Album Favorites of 2017

Hi all!

First of all let me simply state that I am super fresh to not only Tzertzelos but to blogging in general. Instead I have been spamming you with the latest Stoner, Psych, Doom, Sludge albums and artists on the Tzertzelos FB page. So based on that, I think you can make a solid guess on what genres of the musical spectrum the following albums will mostly be related to.

Second, I know what you are thinking. So many best music lists of 2017 already out there! Just consider this my homage and sincere thanks for these specific specimens.

Then third, let me tell you how near to impossible it has been to keep track of all the latest releases by the ‘underground’ bands in these genres, as new bands emerge in high velocity (yes even the stoners), albums cover so many styles in one and also when my sense of classifying the right genre to the artistry is up for debate. As I will demonstrate below.

So for this list of favorites I have kept the criteria very simple: “Did it get released in 2017 AND was it amazing to hear… in full!?”. Some I heard play live and others are on my radar. Some albums on the Hi-Fi with the artwork to admire, others on the Wi-Fi with a click of a button to Listen.

Without further ado, my list of 20 Album Favorites of 2017 in random order of appearance.

 

Hymn (Norway) – “Perish”

Style: Doom, Metal

Listen

 

DECASIA (France) – “The Lord Is Gone”

Style: Heavy Psych, Doom, Stoner

Listen

 

Cruise Forever (UK) – “God Is A Triphead”

Style: Acid Rock, Psych, Stoner, Surf

Listen

 

name (USA) – “…You Are Mostly Nowhere”

Style: Dark Jazz, (Post)Progressive Experimental Metal

Listen

 

Merchant (Australia) – “Beneath”

Style: Doom, Sludge, Metal

Listen

 

Deaf Radio (Greece) – “Alarm”

Style: Psychedelic/Heavy/Desert Rock

Listen

 

Here Lies Man (USA) – “Here Lies Man”

Style: Stoner Rock, Afro Beat, Psychedelic

Listen

 

Chelsea Wolfe (USA) – “Hiss Spun”

Style: Experimental, Doom Metal

Listen

 

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (UK) – “Feed The Rats”

Style: Psych, Krautrock, Noise, Stoner, Sludge

Listen

 

Dodge Meteor (UK) – “Real Soon Now”

Style: Psych/Space/Noise Rock

Listen

 

Diploid (Australia)- “Everything Went Red”

Style: Experimental, Noise, Grindcore

Listen

 

Papir (Denmark) – “V”

Style: Psych, Krautrock

Listen

 

Gnod (UK) – “JUST SAY NO TO THE PSYCHO RIGHT​-​WING CAPITALIST FASCIST INDUSTRIAL DEATH MACHINE”

Style: Noise, Punk, Psychedelic, Drone

Listen

 

Elder (USA) – “Reflections of a Floating World”

Style: Psychedelic Rock, Doom, Progressive

Listen

 

Hyper Giant (Australia) – “Father Sky”

Style: Stoner Rock/Metal, Space Rock

Listen

 

Dool (Netherlands) – “Here Now, There Then”

Style: Hard Rock, Metal

Listen

 

Forming The Void (USA) – “Relic”

Style: Psych, Progressive, Doom, Metal

Listen

 

Amenra (Belgium) – “MASS  VI”

Style: Post Metal, Sludge

Listen

 

DVNE (UK) – “Asheran”

Style: Stoner, Sludge, Post Metal

Listen

 

Ufomammut (Italy) – “8”

Style: Psychedelic Doom

Listen

 

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Kaze’s Top 20 Albums for 2017

Dear all,

this is the most accumulative moment of the year; my top 20 albums for 2017! All albums that are included in the list, in my opinion, they are all awesome & i spent significant amount of time listening to them during the whole year, via youtube, bandcamp, physical format and other formats/platforms. Additionally, all referenced albums have been released during 2017. The order of the list will be descending just for your ease; it doesn’t mean that i like the 6th album more than the 19th album. Although, the ordering scheme for the top 5 albums applies! Here it is:

