The last couple months have been pretty consistent in terms of the numbers, and that’s more than cool by me. If the people who find this site amidst all the rest of its ilk on the intertubes think it’s worth coming back again, that’s the best I can possibly hope for. I’m not much for promotions, and it’s only me operating this thing, so yeah, I’m all the gladder when things hold up as well as they have been.

Also cool is that we topped last month’s numbers. Only by about 500, but in one less day (June being a 30-day month), so that works out to be up a bit per day. In total, as you can see above, there were 218,240 page views for June. As of this post, there are 737 registered users on the forum, where there are 34,269 posts in 2,449 topics. General Discussion alone has 28,650 posts, and it’s hard not to be stoked on that.

There were visits in June from 118 countries, including the Sudan, Angola, Uganda, Cambodia and every country in South America except Suriname. Hey, Suriname, what the hell, dude?

The US and UK still led the pack, with Canada, Germany and Australia behind. In the US, New York City had the most visits, but California won out overall among the states, and Oregon saw a jump too (it beat Massachusetts), which isn’t really all that surprising since it seems like every other band I’m writing about these days is from Portland. My own beloved Garden State came in seventh.

Good fun, and much thanks to all. I can’t even tell you how much nerdy glee I get from seeing these numbers and seeing the different countries, regions and cities. Needless to say, plenty.

Let’s do a little business:

audiObelisk: I owe a podcast, and the plan is to have one up before I come back to work on Tuesday. As of right now, I don’t really have a theme, but rest assured, I’ll spend the weekend obsessing over it and something will hopefully be posted by Monday night.

The Maple Forum: There are 19 copies left of Blackwolfgoat‘s Dronolith. If you want one, buy it here. I saw Darryl play this week in NYC and it was killer. I was going to write it up but lost track of time. I’ll probably post some pictures anyway in the next couple days.

Live reviews: It killed me to miss Sleep in June, but so it goes. If I can get away with it, I’ll go see Sourvein at the Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn next Friday (Kings Destroy are also playing). Even if I don’t make that, though, I’ll be at YOB/Dark Castle on July 12 and Truckfighters/Kings Destroy/Blue Aside/Borracho at the Cake Shop in Manhattan on the 15th. The next weekend, The Patient Mrs. and I are roadtripping to Detroit to investigate a possible move down the line. I hope to catch Clutch in Flint while I’m there.

Album reviews: Okay, let me do the count. As of my list today, I’m 38 reviews in the hole. I’ve started to turn people away in my email, which it physically disgusts me to do, but it’s gotten to the point where I feel like I can’t do albums justice by saying yes to everything, and if people are going to take the time and spend the money to send me a CD, they deserve the best I can give. All I have here is my work and I need to be able to stand by it. Which I do. So if you get an email from me that says I can’t review your stuff, or if it takes me forever to answer you at all, please don’t take it personally.

Features: Well, we just wrapped the Top Five of the First Half of 2011, if you missed that. This month, I hope to nail down interviews with The Book of Knots, YOB and Sigiriya. I’ll also have Six Dumb Questions with Sons of Alpha Centauri and (although I haven’t hit them up yet about it), Borracho, whose album I just reviewed today. Ben Smith and Bob Russell from The Brought Low were kind enough to send me a track-by-track on their new EP — it’s hilarious and should be up next week — and at some point I want to revisit last year’s top 10 and see which of those records I still give a crap about. That should be interesting.

And of course there’ll be the usual stuff as well: news, track premieres, Ons the Radar, Burieds Treasure and the rest. I’m about to sign off before my head drops on the keyboard from being so god damned tired, but before I split out of the office, I want to say thanks one more time to everyone who reads, comments, emails, capital-L Likes posts, or any of it. It’s huge, and it’s awesome, and it’s more important to me than I feel comfortable saying. So thank you. You. Right there. Thank you.

