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Before we get to all the tracks and this and that, I have to say, this double-size year-end podcast was an absolute pleasure to put together. Fun. Actual fun. I don’t know if it was the preponderance of excellent songs to work from that came out in 2015 or what, but I had a really good time making my way through the near-four-hour run, and I hope you feel that way too as you listen.

It should go without mentioning, but I’ll give the disclaimer anyway that this is in no way, shape or form a complete rundown of everything awesome produced this year. My own Top 10 has bands on it who aren’t represented here, so if you don’t see something you think belongs in the mix below — looking at you, Baroness fans — please keep in mind that it’s not my intent to offer anything more than a partial summary. Otherwise, I’d have to make it a year long.

Thanks for listening if you get the chance to do so, and if there’s something here you haven’t yet checked out, I hope you dig it. The flow is pretty easy front to back, but we get into some more extreme stuff in the third hour for a bit before going grand with Elder and the “Digestive Raga” from Øresund Space Collective, which seemed an appropriate way to end off giving everyone a chance to process what’s just been heard. Please enjoy.

Track details follow:

First Hour:
0:00:00 Acid King, “Red River” from Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere
0:08:24 Clutch, “Firebirds” from Psychic Warfare
0:11:23 Bloodcow, “Crystals and Lasers” from Crystals and Lasers
0:14:28 Stoned Jesus, “Rituals of the Sun” from The Harvest
0:21:25 Ufomammut, “Plouton” from Ecate
0:24:33 Geezer, “So Tired” from The Second Coming of Heavy: Chapter One Split w/ Borracho
0:32:36 Wizard Eye, “Thunderbird Divine” from Wizard Eye
0:37:40 Mondo Drag, “Crystal Visions Open Eye” from Mondo Drag
0:42:08 Fogg, “Seasons” from High Testament
0:48:26 Goatsnake, “Grandpa Jones” from Black Age Blues
0:53:02 Snail, “Thou Art That” from Feral

Second Hour:
1:03:17 Sergio Ch., “Las Piedras” from 1974
1:06:40 All Them Witches, “Blood and Sand – Milk and Endless Waters” from Dying Surfer Meets His Maker
1:13:54 Death Hawks, “Ripe Fruits” from Sun Future Moon
1:18:45 Colour Haze, “Call” from To the Highest Gods We Know
1:26:46 Kadavar, “Last Living Dinosaur” from Berlin
1:30:50 Spidergawd, “Fixing to Die Blues” from Spidergawd II
1:35:02 The Machine, “Dry End” from Offblast!
1:38:01 The Midnight Ghost Train, “Straight to the North” from Cold was the Ground
1:42:00 Kind, “Pastrami Blaster” from Rocket Science
1:48:29 Valley, “Dream Shooter, Golden!” from Sunburst
1:54:22 Graveyard, “From a Hole in the Wall” from Innocence and Decadence
1:58:09 Demon Head, “Book of Changes” from Ride the Wilderness

Third Hour:
2:02:50 Egypt, “Endless Flight” from Endless Flight
2:12:29 Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, “Empires of Dust” from Brothers of the Sonic Cloth
2:20:09 With the Dead, “I am Your Virus” from With the Dead
2:25:45 Ahab, “Red Foam (The Great Storm)” from The Boats of the Glen Carrig
2:32:08 Kings Destroy, “Mr. O” from Kings Destroy
2:36:37 Sun and Sail Club, “Dresden Firebird Freakout” from The Great White Dope
2:38:33 Sunder, “Wings of the Sun” from Sunder
2:42:41 Weedpecker, “Into the Woods” from Weedpecker II
2:50:50 Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, “Pusher Man” from The Night Creeper
2:56:26 Eggnogg, “Slugworth” from Sludgy Erna Bastard split w/ Borracho

Fourth Hour:
3:02:48 Golden Void, “Astral Plane” from Berkana
3:09:34 Elder, “Lore” from Lore
3:25:24 Øresund Space Collective, “Digestive Raga” from Different Creatures

Total running time: 3:55:26

Thank you for listening.

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Please note: This list is not culled in any way from the Readers Poll, which is ongoing. If you haven’t yet contributed your favorites of 2015 to that, please do.

—

Last year, I did a Song of the Year post, but it wound up having basically a list’s worth of honorable mentions at the bottom, so as we move further into year-end season, it seemed only fair to give more releases their due.

