BEST OF 2010 (albums) Most Underrated - Thou - Summit (Gilead Media/Southern Lord)

Combining the anguished emotionality of Jesu, the art-metal of various Aaron Turner and Sanford Parker projects and the skull crushing doom/sludge of fellow Louisiana legends Eyehategod, Thou crafted one of the most progressive and brutally heavy albums of the year with "Summit." Album opener "By Endurance We Conquer" sounds like it could have been an outtake from Sunn 0)))'s masterful "Monoliths and Dimensions," while "Prometheus" sounds like the saddest Corrupted song ever, all making "Summit" one of the most intense listening experiences of the year, if not the most intense. Yet, even in the midst of raw emotion and pummelling riffage, the band ensures that "Summit" contains, hooks, twists and turns a plenty so that even if you have listened to the record one hundred times over there is always something new to uncover. In a year where the progressive Agalloch's "Marrow Of The Spirit" ended up on top of so many metal fans' lists, it was hard to understand why the equally adventurous, and for my money thousand times more powerful, Thou was virtually absent from the year end accolades.