Dear readers,

Maelstrom turned nine. It’s a belated announcement, as our anniversary is technically in February, but with our shift to posting seasonally, Spring is this year’s time to “party.”

And what better way to mark that occasion than with a(nother) big, whopping issue! One hundred twenty-three album reviews, three interviews (with The Skaden, Palace of Worms, and For Ruin), and three live reports, bringing the nine-year total to 5,361 reviews, 278 interviews, and 135 live reports.

And what anniversary issue would be complete without the staff’s best of the previous year list? So with no further teary self-congratulation, here they are.

Thanks for reading!
Roberto Martinelli
Maelstrom.nu
1573 Dolores St
San Francisco, CA 94110

Roberto Martinelli’s top albums of 2009

Ruins of Beverast, The - Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite
Diamatregon - Crossroad
Infernal Stronghold - Godless Noise
Pestilential Shadows - In Memoriam Ill Omen
Tyr - By the Light of the Northern Star
Arckanum - Kampen (re-issue)
Immortal - All Shall Fall
Pyramids/Nadja - s/t
Stratovarius - Polaris
Isole - Silent Ruins
While Heaven Wept - Vast Oceans Lachrymose
Pyha - The Haunted House
Drudkh - Microcosmos
Urna - Iter Ad Lucem
Vhernen - The Funeral Era
Destroyer 666 - Defiance
Khors - Mysticism
Arckanum - Fran Marder (re-issue)
Velvet Cacoon - Atropine
Alcest / Les Discrets - split
Katatonia - Night is the New Day
Gog - Mist From the Random More
For Ruin - Last Light
Tyrann - Shadows of Leng
Thanatos - Justified Genocide

Mladen Škot’s favorite albums of 2009

Damn, everyone else's lists will be longer than mine. It's not that I didn't get many 2009 albums, it's the fact that I got so many albums from all possible years that I have probably forgotten to listen to some of them, and very few of them were actually from 2009. According to my trusty .pdf CD list, there were 140. Out of those I, sort of, remember I liked these 20 — which doesn't necessarily mean they are all awesome but I enjoy them, anyway — in alphabetic order:

Aluk Todolo - Finsternis
Amocoma - Go to Hell
Catholicon - Of Ages Past
Diamatregon - Crossroad
End - III
Graveland - Spears of Heaven
Leviathan / Acherontas - Sic Luceat Lux (split)
Magnum Carnage - More Unreal Than a Box of Precious Metal and Radioactive Ore
Manowar - Thunder in the Sky
Marduk - Wormwood
My Own Grave - Necrology
Napalm Death - Time Waits for No Slave
Nefandus - Death Holy Death
Nergal / Lykaionas - Mesaionas / Legions of the Serpent Race (split)
Nile - Those Whom the Gods Detest
Nokturnal Mortum - The Voice of Steel
Nomans Land - Farnord
Sad - Enlightened by Darkness
Vrangsinn - Phobia
Way to End - Desecrated Internal Journey

Avi Shaked 2009 Top Album Picks:

Them Crooked Vultures’ debut for being so sleazy.
miRthkon’s Vehicle, for being such an accomplished fun.
Cheer-Accident’s Fear Draws Misfortune for being so intriguing and yet strikingly cohesive.
Yitzhak Yedid’s Since My Soul Loved for being frighteningly mesmerizing.
Kurai’s debut for its exciting textures.
Vialka’s Succes Planetaire International for its vivid amalgamation of cultures.
Universe Zero’s Relapse for including exciting live recordings that have been lying around waiting for a release for over twenty years, and still managing to sound completely fresh even today.

2009 Personal disappointments:

Ahleuchatistas’ Of the Body Prone for not recovering from drummer Sean Dail’s departure (it’s still a good release, though).
Porcupine Tree’s The Incident for being such a mess.
David Sylvian’s Manafon for being virtually empty (and this is coming from a fan of avant-garde music…).

Chaim Drishner’s best albums of 2009:

Secrets of the Moon - Privilegium
Liturgy - Renihilation
Junius - The Martyrdom of a Catastrophist
Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble of Shadows - Es reiten die Toten so schnell (Or: The Vampyre Sucking At His Own Vein) (re-issue)
Habsyll - MMVIII
Sammath - Triumph in Hatred

Brandon Strader’s favorite albums of 2009

Guilt Machine - On This Perfect Day
Muse - The Resistance
Dream Theater - Dark Clouds & Silver Linings
Darkest Hour - The Eternal Return
Cannibal Corpse - Evisceration Plague
Townsend, Devin Project - Ki
In Staid Grace - Revelations
Job for a Cowboy - Ruination
My Dying Bride - For Lies I Sire
Rainwound - The Ivory Chapel
Transatlantic - The Whirlwind
Behemoth - Evangelion

Pal Meentzen’s top 10 albums of 2009 (and why)

It wasn’t easy for me to decide which albums belonged to place in my favourites list, since there didn’t seem to be many exiting albums in 2009. But there have been several releases from metal veterans that had something to offer, more or less. This list is in alphabetical order. I can recommend Ahab just as much as Colosseum. For some reason the genre of funeral doom and symphonic black seems to have brought the goods.