One of the trickier aspects of putting this list together is trying to separate songs from the context of the albums on which they appear. That is, thinking of a given song as a standalone entity, apart from the track before, the track after and whatever else the record on which it appears might have on offer. I did my best to make sure these tracks had enough power and presence within them to be considered on their own as well. I’d expect that much of whether or not you think I was successful in that will depend on how much you agree with the picks. That’s fair enough.

And to that end, as always, please let me know if you think something was omitted here, if there was a song that really stood out to you this year — somebody’s single, or something from a record, whatever it might be — that doesn’t show up on the list. Hell, there are only 10 included. That’s bound to not be everything. Still, these are what hit me especially hard this year:

The Obelisk Presents: The Top 10 Songs of 2015

1. Elder, “Lore”
2. Acid King, “Center of Everywhere”
3. High on Fire, “The Falconist”
4. Death Alley, “Supernatural Predator”
5. Snail, “Thou Art That”
6. All Them Witches, “Open Passageways”
7. Sun Blood Stories, “Witch Wind”
8. The Atomic Bitchwax, “Hey Baby Ice Age”
9. Goatsnake, “Grandpa Jones”
10. Øresund Space Collective, “20 Steps Towards the Invisible Door”

Honorable Mention

A few honorable mentions: Kings Destroy‘s “Mr. O” remains a sentimental favorite and a song I go back to on many occasions when I need a boot to the ass. Clutch‘s “X-Ray Visions” efficiently reaffirmed the righteousness of their direction since Earth Rocker, while Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ “Melody Lane” did likewise for that UK outfit’s malevolent grit-pop.

It was buried under a morass of riffs, but Windhand‘s “Kingfisher” was a standout, while Kadavar‘s “See the World with Your Own Eyes” skillfully walked a fine line between inspirational and cornball without any concern for sliding from one to the next, and so didn’t. If this list went to 11, Graveyard‘s “Too Much is Not Enough” would’ve been my next pick for the unabashed soulfulness pervading its melancholy atmosphere.

Notes

What was to be done with Elder‘s “Lore?” In the end, I’m not sure any other single track showed the kind of scope, the emotive presence, the poise, the progression and, pivotally, the groove it did. In its three stages, the 16-minute album centerpiece and title-track underlined the sheer mastery Elder put on display across their third full-length’s span. Wait a few years and you will find bands coming out who sound like this.

I had a hard time picking a song from Acid King‘s Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere. “Coming Down from Outer Space” has that mega-hook. “Red River” rolls so fluidly. In the end, “Center of Everywhere combines all those aspects with the atmospheric breadth that played such a huge role in making the album so special. It simply would not be denied. Similarly, High on Fire‘s “The Falconist” from 2015’s Luminiferous is arguably that trio’s most melodic, progressive work to-date. Infectious, heavy and emotionally resonant in a way that a lot of their material actively works against being, to my ears it’s the boldest thing they’ve done.

Scope was a big part of the appeal of Death Alley‘s “Supernatural Predator,” the Dutch band running between Motörhead and Hawkwind in one song and bringing in former The Devil’s Blood vocals Farida Lemouchi to help them do it. At nearly 13 minutes long, its hypnosis feels like it could push even further if it wanted to, and that’s one of my favorite aspects of it. Also over 10 minutes long, Snail‘s “Thou Art That” was for me the defining moment of their excellent Feral album, a whopper of a riff marking a place within a brooding psychedelic landscape that even just three years ago I’m not sure they would have been able to conjure in the same way. One of those tracks that eats like an album.

There was a video of All Them Witches playing “Open Passageways” at a radio station in Nashville that was out before the song had a title, and since I first saw that earlier this year, I’d hoped it would make its way onto their third album, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker. It did, and the arrangement was stunning from the propulsive drum work and sustained consonants of the vocals to the weeping violin. It was between “Witch Wind” and “West the Sun” from Sun Blood Stories‘ Twilight Midnight Morning, but the former was the hook that first caught my ear and made me dig deeper into the Boise natives’ 2015 offering, and I couldn’t discount that factor. A release that continues to deliver every time I put it on.

