there's a continuation of the declining trend. Am I losing my vigor, or is there just nothing worth going out for? We'll see if the trend continues in 2016.

2015: 37%
2014: 38%
2013: 48.5%
2012: 46%
2011: 43%

THE FULL LIST OF GIGS ATTENDED AND PLAYED AFTER THE JUMP

2014: THE RECAP

Oh, 2014! Surely the beginning of the end! The beginning of a profound slide into complacency that will lead me to my grave! I feel the gears of a once mighty show attending / gig playing machine grinding to a halt! Oh, why has Lemmy forsaken me?

To the best of my ability to keep track, which may have been not so good last year, thanks to being apathetic and not giving a fuck (during certain phases), I attended 80 lives shows in 2014 as an audience member, the exact same amount as 2013, but still down from 99 in 2012, and the highest on record, 118 in 2011.

I only played 62 shows with four different bands in 2014, which is down from 103 shows with 3 different bands in 2013, and 80 shows with 5 different bands in 2012, but I am still up from 2011, when I played only 56 shows with five different bands.









Accounting for the nights when I attended or performed more than one show in the same day, that makes for a total of 139 nights out, or about 38% of all nights of the year out attending or performing live gigs, which makes for the lowest overall percentage since I started keeping statistics, in 2011:

2014: 38%
2013: 48.5%
2012: 46%
2011: 43%

This evidence can only lead me to the conclusion that I am now actually declining into OLD MAN status, preferring my armchair by the fire, my pipe, and my history books to the mosh pits and broken glass strewn nights or yore. 2014 was also an uncharacteristically weak touring year for me, and if I hadn't ended up filling in on the Wild Eyes European tour, road dates would have been almost non existent. 2014 was also my first year in quite awhile that I began the year with no steady job, and I know I spent many nights home and broke, scanning the internet for real estate upon which I would establish my alpaca farm. Researching last year's calendar to compile the list of shows I attended, I came across a startling amount that I MISSED.

CLICK BELOW TO SEE THE FULL LIST OF SHOWS FROM 2014: