ALTERNATIVE
The Dear Hunter – The Color Spectrum (Progressive Rock/Alternative)
Exit Ten – Give Me Infinity (Hard Alternative Rock/Progressive)
Foo Fighters – Wasting Light (Hard Alternative Rock/Pop)
Jane’s Addiction – the Great Escape Artist (Hard Alternative Rock/Pop)
Matthew Good – Lights of Endangered Species (Alternative Rock)
The New Regime – Speak Through the White Noise (Hard Alternative Rock)
Portugal. The Man – In the Mountain In the Cloud (Indie/Alternative Rock)
Primus – Green Naugahyde (Alternative/Funk/Rock)
Puscifer – Conditions of My Parole (Alternative/Experimental)
Radiohead – the King of Limbs (Alternative/Experimental)
the Red Hot Chili Peppers – I’m With You (Alternative Rock/Funk/Pop)
Rival Schools – Pedals (Hard Alternative Rock)

FOLK
Bon Iver – Bon Iver (Indie/Folk/Pop)
Eddie Vedder – Ukulele Songs (Folk)
Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (Indie/Folk)
Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo (Indie/Folk)
the Rural Alberta Advantage – Departing (Indie/Folk)
Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts (Folk)

HARDCORE
Aliases – Safer than Reality (Progressive/Metalcore)
Between the Buried and Me – The Parallax: Hypersleep  Dialogues (Progressive/Metalcore)
Cavalera Conspiracy – Blunt Force Trauma (Metalcore)
Glassjaw – Coloring Book (Post Hardcore/Punk)
Visions – Home (Metalcore)

HIP HOP
the Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part II (Rap/Hip Hop)
the Roots – Undun (Rap/Hip Hop)
Talib Kweli – Gutter Rainbows (Rap/Hip Hop)

INDIE
Blitzen Trapper – American Goldwing (Alt Country/Indie)
Company of Thieves – Running from a Gamble (Indie Rock)
Stateless – Matilda (Electro/Indie)
Tune-Yards – W H O K I L L (Experimental/Indie)
TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light (Indie Rock/Alternative)
Vetiver – the Errant Charm (Indie Rock)
Wilco – The Whole Love (Indie Rock)
Yukon Blonde – Fire/Water (Indie Rock)

METAL
Animals as Leaders – Weightless (Progressive Metal/Instrumental)
Chaos Divine – The Human Connection (Progressive Metal)
Circles – the Compass (Progressive Metal/Djent)
Corelia – Nostalgia (Progressive Metal/Djent)
Cynic – Carbon-Based Anatomy (Progressive Metal/Fusion)
The Devin Townsend Project – Deconstruction (Progressive Metal)
Ever Forthright – Ever Forthright (Progressive Metal/Djent)
Fair to Midland – Arrows & Anchors (Progressive Rock/Metal)
the Haunted – Unseen (Melodic Death Metal)
the Human Abstract – Digital Veil (Progressive Metalcore)
Leprous – Bilateral (Progressive Metal)
Mastodon – The Hunter (Metal/Rock)
Mercenary – Metamorphosis (Melodic Death Metal)
Monstro – Monstro (Metal/Hard Rock)
Opeth – Heritage (Progressive Rock/Metal)
Protest the Hero – Scurrilous (Progressive Metal/Punk)
Red Seas Fire – Red Seas Fire (Progressive Metal/Djent)
Revocation – Chaos of Forms (Thrash Metal)
Scale the Summit – the Collective (Progressive/Metal)
TesseracT – One (Progressive Metal/Djent)
Textures – Dualism (Progressive Metal/Djent)
Thomas Giles – Pulse (Progressive Rock)
Trivium – In Waves (Metalcore)
Uneven Structure – Februus (Progressive Metal/Djent)
Vildhjarta – Masstaden (Progressive Metal/Djent)
3 – The Ghost You Gave to Me (Progressive Rock/Metal)

OTHER
Bjork – Biophilia (Experimental/Pop)
James Blake – James Blake (Indie/Experimental)
SBTRKT – SBTRKT (Electro)

