| 2014 |
| Hans Zimmer Interstellar | 4.5 |
| Utterly fantastic in every way. When I went to see Interstellar, I was not expecting to be struck by the music so hard, but it is appropriately ominous, melancholic and colossal. The organ adds that extra kick that only a big budget can have (even if blockbuster films often fail in this department). The only downside is that the full version of the "Spinning dock" score is not included on any version of the OST, although it has been confirmed it will be released for free in the future. |
| Grouper Ruins | 4.0 |
| Ne Obliviscaris Citadel | 3.5 |
| Devin Townsend Project Z2 | 4.5 |
| Devin Townsend Dark Matters | 4.0 |
| Devin Townsend Project Sky Blue | 4.5 |
| Primus Primus and The Chocolate Factory With The Fungi Ensemble | 3.5 |
| Slipknot .5: The Gray Chapter | 3.5 |
| Ché Aimee Dorval Volume One | 4.0 |
| Kayo Dot Coffins on Io | 4.0 |
| Pharmakon Bestial Burden | 4.5 |
| Godflesh A World Lit Only by Fire | 4.0 |
| Flying Lotus You're Dead! | 4.5 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Gone Girl OST | 4.0 |
| Decapitated Blood Mantra | 3.0 |
| The Contortionist Language | 5.0 |
| Opeth Pale Communion | 3.5 |
| Sophie Lemonade/Hard | 4.0 |
| Black Alice (CA) Untroubled / Forgotten Kids | 4.0 |
| This summer remix ep by Black Alice (which I have been sitting on for almost an entire year) is a chilly blast of beach brutality. The original (Cremation Mountain) mixes of the title tracks are pumping meditations on heartache that seamlessly switch gears from bleeding to brooding. Bishop Usire's remix of "Forgotten State Stringer" winds it down to a broken traffic light in an intersection and Reverend Desaad's touch on "How Cylic" imbues the base pattern with playful terror. And finally, Soluna's take on "Rose Voyager" is a swim through a dark aural lake. The weak point is the final track which, while having an intriguing beat, doesn't do enough with it in its run time. |
| Mastodon Once More 'Round the Sun | 3.5 |
| Linkin Park The Hunting Party | 2.5 |
| Boris Noise | 4.0 |
| Arch Enemy War Eternal | 3.5 |
| Coldplay Ghost Stories | 2.5 |
| Casualties of Cool Casualties of Cool | 5.0 |
| Destiny Potato Lun | 4.0 |
| Swans To Be Kind | 4.5 |
| Killer Be Killed Killer Be Killed | 3.5 |
| Lily Allen Sheezus | 3.5 |
| tUnE-yArDs Nikki Nack | 4.5 |
| I have been waiting for something to blow my mind this year. Super surprised that not only this is it, but at the fact I haven't really checked their stuff before now. |
| Pacifika Amor Planeta | 4.5 |
| Wow, wasn't expecting to find something that sites like amazon categorize under "latin music", but this is truly fantastic-one of the few albums I have heard in recent memory that is immediately amazing upon the beginning of the first track and remains so throughout its run time. |
| Lykke Li I Never Learn | 3.5 |
| Lord Mantis Death Mask | 4.5 |
| Svffer Lies We Live | 3.5 |
| Chevelle La Gárgola | 3.5 |
| Timber Timbre Hot Dreams | 4.0 |
| Animals As Leaders The Joy of Motion | 3.5 |
| Foster the People Supermodel | 4.0 |
| Jupiter (JPN) Last Moment | 3.5 |
| GFOTY Secret Mix | 3.5 |
| Beck Morning Phase | 3.5 |
| St. Vincent St. Vincent | 4.5 |
| I am not so sure this will end up being my AOTY just yet, but holy hell it is even better than I thought it would be (based on "Birth in Reverse" and "Digital Witness"). Gaga, this is what people really think of when the term Artpop is used. |
| Black Mare Field of the Host | 4.5 |
| Absolutely gorgeous and worth the time it takes to listen to this in full. Each track stands out in its own way amongst the airy, slow tempo melodies and riffs, although I would say that "Fighting Birds" is the best track on here with catchiest passage on the album. |
| Junius Days of the Fallen Sun | 3.5 |
| Cynic Kindly Bent to Free Us | 3.0 |
| Cibo Matto Hotel Valentine | 4.0 |
| Just shy of a 4.5 for me. If more of the record was like "10th Floor Ghost Girl", it would have pushed it over the line. |
| Crosses Crosses | 3.5 |
| Well, the material off their first EP is still the best stuff they have done so far. |
| Helms Alee Sleepwalking Sailors | 4.0 |
| Marissa Nadler July | 3.0 |
| Sunn O))) and Ulver Terrestrials | 3.0 |
| Broken Bells After The Disco | 3.5 |
| Mas Ysa Worth | 3.5 |
| Volcanic Queen Faith In Desire | 4.0 |
| Young Fathers DEAD | 4.0 |
| Nicole Atkins Slow Phaser | 4.0 |
| I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. I am not that familiar with her previous work, but I do know that it didn't really grab my attention. This is pretty attention grabbing throughout its duration. |
| Behemoth The Satanist | 4.5 |
| A lot has changed since my original shout. I understand this record far better than I did when I was younger. |
| Soluna ((Suunae)) The Reverend.Cosmic ((Divine Polaric)) | 4.0 |
| A light 4, but still a lovely, droney listen with enough bizarre titles to keep you busy for a day. |
| Have a Nice Life The Unnatural World | 4.0 |
| Blut Aus Nord Debemur MoRTi | 3.0 |
| Dum Dum Girls Too True | 3.5 |
| Periphery Clear | 3.5 |
| Isaiah Rashad Cilvia Demo | 4.0 |
| Actress Ghettoville | 3.5 |
| Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything | 3.0 |
| Bohren und der Club of Gore Piano Nights | 4.0 |
| Wildernessking The Devil Within | 3.5 |
| Black Alice (CA) Ileana (Your Laugh) | 4.0 |
| 4'in this because even though it is a bit inconsistent musically-the bookends are pretty far away quality wise from tracks like "Fragment Forest" and "Antenna Life 2.0"-I get the emotions driving the EP and "Joan of Hark" grooves hard. "Uh uh huh ooh oh" |
| Alcest Shelter | 3.0 |
| Against Me! Transgender Dysphoria Blues | 4.0 |
| Mogwai Rave Tapes | 3.5 |
| The Crystal Method The Crystal Method | 3.0 |
| Painted Palms Forever | 3.0 |
| Gnaw Their Tongues & Alkerdeel Dyodyo Asema | 3.5 |
| Hexis Abalam | 4.0 |
| The Visit Between Worlds | 3.0 |
| Kathleen Mae Clandestine | 3.0 |
| 2013 |
| Persephonaut de mokkel | 3.0 |
| Burial Rival Dealer | 4.0 |
| Rodolfo Amaral Aura | 4.0 |
| Brendan Benson You Were Right | 3.5 |
| Skeme Ingleworld | 3.5 |
| Physical Therapy Non-Drowsy | 4.0 |
| FIS Preparations | 4.0 |
| Obscure Sphinx Void Mother | 4.5 |
| Black Alice (CA) Akka | 4.0 |
| Caspian Hymn For The Greatest Generation | 4.0 |
| Exivious Liminal | 4.0 |
| Sockweb Bullies Are Mean | 3.0 |
| NGUZUNGUZU Skycell | 3.0 |
| Cara Neir Portals to a Better, Dead World | 3.0 |
| Black Alice (CA) Nirrti | 4.0 |
| Bardo Pond Peace On Venus | 3.0 |
| Russian Circles Memorial | 3.5 |
| Vaura The Missing | 3.5 |
| Yamantaka // Sonic Titan Uzu | 4.0 |
| It is very uneven. The first half, for the most part, doesn't really make much of an impression. The album really picks up at "Seasickness" and reaches its peak on "One". |
| Circuit Des Yeux Overdue | 4.0 |
| Laurel Halo Chance of Rain | 4.0 |
| Monkey3 The 5th Sun | 4.0 |
| Active Child Rapor | 2.5 |
| Glass Cloud Perfect War Forever | 3.5 |
| The sheer awfulness of this EP is overhyped (a common thing in music nowadays), but the release is indeed weak in comparison to The Royal Thousand. There is far too much pandering to the young and violent crowd. Standout: "How to Survive Suicide" |
| Clint Lowery's Hello Demons... Meet Skeletons Choices | 3.5 |
| Palehound Bent Nail | 4.5 |
| Polica Shulamith | 3.0 |
| Wolf Alice Blush | 4.0 |
| Black Alice (CA) Kalma | 3.5 |
| Cults Static | 3.0 |
| Gary Numan Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind) | 4.0 |
| Tim Hecker Virgins | 4.0 |
| Melt-Banana Fetch | 3.5 |
| Sleigh Bells Bitter Rivals | 3.0 |
| Lorne Balfe with Hans Zimmer Beyond: Two Souls OST | 4.0 |
| Lorna Dune Miamisphere | 3.5 |
| Dale Cooper Quartet and the Dictaphones Quatorze Pieces De Menace | 4.5 |
| Scar the Martyr Scar the Martyr | 2.5 |
| This is almost capable of rivaling Frequency Unknown... |
| Lord Snow Solitude | 4.0 |
| Peter Gabriel And I'll Scratch Yours | 3.5 |
| Windhand Soma | 3.5 |
| Potty Mouth Hell Bent | 3.5 |
| Chelsea Wolfe Pain Is Beauty | 3.5 |
| ReVamp Wild Card | 3.5 |
| Nine Inch Nails Hesitation Marks | 4.0 |
| Kayo Dot Hubardo | 4.0 |
| The Ruins of Beverast Blood Vaults - The Blazing Gospels of Heinrich... | 4.0 |
| Jupiter (JPN) Classical Element | 3.0 |
| Manufactured as hell with very little of the flair that Hizaki displayed earlier on with his solo projects, but at least the image is still sexy. |
| Braids Flourish // Perish | 3.5 |
| Had the potential to be a 4, but it really only has two tracks that really wow: "Ebben" and "In Kind". Everything else you can hear once and it will be sufficient. |
| Julianna Barwick Nepenthe | 4.0 |
| Ulver Messe I.X-VI.X | 4.5 |
| Dead Letter Circus The Catalyst Fire | 3.5 |
| Karnivool Asymmetry | 3.0 |
| I don't really have a quantifiable reason for not liking this record. It just falls flat for me. The entire thing. Even the tracks people are claiming are great do nothing for me. |
| The Polyphonic Spree Yes, It's True | 4.0 |
| The opener is definitely one of the best tracks of the year. The rest of the album is disappointingly uneven with some tracks being very catchy and others coming across as quite boring (like "Battlefield"). I was really hoping this would end up being one of my favorite albums of the year. |
| Julia Holter Loud City Song | 3.5 |
| Shpongle Museum of Consciousness | 4.5 |
| Locktender Kafka | 3.5 |
| Serj Tankian Jazz-Iz-Christ | 3.0 |
| Fuck Buttons Slow Focus | 4.5 |
| Jucifer за волгой для нас земли нет | 3.5 |
| Evan Brewer Your Itinerary | 4.0 |
| Kinda surprised that this lost so much steam in the second half. The first track wow'd me right away and it just seems that the song writing just couldn't maintain that quality level. Still a strong album. |
| Clap! Clap! Gwidingwi Dema | 4.0 |
| Butcher Babies Goliath | 3.5 |
| Morality Crisis Boats | 3.5 |
| Bosnian Rainbows Bosnian Rainbows | 4.0 |
| The Impossible Girl The Sky is Calling | 3.5 |
| Falling in Reverse Fashionably Late | 1.5 |
| Fuck the Facts Amer | 4.0 |
| Bear McCreary Defiance (Original Television Soundtrack) | 4.0 |
| Deafheaven Sunbather | 2.5 |
| CSS Planta | 3.0 |
| Boards of Canada Tomorrow's Harvest | 4.0 |
| Close (UK) Getting Closer | 4.0 |
| Gustavo Santaolalla The Last of Us OST | 4.5 |
