| Four Tet Three | 3.5 |
| Carter Burwell The Banshees of Inisherin | 3.5 |
| Carter Burwell The Tragedy of Macbeth | 3.5 |
| Carter Burwell The Ballad of Buster Scruggs | 4.0 |
| Carter Burwell Carol | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Inside Llewyn Davis | 4.0 |
| Carter Burwell Fargo/Barton Fink | 4.0 |
| Hans Zimmer Dune: Part Two | 4.0 |
| Hans Zimmer The Creator | 2.5 |
| Steven Wilson The Harmony Codex (instrumentals) | 4.0 |
| MGMT Loss of Life | 3.5 |
| Taylor Swift Midnights | 2.0 |
| The Smile Wall of Eyes | 3.5 |
| Neun Welten Destrunken | 4.0 |
| Ulver Grieghallen 20180528 | 3.5 |
| Nature and Organisation Snow Leopard Messiah | 4.0 |
| Nature and Organisation Death in a Snow Leopard Winter | 4.0 |
| Arctic Monkeys The Car | 3.0 |
| Peter Gabriel i/o | 4.0 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross The Killer | 3.5 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Empire of Light OST | 3.5 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Bones and All OST | 4.0 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Waves OST | 3.5 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Patriots Day OST | 3.5 |
| Robbie Robertson Killers of the Flower Moon OST | 3.0 |
| Joe Hisaishi Kaguya-Hime no Monogatari Soundtrack | 4.0 |
| Joe Hisaishi The Wind Rises | 4.0 |
| Joe Hisaishi Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea | 3.5 |
| Joe Hisaishi Howl's Moving Castle | 4.0 |
| Joe Hisaishi Spirited Away | 4.5 |
| Joe Hisaishi Princess Mononoke | 4.5 |
| Joe Hisaishi Porco Rosso | 4.0 |
| Joe Hisaishi Kiki's Delivery Service | 3.5 |
| Joe Hisaishi My Neighbor Totoro | 4.0 |
| Joe Hisaishi Castle In The Sky | 4.0 |
| Joe Hisaishi Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind | 4.0 |
| Jon Brion Lady Bird OST | 4.0 |
| Paul Leonard-Morgan Dredd: Original Film Soundtrack | 4.0 |
| Howard Shore Hugo | 4.0 |
| Jon Brion Synecdoche, New York OST | 4.0 |
| Jon Brion Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind OS | 4.0 |
| Jon Brion Punch-Drunk Love OST | 4.0 |
| Aimee Mann Magnolia [OST] | 4.0 |
| Boygenius the rest | 3.0 |
| Sufjan Stevens Javelin | 3.5 |
| Steven Wilson The Harmony Codex | 3.5 |
| I have to respect how different The Harmony Codex is once again, which finds Steven Wilson continuing to evolve and experiment with new ideas beyond progressive rock with (mostly) great outcomes. If nothing else its noticeably more successful than the drastic change of The Future Bites, which I was pretty mixed on. THC is truly captivating throughout, sounding a bit similar to TFB but less poppy and a little more loose and sonically diverse. Theres a Jon Hassell sounding trumpet in the first track and just an odd structure overall there, and in Beautiful Scarecrow too that both emphasize electronic instrumentation in unconventional song structures. Then the following tracks are like slow Blackfield ballads meets Pink Floyd, and some prog stuff in Impossible Tightrope, all of which is great. The second half is a bit less consistent but still very good. The Harmony Codex is this nice droney ambient electronic epic and then kind of an art rock feel to the lush 10-minute album closer, Staircase, which is also great. I dont have much to say about the two songs in between those, like the Massive Attack inspired Actual Facts, or the pretty good one with Ninet Tayeb, Rock Bottom either. The clear highlights are What Life Brings, Economies of Scale, Impossible Tightrope, Harmony Codex, and Staircase. Overall not as excellent as anything he released before this decade, but a big improvement on TFB. 7.5 out of 10. |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Again | 3.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Barbie: The Album | 2.5 |
| The National Laugh Track | 4.0 |
| The National quickly release a follow-up to what is widely considered their weakest album since the debut, First Two Pages of Frankenstein from earlier this year. Laugh Track is a far more inspired, ambitious, and instrumentally layered record that proves they haven't lost it after all, their best since Sleep Well Beast. They even learned how to handle features on here, I guess third time's the charm. Highlights are Alphabet City, Weird Goodbyes, Laugh Track, Space Invader, and Smoke Detector. |
| Soundtrack (Film) Pacific Rim | 3.5 |
| Explosions In The Sky and David Wingo Prince Avalanche | 3.5 |
| Slowdive Everything is Alive | 4.0 |
| John Williams Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny | 3.0 |
| Half Moon Run Dark Eyes | 3.5 |
| Drab Majesty An Object In Motion | 4.0 |
| Ludwig Goransson Oppenheimer | 4.0 |
| Blur The Ballad of Darren | 3.5 |
| Local Natives Time Will Wait For No One | 3.0 |
| Local Natives Sour Lemon | 3.5 |
| John Williams The Fabelmans | 3.0 |
| Benjamin Wallfisch The Flash | 3.0 |
| Ludwig Goransson Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | 2.5 |
| The Album Leaf Into The Blue Again | 3.5 |
| The Album Leaf In A Safe Place | 3.5 |
| Sigur Ros ÁTTA | 3.5 |
| Essentially continuing from the orchestral and ambient qualities of Valtari and frontman Jonsi's recent solo album Obsidian instead of exploring new territory. Skel is my favorite, such a beautiful piece of music that sounds like something from a movie score. |
| Tenhi Valkama | 3.5 |
| As ambitious and musically diverse as any of their other releases, a welcome return! Its a bit long-winded and could have used more instrumental passages, but a melancholic and beautiful listen from beginning to end. |
| Kauan ATM Revised | 4.0 |
| Queens of the Stone Age In Times New Roman... | 3.0 |
| Their first dud in my opinion, with better production/mixing than Villains but sounding muddled and uninspired to me. No standouts or songs I loved, just a consistently fine rock album from beginning to end. |
| Natalie Holt Obi-Wan Kenobi | 3.0 |
| John Powell Solo: A Star Wars Story | 3.0 |
| The Smashing Pumpkins Oceania | 3.5 |
| Amethystium Isabliss | 3.5 |
| John Williams Home Alone | 4.0 |
| Tenhi Airut: Aamujen | 4.0 |
| Tenhi Airut : Ciwi | 4.0 |
| Cynic ReFocus | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Television) Wednesday | 3.5 |
| Alexandre Desplat Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio | 4.0 |
| Michael Giacchino The Batman | 4.0 |
| Michael Giacchino Spider-Man: No Way Home | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Soundtrack) | 2.5 |
| Hans Zimmer No Time to Die | 3.5 |
| Duster Stratosphere | 3.5 |
| Olafur Arnalds ...And They Have Escaped The Weight Of Darkness | 4.0 |
| Olafur Arnalds Broadchurch | 3.5 |
| Nothing The Great Dismal | 4.0 |
| Daniel Hart Peter Pan and Wendy | 3.5 |
| The National First Two Pages of Frankenstein | 3.0 |
| Even with tempered expectations after I Am Easy to Find, this foray into milquetoast indie folk was still pretty disappointing to hear from one of my top favorite bands for the past decade at least. ...Easy to Find for all its faults at least had a few great tracks that lived up to their classic period. This just sounds tepid and unimaginative too much of the time, and those features are a joke with what wastes they are. I thought Berninger's lyrics were lower quality on the last one but this album takes it another level lower. Sticksman Devendorf also gets very little to do that's impressive. Favs are T-Shirt, This Isn't Helping, Tropic Morning News, Ice Machines, and Your Mind is Not Your Friend, three of which were singles. |
| Beach House Become | 3.0 |
| Everything But the Girl Fuse | 3.0 |
| Okay but kind of forgettable. Nothing Left to Lose and Caution to the Wind are my favorite songs. Doesn't touch any of their past releases and not really sure what the point is. Overproduced too, especially Tracey Thorn's vocals. |
| Whirr Pipe Dreams | 3.5 |
| Swervedriver Mezcal Head | 3.5 |
| Catherine Wheel Chrome | 4.0 |
| Catherine Wheel Ferment | 3.5 |
| Ride Going Blank Again | 4.0 |
| The Haxan Cloak Beau is Afraid | 3.5 |
| The Haxan Cloak Beef | 3.5 |
| Real Estate Days | 4.0 |
| Susumu Yokota Symbol | 3.5 |
| DJ Shadow Preemptive Strike | 4.0 |
| DJ Shadow What Does Your Soul Look Like? | 4.0 |
| Boygenius the record | 3.5 |
| M83 Fantasy | 2.5 |
| Bloodmist Sheen | 2.0 |
| Mica Levi Under The Skin OST | 4.0 |
| Agnes Obel Aventine | 4.0 |
| The Beatles 1 | 4.0 |
| Rain Tree Crow Rain Tree Crow | 4.0 |
| Kate Bush The Red Shoes | 3.0 |
| Kate Bush The Sensual World | 4.0 |
| David Bowie Young Americans | 3.5 |
| David Bowie Diamond Dogs | 4.0 |
| Wings Band on the Run | 4.0 |
| Paul McCartney Ram | 4.0 |
| John Lennon John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band | 4.0 |
| Fleetwood Mac Rumours | 4.5 |
| Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac | 4.0 |
| Bernard Herrmann Taxi Driver: Original Soundtrack Recording | 4.0 |
| Bernard Herrmann Psycho | 4.0 |
| Bernard Herrmann Vertigo | 4.0 |
| Angelo Badalamenti Blue Velvet | 4.0 |
| Gorillaz Cracker Island | 3.5 |
| Palms Opening Titles / End Credits | 3.5 |
| Paramore This Is Why | 3.0 |
| Ryuichi Sakamoto 12 | 3.5 |
| Hammock Love in the Void | 4.0 |
| Riverside ID.Entity | 2.5 |
| Colin Stetson The Menu | 4.0 |
| Colin Stetson Hereditary | 4.0 |
| Cliff Martinez Copenhagen Cowboy | 3.5 |
| Cliff Martinez Too Old to Die Young | 3.5 |
| Skullcrusher Quiet the Room | 4.0 |
| Skullcrusher Storm in Summer | 3.5 |
| Skullcrusher Skullcrusher | 4.0 |
| Holy Fawn Dimensional Bleed | 4.0 |
| Holy Fawn The Black Moon | 3.5 |
| Holy Fawn Death Spells | 4.0 |
| Ethel Cain Preacher's Daughter | 3.5 |
| Nas Illmatic | 4.0 |
| Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians | 4.0 |
| Black Country, New Road Ants From Up There | 3.5 |
| Alvvays Blue Rev | 4.0 |
| Alvvays Antisocialites | 3.5 |
| Big Thief Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You | 4.0 |
| Big Thief U.F.O.F. | 3.5 |