POP
The Black Kets – El Camino (Alternative/Blues/Rock)
Foster the People – Torches (Indie Rock/Pop)
Jamie Woon – Mirrorwriting (Pop)
The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar (Alternative Rock/Pop)
Little Dragon – Ritual Union (Electro/Pop)
Los Lonely Boys – Rockpango (Blues Rock/Pop)
Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes (Electro/Pop)
Mayer Hawthorne – How Do You Do (Motown/Soul)
Mutemath – Odd Soul (Pop/Rock)
Sloan – the Double Cross (Rock/Pop)
Sublime with Rome – Yours Truly (Alternative/Pop)

PUNK
Le Butcherettes – Sin Sin Sin (Punk/Alternative Rock)
Thrice – Major/Minor (Hard Alternative Rock/Punk)

There was a lot of music to check out this year and I still find myself finding good new albums this late in December, be sure to check some of these out if you haven’t heard of them!

Party on.

Jon

I’ve been wanting and debating how to respond to this for a while, because I have consumed music obsessively for years.  I am a music addict.  I understand the trouble illegal downloading causes over the internet, however I am strongly opposed to the Draconian-Orwellian potential that ISPs monitoring and controlling internet traffic of specific users has on personal privacy and society as a whole, but that’s a whole other topic all together.  I’m a big fan of music and I don’t want to hurt the business that enables its creation. I’ve made music for years as well and respect anyone out there busting their asses trying to make an impact in this hyper-competitive landscape we currently live in.

That being said, I’m always curious to check out new artists. This is something that if I was my age, 15-20 years ago, I never ever would have even come close to being exposed to the plethora of music I’ve been privileged enough to hear today.  And that can be contributed 100% to illegal downloading.

Most of my listening is done in the car or at work.  If I read about or get a recommendation for an album or band, I really want to check them out as soon as I can, analyze them, learn their history, whatever, and if warranted spread the word and make a purchase. Sometimes I can’t get on the internet to stream, but in general, it’s just much more convenient to have everything on demand in my iTunes or on my iPod.

I purchase music. I have an extensive CD collection also that I’ve built up over the years, which dates me a little, I go to tons of shows all the time, and buy t-shirts and albums at most of them as well.  The trouble is for the past 5 years or so I’ve gotten consumed with listening to MP3′s because of their convenience and the fact that I no longer have an adequate home stereo like my parents did when I was a kid.  However until recently, I always bought albums by my favourite bands on CD because I made a point to own that stuff that was my favourite and appreciate the presentation.

After a while, I started thinking. Why do I keep buying CD’s?  They just sit in my CD towers collecting dust, until I get the off-chance to go to someone’s place who has a decent stereo and play them. (which is super rare)  So I started buying albums on iTunes.  It was ok at first because it was relatively instant gratification of the purchase with the download speeds and the quality was good.  I had the music right there, but then I started to consider the price. I was paying nearly the same price for half of the presentation, and technically less quality. (Because I normally download MP3s at 320kbps vs. iTunes M4A at 256kbps, barely noticeable I know, but still.)  I also missed the physical artwork piece. (not to mention the fidelity nuances that a CD provides.)  FLAC and FLAC-like formats don’t seem practical to me right now, because of limited file storage space and incompatibility with most portable music players.

So now I have an opportunity, I can probably afford to buy my own home stereo with an LP and CD player.  I can purchase CD’s and LP’s and actually use them! (What a concept!)  As always, I will continue to go to shows, buy MP3s, listen to my iPod in the car, or at work, or running of whatever, and when I’m at home I can take advantage of my stereo and actually appreciate the albums I really love.

A strong area of contention for me, is the prices of these 3 formats; Digital (MP3/M4A/FLAC/AAC etc.), CD, and LP.  We’re looking at $10-12 Digital, $10-20 CD, and $20-30+ for LP.  This in my opinion is inflated on all three, and the demand has gone down for the latter two.  Kids like I was, struggling to leave home and be independent, starting new careers, or working shitty jobs to get by, can’t afford these prices regularly. Especially for artists they’ve never heard of, or those they’re curious about but may not enjoy.  I shouldn’t have been paying them, but I did anyways because I loved it, and as I said before, I’m an addict.  I should note that certain artists I’ve actually grown to love over time, from listening again and again every once in a while, I eventually went out and purchased their products or gone to see them live.