| Future Bible Heroes Partygoing | 4.0 |
| Queens of the Stone Age ...Like Clockwork | 3.0 |
| Disclosure Settle | 3.5 |
| Full of Hell Rudiments of Mutilation | 3.0 |
| Shining (NOR) One One One | 3.0 |
| Kylesa Ultraviolet | 3.5 |
| It has its moments ("Vulture's Landing" and "Quicksand") and I really love Laura Pleasants voice and presence as a band leader, but too much of the album is just ok. |
| CocoRosie Tales of a Grass Widow | 3.5 |
| TesseracT Altered State | 4.0 |
| Svart Crown Profane | 3.5 |
| You know, usually albums with covers like this are boring as shit. This is actually pretty good (High end of a 3.5). There may be areas where the thoroughly headbangable riffs lose me due to stretching out an idea for too long or slowing down the tempo too much, but this record's engaging bits stick out a bit more to me than those. Favored tracks: "Manifestatio Symptoms", "Until the Last Breath", "Genesis Architect", "The Therapy of Flesh", "Venomous Ritual". |
| Leprous Coal | 4.0 |
| Ishome Confession | 4.5 |
| Demi Lovato Demi | 2.5 |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan One of Us Is the Killer | 3.5 |
| I like the lyrical aesthetic here more than past release (which seems to be ranting of a reluctant/apologetic murderer). However, it is a bit more Monochrome than Ire Works and Option Paralysis. It may deliberate on their part, but the emotional palette feels more gray and the riffing gets dull a bit faster. The energy of past releases is certainly here, but it strikes more impersonally than earlier work. Still, it is fun to rock out to, just not as great as it is being made out to be. |
| Free Dominguez Volcano+The Sea | 3.5 |
| Pharmakon Abandon | 4.5 |
| Howl Bloodlines | 3.0 |
| Immolation Kingdom of Conspiracy | 3.0 |
| Deerhunter Monomania | 2.5 |
| Ok, it cannot just be nostalgia. This album is literally a few steps down from Halcyon Digest. |
| Savages Silence Yourself | 3.5 |
| Dido Girl Who Got Away | 4.0 |
Only one rating so far? Ouch. It is shame that this album might come and go without anyone
really noticing. It is one of the better pop albums of the last few years. Her voice may
instantly bring me back to the late 90s, but this doesn't sound dated to that time. The
collaboration with Kendrick Lamar is surreal and really good and there are some great tracks
on here ("End of Night", "Love to Blame" and "Go Dreaming") that are fairly energetic and
varied in their instrumentation. The lead single, "No Freedom" may not have been the best
choice, though... |
| Altar of Plagues Teethed Glory and Injury | 3.0 |
| Colin Stetson New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light | 4.5 |
| Given how some people I know talk about Colin Stetson, I was not expecting to like this. I expected to be minimalistic traditional sax playing. This is full of weird sounds and the usage of his sax to make shrill, tense and threatening tones. Not to mention that several moments on here (such as "Among the Sef") are strangely accessible. Favored track: "Brute", "And in Truth", "High above a Grey Green Sea", "In Mirrors", "Among the Sef (Righteous, Pt. 2)", "To see more Light", "Part of Me Apart from You". |
| The Stooges Ready to Die | 3.0 |
| It is an album for rocking and it does rock. Who doesn't love them DD's? |
| Sunwolf Midnight Moon | 4.0 |
| Not the most thrilling work you will ever hear, but it is pretty and the artwork and music fit well together. |
| Akron/Family Sub Verses | 4.0 |
| While it doesn't hold my attention the whole way through, I really appreciate the mood shifts on this record. It starts out with a distinctly indie folk vibe and singsong vocal delivery if a bit negative lyrically. Then on track 5 after "Sand Talk" increases the tempo and bears some similarity to Battles' Gloss Drop (that crunchy beat and guitar melodies), the music gets more menacing with the vocal centric "Sometimes I" and then heavier with screeching guitars, thundering drums and shouted vocals on "Holy Boredom" (maybe leftovers from their recent collaboration with Swans?). "Sand Time" sees a similar vocal melody to the first track and shimmering synths. The tail end of the album lightens things up for a nostalgic ballad and then get meditative with "Samurai". I only have listened to so much of Akron/Family's backlog, but this record shows me that I should probably check out more. Favored tracks: "No Room", "Sand Talk", "Sometimes I", "Holy Boredom", "Sand Time". |
| Sudatsuga Eeid Syrojh Suhn | 4.0 |
| Track 1 goes from Karin style vox effects to the kind of ambience Ellen Meijers (Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssey/Abe's Exoddus) would create. Track 2 has a brief return of the warbling and has a stronger core melody and gorgeous accompaniments. |
| Queensryche Frequency Unknown (Tate's Queensryche) | 2.0 |
| Incredibly bland, but not quite as bad as #willpower. Two tracks actually had infectious melodies ("The Hands of God" and Give it to You"), but even they only have so much to offer. As far as the rerecordings, I haven't heard the original versions I can only go off of how bored I was. |
| Opul The Assailant | 3.5 |
