Best of 2017

Wow, only 22 freakin movies in 2017, and only FOUR of them weren't documentaries! Unreal. That's less than half of last year and down from 100 movies a year a few years ago. I used to practically never watch any TV series but now TV series make up a lot of my viewing. We watched every episode of Red Dwarf from Series I through Series XII, Sherlock, all the Vikings series, the Last Kingdom, Shetland, and a bunch more, blah blah blah... It's not just having a kid that cut down the actual film consumption. Now I know how few I actually watch I need to make sure each on really counts in 2018.

Read 14 books, which while that's a decline, it's not bad considering the balancing act of raising a toddler, working, being a husband, lifting, and playing music.

Top 5 Movies:

Oasis: Supersonic
The Sunshine Makers
T2 Trainspotting
Big Trouble in Little China
Chasing Trane


Top 3 Motorcycle Movies:

Hell's Bloody Devils
Trip with the Teacher
Sinner's Blood


Top 5 Documentary Movies:

Oasis: Supersonic
The Sunshine Makers
Chasing Trane
SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock
Generation Iron 2


Top 5 Books:

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
Metallica: Back to the Front
Hard-Core: Life of My Own
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom
For the Sake of Heaviness: The History of Metal Blade Records


Top 10 Albums that came out in 2017:

Venenum - Trance of Death
Blasphemer - s/t
Immolation - Atonement
Undergang - Misantropologi
Ulver - The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Gorephilia - Severed Monolith
Spirit Adrift - Curse of Conception
Phrenelith - Desolate Endscape
The Ruins of Beverast - Exuvia
Craven Idol - the Shackles of Mammon


Favorite song of 2017:

Fotocrime - Always Hell


Favorite show:

Fotocrime

Best of 2016

The last three years in a row have seen me watch about 50 movies per year and read about 25 books. The high was in 2012 when I watched 100 movies. I actually thought I'd slowed down since last year, but I'm right where I was. 51 movies and 23 books. I think the bigger swing was the percentage of documentaries. I watched 34 this year.

Here's my run down of my favorites. I'd say that The Hateful Eight was in a whole other league as far as fiction goes. Hands down the best movie all year. And Oasis: Supersonic was one of the best documentaries I've seen in a long, long time. So those two are huge stand-outs for me. And yes, I think the Complete Chronicles of Conan is better than the Lord of the Rings. Sorry, but I know which one I'd bring on a desert island with me, and there are no Hobbits in it.

It was a really good year for music, imo. The first seven albums I listed are fucking awesome!!!




Top 5 Movies:

The Hateful Eight
Cool Hand Luke
Le Mans
Oasis: Supersonic
Bury Me an Angel


Top 5 Motorcycle Movies:

The Wild Angels
Bury Me an Angel
Satan's Sadists
Northville Cemetery Massacre
Road


Top 5 Documentary Movies:

Oasis: Supersonic
Generation Iron
Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery
Top Spin
The Class of '92


Top 10 Books:

The Complete Chronicles of Conan
The Lord of the Rings
Papillon
Only Death is Real
Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult
The Girl on the Train
Icons of Men's Style
Swedish Death Metal
Out of Sight
Murder in the Front Row


Top 10 Albums that came out in 2016:

Vanhelgd "temple of phobos"
Krypts "remnants of expansion"
Wretch s/t
40 Watt Sun “wider than the sky”
Blood Incantation "starspawn"
Sumerlands s/t
Eternal Champion “The Armor of Ire”
Asphyx "incoming death"
Escarnium “interitus”
Alcest "kodama"

Best of 2015

25 books and 50 movies consumed this year. Here're my top picks.
Other than the music, all of these movies, books etc could have came out any year. But I ingested them all in the last twelve months. Mostly for the first time, but not always (PJ2020, Grand Prix, Bullit...)

