| 5.0 classic |
| 90 Day Men Panda Park |
| Afterbirth Four Dimensional Flesh |
| Alex G House Of Sugar |
| Aphex Twin Windowlicker |
| Aphex Twin Syro |
| Ash Pool World Turns On Its Hinge |
| Atheist Unquestionable Presence |
| Bark Psychosis Scum |
| Carla Bley Escalator Over the Hill |
| Circle Takes the Square As the Roots Undo |
| Daniel Rossen You Belong There |
| Deathspell Omega Paracletus |
| Dodecahedron Kwintessens |
| Esoctrilihum Astraal Constellations of the Majickal Zodiac |
| Gramaglia's astounding production talents enable Asthaghul to finally actualise his full potential in what I can only describe as two hours of cosmic insanity. Plenty of dynamism here, impactful song-writing, subversive synth-meddlings... And some fucking brutal riffage. Dy'th on steroids. Yet another opus in 2023's astounding crop of black metal masterpieces. |
| Everything Everything Man Alive |
| Everything Everything Get to Heaven |
| Everything Everything Get to Heaven (Deluxe Edition) |
| Faceless Burial At The Foothills Of Deliration |
| Every other modern "OSDM" band can pack it up now. Masterpiece. |
| Fleshvessel Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed |
| Foals Total Life Forever |
| Fugazi The Argument |
| Future of the Left How To Stop Your Brain In An Accident |
| Genesis The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor F♯ A♯ ∞ [Vinyl] |
| Iggy Pop The Idiot |
| This is definitely the best David Bowie album. Probably one of the most important albums to the post-punk tradition. |
| Imperial Triumphant Vile Luxury |
| Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights |
| Kaatayra Só Quem Viu o Relâmpago à Sua Direita Sabe |
| Kayo Dot Hubardo |
| Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly |
| Krallice Dimensional Bleedthrough |
| maudlin of the Well Bath |
| Mission of Burma Vs. |
| Mount Eerie A Crow Looked At Me |
| Negative Plane The Pact |
| Absolutely fantastic album, it's well-written, technical, and above all else, really fucking fun to listen to. An absolute blast - more in the style of their debut than their incredible sophomore, but improves on their formula of 1st wave bm with strong progressive leanings in every way. |
| Odz Manouk Odz Manouk |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Again |
| Pere Ubu The Modern Dance |
| Pere Ubu Dub Housing |
| Pile Green and Gray |
| Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here |
| Polvo Celebrate the New Dark Age |
| Protomartyr Ultimate Success Today |
| Protomartyr Formal Growth in the Desert |
| Scott Walker Tilt |
| Slint Spiderland |
| Squid O Monolith |
| Steely Dan Gaucho |
| Sunny Day Real Estate How It Feels To Be Something On |
| Talk Talk Laughing Stock |
| Talking Heads Remain in Light |
| Teitanblood Death |
| The Dismemberment Plan Change |
| The Mars Volta Frances the Mute |
| The Mars Volta Amputechture |
| The Microphones Mount Eerie |
| Tim Hecker Radio Amor |
| Today Is the Day Willpower |
| The greatest album of the 90s, Willpower condenses so many of the boundary-pushing developments in rock and metal to convey anguish, hatred, and suffering. There are moments of beauty and vulnerability within the maelstrom of brutal and technically proficient cruelty that only serve to highlight these elements more. Excellent use of samples too, the one used to introduce Promised Land alone conveying so much anguish as perhaps the greatest opening riff of any song ever written begins to emerge. |
| Unwound Leaves Turn Inside You |
| Ustalost Before The Glinting Spell Unvests |
| A beautiful, crystalline work of psychedelia. |
| Van der Graaf Generator Pawn Hearts |
| Van der Graaf Generator Still Life |
| Volahn/Kallathon Disequilibrium of the Ecliptic Plane |
| Wild Beasts Two Dancers |
| William Doyle Your Wilderness Revisited |
| Women Public Strain |
| Yellow Eyes Rare Field Ceiling |
| 4.5 superb |
| 90 Day Men To Everybody |
| Abigor Taphonomia Aeternitatis - Gesänge im Leichenlicht |
| Ad Nauseam Imperative Imperceptible Impulse |
| Alex G Beach Music |
| Amen Dunes Freedom |
| Anguine MMXXI / MMXXI² |
| One of the best EPs to come from 2021, this blackened, dissonant deathgrind release is vile, brutal, but thankfully also varied and nuanced. |
| Arcade Fire The Suburbs |
| Ars Magna Umbrae Throne Between Worlds |
| Artificial Brain Artificial Brain |
| Ashenspire Hostile Architecture |
| At the Drive-In Relationship of Command |
| Autechre Chiastic Slide |
| Bardo Pond Amanita |
| Bark Psychosis Hex |
| Bark Psychosis Codename: Dustsucker |
| Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are |
| Bekor Qilish The Flesh of a New God |
| Birds in Row We Already Lost the World |
| Birds in Row Gris Klein |
| Black Midi Schlagenheim |
| Black Sheep Wall Songs for the Enamel Queen |
| Blood Incantation Starspawn |
| Blut Aus Nord 777 - Cosmosophy |
| Bolzer Aura |
| Bossk Audio Noir |
| Broken Social Scene You Forgot It in People |
| Can Future Days |
| Caroline (UK) Caroline |
| Cate Le Bon Reward |
| Chat Pile God's Country |
| Cheer-Accident Salad Days |
| Cindy Lee What's Tonight to Eternity |
| Cindy Lee Diamond Jubilee |
| City of Caterpillar Driving Spain Up A Wall |
| City of Caterpillar Mystic Sisters |
| Clor Clor |
| Comus First Utterance |
| Convulsing Grievous |
| Cranes Wings of Joy |
| Cryptae Nightmare Traversal |
| Crystal Antlers Crystal Antlers EP |
| Darkside Psychic |
| Darvulia L'Alliance Des Venins |
| One of the most forward-thinking, yet firmly kvlty, black metal albums of the 2000s. Hypnotic dissonance and mesmerising songwriting that bites as hard as any in the French scene did. Ridiculously under-appreciated. |
| David Grubbs The Thicket |
| Dead Rider Crew Licks |
| Death Human |
| Deerhunter Microcastle |
| Demilich Nespithe |
| "Nespithe" is indeed an anagram for a part of the body. But it's not the spine... |
| Dissection Storm of the Light's Bane |
| Dodheimsgard Black Medium Current |
| Duster Stratosphere |
| Duster 1975 |
| East India Youth Total Strife Forever |
| Einsturzende Neubauten Rampen |
| Emperor X Western Teleport |
| Epitaphe II |
| Esoctrilihum Dy'th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath |
| Everything Everything Arc |
| Everything Everything A Fever Dream |
| Everything Everything Live with The No.6 Orchestra |
| Everything Everything Raw Data Feel |
| Everything Everything Mountainhead |
| Fennesz Plus Forty Seven Degrees... |
| Fluisteraars Dromers |
| Fluisteraars Bloem |
| Fluisteraars Gegrepen Door de Geest der Zielsontluiking |
| Fluisteraars/Turia De Oord |
| Fly Pan Am Fly Pan Am |
| Flying Saucer Attack Flying Saucer Attack |
| Foals Antidotes |
| Foetus Nail |
| Frodus And We Washed Our Weapons In The Sea |
| Frontierer Oxidized |
| Fucked Up Year of the Ox |
| Fucked Up Year of the Pig |
| Fucked Up Year of the Dragon |
| Fucked Up Year of the Snake |
| Fugazi Repeater |
| Gang of Four Entertainment! |
| Genesis Foxtrot |
| Genesis Selling England by the Pound |
| Gentle Giant Octopus |
| Gentle Giant Free Hand |
| Gilla Band Most Normal |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada |
| Gospel The Moon Is a Dead World |
| Hajduk Природа |
| Haken Virus |
| Hatfield And The North Hatfield and the North |
| Himelvaruwe Zwaluwenvesting |
| Immolation Close to a World Below |
| Imperial Triumphant Alphaville |
| Interpol Antics |
| Interpol The Other Side of Make-Believe |
| Jim O'Rourke Eureka |
| John Fahey Fare Forward Voyagers (Soldier's Choice) |
| Jon Hassell Dream Theory in Malaya |
| Joy Division Unknown Pleasures |
| Kaatayra Inpariquipê |
| Kaldeket Déraciné (Demo) |
| Karate In Place of Real Insight |
| King Crimson Discipline |
| King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King |
| Kommodus Wreath of Bleeding Snowfall |
| Kostnateni Oheň Hoří Tam, Kde Padl |
| Kostnateni Úpal |
| Kowloon Walled City Piecework |
While a casual listener might see Piecework as more of the same from KWC, the band have tightened
up their sound over the 6 years this album spent in gestation. The fuzz and the rattling of prior
albums, more of a carry-over from noise rock and sludge, has been minimised. Piecework is almost
disturbingly precise, harking back to Fugazi's Repeater more than, say, Sleep's Holy Mountain,