| Myrkur Folkesange | 3.5 |
| Bohren und der Club of Gore Piano Nights | 3.5 |
| Bohren und der Club of Gore Dolores | 3.5 |
| The Sugarhill Gang Rapper's Delight | 4.0 |
| Tenhi Saivo | 3.5 |
| Tenhi Maaaet | 4.0 |
| Tenhi Vare | 4.0 |
| Tenhi Folk Aesthetic 1996-2006 | 4.0 |
| Jessica Curry Dear Esther | 4.0 |
| Chris Remo Gone Home: Original Soundtrack | 4.0 |
| Mogwai Mr. Beast | 3.5 |
| Mogwai Happy Songs for Happy People | 4.0 |
| Mogwai Rock Action | 3.5 |
| Nature and Organisation Beauty Reaps the Blood of Solitude | 4.0 |
| Brian Eno Foreverandevernomore | 3.0 |
| Haavard Haavard | 4.0 |
| John Carpenter Halloween Ends | 3.5 |
| Nick Cave and Warren Ellis Blonde (Soundtrack from the Netflix film) | 4.0 |
| Nick Cave and Warren Ellis Dahmer (Soundtrack) | 3.0 |
| Coldplay Music of the Spheres | 1.5 |
| Disasterpeace Marcel the Shell with Shoes On OST | 4.0 |
| Disasterpeace Bodies Bodies Bodies OST | 3.0 |
| Disasterpeace Under the Silver Lake OST | 3.5 |
| Lou Reed and Metallica Lulu | 1.0 |
| My Morning Jacket Okonokos | 4.5 |
| Elvis Presley Elvis: 30 #1 Hits | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Elvis | 3.0 |
| Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd Mysterious Skin: Music From The Film | 3.5 |
| Elvis Perkins The Blackcoat's Daughter | 4.0 |
| American Football Rare Symmetry / Fade into You | 4.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Closure/Continuation | 4.0 |
| The long awaited return of Porcupine Tree has finally come, and the band haven't missed a step during their long hiatus. This isn't to say there's anything quite as mind-blowing as their best work however; C/C essentially comes across like seven random new songs in the vein of Nil Recurring and The Incident without much of a change. There is virtually no influence of frontman Steven Wilson's solo career, even his latest work (thankfully), and sounds like it could have easily been released a decade ago. The standout players are Gavin Harrison on drums, one of the all time greats, and Richard Barbieri's keyboard work. No surprise that the longest and most complex pieces, "Harridan," "Dignity," and "Chimera's Wreck" happened to be the standout tracks. C/C isn't groundbreaking, but it sees one of the finest British rock bands return in solid form and show their influences how it's done. |
| Foals Life Is Yours | 3.0 |
| Danny Elfman Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | 3.5 |
| Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough The Northman | 4.0 |
| Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow Men | 3.5 |
| Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow Devs | 4.0 |
| Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow Annihilation | 4.0 |
| The Smile A Light For Attracting Attention | 4.0 |
| Sounds to me like another Radiohead album essentially, most similar to HTTT than any others with a little AMSP and Thom Yorke's Anima thrown in there. The slower songs in the middle of the track list are the highlights. |
| Depeche Mode Songs of Faith and Devotion | 4.0 |
| Depeche Mode Black Celebration | 4.0 |
| Kendrick Lamar Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers | 2.5 |
| Kendrick Lamar DAMN. Collector's Edition | 1.0 |
| John Carpenter Firestarter (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | 3.0 |
| Tangerine Dream Firestarter OST | 3.0 |
| Mikael Akerfeldt Clark (Soundtrack from the Netflix series) | 4.0 |
| The best thing Akerfeldt has been part of in the decade since Storm Corrosion, one reason being that he finally shuts up with the oversinging and made a wonderful instrumental soundtrack traversing all manner of musical styles like symphonic/psych/progressive rock, jazz, funk, chamber, and ambient. Some parts remind me of Opeth's Pale Communion. All in all an excellent album that signifies great things for a hopefully continuing solo career. |
| Arcade Fire WE | 2.5 |
| Warpaint Radiate Like This | 3.0 |
| Destroyer LABYRINTHITIS | 3.5 |
| Dead Can Dance Toward the Within | 4.0 |
| Mazzy Star So Tonight That I Might See | 4.0 |
| Sylvaine Nova | 3.5 |
| Gang of Youths Angel in Realtime | 3.7 |
| Tears for Fears The Tipping Point | 3.2 |
| Tame Impala The Slow Rush B-Sides and Remixes | 3.5 |
| Beach House Once Twice Melody | 4.0 |
| Bonobo Fragments | 3.3 |
| Vaura Vista of Deviant Anatomies | 2.5 |
| Gang of Youths Total Serene | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Licorice Pizza | 4.0 |
| Nick Cave and Warren Ellis La Panthere Des Neiges | 3.5 |
| The Ocean Precambrian | 4.0 |
| Rosetta A Determinism of Morality | 3.6 |
| Rosetta Wake/Lift | 4.0 |
| Rosetta The Galilean Satellites | 4.2 |
| Cult of Luna Somewhere Along the Highway | 4.2 |
| Cult of Luna Salvation | 4.0 |
| Cult of Luna The Beyond | 3.7 |
| Cult of Luna Cult of Luna | 3.5 |
| Beach House Once Twice Melody: Chapter Three | 3.7 |
| Kauan Ice Fleet | 3.7 |
| Kauan Kaiho | 4.0 |
| Jonny Greenwood The Power of the Dog | 3.5 |
| Jonny Greenwood Spencer | 3.7 |
| Beach House Once Twice Melody: Chapter Two | 3.6 |
| Bo Burnham Inside (The Songs) | 1.5 |
| Bohren und der Club of Gore Patchouli Blue | 3.5 |
| Anna von Hausswolff All Thoughts Fly | 3.5 |
| Celtic Frost Monotheist | 3.5 |
| In the Woods... Strange in Stereo | 4.0 |
| In the Woods... Omnio | 4.2 |
| In the Woods... Heart of the Ages | 3.5 |
| Green Carnation Light of Day, Day of Darkness | 3.8 |
| The 3rd and the Mortal Painting on Glass | 4.0 |
| The 3rd and the Mortal Tears Laid in Earth | 3.5 |
| Tiamat Wildhoney | 4.0 |
| Theatre Of Tragedy Aégis | 4.0 |
| Theatre Of Tragedy Velvet Darkness They Fear | 3.5 |
| Novembre Dreams D'Azur | 4.0 |
| Cynic Ascension Codes | 3.5 |
| BRUIT The Machine Is Burning... | 4.0 |
| Iosonouncane Ira | 3.5 |
| The White Stripes Elephant | 3.3 |
| The White Stripes White Blood Cells | 3.5 |
| Tom Waits Night on Earth | 3.0 |
| Tom Waits Rain Dogs | 3.5 |
| Leonard Cohen Songs of Love and Hate | 4.0 |
| Leonard Cohen Songs of Leonard Cohen | 4.0 |
| Wu-Tang Clan Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) | 4.0 |
| Gazpacho Firebird | 3.5 |
| Gazpacho When Earth Lets Go | 3.2 |
| Gazpacho Bravo | 3.5 |
| Bonobo Dial 'M' For Monkey | 3.5 |
| Bonobo Animal Magic | 3.7 |
| Swallow the Sun Moonflowers | 4.0 |
| Jon Hopkins Music for Psychedelic Therapy | 3.3 |
| Trophy Scars Astral Pariah | 3.0 |
| Beach House Once Twice Melody: Chapter One | 4.0 |
| Beach House Depression Cherry | 3.7 |
| Opeth The Throat Of Winter | 4.0 |
| Toby Driver The Slowly Self-Coalescing Album of Vagrant... | 3.0 |
| Radiohead KID A MNESIA | 4.0 |
| Hammock Elsewhere | 3.5 |
| Ulver Scary Muzak | 3.5 |
| Jonsi Obsidian | 3.5 |
| Grouper Shade | 3.5 |
| Grouper A I A: Alien Observer | 4.2 |
| Grouper A I A: Dream Loss | 4.0 |
| Dream Theater A View from the Top of the World | 2.8 |
| My Morning Jacket My Morning Jacket | 3.0 |
| The War On Drugs I Don't Live Here Anymore | 3.5 |
| Mastodon Hushed and Grim | 3.7 |
| Kayo Dot Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike | 2.7 |
| A spirited tribute to the European gothic metal bands of the late 1980s and '90s that Driver and co. grew up being inspired by. The wonky and largely emotionally cold nature of Blasphemy still lingers in this follow-up, as it never quite gets off the ground for me. There's just too much disjointedness and throwback metal songwriting to be fully effective. There are some nice moments throughout, and the return of bass is very welcome. "Void in Virgo (The Nature of Sacrifice)" is the highlight. |
| Wojciech Kilar Bram Stoker's Dracula | 4.2 |
| The World Is a Beautiful Place... Illusory Walls | 3.5 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds B-Sides and Rarities (Part II) | 4.0 |
| Hans Zimmer Dune | 4.0 |
| John Carpenter Halloween Kills | 3.5 |
| Amon Tobin How Do You Live | 3.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine A Beginner's Mind | 3.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens Convocations | 2.5 |
| Thrice Horizons/East | 3.0 |
| Thrice Deeper Wells | 3.0 |
| Turnover Good Nature | 3.5 |
| Big Red Machine How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last? | 4.0 |
| Plenty more expansive than the debut, with a longer track list than either The National or Bon Iver have done before. I wish there was more Justin singing as opposed to having so many features akin to a Gorillaz album. Maybe not a very interesting take, but I like this about the same as the debut from 2018. The ratio of forgettable filler to greatness is around the same for both, this just has more of everything. Might slightly prefer this just for the sheer variety, whereas the debut was more uniform. Like with that one, I heard the whole album at once without having listened to any pre-release singles before, which are among the highlights. Favs are "Latter Days," "Phoenix," "Ghost of Cincinnati," "Mimi," "Magnolia," and "Brycie." |
| Musk Ox Inheritance | 3.8 |
| Alora Crucible Thymiamatascension | 4.2 |
| Love this, major Felt and The Durutti Column Vibes but very Toby Driver of course. Channeling his best solo work, They Are the Shield, he takes on another new identity with Alora Crucible for a truly engrossing work that emphasizes space, silence, texture, and nocturnal atmospheres. The loudness of his main bands is nowhere to be found here, existing in an abstract space of otherworldly beauty. One of the highlights of 2021. Favorite piece: "Livonomancy in Jasper." |
| Ulver Hexahedron | 3.7 |
| Deafheaven Infinite Granite | 4.5 |
| Deafheaven continue evolving and release their most consistently impressive and impactful record yet. Gorgeous musical passages and walls of sound are abound, with the band taking more inspiration from shoegaze and post-rock while still sounding uniquely like themselves. George Clark's clean singing voice has a wonderful, haunting goth rock quality to it, perhaps due to the reverb and vocal effects. Much of the production is dense and various instrumental elements blend together beautifully. It's not easy to pick favorites, but a few would be "In Blur," "Great Mass of Color," "Other Language," and "Mombasa." |