- Ahab - The Divinity of Oceans: German maritime funeral doom. Great sound, top growl vocalist. Whale heavy and imposing.
- Austere - To Lay Like Old Ashes: Australian suicidal depressive BM at its best. Nerve-racking screeches for spot on sense of despair. Much more appealing production than their low-fi debut.
- Catholicon - Of Ages Past: A more than fitting goodbye from an excellent blackened death metal band with a bonus disc of a stunning 24 hours worth of extra material. Worthy of an entry into the Guiness Book of Records.
- Colosseum - Chapter II: Numquam: Some say it’s just like Chapter I: Delirium, but it has more instrumentation, texture and subtleties. Funeral Doom at its best.
- Hellveto - Od Polludnia na Póllnoc...: Another slab of symphonic black metal genius from this Polish one-man band. Grand and fiery orchestrations as usual, this time with a more diverse variation in vocals.
- Inquinok - Immortal Dawn: Very good, doomy symphonic metal metal release by a largely unnoticed band from the US with an unusual European sound.
- Ophidian Forest - Redbad: A very interesting re-release from this pan-continental chaotic pagan cult.
- Striborg Perceiving the World With Hate: Sin Nanna delves deeper in his illustrous horror pallette. Delightfully evil and not for the faint hearted.
- Wounded Kings - The Shadow Over Atlantis: Iggy meets Black Sabbath meets doom metal.
- Xasthur - All Reflections Drained: An underrated and tauntingly different take of Xasthur’s previous material.

Bastiaan de Vries’ favorite albums of 2009

Last year I paid a lot of attention to discovering classic death metal albums, but of what I did hear from 2009, here’s the best:

Suffocation - Blood Oath
Do Make Say Think - Other Truths
Cannibal Corpse - Evisceration Plague
Nile - Those Whom the Gods Detest
Built to Spill - There Is No Enemy
Arckanum – ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ
Jeniferever - Spring Tides
Hecker, Tim - An Imaginary Country
Drudkh – Microcosmos
Destroyer 666 - Defiance
Dying Fetus - Descend Into Depravity
Mansell, Clint - Moon
Eaststrikewest - Wolvves
Newsom, Joanna - Have One on Me
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Fifty Goddamn Good Reasons Why Joshua Gottlieb Remained Excited About This Music Thing in 2009

Overview: Subtracted some of the drone and dissonance, added a smattering of hooks and choruses.

How’d That Happen? For reasons mostly unexplainable, I became obsessed with the Alice in Chains catalogue to a ridiculous degree — serious “best band ever” state of mind. And then they release a new album after 14 years? And it doesn’t tarnish their legacy? And it’s really fucking good? Jerry Cantrell, thank you.

Oughta Be Arrested for Gimmick Infringement: Fragment. One man band. Sounds like Jesu. Feels Like Jesu. Tastes like Jesu. Not Jesu! Justin Broadrick wonders, “now, how he’d do that?”

Because It’s So Monumentally Stupid It’s Brilliant: Rammstein’s "Pussy.” Or maybe it’s because I have a dicka.

MVP: Daniel Rosten, aka Arioch, aka Mortuus. Funeral Mist is the stuff the most delicious nightmares are made of and he’s transformed Marduk from an efficient killing machine into a gloriously twisted harbinger of death.

This Is What It Looks Like From the Top: Kylesa. Why’d the Savannah quintet win out? They’ve always been a great band, but Static Tensions took all of the elements that comprise that greatness – hypnotic, psychedelic, sludgy, crusty and sheer, unadulterated heaviness – and somehow elevated the whole damn thing. It sounds exactly like Kylesa, just not like any Kylesa album you’ve heard before.