Onward,
JJ Koczan
Housekeeping Porcupine Taskmaster

I’m not a sentimental person by nature, not the type to look back and say “remember when?” — except perhaps in cases of bitching — but I just wanted to take a second and mark this as the 2,000th entry I’ve done on The Obelisk. Pretty sure I had no idea on January 31, 2009, when I put up the first test post what was going to happen 1,999 posts later. Hard to remember what I was feeling, other than pissed at being recently-laid-off, but yeah, here we are.

Thanks as always to everyone for reading. I know some of you have been with it since the beginning, and if that’s you, or even if you just stumbled on this site while Googling to find out what happened to StonerRock.com, found this post, and aren’t ever coming back, it’s appreciated. Obviously more in the case of the former than the latter, but whatever. There have been days where this site has been my only reason for getting out of bed. Here’s to the next couple thousand posts to come.

Well, there they be. We were up a bit from April, which was good, and between May 1 and 31, 2011, The Obelisk received a whopping 217,772 page views. I continue to be amazed. April was an exhausting month, May was too and June doesn’t look like it’s going to be any different, but it’s great to know people out there are checking in on the site and hopefully getting some use out of it.

I’m supposed to leave in about an hour to catch Ghost in NYC, and I have a shit-ton of work to do before I do that, so I’ll make this quick. The 217,772 page views came from an astounding 125 countries. Most visits were American (the UK was second), with California dwarfing New York, despite NYC having the single most city hits. In the “faraway places with one hit each” category are Bahrain, Oman, Montenegro, the Palestinian Territories, Kyrgyzstan and, Azerbaijan. Wherever you are, hi from Jersey.

If you kept up with the battle from last month between Finland and Sweden, then you’re probably Swedish. This month, Sweden was up 628 to Finland‘s 488. Yes, Finns, I know, I should have interviewed Amorphis, and for that, I apologize. I’ll see what I can do to rectify the situation as promptly as possible.

As I write now, there are a total of 700 members registered on the forum, with 2201 topics on all the boards and 30,399 total posts. If you haven’t registered yet, go for it. Rumor is they’re starting pantsless Thursdays on there and moderation is nil. Internet chicanery at its finest.

Let’s get down to business:

audiObelisk: I owe a podcast, and I know that. I’m away most of this weekend and I can’t seem to stop working until like 7PM every day, so it could be next weekend before it’s up. I put a poll on the forum to see what people wanted it to be, and a heavy psych theme is currently kicking “all-Black Sabbath“‘s ass, so unless the tide turns before the poll ends, that’s what we’ll roll with whenever we can roll with it. As soon as possible.

In the meantime, tomorrow I’m going to post an album from a band called Ex that rules, so make sure you check in to catch that.

Reviews: I’m still behind. Woo hoo. In the next month, you’ll see reviews of Ulver, Zombi, Dark Castle, the Melvins, Tank86, The Book of Knots, Nero Order, Lord Vicar, Zombi, and many more. Tomorrow is Orthodox. After that is Clutch. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine, but there’s a whole pile of stuff that needs to get done and so help me Robot Jesus, I’ll get there.

Features: Having Karl Simon from The Gates of Slumber pick out his favorite Saint Vitus tracks ruled. If you have any ideas for other features like that, let me know. I’d love to make more of that happen. In the meantime, I’ll have interviews coming up this month with Sourvein (that should be by the end of this week, next week at the latest), artist David D’Andrea, Witch Mountain, and more.

The Maple Forum: If you look at the frontpage of this site right now, you should be pretty well informed of what’s happening with The Maple Forum. The Blackwolfgoat album, Dronolith, fucking rules (thank you for emailing in your comments on it), and is available here. I have 25 copies left. Clamfight just issued a studio update on the recording of their next full-length, and of course we’ll have more on that as they get closer to finishing and we get closer to the release. And in case you didn’t see it, Kings Destroy killed when they played with The Gates of Slumber and Orange Goblin this past weekend. You can get their record here or here.

Live reviews: Not much news here, but I hope you’ve been digging the photos. Like I said, tonight I’m going to see Ghost in Manhattan, and then this weekend is Sea of Bones, Curse the Son and King of Salem (among others) at Fuzz Fest in Connecticut, so fun abounds. Looking forward to it.

