| 5.0 classic |
| Abilene Abilene |
It's a classic album for me. What I love about it
most is its quiet parts. They sound so beefy it
hurts. And also I'm gaining spiritual vibes from
the electric guitar. So nostalgic, takes me back
to the times of my spiritual practice in 2020. I
also want to compliment the polyrhythmic
structure of this album. Something has to be said
about 2000's - if 90'ies paved way to the better
genres of rock music then 2000's established
them. Thinking about C-Clamp and Toboggan, both
similar to Abilene.
Something has to be said about an eerie
urbanistic vibe of this album and most of 2000's
underground rock music. |
| AG Form Commons |
| Bear the Mammoth Purple Haus |
| This is no.2 album of 2023 for me, behind only Ativin's "Austere". It was a surprise for me that sputnikmusic pays no attention for underground releases like these. rI love this album even more than their excellence release of "Years Under Glass". It improves on mathy softness adding futuristic synths to the sonic pallette. It stays mystical and, again, it rarely indulges in heaviness, which for me is a tremendously good thing. |
| Bear the Mammoth Years Under Glass |
| Bring Me The Horizon Sempiternal |
| Codeine Dessau |
| Codeine The White Birch |
| Cola The Gloss |
I'm definitely getting the vibes of this album,
unlike mr. Gol-Jonsson. I like it for its
simplicity and ability to emphasize simple yet
catchy riffs. I disliked Ought's more
experimental things for being not catchy, and
this is just my cup of tea. It comforted me after
artsy and cold late-Ought approach and brought me
to a sunny and warm place. Third favorite album
this year, behind Matt Christensen and Ativin. |
| Computer Dating To Weave A Wall |
| Couch Etwas Benutzen |
| Cusper The View From Above |
| Deafheaven Infinite Granite |
| deathcrash people thought my windows were stars e.p |
| deathcrash Sundown (A Collection of Home Recordings) |
| Deftones Gore |
Majestic fusion of smooth math-rock and shoegaze,
an improvement on Koi No Yokan formula, is
dressed here in some subtle acid tones. There is
a certain esthetical connection to Palms here,
that experience obviously inspired Chino. It also
seems a bit reminiscent of Failure's more
progressive moments at times. The soundscape here
has the unsettling, discomforting schizophrenic
mood to it, complimented by this sharp, glassy,
high-pitched mastering and various effects over
Chino's voice. It is the album's difficult
sonical ethos responsible for such an ambigous
feedback from fans, and it's understandable. This
dissonant, pink-toned synthetic vibe, visually
represented by an artwork, is unfriendly on a
first take, but it rewards a more patient and
experienced listener. I'm sure this album will be
reassessed by fans in the future, it's a
tremendous step-up for the band, they've never
been as high technically and compositionally as
they are now. |
| Dianogah As Seen From Above |
| Duster Together |
| Jesu Terminus |
| Love, Claire The Forgotten Cinema |
| Moscow Puzzles Cicadas Are Sensitive to Parallel Lines |
| Outlander (UK) Acts of Harm |
| Once again Outlander delivers classic doomgaze with a bit better sound/mastering quality than on "The Valium Machine". The only thing in which this album fails at is the scale. It's quite shorter than its predecessor. "Lye Waste" is a banger. |
| Outlander (UK) The Valium Machine |
| The best doomgaze band I've ever heard. This album encapsulates the listener into dreamy and quite depressive - in a good way - soundscapes. It helps embracing the universal sorrow and mourning of a devotional person. |
| Outlander (UK) Sundowning/Unconditional |
| Perfect Hair Perfect Hair |
| Polaris (UK) Polaris |
| Poorly Drawn House Home Doesn't Have Four Walls |
| Poorly Drawn House (compilation) |
| Rosetta Quintessential Ephemera |
| I don't get why Rosetta fans mostly consider this album their worst. Because it's not riff-oriented? Not enough distortion? This is easily their MOST energetic, MOST emotionally inspired, MOST aesthetically and compositionally cohesive and tight album. TGS is mundane and overblown, Wake/Lift is not nearly as intense and tight as this, it has lots of blind spots, the rest is just weaker in terms of songwriting album-wise. The way these songs here flow, it just carries me away each time, every single transition is just in its right place, no motif overstays its welcome, no overplayed crescendo, and God how phenomenal those guitar melodies are. Armine's screams are not overused and appear right where they are needed always pushing the song in right direction, Eric's vocals are very natural and complimenting to the sound. Meaningful and empathetic lyricism here. I love how intuitive this album is also, it's never overthought production- and songwriting-wise, always retaining this jammy vibe, flowing naturally. I just can't understand what are the dislikers' claims. Even what they supposedly could be. I'm convinced it's their best album. |
| Sonna Keep it Together |
| An exercise in mildness and introspection, it's one of my dearest albums and definitely top of 2016. |
| Sprain Sprain |
| Swings Detergent Hymns |
| Swings Sugarwater |
| Terremoto (Boulder) Fun at Parties |
| The Rebel Astronauts Windmills vs. Shrapnel |
| The Scarecrow Frequency Somber Pacific |
| This Is Your Captain Speaking ARC |
| This Will Destroy You Another Language |
| This Will Destroy You have a tremendously unique sound among all their post-rock peers. They carry on with the whispering sounds that drown a listener in melancholy, then they're up with loud cathartic symphony. Songs like "Dustism" and "Invitation" will stay with me forever. |
| Toboggan Still Gleams On Hummocks |
Toboggan deliver beefy predominantly instrumental
rock that is not easily cathegorizable: it's
predominantly instrumental so it's easy to call
it post-rock, but for post-rock there is not much
crescendo thing going on. It could be called math
rock but it rarely showcases odd time signatures.
Anyway, it's an extremely evocative album that is
a pure pleasure for me, long time appreciator of
instrumental rock music. Its subtle guitar layers
remain subtle despite pressure-wise the album is
rather aggressive... but those guitars, ah. They
are moving like water.
No.1 album ever for me. |
| Wilderness Wilderness |
| Zelienople Hold You Up |
