William Tyler, Goes West (Merge Records, 2019)

By SoDak

While it is winter, and has been a bit cold, where I live, William Tyler’s Goes West makes me feel as if spring is here. In my mind, I can see the greens from daffodils emerging from the soil and hear birds chirping, as they feast on worms. There is a warmth that runs throughout these instrumental songs. Goes West is Tyler’s fourth solo record. His acoustic guitar remains at the center of all the songs, but a variety of other instruments accompany Tyler, making this a very full sounding record. The first song, “Alpine Star,” starts with the acoustic guitar, but it takes on a different vibe as the drums and bass join in, adding a slightly trippy bounce, similar to the feeling on some early songs by the Meat Puppets. On “Fail Safe,” there are wonderful moments where the acoustic and electric guitars merge and dance around each other. The sound on this record is expansive, allowing for contemplation and levity. The song, “Man in a Hurry,” is quite beautiful, even as the electric guitar creates a tension here and there. This record makes me happy that I have moments to enjoy music. 

Scott’s Musical Obsessions 2018

By Scott

In no particular order: 

Sleep, The Sciences (2018).

I was surprised when this album suddenly appeared last spring, but not all that surprised by how consistently appealing—and heavy!—it is. 

Neko Case, Hell-On (2018). 

For me, Case’s last album was meandering and underwhelming (although I get that it was more personal and restrained by design). This one feels like a huge improvement. 

Clutch, Book of Bad Decisions (2018). 

A little more padded out than 2015’s excellent Psychic Warfare—they could have shaved off three or four songs—but, as with pretty much any Clutch album, I’ll take it. 

Charles Lloyd and the Marvels and Lucinda Williams, Vanished Gardens (2018). 

It took me a little while to finally get this album—I wasn’t really familiar with Charles Lloyd or the band he’d assembled, which includes Bill Frisell and some other excellent musicians—but I’m very glad I finally did. Lucinda Williams’s recent albums have been excellent and the music here, a little drowsy but intricate, complements her voice perfectly, although Lloyd’s saxophone is the centerpiece. 

The Obsessed, Sacred (2017). 

I picked this up at the tail end of 2017 and listened to it straight through the year. 

Khemmis, Hunted (2016). 

Certain albums become attached to a particular memory, and, for me, this one forever belongs to a long train ride I took through upstate New York during a snowstorm last February. I think of Khemmis as a kind of ecumenical metal band that isn’t attached to one particular subgenre but doesn’t come across as random and eclectic either—they just kick ass. 

Elder, Reflections of a Floating World (2017).

I bought this on the strength of SoDak’s recommendation (and I think it appeared on a few other Ticklers’ year-end lists, too), so thank you for that! 

Jethro Tull, Heavy Horses (1978, 2018 Steven Wilson remix). 

I will admit that my interest in Jethro Tull this year was piqued by the series of remixes by Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree (in recent years, he’s remixed a whole bunch of classic prog albums in addition to Tull). I’ve had Aqualung since I was a kid but never really felt the need to dig deeper; now, I’m sorry I neglected this band for so long. 

Wes Montgomery, Movin’: The Complete Verve Recordings (2011). 

Montgomery is probably the best known jazz guitarist, and the albums he recorded for Verve include some of his most pop-oriented material, but if you’re ok with a little commercial smoothness and orchestration, this collection is a treasure trove of great stuff. Plus, it includes two fantastic albums with the organist Jimmy Smith and many bonus tracks. 

Best concert: Although I didn’t see too many in 2018, they were mostly excellent (Clutch, Richard Thompson, Sleep topping the list), but for sentimental reasons I will choose Slayer’s farewell tour with Anthrax, Testament, Lamb of God, and Behemoth. To my eternal shame, we missed Testament (not realizing how early they went on), but otherwise a great show. 

Jack Rafferty’s 2018 Album List

By Jack Rafferty

As the descent into late-capitalism hell continues to spiral like murky toilet water, another year graces us with its rear-end. The catharsis of music has never been more important. Give me your desolate sonic landscapes. Your echoing corridors of loss. Your empty skies and intimate, hollow darknesses. Dissonance and torturous beauty. Songs hued of vulture-shade. I need you. Here are but some. 

Note: I would be happy to write something about all of these, but I wouldn’t have this list finished until 2020 if that were the case. 