The Top Ten:

1. Kylesa - Static Tensions
2. Goes Cube - Another Day Has Passed
3. Fragment - s/t
4. Rammstein - Liebe Ist Für Alle Da
5. Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue
6. Cable - The Failed Convict
7. Funeral Mist - Maranatha
8. Baroness - Blue Record
9. Sólstafir - Köld
10. Polvo - In Prism

Another Ten That Got a Whole Mess of Attention (in random order):

Vaka - Kappa Delta Phi
Tinted -Windows s/t
16 - Bridges to Burn
Hecker, Tim - An Imaginary Country
True Widow - s/t
Shogun Kunitoki - Vinonaamakasio
Turn Me on Dead Man - Sunshine Suicide
Marduk - Wormwood
Sign of the Southern Cross, The - …Of Mountains and Moonshine
Behemoth - Evangelion

Thirty More That Got Plenty of Pats On the Head and Belly Rubs (alphabetized):

Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse
Altar of Plagues - White Tomb
Amesoeurs - s/t
Angel Eyes / A Fine Boat, That Coffin! - split
Black Tambourine - Complete Recordings
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II – Dialogue With the Stars
Buried Inside - Spoils of Failure
Burnt by the Sun - Heart of Darkness
Coalesce - Ox
Coalesce - Ox EP
Converge - Axe to Fall
Double Dagger - More
Freedom Hawk - s/t
Horde of Hel - Blodskam
Japandroids - Post-Nothing
Keelhaul - Keehaul’s Triumphant Return to Obscurity
Legion of Two - Riffs
Methodman & Redman - Blackout! 2
Nadja - Belles Betes
Napalm Death - Time Waits for No Slave
Reigns - The House on the Causeway
Secrets of the Moon - Privilegium
Sleepy Eyes of Death - Dark Signals
Sunny Day in Glasgow, A - Ashes Grammar
Tombs - Winter Hours
Torche - Healer / Across the Shields
Transitional - Stomach of the Sun
v/a - Pop Ambient 2009
Whitetree - Cloudland
Young Widows / Pelican - Split

Ignacio Coluccio’s mammoth dissertation on the albums he liked the most from 2009, out of literally thousands of records he no doubt listened to:

Like I did last year, I'll name the most interesting albums of the year, in my opinion. I'll do two lists, as well, an ordered top-30-something, and an alphabetical list of other interesting stuff that I liked a bit less. Of course, I don't think anyone will manage to read the whole list (or even this paragraph), but do get some of those albums if you want to try new music that isn't what everyone will recommend (because, right, I know you know Animal Collective and Amesoeurs, but much of this list isn't what the main music magazines hype at all). I like to think about it as my little own 2009 Nurse with Wound list. Regardless of the readers, making lists is always useful and enjoyable, anyway.

As for the year in general, while it was dominated by generic retro post-punk trash and not-so-genuine attempts at garage rock, and oh, for fuck's sake, Lady Gaga, looking past all that, 2009 was a gold mine. In fact, 2009 might have been the best year for music of the decade. Not so much for particular albums but because of the sheer volume of incredible releases we've seen, and I'm pretty much only counting full-lengths here. Again, I couldn't name a single best album of the year, so I'm going with two: Jim O'Rourke's absolute prog-pop-something masterpiece The Visitor, and Rin Toshite Shigure's groundbreaking who-knows-what Japanese indie rock something, with Amesoeurs being a close second. The order of the rest means pretty much nothing, and I'm almost surely forgetting many important albums, but that always happens when you make unipersonal lists. Or at the very least it happens to me every single year. Anyway, on to the list:

1. (tie) Rin Toshite Shigure - Just a Moment: Rin Toshite Shigure is absolutely undescriptable, and it's certainly not the kind of band any Western indie scene could spawn. It's complex, probably enough for it to be called "math rock" by nowadays standards, and it certainly does sound post-rock-ish enough for it to be branded as such. Except it's really not, and it's not indie in the Neutral Milk Hotel vein, either, or emo in either the American Football way or the Rites of Spring way. It's, in fact, much closer to 9mm Parabellum Bullet or similar Japanese bands.

Where Rin Toshite Shigure’s previous efforts were performance-based (as in, they could be replicated almost 1:1 live), Just a Moment is an obviously studio-oriented piece. Their Sgt. Pepper or even their Bitches Brew, if you will. And it's clearly lighter than anything they've released so far, but it boasts some of their strongest compositions and some of the most incredible usage of overlayering ever done. It's just crazy, filled to the top with tempo changes, angular riffs that never end up being just rhythms, and some seriously well done bass lines, just like it should.

Sure, the vocals, the odd atmosphere, everything will be hard to stomach for a first-time listener (which is why I really have a hard time when recommending it to people, no one likes RTS on their first listen!). It's just not the kind of band you instantaneously get. When you do, however, you'll get why I say Just a Moment is this year's best album.