That’s about the long and short of that. I think the air conditioning in my office has been shut off (pretty sure it’s on a timer), so I’m in a hurry to move it along with the evening, but thank you for reading, commenting, posting, whatever you’ve been doing, this month. Keep doing it. I think there’s something cool happening here and the momentum going into this summer is excellent. I can’t wait to see where this all ends up.

As always, much appreciated,
JJ Koczan
Halving Piecemeal Taskmaster

I knew the April numbers would be down from March. It’s getting warmer, people are on the computer less, and as we’re still up by nearly 10 times what we did in April last year, I’m not at all about to start complaining. Thank you all for reading and for commenting, registering on the forums, lurking, whatever. It all makes a difference, and I mean it.

The numbers for this month alone were 211,114 page views. As of this post, there are 664 registered users on the forum and a total of 26,753 posts, with 22,243 in General Discussion. That rules, no doubt about it, but what’s even cooler is that in just this last week, we passed the one-million mark for 2011. Between January 1 and April 30, 2011, The Obelisk received 1,028,995 page views, Unbelievable. I don’t even know what to say about it other than “awesome,” so I’ll stick with that. Awesome.

But back to April and the matter at hand. The map shows hits from all 50 states and 116 other countries around the world. In the US, California trounced New York 5,422 to 3,202, and in a close battle I’ve been watching for at least the last two weeks, Finland beat out Sweden by 682 visits to 678. Oh Sweden, you already got your own podcast. What else must I do?

There were hits from Uganda, Kenya, Uruguay, Senegal, the city of Shanghai, one from Afghanistan, one from Mongolia, one from Uzbekistan, and over 4,000 from the UK. Yes, the UK beat out the major urban metropolis less than 25 minutes from where I’m sitting. Go figure.

Lots to talk about and I’m short on time, so here goes:

Reviews: Can we talk seriously for a second? Does anyone read the reviews on this site other than the bands involved? It’s okay to say they’re too long, or they’re too wordy, I can take it. I’m starting to wonder if they need to be toned down. I don’t want people to go all glassy-eyed every day when I start a post with an album cover. That’s not what I’m shooting for here. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, if you’d be so kind, and in case you’re keeping track, I’m about 35 reviews in the hole, which is better than last month’s 40. By about five.

Features: Well, Justin Broadrick of Jesu/Godflesh is this week, and at some point after I write up the questions I’ll have an email interview with artist David D’Andrea, as well as Six Dumb Questions with Nether Regions, and there are a few other things in the works. I’ve had horrible luck in doing so in the past (I’m not even going to give you the link), but I’m trying to set up a chat with someone from Orange Goblin about their return to American shores, so we’ll see how that goes, and I want to get Lo-Pan and Sourvein going too over the next couple weeks, so stay tuned. Now that the spring semester is over, I’ll hopefully have a little more time to set these things up so I don’t get so backlogged like I have been.

The Maple Forum: As previously reported, I’m expecting the Blackwolfgoat CDs this Wednesday, and I very much look forward to their arrival. I haven’t talked to the Clamfight dudes in a couple weeks (it was kind of nuts leading up to the end of the term, doubly so with the Roadburn trip), but so far as I know they’re scheduled to start recording soon, so I’ll have updates on that as well. Kings Destroy are going to be playing this month with Orange Goblin and Naam in NYC at Santos Party House, and although I’m sold out of it, you can get their album, And the Rest Will Surely Perish from the band here, or at All That is Heavy at this location. Like all the best things in life, it is cheap and wonderful.

audiObelisk: I’ve been doing more single-track stuff, and that seems to be going decently well. Hopefully you’ve been enjoying it. This month’s podcast, now off the frontpage (download it here or by clicking the banner in the sidebar on the right), has surpassed in a week what the last one did in more than a month, so that’s a cool sign. Glad people are listening to that, as it’s pretty much a day’s worth of work to make. But fun, like all this crap.