Another important point of discussion; Musicians, producers, and engineers truly deserve to make a decent living.  This is really difficult to at the moment, to get off the ground and be successful.  Not impossible, just difficult.  I’ve always thought Artists, Producers and Engineers could be working together at a studio that pays them equally.  These to me, seem like obvious partnerships.  Networking has to happen where engineers, producers, and musicians make contact and build a working relationship.  Every band should be striving to do this, there are people out there that need bands to record, and bands need good recordings.  What if studios started acting as record labels in order to reap more benefits from what they produce?  Interesting stuff, there’s a lot of potential for new ideas here.

I just recently discovered 825 Records in Brooklyn which is doing just that. Specialized people doing what they do. I understand you don’t necessarily want marketing and business people to intermingle in a record production process, but it’s an interesting idea to couple them under the same financial umbrella.  A lot of artists, producers and engineers work as independent contractors, and I know that in every industry, while contracting, you set your own rates and if there isn’t a strong demand you’ll be hard-pressed to make a living.

For Record labels, they need to develop more young artists.  There are plenty of eager, aspiring musicians, that with proper tutelage can develop into great artists.  Not just Royal Conservatory-type schools, schools for people who want to make modern music.  Instead of slumming it forever until they get “lucky”, music schools could have developmental programs streamlined to record labels and studios.  Effectively enabling an industry they apparently cater to.

I think people need to pool their resources, and “Illegal” downloading has its benefits and its draw backs.  Bands/Artists can be discovered and break out to be profitable by fans discovering them and sharing their music with others, then going out to buy their products. On the other hand, some people will not go the extra mile to see the bands or purchase their products after they download the music for free because they simply don’t care enough.  Those people, in my opinion, should not be a target audience.  They don’t love music.   Market to music lovers, and market to everyone else to create them.  I still maintain that if you go to a true music fan’s home, you will see an extensive CD or LP collection, guaranteed.

Give people incentive to buy your product and they will.  Not just “smack bang here’s a record and nothing else, enjoy.”  Periphery put out T-shirt and album combos, and more enhanced versions, I bought one.  Foo Fighters surprised me with some goodies on their latest digital offering. I love buying albums that are coupled with live DVDs and documentaries.  A CD with a coupon to buy tickets to the show when they come to your town would be awesome.  There are plenty of creative avenues artists and record labels can take to make purchasing their products more attractive.

CDs & LPs however, I agree they are becoming more of a novelty than a necessity.  They should be treated as such.  If you want to drive digital sales (iTunes, first of all, needs to offer at least 320kbps MP3s, it’s pretty much the unofficial industry standard of listening.) Couple them with some of the goodies I mentioned above, and viola!  I don’t know why people don’t do that more often.  Also make the digital version readily available, with links on social networks and official websites.  I’m constantly surprised with how often this does not happen.

Also, don’t rely on iTunes.  I’ve been thinking about this, and I do not want to throw all my eggs in one basket in regards to iTunes with my band’s album that we are currently planning and recording.  Why give Apple such a big a cut of your pie?  They’ve already cornered a huge market with the iPhone, iPod, iMac, and iTunes.  Why do they deserve part of the money for something that they have nothing to do with the manufacturing of?  Let them have their piece and you have yours.  At the same time, that is still a quick and easy way for fans to purchase music, and a lot of people exclusively do it this way.  So I’m not saying don’t use it at all, but don’t use it exclusively.  Drive people to your website and make them purchase it directly from you.

I would suggest setting up an online payment system on your own website, with the group reaping 100% profit of those sales.  That way you can promote it however you like.   You should be directing all of your internet traffic on social networks to your official website anyways, not Facebook or Myspace or iTunes or anywhere else.  You can completely customize the experience on your own website and this over-reliance on social media, I think, has reached it’s tipping point.  Use it for communication, not your home base.

In closing, I’d like to say that we are entertainers.  We create a joyful listening experience that is largely therapeutic for both the creator and the consumer.  To punish those for seeking therapy and enjoyment seems backwards.  Those that profit illegally should definitely be punished and made an example of, but those who are merely enjoying it for the love of it all should be left as they are.