1. (tie) O'Rourke, Jim - The Visitor: There are good albums, there are great albums, there are brilliant albums, and there are albums like The Visitor. Saying that it's perfect cheapens it, but nothing else can be said about an album that takes its own Eureka to the 21st century, throws away the few simple melodies he used to use, and manages to fit hundreds of complex melodies, arrangements and harmonies in one cohesive, instrumental, 35 minute song. It's just incredible when you think about how much time O’Rourke must have spent tweaking everything to sound perfect in addition to the actual recording and the composition. It really sets the bar for anything avant-garde released this year inhumanly high. I like to think of The Visitor as O’Rourke’s comeback to his Gastr del Sol album, too, and that's enough to make me happy (though a new Insignificance wouldn't hurt, either!).

2. Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs: it's no surprise that Amesoeurs is such a brilliant album when one looks back to Amesoeurs' 2007 EP. Even more when you realize that it's the same guy who brought you those brilliant Alcest albums. Black metal fans were, maybe justifiably, quite mad at it, considering that over half of Amesoeurs is clean vocals, female clean vocals, and the black metal influence is much lesser than on their EP.

This is, simplyifying, a post-punk/shoegaze album, after all. A post-rock, post-shoegaze album, whatever, but it's far closer to a black metal-ish M83 than it is the-Amesoeurs-dude's own Peste Noire. What's more surprising, however, is just how important melody is for the album. Get it, even if you hate it, you'll thank me and the whole Amesoeurs hype machine when in 10 years everyone plays black metal like this. Or they don't. And even if every single person in Maelstrom but me seems to have hated it, I'll still recommend it. Again.

3. 9mm Parabellum Bullet - Act 1: It's not fair. It's not fair that there are bands like 9mm Parabellum Bullet who are inhumanly energetic, great musicians (great enough to actually improvise in tight, almost-math-rock structures) and, at the same time, great composers. They even like their music enough as to be totally crazy about it, jumping up and down, screaming. Enjoying it. Definitely not fair, but oh, boy, isn't it awesome to watch a band like that. Pretty much my favorite rock DVD of the year...

4. Midori - Hatsutaiken: ... but that's only because Midori isn't rock. I doubt I'll be seeing Midori live anytime soon, yet watching Hatsutaiken gave me goosebumps almost as if I did. I know I say it every single time, but Midori is Japan's weirdest almost-mainstream band ever, bar none, and Hatsutaiken is Midori playing live. We all know, by experience, that you'll only be watching their vocalist, though. She's just insane, in a non-PC way. She's gotten more normal lately, though, but she makes up for it by finishing the concert by singing their latest single in underwear. Well, almost.

5. Lafourcade, Natalia - Hu Hu Hu: Hu Hu Hu is one of those albums that remind you that, maybe, the world isn't such a terrible place. From her first, stereotypical Mexican-pop, album, to the album as Natalia y La Forquetina, Lafourcade showed a certain talent for songcrafting. But, really, Hu Hu Hu is something entirely different. To say it's complex would be an understatement, yet saying it's simple fits it as well. It's just that there's so much textural workmanship here, so much variety in the instrumentation and even in the song structures she uses, but at the same time there's nothing outlandish about it, nothing too technical or avant-garde. But the strongest point isn't even that. The strongest point is that it's music to make you feel warm inside. She says she writes "daily stories." I don't think I agree — I think Hu Hu Hu is too awesome to be a routine thing.

6. Mono - Hymn to the Immortal Wind: Post-rock album of the year by post-rock band of the decade produced by audio engineer of the forever.

7. Zorn, John - O'o: really, I shouldn't need to describe John Zorn to you. He plays sax, he loves screeching noises, he makes screeching noises with his sax, he plays free jazz with many people, he makes screeching noises with his sax in free jazz albums with many people. There, done. Now that you know who he is, I'll tell you why you should get O'o even if you dislike screeching noises: He doesn't make screeching noises here. O'o is like a soundtrack to a movie set in Hawaii or some equivalent South Pacific island. Without screeching noises. And Marc Ribot playing guitar, that should just force you to get this album. Unless you prefer screeching noises. If so, get any other Zorn release not from this series, then, they are amazing as well. Cool stuff.

8. Ringo, Shiina - Sanmon Gossip: I think I've written this paragraph like 10 times. It's really hard to write about one of your favorite musicians when they finally go downhill. Not because Sanmon Gossip is bad, it's actually the best J-pop album released this year, bar none, it's just that, come on, it's Shiina Ringo. If you know her, you expect much more from her. Yet, even if I like to say she's gone downhill, Sanmon Gossip is a classy album, a more J-urban-oriented piece that will certainly please fans of more normal J-pop, and us unconditional fans as well. It's catchy, it has some downright brilliant composition, and some songs are at the same level she had at her previous solo album.

Sanmon Gossip is a bad omen. Her solo career is going deeper and deeper into a genre that doesn't fit her as much as quirky, slightly maniac, experimental J-pop. Well, at least there's that one new album with Tokyo Jihen that far outweighs Sanmon Gossip. That's 2010, though.

