We live in a complex, multifaceted world, one in which we are increasingly trying to come to terms with terrible acts of the past that continue to have ongoing consequences in how we deal with each other. Jared Durelle joins me to talk about the situation surrounding the conflict in BC currently unfolding in our attention, about some of the root causes of such a thing, and perspectives that are being underrepresented from a native point of view.
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Kicking of my albums of the year list is Earl Sweatshirt with “Some Rap Songs”, but this collection of tracks is anything but. While short in length, each track transports you into a sensual head space with pinging samples of guitar, bass, piano and so much more. Earl’s approach is impressionable while being totally relaxed with its casual flow. The beats lumber along at this off-kilter tempo that allow his slow delivery to work while these soulful, almost gospel, vocal samples back up most of the songs. The transitions between each song are abrupt left turns that give the illusion that they are introduced by the turning of an old radio dial. This album has an overall vintage aesthetic that soaks into the cracks instead of providing a cheap face to the project.
Fredericton’s Hard Charger returns with another rambunctious blast of high voltage punk tunes on their new split with Sherbrooke, Quebec’s Sights Of War. Their side is cascaded with electrifying solos, furious guitars and grimy, distorted bass. Meanwhile, drummer Tom Blizzard and bassist Shawn Smith continue to double down on the bands raw, filthy sound with their black tar vocals. 
Sights Of War bring the low-end hammer on their side of the album with J-F Ouimet’s vocals sounding distant and demonic. Each song is a tasteful, balanced brew of doom and black metal with a crust punk skeleton. You will have to get out in the sun to replenish your Vitamin D after experiencing these tunes.
PEI’s Death Valley Driver puts their groove boots on once again to bowl over your ear drums with their latest release “Wolf Crown”. Well established in their groovy, stoner metal sound, the group switches it up on this one with some different approaches in their arrangements and more variety in their song writing than any other release they have put together. This album has the best drum sound we have heard from the band, with a great balance of dynamics and a snappy, high tensioned snare sound, most noticeable on tracks like “Below Hell” and during the slamming outro of “Wolf Crown”. All these elements are accented by the booming vocals of frontman Dan Hodgson for the deepest impression yet from these east coast metal veterans.
This new group from Moncton, NB snuck on to this list with their self-titled debut. Packed with crunchy, buzzing riffs and elements of grunge, garage and alt-rock with a punk rock demeanor. The vocals on this record from Sam Wareham have an incredible range of feel from raspy angst, to desperate and heart wrenched, to outright rage. This band will kick you in the teeth with their music if you don’t keep up, the best example being on the final track “Feed Me”, which starts out by lulling you in with droning, borderline psychedelic tones before upping the ante with a heavy reverberating outro. This is an east coast band to watch out for in 2019.
Montreal’s Augury returned with their first album in almost 10 years in 2018. One of the most highly touted bands of Quebec’s thriving death metal scene came through with a solid release on their fourth record. There is a dark, prophetic aura that looms through this album thanks to its ghastly vocals, thunderous rhythm section and epic guitar work. This album is strongest when ingested in its entirety as the listener is fully consumed by the primal bite and countering prog elements of the composition. This is not to say there aren’t any stand out tracks; anyone who listens will surely be taken aback by the grand chorus’ on Carrion Tide or the sheer brutality of Mater Dolorosa.
Judas Priest might have put out the album of the decade among their active peers from their heyday. “Firepower” is everything you could want as a Priest fan, from the classic sounding riffs and Rob Halford’s voice sounding as powerful as ever, this record is nostalgic to the bands prime without sounding tired and played out. Any track on this album could be the backing track to any “blaze of glory” scene in cinema history and stands up to any of the bands most treasured albums.
Next up is Alterbeast, who brought relentless speed on their sophomore album “Feast”. This group out of Sacramento, California slings wave after wave of high-octane shredding and dizzying drumming and leads at an exhausting pace over these 38 minutes. The overdubs on this record sound like the screams of multiple mutated monsters on a devious warpath. A relentless, vicious and unforgiving assault on the listeners ear, this album is a force to be reckoned with.
Inferi’s “Revenant” has a tight, orchestral sound and brilliant musicianship. The vocals are expertly phrased with haunting highs and guttural lows as vocalist Steve Boiser flexes his range throughout the record. The splashes of classical samples and the large peaks and valleys of these songs take you on a journey through the clouds and dirt of the universe. When listening you will be impressed at the chops of each member of the band, the complexity of the album and how it is such while still being digestible.
Toronto’s Cancer Bats spent a good majority of 2018 on the road, both as themselves and their tribute to Black Sabbath, aptly titled “Bat Sabbath”. Behind the scenes, the band was secretly putting together a new album in Winnipeg in jam spaces that has been used by Canadian legends such as Propaghandi. On April 20th, a date that surely wasn’t picked for any specific reason, the band dropped “The Spark That Moves”, an album that reaffirmed, both in its material and marketing, that their number one priority is their fans. The quartet stated that this record is intended to have a looser, party-esque atmosphere while still bringing as much heat as their previous material. They accomplish the former with anthems like, Brightest Days, Space And Time and We Run Free and the former with raging tunes like Gatekeeper, Rattlesnake and Winterpeg. The band is as animated and energetic as ever and continues their streak of writing some of the most memorable tunes in Canadian hardcore.