like their earlier work did. As a result, it exhibits refined and gorgeous tones that truly stand
out from the crowd, but retain the emotional and sonic heft that made the band so good in the
first place. |
| Krallice Years Past Matter |
| Krallice Hyperion |
| Krallice Mass Cathexis |
| Krallice Demonic Wealth |
| Krallice Psychagogue |
| Laster Ons Vrije Fatum |
| A unique blend of shoegaze, dance music, post-punk, and atmoblack that works incredibly well and induces the bittersweet feeling of longing with its sparse samples and tender album art nodding towards themes of loss and desire in relationships. At its best, it is intoxicating. |
| Liars They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top |
| I wanted to give this a 4.0, but the last song makes it even better. It just repeats the same thing for 25 minutes. Awesome. |
| Long Fin Killie Houdini |
| Lync These Are Not Fall Colors |
| maudlin of the Well My Fruit Psychobells... A Seed Combustible |
| maudlin of the Well Leaving Your Body Map |
| McCoy Tyner Enlightenment |
| Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell |
| Menomena Mines |
| Messa Close |
| MGMT Loss of Life |
| The slow songs are their best work. Last 4 tracks will make you cry. OPN production assistance is absolutely wild on here too. |
| Miles Davis In a Silent Way |
| Miles Davis Live Evil |
| Minus the Bear Planet of Ice |
| Morbid Angel Altars of Madness |
| Morphine Good |
| Mount Eerie Clear Moon |
| Mount Eerie Now Only |
| Murderer I Did It All For You |
| My Bloody Valentine Loveless |
| Negative Plane Stained Glass Revelations |
| Neptunian Maximalism Set Chaos To The Heart Of The Moon |
NNMM take the majority of Eons' second act, and mix in some previously unreleased compositions and
songs from their early days, to make their most balanced album yet, managing to avoid a sense of
bloat by building tension more judiciously. The mix/master is far clearer than that on Eons, and
all tracks involved have been trimmed and edited to improve flow. And when they rock out - they
rock out. |
| Noise Trail Immersion Symbology of Shelter |
| Nourished By Time Catching Chickens |
| Obtained Enslavement Witchcraft |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Age Of |
| Oneohtrix Point Never The Fall Into Time |
| Ought Room Inside The World |
| Pa Vesh En Martyrs |
| Pain of Salvation Entropia |
| Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain |
| Pere Ubu New Picnic Time |
| Pere Ubu The Tenement Year |
| Pere Ubu Why I Hate Women |
| Listening to the new mix/master in the Nuke the Whales set, this is now a top tier Pere Ubu album - hopefully said version (Why I LUV Women) will be available on streaming soon. |
| Pere Ubu 20 Years In A Montana Missile Silo |
| Pinback Summer in Abaddon |
| Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon |
| Pink Floyd Animals |
| Pink Floyd The Wall |
| Pixies Doolittle |
| Polvo In Prism |
| Polvo Exploded Drawing |
| Prefab Sprout Steve McQueen |
| Primeval Well Talkin' in Tongues with Mountain Spirits |
| Procol Harum A Salty Dog |
| Protomartyr Relatives in Descent |
| Radiohead Amnesiac |
| Radiohead Hail to the Thief |
| Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool |
| Rob Crow He Thinks He's People |
| San Lorenz A Death At Sea |
| Serpent Column Mirror In Darkness |
| Shame (UK) Drunk Tank Pink |
| Shame (UK) Food For Worms |
| Simansky Niesner Všechno Dobré |
| Simon Bookish Everything/Everything |
| Skaphe Skáphe³ |
| Sleepwalker (JPN) Noč Na Krayu Sveta |
| Slutet Love & Beauty |
| Sol An Varma Sol an Varma |
| Sote Ministry of Tall Tales |
| Squid Town Centre |
| Squid Bright Green Field |
| Steely Dan Aja |
| Stereolab Emperor Tomato Ketchup |
| Stereolab Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night |
| Stereolab Margerine Eclipse |
| Stereolab Fab Four Suture |
| Suffering Hour In Passing Ascension |
| The Todd Rittman-esque guitarwork, uniquely surreal atmosphere, and overall inventive approach makes this a highly impressive debut. |
| Suis La Lune Quiet, Pull the Strings! |
| Sulphur Aeon Gateway to the Antisphere |
| Sun Ra Lanquidity |
| Sunrise Patriot Motion Black Fellflower Stream |
| Sunrise Patriot Motion My Father Took Me Hunting in the Snow |
| Supertramp Breakfast in America |
| Svartidaudi Flesh Cathedral |
| Sweep the Leg Johnny Going Down Swingin' |
| Talk Talk Spirit of Eden |
| The Chameleons Strange Times |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan One of Us Is the Killer |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Dissociation |
| The Drones I See Seaweed |
| The Fall This Nation's Saving Grace |
| The Fall Bend Sinister |
| The Fall The Unutterable |
| The Mars Volta The Bedlam in Goliath |
| The Newfound Interest in Connecticut Tell Me About the Long Dark Path Home |
| The Raincoats Odyshape |
| Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra This Is Our Punk-Rock, Thee Rusted Satellites Gather and Sing |
| Thinking Fellers Local 282 Tangle |
| Thou Tyrant |
| Tiamat Wildhoney |
| Tortoise TNT |
| Tumba de Carne Decatexis // Perpetu Altar |
| Unwound The Future of What |
| Unwound Challenge For a Civilized Society |
| Ushangvagush Pestmo'qon |
| Van der Graaf Generator Godbluff |
| Van der Graaf Generator H to He, Who Am the Only One |
| Venomous Echoes Writhing Tomb Amongst The Stars |
| Vertebra Atlantis Lustral Purge in Cerulean Bliss |
| Viagra Boys Street Worms |
| Water From Your Eyes Everyone's Crushed |
| Wormrot Hiss |
| My vinyl arrived a week early and all I can say is that this is fucking bonkers. |
| Yellow Eyes Sick With Bloom |
| Yellow Eyes Immersion Trench Reverie |
| Yes Close to the Edge |
| 4.0 excellent |
| -S- Dom, w którym mieszkał Wąż |
| 0 (Null) Entity |
| 2814 新しい日の誕生 |
| Abyssal (UK) A Beacon In The Husk |
| Abyssal Rift Extirpation Dirge |
| Acausal Intrusion Seeping Evocation |
| Aevangelist Enthrall to the Void of Bliss |
| Albionic Hermeticism Nova Nativitas Mundi |
| Alex G Rules |
| Algiers Shook |
| Altai-Sayan Sängke-Tūrem Najt Mut-Moräh |
| Altarage Succumb |
| Anaal Nathrakh In the Constellation of the Black Widow |
| Anaal Nathrakh The Whole of the Law |
| Aphex Twin Richard D. James Album |
| Aphex Twin Drukqs |
| Aphex Twin Collapse |
| Archspire Relentless Mutation |
| Arizmenda Spiders Lust in the Dungeon's Dust |
| Arkaeon Parasit |
| Arkheth 12 Winter Moons Comes The Witches Brew |
| Artificial Brain Labyrinth Constellation |
| Aseitas False Peace |
| Ash Pool For Which He Plies The Lash |
| At the Drive-In Acrobatic Tenement |
| Auroch Mute Books |
| Autosarcophagy Dolor |
| Band of Susans Love Agenda |
| Barren Altar Entrenched in the Faults of the Earth |
| Bastro Diablo Guapo |
| Bekor Qilish Throes of Death From The Dreamed Nihilism |
| Birds in Row You, Me, and the Violence |
| Black Cilice Mysteries |
| Black Country, New Road Ants from Up There |
| I absolutely despise the debut, but this is far, far better. |
| Blood Incantation Hidden History of the Human Race |
| Bloodslide Bloodslide |
| Blut Aus Nord Ultima Thulee |
| Blut Aus Nord 777 - Sect(s) |
| Blut Aus Nord Disharmonium – Nahab |
| Boards of Canada Geogaddi |
| Bolzer Roman Acupuncture |
| Bolzer Hero |
| Bowery Electric Bowery Electric |
| Brii Sem Propósito |
| Brii Corpos Transparentes |
| Built to Spill Perfect from Now On |
| Butthole Surfers Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac |
| Calderum Lord Cramridor |
| Carpenter Brut EP III |
| Cate Le Bon Pompeii |
| Catherine Wheel Chrome |
| Chaos Moon Eschaton Mémoire |
| Chat Pile Remove Your Skin Please |
| Circle of Salt Suffer the Cold |
| City of Caterpillar City of Caterpillar |
| Clinic Internal Wrangler |
| Clock DVA Thirst |
| Closure in Moscow The Penance and the Patience |
| Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends |
| Coldplay Mylo Xyloto |
| Corridor Mimi |
| Courting Grand National |
| Courting Guitar Music |
| All killer, no filler - the Liverpool Lads have released an impressive debut album hot on the heels of an impressive debut ep, and show a stark amount of evolution already. The production choices are phenomenal, and give the album its own personality on top of the already excellent songwriting. Tennis is perhaps the pop song of the year, and the album version's pre-chorus barrage leading straight into Loaded is a fucking orgasmic choice. |