| Lantlos Wildhund | 3.5 |
| Daniel Hart The Green Knight | 4.0 |
| Daniel Hart A Ghost Story (Original Soundtrack Album) | 4.0 |
| Kayo Dot Purity | 3.0 |
| Amorphous Androgynous Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness | 3.3 |
| Amorphous Androgynous Alice in Ultraland | 3.5 |
| Dario Marianelli Jane Eyre | 4.0 |
| Dario Marianelli Pride & Prejudice | 4.0 |
| Modest Mouse The Golden Casket | 3.2 |
| Sweet Trip A Tiny House, In Secret Speeches, Polar Equals | 5.0 |
| Enchanting from beginning to end, and worth the 12 year wait. Displays a masterful use of various instrumental components, the electronic/digital elements balanced perfectly with acoustic guitars and stunning bass lines coalescing into pure musical ecstasy. Each song is its own little masterpiece, flourishing with inspiration and creativity. I wouldn't be surprised if it took years and years to make this, though it seems effortless too. Easily my favorite new album in years and sounds like music made just for me. Great for spring and summer, a perfect marriage of blissful 60s psychedelic pop rock and ethereal ambient electronic music, also with Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine influences. Their best work I'm thinking, perhaps tied with the recent remastered You Will Never Know Why with bonus tracks. A must-listen. |
| Cliff Martinez Solaris | 4.0 |
| Peter Kyed and Peter Hughes Valhalla Rising | 3.5 |
| The Contortionist Language (Rediscovered Edition) | 4.5 |
| The Contortionist Exoplanet (Redux) | 4.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END! | 3.4 |
| Junkie XL Godzilla vs. Kong | 3.0 |
| Junkie XL Zack Snyder’s Justice League | 2.5 |
| Nick Cave and Warren Ellis Carnage | 4.0 |
| Julien Baker Little Oblivions | 3.5 |
| Hayley Williams FLOWERS for VASES / descansos | 3.2 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Soul OST | 4.0 |
| Coil Black Antlers | 3.5 |
| Coil Love's Secret Domain | 3.0 |
| Mark Mothersbaugh Thor: Ragnarok | 3.5 |
| Alan Silvestri Avengers: Endgame | 3.5 |
| Alan Silvestri Avengers: Infinity War | 3.5 |
| Alan Silvestri Ready Player One | 3.0 |
| Michael Giacchino Coco | 3.5 |
| Michael Giacchino Spider-Man: Far From Home | 3.0 |
| Michael Giacchino Spider-Man: Homecoming | 3.0 |
| Michael Giacchino Incredibles 2 | 3.5 |
| Michael Giacchino War for the Planet of the Apes | 3.5 |
| Michael Giacchino Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | 3.5 |
| Michael Giacchino Star Trek Beyond | 3.0 |
| Michael Giacchino Inside Out | 3.5 |
| Michael Giacchino Star Trek Into Darkness | 3.0 |
| Michael Giacchino Up | 4.0 |
| Michael Giacchino Star Trek | 3.5 |
| Michael Giacchino Ratatouille | 4.0 |
| Michael Giacchino Lost: Season 1 | 4.0 |
| Ice Cube The Predator | 3.5 |
| Ice Cube Death Certificate | 4.0 |
| Ice Cube AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Video Game) Mass Effect | 3.5 |
| Henry Jackman Captain America: Civil War | 3.0 |
| Bjork Selmasongs | 3.5 |
| Michael Giacchino Doctor Strange | 3.0 |
| Christophe Beck Ant-Man | 3.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Avengers Assemble | 3.0 |
| Steven Wilson The Future Bites | 2.8 |
| A bold reinvention for the modern progressive rock giant that will polarize his audience. |
| Steven Wilson The Future Bites (Instrumentals) | 3.5 |
| Steven Wilson To the Bone (Instrumentals) | 5.0 |
| Steven Wilson Hand. Cannot. Erase. (Instrumentals) | 5.0 |
| Steven Wilson The Raven That Refused to Sing (Instrumentals) | 4.5 |
| Porcupine Tree Fear of a Blank Planet (Instrumentals) | 5.0 |
| Coldplay Ghost Stories (Instrumentals) | 3.5 |
| James Newton Howard A Hidden Life | 3.5 |
| Thomas Newman Spectre | 3.0 |
| Thomas Newman Bridge of Spies | 3.5 |
| Thomas Newman Skyfall | 3.5 |
| Thomas Newman American Beauty | 4.0 |
| Thomas Newman Shawshank Redemption | 4.5 |
| Flying Lotus Flamagra Instrumentals | 4.2 |
| Flying Lotus You're Dead! Instrumentals | 3.8 |
| Tangerine Dream Thief OST | 3.5 |
| Tangerine Dream Legend - OST | 3.0 |
| Sweet Trip Walkers Beware! We Drive Into The Sun / Stab/Slow | 4.2 |
| Joris de Man Horizon Zero Dawn (Original Soundtrack) | 3.5 |
| Hans Zimmer Wonder Woman 1984 | 3.0 |
| Alexandre Desplat The Midnight Sky | 3.5 |
| Taylor Swift Evermore | 2.5 |
| The Avalanches We Will Always Love You | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson The B-Sides Collection | 2.7 |
| Sigur Ros Odin’s Raven Magic | 3.0 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Mank OST | 3.5 |
| Ichiko Aoba Adan no Kaze | 3.5 |
| Ludwig Goransson Tenet | 4.0 |
| Grimes Miss Anthropocene | 3.0 |
| Danny Elfman Alice in Wonderland | 3.0 |
| Danny Elfman The Corpse Bride | 3.5 |
| Danny Elfman Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | 3.5 |
| Danny Elfman Spider-Man 2 | 4.0 |
| Danny Elfman Spider-Man | 3.5 |
| Danny Elfman Men in Black | 4.0 |
| Danny Elfman Mars Attacks! | 3.5 |
| Danny Elfman Mission Impossible | 3.5 |
| Danny Elfman The Nightmare Before Christmas | 4.2 |
| Danny Elfman Batman Returns | 4.0 |
| Danny Elfman Edward Scissorhands | 4.0 |
| Danny Elfman Darkman | 3.5 |
| Danny Elfman Batman | 4.0 |
| Danny Elfman Beetlejuice | 4.0 |
| John Murphy 28 Weeks Later Soundtrack | 3.5 |
| John Murphy Sunshine (Soundtrack) | 4.0 |
| John Murphy 28 Days Later Soundtrack | 4.0 |
| Children of Bodom Halo of Blood | 3.5 |
| Children of Bodom Relentless Reckless Forever | 2.5 |
| Children of Bodom Blooddrunk | 2.5 |
| Children of Bodom Are You Dead Yet? | 3.0 |
| Children of Bodom Hate Crew Deathroll | 3.5 |
| Children of Bodom Follow the Reaper | 4.0 |
| Children of Bodom Hatebreeder | 4.0 |
| Children of Bodom Something Wild | 3.5 |
| Nick Cave and Warren Ellis Hell Or High Water | 4.0 |
| Nick Cave and Warren Ellis The Road | 4.0 |
| Nick Cave and Warren Ellis The Assasination of Jesse James | 4.0 |
| Nick Cave and Warren Ellis The Proposition | 4.0 |
| Benjamin Wallfisch The Invisible Man | 3.5 |
| Alexandre Desplat Little Women | 3.5 |
| Alexandre Desplat The Shape of Water | 3.5 |
| Alexandre Desplat Godzilla | 3.5 |
| Alexandre Desplat The Grand Budapest Hotel | 4.0 |
| Alexandre Desplat The Tree of Life Original Soundtrack | 3.5 |
| Alexandre Desplat Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 | 4.0 |
| Alexandre Desplat Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part.1 | 4.0 |
| Alexandre Desplat The Curious Case of Benjamin Button | 3.5 |
| D. Tiffany S/T | 3.7 |
| Andrew Bayer If It Were You, We'd Never Leave | 3.5 |
| Blue Sky Black Death Glaciers | 3.5 |
| Blue Sky Black Death NOIR | 3.5 |
| Boris Blenn Berlin Future Lounge | 4.0 |
| Jaga Jazzist One-Armed Bandit | 3.3 |
| Jaga Jazzist What We Must | 3.9 |
| Emancipator Safe In The Steep Cliffs | 3.5 |
| Emancipator Soon It Will Be Cold Enough | 4.0 |
| Telefon Tel Aviv Fahrenheit Fair Enough | 3.0 |
| Soulstice (USA-CA) Illusion | 4.0 |
| Guitar Sunkissed | 4.0 |
| The Orb Orbus Terrarum | 3.2 |
| The Orb U.F.Orb | 3.5 |
| Pram Across the Meridian | 3.5 |
| Pram Dark Island | 4.0 |
| Pram The Museum of Imaginary Animals | 4.0 |
| Pram North Pole Radio Station | 3.5 |
| Photek Solaris | 3.5 |
| Photek Modus Operandi | 3.0 |
| Moby 18 | 3.5 |
| Moby Play | 3.5 |
| The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots | 4.0 |
| The Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin | 4.0 |
| Sugar Plant Dryfruit | 3.5 |
| Sugar Plant Happy/Trance Mellow | 3.5 |
| Susumu Yokota Sakura | 4.0 |
| Disco Inferno D.I. Go Pop | 2.5 |
| Underworld A Hundred Days Off | 3.0 |
| Underworld Beaucoup Fish | 3.0 |
| Underworld Second Toughest in the Infants | 3.5 |
| Underworld dubnobasswithmyheadman | 3.5 |
| Technicolor Normal Control Range (Bliss Out Vol. 16) | 3.5 |
| Technicolor One Touch Test Strip | 4.0 |
| BT This Binary Universe | 4.0 |
| BT Movement In Still Life | 4.0 |
| BT ESCM | 3.5 |
| BT Ima | 3.5 |
| Adam F Colours | 3.5 |
| Fishmans 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare | 3.5 |
| Fishmans Uchuu Nippon Setagaya | 4.0 |
| Fishmans Long Season | 4.0 |
| Fishmans Kuuchuu Camp | 3.5 |
| Enslaved Frost | 4.0 |
| Cocteau Twins Lullabies to Violaine | 4.0 |
| Perry Blake California | 4.0 |
| Perry Blake Perry Blake | 3.8 |
| Lewis Hawaiian Breeze | 3.0 |
| Lewis L'Amour | 3.7 |
| Jill Scott Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1 | 3.7 |
| Erykah Badu Baduizm | 4.0 |
| Hybrid (UK) Wide Angle | 3.6 |
| David Lynch Inland Empire OST | 3.0 |
| David Lynch Eraserhead OST | 4.0 |
| Angelo Badalamenti Twin Peaks: Music From Season 2 And More | 4.0 |
| Angelo Badalamenti Mulholland Drive | 4.0 |
| Angelo Badalamenti Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me | 4.0 |
| Julee Cruise Floating into the Night | 4.0 |
| Galaxie 500 On Fire | 3.3 |
| Galaxie 500 Today | 3.0 |
| This Mortal Coil It'll End in Tears | 3.5 |
| Swing Out Sister Kaleidoscope World | 3.0 |
| Swing Out Sister It's Better to Travel | 3.0 |
| Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls | 4.2 |
| Pat Metheny Bright Size Life | 4.0 |
| Adramelech Psychostasia | 4.0 |
| John Cage 4'33'' | 2.5 |
| Paradise Lost Paradise Lost | 3.5 |
| Paradise Lost Symbol Of Life | 3.0 |
| Paradise Lost Believe In Nothing | 2.5 |
| Paradise Lost Host | 2.5 |
| Paradise Lost Obsidian | 3.5 |
| Burial, Four Tet and Thom Yorke Her Revolution/His Rope | 3.5 |
| Our Oceans While Time Disappears | 3.0 |
| Blackfield For The Music | 2.5 |
| Sigur Ros Sigur Ros Presents Liminal Sleep | 3.0 |
| Julien Face of God | 3.0 |
| Everything But the Girl Like the Deserts Miss the Rain | 3.5 |
| Stereolab Not Music | 3.2 |
