| 4.5 superb |
| Anberlin Vital |
| Animals As Leaders The Joy of Motion |
| All the jazzy ambient goodness from the first album with the heaviness of the second. Nolly kills it on the bass, and Bulb's production went over well. Tight, clean, sharp record with a vision. |
| At the Gates Slaughter of the Soul |
| Between the Buried and Me Colors |
| Bill Evans Explorations |
| Black Sabbath Heaven and Hell |
| Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago |
| Bruce Dickinson The Chemical Wedding |
| Charles Mingus Blues & Roots |
| Converge All We Love We Leave Behind |
| Counting Crows August And Everything After |
| Cynic Focus |
| Death Symbolic |
| Death The Sound of Perseverance |
| Death Human |
| Deftones Koi No Yokan |
| Devin Townsend Project Deconstruction |
| Dio Holy Diver |
| Dir En Grey Dum Spiro Spero |
| Dark, disturbing, and chaotic as hell. If you thought UROBOROS was good, you'll love this. Diabolos is reminiscent of fan-favorite Vinushka, and Decayed Crow and Juuyoku really bring the frenzy. Some extremely proggy parts on here, and the entire band steps up their game; Shinya in particular has eye-popping drumwork in every song. If you're looking for milder music, search elsewhere, but for everyone else, this is your Album of the Year. Dir en grey responds to the darkness of the world and Japan's tragedy with an incredibly mature work. |
| Dir En Grey The Unraveling |
| Well done remakes that gives their older works their modern dark progressive/experimental metal edge without losing too much of the original hard rock edge. MACABRE is an absolute treat, and I find myself greatly enjoying THE FINAL. Production is sharp (same as UROBOROS' remastering & DUM SPIRO SPERO). |
| Dir En Grey Arche |
| Dir En Grey 落ちた事のある空 |
| Dream Theater Images and Words |
| Earthside A Dream In Static |
| Enslaved Axioma Ethica Odini |
| Fair to Midland Arrows and Anchors |
| Gustav Holst The Planets, Op. 32 |
| Guthrie Govan Erotic Cakes |
| Hans Zimmer Inception |
| Hiromi Voice |
| In Flames The Jester Race |
| In Flames Colony |
| Intronaut The Direction of Last Things |
| Iron Maiden Powerslave |
| IU Modern Times |
| Jeff Buckley Grace |
| Jizue Novel |
| Jizue Journal |
| John Coltrane Giant Steps |
| Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy |
| Karnivool Sound Awake |
| Kashiwa Daisuke Program Music I |
| Kendrick Lamar untitled unmastered. |
| King Crimson Red |
| Leprous Bilateral |
| Leprous Malina |
| Mastodon Blood Mountain |
| Megadeth Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? |
| Meshuggah Koloss |
| Meshuggah Nothing |
| Meshuggah Nothing (Re-Release) |
| Metallica Master of Puppets |
| Metallica Ride the Lightning |
| Michael Jackson Thriller |
| Michael Jackson Off the Wall |
| Misery Signals Controller |
| Mobb Deep The Infamous |
| Mono Hymn to the Immortal Wind |
| Monuments (UK) The Amanuensis |
| Monuments (UK) In Stasis |
| Necrophagist Onset of Putrefaction |
| Necrophagist Epitaph |
| Nevermore Dead Heart In A Dead World |
| Nujabes Luv(sic) Hexalogy |
| Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory? |
| Oasis Definitely Maybe |
| Opeth Still Life |
| Opeth Damnation |
| Opeth Ghost Reveries |
| Plini Handmade Cities |
| Porcupine Tree Fear of a Blank Planet |
| Porcupine Tree In Absentia |
| Protest the Hero Fortress |
| Protest the Hero Kezia |
| Queensryche Operation: Mindcrime |
| Radiohead OK Computer |
| Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine |
| Rush 2112 |
| Russian Circles Empros |
| Scale the Summit The Collective |
| Shoji Meguro Persona 4 OST |
| Shoji Meguro Persona 5 OST |
| Slayer Reign in Blood |
| Soilwork The Living Infinite |
| Steven Wilson Grace for Drowning |
| Talk Talk Laughing Stock |
| The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour |
| The Beatles The Beatles |
| The Beatles Abbey Road |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Option Paralysis |
