Chilled to the point of utter desolation, Xasthur’s All Reflections Drained is the work of an outsider artist genius. Malefic, Xasthur’s sole member and auteur has created an  anemic masterpiece that’s not metal but is thoroughly black.   Like a bitter flavor you crave, this album hit all the wrong notes, but did so squarely and perfectly that I just kept returning to it over and over.  Released in late spring, it provided a strange shelter from summer days filled with glare and heat.  Droning, disjointed, and low-fi, All Reflections Drained captures (via a wall of sound) the sense of failure and despondence that pervades the finest Black Metal.  Poorly recorded drums, indecipherable vocals, and random samples punctuate the black sludgy mix. It’s all buried beneath a glacial wash of guitars buried beneath synthesizers buried beneath something empty and eternal.

Nothing released in 2009 sounded as bad ass as Monoliths and Dimensions by Sunn O))).  Both abstract and overwhelmingly direct, it’s an album that I experienced as much as heard. In fact I doubt I’ve heard something so primal that also comes off as so intelligent. Its layers of sounds (chorus, vocals, chimes, guitar chords, orchestral strings) formed waves that were stridently drenched in awareness of their own intention and importance.  Compositionally complex, this album just keeps reaching beyond itself. A monument to sound itself, It continues to blow my mind.