| Stereolab Chemical Chords | 3.5 |
| Stereolab Margerine Eclipse | 3.6 |
| Stereolab Sound-Dust | 4.0 |
| Stereolab Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night | 4.2 |
| Stereolab Dots and Loops | 4.5 |
| Stereolab Emperor Tomato Ketchup | 3.5 |
| Stereolab Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements | 3.0 |
| Joni Mitchell Blue | 4.0 |
| Gustavo Santaolalla The Last of Us Part II OST | 4.0 |
| Gustavo Santaolalla The Last of Us, Volume 2 OST | 4.0 |
| Gustavo Santaolalla The Last of Us OST | 4.5 |
| Bambara Stray | 3.5 |
| Turnover Peripheral Vision | 4.0 |
| Figueroa The World As We Know It | 3.5 |
| Phoebe Bridgers If We Make It Through December | 3.5 |
| Phoebe Bridgers Copycat Killer | 3.0 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Magic Oneohtrix Point Never | 3.5 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Love in the Time of Lexapro | 3.5 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never The Station | 3.5 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Age Of | 3.5 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Garden of Delete | 4.0 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Commissions II | 3.5 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Commissions I | 3.5 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never R Plus Seven | 4.1 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Replica | 4.2 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Returnal | 3.8 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Rifts | 4.0 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never The Fall Into Time | 3.5 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Good Time | 3.5 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Russian Mind | 3.7 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Zones Without People | 3.5 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Ruined Lives | 3.5 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never A Pact Between Strangers | 3.5 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Transmat Memories | 3.0 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Betrayed in the Octagon | 3.5 |
| Gorillaz Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez | 3.8 |
| Matt Berninger Serpentine Prison | 3.5 |
| Jonsi Shiver | 2.3 |
| Sufjan Stevens The Ascension | 2.5 |
| Deftones Ohms | 3.7 |
| Fleet Foxes Shore | 4.1 |
| Gazpacho Fireworker | 3.0 |
| Ulver Flowers of Evil | 3.8 |
| A laid back extension of their '80s goth/synthpop style with more guitars and steady rhythms pretty much from beginning to end. While the unpredictable shifts in tone and experimentation from The Assassination of Julius Caesar is missed, this is still a solid effort from the wolves of Norway. Flowers of Evil is a dark yet inviting "pop" album and a highlight of 2020 music. |
| Kelly Lee Owens Inner Song | 3.0 |
| Tim Bowness Late Night Laments | 3.5 |
| Tim Bowness/Peter Chilvers Modern Ruins | 3.4 |
| Taylor Swift Folklore | 3.3 |
| Logic No Pressure | 3.0 |
| Jonsi We Bought a Zoo | 3.3 |
| Jonsi Go | 3.7 |
| Jonsi and Alex Lost and Found | 3.0 |
| Jonsi and Alex Riceboy Sleeps | 4.0 |
| Jonsi and Alex All Animals | 3.5 |
| Kelly Bailey Half-Life 2: Episode Two | 4.0 |
| Kelly Bailey Half-Life 2: Episode One | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Video Game) The Music of Red Dead Redemption 2 | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Video Game) Mass Effect 3 | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Video Game) The Music of Grand Theft Auto V | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Video Game) Resident Evil 6 Original Soundtrack | 1.5 |
| Soundtrack (Television) True Detective (Season 2) | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Television) The Legend of Korra: Book One | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Television) Songs in the Key of X | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Drive OST | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Scott Pilgrim vs. The World | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Inglourious Basterds Motion Picture Soundtrack | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Watchmen: Music from the Motion Picture | 3.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Nightmare Revisited | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Nightmare Before Christmas: 2-Disc Special Edition | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Silent Hill The Movie Soundtrack | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Kill Bill Vol. 2 Original Soundtrack | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) The Royal Tenenbaums | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) O Brother, Where Art Thou? | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) The Big Lebowski | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Jackie Brown | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Lost Highway | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Forrest Gump | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Reservoir Dogs: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Halloween III - Season of the Witch | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Blade Runner | 4.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Rosemary's Baby | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 2 | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) The Terminator | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) 2001: A Space Odyssey | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) The Graduate Soundtrack | 3.5 |
| James Newton Howard King Kong | 3.5 |
| James Newton Howard Nightcrawler | 3.5 |
| Hans Zimmer Thin Red Line | 4.0 |
| Hans Zimmer Matchstick Men | 3.5 |
| Hans Zimmer The Lion King | 4.0 |
| Hans Zimmer Gladiator: Music from the Motion Picture | 4.0 |
| Hans Zimmer The Dark Knight: Original Motion Picture Soundtrac | 4.0 |
| Hans Zimmer The Amazing Spider-Man 2 | 2.0 |
| Hans Zimmer Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | 3.5 |
| Hans Zimmer Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | 3.5 |
| Hans Zimmer The Simpsons Movie: The Music | 3.5 |
| Hans Zimmer The Lone Ranger | 2.5 |
| Hans Zimmer Sherlock Holmes | 3.5 |
| Hans Zimmer Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | 3.0 |
| Jerry Goldsmith Mulan | 3.5 |
| Jerry Goldsmith Gremlins | 3.5 |
| Jerry Goldsmith Poltergeist | 3.5 |
| Jerry Goldsmith Alien | 4.0 |
| Jerry Goldsmith The Omen | 4.0 |
| Jerry Goldsmith Chinatown | 4.0 |
| Howard Shore The Lord of the Rings: Complete Trilogy | 5.0 |
| Howard Shore The Return of the King: The Complete Recordings | 4.5 |
| Howard Shore The Two Towers: The Complete Recordings | 4.5 |
| Howard Shore The Fellowship of the Ring: The Complete Recording | 4.5 |
| Howard Shore Spotlight | 3.5 |
| Howard Shore The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies | 3.5 |
| Howard Shore The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Soundtrack | 3.5 |
| Howard Shore The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey | 4.0 |
| Howard Shore A History of Violence | 3.5 |
| Howard Shore The Departed | 4.0 |
| John Williams Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker | 3.5 |
| John Williams The Post | 3.5 |
| John Williams Star Wars: The Last Jedi | 3.5 |
| John Williams Star Wars: The Force Awakens | 4.0 |
| John Williams Lincoln | 4.0 |
| John Williams Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | 3.5 |
| John Williams The War of the Worlds | 3.5 |
| John Williams Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith | 3.5 |
| John Williams Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | 4.0 |
| John Williams Catch Me If You Can (Soundtrack) | 3.5 |
| John Williams Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones | 3.5 |
| John Williams Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | 3.5 |
| John Williams Minority Report | 3.5 |
| John Williams A.I.: Artificial Intelligence | 4.0 |
| John Williams Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | 4.0 |
| John Williams Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace | 3.5 |
| John Williams Star Wars OST | 4.0 |
| John Williams Saving Private Ryan | 4.0 |
| John Williams Jurassic Park: The Lost World | 4.0 |
| John Williams Schindler's List | 4.0 |
| John Williams Jurassic Park | 4.0 |
| John Williams Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade | 4.0 |
| John Williams E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial | 4.0 |
| John Williams Empire of the Sun (Soundtrack) | 3.5 |
| John Williams Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | 4.0 |
| John Williams Raiders of the Lost Ark | 4.5 |
| John Williams Star Wars, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi | 4.0 |
| John Williams Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back | 4.5 |
| John Williams Close Encounters of the Third Kind | 4.0 |
| John Williams Superman | 4.0 |
| John Williams Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope | 4.5 |
| John Williams Jaws | 4.0 |
| Graeme Revell Sin City Soundtrack | 3.5 |
| Graeme Revell The Crow Original Score | 3.5 |
| Marco Beltrami A Quiet Place | 3.5 |
| Marco Beltrami Logan | 4.0 |
| Marco Beltrami World War Z | 2.0 |
| Marco Beltrami The Hurt Locker | 3.0 |
| Marco Beltrami 3:10 to Yuma | 4.0 |
| John Ottman X-Men: Days of Future Past | 3.5 |
| John Ottman X2 | 3.5 |
| Goblin Zombi (Dawn of the Dead) | 4.0 |
| Goblin Suspiria | 4.0 |
| John Carpenter Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998 | 4.0 |
| John Carpenter Halloween (2018) | 4.0 |
| John Carpenter Lost Themes II | 3.5 |
| John Carpenter Lost Themes | 3.5 |
| John Carpenter Vampires | 3.0 |
| John Carpenter Halloween 20th Anniversary Edition | 4.0 |
| John Carpenter Prince of Darkness | 3.5 |