Roadburn: No news here, but I wanted to take a second to reiterate my appreciation to everyone who took the time to read the posts from Roadburn in The Netherlands this past month. If you missed it, all the posts are here, but if you already saw the writeups and the pics, thank you again for bothering to look it up at all. I had a blast over there once again and hope to make it over in 2012, but you never know what a year will bring, and either way, it means a lot to me to know someone other than The Patient Mrs. and two other people saw it. Not that it doesn’t mean a lot that The Patient Mrs. and those two other people did, but you know what I’m saying. Extra special thanks to Walter one more time.

I guess that’s pretty much what I have to say to everyone too. Thanks. I don’t mind admitting that this spring semester — even more than the fall one, which I didn’t think would be possible — demolished my sorry ass. Seriously, it was not pretty. I’ve got to head to my last class of the term in about 10 minutes though, and it occurs to me just how much The Obelisk is what I wake up for every day. Yeah, I have to be at work, yeah, I have to be at school (obligations of my own doing, and I don’t want to seem like I’m complaining about either, because I’ve got it pretty good as regards both), but it’s the chance to write and gradually shape this site over time into what it’s become that I really consider to be most pivotal, and you should know you’re a huge part of that. A much bigger part than I am.

So yeah, thanks again. All my best to you as spring turns to summer, and whether you’re inside on the computer or outside living what I’ve heard referred to as “real life,” I hope all is well on your end and that if I can be of any service one way or another, you’ll please let me know.

Much appreciated,
JJ Koczan
Half-Timbered Protestant Taskmaster

We were up a bit in March, and by “a bit,” I mean 44,000 page views ahead of February’s numbers. That’s encouraging to see. I don’t know what to say. Things are cool right now. I’m breaking my ass to keep the blog side of the site updated, with work, school and “real life” (whatever that’s about) taking up a goodly portion of my every day, but something like this makes me feel like it’s worth my time to do so, so thanks. I’ll keep showing up as long as you will. Probably longer, but only in that “tragic fall from grace can’t let go” kind of way. Cue the sad music.

The Obelisk received an astounding 284,538 page views for the month of March 2011. As of the writing of this post, there are 23,541 posts and 621 registered members on the forum. The General Discussion board alone has 979 topics, and the new TV/Movies Discussion has already passed Live Reviews in both topics and posts. I guess people watch more tv than they go to shows. Probably better for keeping their jobs, which I can relate to.

Looking at the map, the site had visits from all 50 states — doubled the Wyoming numbers going from 3 to 6 — and 115 other countries around the globe, including the much-in-the-news Libya, Syria and Iraq. There were also hits from all over the South American continent, including Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile and Peru. In the US, sunny California gave not-nearly-as-sunny New York a vicious spanking. Not even close. A special “hello” to whoever checked in from Napa. I liked Napa.

Alright. We’ve got business to handle and this is the last thing on my to-do list before I can go home for the weekend, so let’s get to it:

Kings Destroy: I’m putting them first for a reason. I have FOUR (4!) copies of the album left. I’ve been saying all along, and it’s been true all along, but never quite so much as now: if you want one (and you do), get one while you can. You can buy from the link in the sidebar, or the official Maple Forum shop.

The Maple Forum: Well, you already saw the store link, but here it is again, just in case. Monday or Tuesday I’ll be officially announcing that forum030, the third release, will be Blackwolfgoat. Figure I’ll let the cat out of the bag early for anyone who reads this far and give the details after the weekend. As with Clamfight — the impending forum040, in case you missed it — we’ll be working with the good people at Earsplit PR (site here) on the Blackwolfgoat record, so there will be plenty of information to come, including the release date. Like everything else so far, it will be a limited edition pressing.

audiObelisk: The latest podcast seems to have been reasonably well received, and we’ve had two track premieres in the last two days (here and here), so I guess there’s no shortage of activity there, which is fun. Music on a music blog — who’d have thought? These things seem to be a measure of the webublog hierarchy these days, so while the likes of Stereokiller and MetalSucks get the big first tracks, I’m happy just to be included where and when I am. Hopefully there will be more of that stuff going forward.

