Nearing the end of the year I was under the impression that 2017 had been a rather slow year for music. But upon a bit more exploration and reflection I no longer think that's the case. There were some fantastic releases this year and in particular, I found there to be a lot of innovation going on across the musical spectrum. Innovation is better than pure quality in a sense, because that means that not only can we marvel at the creativity that's circulating now, but we can expect the realization, development and integration of the new sounds and styles unearthed by innovation in the years to come. Many releases this year one could imagine looking back on in some time from now and thinking, "so that's where it all started". Here are the 25 albums that I found the most compelling and enjoyable in 2017...
NOTE: At the end of my comments for a lot of these albums, I will mention other albums that didn't quite make the cut, but that I still think are relevant. I've bolded all the album titles for clarity and listed my Top 25 without comments at the bottom for those who aren't into suspense. You'll also find my Top 25 songs below, as well as my "2017 All-Star Band" and some other fun superlatives. Enjoy!
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Top 25 Albums of 2017:
25. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN
There’s a lot of hype around Kendrick Lamar right now, and while I’m inclined to view someone that’s so revered within the mainstream as being overrated, the ambition that Lamar exhibits even when he’s deliberately toning down the conceptual elements of his music is so far beyond what other rappers are putting out there that it’s hard not to concede to those who champion him as the torchbearer of modern hip hop. There are some ways in which he’s overrated but at the same time there’s also things about his music that I love and don’t think get enough recognition.
While DAMN is more hit-and-miss that his previous releases (there’s a couple songs I really don’t care for), the high points are about as high as hip hop goes for me. He kicks off the album with the highest of those points: DNA, a track that, aside from just being jaw-droppingly intense, exemplifies Lamar’s incredibly thoughtful approach to songwriting and how he’s pushing the genre to new levels. This singular track is the main reason why I had to include DAMN on my top 25 list; it would honestly be nowhere near the list without it.
The way Lamar uses “DNA” as a hook throughout the song while resisting the inclusion of an actual chorus allows him to strike the perfect balance between the more hardcore non-stop freestyle approach and memorable songwriting. There’s so many great moments: the “you’s a bitch” part, the “I know murder, conviction” sequence. Of course, the beat change halfway through is what takes this song to the next level. He’s done this before but never this impeccably (NOTE: the music video is cool but they butcher the beat change so if you haven't heard this yet then don't watch the video first). I’d really like to see more rappers experimenting with beat changes like Kendrick does here.
The way he overlaps the different rapping tempos and comes in with “This is my heritage, all I'm inheritin' / Money and power, the mecca of marriages”, is simply genius. That’s a compliment that I almost never give to hip hop, because I rarely ever find that great ideas in hip hop are on the same level of creativity as the great ideas in rock, jazz, etc., i.e., when I listen to rap that I enjoy I don’t usually think “how the hell did they come up with that!?” like I more often do with other genres.
But this track is an exception to that trend in several places. The stop and go production on the second half is so perfect, especially when they sort of turntable stutter the “give me some ganja” sample as Kendrick ferociously rattles off more lyrics. Given all the amazing and distinguished parts, I’m still having a hard time fathoming that it’s only three minutes and five seconds long. The build up and tension/release in this song is absolutely sublime. It just keeps getting harder and harder. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that this is quite possibly the best hip hop song I’ve ever heard.
This intensity however, is not entirely reminiscent of what is a rather mellow album overall, with only a few exceptions. Something that has always set apart Lamar is that he seems most comfortable delivering vulnerable lyrics, rather than the kind of tired ego-stroking approach that many rappers stick to, and the mellowness featured here really allows him to explore that vulnerability, and himself, deeper than ever before. For an artist that has always been personal, this album is perhaps his most personal album yet, illustrated by the “ain’t nobody prayin’ for me” line that he repeats in the exposing track, FEEL, a line that makes several thematic appearances throughout the album. He does this with a number of phrases, and manages to combine most of them and all the previous song titles on the over seven-minute long track, FEAR, which details his greatest fears at different points in his life, from childhood to the present.
While clearly being less conceptual than its predecessors, the commitment to his art that Lamar has expressed on every album thus far is clearly still there. There are a few off-putting experiments in pop-rap here that I can’t help but skip, but when Kendrick Lamar is on point he delivers some of the most interesting rap music that’s ever been recorded.
There’s two other hip hop albums from 2017 that I’d like to mention: Known Unknowns by Billy Woods and Godfather by UK Grime artist Wiley. The former features a varied collection of very esoterically introspective and atmospheric songs, like the darkly metaphysical refrain on the 17th track, Keloid: “You won't never get no answers / not for the stuff that keeps you up”. The latter offers a pretty much non-stop barrage of unapologetically hard-hitting electronic-based bangers - the song Bring Them All / Holy Grime, is impossible not to bang your head to, but is fueled even more so by the ruthless high tempo rapping of Wiley and the song’s feature, Devlin.
24. CHON - Homey
The very upbeat and ever-growing-in-popularity math rock band CHON switched things up a bit on their second full-length, Homey, which to some people’s dismay featured some prominent electronic elements. I’m not really one of those people.
The electronica elements work better in some places than in others, for example, a song like Glitch (feat. ROM), works really well because the guitars and electronics are each very distinct. And on a song like, Berry Streets (feat. GoYama), the electronic parts are actually pretty creative. The songs with vocal samples are less so, but even on past releases the songs with vocals were my least favorite ones, and there’s nothing here that’s particularly off-putting.
CHON definitely have a signature sound, but it can be hard to distinguish one song from another sometimes given their style, so I think this kind of experimentation is at least warranted, if not needed. I can see how someone might lament the lack of technicality in the electronic-infused tracks, but they still have more classic CHON pieces with complex guitars and jazzy drumming than not on this record.
It's done very well on a song like Sleepy Tea, especially the drumming which is nuts on this song. In fact, drummer Nathan Camarena seems to be compensating for his lack of inclusion on the electronic tracks by taking the limelight in a lot of the more complex songs and adding really creative percussion parts, such as at the end of No Signal. Not to be outdone, there’s some really cool sweep-and-tap parts on Wave Bounce; that may be the craziest guitar part that CHON have put forward yet.
Overall, what I like most about this album is how competently they nail that feel-good summer vibe that they’re obviously going for amidst the sophisticated instrumentation. It’s a good album to just throw on for atmosphere, yet there’s so much to admire from a technical perspective as well. The effect of the simpler songs is to give each track on the album more individuality, and avoid monotony on the album as a whole. I didn’t remember liking this as much as I do now that I’m revisiting it; its much more expressive than I’d given it credit for in my memory and that's the primary reason that it's on my list.
CHON definitely have a signature sound, but it can be hard to distinguish one song from another sometimes given their style, so I think this kind of experimentation is at least warranted, if not needed. I can see how someone might lament the lack of technicality in the electronic-infused tracks, but they still have more classic CHON pieces with complex guitars and jazzy drumming than not on this record.
It's done very well on a song like Sleepy Tea, especially the drumming which is nuts on this song. In fact, drummer Nathan Camarena seems to be compensating for his lack of inclusion on the electronic tracks by taking the limelight in a lot of the more complex songs and adding really creative percussion parts, such as at the end of No Signal. Not to be outdone, there’s some really cool sweep-and-tap parts on Wave Bounce; that may be the craziest guitar part that CHON have put forward yet.
Overall, what I like most about this album is how competently they nail that feel-good summer vibe that they’re obviously going for amidst the sophisticated instrumentation. It’s a good album to just throw on for atmosphere, yet there’s so much to admire from a technical perspective as well. The effect of the simpler songs is to give each track on the album more individuality, and avoid monotony on the album as a whole. I didn’t remember liking this as much as I do now that I’m revisiting it; its much more expressive than I’d given it credit for in my memory and that's the primary reason that it's on my list.
23. Converge - The Dusk in Us
I’ve dismissed Converge for a long time as not my cup of tea, but after fully absorbing this album I think I finally see what other people see in this band.
It’s a little hard to get past the vocals at first - they first word that comes to mind to describe how they sound is ‘sickly’. It’s not usually a compliment but once you hear how dirty and biting the guitar tones and overall feel of the music are, the whole things starts to come into context. And it’s so, so heavy.
It's a very distinguished form of heaviness as well. Of course, it's chaotic, but not just musically; at the end of a song like I Can Tell You About Pain, where they bounce a heavy riff against squealing high pitched feedback sounds until there’s nothing left but the feedback (the type that out of context would make most people cover their ears), Converge show that they are willing to eschew some listeners by being too nasty. It’s actually quite artistic. That’s not their only trick however. They also bring a variety of great musical ideas to the table. The opening song, A Single Tear, has some great guitar leads and melodies, as well as a heavy, walloping hook. And there’s a sort of rock n’ rollness hiding amidst the chaos in a song like Under Duress.
A song that really pulled me in from the start however was the final track, Reptilian, which betrays the debt to which Converge owes sludge metal for their sound, and actually reminds me a bit of early Mastodon. Listening to the rest of their album, you start to realize that what they’re playing is in some ways, a super sped up and frantic variation of Neurosis, who are the heaviest band of all time in my opinion. And while the slowness of bands like Neurosis is part of what makes them heavy, the uptemponess on this LP allows Converge to pack so much energy into such short spans of time. It can be hard to keep up with but at the same time it really grabs your attention. There’s even a couple great under two-minute songs on this album.
Converge also released a song called Eve on an EP earlier this year, that adds another dynamic to their sound in its more ambitious seven-minutes and epic heaviness, which is most certainly worth checking out on its own. It’s too bad it wasn’t included on their LP since I probably would’ve ranked it a little higher. Nonetheless, this album really impressed me and no one needs to convince me further to check out their much lauded 2000 album Jane Doe, as I intend on doing so soon.
22. R.D. King - vs. Self
For what is 40 some odd-minutes of single-track instrumental acoustic guitar, this album is surprisingly varied, and in a different way that you’ll get with most acoustic guitar soloists these days. Every year there are more Andy McKee replicators dabbling in that percussive guitar style. And that’s really cool for sure, and it's amazing to watch and when done right, very pleasant to listen too. But you don’t hear so many fresh and innovative classical guitar albums coming out in 2017, which is understandable because classical guitar has been around for hundreds of years. But this album does a number of things to break that sort of writer’s block within the classical guitar collective unconscious, aside from just offering countless dazzling intricate melodies, as it surely does.
The obvious one is that King plays on a steel string exclusively on this album. He’s certainly not the first classical guitarist to try steel, but that decision immediately separates him from the vast majority of classical guitar music, and combined with his perpetual use of steel finger picks, he establishes a majestic, crystal clear tone. You notice this right away on track number one, Lightness of Being, which begins the album with a beautiful cascade of very swift finger-picking.
He quickly departs from the brightness of the first track on song number two, The Precipice, which I would be willing to bet my life on is at least partly inspired by some form of heavy metal music, though that style sounds so different when arranged and altered by a classical guitarist on an acoustic that I have a hard time pinpointing any particular band or guitarist that he may be channeling. But surely, those dark and heavy sounds he’s producing are unmistakably heavy metal riffs, and quite intricate ones at that, making this song a sort of acoustic quasi-prog metal song, in my mind. It serves as a really interesting and unique part of the album; so much that I can’t help but imagine what a whole album that explored this particular style would sound like.
He definitely shows his cards to some extent however, in that he does have a lot of walking-through-an-enchanted-forrest kind of moods that are more intrinsic to the traditional classical guitar style. But these moments are also some of the best on the album as they add a lot of emotional complexity to the record as a whole. He uses this mood in the song, There Are No Young Forests, but reaches into an even more magical plane of sound by incorporating modern harmonic picking techniques that are just bursting with color. That song is also a great example of how he masterfully moves his songs along and creates very powerful progressions, as after that brilliant harmonic section, the song becomes quite uplifting and melodic.
He goes on later to put forward his own piece of more straightforwardly uplifting acoustic guitar on the final track, An End to Wandering. In a way, this seems like R.D. King’s attempt at making a song that parallels that modern Andy McKee/John Butler, uplifting, major key, Americana-esque acoustic guitar sound. But he doesn’t emulate the techniques of those players at all really; he’s not slapping his guitar to the beat. He still comes at it from a purely melodic perspective and I think that works in his favor, as there is a clarity to that approach. This song also features his guitar playing at its most climactic, as he is really able to build the song up to a very strong melodic climax. It's one of the most effective album closing moments of the year and certainly one of my favorite instrumental songs and albums of 2017.
An instrumental album that barely missed out on my top 25 is the ambitious double concept album called Journey to the Mountain of Forever by the British duo Binker & Moses, which in the first half features strictly saxophone and drum pieces like the delightfully berserk Trees on Fire, before bringing on a number of guest musicians for the second half, and treading upon what I might identify as psychedelic jazz in tracks like The Valley of the Ultra Blacks. Listen to the drumming on this album. Jazz drumming is typically great, but Moses Boyd truly demonstrates some of the most creative drumming I’ve ever heard in any genre, masterfully balancing groovy, beat-based drumming with intricacy and frill. You can pretty much skip to any point in this album and be sure that you're going to be amazed by the creativity of the drum work. It's shocking how dense these two musicians make their music. Even in the feature-less first half there’s more going on in many of these songs that you’ll get from most 4+ member bands.
21. Ne Obliviscaris - Urn
Last time Ne Obliviscaris released an album it was a masterpiece in my opinion. The problem with that of course, is that it's tough to follow up, and no matter how many great things they do on this album, there would be no stopping me from comparing it to 2014’s Citadel. Seeing as we’re not closer to number one on my end of the year list, I’m not of the opinion that Urn is as good as its predecessor. However, by virtue of this album even being on my list, as compared to the many albums that I enjoyed this year that didn’t make my top 25, I still think this a great collection of progressive metal music.
There are some things on this album that I think they’re doing better than ever. The main attraction of this band, Tim Charles’ violin playing, while always incredible, seems to be even better this time around. The obvious example is the longest track on the record (though not necessarily long for their standards), Eyrie, which begins with a long, clean and melodic section that centers around both Charles’ beautiful violin playing and his almost Josh Groban-esque cinematic vocals. This is probably the most uplifting piece of music that they’ve ever put out.
Of course, it does eventually give way to extreme metal, it sort of gives me the impression that they could benefit from having some strictly unmetal songs to give their albums a little more diversity; not that I don’t enjoy the transition into heaviness that this song features. In fact, this song has the best ending on the record, with again, a fantastic violin solo.
My biggest complaint actually is that I think in every case other than this song they have the opportunity and resources available to end there songs with much more power. They seem sometimes to settle for passable endings, which is a shame, because in long epics like these having a notable and decisive ending is paramount.
It's surprising to me for example, that for a band that epitomizes progressive metal as much as anyone right now, they never elect to end their songs on a big drawn-out riff, a technique that essentially every progressive metal band uses at some point. Maybe its due to the commonality of that technique that they avoid it, but it makes no more sense than avoiding beginning a song with a big riff, a more common songwriting technique of which they’re not opposed to doing. To me, it's just about having good unique riffs and using them at the most effective time. Part of it may be, that it does seem this album is lacking memorable riffs to some extent, at least compared to Citadel. They rely heavily on those dissonant guitar strumming over double bass drumming sections. While that’s cool it is getting a bit formulaic, particularly the constancy of the double bass, a criticism that I’d heard but dismissed before this album, but that I now think is relevant.
Anyways, I complain because I care.
Again, this album is on my year end list for a reason and I wasn’t even able to finish talking about how much I love the violin playing before I went on that tangent. To that point, it feels a bit more avant-garde in some places; a bit more dissonant and experimental and thus more fitting of Ne Obliviscaris’ style. Take Urn, Pt. I: And Within the Void We Are Breathless for example. Over that very dissonant and ringing opening guitar riff, Charles lays some mind-bending and abstract violin that brings a lot more to the table than the typical soaring orchestral melody that you might be more expecting of. And he contributes some similarly hectic violin work at the end of the song as well. It seems he’s getting better at incorporating the violin in a more complimentary way. The funny thing is, is that if you asked me before this album, I would have said his violin playing was perfectly complementary to their style, but I suppose you can never stop improving when it comes to music.
In a similar vein, this might be their heaviest album yet. Its filled with dissonance, and Xenoyr’s growling sounds more devilish and truculent than ever. Benjamin Baret has some phenomenal leads as well. The bass work is so farandaway more interesting than you’ll find in most metal. Again, there’s so many things that Ne Obliviscaris do incredibly well and so many things that make them stand out as one of the most unique progressive metal bands out there, I’m just hard on them because there’s a couple somewhat simple things I think they could do that would take an album like Urn to masterpiece level quality. But in the end they’re still one of the most promising bands in heavy music today, and I spent a lot of time listening to and enjoying this album in 2017 - more than I spent time thinking about how it could be better.
Another notable Australian progressive metal release this year was In Contact by Caligula’s Horse, which just missed out on making this top 25 list. There’s a lot of things to love on this album, although I think I’m taking a minority position in being a bit disappointed that they sort of doubled down on their heavy metal components, as their last album saw them moving in a somewhat controversially unheavy and more delicate direction, that I felt gave them a bit more character and earnesty. There’s a lot of more macho heaviness and straightforward aggression in the vocals, and groovy Pantera-esque or approaching-Djent guitar stylings, which admittedly works really well on the end of Will’s Song (Let the Colours Run). There is definitely a soft and organic element on this album, but the heavy-soft dynamic is more on-and-off, not as coalesced, and not interwoven as elegantly as on their 2015 album Bloom (except on the very graceful and Bloom-recalling track The Hands are the Hardest).
Jim Grey’s amazingly beautiful vocals were more at home in that context but he still blows me away on this album; he may be my favorite contemporary metal singer. The falsetto-reliant chorus on Dream the Dead is spectacular, emotive and easily one of the best vocal moments of the year. I will say that I have a huge problem with the songwriting on this track, in that they use up that brilliant chorus, in its two repetitions, way too quickly, and end the song on a rather anticlimactic note, whereas the obvious choice would have been to return to the chorus at the end. I’m not sure what’s going on here - maybe they were just trying to be a bit progier, but I felt so strongly about this that I even ended up doing something I’ve never done before, that is: sacrilegiously cutting and pasting the second chorus to the ending in audio editing software, with a couple other simple edits to make it flow, so I could just listen to that version instead. It works so much better to my ear, especially how dramatic the “You wasted heaven on saving yourself” section sounds building up to the final chorus seven minutes in instead of three. It would probably be one of my absolute favorite songs of the year if they had done it this way on the album.