I remain a sucker for The Atomic Bitchwax, and while their Gravitron album was harder hitting overall than anything they’ve done in a while, “Hey Baby Ice Age” balanced that with a bit of their penchant for a poppier hook, and the result nestled into my mental jukebox, where it remains in high rotation to this day. Goatsnake‘s “Grandpa Jones” had a similar effect, its megagroove and ultra-catchy chorus continue to be stuck in my head more often than not. If I had any desire to escape from either whatsoever, it might be a problem.

Rounding out the list of 10 and worthy of special note is Øresund Space Collective‘s “20 Steps Towards the Invisible Door” from their recently-issued Different Creatures album. I think it’s the most recent release on this list, but I had to get the song in somewhere. It’s a sprawling 45-minute jam that could just as easily have been put out as its own full-length, but closes out the 140-minute double-CD gorgeously by pushing the listener farther and farther out to the very limits of the reaches of space rock. Progressive improvisation is no easy feat, but “20 Steps Towards the Invisible Door” left the band with no option but to include every second of its extended span. It’s all essential.

—

These are just my picks. If you agree, disagree, have more to add, I’d love to know about it in the comments. Thanks for reading.

Looking at the ascendancy of the UK’s Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (often stylized with a lowercase ‘d’ on the last word) over the last half-decade is like staring into the abyss of our own worst impulses, and it seems unlikely the band would have it any other way. Portrayals of murder, exploitation, the celebration of cult mindsets, all provide the VHS-grained fuel for the four-piece’s fire. Their aesthetic accomplishments have been beyond considerable. Since debuting in 2010 with the only-20-made-and-never-reissued Vol. 1, Uncle Acid made their breakthrough in 2011 with Blood Lust (discussed here), which was subsequently reissued as their first offering through Rise Above Records, then in partnership with Metal Blade.

Their third album, Mind Control (review here), followed in 2013, and by then their influence had already begun to spread to a league of up-and-coming groups interested in capturing a similar style of lo-fi garage doom and psychedelia. That influence has only increased its span as Uncle Acid began to establish a presence as a live, and subsequently touring, act, and their fourth full-length, The Night Creeper, arrives through Rise Above with the band — guitarist/vocalist Kevin R. Starrs, guitarist/vocalist Yotam Rubinger, bassist/backing vocalist Vaughn Stokes and drummer Itamar Rubinger — positioned as forerunners of a style they helped create, having fostered a sound that has retained its immediate identifiability despite a growing number of players in the US, UK and Europe taking cues from it. Plenty out there are trying, but no one sounds as much like Uncle Acid as Uncle Acid. Their sonic individualism has been a great source of their success up to this point.

Couple that individual style with songwriting so memorable as to make tracks about stabbing people seem like generational landmarks, a classic mystique and a balance between wider-market conceptual horror appeal and preaching-to-the-converted Sabbathism, and Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ reach is as multifaceted as the band’s hooks are infectious. The Night Creeper, the bulk of which was tracked live by Liam Watson of Toe Rag Studios in London, does nothing to interrupt Uncle Acid‘s momentum. Rather, it performs the crucial function of demonstrating growth within their sound. Not only growth as players — the simple fact that any of it was recorded live is progression; Uncle Acid weren’t a live band when they made Mind Control — but stylistic expansion as well.

Pulling back on the post-Manson cultish conceptual themes of its predecessor, The Night Creeper‘s 10 tracks/54 minutes (the longest offering yet) foster a general air of darkness derived from classic horror, noir and Giallo films. Still tales of murder and unnamed threats, but opening salvo “Waiting for Blood,” “Murder Nights” and “Downtown” are less direct in their root thematic, and so feel freer to explore dark corners Uncle Acid in which have yet to lurk. “Waiting for Blood” and “Murder Nights” in particular are maddeningly catchy, but they also set the tone of the record in establishing its rough-edged, almost biting sound. It would have been very easy for Uncle Acid, particularly after Mind Control, which feels positively produced in comparison, to have smoothed out their style, upped the recording fidelity, and made a general push toward mass-market accessibility. The Night Creeper, instead, sounds like it was buried alive and had to crawl through six feet of packed dirt distortion to see release. It is glorious in its filthy revelry.