9. Zazen Boys - Matsuri Sessions: Live at Nagoya: First Matsuri Sessions DVD to feature Zazen Boys IV songs, and if there's one reason to get it, it's the brilliant version of “Sabaku” they play on there, or classics like “Kimochi” (in its original version), “Cold Beat” or “Riff Man.” Oddball math rock played live? Hell, yes.

10. Cline, Nels - Coward: Yep, I rated Coward higher than Wilco (the Album), now go ahead and sue me. Anyway, Coward is one of the bravest (hah!) albums released somewhat in the mainstream. Not that he's mainstream, but he's Wilco's guitarist now, so every single hipster and his / her mother knows him. The thing is, Coward is almost an hour of Nels Cline being awesome, as opposed to Wilco where he can only be awesome for some minutes each song, being forced to let other members be awesome too. And that leads us to...

11. Wilco - Wilco (the Album): arguably the worst Wilco album since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, yet still worthy of being in a top 10 list... what does that say about Wilco? It's not an instant classic like YHF, but it has some absurdly strong songs and they managed not to make another "dad rock" album. Which wasn't half bad, especially considering that Sky Blue Sky was miles ahead of this one and the previous one, but some *wink wink* magazines seem to disagree.

Wilco Wilco is some alt-country / rock / (now) jazz hybrid that for some reason ended up being mainstream. My veredict? Awesome, but it definitely needs more Jim O'Rourke goodness, and an Unlikely Japan II for Nels Cline goodness wouldn't hurt either.

12. Aso, Ai - Aida: While it might seem like it's just a live album, Aida is completely different from anything Ai Aso recorded so far. Even on Chamomile Pool, her psychedelic folk was minimalistic, far more than, say, Kazuki Tomokawa. Her unintrusive, mindnumbingly sweet vocals are here as well, but she's stripped down her own songs to the bare necessities, sometimes even to just two chords and vocals (like in “Dates”). And it's more beautiful than anything she's done before.

13. Polvo - In Prism: In Prism is both an unexpected comeback and unexpectedly brilliant and accessible album. In fact, it's pretty much their most accessible album yet, even if obviously not their most relevant one. Anyway, In Prism is a great math rock album that doesn't eschew songwriting for technicality. Even completely disregarding just how much Polvo means for the math scene, In Prism is worth its length in gold.

14. Mouse on the Keys - An Anxious Object: Pretentious, yes, but I doubt many better jazz / math-rock hybrids have been released. Actual jazz, that is. Incredible melodies, elaborate songwriting and some of the best arrangements of the genre.

15. Uplift Spice - Omega Rhythm: I absolutely hate the term “pop-punk.” See, if it's pop, it can't be punk, and viceversa, by definition. Yet nothing fits Uplift Spice more than "pop-punk." Except that, of course, we aren't talking about anything like Blink 182. It's uh... really catchy indie-ish punk, with some of the best female vocals ever recorded (and definitely not your usual Japanese female vocals). I'd say this is the catchiest record of the year, bar none.

16. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is Phoenix's Talkie Walkie. Accesible, catchy, complex, addictive and refined. Definitely the "mainstream" pop / rock album of the year, pissing all over those shallow hipster bands... by being even more hipster than them, while having actually good lyrics, for a change.

17. White, Emily Jane - Victorian America: It's an oddity, mostly because of its dark Americana sound (think Joanna Newsom + Wilco + Nick Drake... but not really) that is, more often than not, dark folk. While the album is great, it's here because it has “The Ravens,” easily one of the best American folk compositions I've had the pleasure of listening to.

18. Ishibashi, Eiko - Drifting Devil: It's not the best Eiko Ishibashi (Works for Everything is, by a large margin) but it's Eiko Ishibashi at her most centered. Don't expect anything like her stuff with Panicsmile or her collaborations with Jim O'Rourke or Keiji Haino, though.

19. Deserts Chang - City: If you, one day, want to try some Chinese pop music, forget about everything else and get City. It's simple, it's normal, yet it's full of great melodies all over, with two or three instant classics and several interesting arrangements for otherwise simple, catchy acoustic folk pieces.

20. Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue With the Stars: where most Blut Aus Nord albums were pretty much hit-or-miss, love-or-hate affairs, Memoria Vetusta II is mature and developed enough to make it impossible to be a miss. It's not black metal, or at least not the black metal of their own Ultima Thulee, but they haven't been black metal for a long time now. Post-metal or something. They stopped abusing vibrato and glissandi, too. Entertaining, complex, heavy, and well-produced.