Anyways, I don’t know why I’m being so hard on these Australian bands. I would definitely highly recommend this album to fans of prog metal and great guitar work, and I know a lot of people really enjoyed the stylistic direction of this release so most of my objections are purely arbitrary and may very well be unindicative of your listening experience.
20. Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface
A song like, The Gold, is really easy to like; very memorable guitar lick and very memorable vocal hook, but also benefits enormously from the personal lyrical content, starting off with the lines “Couldn't really love you any more / You've become my ceiling”. While this is probably the catchiest song on the record, they offer up enduring hooks and vocal lines pretty consistently, thanks in part to the very accessible voice of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Andy Hull, who’s voice could have been created in a lab designed to front an indie rock band; its that well-suited.
I’m impressed that he often makes even the verses very dramatic and distinct. The Moth features some powerful, driving verses thanks as well to the strength of the rhythm section. Something that adds a lot to this song too is the layers of synth. This is a sonic theme present in several places on the album that adds a bit more of a dramatic atmosphere.
The dramatics I think are what I found really moving about Manchester Orchestra’s approach on A Black Mile to the Surface. He can really push his voice pretty far and insert a lot of passion, as he does very effectively at the end of the The Grocery, a song that like others benefits very much from the narrative aspects of the lyrics which gives it a bit more personality and serves as a great set up for when the more passionate vocals take over, singing, “I've been trying to find the right way to get out of here”.
As with any album that seeks to leave a dramatic and cinematic impression on the listener, they save the most dramatic moment for the end, with the longest track on the record at just a second shy of seven minutes, The Silence. It’s a huge sounding song that’s based around a very epic melody and builds up very deliberately to another very narrative vocal section, belting lines like, “Little girl, you are cursed by my ancestry / There is nothing but darkness and agony / I can not only see, but you stopped me from blinking”. It’s a really well put together album as they really play to their strengths, from the lyrics, to the singing style, down to the organization and connectivity of the songs.
Speaking of The Dear Hunter, after two years in a row with top-notch full length albums, they decided to tone it down this year and just release an EP. Self-promoted as a sort of fan-service EP, All Is As All Should Be offers up a number of nice additions to the Dear Hunter catalog, my favorite being the first track, The Right Wrong, a song that stands out for its somewhat anomalously progressive guitar riffs, and less anomalously spirited vocals.
19. Soen - Lykaia
Well there’s still a clear component of Tool replication on their third album, Soen continue build more of an identity for themselves with every release. What jumped out at me on first listen of Lykaia was that there’s much more prominence and creativity in the guitar playing. Apparently, they went and got themselves a new lead guitarist named Marcus Jidell and you can really feel his presence here. It's an interesting development because, like Tool, the bedrock of Soen’s sound is definitely the rhythm section, so with a new guitarist bringing in his own riff and lead style, their sound is now a bit heavier, more melodic, and more distinct.
And the riffs that Jidell brought along with him are pretty badass. Many of them are very melodic and evil sounding, more comparable to Opeth than Tool. It's not surprising that they’re able to lock in very well to those kind of grooves of course as Soen’s drummer is former longtime Opeth percussionist Martin Lopez. They establish this new element immediately on the opening track, Sectarian, which begins with one of those very discordant and sinister sounding guitar riffs and presents an even heavier one a bit later on in the song.
And the riffs that Jidell brought along with him are pretty badass. Many of them are very melodic and evil sounding, more comparable to Opeth than Tool. It's not surprising that they’re able to lock in very well to those kind of grooves of course as Soen’s drummer is former longtime Opeth percussionist Martin Lopez. They establish this new element immediately on the opening track, Sectarian, which begins with one of those very discordant and sinister sounding guitar riffs and presents an even heavier one a bit later on in the song.
I like that they don’t always just throw these riffs in the beginning of the song and use them in a typical post-chorus structural fashion. On the second track, Orison, which begins with some very Tool-esque yet still very well-done heavy verses, they inject a really fiery and dissonant riff into the middle of the song to serve a transitional function that makes the song a lot more interesting as a whole. The heterodox approach to song structure is more boldly displayed later on in the same song, as what is otherwise a rather heavy track, ends with a very melancholic and sedative passage of dense vocal layering and restrained melodic guitar leads, which they arrive at very naturally.
This is another way in which Soen have added to their sound pallet. There’s a good deal of melancholia on this album that takes a somewhat solemn psychedelic shape. And well they’ve done slow songs before, the third track, Lucidity, is much more of a sonically rich song than anything in their catalog. They pull this song off very convincingly, as it distinctly doesn't sound like a metal band going soft. There’s a lot of focus on the vocal harmonies and again Jidell provides some unmistakably bluesy guitar leads that add a lot of emotion to the song. All together, this gloomy style that they concentrate on here and explore to some extent on other songs is more reminiscent of Pink Floyd than anything, specifically Pink Floyd at their most somber.
Considering the changes that they’ve made in their sound, something that Soen do really well on Lykaia is present those changes in a very upfront manner at the beginning of the album. All those Opeth, Tool and Pink Floyd influences are offered up genially in the first three songs, and are dispersed and combined very effectively throughout the rest of the record, in a way that really erects and cements this style. And while I make these comparisons to other bands, it's not necessarily fair to Soen, as they now more than ever sound like their own band, and that sound is advanced with consistent quality on this album.
Another band that released a quite clearly Tool-influenced album is the Greek group Time Collapse, who on their debut, Night to Day, come across as an alternate version of Tool that is more upfront about their 70’s prog rock influences. Amongst the Tool-esque rhythmic guitar riffs, they incorporate a lot of proggy piano and various symphonics. Well I’d like to see them replicate the Tool sound with a little more personality, it’s definitely interesting to hear a song like, Messiah Complex Pt.I (Projected Perfection), with its dark jazzy piano, reminiscent of Keith Tippet’s contributions to early 70’s King Crimson, and that magical and psychedelic choral break, in this context. I must say, they do a great job building tension with these dynamics as well.
18. Venenum - Trance of Death
I’m not really a big death metal guy. At least I don’t think I am. And yet, less than halfway through this is already the second death metal album to make my list. And my favorite metal band of all-time is a progressive death metal band, so maybe I’m just in denial. But the reason I appreciate this German band’s debut album is because Venenum don’t seem so concerned with boxing themselves in and/or straying away from non-death metal (undead, if you will) ideas and tones, while still using the abrasive sounds of the genre to accentuate their heaviness.
One reason I like Trance of Death is that the tempos are more varied than you typically get in death metal. A song like Cold Threat, is braced on both ends by slow, weighty riffs that do the title of this track perfect justice. Even within this one song they’re throwing out more great riffs than some metal bands have on whole albums.
The sound of this album is very icy and desolate. That’s not too unique for a death metal band either of course, but I appreciate that it still strikes the balance of sounding dirty and unpolished, while at the same time being relatively clear, and certainly not divulging into the sort of often annoyingly impoverishing lofi aesthetic that too many bands of this style go for.
They just avoid all the things that usually turn me away from death metal. This album isn’t filled to the brim with blast beats and they’re not screaming at you non-stop. The songs are built around these great wintery, nefarious riffs and paced at times with slow ominous clean sections. It's not necessarily revolutionary, but its done with fantastic discretion on the three-part, nearly thirty-minute title track medley that comprises the whole second half of the record. There’s some great lead playing throughout, especially on the instrumental Part II: Metanoia Journey. Both of the other parts of the medley are again, stacked with heavy riffs of different persuasions. They do a particularly superb job of ending the closing Part III: There Are Other Worlds…, with a drawn out tempo-fickle helter-skelter of discordant riffs.
I’m not really inclined to listen to a death metal album unless it has significant progressive tendencies, and I’m not generally interested in showcases of technical ability either. In other words, I more or less require long, ambitious and varied songwriting in this genre in order to like it and I’m rather impressed with the triumph to which Venenum approached this long album ending medley on their debut, and the whole thing for that matter.
One reason I like Trance of Death is that the tempos are more varied than you typically get in death metal. A song like Cold Threat, is braced on both ends by slow, weighty riffs that do the title of this track perfect justice. Even within this one song they’re throwing out more great riffs than some metal bands have on whole albums.
The sound of this album is very icy and desolate. That’s not too unique for a death metal band either of course, but I appreciate that it still strikes the balance of sounding dirty and unpolished, while at the same time being relatively clear, and certainly not divulging into the sort of often annoyingly impoverishing lofi aesthetic that too many bands of this style go for.
They just avoid all the things that usually turn me away from death metal. This album isn’t filled to the brim with blast beats and they’re not screaming at you non-stop. The songs are built around these great wintery, nefarious riffs and paced at times with slow ominous clean sections. It's not necessarily revolutionary, but its done with fantastic discretion on the three-part, nearly thirty-minute title track medley that comprises the whole second half of the record. There’s some great lead playing throughout, especially on the instrumental Part II: Metanoia Journey. Both of the other parts of the medley are again, stacked with heavy riffs of different persuasions. They do a particularly superb job of ending the closing Part III: There Are Other Worlds…, with a drawn out tempo-fickle helter-skelter of discordant riffs.
I’m not really inclined to listen to a death metal album unless it has significant progressive tendencies, and I’m not generally interested in showcases of technical ability either. In other words, I more or less require long, ambitious and varied songwriting in this genre in order to like it and I’m rather impressed with the triumph to which Venenum approached this long album ending medley on their debut, and the whole thing for that matter.
17. Artificial Language - The Oberver
After fully consuming The Observer I’m compelled to make the prediction that Artificial Language have one of the most promising futures of any young progressive metal band. They have this strange combination of great catchy vocals and melodies but a very eccentric and crowded compositional style. They remind me a lot of modern prog metal bands with pop-sensibilities, particularly Leprous, that use very emotional vocals and utilize choruses in nearly all of their songs. But they also channel more hardline seminal heavy progressive bands like Between the Buried and Me; not so much in heaviness or aggression (this really isn’t very heavy or aggressive at all), but rather in the there’s-no-such-thing-as-overplaying approach to progressive music. It’s a difficult approach as its hard to get songs like that stuck in the listeners head.
Yet, with the focus 100% on melodic vocals, there’s definitely some melodies at play on this album which keep you coming back. The Silver Cord in particular is based around an unquestionably emotive chorus and a catchy post-chorus guitar harmony, the chorus of which repeats three times, broken up only by a short guitar solo. If you noticed, that was basically a description of a pop song. But the progressive, somewhat neo-classical nature of the music makes it so different from your typical chorus-based song. The song Dirty Hands even starts out with its very catchy chorus straight away, before giving way to some very harmonious guitar parts, that then become quite erratic during the verses.
But what’s so cool about this album is that, as I said, while they’re obviously channeling certain metal bands as their main influence, there’s not really any aggression or hostility to speak of in the vocals or instrumentals. And it's not particularly dark either. The mood you get from this album is more along the lines of heavyish and dramatic alternative rock bands like Muse. At the same time, their riffs and melodies are far more intricate than you’ll typically find in music of that persuasion. And it’s not just great guitar work, although that’s certainly a factor. As much as the guitars create a great melodic backdrop for these songs, in a track like Unself Portrait, the keyboard and orchestral parts are just as, if not more, important than the guitars. They add a lot of color to the songs, and often take on a lead role, but moreover serve to really enhance a lot of the emotive vocal parts.
I think their style works best on the longest and final song, Turn off the Pictures, which is one of the best prog metal epics of the year. It sees Artificial Language at their most theatrical, which is a rather nascent element of their music up until that point in the record. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this band is influenced by modern theatrical rock bands like The Dear Hunter. Either way, it gives them a bit more character overall.
I may just enjoy this song because it employs potentially the catchies hook on the album, just in the way that he sings, “Decomposing from the outside in”. But I also feel as if the length of this song gives them a little extra space, and allows the listener to really enjoy the instrumental aspects of the music and the popier elements individually, instead of having them fight for attention. Also, it gives them the liberty to be even more dynamic and really build the song up from a low point and back up to the hook, which makes that last section of layered bridge and chorus vocals that much more powerful. It's a counterintuitive thought - that the added length makes them more accessible - but it could very well be true if this song is any indication. We’ll have to see on their next release.
I’ll mention as well that I’d like to see a little thicker production next time, as this one lacks a little punch in some spots, though I suppose it's somewhat endearing in the sense that that softness further distances them from the typical metal sound. Anyhow, The Observer serves as a remarkably dense and impressive debut album that appeals to me on both an innovative and emotional level. I can’t wait to see where they take this sound.
As far as debut releases in progressive metal this year I’d like to mention as well, Witherfall’s Nocturnes and Requiems, a heavy, somewhat Dream Theater-channeling work of progressive power metal. This is one of best guitar albums of the year, packed with absurd (in a good way) Malmsteen-esque neoclassical shredding and a number of very progressive headbang-inducing riffs, both on display on the song Nobody Sleeps Here…, which has an absolutely mind-boggling section of soloing turned riffage about three and a half minutes in.
I was also interested in a debut self-titled EP by an Irish prog metal band named Sectile. On the last song on that EP, Comes with the Rain, they give off much more of a classic metal vibe than prog, but benefit from some very powerful, climactic songwriting and emotive singing.
16. Blanck Mass - World Eater
Happy to be able to put an electronic music album on my list this year. Blanck Mass really comes at his productions with a compositional approach, and specializes in mostly seven to nine minute long songs. One of the main benefits of electronic music of course, is that you can really play around with and layer different sounds, while keeping a consistent groove, and use that give and take to keep the song moving. I find the lengthier songs give him more room to expand on his ideas in this manner.
What makes World Eater great as an album is that Blanck Mass has a very varied pallet of sounds and moods in his arsenal. He comes jumping out of the gate after a short intro on the second track, Rhesus Negative, which is very intense and becomes almost aggressive at some point. You’ll notice quite promptly that he doesn’t conform to the typical tones of electronica. Well these tracks are mixed clearly, there’s a very discernable component of harshness to his production style, enhanced in part by the album cover. It sounds more organic in way, and isn’t as mind-numbingly bass heavy as some other electronic artists. It’s presumably a very intentional sonic choice and one that adds a unique amount of liveliness and character to his tone; almost as if to make it sound less robotic and more human.
But that rather abrasive track gives way without pause into Please (one of my favorite transitions of the year), a song that, aside from its length and other nuances, could easily be marketed as a type of chill EDM track, with its sort of catchy title-repeating theme. He retains the harshness that I spoke of previously however, particularly on the percussion, which is based around this trance-inducing distorted fade in. What’s most interesting about this song however is the extremely intriguing mixmash of vocal layers that makes up what you might call the chorus. Vocal sampling is common in electronica of course, but Blanck Mass has a very creative way of selecting and incorporating his vocal samples. Again, it adds a bit more of a human element to his music.
But that rather abrasive track gives way without pause into Please (one of my favorite transitions of the year), a song that, aside from its length and other nuances, could easily be marketed as a type of chill EDM track, with its sort of catchy title-repeating theme. He retains the harshness that I spoke of previously however, particularly on the percussion, which is based around this trance-inducing distorted fade in. What’s most interesting about this song however is the extremely intriguing mixmash of vocal layers that makes up what you might call the chorus. Vocal sampling is common in electronica of course, but Blanck Mass has a very creative way of selecting and incorporating his vocal samples. Again, it adds a bit more of a human element to his music.
There’s no other song of which this is more true than on Silent Treatment. It starts with an immediately memorable and celestial-evoking choral sample, which sounds to be the very cleverly arranged remnants of a gospel choir, and goes on to use numerous different and creative vocal samples that contribute to creating what is an extremely unique atmosphere. This song has lot of energy, but is also enhanced by a very powerful ebb and flow of intensity, masterfully crafted by Blanck Mass. I think it benefits from being the most melodic song on the album as well, with help from, if I’m not mistaken, some very prominent and somewhat intricate synth leads.
I hope I’m fortunate enough to be exposed to more electronica with this level of experimentation and character in the future, as I maintain that, despite my clear bias for human recorded music, I’m very interested in the possibilities that electronica can offer, and Blanck Mass has peaked my curiosity this year.
Not just him though. There were a couple other compelling electronic music releases for me in 2017. Perturbator, whose synthwave album I enjoyed last year, came out with a nearly LP-length EP called New Model, which features some of the most interesting electronic music I’ve ever heard. Also some of the darkest I’ve heard as well. It sees him adopting a more modern, or futuristic sound rather than the more 80’s throwback aesthetic of his previous work. More importantly though, the song structures are very liberal. The opening track, Birth of the New Model, doesn’t just present one groove or melody and build on it as you often find with electronica. Instead it has a very distinct progression throughout and climaxes into this super heavy and chaotically rhythmic 5/4 groove, before a very head-bang worthy and cinematic synth part to conclude.
I’m really impressed with the innovation here, and as the album title suggests, I think he’s going for a sort of watershed moment with this release. The song Tainted Empire is even more experimental and eccentric, sort of resembling the menacingly tumultuous impression often achieved in progressive metal or mathcore. In fact, it's so heavy it wouldn't be hard to imagine someone doing harsh vocal over this in places. This song also builds up to a huge and destructive ending. I dare say, it almost echos the genre of dubstep at the end, which is not a comparison that would interest me, but he achieves that general sound by using actual musical dissonance and not by just mashing weird sounds together, which I think redeems it from the comparison to that vile genre.
If you like this sort of dark, heavy synthwave I’d also recommend checking out the album downer by HᗗLFMᗗSSED, an album that I just sort of randomly stumbled upon. This has a really eerie and sinister aura throughout, thanks mostly to the very fitting choice of timbre and melody on every track. Check out the song finechinagirl.
15. 22 - You Are Creating: Limb1
The final two minutes of ambience push it past thirty minutes of total runtime, so I’m not really sure whether this is considered an LP or EP. Those words are a bit meaningless at this point anyhow. Either way, within this short period of time, 22 do an amazing job of combining catchiness and complexity.
