Best of 2009 | The Scratch the Surface Harvest Pt. II

2009 presented a great harvest to all kinds of audience. Some bands brilliantly showed their value, others tried to re-gain credit and others just made us get bored and spend our precious time.
Here are my 5 favourite records for 2009.

5-Katatonia - Night Is The New Day
Released late in the year still came in time to make this an even greater year. The mix of melancholy and beauty wrapped in Jonas Renske's soft, warm voice is a total must hear.


4-Minsk - With Echoes In The Movement Of Stone
Now this is what I call original music. A blend of psych, stoner, sludge, sometimes with a bit of black and death and most certainly with tribal rhythm. They slay live!


3-Altar Of Plagues - White Tomb
After two promising EPs (Sol and Through The Cracks Of The Earth), Altar Of Plagues release a full length of landscaping and atmospheric black metal, showing that Ireland has more to give than the great Primordial.


2-Converge - Axe To Fall
I was not a big fan of Converge. The core genre was never appealing to me until... Until Axe To Fall. What a bomb! What a bomb! Just hear it.


1-Liturgy - Renihilation
I wrote about this album in the zine and all I can say is: wow. It's not a word, I know, but it's the only thing that comes to my mind when I remember their songs. Unique, fucking unique.



Still, 2009 wasn't - obviously - this short on music. With no particular order, you must hear Drudkh (Microcosmos), Shrinebuilder (s/t), Them Crooked Vultures (s/t), Thy Catafalque (Roká Hasa Rádió), Ancestors (Of Sound Mind), Blut Aus Nord (Memoria Vetusta II) and Celan (Halo).

And 2010 already began. I now eagerly await the records from the following bands:

Deftones - Eros
This working title is everything we know about the next 'Tones record.

The Firstborn - Lions Among Men
This will probably be the name of the new Firstborn album. The band will record it in Wales (again) and will surely try to make even better than the awesome The Noble Search.


ThanatoSchizo
The schizophrenic sounds of TSO will become acoustic, in an album that's being recorded in Vila Real and will be entirely produced by the band itself. With a still unknown title, it will consist of acoustic versions of the band's songs that were played in a series of concerts throughout 2009.

Concealment
The Portuguese tech-death outfit already recorded the songs for their long awaited new full length. After mind-blowing everybody with Leak, they won't sure let anybody indifferent.

Devin Townsend
Ki and Addicted are already past tense, and Townsend prepares to release two more albums in 2010. No stops in Planet Dev.

Limp Bizkit - Gold Cobra
Half kidding, half serious, I do want to hear their new record. Yes, I spent my whole adolescence time listening to these guys and even watched their Download 09 performance online. Between the audience titties, I also listened to some old fashioned nu-metal which made me want to go back to my 15 years old.

Orphaned Land - The Never Ending Ways of OrwarriOr
Six years to release this eagerly awaited album. January 27th is the definite release date of an album which already seemed another Chinese Democracy. Middle East death-metal anyone?



Of course 2010 will have many other great records. And for those, Scratch The Surface will always be there.

António Matos Silva