Features: My interview with American Heritage will go up next week (it just has to!), and after that I have Hour of 13 and Graveyard in the can. I kind of went nuts with interviews in February, but I’m almost caught back up, so I’ll get on setting up more phoners one of these days. I apparently just don’t know what to do with myself if I’m not buried nostril-deep in work. Speaking of…

Reviews: Remember how last month I said I was 30 reviews in the hole? Well, after a month of hard work and perseverance, I’ve managed to whittle that down… to 38. I’m an idiot.

Again, if you’re waiting on a review, your patience is appreciated. In April, we’ll have discs from Liturgy, Megasus, Against Nature, The Osedax, Bong and more, but I just can’t do more than one of these reviews a day (did you see that Pentagram writeup???), so thanks for sitting tight.

Roadburn: I fly out to The Netherlands on Wednesday, April 13, to attend, and write about, and photograph, this year’s Roadburn festival at the 013 Popcentrum in Tilburg. If you’re going, I hope to see you there. I’m the guy drooling over all the merch and shelling out Euro after Euro for the espresso machine, for future reference.

Visual Archive: Basically, it comes down to Slevin being busy at work and me not wanting to bother him. That’s really the holdup on the process. I was thinking of making a board on the forum for live photography and poster/album art in the meantime, as a kind of compromise, but I need to see how far along he is with the coding and if that’s just completely undercutting work and time he’s already put in, which of course is not what I want to do. One way or the other, we’ll get there.

That’s enough out of me. If you’re reading this (and even if you’ve stopped reading already and gone to get a sandwich or do whatever it is people do when they’re not sitting in front of computers), thank you, thank you, thank you. And thank you, too. For commenting, for posting on the forums, for correcting my factual and typographical errors, for liking stuff on that Facebook thing I keep hearing so much about. All of it. Really. Thank you.

More to come,

JJ Koczan
Hoax Poke Taskmaster

The post-StonerRock.com settling process continues, and while I’m sorry to say it doesn’t look like The Obelisk is going to be getting 300,000 page views every month, I’m extremely thrilled to see there’s a real community developing on the forums and people are beginning to relax and post freely about whatever they feel like. As I’ve said all along since I started the blog more than two years ago, it’s a learning process. We’re still growing.

As of this post, there are 556 registered users for said forums, 762 topics in General Discussion and a total of 18,646 posts on all the boards. Compelling numbers, and if you’re a part of them, thanks, but if you’re just lurking and checking out what other people have to say, thanks too. Whatever. I’m just glad people are interested and I’m not posting to myself.

The Obelisk as a whole had an astounding 240,152 page views for February, with visits from all 50 states and 111 other countries around the world. People checked in from everywhere from Guyana to Kenya, Turkmenistan to Mongolia. In the US, California once again beat New York for the most visitors, and there were a whopping three hits from Wyoming. I’m pretty sure that’s either Dick Cheney or Kevin Costner, as between the two of them they own most of the state, so hi to whichever it is.

No matter where you come from, thank you for checking out the site, or for reading, or for coming back, or for leaving a comment to a review or anything else. Anything. It’s easy to forget because that’s the nature of the intertubes, but I’m an actual human being, sitting at a keyboard, typing this. And when I say that your involvement means a lot to me, please know that I’m sincere.

There’s a lot to come in the next month and I’m pressed for time (which seems to be eternally the case these days), so let’s get to business:

Poster/Live Photo Archive: File this under “coming soon.” As a kind of third-arm extension of The Obelisk and another way to kill time looking at stuff to blow off work, I’m looking this month to launch a user-contributed live photo and poster archive. If you’re signed up for the forums, you’ll be able to post pictures and/or show fliers for concerts big and small, or just click through and browse as you will. Slevin (bless his heart) is working on the hard coding now, and hopefully within the next month or so we’ll be ready to go. Accordingly, I hope to integrate the visual side more with the regular blog, as you can see in recent live reviews and the interview with artist Brian Mercer. Look for more stuff like that to come.