From a musical standpoint, 22 have carved out a very unique niche. They do these almost Meshuggah-esque percussive staccato riffs, but they don’t sound like Meshuggah in the slightest. While there’s a bit of heaviness to their tone, they have a really upbeat and poppy demeanor. On the opener, Inspec, they hit you with a ton of awesome rhythmically original riffing, but literally nothing about this is metal and its actually pretty difficult to categorize. I think they reveal one facet of their influence on Adam Kadmon Body Mass Index, a song that echoes the Mars Volta a bit with its particular brand of eccentricity.
While I’m tempted to invoke 1980’s King Crimson, a comparison to the band Mew is probably the most justified, as they’re the most successful band to amalgamate catchy alternative rock and unorthodox rhythms. However, 22 really blow both those bands out of the water when it comes to quality of the vocals. Mew in particular are distinguished by their not-so-forceful dream pop vocal style. 22 on the other hand, have some of the most enduring vocal parts of the year on this release.
Sum of Parts is one of the must listen songs of the year in my opinion, with its remarkably catchy and anthemic chorus: “Sing it again, again, again, it’s not about you / And we knew this from the start / We are more than the sum of our parts”. Aside from the catchiness of the chorus, the vocals in the verses are very unique. They use a lot of harmonies and layering. In that respect, as well as how anthemic everything sounds, this singer reminds me of Freddie Mercury more than anyone, which is of course the highest of praise, but this guy deserves it.
There’s so many interesting and just plain fun things going on with the vocals that it's easy to forget how innovative they’re being musically. But that’s how it should be. Experimental and catchy aren't mutually exclusive.
Neither is having great lyrical concepts. On You Are Creating, 22’s lyricist pens a surprisingly well done, humble, and sort of fourth wall-breaking delineation of how people consume, interpret, relate, personalize, and ultimately act creatively by listening to music, with very direct and meaningful lines like “Everybody’s feeling like / “Oh my, that’s my song” / And it is because / You’re hearing yourself by means of us”. It's hard to imagine even how the vocalist accentuates a line like that in a melodic way, but as if I haven’t praised him enough, that line was stuck in my head for weeks it seems.
What’s interesting is that there’s a sort of scene of this rhythmically-complex-music-meets-pop-vocals style that’s almost completely relegated to the Nordic countries (besides one established band that we'll discuss in the review later). The two other bands I’m aware of are Agent Fresco (Iceland) and VOLA (Denmark); both very good. I don’t know what’s going on in Northern Europe but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to hear innovation coming from the home of Sigur Rós and Björk, although after typing this I’m pleased to notice that they’re electing for simpler accentless names like 22 and VOLA that are easier for us southerns to pronounce. I’d have to say however after consuming You Are Creating: Limb1, 22 are maybe my favorite band in this scene as they have a variety of strengths and their catchy songwriting really left a positive impression on me.
The other barely over thirty minute EP(?) that would have been worthy of making my top 25 albums list - and almost did, was Of Two Minds, Stages 1-2: The Ape and the Cage by In the Presence of Wolves. This was a really solid and unique release that with a little bit more material probably would have been pretty high on my list. They seem to mix that sort of Mars Volta prog-post hardcore sound with some fantastic Dillinger Escape Plan-recalling pandemonious riffage. The nearly ten minute song, The Ape and the Cage, breaks up its catchy vocal-based sections with a staggeringly turbulent riff and solo section.
I’ll mention as well another rock EP with pop elements that comes from somewhere unique, and that would be Love Machine by the South African band The Tazers. Just some simple, catchy garage blues rock, great fuzzy guitars and poppy production. Like the Black Keys but instead of raw and minimalistic, psychedelic and colorful. If I owned a record label I’d pick these guys up in a heartbeat. Listen to the title track and try not to get it stuck in your head.
While I’m tempted to invoke 1980’s King Crimson, a comparison to the band Mew is probably the most justified, as they’re the most successful band to amalgamate catchy alternative rock and unorthodox rhythms. However, 22 really blow both those bands out of the water when it comes to quality of the vocals. Mew in particular are distinguished by their not-so-forceful dream pop vocal style. 22 on the other hand, have some of the most enduring vocal parts of the year on this release.
Sum of Parts is one of the must listen songs of the year in my opinion, with its remarkably catchy and anthemic chorus: “Sing it again, again, again, it’s not about you / And we knew this from the start / We are more than the sum of our parts”. Aside from the catchiness of the chorus, the vocals in the verses are very unique. They use a lot of harmonies and layering. In that respect, as well as how anthemic everything sounds, this singer reminds me of Freddie Mercury more than anyone, which is of course the highest of praise, but this guy deserves it.
There’s so many interesting and just plain fun things going on with the vocals that it's easy to forget how innovative they’re being musically. But that’s how it should be. Experimental and catchy aren't mutually exclusive.
Neither is having great lyrical concepts. On You Are Creating, 22’s lyricist pens a surprisingly well done, humble, and sort of fourth wall-breaking delineation of how people consume, interpret, relate, personalize, and ultimately act creatively by listening to music, with very direct and meaningful lines like “Everybody’s feeling like / “Oh my, that’s my song” / And it is because / You’re hearing yourself by means of us”. It's hard to imagine even how the vocalist accentuates a line like that in a melodic way, but as if I haven’t praised him enough, that line was stuck in my head for weeks it seems.
What’s interesting is that there’s a sort of scene of this rhythmically-complex-music-meets-pop-vocals style that’s almost completely relegated to the Nordic countries (besides one established band that we'll discuss in the review later). The two other bands I’m aware of are Agent Fresco (Iceland) and VOLA (Denmark); both very good. I don’t know what’s going on in Northern Europe but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to hear innovation coming from the home of Sigur Rós and Björk, although after typing this I’m pleased to notice that they’re electing for simpler accentless names like 22 and VOLA that are easier for us southerns to pronounce. I’d have to say however after consuming You Are Creating: Limb1, 22 are maybe my favorite band in this scene as they have a variety of strengths and their catchy songwriting really left a positive impression on me.
The other barely over thirty minute EP(?) that would have been worthy of making my top 25 albums list - and almost did, was Of Two Minds, Stages 1-2: The Ape and the Cage by In the Presence of Wolves. This was a really solid and unique release that with a little bit more material probably would have been pretty high on my list. They seem to mix that sort of Mars Volta prog-post hardcore sound with some fantastic Dillinger Escape Plan-recalling pandemonious riffage. The nearly ten minute song, The Ape and the Cage, breaks up its catchy vocal-based sections with a staggeringly turbulent riff and solo section.
I’ll mention as well another rock EP with pop elements that comes from somewhere unique, and that would be Love Machine by the South African band The Tazers. Just some simple, catchy garage blues rock, great fuzzy guitars and poppy production. Like the Black Keys but instead of raw and minimalistic, psychedelic and colorful. If I owned a record label I’d pick these guys up in a heartbeat. Listen to the title track and try not to get it stuck in your head.
14. The Barr Brothers - Queens of the Breakers
I’m not someone who is generally excited by the idea of a new bluesy folk rock album. Not that I don’t love that style of music. It’s just that it’s been explored so thoroughly. How are you going to top Crosby, Still & Nash or Bob Dylan or Simon & Garfunkel? That being said, there’s just a level of pure quality and songwriting at which I can’t resist a release in that genre, and I’d say Queens of the Breakers meets that requirement.
They definitely have a strong connection to the very melodic folk rock tradition of Simon & Garfunkel. Songs like the opener, Defibrillation, definitely have that element of pop and a penchant for catchiness, which immediately distinguishes them from other folk rock acts who often have less interesting vocals. They also use a lot of very dense vocal layering thus creating a rather spacious and harmonious atmosphere.
Song That I Heard for example is a very harmonious song and features a lot of great layering near the end. You have to attribute a lot of the sonic depth on this album to the harpist though, who is a permanent and vital member of the band. The harp doesn’t really serve as the lead instrument or change the identity of most songs, rather it often serves the purpose of adding another melodic layer to these songs and becoming a somewhat hard to distinguish yet quite fundamental and encompassing element of the album.
The Barr Brothers also have a bit of blues rock blood flowing in their veins however, which makes their sound a bit more distinct. The fourth track, Maybe Someday introduces the listener to this bluesy side with some distinctly bluesy guitar licks and some awesome harmonica leads. However, they don’t sound like a different band when they do this, as the bluesy tracks are still very atmospheric and organic sounding so as not to disrupt the folky demeanor that they established at the beginning of the record, much thanks of course to the harp. A song like Kompromat seems to have a sort of Black Keys-esque garage blues roughness to it even, especially in the chorus.
The best middle ground between their two sides though, is on You Would Have to Lose Your Mind, a slower song with a foundation in folk and that begins with some gorgeous harp, but that also incorporates a lot of vocal-matching bluesy leads. The song is catchy and relaxing on the surface, but is actually able to build to a pretty emotive climax, using some very creative string arrangements and passionately dynamic vocals. I love the overdriven guitar tones here too. The tones all over this album are consistently beautiful and luscious. The Barr Brothers are really good at what they’re doing and Queens of the Breakers has to be one of the best folk rock albums in recent memory.
I’ll mention as well, the new Fleet Foxes album, Crack-Up, which has a sort of Simon & Garfunkel with Radiohead-esque psychedelic sound to it; lots of interesting song structure choices, orchestration, dynamic contrast, harmonic density and album-oriented coordination. All of this is demonstrated very well on the rather long and dramatically symphonic track Third of May / Ōdaigahara.
Since I mentioned psychedelia, now is a good a time as any to mention psychedelic indie rock band Grizzly Bear’s new album Painted Ruins, which nearly made my top 25. This is a really solid album front to back, and I know I already labeled them as psychedelica but it's important to emphasize just how psychedelic it is. This album is trippy as fuck, and has a very Beach Boys-invoking approach to melody. It also has some great percussion and the drummer is a focus on pretty much every song. My favorite track is the closer, Sky Took Hold, a song with a very colorful assortment of sounds, including some brass, but more notably than anything it has one of my favorite guitar tones of the year with that really fuzzed out and reverby lead that comes in throughout the song. With songs like that Grizzly Bear really take you to another world.
13. Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
I hold Mastodon’s trilogy of concept albums in the 2000’s in the highest regard, so you can imagine how excited I was when they announced they were returning to the conceptual writing approach on this album after two non-concept albums. While I don’t think this album is necessarily on the level of those three (it would be at the top of my list), I think it's certainly their best album since, and I don’t think it’s fair to simply compare it to their earlier work, however hard that is to avoid. They’re still using a lot more chrouses and rock elements than in the early days, and while I miss the craziness of songs like 2006’s Capillarian Crest, I think that if you compare them to other quasi-progressive metal outfits that rely on chorus and melody rather than musical pandemonium, they fare rather well.
The grammy nominated opening track, Sultan’s Curse, really showcases everything that’s great about current Mastodon. The riffs are pulverizing and very Mastodon. Each of the band’s three vocalists contribute and each of them is on point in their ability to take on and fill a certain vocal role. Notably, a lot of the things missing from their past two albums seem to be creeping back here. There’s a lot of fantastic riffs - the one in Steambreather is colossal. Between that doomy riff and Brann belting out those Ozzy-esque vocals, this is the closest they've ever been to sounding directly influenced by Black Sabbath. I feel as if, in general, the riffs are particularly dark and evil sounding for Mastodon.
This is probably Brann’s best drum performance with Mastodon since the aforementioned trilogy as well, which themselves are some of my favorite drum performances ever, and I even noticed a great deal of percussive experimentation, e.g. the repeated use of a tambourine. Handling more and more vocal duties now, Brann seems to be getting really good at singing emotively, particularly on songs like Roots Remain where he touches upon loss, the main theme on the album: “And when you sit and picture me / Remember sitting in the sun and dancing in the rain / The end is not the end you see / It's just the recognition of a memory”. Adding to that emotion even more are Brent’s solos, which are easy to take for granite, but in songs like this one and in others, they add so much. It's worth noting as well the piano outro on this track, which is a new sound for Mastodon.
Interestingly however, Mastodon throw an a much welcome curveball at the end of the album and unleash the heaviest material they’ve done in years. Andromeda has a couple of very Blood Mountain sounding riffs and Scorpion Breath is I think one of the best Scott Kelly features in the Mastodon discography (of which there are six total now). That song absolutely rips. While I do tend to wish that they would return to the rawer and more unpolished production, as opposed to what they’ve done on this and the last couple records, a song like Scorpion Breath sounds so enormous and powerful it’s a choice that I can forgive. I think something that’s been missed from these guys are those almost sloppily dissonant sludge riffs that they used to work in there. I’m glad to see that back in the repertoire.
They’ve also come back with their most progressive song of the decade, with the nearly 8-minute closing track, Jaguar God, a song that goes from a very somber country-esque acoustic guitar/vocal part, to some very dark and heavy psychedelia, and into a proggy guitar riff that only Brent Hinds could have written. This song has everything I could ask for in a Mastodon song right up to the climactic guitar solo that closes out the album.
I can’t go without mentioning that Mastodon also released a four song EP called Cold Dark Place in November which features some of their most forward thinking material to date. This EP sees Mastodon completely distancing themselves from metal, and I must say, it’s very effective. This EP was all written by Brent I hear and its very rock n’ roll as well as having a good deal of country inspiration. The final song, Cold Dark Place, is a fantastic dark country song and maybe the most emotional song Mastodon have put out. For a guy that did vocals like those in the verses of 2004’s Aqua Dementia, Brent does a surprisingly great job of expressing heartbreak with his voice, and it’s hard not to empathize with such a direct line as “What can I say that hasn't been said before / one hundred times, before you took the dog”. From the atmospheric “ooo-ing” vocals, the layers of acoustic and electric guitar, and Brent’s moving solo at the end, this is one of the best songs these Georgian prog metal pioneers have done this decade.
Mastodon are demonstrating more versatility than ever. They can be proggy, they can be catchy, they can be dissonant, they can be psychedelic, and they’re putting more emotion and meaning in their music than ever before. There’s still some things that I miss, but in comparing both their 2017 LP and EP to other albums that came out this year, I can say that Mastodon are still one of the most exciting bands in the game.
Not only that but these guys are some of the busiest and most productive musicians in the field. Aside from releasing both a great LP and EP in Mastodon this year, Brent released another album with his band West End Motel called Bad With Names, Good With Faces, which consists of some fun southern rock tunes in which Brent exhibits great guitar work alongside saxophone licks and sing-along choruses, all of which are demonstrated on an energizing song like Kid, You’ll Move Mountains.
Brann on the other hand took on quite an ambitious project providing vocals and drums for a collaborative album called Arcadea by a band with the same name, which is essentially a guitar-less synth dominated metal album. This album really peaked my interest, and well it’s not easy to latch on to as it often sounds like metal music literally created by aliens, it is most certainly one of the most indefinable and intriguing releases of the year, and has Brann drumming with an eccentricity that harkens back to the Leviathan days, exemplified alongside some Jupiter-sized synth riffs in a song like Rings of Saturn.
I’m not someone who is generally excited by the idea of a new bluesy folk rock album. Not that I don’t love that style of music. It’s just that it’s been explored so thoroughly. How are you going to top Crosby, Still & Nash or Bob Dylan or Simon & Garfunkel? That being said, there’s just a level of pure quality and songwriting at which I can’t resist a release in that genre, and I’d say Queens of the Breakers meets that requirement.
They definitely have a strong connection to the very melodic folk rock tradition of Simon & Garfunkel. Songs like the opener, Defibrillation, definitely have that element of pop and a penchant for catchiness, which immediately distinguishes them from other folk rock acts who often have less interesting vocals. They also use a lot of very dense vocal layering thus creating a rather spacious and harmonious atmosphere.
Song That I Heard for example is a very harmonious song and features a lot of great layering near the end. You have to attribute a lot of the sonic depth on this album to the harpist though, who is a permanent and vital member of the band. The harp doesn’t really serve as the lead instrument or change the identity of most songs, rather it often serves the purpose of adding another melodic layer to these songs and becoming a somewhat hard to distinguish yet quite fundamental and encompassing element of the album.
The Barr Brothers also have a bit of blues rock blood flowing in their veins however, which makes their sound a bit more distinct. The fourth track, Maybe Someday introduces the listener to this bluesy side with some distinctly bluesy guitar licks and some awesome harmonica leads. However, they don’t sound like a different band when they do this, as the bluesy tracks are still very atmospheric and organic sounding so as not to disrupt the folky demeanor that they established at the beginning of the record, much thanks of course to the harp. A song like Kompromat seems to have a sort of Black Keys-esque garage blues roughness to it even, especially in the chorus.
The best middle ground between their two sides though, is on You Would Have to Lose Your Mind, a slower song with a foundation in folk and that begins with some gorgeous harp, but that also incorporates a lot of vocal-matching bluesy leads. The song is catchy and relaxing on the surface, but is actually able to build to a pretty emotive climax, using some very creative string arrangements and passionately dynamic vocals. I love the overdriven guitar tones here too. The tones all over this album are consistently beautiful and luscious. The Barr Brothers are really good at what they’re doing and Queens of the Breakers has to be one of the best folk rock albums in recent memory.
I’ll mention as well, the new Fleet Foxes album, Crack-Up, which has a sort of Simon & Garfunkel with Radiohead-esque psychedelic sound to it; lots of interesting song structure choices, orchestration, dynamic contrast, harmonic density and album-oriented coordination. All of this is demonstrated very well on the rather long and dramatically symphonic track Third of May / Ōdaigahara.
Since I mentioned psychedelia, now is a good a time as any to mention psychedelic indie rock band Grizzly Bear’s new album Painted Ruins, which nearly made my top 25. This is a really solid album front to back, and I know I already labeled them as psychedelica but it's important to emphasize just how psychedelic it is. This album is trippy as fuck, and has a very Beach Boys-invoking approach to melody. It also has some great percussion and the drummer is a focus on pretty much every song. My favorite track is the closer, Sky Took Hold, a song with a very colorful assortment of sounds, including some brass, but more notably than anything it has one of my favorite guitar tones of the year with that really fuzzed out and reverby lead that comes in throughout the song. With songs like that Grizzly Bear really take you to another world.
They definitely have a strong connection to the very melodic folk rock tradition of Simon & Garfunkel. Songs like the opener, Defibrillation, definitely have that element of pop and a penchant for catchiness, which immediately distinguishes them from other folk rock acts who often have less interesting vocals. They also use a lot of very dense vocal layering thus creating a rather spacious and harmonious atmosphere.
