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46
With Teeth
Nine Inch Nails After years wandering around being a gloomy drug sponge, having his chums get shot and not doing very much, arch goth Trent Reznor returned with an album all about bunnies and the delights of vanilla buggery. Well, not quite, but 'With Teeth' was certainly a lighter listen than Nine Inch Nail's previous output, and saw him take back the guitarist, if not his stolen crown, off his painted spawn Marilyn Manson. And while some felt that this meant that these teeth were rather more 'milk' than 'venomous fangs righteously dripping with the menstrual blood of convent virgins', Trent Reznor proved that he still has the eye and ear for gloomy, barbed industrial electronica. PlayLouder said: "Representing a genre of music that should, by rights, be dead in the water, Reznor has turned in a lean, aggressive and thoroughly relevant album." |
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47
One Time For All Time
65daysofstatic Those pesky 65daysofstatic boys realised their ambitions with technical precision on this their second offering in a year. On opener 'Drove Through Ghosts To Get Here' they playfully toyed with the syncopation and made it all sound easy though it certainly wasn't. While other bands were attempting to master the quiet / loud blueprint 65daysofstatic were floating in another stratosphere altogether and proving that instrumental led music can say so much. PlayLouder said: "'One Time For All Time' sounds like a radio broadcast from some long since forgotten about civilisation as it collapses and becomes all beauty, decay and violence." |
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48
Hypnotize
System Of A Down It was more of the same from the ludicrously skilful metallers with the Rhea Perlman lookalike on vocals. If there was a difference between this and their other 2005 offering (and there wasn't much) it was that this time System of a Downs political rage was so intense that if you listened very closely you could actually hear steam coming out of their ears. This is a worrying trend as their next album may cause them all to combust and it'll be instant death to anyone who is unfortunate enough to hear it. PlayLouder said: "'Hypnotise' is full on, paranoid, insane, intense, terrifying, and it's telling the truth too... dangerous stuff in other words..." |
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49
Hypermagic Mountain
lightning bolt There was no way Lightning Bolt would ever be able to replicate the sheer intensity of their exploding sewage main in the corner of a room live sets, but in 'Hypermagic Mountain' they gave it a damn good try, and did the best they could to shift the bowls without actually coming around and playing a gig in your bedroom. Ridiculously fast riffs and escape demon drumming abounded, proving that extreme noise terror doesn't always have to be done as an excuse for having less musical ability than a penguin. Couldn't really make out many of the lyrics, mind..." PlayLouder said: "Two overgrown Dungeons and Dragons freaks, rocking as hard and as mightily as possible, making an imaginary heavy metal soundtrack to the Lord Of The Rings films as they go. (Mount) Doom metal at its finest." |
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50
Black Mountain
Black Mountain By heck there was plenty of hair around in 2005. Facial or nogginous, it was a year when umpteen follicularly-blessed artists found their inspiration, like Samson, in the hairier side of musical history. None more so than Black Mountain, whose eponymous release was one of 2005's quiet successes, creeping across the Canadian landmass and Atlantic from the band's native Vancouver. Employing a sound that gazed back through heavy-lidded eyes back through the 1960s and 70's, Black Mountain lightened up the bluesy sounds of Led Zeppelin with nods to the Velvet Underground, American folk, and the use of massed vocals to create a communal feel loaded with coniferous grooves and meditative atmospherics. |
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| 1-5 | |
| 1 | Arcade Fire |
| 2 | Antony & The Johnsons |
| 3 | Art Brut |
| 4 | Patrick Wolf |
| 5 | Franz Ferdinand |
| 6-10 | |
| 6 | The White Stripes |
| 7 | M.I.A. |
| 8 | Sufjan Stevens |
| 9 | Gorillaz |
| 10 | Circulus |
| 11-15 | |
| 11 | clor |
| 12 | Editors |
| 13 | Ladytron |
| 14 | Adam Green |
| 15 | The Broken Family Band |
| 16-20 | |
| 16 | The Bloodhound Gang |
| 17 | Sigur Ros |
| 18 | Goldfrapp |
| 19 | The Mars Volta |
| 20 | System Of A Down |
| 21-25 | |
| 21 | Smog |
| 22 | Elbow |
| 23 | The Darkness |
| 24 | Bloc Party |
| 25 | Devendra Banhart |
| 26-30 | |
| 26 | Arab Strap |
| 27 | Weird War |
| 28 | British Sea Power |
| 29 | Buck 65 |
| 30 | Queens Of The Stone Age |
| 31-35 | |
| 31 | Vitalic |
| 32 | Broadcast |
| 33 | Brakes |
| 34 | Kaiser Chiefs |
| 35 | Rammstein |
| 36-40 | |
| 36 | Animal Collective |
| 37 | Rufus Wainwright |
| 38 | Kate Bush |
| 39 | Depeche Mode |
| 40 | General Patton vs the X-Ecutioners |
| 41-45 | |
| 41 | Jose Gonzalez |
| 42 | The Rakes |
| 43 | The Fall |
| 44 | Roots Manuva |
| 45 | Malcolm Middleton |
| 46-50 | |
| 46 | Nine Inch Nails |
| 47 | 65daysofstatic |
| 48 | System Of A Down |
| 49 | lightning bolt |
| 50 | Black Mountain |
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|
Howlin' Rain Howlin' Rain |
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The Divine Comedy Victory for the Comic Muse |
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Venetian Snares Cavalcade Of Glee & Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms | |
|
Primal Scream Riot City Blues | |
|
Growing Color Wheel | |
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