20 Best Albums of 2014: #10-1

As promised, here's my picks for the 10 best albums of 2014. My full recap of 2014 in music should be up later on this evening or early tomorrow morning. Thanks for reading and without further ado, here's my 10 albums of 2014.

10.Animals as Leaders-The Joy of Motion: Instrumental virtuosos Animals as Leaders managed to step their game up even further on their third LP, The Joy of Motion. The technical prowess that has driven all their releases is more restrained this go-round as the band decides to focus more on diverse songwriting that experiments with as many different genre as possible over the 54-minute runtime. This melody-based, heavily experimental approach is a welcome refrain from the strictly technically-dazzling progressive metal they've made in the past. Previously, Animals as Leaders has kind of felt like they only exist as a showcase for Tosin Abasi's guitar playing. On The Joy of Motion, they finally feel like a full, cohesive band and that pays off majorly in the quality of their music. The Joy of Motion is by far the heaviest, layered and well-rounded album Animals as Leaders has released thus far.

Standout Tracks 1.Another Year 2.Mind-Spun 3.The Woven Web 

9.Job for a Cowboy-Sun Eater: Job for a Cowboy has been fighting an onslaught of criticism from the metal community since their inception and with their latest LP, Sun Eater, they can finally silence those critics once and for all. If Jonny Davy wasn't still the vocalist, you wouldn't even be able to tell that this was the same band that burst onto the scene with the pig-squealing, breakdown-laden deathcore opus Doom in 2005. Sun Eater has been more in common with European atmospheric death metal a la Obscura and Morbus Chron than the various types of American death metal they've played on their past few releases. There's prominent bass throughout, the guitars are often restrained and there's a strong aura of gloom running through the entire record. If you don't believe me that this an entirely different band, take a listen to the opening 1-2 punch of "Eating the Visions of God" and "Sun of Nihility". At the very least, you'll be shocked that this is the same band that made songs like "Knee Deep" and "Embedded" back in the day. Sun Eater is a brilliantly constructed record full of striking musicianship and chilling atmosphere that blows the doors off of anything Job for a Cowboy has done in the past.

Standout Tracks 1.Buried Monuments 2.The Synthetic Sea 3.Sun of Nihility 

 8.Royal Blood-Royal Blood: Earlier this year, Kiss frontman Gene Simmons said that “Rock was finally dead”. On their self-titled debut LP, British duo Royal Blood proved that Simmons is full of shit. Royal Blood is loaded with an unfathomable amount of killer riffs, big hooks and vintage rock energy. The best part about Royal Blood? They manage to do all of this without a guitarist. Royal Blood consists of just a bassist and drummer, which makes the massive sound they achieve on this record that much more impressive. As long as bands like Royal Blood exist, Simmons' stupid, hyperbolic statement will never become true.

Standout Tracks 1.Blood Hands 2.Figure It Out 3.Loose Change 

 

7.Behemoth-The Satanist: Behemoth's first record since vocalist/guitarist Adam “Nergal” Darski successfully defeated stage 3 leukemia is a monster. Nergal's brush with death didn't make him any cheerier, as The Satanist is the darkest album Behemoth has ever crafted. The Satanist sees Behemoth combining the haunting black metal of their early records with the death metal fury of their newer albums for a record that takes the band in an epic and sinisterly beautiful direction. The Satanist marks the start of an exciting new chapter for Behemoth and given the fact that Nergal was close to death just a few years ago, it's a chapter that the metal community is very fortunate to see play out.

Standout Tracks 1.Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer 2.Meese Noire 3.O Father! O Satan! O Sun!

 

6.Freddie Gibbs & Madlib-Pinata: Enter hip-hop's new odd couple. The pairing of hardcore gangsta rapper Freddie Gibbs and producer Madlib, who specializes in laid-back, jazzy production may sound like an extreme mismatch, but their two vastly different styles converge beautifully on this record. Pinata sees these two artists simultaneously playing to their established strengths and switching up their styles to adapt to each others' biggest assets. It's awesome to see Madlib throw down some aggressive beats on “Shitsville” and “Harold's” and Gibbs rap over mellow beats on tracks like “Deeper”, "Robes" and “Shame”. With this record, Gibbs finally gets the consistent, high-quality production that's prevented him from breaking out in the past while Madlib finally gets to work with an artist that allows to him stray from his comfort zone and cover a ton of new musical territory with his beats. Pinata is a fiery yet chill hip-hop record with plenty of great lyrics and guest spots that I won't be forgetting about anytime soon.

