Well friends, it looks like there’s a technicality issue with this year’s TFFH. I thought I’d be all set to go with Clamfight‘s righteous Vol. 1 at number five, but I got this comment from guitarist Sean on the original post:

To clarify, the CD has not been officially released, we are aiming to have it out for a release show in Philly on August 13th with some incredible bands. We’ve been doling out home-burned copies to a select few and some songs will be up for download on the various sites shortly.

August clearly is not June, and since this is the Top Five of the First Half of 2010, Vol. 1 is hereby disqualified.

Controversy! I’ll give you a second to gasp…

Now that the shock has (hopefully) subsided, we can deal with the issue on a practical level. We all know Clamfight‘s Vol. 1 will be seen again at the end of the year, so it’s not worth crying about that, and obviously this change is no value judgment on the record — which, let me emphasize, fucking rules — but if I include a record that won’t be out until August on this list, then I’d have to include stuff like the new Zoroaster too, which comes out in July, and that’s not really what the TFFH about.

Without further ado, here is the revised Top Five of the First Half of 2010:
1. Asteroid, II
2. Solace, A.D.
3. Ufomammut, Eve
4. Fatso Jetson, Archaic Volumes
5. The Wounded Kings, The Shadow over Atlantis

There. Now we can all dance like Ewoks and be happy that the list is fair and only includes albums which were released in the first six months of the year. Honorable mentions go out to Apostle of Solitude, The Brought Low, Sasquatch and Brant Bjork, any of whom could have been on this list easily.

With that cleared up, that’s it for the 2010 TFFH. If you’ve got a list of your own, leave a comment and let me know what I’ve been missing.

A quick search on this site and you’ll see almost immediately that I’ve barely been able to even mention the word Sweden in the last, oh, seven or eight months, without accompanying it with the word Asteroid. Very quickly, the Örebro trio have become a touchstone to which I compare almost every act from their home country, fairly or unfairly — it certainly applies more to Blowback than Barren Earth — and because I’ve gone back to it for more repeat listens than anything else in 2010, their second album, II, is my number one pick for the first half of the year.

Even after reviewing the disc and interviewing bassist/vocalist Johannes Nilsson, I’m blown away by the natural feel of the record. If you take the time to listen to II, the songs begin to seep into your consciousness, and I think a big part of that comes from how well balanced the production is. Songs like “Edge” and “Time” might sound simple your first time through, but examine the depth of the arrangements, the vocal interplay between Nilsson and guitarist Robin Hirse, the personality behind the drumming of Elvis Campbell and the flowing but distinguishable jams that permeate the tracks, and you’ll hear an organic clarity that few bands can affect on a recording. Asteroid make it seem easy.

It’s a cliche among music fans: “I haven’t taken it out of my player since I got it.” Obviously that’s not true or there’d be a serious dearth of reviews around here, but safe to say that Asteroid‘s II has gone back in said player more times than anything else in 2010. After finally buying a full copy of the record and seeing the gorgeously intricate cut digipak packaging, my appreciation went even further. Every part of this album is uniquely Asteroid, from the music on.

What it all boils down to is that my enjoyment of II has only increased with the number of times I’ve heard it. It’s far from the highest profile release in terms of the promotional machine, but for me, it’s the richest, most satisfying listen I’ve come across this year, and since it came out in January, I’ve had plenty of time to get tired of it and it hasn’t happened yet. Had II not been my number one pick, this whole list would be a sham.

It just occurred to me that, along with Fatso Jetson‘s Archaic Volumes, Solace‘s A.D. is the second album on this list to have taken seven years to complete. Sure, Solace had the The Black Black EP in between, but for studio full-lengths, 13 came out in 2003. It’s hard to believe A.D. is only Solace‘s third album. Seems like at this point they have more DVDs out than CDs.

Nevertheless, the New Jersey natives have, at long last, released the album, and it’s some of the best recorded doom and roll I’ve witnessed in a long time. In February, when I joined guitarists Tommy Southard and Justin Daniels for the mixing session at Mad Oak Studios in Allston, Massachusetts, and I first got to hear the tracks, I was blown away by how powerful the material sounded. Yes, it was recorded over a span of years at different sessions, but at no point does A.D. sound hodgepodge or like it’s the product of one big cut and paste.

Those who were waiting for A.D. know now it was worth the time. I still get a chill up my spine whenever I listen to “From Below,” and cuts like “Six Year Trainwreck” and “Za Gamman” are great examples of why Solace have made such a name for themselves in the doom underground. Yeah, they’re from Jersey and so am I, so there’s a regional loyalty there, but I defy you to listen to A.D. and find me a better doom album that’s come out this year. It doesn’t exist.

The only reason it’s not number one on this list is it hasn’t been out as long as my number one pick and I factor in listens over time so as to offset the novelty of the more recent releases (it’s a very complex system). Without that, A.D. would be my number one for sure, as Solace have made a defining point of an album that I’ve no doubt will prove a landmark in years to come. And it’s good, too.