Song That I Heard for example is a very harmonious song and features a lot of great layering near the end. You have to attribute a lot of the sonic depth on this album to the harpist though, who is a permanent and vital member of the band. The harp doesn’t really serve as the lead instrument or change the identity of most songs, rather it often serves the purpose of adding another melodic layer to these songs and becoming a somewhat hard to distinguish yet quite fundamental and encompassing element of the album.
The Barr Brothers also have a bit of blues rock blood flowing in their veins however, which makes their sound a bit more distinct. The fourth track, Maybe Someday introduces the listener to this bluesy side with some distinctly bluesy guitar licks and some awesome harmonica leads. However, they don’t sound like a different band when they do this, as the bluesy tracks are still very atmospheric and organic sounding so as not to disrupt the folky demeanor that they established at the beginning of the record, much thanks of course to the harp. A song like Kompromat seems to have a sort of Black Keys-esque garage blues roughness to it even, especially in the chorus.
The best middle ground between their two sides though, is on You Would Have to Lose Your Mind, a slower song with a foundation in folk and that begins with some gorgeous harp, but that also incorporates a lot of vocal-matching bluesy leads. The song is catchy and relaxing on the surface, but is actually able to build to a pretty emotive climax, using some very creative string arrangements and passionately dynamic vocals. I love the overdriven guitar tones here too. The tones all over this album are consistently beautiful and luscious. The Barr Brothers are really good at what they’re doing and Queens of the Breakers has to be one of the best folk rock albums in recent memory.
I’ll mention as well, the new Fleet Foxes album, Crack-Up, which has a sort of Simon & Garfunkel with Radiohead-esque psychedelic sound to it; lots of interesting song structure choices, orchestration, dynamic contrast, harmonic density and album-oriented coordination. All of this is demonstrated very well on the rather long and dramatically symphonic track Third of May / Ōdaigahara.
Since I mentioned psychedelia, now is a good a time as any to mention psychedelic indie rock band Grizzly Bear’s new album Painted Ruins, which nearly made my top 25. This is a really solid album front to back, and I know I already labeled them as psychedelica but it's important to emphasize just how psychedelic it is. This album is trippy as fuck, and has a very Beach Boys-invoking approach to melody. It also has some great percussion and the drummer is a focus on pretty much every song. My favorite track is the closer, Sky Took Hold, a song with a very colorful assortment of sounds, including some brass, but more notably than anything it has one of my favorite guitar tones of the year with that really fuzzed out and reverby lead that comes in throughout the song. With songs like that Grizzly Bear really take you to another world.
I hold Mastodon’s trilogy of concept albums in the 2000’s in the highest regard, so you can imagine how excited I was when they announced they were returning to the conceptual writing approach on this album after two non-concept albums. While I don’t think this album is necessarily on the level of those three (it would be at the top of my list), I think it's certainly their best album since, and I don’t think it’s fair to simply compare it to their earlier work, however hard that is to avoid. They’re still using a lot more chrouses and rock elements than in the early days, and while I miss the craziness of songs like 2006’s Capillarian Crest, I think that if you compare them to other quasi-progressive metal outfits that rely on chorus and melody rather than musical pandemonium, they fare rather well.
The grammy nominated opening track, Sultan’s Curse, really showcases everything that’s great about current Mastodon. The riffs are pulverizing and very Mastodon. Each of the band’s three vocalists contribute and each of them is on point in their ability to take on and fill a certain vocal role. Notably, a lot of the things missing from their past two albums seem to be creeping back here. There’s a lot of fantastic riffs - the one in Steambreather is colossal. Between that doomy riff and Brann belting out those Ozzy-esque vocals, this is the closest they've ever been to sounding directly influenced by Black Sabbath. I feel as if, in general, the riffs are particularly dark and evil sounding for Mastodon.
This is probably Brann’s best drum performance with Mastodon since the aforementioned trilogy as well, which themselves are some of my favorite drum performances ever, and I even noticed a great deal of percussive experimentation, e.g. the repeated use of a tambourine. Handling more and more vocal duties now, Brann seems to be getting really good at singing emotively, particularly on songs like Roots Remain where he touches upon loss, the main theme on the album: “And when you sit and picture me / Remember sitting in the sun and dancing in the rain / The end is not the end you see / It's just the recognition of a memory”. Adding to that emotion even more are Brent’s solos, which are easy to take for granite, but in songs like this one and in others, they add so much. It's worth noting as well the piano outro on this track, which is a new sound for Mastodon.
Interestingly however, Mastodon throw an a much welcome curveball at the end of the album and unleash the heaviest material they’ve done in years. Andromeda has a couple of very Blood Mountain sounding riffs and Scorpion Breath is I think one of the best Scott Kelly features in the Mastodon discography (of which there are six total now). That song absolutely rips. While I do tend to wish that they would return to the rawer and more unpolished production, as opposed to what they’ve done on this and the last couple records, a song like Scorpion Breath sounds so enormous and powerful it’s a choice that I can forgive. I think something that’s been missed from these guys are those almost sloppily dissonant sludge riffs that they used to work in there. I’m glad to see that back in the repertoire.
They’ve also come back with their most progressive song of the decade, with the nearly 8-minute closing track, Jaguar God, a song that goes from a very somber country-esque acoustic guitar/vocal part, to some very dark and heavy psychedelia, and into a proggy guitar riff that only Brent Hinds could have written. This song has everything I could ask for in a Mastodon song right up to the climactic guitar solo that closes out the album.
I can’t go without mentioning that Mastodon also released a four song EP called Cold Dark Place in November which features some of their most forward thinking material to date. This EP sees Mastodon completely distancing themselves from metal, and I must say, it’s very effective. This EP was all written by Brent I hear and its very rock n’ roll as well as having a good deal of country inspiration. The final song, Cold Dark Place, is a fantastic dark country song and maybe the most emotional song Mastodon have put out. For a guy that did vocals like those in the verses of 2004’s Aqua Dementia, Brent does a surprisingly great job of expressing heartbreak with his voice, and it’s hard not to empathize with such a direct line as “What can I say that hasn't been said before / one hundred times, before you took the dog”. From the atmospheric “ooo-ing” vocals, the layers of acoustic and electric guitar, and Brent’s moving solo at the end, this is one of the best songs these Georgian prog metal pioneers have done this decade.
Mastodon are demonstrating more versatility than ever. They can be proggy, they can be catchy, they can be dissonant, they can be psychedelic, and they’re putting more emotion and meaning in their music than ever before. There’s still some things that I miss, but in comparing both their 2017 LP and EP to other albums that came out this year, I can say that Mastodon are still one of the most exciting bands in the game.
Not only that but these guys are some of the busiest and most productive musicians in the field. Aside from releasing both a great LP and EP in Mastodon this year, Brent released another album with his band West End Motel called Bad With Names, Good With Faces, which consists of some fun southern rock tunes in which Brent exhibits great guitar work alongside saxophone licks and sing-along choruses, all of which are demonstrated on an energizing song like Kid, You’ll Move Mountains.
Brann on the other hand took on quite an ambitious project providing vocals and drums for a collaborative album called Arcadea by a band with the same name, which is essentially a guitar-less synth dominated metal album. This album really peaked my interest, and well it’s not easy to latch on to as it often sounds like metal music literally created by aliens, it is most certainly one of the most indefinable and intriguing releases of the year, and has Brann drumming with an eccentricity that harkens back to the Leviathan days, exemplified alongside some Jupiter-sized synth riffs in a song like Rings of Saturn.
12. Steven Wilson - To the Bone
When most renowned progressive artists go in a pop direction, they usually spend a lot of time denying it. When Steven Wilson does it he makes an announcement. To the Bone strips away a lot of the thematic and instrumental elements that normally occupies Wilson’s music and provides a very accessible listen. It's still mostly rock, but with a heavy 80’s pop rock vibe (right down to the appropriately cheesy close-up shirtless photo album cover).
And the result is (surprise!) some damn good pop songs. Some songs are more pop-oriented than others - his closest foray into 100% pop is on the song Permanating, which I could easily imagine being a radio hit (probably more likely 20 or 30 years ago). Well it doesn’t reach me on the same level as some of his more progressive work, I can’t deny this tune was very much stuck in my head for a while, and not in the annoying way that certain pop songs can be.
I think where he really shines as a pop-writer though is on ballads, namely the third track, Pariah. Well maybe I shouldn’t say he shines. The reason this track stands out so much is because Wilson once again pairs his great songwriting with the the amazing voice of Israeli singer Ninet Tayeb. I really love the whole production on this song, and the ending cascade of synths is so powerful, but with Ninet contributing her incredibly emotive vocals the song really takes on a life that wouldn’t be possible with only Wilson handling to vocals.
In the same vein, my other favorite song on this album is one of the other three collaborations with a female vocalist, this time with Sophie Hunger on the track Song of I, a really interesting and groovy dark electronica song. Again, the production and songwriting are masterful, and the symphonic elements that take over the song halfway through show that Wilson’s brand pop is not devoid of the progressive experimentation for which he’s made a career.
It's not that I don’t like Wilson’s vocals - he definitely pulls off the pop falsettos on the rocking and somewhat Porcupine Tree-esque track The Same Asylum as Before - but now that he’s going all in in a style where the vocals are more front and center, the songs really benefit from an extraordinary voice like that of Tayeb or Hunger. I really wish for example, on what is certainly a great an extremely emotional song as is - Refuge, that he brought Ninet in to at least do the most demanding vocal parts of the song if not everything. She’s on two songs on the album already and the song is about a middle eastern refugee crisis in a country that borders her homeland. I still really enjoy the song, that just seemed obvious to me. I’m not sure if its an ego thing (I’m not being accusational), that he doesn’t want the focus to be on another singer too much, but I almost wish that he’d just pick a singer with a showstopping voice like Ninet and do a whole album like this. I don’t even mind if he abandons rock all together as he does on a couple songs here.
I don’t want to give the impression of dissatisfaction though because that’s certainly not the case. I do really love the direction he’s taking on this album and there’s a couple moments that would stack up against the best of his previous work for sure. The title track for instance is probably the best merger of Steven Wilson past and present. It rocks hard and and evolves away from the verse-chorus structure into a very moving and dramatic ending. Yet it also features an exceptionally catchy and upbeat chorus. In this case, I think the insertion of the pop sensibility simply just takes a Steven Wilson rock song to an unprecedented level of quality. And I have to give him credit here - these are some of the best vocals he’s ever done. Even the solo, a role that Steven has normally recruited top tier virtuosos for in the past, he comes in with a perfect song-serving piece of guitar work that moves the song along excellently.
And while I’ll hold out for that full pop album collaboration with a great singer that I think would take his music to a new level, this album has certainly affirmed something that really didn’t need any more affirmation: Steven Wilson is one of the best all around songwriters of this generation, and I for one will still eagerly listen to anything he puts out.
Another album that channeled very 80’s esque pop this year was ZETA’s self-titled debut, which features progressive metal band Tesseract’s Daniel Tompkins on vocals. Tompkins fits in fantastically well to these extremely colorful and danceable synthwave tracks, channeling Michael Jackson himself it seems at times, particularly on ultra catchy songs like Beat the System, but also on slower, gorgeous ballads like Elysian Fields. You’ve got to love how melodically vibrant these songs are.
While we’re on the subject of pop, I had what you might call a guilty pleasure release this year, although I don’t actually feel guilty about loving this - Maggie Rogers released a wonderful little EP with some great, unique pop tunes, called Now that the Light is Fading. What’s interesting about Rogers is that she comes from a genuine folk background, having released music within that genre previously, and despite this u-turn into dance pop, she manages to maintain the identity of her roots. She does this not only by virtue of her very homey singing style and poetic lyrics, but also in the quite organic and subtle electronic production, as the songs utilize all sorts of natural sounds to enhance the atmosphere. These are very intimate pop songs.
That being said, what elevates this EP for me are her breathtaking vocal melodies. She has somewhat of a hit song off of this EP called Alaska which epitomizes both her organic production and lovely, head voice-heavy, melodic approach. My favorite song is Dog Years, an absolutely gorgeous ballad which to the delight of the side of me which appreciates structural liberalness, only repeats the chorus twice and sees her electing for a little bit more of a relaxed ending. I wish this was a full album. We can expect that soon I’m sure, but I think I’m justified in being a little worried as to what she direction she might go, as this EP that she released at the ripe age of 22 has three songs with over a million views (and there’s only four songs total not including the intro). While I wish her success, I hope she doesn’t get sucked into the industry and spit out without the folk sensibility that makes this EP so distinct; crossing my fingers.
11. Leprous - Malina
When most renowned progressive artists go in a pop direction, they usually spend a lot of time denying it. When Steven Wilson does it he makes an announcement. To the Bone strips away a lot of the thematic and instrumental elements that normally occupies Wilson’s music and provides a very accessible listen. It's still mostly rock, but with a heavy 80’s pop rock vibe (right down to the appropriately cheesy close-up shirtless photo album cover).
And the result is (surprise!) some damn good pop songs. Some songs are more pop-oriented than others - his closest foray into 100% pop is on the song Permanating, which I could easily imagine being a radio hit (probably more likely 20 or 30 years ago). Well it doesn’t reach me on the same level as some of his more progressive work, I can’t deny this tune was very much stuck in my head for a while, and not in the annoying way that certain pop songs can be.
I think where he really shines as a pop-writer though is on ballads, namely the third track, Pariah. Well maybe I shouldn’t say he shines. The reason this track stands out so much is because Wilson once again pairs his great songwriting with the the amazing voice of Israeli singer Ninet Tayeb. I really love the whole production on this song, and the ending cascade of synths is so powerful, but with Ninet contributing her incredibly emotive vocals the song really takes on a life that wouldn’t be possible with only Wilson handling to vocals.
In the same vein, my other favorite song on this album is one of the other three collaborations with a female vocalist, this time with Sophie Hunger on the track Song of I, a really interesting and groovy dark electronica song. Again, the production and songwriting are masterful, and the symphonic elements that take over the song halfway through show that Wilson’s brand pop is not devoid of the progressive experimentation for which he’s made a career.
It's not that I don’t like Wilson’s vocals - he definitely pulls off the pop falsettos on the rocking and somewhat Porcupine Tree-esque track The Same Asylum as Before - but now that he’s going all in in a style where the vocals are more front and center, the songs really benefit from an extraordinary voice like that of Tayeb or Hunger. I really wish for example, on what is certainly a great an extremely emotional song as is - Refuge, that he brought Ninet in to at least do the most demanding vocal parts of the song if not everything. She’s on two songs on the album already and the song is about a middle eastern refugee crisis in a country that borders her homeland. I still really enjoy the song, that just seemed obvious to me. I’m not sure if its an ego thing (I’m not being accusational), that he doesn’t want the focus to be on another singer too much, but I almost wish that he’d just pick a singer with a showstopping voice like Ninet and do a whole album like this. I don’t even mind if he abandons rock all together as he does on a couple songs here.
I don’t want to give the impression of dissatisfaction though because that’s certainly not the case. I do really love the direction he’s taking on this album and there’s a couple moments that would stack up against the best of his previous work for sure. The title track for instance is probably the best merger of Steven Wilson past and present. It rocks hard and and evolves away from the verse-chorus structure into a very moving and dramatic ending. Yet it also features an exceptionally catchy and upbeat chorus. In this case, I think the insertion of the pop sensibility simply just takes a Steven Wilson rock song to an unprecedented level of quality. And I have to give him credit here - these are some of the best vocals he’s ever done. Even the solo, a role that Steven has normally recruited top tier virtuosos for in the past, he comes in with a perfect song-serving piece of guitar work that moves the song along excellently.
And while I’ll hold out for that full pop album collaboration with a great singer that I think would take his music to a new level, this album has certainly affirmed something that really didn’t need any more affirmation: Steven Wilson is one of the best all around songwriters of this generation, and I for one will still eagerly listen to anything he puts out.
Another album that channeled very 80’s esque pop this year was ZETA’s self-titled debut, which features progressive metal band Tesseract’s Daniel Tompkins on vocals. Tompkins fits in fantastically well to these extremely colorful and danceable synthwave tracks, channeling Michael Jackson himself it seems at times, particularly on ultra catchy songs like Beat the System, but also on slower, gorgeous ballads like Elysian Fields. You’ve got to love how melodically vibrant these songs are.
While we’re on the subject of pop, I had what you might call a guilty pleasure release this year, although I don’t actually feel guilty about loving this - Maggie Rogers released a wonderful little EP with some great, unique pop tunes, called Now that the Light is Fading. What’s interesting about Rogers is that she comes from a genuine folk background, having released music within that genre previously, and despite this u-turn into dance pop, she manages to maintain the identity of her roots. She does this not only by virtue of her very homey singing style and poetic lyrics, but also in the quite organic and subtle electronic production, as the songs utilize all sorts of natural sounds to enhance the atmosphere. These are very intimate pop songs.
That being said, what elevates this EP for me are her breathtaking vocal melodies. She has somewhat of a hit song off of this EP called Alaska which epitomizes both her organic production and lovely, head voice-heavy, melodic approach. My favorite song is Dog Years, an absolutely gorgeous ballad which to the delight of the side of me which appreciates structural liberalness, only repeats the chorus twice and sees her electing for a little bit more of a relaxed ending. I wish this was a full album. We can expect that soon I’m sure, but I think I’m justified in being a little worried as to what she direction she might go, as this EP that she released at the ripe age of 22 has three songs with over a million views (and there’s only four songs total not including the intro). While I wish her success, I hope she doesn’t get sucked into the industry and spit out without the folk sensibility that makes this EP so distinct; crossing my fingers.
That being said, what elevates this EP for me are her breathtaking vocal melodies. She has somewhat of a hit song off of this EP called Alaska which epitomizes both her organic production and lovely, head voice-heavy, melodic approach. My favorite song is Dog Years, an absolutely gorgeous ballad which to the delight of the side of me which appreciates structural liberalness, only repeats the chorus twice and sees her electing for a little bit more of a relaxed ending. I wish this was a full album. We can expect that soon I’m sure, but I think I’m justified in being a little worried as to what she direction she might go, as this EP that she released at the ripe age of 22 has three songs with over a million views (and there’s only four songs total not including the intro). While I wish her success, I hope she doesn’t get sucked into the industry and spit out without the folk sensibility that makes this EP so distinct; crossing my fingers.