| The Ocean Precambrian |
| The Ocean Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic |
| Thrice Major/Minor |
| Thrice Vheissu |
| Tigran Hamasyan Mockroot |
| Tool Ænima |
| Tool Fear Inoculum |
| Trophy Scars Darkness, Oh Hell |
| Trophy Scars Holy Vacants |
| UVERworld The One |
| UVERworld Ø Choir |
| Vektor Black Future |
| Vince Guaraldi Trio A Charlie Brown Christmas |
| Wide Eyes Paradoxica |
| Just a rock solid EP/album. Nothing -too- mind blowing, but the composition is solid, which is rrare for djenty groups. Vertigo singlehandedly puts this up 0.5 though; that track is an instant rmetal classic. Production is excellent as well. |
| Wide Eyes Oneironaut |
| Yoko Shimomura Kingdom Hearts II Original Soundtrack |
| 3.5 great |
| Acceptance Phantoms |
| All That Remains This Darkened Heart |
| All That Remains ...For We Are Many |
| Anberlin New Surrender |
| Anberlin Never Take Friendship Personal |
| Andromida The Void |
| Andromida More Than Human |
| As I Lay Dying The Powerless Rise |
| As I Lay Dying Awakened |
| Atheist Jupiter |
| August Burns Red Thrill Seeker |
| August Burns Red Leveler |
| Avenged Sevenfold City of Evil |
| Baroness Blue Record |
| Baroness Yellow and Green |
| Between the Buried and Me Alaska |
| Between the Buried and Me The Silent Circus |
| Black Sabbath Black Sabbath |
| Born of Osiris The Discovery |
| Chimp Spanner At the Dream's Edge |
| Cloudkicker The Discovery |
| Darkest Hour The Eternal Return |
| Darkest Hour Undoing Ruin |
| Darkest Hour Godless Prophets and the Migrant Flora |
| Death Cab for Cutie Plans |
| Death Cab for Cutie Narrow Stairs |
| Dir En Grey The Insulated World |
| DragonForce Sonic Firestorm |
| DragonForce Valley of the Damned |
| DragonForce The Power Within |
| DragonForce Maximum Overload |
| DragonForce Reaching into Infinity |
| Dream Theater A Change of Seasons |
| Dream Theater Octavarium |
| Dream Theater A Dramatic Turn of Events |
| Dream Theater Train of Thought |
| Dream Theater Falling into Infinity |
| Dream Theater Dream Theater |
| ERRA Neon |
| ERRA ERRA |
| Escape the Fate There's No Sympathy for the Dead |
| Escape the Fate Dying Is Your Latest Fashion |
| f(x) Pink Tape |
| f(x) 4 Walls |
| Fair to Midland Inter.Funda.Stifle |
| Flux Conduct Yetzer Hara |
| Franz Ferdinand You Could Have It So Much Better |
| Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand |
| Green Day American Idiot |
| Heaven and Hell The Devil You Know |
| Hiromi Move |
| Hiromi Spark |
| I Am Ghost Lovers' Requiem |
| In Flames Sounds of a Playground Fading |
| Intervals A Voice Within |
| Intervals In Time |
| Iron Maiden Dance of Death |
| Iron Maiden The Final Frontier |
| Jizue Shiori |
| Jizue Story |
| Kendrick Lamar Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers |
| Killswitch Engage The End of Heartache |
| Killswitch Engage Killswitch Engage: Remastered |
| Killswitch Engage Disarm the Descent |
| Leprous Pitfalls |
| Linkin Park Hybrid Theory |
| Linkin Park Meteora |
| Maroon 5 Songs About Jane |
| Mastodon Cold Dark Place |
| Mastodon The Hunter |
| Consistently super solid. Bit more of the Blood Mountain feel, but keeps some of the Crack the Skye prog without getting too draggy or pretentious. Good stuff; this is great metal. |
| Mastodon Emperor of Sand |
| Megadeth Endgame |
| Megadeth Hidden Treasures |
| Megadeth Dystopia |
| Mestis Polysemy |
| Metallica Metallica |
| Michael Jackson Bad |
| Modern Day Babylon Coma |
I really want to give this more, but the tracks just bleed together too much. Timelapse and Waves
are pretty tracks. Title track has some awesome syncopation but is kind of up and down. Rest is
solid but nothing amazing. Sleeper's thumping outro is absolutely disgusting though.
Overall, a good step forward into finding a more melodic and cohesive identity composition-wise.
