Grim Kim’s
THE SIX BEST DEBUTS OF 2011

When CVLT Nation graciously asked me to contribute to their year-end festivities, and requested a list of the six best new bands of 2011, I was definitely pleased – and, almost immediately, stumped. It’s a question that’s plagued me every time I’m asked to conjure up a “best-of” list for whatever reason; who am I to say that’s the “best” of anything? Who is anyone? As Plato said, “Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance,” and anyone who busies themselves with the business of music criticism has surely got all three in spades. That being said, though, it’s often fairly easy to pinpoint which bands have distinguished themselves the most, risen above the slavering hordes and made an actual impression. CVLT Nation (and I myself http://americanaftermath.net/2011/12/20/grim-kim-kellys-top-10-demos-of-2011/) have already made note of some of the most impressive demos of 2011, but much remains to be said about the year’s most exemplary debut LPs. I suppose that’s where I come in. The following six releases are some of the best and most promising firsts I’ve heard all year, in arbitrary order:

MIDNIGHT – Satanic Royalty (Hell’s Headbangers)

In a word: FINALLY. After nearly a decade of splits, demos, EPs, and the odd live album, blackened speed metal hellions Midnight have released their first ever full-length, and goddamn, it was worth the wait. Sex, drinks, & metal. Lust, filth, & sleaze. Hooded degenerates tearing through blazing solos, thrashing through grimy necropunk, and sneering at your pussified “experimental” project, all with middle fingers hoisted high and a nasty fucking attitude – this is the bastard spawn of Venom and Morothead. Gleefully gritty NWOBHM filtered through blood & brimstone, then tossed out into the street to fight its way home. You can’t stop steel!

ENSORCELOR – Crucifuge (Media Tree Recordings)

I simply cannot heap enough praise upon this album. The scent of slowly rotting flesh and wet mold fills the air, a plague miasma of wet earth and spilled marrow surrounds us, and through the rain and fog comes an ominous din…purposeful, resolute, almost martial in its discipline, but wild-eyed and fever-stricken in its intensity. A cracked obelisk to honor the gods of hopelessness and decay, rising above the mire. Within this mortal coil, Ensorcelor may answer to the name “blackened doom,” but there is so much more depth and otherworldliness here. Crucifuge is a triumph of death, a fitting paean to the truths beneath our feet , a human voice for nature’s lament.
“If you would but slap the hand of God that conspires to divide us, we could grow: Into the crucifuge.”

ASH BORER – s/t (Psychic Violence)

Moody and introspective, Ash Borer’s eponymous debut LP burns slow and bright. Passages of almost feral intensity are balanced out by gossamer melodies and delicate swaths of post-rock (the weeping chords and bright, harsh melody on album opener “In the Midst of Life, We Are in Death” would not be out of place on an Explosions in the Sky record). This is black metal, evolved.

LOSS – Despond (Profound Lore)

How is it possible that something this weighty, this mature and well-composed and overwhelmingly GOOD, could be a band’s first full-length? It would boggle the mind if Loss hasn’t spent the last decade honing their craft via self-released demos and splits with the likes of Necros Christos, Worship, and the infamous ‘Four Burials’ for-way doom orgy (Loss, Otesanek, Mournful Congregation, and Orthodox, recently entombed in wax by The Flenser). On Despond, they take their blighted chords to an entirely new level, and to even further depths of misery (“Cut Up, Depressed, and Alone”…). This is one of the most beautiful, wrenching funeral doom albums you will ever hear.

ANTEDILUVIAN – Through the Cervix of Hawwah (Profound Lore)

Appearing soon after this year’s excellent Revelations in Excrement EP, this Canadian horde finally saw fit to unleash an album’s worth of their ravenous black/death metal onslaught unto the unsuspecting masses. Sophisticated yet satisfyingly primitive, intelligent without pretension, bestial in intensity and depravity without stooping to second-rate goatfago levels, and a true credit to their forebears in the Ross Bay cult, Antediluvian create a cavernous, threatening sound unlike any other. Revel in evil. Embrace desecration.

BATILLUS – Furnace (Seventh Rule)

Batillus are the kind of band who demand an adjective heavier than “heavy.” Listening to (and watching) this Brooklyn quartet crash headlong into their distorted doom epics is an experience unto itself, one sure to leave you jarred, unnerved, and hopelessly entranced. Electric Wizard meets Godflesh, or something close to it? Batillus have stumbled upon that holiest of holies: the ability to truly sound like no one but themselves. The rhythm section is untouchable and unexpectedly groovy, the riffs are dense, insistent, and hypnotic; the synth and electronic effects build up a nightmarish atmosphere, and the vocals are a world apart. Fade Kainer’s unhinged howl, simmering with reverb and echo effects, fills the room, commands attention, and leaves absolutely no recourse but to bow the fuck down.

40 WATT SUN – The Inside Room (Cyclone Empire)

Risen from the ashes of beloved UK doom behemoths Warning and featuring the inimitable voice of one Patrick Walker, 40 Watt Sun found themselves topping a plethora of year-end lists (and for good reason). I couldn’t help but include them on this one, though, because their debut offering was just so damn powerful. Less straight-forward and doomy than Warning, and, it must be said, almost outside the metal realm altogether, 40 Watt Sun are still heavy, heavier than nearly any other band going – not due to to their riffs, which are well-crafted and effective but ultimately simple, understated affairs, but because of the words soaring above them. The lyrics, sung out in Walker’s despondent wail, are broken-hearted odes to longing, love, and regret; his voice quivers, at times almost breaking with emotion. The hurt is palpable. This man, this band, have lain their souls bare, torn their cloths to rags in mourning, and offered themselves up to you and I. Heavy hearts, heavy vibes.

A COUPLE HONORABLE MENTIONS (because I am terrible at following directions)
MORBUS CHRON – Sleepers in the Rift (Pulverised)
Slimy, thrashy, gloriously primal death metal, formed in 2007 but roaring straight outta 1986.
WOODEN STAKE – Dungeon Prayers & Tombyard Serenades (Razorback)
Creepy-crawly, horror-obsessed death/doom (dis)graced with the bewitching vocals of Vanessa Nocera (Skeletal Spectre, Loathsome).
HOT GRAVES – Knights in White Phosphorous (Greyhaze/NHR)
Thrashy, punk as fuck Satanic d-beat with a massive hard-on for the black arts. It’s desecration time!

CVLT Nation would like to thank Grim Kim for a sick list and all of the bands for creating awesome albums!!!