| 4.5 superb |
| A Lot Like Birds No Place |
| A Wilhelm Scream Career Suicide |
| Ahab The Call of the Wretched Sea |
| Alice in Chains Facelift |
| American Football American Football |
| Arab Strap I'm Totally Fine With It Don't Give a Fuck Anymore |
| Picks right up where the last album left off. If you like hearing a Scottish guy mope over simple drum beats, you're gonna LOVE this record |
| Archers of Loaf Icky Mettle |
| Archers of Loaf Vs. The Greatest Of All Time |
| Artificial Brain Infrared Horizon |
| Balance and Composure Only Boundaries |
| Alongside albums like Separation, Wildlife and Parting the Sea, this EP easily deserves a spot in the tumblrcore hall of fame. A thoroughly unique sound with varied influences (hearing a lot of Appleseed Cast-type stuff in the riffs), perfectly structured songs and production that doesn't suck ass. Music for fall drives. |
| Balance and Composure Separation |
| Basement I Wish I Could Stay Here |
| Ben Howard I Forget Where We Were |
| Ben Howard Noonday Dream |
| Blind Melon Blind Melon |
| Blood Incantation Starspawn |
| Bolt Thrower Those Once Loyal |
| Born Without Bones Say Hello |
| Brand New Deja Entendu |
| Brand New Daisy |
| Brand New Science Fiction |
| Burning Lord Arcane Demolition |
| Hardcore music. Perfect production, great pacing, hard ass mosh parts, tight songwriting, lots of early NYHC influence. Pretty hard to go wrong. |
| Cannibal Corpse Tomb of the Mutilated |
| Catherine Wheel Chrome |
| Cayetana Nervous Like Me |
| Circa Survive On Letting Go |
| Cloakroom Time Well |
| Clutch Blast Tyrant |
| Crotchduster Big Fat Box of Shit |
| Cryptopsy None So Vile |
| Darkspace Dark Space III |
| Daughters You Won't Get What You Want |
| Deaf Havana Fools And Worthless Liars |
| Dear and the Headlights Small Steps Heavy Hooves |
| Death Symbolic |
| Deceased Ghostly White |
| Decomposed (UK) Hope Finally Died... |
| Top-shelf death/doom. Nothing particularly special, but it takes the core recipe of the genre and pulls it off perfectly from front to back. Can't ask for much more. |
| Deer Leap/The World Is A Beautiful Place... Are Here To Help You |
| Defeated Sanity Passages Into Deformity |
| Defeated Sanity Disposal Of The Dead // Dharmata |
| Deftones White Pony |
| Deftones Diamond Eyes |
| Deicide Once Upon the Cross |
| Desolate Shrine Deliverance from the Godless Void |
| Discordance Axis The Inalienable Dreamless |
| Drug Church CHEER |
| Wild how much they upped their game. They effortlessly outplay their peers, the production is perfect, and, naturally, Kindlon's lyrics aren't the usual sappy Pure Noise bullshit. More bands need to shake shit up like this. |
| Dying Fetus Make Them Beg for Death |
| I'm huge on Destroy the Opposition, but after that, my interest kind of falls off until Wrong One to Fuck With, which ramped things up after the (unpopular opinion I guess?) sterile-as-fuck Reign Supreme. This takes the WOTFW formula and expands on it with more creative riffs, better hooks, and harder mosh parts. All in all, their best record in a long ass time and I'm glad to see them having a bit of a resurgence. |
| Edge of Sanity Purgatory Afterglow |
| Elder (USA-MA) Lore |
| Elliott Song in the Air |
| Damn, dude. I don't get how Sputnik isn't all over this band. |
| Entombed Clandestine |
| Eve 6 Horrorscope |
| Every Time I Die Hot Damn! |
| Every Time I Die The Big Dirty |
| Every Time I Die New Junk Aesthetic |
| Every Time I Die From Parts Unknown |
| Fall Out Boy Folie a Deux |
| Falls of Rauros Vigilance Perennial |
| Falls of Rauros Key to a Vanishing Future |
| Frightened Rabbit The Midnight Organ Fight |
| Frightened Rabbit Pedestrian Verse |
| Full of Hell Trumpeting Ecstasy |
| I think the metallic edge is actually really well done. Some of the riffs are cool as hell. Obviously not revolutionary, but they're still at the top of their game. |
| Full of Hell Garden of Burning Apparitions |
| Full of Hell and Merzbow Full of Hell and Merzbow |
| GDP Useless Eaters |
| Gorguts Pleiades' Dust |
| Horrendous Ontological Mysterium |
| Awesome record. If you've jammed the past two Horrendous records you mostly know what you're in for: colorful, progressive death metal inspired by the 90s prog death greats and adjusted for modern times. Shit rules. I like that they're still building on their sound without taking misguided and unnecessary risks, and my only criticism remains the same, which is that I wish they'd go a bit heavier with the production and in general. |
| Hum You'd Prefer an Astronaut |
| Hum Inlet |
| Immolation Here in After |
| Insomnium Shadows of the Dying Sun |
| Insomnium Winter's Gate |
| Jimmy Eat World Clarity |
| Joanna Newsom The Milk-Eyed Mender |
