| 4.0 excellent |
| ...and Oceans Cosmic World Mother |
| Becoming The Archetype Children of the Great Extinction |
| Ben Quad I'm Scared That's All There Is |
| Capstan Restless Heart, Keep Running |
| Dream Theater A View From The Top Of The World |
| Elder (USA-MA) Omens |
| Fleshwater We're Not Here To Be Loved |
| Hail the Sun New Age Filth |
| Invent Animate Heavener |
| Karmanjakah Diamond Morning |
| While some of sequencing of the album is bumpy (especially for the first half of the album), the highs will make you forget everything you could want to nitpick. This will make many Top 10 lists this year and perhaps even AotY for some. |
| Need Norchestrion: Α Song For The End |
| Persefone Metanoia |
| Poppy I Disagree |
| I am a metalhead, but secretly love Poppy, and have from the beginning (my wife and I almost used 'Lowlife' in our wedding). I was nervous about her crossover into metal, especially with BLOODMONEY and Concrete as the first singles, but the rest of this album absolutely nails the blend of pop and metal Poppy. Excellent production, good songwriting, even better than expected album structuring - this is good. |
| Protest the Hero Palimpsest |
| Psychotic Waltz The God-Shaped Void |
| Squid Bright Green Field |
| The Dear Hunter Sunya |
| I admit that this direction in TDH's sound isn't my personal favorite, but Sunya is easily the best executed version of that sound to date by a clear mile. Vibrant and energetic while building on (and even retroactively improving) Antimai in all the right ways. While I miss the sound of the Act albums, the kindling is there for just as great a payoff with future releases. |
| Ulcerate Stare Into Death and Be Still |
| Deceptively simple and straightforward at first, but layers upon layers upon layers await with further spins. Easily an AOTY contender. |
| VOLA Live from the Pool |
