Bienvenue to a New Year, a new start yadda-yadda…Like so much of my unaccommodated seed, my resolution to frequent this page has been spunked into the abyss by the vigorous and unforgiving handshake of good ol’ Lady Time. Ah mon dieu! There will be time to absolve later, mes amis. Why not, for now, some flavour, some perspective on this solitary wanderer, this Outsider. After all, perspective is everything…
10. Appetite for Destruction (1987) Guns N Roses
This album appearing in any rocker’s top ten is more obvious than Slash’s wry smile of amusement on the release of Chinese Democracy in 2008. Colossal bellend that he is these days, Axl Rose’s crew released this monumental homage to the drinking, smoking, snorting, sexy hedonism of the 1980s. Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll?? Put this record on n’ watch the walls cum.
Listen: Rocket Queen
9. Songs for the Deaf (2002) Queens of the Stone Age
This album in its entirety is a balls-out affair. Set against the backdrop of fictional radio broadcasts on a drive through God-loving, diversity-hating America, Josh Homme and his Queens smash your ears to sodomy with songaftersong of fast-paced insanity. The guest vocals of Mark Lanegan infiltrate at various points, grounding Homme’s viscous and dominant lyrics. The (now-former) bassist Nick Oliveri capably dissects the record with his screaming and Dave Grohl utterly stick-fucks the drums into oblivion, especially on the opening of the title track. Humour is at the forefront, as always, with Homme’s eerily accurate caricature of the pop-schmaltz of the early 2000s in Another Love Song. Yet it was No One Knows that made this band huge; the rest of the record, however, is most definitely deserving of your ears. If your ears can take it.
Listen: Song for the Dead
8. Black Gives Way to Blue (2010) Alice In Chains
This is shamefully the album that opened my eyes to grunge beyond the confines of Nirvana, and also inspired the creation of Cambridge University’s Grungesoc (which, by the way, is a tour-de-force of binge drinking and rehabilitation through the magnificent Seattle music scene). Jerry Cantrell’s revival of Alice In Chains after the passing of former singer, Layne Staley, was a hugely commendable effort. In acquiring the superb William Duvall in his place (Layne gone but not forgotten, of course), Black Gives Way to Blue was forged after a couple of years on the touring circuit. The album’s pitch rises and falls (as a good album should), but very few records can emulate the staggering peaks and troughs of this one. By no stretch of the imagination is it an epitaph to their fallen comrade, although there are allusions to him, which are unsurprising, but instead it is a resounding acknowledgement of some of the darkest aspects of human nature, of the condition of our society. It is also backed up by heavyweight musical ambitions that deliver over and over again; Check My Brain mesmerizes and crushes with a bending nightmare of a riff. This album is as immaculate a delivery as is possible.
Listen: Private Hell
7. Thirteenth Step (2003) A Perfect Circle
Ah Maynard James Keenan. The movies, the music, a man of many talents indeed. The choice between A Perfect Circle and Mr Keenan’s other brainchild, Tool, was a close run race. Thirteenth Step however, is a product of the twisted machinations of a politically-driven, highly motivated and intelligent madman. MJK’s ability to harness such an eerie and alternative sound whilst exploring a variety of musical avenues is to be massively applauded. This album twists and turns and flails like a lunatic; the transcendental curse of The Noose, the ragged paranoia and obsession of Pet and the brilliant namesake track of this own writer, The Outsider. In A Perfect Circle, MJK brought the Tool sound to a more mainstream audience with startling and amazing consequences.
Listen: Pet
6. With Teeth (2005) Nine Inch Nails
Trent returned from rehab, bulked up and smack free to prove that, with With Teeth, he still had bite and balls and all the other traits of a musical leviathan. By the time of this release in 2005, Trent had proved that he was indeed king of the industrial wasteland and of the angular monstrosity. With Teeth bounced and retched its way through track-after-track of heavy metal glory. The listener does well to consider that he has the majority of his critical faculties left after the listening of this album.
