Cody's Top 5 of 2016 (So Far)
We're into the heat of summer and the midway point of 2016. Heavy metal has about six months to deliver numerous releases from stalwart veterans to tenacious newcomers. With the time allotted thus far, the metal community has been fortunate enough to receive a fairly large number of great releases. Here at Metal Injection, we were given a cut-off date of June 17 to pick our five favorite releases from the opening half of 2016. It became quite the task upon revision of what has been released thus far.
Disclaimer: I still have the misfortune of not hearing the new Gojira or Nails albums yet. Magma and You Will Never Be One Of Us were two of my most anticipated releases coming into this year. I am willing to bet you'll see them show up in my complete list at the conclusion of 2016.
Gevurah – Hallelujah!
The Canadian duo of X.T. and A.L.'s "…seven-step spiritual journey of alchemical transformation…" is highly intelligent and poetic in its delivery. It conjures up hellacious mental imagery and invokes a sense of dread and terror from start to finish. This towering, grandiose black metal composition is a hell of a debut complete with gorgeous artwork and the best black metal song of this year so far in "Dies Irae – Lacrimosa".
Krallice – Hyperion EP
Krallice's New Year's Day surprise has stood up against just about every full-length album that has been released this year. This three-song EP bridges the gap between their 2012 Years Past Matter and 2015's Ygg Huur (which has proved to be one of the few albums from last year that is still in regular rotation). Each song displays pristine, dizzying instrumentation that only the wizards of Krallice could create.
Sumac – What One Becomes
Aaron Turner, Nick Yacyshyn, and Brian Cook are following up their mind-numbingly heavy 2015 debut as Sumac with an even heavier and dense record in 2016 that will shake priceless heirlooms off of shelves and takes the paint off walls. What One Becomes is a continued exercise in pushing physical and sonic boundaries by its trio of members. It culminates in an incredibly raw and human sound that punishes the listener repeatedly.
Oranssi Pazuzu – Värähtelijä
The Finnish cosmonauts of Oranssi Pazuzu took bold strides on Värähtelijä and stretched Black Metal to its outermost limits. This fuzzy, spacey masterwork serves as a medium for meditative introspection as well as a shimmering display of transcendent metal that can and should be enjoyed by all. Oranssi Pazuzu showed again they can shatter the mold of what heavy metal should be.
Cobalt – Slow Forever
This record is still getting daily play. This primal, nihilistic menace of an album has been the biggest and best thing heard this year so far. Erik Wunder and Charlie Fell make a dynamic duo that surpasses anything released under the Cobalt namesake. Wunder and Fell shed Black Metal entirely and instead siphon influences from genres like Death, Thrash, Americana, and Progressive Rock. I cannot heap enough praise onto this album.
