Best 5 releases so far this year and best five newer blogs.

Stereotypical music blogs tend to do these lists halfway through the year and then again at the end of the year however we don't abide by those rules and even stay up after midnight some days.

Here's my top five so far...

5)Testament - "Dark Roots of The Earth"

80's Bay Area thrashers with a solid album of melodic thrash that kicks sand at the questionable Big Four, there's even the odd ballad which is more imaginatively titled than "The Ballad" though the cover songs were unneeded.

4)Deadkill self-titled EP - nice old-time hardcore from Seattle

3)Absolute Monarchs "1" Blistering heavy indie pop from Seattle.

2)The Living Deadbeats s/t

Female fronted punk from Canada that hits all the right spots and bruises them.



1)The Hip Priests - Full Tilt Bullshit

On their facebook page, UK band The Hip Priests describe themselves as "the inbred, oversexed, white trash bastard sons of Iggy P, Johnny T, Uncle Hank, Lemmy and Handsome Dick" and that's an accurate description of their garage punk 'n'roll sound too.



Honourable Mentions: Buzzmutt - Static in the Mind's Eye Chpt 1 - I was tempted to rate this 5/5 on first listen and that doesn't happen too often.

Hosoi Bros - Wine Witch - fun rockin' 7".



As usual there's a tonne of stuff out there that I haven't heard and should but I keep going back to the music I already know I enjoy.



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Five top newer blogs - In no particular order

Angry Metal Guy Despite putting the Testament album in the top five of the year so far, I'll freely admit that I don't listen to that much new metal these days because so much of it is either black or death metal which don't do much for me. However this blog is worth a look because these guys concentrate on reviews and actually write well enough to describe an album's sound so that you don't need to hear it anyway. Their opinion pieces are always worth a read too.

Black Insect Laughter - Uk Blogger, Tony Maim, posts a variety of sludge, punk, post-Metal, hardcore, stoner etc..... his last few posts have been Hosoi Bros, Beastwars and his own project Zeppheroin - Naked Lunch


Two Guys Who Listen to Metal Ok, take a wild stab what this particular blog is about? Guess what? You're wrong! Ok, not really but this does take in more than just metal. There's punk, grunge, garage rock, hardcore, country and folk which is a wider range than the blog you are reading right now is ever likely to cover. These guys write more than just a couple of sentences to do the music justice.

Stonerhive - The name really tells all you need to know. It made me smile when I learned that there is an Italian band called the Bud Spencer Blues Explosion
. Can't help but wonder if that band dub their lyrics into other languages.

Le Garage Abandonne If you ever saw Lick My Pussy Eddie Van Halen - this blog is very similar and looks like it may be the same blogger. - Garage rock and punk records are the mainstay but there are more podcasts.




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