Zaru's 2014?
So here's my listything for last year. So much stuff I never went back and listened to enough rrbecause new stuff was always coming out resulted in most of the second half of my list being rrconsiderably wibbly wobbly and unorganized. You should get the general gist, though. |
| 48 | | #47-32 are unordered
because there was simply too much to go through ;_;
Too much great stuff in 2014 for me to really commit to listening to everything enough times to definitely say that this one
album I liked was better than this other one I liked. For that reason, the first chunk here are not ordered because I either didn't
listen to them enough or just could not rank them among other similar/dissimilar artists. It's more like a greatest hits of 2014
portion, I suppose. |
| 47 |  | Sun Worship
Elder Giants
The vocals get on my nerves, but otherwise this is some pretty solid, heavy
cascadian-esque bm. Wiz can tell you all about the subtle crust/hardcore
influences(?) that run throughout, so trust me when I say there's some subtle crust
influences here too, helping to make the music much heavier than other atmos bm
acts. Respectable release, although not as amazing as I initially though. Still a
band to watch in the future, though. |
| 46 |  | Adabroc
Iolaire
Atmospherical black metals, now with some flutes! Sorta feels like he wants a
piece of that Saor pie by adding the not-so-subtle folk influences here and there,
but I can't really blame him. Nor can I complain about the outcome, which is pretty
OK. |
| 45 | | Paramnesia/Unru
Split
Two up-and-coming atmospheric (post-black-ish) black metal bands put out a
pretty decent split. One lengthy song each, they both use fairly clean production
and are fairly similar to Ash Borer and other Cascadian bands, despite not being
from the US. Paramnesia also had a full-length out last year, which wasn't quite
powerful enough to get on the list, but was still a respectable listen. |
| 44 |  | Volcanic Queen
Faith In Desire
'Sput's own Graveyard proves once again that he's capable of creating groovy
experimental music. A lot of cool ideas used throughout, though there's really no
consistency with the styles or ideas employed in each track. That can be good or
bad, but at the very least it shows that the guy never tries to repeat himself or
beat a dead horse. |
| 43 |  | Poloniumcubes
One
Pianos of melody! |
| 42 |  | Natural Snow Buildings
The Night Country
Weird minimalist folk/noisey drone. It's cool and weird, but it's got a pretty hefty
runtime. |
| 41 |  | Grouper
Ruins
Everybody loves some Liz Harris. Lonely piano keys mingle and melt with a single,
equally lonely female voice. |
| 40 | | Todd Terje
It's Album Time
Whoever said 'disco is dead' was and is a liar. Terje brings back the disco balls. |
| 39 |  | Vindensang
Alpha
Ambient rock-oriented music that builds into metallic climaxes. It's both chill, and
exciting. Tension-building. Nothing amazingly awesome, but still one of the better
"chill" albums of the year. |
| 38 |  | iamamiwhoami
Blue
Electronic/pop of dreaminess. Eat your heart out, Lady Gaga. |
| 37 |  | Wrekmeister Harmonies
Then It All Came Down
It goes from relaxing acoustic to rather spooky, to heavy sludgy, all in one long 30-
minute drone track. It's fairly well-done. |
| 36 |  | A Winged Victory for the Sullen
Atomos
AWVftS get extra points just for bringing more modern attention to the whole
"classical music" thing, something many youngtypepeople have probably forgotten
about. It's really minimalistic-y, simple classical music movements mixed with a
modern take on the ambient genre. |
| 35 |  | Sharon Van Etten
Are We There
Sad folkish music! |
| 34 |  | Epica
The Quantum Enigma
It's Epica and it's epic. Great vocals, riffs, and songwriting in general. Of the
[metal] bands to employ not-totally-gimicky female vocals, Epica's probably near
the top. Album does a fantastic job switching between female vocals and heavier,
death metaly riffing. And again, it's pretty epic. |
| 33 |  | Racing Glaciers
Ahead Of You Forever
More fun post-rock/ambient! |
| 32 |  | Have a Nice Life
The Unnatural World
Not as big on this band as most people, but this was definitely among the better
albums of the year. Really weird experimental music. |
| 31 | | Now this is where it gets
All Wibbly Wobbly
After this point there are a bunch of albums that I can't really decide how to order,
so it's really more of just an extended, unordered "honorable mentions of 2014" list.