| Doesn't have the catchiness of January's EP, but is an interesting enough listen. The associated artwork is gorgeous, though. Best track: "The Entire Fleet" |
| Gazelle Amber Valentine Devil's Tower I | 3.5 |
| will.i.am #Willpower | 1.5 |
| Jenny Hval Innocence Is Kinky | 3.5 |
| Emora Stars | 3.0 |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs Mosquito | 3.5 |
| The Flaming Lips The Terror | 3.5 |
| The Moth Gatherer A Bright Celestial Light | 3.5 |
| There are gorgeous moments hidden amongst the lull and drone.The downside is that when it isn't beautiful, it doesn't have very many interesting things going on and I found myself zoning out and forgetting that I was listening to music. |
| Barn Owl V | 4.0 |
| Cough/Windhand Reflection of the Negative (split) | 4.5 |
| I don't know why nobody added this before now (especially given that it is already available on amazon). Anyway, the Cough track is pretty snazzy and the Windhand tracks are absolutely amazing. |
| Charli XCX True Romance | 3.5 |
| All of the best material from this record was released last year. I still love "You're the One" as much as I did when it debuted, but most of the rest of this is only slightly above average. |
| Smohalla/Omega Centauri Tellur / Epitome | 4.5 |
| Ghost (SWE) Infestissumam | 2.5 |
| Mike Patton The Place Beyond the Pines | 4.0 |
| Mike Patton's orchestrations sound like a mix of Tomahawk's debut and King for a Day.... Fool for a Lifetime as inspired by Ennio Morricone (which, depending on how you look at it, could seem a bit redundant to say). I have been bouncing back and forth in my mindset as to whether to see this film or not, but given that the score is actually very engaging I may have to choose to despite my reservations over it being a mobstery movie. |
| The Knife Shaking the Habitual | 3.0 |
| "Wrap your arms around me", "Old Dreams Waiting to Be Realized", "Raging Lung" and "Fracking Fluid Injection" are worth hearing at least once. The rest of it just doesn't speak to me. |
| Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark English Electric | 3.5 |
| James Blake Overgrown | 3.5 |
| Device Device | 3.0 |
| I know how this will make me look, but I actually like Draiman's vocals. The problem is he keeps attaching himself to horrendously generic sounding music. |
| Adema Topple the Giants | 2.0 |
| Maria Minerva Bless | 2.5 |
| The Dear Hunter Migrant | 3.0 |
| Zozobra Savage Masters | 3.0 |
| IO Echo Ministry of Love | 4.0 |
| Fallujah Nomadic | 4.5 |
| I love it when I can really get into a metal band with a techy edge. :D |
| Nails Abandon All Life | 3.5 |
| Bonobo The North Borders | 3.5 |
| Memfis Silva | 3.5 |
| Bring Me the Horizon Sempiternal | 4.0 |
| Mister Bare Uncle Feces Flapshwölle | 3.0 |
| Amaranthe The Nexus | 2.5 |
| Kvelertak Meir | 3.0 |
| Wax Idols Discipline & Desire | 3.5 |
| John Zorn The Mysteries | 4.0 |
| Sevendust Black Out the Sun | 4.5 |
| While not quite as good as I was hoping based off the leading single, "Decay", Black out the Sun is a very strong album that takes SOME threads from Home, Animosity and Alpha and coalesces them into a whole that is not particularly unique given their backlog but is just enough to have its own identity. Between the jun junz, the acoustic passages ("Got a Feeling") and rising choruses ("Picture Perfect", "Mountain"), Black out the Sun is another Sevendust album. If you don't dig it, that is fine. Favored tracks: "Decay", "Picture Perfect", "Til Death", "Got a Feeling", "Mountain", "Nobody wants it", "Murder Bar" and "Black out the Sun" |
| The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation Roadburn | 4.5 |
| CHVRCHES Recover | 2.5 |
| Sudatsuga Hain-Ba Sun Hex | 3.5 |
| Personally, I don't like it as much as Blue Moon Saiyeed. Some of the voice effects on track 7 and elsewhere get to be too grating and this release definitely meanders more than the previous. Still, it remains the pretty instrumentation and infectious beat construction. |
| Clutch Earth Rocker | 3.5 |
| Lydia Devil | 2.5 |
| Nero di Marte Nero di Marte | 3.0 |
| Intronaut Habitual Levitations | 3.5 |
| Batillus Concrete Sustain | 3.5 |
| Foot Village Make Memories | 3.5 |
| A 3.9. If the opener didn't drag so long in its tail end, this would be a 4. They are a very interesting band with their 4 drummer/shouty vocals dynamic. |
| Colleen Green Sock It To Me | 3.5 |
| Despise (US) 2012 Recording | 3.5 |
| Inter Arma Sky Burial | 4.0 |
| Sound City Players Sound City: Real To Reel | 4.0 |
| Pretty damn good, but it is made for very specific environments, namely social (like driving around, a concert). This kind of record has to be a shared experience. Alone, it just gets kinda boring and sounds somewhat uninspired. That being said, the tracks featuring Josh Homme, "Centipede", "Mantra" and "Trick with no Sleeve" are the ones I found the most enjoyable. The Paul McCartney-Nirvana collab, "Cut me some slack", is also a highlight given how well the *ahem* old man and younguns meld together. |
| Save Us From The Archon Some Things We Carry, Always | 3.0 |
| Soap and Skin Sugarbread | 4.0 |
