March 2009 Best Heavy Metal CDs

Crack The Skye is a little more polished than their past CDs, but the traditional Mastodon experimentation and quirkiness is fully intact. The band always opens strong, and "Oblivion" is no exception. Mastodon's skills are pushed to the limit on "The Czar," an 11 minute epic with layers of keyboards, and guitars that are sometimes funky, other times very technical. It's an epic track that twists and turns its way through various textures and vibes without being repetitive.

"Divinitions" starts with a brief banjo intro before kicking into a hard driving beat with some catchy riffs and a ripping guitar solo. Scott Kelly from Neurosis has become a regular guest on Mastodon albums, and he returns with vocals on the title track.

The music on Black Cascade is similar to Wolves In The Throne Room's previous work, epic tracks weaving between harsh black metal and atmospheric drone. Wolves In The Throne Room shifts effortlessly between the extreme and the majestic, and they have a knack for not only transforming the sound, but also the space.

During the harsh black metal sections, you can feel the walls close in around you, the mellower parts open up a bit, and during the atmospheric sections you can feel the earth and sky open up before you. Black Cascade is an excellent CD, and it's the sound of a band still ascending.

Kylesa’s music is palatable to fans of various strands of heavy music. But interestingly, instead of their deep pool of influence leading to a sea overburdened with mind-numbing, nonsensical genre jumping, it’s been filtered through a rock music format that’s allowed Kylesa to hone their creations into non-pretentious, to-the-point and memorable songs.

Yet at the same time, their nebulous approach does occasionally hit upon some readily recognizable styles. Loose punk progressions steady the pace at times, with the dexterous performance of drummer Eric Hernandez, and there are also augmentations of either fist-pumping, old school metal licks, pseudo-black metal drives or shimmering, psychedelic riffs that drift off into the ether.

Being "out there" is what Cobalt is all about. Their sound is avant-garde and experimental, but Gin generally escapes the pitfalls of self-indulgence and experiments that blow up in their face. Think of a genre, and Cobalt probably incorporates it. Black, progressive, doom, sludge and numerous other styles make their way into the songs on Gin. There are even moments of black 'n roll.

"Pregnant Insect" is a relatively straightforward and groovy song that features black metal rasps and guest vocals from Jarboe, who also appears on one other track. The nine minute epic "Dry Body" in sparse and mellow for the first three minutes before kicking in, and has baritone melodic vocals.

Suidakra balances the melody and instrumentation of folk metal with more extreme elements of melodic death metal. Crogacht flows effortlessly from mellow acoustic parts to intense guitars and flailing drums. Songs like "Isle Of Skye" start fast and heavy with a majestic bearing and harsh vocals. A couple minutes in, the acoustic guitars take over with melodic singing interspersed with a catchy a guitar break.

"Scathach" starts with traditional bagpipes before kicking into full metal mode. The bagpipes make a return later on in the song, accompanying the guitars and other instruments. It makes a good song even more memorable. "Feats Of War" features a guest female vocalist, Tina Stabel, who sings the entire song.