| Kayo Dot Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike |
| Killswitch Engage Alive or Just Breathing |
| Killswitch Engage Killswitch Engage: Remastered |
| La Dispute Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair |
| La Dispute Rooms of the House |
| letlive. Fake History |
| Lifestory: Monologue Hold Me In The Wind, My Friend |
| Lifestory: Monologue Drag Your White Fur - Make It Grey |
| Lorde Pure Heroine |
| Lorde Melodrama |
| Lost Soul Atlantis: The New Beginning |
| Maeth Oceans Into Ashes |
| Magnolia Electric Co Trials and Errors |
| Manchester Orchestra I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child |
| Manchester Orchestra Mean Everything to Nothing |
| Mastodon Emperor of Sand |
| mewithoutYou Brother, Sister |
| Milo So The Flies Don't Come |
| Morbid Angel Formulas Fatal to the Flesh |
| Morbid Angel Gateways to Annihilation |
| Morphine Yes |
| Morphine Cure for Pain |
| Motion City Soundtrack Commit This to Memory |
| Nails Abandon All Life |
| Nails Two Song Flexi |
| Never Ending Game Halo and Wings |
| Best heavy hardcore band in the game right now. Ignorant energy with great songwriting |
| New World Man New World Man |
| Night Verses Lift Your Existence |
| Norma Jean Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child |
| Nothing Tired of Tomorrow |
| O'Brother The Death of Day |
| O'Brother Disillusion |
| Opeth Watershed |
| Oxbow Thin Black Duke |
| Penfold Amateurs and Professionals |
| Pianos Become the Teeth The Lack Long After |
| Pink Floyd Meddle |
| Polar Bear Club Clash Battle Guilt Pride |
| Power Trip Manifest Decimation |
| Pulo Reve e |
| Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine |
| Relient K Forget and Not Slow Down |
| Rival Schools United By Fate |
| Sepultura Arise |
| Skinless Foreshadowing our Demise |
| Sleep Dopesmoker |
| Swallow the Sun Hope |
| The Afghan Whigs Black Love |
| The Appleseed Cast Mare Vitalis |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Deflorate |
| The Cure Wish |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Calculating Infinity |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Option Paralysis |
| The Dismemberment Plan Change |
| The Faceless Planetary Duality |
| The Gaslight Anthem The '59 Sound |
| The Hotelier Home, Like NoPlace Is There |
| The National Boxer |
| The National The National |
| The Red Chord Fused Together in Revolving Doors |
| The Republic of Wolves Varuna |
| The Republic of Wolves shrine |
| The Story So Far Under Soil and Dirt |
| The Weakerthans Left and Leaving |
| The Wonder Years The Upsides |
| The Wonder Years Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing |
| The Wonder Years The Greatest Generation |
| Third Eye Blind Third Eye Blind |
| Thou Magus |
| Thrice Vheissu |
| Thrice Beggars |
| Thrice Major/Minor |
| Title Fight Shed |
| Totem Skin Weltschmerz |
| Touche Amore Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me |
| Vektor Terminal Redux |
| Weatherbox American Art |
| Xibalba Hasta La Muerte |
| 4.0 excellent |
| 200 Stab Wounds Piles of Festering Decomposition |
| A Wilhelm Scream Ruiner |
| Abhorrent Decimation Miasmic Mutation |
| For some reason I thought this sucked but it's heavy and groovy as fuck and just really really good |
| Afterbirth In But Not Of |
| Akhlys The Dreaming I |
| Alcest Shelter |
| Alkaline Trio Good Mourning |
| Amenra Mass VI |
| Antichrist Siege Machine Purifying Blade |
| Artificial Brain Labyrinth Constellation |
| Au Revoir Veles |
| August Burns Red Constellations |
| August Burns Red Leveler |
| August Burns Red Rescue & Restore |
| Basement Beside Myself |
| Beach Slang Cheap Thrills On A Dead End Street |
| Bent Knee Say So |
| Blood Incantation Hidden History of the Human Race |
| About even with Starspawn. I think Starspawn feels more complete and cohesive, but the actual instrumentation on this record is mostly more engaging. Virtually the only band on the planet where I actually want longer albums. |
| Blood Incantation Luminescent Bridge |
| Slightly less good than their LP material but still miles better than most modern DM. The undisputed GOATs of the scene. |
| Bodybox Through The Bongfire |
| Bodybox Microwaved Weed |
| Bolt Thrower Realm of Chaos |
| Nothing crazy but really solid for its time. Clunky, lurching, heavy, straightforward death metal with obvious grind influence. For the headbangers. |
| Calm (US) Calm |
| I love Hum and if you love Hum you should dig this. |
| Camp Cope Camp Cope |
| Cannibal Corpse Eaten Back to Life |
| Cannibal Corpse The Bleeding |
| Cannibal Corpse Chaos Horrific |
| Riff city bihhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh |
| Captain, We're Sinking The Future Is Cancelled |
| Car Bomb Meta |
| Car Seat Headrest Teens of Denial |