| David Bowie The Next Day | 3.5 |
| This is about a 3.8. It falls short on several levels, although there are five really good songs. |
| Ulfur White Mountain | 4.0 |
| The Delicious Bread Collection Tales from the Yeast Side | 2.0 |
| Boris Präparat | 4.0 |
| The Men New Moon | 2.5 |
| I am getting so sick of retro ass shit, but I guess the thing that bothers me most is the general aesthetic. |
| Waxahatchee Cerulean Salt | 3.0 |
| How to Destroy Angels Welcome Oblivion | 3.5 |
| I am starting to become quite nostalgic of SIGIL02 (HTDA) due to how An Omen_ and Welcome Oblivion have turned out. For all HTDA did wrong, it actually did sound fairly distinct in its own way. Welcome Oblivion strikes me as an attempt to make the project less solely Reznor under a different moniker, an appeal to the indie crowd with tracks like "Ice Age" and utilize rejected material from the Year Zero sessions. It is also showing that the best material on this record is the work that was on the An Omen_ EP. And that single, "How Long", is still an utterly wretched piece of pseudo gospel garbage.rIt is hard to tell if Reznor's glory days are over or if this release just falls short for me. If he follows through on his intent to do more NIN, I shall see which is true then. Until that point in time comes, I am just going to not bother with this record again. |
| Chelsea Light Moving Chelsea Light Moving | 3.5 |
| Northern Faces Southern Places | 3.5 |
| Blue Hawaii Untogether | 4.0 |
| Nubilum Tsantsa | 4.5 |
| This gives me hope that there will be more stuff that I will really get into this year. |
| Julianna Barwick Pacing | 4.5 |
| Long Distance Calling The Flood Inside | 3.5 |
| Just shy of a 4. There are just too many missteps in decisions over the course of the album for me to dig it. |
| Pig Destroyer Mass & Volume | 3.5 |
| Rotting Christ Kata Ton Demona Eaftou | 4.0 |
| Rorcal Vilagvege | 3.5 |
| JG/BC Sorath | 4.0 |
| Sally Shapiro Somewhere Else | 2.5 |
| There are some flares of Enigma-like (Voyageur era) samples and instrumentation on here, but it mostly just sounds like Euro dance pop. This is the type of release that teases you with ethereal intros just to roughly transition into a retro sounding beat. |
| Braid/Balance and Composure Split | 3.0 |
| Pristina Hopeless Godless | 3.0 |
| Old Wounds From Where We Came Is Where We'll Rest | 3.5 |
| Night Owls Wounds Again | 3.5 |
| Clint Mansell Stoker | 4.0 |
| Atoms for Peace Amok | 3.5 |
| It is always strange when the lead in single that takes you forever to grow to love winds up being the best track on an album by a longshot. "Default" and "Judge, Jury, Executioner" are the only tracks that aren't distinctly average from beginning to end. Maybe "Amok" is also alright. |
| Doldrums (CAN) Lesser Evil | 3.5 |
| This is one of those albums I will always feel conflicted on. There are some moments where I really love where it is going, but tracks like "Anomaly" and "Lesser Evil" really shit the bed for me. "Egypt", too, has its strong moments in the repeated verses but the non vocal sections just kinda wander. "Lost in Everyone" is a prime example of what this album can achieve at its best and what holds it back. There are some very interesting micro melodies on the track, but it is hurt by its seemingly aimless approach. |
| Steven Wilson The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) | 4.0 |
| Coilguns Commuters | 3.0 |
| "Commuters Part 2" and "Earthians" are interesting, drawn out tracks that take the listener on long, chuggy treks.. I found the rest of the album sleep-inducing. |
| Feared Furor Incarnatus | 3.5 |
| I really wanted to love this. That album cover is my favorite of the last few years. |
| Iceage You're Nothing | 2.0 |
| Devourment Conceived in Sewage | 3.0 |
| Puscifer Donkey Punch the Night | 3.0 |
| Archon (USA-NY) Ouroboros Collapsing | 3.5 |
| Drones for Queens Whitewashed Afterlife | 3.5 |
| While it is fairly average, there are moments that suggest a lot of potential for growth into a damn decent band. |
| Matmos The Marriage of True Minds | 4.0 |
| Portal Vexovoid | 4.5 |
| Eight Bells The Captain's Daughter | 4.5 |
| One of the better releases I have heard so far this year. This ladies on guitars and sir on drums trio is pretty snazzy at what they are doing. |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Push The Sky Away | 3.5 |
| As Angels Bleed As Angels Bleed | 3.5 |
| Botanist IV: Mandragora | 3.0 |
| Grayceon Pearl & The End of Days | 2.5 |
| Pissed Jeans Honeys | 3.0 |
| Despise (US) Desolate Single | 4.0 |
| A band from Minneapolis doing crusty shit and being generally batshit. What isn't there to like? |
| K-X-P II | 3.5 |
| Ramlord Crippled Minds, Sundered Wisdom | 2.5 |
| Rings of Saturn Dingir | 3.0 |
| The Bronx The Bronx (IV) | 3.5 |
| Grouper The Man Who Died in His Boat | 4.5 |
| My Bloody Valentine m b v | 2.5 |
| Jesus, you all are bitching about the artwork and it is far from the worst even released so far this year. As for the music, this is one of those early 90s bands I never even knew existed until early last month so I won't be surprised if I wind up feeling about their discog how I feel currently about this "New You" track (not that positive). |