Everything >#30 is unordered. |
| 30 |  | Nemesis Sopor
Glas
Black metal that's not really post-, but just generally good. And German. Dig it. |
| 29 |  | Maybeshewill
Fair Youth
Most people weren't as in to this record in particular, and while it may not be as
great as their previous releases, it's still pretty enjoyable post-rock. |
| 28 |  | Winterfylleth
The Divination Of Antiquity
A bit overly long, but the quality is all there. Pretty great melodic bm. |
| 27 |  | Ahamkara
The Embers Of The Stars
If anyone was wondering where the new Wodensthrone was, we at least know
where all the riffs disappeared too--apparently their keyboardist is also a
competent musician when it comes to creating melodic bm in the veins of Black
Cascade. Great melodic/atmospheric bm, and it's even getting a CD release.
Woohoo! Crappy programmed drums aside, this is definitely one of the better black
metal records of the year. |
| 26 |  | Behemoth
The Satanist
Lost his bride-to-be, almost got put in jail for blasphemy, almost died of leukemia,
Nergal's had a rough few years. Because of that, he gets a pass on the cheesy
album title--not that he needed it, though, as this is the best album he's done in
years. The vocals are THE best he's ever done; his throaty growls sound
absolutely fantastic and just complement the excellent musicianship that much
more. I usually don't dig death metal that much, but Behemoth really hit a on a
good groove with this album. |
| 25 |  | Dark Circles
MMXIV
Dark hardcore/black metal. It's got those nasty fun d-beats and those evil blasting
bits. What I love about dark hardcore it's is ability to be both fun and evil. And
this band most surely achieves that. |
| 24 |  | Pianos Become The Teeth
Keep You
It's like post-rock emo and it's really great. Like really great wow such sangs many
post-rock woah 4/5. |
| 23 |  | Emma Ruth Rundle
Some Heavy Ocean
"That girl from Red Sparowes" can sing, and boy is she great. Fantastic acoustic
folk/dream pop. |
| 22 |  | Yellow Eyes
The Desert Mourns
After their great "Hammer of Night" album last year, the band put out another 15-
min EP this year and I really enjoyed it, even if it was only two tracks. Great
slightly technical, raw bm. |
| 21 |  | Panopticon
Roads to the North
Lunn really pulled out all the stops for this one, combining pretty much every one of
his previous styles and creating his best record yet. Melodic, atmospheric black
metal makes way for blue grass, makes way for spacey post-rock, all somehow
coming back to Lunn's signature triumphant, "you can do it!" mid-paced black metal
stomps. |
| 20 |  | Horseback
Piedmont Apocrypha
Weird psychadelic/drone/post-rock. |
| 19 |  | Mare Cognitum
Phobos Monolith
Outer space black metal! I think he really stepped for his third album--this is the
best thing he's done yet by quite a bit. Melodic and spacey and ever so blasting. |
| 18 |  | Gates
Bloom and Breathe
Happy singing alt-rock/post-rock? It's dreamy and happy and sings I like it! |
| 17 |  | Nic/Old Soul
Split
Nic are known as the band without a name, and on this split they put to bed
whatever jokes you might've had about the silliness about their whole "black bar"
name. Together they and Old Soul put together a fairly punishing Envy-ripoff-fest
of post-rock/screamo that is, for the most part, fast powerful riffs and blast beats.
Call it screamo, blackgaze or post-black metal, it doesn't really matter. What does
matter is that it absolutely rules. |
| 16 |  | Lowercase Noises
This Is For Our Sins
Really simple post-rock/ambient that's just really pretty. A banjo plucks a few sad,
slow notes, a piano joins in like fashion, then a string instrument. You don't really
hear banjos in post-rock, which gives this album a really unique feel. The whole
simple minimalist idea also makes it feel a lot more emotional because the speed at
which it's played gives it the time and room needed to get where it wants to go,
and play the melodies it needs to play, however long it needs to play them. |
| 15 |  | Pompeii
Loom
Excellent indie/post-rock. Pretty vox, pretty melodies. It's hard to rank this next
to Gates and Pianos Become the Teeth, but I think this just comes out on top.