21. Polysics - Algo: Oh, God, Polysics. If the world didn't have you, then it'd have to invent you. Or revive Devo with some Japanese members. Whatever. Catchy, fun, absurd and rather complex new wave from one of the most well-known bands from that one Asian country that mass-produces corny r'n'b singers and bad electropop.

22. Toe - For Long Tomorrow: For Long Tomorrow is still Toe being Toe. A more vocal, more consonant Toe, but Toe. A Toe with Toki Asako (vocalist for Cymbals back when they were still together) collaborating in one of the best math rock tracks in history, or maybe we should call it math pop? A Toe with someone like Clammbon's singer joining in for a track. Obviously not at the inhuman level of last year's Miaou album, but For Long Tomorrow is easily math rock's album of the year, containing some absolutely incredible yet unexpectedly accessible tracks.

23. Tomokawa, Kazuki - A Bumpkin's Empty Bravado: A new Kazuki Tomokawa usually just means 10 more Kazuki Tomokawa songs. He hasn't changed much in 30 years, and he won't: He still uses the same chords, but he's all about perfecting what he's been doing for the last few decades... aggressive acid folk that feels somewhat too human. While this album won't make him famous or change anyone's idea of Kazuki Tomokawa, do try it to know that acoustic guitar folk isn't always Bob Dylan.

24. Diablo Swing Orchestra - Sing Along Songs for the Damned & Delirious: Many, many minutes of awesome, catchy swing flamenco pop something metal.

25. Kool Keith & 54-71 - Idea of a Master Piece: And this one's even more of an oddity than probably anything else mentioned in here. It's a collaboration between one of the most avant-garde Japanese indie bands (actually more like avant-garde, hip-hop-ish rock) with hip-hop legend Kool Keith. Somewhat standard when compared to 54-71's main output, but it makes up for it by being an absolutely awesome piece of alternative hip-hop with oddball moments every some minutes.

26. Nachtreich - Sturmgang: While the name makes it sound like average NSBM, it's actually a quite original mix of dark ambient, post-metal, neoclassical and Devil Doll-ish prog rock. While I'm using "metal" and "rock" to describe it, the truth is that it's an album largely driven by strings, especially viola, and while the melodies are pretty much metal melodies, the sound is more on the aristocratic, Devil Doll side. But whatever, the point is that Sturmgang is an incredible "demo" (you call a 55 minute release a demo? I personally don't), and even if the production is sub-par (obviously), it's one of the most promising releases to come out of European metal in years.

27. MOSAIC.wav - Superluminal Akiba Pop: Superluminal Akiba Pop is one of those legendary retarded pop albums that exist just to burn your braincells. It's not good, it's not even interesting, but it's the catchiest, cutest, most J-pop album ever. No, I mean it, it will make you stupid — its choruses will make you go "aww" like you're some teen at the zoo, and you'll probably hate Japanese culture for some weeks. You need to try it to see how high you can set the bar for mindless pop, and then laugh at the face of people who consider Aqua the cheesiest of the cheese.

28. Special Others - PB: Special Others is what I recommend when someone's just getting into post-rock. Mostly because it isn't post-rock, it's so much more I could probably never describe it well enough. It's... jazz post-rock with lots of funk, rock and progressive elements, so much that it isn't really post-rock, and with a certain improvisational / jam feeling that's rarely ever found on a post-rock album.

29. Midori - Swing: Swing is some kind of weird pop single that only Midori understands. And it doesn't matter that the vocalist is out of tune, because Swing is a goddamn energetic single. It makes you want to jump up and scream with her, no matter how out of tune you are, and the song writing is so good it makes you wonder why not many bands copy them. Plus (oh, God) those piano / double bass parts.

30. Vola & the Oriental Machine - Sa-ka-na Electric Device: For a band formed by the drummer (surprisingly on vocals and guitar now) of the most influential Japanese indie rock band, bar none, Number Girl, Vola & The Oriental Machine gets too little publicity. They are... eclectic, to say the least. Sa-ka-na sees them mixing their usual alien retro indie whatever kind of thing with a decidedly more Polysics approach. The vocals got a lot more normal, too, so Sa-ka-na is more of a safe bet for fans of catchy J-rock, not so much for us Number Girl fanatics, but it's still an incredible album. It would be much more incredible if Japan's best indie rock drummer actually got to drum, though.

31. El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez - Cryptomnesia / Omar Rodriguez Lopez - Mega Ritual (or any other Omar Rodriguez Lopez released this year): also known as "What the Mars Volta should have been after the first album." Seriously, the guy released a ton of absolutely brilliant albums, from collaborations with Ximena Sarinana to ones with other Mars Volta musicians on them. The common ground for all of them? Complex and incredibly awesome. And I swear I just can't pick a favorite, they are all too goddamn good.

