Welcome to THTH, Forte’s premier source of all things heavy, hard, fast and metal.
Top 4 of 2015
4: So Hideous – Laurestine
This schizophrenic album is ridiculously dramatic and completely over the top but that’s what makes it such an exciting journey into what can be done with black metal (though genre junkies could probably call them extreme metal). Contrary to the band’s name, this album’s large and sometimes lush orchestral parts sing loudly and probably for more minutes than the heavier parts, but when they do kick in they shred through the orchestral layers and create a wonderful disjointed experience.
3: Mgla – Exercises in Futility
Doing the traditional black metal thing isn’t easy, there’s a fine line between awful and awesome and Mgla have produced an utterly awesome straightup black metal album that pulls no punches and never lets up. Oh, and they’re from Poland, so they have that innate rebellion to the overt religiousness of their motherland.
2: Deafheaven – New Bermuda
I’ve been rather vocal about how horrendous this band’s previous album was. The band focus on shoegaze on their previous album, Sunbather, has completely gone. New Bermuda is faster, heavier and far more intelligent, haunting and creative than its predecessor that it seems like Deafheaven have been two different bands. Weighing in at about 45 minutes spread across five songs, there’s enough to keep the album on repeat.
1: Panopticon – Autumn Eternal
Brutal, beautiful and blistering all in one. Less “arty” than number two but more “arty” than number three, Autumn Eternal is a black metal masterpiece that paints pictures, evokes feelings and asks questions whilst it slithers its way through your mind and then pounds the shit out of it.
In other news
In recent sad news, the world has lost two of its brightest stars. Lemmy and David Bowie pushed music to its creative and intellectual limits. Both were larger than life and their inspiration transcended borderlines, generations, cultures and languages.
So many of us probably have childhood memories of David Bowie in Labyrinth or our parents playing his records at dinner parties. Then in our teenage years we moved on and discovered metal and our memories of Motorhead records or CDs being played as a group of friends sat around and discussed music, drank and partied. Whilst many people may only have fond memories of one artist, I can safely say a lot of metal fans will have similar fond memories of both artists, and that’s a true testament to both David Bowie’s and Lemmy’s power as musicians, artists, personalities and, above all, people who we all felt we connected with through their music.
ATTENTION Ballarat! Head to the Eastern Hotel at 8pm on Saturday January 30 for a night of sludge and doom metal featuring A Greed Science, BOG and Broozer.
If you have any news about local metal bands, shows or albums, let THTH know by emailing to [email protected] or get in touch via Twitter at @TooHeavyToHug
Written by Paul S Taylor
