| 2014 |
| Beyond Creation Earthborn Evolution | 4.0 |
| Revocation Deathless | 4.0 |
| Flying Lotus You're Dead! | 3.0 |
| Godflesh A World Lit Only by Fire | 3.5 |
| Electric Wizard Time to Die | 2.5 |
| 1349 Massive Cauldron of Chaos | 3.0 |
| Black Crown Initiate The Wreckage of Stars | 4.0 |
| Perfume Genius Too Bright | 3.5 |
| Beak (USA-IL) Let Time Begin | 3.5 |
| Earth Primitive and Deadly | 4.0 |
| Code Orange I Am King | 4.0 |
| This album is dense, original, and defies expectations--all characteristics of my favorite kind of listening experience. The album may barely be over a half hour, but it's got so much going on that it feels twice that length. Very impressive. |
| YOB Clearing The Path To Ascend | 4.0 |
| Solstafir Otta | 3.5 |
| The somber, reverent passages move me the most on this album. The opening is brilliantly patient, and Rism?l is probably one of the best songs I've heard this year. I love that this is post-rock informed by metal, and it sounds raw, even fearless, without being abrasive. My only reservation is that it sounds too close to pop in a few spots across the album, and really they only get away with it because they're from Iceland. Regardless, this is a gorgeous work by masters of the craft. |
| Pallbearer Foundations of Burden | 3.0 |
| The Underachievers Cellar Door: Terminus Ut Exordium | 3.0 |
| Bolzer Soma | 4.0 |
Easily as good as "Aura" even if it only contains two songs. "Aura" was broader in thematic scope, with lots of
open space to build a cosmic atmosphere. "Soma" bursts right into riffing, blasting, and howling from the first
second. This is an excellent contrast to the companion EP. The music here seems more direct and the
performance is even more focused. While not as initially impressive as the tracks on Aura, I feel these two songs
will grow on a lot of people. "Soma" proves that the stir caused by "Aura" was no fluke. These guys are top-tier
songwriters, and it's likely that their best is yet to come. |
| Panopticon Roads to the North | 2.5 |
| Overkill White Devil Armory | 2.5 |
| Fallujah The Flesh Prevails | 3.5 |
| Bastard Feast Osculum Infame | 3.5 |
| Novembers Doom Bled White | 4.0 |
| The vocals/lyrics were too melodramatic for me at first, but I learned to live with it. Musicianship and songwriting on this album are stellar. If Opeth is going to keep chasing the Prog Rock dragon, then I'm making room in my ashen, cold heart for November's Doom. |
| Slugdge Gastronomicon | 4.0 |
| Wo Fat The Conjuring | 3.0 |
| Trap Them Blissfucker | 2.0 |
| clipping. CLPPNG | 2.5 |
| On repeated listens it loses a lot of the edge that drew me to it in the first place; when the beats don't sound like early 90's NIN songs they sound listless or confused, and when the flows seem like they're even keyed in to a rhythm, they too tend to seem dispassionate--and not intentionally so, as a way to serve the music. I think in time this project could develop into something interesting, but now it's just kind of average for me. rAlso, the alarm clock song. Ugh. |
| Mayhem Esoteric Warfare | 3.0 |
| Tombs Savage Gold | 3.5 |
| Death Grips The Powers That B - Part I: Niggas on the Moon | 3.5 |
| Vader Tibi et Igni | 3.5 |
| Young and in the Way When Life Comes to Death | 3.5 |
| Emptiness Nothing but the Whole | 4.0 |
| Casualties of Cool Casualties of Cool | 3.5 |
| Swans To Be Kind | 3.5 |
| Agalloch The Serpent and the Sphere | 3.5 |
| Doom VS Earthless | 3.5 |
| Lord Mantis Death Mask | 3.5 |
| 7 teacks, two are filler, which leaves five songs. Good as they are, this album was a bit if a letdown. |
| Insomnium Shadows of the Dying Sun | 4.0 |
| Vermin Womb Permanence | 3.5 |
| Thantifaxath Sacred White Noise | 4.5 |
| Triptykon Melana Chasmata | 3.5 |
| Todd Terje It's Album Time | 4.5 |
| EPISTASIS Light Through Dead Glass | 3.5 |
| Shores of Null Quiescence | 3.5 |
| Psalm Zero The Drain | 2.5 |
| Morbus Chron Sweven | 4.0 |
| GridLink Longhena | 3.5 |
| Soreption Engineering The Void | 3.0 |
| Artificial Brain Labyrinth Constellation | 3.5 |
| Xiu Xiu Angel Guts: Red Classroom | 3.0 |
| Behemoth The Satanist | 4.5 |
| Hannes Grossmann The Radial Covenant | 3.0 |
| Grand Magus Triumph and Power | 2.5 |
| Avichi Catharsis Absolute | 3.0 |
| Indian From All Purity | 3.5 |
| Horizon Ablaze Dodsverk | 3.5 |
