Waking Dead

Myself, Radders, Chris and Dan went down to GW’s annual Blood Bowl GT a couple of weeks ago. This was mine and Radders’ first time at the GT and neither of us had played Blood Bowl for at least a year or two. In fact, I think Radders had only ever played a handful of games in his lifetime! Still, being the Cocks that we are we thought we’d give it a go, and having expert Dan on hand to prod for advice was very useful.

But before we get into that, I thought I’d update you on the other things going on around here. Radders has signed us up for the Northern Warlords GT in September. It’s our first major independent Warhammer tournament, and although the other three have top-tier armies, I know I’m going to get smashed. Still, it’s a good opportunity to finish off the Tomb Kings, rock up with 2250 points of the bad boys, and have a good time. The list I’m playing with at the moment has most of the toys in it, but even a tricked-out Tomb Kings list is still only good in an expert’s hands. Should be a good crack, though.

Anyway, back to Blood Bowl…

So, game one saw me taking on a sneaky Skaven team with my no-nonsense Dwarfs, and against the odds I pulled a 2-0 victory out of the bag! The general Dwarven plan of ‘hit them until there’s no one left to stop you scoring’ worked a treat, and by the end of the first half I was 1-0 up and he had 4 players left on the pitch. The second half followed largely the same pattern, and another scored sealed the victory.

Game two put me further up the field and facing off against – unbeknown to me at the time – the #1 NAF ranked Dwarf player in the world. I think the fact I didn’t know this at the time helped me give a good account of myself, and get close to a 1-1 draw. In the end I just couldn’t quite pull it off, and he won 1-0, but it was a very good game, probably my favourite of the weekend.

Game three was against another Skaven team and I just couldn’t get his players off the pitch. Every time I went through the armour the best I could do was stun them.  He even turned my cage tactic against me and rumbled down the pitch to score twice. The game finished 2-0 against, and i only managed one casualty.

Dropping further down the tables for game four saw me get some points back on the board with a 1-1 draw against another Dwarf team to finish the day on more of a positive. I was leading at half time, but he basically played the same game against me and a draw was probably a fair result.

The next game on Sunday was against yet another Skaven team, and once again I didn’t have quite enough to catch his far quicker players, eventually losing 2-1. Being thoroughly depressed at this point, I was languishing on table 72 and up rocked an Undead player featuring no less than Count Luthor von Drakenburg himself. After coming to terms with how I wasn’t going to beat him, I set about in a much more relaxed fashion. It clearly worked, because I managed to win it 2-0!

This was also the game that saw the play of the weekend from my runner, ‘Wee’ Jimmy Jones. I could have easily come away with a 1-1 draw as Luthor had the ball one square away from my endzone, and I had no tackle zones on him. Queue the wee fella making a blitz out of someone’s tackle zone, down the pitch to throw a two dice block against the vampire – that’s two dice in his favour – wherein I rolled the only thing that mattered: double flash. After I’d stopped smiling I threw the armour roll down, somehow beat it, then managed to stun him on the follow up. I had a couple squares of movement left out of Jimmy, but decided to push it twice to get as much distance between him and the scary-looking vampire dude as possible.

What followed then was a mad dash up the left side of the pitch, pushing it twice every time just to keep the Count from being able to throw a blitz at me, all the way to his endzone. I swear I could have married ‘Wee’ Jimmy Jones right then.  Sure, I felt bad for my opponent, but just to see a play like that come off is something special. He shook my hand and, even though we had two turns to play, decided to call it. Great bloke, great game, and well done the wee fella!

In the end I finished in the top half with a NAF ranking of 138.05; that puts me at 5278th in the world

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Another tournament down, and this one was our best yet! The official results sheet says 26th, but it looks they’ve calculated it wrong, so we actually came in 22nd. Either way I’m well chuffed with our finish, proving finally that myself and Radders can compete with the best of them.

Our first game was against a beautifully painted Orcs & Goblins/Warriors of Chaos list that we managed a Marginal Victory against. I thought it was all over when my Exalted Champion fluffed all his attacks against a Shaggoth and got wiped out, but the Khorne Knights finished what he started and I took the Shaggoth to the cleaners. Elsewhere, the Marauders mopped up a Warboss on a Chariot, and we finished strongly.

