Rosetta - A Determinism of Morality (2010)

Translation Loss Records, May 25, 2010

Tracklist

1. Ayil

2. Je N’en Connais Pas La Fin

3. Blue Day For Croatoa

4. Release

5. Resolve

6. Renew

7. A Determinism of Morality

This entry is one in a series of ten-year retrospectives from my favorite albums of 2010. Rosetta, a band whose lead vocalist is also a high school teacher, has described their music in a tongue-in-cheek way as “metal for astronauts”. Their brand of atmospheric and slow building sludge metal does have a floating, spacey feel to it and is for a patient listener. This album stays true to their sound and has plenty of ambience and atmospheric instrumentation. As solid of an album as A Determinism of Morality is, I do feel like they could have done a little more with it, as the song tempos and vocals are pretty repetitive with the clean singing underutilized. The percussion, ambience, and sludgy rhythms are the highlight of this album and really come to the forefront on track three, “Blue Day for Croatoa”, as the vocals are dialed back. “Release” is another track that stands out with some cleans and has a slower, crushing ending. 

Rosetta's 2010 release earns a score of 7/10, and is one that requires some time to absorb. "Release", "Je N’en Connais Pas La Fin", and "Blue Day For Croatoa" eventually stood out as the highlights. You have to pay close attention to the songs to detect the subtle nuances and eclecticism here as A Determinism of Morality isn’t a record that will catch on with the first listen. Rosetta may call themselves metal for astronauts, but you don’t need to be in the space program to find their music enjoyable.

Deftones - Diamond Eyes (2010)

Reprise Records, May 4, 2010

Tracklist

1. Diamond Eyes
2. Royal
3.CMND/CTRL
4. You've Seen the Butcher
5.Beauty School
6. Prince
7.Rocket Skates
8. Sextape
9. Risk
10. 976-EVIL
11.This Place is Death
12. Do You Believe (bonus track)
13. Ghosts (bonus track)

A favorite of critics and musicians alike, Deftones’ style of alternative metal takes the term influential to the next level. Like the album before it, Diamond Eyes is a study in the beauty of contrasts. Guitarist Stephen Carpenter's affinity for the Swedish technical metal titans Meshuggah has been well documented, as is vocalist Chino Moreno's appreciation of decidedly softer acts like Interpol and Depeche Mode. Deftones' guitar sound has also evolved over the years - initially they used six-string guitars on their first few albums, before incorporating seven strings and finally eight, as is heard on Diamond Eyes. The presence of Carpenter's pummeling 8-string riffs and Chino's dynamic vocal performance ensure that both influences are well represented here. The keyboard and DJ sounds from Frank Delgado along with the technical rhythm section of bassist Sergio Vega and drummer Abe Cunningham add further nuance to the band's sound.

The circumstances behind this album were very difficult ones, as Diamond Eyes was written while the band members were in the midst of a tragic situation with the loss of their founding bassist Chi in an auto accident. Part of the therapeutic process in the midst of these terrible circumstances was the direction Deftones took toward the tone of the album. Chino has stated that the band made a concerted effort to pour their energy and emotion into a new album that was more optimistic. The members of Deftones kept writing together and reworking the songs until they sounded perfect, and it shows. Also worth noting is that Chino's vocal performance on this album is far superior to their previous effort Saturday Night Wrist, an album he admits he dislikes because he sounded unconfident. Here he sounds much more in control, and fully centered on these songs. “Royal” is a nice showcase of his vocal strength as he switches effortlessly from soothing tenor vocals to screams that convey the ferocity of a cougar. In addition to the wide range of vocal styles, the structure of the album is also varied and set up very well. Two of the album's heaviest, most riff-centric cuts, "You've Seen the Butcher" and "Rocket Skates", are immediately followed up with the two softest, most serene tracks. "Beauty School" in particular is a song that really excels in the laid-back, ballad style. 

Diamond Eyes is a project I see as being the most essential record of the year. The dichotomy on this album had a major impact and influence, especially to the progressive metal and djent movement of the decade. While maybe not as influential as their 2000 landmark White Pony album, it at least comes close. Meshuggah is the group that is often viewed as starting that subgenre, but Deftones were the band that combined that riff style with a dynamic vocal style that made melody just as important to the songs. For these reasons, Diamond Eyes makes a strong case as the best album of 2010 and earns a score of 10/10.

Periphery - Periphery I (2010)

Sumerian Records, April 20, 2010

Tracklist

1. Insomnia
2. The Walk
3. Letter Experiment
4. Jetpacks Was Yes!
5. Light
6. All New Materials
7. Buttersnips
8. Icarus Lives!
9. Totla Mad
10. Ow My Feelings
11. Zyglrox
12. Racecar
13. Captain On/Eureka (bonus tracks on some versions)

This entry is one in a series of ten-year retrospectives on my favorite albums from the year 2010. Periphery's self-titled debut, while showing room for growth at the time, is technically impressive and provided a preview of what was to come. While one of their less cohesive albums overall, it showed the band's brilliance early on as the first full-length project from what would become a major metal band of the decade. Periphery has become one of the front-runners in the modern progressive metal or “djent” scene and their self-titled debut was the beginning of it all.

