|
User
Reviews 27
Approval 94%
Soundoffs 38
News Articles 15
Band Edits + Tags 2
Album Edits 12
Album Ratings 82
Objectivity 56%
Last Active 03-11-20 6:47 am
Joined 08-13-09
Review Comments 8,895
| In(somniac) 2013
Plebesomniac top 10 cop-out laziness. This was rather hastily made, even rthough the list was more or less set in my head. Relatively few rlast-minute inclusions. | | 10 |  | Shadow of the Colossus
END GAME
Heavy, aggressive, but ultimately positive is probably the best way to sum up END GAME. Insurgence is an oppressive
abomination of a song,
but for someone who revels in unapologetic deathcore, this LP sates a primal hunger that was previously reserved for the
occasional All Shall
Perish binge. It's an album that makes me miss having hair long enough to properly flagellate my forehead in awed reverence. | | 9 |  | The National
Trouble Will Find Me
One of those albums that is best enjoyed when one's attention is blissfully elsewhere. That's not to say Trouble Will Find
Me is boring; it just isn't quite corporeal enough to demand your full attention. Reliant almost to a fault on a subdued
atmosphere kept interesting the occasional drum cadence and long, winding melody, the album asks and assumes very
little of its listener, but plays on just the same. Nowhere is this more evident than on "Don't Swallow the Cap," whose
easygoing but pervasively melancholic rhythm straddles anguish with a knowing but dogged persistence. | | 8 |  | K Sera
Collisions and Near Misses
To be perfectly honest, K Sera makes the list mostly by virtue of nearly filling the anticipatory void that The
Dear Hunter's Migrant left me with, which I suppose is more a function of how meager my exposure to new
music was this year. If the two albums could cross-fertilize in LD/TA split EP-fashion, I would be a happy
listener indeed. Unfortunately, K Sera's debut full-length nearly misses fully realizing its potential, though
whether that's a result of being slightly too unpolished or too derivative of The Dear Hunter's Acts, I am unsure.
Frankly, I've got too much on my mind to give a damn. | | 7 |  | State Faults
Resonate/Desperate
Hell if I don't find myself baffled by how this band's vocalist kept me from really giving the music a chance for
so long. The first time I heard a Brother Bear's Head in the Clouds, I quickly convinced myself that the band
was essentially little more than an oddity of skramz; they might as well have been Circle Takes the Square in
2011, for all their admittedly creative brand of screamo appealed to me. Fast forward two years, and
Resonate/Desperate, though initially glossed over in much the same fashion, finally clicked with me after a
friend's acclaim won them a second opinion. The previously too-abrasive screams seem now more passionate
and less a pretension employed for the sake of generic cohesion. Resonate/Desperate plays like the spiritual
successor to a rich legacy of screamo. Ultimately, the crisp drumming and delicate but tortured melodies
peppered in between the blaring screams make this a standout record that manages to be different enough to
feel creative without sounding radically unfamiliar. | | 6 |  | Shai Hulud
Reach Beyond the Sun
Perhaps an obligatory inclusion, wherein my relationship with fervent, genuine-if-artistically-unremarkable
hardcore inexplicably makes this record connect with me on an instinctive level. Frankly, if I'm being critical, this
record is only excellent in light of what it is; Shai Hulud perfectly encapsulating and subsequently unleashing
every sentiment of disillusion and overall pessimism towards the world at large and the people who seem content
to merely exist in it. Reach Beyond the Sun appeals to wishes for a simpler world where ethics and morality is
black and white, a world where the heroes you read about in stories exist. The struggle is real, just not glorious. | | 5 |  | Counterparts
The Difference Between Hell and Home
Shit, man. Counterparts blessedly still approach their music with reckless virtuosity and a seemingly infallible ability
to arrange the same elements of melodic hardcore in a manner far more interesting than their peers can manage. Songs
like "Wither" and "Outlier" invariably find me mentally going back to the days of sweaty hardcore shows in shitty venues,
thrashing about, expending my energy like my life depended on it. At which point, my more well-adjusted friends usually
raise an eyebrow at me and tell me to grow up. | | 4 |  | The Dillinger Escape Plan