| Mister Bare Uncle Feces Inuchan | 4.0 |
| Starts out a bit off, but the majority of "Inuchan" is a really hypnotic arrangement of noises. |
| Pomegranate Tiger Entities | 3.0 |
| The Robot Ate Me Circumstance | 3.0 |
| "Circumstance #2" really got my attention. The rest is pretty okay, though. I guess this stuff just really isn't my thing. |
| Erel Pilo Drone | 3.0 |
| Cult of Luna Vertikal | 3.0 |
| Tegan and Sara Heartthrob | 3.5 |
| Cakes Da Killa The Eulogy | 3.5 |
| Tomahawk Oddfellows | 4.0 |
| Le1f Fly Zone | 3.5 |
| hepa-Titus Follow Me | 2.5 |
| Really, really, really grimy, which I guess is what you expect from a musician who is a former bassist for both The Melvins and Tomahawk. I just hope future releases are little more fine tuned. The whole sounding like it was recorded in a trashcan aesthetic fits in an odd way, I guess, though. |
| The Robot Ate Me Bridge by Bridge | 3.0 |
| Torres Torres | 3.0 |
| Unru Demo MMXIII | 3.5 |
| Otep Hydra | 3.0 |
| This album clawed its way into a 3 for its lyrical concept and some of audio concepts (such as the recurring blaring horn in the first track). This could have made for a better, possibly terrifying album if the hydra metaphor wasn't so under utilized and the metal bits weren't so straight forward. If only the execution was up to par. |
| Trapt Reborn | 3.0 |
| Rotten Sound Species At War | 3.5 |
| Oliver Mechanical | 4.5 |
| I am honestly surprised that I wound up liking this as much as I did. Generally when Fantano gives a glowing review of something, I find myself indifferent and bored. There is a lot of throwback to 80s and 90s synths on here. |
| Riverside Shrine Of New Generation Slaves | 3.0 |
| Skagos Anarchic | 3.5 |
| Slander Magnets b/w Ghosts | 4.5 |
| Octopus Into the Void of Fear | 4.0 |
| Whoa?! A heavily Meshuggah influenced progressive metal band release that is only 26 minutes across 8 tracks? And gets right to the point rather than stretch songs out with fluff? Brevity is the soul of wit and I dig what these clowns are cookin'. Jun fuckin jun |
| Opul Personnel | 4.0 |
| While this release has its shakey moments, it has a nice progression to it and the songs at least in parts are quite memorable. |
| Yo La Tengo Fade | 3.0 |
| Gold Panda Trust | 4.0 |
| Newsted Metal | 4.5 |
| A pretty cool way to start off the year. I am glad this has been getting a lot of press. Newsted has been largely ignored since he and Metallica split ways 9 years ago. "Godsnake" is a bit on the weak side, but the other tracks are total jamz. If a full length comes out later this year, hopefully it will carry on the momentum of this release. |
| Encircling Sea A Forgotten Land | 3.5 |
| 2012 |
| Amiensus Restoration | 4.0 |
| The Odious Joint Ventures | 3.0 |
| Wow, the first track made me think I would like this. Then the rest of the album happened. Really don't see what the bloggy fuss is over. The techy-prog hard rock angle while interesting isn't really that well fleshed out on this release. |
| Black Table Sentinel | 3.0 |
| Rachel Zeffira The Deserters | 4.0 |
| Kesha Warrior | 4.0 |
| All India Radio Don't Leave | 4.5 |
| Indian Jewelry Peel It | 4.0 |
| Roniit In The Shadows | 3.0 |
| I respect for being a woman in a mostly man dominated genre of music, but holy hell her music does pretty much nothing for me. In fact the fifth track really rubbed me the wrong way. |
| Code Orange Love Is Love // Return To Dust | 3.5 |
| The Algorithm Polymorphic Code | 3.5 |
| Deftones Koi No Yokan | 3.0 |
| How to Destroy Angels An Omen | 4.0 |
| Holly Herndon Movement | 5.0 |
| Holy shit, this is something. It has been since July (Glass Cloud) that I have heard something that I have dug all the way through. "From May to Now" as it were. Yeah, this is best of 2012 material. |
| Lana Del Rey Paradise | 3.5 |
| Holy fuck, could she have made a more jingoistic record?! But musically it is really pretty. Well kinda. Actually, this is actually bad, worse than Born to Die. |
| Cumshot Cumshot | 4.0 |
| ABGOHARD 4o | 3.0 |
| Anastacia It's a Man's World | 3.0 |
| Mykki Blanco Cosmic Angel: The Illuminati Prince/ss | 3.0 |
| Charli XCX Super Ultra Mixtape | 4.0 |
| Pretty good mixtape, but not as good as her previous one this year. Also, apparently this wasn't written in two days. It is evident that she was pulling from a lot of contemporary pop sources on this, especially on "Cloud Aura" and "Glow". |
| Reso Tangram | 4.0 |
| Sylver Tongue Something Big | 4.5 |
| Another "holy fuck I love this". XD I really hope this catches on in some way. A lot of thought went into constructing "Something Big" and "Creatures", I can see. |
| Through Waves Santuário | 4.0 |
| Angel Haze Classick | 3.5 |
| I appreciate the fact that it is a short mixtape, but "Cleaning Out My Closet" is the only one on here that has real replay value. |
| Marie Dior 7 | 3.0 |
| Intervals In Time | 3.5 |
| Manowar The Lord of Steel | 3.5 |
| Neil Davidge Halo 4 Original Soundtrack | 4.0 |
| Pacing could be much better, but this is pretty entertaining. |