| Caracara Summer Megalith |
| One of the most promising emo records in a minute. |
| Carcass Torn Arteries |
| Caspian Dust and Disquiet |
| Chat Pile God's Country |
| Circa Survive The Amulet |
| Clutch Pitchfork |
| This shit is underrated as hell. Crazy fun, heavyish songs filled with fat ass riffs. And honestly? Feels a bit ahead of its time |
| Clutch Psychic Warfare |
| Code Orange Love Is Love // Return To Dust |
| Conjurer (UK) Pathos |
| Contaminated (AUS) Final Man |
| Converge All We Love We Leave Behind |
| Conway the Machine God Don't Make Mistakes |
| Cult of Luna The Long Road North |
| Dance Gavin Dance Mothership |
| Dark Tranquillity Haven |
| Underappreciated solid melodeath record. It's better than their later 2000s material, IMO, thanks to its crisp production and slightly more classic melodeath sound. Just approachable, no-nonsense stuff that's pretty much guaranteed to please the average fan of the genre. |
| Dark Tranquillity The Mind's I |
| Dark Tranquillity Skydancer |
| Dark Tranquillity Atoma |
| Darkest Hour Godless Prophets and the Migrant Flora |
| David Bowie Blackstar |
| Deaf Havana Old Souls |
| Deaf Havana All These Countless Nights |
| Deafheaven Ordinary Corrupt Human Love |
| Death Scream Bloody Gore |
| Death Human |
| Defeated Sanity Chapters of Repugnance |
| Deftones Koi No Yokan |
| Deftones Ohms |
| Dehumanized Prophecies Foretold |
| Drake Take Care |
| Drug Church Hit Your Head |
| Drug Church TAWNY |
| Dying Fetus Grotesque Impalement |
| Dying Fetus Wrong One to Fuck With |
| Yeah this fucking wrecks. Everything is better than the last record, from the slams to the tech riffs to the production. |
| Elder (USA-MA) Reflections of a Floating World |
| Eternal Suffering The Echo Of Lost Words |
| Evans Blue The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal of Life Ends |
| Every Time I Die Ex Lives |
| Fall Out Boy From Under the Cork Tree |
| Fall Out Boy Infinity on High |
| Fireworks Gospel |
| Florence and the Machine High as Hope |
| Foxing Dealer |
| Frightened Rabbit The Winter of Mixed Drinks |
| Frightened Rabbit Painting of a Panic Attack |
| Full of Hell Amber Mote In The Black Vault |
| Full of Hell Weeping Choir |
| These guys rule because they just do so much more than most other grind bands soundwise without it sounding forced. Wasn't sure about the dirtier production at first, but it works. Armory is a strong SOTY contender. |
| Gang of Youths The Positions |
| Gang of Youths Go Farther in Lightness |
| Gang of Youths Total Serene |
Angel of 8th might be their best song. The other
two are solid National worship, per usual EDIT the
production in particular is so fucking much better
than their past work |
| Gatecreeper An Unexpected Reality |
| Gigan The Order of the False Eye |
| Glassjaw Worship and Tribute |
| Goo Goo Dolls A Boy Named Goo |
| Greet Death New Hell |
| Greyhaven This Bright and Beautiful World |
| Big improvement over the last record. The band learned how to write riffs beyond mathy weedly-weedlies, and how to write choruses that aren't just the same lyrics repeated over and over. Drum tones sound like shit as is typical of Will Putney but overall, good record. |
| Harm's Way (USA-IL) Isolation |
| Harm's Way (USA-IL) Rust |
| Hatebreed Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire |
| Slept on this for too long. Don't be like me and do the same because this is great shit. |
| He Is Legend Endless Hallway |
| Though it's not quite as tight across the board as White Bat, Endless Hallway takes a similar sound and incorporates a bit more aggression and a few more sonic risks. Not everything pays off - Circus Circus is purely a gimmick and the latter half loses some steam before closing strong with Lord Slug - but overall, He Is Legend have delivered another fun-as-hell album with plenty of replay value. The immaculate production certainly doesn't hurt, either, especially in a scene where production has become embarrassingly homogenous. |
| Head North The Last Living Man Alive Ever |
| Helpless Debt |
| Hester Prynne The Goswell Divorce |
| Hyperdontia Hideous Entity |
| Immolation Acts of God |
| Imperial Triumphant Spirit of Ecstasy |
| In Mourning Afterglow |
| In Mourning Garden of Storms |
| Iniquity Serenadium |
| Just discovered this band, and goddamn, what an overlooked record. If you liked that Malignant Altar LP from 2021, you'll like this. Very similar energy with the same reliance on heavy, creative chugs. |
| Ion Dissonance Cast the First Stone |
| Jarhead Fertilizer Product of My Environment |
| Jarhead Fertilizer Carceral Warfare |
| Kalmah Kalmah |
