Top 10 for 2001

TheBigBlack's Rock Top 10

Downer
Downer

Alternative Rock | Album | 24 April 2001

Incubus
Morning View

Alternative Rock | Album | 23 October 2001

Drowning Pool
Sinner

Metal | Album | 5 June 2001

Nickelback
Silver Side Up

Hard Rock | Album | 11 September 2001

The Cult
Beyond Good And Evil

Alternative Rock | Album | 20 June 2001

The Tea Party
The Interzone Mantras

Alternative Rock | Album | 16 October 2001

Tenacious D
Tenacious D

Comedy | Album | 25 September 2001

Radiohead
Amnesiac

Alternative Rock | Album | 4 June 2001

'Amnesiac' is the fifth studio album by Radiohead. It was recorded with the producer Nigel Godrich in the same sessions as Radiohead's previous album 'Kid A' (2000). Radiohead split the work in two as they felt it was too dense for a double album. It incorporates influences from electronic music, 20th-century classical music, jazz and krautrock.

Tool
Lateralus

Alternative Rock | Album | 15 May 2001

The Mark Of Cain
This Is This.

Alternative Rock | Album | 3 June 2001

mk's Rock Top 10

Fantomas
The Director's Cut

Alternative Rock | Album | 9 July 2001

Tomahawk
Tomahawk

Alternative Rock | Album | 30 October 2001

Spiderbait
The Flight Of Wally Funk

Alternative Rock | Album | 1 October 2001

Blink-182
Take Off Your Pants And Jacket

Punk Rock | Album | 12 June 2001

Tenacious D
Tenacious D

Comedy | Album | 25 September 2001

Superheist
The Prize Recruit

Nu Metal | Album | 15 April 2001

Something For Kate
Echolalia

Alternative Rock | Album | 22 June 2001

A complete shift from my normal listening party, however I do have a few indulgences outside of your typical rock and metal bands. Something For Kate is one of them. Great Australian band that are classed as Post-Grunge when they formed in the mid 90's. What the hell that means I have no idea. In any case, up to this point they had 2 releases in the bank which gave you a sense of what they were about. You could see in that, they were building on their craft and I think Echolalia, for me, easily hits the high-point to this stage in their career. So onto what to expect. Paul Dempsey is one of the great modern Australian vocalist and his reputation since this is testament to that. Musically it is Alt-Rock listen but with a smooth edge to it, with each song seeming to flow easily into the next one. No particularly call outs for specific songs as all have favourable traits. It's a perfect listen from start to finish (I don't believe there are any fillers) on a Sunday morning when you are resting up with your favourite pair of socks or slippers with a good cup of coffee (or whatever you do).

The Mark Of Cain
This Is This.

Alternative Rock | Album | 3 June 2001

TheBigBlack's Metal Top 10

Tool
Lateralus

Alternative Rock | Album | 15 May 2001

Sepultura
Nation

Thrash Metal | Album | 20 March 2001

Pungent Stench
Masters Of Moral, Servants Of Sin

Death Metal | Album | 4 January 2001

Slipknot
Iowa

Nu Metal | Album | 28 August 2001

Slayer
God Hates Us All

Thrash Metal | Album | 11 September 2001

Megadeth
The World Needs A Hero

Thrash Metal | Album | 15 May 2001

Akercocke
The Goat Of Mendes

Death Metal (Blackened) | Album | 11 September 2001

Fear Factory
Digimortal

Metal (Industrial) | Album | 24 April 2001

System Of A Down
Toxicity

Nu Metal | Album | 4 September 2001

'Toxicity' is the second studio album by System Of A Down. Expanding on their 1998 eponymous debut album, Toxicity incorporates more melody, harmonies, and singing than the band's first album. Categorized primarily as alternative metal and nu metal, the album features elements of multiple genres, including folk, progressive rock, jazz, and Armenian and Greek music, including prominent use of instruments like the sitar, banjo, keyboards, and piano. It contains a wide array of political and non-political themes, such as mass incarceration, the CIA, the environment, police brutality, drug addiction, scientific reductionism, and groupies.