There are other signs of progression throughout. Instrumental interlude “Yellow Moon” delves directly into the kinds of ambience much of Uncle Acid‘s material has touched on, that analog, Mellotron creepiness, while on either side of it, “Pusher Man” and “Melody Lane” provide The Night Creeper with highlights in terms of songwriting and choruses that just as easily could have opened the album, both hovering on either side of six minutes long but with not a second to spare in their bizarre hypnosis and unbridled push. Familiar elements, perhaps, but given fresh execution. After the solo-topped peak of “Melody Lane,” the title-track arrives with an immediately slower tempo, more swing than thrust, subtle turns in vocal layering playing out without undercutting the prevailing rawness and patience of what would be the album’s longest inclusion if not for “Slow Death,” which closes.

Separating the two is “Inside,” the shortest piece at 3:25 (yes, shorter than “Yellow Moon”), which would be easy to pass off as an afterthought if not for its insistent chug, fuzzy leads and lingering psychedelic keys. Structurally, it departs from some of the band’s established verse/chorus tendencies, but all the better to set up “Slow Death,” which at 9:36 is essentially built on a languid, subdued jam. Vocals are deep in the mix behind jazzy guitar, a cutting-through snare and the distinct hiss of analog tape. There is a build at work, but even at its most swollen, the song is never really meant to “take off” from its prescribed dirge march. Volume grows and fades and there’s a long bout of silence before the mournful hidden track “Black Motorcade” caps, its acoustic form recalling “Down to the Fire” from the reissue of Blood Lust, but in a mood shifted, twisted and altogether less active, in part sounding like a lost Kinfauns demo, but still well within The Night Creeper‘s by-then-expanded purview.

Ultimately, whatever else it does for the band’s processes or profile, what The Night Creeper most declares is Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ sustainability. Not even that they can come out with a new record every couple of years and keep themselves on the road — “the road,” which you’ll recall wasn’t even a consideration in 2012 — but that they can continue to expand on what they’ve done in the past without being locked into one formula or another, and that as their profile grows, that doesn’t necessarily translate into capitulation to a broader audience. These should be encouraging signs for fans, but more than that for the band itself, since while these songs are identifiable as their own, there’s nothing about their work four albums later that would seem to indicate stagnation on any level, and they can continue to move forward and grow in sound and aesthetic from here. No question that for many listeners, The Night Creeper will be in the conversation of the year’s best albums, and rightly so.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, “Melody Lane” official video

Uncle Acid on Thee Facebooks

Uncle Acid’s website

Rise Above Records

If it’s Uncle Acid‘s particular brand of threat and inescapable hooks you’re looking for, you’re probably not going to find it anywhere on their upcoming fourth album, The Night Creeper — out Sept. 4 on Rise Above Records — so much as on “Melody Lane.” Arriving after the instrumental “Yellow Moon,” it’s a fitting opener to side B of The Night Creeper, and among the record’s catchiest single choruses. I won’t take anything away from “Waiting for Blood” or “Murder Nights,” but it’s a highlight of the record.

The video covers familiar-enough feeling visual ground to go with the audio. Certainly for anyone who has caught the band’s clips for last year’s “Runaway Girls” single or the prior “Mind Crawler” from 2013’s Mind Control (review here) will recognize the form. The band themselves make fuzzy cameo appearances, standing in line for what I think turned out to be their latest round of promo pics — we don’t actually see photographer Ester Segarra in the video, but the window they’re in front of at one point looks familiar — and there is some grainy interspersion of The Night Creeper‘s cover art as well, so if there are any promotional bases to cover for the video, they’re covered.

As for the rest? Well, sort of a standard runthrough of the ’60s and ’70s hotties spliced with bouts of sexualized violence, knives as implements of penetration, and so on. But there’s also a few clips out of old film noir features, and if you had the chance to read the interview posted here last week with Uncle Acid guitarist/vocalist Kevin Starrs, that’s the thematic basis for more or less the whole album, so it’s not just a mishmash of hijacked footage set to the song. There’s a purpose looming behind all that psychosis, which I suppose is also what’s made Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats so effective over their entire run so far.

Their upcoming US tour dates follow under the video — I feel like I haven’t gone more than two days in the last three weeks without plugging that tour one way or another — along with more on the album itself courtesy of the PR wire. Enjoy:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, “Melody Lane” official video

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats Share Music Video for New Track “Melody Lane”

The Night Creeper Out September 4 via Rise Above Records, Pre-Order Now

Touring the US This Fall + in NYC 9/12

The United Kingdom’s greatest cult band Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats are to return with their fourth full-length studio album The Night Creeper on September 4 via Rise Above Records.