The second game was another Marginal Victory against Marple Marauders Jamie and his partner Ross. The 25-man ‘Shadestar’ was pretty unexpected, and we nearly took the whole 1050 points worth with a unit of Khorne Knights and the Exalted Champion, but Jamie rallied on Leadership 4 after a re-roll… damn him! Third game was our first loss against a thoroughly-inebriated Adam and Antony and a horrible Dryad-spam list. I think we pretty much lost this one in setup, but I’m not sure how we’d have won it with so few units.

The last game on Saturday gave us another Marginal Victory against an Empire and Vampire Counts list. It might very well have been a massacre had I managed to take the last wound off a Steam Tank in turn 4, but otherwise we played a tight game and netted another 30 VPs!

Sunday started with a draw against a pretty nasty Bretonnian and Wood Elf list. It was a really tight, tactical game, but our opponents – well, one of them – didn’t stop whinging throughout the game. He kept moaning about how long we were taking to move our units, but with such a finesse list we really needed to take our time. In the end we could very well have beaten them, but I was satisfied with a draw.

Game six was another win, this time against a Daemons of Chaos/Warriors of Chaos list. They had similar units to us, although they favoured a large block of Plague Bearers to our more magic-heavy list. In the end we castled up and counter-charged, and used the Furies to claim the Objectives. The final game of the day was another really tight affair versus Skaven and Dark Elves. In the end we played for a draw, but were hustled into taking another turn despite there being only 4 minutes remaining. Having set up our units to claim quarters, we got counter-charged and ended up losing the unit of Khorne Knights to a Hydra that just took them over the threshold for a win.

In general, I think we can be proud of our performance, and we just need to get our game head on and be a bit more stubborn when it comes to standing our ground on decisions. We’re already talking about next year, and with the new Skaven book out towards the end of the summer, that might make for an interesting army to take to the 2010 Doubles. See you next year!

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So I’ve been playing WoW again recently. I moved my main back over to Earthen Ring – the server I started out on all those years ago – and I’ve set myself up with a de rigueur Death Knight too. What this means is that the Wives of Lazarou are no longer; Tarlaa has already left and cleared out the coffers anyway, so there wasn’t really any incentive for me to stick around on Bronzebeard. So, if you’re on Earthen Ring and still remember me from way back when, holler at your boy.

In tabletop news I’ve been putting together the rest of Mark’s Chaos for the Doubles Tournament next weekend. I reckon I’m about a third of the way through painting them, and I’m hoping to get all the base coats and shading done by the end of the weekend. I doubt I’ll have much chance to do any highlighting before Friday, but I’ll give it a go. Either way, they’ll be legal and hopefully above-average looking. I’ve used a lot of washes this time around, mainly for speed, but also because I have a lot of mounts to paint. Layering this way looks great on large swathes of flesh, especially Flesh Hounds. I’ll put up a picture of the finished pieces when I’m done.

Enjoy the long weekend, kids!

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Wow, talk about late to the party… I’m really sorry I haven’t posted this earlier; I don’t generally have any excuse other than I’m lazy. Before another month passes by I thought I’d better talk about how the Fighting Cocks did at the tournie.

First game was against another Dark Angels list (traitors!) and some Ultramarines, and the day started badly for AP Juan. We lost our entire Ravenwing squad to concentrated fire after failing to penetrate a Dreadnaught with two Melta-Guns. Ouch. The rest of the game started to pick up for us, mainly due to the entire Tau mechanized section making every hit count, and the Vindicator did its best to pie-plate some Marines. By the time it came to dice down, we were pretty even on VPs but lost on TPs 5-3.

Our next match-up was against Tau and Daemonhunters, with two chaps who’d only just got back into 40K after a long absence. Due to their inexperience, myself and Radders decided to be nice, and so elected to crush them mercilessly. We won the game by blowing a unit of Gun Drones off their objective; even though they had troops in the same building, nobody else was within 3″ and they simply hadn’t noticed. A win then, but the manner of our victory caused Radders to run after our opponents and apologise to them after the game

The final game was a mouth-watering grudge match against fellow Cocks Lock+Load. We’ve only played each other once before in a tournament setting, and the dream-team of AP Juan was 1-0 up. Was this the match to even up the scores? Well, almost. It was a hard-fought game, both of us sussing out the other teams’ secret objective fairly early on, and generally playing pretty tight for the two hours. In the end we just about edged it, claiming a draw but gaining the extra TPs due to killing more of them.