11. Leprous - Malina
I felt that with their last album in 2015, Leprous had really capitalized on and perfected their signature sound. They’ve always been a unique band, and the more streamlined focus on melody and catchiness contrasted against rhythmic complexity really serves them well. Malina sees Leprous pursuing that pop-prog approach even further, but this time, even more aspects of their sound are on the chopping block. Namely, the scandinavian metal that has dominated much of their past work is essentially no more. There’s no harsh vocals at all, but more importantly, there’s a distinct lack of metal instrumentation aside from two or three brief instances of borderline metal.
That’s okay with me though. Metal was never really the most interesting thing about Leprous, and while they are continuing to focus more on being catchy, don’t call it a sellout, cuz this may also be their most sonically adventurous and experiment prone release yet. The album starts off with a song called Bonneville, which is one of the most interesting experiments on the album, and not the obvious song to start off with. It opens up with a very subtle jazzy ambience that immediately indicates this album isn’t going to be like their others, all of which have opened up with something much more energetic and heavy. Of course, the easiest thing to like about Leprous is Einar Solberg’s remarkably emotional and unique vocals, and that is on full display right from the get go. Well not metal, the song gets to a very heavy point with these huge swells of strings that are more prominent in the mix than the guitars. Combined with Einar’s vocals, the dramatic payoff at the end is extremely rewarding.
The most distinctly unique and experimental theme on this album is the orchestration. Even though he’s not a part of the band, Cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne might as well be, as he is all over Malina - enough so at least, that his name is certainly worth mentioning here. On the second track, Stuck, they stick to a more comfortable song structure based around a rather straightforward and catchy chorus, but really push outside the box with the symphonics at the end. Leprous have a very modern sound and the strings really create an interesting juxtaposition. Throw in Einar belting out heart wrenching lyrics like, “How do I get home? / I'm not that strong”, and you have something very special. Leprous do a great job pulling the listener in with something catchy and then creating something more at the end. That extra bit really allows them to experiment. I enjoyed that the most when I listened to their last album and I enjoy it the most now.
Another song that follows that structure is Mirage. The first thing that will catch your ear on this one is the synth. Leprous' use of synth on this album is not only more prevalent, but also much more fundamental to their overall sound and tone. The chorus on this song is huge and much more upbeat than anything I can remember them doing, as Einar sings “I have been trying to break out for too long / From the cage / I found my path when I thought that I was wrong”. Every instrument is adding something meaningful though. What really steals the show here in fact, is the rhythm section, as they deliver this bizarre and outlandish yet massive odd-timed sliding bass riff. Bassist Simen Børven is more present on this album than I can ever remember the bass being on a Leprous album. And Baard Kolstad is just on fire in this song and pretty much every other.
Kolstad only joined Leprous for their last album, but his presence was probably the reason that album was my favorite of theirs to date. His drumming style is something to drool over in and of itself, but he’s found such a perfect spot for that style in Leprous, as he takes over a lot of these songs rhythmically, but does so in a very complimentary way to the songs. I would guess that he’s the one leading the charge when it comes to Leprous refining the rhythmic aspects of their sound and it's been such a benefit, as that is such a prominent part of who they are now. Even on From the Flame, the poppiest song and lead single from the album, they lock into this really groovy and interesting 13/8 riff on the verses. And on the fourth track, Illuminate, they essentially make a song based around variations of a single unique rhythm. Just a little bit higher up on this list at #16, I discussed the Icelandic band 22 and their contemporary countrymen Agent Fresco and VOLA, who make up this sort of rhythmic complexity meets pop scene in the Nordic region. Leprous, who I believe have toured with Agent Fresco and VOLA, exist within this sphere now more than anything else; certainly more than in the heavy metal scene.
The rhythmic and sonic experimentation works much in part thanks to the fact that they’ve embraced chorus based writing and catchiness without reservation. I know there’s some that lament their departure from heaviness, but I really do think the sound that they’re exploring here is what they should be doing. They still have a heaviness to them. The verse riff on Captive necessitates head-banging as much as some of the best metal riffs of the year and the double bass drumming in Coma shows at least that they’re still willing to use those techniques when they’re called for. A lot of my favorite moments however are when Einar’s just belting out a big sing along-able chorus such as the, “No salvation to be found / Holding me back no more” of the sixth track, Leashes. I find those moments to be where Leprous express their character most profoundly.
The biggest danger for any band five albums in is becoming stale and just rehashing worse versions of previous material. Not only are Leprous avoiding that fate, they seem to be reaching the pinnacle of their creativity so far. They are bleeding inspiration on this album and I can’t help but feel this is a sort of watershed moment for them. Not just because they have departed from metal, but more because they seem to have completely unrestrained themselves from any creative limitations, a theme it seems that is hinted at in the lyrics even (see the lyrics I quoted above).
As much as I love the experimentation on this album, I will say it does get to be a little much at the end, with the Cello-focused title track and the Cello and vocal exclusive outro track The Last Milestone, which is the longest song on the record. I hate to say it because I love the strings on most of the songs, but its gets to a point at the end where they sort of take over and drown out all the other facets of their sound, quite literally on the closer. I’ve heard praise for these songs though, so maybe I’m missing something.
Even though I feel those songs weaken the album as a whole, there’s a part of me that’s happy to hear them. I’d much rather them experiment too much than not enough and that seems to be what’s happening here. What this tells me is that Leprous are not afraid to take huge risks for the sake of their art, and that’s a good thing in the long run. In reflecting on this album, I can’t help but speculate that it could serve as a similar place in Leprous’ discography as Radiohead’s revolutionary album Kid A, an album that saw them become one of the most experimental and innovative bands of all time and set them on pace for an (ongoing) string of amazing releases with absolutely no rules about what instruments, sounds, or styles were allowed. I'm not making a prediction about the future quality of Leprous, and it's not that they have comparable sounds, but the degree to which they’re willing to bring in new sounds and experiment on Malina reminds me a bit of 21st century Radiohead (I'd be willing to bet that Solberg, with his falsetto heavy delivery, takes a strong influence from Thom Yorke). If I’m right about that then its an incredibly exciting development, as bands like Radiohead and Leprous need that freedom to create what they’re capable of. It's not the easiest road to take but I think it's one that Leprous have proved they are ready for with this release.
Speaking of - there’s only one band that could get me excited by releasing a couple B-sides from 20 years ago, and that is of course Radiohead, who released three songs from the OK Computer era on a remastered version of that classic album titled OKNOTOK. All three tracks are better than most bands’ A-sides. I particularly enjoyed the song Man of War, a very dense and melodic song that features a rather prominent Beatles influence, one of Radiohead’s better guitar riffs, and some powerful theatrical orchestration that seems to foreshadow the more visionary direction that the band has pursued in the 21st century. The fact that this song didn’t make the cut shows how prolific they are, as if that needed to be proven.
10. Brutus - Burst
Brutus make it very clear right from the beginning of their debut that they’re bringing a lot fresh musical ideas to the table, as the first track, March, has one of the best album opening intros of 2017 with its blazing uptempo guitar riffs. I’m glad that they begin the album that way because I specifically remember finding this album by the pure happenstance of clicking on the YouTube link as a recommended video for no other reason than the “(2017)” in the title, and it was those first couple seconds had me immediately intrigued in this Belgian band.
I think what makes this release interesting is that they project the bellicosity and liveliness that punk music traditionally relies on, but they have plenty of worthwhile musical motifs and ideas as well. Their guitar parts are often quite unique which is something that can’t often be said when speaking of punk music. I suppose I’m just describing post-hardcore to some extent, which is probably an accurate placement for Brutus, but my point is that they don’t let the melodic aspects of their music detract from the viscerality that makes punk music compelling, which is the trap that many modern bands who fall into the category of post-hardcore are subject to. A lot of the best moments of the album are on songs like Drive, which, with the energy of the percussion and vocals in the verses, is a decidedly hard hitting hardcore punk track at its heart. A song like Not Caring however, well also featuring some very animated in-your-face verses, is broken up by a great guitar-driven instrumental section that adds that all important second dimension.
This album is packed with hefty riffs and the production is very dense, with meaty guitars and powerful bass, more along the lines of what you’ll find on a well-engineered heavy metal album, but with a shoegaze kind of fullness to it as well. The result is that a lot of the instrumentals to these songs end up sounding closer to uptempo sludge metal, early metalcore, or even a genre like blackgaze that combines very kinetic drumming with a palpably spacious form of heaviness. In the closing song, Child, for example, you have this combination of an oceanic swell of heavy tremolo picked guitars and a you-can’t-hit-the-snare-too-many-times approach to percussion that recalls the recent popularity of bands like Deafheaven, who mix influences from shoegaze, post-rock and black metal.
Everything else about them distances them from that sound however. In most cases, the songs are quick and to the point. And to the extent that they rely on dynamics, it usually isn’t a choice between slow and fast, but rather fast and faster. Those dynamics work very well though, as when the speedy and dissonantly high-pitched guitar riffs of All Along slow down to normal speeds and leave a little more space for the vocals to take center stage, the prior energy of the song is harnessed to create a very moving ending.
Furthermore, vocalist (and drummer!) Stefanie Mannaerts, has that sort of loose and shouty hardcore punk vocal approach which works to advance the music’s distinctly energetic vibe. You can almost feel her exhausting her breath on every line, and the reverby, (and if I’m correct) slightly distorted production on her vocals contribute to that feeling as well. She definitely doesn’t sound like a trained singer, that’s for sure. In fact, she sounds very much like someone that plays drums and sings at the same time. But I like it. When I think of modern post-hardcore, I think of rather whiney adolescent male vocals, so she is quite the welcome departure from that sound. That being said, a song like Justice de Julia II, notable in part of its kind of Baroness-esque proggy riff, serves as a great example of how the way that she strains her voice can become extremely passionate. The ultimate effect is that the vocals are able to contribute to the energy of the songs while adding a lot of emotive quality as well.
This is definitely an exciting album because I do like the energy that fast-paced punk music like this can bring to the table, but no one that I’m hearing now seems to make it as interesting as Brutus do here on their debut. I’m pleasantly surprised to see that they’ve been picked up by Sargent House, a label that not only features some of my favorite female rock singers (Chelsea Wolfe and Emma Ruth Rundle) but also some great heavy bands that share a lot instrumentally with Brutus (Russian Circles and the aforementioned Deafheaven). I have really high hopes for Brutus, especially if they push their instrumental experimentation further in the direction of some of their new label mates. But either way, Burst is certainly one of the most electric and invigorating listens of 2017.
Since I just mentioned her, Emma Ruth Rundle released a split EP with another Sargent House labelmate, Jaye Jayle, called The Time Between Us, which only features two new songs from her (and one acoustic version of a song from her last album). However, both these songs are fucking great. There’s something intangible about Emma Ruth Rundle that I just love. She’s doing something different here - embracing a kind of subtle alternative country vibe, which meshes surprisingly well with her very somber and ethereal sound. She gave the single-and-music video treatment to The Distance, a very slow-moving, sort of Townes Van Zandt reminiscent ballad with heartbreaking vocals, which is great in its own right.
But the real gem here is the other song, the one that she hasn’t really promoted at all, To Fold in England (Hours). I feel like I’m going crazy because this is one of my absolute favorite songs of the year - it doesn’t get old to me at all, and yet I’ve tried and failed to find anyone else that’s talking about it. The only YouTube video has less than 500 views (whereas The Distance has over 50,000). There are no lyrics anywhere on the internet and have no idea what she's saying most of the time, but the timbre of her voice is heartrending enough on its own. Seriously though, I’d really appreciate it if someone could just confirm how amazing this song is. It's one of the most goddamn beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard. Her voice sounds so otherworldly and divine in the beginning, the string arrangements are magnificent, and at the end she delves into this strikingly moving and creative collage of coordinated overlapping vocal parts. Please Emma, do a whole album like this. I beg you.
9. Perihelion Ship - To Paint a Bird of Fire
It's incredible how much a band can improve over the course of one year. In their 2016 debut, the Finnish (of course they're Nordic) band Perihelion Ship entered my radar as a potential inheritor of the Opethian torch with their progressive organ and mellotron heavy brand of scandinavian death metal. There was lots of room for improvement, but I found their blending of mellow 70’s prog with riff-based death metal encouraging. With To Paint a Bird of Fire, they seem to have picked up that torch and run with it.
It's not that they’ve gotten closer to Opeth. In fact, I feel as if they have more of their own identity here. But more importantly, everything is just better on this album. Right from the get go, New Sun, features some nasty and evil sounding guitar riffs. Whereas the riffs didn’t really jump out and grab me so much on their debut, they’ve made a huge turnaround in that department, as its sort of the main attraction of this record, along with the ever present organ and mellotron that make their sound so distinct. The first wow moment on the album is when the organ comes in with a sort of Keith Emerson-type melody over a heavy rhythmic riff at about the six and a half minute mark. I think they’re at their best when both the keyboards and guitars are doing something distinct from each other, as it creates a really unique and multifarious dynamic of sounds.
It's amazing how much the Hammond organ enhances the sinister sound of the guitars. It was a sound that Opeth pioneered on their 2005 album Ghost Reveries of course, but in this respect, Perihelion Ship is even more Opeth than Opeth, as the organ and mellotron are essentially as prominent in every song as the guitar. With help from the lack of compressed and modern metal production, this actually sounds like it could be some obscure archetypal death metal album from the 70’s, which I can’t even honestly say about Opeth. They really dive head first into that sound and don’t look back. That commitment is part of what makes them so appealing, as it really distinguishes them from any other band doing heavy progressive music. I appreciate as well that they don’t rely on tired death metal tropes like blast beats to be heavy, but instead rely only on the inherent heaviness and quality of their riffs, which is probably the biggest reason why they seem so poised to pick up where Opeth left off on the prog-death sound.
I think the songwriting is a lot more mature on this album as well. The third track, The Sad Mountain, is a huge advancement for them in that respect. The challenge for a band like this is making every part of their rather long songs memorable. There’s still some overall room for improvement in this area (although they’ve made so much progress in only a year), but I have to say, this song accomplishes that task perfectly. The massive mellotron-over-guitar riff intro is instantly memorable and does a great job setting the pace for this song, while a fantastically progressive heavy riff anchors the middle section. Tying it all together is an extended melodic and melancholic section that sees them exploring their emotive side, transitioning from an organ solo to an extremely tasteful somewhat bluesy guitar solo that leads back into the intro riff, providing excellent closure for the song. Even the other instruments, during these solos, do a notably great job of building up the song in the background. This has to been one of the greatest singular compositional achievements of the year. If they can replicate the quality of this song on a consistent basis I think those of us that would like to see an advancement in the death metal/prog rock fusion that Opeth pioneered are in for a treat.
They save what are possibly the best riffs for the closing track, New Sun?, which goes absolutely berserk with badass riffs in their first couple minutes, but evolves in a number of directions as the song progresses. While both of the similarly named and over ten-minute opening and closing tracks take a while to fully digest and follow with all the transitions and dynamics, I do think that Perihelion Ship are doing a good job of structuring these epics in thoughtful and effective ways. The songs never really feel broken up or disjointed, which is a big concern with music that reaches to this level of ambition, and they have enough really stand out parts in every song to make them a compelling listen. 9-minutes into the closing track, after a long build-up, they start going all out again with some vicious riffing, which as in many other cases, is brought to a whole nother level by the Hammond organ playing.
My biggest concern on their first record was the vocals, and they seem to have made some very significant improvement there as well. While they’re not near the level of clean vocals that you get with Opeth, it might just not be fair to compare them to Opeth in every respect anyways. The theatrical nature of the vocals reminds me more of another scandinavian prog metal band, Pain of Salvation. I hope and expect to see them further develop in that respect, because if Perihelion Ship do get to a point where their vocals are as unique and memorable as their guitar riffs and keyboard symphonics, they’re going to release some mind-blowingly good music. But that's not to detract from this album at all. I think the vocals are at a point where they compliment the music quite adequately, and the music they are complimenting is very well-done. I’m really excited for this band and if they can improve this much in only a year then the message that I’m taking from To Paint a Bird of Fire is that Perihelion Ship are now in a better position than any to carry on the storied legacy of great scandinavian progressive metal.
Another heavy band that used prominent unconventional instrumentation this year was Ex Eye, who on their instrumental self-titled debut, try their hands at making the saxophone a lead instrument in a heavy metal context. This isn’t Kenny G plays metal though. The saxophone player goes absolutely ballistic on every song and creates what is ultimately a very dark psychedelic experience, as by virtue of the saxophonist’s deranged playing style and seemingly inhuman lung capacity, the brass element somehow ends up making the music more turbulent and heavy instead of more melodic. Check out Form Constant; the Grid to see what I’m talking about, and hold on to something.
8. Algiers - The Underside of Power
Two of top five favorite songs last year were rooted in the spiritual/soul singing style - Cold Little Heart by Michael Kiwanuka (my favorite song of 2016) channeled a very 60’s and 70’s-esque soulful blues aesthetic in a very ambitious package, while Devil is Fine by Zeal & Ardor reached even farther back, all the way to African-American slave music. I’m glad to hear this style being reinvented in various forms as it's such a compelling and emotive type of music. But while those particular songs evoked images of the Woodstock generation and slave-era America respectively, Algiers utilize this very American style of music in a uniquely and unprecedentedly modern way. It was difficult to rank this album because Algiers are so unlike anything else and I have no idea how they came up with this sound, nor how they make everything fit together so perfectly.
They don’t pussyfoot around in the beginning of the album, setting the intensity with Walk Like a Panther. Vocalist/guitarist Franklin James Fisher is one fire on this song, and the way he wavers back and forth between passionately defiant singing and sort of playful James Brown-invoking "woos" creates a very interesting juxtaposed sensation of empowering energy - like you can fight the power and dance at the same time. This is one of the songs on the album that has a very tangible hip hop element at play, basing itself around a minor piano melody that one could easily see Tupac laying rhymes over. However, these songs are far from ever having clean cut bass-drowned hip hop production. This song and others are noisey and industrial, driven by harsh electronic percussion and enveloped by distortion. That sonic choice not only works well, but really makes the album in my opinion. When Fisher comes booming in with the powerful first line, “We won’t be led to slaughter”, he sounds like he’s shouting out to a crowd on the streets through a bullhorn and not from the comfort of a studio.