Other interesting albums released last year (alphabetical order)

- Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse: Yes, they released something good that's not Altered States of America, though it's more... hardcore-oriented. Or something. It's interesting, but after the first few times you listen to it, it doesn't hold your attention that much.

- Alcest & Les Discrets - split: more like Amesoeurs & Amesoeurs split, honestly. Good stuff, Alcest went for more Amesoeurs-ish stuff and Les Discrets went for... the same thing, actually, except less metal.

- Alpinist - Minus Mensch EP: Something like Fall of Efrafa, but much more hard-hitting, Minus Mensch is crust / screamo at its best. Oh, wait, "neocrust."

- Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion: It's not anywhere near as good as they all make it out to be. It's incredible, sure, but it's not revolutionary.

- Bloody Panda - Summon: A more funeral doom Khanate with one of the best doom vocalists ever... a small Japanese girl. Crazy, but effective.

- Callahan, Bill - Sometimes I Wish I Were an Eagle: You know his schtick... he plays some kind of hard-hitting, emotional folk, like a weird and human Jandek minus the odd guitar tuning. And it's incredible, if a little too hard to digest for someone not into freak folk or similar genres. Even so, Sometimes I Wish I Were an Eagle is probably one his most accessible records.

- Chatmonchy - Kokuhaku: While obviously not the kind of enka / surf J-rock of Go!Go!7188, it's great pop that takes quite a bit from Go!Go!'s most normal songs and mixes it a little bit with the Shiina Ringo of Koko de Kiss Shite and such. Kokuhaku is yet another Chatmonchy album, nothing more, nothing less, so expect the levels of catchiness and happiness of the previous albums, if a little more pop and less rock.

- Codes in the Clouds - Paper Canyon: While they describe it as post-rock pop, I don't really agree. It's just great post-rock with strong melodies, with a certain Miaou / Toe-ish sound here and there.

- Dalek - Gutter Tactics: Gutter Tactics might easily be the best Dalek yet. Original hip-hop with a My Bloody Valentine vibe. If that attracts you, then go for it.

- Delofamilia - Eddy: It's precisely this album that made me appreciate Rie Fu, even if I don't like her solo stuff. Delofamilia is the solo project of an Orange Range member, but it's not hip-hop or anything, it's... Rie Fu with awesome and complex pop songs.

- Townsend, Devin Project - Addicted: Nothing new, though, just Anneke Van Giersbergen being awesome over good rock tunes, like the old Devin Townsend is obviously a good guitarist, I know, but here Van Giersbergen just takes the cake.

- Eryn Non Dae - Hydra Lernaia: Or, how to be Meshuggah without being Meshuggah. In fact, "Existence Asleep" on this album is precisely what Meshuggah should have sounded after Destroy, Erase, Improve / Chaosphere if they hadn't started sucking inhuman amounts of ass.

- Dorn, George - Screams O'Malley's Bar: Definitely one of the most interesting Polish bands out there. They play something like post-rock gone slowcore. Think a less bombastic, post-rock Carissa's Wierd with no annoying, intentional mispellings on their name.

- Hyakkei - Okurimono: Another band like Toe and Miaou, except more post-rock and less math. Okurimono is about as great as anything else they've done. That is, really great.

- Imai, Leo - Laser Rain: I shouldn't include this one here. Really, his previous album was much better, this one's got autotune on its main single, it's far poppier, it uses a lot more cheap strategies to be catchier... but even so, it's just too addictive. Without the collaborations that made his earlier Fix Neon 10 times better, however, Laser Rain is just a really good rock / pop album with varied vocals, some obvious single-like songs and some strange ones in-between. But it's just too damn addictive, and not including it wouldn't let me sleep at night.

- Japandroids - Post-Nothing: If you're at all into modern indie, you've heard Post-Nothing. In fact, if you're into it, you most probably love Post-Nothing. And it's not surprising: It's a great no-bass, lo-fi rock album that doesn't really fit anywhere.

- Joy Formidable, The - A Balloon Called Moaning: The My Bloody Valentine version of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Or, in other words, great.

- Katatonia - Night Is the New Day: It's both their glorious comeback and the most original album since Brave Murder Day. They mixed their alternative rock-ish metal of later releases with Brave Murder Day and post-metal, and what came out worked much better than anything else post-BMD, by a mile.

- Nadler, Marissa - Little Hells: Late addition to this list (that's probably why it's here and not up there), it's an incredible dark folk album, somewhat like Emily Jane White, but more Joanna Newsom and less Joni Mitchell. And, yes, it's the girl that's on the very last Xasthur album.