Thanks for reading,

Jon

Being the nerd that I am; Here are a bunch of other bands I think are ‘Metal as Fuck’.

Lamb of God – Lamb of God are fucking Metal, like holy shit. I don’t care what anyone says, I just can’t help but make this face every time I listen to them.  It’s retarded how Metal they are.  If Metal was a kingdom, they would be the rulers and pillagers.  They would rape all in their path. Randy’s growl alone could take down an army.  An army of tanks made of bullets and steaks.  Steel steaks.  Metal. As. Fuck.

Slayer – I have to include Slayer because they’re apparently the undisputed ‘Most Metal band ever’ according to most people.  I don’t even really listen to them at all, and couldn’t name hardly any of their songs, but Reign in Blood is fucking awesome.  I listened to it the other day.  Seriously, it’s undeniable.  Slayer, I salute you in all your ‘Metal-as-Fuck’-ness.

Meshuggah – Easily one of my favourite bands, they melt my brain. Crazy rhythms abound, and unrelenting, demonic-sounding vocals, with super heavy riffing. The music just pulsates and never stops, and just when you can’t take it any more, the grooves get even heavier, deeper, and more unrelenting.  They’re like a Metal Sauna.  Jens Kidman says it best.

Pantera – Holy fuck, Dimebag Darrell is fucking awesome. Just listen to ‘Mouth For War‘ and tell me that song is not fucking awesome. Seriously, what can you say?  The man could play guitar better than most dudes can jerk themselves off. No homo. Fuck!

Behemoth – They’re so metal that Leukemia couldn’t even kill them!  The Metality cannot be stopped with this band.  Just one of the most epic, demonic, brutal bands ever.  And they don’t give a shit about your religions or your laws surrounding them.  They will burn the bible in front of you and you will learn to love it… Mainly because they won’t ever stop… Sort of like hell… In an Atheistic sort of way… Yeah.

Strapping Young Lad – Fuckin’ Canadian Metal eh!  National allegiances aside, Strapping ruled the roost for a significant period of time.  Devin was all like, “I’m gonna try my hardest to be as heavy as fuck all the fucking time and make you think I’m fucking crazy.”  Then he stopped smoking weed and everything got very mellow… Unless you listened to Deconstruction, like holy shit.  Plus Gene Hoglan played drums, enough said.

Arch Enemy – This band has a female singer that is more metal than 99% of dudes screaming their balls off on the entire planet.  Angela’s more metal than the tinman!  She’ll eat your soul I swear. She might be smokin’ hot, but stay away from that one, she was sent straight from hell just to scare the crap out of us and eat us alive.  Meh, I’d still hit it.

Cannibal Corpse – Cannibal Corpse are seriously fucking metal. Are you gonna tell me they’re not? Cause you’d be so wrong.  There is nothing in the world that would be more wrong.  Maybe like… Babies raping dogs… or vice-versa, but Cannibal Corpse probably have a song about that.  Remember that part in Ace Ventura when Ace goes through that Metal show to find that researcher dude? New England Clam Chowder. White.

Amon Amarth – They’re fucking vikings.

Dethklok – Their fans will risk their livese to see them live.  The band does not care if the fans live or die at their performances.  They are the seventh largest global economy.  There are dead, rotting employees clogging their drainage pipes in their Lair. They have henchmen.

Honourable mentions: Emperor, Entombed, The Faceless, The Red Chord, Revocation(duh!)

I’m sure there are other ‘Metal as Fuck’ bands out there that I am so obviously omitting, but I care not.  I either do not like those bands, consider them not to be 100% ‘Metal as Fuck’ , haven’t discovered them yet, or I’m too fucking lazy and don’t give a shit.  So fuck off.

Thanks for reading.  Let the haterade begin.

