Fork Tongue's Top Albums of 2014

2014 was a decent year for me but one in which I didn't get to spend enough time listening to tons of music. Working 70 hours a week will do that to your free time. That being said, I still liked plenty of stuff this year but I didn't get to revisit as much of it as I would have liked. Enough about me lets get to why you're here.

HONORABLE MENTION'S

ACxDC - Antichrist Demoncore
Battle Roar - Blood of Legends
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III - Saturnian Poetry
Churchburn - The Awaiting Coffins
Coffinworm - IV.I.VIII
Cormorant - Earth Diver
Eternal Khan - A Poisoned Psalm
Funeral Presence - The Archer Takes Aim
Nunslaughter - Angelic Dread
Occultation - Silence In The Ancestral House
Rude - Soul Recall
Salem's Pot - Lurar Ut Dig På Prärien
Sempiternal Dusk - Sempiternal Dusk
Skull Fist - Chasing The Dream
Sun Worship - Elder Giants
Vanhelgd - Relics Of Sulphur Salvation

BEST SPLIT

Acid Witch/Nunslaughter - Spooky Tales

BEST EP'S

Bolzer - Soma
Gatecreeper - Gatecreeper
Gnosis Of The Witch - Daudr Burdr Prysvar
Hungry Wolf - Sounds From The Grave
Necros Christos - Nine Graves
Ranger - Shock Skull
Demon Head - Winterland

BEST DEMO'S

Demon Head - Demon Head
Khthoniik Cerviiks - Heptaedrone
Predatory Light - MMXIV
Stone Dagger - The Siege of Jerusalem

11-20

20. Satanic Warmaster - Fimbulwinter
19. Emptiness - Nothing But The Whole
18. Innsmouth - Consumed By Elder Sign
17. Diocletian - Gesundrian
16. Teitanblood - Death
15. Primordial - Where Greater Men Have Fallen
14. Swallowed - Lunarterial
13. Midnight - No Mercy For Mayhem
12. Horrendous - Ecdysis
11. Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire

10. OWL'S BLOOD COLD NIGHT OF MEDITATION

Black Metal from Spain that is pure black Norwegian in execution. Melodic, raw, icy and as razor sharp as the ice pick in your freezer.

9. YOUNG AND IN THE WAY WHEN LIFE COMES TO DEATH

A rager in every respect, the album is as menacing as the album cover. Only difference is you won't see the knife when they sneak up from behind you and cut your throat out.





8. TÖXIK DEATH  SPEED METAL HELL

TÖXIK DEATH eat Retro-Thrash posers for breakfast and puke them up uncontrollably to swim in their remains.





7. FORESEEN HELSINKI SAVAGERY

A Crossover Thrash masterpiece that hits you like a Redbull and Meth speedball.

6. CIRCLE OF OUROBORUS KUUHUN KAHLITTU

Less folksy and more mean weirdo Black Metal from CoB.

5. ANGUISH MOUNTAIN

Even bigger and better Candlemass style riffs than on their great debut from a couple years ago and improved Quorthon style vocals also. This is the kind of stuff people are going to look back on in 10 years and realize they made a classic. Two classics as a matter of fact.

4. MORTUARY DRAPE SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENCE

Forget Italian cuisine, this is Italy's best import. This band has been around nearly 30 years with a decade long break since their last album. My hopes were not high. But holy shit, if this isn't their best album it's right up their with their first 3 albums. A late comer to my top 10.

3. BLACK MAGIC WIZARD'S SPELL

I almost didn't put this on my list because the back half of the album is all old material in the 1st wave Black metal style but screw it that stuff is good too. Otherwise this is good ol' Maiden style NWOBHM and they tick all the right boxes but still sound like their own entity.

2. LORD MANTIS DEATH MASK

This bands debut made my list a couple years ago but to me they sounded like a poor man's version of Coffinworm. This time, they added some different elements and now truly have their own sound. There's only one Lord Mantis.

1. JOHN GALLOW VIOLET DREAMS

What happens when you take a guy who is smitten with Italy's Death SS, Paul Chain's improvisation and Doom Metal? You get Fork Tongue's # 1 album of the year, that's what. I like his Blizaro stuff too but I really hope he continues along this path. Incredible stuff.