Guitarist Misha Mansoor had announced this long before it actually released. The album showed room for improvement which they would accomplish, as the overall songwriting structure and cohesion between vocalist Spencer Sotelo and the band's three guitarists would become stronger on subsequent albums like Juggernaut: Alpha/Omega and Periphery III: Select Difficulty. A couple of tracks here do meander a bit without really going anywhere, and you get the feeling that this album isn't quite as concise as it could have been, and a comparison of "Jetpacks is Yes" with "Priestess" indicates Periphery has made progress in writing ballads. However, it was clear early on that the band's skill was undeniable, and this is a very impressive progressive technical metal debut. It also displayed the band's sense of humor with the less-than-serious nature of the song titles. "The Walk", single "Icarus Lives", "All New Materials", "Letter Experiment" are some of the highlights on the album.

Periphery I is a rather lengthy introduction to the band, reaching 73 minutes across twelve tracks, including the progressive closer "Racecar" which is over fifteen minutes long. The rest of the songs each range from four to nearly seven minutes long. From the memorable polyrhythms on "The Walk" to the simultaneously melodic and technical "Icarus Lives", Periphery has much to offer the listener. If you like instrumental complexity or guitar skill then this is the album for you. It earns a score of 8/10.

Sevendust - Cold Day Memory (2010)

Asylum Records, April 20, 2010

Tracklist

1. Splinter
2. Forever
3. Unraveling
4. Last Breath
5. Karma
6. Ride Insane
7. Confessions (Without Faith)
8. Nowhere
9. Here and Now
10. The End is Coming
11. Better Place
12. Strong Arm Broken

Sevendust has been known for their solid track record in the alternative metal scene. This particular album had a lot of hype from the bands fanbase, and when you combine a fantastic vocal performance as always from Lajon Witherspoon with the return of founding guitarist Clint Lowery, the end result has to be good. This album remains their highest charting project to date. Alpha contained a few fantastic songs like “Burn”, and the experimental Chapter VII explored interesting new territory for the Atlanta alternative metal band, but you could tell that Clint brought something special to the band when he came back. In between that time, Clint had stayed busy with Dark New Day and touring as a temporary guitarist for Korn.

“Unraveling”, their highest charting rock single to date, showed that Sevendust is one of the most consistently talented groups to be part of the active rock scene. There are no bad songs anywhere on Cold Day Memory, however there are a couple of tracks on here that, while still good, didn’t quite live up to their full potential. Namely, these are “Confessions (Without Faith)” and “The End is Coming”, both of which had excellent buildup and verses, but choruses that weren’t so strong. I was listening to the first part of these tracks expecting to hear something amazing and they just came up a little short of that. However, elsewhere on the album, songs like “Unraveling” and “Karma” ramp up the anticipation with the introductory sections and each has just as strong of a hook as it were building up to be. “Better Place” and “Last Breath” also stand out nicely. The heaviest cut “Strong Arm Broken” closes out the album with a bang and really showcases Clint Lowery’s guitar work, proving that his return only made the band stronger. I’d say this album is on equal ground with their self-titled debut in terms of how I view it.

Looking at their subsequent releases over the decade, I see that this group has not looked back since in terms of consistent quality output. While the band may have albums like All I See Is War and Animosity that I enjoy more, Cold Day Memory is nothing short of another solid release from Sevendust. It earns a score of 8/10.

A Hope For Home - Realis (2010)

Facedown Records, March 30, 2010

Tracklist

1. Nightfall
2. The Overman
3. Withering Branches
4. The Machine Stops
5. No Light
6. Post Tenebras Lux
7. First Light of Dawn
8. The Crippling Fear
9. The Warmth of the Heavens
10. Seasons
11. Ascension
12. After

This entry is one in a series of ten-year retrospectives on my favorite albums from the year 2010. A Hope For Home, an Oregon-based group, started out their career as a post-hardcore group and then transitioned to an abstract mix of sludge and post-metal. Realis was released under Facedown Records, a label that focuses on straightforward hardcore and metalcore, though sonically it diverges from that sound. Rather than following the template of the genre, A Hope for Home includes a lot of atmosphere and allows each song to progress at its own pace to a natural climax.  In 2011, the band would go further down the post-metal route with the seven-track In Abstraction, which has the theme of fire. 

Thematically, Realis has a strong emphasis on light and the absence of it, which is reflected in both the song titles and the album’s tonal shift from futility to hope. As the two-song introductory segue of "Nightfall" and "The Overman" would indicate, this is a project that is fully devoted to its strengths as a whole album - not a compilation of individual tracks. “Ascension” is the shining moment of the album with an expansive, magnificent instrumental section that lets the music convey emotion on its own. The bleak dreamscape of "No Light" is another song that stands out. The shift towards hope begins with the seventh track "First Light of Dawn", and the concepts are so well organized that Realis could easily be two separate EPs titled "Night" and "Dawn". Guitarist Tanner Morita has stated that this album marked the point where "we truly stopped writing music for others and began writing music for ourselves - raw, noisy, and imperfect as it may be."

