Patrick's Top 10 of 2007

10. Green Lizard “Las Armas del Silencio”
I can’t decide if I enjoy this album as much as I think I might, or if featuring a Zoli-esque singer simply makes it inescapable. Green Lizard is no Ignite, but they play good, catchy tunes worthy of a listen.

9. Hot Cross “Risk Revival”
This album came in a plastic case with no artwork. Dear labels: please send liner notes, damn it! That complaint aside, this is a delightful album full of distortion and vocals cords on the verge of disintegration. In other words, if you like any of the music that falls under the “fast and loud music” umbrella, you’ll like this.

8. Comeback Kid “Broadcasting”
If there’s any trait I appreciate in hardcore, it’s a relentless attack. Also, rad gang vocals with a tasteful smattering of non-intrusive breakdowns. Thus we have an explanation why such angry music makes people so happy.

7. 7000 Dying Rats “Season in Hell”
Over-the-top grindcore is sadly underappreciated. Cramming 28 (frequently hilariously titled) songs into 48 minutes, the album is less predictable than a seizure. In one short segment, this manic rollercoaster sees absolute brutality disappear amongst a medley of bells, which slowly melts into screams and infantile cries assaulted by dissonant guitar stabs panned hard left and right. Every genre imaginable is represented and blasphemed here.

6. Birds of Avalon “Bazaar, Bazaar”
Classic rock and indie rock blended as smoothly as a milkshake. When The Shins met Deep Purple…


5. Smoke or Fire “This Sinking Ship”
One of the best examples of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, Smoke or Fire makes simple sound perfect. And the band scores mega-points for playing with such amplified intensity that fans forgot the band was touring a man short much of last summer.

4. Lil’ Wayne “The Carter 3 Mixtape”
Likely more prolific than even the world’s megacorporations, Wayne releases more albums (almost exclusively mixtapes) yearly than most artists do in a career. Few lyricists are as lyrically or vocally dexterous, and Wayne’s a truly interesting character, especially at his playful finest.

3. Hour of the Wolf “Waste Makes Waste”
This superbly crusty punk ‘n’ roll shines through layers of distortion and gravelly gasps, a blue-collar whirlwind of exceptionally catchy sewage.


2. Hopesfall “Magnetic North”
No other non-instrumental band captures the endless black, swirling-constellation-studded expanses of outer space like Hopesfall. Monster riffs slide into breathtaking melodies like supernovas easing into peace, and then explode again in collisions befitting mammoth stellar bodies.

1. Daymares “Can’t Get Us All”
Driven by more intensity than a crowd locked inside a burning building, this album is the first thing that’s ever led me to believe I could smash my head through concrete. Mashing the grimiest parts of punk and hardcore with a ruffian rock ‘n’ roll attitude, controlling one’s limbs during a listen is impossible.