Album Of The Year 2013 according to...

Hey there folks! Here we are, the third instalment of Album Of The Year 2013 according to... If you read the first two (here & here) you should be familiar with the what-to-do laid before the people that give us their favourite 2013 releases. Simply put, Halifax Collect handpicks a person of fortitude, splendour and might to find out what was their one favourite release of 2013, why and what counts as key song of that release. Simple! The two man panel the time around represents two very different - opposing even - ends of the "loud rock" spectrum. So let's here it!

RASPBERRY BULBS – Deformed Worship [Blackest Ever Black]

The usual caveat: this was one of my favourite releases of 2013, not entirely sure if it was my number one; ask me in five years.
I didn't follow Raspberry Bulbs before Deformed Worship came out. I was aware of them, but playing a show with them in Montreal made me significantly more interested in following them and trawling through their back catalogue with a renewed interest.
Much like Bone Awl, the band they will be forever tethered to, Raspberry Bulbs appear to write and compose in rhythms first and melody second, meaning for many RB will never be more than a Bone Awl "side project", and I suspect some won't be able to tell the two apart. Both acts utilise a deceptive simplicity, Bone Awl often being labelled – wrongly, I would argue – punk black metal because of this. The deceptive simplicity in RB is in the motorik approach to meter and rhythm, Jim Spiegel could convincingly fill in for Klaus Dinger of Neu! If required.

A lot of American black metal I hear sounds like punk without the punk; a strange rejection of the authors previous (?) cultural identity, seemingly unable to entirely disentangle themselves from that past, much like secular society's humanist Jesus-free Christianity by any other name I guess. One of the interesting things about RB is that they effectively invert this formula by being Marco del Rio / He Who Crushes Teeth's punk-band-by-a-guy-in-a-black-metal-band. The result is something that's not quite punk, and definitely isn't black metal (and having members of Rorschach and Les Savvy Fav on this record makes me place it closer to punk than anything else).

I chose the song the song "I Was Wrong" as a stand out because despite Deformed Worship being ostensibly a fairly straight forward rock album, this is the only song that I can imagine people actually singing along to. The effect of listening to an entire LP like this – whilst excellently written it has few identifiable "classic" hooks/ tropes of hooks – is that when you get close to the end of the record and the one chorus you can sing-a-long with comes in it's very noticeable. It's like Slint's "Good Morning Captain", when finally, at the end of the album (Spiderland) the listener anticipates the release of singing "..and I miss you" along with Brian McMahon.

One other record released this year had a similar trick, Aosoth's Arrow in Heart (another of my favourite's of 2013). In the song "Temple of Knowledge", after a relatively lengthy (for the track's run time) ambient section it changes into a four bar loud transition before the full on rock version of the previous ambient-esque section kicks in. It's a very simple (cheap even) compositional technique that works wonders and when used so sparingly (once on the entire album) works incredibly well.
- Andrew Nolan

*** Mr. Nolan is a permanent and valuable fixture in Ontario's extreme music landscape and his influence stretches beyond that fair province, internationally. You'll find him punishing strings and eardrums in Column Of Heaven. Excellent, all around. You can also find him ripping in Pick Your Side. I was lucky enough see him play Slaughter Strike's and Endless Blockade's last shows, bands he anchored and served with vigour and focus. I've kept close tabs on the man via his thoughtful and challenging Survivalist Deathcult blog for years now. You should too.

BANQUETS - S/T [Black Numbers | Coffeebreath and Heartache]

New Jersey natives Banquets self-titled album was released last spring and quickly became one of my favorites. The album itself is a pop-punk album that I've seen compared to older Gaslight Anthem albums, The Bouncing Souls , Hot Rod Circuit and The Loved Ones. The way I like to describe is, it's just one of those albums that's catchy tunes yearn for long car rides with friends and the windows down.
- David Sarch

*** Sometimes it is hard being a hockey fan, let alone a New Jersey Devils fan, in a country (Iceland) that hardly recognises the sport. That's why the Talking Red (blog), Your New Jersey Devils podcast was a godsend to me. Feeling very isolated in my fandom, I've listened to each and every episode of the podcast. It is on my iPod immediately after it's released online. This resulted in me taking to twitter (Talking Red twitter) in order to correspond with the podcast, and it's editor and main producer, David Sarch, engaged me. I was pleasantly surprised to learned he was an old melodic punk head.


Related stories
Album Of The Year 2013 according to... (Jan 3)
Album Of The Year 2013 according to... (Dec 28)

To know about Halifax Collect updates as they come, follow us on facebook, twitter and tumblr. Thank you.

Join the conversation by writing a comment below.