Therein lie the reason why this combination of styles works so well. There is a very blatant rebellious and iconoclastic theme to this album, something that Algiers do nothing to sugarcoat, as they open up the album with a short excerpt from a black panther speech. And well the production has the effect of making the already more modern sounding songs more mutinous, on songs where they channel soulful 60’s and 70’s artists more directly, the production has the effect of making those songs much more contemporary and relevant. The title track is instantly catchy in a very Otis Redding sort of manner, but the tones they’re using really distinguish it from that era. They transition back into the final chorus with a brief section of industrial clamor that couldn’t be confused to have come from a record from the 1960's.
On Death March, they blur the line between generations to an even greater extent, incorporating electronic drumming and synth amidst the almost gospel-y verses and a familiar raw, noisey soundscape. Again, I think the reason this works is because of the sheer intensity and focus of this very revolutionary record. But this song is also very much enhanced, and perhaps anchored, by the the very creative and groovy basslines of bassist Ryan Mahan, who I started to appreciate more and more on nearly every song as I consumed the album further. Another thing that makes this album very distinct - aside from the melodic and impassioned vocals, the most memorable parts of The Underside of Power are the rhythm and bass, which seem to always make up both the forefront and foundation of these compositions.
Algiers really impress me with their diversity. While you may think that you know where the album is going after a couple tracks, this album is not so predictable. They really stretch far out of the box on a track like Animals, which treads upon hardcore punk in its uptempo aggressiveness. On the other hand, songs like Mme Rieux, strip back (some of) the noiseiness and allow them to explore a bit more of their melodic side. They even get to the point of borderline psychedelia in another softer track called Hymn for an Average Man. Spots like this allow the listener to really appreciate Fisher’s vocal stylings and evocations. After you absorb his singing style, you really couldn’t imagine anyone else doing the vocals for this album. He puts an incredible amount of passion into his voice, whether he uses it to express sadness and contemplation as he does in these songs, or anger and insurgency as in others.
The benefit of having those fluctuations in intensity is that the more belligerent songs are that much more impactful when they hit. Cleveland sees them returning to the the hip hop influences that commanded the first track. This time, they use a spine-tingling choral sample to bring forth what is very possibly the most intense piece of music on the album. It's no mistake of course, that over this apocalyptic musical backdrop, Franklin attacks with the most direct and unrepentant lyrics on the album, “Here come them boys in black and white with the kerosene / It's been the same evil power since in ‘63 / They hang in Homewood, Alabama with the whitest sheets / And in Montgomery County, Maryland from a sapling tree”. I love how emotional and heated the chorus vocals are too. My favorite moment however, is when the vocals end near the conclusion of the song and you have a chance to just crank the volume and bang your head to that thundering choral theme and relish in the power of it all.
Timelessness is certainly something I consider important when it comes to music, especially songs that very brazenly extend beyond the personal in their lyrics. But while the timing of this album in today’s volatile socio-political climate is clearly deliberate and candid, I think they do a great job evoking more than just momentary political angst, but rather painting their struggle and their revolution as a generation spanning battle. That’s what I look for more than anything else in a politically charged album. It's easy to flaunt your agenda around. It's much harder to write about the human condition in a meaningful way, but I think Algiers are effective at that here, as they delve beyond the superficial politics and into deeper lyrical inquiries of evil and power, something that’s apparent in the album’s title. That being said, the main reason that I found The Underside of Power to be such a profound listen is not really the Orwellian lyrics but rather the remarkably unexpected musical gaps that they are able to bridge so seamlessly. For just the musical innovation they deserve a spot on my list, but with all the contributing elements that Algiers very thoughtfully interweave into this record considered, I had to rank this album amongst the best of the year.
Timelessness is certainly something I consider important when it comes to music, especially songs that very brazenly extend beyond the personal in their lyrics. But while the timing of this album in today’s volatile socio-political climate is clearly deliberate and candid, I think they do a great job evoking more than just momentary political angst, but rather painting their struggle and their revolution as a generation spanning battle. That’s what I look for more than anything else in a politically charged album. It's easy to flaunt your agenda around. It's much harder to write about the human condition in a meaningful way, but I think Algiers are effective at that here, as they delve beyond the superficial politics and into deeper lyrical inquiries of evil and power, something that’s apparent in the album’s title. That being said, the main reason that I found The Underside of Power to be such a profound listen is not really the Orwellian lyrics but rather the remarkably unexpected musical gaps that they are able to bridge so seamlessly. For just the musical innovation they deserve a spot on my list, but with all the contributing elements that Algiers very thoughtfully interweave into this record considered, I had to rank this album amongst the best of the year.
7. The Contortionist - Clairvoyant
At this point, whether or not you like the direction the Contortionist are going, anyone familiar with their discography thus far would be foolish to go into a new album with any sort of concrete expectations of what they’re about to hear. Clairvoyant is notably the first Contortionist album not to feature harsh vocals. But the change here is far more significant than that. A lot of the vocals here seem wholly un-metal; closer to post-hardcore or even pop in some cases. It's hard to see any connection in a melodic song like Godspeed to the progressive deathcore of their debut album seven years ago. They haven’t just gotten rid of something. They’ve really shifted their sound.
Vocalist Michael Lessard has a very special approach to singing, particularly his phrasing, that really gives these songs character, and they tread even closer to pop on the chrous-based song Reimagined. The very existential lyrics and deep sonic atmosphere make it much more than a pop tune however. Well they begin with a couple more straightforward songs, the album eventually begins to incorporate some classic Contortionist heaviness and atmosphere as you get deeper into it. They merge their two sides most distinctly on the song Relapse, which features a sort dark industrial dance-pop verse and very singable hook “If the relapse happens today / then let tomorrow be recovery” but end on a mix of heavy riffage hovering above a backdrop ambient synth.
One thing very notable about this album, and distinct from many of their progressive metal contemporaries, is their commitment to subtly. While they are certainly capable of earth-shaking riffs and huge emotional vocal crescendos, they seem to avoid them almost completely here. They’re taking a more meditative approach here, which is a tough thing to do right with heavy music, because so much of the metal sound relies on that dynamic. While it took me a while to really get what they were going for because of this, now that I do, I think they pull it off wonderfully. I hate to make the Tool comparison, but this is probably the closest I’ve heard any band come to that transcendent sound of peaceful heaviness. What I really like however, is that they do this without really trying to emulate Tool as some other bands have done. With the catchiness of the singing they even add a fresh and intriguing element to that already rare sound that Tool pioneered. We can’t be sure if they’ll continue with this sound, but it seems for now they’re carrying that torch higher and brighter than anyone else.
One of the most redeeming qualities of the album, is that well the songs get more expansive and demanding throughout the record, the lyrics become contrastingly more direct and personal as the album nears the end. The final and longest track, Monochrome (Pensive), with an instrumental that could have easily played host to some very abstract and mysterious lyrics, instead deals very candidly with loss: “Maybe I was just desperate to think you'd be fine after you lost your mother / I guess that I thought that you'd be alright”, and finally delivers on the big emotive climax that they resisted going to up until that point. The average Joni Mitchell lyric is more metal than that. But while the Contortionist initially caught many people’s ears for the turbulent metal riffs, violently screamed vocals, and space-odyssey lyrics that populated their very un-subtle earlier works, the new Contortionist that puts more emphasis on layers of understated vocals, trance-inducing synths and lyrical intimacy is something that deserves to catch ears, regardless of whether its better or worse - a distinction that I don’t necessarily feel capable of making. There are some bands you just have to trust - not a purveyors of a particular sound and style, but simply as songwriters and artists. If they hadn’t already, then The Contortionist have certainly established themselves as one of those bands with Clairvoyant.
On the topic of bands that sort of blend progressive metal with more pop-oriented vocals, I’m inclined to mention Sleep Token, who after releasing their three song debut EP last year, have come back with another three song EP, aptly named Two. This time the contrast is even more distinct. They write straight unadulterated ethereal pop songs and bring them to climax with heavy, extended range-guitar sections. You could legit confuse this singer’s falsetto brimming vocals with a pop artist like Sam Smith. That’s not meant to be a compliment or diss, but either way, the pop on this EP is really well done. The “I’ll see you when the wrath comes” vocals of Nazareth are so beautiful and so unsuggestive of the heaviness to come, besides the rather dark lyrics. I’m surprised this singer is choosing to make music like this as he’d probably have a good chance of making it in the mainstream. Unless… This band is anonymous… Maybe that is Sam Smith! Probably not. But the mere existence of this much stark contrast in one song is extremely unique, and I wish they’d put out a full album so I could fully digest what they’re doing cuz it's really fucking cool.
Not really similar but another blend of heavy and pop that I enjoyed this year, though rather silly and thus totally unlike the two bands I just discussed, is Toehider’s “GOOD” - check out the song This Conversation is Over; great vocals there too.
6. Ninet - Paper Parachute
I’m surprised I haven’t heard any buzz about this album. As is the case with many others I imagine, I first heard Ninet Tayeb’s amazing voice when she joined Steven Wilson for a couple songs on the album he released in 2015. While it was quite obvious that she’s a powerhouse vocalist, I didn’t realize at the time that Ninet is actually a very good songwriter in her own right. I certainly didn’t anticipate that she would actually end up topping Steven Wilson’s next release on my end of the year list, but here we are.
The most surprising thing about Paper Parachute for me was how fierce and unhinged it is. I’ve heard that Ninet is somewhat of a star in her native Israel, and yet, this album features a number of very dirty hard rock tracks. I love this, because she could obviously do anything with that voice, and the typical route would be to go in a poppier direction (its funny that the popiest thing she’s done this year is her work with prog rock icon Steven Wilson).
But her voice does fit so well in this sort of Janis Joplin aesthetic, as although she does have an incredibly emotive voice, what sets her apart more than anything is actually how powerful and ferocious her voice can get. She’s already got a bit of a rasp to her voice, and when she turns it up all the way like on the last “I can’t let go” line of the song Child, it provides an astonishing amount of intensity.
I’m really not sure if I’ve ever heard a female vocalist that can sing with as much meanness and authority as Ninet. And she really knows how to use that ability to bring these songs to an energetic climax. Once I knew the lyrics to these songs, I found myself mouthing the lyrics with that sort of snarled “fuck yeah” kind of face whenever she starts belting. There’s no better example of this than on the song Elinor, which is maybe the funnest song to sing along to this year. The guitar and general production on this song is actually very dirty, but Ninet’s vocals cut through like a axe. It’s a pretty straightforward song - the chorus consists exclusively of variations of the repeated line, “walk like you left nothing behind”, but it really doesn’t need anything else. They way she emphasizes those six words is more than enough. In fact, her emphasis and repetition of such a simple and explicit line is what makes the song so powerful. It’s a take no shit song, and a perfect one at that.
But what really elevates this album to a year end favorite is the variation and progression that the album undergoes. Aside for the obvious rock n’ roll basis, Ninet incorporates a lot of her native eastern music into her songs at points, giving them that sort of Kashmir by Led Zeppelin feel in certain instances. The most direct example of this is in the song Subservient, which transitions into the most unmistakably eastern section on the album about 3-minutes in, and features Ninet doing what sounds like some improvised eastern vocals. This dimension adds a lot of uniqueness and identity to Ninet’s music especially contrasted against the very American/British rock sound the she’s adopted.
What I find very interesting is how Ninet places all of the softer songs on the end of the album instead of dispersing them amidst the hard rock songs. I really like this choice. The result is a very cinematic and and conclusive album listen through. She makes a bold, tough, attention-grabbing statement in the first half, but by the time you hear her sing the line “you can’t cry, so I’ll cry for both of us” on the very symphonic and acoustic-based closing track Ocean, she’s brought you to a very vulnerable and emotional state. It is of course, a testament to her vocal ability that she can reach both hellish ferocity and heavenly beauty, but I have to point out again that her songwriting is really something to be impressed by in and of itself. The lyrics, the progressions, everything is done with the methodology of a very mature artist, and in dramatic fashion, the album closes out with a strikingly gorgeous swell of symphonics and layered vocal harmonies that bring things to a perfect end.
Although it says “bonus track” so I won’t let it dictate my opinion of the album one way or the other, the Joy Division cover of She’s Lost Control is very imaginative and more eastern sounding than anything on the album. It’s astonishing how much new character she gives this old song, and how different she made it sound while still sounding natural. It gives a little more insight both into where Ninet is coming from and the magnitude of her creativity.
As I mentioned earlier, I don’t know why I haven’t seen this album on an any end of the year lists, especially since she’s already made it big time in Israel - you’d think she be gaining more traction over here (Ninet and her band just made the move to the US recently). Either way, Ninet has had such a big year I can’t imagine that she’s not gonna be huge here in America. She certainly deserves it with releases like this.
5. Exquirla - Para Quienes Aún Viven
There’s always a couple fantastic rather obscure releases every year that end up as favorites, and this album is a great example of why I feel justified spending so much time every year exploring new releases and trying to find albums like Para Quienes Aún Viven (which according to Google translate means "For Those Who Still Live"). I wasn’t anticipating being blown away by any Spanish post-rock bands this year, particularly because it seems like there are so many very familiar sounding post-rock bands around these days that blend together. But there are a variety of distinguishing factors that make Exquirla more than you average post-rock band.
Something that becomes almost immediately noticeable on songs like the opener, Destruidnos juntos, are the uniqueness of the vocals in this stylistic context. And it's not just cuz I don’t speak Spanish, though admittedly that must be some of it. I don’t know how old this singer is but his voicing has the effect of making him sound very aged and rustic, and I’d wager that he has some sort of background in traditional and/or classical Spanish music. Its unusual for post-rock, which often has more effervescent vocals that don’t push so assertively to the front of the mix, if it has vocals at all. The result is that they don’t feel so much like post-rock songs, as each part is distinguished particularly by the vocals or by the lack of vocals where they’re absent. I think that if I’m going to listen to music in another language there’s even more of a necessity for the vocalist to have a definite tone and identity, because the vocals aren’t adding any value or meaning the songs for me with lyrics, so it’s only as valuable as it functions as another instrument. And I find that on this album, the vocals do a particularly great job functioning as an instrument and contributing to the aura of the music.
However, the vocals aren’t really the highlight here, as it seems to me that they still take on a very balanced role with the instruments. The focus on these songs are still very much the powerful swells in intensity and mood that characterizes post-rock. Those moods however. are rarely as passive and ambient as you’ll typically find in the genre, and I think that’s the main thing that makes them different. The music is often very dark and haunting. Take a song like El Grito del Padre for example, which begins with some awfully cryptic vocal loops and only becomes more spiritual and mysterious as the various symphonics and guitars enter and enhance this atmosphere. While a very beautiful song overall, this track is also quite heavy at points. There are rather heavy sections in nearly each song in fact, and they are at least somewhat of a guitar riff-based band. Exquirla also differentiate themselves by focusing on rhythm just as much or more than melody at many points on the album.
Well I don’t really think you would call any of it metal, I think they certainly channel the sound of post-metal and atmospheric sludge metal bands to some extent. It has a very ritualistic feel to it all. In fact, if there’s any band that I think they sound like, it would be Tool. They’re really not that far off. I’m not sure if that says more that Exquirla is reminiscent of a progressive metal band or that Tool is closer to a post-metal band with more present vocals. Either way, when I hear stuff like the riff that comes in halfway through in Un Hombre and the guitar lead that’s played over it a minute later, I can’t help but be reminded of Tool. But since it's mostly a similarity of the mood and atmospheres of those bands and not of comparable musical techniques and styles, Exquirla still has a sublime quality to them that revolves around this dark and sacred musical aesthetic.
It's important to mention as well that for a debut album the songwriting is impressively sophisticated. Their comfort zone for song length seems to be around 9 to 10 minutes. In order to justify songs of that length on a consistent basis you need to have a lot of relevant material, but the individual sections of your music have to justify exploration and perpetuation as well, i.e., you have bands with long songs that jam too many ideas together so that nothing is memorable and everything feels disjointed, and you likewise have bands that simply drag out parts that don’t necessarily warrant being elongated until they become tedious. I bring this up, because my favorite attribute of this album is that Exquirla nail that balance and do a wonderful job at guiding the listener along at the right pace. Their songs do tend to have some lengthy passages but they do a phenomenal job of exploring and building layers. If you listen to the third track, Hijos de la Rabia, you’ll find yourself transported very naturally from a quite gloomy and contentious atmosphere in the first half to a particularly inspiring and celestial second half that becomes extremely powerful at the end, with these beautiful, radiant guitar leads.
It made a lot more sense when I read that this band is essentially an amalgamation of the singer, Niño de Elche, and an already established Spanish post-rock band named Toundra with four albums already under its belt. That explains this level of maturity in their songwriting. I think the experiment in combining Toundra’s dark post-rock with de Elche’s voice was really a brilliant idea as this album has such a specific mood and character to it. It really doesn’t match up with any other post-rock I’ve listened to, and it seems to me that Exquirla aren’t putting any genre specific boxes and limitations around their sound. I hope more post-rock bands venture out into this territory, or better yet, simply experiment with the same sort of ambition that I hear on Para Quienes Aún Viven, because I found this to be one of the most provocatively emotive and passionate releases in music this year.
I can’t think of any other Spanish music I’ve ever willfully listened to, so it’s odd, but there were two interesting albums coming from that country this year, the other being Los Ángeles by Rosalía, a flamenco nuevo album (which, if you can’t figure it out, means new flamenco). I’m surprised how much I enjoyed this album as you’d think a record that consists only of acoustic guitar and vocals would necessitate an understanding of the lyrics. But this album has two huge strengths. Number one, the acoustic guitar playing consists of some very interesting and intricate flamenco. And more importantly, number two, Rosalía puts on one of the best vocal performances of the year. Her voice is stunning and she has a wildly beautiful natural vibrato. I’m surprised she hasn’t been scooped up by some industry executive and pushed into pop music (similar to Ninet Tayeb in this way), but whether she’s just flown under the radar up to this point or she’s doing this kind of music on her own volition, it's such a treat to hear. Well much of the album is subtle and peaceful, my favorite is when she uses that awesome vibrato over the vigorous uptempo flamenco of De Plata to create what sounds like a fiery Spanish war chant, which I’m tempted to call one of the most purely heavy songs of the year.
4. Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
I remember very distinctly my first time listening to this album. It came out on the same day as another release that I mentioned earlier, Mastodon’s Cold Dark Place EP, on September 22nd. As a huge Mastodon fan, and only a moderate Chelsea Wolfe fan at that point, I threw both albums on a playlist, starting with the album by the artist that I’m a bigger fan of, and sat down for a listen.
As I mentioned earlier, I greatly enjoyed the Mastodon EP, which boldly distanced themselves from their metal DNA; a band that created a legacy rooted in extremely heavy Neurosis-ian sludge metal, doing music that is completely devoid of that sound. Among a number of bands this year with experimental releases that saw them going in a direction that I wasn’t necessarily hoping for. While I do love some of Mastodon’s newer stuff, including this EP, I don’t think I’ll ever completely get over hoping for a return to the crazy heaviness of the bands youth.
Stick with me here - I promise I am going to talk about Chelsea Wolfe.
Something I’ve had to grapple with this year more than others is how to take it when a band evolves away from the thing that made me fall in love with them in the first place. As I enjoyed Cold Dark Place, I couldn’t help but think how far Mastodon have come. These songs are taking from pop, blues, country; the Neurosis influence is all but eliminated. The EP ends on an emotive country-blues ballad title track that I spoke of earlier, and then.... A couple seconds of silence, then feedback, and boom, Chelsea Wolfe comes crashing through the wall with one of the grimiest, plodding heavy riffs of the year on the opening track Spun, as if to say “Hey Mastodon, you dropped your Neurosis influence”.
Chelsea Wolfe has always flirted with a heavy metal influence, and she’s teetered around that sound and scene for a while now, but I always thought she remained more in the category of dark industrial or dark folk. Well with Hiss Spun she is flirting and teetering no longer. I don’t care what anyone says, this is a sludge metal album, and its one of the best sludge metal albums to come out this decade. And as if to eliminate any doubt, she has founder of the seminal sludge metal band ISIS and allbut certified legend in the genre Aaron Turner contributing some merciless deep growls to the end of the very nasty and brutal third track on the album Hex, bringing the album into a far heavier place than anyone familiar with Chelsea Wolfe could have anticipated.
I really appreciate how deeply Wolfe jumped into that aesthetic as well. These songs do not have the polished electronica sound that some of Wolfe’s heaviest songs from earlier albums have. She’s always had a tangible impurity to her sound for sure, but this album is downright ugly, filthy and unkempt - it's everything that a sludge album should be. This album features both a lot of guitar contributions from A Perfect Circle and Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and production by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou. Both of their styles seem to mesh really well with Wolfe’s vision. The Culling for example has very clear production, but when the song transitions into its most climactic point, the wall of heavily distorted guitars and Wolfe powerful distorted vocals manage to toe the line perfectly between clarity and that sort of pseudo-sloppy heaviness that benefits this kind of music.
While this dirty production adds so much, Chelsea Wolfe’s songwriting, something that’s always been her strength is just as good as ever. Hiss Spun is a little less varied that her other releases it seems, but I think this is a good thing - the album feels very focused. That being said, a song like Twin Fawn benefits from some dynamism, featuring some hauntingly beautiful verses (who else can sound so serene singing lyrics like “You don't kneel, you don't cry / You'll break the neck of any man who'll try”?), but those verses are broken up by some savagely unrestrained riffing and uncannily confrontational singing for her. I enjoyed as well that fact that Wolfe steps out of the limelight at the ending and lets the song resolve on a dissonant and in-your-face onslaught of even more guitar riffage, contributing to my claim that this is a sludge metal album more than anything else.
Even when she incorporates her industrial influence it still remains within that sludgey aesthetic. The industrial sounding breaks in the closing track, Scrape, remind me a lot of some of the industrial sounds that Neurosis incorporated into there more ambitious work in the 90’s, and the tribal drum beat that enters immediately after invokes Neurosis as well. That break is a monumental part of the song and album, as it strips things down to a very primal level before Wolfe comes in with her most personal, bellicose, and assertive vocals of her career. As in other instances on the album, she’s really pushing her voice to lengths we haven’t heard before. She sounds more confident with her voice than ever. And at the same time her voice is filled with vulnerability.
Lyrically, this album seems to make a number of esoteric references to sexuality and abuse; not enough to infer somethings specific, but enough to get the impression that Wolfe has a story to tell - she’s inferred this a bit in interviews so I’m not just speculating here. From the more direct evocations of sex, “I feel it crawl up my legs / Let me wrap you up in these thighs / It gets me out of my head, again” and “I'd save you, but I can't love”, of most straightforward sludge/doom metal song on the album, 16 Psyche, to the mysteriously ambiguous suggestions of lines like, “I’ll never tell the secrets of my family / Bled out, a cult of anonymity”, from The Culling, Wolfe is effective at at least making us feel like she’s trying to share a deep dark secret while simultaneously trying to hide it in the chaotic noise-storm of guitars and drums that populate the record, whether or not she actually is.
Going back to Scrape, things really come into perspective as she sings, “Led me here, said, "Hold my hand" / A young nymph defiled then / My body fights itself inside / I feel it bow, this mortal hold.” The new level of intensity and viceralness that Wolfe unleashes to close out the album really ties everything together. All the filthiness of the guitars, the suggestive enormity of the lyrics, the repeated thematic uses of grotesquely connotated words like “welt”, “groan” and “hiss”, even the somewhat disturbing album art - it all contributes to what is a very established and thoughtful piece of thematic work. Whether or not she sticks with metal or pushes forward in another direction, Chelsea Wolfe has really elevated herself to a new level of artistry with Hiss Spun.
To bring the discussion back to the beginning however, this album is a great example of an artist changing in a direction that I wanted. I have to concede that part of the attraction of this album is simply just how unique it is hearing an objectively beautiful female voice singing over this kind of music rather than the usual gruff manly grunts or screams. If someone had told me beforehand that Chelsea Wolfe was doing an all out sludge metal album I would've been ecstatic prior to even hearing it. In a way, this album has seen her becoming what I wanted her to be but didn’t think she would ever actually do. In somewhat of a form of irony, this makes me appreciate the bands this year and others that have moved in a direction that I didn’t anticipate and/or want. I’m sure some people didn’t want Chelsea Wolfe to go in this direction even though I did. Ultimately it's not about what certain people want from an artist, it's about the artist following the path that their inspiration paves. Evolution and experimentation are absolutely necessary if we want to hear great and innovative music, and Hiss Spun is a fine example of that.
On topic, no band channels Neurosis in a more genuine way than Amenra, who also released an extremely heavy sludge metal album this year, entitled Mass VI. This is a band that knows their target atmosphere and knows how to create it, and for those of us that enjoy lethargic, droning, titanic sludge, Amenra threw us a very satisfying bone this year. They’ve expanded their dynamics a bit on this record, incorporating some uncannily vulnerable and haunting clean vocals over the otherwise monstrous and caustic track, A Solitary Reign, which also features one of the heaviest riffs of 2017. If you want to hear the kind of music that Chelsea Wolfe is invoking on Hiss Spun, this would be a good listen.
3. Julien Baker - Turn Out the Lights
While this isn’t the most musically adventurous listen I’ve had this year, sometimes pure passion and spirit are enough to win me over. After all, those are the real reasons that we listen to music, and if you can accomplish those ends with the simple, percussion-less collection of songs that Julien Baker presents with us on Turn Out the Lights then I’m most certainly not going to deny that album access into my top five albums of the year.
While the emotion is the key attribute that makes this album so fantastic, the reason why this album surpasses other albums on my list is because of her songwriting. Most of her songs aren’t based around a repeating chorus, but rather one dramatic high point near the end of the track. She demonstrates this songwriting approach right from the beginning with a track called Appointments, which even aside from the songwriting features some wonderfully ambient post-rock esque layered clean guitars. Amidst that beautiful sonic landscape, it takes her two minutes of non-repetitive verses to get to the line, “Maybe it's all gonna turn out alright / And I know that it's not, but I have to believe that it is”, at which point she becomes very repetitive, fittingly repeating and layering that line as if she’s desperately trying to convince herself of it. The climactic payoff is short, as she sings at the top of her lungs “And when I tell you that it is, Oh, it's more for my benefit”. Two minutes in on my first listen, I wasn’t sure she’d be capable of those kind of vocals, as many singer-songwriters of her ilk have a sort of bashful and conservative comfort zone with their vocals. Baker on the other hand, can really dig deep down and belt like what she’s singing about is the most important thing in the world, and when she “tells you that it is” with that power, it’s very much to her benefit, and the listener’s.
She uses this climactic structure very consistently, and yet, I feel as if she does a very good conscious job of switching up how she presents those climaxes so as to still make each one distinguished. Sour Breath is a favorite of mine, if not for the reason I just mentioned, then for the categorically heartbreaking verse lyrics, which begin with the lines, “I know you do better when you're by yourself / Free from the weight of my dirt poor health / New drugs to fix all my missing cells / Didn't bring it up, cause I've done so well this week / And I thought that if I tried a little bit harder you'd change your mind / I've still got nowhere to be, and I don't do too well; nobody's worried”. She really has a way of capturing very specific incarnations of melancholia. This is an important strength to her music, as it really pushes the emotion of her songs beyond the millions of other tunes that deal with internal struggles and depression in less articulate and more general ways.
Turn Out the Lights is ordered in the best possible way as well. The dramatic turn around on the brilliantly moving piano ballad closer that is Claws in my Back is the final touch that really makes this album a compelling and cohesive listen all the way through. The images she paints with the lyrics in this song are so vivid. This song is essentially split into three parts. In the first verse she hints strongly towards the subject of suicide, and in the second creates a perfect personification of depression with the lines, "So try to stay calm, 'cause nobody knows / The violent partner you carry around / With claws in your back, ripping your clothes / And listing your failures out loud".
But unlike the rest of the album, she doesn't wallow in this darkness for the entirety of the track. There is both a lyrical and musical 180 degree turn as the narrator presumably changes their mind and decides that they want to live. Whether or not it's too late we don't know. Either way, Baker does a tremendous job of lifting the listener out of the very deep and seemingly unclimbable hole of self-doubt and despair that she dug out on the first ten tracks. That’s really the key sensation that Julien Baker accomplishes so well here. While the sadness of her lyrics and voice can really drag you into a not-so-positive state of self-reflection, the ultimate takeaway is one of hope and perseverance. This has to be the most emotionally hard-hitting album of the year for sure.
But unlike the rest of the album, she doesn't wallow in this darkness for the entirety of the track. There is both a lyrical and musical 180 degree turn as the narrator presumably changes their mind and decides that they want to live. Whether or not it's too late we don't know. Either way, Baker does a tremendous job of lifting the listener out of the very deep and seemingly unclimbable hole of self-doubt and despair that she dug out on the first ten tracks. That’s really the key sensation that Julien Baker accomplishes so well here. While the sadness of her lyrics and voice can really drag you into a not-so-positive state of self-reflection, the ultimate takeaway is one of hope and perseverance. This has to be the most emotionally hard-hitting album of the year for sure.
I’m stretching a little here but I wanted an opportunity to mention Melanie de Biasio’s new album, Lilies. She’s a female singer who releases music under her name, Julien Baker’s a female singer who… well you get the point. They’re not really similar. Whatever. De Biasio creates some very atmospheric and modernized vocal jazz. She has a great song on this album called Your Freedom is the End of Me, which benefits from the layering of de Biasio’s elegant, smokey vocals over that room rumbling trip-hop bass and beautiful filtered piano playing. That electronic bass, which is unorthodox in jazz, is somehow both subtle and positively crucial to to her sound. Her music is always very picturesque and movie soundtrack-ready. I feel like I name drop Radiohead a little too often, but I really get a feeling that de Biasio has been influenced by them, as the spellbinding combination of jazz and electronic bass that she exhibits all over this album has a similar sublimeness.
2. Bent Knee - Land Animal
It's hard to believe that this is the second year in a row that I’ve listed Bent Knee as having one of my top five albums of the year. This group is releasing top quality music at an unprecedented rate for modern bands. And yet the music feels so unlike a band just trying to pump out as much material as possible. Land Animal sees the Boston-based band evolving and experimenting in a variety of ways, and releasing some of their best material yet.
There’s a very prominent focus on rhythm on this record and the album itself begins and closes out on distinct drum patterns. The third track, Holy Ghost, is a foot-stomping hard rock track that emphasizing the groove with a lot of staccato in the first half before brilliantly and climatically opening up at the end. There’s so much to talk about even within this one song. The groovy riff itself, which emerges at first as a plucked violin part and goes on to take multiple forms, is funky and infectious while at the same time extremely unique. It almost goes without saying that Courtney Swain’s vocals are incredibly energetic and confident. There’s no need to talk about her range and control as these are demonstrated nearly every song. More than that, what sets Swain apart are her melodic choices and the nuances of her lyrics and phrasing. I can’t think of a singer other than her that I could imagine coming up with the verse lines on this song.
Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth’s drumming adds so much to this track. If you listen through the song and only focus on the drumming, you'll notice how much his changes impact the emotive peaks and valleys of the composition. It's not just that he has amazing fills, which he does, he also makes the vibe of the song much more unique, and he does this all over Land Animal. The degree to which they focus on rhythm on this album reminds me a lot of that Nordic complex rhythm + pop scene I was talking about earlier (Leprous, 22, Agent Fresco, etc.), in the sense that Bent Knee are clearly starting from a rhythmic place on a lot of these songs. And well the way those bands incorporate creative rhythms into their music is awesome, Bent Knee's rhythmic complexity is more subtle; it feels less like a novelty and more just like great, creative music.
Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth’s drumming adds so much to this track. If you listen through the song and only focus on the drumming, you'll notice how much his changes impact the emotive peaks and valleys of the composition. It's not just that he has amazing fills, which he does, he also makes the vibe of the song much more unique, and he does this all over Land Animal. The degree to which they focus on rhythm on this album reminds me a lot of that Nordic complex rhythm + pop scene I was talking about earlier (Leprous, 22, Agent Fresco, etc.), in the sense that Bent Knee are clearly starting from a rhythmic place on a lot of these songs. And well the way those bands incorporate creative rhythms into their music is awesome, Bent Knee's rhythmic complexity is more subtle; it feels less like a novelty and more just like great, creative music.
In addition to the rhythmic focus, this album sees Bent Knee take on a bit more of a rock n’ roll edge as well, led especially by guitarist Ben Levin and his approach to riff and lead writing. The thing about Bent Knee however, is that there’s so much variety within their music that they can make all these noticeable changes and advancements in their music but their distinct sound and character remains as strong as ever. And this is a band with so much character. If you listen to The Well, you’ll hear Bent Knee offering up their most 70’s-esque sounding music to date. Levin transitions fantastically between very funky yet soulful playing. And although it starts off with that throwback sound, in typical Bent Knee fashion, it eventually evolves into an almost theatrical rock piece. The lyrics, I have to mention as well, are charmingly idiosyncratic in the best ways, with lines like, “Look past the clouds to the stars and the asteroids / Swirling nebulae, crashing rocks, passing over / I pray we both collide so when we die no one can blame us”. They really strike that perfect balance between abstract and evocative.
Time Deer, is another track that starts of with a very distinct rock vibe, but very quickly becomes something more, empowered by the symphonic elements that violinist Chris Baum brings to the table. For a song that doesn’t reach over four and a half minutes, it really takes you on a journey, with some very profound reflections on the human condition. I have to go back to praising Courtney Swain for a minute here. One of my favorite moments on the album is when this song slows down and she pulls off these beautiful little fluttering trills on the line, “The first double helix that links me to you”. Its little things like that that make me appreciate her vocals so much. I like as well how the song builds up into a huge climax at the end but doesn’t belabor anything. This is something that Bent Knee do so well. They always take their songs in really unexpected directions, and yet, they don’t make particularly long songs either. They’re able to transition between different styles so seamlessly and pack so much into every second that the songs really don’t need to be long to be epic, which is maybe more impressive than a band that needs 15 minutes to make their songs that diverse and moving (although I’d be so down with a 15 minute Bent Knee song).
That being said, the longest song on the album, Insides In, is quite possibly the most epic song on the album. Although, not necessarily because of its length. It's only six and half minutes, which is nothing to your average prog rock fan. What makes this song so powerful is it sees Bent Knee at their most dynamic. This track takes the listener from a quaint Tori Amos-esque piano verse-chorus part all the way to a massive, droning and symphonic heavy metal hysteria at its conclusion. Just another reason to love Bent Knee - the fact that they can do a song like this, and at the same time, release a fun sing-along feel-good song like Belly Side Up on the same album.
Even within one song, Bent Knee can make you smile ear-to-ear at one point and bring a tear to eye at another. I would be remiss not to mention the title track, which has so many musical influences drifting in and out of prominence throughout, and yet, is such a complete song in just over five minutes. It's cinematic, it's zany (in the best way), it beautiful, and when Swain hits the emotionally point-blank line, "Only thing that matters is not giving up", its so moving. I’m happy to see Bent Knee getting a bit more recognition from the prog community lately, as I think its well deserved. They're a band that's always drifted near the category of progressive rock, but this very symphonic and dramatic song really seems like they're giving us their take on that sound and applying to be official card-carrying prog rockers, though I was already prepared to hand that card over.
While I don’t think they’re channeling King Crimson or Genesis, the variations of mood and diversity of styles that they brilliantly forge together into concise pieces of music like this one should absolutely grab attention from fans of that kind of music, because no one is doing those things better than Bent Knee at the moment. And it shouldn’t matter who they’re channeling. The fact that I can’t really even tell who they sound like in particular or who they’re borrowing from is more of a testament to the literal progressiveness of their music than anything.
While I don’t think they’re channeling King Crimson or Genesis, the variations of mood and diversity of styles that they brilliantly forge together into concise pieces of music like this one should absolutely grab attention from fans of that kind of music, because no one is doing those things better than Bent Knee at the moment. And it shouldn’t matter who they’re channeling. The fact that I can’t really even tell who they sound like in particular or who they’re borrowing from is more of a testament to the literal progressiveness of their music than anything.