| Crowbar Broken Glass |
| Crymych Songs of Sistrum |
| Cryptopsy None So Vile |
| Crystal Antlers Tentacles |
| Cynic Traced in Air |
| Cynic Carbon-Based Anatomy |
| Daeva (USA-PA) Through Sheer Will And Black Magic… |
| The speed, personality, and fun of Venom, for a new generation. |
| Damien Rice O |
| Darkside Spiral |
| David Bowie Station to Station |
| David Grubbs The Spectrum Between |
| David Thomas and Two Pale Boys Erewhon |
| Dawnwalker House of Sand |
| Dazzling Killmen Face of Collapse |
| Dead Rider Chills on Glass |
| Death The Sound of Perseverance |
| Death Individual Thought Patterns |
| Deathspell Omega Si Monvmentvm Reqvires Circvmspice |
| Deathspell Omega Drought |
| Decoherence Order |
| Deerhoof Friend Opportunity |
| Deerhoof The Man, the King, the Girl |
| Deerhoof Breakup Song |
| Deerhunter Weird Era Cont. |
| Defeated Sanity Disposal Of The Dead // Dharmata |
| Departure Chandelier Satan Soldier Of Fortune |
| Destroyer Kaputt |
| Devourment Obscene Majesty |
| Dinbethes Balans |
| Dipygus Dipygus |
| Dischordia Triptych |
| Diskord Degenerations |
| Do Nothing Zero Dollar Bill |
| Do Nothing Glueland |
| Do Nothing Snake Sideways |
| Dormant Ordeal The Grand Scheme of Things |
| Drahla Faux Text |
| Drahla Useless Coordinates |
| Drahla angeltape |
| Dream Unending Tide Turns Eternal |
| A new statement in Doom music. Synthesises the heaviness of Warning's Watching from a Distance with the more delicate approach of maudlin of the Well's Bath, taking in other gothic elements for good measure. Amazing sonic textures and a great amount of variety, coupled with an immersive sense of continuity. |
| Drown (US) Subaqueous |
| Dry Cleaning Stumpwork |
| Duster Contemporary Movement |
| Dutch Uncles True Entertainment |
| Their best album by miles. Multi-layered, catchy, emotive, funny, this really is True Entertainment - Dutch Uncles have it all! Another W for the Northern Art Pop movement. |
| Dysgnostic Scar Echoes |
| Edenic Past Red Amarcord |
| El-Ahrairah El-Ahrairah |
| Electric Light Orchestra Time |
| END (USA-NJ) Splinters From An Ever-Changing Face |
| Eos (CAN) Les Corps S'Entrechoquent |
| Ephel Duath The Painter's Palette |
| Ernia Ernia |
| Esoctrilihum Inhüma |
| The album to get me on the Esoc hype-train. His leanest and meanest. |
| Esoctrilihum Eternity Of Shaog |
| Esoctrilihum Consecration of the Spiritus Flesh |
| Esoctrilihum Saopth's |
| Everything Everything A Deeper Sea |
| Everything Everything RE-ANIMATOR |
| Everything Everything SUPERNORMAL |
| Exek The Map and the Territory |
| FACS Present Tense |
| Falls of Rauros Key to a Vanishing Future |
| Fennesz Venice |
| Feral Light Psychic Contortions |
| Florence and the Machine Ceremonials |
| Fluisteraars Luwte |
| Fotbal Moon Landing Revival |
| Fotbal craft an intricate, dream-like haze that refuses to obey the rampant cliches that are attached to "dream pop", drawing from krautrock, psychedelia by way of Bardo Pond, and 80s proto-shoegaze. |
| Franz Ferdinand Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action |
| Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects Sol Niger Within |
| Frog Eyes The Golden River |
| Frog Eyes Violet Psalms |
| Frog Eyes The Bees |
| Fucked Up The Chemistry of Common Life |
| Fucked Up Year of the Rat |
| Fucked Up Year of the Tiger |
| Fucked Up One Day |
| Fugazi End Hits |
| Fugazi In on the Kill Taker |
| Funereal Presence Achatius |
| Future of the Left Travels With Myself And Another |
| Gas Königsforst |
| Gas Pop |
| Gastr del Sol Upgrade & Afterlife |
| Genesis Nursery Cryme |
| Genesis Wind & Wuthering |
| Genesis Duke |
| Gentle Giant In a Glass House |
| Gentle Giant The Power and the Glory |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Yanqui U.X.O. |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress' |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Luciferian Towers |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END! |
| Golden Light Sacred Colour of the Source of Light |
| Gospel MVDM: Magick Volumes Of Dark Madder |
| A step up from The Loser, MVDM captures the band's uncanny ability to create a flowing, cohesive musical narrative as they do in TMIADW, even if it lacks some of its energy. |
| Grails Anches En Maat |
| Contrary to the review published here, I'm inclined to argue that the final 2 tracks are the best. |
| Grave Pilgrim The Bigotry of Purpose |
| Grey Aura Zwart vierkant |
| GridLink Longhena |
| Grizzly Bear Yellow House |
| Hadit With Joy And Ardour Through... |
| Hail Conjurer Ouroboros Lust |
| Hajduk Кръв |
| Hajduk Свобода |
| Haken The Mountain |
| Hasard Malivore |
| Herbie Hancock Head Hunters |
| Hood Cold House |
| Horrendous Ecdysis |
| Horse Jumper of Love Horse Jumper of Love |
| Howls of Ebb The Marrow Veil |
| Howls of Ebb Cursus Impasse: The Pendlomic Vows |
| Hwwauoch Into the Labyrinth of Consciousness |
| Hwwauoch Protest Against Sanity |
| Imperial Triumphant Spirit of Ecstasy |
| Imprecation In Nomine Diaobli |
| Incubator McGillroy The Housefly |
| Inferno (CZ) Gnosis Kardias (Of Transcension and Involution) |
| Ink & Fire Execution of Spirit |
| Interpol El Pintor |
| James Blackshaw The Cloud of Unknowing |
| Japanese Breakfast Soft Sounds From Another Planet |
| Jawbox For Your Own Special Sweetheart |
| Jenny Hval Blood Bitch |
| Jenny Hval The Long Sleep |
| Julia Holter Have You In My Wilderness |
| Jute Gyte Ship of Theseus |
| Kaatayra Nascido Sob o Signo Incivilizatório |
| Kaikkivaltias Astu |
| Kairon IRSE! Ujubasajuba |
| Kaldeket Vitiate (Demo) |
| Karate Some Boots |
| Kayo Dot Blue Lambency Downward |
| Kayo Dot Gamma Knife |
| Kayo Dot Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike |
| Kowloon Walled City Turk Street |
| Krallice Krallice |
| Krallice Diotima |
| Some intense emotional moments across most of the album, but the title track and Litany of Regrets' over-extended lengths and lack of variation make this a far less consistent and powerful record than its predecessor. |
| Krallice Ygg Huur |
| Krallice Loüm |
| Krallice Mass Cathexis 2 - The Kinetic Infinite |
| Laster Het wassen oog |
| Laster Andermans Mijne |
| Laughing Hyenas You Can't Pray a Lie |
| Liars The Apple Drop |
| Lifetones For a Reason |
| Logh Every Time A Bell Rings an Angel Gets His Wings |
| Loop A Gilded Eternity |
| Low Hey What |
| LUMP (UK) LUMP |
| Lure Memories of Humanity |
| Lychgate Also Sprach Futura |
| Macintosh Plus Floral Shoppe |
| Mamaleek Kurdaitcha |
| Maximo Park A Certain Trigger |
| Michael Nyman The Piano |
| Minus the Bear Menos El Oso |
| Misthyrming Söngvar elds og óreiðu |
| Mitochondrion Archaeaeon |
| Modest Mouse This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About |
| Morgue Supplier Inevitability |
| Moss Upon The Skull In Vengeful Reverence |
| Mount Eerie Ocean Roar |
| Muzz Muzz |
| Negative Plane Et In Saecula Saeculorum |
| Neurosis Fires Within Fires |
| Neutral Milk Hotel On Avery Island |
| Noltem Illusions In The Wake |
| Norse Ascetic |
| Norse The Divine Light Of A New Sun |
| Truly "metal" metal; mechanical, cold, systematic, like a perfect machine. However, this does not preclude an emotional connection - at times, the music invokes dread, at other times, a sense of depressive emptiness, and others still, a feeling of loss. Nothing sounds quite like it. |
| Nourished By Time Erotic Probiotic 2 |
| Nurse With Wound And Stereolab Simple Headphone Mind |
| Obsequiae The Palms of Sorrowed Kings |
| Oceansize Everyone Into Position |
| Odz Manouk Ծուռ (Tzurr) |
| Odz Manouk Bosoragazan (Բոսորագազան) |
| Oes Galliath Sous l'oeil Fermé des Paradis |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Rifts |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Returnal |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Replica |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Russian Mind |
| Oneohtrix Point Never R Plus Seven |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Drawn and Quartered |
| Opeth Still Life |
| Opeth Deliverance |
| Ophanim (CHE) Tämpelskläng |
| Oranssi Pazuzu Mestarin Kynsi |
| Ought Sun Coming Down |
| Our Place of Worship is Silence Disavowed, and Left Hopeless |
| Ovlov Buds |
| Passeisme Eminence |