Opeth
Blackwater Park

Death Metal (Progressive) | Album | 27 February 2001

Apart from with rare exception, it is safe to say that by album number 5 most bands have crossed the line of their creative peak - and their best work is probably behind them. Opeth were one of those rare few, releasing what can only be described as their masterwork almost a decade into their career. Whilst previous album 'Still Life' started with a polite whisper, slowly awakening it's demons, Blackwater Park instead pummels the listener from it's opening notes, and the unique death growls of band mastermind Mikael Akerfeldt fill the speakers just moments from the opening of 'The Leper Affinity'. Shots have been fired, and like everything the band does, the song doesn't so much open an album, but open a period of time in the band's evolution. It starts the juggernaut that is the next 67 minutes of music rolling, and immediately tells those listening that this isn't the sort of music you play on random. It demands to be listened to as a whole. It is immersive. A 'movement' of music, rather than individual songs. Not before long Akerfeldt's voice changes, and an angelic vocal is heard, countering the demonic conjurings of early parts of the song. The guitar lines are achingly beautiful also, and the piano close is divine. Song after song the canvasses are filled with colours and textures, with 'Bleak' primarily in grey before 'Harvest' lifts the album like an acoustic distress call from beyond that floats and swirls in an out of reality. 'The Drapery Falls' is even better, a modern metal classic that will never be matched, both in the way the guitar harmonies draw pictures in the mind, and the swirling bass line wraps around the soul. Track after track the guitar melodies and sublime solos ebb and flow like waves coming and going from the shore, occasionally crashing in a crescendo that is fleetingly broken up with acoustic flourishes like the wonderful 'Patterns In The Ivy'. The album closes with the sublime wall of slow riffing that is the title track, and its deceptive simplicity (in comparison to other tracks) closes the album with a feeling of uneasy grandiosity, but nothing here was ever supposed to feel particularly inviting. The band followed with a number of brilliant albums after this one, but none will ever match the majesty on display here.

mk's Metal Top 10

Slayer
God Hates Us All

Thrash Metal | Album | 11 September 2001

My Dying Bride
The Dreadful Hours

Doom Metal | Album | 13 November 2001

'The Dreadful Hours' is the seventh studio album by My Dying Bride. It contains a remake of 'The Return Of The Beautiful' (renamed 'The Return To The Beautiful') from the band's debut album, 'As The Flower Withers' (1992).

Katatonia
Last Fair Deal Gone Down

Doom Metal | Album | 8 May 2001

'Last Fair Deal Gone Down' is the fifth studio album by Katatonia. The release was the first of a series of four albums done by the band with a stable line up after years of lineup and role changes with prior albums.

Akercocke
The Goat Of Mendes

Death Metal (Blackened) | Album | 11 September 2001

System Of A Down
Toxicity

Nu Metal | Album | 4 September 2001

'Toxicity' is the second studio album by System Of A Down. Expanding on their 1998 eponymous debut album, Toxicity incorporates more melody, harmonies, and singing than the band's first album. Categorized primarily as alternative metal and nu metal, the album features elements of multiple genres, including folk, progressive rock, jazz, and Armenian and Greek music, including prominent use of instruments like the sitar, banjo, keyboards, and piano. It contains a wide array of political and non-political themes, such as mass incarceration, the CIA, the environment, police brutality, drug addiction, scientific reductionism, and groupies.

As most people will know - SoAD are primarily a protest band. For most they are a metal band that formed mid 90's, with their first release in 1998 introducing a sound that most would like to peg as nu-metal at the time. They got on some big tours as openers for bands like Slayer and eventually made an appearance on Southpark. It was their sophomore release in Toxicity that drove them to large success. This is not nu-metal (never was) and is a complex band with very unique sound - 2 to 3 minute songs that run the line of brutal vox by Serg, Darion and his softer vox every now and then, and encompassed with John punch his drum kit through to middle-earth. Shavo and his bass holding the fort when they take a short break from the brutal music attack. It might sound like I am describing a rinse and repeat approach. Far from it in my view. The opener 'Prison Song' sets the scene very quickly and became their first song in their live set during touring of the album. The chorus of 'Deer Dance' is a very confronting point being made about some American history. You can look up info on what the purpose behind some songs. 'Chop Suey!' is easily the highlight of the album and is the one that sees any pit, when played live, got to another level. There is a big quirkiness with likes of 'Bounce', which is Serj to a tee, particularly if you listen to any of his solo work. Other notables for me are 'ATWA', 'Toxicity' & 'Aerials'. Overall, a record I go back to regularly when you want to get energised. Just always wonder how many of us get deep into the protest being made and simply just love the music.

