Year End 2018 #4: James Frigge of Hardcore Laxness

Here we have, in no particular order, a list from the ever opinionated could-not-care-less-what-you-think James Frigge of Manslaughter /Bag Of Anthrax, and most recently of Hardcore Laxness fame. Also a sporadic yet valued contributor for Halifax Collect!
Dig into this eclectic list of music and you'll find a few surprises to get you excited about being into music.

STIMULANT/WATER TORTURE SPLIT
A full-length powerviolence split release, you say? With only three members total across the two bands, you say? Sign me the fuck up. Stimulant's (guitar/drums/noise) side is the most aggressive material I've heard all year, just a pure kick to the balls - violent, grindy and noisy-as-fuck powerviolence. This is the sort of material you put on at 2 AM to piss your neighbours off. Water Torture (bass/bass/drums/noise) forgoes the speed for ugly apocalyptic sludge - it's reminiscent of Man Is The Bastard without ripping them off in any way. A great contrast to the side that came before it. Either side alone is worth the price of admission. Listen at max volume.



SIX BREW BANTHA - Blight
Hard to really classify exactly what I find so appealing about this release (spoiler: it's intense as all hell). There's so much going on here - there are elements of grindcore, powerviolence and black metal in this tsunami of riffs and blast beats. Imagine if Insect Warfare had reformed after being arrested, taken to Guantanamo Bay on trumped-up terrorism charges, and forced to listen to Iron Lung and Mayhem at the same time for two months - the result would be this album. Definitely worth checking out.



ENDLESS SWARM - Imprisoned In Skin
Endless Swarm do not disappoint with this release. Thrashy powerviolence with proper cookie-monster vocals, with micro-riffs galore and enough tempo changes to keep things fresh without seeming overly forced. Don't sleep on this one folks, and definitely try and catch 'em live if you can.



STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS - Sparkle Hard
I was embarrassingly hyped for this one, and it definitely delivered. Stephen Malkmus and the gang have refined their anything-goes take on indie rock and dropped their most focused release to date. There's not a single throwaway song here, and they all have their own feel while still sticking to the script. Malkmus is indie Jesus and we are the thankless Romans; we hardly deserve this brilliance. A goddamn masterpiece that gets better with every listen - Album Of The Year right here.



KURT VILE - Bottle It In
I feel like Kurt Vile works in cycles - his albums swing back and forth between beautiful melancholia and haunting nostalgia, hearkening back to better times. Bottle it In feels more like the latter to me, a nod to the days when everything was simpler. Admittedly, it was a grower for me - wasn't too impressed initially but once I let it digest for a while and came back, the genius was revealed. An album to put on with your morning coffee as the sun shines in your windows. "One Trick Ponies" might just be his best song to date. Vile continues to evolve and pinpoint his sound, without ever growing stale. Is this guy the Neil Young of our times, or is he just some slacker with a guitar and a lazy delivery? You decide.



NICKELUS F - Stuck
Up until now, I've never been impressed with any material Nick F has dropped, mostly due to the fact that I'm not a huge fan of the beats he uses. Dude is a talented rapper with good delivery, but nothing else clicked for me, until I heard "Trick Dice" (a collaboration with Lil Ugly Mane aka Shawn Kemp handling the beats), where his talents really shone through. Stuck is a continuation of that vibe. The beats vary from subterranean bangers to straight chill weed music, but they are all excellent. Nick really drops some great bars here too, fucking around with descriptive food metaphors as well as that "classic gangster shit". There's enough variation here to keep the casual fan interested, as well as a depth that reveals itself with each subsequent listen. Check it



A$AP ROCKY - Testing
This is a weird one. A$AP Rocky clearly doesn't give much of a shit about established rap vibes and guidelines and continues to do his own thing - quite refreshing to be honest, even though some of the experimentation here is hit and miss. He's abandoned the bangers for the most part and is just.....I dunno, tossing material out there and seeing if it sticks. The album title definitely applies here. I really don't know what else to say about this one, other than listen to it and see what you think - at the very least, it's interesting. If you don't, I don't blame you, I'm still digesting. Definitely looking forward to hearing where Rocky's wild ride takes us next.



JUDAS PRIEST - Firepower
What can I say, it's 2018 and these guys haven't missed a beat - if anything, they're getting better. Can we put Rob Halford and the gang in the same class as Keith Richards at this point? This album is chock-full of excellent riffs, epic metal ballads, and pretty much everything you'd want from JP. Highly recommended.


INTERNAL BLEEDING - Corrupting Influence
This is how slam-death should be done. No frills, no bullshit, just chunky riffs, guttural vocals and IQ reduction. If you are a fan of NYDM, this album is a must-hear. If not, this album is a must-hear anyway. Go fucking listen to this and work on that headbang-induced CTE, you can thank me later.



CRYPTOPSY - The Book Of Suffering - Tome II
I'll be the first to admit that modern-era Cryptopsy hasn't always been my cup of tea (probably due to my near-pathological love for None So Vile, but that's another story). I'll also be the first to admit that this EP kicks all sorts of ass. It's a mix of all the best parts of Cryptopsy - over-the-top technicality, fantastic whirlwind riffs, Flo Mounier going ham on his drumkit, and the vocals are actually pretty fucking good! Definitely worth a listen for fans of Cryptopsy and death metal fans in general.



DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR - CULT LEADER - A Patient Man
"Hey guys let's release a new album with half of it comprised of slow boring-as-fuck melancholy, because fuck doing what we're best at, which is violent chaotic hardcore"
Please go back to doing what you do best. Converge are allowed to pull shit like this because, number one, they do it better, and number two, they're legends. You guys just wasted half an album on tracks that are literally unlistenable with shitty sung vocals when you could have been smashing it. Really sucks because the proper Cult Leader tracks on here are damn good, but the other shit ruins it for me. Highly disappointed. /hottake