| In a genre that sometimes seems kinda shitty across the board, it's nice to have a couple of dependable legends that keep churning out good tracks. You've heard pretty much everything before but maaaaan those riffs are fun. Production is right on the money too. |
| Katatonia The Fall of Hearts |
| Katatonia Sky Void of Stars |
| KEN mode Loved |
| It's like they combined the beefy sound of Venerable with the fuzz of Whores' debut LP. |
| La Dispute Wildlife |
| Left Behind No One Goes To Heaven |
| Maeth Shrouded Mountain |
| Without a doubt one of the best active post-metal bands. |
| Magrudergrind Crusher |
| Majesty Crush Love 15 |
| Make Do and Mend Bodies Of Water |
| Malignant Altar Realms of Exquisite Morbidity |
| Manchester Orchestra Nobody Sings Anymore |
| Manchester Orchestra Simple Math |
| mewithoutYou [untitled] e.p. |
| Microwave Stovall |
| This has some pretty corny modern pop punk elements but I forced myself to listen to it a couple times and now I'm hopelessly addicted. They really have their own charm and the production is killer. |
| Mizmor and Thou Myopia |
| Morbid Angel Altars of Madness |
| Morbid Angel Covenant |
| Morbid Angel Heretic |
| Morphine Good |
| Nails Unsilent Death |
| Nails I Don't Want to Know You |
| Solid material. I admit I'm a big ass fan of both mid paced music and Max Cavalera so the second track is actually better imo |
| Never Ending Game Just Another Day |
| Nothing The Great Dismal |
| Novembre Ursa |
| O'Brother Garden Window |
| Parannoul After The Magic |
| Paw Dragline |
| Phoebe Bridgers Stranger in the Alps |
| Pijn and Conjurer Curse These Metal Hands |
| Portrayal of Guilt Christfucker |
| Yeah idk this is a fun record that's more up my alley than their previous stuff. I actually find it pretty cohesive and complete-feeling, though it could be expanded a bit or made a bit more challenging beyond the production. Some fun songwriting elements, like the heavy dissonance of the last two tracks and the eerie guitars in The Sixth Circle. |
| Power Trip Nightmare Logic |
| Praise Leave It All Behind |
| Protest the Hero Scurrilous |
| Psychedelic Porn Crumpets Shyga! The Sunlight Mound |
| Revulsed Infernal Atrocity |
| Rivers of Nihil Where Owls Know My Name |
| Run the Jewels Run the Jewels |
| Seahaven Reverie Lagoon: Music For Escapism Only |
| Secret Band LP2 |
| Seizures Reverie of the Revolving Diamond |
| Self Defense Family Have You Considered Punk Music |
| Silent Drive Fairhaven |
| Surprisingly great record. The yells don't quite have the force of the debut, but the clean singing is still just as good (and unique) as ever. Songwriting is clever and the production is solid. Always good to hear a snare drum that actually sounds like a snare drum on a 'core record in 2022. |
| Sinister Diabolical Summoning |
| Skeletonwitch Devouring Radiant Light |
| Skinless Progression Towards Evil |
| sleepmakeswaves Made Of Breath Only |
| One of the best post-rock releases I've heard in a while. They're definitely a step above their peers in terms of creativity. |
| Slowdive Everything is Alive |
| SubRosa (US) For This We Fought the Battle of Ages |
| SUMAC Love In Shadow |
The disparate ups and downs make this record a
very interesting journey. It's a taxing listen,
but I think it's also the most complete
manifestation yet of what the band is all
about. |
| Superheaven Jar |
| Superheaven Ours Is Chrome |
| For years I thought this was mid outside of the first two tracks, but it's really grown on me lately. I love how big the band sounds (the production is great) and the choruses are solid from top to bottom. It's nothing crazy, but there's a reason this band helped spur the revitalization of this sound a decade ago. They're really good at it. |
| Swallow the Sun New Moon |
| Taking Back Sunday Tell All Your Friends |
| Taking Back Sunday Where You Want To Be |
| The Afghan Whigs 1965 |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Nocturnal |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Everblack |
| The Dangerous Summer War Paint |
| The Front Bottoms Talon of the Hawk |
| The Menzingers On the Impossible Past |
| The Menzingers Rented World |
| The National Trouble Will Find Me |
| The Proclaimers This Is The Story |
| The Red Chord Prey for Eyes |
| The Republic of Wolves Why Would Anyone Want To Live This Long? |
| The Smith Street Band No One Gets Lost Anymore |
| The Smith Street Band Sunshine and Technology |
| The Weakerthans Reconstruction Site |
| The Weakerthans Reunion Tour |
| The World Is a Beautiful Place... Whenever, If Ever |
| The World Is a Beautiful Place... Harmlessness |
| The World Is a Beautiful Place... Illusory Walls |
| This or the Apocalypse Haunt What's Left |
| Thrice The Artist in the Ambulance |
| Tomb Mold Planetary Clairvoyance |
| Trapped Under Ice Big Kiss Goodnight |