How they come up with material of this simultaneous complexity and quality at a rate so much faster than mostly any other band right now is beyond me. That’s the funny thing actually, is well I love this album to death, my impression is that it's not even the best they can do. Most of the albums on the top of my list this year or any year are what I consider to be that artist realizing their full potential. But with Bent Knee, they just have so many amazing attributes, sounds and styles at their songwriting disposal that I see absolutely no limit on what they can do. There’s no band in existence today that I’m more interested and excited about, and despite only being released a year after another fantastic album, Land Animal is just another giant step towards Bent Knee’s rise to, in my mind at least, the pinnacle of modern progressive rock music.
As if she hasn’t done enough in the past two years, Courtney Swain also released a fantastic solo EP called Growing Pains late into 2017, in which she gracefully migrates into a more stripped down piano/vocal environment with some timely string arrangements. The songwriting on this is phenomenal and it would probably have its own spot on this list if it had the length of an LP and maintained the same quality. I’m not normally too interested in stripped down jazzy vocal and piano songs but she’s puts so much character into everything that she does it's just irresistibly likable. Every song has its own identity and like others on this EP, the opener, Wishbone, builds up into a very emotive ballad that I recommend checking out.
I’ll mention too, another album by a Boston-based prog rock band fronted by a female vocalist, this one much more identifiable with the actual genre of prog - Heterotopia by Schooltree, an adventurous over two-hour concept album worthwhile for fans of accessible, piano-centric 70’s prog rock. Check out the song Cat Centipede. And for a bona fide progressive rock release this year I would recommend the very Änglagårdian album Jord from the Norwegian prog rock group Jordsjø; vibrant, magical sounding and instrumentally diverse release with lots of flute. Check out the song Jord II.
1. Angles 9 - Dissapeared Behind the Sun
I came into December with a number of albums fighting for the number one spot in 2017. No obvious frontrunner. Albums with fantastic songwriting. Albums with moving lyrics. A tough decision. Disappeared Behind the Sun by the Swedish Big Band Jazz group Angles 9 was not among them.
Not because I waited until December to listen to it. In fact, I was exposed to this album within a month of its release on January 17th.
And not because I wasn’t enthralled when I first heard it. From the moment the kick drum entered on track one, Equality & Death, I knew that I had stumbled upon something special. A favorite of the year for sure. But the favorite? I didn’t think so. It was too far removed from what I typically consider for that accolade.
And yet here we are. Sometimes one short stint with an album isn’t long enough to fully digest it. It was only until I revisited this deranged collection of avant garde jazz that I realized how much I truly enjoyed this music. I think part of it was that I just needed to go back and make sure that I actually connected with this music as much as it felt like I did when I first started getting into it. I remembered loving all the experimental aspects of the music but I wouldn’t want to name an album my favorite of the year just because I appreciate it. I have to enjoy it on a surface level too, and this kind of free jazz insanity normally gets thrown into that category of interesting-but-not-memorable. And that’s certainly understandable. How do you write memorable songs while constantly going out of key and intentionally breaking the basic rules that generally dictate good songwriting?
Disappeared Behind the Sun is that answer to that question. What distinguishes Angles 9 here is not strictly the chaos of their free jazz improvisation, but rather the utilization of that chaos as a dynamic. See, as much as Angles 9 delve into dissonance and idiosyncrasy, they contrast their anarchic brass cacophony with these huge foot-stomping harmonious brass riffs. It sounds like a college marching band on acid and I love it. Throughout the album they create a habit of introducing these very memorable and provocative melodies, then gradually breaking them down right to the point of abject chaos before all the instruments synchronize just at the right moment to salvage the song. It like a musical juggling act. Its seems like a moment longer in many songs and they would have lost me down the rabbit hole of their free jazz excursions. But their ability to bring it back just at the right moment is what really floors me about this album. This is genius songwriting in a stylistic environment where songwriting in and of itself itself is nearly impossible.
The reason that Disappeared Behind the Sun is my favorite album of the year is because its more to me than just a great album with great music. This album has changed my musical tastes. More so even, I’d say that Angles 9 have made me question what is and what isn’t music. While many of my favorite albums kick off with a sudden exhilarating bang to get your blood flowing or a beautiful prologue to set the mood, the first minute of this LP leaves the listener thinking only, “what the hell am I listening to?”. But as the other instruments start to come into the picture, something special starts to develop. Minutes later, you wonder at what point those initial feelings of confusion were replaced by wonder and you started nodding your head back and forth to that infectious jazzy groove.
I'm not going to recommend any song in particular as I'm not sure I've ever felt so equally in love with every song on an album as I do with this one. There's only five tracks; each one is sublime and indicative of what makes Angles 9 amazing.
I'm not going to recommend any song in particular as I'm not sure I've ever felt so equally in love with every song on an album as I do with this one. There's only five tracks; each one is sublime and indicative of what makes Angles 9 amazing.
I’m sure that some of my reverence for this album comes from how foreign it is. And as a non-expert on the subject I can’t necessarily say they’re the first to balance free jazz as a dynamic tool against more conventional big band harmonies. It’s not even their first album in fact (I will surely be checking out their 2014 debut as soon as this year is over). There certainly seems to be a significant Charles Mingus influence here, but they really take the sorts of craziness that you’ll find in Mingus’ music and elevate it to a whole new level; pushing those boundaries farther and farther.
No other album this year has impacted me like this one. In listening to Disappeared Behind the Sun, my understanding of the potential that music can offer, and more importantly, how very elastic and indefinite that potential is, has been greatly expanded. That’s probably the most flattering form of veneration that I can give to an album and it's exactly the kind of record that I want to have as my number one at the year's end.
Top 25 Albums of 2017 (Recap):
25. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN
24. CHON - Homey
23. Converge - The Dusk in Us
22. R.D. King - vs. Self
21. Ne Obliviscaris - Urn
20. Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface
19. Soen - Lykaia
18. Venenum - Trance of Death
17. Artificial Language - The Observer
16. Blanck Mass - World Eater
15. 22 - You Are Creating: Limb1
14. The Barr Brothers - Queens of the Breakers
13. Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
12. Steven Wilson - To the Bone
11. Leprous - Malina
10. Brutus - Burst
9. Perihelion Ship - To Paint a Bird of Fire
8. Algiers - The Underside of Power
7. The Contortionist - Clairvoyant
6. Ninet - Paper Parachute
5. Exquirla - Para Quienes Aún Viven
4. Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
3. Julien Baker - Turn Out the Lights
2. Bent Knee - Land Animal
1. Angles 9 - Dissapeared Behind the Sun
Top 25 Albums of 2017 (Recap):
25. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN
24. CHON - Homey
23. Converge - The Dusk in Us
22. R.D. King - vs. Self
21. Ne Obliviscaris - Urn
20. Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface
19. Soen - Lykaia
18. Venenum - Trance of Death
17. Artificial Language - The Observer
16. Blanck Mass - World Eater
15. 22 - You Are Creating: Limb1
14. The Barr Brothers - Queens of the Breakers
13. Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
12. Steven Wilson - To the Bone
11. Leprous - Malina
10. Brutus - Burst
9. Perihelion Ship - To Paint a Bird of Fire
8. Algiers - The Underside of Power
7. The Contortionist - Clairvoyant
6. Ninet - Paper Parachute
5. Exquirla - Para Quienes Aún Viven
4. Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
3. Julien Baker - Turn Out the Lights
2. Bent Knee - Land Animal
1. Angles 9 - Dissapeared Behind the Sun
Top 25 Songs of 2017:
*No repeat artists for sake of diversity
25. Bonneville - Leprous
24. Man of War - Radiohead
23. Your Freedom is the End of Me - Melanie de Biasio
22. Turn off the Pictures - Artificial Language
21. Silent Treatment - Blanck Mass
20. Monochrome (Pensive) - The Contortionist
19. You Would Have to Lose Your Mind - The Barr Brothers
18. Nazareth - Sleep Token
17. Trees on Fire - Binker & Moses
16. Eve - Converge
15. Dog Years - Maggie Rogers
14. El Grito del Padre - Exquirla
13. Ådror - Angles 9
12. Scrape - Chelsea Wolfe
11. The Sad Mountain - Perihelion Ship
10. Del Plata - Rosalía
9. Sum of Parts - 22
8. Claws in Your Back - Julien Baker
7. Jaguar God - Mastodon
6. Walk Like a Panther - Algiers
5. Elinor - Ninet
4. To Fold in England (Hours) - Emma Ruth Rundle
3. Pariah (feat. Ninet Tayeb) - Steven Wilson
2. Land Animal - Bent Knee
1. DNA - Kendrick Lamar
2017 All-Star Band: (i.e. Best Individual Performers)
*Vocals/Guitar/Bass/Drums/and one other instrumentalist of my choice
Vocals: Ninet Tayeb (Ninet, Steven Wilson)
Guitar: Brent Hinds (Mastodon, West End Motel)
Bass: Ryan Mahan (Algiers)
Drums: Moses Boyd (Binker and Moses)
Violin: Tim Charles (Ne Obliviscaris)
Riff of the Year: Holy Ghost - Bent Knee
Solo of the Year: Nobody Sleeps Here... - Witherfall (Guitar Solo by Jake Dreyer at around 3:30)
Chorus/Hook of the Year: Sum of Parts - 22
Best Lyrical Song: Claws in Your Back - Julien Baker
Best Album Art: Leprous - Malina
*Selected very much based on the relevancy of the art to the music, i.e., how much the art enhances the music
Best Sounding/Produced Album: Steven Wilson - To the Bone
Wrap-Up:
As a guitarist that's rooted in rock, I found it quite odd that my #1 album and song this year were a big band jazz album and popular hip hop song respectively. Sometimes when you don't get as much high quality activity from your favorite genres you have to open your ears up to some new things. That seems to be the case this year.
I especially didn't see Kendrick Lamar taking my #1 song spot, as his strength has always been the cohesiveness of his albums. He did the opposite this time - hit-and-miss album; best rap song ever (maybe). Its funny because I think he gets a lot of unjustified praise for songs that I find totally mediocre or worse, and yet, I'm surprised no one else is praising DNA as much as me. The reasons I love it are not subtle. It seems obvious from my perspective, and so I feel a bit detached from everyone else's preferences when it comes to hip hop. I stand by everything I said about it up top though. I cannot get tired of that damn song.
I originally thought Pariah was gonna take it but DNA had more staying power. I will note that Land Animal (the song) was very close. It was almost a tie. For album of the year on the other hand, it was no contest for Dissapeared Behind the Sun. It's one of those albums that just exists on a different plane of enjoyment for me; you can drop me in at any point on that album and I'll get lost in it.
You may have noticed as well that a very high number of my absolute favorite albums and songs featured female vocalists. That's a bit irregular for me as well. I'm not looking to provide any social commentary here, but I think that for a while women have been discouraged from participating in certain genres to some extent, and its often the more adventurous and/or heavy ones. I'll leave the speculation on that to the sociologists, but I am happy to see some great female singers taking the lead in styles that have been notoriously male dominated e.g. Progressive Rock, Sludge Metal, etc. I wouldn't make this distinction for any other instrument obviously, but when you're only used to hearing a male voice in a certain musical context, it can be extremely innovative in and of itself to introduce a more feminine tone.
Shout out to Ninet Tayeb for being on two different songs in my top 5. She hit kind of a loophole on my no-repeat-artists rule. Whatever; she deserves it. Also, shout out to Courtney Swain for very nearly being my "All-Star" vocalist two years in a row, by producing a great album (Bent Knee) and EP (solo) this year. If only Ninet hadn't done that Steven Wilson feature...
As for what I'm most excited about...
I talked a lot about bands being more experimental with rhythm this year (Bent Knee, Leprous, 22). I'm looking forward to more releases like that in the future, as long as bands like that don't forget the main objective is still to write songs and not just be complex. So far so good.
I'm excited about electronic artists using more climactic song structure (Blanck Mass, Perturbator). I want to hear more of that.
Algiers in particularly are really exciting to me. I mentioned Michael Kiwanuka and Zeal and Ardor from last year. I am so ready for a soul revival, especially artists like these ones that combine those old sounds with new ones and create something truly innovative.
Six of my Top 25 songs this year were off EPs or releases that I assumed to be EPs based on run-time. That's a lot. I think artists are starting to adapt to the streaming/short attention span age. As much as I love the LP, I really enjoyed a lot of the shorter releases this year, and I'm coming to appreciate that quality over quantity approach. I anticipate more of this in the years to come. It may be the way to go.
I mentioned Tool quite a bit in this. I'm excited to hear more bands exploring the more meditative and psychedelic side of heavy music. Speaking of Tool... They're supposedly guaranteeing a 2018 release, I hear? Okay. I'll get excited one more time but if there's not a Tool album on my list next year then I give up.
Anyways, thank you so much for reading. I hope you found something that you liked and otherwise wouldn't have been exposed to. Feel free to comment below and share your own favorites or superlatives, or tell me what I missed, or tell me why I'm wrong about your favorite or least favorite band.
Happy new year!
*No repeat artists for sake of diversity
25. Bonneville - Leprous
24. Man of War - Radiohead
23. Your Freedom is the End of Me - Melanie de Biasio
22. Turn off the Pictures - Artificial Language
21. Silent Treatment - Blanck Mass
20. Monochrome (Pensive) - The Contortionist
19. You Would Have to Lose Your Mind - The Barr Brothers
18. Nazareth - Sleep Token
17. Trees on Fire - Binker & Moses
16. Eve - Converge
15. Dog Years - Maggie Rogers
14. El Grito del Padre - Exquirla
13. Ådror - Angles 9
12. Scrape - Chelsea Wolfe
11. The Sad Mountain - Perihelion Ship
10. Del Plata - Rosalía
9. Sum of Parts - 22
8. Claws in Your Back - Julien Baker
7. Jaguar God - Mastodon
6. Walk Like a Panther - Algiers
5. Elinor - Ninet
4. To Fold in England (Hours) - Emma Ruth Rundle
3. Pariah (feat. Ninet Tayeb) - Steven Wilson
2. Land Animal - Bent Knee
1. DNA - Kendrick Lamar
2017 All-Star Band: (i.e. Best Individual Performers)
*Vocals/Guitar/Bass/Drums/and one other instrumentalist of my choice
Vocals: Ninet Tayeb (Ninet, Steven Wilson)
Guitar: Brent Hinds (Mastodon, West End Motel)
Bass: Ryan Mahan (Algiers)
Drums: Moses Boyd (Binker and Moses)
Violin: Tim Charles (Ne Obliviscaris)
Riff of the Year: Holy Ghost - Bent Knee
Solo of the Year: Nobody Sleeps Here... - Witherfall (Guitar Solo by Jake Dreyer at around 3:30)
Chorus/Hook of the Year: Sum of Parts - 22
Best Lyrical Song: Claws in Your Back - Julien Baker
Best Album Art: Leprous - Malina
*Selected very much based on the relevancy of the art to the music, i.e., how much the art enhances the music
Best Sounding/Produced Album: Steven Wilson - To the Bone
Wrap-Up:
As a guitarist that's rooted in rock, I found it quite odd that my #1 album and song this year were a big band jazz album and popular hip hop song respectively. Sometimes when you don't get as much high quality activity from your favorite genres you have to open your ears up to some new things. That seems to be the case this year.
I especially didn't see Kendrick Lamar taking my #1 song spot, as his strength has always been the cohesiveness of his albums. He did the opposite this time - hit-and-miss album; best rap song ever (maybe). Its funny because I think he gets a lot of unjustified praise for songs that I find totally mediocre or worse, and yet, I'm surprised no one else is praising DNA as much as me. The reasons I love it are not subtle. It seems obvious from my perspective, and so I feel a bit detached from everyone else's preferences when it comes to hip hop. I stand by everything I said about it up top though. I cannot get tired of that damn song.
I originally thought Pariah was gonna take it but DNA had more staying power. I will note that Land Animal (the song) was very close. It was almost a tie. For album of the year on the other hand, it was no contest for Dissapeared Behind the Sun. It's one of those albums that just exists on a different plane of enjoyment for me; you can drop me in at any point on that album and I'll get lost in it.
You may have noticed as well that a very high number of my absolute favorite albums and songs featured female vocalists. That's a bit irregular for me as well. I'm not looking to provide any social commentary here, but I think that for a while women have been discouraged from participating in certain genres to some extent, and its often the more adventurous and/or heavy ones. I'll leave the speculation on that to the sociologists, but I am happy to see some great female singers taking the lead in styles that have been notoriously male dominated e.g. Progressive Rock, Sludge Metal, etc. I wouldn't make this distinction for any other instrument obviously, but when you're only used to hearing a male voice in a certain musical context, it can be extremely innovative in and of itself to introduce a more feminine tone.
Shout out to Ninet Tayeb for being on two different songs in my top 5. She hit kind of a loophole on my no-repeat-artists rule. Whatever; she deserves it. Also, shout out to Courtney Swain for very nearly being my "All-Star" vocalist two years in a row, by producing a great album (Bent Knee) and EP (solo) this year. If only Ninet hadn't done that Steven Wilson feature...
As for what I'm most excited about...
I talked a lot about bands being more experimental with rhythm this year (Bent Knee, Leprous, 22). I'm looking forward to more releases like that in the future, as long as bands like that don't forget the main objective is still to write songs and not just be complex. So far so good.
I'm excited about electronic artists using more climactic song structure (Blanck Mass, Perturbator). I want to hear more of that.
Algiers in particularly are really exciting to me. I mentioned Michael Kiwanuka and Zeal and Ardor from last year. I am so ready for a soul revival, especially artists like these ones that combine those old sounds with new ones and create something truly innovative.
Six of my Top 25 songs this year were off EPs or releases that I assumed to be EPs based on run-time. That's a lot. I think artists are starting to adapt to the streaming/short attention span age. As much as I love the LP, I really enjoyed a lot of the shorter releases this year, and I'm coming to appreciate that quality over quantity approach. I anticipate more of this in the years to come. It may be the way to go.
I mentioned Tool quite a bit in this. I'm excited to hear more bands exploring the more meditative and psychedelic side of heavy music. Speaking of Tool... They're supposedly guaranteeing a 2018 release, I hear? Okay. I'll get excited one more time but if there's not a Tool album on my list next year then I give up.
Anyways, thank you so much for reading. I hope you found something that you liked and otherwise wouldn't have been exposed to. Feel free to comment below and share your own favorites or superlatives, or tell me what I missed, or tell me why I'm wrong about your favorite or least favorite band.
Happy new year!
