50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 10. Rolo Tomassi – Where Myth Becomes Memory [Official site] // [Spotify] On March 2, 2018, the heavy music/core-sphere collectively lost their minds over Rolo Tomassi’s coming-of-age release Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It — an album that purportedly elevated them from cult status to masters of their genre-spanning scene. I say […]

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 30. Weyes Blood – And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow [Official site] // [Spotify] In spite of my overwhelming and undying appreciation for single-paragraph reviews, few things are more stressful than having to explain why an album is good in one sentence. Of course, you could just say: “it’s good”… but that’s boring and, […]

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 50. Crippled Black Phoenix – Banefyre [Official site] // [Spotify] 2022! What a year, huh? It feels like the tide has finally washed ashore all those records that were created during that long hibernation period that was the Covid pandemic. Crippled Black Phoenix are no different, and Banefyre‘s one hour and a […]

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 10. The Killers – Pressure Machine [Official site] // [Spotify] How did we get here, to The Killers dropping one of the most conceptually sound, consistently affecting albums of 2021? If the solid-but-safe Imploding the Mirage was a whisper of a shift in their sound towards a revitalised version of their classic-rock worship, Pressure […]

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 30. Alora Crucible – Thymiamatascension [Bandcamp] // [Spotify] Toby Driver is still the most reliable Renaissance man of our times, and his latest project a majestic netherscape of translucent haze and dreamless sleep. In many ways, it’s been a while coming: while Driver’s albums as Kayo Dot play out as vivid forays into esoteric […]

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 50. Coevality – Multiple Personalities [Official site] // [Spotify] Multiple Personalities — and, well, Coevality in general — came out of nowhere and hit me like a ton of bricks at the beginning of the year. The first release of an otherwise unknown band, Multiple Personalities harnesses big Cynic energy sans robot vocals and […]

After taking a year off thanks to some asshole bats, the SMA’s have returned to provide you with coverage of 2021 in the world of music. It is here – not Pitchfork or some other cheap imitation – that you will learn what the best and worst albums of the year were. Honestly, I’m not […]

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 10. Ichiko Aoba – Windswept Adan [Official site] // [Spotify] This album could be Ichiko Aoba’s identity crisis, though on the subtlest of terms. I could be projecting. There just seems to be less of… her on it; but, in all fairness, that’s contingent on the singer being personally defined by a voice and […]

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 30. Mac Miller – Circles [Official site] // [Spotify] I worry, listening to and writing about Circles, that I contribute unhelpfully to the celebration and mythologisation of the young, dead artist. I was never a particularly big Mac Miller fan — total discretion, I’m still not — but I think that, like much of […]

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 50. Marilyn Manson – We Are Chaos [Official site] // [Spotify] One of the biggest surprises of the year, We Are Chaos sees Marilyn Manson entering a new chapter in his life, reinventing himself as a glitter Goth cowboy. Filled with mature reflections and a newfound peace of mind, the frontman seems at his […]

2020 hasn’t been a great year for much of anything… music was no exception. This is my favorite of what they decided to release during this dumpster fire. 2021 might be marginally better in the same way getting punched in the face a second time isn’t nearly as jarring as the first punch you didn’t see […]

Category I:  Welcome It’s the conclusion of yet another interesting year in this, um, “unique” corner of the internet. Our site’s aesthetics may be firmly entrenched in 2010, but this “best of” feature ushers 2020 out of our collective memories. For many of us that brings immense relief, even if most of the same issues […]

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 10. Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising [Official Site] // [Spotify] “A lot’s gonna change in your lifetime / try to leave it all behind / in your lifetime / let me change my words / show me where it hurts.” If there’s a thesis statement for Titanic Rising, this closing sentiment to opener “A […]

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 30. clipping. – There Existed an Addiction to Blood [Official Site] // [Spotify] Drink it up. Blood is both healer and reaper in clipping.’s horrorcore art piece, a masterstroke which arranges stretched skin and body parts into fragments of stories, quickening our pulses with the adrenaline while never letting us off the hook for enjoying […]