Ian's Top Fifteen of 2009...

...sort of. These are my favourite heavy/metal releases of the year in no particular order:

• Converge – Axes To Fall - Great band delivers yet again.
• Jesu – Infinity/Opiate Sun - One hour long drone jam and one pop EP; both releases find Broderick back on-song albeit working on the opposing margins of what he does.
• Mastodon – Crack The Skye - People almost seemed put off by how over the top this album was, not me. I want my stadium metal godz to get as epic and weird as possible and things got very epic and very weird here. (Almost excluded due to mispelt album title)
  
• Ben Frost – By The Throat - In my wildest fantasies my bass always sounds like bass does on this record.
• Moss – Tombs Of The Blind Drugged - 'Exactly right' is as good as innovation. Doom craftsmen?
• Mount Eerie – Wind’s Poem - Black metal and Phil both live in the woods musically, thus this record strangely makes sense. What made it great was the songs, some of his best.
  
• Grief No Absolution – Eurostopodus Argus / Crypsis - Pitched as 'bleak metal' but something I ended up listening to more than you (or I) would expect. One LP that is a brutal snowstorm of hiss and crackle + a 7" that's sharper and altogether nastier.
• Black Boned Angel – Verdun - Essential doom made right in our backyard (sort of).
  
• Secret Birds - Asleep On The Dragon - Friends delivers a fine sounding album. A very personal take on a a very broad range of psych ideas and flavours and much more cohesive than expected.
• The Nation Blue – Rising Waters - Australia's best band deliver a dense and completely fucked up classic. Maybe a career high and if not, too close for me to care.
• Om – God Is God - New drummer, new textures and that riff. I never really tire of it.
• Part Chimp – Thriller - A slightly underwhelming album from a completely overwhelming band. So a technical win and thus still essential listening in 09.
  
• Them Crooked Vultures – S/T - One of the better Queens of the Stone Age albums and how could it not be. A lot of fun but too long.
• Sunn O))) – Monoliths & Dimensions - What is there to say about this? It's good. It introduces a whole new realm of possibilities for the band. And it's brutally heavy.
• Tom Hall & Bonnie Mercer – MIDweekMID - Two giant lava flows built out of guitar and electronics. This tape is just completely untamed. I feel like I'm forever turning it DOWN when I've got it on. Love it.