| Turnover Peripheral Vision |
| Turnstile Step 2 Rhythm |
| Turnstile Turnstile Love Connection |
| Possibly their best material. Groovier than Time & Space, varied without sounding disjointed, still moshy as fuck. Sick. |
| Turnstile Glow On |
| Really good record, just too many throwaway gimmick tracks to warrant a higher rating. |
| Underoath Define the Great Line |
| Vein.fm Errorzone |
| Vein.fm This World Is Going to Ruin You |
| Vince Staples Big Fish Theory |
| Whispered Shogunate Macabre |
| Whores. Gold |
| Worm Foreverglade |
| Wormrot Hiss |
| Yo La Tengo This Stupid World |
| Shockingly great record filled with the sounds that made classic YLT great. More polished and accessible, which is probably expected, but every single song is great. |
| 3.5 great |
| 200 Stab Wounds Slave to the Scalpel |
| A Day To Remember For Those Who Have Heart |
| A Wilhelm Scream Partycrasher |
| Aeviterne The Ailing Facade |
| Alkaline Trio Is This Thing Cursed? |
| Alkaline Trio Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs |
| August Burns Red Thrill Seeker |
| August Burns Red Found in Far Away Places |
| Avenged Sevenfold Waking the Fallen |
| Balance and Composure Slowheart |
| Bent Knee Land Animal |
| Bon Iver 22, A Million |
| Bring Me the Horizon Sempiternal |
| Brodequin Harbinger of Woe |
| Candy (USA) Heaven Is Here |
| Cannibal Corpse Butchered at Birth |
| Car Seat Headrest Making a Door Less Open |
| Lots of great moments held back by some truly abysmal songwriting decisions. Better than I thought it'd be, but I had very low expectations after the singles. |
| Citizen As You Please |
| Code Orange I Am King |
| Converge The Dusk in Us |
| Counterparts You're Not You Anymore |
| More like early 2000s metalcore than anything they've done before while still offering all the emotion that attracted people in the first place. Solid. |
| Counterparts Nothing Left to Love |
| Cult Leader Lightless Walk |
| Dead and Dripping Blackened Cerebral Rifts |
| Defeated Sanity The Sanguinary Impetus |
| Deicide Deicide |
| Deicide Legion |
| Drake Nothing Was the Same |
| Drug Church Hygiene |
| Mostly just a dialed back, less exciting version of Cheer. Grows on you with repeat listens. Athlete on Bench is far and away the highlight and one of the best tracks the band has done. |
| Dying Fetus Killing on Adrenaline |
| Dying Fetus Purification Through Violence |
| Dying Wish Fragments of a Bitter Memory |
| Every Time I Die Gutter Phenomenon |
| Every Time I Die Low Teens |
| Every Time I Die A Colossal Wreck // Desperate Pleasures |
| Every Time I Die Radical |
| Great record with some bland moments and really terrible drum tones. Desperate Pleasures is one of the band's best songs, but the latter half of the album is definitely better. Probably a bit of a grower like a lot of ETID's stuff. |
| Fountains of Wayne Fountains Of Wayne |
| Foxing The Albatross |
| Foxing Nearer My God |
| Full of Hell Coagulated Bliss |
| Fuming Mouth Last Day of Sun |
| Glassing Twin Dream |
| Great, dreamy post metal, like a much prettier, brighter Amenra. Unfortunately, this record is really held back by its poor sequencing, which is especially apparent in the second half. |
| Glassjaw Material Control |
| Unsurprisingly phenomenal musicianship bogged down by a vocal performance totally devoid of the charm shown on basically everything up to Coloring Book. |
| God's Hate God's Hate |
| Gorgasm Masticate to Dominate |
| Gorgasm Bleeding Profusely |
| Greet Death New Low |
| Not as good as the last record, but probably more consistent. |
| Greyhaven Empty Black |
| Harm's Way (USA-IL) Posthuman |
| Harm's Way (USA-IL) Common Suffering |
| Inisans Transition |
| Very derivative, but their frantic aggression helps set these guys a bit above most OSDM revival acts. |
| Internal Bleeding Voracious Contempt |
| Jeromes Dream The Gray In Between |
| Jesus Piece ...So Unknown |
| Solid assbeating deathcore-by-way-of-hardcore record. Incomrephensibly horrible production, especially the snare sound. Strong flow though, never lets up. |
| Jimmy Eat World Bleed American |
| Jimmy Eat World Surviving |
| Joanna Newsom Ys |
| Kacey Musgraves Golden Hour |
| KEN mode Null |
| Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly |
| Kendrick Lamar DAMN. |
| Killswitch Engage The End of Heartache |
| Killswitch Engage As Daylight Dies |
| Knocked Loose A Different Shade of Blue |
| Lightyears better than Laugh Tracks, but not as fun as Pop Culture. Exactly what I expected, basically. |
| Koyo (US) Drives Out East |
| La Dispute Panorama |
| letlive. The Blackest Beautiful |
| Ling Tosite Sigure #4 |
| Magrudergrind II |
Not as good as the s/t, slower than the s/t, but fun as hell. Muddier production, but it works.
