2. Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire
Omega Drunk on the Blood of Alpha (Debello)
For all of the brutality it takes to play grindcore -- which arguably lies at the most extreme end of the metal spectrum, beyond conventional notions of melody and even listenability -- it also requires the finesse of a diamond-cutter to keep an audience from glazing over after three songs. There must be something in the water in the Rocky Mountains, as CTTTOAFF follows in the footsteps of Denver's resident grind kings, Cephalic Carnage, and raises the bar yet again in a genre that should by all rights have burned itself out two years after Napalm Death's 1987 debut album.

Twenty years into the running and we're still lucky enough to have bands like this, who can keep pushing the music into deeper levels of intricacy. What is perhaps most striking about Omega Drunk on the Blood is the fact that the band simply doesn't let up for the duration of the record, yet somehow keeps enough rhythmic and harmonic variation going from song to song to keep you spellbound. Not to mention just how much the band is able to accomplish in short bursts of sound -- the mark of a truly exceptional grind bands. Following in the footsteps of recent grind innovators like Fuck The Facts and Sulaco, Clinging To The Trees takes this year's award for proving that grindcore's future is as bright and brutal as ever.
-- Saby Reyes-Kulkarni