I know it’s fashionable in these spaces (especially on metal-centric sites) to bemoan the unrivaled shittiness of the past year and to hail the closing of its casket as we give our last solar revolution one final heartfelt ball-slap before sending it out the door. But honestly, I’m pretty fucking proud of the way 2015 turned out, for my part, and since the law of averages suggests that 2016 is more likely to choke me with my own severed cock than make any significant improvements over the recent past, I’m no more or less happy to drink my way across tonight’s hallowed boundary between old and soon-to-be-old than I have been any other year.
I’m certainly more than willing to present you with five of this year’s best blog posts. A word on the selection process: When I was asked to spearhead this project six months ago, I polled all contributors for an exhaustive list of all their upcoming posts (both planned and last-minute) in order to spend dozens of candlelit hours sifting through the genius for that rare piercing insight that nonetheless characterizes every bit of text associated with this magazine. Or, it’s possible that I alone whipped through this shit in an hour and made as much progress as possible.
Our Top 5 Posts of 2015, as barely deliberated over:
Inaugurating the Hall of Fame Countdown: Celtic Frost and Slayer
In 2015, we began a somewhat spotty (and occasionally controversial) tradition of ranking the individual songs on our favorite metal milestones. Justin Norton and Adrien Begrand kicked off the series with exactly the albums that deserved our immediate attention. When it comes to lists, nobody can do it like a metal kid can do it, and so we indulge ourselves. Other entries in the HOF Countdown series are fun/mildly interesting, but these two are clearly mandatory.
This post shines through on its sheer oddness, being both dismissable and weirdly, timelessly poignant. It also reveals the side of Shane Mehling’s personality that is relaxed and tolerant. Well, not really. Nor should it. It’s certainly not high culture, but it’s totally representative of the world we live in right now.
Plumbing Christopher Lee’s Departed Musical Soul
On one day in the middle of the year, we celebrated one of horror/fantasy’s most visible legends and the music he propagated upon the world. In a post that seemed to ramble eternally, Decibel flogged at the man’s multifarious career. And it was good. And, let’s admit it, pretty strange.
Interviewing Matt Jacobson About Relapse Turning 25
There were several parts of this interview, conducted and presented by Kevin Stewart-Panko. Relapse has played a central role – as have several deserving others – in upholding and advancing extreme music’s pedigree for the duration of the label’s history, and a crazy landmark like 25 years in operation is certainly worthy of celebration.
Neill Jameson Pisses Off Internet By Suggesting Compassion and Acceptance
Holy crispy crap. It’s not entirely clear why this was the article to kickstart so much debate and heated conversation among people nobody should really listen to anyway, but here you go. The piece itself is solid enough, but it’s the rampant comments that took this thing over the edge into Deciblog legend.
And that wraps 2015! What will we argue meaninglessly about in 2016? Only you can decide!
