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User
Reviews 58
Approval 87%
Soundoffs 286
News Articles 51
Band Edits + Tags 24
Album Edits 211
Album Ratings 835
Objectivity 68%
Last Active 07-21-22 9:39 pm
Joined 12-10-07
Review Comments 4,551
| 2011 Is Fuckin' Dead
In which Cross talks about his top 11 of '11. | | 11 |  | Chad VanGaalen
Diaper Island
A latecomer, and the reason for the clever top 11. Quirky, slightly crass, and all-
around endearing. Indie/folk/acoustic/singer-songwriter whatchamacallit call it
what you want, but the amount of times I've watched the acoustic "Cut My
Hair/Shave My Pussy" video on YouTube is embarrassing. | | 10 |  | Ulcerate
The Destroyers of All
A phenomenal album in its own right, a chaotic yet tightly controlled mass of
cold rage and choking gray. Holds even more black weight for me, having it
relate to a dark, angry, and frighteningly confusing time in my life, burns
through me like good opaque rum. | | 9 |  | Trophy Scars
Never Born, Never Dead
Yes, technically an EP, but an immediately stunning EP from a band not
unfamiliar with phenomenal EPs. Just over 30 minutes of alley club blues and
bleeding-heart core, thick with bar floor grunge and coated with 2 a.m.
drunk-alone nostalgia. | | 8 |  | Laura Stevenson and the Cans
Sit Resist
The only album that truly saddens me to put so low, it's an endless pile of
peachy tunes. Laura's music is just as adorable as she, and that's pretty
damn cute. Softhearted folk-rock with a mild country twinge that radiates a
summery youthful naivety, supremely light and carefree. | | 7 |  | Death Grips
Exmilitary
2011 - Year of the Mixtape. "Hardcore rap" was always a term I thought
stupid people applied to anything more gangsta than Ne-Yo, but then Death
Grips came along. "Exmilitary" is a blaring, fuzzy bass whompfest full of
livid throaty shouts, choppy sample blips, and hard-hitting thumpa-whumpa
beats that make you want to jump around and punch white people. Tuck
Fyler. | | 6 | | Gnaw Their Tongues
Per Flagellum Sanquemque Tenebras Veneramus
Mories is a proficient sonovabitch. After the great De Magia Veterum release
and middling output from his other projects, he finally births a new blistering
hellbeast under the Gnaw Their Tongues moniker. And a beast it is, a
clanking cacophonous mass of bloodcult deathchants, full of addictive
ritualistic disturbia (And synth-brass. Yum). | | 5 |  | Patrick Wolf
Lupercalia
Whereas Andrew Jackson Jihad depresses, Wolf elates. His seemingly
endlessly optimistic and hooky lovepop avoids the boring stereotypical bass
thump omnipresent in the Top 40, instead using clean keyboards, acoustic
guitar, saxophone, horns, harp, etc. to make the most engaging and sunny
pop record in recent memory. | | 4 |  | Andrew Jackson Jihad
Knife Man
A stark contrast to Bon Iver's spotless production shine, Andrew Jackson
Jihad crank out both sonically and emotionally raw folk-punk. Not for a long
time have lyrics been delivered with such open vicious honesty, nor hit so
hard straight home. "Knife Man" presents the disgusting open wounds of the
state of the world via upbeat bouncing melo-punk. | | 3 |  | Bon Iver
Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Striking out from the acclaimed lo-fi masterpiece "For Emma, Forever Ago",
Justin Vernon hands us this glowingly overmastered gem. Gorgeous
indulgent melodies shimmer with a somber emotional charge, acoustics and
radiant synthesized warmth swell to orgasmic highs. | | 2 |  | Peste Noire
L'Ordure a l'etat Pur
Abruptly hopping off the nationalist folk-black bandwagon, La sale Famine
and crew formulate a whole new realm of backwoods circus black metal
with
a punk punch. Never a band to stick with a style too long, Peste swing
easily
from screeching punk to acoustic folk to post-black to?electronica? It's
absolutely perfectly bonkers. | | 1 |  | Corrupted
Garten der Unbewusstheit
In a year I thought was going to be a graveyard for doom, Corrupted come
out swinging, setting a whole new precedent for funeral doom, losing the
grimy sludge and polishing their sound with a depressive post-rock varnish,
crafting glimmering death rumbles that crash and dissolve in the process. Best
Doom Album, apologies to: Esoteric, Loss, 40 Watt Sun | |
ThyCrossAwaits
01.01.12 | So is this list thread, apparently. | Pentagon
01.01.12 | nice list, really digging 1 currently | MisterSteel
01.01.12 | I keep forgetting to check out 2, I'll have to make sure I do that today.
6 was on mine too, awesome. m/ | GenusHomo
01.01.12 | 11,8,7,4 |
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