Their newest single from the album is “Melody Lane” which has now been paired with a music video comprised of clips from classic B and exploitation films. It is an unprecedented peek into the brain of Uncle Acid himself and the inspirations that led to The Night Creeper. The album is available for pre-order now with an instant download of “Waiting for Blood” and “Melody Lane” on iTunes and Amazon.

Recorded at Toe Rag Studios in early 2015 with engineer Liam Watson (White Stripes, Tame Impala, Electric Wizard), The Night Creeper oozes louche evil. Hear flesh-melting riffs that creep like hot magma bubbling up through the earth’s crust combine with an ear for melody born out of the bands love for girl groups like The Ronettes and The Shangri-La’s. This is Sabbath-meets-Spector and it’s a heady combination. In support of the release they will also be embarking on their largest and longest tour to date, with a variety of US shows which can be viewed below.

Uncle Acid Tour Dates with Ruby the Hatchet and Ecstatic Vision
9/9 at Center Stage in Atlanta, GA
9/11 at Baltimore Sound Stage in Baltimore, MD
9/12 at Webster Hall in New York, NY
9/13 at Union Transfer in Philadelphia, PA
9/14 at Royale in Boston, MA
9/16 at Corona Theater in Montreal, QC
9/17 at Phoenix Theater in Toronto, ON
9/18 at Mr. Smalls in Pittsburgh, PA
9/19 at Metro in Chicago, IL
9/20 at Mill city Nights in Minneapolis, MN
9/22 at Summit Theater in Denver, CO
9/23 at Urban Lounge in Salt Lake City, UT
9/25 at Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, BC
9/26 at El Corazon in Seattle, WA
9/27 at Wonder Ballroom in Portland, OR
9/29 at Slims in San Francisco, CA
9/30 at Slims in San Francisco, CA
10/1 at The Fonda Theater in Los Angeles, CA
10/2 at The Observatory in Santa Ana, CA

Uncle Acid on Thee Facebooks

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats website

Rise Above Records

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The last one was so late, it seemed only fair to get back on track and do this one early. Not that you’re sitting and waiting with baited breath for the next podcast, I know — not deluding myself to think otherwise — but it keeps me sane to stick to some imaginary/arbitrary feeling of timeliness that changes more often than not, so I’ll just say up front that I appreciate your indulgence. Wow. Sometimes these imaginary conversations get pretty heavy.

Speaking of heavy — and speaking of masterful segues! — the new podcast has plenty of it. The second hour actually gets pretty pummeling, what with the Ahab track and all, so I made sure a little extra psychedelic stuff got in at the front. Dig that Red Mountains track. Their album’s coming out on Nasoni, which should be all the endorsement you need. I’m also very much into the Pyramidal space jam, and if you get to hear it, that Brian Ellis & Brian Grainger record (El Paraiso is putting it out) is a gem. Think a more psychedelic Six Organs of Admittance, all instrumental.

Some killer samplings to be had here, so I won’t delay further. Hope you enjoy:

First Hour:
0:00:00 Tony Reed, “Still Born Beauty (Necromandus ’73)” from The Lost Chronicles of Heavy Rock Vol. 1
0:04:02 All Them Witches, “Dirt Preachers” from Dying Surfer Meets His Maker
0:07:43 Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, “Waiting for Blood” from The Night Creeper
0:12:33 Red Mountains, “Sleepy Desert Blues” from Down with the Sun
0:19:58 T.G. Olson, “Heavy on Your Head” from The Boom and Bust
0:23:18 Pyramidal, “Motormind” from Jams from the Sun Split with Domo
0:33:30 Brian Ellis & Brian Grainger, “Treesmoke” from At Dusk
0:37:53 Vinnum Sabbathi, “Hex II: Foundation Pioneers” from Fuzzonaut Split with Bar de Monjas
0:45:18 Spelljammer, “The Pathfinder” from Ancient of Days
0:53:41 Derelics, “Ride the Fuckin’ Snake to Valhalla” from Introducing

Second Hour:
1:02:03 Ahab, “The Weedmen” from The Boats of the Glen Carrig
1:16:56 Lost Orb, “Low Ebb’s Lament” from Low Ebb’s Lament
1:34:10 Hotel Wrecking City Traders, “Droned and Disowned” from Split with Hey Colossus

Total running time: 2:00:41

Thank you for listening.