20.  Terrorvälde (Sweden) – “Upcoming album”

Style: d-beat, crust

Listen

19. Myteri (Sweden) – “Ruiner”

Style: Neocrust, hardcore punk

Listen

18. Alastor (Sweden) – “Black Magic”

Style: Doom

Listen

17. Black Tundra (Poland) – “Black Tundra”

Style: Doom,sludge

Listen

16. Autarch (US) / Landbridge (US) – Split

Style: Neocrust, dbeat

Listen

15. Kungens Män (Sweden) – Dag & Natt

Style: Psychedelic rock, drone

Listen

14.Conspiracy of Denial (Greece) / Lethe (Greece) – Split

Style: Dark hardcore, crust

Listen

13. Procrastinate (Greece) – “Procrastinate”

Style: Neocrust, dark hardcore

Listen

12. Godspeed You! Black Emperor (Canada) – “Luciferian Towers”

Style: Post-rock

Listen

11. Wolfbrigade (Sweden) – Run With The Hunted

Style: dbeat, crust punk

Listen

10. Big Brave (Canada) – “Ardor”

Style: Experimental, drone, doom

Listen

9. Primitive Man (US) – “Caustic”

Style: Sludge, doom

Listen

8. Rompeprop (Netherlands) / Guineapig (Italy) – Split

Style: Goregrind

Listen

7. Elder (US) – “Reflections of a Floating World”

Style: Psychedelic rock, doom, progressive

Listen

6. Unsane (US) – “Sterilize”

Style: Noise rock

Listen

5. Converge (US) – “The Dusk in Us”

Style: Post-hardcore

Listen

4. Wolves in the Throne Room (US) – “Thrice Woven”

Style: Post-black metal

Listen

3. Deszcz (Poland) – “LP”

Style: Neocrust

Listen

2. Amenra (Belgium) – “MASS  VI”

Style: Post-metal, sludge

Listen

1. Ufomammut (Italy) – “8”

Style: Psychedelic doom

Listen

Review

Memorable Discovery for 2017

Barn Owl (US)

Style: Drone, ambient

Listen

 

Ufomammut – 8

Ladies & gentlemen, 2 days have passed since the official release of the Italian psychedelic doomsters Ufomammut most recent album ‘8’ that is also their eighth studio release. ‘8’ was released the 22nd of September 2017 by Neurot Recordings while the LP version is released by Supernatural Cat records.

While i am a fan of Ufomammut the last 7 years, you can imagine my anxiety for “8”‘s release! Let’s dive into this & start our analysis!

The album starts with ‘Babel’, which is a quite powerful & aggressive introduction to the album. It starts atmospherically but gradually it puts the listener to the band’s dark realm slowly & cunningly. After the first notes, the listener is teleported without a notice in Ufomammut’s plane, where the band launches unceasingly black holes & obsidian monoliths from altar ruins!
‘Warsheep’ (released also as a single in June) or better, the Trojan horse of persistent psychedelic doom nightmares follows, which ultimately will force you headbang without even noticing. Your body would follow the vibrations, you need to let it go and let the cloud of doom engulf you gracefully. ‘Zodiac’ is a sequence of mountains & valleys, a recursive melody imbued with Urlo’s vocals, resulting into psyching out the whole structure! It calms in order to earn you some moments to take a breath of safety and returns with a fuzzy sequence of electric atmospheres thrown to your face!
‘Fatum’ is the perfect glue/interlude between ‘Zodiac’ and ‘Prismaze’ that follows.
‘Prismaze’ is a chaotic & violent storm (with moments that reminded me of Oro – Opus Alter), that calms for some brief moments and then launches the final attack with fury, in order to demolish everything that stands still between the debris. One of my favorite tracks of the album for sure!
‘Core’ is a slow and relentless hammering track; initially Poia’s guitar crawls and then ultimately screams along Ufomammut’s universe while in parallel you visualize the rhythm section of the band as one opaque entity accompanying the guitar’s suffering! Another favorite track!
‘Wombdemonium’ is a slow & thick doom track that acts as a remedy for all the damage
you got from this trip, during your esoteric journey to Ufomammut’s ‘8’. But still, ‘8’ is not done yet.
The album’s last track ‘Psyrcle’ is another powerful adventure, imbued by Urlo’s psalms & FXs, a final transcendence to Ufomammut’s astral plane is achieved gracefully. Patterns repeated, evolved, a frantic climax & then finally, catharsis…Then trying to put everything together, to understand what you just witnessed…then press ‘Play’, again!

In my opinion, that is what i was expecting from Ufomammut, to be able to beat their
past reincarnations & triumph as winners! And they did it with grace & determination.
The rhythm section was really tied up, their sound could be visualized as a cement/metal compound, opaque, thick & heavy. The bass lines could though be independent at cases, emphasizing important moments of the tracks, kinda more independent than the previous work, which is a very good thing. Great work has been done also at the FX section that accompanied the trio’s journey, really assisting dramatically the listener’s transcendence to the psychedelic doom realm of the Italians.
Really happy about this work, and easily one of my favorite releases so far for 2017. And one of my favorite Ufomammut albums!

Check their bandcamp page below & support the band!
https://ufomammut.bandcamp.com/album/8-2

Cheers!

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