Top 5 documentaries:

Pearl Jam Twenty
Lambert & Stamp
Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon
No No: A Dockumentary
Generation Iron


Top 5 motorcycle movies:

Angels Die Hard
Naked Angels
The Savage 7
Sinner's Blood
Rebel Rousers


Top 5 books:

Gun Machine
Total Recall
Dead Wake
Rogue Male
Frenzy


Top 5 movies:

Grand Prix
Bullit
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
her
The Imitation Game


Top 5 albums (that came out in 2015):

Coliseum: Anxiety's Kiss
Crypt Sermon: Into the Garden
Vastum: Hole Below
Cruciamentum: Charnel Passages
Kamasi Washington: The Epic

Best of 2014

Tally this year is 52 films and 25 books and comics. More literature, but only half the amount of movies I've watching in the past. That's just how it goes. Been really busy with Temple of Void, I guess. Didn't really stay current. Almost everything I watched was released prior to 2014. Quality over quantity.

Top 10 films:
Eyes Wide Shut
Papillon

The Great Escape

Godfather Part II

The Wicker Man

Purple Noon
Le Trou

Chef
Grand Budapest Hotel
The Lords of Salem

Top 5 motorcycle flicks:
Hell's Angels on Wheels
Hell's Angels '69

Angels Hard as they Come

Born Losers

The Pink Angels

Top 5 documentaries:
Upside Down: The Creation Records Story

Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train A' Comin'
1

Super Duper Alice Cooper

Design is One

Top 10 books:
Burning Rubber
The Chopper: The Real Story
The Exorcist
Conan of Cimmeria: Volume 6

Into Thin Air

I am Jackie Chan

Misery Obscura

People Who Eat Darkness

Jackie Stewart: World Champion

Meat is for Pussies

Of Dice and Men

Top 10 Albums/EPs:
Bloodbath: Grand Morbid Funeral
Black Anvil: Hail Death
Convent Guilt: Guns for Hire
Irkallian Oracle: Grave Ekstasis
Autopsy: Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves
Triptykon: Melana Chasmata
Necros Christos: Nine Graves
Alcest: Shelter
Lie in Ruins: Towards Divine Death
Conan: Blood Eagle

Best of 2013

I read a shockingly small amount of books this year. I was reading a lot of periodicals, and with tearing my ACL, getting surgery, starting a new band, buying and selling houses, etc...I just haven't had that much freakin time for film and books! Anyway, here are my lists. Honestly a bit anti-climactic for 2013.

Top 5 books I read in 2013:
Richard Branson: Losing My Virginity
The Conqueror Worms
Panther Baby
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
The 4-Hour Work-Week

Top 5 comics I read in 2013:
Sláine: The Horned God
Criminal: The Deluxe Edition Volume 2
Abandon the Old in Tokyo
Good-Bye
Black Blizzard

Top 5 documentaries I watched in 2013:
Fastest
Searching for Sugarman
The Four Year Plan
The Story of Film
Truth in 24 II

Top 5 Biker Movies I watched in 2013:
The Loveless
The Hard Ride
Chrome & Hot Leather
The PeaceKillers
Run, Angel, Run

Top 5 movies I watched in 2013:
The Skin I Live In
2046
Lost in Translation
Mr. Nice
The Loveless

Top 10 albums I got in 2013:

Anathema: Weather Systems

Autopsy: The Headless Ritual (best DM album. best artwork!)

Chelsea Wolfe: Pain is Beauty

Vastum: Patricidal Lust

R.A. The Rugged Man: Legends Never Die

Rhymefest: El Che

Zodiac: A Hiding Place

Saprogenic: Expanding Towards Collapsed Lungs

Watain: The Wild Hunt

Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions: Through the Devil Softly

If you take anything away from this whole list, make it the top 5 albums I listed as well as the top 5 comics. 

Song of the year:

Anathema: Untouchable Parts 1 AND 2.