Kings Destroy: Have tour dates posted. If you missed them, they’re here. They’ll be in Florida this weekend and they have a couple killer shows in New York coming up as well. I just sold another copy of And the Rest Will Surely Perish, and so have 11 left. You can buy it using the PayPal link in the sidebar or in with the tour dates.

The Maple Forum: Kind of up in the air at this point. The next release was going to be from killer Massachusetts rockers Cortez, but they might be working with another label now instead (can’t really blame them, given my lack of distribution), and I got the second album from Darryl Shepard‘s drone project Blackwolfgoat for consideration, but now he’s got a new band going and I’m not sure what’s up with that. I’ve put out feelers for a couple acts, and I’m hoping things come together for a Clamfight full-length release on The Maple Forum over the summer, but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if some other label snapped them up as well, what with all their unapologetic ass-kickery. We’ll see how it goes.

Reviews: As of today, I am no less than 32 records in the hole for reviews. That means I’ve got 32 items on my “Review to Do” list here on my desk and a couple more at home waiting to be added. I’m sorry if you’re waiting on one, if you’re in a band or are a PR or label representative. Please know I’m doing the best I can, but part of really wanting to get to know a record before I review it and wanting to give each album its fair due means it takes time. There’s a long line, but in the next month, expect reviews of Grand Magus, The Glasspack, The Machine, Grails, Nether Regions, Baby Woodrose, SubRosa and more. I’ll keep trying to do one a day and hopefully that’ll wear down the pile some, but if you’ve been waiting, that’s why.

Interviews: If all goes according to plan, Wo Fat will be posted before this week is out, and I’ve also got Suplecs, Shroud Eater, Red Fang and American Heritage in the can. Bit of a backup there as well, but some really cool chats that I think are worth the wait, and a few new Six Dumb Questions features too. Those are always fun.

audiObelisk: I owe you a March podcast. This past weekend was basically dedicated to homework and this weekend I have more work to do and less time to do it. Maybe Sunday evening I can put it together, but it might be another week before it goes up. In the meantime, there’s a lot of killer sounds lately from the likes of The Flying Eyes (new song), Rwake (reissue stream) and Hour of 13 (new singer demos) to keep busy with. Look for new Godstopper and Black Cowgirl shortly.

Alright, that’s enough news. Time to get back to work and start transcribing that Wo Fat interview so hopefully I can get out of the office by 10PM tonight. Here’s to the night shift.

Thank you for reading and being a part of this.

JJ Koczan
Hobbledehoy Pragmatist Taskmaster

My friends, it’s a whole new day. We’ve switched hosting companies, and two years in, I feel like The Obelisk is a brand new website. You’ll notice the banner atop the page says “No Longer Under the Command of General Error,” and if you’ve tried to get to the forum in the last couple days, you know what that means. We were simply getting too big for Yahoo to handle, and the site kept crashing as a result.

With the new host, not only do the blog and the forum stay operational, but they’re both also much, much faster. Posts go up quicker, you don’t have to wait as long for things to load, and most importantly, the forum doesn’t take a shit every time more than 15 people are on it. I couldn’t be more stoked. I’ve been nerding out to my new webmail interface all afternoon.

Now, the numbers. Being off Yahoo‘s hosting means we’re also off their count for page views. Google is now the official count, and they put it at 293,161 for January, which is pretty damn good. I expected some settling down after December’s chaos, the demise of StonerRock.com, repopulating album reviews, etc., and what’s also killer is that more than 30 percent of those page views were from new visitors. Hopefully if you were one of those people, you saw something here that made you want to come back.

According to the map, The Obelisk got visits from all 50 states again (California once more beating out New York) and 119 other countries, including Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan. I don’t want to take full credit for the rise of democratic rebellion in those nations and elsewhere in that part of the world, but I’m sure the hearty debate taking place every day in General Discussion played no small part.