| Play this to a French peasant and it'll give the fucker the equivalent of a crack high. Pure energy, class and melodic sensibility. Between these guys and Ungfell, your high-intensity Eurofolk meloblack needs can be satisfied. |
| Passeisme Alternance |
| Pere Ubu Cloudland |
| Pere Ubu Terminal Tower: An Archival Collection |
| Pere Ubu Pennsylvania |
| Pere Ubu Datapanik in the Year Zero |
| Pere Ubu St. Arkansas |
| Pere Ubu The Long Goodbye |
| Pere Ubu Final Solution / Cloud 149 |
| Pestilence Consuming Impulse |
| Phoxjaw Royal Swan |
| Phrenelith Desolate Endscape |
| Pile A Hairshirt of Purpose |
| Pinback Autumn of the Seraphs |
| Pinback This Is a Pinback CD |
| Pink Floyd The Final Cut |
| Planning for Burial Below the House |
| Plebeian Grandstand Rien ne suffit |
| Polvo Today's Active Lifestyles |
| Porcupine Tree Stupid Dream |
| Predatory Light Death and the Twilight Hours |
| Protomartyr The Agent Intellect |
| Protomartyr Consolation |
| Pyrithe Monuments to Impermanence |
| An album that flows pretty much as if it was one colossal track, Monuments to Impermanence is a stunning debut that shows a huge amount of variety and nuance in its take on sludge. |
| Pyrrhon An Excellent Servant But a Terrible Master |
| Quasi Featuring "Birds" |
| Rachel's Music for Egon Schiele |
| Radiohead The King of Limbs |
| Radiohead 8 Outtakes From Amnesiac |
| Rainbow Rising |
| Replicant Malignant Reality |
| Rhinocervs RH-15 |
| Rhinocervs RH-16 |
| Richard Dawson Peasant |
| Sadness Circle of Veins |
| Selbst Despondency Chord Progressions |
| Selvans Lupercalia |
| Sepultura Roots |
| Shipping News Flies The Fields |
| Sigh Shiki |
| Singer Unhistories |
| Skaphe and Wormlust Kosmískur Hryllingur |
| SkyThala Boreal Despair |
| Sleepwalker (JPN) Skopofoboexoskelett |
| Slowfoam Transcorporeal Portal |
| Social Climbers Social Climbers |
| Soft Plastics 5 Dreams |
| Even more gradual than the Frog Eyes releases that precede and follow it, "5 Dreams" is a swampy yet characteristically beautiful record from Carey that utilises brass to develop a unique atmosphere. |
| Spectral Lore Sentinel |
| Spectral Lore II (Remaster, Extended) |
| Spire Temple of Khronos |
| Spring Heel Jack Disappeared |
| Steely Dan The Royal Scam |
| Stereolab Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements |
| Stereolab Aluminum Tunes |
| Stereolab Electrically Possessed [Switched on Volume 4] |
| Stereolab Pulse Of The Early Brain [Switched On Volume 5] |
| Still (UK) { } |
| Still blends dissonant black metal and atmospheric sludge to create an album that varies between claustrophobia and chasmic space, and is both disturbingly violent and calm in equal measures. While the influence from Plebeian Grandstand is fairly obvious, they very much retain their own sound. Formidable debut. |
| Sun City Girls Torch of the Mystics |
| Supertramp Crime of the Century |
| Sweep the Leg Johnny Tomorrow We Will Run Faster |
| Syn (NO) Villfarelse |
| Talking Heads Talking Heads: 77 |
| Tears for Fears Songs from the Big Chair |
| Tears for Fears The Seeds of Love |
| Tetrasigil Forest Storm |
| Thantifaxath Sacred White Noise |
| Thantifaxath Hive Mind Narcosis |
| The Alan Parsons Project Tales of Mystery and Imagination |
| The Chameleons Script of the Bridge |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Calculating Infinity |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Miss Machine |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Irony Is a Dead Scene |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Ire Works |
| The Exploding Eyes Orchestra I |
| The Fall Grotesque (After the Gramme) |
| The Fall Code: Selfish |
| The Fall The Light User Syndrome |
| The Jesus Lizard Goat |
| The Last Days When The Tomorrow Is a Grey Day |
| The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium |
| The Mars Volta Octahedron |
| The Mars Volta Noctourniquet |
| The Mars Volta Que Dios Te Maldiga Mi Corazon |
| So we finally got that Mars Volta acoustic album they promised! And it blows the original out of the water. A lot of the studio flourishes on TMV often felt distracting or even jarring. Stripped down to a sort of latin chamber pop, Que Dios Te Maldiga De Carazon proves that the Mars Volta boys are always full of surprises, and that their songwriting and emotional resonance remain compelling. A must-listen. |
| The Meads of Asphodel Running Out Of Time Doing Nothing |
| The Olivia Tremor Control Music From The Unrealized Film Script |
| The Orielles Tableau |
| The Physics House Band Horizons / Rapture |
| The Raincoats The Raincoats |
| The Residents Duck Stab |
| The Sea And Cake Nassau |
| The Steely Dan of 90s indie. Clever but laidback, a wonderful fusion of their contemporary "slacker indie" rock scene with jazz elements - the chill yet occasionally frenetic nature of both complementing each other perfectly. |
| The Silver (US) Ward of Roses |
| Went back and forth on this because it took a while for the second half to click. But sure now that this is one of the standout metal albums of 2021 for so many reasons - great genre blend, excellent bass-playing, ridiculously strong dual vocals, powerful atmosphere... Fallow alone is worth the price of admission. |
| The Smiths Hatful of Hollow |
| The Sound From The Lion's Mouth |
| The Stooges The Stooges |
| Theophonos Nightmare Visions |
| Three Mile Pilot Chief Assassin To The Sinister |
| Tim Hecker Haunt Me, Haunt Me Do It Again |
| Tim Hecker Ravedeath, 1972 |
| Tim Hecker Virgins |
| toe For Long Tomorrow |
| Tomb Mold Aperture of Body |
| Tortoise Standards |
| Toughness The Prophetic Dawn |
| Woah the production on this is fucking 10/10, whacky but still filthy as shit. |
| Tyrannus (UK) Unslayable |
| U.S. Girls In A Poem Unlimited |
| U.S. Maple Purple On Time |
| Ungfell Mythen, Mären, Pestilenz |
| Ungfell Es Grauet |
| Universally Estranged Reared Up In Spectral Predation |
| The burgeoning genre of cosmic death metal produces yet another gem. UE mix some excellent synth work with some entertaining and technical OSDM-flavoured riffing to create a well-paced, memorable work that does not deserve to fly under the radar. |
| Unwound Repetition |
| Unwound New Plastic Ideas |
| Unwound Fake Train |
| Uranium Pure Nuclear Death |
| Urfaust Untergang |
| Valdrin Effigy Of Nightmares |
| Van Dyke Parks Song Cycle |
| Veilburner Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull |
| Venom Black Metal |
| Vertebra Atlantis A Dialogue with the Eeriest Sublime |
| Vesperal Nuits blanches |
| Victory Over The Sun Dance You Monster To My Soft Song! |
| Voivod The Outer Limits |
| Wake Devouring Ruin |
| Warning Watching from a Distance |
| Warren of Ohms Threatening Costume |
| White Ward Love Exchange Failure |
| Wild Beasts Smother |
| William Doyle Great Spans of Muddy Time |
| William Doyle Springs Eternal |
| Probably the most underrated British musician of the last decade. Here Doyle proves, yet again, that he is a master of two worlds. |
| Winterquilt O'discordia |
| A vaporwave approach to the density of black metal, replete with harsh vocals in areas. It shouldn't work this well, but it does, and the final track will grip you with the wistful mourning that any good dungeon synth can evoke. |
| Wire Chairs Missing |
| Wire 154 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Celestial Lineage |
| Women Women |
| Wormlust The Feral Wisdom |
| Wuodan's Wunde Es Glimmt Empor Aus Ewger Nacht |
| Wyrmwoods No Sun nor Moon |
| XTC Black Sea |
| Xythlia Immortality Through Quantum Suicide |
| Yeasayer Odd Blood |
| Yellow Eyes Hammer of Night |
| Yes Fragile |
| Yo La Tengo And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside... |
| 3.5 great |
| 8 Hour Animal Resigner |
| A Minor Forest Inindependence |
| Abhorrence (FIN) Vulgar Necrolatry |
| Abraham Débris De Mondes Perdus |
| Abyssal (UK) Denouement |
| Depressive Suicidal Death Metal? A lot less polished than their later forays into transcendental fever, but has a charming melodic sensibility that'll make you curl up in the foetal position. |
| Aeviterne The Ailing Facade |
| Afterbirth Psychopathic Embryotomy |
| Afterbirth In But Not Of |
| Akhlys The Dreaming I |
| Alex G Trick |
| Alex G DSU |
| Alex G Rocket |
| Alora Crucible Thymiamatascension |
