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Year End Blah 2009. Pt3 Sure it's cliche, but whatevs: I'm ready for the new decade to be ushered in. 2009 has been nothing short of madness. Not the good kind of madness either. Despite it all, there were some standouts of course. One was finally meeting the other home skillets that make this site happen, on one hot and humid August night. Much fun and many laughs and I'm already jonesing for an LHP 2010 hang sesh. While a large quantity of music was released this year, I have to be honest in saying that not a whole lot really stuck out in my mind. I literally had to flip through CDs, LPs and my iTunes to prepare this list (unlike last years which came almost second nature). Also, like Todd, I found myself revisiting older albums/bands while even learning about some for the first time. Perhaps the majority of my attention was focused on that? I'm not sure. But overall, I did not find this year to be as stellar as past years. Maybe it's just me. THE BEST: KATHARSIS, Fourth Reich -tied with- TEITANBLOOD, Seven Chalices THE REST: KHANATE, Clean Hands Go Foul REIGN SUPREME, Testing The Limits Of Infinite GRAVE MIASMA, Exalted Emanation ARCKANUM, ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ TRIBULATION, The Horror EXCORIATE, On Pestilent Winds... VILLAINS, Lifecode of Decadence HEAVEN & HELL, The Devil You Know EAGLE TWIN, The Unkindness Of Crows I've spent hours typing, deleting and thinking of things to say about this year's list and I really haven't much to say. But here goes... Picking a definitive Best Of 2009 was a challenge. So I took the easy way out and am calling it a draw between KATHARSIS and TEITANBLOOD. No need to go into detail with either of these but both are incredible and received lots of playback time. While the last track of the KHANATE release was pretty much a throw-away, I found the rest of the album to be pretty damn solid. Fushitsusha nods and all, this shit is real good and I am glad that four years later it finally saw the light of day. The REIGN SUPREME album was the big surprise for me this year. I rarely listen to HC anymore and if I do, it's more the classic shit. While I wouldn't call REIGN SUPREME an orthodox HC band, their album just slays. Heavy, catchy and at times, wigger-ish. I'm down. Both VILLAINS and ARCKANUM out-did their previous albums with their 2009 offerings. Lifecode of Decadence is a scorcher from start to finish with a bit more variety compared to Drenched... ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ was surprisingly good as well as catchy. It took me one live appearance and multiple listens, but the EAGLE TWIN album found a spot on this years list. Heavy, dynamic and unique. I am looking forward to new output of theirs. Until next year! [chrisALPINO] [Illo by Chris Moyen] Related
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