| John Carpenter The Fog | 4.0 |
| John Carpenter Escape From New York | 4.0 |
| John Carpenter Halloween | 4.2 |
| John Carpenter Assault on Precinct 13 | 4.0 |
| Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow Black Mirror: Men Against Fire | 3.5 |
| Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow Ex Machina | 4.0 |
| Hildur Gudnadottir Chernobyl (Music from the Original TV Series) | 4.2 |
| Hildur Gudnadottir Joker (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | 3.8 |
| Hildur Gudnadottir Mary Madgalene | 4.0 |
| Ramin Djawadi Westworld: Season 3 | 4.0 |
| Ramin Djawadi Westworld: Season 2 | 4.0 |
| Ramin Djawadi Westworld: Season 1 | 4.0 |
| Ramin Djawadi Game of Thrones: Season 8 | 4.0 |
| Ramin Djawadi Game of Thrones: Season 7 | 4.0 |
| Ramin Djawadi Game of Thrones: Season 6 | 4.0 |
| Ramin Djawadi Game of Thrones: Season 5 | 4.0 |
| Ramin Djawadi Game of Thrones: Season 4 | 4.0 |
| Ramin Djawadi Game of Thrones: Season 3 | 3.5 |
| Ramin Djawadi Game of Thrones: Season 2 | 3.5 |
| Ramin Djawadi Game of Thrones: Season 1 | 3.5 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Watchmen: Volume 3 OST | 3.0 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Watchmen: Volume 2 OST | 3.0 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Watchmen: Volume 1 OST | 3.0 |
| Daft Punk Tron: Legacy | 3.5 |
| Max Richter Black Mirror: Nosedive | 4.0 |
| Mark Korven The Lighthouse - OST | 3.5 |
| Mark Korven The Witch (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | 4.0 |
| Lana Del Rey Norman Fucking Rockwell! | 3.3 |
| Disasterpeace It Follows OST | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) The Guest | 4.0 |
| Massive Attack Eutopia | 2.0 |
| My Morning Jacket The Waterfall II | 3.7 |
| Phoebe Bridgers Punisher | 4.0 |
| Simultaneously more subdued and adventurous than Stranger in the Alps, Phoebe Bridgers expands her songwriting talents and continued excellent lyrics for a sublime sophomore effort brimming with nocturnal atmosphere. Just look at that gorgeous album cover. |
| Hayley Williams Petals for Armor | 3.5 |
| Hayley Williams Petals For Armor II | 3.6 |
| Hayley Williams Petals For Armor I | 3.3 |
| Four Tet Sixteen Oceans | 4.0 |
| Four Tet New Energy | 4.0 |
| M83 DSVII | 2.5 |
| Andrew Lloyd Webber Highlights from The Phantom of the Opera | 4.0 |
| Lin-Manuel Miranda Hamilton - Original Broadway Cast | 3.0 |
| Ennio Morricone Once Upon a Time in the West | 4.0 |
| Bela Fleck and The Flecktones Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo | 4.0 |
| Liquid Tension Experiment Liquid Tension Experiment 2 | 4.0 |
| Liquid Tension Experiment Liquid Tension Experiment | 4.0 |
| Keith Emerson Inferno OST | 4.0 |
| The Orb Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld | 4.0 |
| Seefeel Seefeel | 3.2 |
| Seefeel (Ch-Vox) | 3.0 |
| Seefeel Succour | 3.5 |
| Seefeel Starethrough EP | 4.0 |
| Seefeel Quique | 4.0 |
| An evocative, dreamy listen from Seefeel and their best work to date. Each track proceeds like a different musical texture, not unlike Selected Ambient Works 2 or Another Green World. Structure is not part of this album's playbook, instead being fairly laid back focused on transporting the listener with diverse soundscapes. Lots of wonderful bass lines too. |
| Seefeel More Like Space | 4.0 |
| Seefeel Polyfusia | 4.0 |
| .blacktunic 1NE | 3.7 |
| Sweet Trip You Will Never Know Why Outtakes | 4.0 |
| Sweet Trip 4-track | 4.0 |
| Sweet Trip Seen/Unseen | 4.0 |
| Sweet Trip You Will Never Know Why | 5.0 |
| Sweet Trip Velocity : Design : Comfort | 4.5 |
| Sweet Trip Fish | 4.0 |
| Sweet Trip Alura | 4.0 |
| Sweet Trip,Technicolor, Flowchart, Color Filter... Drum & Bliss Vol. 2 | 3.5 |
| Sweet Trip,Technicolor, Flowchart, Color Filter... Drum & Bliss | 3.7 |
| Sweet Trip Halica: Bliss Out v.11 | 4.2 |
| Animals As Leaders Wave of Babies | 4.0 |
| Periphery Periphery (Instrumental) | 4.0 |
| Bulb The Best Of Misha Mansoor | 4.0 |
| Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto The Revenant | 4.0 |
| Clint Mansell, Kronos Quartet and Mogwai The Fountain | 4.0 |
| Clint Mansell Black Swan | 4.0 |
| Clint Mansell Moon | 4.0 |
| Clint Mansell π | 3.5 |
| Hans Zimmer The Dark Knight Rises | 3.5 |
| Hans Zimmer Man of Steel | 2.5 |
| Cliff Martinez The Neon Demon (OST) | 4.0 |
| Cliff Martinez Only God Forgives | 3.0 |
| Cliff Martinez Drive | 4.0 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Bird Box OST | 3.5 |
| Various Artists (Indie) Dark Was The Night | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Donnie Darko | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Kill Bill Vol. 1 Original Soundtrack | 4.0 |
| EOB Earth | 3.5 |
| Anathema Falling Deeper | 3.5 |
| Anathema Hindsight | 4.0 |
| Radiohead Spectre | 4.0 |
| MGMT Little Dark Age | 4.0 |
| MGMT MGMT | 2.0 |
| MGMT Congratulations | 2.8 |
| MGMT Oracular Spectacular | 3.3 |
| MGMT Time to Pretend | 3.0 |
| Tycho Epoch | 3.3 |
| Tycho Awake | 3.6 |
| Tycho Dive | 4.0 |
| M83 Junk | 3.2 |
| M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming | 4.0 |
| M83 Saturdays=Youth | 4.0 |
| Myles Oliver New Sounds | 3.5 |
| Myles Oliver Find Me Tomorrow | 3.5 |
| Myles Oliver Opio | 3.7 |
| Myles Oliver Geosinect & Methods of Its Growth | 3.5 |
| King Green Alexander Desjardins | 3.5 |
| Count to Altek She Will Fly With You Forever | 3.5 |
| In This Moment Blood | 2.5 |
| Bibio Hand Cranked | 3.5 |
| Bibio fi | 4.0 |
| Beautiful stuff, like Boards of Canada's The Campfire Headphase meets The Durutti Column. |
| Sufjan Stevens and Lowell Brams Aporia | 3.0 |
| Sweven (SWE) The Eternal Resonance | 4.0 |
| Vladislav Delay Whistleblower | 4.0 |
| Vladislav Delay The Four Quarters | 3.0 |
| Vladislav Delay Multila | 3.5 |
| Vladislav Delay Anima | 3.5 |
| Vladislav Delay Entain | 3.5 |
| Big Bud Late Night Blues | 3.5 |
| Big Bud Infinity + Infinity | 3.7 |
| Koop Waltz for Koop | 4.0 |
| A Guy Called Gerald Black Secret Technology | 3.0 |
| Brian Eno and Roger Eno Mixing Colours | 3.5 |
| TesseracT Sonder | 2.4 |
| American Football American Football (LP2) | 3.5 |
| Boygenius boygenius | 3.5 |
| Paradise Lost Medusa | 3.0 |
| Lights The Listening | 3.0 |
| The Avalanches Wildflower | 3.5 |
| The Avalanches Since I Left You | 4.0 |
| U2 360° at the Rose Bowl | 4.0 |
| U2 Medium, Rare & Remastered | 4.0 |
| U2 U218 Singles | 3.5 |
| U2 The Best Of 1990-2000 | 3.5 |
| U2 The Best Of 1980-1990 | 4.0 |
| Tycho The Science of Patterns | 3.5 |
| Tycho Past is Prologue | 4.0 |
| Tycho Sunrise Projector | 4.0 |
| Boris Flood | 4.0 |
| Phoebe Bridgers Killer | 4.0 |
| Tim Hecker Konoyo | 4.0 |
| Blue Sky Black Death The Holocaust Instrumentals | 4.0 |
| Meshuggah Pitch Black | 3.5 |
| Heretoir The Circle | 4.0 |
| Heretoir Heretoir | 3.5 |
| Toby Driver and Nick Hudson Black Feather Under Your Tongue | 3.0 |
| Intronaut Fluid Existential Inversions | 3.7 |
| Tennis Swimmer | 3.5 |
| The Future Sound of London Yage 2019 | 3.5 |
| Destroyer Have We Met | 3.5 |
| Tame Impala The Slow Rush | 4.2 |
| Tame Impala surprised fans with the more R&B and disco-oriented pop album Currents in 2015, lessening the 60s classic rock influences and musically entering the 21st century. The Slow Rush does not represent a comparable renaissance for the Tame Impala sound, but continues with blissed out psych-pop and representing a fitting sequel to Currents. The production is of course excellent, and the middle run of songs are some of the best Kevin Parker has recorded to date. The Slow Rush feels expansive and optimistic, embodying a successfully escapist, sunnier mindset during such a challenging year like 2020. |
| Caspian Waking Season | 4.2 |
| Caspian On Circles | 3.7 |
| Everything But the Girl Worldwide | 3.5 |
| Toby Driver N.G.H.4.M. | 3.0 |
| Ennio Morricone The Hateful Eight | 4.0 |
| M83 Oblivion (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | 3.5 |
| Atticus Ross The Book Of Eli OST | 3.5 |
| Blackmill Miracle | 3.5 |
| AES Dana Inks | 3.5 |
| No-Man Love You to Bits | 3.5 |
| A whole embrace of synthpop hinted at by "Permanating," Love You to Bits harnesses a high concept approach to psychedelic electronic music that sounds like an evolution of their early '90s releases, a gift to fans who love that that era, as the albums beginning with Wild Opera and culminating with the Schoolyard Ghosts project pursued new directions. For fans of new Tame Impala. |
| Coldplay Everyday Life | 3.0 |
| Beck Hyperspace | 2.0 |
| Hammock Silencia | 3.4 |
| No-Man Love You To Bits EP | 3.5 |
| Love You to Shreds is wonderful; essentially the acknowledgement of their 1999-2008 albums, while the main Love You to Bits album is the celebration of their early '90s work. |
| Lapalux Amnioverse | 4.0 |
| Have a Nice Life Sea of Worry | 3.0 |
| Daylight Dies Lost to the Living | 3.8 |
| Daylight Dies Dismantling Devotion | 4.0 |
| Daylight Dies No Reply | 3.5 |
| Spiritualized Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space | 4.3 |
| Spiritualized Pure Phase | 4.0 |
| Spiritualized Lazer Guided Melodies | 4.0 |
| Miguel Migs Colorful You | 3.8 |
| Trentemoller The Last Resort | 3.5 |
| Beastie Boys Ill Communication | 3.5 |
| Beastie Boys Check Your Head | 3.5 |
| Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique | 4.0 |
| Beastie Boys Licensed to Ill | 3.5 |
| Bjork Post | 4.0 |
| Bjork Debut | 4.0 |
| The Beatles Yellow Submarine | 3.0 |
| The Beatles Help! | 4.0 |
| The Beatles Beatles for Sale | 3.5 |
| The Beatles A Hard Day's Night | 4.0 |
| The Beatles With the Beatles | 3.5 |
| The Beatles Please Please Me | 3.5 |
| UNKLE Psyence Fiction | 3.0 |
| Tricky Maxinquaye | 2.5 |
| Marilyn Manson Smells Like Children | 2.0 |
| Marilyn Manson Lest We Forget | 3.5 |
| Genesis Trespass | 4.0 |
| Led Zeppelin Presence | 3.5 |
| Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti | 4.0 |