| Altars (AUS) Ascetic Reflection |
| American Football American Football (LP3) |
| An Evening Redness An Evening Redness |
| Animal Collective Campfire Songs |
| Antemasque Antemasque |
| Antigama The Insolent |
| Arizmenda Beneath This Reality of Flesh |
| Arnaut Pavle Transylvanian Glare |
| Artificial Brain Infrared Horizon |
| Asystole (USA-NY) Siren To Blight |
| At the Drive-In in•ter a•li•a |
| A mixture of RoC's clean but erratic sound, and the post-punk flourishes of Antemasque, inter alia is a strong comeback record with a surprising amount of charisma, even if it doesn't hit the creative and emotional heights of its predecessors. |
| Bakt Bastão Ciã |
| Black metal Plantasia from the genre's greatest contemporary artist |
| Bathory Bathory |
| Battles Mirrored |
| Beaten to Death Unplugged |
| Black Curse Endless Wound |
| Blonde Redhead La Mia Vita Violenta |
| Blood Incantation Luminescent Bridge |
| WTF I love merch metal now. Integrating the ambient, which on its own was a third-rate Tangerine Dream ripoff, into the death metal was absolutely the right choice. |
| Bloodmist Phos |
| Bloodmist Arc |
| Blue Bendy Motorbike |
| Blue Bendy So Medieval |
| Blut Aus Nord 777 - The Desanctification |
| Bohren und der Club of Gore Sunset Mission |
| Breathless Three Times and Waving |
| BRUIT The Machine Is Burning... |
| Cabinet Decomposing Hexahedronic Seplophobia |
| Car Bomb Meta |
| Cara Neir Phase Out |
| Cara Neir Phantasmal |
| An absolute riot. Not sure how to rate it really, the longer form tracks are extremely strong but the shorter ones sometimes pass me by. it's cool to see the digital aesthetic and concept used in combination with some threateningly dark and violent music. Blackened mythology for the Creepypasta generation. |
| Carbonized Disharmonization |
| Circle of Ouroborus Eleven Fingers |
| Circle of Ouroborus Lumi Vaientaa Kysymykset |
| Code Flyblown Prince |
| Coldplay A Rush of Blood to the Head |
| Coldplay Parachutes |
| Cosmic Putrefaction Crepuscular Dirge for the Blessed Ones |
| Creatvre Eloge de l'ombre |
| Crystal Antlers Two-Way Mirror |
| Cult of Luna Cult of Luna |
| Cynic Ascension Codes |
The truest realisation yet of metal without heaviness. Excellent jazz fusion work, powerful,
emotionally dramatic moments - shame about the pacing. |
| David Thomas Blame the Messenger |
| Deathspell Omega Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum |
| Deerhoof Halfbird |
| Deerhoof Mountain Moves |
| Deerhunter Monomania |
| Defect Designer Neanderthal |
| Boatload of fun. Diskord boys doing grind, and it's about as wild and entertaining as you could expect. Some nice 90s tech and trad vibes on this, and not afraid to get melodic, especially not on that blinding closer. |
| Deftones Saturday Night Wrist |
| Deftones Ohms |
| Dessiderium Aria |
| Devenial Verdict Ash Blind |
| Devoid of Thought Outer World Graves |
| Dire Straits Brothers in Arms |
| Drahla Fictional Decision |
| Drouth Excerpts From a Dread Liturgy |
| Dvne Asheran |
| Dvne Etemen Ænka |
| This would be a modern classic if it was just a little more condensed. Also, the best live performance from a metal band I've ever seen. If they're in your area, see them, you will not be disappointed! |
| Dysrhythmia Terminal Threshold |
| East India Youth Culture of Volume |
| Electric Light Orchestra Out of the Blue |
| Electric Light Orchestra A New World Record |
| Ensnared Dysangelium |
| Entheogen Without Veil, Nor Self |
| Epitaphe I |
| Esoctrilihum Funeral |
| Eximperitus... Sahrartu |
| Fabricant Drudge To The Thicket |
| Faceless Burial Speciation |
| Falls of Rauros Vigilance Perennial |
| Faraquet The View From This Tower |
| Father John Misty God's Favorite Customer |
| Fear Before The Always Open Mouth |
| Fleshworld The Essence Has Changed, but the Details Remain |
| Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The LSO Promises |
| Flourishing A Momentary Sense of the Immediate World |
| Fly Pan Am Frontera |
| Flying Saucer Attack New Lands |
| Fridge Happiness |
| Fucked Up Hidden World |
| Fucked Up Glass Boys |
| Fucked Up Year of the Hare |
| Fudge Tunnel Hate Songs In E Minor |
| Fugazi Steady Diet of Nothing |
| Fugazi Red Medicine |
| Full of Hell Weeping Choir |
| Funeral Diner The Underdark |
| Future of the Left The Plot Against Common Sense |
| Galg Afzicht |
| Gas Zauberberg |
| Genesis A Trick of the Tail |
| Gentle Giant Gentle Giant |
| Glass Beach The First Glass Beach Album |
| Glassing Light and Death |
| Goat Girl On All Fours |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! |
| Golden Ashes (NL) A Lightless Christ Shuns The Crown Of Divinity |
| Gorguts Pleiades' Dust |
| Grizzly Bear Veckatimest |
| Gudveiki Vængför |
| Hacride Lazarus |
| Hail Spirit Noir Mayhem In Blue |
| Haken Vector |
| Hath All That Was Promised |
| The hype is absolutely real with these singles. Dominant, heavy, and nimble. |
| Haunter (USA-TX) Sacramental Death Qualia |
| Haxenzijrkell Urgrund |
| Heaving Earth Darkness of God |
| Hebephrenique Non Compos Mentis |
| Hen Ogledd Free Humans |
| Hippotraktor Meridian |
| Ones to watch. A lot of newer bands in this vein are often pale imitators of others, but this band have their own distinct character and mix up their tracks with some more interesting "tension-building" sections, the closer being a good example. One of the best debut releases of the year. |
| Homeskin Integument Crystallization |
| Honningbarna Animorphs |
| Hugo Largo Mettle |
| Hussar All-Consuming Hunger |
| Hylda Juniper Pyre |
| Idaho Year After Year |
| IDLES Brutalism |
| Immolation Acts of God |
| Imperial Triumphant Goliath |
| Imperial Triumphant Abyssal Gods |
| Incantvm Strigae |
| Inferno (CZ) PARADEIGMA (Phosphenes of Aphotic Eternity) |
| A nice addition to the burgeoning "psychedelic black metal" canon, this would fit nicely on Mystiskaos. The main issue is that this album feels less distinct than its predecessor, with these nods to pre-existing bands. Still, it's an enjoyable listen, with some great highlights and a very strong flow, even if it isn't too distinct from its contemporaries. |
| Interpol Marauder |
| Ion Dissonance Breathing Is Irrelevant |
| Iravu A Fate Worse than Home |
| Jarhead Fertilizer Product of My Environment |
| Jethro Tull Aqualung |
| Jon Hassell Vernal Equinox |
| Kayo Dot Plastic House on Base of Sky |
| Kayo Dot Blasphemy |
| Kowloon Walled City Grievances |
| Kraftwerk Kraftwerk |
| Krallice Prelapsarian |
| Krallice Crystalline Exhaustion |
| Krallice Porous Resonance Abyss |
| Laster De Verste Verte Is Hier |
| Lightning Bolt Wonderful Rainbow |
| LizZard Eroded |
| Lucifixion Trisect Joys Of Pierced Hearts |
| Lychgate The Contagion in Nine Steps |
| Mac DeMarco Salad Days |
| Mac DeMarco Another One |
| Macha Macha |
| Mannveira Vitahringur |
| Mission of Burma Signals, Calls, and Marches |
| Morbid Angel Blessed Are the Sick |
| Morbus Chron A Saunter Through The Shroud |
| Mount Kimbie The Sunset Violent |
| New Young Pony Club The Optimist |
| Nightshift (UK) Zoe |
| No Age Weirdo Rippers |
| Noble Dechet Astral Déchu |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Betrayed in the Octagon |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Zones Without People |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Love in the Time of Lexapro |
| Onirik The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity |
| Opeth Ghost Reveries |
| Oranssi Pazuzu Muukalainen Puhuu |
| Osees Floating Coffin |
| Ossaert Offerdier |
| Papangu Holoceno |
| Pere Ubu Ray Gun Suitcase |
| Pere Ubu Lady From Shanghai |
| Pere Ubu Carnival Of Souls |
| Pere Ubu 390 Degrees of Simulated Stereo, Vol. 1 |
| Pinback Blue Screen Life |
| Ploughshare Tellurian Insurgency |
| Polvo Shapes |
| Polyphia New Levels New Devils |
| Portrayal of Guilt Christfucker |
| Protomartyr Under Color of Official Right |
| Protomartyr No Passion All Technique |
| Radiohead Kid A |
| Radiohead OK Computer |
| Rodan Rusty |
| Rorschach Protestant |
| Sadist Firescorched |
| Sarcasm (SWE) Stellar Stream Obscured |
| Sebadoh III |
| Self Defense Family Have You Considered Punk Music |
| Sigh Scenes from Hell |
| Slow Crush Hush |
| Soccer96 Dopamine |
| Sorry 925 |
| space cadet (UK) There Aren't Any More Stars |