Emperor
Prometheus, The Discipline Of Fire And Demise

Black Metal | Album | 22 October 2001

Dimmu Borgir
Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia

Black Metal (Symphonic) | Album | 20 March 2001

'Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia' is the fifth studio album by Dimmu Borgir. It is the first album to feature drummer Nick Barker, guitarist Galder, and ICS Vortex on bass. It is also the first album upon which the band used real orchestral instrumentation besides keyboards and the first of the three subsequent albums recorded in Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden, with producer Fredrik Nordstrom. The drum sound on this particular album strongly relies on using triggered samples, thus giving it a distinct drum machine sounding result. According to Nick Barker, the idea to this recording approach at that time was heavily inspired by his friend Hellhammer and him doing the same thing on Mayhem's album Grand Declaration Of War (2001). Specifically, the bass drum sound uses a direct sample from the beginning of '5 Minutes Alone' by Pantera off their 1994's Far Beyond Driven album.

Megadeth
The World Needs A Hero

Thrash Metal | Album | 15 May 2001

Green Carnation
Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness

Gothic Metal | Album | 8 January 2001

Opeth
Blackwater Park

Death Metal (Progressive) | Album | 27 February 2001

Ahh the 90's - a whirlwind of a decade for metal music. Grunge was a wave that blew mostly all genre's out of the water re popularity. In Australia it also co-incited with the emergence of what was called 'Alternative Music' - a very broad description but it was in some ways for the youth to rebel, via the introduction of some bands that just rocked out in a 90's way. This didn't require a great deal of thought. The fact it was mostly Oz content was the attraction and they filled the live venues for years. The fightback for metal came in the second half of the 90's with what was called 'Nu-Metal'. Offering an alternative to the trad metal offerings. But again simple, no thought, catchy tunes that caused a lot of pushback. Anyway the history lesson has gone for too long. During this time, there were always these metal bands surging on under this wave of attention, that would resurface at the end of the Grunge/Nu-Metal fad for the most part. One such band that gave me a lifeline back to metal was Opeth and indeed an absolute classic in their catalogue - Blackwater Park. Since TheBigBlack discovered this and shared, I've since gone back and listened to their back catalogue and can see how they landed at this record. Just an incredible kaleidoscope of amazing song writing, brilliant technical application of the music, sublime vocal and soulful interludes. It starts with 'Leper Affinity'. Clocking in at just over 10 minutes it set the mood for the rest of the record. While an absolutely brilliant track on its own, in some ways the content provides the listener elements of what they can expect to hear on the remainder of the record. Flat out aggression, those death vocals spitting out razors in your ears, right down to the opposite of soulful, tempo down, vocals. The way those song transitions between a number of tempo/rhythm changes is amazing. Next up 'Bleak' is in a similar vein although on the aggressive side. By now you must be hooked. 'Harvest' at track 3, as you will see from the acoustic start is a time to take a breath and focus on Mikael's unbelievable vocals. It did take me a while for this song to grow on me as it was so different. If I'm honest as much as I like albums as Damnation, this track is a left a little wanting. In any case it leads us to 'The Drapery Falls'. My favourite track on the record. The mostly guitar driven intro lasting around 2.30 minutes is amazing. The remainder of the song, particularly when the death vocals come into play just wrack with your brain to try and keep in touch with what is actually being played here. There are so many layers. I won't go through each track from here on, in detail but you should by now have an appreciation for how refreshing this band is to the metal scene. Sure they have left the underground scene but when attending their live converts after this, not sure they have any concern. Clearly in my Top 10 of all time.