This album was an interesting discovery for me in 2018. It combines the excitement and DJ elements of nu-metal, the energy of a slam band, the low-end of deathcore and the vocals and metallic elements of a djent band. It then puts them all in a mystery box and hits shuffle, so every turn comes out of left field. The experience of this album is as fun as it is chaotic and as brutish as it is creative. This is one of the only albums that simultaneously exists within the paradox of being both extreme and catchy, and that is what make it great.
Kicking off this list is Hitman out of Halifax, NS with their 4-track ripper “The Offering Part 1”. Mixing a crunchy blend of stoner and thrash metal, each track is a gut punch of huge instrumentation and catchy hooks you can raise your glass to. Vocalist Jordan Rose brings a hard rock bravado with a sharp edge that will make you grit your teeth and bang your head. All of this combines for a hard-hitting, physical experience front to back.
Wangled Teb’s Earth EP is the second in a four-part series of releases themed around the four elements. Through its six tracks they balance sporadic breakcore with dreamy, soothing instrumentals for a full palette experience. You will become completely engulfed in the dimension the music provides for you. It’s not hard to see why this release garnered both Electronic Album of the Year at this years Music NB awards and charted as high as #3 on the national electronic music charts on earshot.com.
The creative mind of Nick Piovesan has well established chops in both the world of heavy metal as the frontman of his bands Behold The Conqueror and Susan Explodes and the world of acting with his lead role in the 2018 film “Creepy Crawling”. Piovesan entered a new realm this year with a handful of small releases from his new project Rootabagga, a twisted blend of dark, experimental pop and electronic music. His best offering of the year was the 3-track release “Ad Nauseam”, a demented, theatrical trio of tunes that is best described as acid washed, funky circus music. It provides a brief trip into the hyper-active sector of your imagination and leaves you with a light-hearted aftertaste.
Fredericton’s Colin Fowlie has spent multiple months at the top of our charts here at CHSR and the top 5 of the national folk charts on earshot.com. “Harmony” is a soulful offering of heartfelt, acoustic blues-rock that tells a personal, relatable story with each track. Whether you feel like you’re being used or simply overwhelmed, Fowlie’s empowering voice provides you with a pat on the back and a helping hand to show you to the light.
While this release is 10 tracks in length, only four are new releases with the rest being live recordings. This quintet from Saint-Étienne, France throws their listeners in the fire once again with another abrasive display of blackened death metal. The new tracks on this album form a towering, evil prescience with venom-spitting vocals and a constant fury of guitars that shred everything in their path. All four compositions are ruthless, bone-chilling and, to acknowledge its title, fulfill the role in the master-dog relationship.
While I wasn’t the biggest fan of Converge’s 2017 album “The Dusk In Us”, a record where the band took a lot of risks with their sound that came up a bit short in my opinion. However, this EP of leftovers is a more accurate reflection of the bands sound that I quite enjoyed. The songs are quick and to the point with only one track exceeding the two-minute mark. It is another solid collection of meaty, frantic attacks of the band’s hardcore brilliance with Jacob Bannon’s vocals frothing and Kurt Ballou packing what few musical minds can in both the guitars and production in under a 10-minute span.
Throughout their career, hardcore kings Counterparts have been consistent in putting out solid track lists and covering their bases over the span of an album. However, they have never attempted the same in the shortened format of an EP until now. Private Room is a trio of previously unreleased tunes that have been sitting on the bands backburner after missing the cut for their previous two studio albums. The group meets the task of checking all the boxes expected of an album in under seven minutes as these wayside tracks combine to give the listener a dynamic experience. The guitars are chock full of grit with a nostalgic nod to their classic, infectious sound. Vocalist Brendan Murphy continues to maintain the passion in his delivery that he has showcased since the band’s early days, showing no signs of a lack of angsty anthems anytime soon.
There is something about a two-piece band dynamic that just creates gold in the heavier genres of music. Mark Estabrooks and Hard Charger’s Tom Blizzard join forces to form Cusser, a project of crusty, downbeat punk and grind played at a breakneck pace. Their latest self-titled release brings a raw, unfiltered drum sound and hard-nosed guitars all wrapped together with slimy, spit-in-your-face vocals. All six songs will crumble the world around you and run you over with their blasting energy.
Sydney, Australia’s Plini takes our number two slot with their 4-track prog masterclass “Sunhead”. This EP has symphonic qualities through the roof with its theatrical nature and inspiring guitar tones. The leads on these songs are playful and heavenly, providing the perfect accents on its strong, uplifting rhythms. This is not another progressive-metalcore instrumental that uses its vocal-less freedom to show off. Instead, Plini layers a bunch of intricate rhythms on each composition that work together that create a bombastic sound. All in all, this record is an effortless display of talent and intuitive arrangement across the board.
Montreal’s Cryptopsy takes the top spot with the second installment in their “Book Of Suffering” series which started in 2015. The band continues to keep their technical prowess sharp with another plethora of mind-bending, stone-fisted riffs that suck you into another wormhole of their relentless death-metal brand. Drummer Flo Mounier leans into his drum parts which have no shortage of blast-beats and fills that register on the Richter scale. Vocalist Matt McGachy adds an extra 10 pounds to these already seismic compositions, barking his gutturals directly down your throat, fully submerging the listener in the record’s overwhelming strength.