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When guitarist vocalist Kevin R. Starrs of Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats croons, “I know you love murder nights/I know you love death,” on the song “Murder Nights” from his band’s latest LP, The Night Creeper, he might as well be speaking directly to his audience. Uncle Acid‘s fourth outing overall, The Night Creeper (on Rise Above) follows the unmitigated success of 2013’s Mind Control (review here) and 2011’s Blood Lust, as the latest step in a surge of profile that’s seen them go from releasing 100 copies of their Vol. 1 debut in 2010 to featuring at Roadburn in 2013 — for their third show, ever — opening for Black Sabbath, and headlining across the US, which is something they’ll do again in support of The Night Creeper, bringing Ecstatic Vision and Ruby the Hatchet along for the ride (info here).

Not only is it a feat that Uncle Acid have managed to accomplish this, but they’ve done so while vigorously maintaining a mystique that few bands can claim as their own in the age of social media, Instagram ubiquity, cellphone concert videos, etc. I remember wondering how they were able to get such an ethereal, eerie vocal sound until I actually saw them on stage and realized it was Starrs and fellow guitarist Yotam Rubinger — the band is rounded out by bassist/backing vocalist Vaughn Stokes and drummer Itamar Rubinger — singing together. They’ve become the household name of cult compounds, and that’s utterly perfect for the atmospheres they conjure with their tales of murder, vibes transposed from grainy horror VHS tapes, biker movies, bad-trip psychedelia and other ominous, analog threats brought to bear across songs that are correspondingly classic in their structures, melodically rich and at times unbearably catchy.

Where one might expect after Mind Control that Uncle Acid would begin to smooth out their sound as their audience continues to grow, The Night Creeper is their grittiest offering yet. Recorded mostly live at Toe Rag Studio by Liam Watson, cuts like “Pusher Man” and “Melody Lane” — which sounds like it would be a Beatles reference but actually seems to nod at The Rolling Stones in its lyrics; the ol’ switcheroo — demonstrate just how identifiable Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ sound has become over the last half-decade and the impact and influence they’ve already had on heavy rock, while ambient pieces like “Black Motorcade” and the instrumental “Yellow Moon,” as well as the nine-minute hypno-jam “Slow Death” serve notice that as much as their aesthetic has developed to this point, the progression has by no means hit its endpoint.

In the interview that follows, Starrs talks about making The Night Creeper and especially how the advent of Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats as a live act has allowed them to grow in the studio.

Q&A follows after the jump. Please enjoy:

Read more »

Mostly around here I concentrate on albums. Best albums of the year. Best albums of the decade. Still, kind of on a whim this morning I was thinking about the shape of heavy of the last half-decade — or rather, the shapes of it.

Different scenes moving in various directions, the emergence of the Pacific Northwest as a hotbed, the growth of West Coast psych and how in-conversation that seems to be both with California’s skater past and the current European market, itself branched out between heavy psych and ’70s traditionalism, which has also begun to take root throughout the US while, at the same time, a new generation has come up to embrace full-on stoner riffing and/or desert rock ideals.

While I have my album lists going back six years to refer to, this time around, I was wondering specifically about individual songs from the same era. What are the best songs from the last five years?

It’s not always the best album that has the best single piece of work on it, so it seemed worth asking the question separately.

Me, I go in for epics: YOB‘s “Marrow” (2014), Ancestors‘ “First Light” (2012), Colour Haze‘s “Grace” (2012), Hypnos 69‘s “The Great Work” (2011), Witch Mountain‘s “Can’t Settle” (2014), Elder‘s “Lore” (2015) definitely is worth having in the conversation, Solace‘s “From Below” (2010), Grayceon‘s “We Can” (2011), and so on.

But then you have Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ “I’ll Cut You Down,” which has had a massive influence since it came out in 2011. And what about a cut like Clutch‘s “D.C. Sound Attack,” or Goatsnake‘s “Grandpa Jones,” or Graveyard‘s “Ain’t Fit to Live Here,” or Mars Red Sky‘s “Strong Reflection?” Does a track have to be long to make an impact? What if there’s a perfectly-executed two-minute verse/chorus trade? Shouldn’t that also be considered?

I guess that’s the question.