- Mass of the Fermenting Dregs - World is Yours: a post-rockier, shoegazier Number Girl with female vocals.

- Merzbow - Don't Steal My Goat: The surprising thing about Don't Steal My Goat is that, for the most part, it's essentially a noise / free jazz album. Drums, what sounds like guitar and good old noise, all in a context of a rhythmical yet very free noise album. Some of the best stuff he's recorded post-laptop era.

- Michita - Dawning: Think of it as 2009's Nujabes replacement and you'll love it. It's far more emotional than most Nujabes, though, more chillout than it's hip-hop, but he's got the Nujabes / Nomak emotional / new age-ish Japanese hip-hop sound going. And Dawning is amazing, full of great tracks with incredible basslines and gorgeous arrangements.

- Mournful Congregation - The June Frost: Well-produced funeral doom with songs that go somewhere while still sounding heavy as all hell? Count me in. While genre purists will love the fact that clean guitars aren't used as prominently as in the previous record, they'll probably hate the more accessible, somewhat goth-ish sound. Best doom album of the year, easily.

- Murata, Yuki - Films: Heartwarming (improvisational) neoclassical solo piano album by Anoice's keyboardist Yuki Murata.

- New Mellow Edwards, The - Big Choantza: Criminally underrated album that borders on free jazz but with a more traditional sense of melody.

- Nomak - Muziq and Foto: Like Michita / Nujabes / whatever, not as remarkable, but still great.

- Nomo - Invisible Cities: Enough to make anyone like afrobeat, being something like an afrobeat Sun Ra.

- Oranssi Pazuzu - Muukalainen Puhuu: Black metal, dub, kraut rock, Muukalainen Puhuu is a mix of it all. Both fun and original, it somehow makes it sound convincing.

- Perfume - Algo: Perfume is all about embracing your inner Japanophile. There's no way around it, you either love them or hate them... to death. Produced by Capsule, who you might know as "that Japanese guy who produces awesome electronic music," Algo is one of his ventures into the Japanese electropop scene. And it's gorgeous. It's not smart music, it's not boundary-breaking, but it's pure unadulterated fun. Nerdy fun, that is.

- Place to Bury Strangers, A - Exploding Head: while shoegazer has taken a turn for the cheesy, this band plays the noisiest shoegazer this side of You Made Me Realise. Kind of an acquired taste, though.

- Scraps of Tape - Grand Letdown: Post-rock that is more about songs and less about build-up, with some post-metal elements here and there.

- She - Orion: Cutesy, happy, catchy Polish / Swedish / Japanese house-ish electropop a la Capsule, or maybe a more Capsule Perfume. Good stuff.

- Soap & Skin - Lovetune for Vacuum: A stronger, more emotional, really young neoclassical Regina Spektor. Lots and lots of potential here.

- Sonic Youth - The Eternal: It might not be their best album, but at this point in time that was already quite improbable. The Eternal is average Sonic Youth, so that means it's still amazing.

- Sotaisei Riron - Hi-Fi Shinsho: C86 indie pop gone jazz pop with funk and Number Girl influences. Think Zazen Boys IV playing The Blackbyrds and The Byrds with guest Tokyo Jihen musicians.

- Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart / Higher Than the Stars EP: If you're at all into early twee indie (say, Talulah Gosh) and classic shoegazer, then you're going to love both 2009 releases by this My Bloody Valentine-gone-Heavenly band.

- Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures: Yes, I know they've been hyped (overhyped, even) all around but they are actually good. As in they've got John Paul Jones and Josh Homme. Well, and Dave Grohl not on vocals, and that's a plus. Logically, it sounds like mixing Led Zeppelin and Queens of the Stone Age, and it's as good as you'd expect.

- Tombs - Winter Hours: Post-metal that mixes Envy and black metal? Count me in.

- Tyft - Smell the Difference: Avant-prog, jazz, metal, something.

- Unlimits - Akane: A more normal Uplift Spice, less pop-punk and more rock, which is awesome enough to be included here.

- Venetian Snares - Filth: disappointment? Maybe, but it's still great.

- We Were Promised Jetpacks: Indie rock from Scotland with vocals just like Asian Kung Fu Generation's and some post-rock-like rhythms here and there.

- Wilco - Ashes of American Flags: live DVD named after one of their best tracks, and the first one with HOLYSHITAWESOME guitarist Nels Cline. Sure, I'll have one.

- Wolves in the Throne Room - Malevolent Grain: Unlike their 2009 full length, Malevolent Grain is somewhat post-metal-ish. Get it if you liked Amesoeurs' early stuff.

- YMCK - Family Cooking: More chiptune jazz goodness.

- Zu - Carboniferous: Avant-garde rock free jazz noise crazy something.