October 2009 Best Heavy Metal CDs

In the last decade, Immortal’s promo photography has become so over-the-top that one can’t help but laugh. It’s this unwavering dedication that makes Immortal who they are, and with All Shall Fall, their first album back after a seven-year hiatus, they show exactly why they’re one of the most important bands in black metal history.

The time away from the band has proven beneficial. They had never painted themselves into a corner, primarily because following the blitzkrieg assault of Blizzard Beasts they began to explore various tempos and to draw heavily from traditional heavy metal (beginning with At the Heart of Winter), but All Shall Fall sounds like the band has a new lease on life.

Baroness' sophomore full-length Blue Record embraces the old school notion of striving to create a cohesive album that flows, not just a random collection of songs. Soundwise, their sludgy guitars are intact, but explore a bit more of their progressive and experimental side. It's also the first CD with new guitarist Pete Adams. Their sound has been compared to Mastodon, and on songs like “A Horse Called Golgotha” that comparison is apt. It’s heavy, but also complex and catchy.

There are numerous textures, intensities, moods and atmospheres throughout the album, and Baroness changes things up on a constant basis. Songs like “The Sweetest Curse” are heavy and reasonably straightforward, while “The Gnashing” has more progressive tendencies.

Several musicians contribute to Axe To Fall, but it doesn't come across as a marketing ploy. Instead, the synthesis with Converge's core lineup amounts to the kind of art that neither side would have been capable of independently. Converge has always had an Entombed influence, yet things are taken to the next level with Uffe Cederlund (former Entombed member) offering lead guitars and backing vocals to "Wishing Well."

And with "Wretched World," the limited-ranged but soothing vocals and zoned-out keyboards of Genghis Tron's Mookie Singerman offers a subtle escape from Converge's typical bludgeoning. And Steve Von Till (Neurosis) moans like Tom Waits on "Cruel Bloom" before finally screaming as the song simmers to a boiling point.

While The Great Misdirect is faced with the tall order of following up previous massive full lengths, it’s more than up to the challenge. While it’s true that this album takes a bit to kick in, once it does, the result is almost narcotic: that happy and hazy feeling one gets when faced with pure musical bliss.

For the talent and inspiration behind Between The Buried And Me’s songwriting is almost limitless; each song here takes so many twists and unexpected turns, one almost feels like The Great Misdirect is moving in a million different directions all at once…only in the best possible way. From technical death metal/core, to melodic rock passages to thick, bluesy jams, The Great Misdirect rarely, if ever misfires.

One of last year’s toasts of metal journalists was the Los Angeles quintet Ancestors and their debut Neptune With Fire. This year, they continue in bombastic and determined cohesion as Ancestors explores the human psyche and its correlation to an interactive society with Of Sound Mind.

Not every ambitious and artistic metal album takes the time to slide a brief nocturne like Gershwin in a rough mood as Ancestors does between its lengthy drone compositions. The passive yet nervous “Not the Last Return” effectively destabilizes the titanic arrangement of the 14-minute “Mother Animal,” thence relinquishes to the Pink Floyd-greased “Bounty of Age.” “Challenging” does likewise later in the album, only with a cabaret of the doomed feel.