September 2020: Top Picks - Deftones, Svalbard, Napalm Death

Diaries of Doom tends to focus on the smaller bands, but for me, it was too difficult to ignore these three mind-blowing efforts from larger and better-known bands. All are, without a doubt, career highlights. If you're after your typical dose of obscure stoner metal, have a listen to APF's The Brothers Keg or my own band Slump, both of which had releases in September. If you fancy a few albums that surely will make most 'best albums of 2020' lists, though, keep reading...

Deftones - Ohms (alternative metal) - Reprise Records

Deftones’ ninth is a true return to form after the somewhat disappointing Gore in 2016. My own Deftones journey began in the summer of 2013, when I heard the dreamy Koi No Yokan as part of the free entertainment offered on a long flight home after a holiday I’d been on. I was transfixed, having never heard anything like it. Slowly but surely, Deftones became one of my all-time favourites, and I discovered their extensive back catalogue. Eventually, though, they seemed to drop off my listening radar. With Ohms, it might be time for them to come back. There’s plenty of dirty, heavy moments – such as the crisp main riff in ‘Genesis’, the nod to thrash metal guitar in ‘Urantia’ or the Korn-esque grooves in ‘Pompeji’, all courtesy of Stephen Carpenter. He shines on this album in a way that was absent on the more Chino Moreno-led Gore. If you do know Deftones, you know there’s almost always been lots of spacey moments and different textures throughout, and they explore as much range as ever. The hopeful melodies in ‘Ohms’ or ‘Radiant City’ feel uplifting in a way unusual for Deftones, the lighter moments in ‘Pompeji’ are downright ethereal, and the stunning one-two of ‘Error’ and ‘The Spell of Mathematics’ float the listener up to space. The latter sees Stephen go into 9-string guitar territory – just listen out for that low note in the chorus! It’s not all about Stephen, though – the team effort is noticeable, as the drums groove heavily throughout, the synths are a lot more prominent, and Chino of course shows no signs of slowing down or tiring out. If there was something that Gore or even Koi was missing, Deftones have got it back for Ohms. Their most consistent album in a long time.

Svalbard - When I Die, Will I Get Better? (hardcore/alternative) - Church Road Records

The Bristolians are one of the UK’s brightest hopes for heavy music at the moment, and now their shine is looking even brighter with a musically mature third album that really sees them really ‘find themselves’. After a couple of well-received albums that took a frantic, blackened hardcore approach, they’ve toned down the more metallic elements and upped the melodies to create a truly stunning piece of work. The hard and heavy sections are still there, although it has a Deftones-esque, post-rock dreaminess to it, although as if the nu-metal legends had roots in the hardcore scene. The dual vocal attack from Serena Cherry and Liam Phelan complement each other better than ever before, with thought-provoking societal lyrics offered with such directness and ferocity rarely seen in the scene. Tracks such as ‘What Was She Wearing?’ and ‘The Currency of Beauty’ tackle the objectification of women – a topic particularly current in light of the accusations of sexual assault made against Alex Fitzpatrick, founder of Holy Roar Records, a label that Svalbard were on until only one month ago before the mass exodus of former Holy Roar bands that include Conjurer, Boss Keloid, Rolo Tomassi and Svalbard themselves for this very reason. The contrast between Svalbard’s politics and the actions of their former label’s head almost represent a metaphor for their album, though, as they mix beauty with sorrow, with optimistic-sounding melodies accompanying harrowing lyricism, and heavier sections that sound a hundred times dirtier with the increased musical emphasis on the light. This is Svalbard’s best work to date – time to recognise them as the homegrown heroes that they are.

Napalm Death - Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism (grindcore) - Century Media

The Godfathers of Grindcore’s sixteenth (!) album comes over five and a half years since their last one – the longest gap they’ve had between albums in a unique and prolific career. Throes is an exceptionally strong offering, and would be whether it were a band’s first album, third album, or indeed their 16th. We can essentially split this album into three separate parts. Tracks like ‘Fuck the Factoid’, ‘That Curse of Being in Thrall’ and ‘Zero Gravitas Chamber’ are scattered full of blastbeats, frenetic intensity and have been designed for sweaty moshpits. It’s the sound that Napalm Death are known for, and those who don’t know them would assume that all their songs sound like these. An unfair assumption, though, Napalm Death have always had an experimental edge – Scum was certainly different to anything that had come before it – and they continue their avant-garde tendencies on the bass-led ‘Joie De Ne Pas Vivre’, with a hook in the French language and little from the guitars, except for noisy ambience. The post-punky ‘Amoral’ is a huge left turn, sounding more like Killing Joke than grindcore. There are songs in between these two ‘extremes’ (so to speak), though. ‘Backlash Just Because’ includes a stuttering 5/4 beat that gives Napalm’s frantic energy an extra layer of madness. ‘Contagion’ is indeed brutal, but includes dissonances and textures in its chorus that have been borrowed from the alternative scene. It’s these songs that show the full palette of Napalm Death’s influences, and these songs make the album as outstanding as it is. For newbies, it’s hard to know where to dive in when a band has a discography as wide as Napalm Death’s. If they’d chosen this one to start with, it wouldn’t be a bad pick.

MN