Sounds better than the Cult Leader record Ballou produced last year at least. |
| Manchester Orchestra Cope |
| mewithoutYou [Untitled] |
| Mil-Spec World House |
| Modern Baseball Holy Ghost |
| Morphine Like Swimming |
| Motion City Soundtrack My Dinosaur Life |
| My Ticket Home Unreal |
| These guys dropped this album 3-4 years too early. Though it's a little more early 2000s radio rock than most of the current hardcore-adjacent "grunge revival," this album would easily have landed these guys a nice tour with bands like Fleshwater and Soul Blind in 2023. |
| Narrow Head Moments of Clarity |
| Solid 90s alt worship from one of the better bands doing this style now. Nothing super memorable, and it kinda lacks the character of the prior record, but it's hard to be mad at. Solid production. |
| Norma Jean All Hail |
| Nuclear Remains Dawn Of Eternal Suffering |
| Artwork aside, this is one of the few good brutal death metal albums of the year. Straightforward meat and potatoes stuff with NY style slam parts and a nice snare ping. Better than previous material. |
| O'Brother You and I |
| I think O'bro are at their best when they're slow and brooding, but that approach NEEDS some longer/more structurally diverse songs, which this record doesn't provide |
| Old Gray Slow Burn |
| Parkway Drive Horizons |
| Pasteboard Glitter |
| Phoebe Bridgers Punisher |
| Pianos Become the Teeth Old Pride |
| Pink Floyd The Piper at the Gates of Dawn |
| Polar Bear Club The Redder, The Better |
| Protest the Hero Volition |
| Pyrexia Sermon of Mockery |
| Rolo Tomassi Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It |
| Run the Jewels Run the Jewels 2 |
| Run the Jewels Run the Jewels 3 |
| Sanction (NY) Broken In Refraction |
| I'm a sucker for metalcore revival by default, however tired it's already become, but these guys take the cake for me because they keep their shit on the low end. That dark, violent feel just hits right, I guess. |
| Sanguisugabogg Tortured Whole |
| Snuffed On Sight Smoke |
| Deathcore done right. Your soundoff was too short, it has to be at least 50 characters. |
| Stand Still A Practice In Patience |
| Straight old school LI pop punk worship. Easy listening for windows down drives. |
| Suffocation Hymns From the Apocrypha |
| The Afghan Whigs In Spades |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Unhallowed |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Abysmal |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Nightbringers |
| Solid record. They definitely don't deviate much from their standard formula here, but it's faster and more hooky than the last record, and speed is what I want from these guys. |
| The Dangerous Summer The Dangerous Summer |
| The Dear Hunter Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Dissociation |
| The Dirty Nil Master Volume |
| The Faceless Akeldama |
| The Gaslight Anthem Handwritten |
| The Gaslight Anthem Get Hurt |
| The Hotelier Goodness |
| The Menzingers Chamberlain Waits |
| The Menzingers After the Party |
| The National Alligator |
| The Smith Street Band Don't Waste Your Anger |
| The jump in quality over the last album is almost comical |
| The War On Drugs I Don't Live Here Anymore |
| The Wonder Years No Closer to Heaven |
| The Wonder Years The Hum Goes on Forever |
| Despite being Campbell's worst lyrical outing, this is a huge improvement over the genuinely bad and atrociously mixed Sister Cities. The band has rediscovered their sense of fun and written a solid batch of well-structured songs (those signature TWY bridges are back!) with very few true misses. Downsides include Lost It in the Lights, an outright dud, and more somber songs like Cardinals II and Songs About Death, which simply aim for a sound that doesn't showcase the band's strengths. Highlights, on the other hand, include the more anthemic singles, like Oldest Daughter and Old Friends Like Lost Teeth. The closer is another win, kicking off with one of the band's more successful attempts at a "softer" sound before launching into its explosive chorus. All told, it seems like the band has reclaimed the modern pop punk throne, for whatever that's worth. Soupy's vocals still have that annoying whimpery squeak he's taken a liking to lately, and the production isn't exceptional like during the band's glory days, but c'est la vie. |
| There Will Be Fireworks Summer Moon |
| Cute lil emotional jam, just a bit one-note for my taste these days |
| Title Fight Floral Green |
| Tomb Mold The Enduring Spirit |
| Touche Amore Is Survived By |
