{"id":142,"date":"2010-01-13T17:02:57","date_gmt":"2010-01-14T01:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heretodestroy.com\/blog\/?p=142"},"modified":"2010-01-13T17:02:57","modified_gmt":"2010-01-14T01:02:57","slug":"top-20-albums-of-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heretodestroy.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/13\/top-20-albums-of-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 20 Albums of 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Converge\"<\/p>\n

Around the end of December I always hear the odd complaint about the lack of good music released over the past twelve months. But as each year passes, that thought never seems to enter my head. Sure, there were a couple of clunkers in 2009 \u2013 the Dead Weather and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, I\u2019m looking at you. But overall I\u2019ve been more than impressed by what my ears have digested, sometimes even pleasantly surprised. Hello Goatwhore!<\/p>\n

However it was rather hard to commit to my favorite album of the year. When Baroness\u2019 Blue Record<\/em> was released mid-October, I was pretty confident that we had a winner. Each subtle flourish hinted at on 2007\u2019s Red Album<\/em> paired up with something new, humped it and gave birth to something even more exciting. Pretty much everything I was hoping for. But there was one problem. A week later Converge released Axe to Fall<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As Baroness did on Blue Record<\/em>, Converge also explored new sonic territory. But experimentation wasn\u2019t what sold me. Simply put, Converge are a fine tuned killing machine on Axe to Fall<\/em>. Track after track they destroy everything, burn it and feed the ashes to your children. Well, maybe not. But it sure as hell feels like something must be getting fucked up somewhere when these songs are pounding out of my speakers.<\/p>\n

Converge made a perfect album. It\u2019s as simple as that and when something is that obvious, you give credit where credit is due.<\/p>\n

\"Converge<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Converge<\/a> \u2013 Axe to Fall<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. Baroness<\/a> \u2013 Blue Record<\/em><\/li>\n
  3. Goes Cube<\/a> \u2013 Another Day Has Passed<\/em><\/li>\n
  4. Ancestors<\/a> \u2013 Of Sound Mind<\/em><\/li>\n
  5. Goatwhore<\/a> \u2013 Carving Out the Eyes of God<\/em><\/li>\n
  6. Mastodon<\/a> \u2013 Crack the Skye<\/em><\/li>\n
  7. Wolfmother<\/a> \u2013 Cosmic Egg<\/em><\/li>\n
  8. The_Network<\/a> – Bishop Kent Manning<\/em><\/li>\n
  9. Buried Inside<\/a> \u2013 Spoils of Failure<\/em><\/li>\n
  10. Cobalt<\/a> \u2013 Gin<\/em><\/li>\n
  11. Coalesce<\/a> \u2013 OX<\/em><\/li>\n
  12. Javelina<\/a> \u2013 Beasts Among Sheep<\/em><\/li>\n
  13. Doomriders<\/a> \u2013 Darkness Come Alive<\/em><\/li>\n
  14. Obscura<\/a> \u2013 Cosmogenesis<\/em><\/li>\n
  15. Them Crooked Vultures<\/a> \u2013 Self Titled<\/em><\/li>\n
  16. Isis<\/a> \u2013 Wavering Radiant<\/em><\/li>\n
  17. Naam<\/a> \u2013 Self Titled<\/em><\/li>\n
  18. Pissed Jeans<\/a> \u2013 King of Jeans<\/em><\/li>\n
  19. Iron Age<\/a> \u2013 The Sleeping Eye<\/em><\/li>\n
  20. Culted<\/a> – Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Around the end of December I always hear the odd complaint about the lack of good music released over the past twelve months. But as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11],"tags":[34,36,49,66,104,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news","7":"category-recommended-listening","8":"tag-axe-to-fall","9":"tag-baroness","10":"tag-blue-record","11":"tag-converge","12":"tag-goes-cube","13":"tag-top-20-albums-of-2009"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heretodestroy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heretodestroy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heretodestroy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heretodestroy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heretodestroy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.heretodestroy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heretodestroy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heretodestroy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heretodestroy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}