Come the final reckoning, AP Juan had climbed to the heady-heights of joint 6th! Both of us were really pleased with this performance, especially after our fun-but-disappointing experience the month before. The top tables largely saw Flame On! run rampant, as per the Games Workshop Doubles, and I’m sure I glimpsed some double Land Raider filth up there.

All in all we had a great time, and I’d like to thank Jamie and Fabian – not to mention the rest of the Marple Marauders – for setting up this event. You can rest assured that the Cocks will be back again next year.

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This Sunday sees the Marple Marauders host an independent 40K doubles tournament, and the Fighting Cocks will be fielding two teams at the event. Myself and my regular doubles partner Mark are taking Dark Angels and Tau in what’s mainly a mechanized assault force. My list is as follows:

HQ: Company Master; Power Fist

Troops: 10-man Tactical Squad; Flamer, Plasma Cannon, Power Weapon, Rhino

Fast Attack: 6-man Ravenwing Squad; Meltagun, Meltagun, Power Fist

Heavy Support: Vindicator

Mark is fielding mainly armour, something like two Hammerheads, two Devilfish and a Commander. The Devilfish both come with 6-man Firewarrior squads… and thassit. We’re very mobile, have a shit-ton of firepower, and some fast units to claim or contest. On paper it looks like we might struggle against the assault, but we played against an all-assault army in practice and came out on top.

The other Fighting Cocks team is the legendary doubles partnership of Johnny Lock and Terrence Load, aka Mike and Chris. They’re taking a last-minute, cobbled-together, ‘we’ve had no practice games with this list’ alliance of Blood Angels and Imperial Guard. Tanks and Assault Marines is the name of the game – looks fairly tasty on paper, but we’ll see how they fare on the tabletop.

General army construction has been slightly adjusted for this tournament as the rules pack has some very interesting scenarios, including the ability for Fast Attack and Elite choices to claim on two of the missions. There’s also a ‘wildcard’ each round that provides another additional victory condition on top of the base scenario. You get extra points for fulfilling your bonus objective and the scoring margins are nicely presented (it’s not ‘3, 1, 0′ like most GW events).

You can find out more about the tournament on the WPS website. I’ll post up a report and some pictures from the event next week – wish us luck!

Note: if you’re still waiting for the GW 40K Doubles report I’ll try and post something up next weekend. I’ve not had chance to edit the video we recorded, and I’m having second thoughts about posting it up anyway.

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Here’s my first Ravenwing model, a Sergeant armed with Power Fist. This is my first attempt at doing a lava base and I think it’s actually turned out OK. I can embelish a few more details on, such as bubbles and possibly a gloss finish. I could even add some ‘ash’ scatter but it might be going a bit too far… Eventually I’ll rebase all my Dark Angels this way, but this guy is my first test model.

Overall I’m pretty pleased; I can’t wait to see what the normal Marines look like on bases like this. Elsewhere I’ve managed to dip my Dwarf Blood Bowl team, the ‘Albion Brewers’, although I need to do a bit of highlighting in a few places. I’ve undercoated a pair of fine Dwarven lasses (read: cheerleaders) as well as some Windowmakers and Greylord Ternion for my Khador army. I’m itching to get the Warmachine stuff painted but I’ve still got 5 more Ravenwing bikes to do. I’m hoping this next tournament has no minimum painting requirements as ideally I’d like to get started on the Greylords… Oh, and I’ll be picking up some SotTR/Incursion minis soon – that looks likely to be our next game.

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In my rush to get the last post out, I completely overlooked a game that I am really looking forward to trying out. It’s another Rackham game that I intend to play this year, and I’m arguably more excited about this than Confrontation. The game in question is…

AT-43
http://www.at-43.com/

This is Rackham’s other big pre-painted skirmish game, and it appears that it’s even more popular than its fantasy counterpart. I’d let this pass me by when it was first announced, but looking over the miniatures now available for it, some of them are absolutely stunning. I’ve also since read a few reviews of the game, and it sounds like a whole lot of fun. The production values are high and the rules seem simple but with a lot of tactical depth.

For a current 40k player I guess the attraction is a fast(er) ruleset with some different armies, and I found a nice comparison between the two over on this website. I’m probably most attracted to the Therians and the Karmans, but even the bog-standard U.N.A have some very interesting models in their line-up. I think I’ll pick up the Operation Damocles starter set in the next few months and see if I can convince the Fighting Cocks to give it a go. With all the painting I’ll be doing this year, it also helps to have something at tabletop-standard out of the box!