Slow, sad music. |
| 14 |  | Brontide
Artery
Disco lives in post-rock sometimes. Oddly enough this ended up being one of my
favorite post-rock albums of the year. Post-rock bands often go for the "fun
riffing" idea instead of simply creating atmospheres and climaxes, and Brontide
definitely succeed at doing that. |
| 13 | | Of Solitude and Solemn
Starlight's Guide
Although DarkNoctus's recording setup definitely isn't hyper super high quality, he
knows how to use what he's got to create some really pretty post-rock/doom
metal. There are a lot of good melodies on here and it's thrown together pretty
well. He does need to get off his butt and finish recording his new stuff, though.
Cough cough wink wink cough |
| 12 |  | Lantlos
Melting Sun
Herbst's decision to go full-on heavy shoegaze was an odd, but ultimately
wonderful decision for Melting Sun. |
| 11 |  | Alpha Male Tea Party
Droids
Fun mathy sort-of-post-rock, post-rock. Really really fun riffing and melodies. |
| 10 |  | Lethian Dreams
Red Silence Lodge
More wonderful heavy shoegaze/doom metal, but this time with great female sings!
Such emotions, many vocal-as-instrument, wow! |
| 9 |  | Sleepmakeswaves
Love of Cartography
Fun post-rock, great melodies, many good time yes. |
| 8 |  | Ardour Loom
Demo
If you were sad about the new Wolves in the Throne Room album being totally
black metal-less this year, then the [belated] answer to your prayers is Ardour
Loom. Their debut is basically two twenty-minute examples of great Two Hunters
worship, only with post-rock soundscapes switched in for WitTR's ambient style.
It's some of the best post-black metal out there and you definitely need to check it
if you like that style of music at all. |
| 7 |  | Swans
To Be Kind
This originally was a bit higher on my list, but there's only so much of Gira's old man
lunatic raving you can listen to, and only for so long. A jam band record, this was
always going to end up being long, but it's quite a bit too long for comfort. Given
that, it's still always fun to listen to the absolute weirdness that is 'To Be Kind.'
It's funky, it's experimental, and it's fun in a "watch the drunk person do silly things"
kind of way. |
| 6 |  | The Hotelier
Home, Like NoPlace Is There
It's like The Wonder Years but more emo and it's just as good. |
| 5 |  | Black Monolith
Passenger
Blackened crust from the guy who used to tour with deafheaven. It switches from
blasting black metal to melodic crust and vice versa with a lot of skill, and makes it
easily one of the best bm records of the year. |
| 4 |  | Saor
Aura
Another great bm album, and also a great folk record in general. A definite
landmark for folk metal, even if the guitars aren't loud enough. Incredible
placement of flutes and string instruments make this record almost painfully epic.
Add in the triumphant shouted growled vocals and it's almost unreal. |
| 3 |  | The Great Old Ones
Tekeli-Li
Best black metal album of the year, and a great step forward for post-black metal.
Fantastic instrument layering creates a truly full sound, and the dynamic
songwriting keeps everything interesting. It takes a lot of skill to pull off a 7-
minute track that's almost non-stop blasting, and TGOo's pull it off flawlessly. |
| 2 |  | Anilah
Warrior
It's fantastic one-woman folk/ambient/world music with crazy good vocals.
This album makes me envision Native American tribes, smoke-filled medicine tents,
and the clear, bright milky way as it rises over the rolling planes of the old American
West. From start to finish it's an amazing experience. |
| 1 |  | Casualties of Cool
Casualties of Cool
One of, if not the best thing Townsend has done. There's nothing quite like his
take on country/ambient rock. Che's vocals are fantastic and totally 'make' this
album. |
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