Karma to Burn
V
Napalm Records

I’m not sure if I was too busy listening to the deluxe reissues of Wild Wonderful Purgatory and Almost Heathen or was convincing myself that Year Long Disaster was the new Karma to Burn, but I completely missed KTB’s return from a nine-year absence last year with their fourth album, Appalachian Incantation. Aside from sounding like the band never took a day off at all, that album just happened to feature the vocal duty of YLD’s Daniel Davies on the song “Waiting on the Western World,” an unusual direction for KTB who’ve taken to staying on that numbered, instrumental path (although they did it again on the limited edition bonus disc by bringing in John Garcia to sing on “Two Times”). Anyway, I think KTB is making up for lost time because just one year later the stoner rock band is back with their aptly-named fifth album, V, and the fact that Davies is also back again singing on three of the album’s eight songs certainly points to a merging of the two bands given that KTB’s Rich Mullins (bass), Will Mecum (guitar), and Rob Oswald (drums) are all part of YLD’s line-up.* Either way, this one’s got the smokin’ goat on the cover, which means it’s been branded a desert storm of punchy riffs and blood boiling grooves, and that’s exactly what you get from “47,” “48,” “49,” “50,” and “51,” in true KTB fashion. But it’s the Davies’ songs, those being “Cynics,” “Jimmy Dean,” and a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Never Say Die,” which stand out — for obvious reasons — like a rampaging giant in the land of the small, and prove that it can’t hurt to tweak a surefire formula every once in awhile, especially when you’re pretty much starting all over again. You know, since I missed it the first time, let me say this now: It’s great to have Karma to Burn back.

*It turns out that Davies is no longer a part of KTB, so they are once again a trio. I don’t know what this means for YLD, though.

Check out the video for “Cynics” from V!

Suede Brothers
The Night
Bad Breaker Records

In the hierarchy of rock n’ roll fabrics, suede probably ranks just above corduroy and just under whatever that neon shit was that David Lee Roth used to stuff his junk into. I mean, suede’s not completely awful, but it’s certainly no denim or flesh, and it definitely pales in comparison to its much cooler cousin, leather. However, what this Cleveland trio (who, despite their name, are not triplets with a wardrobe shtick, although that could be quite awesome) lacks in texture knowledge, they make up for in name-dropping sound. On their third album, The Night, the brothers suede open themselves up for all sorts of comparisons, each one of ‘em a salute to to the way they mix n’ mash the electricity and fuzz of notable hard power heroes. Basically, there’s not one song on The Night that doesn’t play on the sexy black of Year Long Disaster, the cosmic wail of Wolfmother, the barefoot groove of The Parlor Mob, and the dusty punch of Hermano, and the band delivers each one of them in bold, cross-eyed fashion. And for good measure, dig the sleazy spit of Danko Jones on my fave of the bunch, “Too Late.” Familiar, sure, but an awfully solid album nonetheless.

Listen to “Too Late” from The Night!

Well, I guess we’ve finally reached that moment, but before I reveal my favourite song and album of the year, I do want to give out consolatory honours to some albums and songs that, had I been ranking things this year, would’ve been right up there at the top, competing for bearded glory. I’ve already mentioned Black Mountain’s Wilderness Heart, Sweet Apple’s Love & Desperation, Dirty Sweet’s American Spiritual, and The Kings of Frog Island’s III, all of which should be highlighted, but I want to add the following albums and songs into their company…

High On Fire’s Snakes for the Divine, The Sword’s Warp Riders, Year of No Light’s Ausserwelt, Agalloch’s Marrow of the Spirit, Tweak Bird’s Tweak Bird, Souvenir’s Young America’s The Name of the Snake, and The Adjusters’ Reckless Relations. Every single one of ‘em is highly recommended.

Shit, I don’t think I can stop there. Okay, let’s also add Night Horse’s Perdition Hymns, Alcest’s Écailles de lune, Dead Trooper’s Cynicist, Brother Dege’s Folksongs of the American Longhair, Trap Them’s Filth Rations, the Melvins’ The Bride Screamed Murder, Electric Wizard’s Black Masses, Torche’s Songs for Singles, Violent Soho’s Violent Soho, Daughters’ Daughters, and Year Long Disaster’s Black Magic; All Mysteries Revealed. I could probably keep going, but these stand-outs will have to do.

As for songs, there was Black Mountain’s “The Hair Song” and “Sadie,” and Sweet Apple’s “Do You Remember,” and “Flying Up a Mountain,” but there were two others I had a tendency to play over and over again all year long, and those were Against Me!’s “Spanish Moss” and The Sword’s “Night City.”

But now, let’s just get this damn year-end thing over with…

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