Best of 2012

Tallying it up, it looks like I read 21 books, 27 comics (trade paperbacks), and watched 100(!) films in 2012. 45 of the films were documentaries. Looking back, here are the highlights as I remember them:

Top 10 11 feature films I watched in 2012:

The Skin I Live In

Death Proof

Mesrine 1 & 2
the 400 Blows

13 Assassins

Grand Prix
Django Unchained

Drive

Somers Town

NEDS

Red State

Top 5 documentaries I watched in 2012:
Senna
Pearl Jam Twenty
Fire in Babylon
One Night in Turin
Helvetica

Top 5 biker flicks I watched in 2012:
The Wild One
Once a Jolly Swagman
C.C. and Company
Fastest

Sukeban Gerira

Top 5 comics I read in 2012:
Conan (all of the Nemedian Chronicles)
Criminal
Slaine - the Horned God
Northlanders (all)
Incognito


Top 5 books I read in 2012:
Thunderstruck
Icons of Men's Style
Dirty Deeds
Isaac's Storm
Steve Jobs

Top 10 albums that were released in 2012:
Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind
Gojira - L'Enfant Suavage
Zodiac - A Bit of Devil
Neurosis - Honor Found in Decay
Alcest - Les Voyages De L'Âme
Graveyard - Lights Out
Nachtmystium - Silencing Machine
Ahab - The Giant
Aura Noir - Out to Die
Hooded Menace - Effigies of Evil


Top 3 albums I procured in 2012 that came out prior:
Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
Eddie Vedder - Into the Wild Soundtrack
the Prodigy - Experience

I'm as shocked as anyone that I'd pick Converge as the best album of the year...but god damn, just listen to it. The production rips your head off. It's so clear, but so raw and visceral. The layout is awesome, too. The songs are super eclectic. They're relentless. Catchy. Brutal. Technical but accessible. For a band that I thought sucked for 20 years or so...the last two albums are brilliant.

Movie List 2011

I watched 203 movies in the year 2011. Yes I know that's a ridiculous amount of time spent sitting on my couch with 2 chihuahuas, but I only work 10 days a month.

My favorite movies I watched in 2011 released in any year: (in the order I watched them)
1. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)
2. Seven Days (2010)
3. Enter The Void (2009)
4. M (1931)
5. Mesrine 1 & 2 (2008)
6. Animal Kingdom (2010)
7. Sheitan (2006)
8. X-Men: First Class (2011)
9. I Saw The Devil (2010)
10. 13 Assassins (2010)
11. Insidious (2010)
12. Hesher (2010)
13. Red State (2011)
14. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
15. The Man From Nowhere (2010)
16. Warrior (2011)

My favorite movies I watched again during 2011: (in the order I watched them)
1. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
2. Rio Bravo (1959)
3. Halloween II (2009)
4. Clue (1985)
5. The Doors (1991)
6. Phantasm (1979)
7. Green Street Hooligans (2005)
8. Bottle Rocket (1996)
9. This Is England (2006)
10. Once Upon A Time In America (1984)
11. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
12. Cool Hand Luke (1967)
13. Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
14. The Dark Knight (2008)
15. Halloween II (1981)
16. The Exorcist (1973)

Worst movies I watched:
1. Hereafter (2010)
2. The Last Exorcism (2010)

Favorite overall new movies I watched:
1. Mesrine 1 & 2
2. Animal Kingdom ( A very close second)

Best flicks of 2011.

While I normally compile a list of every movie I watch each year along w/ director, year it was released, where, when and with whom I watched it w/; this post is simply going to be some Best Of lists. Cuz everyone loves to argue w/ lists...


Top 5 movies I watched in 2011 that were released in 2010/2011:
Mesrine (1+2)
13 Assassins
Hanna
Midnight in Paris
Africa United

Top 5 McQueen flicks I watched this year:
the Great Escape
Papillion
Le Mans
The Thomas Crown Affair
Cincinnati Kid

Top 10 Biker flicks I watched this year:
Sukeban Gerira
Easy Rider
Wild Angels
Girl on a Motorcycle (aka Naked Under Leather)
On Any Sunday
Devil's Angels
Satan's Sadists
Glory Stompers
Hell Ride
Angel Unchained

Top 5 Doc's:
Planet B-Boy
Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who
Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
Vidal Sassoon
Senna

Top 10 movies I watched in 2010 from any year not mentioned:
Rear Window
Irreversible
Enter the Void
In the Mood for Love
Tell No One
the Wicker Man
The Italian Job
Letters from Iwo Jima
Le Jour Se Léve
Toast

Top 3 worst movies I watched in 2010:
Blade Runner
Tombs of the Blind Dead
One Week

Absolute favorite film my eyeballs saw in 2011:
Mesrine (1+2)