Seriously though, these are beautiful places that I probably won’t ever see with my own eyes, and I thank you all for checking in to see what’s happening here. My mind is continually blown.

Even after losing some posts in the server switch, at the time of this writing, the forums have 502 registered members, 1,023 topics and 14,173 total posts and counting. Unreal.

Let’s do some business:

audiObelisk: Before the week is out, I hope to be streaming a track from The Georgian Skull‘s new album, as well as the entirety of the second Hour of 13 record, which is up for reissue on Earache this month. This month’s podcast is killer as well. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, you should.

The Maple Forum: Well, the third Maple Forum release is kind of on hold while the band entertains offers from… uh… better labels. Maybe affirms my good taste, but it doesn’t do much for giving me stuff to announce. I’ve got 35 copies of the Kings Destroy disc left and I have the feeling a few more are about to go. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, use the Paypal button in the sidebar or click here.

I still have a couple things on the docket for later this year, so stay tuned for announcements to come.

New Stuff: I have a couple ideas for new sections of the blog. If I’m feeling brave, I might try and implement one or more of them in the next month. Like the dude who’s taken six years to put out his next album, I don’t want to force anything and want to see how it all happens naturally.

Interviews: Wino goes up tomorrow or Thursday, depending on time and, honestly, the weather and whether or not I have class tomorrow. Also in the can at this point are Weedeater, Earth and Wo Fat, and I’ve got chats lining up with Suplecs and Shroud Eater among others not yet confirmed or spill-beansable. Good stuff coming though.

Reviews: Crowbar, Tia Carrera, God Ox, Desert Storm, The Devil Rides Out, Grayceon — there are a lot to come. I still have that Agalloch too that’s been sitting around for ever. They’re not hurting for hype, but hopefully I’ll get there.

Where to Start: I like that these always get a good response. If all goes according to plan, I should have another up by the end of this week. Next week at the latest.

It’s been kind of a crazy winter so far with snowstorms, downtime for the forums, my semester starting and all kinds of crap going on, but I hope February settles down a little. Shows this month with Wino/Scott Kelly and the aforementioned Agalloch and Weedeater should keep things interesting either way. I also bought a new camera, so maybe my pictures won’t suck so much anymore.

Or, more likely, they’ll still suck, but with more megapixels.

The Obelisk is two years old today.

Thank you as always.

JJ Koczan
Hoebag Pearshaped Taskmaster

Admittedly, this poll was kind of half-assed. To cap off 2011, I’ll put together a better, more official type of thing, but in honor of those who did take the time to cast their ballot either here or on the forum (yeah, I counted those too), I thought it was important to post the results of the 2010 readers poll for best album of the year.

There were a bunch that tied, so I’m listing them alphabetically by number of votes. The number of votes, by the way, was a wonderfully humbling check on my ego, so much appreciated on that front. I’m just happy there was a clear winner, and that that clear winner wasn’t “ur site sux.”

Here’s the list:

Ufomammut, Eve (11 votes)

Zoroaster, Matador (10 votes)

Electric Wizard, Black Masses (8 votes)

Ghost, Opus Eponymous (8 votes)

Agalloch, Marrow of the Spirit (7 votes)

High on Fire, Snakes for the Divine (7 votes)

Kvelertak, Kvelertak (6 votes)

Solace, A.D. (5 votes)

Enslaved, Axioma Ethica Odini (5 votes)

Horseback, Invisible Mountain (5 votes)

Suma, Ashes (5 votes)

Everything else got less than five votes, and I figured 11 total on the list was an appropriate-enough place to stop, so there you have it. If my count seems egregiously off, please bear in mind, I’m only one man, and I’m not a man who ever claimed to be able to count. Ufomammut‘s a good pick though. I’m glad to see it come out on top.

Thanks for reading and sending in lists. I found a couple cool records I hadn’t heard before that people recommended, and more than anything else, that’s what this kind of thing is all about.