Why It Rules: Why turn to this album when you can saturate your brain with the same unpleasant subjects virtually anywhere you turn? Because Jourgensen has a way of making them fun somehow. Jourgensen was galvanized by the seismic shocks caused by the election of Donald Trump, whose voice is the first thing one hears on AmeriKKKant in the form of a warped soundbite. The Gist: The first release since the second time Ministry leader Al Jourgensen swore he was pulling the plug on the band, AmeriKKKant unfolds as a continuous sound collage assembled out of the nonstop bombardment that’s become a daily fact of life for anyone with access to media. Andy O’ConnorĮssential Tracks: “Locust’s Nest”, “Cosmic Crypt”, “Servants of the Most High”
Taken apart, it’s a mess of atonal noise put together, it’s a pain and bliss hell-symphony for a hell-world. Now their terror is fully in front of you, with Horror Illogium’s guitar contorting into impossibly tortured shapes, skipping around in a bizarre cosmic game of hopscotch. Why It Rules: Mystery’s been Portal’s appeal for most of their career, and making their attack more discernible doesn’t take away from that. On their fifth album, ION, they strip away the bassy murk long integral to their sound and bring up the treble, giving them a black metal makeover while also adding clarity. They sound as ghoulish and inhuman as they look, taking equally from Morbid Angel and Ligeti. The Gist: Portal are one of Australia’s, and the world’s, most out-there death metal bands, and you can reach that conclusion from a Google Image search alone. Langdon HickmanĮssential Tracks: “Army of Cops”, “Concrete Beast”, “Torture Fields” Hayes continues to be the one of the best lyricists in grindcore, and the alchemical mixture of Blake Harrison’s noise and electronics with mastermind Scott Hull’s meaty guitar work continues to dazzle as a true force of extreme music. The players’ dabblings within other genres pay off here, giving a more well-rounded album than ever before with more song variance than they’ve had at any point prior in their career, all of which is delivered well. Why It Rules: Pig Destroyer continue their sonic expansion beyond the realms of grindcore, showing ample creativity and proficiency in more technical, progressive, groovy and punky realms. The Gist: After a six-year gap between albums, Pig Destroyer’s sixth disc, Head Cage, acts not just as a followup to their previous LP, Book Burner, but also to all the various experiments guitarist Scott Hull has undertaken between then and now, both in Pig Destroyer and his other grind band, Agoraphobic Nosebleed. With the launch of Consequence of Sound’s new destination Heavy Consequence earlier this year, it’s our pleasure to bring you our staff picks for the Top 25 Metal + Hard Rock Albums of 2018.
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