| Led Zeppelin Mothership | 4.5 |
| The Rolling Stones Exile on Main St. | 4.0 |
| The Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet | 4.0 |
| The Rolling Stones Aftermath | 4.0 |
| The Who The Who Sell Out | 4.0 |
| The Who My Generation | 4.0 |
| Sade The Best Of Sade | 4.0 |
| Sade Love Deluxe | 4.5 |
| Sade Stronger Than Pride | 4.1 |
| Sade Promise | 4.2 |
| Sade Diamond Life | 4.0 |
| The Who Quadrophenia | 4.5 |
| The Who Who's Next | 4.5 |
| The Who Tommy | 4.0 |
| Jonny Greenwood You Were Never Really Here | 3.6 |
| Lotte Kestner The Bluebird of Happiness | 3.5 |
| Lotte Kestner China Mountain | 4.0 |
| Trespassers William Cast | 3.5 |
| Trespassers William The Natural Order of Things | 4.0 |
| Trespassers William Noble House | 4.0 |
| Trespassers William Having | 4.2 |
| Trespassers William Different Stars | 4.5 |
| Trespassers William Anchor | 3.7 |
| ISIS Temporal | 3.7 |
| ISIS Oceanic: Remixes and Reinterpretations | 3.0 |
| Sia Colour the Small One | 4.0 |
| Breathe Me is one of the best pop songs of this century, and was used in Six Feet Under amazingly. |
| Lady Gaga Born This Way | 1.0 |
| Lady Gaga The Fame Monster | 1.0 |
| Lady Gaga The Fame | 1.5 |
| Taylor Swift Lover | 1.5 |
| Taylor Swift Reputation | 1.0 |
| Taylor Swift 1989 | 3.0 |
| Taylor Swift Red | 2.0 |
| Taylor Swift Speak Now | 2.5 |
| Taylor Swift Fearless | 2.5 |
| Carly Rae Jepsen Emotion | 2.0 |
| Warpaint Heads Up | 3.5 |
| Pale Waves My Mind Makes Noises | 2.5 |
| Pale Waves All the Things I Never Said | 3.0 |
| Passion Pit Gossamer | 3.0 |
| Passion Pit Manners | 3.0 |
| HAIM Days Are Gone | 3.0 |
| Lorde Melodrama | 2.5 |
| Lorde Pure Heroine | 2.5 |
| Billie Eilish When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? | 2.0 |
| Lapalux Some Other Time | 3.5 |
| Lapalux Many Faces Out of Focus | 3.5 |
| Felt (UK) Me and a Monkey on the Moon | 4.0 |
| Felt (UK) Poem of the River | 4.3 |
| Felt (UK) Forever Breathes The Lonely Word | 4.2 |
| Felt (UK) Ignite The Seven Cannons | 4.0 |
| Felt (UK) The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories | 4.0 |
| Felt (UK) The Splendour of Fear | 4.5 |
| A beautiful, nocturnal, magical work of art that sounds decades ahead of its time. I hear influences on neofolk music, post-rock, and the band Agalloch. |
| Felt (UK) Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty | 4.0 |
| Morrissey Viva Hate | 4.0 |
| The Smiths Louder Than Bombs | 4.0 |
| The Smiths The World Won't Listen | 4.0 |
| The Smiths Strangeways, Here We Come | 4.0 |
| The Smiths The Queen Is Dead | 5.0 |
| The Smiths Meat Is Murder | 4.5 |
| The Smiths Hatful of Hollow | 4.0 |
| The Smiths The Smiths | 4.0 |
| The Cure Bloodflowers | 3.5 |
| The Cure Wild Mood Swings | 3.0 |
| The Cure The Head on the Door | 4.0 |
| The Cure Wish | 4.0 |
| The Cure Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me | 4.0 |
| The Style Council Café Bleu | 3.5 |
| Simply Red Picture Book | 4.0 |
| Everything But the Girl Temperamental | 4.2 |
| Everything But the Girl Walking Wounded | 4.1 |
| Everything But the Girl Amplified Heart | 4.3 |
| Sting Ten Summoner's Tales | 3.7 |
| Sting The Soul Cages | 4.0 |
| Sting ...Nothing Like the Sun | 4.0 |
| Sting The Dream of the Blue Turtles | 3.5 |
| Lapalux When You're Gone | 3.5 |
| Lapalux Lustmore | 3.5 |
| Lapalux Ruinism | 3.5 |
| Giles Corey Hinterkaifeck | 3.5 |
| The Durutti Column Circuses And Bread | 3.7 |
| The Durutti Column Vini Reilly | 4.2 |
| The Durutti Column Without Mercy | 4.0 |
| The Durutti Column Another Setting | 4.3 |
| The Durutti Column LC | 4.4 |
| The Durutti Column The Return of the Durutti Column | 4.0 |
| The Angels of Light How I Loved You | 4.0 |
| Destroyer This Night | 3.3 |
| Destroyer Trouble In Dreams | 3.5 |
| Destroyer Your Blues | 3.7 |
| Destroyer Streethawk: A Seduction | 3.5 |
| Destroyer Poison Season | 4.0 |
| Desert Sessions Volumes 1 and 2 | 4.0 |
| Bruce Soord with Jonas Renkse Wisdom of Crowds | 3.5 |
| Amon Tobin Long Stories | 4.0 |
| Alcest Spiritual Instinct | 3.6 |
| A more metal-charged affair and technical rhythm section are the most noticeable changes in Spiritual Instinct, being probably their most energetic release. |
| Nosound Allow Yourself | 3.0 |
| Nosound Scintilla | 3.5 |
| Nosound Afterthoughts | 4.0 |
| Nosound A Sense of Loss | 3.5 |
| Nosound Lightdark | 4.0 |
| Nosound Sol29 | 4.0 |
| Carbon Based Lifeforms Derelicts | 3.5 |
| Carbon Based Lifeforms Twentythree | 3.5 |
| High on Fire Death Is This Communion | 4.0 |
| High on Fire Blessed Black Wings | 4.0 |
| Sleep Dopesmoker | 4.0 |
| Sleep Sleep's Holy Mountain | 4.0 |
| Destroyer Ken | 3.5 |
| Broken Social Scene Broken Social Scene | 3.8 |
| Broken Social Scene You Forgot It in People | 4.0 |
| Broken Social Scene Feel Good Lost | 4.0 |
| Foals Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 2 | 3.2 |
| Jarboe Sacrificial Cake | 3.5 |
| Destroyer Archer on the Beach | 3.5 |
| Destroyer Bay of Pigs | 4.0 |
| Everything But the Girl The Language of Life | 4.0 |
| Everything But the Girl Idlewild | 4.4 |
| Everything But the Girl Eden | 4.0 |
| The Police Synchronicity | 4.0 |
| Better Oblivion Community Center Better Oblivion Community Center | 3.5 |
| Emma Ruth Rundle Marked for Death | 4.0 |
| We Lost the Sea Triumph and Disaster | 3.5 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Ghosteen | 4.5 |
| The band follow their masterpiece Skeleton Tree with a less dark direction, even more sparse and ethereal than their previous work has been this past decade. This is practically a full on ambient album, often being not much more than synths and piano alongside Cave's voice. His lyrics continue to be wonderfully impressionistic, ranging from the surreal and fantastical to some very intimate and personal musings as well. It's not quite as consistently engaging as Abattoir Blues, ...Sky, or Skeleton Tree but is another triumph and one of the finest albums of the year. Highlights include "Bright Horses" "Sun Forest" "Galleon Ship" "Leviathan". |
| Bonobo Migration | 3.5 |
| Bonobo Days To Come | 3.8 |
| Bonobo The North Borders | 3.5 |
| Green Day 21st Century Breakdown | 2.0 |
| Green Day American Idiot | 2.5 |
| Green Day Dookie | 3.0 |
| Cynic Traced In Air Remixed | 4.0 |
| Hashshashin Badakhshan | 3.5 |
| Ghost Brigade IV - One with the Storm | 3.7 |
| Ghost Brigade Until Fear No Longer Defines Us | 4.0 |
| Ghost Brigade Isolation Songs | 4.0 |
| Ghost Brigade Guided By Fire | 3.5 |
| Chelsea Wolfe Birth of Violence | 4.0 |
| Chelsea Wolfe Hiss Spun | 3.5 |
| The Gathering Home | 3.7 |
| The Gathering Souvenirs | 3.8 |
| The Gathering if_then_else | 3.5 |
| Ghost (SWE) Prequelle | 3.5 |
| Opeth In Cauda Venenum | 3.7 |
| In Cauda Venenum boasts better production and is packed with more ideas and genre-bending goodness than the previous two records, but some uninspired moments and weird vocal quirks from Akerfeldt hold it back from true greatness. Still, it has some of their best tracks of their 2010s albums and the songwriting sounds more streamlined and satisfying overall. |
| Swans Leaving Meaning | 3.2 |
| They really ran out of ideas this time, but I shouldn't be surprised given the indications that the second disc of The Glowing Man gave. The more subdued and droney approach is an interesting avenue to take, but too much feels like a chore to get through. There seems to be a lack of inspiration and the album even seems formulaic in places. There're some rewarding songs here, but it could've been really good if they cut at least 20 minutes and deemphasized Gira's voice at times. |
| American Football American Football (LP3) | 4.1 |
| Tool Fear Inoculum | 4.5 |
| Worth the wait, being a massive, compelling album that balances their unique style with new elements. |
| Kayo Dot Blasphemy | 3.0 |
| An approachable prog rock album with a lot of strengths, Blasphemy unfortunately contains too many annoying qualities to live up to their classics. Toby Driver has some of the best singing moments of his career, and the band's continued embrace of avant-garde synth rock or whatever you'd want to call it produces moments of greatness, despite not reaching the heights of Coffins on Io or Plastic House on Base of Sky. |
| Bon Iver i,i | 3.9 |
| The Contortionist Our Bones | 3.0 |
| Drab Majesty Modern Mirror | 4.0 |
| The Haxan Cloak Midsommar (Original Score) | 4.2 |
| Thom Yorke Anima | 4.2 |
| Flying Lotus Flamagra | 3.8 |
| A densely packed collection of ideas that hearkens to each album from Flying Lotus's career. You'll find some of his best material here on Flamagra, even though the first half of the album has some hit-and-miss guest-centered tracks, but suddenly becomes a sequel to Cosmogramma and Until the Quiet Comes, his two best records, starting with track 14. The album is a blissed-out cosmic journey starting there, but there are certainly many good moments in the first half too. |
| The National I Am Easy to Find | 3.5 |
| Like Trouble Will Find Me meets EL VY, The National pursue a much lighter direction with upbeat rhythms and a plethora of guest musicians, including numerous female vocalists. This new style magnifies the holes of light in the darker atmospheres of Boxer, Trouble..., and Sleep Well Beast, being just as sprawling as those but more scattershot. I Am Easy to Find is by no means as magnificent as The National's classics, but it's clear the band's music is still elegant and passionate with some rewarding new dimensions. |
| Antonio Sanchez Birdman | 4.0 |
| The Future Sound of London Environments 4 | 3.5 |
| The Future Sound of London Environments 3 | 3.5 |
| The Future Sound of London Environments II | 3.8 |
| The Future Sound of London Environments | 3.3 |
| The Future Sound of London Accelerator | 3.5 |
| Memories Of Machines Warm Winter | 4.2 |
