Album of the Year 2010 : Santeria - Year Of The Knife

This was meant to be completed before Christmas but circumstances intervened....

I've digested upwards of a hundred albums this year, so to pick a top one is quite the challenge. Although I listened to some incredible Neil Young and Dax Riggs records for the first time this year, as well as some nefandous extreme metal in the name of Neurosis and Goatwhore, the accolade has to go to "Year of the Knife" by Santeria, a little known band from the Deep South who blend hard rock, psychadelica and gentle but sometimes ragged acoustic to awesome effect.

It was thanks to Dax Riggs that I was able to discover this band - they were heavily featured on his now defunct website, theskeletalcircus. Having given a few of their songs a spin on myspace, I got myself a copy of the band's latest works, "Year Of The Knife".

For me, it perfectly combines the gritty edge of 80's GNR with Southern rock stylings, whilst simultaneously amalgamating psychadelic and world music influences. The record positively oozes hedonism and a lust for life, and is ideal for lifting you from the day to day monotony of everyday life. The band manage to give so much life to simple power chords that end up aching with emotion and might. "Nowhere To Go" might as well be the title song for Bukowski's Factorum, the novel I was reading at the time when I first gave this record a spin. The stop-start rhythm of "Haunted Heart" and the gorgeous Les Paul leads of Primo, topped off with Dege's inpassioned and permeating vocals make this an instant classic.

Aside from these pulsating rock moments, the band change the gears to mellower tunes. Check out the beautiful, graceful "Mexico", Dege paints a vivid picture of the ghostly backwaters of the U.S.´s southern neighbour. And if you think you´ve sussed the band out you´re in for a surprise for every subsequent song on the album - the variety on offer is impressive.

This is far more than a collection of songs - this is an album lovers album, one that ebbs and flows and demands to be listened to as a whole, an odyssey of awesomeness. A prominant feature is the use of different,eclectic instruments - the orchestration on the title track is incredible, and perhaps a direct artistic tribute to "Have a Cigar" by Pink Floyd, although only the band would be able to answer that question. The band never come across as ostentatious i.e. "lets cram as many instruments in as possible to look cool" - it´s always tasteful and creative.

This album is a kick in the teeth to anyone who thinks good music, rock music, is on the wane - Santeria have just thrown another huge log on the proverbial fire of rock.

Dax Riggs - Say Goodnight To The World

A predictable degree of ambivalence surrounds Dax's solo work. There are those in the reunite-Acid-Bath camp, and those who, not wallowing in nostalgia, realise Sammy is doing more than fine with blackened death metallers Goatwhore, Jimmy and Kyle don't care and one of the vital cogs in the machine, Audie, died 13 years ago, the original reason the band capitulated anyway. It's worked out pretty ok actually - the bastard children of Acid Bath arn´t too bad at all. Those craving apocalypic miasmic skullcrushing tones can go for Sammy´s band, whereas more (or less) fortified ears will prefer Dax´s output. So we stand in August 2010 with Dax carrying on from where he left off with his idiosyncratic brand of psychadelic/country/doom rock.

Stylistically, the album is a continuation of his post-AB works. Like Moonlight features Dax at his brooding, crooning best, recalling the divine beauty of former band Deadboy's 2002 album If This Is Hell Then I'm Lucky, before he ups the ante with the type of up-tempo rocker which peppered his last album, with the album's single No One Will Be A Stranger. He touches upon so much of what rock is great for - like the rest of his solo work, the influence of the 60´s and 70´s is poignant and tasteful.

Although the man might've mellowed to a certain degree, his lyrics are still as introspective,haunting and cutting as ever. His evergreen, lugubrious howl is just as refreshing to hear even if you own all of his other records, and 16 years into his recording career he shows no signs of losing his unique spark. Its a shame that the chances of his talents darkening Europe's shores are slim, but to travel to Louisiana and watch the man in his element in a dingy basement club would surely be worth every expense.

8/10

Highlights : Say Goodnight To The World, See You All In Hell Or New Orleans

See also - Agents of Oblivion - Endsmouth, Acid Bath - Scream Of The Butterfly, Deadboy And The Elephantman - Barefoot In The Dark.