BravePicks 2013: The Scribes Speak - Greg Pratt
January 11, 2014, 10 years ago
Happy New Year from BraveWords and all the best for a headbanging 2014! To honour tradition, we always follow our annual BravePicks by handing over the pen to our devout scribes and let them speak out about the year that was and the year ahead of us!
So now we present each writer's take on 2013 with the always popular Brave Embarrassments, Concerts, Thoughts On 2013, Predictions For 2014 and What / Who Needs To Stop In 2014!
1) CARCASS - Surgical Steel (Nuclear Blast)
2) NORMA JEAN - Wrongdoers (Razor and Tie)
3) BLACK SABBATH - 13 (Universal)
4) THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN - One of Us Is the Killer (Sumerian/Party Smasher)
5) GORGUTS - Colored Sands (Season of Mist)
6) VOIVOD - Target Earth (Century Media)
7) CATHEDRAL - The Last Spire (Rise Above/Metal Blade)
8) EXHUMED - Necrocracy (Relapse)
9) IMMOLATION - Kingdom of Conspiracy (Nuclear Blast)
10) AUTOPSY - The Headless Ritual (Peaceville)
1) MEGADETH - Supercollider (Tradecraft/Universal)
It just ain't good. I gave it a 4/10 and would like to slide that down to a 2/10. I continue to be a Mustaine apologist, but I'm not apologizing for Risk II.
2) BEATEN TO DEATH - Dødsfest! (Mas-Kina)
I like grindcore so much it's absurd; even for me, this screamo-grind band is just a headache.
3) WHITE WIZZARD - The Devil's Cut (Century Media)
This got on my nerves when it came out and over the course of the year I liked it less and less; the outrageous band drama that followed confirmed that this is a band best ignored.
1) KISS - Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre - Victoria, BC
2) GWAR - Commodore, Vancouver, BC
3) KEN MODE - Lucky Bar, Victoria, BC
Man, when I first started doing the year-end tallying about a month back, I had Sabbath down at 7. Loved the album, but it was fading a bit for me; it had an early-December resurgence and I've listened to the hell out of it and can safely say it's fighting with NORMA JEAN for the number two spot, NJ beating the drab four out by a hair only due to pure listenability: the Sabbath is a bit intense, hard to throw on as a casual listen or first thing in the morning to get the blood pumping, whereas Norma Jean excel at that. But, man, then you've got the return of death metal king blokes CARCASS, for an album that hit every expectation perfectly. Classy return to form, guys. THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN laid down another ruling album, only thing preventing it from shooting higher is just that the feeling of surprise is gone: we no longer think "What will they do next?" Killer album, but nothing shocking. GORGUTS, man, I love this rich, deep listen, emotionally rewarding like few death metal albums are. A hell of a tangled web of an album though, hence its relatively low placing here; you gotta be in the mood for it and the mood rarely hits; but when it does, there is absolutely none better than this. VOIVOD, another fine, classy, and rocking return to form; CATHEDRAL, an amazingly solid goodbye, again placed low because it's a bit of a craggly, difficult listen. But we don't go to these bands for 3:05 radio hits, now, do we? EXHUMED, IMMOLATION, and AUTOPSY round off the list with a triple-header of amazing gory, sludgey, grinding death metal, each one totally overflowing with individuality and energy, all hitting very, very hard. This isn't even mentioning DEATH ANGEL, ALL PIGS MUST DIE, COFFINS, HAIL OF BULLETS, SUFFOCATION, NAILS, ANTIGAMA, SOILWORK, WORMED, PHILIP H. ANSELMO AND THE ILLEGALS, and so much more. The extreme underbelly of blackened thrash/war metal continues to thrive, and labels like Hells Headbangers, Selfmadegod, Willowtip, and Shadow Kingdom continue to inspire with their dedication. Hails!
BLACK SABBATH continuing to kill it, maybe not live, but in the studio; 13 was amazing, let's keep the momentum going with at least an EP
CARCASS raging it up live in North America and keeping the anticipation going for another killer disc
NORMA JEAN continuing to not get the recognition they truly deserve
Overproduction in extreme metal; a snare that sounds exactly the same with every hit brings alienation, not emotional richness.
