1) Afterbirth - In But Not Of
I love brutal death metal bands... in the way that one loves corndogs. They're tasty and non-serious. You're never going to encounter an outstanding corndog, it'll just handily hit the spot now and again. Nothing too memorable or exciting. This is exactly why Afterbirth is sitting in #1 this year. This is an outstanding brutal death metal album, memorable, even profound at times. This album is the haute cuisine corndog that should not exist.
So what variables have Afterbirth tweaked in order to create such an excellent example of brutal death metal. Attributes like atmosphere, composition, pacing come to mind and while I could wax on about how these particular elements are unique here, I'd be doing the album a disservice in dissection. This is so special to me simply because I've never heard anything like it and it's so much fun to listen to. I'll be bopping my head to churning passages of gore-grind, and then all the disembodied guts will get caught in this multi-dimensional vortex in deep space. The balances of brutality and Zen on display here are truly remarkable.
I was thinking for a moment this year that it's possible other young upstarts will listen to this and take note, be inspired to carry this sub-sub-sub-genre into something that blossoms, but I came to the eventual conclusion this is unlikely. I honestly think it takes a very unique set of individuals to harmonize violence and transcendence and this record and this band may occupy their niche alone for some time. As long as they keep writing this is fine by me.
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