| Spectral Lore Ετερόφωτος |
| Spirit Possession Of the Sign ... |
| Steely Dan Pretzel Logic |
| Stereolab Peng! |
| Stereolab Not Music |
| Still House Plants If I don’t make it, I love u |
| Stortregn Impermanence |
| Suffering Hour The Cyclic Reckoning |
| A smoothed-out development on their debut. I prefer their earlier work but only marginally - a more critical comparison would be between this and the new Veilburner album, which has a better sense of atmosphere and more entertaining screwiness. Still, a great release from a great band, and I can see many preferring this more atmospheric approach. |
| Suis La Lune Distance/Closure |
| Supertramp Crisis? What Crisis? |
| Svartidaudi Untitled |
| Talking Heads More Songs About Buildings and Food |
| Talking Heads Speaking in Tongues |
| Tangents (AUS) Stateless |
| Tar Babies Death Trip |
| Teeth (USA-CA) Finite |
| The Armed Ultrapop |
| The Comsat Angels Waiting for a Miracle |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Option Paralysis |
| The Fall The Wonderful And Frightening World Of The Fall |
| The Fall The Frenz Experiment |
| The Fall Shift-Work |
| The Fall Middle Class Revolt |
| The Fall Imperial Wax Solvent |
| The Mars Volta Tremulant |
| The Meads of Asphodel In the Name of God, Welcome to Planet Genocide |
| The Microphones Don't Wake Me Up |
| The Microphones Song Islands |
| The Smiths The Queen Is Dead |
| The Sound Jeopardy |
| Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Kollaps Tradixionales |
| Thysia Islands In Cosmic Darkness |
| Tim Hecker Dropped Pianos |
| Tim Hecker No Highs |
| Trha Vat Gëlénva!!! |
| Tsunami Deep End |
| Tzompantli Tlazcaltiliztli |
| U.S. Maple Acre Thrills |
| Ultha All That Has Never Been True |
| Universally Estranged Dimension of Deviant Clusters |
A small step forwards from the debut. Now that
the production is dialled in (and it truly is
here), here's hoping LP3 builds on that with
more varied songwriting. |
| Unwound Unwound |
| Uranium An Exacting Punishment |
| Ushangvagush Mntu |
Raw atmoblack with a hardcore punk edge, some dabbling in folk, and a final track with a strong
90s indie rock feel. Engaging, and incredibly heartfelt. |
| Uthullun Dirges for the Void |
| Van der Graaf Generator The Least We Can Do Is Wave to... |
| Van der Graaf Generator World Record |
| Venom Welcome to Hell |
| Venom Prison Samsara |
| Venomous Echoes Split Formations and Infinite Mania |
| Viagra Boys Cave World |
| OK Computer for terminally online Zoomers with severe substance abuse issues and no job. Fucking fantastic. |
| Vile Creature Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm! |
| Vilkacis The Fever of War |
| Vinyl Williams Opal |
| Violent Magic Orchestra Catastrophic Anonymous |
| Vitskar Suden The Faceless King |
| Voidcraeft Ἕβελ |
| Voivod War and Pain |
| Voivod Synchro Anarchy |
| Wailin Storms The Silver Snake Unfolds |
| Wandelaars Verbroken |
| Watter This World |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Two Hunters |
| Worm Foreverglade |
| Yeasayer All Hour Cymbals |
| Yellow Eyes Master’s Murmur |
A very odd album structurally, but unlike other recent genre-shifts from metal musicians, there's
serious thought in this record, and the lamplit folk-horror vibes are absolutely in line with
Yellow Eyes' discography and side-projects. My rating on this is perpetually wavering - is it too
idiosyncratic for its own good? Is it merely a darkly playful exercise in range and
experimentation? Is it a dungeon synth masterpiece? I'm not sure. But it does demand repeated
listens, if sometimes out of mere bafflement. The Skarstads remain the most vivid and hypnotic
musicians in the US today. |
| Zos The Whole Of The Body I Call ZOS |
| 3.0 good |
| Abraded Abraded |
| Vox is entertaining but maybe a little too prominent in the mix. Instrumentally excellent, and smartly the album is kept pretty brief. Some high quality "caveman shit". |
| Acausal Intrusion Nulitas |
| Intrusive drumming spoils an otherwise intriguing atmosphere |
| Acausal Intrusion Panpsychism |
| Acephalix Theothanatology |
| Aephanemer A Dream Of Wilderness |
| Aetheria Conscientia Corrupted Pillars of Vanity |
| Agalloch The Mantle |
| Alex G RACE |
| Alex G God Save The Animals |
| I was very anxious about this, as House of Sugar is essentially impeccable in my eyes, and ultimately God Save the Animals does lack the spark. That being said, while it doesn't have the candied, almost-anthemic immediacy of that album's first side, it is just as cohesive despite its variety. |
| All Else Failed This Never Happened |
| Alustrium A Monument to Silence |
| Am Himmel As Eternal As The Starless Kingdom Of Sorrow |
| Anticreation From the Dust of Embers |
| Arcade Fire Funeral |
| Archspire Bleed the Future |
| Arcturus The Sham Mirrors |
| Ashbringer Absolution |
| At the Drive-In In/Casino/Out |
| Atemporal Thorn Genesis |
| ATKA Untitled Album 1 |
| Basalte Vertige |
| Battlegrave Cavernous Depths |
| Beauty Pill The Unsustainable Lifestyle |
| Ben Frost Theory of Machines |
| Big|Brave Vital |
| Black Math Horseman Black Math Horseman |
| Black Midi Cavalcade |
| A transitionary stage with some absolutely dire production, Cavalcade is entertaining and vital enough, but lacks precisely what made Schlagenheim so phenomenal (its production, its aggression, and the variety of its songwriting). John L, Dethroned, and Slow are wonderful standouts, but the album, while rollicking, doesn't hold up to scrutiny. I can see Hellfire absolutely demolishing this if it takes Schlagenheim's aggression, tightens the songwriting, and improves production. |
| Blindfolded and Led to the Woods Nightmare Withdrawals |
| Boss Keloid Melted on the Inch |
| Boss Keloid Family the Smiling Thrush |
| Bossk Migration |
| Buried Inside Chronoclast |
| Cailleach Calling Dreams Of Fragmentation |
| Caligula's Horse Bloom |
| Can Saw Delight |
| Cathexis Untethered Abyss |
| Charlie Griffiths Tiktaalika |
| Chat Pile This Dungeon Earth |
| Cheer-Accident Introducing Lemon |
| The Autumn Wind is a Pirate is a beautiful, beautiful song. The interluding tracks, however, are absolute trash. |
| Cloakroom Dissolution Wave |
| Coldplay X&Y |
| Dark Tranquillity Atoma |
| Deerhoof Deerhoof vs. Evil |
| Deerhunter Halcyon Digest |
| Defacement Defacement |
| Deftones White Pony |
| Deftones Around the Fur |
| Deftones Deftones |
| Demiser Through the Gate Eternal |
| Denzel Curry Melt My Eyez See Your Future |
| Der Weg Einer Freiheit Der Weg Einer Freiheit |
| Desolate Shrine Fires of the Dying World |
| Dissolve Patterns Dissolve Patterns |
| Ditz The Great Regression |
| Django Django Glowing In The Dark |
| The first 3 and last 3 tracks are all fantastic - Hold Fast, especially with that smooth transition from the title track, is absolutely sublime. Sadly, the midsection of this album leaves something to be desired, otherwise this would receive a much higher rating. |
| DorDeDuh Har |
| Drahla Third Article |
| Dream Unending Song of Salvation |
| Drowning the Light An Alignment of Dead Stars |
| Great music. Shame the lyricism is on par with that of a primary schooler's attempt at poetry, with a primary schooler's idea of medieval society to boot. Bro you live in Australia, stop talking about wandering in dense woodland thinking about the Battle of Hastings. It's embarrassing. |
| Drowse Wane into It |
| Dry Cleaning New Long Leg |
| Dying Fetus Reign Supreme |
| Electric Light Orchestra Discovery |
| Ernia How To Deal With Life And Fail |
| Esmerine Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More |
| Ethereal Shroud Trisagion |
| Five The Hierophant Through Aureate Void |
| Florence and the Machine Lungs |
| Flying Saucer Attack Further |
| Foals Holy Fire |
| Fontaines D.C. Dogrel |
| Frog Eyes Carey's Cold Spring |
| Fucked Up Year of the Dog |
| Full of Hell Garden of Burning Apparitions |
| Future of the Left The Peace and Truce of |
| Genesis Trespass |
| Gentle Giant The Missing Piece |
| Gnod Hexen Valley |
| Goat Girl Goat Girl |
| Gospel The Loser |
| Grizzly Bear Horn of Plenty |
| Hank Wood And The Hammerheads Hank Wood And The Hammerheads |
| Helpless Caged In Gold |
| Heltekvad Morgenrodens Helvedesherre |
Great black metal with ragged riffing reminiscent of Suffering Hour, tortured vocals, and a