| Dethklok Dethalbum III | 3.5 |
| Stolen Babies Naught | 3.5 |
| Has some strong moments, but a lot of it feels bland. |
| Chelsea Wolfe Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs | 4.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! | 4.0 |
| Bat For Lashes The Haunted Man | 4.0 |
| While there aren't any moments that live up to the captivating "Siren Song", "Travelling Woman", "Moon and Moon" or "Sleep Alone" from her last LP, this one is pretty well done as a whole. The two singles are the best tracks, but they get the job done. |
| Sithu Aye Invent the Universe | 4.0 |
| Hell (USA) III | 4.0 |
| This is a really atmospheric and engaging droney black metal release. It does stretch a bit long, especially if you are focusing on it and not doing anything else. However, it is really good for background noise while you work. |
| The Birthday Massacre Hide and Seek | 3.5 |
| Sylosis Monolith | 3.5 |
| There are some really pretty moments on here that flourish into something beautiful (the opener and hidden track), but for the most part the "let's start out with thrashy heavy and incorporate some keyboards later on during the bridge" shtick that they make literally every track conform to gets old quick. |
| Freelance Whales Diluvia | 3.5 |
| Between the Buried and Me The Parallax II: Future Sequence | 4.0 |
| Flying Lotus Until the Quiet Comes | 4.0 |
| Ultraista Ultraista | 5.0 |
| Dum Dum Girls End of Daze | 3.5 |
| Car Bomb w^w^^w^w | 4.0 |
| KOPPS Fuck Jams | 4.0 |
| Caspian Waking Season | 4.5 |
| Projected Human | 3.0 |
| Has some engaging moments, but overall not one of the better releases from the members of Sevendust. |
| Down Down IV - Part I | 3.5 |
| Devin Townsend Project Epiclouder | 4.0 |
| Devin Townsend Project Epicloud | 4.5 |
| Grizzly Bear Shields | 4.5 |
| Mr. 3 Uranus -A Prelude to the Gymnopedist- | 4.5 |
| Another great EP that I somehow didn't take the time to listen to until now. |
| Amanda Palmer Theatre Is Evil | 4.0 |
| David Byrne and St. Vincent Love This Giant | 4.0 |
| Mister Bare Uncle Feces Purity Cum | 3.5 |
| Interesting enough trashy drone music. I would have liked a better balance between the porn theme and the noise, though. |
| Matchbox Twenty North | 3.5 |
| Jens Lekman I Know What Love Isn't | 4.0 |
| Cat Power Sun | 4.0 |
| Animal Collective Centipede Hz | 4.5 |
| Blut Aus Nord 777 - Cosmosophy | 3.5 |
| Mount Eerie Ocean Roar | 3.5 |
| Carla Kihlstedt & Matthias Bossi Niagara Falling: Tales for the Stage, III | 4.0 |
| In contrast to last year's Tales for the Stage part II, Niagara falling is very much a minimalist mood-piece. The 1st and 3rd tracks are short piano and mellotron interludes. The 2nd and 4th lengthy tracks contains audio samples of interviews about a street/town near the American side of the Niagara and how unspecified forces have caused it to lose its former glory. The music itself is melancholic and fairly beautifully constructed. |
| the GazettE Division | 4.0 |
| Katatonia Dead End Kings | 3.5 |
| I kinda feel meh after this album. The closer is amazing with its odd melodies, but most of the stuff that comes before it just isn't that engaging. |
| The Chariot One Wing | 3.5 |
| Swans The Seer | 4.0 |
| The Darkness Hot Cakes | 3.5 |
| Jessie Ware Devotion | 3.5 |
| Steve Vai The Story of Light | 3.5 |
| Abortion Autopsy Deep Throat | 3.5 |
| Black Light Burns The Moment You Realize You're Going To Fall | 4.0 |
| The Faceless Autotheism | 4.0 |
| In This Moment Blood | 4.0 |
| Polarization Chasing the Light | 4.0 |
| Starts out really strong, but the middle gets kinda loses me. |
| Abortion Autopsy Cellulite Fuck Fest | 3.5 |
| Interesting, but short. I do really dig the production on this. |
| Cloudkicker Fade | 3.5 |
| All India Radio Red Shadow Landing | 4.0 |
| Pitch Black Forecast Burning In Water... Drowning In Flame | 4.5 |
| Okay, so I am on the first track and hearing Devin Townsend in the background of Jason Popson's voice. That is a very pleasant surprise. In fact, I think I am going to like this more than I was expecting to. Mushroomhead meets Devy meets A7X. Brilliant. |
| Nachtmystium Silencing Machine | 3.5 |
| Purity Ring Shrines | 2.5 |
| Passion Pit Gossamer | 3.0 |
| Emilie Autumn Fight Like A Girl | 4.0 |
| Om Advaitic Songs | 4.5 |
| I'd Fuck Gia Paloma | 3.5 |
| Surprisingly good for a 5 minute grind release. The musician/s sound like they actually know what they are doing. Of course, there isn't a ton of novelty here. |
| Barrier Dark Days | 3.5 |
| Lozen Para Vida | 4.5 |
| Hellyeah Band of Brothers | 3.0 |
| Angel Haze Reservation | 3.0 |
| The Contortionist Intrinsic | 4.0 |
| Frank Ocean channel ORANGE | 4.5 |
| Naily L.I.E. | 3.0 |
| Sudatsuga Blue Moon Saiyeed | 4.0 |
| Azealia Banks Fantasea | 4.5 |
| Serj Tankian Harakiri | 3.5 |
| Aesop Rock Skelethon | 4.5 |
| Mission of Burma Unsound | 3.5 |
| Taurus (USA-OR) Life | 4.0 |
| Periphery Periphery II: This Time It's Personal | 3.5 |
| EPROM Metahuman | 3.5 |
| Glass Cloud The Royal Thousand | 4.0 |
| Deep Throat Cumageddon Deep Throat Cumageddon | 2.5 |
| Cyanide Ejaculation Cyanide Ejaculation | 3.0 |
