the Top 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time - 40- 31

Ok, we are continuing the countdown of the top 50 heaviest albums of all time. The next ten albums represent most sub genres of metal, black metal, sludge, death metal, thrash and grind core. Yes there will be more doom just in future installments.


40- Pantera - "the Great Southern Trendkill"


Yes "Far Beyond Driven" is a more in your face aggressive album, but aggression alone does not make heavy. This album is heavier due to the emotional darkness poured into it as the band hit bottom with their addictions. 




39-Mutilation Rites - "Harbinger"

In the previous installment of this list I touched on the elements that sometimes cause black metal to not be as heavy as it could, when it works solely off speed, drone and atmosphere. This album brings density and grime to show how heavy it can be when it's done right. 


 




38-Amenra- "Mass VI"

This Belgian sludge ban's mastery of loud to soft dynamics makes them more sonically powerful than their peers. This album really captures that. 




37-Otargos - "No God No Satan"

French black metal that is equal parts dark and abrasive. I do not believe in evil, but it if were to have a sound this album would capture it . 





36-Deathspell Omega- "Paracletus"


This is not just another French Black metal band , this is THE French black metal band. These guys are like a heavier version of Emperor. By heavier in this instance I mean invoking chaos with angular dissonance






35-S.O.D- "Speak English or Die"



This 1985 classic would never fly if it had been released to the tender souls of 2020. They came out during the cross over thrash movement, but along with Napalm Death are the fore fathers of modern grindcore


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34 Bolt Thrower - "Realm of Chaos"



This 1989 album storms into battle like a more violent version of Morbid Angel. Density and intensity are the weapons they are bringing into to battle here with more of a stomp than a gallop.



 


33- Cobalt -"Eater of Birds"

This blackened sludge project brought a great deal of thrash influence to the table with their 2007 album that recalls the wailing and gnashing of teeth associated with a descent into hell. 






32-Graves at Sea -' the Curse That Is "

The volume and power of these riffs swallows you into their murky depths and pulverizes you with their nastiness not unlike being sucked into a black hole, it's just done with more bong smoke here. 






31- Full of Hell- " Rudiments of Mutilation"


This 2013 album is an example that in todays world grindcore is created when a hard core band goes over to the dark side.

Mutilation Rites : "Chasm"

Many of New York's black metal bands come from the hipster circles of Brooklyn. They bring elements of punk, post-rock and avant garde indie rock into the mix. Mutilation Rites separates themselves by only bringing more metal into the equation. The closest to punk is grind core which I can hear more of on the first song "Pierced Larynx". On board this time is new drummer Tyler Coburn, whose double bass in convincingly metal despite his more avant guard past. "Axiom Destroyer" picks up where the previous song left off though it is more straight forward and blasting. The production on this album gives the band a bigger and heavier sound.

"Ominous Rituals" has more groove in its throb than the previous song, but if what is it doing that we have not already heard in black metal before is asked then the answer might leaving you thinking. It does a have passages that are darker and more melodic than anything we have heard on this album so far. The vocals sound like and after thought and for these guys typically are the weakest link. More of a powerful grind drives "Ominous Ritual" which is just what this album needed to break up the blast. It goes in a much more death metal direction. There is a riff lurking in the frenzy the song boils into that reminds me a little of "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", it's suffocated beyond recognition. The drummer is killing it, which after the last time I saw them with their old drummer is an accomplishment as they guy was a hairy beast in daisy dukes. The guitars are also well layered here as they are not just doubling each other, but providing a counter point.

The title track finds them getting a little darker, before blasting off into a rapid rage powered by double bass. It goes from a more thrash drive feel to more of a speedy blur. The vocal spew makes me wonder the merit of the lyrics that become a mute point. It does converge back into a more death metal pounding that reins things in before taking off again which provides the needed dynamics to keep me interested rather than losing me in blasting for the sake of blasting. There is a really cool riff that kicks off "Putrid Decomposition" that closes out the album. At ten minutes this journey has the needed twists and turns so no time is wasted in drone, as every minute is well invested. Angular dissonance possesses many of the riffs here. That is not to say this is not executed with a great deal of power and finds them more on the death metal side of what they do. I'll give this album a 9. Most of the improvements come from the production end, as they might weigh in on more of the death metal side of  their sound, but the identity of the band is firmly intact even with line up changes. Comes out July 20th. />

Mutilation Rites : "Harbringer"

The first thing I think of when I think of this band is I have no idea where my Mutilation Rites Shirt is.Seeing them live they were so loud all the riffs bleed together into more of a sonic pounding. So it will be interesting to see how these songs translate. There is more of a sonic element that is receiving attention to detail on this album, and the attack feels less thrash inspired. Not to say they don't throw some blasting in. it is just used much more tastefully. The guitar tone is more organic and spacious on this album as well, are some of the immediate thoughts that come to mind.

