Some Under the Radar Albums
Premium albums that keep a low profile (much like me around here these days). This is essentially part 5 of some similar lists I had going once upon a time, and they're my favorite discoveries from the last ~1000 or so ratings. All albums have a 4+ score from me, and not as many ratings as they deserve. Hope you find something you enjoy |
| 1 |  | Giant
Song
Post-metal
The discovery that drove me to write another entry in this list. These fellas very quickly reinvented themselves, but their first and only release under the Giant moniker was a fleeting moment of post-metal brilliance. Shares a lot in common with Isis. |
| 2 |  | Koan
When The Silence Is Speaking
Electronic / Psybient
These guys may have perfected the chillout psybient style here. They borrow elements of other groups in this sphere (Carbon Based Lifeforms, Stendeck) and gloss it up with absolutely crystalline production and a much more accessible and immediate sound with more driving beats and memorable melodies. At the absolute peak of background working / studying vibes. |
| 3 |  | Masayoshi Takanaka
The Rainbow Goblins
Japanese city pop / jazz / cheese
This one holds a special place for me. A Japanese jazz guitarist deep in the city pop style goes all out creating this cheesy jazzy jam based on a children’s picture book, replete with BBC style audiobook voiceovers and vocoder singing. He’s a prodigious guitar talent, but tempers it to create wonderful fantastical soundscapes. This one is also accompanied by a brilliant live performance of the entire album with the book playing overhead on a giant projector, costume changes into goblins and a storybook stage design. It’s all camp as hell, but perfectly so. |
| 4 |  | Satan's Host
Virgin Sails
Traditional heavy / power / doom metal
Perhaps the most disappointingly overlooked band on this list, their stretch of albums since Harry Conklin (of Jag Panzer fame) re-joined in 2011 has been phenomenal. Falling somewhere in the vast distance between Kamelot and Mercyful Fate, Virgin Sails sees the band at the peak of their powers, with Harry’s best vocal performance and the band refining the black metal elements incorporated on the previous album and blending it more seamlessly into their sound. |
| 5 |  | Guniw Tools
Other Goose
Jazzy experimental rock
An absolutely bizarre Japanese rock trip. Always on it’s toes, this album winds through alt rock, jazz, rockabilly, glam and tags on a marvellous orchestral closer to round things out. A really unique gem in the history of Japanese rock music. |
| 6 |  | Night Flowers
Wild Notion
Gazey indie
Delightful gazey female-fronted indie music. I’m an absolute sucker for this type of thing. |
| 7 |  | The Lion's Daughter and Indian Blanket
A Black Sea
Apocalyptic folk / post metal / blackened sludge
An unexpectedly smooth split between a folk artist and a sludge band. Slow gloomy sludge riffs are interspersed with haunting minimal dirges and occasional bouts of spastic aggression. It’s often messy but those moments of dark serenity amongst it really bring the album together and provide the emotional peaks and troughs to keep the whole listen rewarding. |
| 8 |  | Colossal
Welcome the Problems
Mellow math-rock / emo
One of many indie emo horn-driven bands from the early 2000’s, these guys rest atop the pack thanks to their uniquely talented mathy guitar lines. They have a great combination of American Football’s mellow clean melodies and a peppering of punchier up-tempo emo to keep things from stagnating. |
| 9 |  | Mare
Mare
Punchy post-metal
I try to make a habit of not putting anything on these lists that has >100 ratings, but I’m including this because despite all the time I’ve spent here in the past, it was a long time before I discovered this. It’s a VERY angry, bite sized EP of chunky post-metal that swings between pleasant droning and batshit howling. The opener is perhaps the angriest track in all of post-metal. |
| 10 |  | Thy Darkened Shade
Liber Lvcifer I: Khem Sedjet
Dissonant black metal
One of the few bands who effectively toe the line between melody and dissonance in black metal. The album is chock full of angular Deathspell-esque riffing, religious chanting and creeping melodies, and despite running close to 80min, it runs surprisingly lean. |
| 11 |  | Sasha
Xpander EP
Trance
All time trance classic right here. |
| 12 |  | Dan Mangan
Nice, Nice, Very Nice
Folk
A rock solid, lyrical folk album. There’s plenty of musical variety; slow songs with strings and horns, upbeat ditties with hand claps and gang chants. But the album really stands on top of Dan’s honest and simple lyrics and delivery. |
| 13 |  | Ghâsh / Marunata / Dreamshift / A Light in the Dark
Colors of the Mind
Post-black metal
An outstanding split from a few promising post-black bands. Nothing unusual or unique in the genre so it won’t interest if you feel it’s been played out, but each band puts forward an outstanding track. Particularly recommend Marunata’s L’effraie. |
| 14 |  | Klimt 1918
Dopoguerra
Gazey alt-rock
A good chunk of the fellas who used to hop on dubtrack in times past may know this one, as the closer on this album may be my most played song from those glory days. While they made an excellent comeback in 2016, Dopoguerra remains their most engaging album. It cycles between brighter post-rock swells in the vein of Anathema, and moodier ambience similar to Les Discrets, all framed through a more driving alt-rock lens. |