1. Rivers of Nihil, Where Owls Know My Name
2. Charlie Looker, Simple Answers
3. Thou, Magus/Rhea Sylvia/Inconsolable/The House Primordial/Let Our Names Be Forgotten (Split)
4. Daughters, You Won’t Get What You Want
5. Spires, A Parting Gift
6. Huntsmen, American Scrap
7. Khemmis, Desolation
8. Uada, Cult of a Dying Sun
9. Panopticon, The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness pt. I & II
10. Zeal and Ardor, Stranger Fruit
11. Bismuth, The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef
12. Cult Leader, A Patient Man
13. Sumac, Love in Shadow
14. Armand Hammer, Paraffin
15. The Ocean, Phanerozoic I: Paleozoic
16. Wayfarer, World’s Blood
17. Anaal Nathrakh, A New Kind of Horror
18. Imperial Triumphant, Vile Luxury
19. Haley Heynderickx, I Need to Start a Garden
20. Chapel of Disease, …And As We Have Seen the Storm, We Have Embraced the Eye
21. Slugdge, Esoteric Malacology
22. Psycroptic, As the Kingdom Drowns
23. Hypno5e, Alba - Les ombres errantes
24. Polyphia, New Levels New Devils
25. Voices, Frightened
26. Black Tongue, Nadir
27. Carla Bozulich, Quieter
28. LLNN, Deads
29. Rolo Tomassi, Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It
30. KEN Mode, Loved
31. Oceans of Slumber, The Banished Heart
32. Convulsing, Grievous
33. Ulthar, Cosmovore
34. None, Life Has Gone On Long Enough
35. Eartheria, Awaken the Sun
36. HamsferÐ, Támsins likam
37. Un, Sentiment
38. Alkaloid, Liquid Anatomy
39. Horizon Ablaze,  The Weight of a Thousand Suns
40. August Greene, August Greene
41. VOLA, Applause of a Distant Crowd
42. Mire, Shed
43. Sinistro, Sangue Cassia
44. 1914, The Blind Leading the Blind
45. Shake Stew, Rise and Rise Again
46. Monotheist, Scourge
47. Revocation, The Outer Ones
48. Kaoteon, Damnatio Memoriae
49. Turnstile, Time & Space
50. The Atlas Moth, Coma Noir
51. Mark Lanegan, Duke Garwood, With Animals
52. AILS, The Unraveling
53. Soul Grip, Not Ever
54. Sectioned,Annihilated 
55. The Aftermath, Vermine
56. Gorod, Aethra
57. Author and Punisher, Beastland
58. Street Sects, The Kicking Mule
59. Hissing, Permanent Destitution 
60. Manes, Slow Motion Death Sequence
61. Immortal, Northern Chaos Gods 
62. Jesus Piece, Only Self
63. Ihsahn, Ámr
64. Flood Peak, Plagued by Sufferers
65. Inferi, Revenant 
66. Moss Upon the Skull, In Vengeful Reverence
67. Irreversible Mechanism,Immersion
68. Harm’s Way, Posthuman
69. Anachronism, Orogeny
70. Conjurer, Mire

Eps

1. Sadistik, Salo Sessions pt. II

2. Marche Funebre/Eye of Solitude, Split

3. Truent, To End an Ancient Way of Life

4. Plini, Sunhead

5. Blame, Almanac

6. Nexilva, Aseity

7. Epiphany from the Abyss, Epiphany from the Abyss

8. Child, I

9. Eternal Rot, Cadaverine

10. Noose Rot, The Creeping Unknown

11. Idle Hands, Don’t Waste Your Time

Honorable Mentions 

These are in no particular order. If I liked it a lot, but it didn’t quite make the list, it’s here. 