Sometimes, when I listen to Italian drone metallers Ufomammut‘s fifth album, Eve, I feel a little silly. I mean, what’s the point of anything after a record so unstoppably huge? With just one 45-minute song, the trio have managed to engineer a cannibalistic apocalypse so vivid that it’s impossible for me to come out of hearing the album without feeling like someone’s been gnawing on my leg.

Because, seriously, what is Eve if not the sound of humanity eating itself into oblivion? From the second I heard it, I knew it was going to be one of the best records to come out in 2010, and to be honest, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if, come list time at the end of this year, it’s higher than number three. It just feels so much like the culmination of everything Ufomammut have been driving toward. It’s their Dopesmoker.

The drone, the ungodly thickened tones, the immense room of it — it seems like Eve‘s sonic reach is endless and ever-expanding, and it’s one of those records where every time I hear it, I hear something new. And at this point, I’ve heard it plenty. It’s my go-to driving record for late at night when the road is empty and I’m tired and alone on the highway and there’s nothing to do but space out and be hypnotized until I can get back to the valley, roll down the windows and watch the stars die.

I thought 2008’s Idolum was as far as Ufomammut could go stylistically — and had they put out another record in that vein, I probably wouldn’t be complaining about it in the slightest — but with Eve, they’ve propelled themselves to a different realm entirely and are among the upper echelon of doomed innovators the world over. Easily one of the year’s best.

Few and far between are the albums I’ll hear these days and have to listen to on repeat over and over again the way small children watch Disney movies. Not that I don’t like what I’m hearing, it just doesn’t happen that often. You get older, your tastes change and the way you listen to music changes.

Fatso Jetson‘s long awaited Archaic Volumes, however, is a record I just can’t enough of. I don’t doubt that it would be higher on this list had it come out earlier in the year, but even so, for the sheer amount of times I’ve been back and forth from “Jet Black Boogie” to “Monoxide Dreams,” I feel like my feet have worn in the path.

I’ve already reviewed Archaic Volumes and posted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Mario Lalli, but I think if there’s anything left to be said about the album, it’s in the area of the tightness between players, especially drummer Tony Tornay and bassist Larry Lalli, who comprise one of the sickest rock rhythm sections I’ve ever heard. Not only are they in lockstep as regards the songs, but each player presents a unique personality in what they do that just pushes Archaic Volumes head and shoulders above other records that have come along in 2010.

If you haven’t heard it yet, consider this yet another recommendation to do so (that’s pretty much the point of this list anyway, right?), because Fatso Jetson‘s Archaic Volumes is one of those right-idea-right-time albums that you just won’t be able to leave alone. Definitely one of this year’s best releases, and well worth the seven years it took to get it out.

It’s a rare band that can blend brutality and groove, good times and hard hits, and Clamfight do it so well they couldn’t have been born to do anything else. The New Jersey clan’s first full-length outing, Vol. 1, was years in the making and riffs has hard, rumbles as deep and crashes as loud as anything I’ve heard this year.

Plus, it has the kind of artwork where you might see it in a store, buy it for a kid because it looks adorable and then scar said child for life with “Fuck Bulldozers” or “Viking Funeral.” And, as we all know, any music that induces trauma in the young is a good thing. Childrens could use a kick in the ass.

But even that’s not what ultimately got Clamfight on the TFFH10 list. And it’s not the fact that I know them either. What ultimately did it was a song like “Ghosts I Have Known,” which in addition to being concrete heavy is also a display of the band’s songwriting prowess. Sure, we can all get down with the pummel of “Rabbit,” and that’s a great time, but there’s more to Vol. 1 than that, and it’s right there for anyone willing to hear it.

Because this was an album that I’d waited for, and because it’s one that, even after the review, I’ve gone back to time and again for what I’ve pathetically come to classify as “enjoyment listens,” I’m glad to have Clamfight‘s Vol. 1 on my top five of the first half of 2010.

There are always going to be those people who say, “Oh, there’s nothing good out now and I only like stuff from 1987 blah blah blah,” and those people have usually just missed the point. I think, any way you want to look at it, 2010 has kicked some serious ass so far.

Not only did we finally get a new Solace record, but with albums from High on Fire, Sasquatch, Darkthrone, Cathedral, The Brought Low, Ufomammut, Asteroid, Brant Bjork, Nachtmystium, The Wounded Kings, Karma to Burn, Apostle of Solitude and (apparently) Anathema, but there’s still more to come from the likes of Zoroaster, Firebird and Grand Magus, so it’s no fluke.

Today is June 15, halfway through the sixth of the 12 months, so I figured there wasn’t a better time to start revealing my top five of the first half of 2010. It was rough putting together the list, because there’s a lot of good stuff, but in the end it came down (as always) to what I keep going back to hear over and over.

So, with that said, I hope you enjoy this year’s TFFH. We’ll begin shortly with number five…