very dark take on the age of sword and myth. Bonus points for using a sample of sword-fighting
rhythmically on the closer, very cool. Minus points for the mediaeval theme not feeling entirely
integrated. |
| Hissing Permanent Destitution |
| Hold Me Down Powerless |
| Hollow Mirrors II |
| Hood The Cycle Of Days And Seasons |
| Hood British Radars |
| Hoplites Παραμαινομένη |
| Hyperdontia Hideous Entity |
| IDLES Joy as an Act of Resistance |
| Iglooghost Lei Line Eon |
| Inhumankind Self-Deification |
| Big step up from their last album, this one feels far more realised. My score will probably waver a lot on this as it gets more listens, but it's definitely a unique and entertaining "chamber metal" album. |
| Intronaut The Direction of Last Things |
| Japanese Breakfast Jubilee |
| Jesu Jesu |
| Julia Holter Something in the Room She Moves |
| Karate Unsolved |
| Kerosene 454 Situation At Hand |
| Krypts Cadaver Circulation |
| LLNN Unmaker |
| Mac DeMarco 2 |
| Magazine Real Life |
| Malignant Altar Realms of Exquisite Morbidity |
| Mamaleek Diner Coffee |
| Maruja Knocknarea |
| Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell III |
| Mid-Air Thief Crumbling |
| Miles Davis Sketches of Spain |
| Misotheist For the Glory of Your Redeemer |
| Misthyrming Með hamri |
| Mitski Laurel Hell |
| Modern Studies The Weight Of The Sun |
| Monolord Your Time to Shine |
| Monte Penumbra As Blades in the Firmament |
| Moral Collapse Moral Collapse |
| Can't wait to see what these guys do next - this album can feel a little undercooked at times and has a largely throwaway closer, but overall it's a very promising and engaging debut. |
| Morbus Chron Sleepers in the Rift |
| Morrow (UK) The Quiet Earth |
| Muse Black Holes & Revelations |
| Muse Drones |
| Neptunian Maximalism Eons |
This album carries attention very well until the third act, which meanders aimlessly for far too
long.
Act 1 - 3.5
Act 2 - 4
Act 3 - 2 |
| Neurosis and Jarboe Neurosis and Jarboe |
| Nightmarer Monolith of Corrosion |
| Noise Trail Immersion Curia |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Magic Oneohtrix Point Never |
| Opeth Orchid |
| Opeth Blackwater Park |
| Opeth My Arms, Your Hearse |
| Our Place of Worship is Silence With Inexorable Suffering |
| Oxbow Fuckfest |
| Oxbow Love's Holiday |
| Paramore This Is Why |
| Pere Ubu Song Of The Bailing Man |
| Pere Ubu Worlds in Collision |
| Pile You're Better Than This |
| Pile All Fiction |
| Porcupine Tree Lightbulb Sun |
| Post War Years The Greats and the Happenings |
| Pupil Slicer Mirrors |
| Qrixkuor Poison Palinopsia |
| What if Skaphe were a death metal band? This is what. |
| Radiohead In Rainbows |
| Red Fang Arrows |
| Seputus Phantom Indigo |
| Sermon of Flames I Have Seen the Light, and It Was Repulsive |
| Sleepwalker (JPN) 一期一会 |
| So Hideous None But a Pure Heart Can Sing |
| Sol Kia Zos Ethos |
| Sonic Youth Bad Moon Rising |
| Sorry Anywhere But Here |
| Sparklehorse Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain |
| Spectral Voice Sparagmos |
| Spencer Krug I Just Drew This Knife |
| Stereolab Mars Audiac Quintet |
| Stereolab Dots and Loops |
| Stereolab Sound-Dust |
| Stereolab Chemical Chords |
| Suis La Lune Heir |
| Suis La Lune Riala |
| Sulphurous The Black Mouth of Sepulchre |
| Sunburned Hand of the Man Headdress |
| Swampbeast Seven Evils Spawned of Seven Heads |
| Swampborn Beyond Ratio |
| Swans The Seer |
| Sxuperion Auscultating Astral Monuments |
| Some well-made cosmic black metal that doesn't simply blur into a monolithic sludge. While I still think Sxuperion are finding their own identity, their songwriting is good and at best their music is starkly captivating. Bonus points for the Blade Runner monologue sample. |
| The Fall The Infotainment Scan |
| The Lounge Society Tired of Liberty |
| The Mars Volta The Mars Volta |
| The Physics House Band Incident on 3rd |
| The Ruins of Beverast The Thule Grimoires |
| The Spirit Of The Beehive Entertainment, Death |
| Tomb Mold Planetary Clairvoyance |
| Tomb Mold The Enduring Spirit |
| The riffs on the first half of the album are only bested by Faceless Burial for quality and raw enthusiasm. But as the record goes on, the quantity of Cynic-al New Age ambience and less engaging riffs increases. |
| Tome of the Unreplenished Earthbound |
| Tuscoma Arkhitecturenominus |
| Unto Others Mana |
| Urne Serpent and Spirit |
| Valdrin Throne of the Lunar Soul |
| Vanum Legend |
| Veilburner VLBRNR |
| At its best this thing showcases career highlights, but sadly some tracks feel rather rote and uninspired. If they'd cut the runtime down to 40 mins and removed some of the more generic tracks (the opener comes to mind), this could have been a masterpiece. |
| Viagra Boys Welfare Jazz |
| Voidsphere To Overtake | To Overcome |
| Wiegedood There's Always Blood at the End of the Road |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Black Cascade |
| Woorms Fatalismo |
| Xaoc Proxime Mortis |
| Yes The Yes Album |
| Yes Time and a Word |
| YLVA M E T A |
| Zao The Crimson Corridor |
| 2.5 average |
| A Minor Forest Flemish Altruism (Constituent Parts 1993-1996) |
| Admiral Angry Buster |
| Animal Collective Time Skiffs |
| Antaeus Cut Your Flesh and Worship Satan |
| Antaeus Blood Libels |
| Apes Lullabies For Eternal Sleep |
| Apparition Feel |
| Arctic Monkeys Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino |
| Arcturus Aspera Hiems Symfonia |
| Arkheth Clarity Came With A Cool Summer's Breeze |
| Author and Punisher Kruller |
| Black Country, New Road Live at Bush Hall |
| Caligula's Horse In Contact |
| Celestial Sanctuary Soul Diminished |
| Converge Bloodmoon: I |
| Craven Idol Forked Tongues |
| Cryptae Capsule |
| Cult of Luna The Long Road North |
| Dark Tranquillity Construct |
| De Profundis The Corruption of Virtue |
| Deafheaven Infinite Granite |
| Deerhoof Actually, You Can |
| Defacement Deviant |
| Divide And Dissolve Gas Lit |
| Dodsrit Mortal Coil |
| Every Time I Die Radical |
| Fairly decent metalcore. Has some engaging vocals and interesting moments, the OK Computer rpastiche of Thing With Feathers being one of them, but an album this lacking in dynamism in its rtracklist cannot warrant 40 minutes of listening, let alone 51 (!), especially given how played-rout this style of metalcore is; if not for this it would be a 3.5. Surprised that this usually rrather discerning site has overhyped this album, though it certainly isn't undeserving of praise. rThe synthwave parody album cover is also weirdly misplaced. |
| Feminazgul No Dawn for Men |
| Shame about the last two tracks being markedly less well-written due to being earlier work. If it had ended Erebor it would be a 3.5 minimum. |
| Foals What Went Down |
| Genesis ...And Then There Were Three... |
| Gevurah Gehinnom |
| GodKing Hic Incipit Pestis |
| Haken Affinity |
| The definition of a "mixed bag". Some great tracks but the two ballads really drag this one down, especially as the rest of the material isn't as tight or inspired as in The Mountain or the later albums. A truly transitionary album wherein the band doesn't entirely know what to do with its sound. |
| Hoplites Ψευδομένη |
| Hoplites Τρωθησομένη |
| JIRM The Tunnel, The Well, Holy Bedlam |
| Kanonenfieber Der Füsilier |
| King Woman Celestial Blues |
| Lingua Ignota Caligula |
| Mac DeMarco This Old Dog |
| Massacre From Beyond |
| Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell |
| Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News |
| Morbid Evils Supernaturals |
| Great atmosphere, great tempo changes, great crusty elements, but having 4 long tracks does knock the wind out of the band's sails by the end. |
| Mortiferum Preserved in Torment |
| My Bloody Valentine m b v |
| Nadja Luminous Rot |
| Napalm Death Resentment is Always Seismic... |
| Neptunian Maximalism Solar Drone Ceremony |
| Neurosis Sovereign |
| Oathbreaker Maelstrom |
| Opeth Morningrise |
| Opeth Damnation |
| At its best, it's a remarkably effective blend of prog death songwriting with pared-back instrumentation. At its worst, it feels like an album that indulges in its concept too much, resulting in some tracks feeling rather one-dimensional. The synth flourishes are a highlight. |
| Osees A Foul Form |