Standout Tracks 1.Harold's 2.Shitsville 3.Uno

5.Run the Jewels-Run the Jewels 2: Killer Mike and El-P are not human beings. That's the only logical explanation I can up with for how they were able to release yet another modern hip-hop classic less than 18 months after their last release. Run the Jewels' second LP manages to be even more monstrous than their debut thanks to the inclusion of more subdued serious material to go alongside the duo's trademark bangers. No matter what the lyrical content or production style is, Run the Jewels kills it and their stranglehold on the throne of modern hip-hop has only strengthened after this release.

Standout Tracks 1.Lie, Cheat, Steal 2.Oh My Darling Don't Cry 3.Early

  

4.Every Time I Die-From Parts Unknown: It didn't even take one full listen to figure out that From Parts Unknown wasn't your average record for Every Time I Die. As soon as album opener,“The Great Secret” kicks in, there's an overwhelming sense of chaos that hasn't been present in any of the music they've put out in the past decade. From Parts Unknown marks a return to the raw, relentlessly heavy metalcore that band mastered on their 2003 breakout LP Hot Damn! With Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou behind the boards, the band just runs wild and creates the most gritty and rewarding music of their entire career. These grizzled metal veterans have been simply unstoppable of late and unless something drastic happens, that isn't going to change anytime soon.

Standout Tracks 1.El Dorado 2.Moor 3.Decayin' With the Boys

 

3.Unearth-Watchers of Rule: Someone needs to give the guys in Unearth a hug. Their sixth LP is the single most relentless and pissed-off record I heard all year. Unearth has always been an abrasive band, but there's normally some melody and sporadic clean vocals to offer the listener a reprieve from the heavy sections. There's not even an ounce of room to breathe on Watchers of Rule and that all heavy, all the time mentality makes this one of, if not the best release Unearth has ever put together. The enhanced aura of intensity hammers home the impact of their usual onslaught of riffs, blistering solos and perfectly-timed breakdowns, and allows them to hit levels of heaviness I didn't think they were previously capable of. Watchers of Rule is proof that the allegedly dead genre of metalcore is alive and well.

Standout Tracks 1.Never Cease 2.From the Tombs of Five Below 3.Trail of Fire

2.Fallujah-The Flesh Prevails: If the extreme metal world wasn't already paying attention to San Francisco technical/progressive death metal act Fallujah, they will be now. Their second LP, The Flesh Prevails, is a dense, heavily nuanced record that handsomely rewards patient listeners who are willing to soak in all of the album's many layers. Fallujah is the rare technical death metal act that favors subtlety over constant balls-out shredding. Every song on the album, whether it be a traditional song or an instrumental, features moments of stunning ambiance that builds into sheer death metal chaos or vice versa. The way Fallujah seamlessly combines these two radically different styles is staggering and shows an immense level of songwriting talent that the modern death metal world desperately needs. The Flesh Prevails is yet another punishing, gorgeous and expertly crafted record from a band that I consider to be the torchbearers for the next generation of American death metal.

Standout Tracks 1.The Night Reveals 2.Sapphire 3.Levitation

1.Revocation-Deathless: 14 months after dropping their self-titled album- which was previously their best work- Revocation manages to top it pretty handily with Deathless. What makes Deathless standout is the sheer strength of the songwriting. This is the record Revocation has been striving to make since their inception. The tech-death/thrash hybrid that first got them noticed back in 2009 with Existence is Futile is still very much at the heart of their sound, they just experiment with it more than ever before. From the Gothenburg melo-death of “A Debt Owed to the Grave” to the straight-up prog of “The Blackest Reaches” to the pummeling grooves of “Labyrinth of Eyes”, this record is a constantly shifting and exciting musical adventure that never up in quality at any point. Deathless is quite simply extreme metal perfection and helps Revocation further solidify their place at the top of the modern metal heap.

Standout Tracks 1.Scorched Earth Policy 2.A Debt Owed to the Grave 3.Labyrinth of Eyes