One of Us Is the Killer
Fast. Heavy. Fast and heavy. MAAAAATH. A lot of fast and a lot of heavy. Repeat ad infinitum. | | 3 |  | Lemaitre
Relativity 3
This is another inclusion that, to some critics, would further damage any credibility this list had to begin with. A
four-song EP at 3?! Yes. Relativity 3 is infectiously fun, captivating from the first note to the last. Continuum might
as well be the anthem to the unrestrained youth part of me longs to be full-time. Thankfully, I'm not, because even
though it would inevitably make me much more affable at parties, it's more vapid indulgence than I can stand full-
time. But perhaps even that is saved by Cut to Black's ability to close out the EP in a way that perfectly
encapsulates that time of the night when all the extraneous relations you socialize with have long gone home, and
you find your social gathering suddenly an intimate, if drunken affair between you and your dearest friends. Those
fleeting moments where you find yourself uninhibited in a beautifully positive way, shed bare of all pretension and
completely comfortable. So yes, an EP at 3. Deal with it, or something. | | 2 |  | Erra
Augment
The junsomniac still junz. Erra's sophomore full-length got an asburd amount of playtime from me this
year, and again, that's probably a function of my music taste being somewhat stagnant this year. Akin
to a finally of-age young adult slowly phasing out of the irreverent pounding of keystone lights and
ubiquitous drinking games that tended to dominate my social landscape in years past, Augment
represents a maturation, if not a complete change from those habits in musical terms. Metalcore is
probably my favorite genre, and I'm okay with that, even if nobody else is. I've found my favorite kinds
of beer (yes, dammit, it's the IPA/Pale Ale, drink one of Deschutes' Red Chairs before you judge), and
am learning to appreciate minor differences in taste when the overall sound that I enjoy and identify
with is already defined, which is a lot like my relationship with beer in that sense too. Only I don't drink
beer nearly as much as I listen to metalcore. I'm not sure which is worse for my health either. | | 1 | | Balance and Composure
The Things We Think We're Missing
Another album whose evocative elements forge an experience that reaches beyond the simple
variation of wavelengths resonating against an eardrum, more than synaptic currents finding
consonance and meaning in a cloud of grey matter. At times exquisite in its naked fragility, The Things
We Think We're Missing is an intimate affair, and if it's not the groundbreaking juggernaut that will
change the course of a genre, that's just fine. Songs like "Parachute" and "Tiny Raindrop" sit atop my
comfort zone while "Enemy" manages to make unsettling truths consonant. | |
Winsomniac
01.07.14 | So there goes any credibility I had left. Oh well. Worth it. | mryrtmrnfoxxxy
01.07.14 | the only 2 albums ive heard here were disappointing =[ 4&9
sup | Winsomniac
01.07.14 | Nm, made a list I guess. You didn't listen to 1 at all?
It's a pretty good/bad time | Winsomniac
01.07.14 | Eh, I've gotten past being upset at my friends over music taste. People change, man. Tbh the only
reason I still junz is because it makes so much sense to me. I can completely understand why people
would hate the stuff. Most of my friends irl think I'm a weirdo
it's prob true o well.
BUT YOU DIDNT LISTEN TO HULUD!?!?! | mryrtmrnfoxxxy
01.07.14 | your #1 is a 4 hmm | Winsomniac
01.07.14 | foxxy this list is unabashedly biased.
I try to be more critical and objective with reviews these days. Not that it always works very well. | SeaAnemone
01.08.14 | yay!
and omg lemaitre I actually totally forgot that came out this yr and it was my most-played artist for like a month | Winsomniac
01.08.14 | That EP is just so goddamned fun. | thejared
01.08.14 | 8 is okay. I'm excited to see where they go next. They have a shit load of potential. | Winsomniac
01.08.14 | Yeah I'm stoked to see where they go from now on. | dmp3131
01.09.14 | I found out tonight that 9 is stellar night driving music. | Apollo
01.09.14 | Good list Junsonmniac | Winsomniac
01.09.14 | dmp: Yeah, man. Album has an excellent cadence to it.
Apollbro: Thanks dude! How ya been? | Emim
01.10.14 | Winsomniacore | mryrtmrnfoxxxy
01.10.14 | WOAH! NICE ONE EMIM! | Emim
01.10.14 | THANKS | mryrtmrnfoxxxy
01.10.14 | =D | Winsomniac
01.10.14 | I'm the würst |
|