| 15 |  | The Hirsch Effekt
Holon: Anamnesis
Messy proggy mathcore
Arche’s review does a better job painting a picture of this album than I can, so I’ll direct you all there. It’s very similar to old Protest the Hero, with a bit more variety in their pacing and influences. |
| 16 |  | Pompeii
Loom
Shimmery vocal-driven post-rock
Portions of these lists tend to be me swiping other users recs, so here’s a repeat segment plugging Ponton’s reviews. This one is some beautifully crafted post-rock that brings to mind There Will Be Fireworks when it’s at its best. Very contemplative and soothing. |
| 17 |  | Inanna
Transfigured in a Thousand Delusions
Progressive Death Metal
Part 2, we need to stop letting these slip through the cracks. Masterful prog-death that sounds like it came straight out of Dan Swano’s vaults. |
| 18 |  | Hell (USA)
I
Unholy sludge
Hell at their sludgiest. Somewhat less unrelenting than their later albums (however still a slog to get through at times), this album contains elements similar to the doom-focused sound they expanded later and blend it with some sludgy footstompers. |
| 19 |  | A Canorous Quintet
Silence of the World Beyond
Melodic death metal
Sharper, more angular Gothenburg metal in the vein of Gates of Ishtar and early Hypocrisy. Excellent performances from every band member, varied vocals (often missed in this genre), genre hopping with plenty of tremz and blasts, and they achieve a good blend of melody and dm. |
| 20 |  | Koan Sound and Asa
Sanctuary
Electronic
This one is hard to pin down, it’s got sprinkles of dnb, glitch hop, dubstep, liquid funk but all mellowed out and overloaded with strings. It’s very pretty, soothing music for the front half with a couple of punchier pieces to close it out, and is thankfully a short enough EP that it never gets a chance to overstay it’s welcome. |
| 21 |  | Lowrider
Ode to Io
Stoner rock
Popping onto my radar thanks to their 2020 album, this overlooked 2000 gem epitomizes the slow burning grooves of 90s stoner rock. Perhaps a little derivative considering how late in the genre’s lifespan it came out, in 2021 it manages to sound like a breath of fresh air, with a never-ending supply of simple driving riffs and toe tapping desert rock goodies. Texas pt. 1 & 2 is one of my favorite pieces to ever come out of this style. |
| 22 |  | Oceansize
New Pin
Progressive rock
Superfluous to Requirements just might be Oceansize’s best track, or top 3 at the very least. Anybody who is a fan and hasn’t heard this EP needs to give it a run. |
| 23 |  | GoGo Penguin
v2.0
Jazz
While some of their more recent albums have excellent peaks and individual moments of brilliance, this is the one spot where they crafted a rock-solid front to back album. A modern jazz twist on a simple piano/bass/drum trio, often complex but also often mellow and contemplative. Additionally going to highly recommend their tiny desk (even if it’s based on their 2018 album). |
| 24 |  | Kostnateni
Hrůza Zvítězí
Twisted dissonant black metal
A suffocating, discordant mess of an album. The drums do a great job of grounding the listener while the guitars twist and wail. The t/t is an all timer. |
| 25 |  | Ram Trilogy
Molten Beats
Liquid dnb
Peak 90s dnb. Takes me back to playing Rollcage and Gran Turismo on my ps1. |
| 26 |  | tide/edit
Foreign Languages
Instrumental math-rock
All the way from the shimmering clean guitar melodies down to the slightly tinny but perfectly placed drums, it’s almost a carbon copy of Toe, but I personally can’t get enough of this style. This LP is endlessly listenable and an absolute breeze, highly recommended. |
| 27 |  | Andy James
Psychic Transfusion
Guitar wizadry
Guitar heroics in the vein of Angel Vivaldi at his best. I find the EP format preferable for this style as it makes it far more digestible and potent. This is just 4 bites of lean riffing and shredding. |
| 28 |  | Solstice (UK)
New Dark Age
Epic / traditional doom
While I’m not as fanatical about this album as some, it remains a prime example of epic doom done right. While many similarly flavoured doom albums suffer from a monotonous structure, New Dark Age focuses on dynamics, staying engaging throughout its 1 hour + long runtime. |
| 29 |  | Enisum
Arpitanian Lands
Folk / black metal
One look at the album art should tell you whether or not you’ll like this one. I doubt this will do a great deal to change someone’s mind if they don’t already enjoy Saor, Falls of Rauros, Panopticon etc, but it does have a particularly distinct sound thanks to a hefty dose of clean vocals and some sweeping forlorn melodies. Chiusella’s Waters is a particularly good microcosm of what makes this band unique. |
| 30 |  | Nocte Obducta
Nektar - Teil 2: Seen, Flüsse, Tagebücher
Atmospheric black metal
While I really wanted to put the sequel to this instead, which was an unexpectedly relaxed prog-rock masterpiece, I think this is a strictly better album. Both Nektar Part 1 and 2 are tremendously well executed atmoblack with a hefty dose of melody and pristine production. |
| 31 |  | Quest For Blood
Quest for Blood with Yukihiro Isso
Improv flute black metal
Bonus album. I’m fairly certain this is actually terrible, but if it catches me on the right day I have a good time. Plenty of flute noodling, plenty of tribal yips |
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