| Trapped Under Ice Secrets of the World |
| Typhoon (USA-OR) Offerings |
| Undeath Lesions of a Different Kind |
| Undeath It's Time...To Rise From the Grave |
| Upon Stone Dead Mother Moon |
| Good record but agree with the "unfortunate mix" thing someone else had. Decent Swedeath guitar tones but overall doesn't quite work for their style IMO. Some solid riffs though, and I'm honestly just happy to have some passable new melodeath coming out. |
| Weekend Nachos Apology |
| Wild Pink Wild Pink |
| 3.0 good |
| '68 Two Parts Viper |
| A Day To Remember Homesick |
| A Day To Remember Common Courtesy |
| Alcest Kodama |
| Good as hell, but could've been better. Some parts seem bland and begging for a lead or something (anything) to keep the attention. Oiseaux is the standout. |
| Ariana Grande Dangerous Woman |
| August Burns Red Messengers |
| August Burns Red Phantom Anthem |
| The epitome of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." This record blends the more streamlined songwriting of the last record with the relentless aggression displayed on Rescue and Restore. Basically, more of ABR doing what they do best. |
| Avenged Sevenfold Nightmare |
| Balance and Composure The Things We Think We're Missing |
| Basement Promise Everything |
| Beach Slang The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel |
| Brand New Your Favorite Weapon |
| Chamber (USA) A Love to Kill For |
| Of all the C-tier support slot bands spawned by the Vein/Code Orange era of metalcore, Chamber are among the more competent. Not an album I'll return to just because it's kind of soulless and empty, but undeniably well played and well produced. |
| Citizen Life In Your Glass World |
| Citizen/Turnover, except instead of a split it's just a Citizen record |
| Counterparts A Eulogy for Those Still Here |
| Pretending this is the highlight of their discography is disingenuous. RIP Kuma tho. While it's their worst since Current, it's still a solid record. What really ruins its chance to compete is a much stronger focus on boring as hell metalcore "chugs," rather than the faster moments that characterized a lot of their best songs (Compass, YNYA). The slightly stronger emphasis on clean vocals falls flat, since they all suck, and Brendan's yells are layered throughout the entire album, which is stupid but fittingly Misery Signals of them. |
| Cult Leader A Patient Man |
| Mad respect for sabotaging what could've been their best material (as CL) for the sake of experimentation. The slow songs are very bad. Isolation is one of their best ever. I'd say it sits at a solid 3.25. |
| Danny Brown Atrocity Exhibition |
| Deaf Havana Meet Me Halfway, At Least |
| Deaf Havana Rituals |
| Deathspell Omega The Furnaces of Palingenesia |
| Defeated Sanity Prelude to the Tragedy |
| Deftones Gore |
| Despised Icon Beast |
| Despised Icon are back with all the juns but less of the fun |
| END (USA-NJ) From the Unforgiving Arms of God |
| END (USA-NJ) Splinters From An Ever-Changing Face |
| END (USA-NJ) The Sin of Human Frailty |
| Far more ambitious and interesting than their older Fisher Price: My First Blast Beats approach to metalcore, but mostly at the expense of cohesive songs that stand on their own. Some dope ass moments though, closing track is crazy. Production is dogshit and some of the industrial stuff is a little much, but they use that influence surprisingly well. |
| Enslaved E |
| Fall Out Boy Take This to Your Grave |
| Fireworks Oh, Common Life |
| Fleshrot (USA-TX) Unburied Corpse |
| Frail Body Artificial Bouquet |
| Hath All That Was Promised |
| Hayley Williams Petals for Armor |
| Insomnium Argent Moon |
| Joie de Vivre The North End |
| Killswitch Engage Incarnate |
| Knocked Loose A Tear in the Fabric of Life |
A good but overrated release. A style-over-substance record that basically features a bunch
of flashy, soulless fast parts interspersed throughout some of the band's least interesting
breakdowns. If they can fuse these more chaotic bits with the more memorable riffs of ADSOB
it'll be great. |
| Lana Del Rey Norman Fucking Rockwell! |
| Malibu Ken Malibu Ken |
| mewithoutYou Pale Horses |
| Microwave Much Love |
| Morbid Angel Blessed Are the Sick |
| Norma Jean Polar Similar |
| O'Brother Endless Light |
| Oathbreaker Rheia |
| Paramore After Laughter |
| PinkPantheress To Hell With It |
| Easy listening. The vocals and lyrics are hard to stomach but the production is excellent. |
| Posture and The Grizzly I Am Satan |
| Shadow Of Intent Melancholy |
| Silent Planet Everything Was Sound |