Morrow, The Weight of These Feathers

Unflesh, Savior

Apophys, Devoratis

Dead Wretch, Hug Division Dead Wretch

Pale Divine, Pale Divine

Tomb Mold, Manor of Infinite Forms

Ion, A Path Unknown

Horrendous, Idol

Arsis, Visitant

Beyond Creation, Algorythm 

Exhaltants, Exhalants

Arakk, Under Sovnen

Jack White, Boarding House Reach

YOB, Our Raw Heart

Burial Invocation, Abiogenesis

Altars of Grief, Iris

Journal, Chrysalis Ordalias

Obliteration,Cenotaph Obscure

Augury, Illusive Golden Age

Micawber, Beyond the Reach of Flame

Soreption, Monuments of the Mind

Æpoch, Awakening Inception 

Madder Mortem, Marrow 

Monobody, Raytracing

Zealotry, At the Nexus of All Stillborn Worlds

Barús, Drowned

Mimicking Birds, Layers of Us

Denzel Curry, TA13OO

Voivod, The Wake

Wake, Misery Rites

Svalbard, It’s Hard To Have Hope

Amorphis, Queen of Time

Hate Eternal, Upon Desolate Sands

Aborted, TerrorVision

mol, Jord 

Ripped to Shreds, 埋葬

URSA, Abyss Between the Stars

Alghazanth, Eight Coffin Nails

Dautha, Brethren of the Black Soil

Sleep, The Sciences

Alterbeast, Feast 

Sulphur Aeon, The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos

Ulvesang, The Hunt

Horsewhip, Horsewhip

Obscura, Diluvium

Trollheims Grott, Aligned with True Death

Janelle Monae, Dirty Computer

Stortregn, Emptiness Fills the Void

J. Cole, KOD

Mammoth Grinder, Cosmic Crypt

Harakiri for the Sky, Arson

Fucked and Bound, Suffrage

Ataraxy, Where All Hope Fades

Outer Heaven, Realms of Eternal Decay

Spectral Wound, Infernal Decadence

Allelic, The Smoke of Atavistic Fires

Ivar Bjornson and Einar Selvik, Hugsja

Evidence, Whether or Not

Howling Sycamore, Howling Sycamore

All Traps on Earth, A Drop of Light

Coffin Birth, The Serpent Insignia

Vargrav, Netherstorm

SVNEATR, The Howl, The Whisper, The Hunt

Unreqvited, Stars Wept to the Sea

Chaos Echœs – Mouvement

Frontierer, Unloved

Infernal Coil, Within a World Forgotten

Other Notables

Of Feather and Bone, Beastial Hymns of Perversion

The Beast of Nod, Vampira: Disciple of Chaos

Lautreamont, Silence of the Deceased

Urze de lume,As Árvores Estão Secas e Não Têm Folhas

Weltschmerz, Illustra Nos

Black Wizard, Livin’ Oblivion

Mournful Congregation, The Incubus of Karma

Behemoth, I Loved You at Your Darkest

Skeletonwitch, Devouring Radiant Light

Emma Ruth Rundle, On Dark Horses

Oubliette, The Passage

The Crown, Cobra Speed Venom

The Dali Thundering Concept, Savages

Firtan, Okeanos

Between the Buried and Me, Automata I and II

Afgrund, The Dystopian

Good Tiger, We Will All Be Gone

Tribulation, Down Below

Portal, Ion

Modern Day Babylon, Coma

Vexes, Ancient Geometry

Them Moose Rush, Don’t Pick Your Nose

At the Gates, To Drink from the Night Itself

Pig Destroyer, Head Cage

Primordial, Exile Amongst the Ruins

Urfaust, The Constellatory Practice

Myopic, Myopic

Richard Spaven, Real Time

Outre Tombe, Necrovortex

Hooded Menace, Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed

Omnium Gatherum, The Burning Cold

Conan, Existential Void Guardian

Necrophobic, Mark of the Necrogram

Letters from the Colony, Vignette

Thy Catafalque, Geometria

Cauldron, New Gods

Susperia, The Lyricist

In Vain, Currents

Order ov Riven Cathedrals, Göbekli Tepe

Aviations, The Light Years

Sojourner, The Shadowed Road

Sun Speaker, Ov Lustra

Born to Murder the World, The Infinite Mirror of Millenial Narcissism 

Abyssal Torment, The Misanthrope

Midas Fall, Evaporate

Autokrator, Hammer of the Heretics

Antlers, Beneath.Below.Behold

Windhand, Eternal Return

Agrimonia, Awaken

Genocide Pact, Order of Torment

The Armed, Only Love

HAGO, HAGO 

The Sword, Used Future

GoGo Penguin, A Humdrum Star

Melvins, Pinkus Abortion technician

Golgothan Remains, Perverse Offerings to the Void

Knelt Rote, Alterity

SeeYouSpaceCowboy/SecondGradeKnifeFight, Split 

SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware

Apostle of Solitude, From Gold to Ash 

Dead Empires, Designed to Disappear

Scraps of Tape, The Will to Burn

Winterfylleth, The Hallowing of Heirdom