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First of all, if you’re waiting for my write-up of the recent 40k Doubles Tournament, it’ll be a little while longer as the Warhammer World blog hasn’t put the results up yet. Once I’ve got the final placings for the Fighting Cocks I’ll make a post about it.

Anyway, on to the main topic. I’ve decided to make 2009 a major year for War Gaming. I’m getting that itch again like never before, and as I’m really enjoying painting and modeling these days I thought I’d keep the train running. I can’t keep asking the loyal Cocks to keep playing lots of different types of games if they have to shell out some cash first, so I’ll be making all the purchasing up-front. Gasp!

OK, that’s not quite as batshit crazy as it sounds. I generally spend around £100 a month on video games, and I’ve really fallen out with those in recent months. I’ll keep it to my job, but my hobby time is much better spent elsewhere. For £100 I can buy a couple of starter sets for most modern skirmish games, and I’m getting pretty quick with my painting and modeling, at least to tabletop standard. So, with that in mind, I’m going to become something of a war games crack dealer.

This post will focus on the new games I’d like to play this year; I’m still keen to fire up the likes of Blood Bowl and Battlefleet Gothic again, but I don’t need to spend much time convincing people about those. No, these are the games that are outside our usual collection of minis, and I want to get in at least 2 or 3 games of each this year. And here they are!

Warmachine/Hordes
http://www.privateerpress.com/

Technically we’ve already played a few games of this, and we have at least 350 points worth in three factions right now, but we’re still yet to give it a thorough play. This is probably the main event in terms of non-GW miniatures games, and most of the Cocks are likely to pick up a starter box.

Gameplay is skirmish-based, with an interesting mix of magic and machinery. Each side usually fields 1 or 2 Warcasters, and each of these can command massive engines of death called Warjacks (for Hordes read Warlocks and Warbeasts). The rest of the force is made up of tough single models called Solos, and larger Units that offer a few rules variations. The game is pretty fast-paced and has been likened to a CCG in playstyle. I can see the similarities, but it’s very much its own game.

Hell Dorado
http://www.helldorado.fr/

I remember someone once telling me that the Rackham catalogue was like Playboy for geeks; those original Confrontation minis were works of art. The style and detail was incredible, and leagues ahead of anything GW – save perhaps Forge World – could produce. While Hell Dorado isn’t quite in the same ball park, those crazy French people at Asmodée are producing the next best thing.

Hell Dorado is a 30mm skirmish game, similar it appears to Warmachine/Hordes, but with a fascinating theme and some incredibly lavish miniatures. The rules seem to favour tighter, melee-based combat rather than ranged or magic-heavy games, and this really appeals to me. The only English language stuff available for now is via download, but Asmodée are releasing a full English rule book in the second quarter of 2009. Colour me interested.

Alkemy
http://www.kraken-editions.com/

Alkemy is another French-produced skirmish level game, but the appeal here seems to be in the combat system, with three types of unique dice to roll, plus the usual card-based stats. Another change though is in the Combat Cards which allow you to change the type of attack you are performing. The miniatures are also multi-part plastic models, and the detail is pretty good. Some of the minis I’m not utterly sold on yet, but overall they do enough to get me interested. I’m playing this primarily for the rules though, particularly as it won Tabletop Gaming News‘ Game of the Year award for 2008.

Secrets of the Third Reich
http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk/

Nazis + zombies + mechs = awesome! Another skirmish-level game (I guess they’re all the rage now because they’re fairly cheap to start up), this sees an alternate-history WWII fought out among the trenches and bunkers of Europe. The minis are the best that West Wind has produced so far, and the rules are apparently very tight indeed. I’ve never been one for real-world war games, but the explosion of ‘weird’ war games has definitely expanded this niche into the wider war gaming community.

The Uncharted Seas
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/

We all look back on Man-o-War with a rheumy tear in our eye, but the truth is that despite the fluff, the game was pretty poo. Enter Spartan Games with their thinly-veiled attempt to capture us grognards’ interest once again. I’ll be honest and admit that, apart from the Dragon Lords and Humans, most of the miniatures aren’t that great, but the rules are apparently fantastic, so it’s a game I’ll be playing for that sake rather than to line up pretty figures on the table.

