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Articles : Andrew McKaysmith’s Top Albums of 2017

By on December 18, 2017

At 14 years of age in 1992, I commenced my journey as a lifelong fan and appreciator of hard rock and heavy metal. Living Colour were a ‘gateway’ band and Doug Wimbish’s deep funk groove across the album Stain (’93) would play a role in inspiring my odyssey as a bass guitarist. Raising the roof off the Triffid in May this year, Wimbish and his comrades in Living Colour performed favourite album cuts, hits and a few numbers from Shade, a classic Living Colour album 29 years after their 1988 debut.

Heading an exceptional cast of strong performers in 2017, Living Colour edged a trio of young musicians from Melbourne that have produced an EP that may well change the shape of prog-metal in the years to come. The nu-metal inspired deathcore extravaganza from Frankie Palmeri and co. in Emmure (which was a very early contender for album of the year) introduced the wizardry of guitarist Josh Travis to a broader audience and the old guard roared. Demolition Man, Mantas and Abaddon formed (re-formed?) Venom Inc. and the bolter of 2017, forgotten NWoBHM hero Thunderstick produced an absolute gem. Chris Broderick upped the ante issuing the MMA equivalent of thrash and speed metal while Trey Azagthoth almost reminded us why he is the first and last word in extreme metal guitar.

Australian metal and rock’n’roll stocks have never been higher than this year; on any given Thursday, through to Sunday evening a world-class collective of Australian based musicians hit the stages of the Valley’s many pubs and venues… Fragile Animals, Shadowqueen, Darkcell, Hybrid Nightmares… so many others and so much talent! That a sole Australian release makes my top 10 says nothing about the quality of the Australian contingent, if I had a top 20 it could be filled with Australian releases.

  1. Living Colour – Shade

Very few bands move with the same groove as the funk-metal veterans. The survivors of a commercial scene that spawned Kings X, Faith No More, Fishbone, and the perennially overlooked and underappreciated 24-7 Spyz, Living Colour have hit a rich vein of form through Shade. Doug Wimbish, the band’s colossal bassist, locks in between the shrapnel of Vernon Reid’s metallic Hendrix-isms and the percussive flair of Will Calhoun to offer the musicians performance of 2017.

  1. The Omnific – Kismet (EP)

The bass guitar performance of 2017. The thunderous yet melodic cuts served across Kismet by five-string bass guitarists par-excellence Toby Peterson-Stewart, Matthew Fackrell and percussive sensation Jerome Lematua are truly revolutionary. The bass guitar has always been far more than a rhythmic cog but it is an instrument that needs deft hands to truly bring its tapestry of aural colours to life. These young blokes from Melbourne have the world at their feet… Kismet is a remarkable release.

  1. Thunderstick – Something Wicked This Way Comes

Barry Graham Purkis AKA Thunderstick is the forgotten man of NWoBHM. Sharing many a stage in the UK with a very young Bruce Dickinson in Samson and occupying the drum stool in a Triassic period Iron Maiden, one got the feeling he was destined to become a footnote as others went on to achieve enormous success. Some 35 years after his ship appeared to have sailed, Purkis offers Something Wicked This Way Comes, a never-too-late reminder that Purkis is a pillar of one of the most important eras for metal. Click here to stream the new album.

  1. Emmure – Look At Yourself

Dave Mustaine, Chuck Schuldiner, Jon Schaffer… Frankie Palmeri. Catch my drift? God bless Palmeri and his fearlessly unapologetic take on deathcore. I’d go so far as to suggest metal needs the likes of Palmeri so it was fortunate that he teamed with the best emerging guitarist in the biz, Josh Travis to create the epic, Look At Yourself. “Natural Born Killer” contains a breakdown riff that Zeus himself forged… the heaviest cut of 2017.

  1. Act of Defiance – Old Scars, New Wounds

Much like a certain prominent thrash metal icon, I do wonder if Chris Broderick were to develop an ego problem, sledged former bandmates, yelled at journalists and started acting like an all-around douchebag if the global metal and rock community would acknowledge his profound talent. While Broderick will never be heavy metals Mr ‘rent-a-quote’, he is responsible for the sharpest guitar performance in 2017 via Old Scars, New Wounds.

  1. Satyricon – Deep Calleth Upon Deep

Sigurd Wongraven AKA Satyr and Kjetil-Vidar Haraldstad AKA Frost are what black metal is all about. Deep Calleth Upon Deep is an evolution for the pair without sacrificing any of the core elements that make Satyricon black metals enduring vanguard. The historically significant album cover hints at the aural delights waiting for the listener. Haraldstad’s percussive genius is vital to the success of the album, offering the drums and percussion performance of 2017.

  1. Venom Inc. – Avé

It cannot be understated just how much value returned frontman and bassist Tony Dolan AKA Demolition Man offers the two founding members of the proto-black metal superstars. An excellent interview subject and bass player, it does cause for wonder if he had been in the band from the start what they may have become… still, here we are, fortunate that Dolan, Jeff Dunn AKA Mantas and Tony Bray AKA Abaddon are touring, recording and generally making the world a better place. Avé is Venom at their most dynamic.

  1. Cellar Darling – This Is The Sound

Former members of Swiss horde Eluveitie form a stellar musical partnership named after a solo album from the band’s ethereal vocalist, Anna Murphy. Vast and arranged beautifully, This Is the Sound, bites as hard as it does soothe. Anna’s vocal is crucial to the success of the albums deep contrasts of light and shade via the vocal performance of 2017. In a rather bizarre parallel, for an album review elsewhere I mused that This Is the Sound contains strains of the Deftones misunderstood opus Saturday Night Wrist (’06).

  1. Morbid Angel – Kingdoms Disdained

Kingdoms Disdained is not a return to form for Trey Azagthoth. I have read review after review of the album and critics are too quick to offer praise to Kingdoms Disdained, an album that many would have listened to only a handful of times prior to critiquing. The truth is Kingdoms Disdained barley reaches the quality of Heretic (’03), that said Azagthoth is and always will be the ‘Chairman of the Board’ of supreme death and extreme metal guitar performance so any release bearing his name contains genius worthy of repeated listens.

  1. Memoriam – For the Fallen

Bolt Thrower and now Memoriam frontman, Karl Willetts, is the thoughtful elder statesman of death metal and grindcore. Not afraid to voice an informed opinion, Willets continues the grand tradition of UK metal and punk bands acting as the genre’s activist and socially aware conscience. Benediction guitarist Scott Fairfax offers some almighty death metal riffs on For the Fallen to compliment Willetts’s signature articulate roar.

Honourable mentions: The Charm The Fury- The Sick, Dumb and Happy; Contrive- Slow Dissolve; Orsome Welles- Rise (EP) Oceans Ate Alaska- Hakiri; Adagio- Life.

About

Andrew is a musician who has spent many years performing on the stages of the pubs and clubs of Queensland. A devotee of the broad church that is rock, punk, funk, jazz and of course all genres of metal... he now shares his enthusiasm via a burgeoning pursuit of music journalism. Follow him on twitter @andymckaysmith