| It is interesting that growling in this band is actually coming from a woman. A woman growling about this subject matter is surreal. |
| Gojira L'Enfant Sauvage | 3.0 |
| Linkin Park Living Things | 3.5 |
| Serebro Mama Lover | 4.0 |
| Deathspell Omega Drought | 3.5 |
| Die Mannequin Danceland | 3.0 |
| Overall, this as a okay to decent EP. On tracks "Candide" and "Die Snitch Die" it actually succeeds in being raucous and engaging at the same time and they are catchy enough to want to return to. The rest of it, though. It is raw. Really raw. On "Suffer" you can very easily hear vocalist Care attempt to squeak out the notes that she can't hit, whether it is because during recording she wore out her voice or they are just outside her range. The song itself is kinda bland, but those moments on vocals exemplify the negative side of this EP. And the (drunken?) attempts at singing by Tonyswar are just too awful to even be funny. |
| Ihsahn Eremita | 3.5 |
| Dying Fetus Reign Supreme | 3.5 |
| Justin Bieber Believe | 3.5 |
| Blood on the Dance Floor Evolution | 3.5 |
| Chelsea Grin Evolve | 4.0 |
| Devin Townsend Project By A Thread: Live in London 2011 | 4.5 |
| Ash Little Infinity EP | 4.0 |
| Rush Clockwork Angels | 3.5 |
| Metric Synthetica | 3.5 |
| Grace Potter and The Nocturnals The Lion The Beast The Beat | 3.5 |
| Charli XCX You're the One | 4.5 |
| This EP features two tracks plus remixes of both tracks that while containing simple + common melodies are rather infectious and have quite a bit of replay value. Only downside for me is that Nuclear Seasons is a bit too long for its own good. |
| Ne Obliviscaris Portal of I | 3.5 |
| f(x) Electric Shock | 4.0 |
| Mnemic Mnemesis | 4.5 |
| The Agonist Prisoners | 4.0 |
| Gnaw Their Tongues Eschatological Scatology | 4.0 |
| Circus Maximus Nine | 3.0 |
| It is pretty decent. I am definitely not within the target audience, though, as pretty much every aspect is not really gripping me. |
| Neil Young Americana | 3.0 |
| Fear Factory The Industrialist | 4.0 |
| Call Me No One Last Parade | 4.0 |
| Knife Party Rage Valley | 4.0 |
| Ahab The Giant | 4.0 |
| exist trace Virgin | 3.5 |
| Cherri Bomb This Is the End of Control | 3.5 |
| Garbage Not Your Kind of People | 4.0 |
| Charli XCX Heartbreaks and Earthquakes Mixtape | 4.5 |
| Ab-Soul Control System | 4.5 |
| Exotic Animal Petting Zoo Tree of Tongues | 4.5 |
| Cum Book Noise for Bitches | 3.0 |
| Emily and the Orgasm Addicts Animator | 4.0 |
| Marriages Kitsune | 4.5 |
| Brendon Small Galaktikon | 3.0 |
| Moonspell Alpha Noir | 3.0 |
| Marilyn Manson Born Villain | 3.0 |
| Torche Harmonicraft | 3.5 |
| Toro Y Moi June 2009 | 3.0 |
| Storm Corrosion Storm Corrosion | 4.0 |
| The Flaming Lips The Flaming Lips And Heady Fwends | 4.0 |
| Animal Collective Transverse Temporal Gyrus | 4.5 |
This EP has great spacey moments. The Deep voice midway into part two is rather chilling
with headphones. My only gripe is that some of the passages stretch on a little bit too
long. Doesn't really hurt the experience, but there will be a few moments where you will
find yourself thinking "ok, on with it". |
| Emmure Slave To The Game | 3.0 |
| Inverloch Dusk|Subside | 3.5 |
| Pelican Ataraxia/Taraxis | 4.5 |
| Nicki Minaj Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded | 4.0 |
| Faustcoven Hellfire and Funeral Bells | 3.0 |
| Kettlespider Avadante | 3.5 |
| The Hurd Ensemble Strange Lands | 4.5 |
| It is only a 6 minute, two track release, but it is very nicely textured. It has a very menacing and mischievious sound. |
| Meshuggah Koloss | 3.0 |
| Overkill The Electric Age | 4.0 |
| I the Mighty Karma Never Sleeps | 4.0 |
| Liam MMIX | 3.5 |
| The Machine Calmer Than You Are | 4.5 |
| Tessuroh For Queen | 3.0 |
| Just a collection of snippets of song ideas. The themes are interesting but are too brief to be compelling. |
| Esperanza Spalding Radio Music Society | 3.5 |
| Eths III | 3.5 |
| Malodorous Augury of the Aborted | 4.0 |
| Every Time I Die Ex Lives | 4.0 |
| Venetian Snares Fool the Detector | 4.0 |
| Dark New Day New Tradition | 3.5 |
| Sleigh Bells Reign of Terror | 3.5 |
| Knives Out! Black Mass Hysteria | 3.0 |
| As I figured when I heard the single back in March, this album is really bland and makes me wonder if my love of the Polkadot Cadaver debut is nothing more than fluke. And what is with this collaboration? DFD + Nothingface/Hellyeah? |
| The Omega Experiment The Omega Experiment | 4.0 |
| Beneath the Massacre Incongruous | 4.0 |
| of Montreal Paralytic Stalks | 4.0 |
| Eisbrecher Die Hölle Muss Warten | 3.5 |
| Carla Kihlstedt & Matthias Bossi Rabbit Rabbit Radio - Vol. 1 | 4.0 |
| John Zorn Mount Analogue | 4.0 |
| Grimes Visions | 4.5 |
| Lana Del Rey Born to Die | 3.5 |
| Lacuna Coil Dark Adrenaline | 3.0 |
| Abigail Williams Becoming | 4.5 |
| Attack Attack! This Means War | 4.0 |
| Venetian Snares Affectionate | 4.0 |
| Linda Killerbee Congo Cunt Crasher | 3.5 |
| Bilocate Summoning the Bygones | 3.5 |
| Animal Collective Honeycomb/Gotham | 4.0 |
| Doth Datura Wrightii | 4.0 |
| Xibalba Hasta La Muerte | 4.5 |