Confrontation
http://www.confrontation.fr/

Well, despite it moving into pre-painted minis, I still have a soft-spot for Rackham’s long-running game. 4th Edition has driven away the old guard, but from what I can gather it’s actually a far superior set of rules. Sitting somewhere between skirmish and army-level combat, the fact that you can now use the old metal minis with the new rules is enough to peak my interest again.

I know very little about the new rules save what I’ve gleaned from forums, but the main draw is definitely the factions. Typically French, and beautifully quirky, Rackham’s original creations are still the best miniatures money can buy. Even the new pre-painted stuff is decent once you’ve applied your own painting over the top. This is pretty low down on my list simply because of the initial outlay, but I’d like to get a couple games in towards the end of the year.

Incursion
http://www.incursiongame.com/

I thought I’d briefly mention this, even though it’s not out yet. Developed by Grindhouse Games, one half of the team that produces Secrets of the Third Reich, it uses similar minis but is usually described as ‘Nazis meets Space Hulk’. Consider me very excited indeed!

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I used to do these ‘top ten’ lists with my friend John all the time, and I still have a fondness for year-end lists of all kinds. This, then, will be my top ten albums of two-thousand and eight, along with a few near-misses, and perhaps my biggest surprise – and biggest disappointment – of the year. I’ve listed each album in reverse order, and only albums released this year are eligible. Comments are, as always, appreciated, though I reserve the right to point to my music degree in a childish manner and claim that I know best.

Biggest Disappointment

Weezer: Weezer

My biggest disappointment of last year was Chris Cornell’s “Carry On”, an album so far up it’s own arse it was able to wear itself as a hat. The former Soundgarden man once produced music that was relevant, inspiring and occasionally jaw-dropping, but now, after turning Rage Against the Machine into Nickelback, appears to have transformed into the sort of musician my dad would listen too if he wasn’t cool enough to listen to Bruce Springsteen and Santana. And once again, I find myself drawing the same conclusions about this year’s lame duck: Weezer’s self-titled ‘red album’.

Good Christ, this album is a mess. With no hint of irony, Rivers Cuomo has produced the musical equivilent of Gigli. He is so utterly out of touch and devoid of even average ideas that he has opened up the songwriting and vocal duties to the rest of the band. At this point I’d have rather he produced a solo album comprised entirely of him sneezing. It’s difficult to pick stand-out tracks on an album this woeful, but ‘Heart Songs’ is close to the worst song I’ve heard all year. I think it’s even more damning that they haven’t released a decent album since the green one, meaning that they only really had to trump ‘average’. That they failed in even this modest task should see them scrubbed off everyone’s fan list, even the Japanese.

Biggest Surprise

Guns N’ Roses: Chinese Democracy

How exactly did this happen then? Not only is it not shit, but it’s actually really good! The task of getting “Chinese Democracy” out seems to dwarf even the challenges God allegedly set his only Son, making Axl Rose something of a messiah himself. Being the last true prophet of straight-up hard rock – Brian Johnson is a bit too old if I’m honest – would seem to suggest an album out of touch with the modern musical climate.

And that’s largely what I was expecting, but my ears were treated to an audible delight, an album of songs at once classic in their composition, yet thoroughly modern in their execution. Even the borderline-power ballad “Sorry” – a duet with Sebastian Bach, no less – somehow transcends the 80s nostalgia and sounds utterly convincing. Axl clearly still has a lot to say, and he has lost nothing of his relevance. The electronic touches are tasteful, and the production time has been spent polishing each and every track to be exactly as the girly-voiced one wanted it. Care and dedication shows throughout, which is even more astonishing given the revolving-door line-up and public infighting. It’s not quite good enough to make my top ten proper, but if you still hold a soft spot for denim jackets and patches, give it a listen.

Near Misses

Enslaved: Vertebrae

I’m a massive fan of Enslaved, but for me there is always something missing from their albums. I really can’t put my finger on it – by rights they should be my favourite band by a country mile. I think it’s something to do with how ‘full’ their albums sound, lacking for example the depth present in Opeth’s body of work. So, despite a 9.5 from Terrorizer, this album sits just outside of the top ten for me. Featuring their trademark black metal meets Pink Floyd sound, “Vertebrae” is another fine album of melancholy and Northern darkness. Grutle Kjellson’s voice is an acquired taste for some, but for me he’s in the top tier of BM vocalists. On this album he shows a much greater comfort with his clean delivery, and the dense harmonies he weaves with keyboardist Herbrand Larsen are simply beautiful. Highly recommended listening.