| Palm Reader Sleepless |
| Pere Ubu Story of My Life |
| Phobophilic Enveloping Absurdity |
| PJ Harvey Let England Shake |
| Portrayal of Guilt Devil Music |
| Radiohead The Bends |
| Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever Endless Rooms |
| Rolo Tomassi Where Myth Becomes Memory |
| Sadistic Ritual The Enigma, Boundless |
| Sea Power Everything Was Forever |
| Boneless indie. It's not bad. But it's not too engaging. Nice hearing the Disco Elysium soundtrack work return on Fire Escape In The Sea. |
| Seam Headsparks |
| Silent Planet Iridescent |
| Succumb XXI |
| Syndrome Syndrome |
| The Fall Cerebral Caustic |
| The Smile A Light For Attracting Attention |
| This Is Oblivion This Is Oblivion |
| To Die On Ice Una specie di ferita |
| Strong atmosphere but despite the horny song-titles, this is more of a blue baller. |
| Tomarum Ash in Realms of Stone Icons |
| Trenches Reckoner |
| Undeath Lesions of a Different Kind |
| Undeath It's Time...To Rise From the Grave |
| Viande L'Abime Dévore les Âmes |
| The singles were strong but the album as a whole is rather static, lacking the variety necessary. They have potential for sure, but this could have been EP length. |
| Vilkacis Beyond the Mortal Gate |
| White Ward False Light |
| Wilderun Epigone |
| The first 20 minutes is such a colossal waste of time that the subsequent quality can't really drag my rating any higher. |
| Yautja The Lurch |
| Year of No Light Tocsin |
| 2.0 poor |
| Absent In Body Plague God |
| Alex G Winner |
| Alice in Chains Dirt |
| Anareta Fear Not |
| Playing relatively conventional black metal on different instruments doesn't make it more interesting. |
| Antaeus De Principii Evangelikum |
| Antaeus Condemnation |
| Arcturus La Masquerade Infernale |
| Autarkh Form in Motion |
| Black Midi Hellfire |
If you're hoping the rest will be as good as Welcome to Hell and Eat Men Eat, you will be sorely
disappointed. Production is only marginally better than Cavalcade's and most of the music is,
shockingly, far weaker, as the band pivot away from noise rock almost entirely, instead turning to
carnival music and post-ironic smooth jazz fusion. |
| Blind The Huntsmen White Eyes |
| Blonde Redhead Fake Can Be Just As Good |
| Blonde Redhead isn't Just As Good at being Unwound as Unwound are, even if they poached their bassist. Poor, uninspired trendhopping from serial offenders in this crime (see: their debut's Sonic Youth aping, and 23's shoegaze). |
| Bog Body Cryonic Crevasse Cult |
| Boris W |
| Celeste Assassine(s) |
| Appropriate album cover, because this is putting me to sleep. Listen to the Symbology of Shelter if you want blackened mathcore that actually kicks ass. |
| Conjurer Pathos |
| Atmospheric/post-metalcore is by far the worst plague to hit the British Isles since the Black Death, and after infecting Venom Prison and worsening its grip on Rolo Tomassi this year, it has struck again to create another tedious "opus" with all the vitality and charisma of a parsnip. It's not a bad album by any means, just painfully similar to, well, everything else to come from this scene this year, and why this site constantly fawns over this subgenre is entirely baffling to me, in the same way that it is baffling that it fawns over professional anaesthetists (and blight upon the genre of "sludge metal") Cult of Luna. These musicians are competent... and that is it. All appeals to emotion feel calculated, all songs homogenous. Especially disappointing given how entertaining Curse These Metal Hands was. Oh well. |
| Crystal Antlers Nothing Is Real |
| Daxma Unmarked Boxes |
Hiraeth and the closer are pretty great, but the rest of the album, and even elements of those
songs, are very much cookie-cutter post-rock/metal |
| Deathspell Omega The Long Defeat |
The over-egged, edgy vocals and ambient sections (distorted choirs? really?) feel like self-
parody, and I'm not even saying that because Mikko is a racist nonce... Rhythm section absolutely
carries this, there's some delectable bass grooves, and the production knows it, as they are front
and centre, with the guitar taking a more scene-setting role at times - this, I like, especially
as the guitar work is unimpressive. It's a weak album overall, so thankfully I don't have to self-
flagellate when I make my year-end list. |
| Drug Church Hygiene |
| Editors The Back Room |
| First Fragment Gloire Eternelle |
| Fluisteraars Manifestaties van de Ontworteling |
Regardless of quality, it was a dickmove to advertise this on Bandcamp as black metal when it's an
ambient album, especially as the full album wasn't released on streaming or without purchase on
the site - essentially, longtime fans of the band were baited into preordering and buying music
that, let's face it, most don't give a fuck about. Worse behaviour than the rollout for Merch
Incantation's last LP, which they did at some point actually advertise as being a Tangerine Dream
ripoff, though the music here is admittedly better. Much like Yellow Eyes, Fluisteraars are an
excellent black metal band, and while they've had successful side-projects that delve into other
genres, the ambient album is where BM musicians have gone to die ever since Varg and Mortiis tried
their hands at it. Who'd have thought that musicians coming from a genre that cares little for
production value would be incapable of crafting interesting ambient music? While the Dutch scene
has precedent for good drone BM (Himelvaruwe), and "Master's Murmur" did show that BM can be
integrated into a more abstract style, this release drops the band's core genre almost entirely. I
hope that the poor fools who ordered this have learned that you cannot trust preorders, especially
when not preceded by singles until several weeks into their promo campaign, and certainly not from
long-running black metal bands - something most of us learned in the 2000s. |
| Foals Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 1 |
| Fontaines D.C. A Hero's Death |
| Fontaines D.C. Skinty Fia |
| Forlesen Black Terrain |
| Foxing Nearer My God |
| Frog Eyes Pickpocket's Locket |
| Fuil Na Seanchoille The Crossing |
| Genesis Abacab |
| Genesis Genesis |
| Genesis Invisible Touch |
| Gentle Giant Civilian |
| Haunter (USA-TX) Discarnate Ails |
| The opener is filled with entirely non-sequitur musical moments which fail to convey anything other than a sense of sonic scale, rendering it essentially meaningless. The rest fares progressively better but that doesn't excuse the utter mess that introduces this release. It *sounds* great, but it *does* nothing with that sound. |
| HMLTD West of Eden |
| Horrendous Ontological Mysterium |
| Imagine Dragons Night Visions |
| Inhumankind Self-Extinction |
| Islet Eyelet |
| KEN mode Null |
| Land Of Kush Sand Enigma |
| Lingua Ignota SINNER GET READY |
| Mass Worship Portal Tombs |
| Meshuggah I |
| Meshuggah Koloss |
| Metz Up On Gravity Hill |
| Mizmor and Thou Myopia |
| Myopia by Thou and Mizmor? More like Anhedonia by Drowse and Bigsnore, amirite? |
| Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank |
| My Chemical Romance The Black Parade |
| Non Serviam (FRA) Le Cœur Bat |
| Northlane Obsidian |
| Parquet Courts Wide Awake |
| Pinback Information Retrieved |
| Pink Floyd A Momentary Lapse of Reason |
| Russian Circles Gnosis |
| It's... another post-y release. A cool bit of heft in some tracks but otherwise incredibly dull and indistinguishable from most bands in this increasingly cookie cutter genre. |
| SCALPING Void |
| Shining (NOR) Grindstone |
| Solefald World Metal. Kosmopolis Sud |
| Steely Dan Katy Lied |
| Sulaco The Prize |
| Sun Kil Moon Benji |
| Svalbard When I Die, Will I Get Better? |
| Swallow the Sun Moonflowers |
| Thos Aella Sempiternal Mobocracies |
| I want to like this album more, as at its best it is a wonderful, idiosyncratic pastiche of classic metal. However, a lot of the songs are overlong and begin bleeding into each other as the album goes on. |
| Thy Catafalque Vadak |
| Turnstile Glow On |
| Underdark (UK) Our Bodies Burned Bright On Re-Entry |
| Venom Prison Erebos |
| Band disposes of everything that made them such a standout act and embraces tired semi-atmospheric deathcore cliches. |
| Voak Verdrängung |
| Yes Tales from Topographic Oceans |