| A sorrowful and sublime offering from the minds of No-Man, Porcupine Tree, and Nosound. There are features by Robert Fripp and Peter Hammill as well, adding up to a sublime marriage of soft progressive rock and ambient textures. Think Schoolyard Ghosts (which this actually shares a few tracks with), A Scarcity of Miracles, and Damnation by Opeth. The tempos are slow, the atmosphere intoxicating, and styles of dream pop and minimalism are thrown into the mix for a mellow offering that serves as a wonderful extension of Schoolyard Ghosts by No-Man, but holds up as its own project too. |
| No-Man Dry Cleaning Ray | 3.5 |
| Paul Buchanan Mid Air | 4.0 |
| Roxy Music Avalon | 4.0 |
| Aeon Sable Visionaers | 3.7 |
| Local Natives Violet Street | 3.5 |
| Ulver Drone Activity | 3.5 |
| Vaura Sables | 4.0 |
| Aphex Twin Collapse | 3.5 |
| Aphex Twin Cheetah EP | 3.2 |
| Aphex Twin Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt 2 | 2.5 |
| Aphex Twin Syro | 3.8 |
| Local Natives Gorilla Manor | 3.7 |
| Boards of Canada Trans Canada Highway | 3.5 |
| Boards of Canada In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country | 4.0 |
| Boards of Canada Boc Maxima | 3.5 |
| Boards of Canada Aquarius | 3.5 |
| Boards of Canada Hi Scores | 4.0 |
| Boards of Canada Twoism | 4.0 |
| Amon Tobin Fear In A Handful Of Dust | 4.0 |
| Drab Majesty The Demonstration | 3.7 |
| Elder (USA-MA) Reflections of a Floating World | 4.2 |
| The Antlers Hospice | 3.1 |
| Elliott Smith Either/Or | 3.5 |
| Lucy Dacus Historian | 3.3 |
| Lucy Dacus No Burden | 3.0 |
| Julien Baker Turn Out The Lights | 4.1 |
| Julien Baker Sprained Ankle | 4.3 |
| Marriages Salome | 3.6 |
| Emma Ruth Rundle Some Heavy Ocean | 4.0 |
| Anna von Hausswolff Dead Magic | 4.0 |
| Grimes Art Angels | 3.5 |
| Grimes Visions | 3.7 |
| Amon Tobin Chomp Samba | 4.0 |
| Six Feet Under Graveyard Classics 2 | 0.5 |
| Six Feet Under Graveyard Classics | 1.0 |
| Phoebe Bridgers Stranger in the Alps | 4.3 |
| Johann Johannsson Arrival OST | 4.0 |
| Sand Snowman Two Way Mirror | 3.5 |
| Andrew Bird Break It Yourself | 3.5 |
| Andrew Bird Noble Beast | 3.5 |
| Andrew Bird Armchair Apocrypha | 4.0 |
| Andrew Bird The Mysterious Production Of Eggs | 3.5 |
| The National Sleep Well Beast | 4.4 |
| A masterful departure from recent predecessors, The National enter a new era of their sound with further musical experimentation. Some moments recall Alligator, others Radiohead even. Everything falls into place masterfully, being the best album of the year. "The System Dreams...," "Guilty Party," "I Will Destroy You," and the final two tracks are highlights. |
| Fever Ray Fever Ray | 4.0 |
| DJ Spooky Songs Of A Dead Dreamer | 4.0 |
| J Dilla Donuts | 4.0 |
| Lapalux Nostalchic | 3.7 |
| Beach House 7 | 4.0 |
| Mount Eerie A Crow Looked At Me | 4.0 |
| Kacey Musgraves Golden Hour | 2.5 |
| Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper A Star is Born | 3.5 |
| Deru 1979 | 3.5 |
| Thursday No Devolucion | 3.8 |
| O'Brother Endless Light | 2.5 |
| O'Brother Garden Window | 3.2 |
| Gang of Youths Go Farther in Lightness | 4.0 |
| Daniel Cavanagh Monochrome | 2.6 |
| Failure The Heart Is a Monster | 3.5 |
| Beach House Bloom | 4.0 |
| Beach House Teen Dream | 4.0 |
| Warpaint The Fool | 4.0 |
| Ryuichi Sakamoto Async | 3.5 |
| Destroyer Kaputt | 4.5 |
| Destroyer Destroyer's Rubies | 4.0 |
| Slipknot 9.0: Live | 3.0 |
| Slipknot Vol.3: The Subliminal Verses [Reissue] | 3.0 |
| Michael Gira Drainland | 3.0 |
| Bass Communion Chiaroscuro | 3.0 |
| Bass Communion Pacific Codex | 2.0 |
| Bass Communion Loss | 2.5 |
| Bass Communion Indicates Void | 2.0 |
| Nine Horses Snow Borne Sorrow | 4.0 |
| The Dear Hunter The Color Spectrum | 4.0 |
| Tim Bowness Abandoned Dancehall Dreams | 4.0 |
| Tim Bowness Stupid Things That Mean The World | 3.5 |
| Tim Bowness Songs From The Ghost Light | 3.5 |
| Tim Bowness Flowers At The Scene | 4.0 |
| Native Construct Quiet World | 3.5 |
| Foals Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 1 | 3.5 |
| A short, dense, high-energy first half of an ambitious two-part album cycle. It's far from their most cinematic or engrossing work, but keeps things dynamic and has enough detail to be a solid listen overall. |
| Biosphere Substrata | 4.0 |
| Cell Hanging Masses | 4.0 |
| Solar Fields Mirror's Edge Original Soundtrack | 4.0 |
| Solar Fields Movements | 4.0 |
| Solar Fields Leaving Home | 4.0 |
| Solar Fields Blue Moon Station | 4.0 |
| Carbon Based Lifeforms Interloper | 4.0 |
| Carbon Based Lifeforms World Of Sleepers | 4.0 |
| Carbon Based Lifeforms Hydroponic Garden | 4.0 |
| No-Man Wherever There Is Light | 4.0 |
| Shpongle Codex VI | 3.0 |
| Shpongle Museum of Consciousness | 3.5 |
| Shpongle Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland | 4.0 |
| Massive Attack The Spoils | 4.0 |
| Massive Attack Collected | 4.0 |
| Talk Talk Missing Pieces | 3.5 |
| Warpaint Warpaint | 3.5 |
| Thom Yorke Suspiria: Unreleased Material | 3.0 |
| Dream Theater Distance Over Time | 3.1 |
| Copeland Blushing | 3.7 |
| Astronoid Astronoid | 3.6 |
| Soen Lotus | 3.5 |
| Swallow the Sun When a Shadow Is Forced into the Light | 3.5 |
| Mree The Middle | 3.5 |
| Hammock Universalis | 3.5 |
| Dead Can Dance Dionysus | 3.5 |
| Dead Can Dance follow the style of Spiritchaser while also going in a new direction by creating a multi-layered sound collage of various world music traditions. The talent of the duo assures that it sounds natural as they incorporate Middle Eastern folk music and traverse ritualistic soundscapes. Dionysus sounds ancient and mysterious, being more celebratory than most other Dead Can Dance releases and having the characteristics of the Greek god. This is a more fluid and succinct release that sounds truly alive. It could have been even longer and featured more of Lisa's vocals, but it's still a rewarding and unique listening experience that lives up to their adventurous musical past. |
| Opeth Garden of the Titans | 4.0 |
| Oasis Be Here Now | 3.2 |
| Amon Tobin Amon Tobin | 4.0 |
| The Verve Verve | 4.3 |
| Steve Roach Dreamtime Return | 4.0 |
| Steve Roach Structures from Silence | 4.0 |
| Seal Seal II | 4.2 |
| Adrian Belew Side One | 3.5 |
| Adrian Belew Young Lions | 3.0 |
| Adrian Belew Lone Rhino | 3.0 |
| Orange Juice You Can't Hide Your Love Forever | 4.0 |
| Orange Juice Rip It Up | 3.5 |
| AES Dana Pollen | 4.0 |
| The Blue Nile High | 4.0 |
| The Blue Nile Peace at Last | 3.5 |
| The Blue Nile Hats | 4.5 |
| The Blue Nile A Walk Across the Rooftops | 4.2 |
| Seal Seal | 4.0 |
| David Brent Life on the Road | 3.7 |
| Aphex Twin Drukqs | 3.7 |
| Aphex Twin Classics | 2.5 |
| Aphex Twin Windowlicker | 2.5 |
| Aphex Twin Come to Daddy | 3.0 |
| Aphex Twin Richard D. James Album | 3.5 |
| Aphex Twin Girl/Boy EP | 3.0 |
| Aphex Twin Donkey Rhubarb | 3.3 |
| Aphex Twin ...I Care Because You Do | 3.5 |
| Aphex Twin On | 3.5 |
| Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works Volume II | 4.3 |
| Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works 85-92 | 4.2 |
| Aphex Twin Xylem Tube | 3.0 |
| Aphex Twin Digeridoo | 3.0 |
| Robert Fripp God Save the King | 4.0 |
| Robert Fripp Let The Power Fall | 3.5 |
| Robert Fripp God Save the Queen/Under Heavy Manners | 3.5 |
| King Crimson Sailors’ Tales (1970 – 1972) | 4.0 |
| King Crimson Live in Chicago | 4.5 |
| King Crimson Radical Action To Unseat The Hold Of Monkey Mind | 4.0 |
| Jakszyk, Fripp and Collins A Scarcity Of Miracles | 4.0 |
| King Crimson The Condensed 21st Century Guide | 4.0 |
| King Crimson The Power to Believe | 3.5 |
| King Crimson Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With | 2.5 |
| King Crimson The ConstruKction of Light | 3.0 |
| King Crimson THRAK | 3.5 |
| King Crimson VROOOM | 3.0 |
| Vangelis 1492: Conquest of Paradise | 4.0 |
| Vangelis Blade Runner Soundtrack | 4.5 |
| Vangelis L'Apocalypse Des Animaux | 4.0 |
| Popol Vuh Nosferatu OST | 4.0 |
| Popol Vuh Letzte Tage Letzte Nachte | 3.8 |
| Popol Vuh Das Hohelied Salomos | 3.5 |
| Popol Vuh Aguirre | 4.0 |
| Popol Vuh Einsjäger und Siebenjäger | 4.0 |
| Popol Vuh Seligpreisung | 3.7 |
| Popol Vuh Hosianna Mantra | 4.2 |
| Popol Vuh In den Garten Pharaos | 3.5 |
| Popol Vuh Affenstunde | 3.0 |
| Cluster Curiosum | 3.5 |
| Cluster Grosses Wasser | 4.0 |
| Eno, Moebius and Roedelius After the Heat | 4.0 |
| Cluster and Eno Cluster & Eno | 4.0 |
| Cluster Sowiesoso | 4.0 |
| Cluster Zuckerzeit | 4.0 |
| Cluster Cluster II | 3.5 |
| Cluster Cluster | 3.5 |
| Tangerine Dream The Seven Letters From Tibet | 3.5 |
| Tangerine Dream Canyon Dreams OST | 3.5 |
| Tangerine Dream Tyger | 3.0 |
| Tangerine Dream Underwater Sunlight | 4.0 |
| Tangerine Dream Hyperborea | 3.5 |
| Tangerine Dream Exit | 3.5 |
| Tangerine Dream Cyclone | 3.0 |
| Tangerine Dream Sorcerer OST | 3.5 |
| Can Flow Motion | 3.0 |
| Can Landed | 3.0 |
| Can Soon Over Babaluma | 3.5 |
| Can Future Days | 4.5 |
| Can Ege Bamyasi | 4.0 |
| Can Tago Mago | 4.5 |
| Can Soundtracks | 3.5 |
| Can Monster Movie | 3.5 |
| Faust Faust IV | 4.0 |
| Prefab Sprout Crimson/Red | 4.1 |
| Paddy McAloon I Trawl The Megahertz | 4.3 |
| Prefab Sprout Protest Songs | 3.8 |
| Prefab Sprout Let's Change the World With Music | 3.5 |
| Prefab Sprout The Gunman and Other Stories | 3.2 |
| Prefab Sprout Andromeda Heights | 4.2 |
| Let's Eat Grandma I'm All Ears | 3.3 |
| Steven Wilson Home Invasion: In Concert At The Royal Albert Hall | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson Get All You Deserve | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson Catalogue / Preserve / Amass | 4.0 |
| Sufjan Stevens Mystery of Love | 4.0 |
| Lights Out Asia Hy-Brasil | 4.0 |
| Lights Out Asia In The Days Of Jupiter | 3.5 |
| Lights Out Asia Eyes Like Brontide | 4.0 |
| Lights Out Asia Tanks And Recognizers | 3.5 |
| Kayo Dot Kraków | 4.0 |
| Vennart Copeland EP | 4.0 |
