My cat just reported to me with a scroll, reminding me the year is nearly a third of the way over. He’s pretty useful sometimes, this cat.

I always laugh when people marvel about how fast any given year has gone. Then again, I do it myself. And here we are, with March officially half over, and my having heard every notable metal album that was (or will be) released these first three months. Now seems like a good time to do some inventory and talk about some of my favorite ones. These are albums that were released domestically between January and March of 2011. So no bitching about why, say, Burzum isn’t on here. Not out until April.

If I had to pick a favorite record for the first third of 2011, SubRosa’s “No Help for the Mighty Ones” would get the nod
without question. This Utah-based band truly realized their potential on their third album, first for Profound Lore. Their last effort “Strega” (Released by I Hate) was in the “not bad” category, but they were missing a certain magic. They found it on this one. SubRosa consists of three female string players (Rebecca Vernon on guitar, Sarah Pendleton and Kim Pack on electric violin), and while Vernon is the primary voice, all contribute vocals. The rhythm section is all male (Dave Jones on bass and Zack Hatsis in drums). The eye-catching artwork puts all of those dynamics into play, which artist Glyn Smyth explains here: http://scrawleddesign.blogspot.com/2011/02/subrosa-no-help-for-mighty-ones.html. As for the music, it’s gothy, doomy, sludgy, dramatic and emotional. Opener “Borrowed Time, Borrowed Eyes” is my favorite track of the year so far, with a chorus that crescendos soulfully. Just a great record.

Ireland’s Darkest Era was discovered and signed to Metal Blade by Primordial frontman Alan “Nemtheanga” Averill, and hearing their debut “The Last Caress of Light,” there’s no questioning what turned him onto the band. While Primordial are angrier and blacker, Darkest Era tend to be more majestic and epic. It may sound lazy to suggest they fall more into the power metal realm, because that tends to make people think of cheesiness. And there’s none of that here. I guess let’s just call them traditional folk-infused classic heavy metal, the stuff to which you want to raise devil horns and sing back the raucous choruses. Frontman Dwayne “Krum” Maguire has a passionate, righteous delivery that’s always clean. No screaming and growling on this one. Musically, you’ll feel a blood rush and want to take up sword and shield and, once the battle is over, celebrate in the dining hall.

Fell Voices are a bit of a mystery. They don’t really bother to name all of their songs and tend to shy away from record titles. It’s frustrating. But it is what it is, and their new, two-track, untitled album (out on Gilead Media) is one of the most imaginative, riveting pieces of atmospheric black metal I’ve heard in some time. Sonically, it’s less harsh than their 2009 self-titled album (released on Human Resources) and is one of those pieces that you can digest while relaxing and reflecting. Describing the music is tough to do, to be honest. Both tracks are quite long, so there’s so much going on that trying to break it down is pointless. There is abrasion, violence, feelings of self-destruction (maybe that’s because the second untitled cut reminds me a bit of early Xasthur), with vocals here and there. That is, when you can even make out the human voices crying into the night. The record really made its impact on me one evening right after sunset while driving home, and the orange-washed, dark blue night sky was making its temporary presence known. Perfect soundtrack for the setting.

My Fell Voices review can be found here: http://v2.metalreviews.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=32

New Zealand’s Ulcerate play tricky, unforgiving death metal that delves into the human condition and the rigors of every-day life. When you can make out what they’re saying, it probably won’t make you feel like breaking out a cake and having a party. Unless it’s a “life blows, let’s burn some cities” type of party. Not sure they make invitations for that occasion. Anyhow, their third record “The Destroyers of All” (out on Willowtip) feels like a dark, moody storm settling in over your village, and instead of carrying onto rain down on another town, it stays for a long, long time. You’ll wonder if you’ll ever see the sun again. The seven songs require some strength on your part because they are long, violent and drubbing. The closing title cut, which runs 10:30, has its moments of openness, allowing you to breathe just a bit, but you find yourself suffocating again before too long, as the song burns out into the night. This is heavy, ugly, and brutal, the way death metal is supposed to be.

My Ulcerate review can be found here: http://www.metal-army.com/?p=17117

Quickly, here are some of my other favorites so far: Earth’s “Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1,” that continues their path of Americana-laced drone; Bruce Lamont’s solo effort “Feral Songs for the Epic Decline,” that’s kind of like a cosmic western; Abysmal Dawn’s “Leveling the Plane of Existence,” a charge of classic death metal with some riveting twists; Blood Ceremony’s “Living with the Ancients,” a doom rock slab that pays homage to the ’70s and lets leading siren Alia O’Brien become a bonafide star; Obscura’s “Omnivium,” a record that keeps their techy tendencies in tact but also adds more depth and humanity, which they’ve long been missing; naturally Trap Them’s “Darker Handcraft” and KEN mode’s “Venerable,” both of which we visited yesterday; and True Widow’s mesmerizing, slow-burning, Sonic Youth-nodding new album “As High as the Highest Heavens and From the Center to the Circumference of the Earth.” Say that 10 times really quickly.

We’ll do this again in June once we get through another quarter of the year. Looking promising so far are new ones from Batillus, Blut Aus Nord, Dark Castle (haven’t heard it yet), Demonaz, Burzum, Liturgy, Primordial (also haven’t heard it yet), Infestus and Explosions in the Sky.