My vote...

Tis the season for everyone to cast their votes on which record they thought was the best of 2010. Well this is mine: Integrity's The Blackest Curse. I haven't seen it on many other people's lists and that's a shame. It recieved a lot of favorable reviews upon release but I feel like it didn't get much recognition. This record is exactly what you'd hope for a genre defining band such as Integrity to sound like in the new decade. It is all at once evil, epic and heavy as all holy terror.

I am an Integrity fan. Some people love them, hate them or just don't care enough about them to pick a side. This is one of the most storied bands in hardcore for better or worse. To me, the music has always withstood all of the rumors and negative attention this band gets. That is why this album was so exciting to me. I didn't have many high expectations for it and I was completely floored once the record came in the mail. It's as if all of the material of Integrity 2000 and it's kind didn't even exist. It feels like such a natural progression of their old material while still keeping up with the times.

The album opener "Process of Illumination" lets you know whats in store. Another classic creepy sound clip, another punishingly evil riff and more indecipherable Dwid vocals. Some suprises on the record; the epic and hauntingly beautiful metal of "Through the Shadows of Forever" and the exotic dueling guitar solo's of "Spiderwoven".

The record only came with a poster so I couldn't tell you what the hell the lyrics are about and quite frankly even if I did I probably wouldn't get it. While on the subject of that giant poster, I 'd just like to say that the album artwork perfectly matches this record. It's dark, grainy, and scary because I have no idea what it is or where it came from. Much the same with these 10 songs. It's hard to pin-point what kind of genre of fans this record would please. Upon first listen you can hear classic Integrity metalcore, speed metal, and dare I say, traces of black metal are definately present.

What I'm saying is that The Blackest Curse stands on it's own and no other ecord in 2010 sounded like it. I was a little disappointed that the band didn't play any new tracks off of this record at either of their 2 SoCal shows that they played this year. And say what you will about Integrity playing as a scab lineup, it's still fun to see those classic songs played out to a packed room of fans chanting along.

Put aside all of the BS that gets thrown around messageboards and blogs revolving around Integrity and listen. Truth is that this record killed it and this is what you should remember this band for.