Listen: Only
5. Heaven and Hell (1980) Black Sabbath
Of all the metal nobility to pass away in 2010 (of which there were a lot), the loss of Ronnie James Dio, the former singer of Rainbow, Elf and Black Sabbath, was the most poignant in my humble opinion. His monumental voice was first introduced to me on this huge metal album. Black Sabbath, who by the 1980s had harnessed their reputation as the stalwart and original metallers, disposed of Little Miss America candidate, reality show star Ozzy Osbourne, and had acquired the small but powerful RJD. This album holds an incredible majesty; its lyrics are fantastical, evoking lore and mystery and are constantly backed up by the master of the riff, Tony Iommi. Iommi himself is on career best form with the monumental solo in Heaven and Hell, the rapid riffing of Neon Nights and the ethereal character of Children of the Sea. The poignancy of this album, after the tragic passing of Dio, cannot be ignored; it is his finest, and moreover, the album that introduced the classic metal sound to me. Dio has a lot to answer for...RIP.
Listen: Heaven and Hell
4. White Pony (2000) Deftones
White Pony was Deftones at their most fat-free and crushing, until the release of the triumphant Diamond Eyes last year. It finds its place here because the entirety of the record has such a solid and complete feel, and what’s more, it is impossible to listen to it and not want to snap-necks. The only track that feels slightly disconnected is the opener, Back to School (Mini Maggit) which Chino later admitted was there at the record company’s behest. Even with this slightly incongruous opening, there is so much that is good here. Highlights include Chino’s vocal conjunction with Tool’s Maynard James Keenan on Passenger which has some of the best lyrical balance I have ever heard. Chino’s ability to switch seamlessly between mutilated screams and soaring vocals is staggering throughout the album. Sadism abounds and flushes away sensibilities throughout; ‘I pulled off your wings//and I laughed.’ On relistening to this album for this review, it becomes apparent that it is impossible to listen to without feeling fully immersed in it.
Listen: (ed. Where to start???) Feiticeria
3. The Bends (1995) Radiohead
Dirge. What dirge? The early days of Lord Thom of Yorke’s career were a much rockier affair than his more recent output. The Bends resonates with dark lyrics and vocals that transcend the edgy musicianship. What’s more, it’s starkly beautiful; in High and Dry it has the not-so-obvious ballad, painting the picture of youthful torment and loss. Street Spirit feels like you are literally watching your life just washing away. On a personal level, this was the album that opened my eyes to the zenith and nadir of musical expression. Radiohead’s magnus opus.
Listen: The Bends
In Ten, Pearl Jam achieved their voice; the twisted and intelligent lyrics, the contradictory clash of subtle and brash guitarwork; it was not just a coming of age moment for the band, but for the entire genre. The desolate, disaffected, depressed and dangerous found a voice in songs such as Once and Jeremy. This album harnesses the force of inner turmoil and desperation that is so embedded within society’s bounds. Black, in particular, screams from the very depths of its soul for the unavailable desires of its life to be silenced. Pearl Jam created a dystopia that resonates like a Brechtian nightmare, and, believe me, it will stay with you. You will struggle to find comparable beauty this far south of heaven.
Listen: Black
1. The Blackening (2007) Machine Head
2007 was year in which I lost my virginity; no not the ceremony of lustful hymen-destruction (I’m still waiting on that one), but the removal of my finer musical sensibilities. The Blackening is the finest ‘pure’ metal output to have ever erupted from the bowels of hell; in my mind I’m unsure there was ever a reality prior to this. The word devastating gets banded around my blog like a particularly contagious venereal disease but it has a particular efficacy with this record; it is a relentless barrage of noise, a rabble rousing call to arms (...Raise you fists and ‘FIGHT! FIGHT!...), a mournful statement about society’s atavistic tendencies and moreover a record that chimes with so many disaffected aspects of society. Although titled The Blackening, it is actually one of the most illuminating records ever to be released; it is about as essential as the air you breath.
Listen: Beautiful Mourning
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