| Spiritbox Eternal Blue |
| Strange Ranger Daymoon |
| The Dirty Nil Fuck Art |
| The Menzingers Hello Exile |
| Considering they're an all-time favorite, I want to love this. But between the unbelievably done-in lyrics, boring pacing, and total lack of standouts, it's kinda hard. |
| The National I Am Easy to Find |
| The Story So Far What You Don't See |
| The Story So Far Proper Dose |
| The Weeknd After Hours |
| Thrice To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere |
| Thy Art Is Murder Dear Desolation |
| It's just Holy War with some deeper vocals here and there |
| Tiny Moving Parts Swell |
| Touche Amore ...To the Beat of a Dead Horse |
| Trophy Eyes Chemical Miracle |
| Turnover Good Nature |
| Turnstile Nonstop Feeling |
| Wake Thought Form Descent |
| Whitechapel Kin |
| Winterfylleth The Reckoning Dawn |
| Wolf Alice Visions of a Life |
| Good, but a little too messy and contrived to be great. |
| 2.5 average |
| A Day To Remember And Their Name Was Treason |
| Ariana Grande Sweetener |
| Better Lovers God Made Me an Animal |
| The dogshit lifeless production on this is a great example of why Will Putney sucks. Insane how these musicians can come together to create something so mid. |
| Caracara New Preoccupations |
| Coulda been good, but man, so messy. Shame, because the Better EP showed a ton of potential |
| Carly Rae Jepsen The Loneliest Time |
| Cryptopsy As Gomorrah Burns |
| About as unremarkable as a death metal album can get. Drums are insane and there are a couple standout parts here and there that remind you that Cryptopsy are seasoned vets, but by and large this is soulless and boring. Vocals are a real detriment. |
| Dark Tranquillity Projector |
| Deafheaven Infinite Granite |
| Yawn.Your soundoff was too short, it has to be at least 50 characters |
| Disentomb Misery |
| Disentomb The Decaying Light |
| Drake If You're Reading This It's Too Late |
| Dying Fetus Reign Supreme |
| Fall Out Boy Save Rock and Roll |
| Genghis Tron Dream Weapon |
| Gleemer Down Through |
| Killswitch Engage Killswitch Engage (2009) |
| Killswitch Engage Disarm the Descent |
| Knocked Loose Pop Culture |
| Knocked Loose Laugh Tracks |
| Knocked Loose Upon Loss Singles |
| letlive. If I'm the Devil... |
| Lil Yachty Let's Start Here. |
| Formerly wacky pop artist makes less wacky, more Pitchfork-reader-friendly album. Once you look beyond the relaxing production you realize it's just mid background music. |
| Manchester Orchestra The Million Masks of God |
| A touch better than the last but still a snoozefest. Saying they're a shadow of their former selves would be too generous a compliment. |
| Movements Feel Something |
| Movements No Good Left to Give |
| While the singles are better than anything off their last record, the rest of this album only loses momentum as it goes on. A step up, but just barely. |
| Neck Deep Life's Not Out To Get You |
| Parkway Drive Ire |
| Pianos Become the Teeth Keep You |
| Remo Drive Greatest Hits |
| Sanguisugabogg Homicidal Ecstasy |
| SeeYouSpaceCowboy Coup de Grâce |
| A lot of this is really bad filler. But some of these tracks bang, and even the limper songs have some really solid parts. They've perfected their brand of metalcore breakdown and the energetic drumming really elevates the record overall |
| Sentenced 2 Die Parasitic Infection |
| Silent Planet Iridescent |
| Sounds like you'd expect. Some okay heavy parts with flat production and traditionally horrible clean vocals. Some of the noisier bits with the layered sound are kind of interesting. |
| Spiritbox The Fear of Fear |
| Static Dress Rouge Carpet Disaster |
| Caved to the hype and gave this a couple of spins. Thoroughly soulless Myspacecore revival. The weird production is a huge issue; both the vocals and guitars are buried half the time. Might've been an artistic decision, but it really doesn't work. The total lack of memorable vocal melodies doesn't help, either, especially since this style is good for basically nothing else. You might like this if you're looking for some Silverstein-esque background music. |
| Taylor Swift 1989 |
| The Menzingers Some of it Was True |
| Mid as hell, but there are some stellar vocal melodies throughout (as expected) and they make it worth a listen or two. Production feels like it aimed for big-budget but missed the park, which hampers it a bit. |
| The Smith Street Band More Scared of You Than You Are of Me |
| The Story So Far The Story So Far |
| The Wonder Years Get Stoked on It! |
| Thrice Palms |
| Turnover Altogether |