Gama Bomb: Citizen Brain

Riding the crest of the thrash revival wave, Dublin’s Gama Bomb are more Tankard than Slayer – similar in lyrics and style to Municipal Waste and most definitely ready to rock. Geek and pop culture references abound, and it’s as much a pleasure picking them out and chuckling to yourself as it is listening to the fine thrash on offer. The riffs are tight and assault your ears like machine gun fire, nodding to just about every previous thrash metal band and throwing in a few nuances of their own. There are many stand-out tracks on “Citizen Brain” but if you want a highlight it’s hard to overlook the genuinely funny “Zombi Brew” – hey, zombies like to get pissed too!

Candiria: Kiss the Lie

This is a bit of a cheat actually because it wasn’t technically released in 2008. The album has been completed for two years, but record labels being the money-grabbing *bleeps* that they are decided not to release it seeing as the band had pretty much given up touring. And it’s a crying shame. Eventually released this year through iTunes, “Kiss the Lie” is an astonishing record of post-hardcore frailty and New York stomp. There’s little here that harks back to the hip-hop-jazz-fusion of “300 Percent Density”, but the progression from album to album is obvious. After the (understandably) lackluster “What Doesn’t Kill You”, this is the real Candiria.

Top Ten

10. Belleruche: The Express

I loved “Turntable Soul Music” and this is pretty much more of the same. Perhaps a little bluesier and harder-edged in places, but still that post-Portishead vibe with a real flare for genuine soul. I listened to a lot of new electronica and soul this year, but nothing to hit the top ten. Interestingly if I extended it out to a top twenty or thirty, you’ll find TM Juke and Quantic and Jamie Lidell floating around out there, but the top ten is largely all-metal. And that really tells you how strong Belleruche’s sophomore album is. Lead single “Anything You Want… Not That” is so sultry it should be made illegal. Compared to Portishead’s unrelentingly grim “Third”, this is the flipside of the DJ/guitarist/female vocalist sound. Mmmm, nice.

9. Blind Melon: For my Friends

Blimey, who saw this one coming? Despite the recent controversy – and what a shame to lose Travis Warren after such a promising debut – this is an album that can stand shoulder to shoulder with it’s peers. The opening track, if you close your eyes, makes it easy to forget Shannon Hoon’s death, sounding like a lost track from their 1992 debut. From here the album takes a few different turns, with vocalist Warren making it his own and managing to bridge the stylistic gap between “Blind Melon” and “Soup”. Wishing Well is a gem of a track, one of the best the band have written, but the album as a whole is incredibly strong. It’s not quite as good as “Soup” but it had no right to even be close. 12 years was a long time to wait – let’s hope they don’t take so long to record the next one.

8. Meshuggah: obZen

If you’ve been following Meshuggah’s career so far then it might have been easy to predict this album’s direction. Feeling tighter and more direct than either “Catch 33″ or the “I” EP, it nonetheless draws heavily on the band’s recent affinity for spaced-out electronics to complement the usual death metal battery. Still arguably leaders in a field of one, Meshuggah’s real strength is in delivering complex atonal polyrhythms without forgetting to write songs. Some of these tracks are just downright catchy. The biggest and most pleasant surprise here is Thomas Haake’s return to the drum kit, ditching his programmed beats and producing something even more technical: “Bleed” is easily one of the most challenging pieces of drumming commited to tape.

7. Nachtmystium: Assasins, Black Meddle Part 1

Ah, the true evolution of the American black metal sound. Nachtmystium have been quietly shaping their own sound away from the ears of most black metal fans, but with this album they have delivered a killer collection of songs. This is far from traditional black metal territory and, much like Enslaved, they aren’t afraid to experiment. There’s plenty of Pink Floyd influences here, including some tasteful saxophone to close the album out. The clue is in the title really, and that’s largely what makes this such a pleasure to listen to; like with all good albums, you keep picking out new sounds and textures with repeat listens. Definitely one to savour with a nice bottle of wine I think.

