BravePicks 2017 - The Scribes Speak!
"Metal" Tim Henderson

Top 20 of 2017
1) OBITUARY - Obituary (Relapse)
2) IMMOLATION - Atonement (Nuclear Blast)
3) CANNIBAL CORPSE – Red Before Black (Metal Blade)
4) DECAPITATED - Anticult (Nuclear Blast)
5) VENOM INC. - Avé (Nuclear Blast)
6) ANNIHILATOR - For The Demented (Silver Lining)
7) KREATOR – Gods Of Violence (Nuclear Blast)
8) ENSLAVED — E (Nuclear Blast)
9) OVERKILL - The Grinding Wheel (Nuclear Blast)
10) FIRESPAWN - Shadow Realms (Century Media)
11) ICED EARTH – Incorruptible (Century Media)
12) ACCEPT – The Rise of Chaos (Nuclear Blast)
13) WITCHERY - I Am Legion (Century Media)
14) PARADISE LOST – Medusa (Nuclear Blast)
15) THE HAUNTED – Strength In Numbers (Century Media)
16) THRESHOLD - Legends Of The Shires (Nuclear Blast)
17) CAVALERA CONSPIRACY - Psychosis (Napalm Records)
18) EXHUMED - Death Revenge (Relapse)
19) PRONG – Zero Days (Steamhammer/SPV)
20) GOATWHORE – Vengeful Ascension (Metal Blade)

Top 3 Concerts
70000 Tons Of Metal 2017
OBITUARY / KREATOR - Opera House, Toronto, ON
Summer Breeze Open Air - Dinkelsbühl, Germany

Top 5 Brave Embarrassments
MORBID ANGEL - Kingdoms Disdained (Silver Lining)
Minus the leather skirt, just bring David Vincent back.  

OPERATION: MINDCRIME – The New Reality (Frontiers)
Why do I feel like Tate is just making records to throw a bunch of rehashed garbage back in his old band’s faces?

ACT OF DEFIANCE — Old Scars, New Wounds (Metal Blade)
From Megadeth to corporate, cookie-cutter dribble-core. Drover and Broderick need to arise from the lungs of hell again.

DANZIG – Black Laden Crown (Evilive/Nuclear Blast)
Evil Elvis needs a time-out in the jailhouse so he can learn how to rock again.

QUIET RIOT - Road Rage (Frontiers)
Yet another quickly thrown-together money grab by the ultimate label you avoid like the plague, Frontiers.  

What/Who Needs To Stop In 2018

The Dio hologram idea. I couldn’t give a flying you-know-what if Ronnie loved holograms. The thought makes me cringe and the idea is just plain disgraceful. And there’s not a chance in hell that it will fly, especially on these shores.  

And yeah, I sound like a broken record, the travesty which is called the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame continues to play catch up with the bands that have been eligible decades ago such as forefathers like Grand Funk, Jethro Tull, MC5, T- Rex to name a few. But it delays the elite of heavy metal like Judas Priest, Motörhead and Iron Maiden easy (point of) entry. This truly is a shit-show that that everyone seems to fall for. I say burn it down.

Let’s stab another knife into Frontiers’ heart. Shit, even Eddie Trunk agrees with me. Whether it be ill-conceived reunions or carelessly contrived “super-groups”, virtually NONE of these releases will have any relevance in a year. In a month. Quality, not quantity. Get it? How can you sleep running a label in such a lazy, half-assed manner? This is a business model NOT to follow.

Thoughts On 2017

Malcolm Young, Warrel Dane, Martin Eric Ain, Chris Cornell, Paul O'Neill, Geoff Nicholls, Joey Alves, Chuck Mosley, Trish Doan. And we can’t forget about rockers Chuck Berry, George Young, Walter Becker, Tom Petty, Gregg Allman, Butch Trucks, J. Geils, John Wetton, Sib Hashian, Allan Holdsworth, Gordon Downie and Skip Prokop. “Out of respect for the dead”, it would be a sin to rank them, but easily the ones that hit hardest would be Malcolm, Warrel, Martin, Chris and Paul. All very unique entities in the scene with incredible resumes and tales to boot! The AC/DC loss was crushing. Think about it. He literally taught almost every guitarist (old and new) how to play the instrument with those toe-tapping’, first-pumping and (almost) basic riffs. And we can’t forgot his older brother George, who found fame early with the Easybeats (remember “Friday On My Mind”?), but he crafted all those early Bon Scott records.