Will be curious to see what their end game is. They have the potential to be more than just a
djenty groove metal band, but it'll take work. |
| Modern Day Babylon The Ocean Atlas |
| Monuments (UK) Gnosis |
| Mycelia Obey |
Would give it lower if I could, but the instruments and composition are just too good. Love the
guitar tone, and the bass actually sounds good. Vocals need a good bit of work, especially the
screams. |
| Ne Obliviscaris Portal of I |
| Obscura Diluvium |
| Opeth Orchid |
| Parkway Drive Horizons |
| Parkway Drive Deep Blue |
| Periphery Periphery |
| Periphery Periphery II: This Time It's Personal |
| Polyphia Renaissance |
| Porcupine Tree The Incident |
| Protest the Hero Scurrilous |
| Everything wrong with Fortress was more or less fixed here, though it comes at a cost of consistency in favor of even more experimentation.rBass is more audible and prominent, and gets more classic Arif magic. Rody is sassier than ever, which you can definitely hear in his newly penned lyrics. Moe has some really impressive spot on drumming here, and of course, Tim and Luke have excellent guitars as usual. Incredible technique. Still some things they could touch up here and there, but Scurrilous is a great record. |
| Scale the Summit V |
| Scary Kids Scaring Kids Scary Kids Scaring Kids |
| Scary Kids Scaring Kids The City Sleeps In Flames |
| Senses Fail Still Searching |
| Shadows Fall The War Within |
| Shadows Fall Retribution |
| Shadows Fall Of One Blood |
| Shadows Fall Fire From the Sky |
| Silverstein Discovering the Waterfront |
| Sithu Aye Senpai EP II: The Noticing |
| It's fun and has some great soloing. Probably more of a 3.0, but I really like Sithu's sound. Feels a little too repetitive and "anime-esque"? |
| Soen Cognitive |
| T.R.A.M. Lingua Franca |
| TesseracT Altered State |
| TesseracT Polaris |
| The Beatles Let It Be |
| The Contortionist Clairvoyant |
| The Faceless Akeldama |
| The Fray How to Save a Life |
| The Human Abstract Nocturne |
| The Safety Fire Mouth of Swords |
| The Safety Fire Grind the Ocean |
| Thrice The Illusion of Safety |
| Times of Grace The Hymn of a Broken Man |
| Trivium Shogun |
| Trivium Ascendancy |
| Underoath They're Only Chasing Safety |
| Unearth Darkness in the Light |
| Unearth III: In the Eyes of Fire |
| Unearth The March |
| UVERworld Timeless |
| Vildhjarta Omnislash |
| 3.0 good |
| Anberlin Lost Songs |
| Anberlin Blueprints for the Black Market |
| Animals As Leaders Weightless |
| Excellent musicianship as usual, and musicianship is up to another level, especially on Navene's part. Too much electronic influence though, and you can hear it for sure. Feels a tad uninspired a bit too often. Still an excellent spin, and they're improving on ~some~ of the mistakes from their first album. Look to taking the best parts of both and adding something new in their future albums. Production needs a lot of work. |
| As I Lay Dying Frail Words Collapse |
| As I Lay Dying Shadows Are Security |
| Atreyu A Death-Grip on Yesterday |
| Atreyu The Curse |
| August Burns Red Messengers |
| Avenged Sevenfold Waking the Fallen |
| Avishai Cohen Seven Seas |
| Back-On Yes!!! |
| Black Sabbath Seventh Star |
| Carla Bruni Comme si de rien n'était |
| Cynic Carbon-Based Anatomy |
| It's not that bad. I don't mind the softer stuff, but 3 filler songs and some songs that are passable at best is not up to Cynic's usual standard. Needs a little more complexity in the music, I'd argue. |
| Darkest Hour The Human Romance |
| Darkest Hour Darkest Hour |
| Destroy the Runner I, Lucifer |
| Destroy the Runner Saints |
| DragonForce Inhuman Rampage |
| Dream Theater When Dream and Day Unite |
| f(x) Pinocchio |
| Franz Ferdinand Tonight: Franz Ferdinand |
| Girls' Generation Mr.Mr. |
| In Flames A Sense of Purpose |
| In Flames Reroute to Remain |
| In Flames Lunar Strain |
| Intervals The Way Forward |
| Karnivool Asymmetry |
| Killswitch Engage Killswitch Engage (2009) |
| Killswitch Engage As Daylight Dies |
| Killswitch Engage Killswitch Engage |
| Killswitch Engage Incarnate |
| Maroon 5 It Won't Be Soon Before Long |
| Mastodon Once More 'Round the Sun |
| Megadeth United Abominations |
| Megadeth So Far, So Good... So What! |
| Metallica Death Magnetic |
| Misery Signals Of Malice and the Magnum Heart |
| Monuments (UK) Phronesis |
| Not quite as good across the board as The Amanuesis, but that's a high bar. Slightly higher lows, but much lower peaks. The singles dropped so far are deceptive; the rest of the album grooves as hard as ever. A.W.O.L. and Mirror Image make more sense in context of the album. Mixing and mastering are much more balanced too.rIt's a little more poppy and straightforward in song structure than in the past, in addition to Chris Barretto seemingly completely forgetting how to write lyrics (seriously, Stygian Blue is so atrociously bad it manages to almost ruin the instrumentals), which make for a slightly different sound, but it's still good stuff packed with everyone's favorite groovy riffs. Shame we can't top The Amanuesis, but a good album nonetheless.rAlso, it's ridiculous how Browne always manages to get such a meaty low end without everything rsounding like complete mud. |
| OneRepublic Dreaming Out Loud |
| Opeth Heritage |
| Parkway Drive Killing with a Smile |
| Periphery Icarus |
| Rise Against Siren Song of the Counter Culture |
| Saosin Translating the Name |
| Scale the Summit In a World of Fear |
| Shoji Meguro Catherine OST |
| Sithu Aye Invent the Universe |
| Sithu Aye Senpai |
| Soilwork The Panic Broadcast |
| TesseracT Sonder |
| The All-American Rejects Move Along |
| The Beatles Please Please Me |
| The Fray The Fray |
| The Human Abstract Moonlight Sonata |
| The Temper Trap Conditions |
| Three Days Grace One-X |
| Trivium Ember to Inferno |