6. The Gutter Twins: Saturnalia

Wow, this came straight outta leftfield. The long-promised collaboration between former Screaming Tree and Queens of the Stone Age collaborator Mark Lanegan and Afghan Whigs mainman Greg Dulli was finally released at the back end of this year. And the wait, my friends, was well and truly worth it. The opening two tracks alone are some of the finest acoustic-led melancholy songwriting you’ll hear in this or any other year. Lanegan’s bowel-rumbling delivery (I’m sure he’s dropped another octave) is the perfect counterpoint to Dulli’s fey drawl, and the music draws heavily on the work of Nick Cave and his ilk. Lush strings, tasteful rock-out electric guitars, and the occasional use of electronics build a vivid picture that would work quite happily as the soundtrack to an unreleased David Lynch film. Haunting and beautiful in equal measure.

5. Keep of Kalessin: Kolossus

Obsidian Claw, shredmeister and pretty boy of black metal, has returned with another slab of lightning-fast, Le Guin-quoting metal. Opening track proper “A New Empire’s Birth” features probably my favourite riff of the year, mixing classic heavy metal chord progression with some seriously quick tremolo picking – nice! Thebon sounds like he’s commanding a legion of warriors throughout, barking and screaming his tales of dark fantasy. I’ve listened to this so much this year already, and although I still think Armada is the better album – just – with Kolossus I think we can safely put Keep of Kalessin in the top tier of black metal.

4. Metallica: Death Magnetic

I awaited the release of this album with some trepidation having been traumatised by “Saint Anger”. The very early live demos of some of the songs didn’t bode well, being a continuation of the same sound I was hoping they’d moved away from. How pleasant it was to discover that they bore no resemblance to what was on the actual album! Right from the off they bury the ghost of “Saint Anger” and then jump up and down on it just to be sure. There’s homages to Battery and Blackened on here, as well as – no, really – an instrumental. In summary, it’s better than both Megadeth’s and Slayer’s last albums and sits stylistically somewhere between “…And Justice For All” and the black album. Look, it’s just so much better than anyone could have hoped for, you really ought to put aside your prejudice and pick up a copy.

3. These Arms are Snakes: Tail Swallower and Dove

Previous album “Easter” is still on heavy rotation in my iPod, and this 2008 effort is likely to follow suit. Although they still sound a little too much like Fugazi for their own good, the fact that they’ve produced arguably better albums than those hardcore pioneers makes it more than forgivable. Mixing subtle electronic elements and just the right amount of melody with their rawk and roll, These Arms Are Snakes are exactly the sort of band I will keep coming back to. Second track “Prince Squid” is as tight a slab of “The Argument”-style post-hardcore as you’ll hear this year. “You want to be there” shouts frontman Steve Snere, and he’s absolutely right.

2. Made Out of Babies: The Ruiner

God, this was a close call. I had no idea this album was going to be as good as it turned out, especially given that 2008 has already produced a brace of fine hardcore albums. In the end Opeth won out, but “The Ruiner” is so very close to being a stone-cold classic. I think the combination of scary/beautiful is the album’s biggest strength, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Julie Christmas’ voice. With such atonal riffs to work around, she writhes and screams with passion and vulnerability, mixing raw emotion and cold distance with devastating effect. The times when they let their foot off the gas are welcome relief, drawn into sharp focus by the noise everywhere else on the album. It just pips “Tail Swallower and Dove” as the best hardcore album of the year, and is consistantly brilliant throughout.

1. Opeth: Watershed

Well, I guess it had to be really. I don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed by anything Opeth have released and, although it’s not quite as good as previous album “Ghost Reveries”, “Watershed” is still a monumental piece of work. The loss of drummer Martin Lopez was a blow, but fellow Martin Mr. Axenrot has added a bit more pace to the Opeth sound, including a blast-beat on one of the tracks. Everything else is still present and correct, this album being more a refinement of the sound than a change in direction. I think that’s partially why “Ghost Reveries” stands out so much, but to ask them to shift up another gear after so many astonishing albums is being a bit picky. As with all Opeth releases the album works best as just that rather than a collection of songs, although opener “Coil” is quietly beautiful, complete with female vocals provided by Nathalie Lorichs. Top of the pile again.

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That’s right, the new forums are now online! You can find a link in the sidebar or point your browsers here. I’ve moved across all the old posts but I’ve had to change a few usernames for consistency with the blog; you should have received an email from me if that’s the case.

One quick note about usernames; I’ve been unable to find a satisfactory solution for integrating WordPress users into phpBB, so unfortunately you’ll have to register a new account on the forums even if you already have one on the blog. It’s not really a big deal, but if you could use the same username for both it’ll help if I ever figure out a way to tie the two together.

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