I’m still in tears over Warrel Dane, a longtime friend of BraveWords. His voice was a choir of angels and devils in unison. Easily one of the top ten voices of heavy metal, EVER.

Early Celtic Frost laid the foundations down for what we embrace in death and black metal to this day. And along with Tom G. Warrior, Martin Eric Ain created two of the greatest slabs of extreme art via Morbid Tales and To Mega Therion. Pure Satanic genius.

Chris Cornell is still a shock, given his age and vision. A troubled man who took his life way too early. No doubt a tortured soul with a “jesus christ pose”. And Paul O'Neill, the puppet master behind the criminally under-rated Savatage and the massive festive success story Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Everybody will be sadly missed.

HMV … most reading this may not figure out the connection with HMV Canada, who was instru-metal in the growth of BW&BK Magazine, which of course led to BraveWords. So its demise in January struck a nerve. Keep in mind, I was running the Metal Section and the magazine at the same time. And that retail section at its peak was grossing one million (Canadian) a year. It was a match made in hell, the mag and the clientele that HMV served, although the (Head Office) powers that be at the time had little clue about the potential of a "riff" or the numbers on a balance sheet. A former giant reduced to rubble. So as I sit here, it’s pretty much a mail order world to feed my addiction. Sad but true.

Enough with the lows, now the highs. I had to laugh when Obituary drummer Donald Tardy told the story of the leads that Kenny Andrews came up with on “Brave” - straight out of the Kill ‘Em All manual. Obituary - the band’s tenth album - sees the Floridians expanding the borders of death metal genius, just another step up from the glorious comeback of Inked In Blood. Take "Sentence Day”, “End It Now”, “Kneel Before Me” and the non-album track “No” (see my onstage Facebook  footage from Summer Breeze here), the latter quite possibly the band’s finest hour since Cause Of Death. Despite being #2, Immolation may have created the most visionary statement in extreme music for 2017, Atonement being a truly inventive juggernaut of peaks and valleys, all strewn together with a dark cloud of death and doom. Cannibal Corpse can seemingly do no wrong, the tightest band on the planet bar none and "Only One Will Die" will be one of the band’s enduring pit anthems. Decapitated, despite their rather disturbing run in with the law (recently thrown out of court), delivered top-notch math metal, whereas Venom Inc. (which rounded out my top five) pentagram-pointed back to the glory years of the band with their possessing Avé ritual.

“I am possessed by all that is evil
The death of your God I demand!
I spit at the virgin you worship
And sit at my lord Satan's left hand”

And possibly the catchiest song of the year? Annihilator’s “Pieces Of You”.

“Pieces of you, they lie on the floor
But I can't put you back together no more
Unspeakable things come over me
I don't know what's real or fantasy
I gather you up in a white sheet I go to the kitchen, get something to eat
You lie on the table, torn limb from limb
Your head on the counter…”

Jeff, you are a genius.


          
Metal Predictions For 2018
Well, the year kicks off quite nicely with a Judas Priest album and (finally), death-defying masterpieces from Dimmu Borgir and Immortal, along with the next wave of artistic anarchy with Watain and Primordial leading the charge early. And perhaps this focus on darkness can inspire King Diamond to finally unleash his new studio album. Fingers (upside-down crossed) John Sykes can find his Blue Murder hat again. And you know Gene and Paul are just dying to get back on the road with Ace and milk this (ridiculous) KISS phenomenon even further. But man, berating that interviewer for wearing his Iron Maiden t-shirt. Entitlement of the highest order. Methinks Gene and Paul need find more respectful, “braver words”. Cowards.
 
And as I type, my excitement (like most) is reaching a feverish peak with the oncoming BraveWords-sponsored 70000 Tons Of Metal cruise and come summer, the glorious return of Heavy Montréal and yet another BW partner Summer Breeze, in Dinkelsbühl, Germany. Budget for this people. The European music community will open your metal mind, soul and heart!

Check out the thoughts of our other scribes:

Mark Gromen
Greg Pratt
Carl Begai
Aaron Small
Rich Catino
Alitzia Tyminski

Check out our BravePicks 2017 countdown where Overkill took the top spot here.