J

The Black Keys – Brothers

Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record

The Damned Things – Ironiclast

Dead Letter Circus – This is the Warning

Deftones – Diamond Eyes

The Dillinger Escape Plan – Option Paralysis

Far – At Night We Live

How to Destroy Angels – How to Destroy Angels

Intronaut – Valley of Smoke

Jamie Lidell – Compass

Junip – Fields

Kings of Leon – Come Around Sundown

Land of Talk – Cloak and Cipher

Mutiny Within – Mutiny Within

Periphery – Periphery

Sevendust –  Cold Day Memory

Soilwork – The Panic Broadcast

Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz, All Delighted People EP

The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt, Sometimes the Blues is Just a Passing Bird

Tesseract – Conceiling the Fate EP

These United States – What Lasts

Xavier Rudd & Izintaba – Koonyum Sun

Yukon Blonde – Yukon Blonde

What are yours?

Periphery – Periphery
*Progressive Melodic Tech Metal, is probably the best way to describe it.  Misha Mansoor is a UofT graduate now living in Baltimore that started making Periphery music a few years ago.  He consistently released demo’s for free online and now has finally put a solid line-up together and release the debut album under the name “Periphery”.  Technical riffing, complex drumming, Soaring Melodic and Guttural screaming vocals, and intricate electronics cover this record, Periphery is overwhelming to say the least, but provides a head-banging-yet-catchy listening experience.

Soilwork – The Panic Broadcast
*Quality release from Swedish Melodic Death Metal mainstays Soilwork.   Peter Wichers has returned on Lead Guitar and this group of songs is some of the best work that the band has done.  Not much else I can say to describe to quality on this album, just one more thing, Highly recommended.

Mutiny Within – Mutiny Within
*Progressive Power Metal, blended with a newer Hardcore sound.  Great up-and-coming band, with a highly skilled front man in Chris Clancy. I recommend checking out his vocal covers on Youtube, especially Who Wants to Live Forever.. so epic.

Deftones – Diamond Eyes
*I guess these guys are still Metal? Right? I mean it’s pretty freakin’ heavy… Whatever.  Anyways, this album pretty much ROCKS.  It’s their best since White Pony in my opinion.  New bassist Sergio Vega does well in Chi Cheng’s extended absence, even if he is mostly a peripheral band member at this point.  Some strong tracks on this one like, Diamond Eyes, Rocket Skates, and Sextape.

The Dillinger Escape Plan – Option Paralysis
*Dillinger the Destroyers is probably a more apt name for these guys.  Back again with another crushing display of manic metal might (I like the sound of that), it will surely make your ears bleed and incite riots if played over loud speakers at G20 rallies across the globe.  Destructive, sometimes Melodic, sometimes Complex, constructed chaos, an unbelievable listen… if you can handle it.

I’m sure there are plenty more that I’ve yet to check out and I’ll be sure to let you know about those, but until next time…

There doesn’t appear to be any legitimate reason for whaling and Dolphin hunting in my opinion.  However, An interesting point was brought up to me today, in that whales tend to consume a lot of fish, with local fisheries taking a hit on their stock because of these creatures.  Over-population of whales would be an issue that needed rectifying, but if I’m not mistaken, these animals are now endangered.

The practice of hunting these animals for their meat and capturing them for captivity and mass entertainment is very sickening to me.   It’s arguable that Dolphins have nearly as much self-awareness as humans do, and to inhumanely trap, slaughter, and eat these creatures is not only cruel and unnecessary, it’s plain stupid.  The amount of mercury in their bodies is nearly 400 times the safe consumable amount for any human being.  It has caused birth defects and brain damage in certain communities that partake in Dolphin meat consumption.

It’s an issue that needs to be brought to the forefront of politics in Japan and across the world, if I were in Taiji I would probably do something stupid and commit physical harm on these fisherman if confronted.  Until I can actually make any sort of impact on this situation I will simply pass on the information and hope it also inspires others to take action.  More info after the jump:

http://www.thecovemovie.com/

http://www.thedolphinproject.org/

http://www.savejapandolphins.org/

Good art stands on it’s own, not held up by the stature of it’s creator.

Whilst pop stars bank on their appearance and ‘it’ factor to make and sell music, there are those on the opposite end of the spectrum that shine through everything with creativity and originality, no matter what sort of appearances are held up.

Who is iamamiwhoami?  Does it matter?

A viral campaign has begun, and finally it’s not for something like mobile phones.

Drunk History – Nikola Tesla