That is not too say this album is devoid of thrash influence as"Exhaling or Breathing in" has some mandatory heading in the riffage midway through.Their is also the ultra thrash filled "Contaminate" that is going to be a lot of fun for those into old school metal. "Suffer the Children" also has some thrash elements in the manner the speedy guitar shows it's teeth, but find some dynamic ground that goes into a more sonic place than what you think of when it comes to thrash, but the vocals keep everything blackened in some respect.

 The dense nature and adherence to their style makes it sound like "Tactical Means of Ouroboros" is a continuation of the previous song.The vocals somewhat attribute to this element, as the growls and screamed are barely articulated making the lyrical element totally obtuse.The drum break is where the song begins rather than it just being a renewed fervor for blasting. The verse riff and the low gurgled vocals are pretty straight forward to the point of almost sounding like death metal until the second verse takes a more sonic turn. The guitars eventually ring out in a more experimental manner that might remind you of Liturgy.

The only time it sounds like the almost get lost speeding through the labyrinth of blast beats in on "Gravitational Collapse." There are a few cool punches that help the song congeal into something more powerful in the song's third act.  The albums ends on a blast with "Conspiracy of Silence" coming out of the shadows with a very second wave of NBM sound, with only the spastic cadence of the harsh vocals to separate it  from Darkthrone. The main riff that is almost a call and response to the blasting part , has a powerful heft to it

Overall this album is short and sweet with the opener being the longest song on the album at 7 minutes. The song writing is more mature without the band having to abandon their feral tendencies.This album passes in a blur, sometimes the songs bleed in together and the pummeling numbs you out, but I think it's a forward step for the band and I will give this one an 8.

Mutilation Rites @ the Drunken Unicorn

Normally I like to wait until my ears stop ringing before I sit down to review a show, but if I was going to do that then it might be next week before I got around to it. It had to have been one of the loudest shows I have been to since the last time I saw Swans. Which is not what I expected, on album Mutilation Rites tend to layer guitar parts and color their songs with a fair amount of devil in their details. Here they slapped you with a buzzing wall of sound. But we are getting ahead of ourselves as it was not the least of the unexpected events that transpired.

The reception for the band was warmer than expected. If you were going by the forums and social media then you would thing the normal  perception of the band in the south  would be to wrongly lump them in with the rest of the Brooklyn metal scene. While their were a few familiar faces from shows like Deafheaven, it appears the general metal populous is not as  narrow minded or  as out right ignorant as this inner webs lumping of all the Brooklyn bands together crammed against the likes of  Liturgy and Krallice.

With locals the Pinecones, who play a drone heavy punk rock like a fusion of Mudhoney and Swans on a blind date to anarchist rally. So this drew a small percent of the hipster factor. Cesspool, where hard to take seriously as their singer only gurgled and made gestures that suggested he was making fun of death metal bands , which at best would be what the band was trying to emulate.

Then came Full of Hell. The singer stayed in the pit where he thrashed about in equal measure to his screaming and grunting. The band was as abrasive as they needed to be. The drummer exploded at his kit, keeping time with his head more often than not. Leading the pack in the type of hard-core Converge brought to life, these guys are intense and hard in a way hard core should be.

American black metal has crossed over in a big way seeing a band like  Deafheaven is now playing Boonaroo, some of the menace has been taken out. So what is a band to do?  Mutilation Rites, answered this question by cranking up way past what the Drunken Unicorn's P/A could handle manifesting some pretty punishing sonic emissions. Their volume spoke louder than words, their music was as much felt as it was heard. Being a very different experience than what is committed to their albums, it instead captured the drone of white noise shoved into the metallic intensity.

Before they began the assault the singer asked to not have vocals in the front monitors and the growls coating the drive of what they do just as another layer rather than really overtly accenting lyrics. In fact the difference between the recorded work and what was unleashed on the stage, made a distinction but the two art forms, much like a Swans show hits you over the head and entrances you at the same time.

The band focused more on selection from "Empyrean" which lended it's self to the exercise in sonics, better than their earlier more straight ahead metal material ,the thrash under tones and guitar heroics, were toned down for a more punk feel at time. The band came the closest to any I have heard yet match the sonic hypnosis of Transylvanian Hunger era Darkthrone and sold me on the balance between sonic harshness through the distortion of volume and being heavy as in metal. To a certain extent the layers of their more nuanced guitar work were sometimes sacrificed to the altar of volume, but any doubts about how "trve" this band is should be put to rest with the live experience.