A Hope For Home have created a dynamic masterpiece with this album. While "No Light" and "Ascension" are the songs that stand out the most to me, the album and the spiritual concepts behind it work marvelously as a whole.  For those reasons, Realis earns a near-perfect score of 9.5/10.  If you're a fan of post metal or post hardcore, make sure you don't miss one.

Demon Hunter - The World Is A Thorn (2010)

Solid State Records, March 9, 2010

Tracklist

1. Descending Upon Us

2. Lifewar
3. Collapsing
4. This is the Line
5. Driving Nails
6. The World is a Thorn
7. Tie This Around Your Neck
8. Just Breathe
9. Shallow Water
10. Feel As Though You Could
11. Blood In the Tears

This entry is one in a series of ten-year retrospectives on my favorite albums from the year 2010. Demon Hunter has had a long-running career, as their first album released in 2002, and has gained a reputation for earning a large fanbase despite rarely touring.  Outside of the band, frontman Ryan Clark and his brother Don have made their mark in the graphic design world with their art deco inspired studio, Invisible Creature Design.  2010 was a pivotal year for the artists on Solid State Records, so much so that there will be a few more albums from this label featured on this series. Additionally, this period marked the start of a stylistic shift for Demon Hunter where their use of keyboards and influences from the Swedish melodic metal (melodeath) scene became more prominent. In fact Soilwork singer Björn Strid and former Scar Symmetry vocalist Christian Älvestam both have guest features on this album with the tracks “Collapsing” and “Just Breathe”, respectively, both of which are among The World Is a Thorn's highlights. 

Ryan Clark is clearly a strong singer and this is evident on the slower ballad “Driving Nails”. The other time they slow things down is the closer "Blood In the Tears", which is good as well, but "Driving Nails" is the real emotional centerpiece of the record. Ryan’s vocal performance is moving and really shines on this song.  Another memorable cut is the melodic “Shallow Water” which has a excellent chorus and main riff.  There are a couple of tracks that underwhelm a bit.  "Lifewar" has an interesting idea but is little more than an extended outro for "Descending Upon Us", and I don't care for Dave Peters' guest vocal performance on the breakneck-paced “Feel as Though You Could”.  However, these don't take away from the standout material on this album, which is certainly one of Demon Hunter’s best projects to date.

The World is a Thorn marks a landmark release for the Seattle metal crew. With Demon Hunter, I feel that their output after True Defiance has waned in quality and become rather predictable and derivative of their earlier work. Subsequent projects like Extremist and Outlive went for the same formula and sound but did not reach the level set here. However, Demon Hunter's take on The World is a Thorn is a strong American incarnation of the Swedish metal sound, and contains some of their best songs overall. I give this album an overall score of 7/10, with the standout tracks being "Driving Nails", "Shallow Water" and "Collapsing".

The Breathing Process - Odyssey (Un) Dead (2010)

Siege of Amida Records, March 8, 2010

Tracklist

1. Hours
2. Grimoire
3. Leveller
4. Vultures
5. Pantheon Unravelling
6. Odyssey: (Un)dead
7. Starless: Eternal
8. Metamorphosis
9. Hordes
10. The Living Forest
11. Wind Ritual
12. The Opaque Forest
13. Decaying Form

This entry is one in a series of ten-year retrospectives on my favorite albums from the year 2010. Odyssey was one album that stood out to me primarily for branching out and sounding different. This Pennsylvania-based band is a good example of a relatively obscure group bringing European-inspired gothic and symphonic metal influence to an American death metal/deathcore style and pulling it off successfully.  

The keyboards played by Jared Sloan are prominent and bring a gothic undertone to the sound of The Breathing Process. Throughout the album, the keyboards alternate from a background instrument underlying the guitars to moments where they are a primary focus. The sung sections from clean vocalist Sara Loerlein further strengthen the atmosphere. I particularly like the fourth song “Vultures”, which is the first track she appears on. From then on she has a prominent role in the album and is the primary vocalist in the song “Wind Ritual”. “Vultures” has a excellent balance between Sara’s vocals and the low growls from John LaFreniere, and does a fine job showcasing the two sides of the band’s sound.

Odyssey is a pretty solid release from 2010. One area where it could improve is in consistency. There are some songs where the keyboards and other gothic metal elements don't mesh as well with the death metal ones. That being said, while the symphonic/death metal combination has been done before, it is clear that the band made an effort to be their own entity rather than following trends. This sense of nuance was refreshing in a year where many death metal and deathcore albums followed a formula to the letter, and thus it earns a score of 7/10.