We haven’t done one of these in a while, so I’m hoping you’ll take the time to add your answers and picks for the best songs of the last five years 2010-2015 in the comments to this post. I know we’re not through 2015 yet, but we’re just trying to have some fun anyway.

Thanks to all who take the time to leave a note in the comments below.

New Uncle Acid kind of speaks for itself, doesn’t it? Some breaking-ish news in that the UK four-piece, who’ve only gotten huger since the release of their 2013 sophomore outing, Mind Control (review here), are set to make a direct assault on US shores this fall. They’ll still be releasing The Night Creeper on Rise Above, but I think it’s especially telling in terms of the band’s priorities that they’ll launch the new album just a few days later with a full run of North American major markets.

Not a thing to complain about, at least if you happen to live in one of those markets. Last time I caught Uncle Acid — last Sept., in NYC — they held the stage in full command under mostly-dim lights, backed by tube-television static and a single pair of light-up cat’s eyes. What grainy and lysergic horrors will unfold with The Night Creeper? We’ll know come the fall.

From the PR wire:

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats Announce New Album The Night Creeper

Out September 4 via Rise Above Records

Touring the US This Fall

The United Kingdom’s greatest cult band Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats are to return with their fourth full-length studio album The Night Creeper on September 4 via Rise Above Records. In support of the release they will also be embarking on their largest and longest tour to date, with a variety of US shows which can be viewed below.

Recorded at Toe Rag Studios in early 2015 with engineer Liam Watson (White Stripes, Tame Impala, Electric Wizard), The Night Creeper oozes louche evil. Hear flesh-melting riffs that creep like hot magma bubbling up through the earth’s crust combine with an ear for melody born out of the bands love for girl groups like The Ronettes and The Shangri-La’s. This is Sabbath-meets-Spector and it’s a heady combination.

The Night Creeper has a distinct concept as a starting point. “The idea is that this album could have started life as an old cheap, grime-covered 25 cent pulp paperback like the type sold at news-stands outside train stations,” says enigmatic band leader Kevin Starrs. “But then perhaps it is adapted into a film noir, which itself is then re-made twenty years later as an ultraviolent, slasher Italian Giallo film. The album follows this aesthetic lineage as it descends from trash to noir to something discernibly darker…”

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats have been called many things: a subversive, dark-hearted, pop band who sing about death and murder; a psyche-frazzling heavy psychedelic band; the greatest cult quartet in the British rock scene by a country mile; the heirs apparent to the dark satanic majesty of both The Beatles and Black Sabbath. They exist in their own self-created world; hoovering up trash/pop culture and spitting it back out in hot chunks of finely hewn riffola and righteous rock ‘n roll noise.

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats’ breakthrough album Blood Lust (2011) was an homage to British Hammer and folk horror films of the 1970s, a candle-lit head-trip of withered hands, ritual knives and gallows ropes. Mind Control (2013) looked further afield, to the post-Charles Manson US for inspiration: Jim Jones dosing the Kool-Aid, Blue Cheer, Blue Oyster Cult, B-movie biker movies, war, Watergate, serial killers, and suicidal TV evangelists. Now comes The Night Creeper, their darkest journey yet.

The Night Creeper will be released on September 4 via Rise Above Records. Check out the band’s North American tour dates below.

Tour Dates

9/9 at Center Stage in Atlanta, GA
9/11 at Baltimore Sound Stage in Baltimore, MD
9/12 at Webster Hall in New York, NY
9/13 at Union Transfer in Philadelphia, PA
9/14 at Royale in Boston, MA
9/16 at Corona Theater in Montreal, QC
9/17 at Phoenix Theater in Toronto, ON
9/18 at Mr. Smalls in Pittsburgh, PA
9/19 at Metro in Chicago, IL
9/20 at Mill city Nights in Minneapolis, MN
9/22 at Summit Theater in Denver, CO
9/23 at Urban Lounge in Salt Lake City, UT
9/25 at Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, BC
9/26 at El Corazon in Seattle, WA
9/27 at Wonder Ballroom in Portland, OR
9/29 at Slims in San Francisco, CA
9/30 at Slims in San Francisco, CA
10/1 at The Fonda Theater in Los Angeles, CA
10/2 at The Observatory in Santa Ana, CA

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Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, “Mt. Abraxas” Live at Truckstop Alaska, Gothenburg, Sweden, 11.23.13