| Oceansize Home & Minor | 4.0 |
| Dead Can Dance Garden of the Arcane Delights | 3.7 |
| Talking Heads Stop Making Sense | 4.0 |
| Vennart To Cure A Blizzard Upon A Plastic Sea | 4.0 |
| The Pineapple Thief Dissolution | 3.5 |
| Talking Heads Speaking in Tongues | 4.0 |
| Sylvaine Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone | 4.0 |
| Yndi Halda A Sun-Coloured Shaker | 3.5 |
| Younger Brother The Last Days of Gravity | 4.0 |
| Thom Yorke Suspiria | 4.0 |
| Thom Yorke follows in the footsteps of fellow Radiohead band member Jonny Greenwood by composing a soundtrack. Suspiria is a sprawling double album of dark ambiance, neo-psychedelia, and beautiful piano ballads. The noisy interludes aren't as enjoyable to listen to in absence of the film I'd imagine, but all in all this is an excellent soundtrack and Yorke's most ambitious solo project yet. |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Distant Sky (Live in Copenhagen) | 4.0 |
| David Sylvian Playing the Schoolhouse | 2.0 |
| David Sylvian Died in the Wool: Manafon Variations | 3.0 |
| Prefab Sprout Jordan: The Comeback | 4.3 |
| Prefab Sprout From Langley Park To Memphis | 4.4 |
| Prefab Sprout Steve McQueen | 4.5 |
| Prefab Sprout Swoon | 4.0 |
| Radiohead Pyramid Song | 4.0 |
| Max Richter Three Worlds: Music from Woolf Works | 3.6 |
| Max Richter Recomposed: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons | 4.0 |
| Max Richter The Blue Notebooks | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Untitled 1 | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Ny Batteri | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Svefn-g-englar | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do | 3.5 |
| Sigur Ros Brennisteinn | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Sæglópur | 4.0 |
| Explosions in the Sky Take Care, Take Care, Take Care | 3.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky The Rescue | 3.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky Friday Night Lights | 3.5 |
| Maybeshewill Sing The Word Hope In Four-Part Harmony | 4.0 |
| Horrendous Anareta | 4.0 |
| Horrendous Ecdysis | 3.7 |
| Drudkh Songs of Grief and Solitude | 3.3 |
| Ennio Morricone The Thing | 4.5 |
| Ennio Morricone The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | 4.5 |
| Ennio Morricone For a Few Dollars More | 4.0 |
| Ennio Morricone A Fistful of Dollars | 4.0 |
| Damon Albarn Everyday Robots | 3.5 |
| Thom Yorke Spitting Feathers | 3.0 |
| Slint Tweez | 3.2 |
| Toby Driver The Pod | 2.5 |
| God Is an Astronaut Helios/Erebus | 3.7 |
| God Is an Astronaut Age of the Fifth Sun | 3.5 |
| God Is an Astronaut God Is an Astronaut | 3.5 |
| God Is an Astronaut A Moment of Stillness | 3.5 |
| God Is an Astronaut Far from Refuge | 4.0 |
| God Is an Astronaut The End of the Beginning | 3.7 |
| Tears for Fears Elemental | 4.0 |
| Jon Hopkins Insides | 3.7 |
| Jon Hopkins Opalescent | 3.5 |
| Amesoeurs Ruines Humaines | 4.0 |
| Helios Moiety | 3.5 |
| Helios Caesura | 4.0 |
| Helios Unleft | 3.5 |
| Helios Eingya | 4.0 |
| Grouper The Man Who Died in His Boat | 3.5 |
| Riverside Wasteland | 3.0 |
| Many Rooms There is a Presence Here | 4.0 |
| Many Rooms Hollow Body | 4.0 |
| Melody's Echo Chamber Bon Voyage | 3.7 |
| Grouper Grid of Points | 4.0 |
| Toby Driver They Are the Shield | 4.5 |
| Toby Driver continues where his solo album from last year, Madonnawhore, left off for the most ambitious and consistently beautiful album of his solo career. Violins, guitars, and keyboards drift in and out of playing solo or layered together in a uniquely beautiful way throughout the whole album, at times recalling Part the Second by Driver's earlier band maudlin of the Well. Some moments on the first half sound faintly influenced by early Godspeed You! Black Emperor and later-day Talk Talk. The opener "Anamnesis Park" embodies what it means to be cinematic. Five minutes go by before the singing and main groove of the song even begins, but this intro is so captivating and well-made that it could've gone on even longer. The gorgeous outro of "Glyph" has a similar effect, and the song also has some of Driver's best singing. They Are the Shield is full of surprises and unique moments, being another ambitious and wholly original release that recalls '90's post-rock and maudlin of the Well while embodying the ghostly, wistful atmospheres introduced in Madonnawhore. |
| Thrice Palms | 3.0 |
| A well made but somewhat disappointing release from Thrice, half of which contains mainstream radio rock and the other half their more innovative side. The best tracks include "The Grey," an effective, high energy track, "Everything Belongs" and "My Soul" being rewarding, atmospheric ballads, and "Blood on Blood" contains some beautiful acoustic guitar and harp sections. This is definitely worth a listen, but unfortunately is pretty inconsistent overall. |
| Big Red Machine Big Red Machine | 4.0 |
| A lovely combination of electronic, pop, folk, and indie rock from Aaron Dessner of The National and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. A highlight of the year. |
| Alice in Chains Rainier Fog | 3.0 |
| Interpol Marauder | 3.2 |
| This a significant step down from El Pintor unfortunately. A solid release with some very good tracks, especially the opener and the closer, but the muddled production and safe songwriting makes for nothing more than a decent result. All in all a good album, but this won't go down as one of their more memorable or emotionally engaging releases like the first two or El Pintor. |
| Death Cab for Cutie Thank You For Today | 3.0 |
| A very pleasant, inoffensive listening experience which is essentially what Death Cab have gone for in the 2010s. Highlights are the first three songs, "Northern Lights," and "60 & Punk." |
| Piggy Black Cross Always Just Out of R.E.A.C.H. | 4.0 |
| A surreal, engrossing debut from another band of maudlin of the Well/Kayo Dot frontman Toby Driver with his girlfriend, Brd, on vocals that sounds reminiscent to industrial groups like Nine Inch Nails and Skinny Puppy mixed with the styles from Plastic House on Base of Sky by Toby Driver's main band, Kayo Dot. |
| Slint Slint | 4.0 |
| Bark Psychosis Independency | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Hvarf/Heim | 4.0 |
| Submotion Orchestra Kites | 3.5 |
| Submotion Orchestra Colour Theory | 3.0 |
| .O.rang Fields & Waves | 3.7 |
| .O.rang Herd of Instinct | 4.3 |
| Brian Eno Music for Installations | 3.8 |
| Hammock The Night You Caught on Fire | 4.0 |
| Hammock Floating World | 4.0 |
| Nick Drake Pink Moon | 4.5 |
| Nick Drake Bryter Layter | 4.0 |
| Nick Drake Five Leaves Left | 4.5 |
| Radiohead OKNOTOK 1997-2017 | 4.0 |
| Tortoise Tortoise | 4.0 |
| Tortoise The Catastrophist | 3.7 |
| This is an underrated release and a very welcome return. The chemistry between the players is a real joy to experience, and it helps that the production and mixing are sublime. The variety of sounds and styles played is most welcome, recalling the also underrated It's All Around You. |
| Tortoise Beacons of Ancestorship | 3.5 |
| Tortoise Its All Around You | 4.0 |
| Rolo Tomassi Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Route One | 3.5 |
| Between the Buried and Me Automata II | 3.0 |
| Deafheaven Ordinary Corrupt Human Love | 4.0 |
| More sophisticated than New Bermuda, Deafheaven's latest veers closer to Sunbather while continuing to introduce new ideas into their dense blend of black metal, dream pop/shoegaze, and post-rock. The opener, "Near", and "Worthless Animal" are highlights. |
| Gorillaz The Now Now | 3.5 |
| The Now Now is a focused, very satisfying summer pop record, which after Humanz is all it needed to be. The songwriting is a bit tepid and one-note at times, but the strengths of Albarn's songwriting and a laid back atmosphere makes it a success. |
| Gazpacho Soyuz | 3.5 |
| Arctic Monkeys Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino | 3.4 |
| Strikes an interesting balance of being weirder and more relaxed than AM, but also less diverse. The change in direction is nice enough, but a whole album of these spacey, lounge music piano standards gets a bit homogeneous toward the end. Still, it has a very nice atmosphere and entertaining lyrics. |
| Jon Hopkins Singularity | 4.0 |
| Okkervil River In The Rainbow Rain | 3.5 |
| A diverse and feel-good indie pop album with spring-time vibes and plenty of '80s and contemporary influences alike, including The War on Drugs, The Killers, even a little Blackstar by David Bowie too. Despite some cliche'd ideas that pop up from time to time, In The Rainbow Rain succeeds due to the earnestness of the songwriting and enough adventurous musical ideas to justify multiple listens. Not quite as deep and compelling as predecessor Away, but a finely crafted, breezy, very enjoyable record in its own right. |
| A Perfect Circle Eat the Elephant | 3.7 |
| A compelling, well made rock album that sounds timely and contains enough diverse compositional elements to be one of the finest albums of the year so far. |
| David Sylvian and Holger Czukay Flux and Mutability | 4.0 |
| David Sylvian and Holger Czukay Plight and Premonition | 4.0 |
| Bjork Vespertine | 4.5 |
| Kate Bush Aerial | 4.0 |
| Tortoise Standards | 4.0 |
| Jon Hopkins Monsters (Soundtrack) | 3.5 |
| Jon Hopkins Immunity | 4.0 |
| Harold Budd The Room | 3.5 |
| Harold Budd Abandoned Cities | 3.5 |
| Brian Eno with Kevin Shields The Weight Of History/Only Once Away My Son | 3.5 |
| Bonobo Black Sands | 4.0 |
| The Chameleons Strange Times | 4.5 |
| The Chameleons What Does Anything Mean? Basically | 4.2 |
| The Chameleons Script of the Bridge | 4.5 |
| Peter Gabriel Up | 4.2 |
| Peter Gabriel Us | 3.5 |
| Peter Gabriel Passion OST | 4.0 |
| Peter Gabriel So | 4.5 |
| Peter Gabriel Security | 4.0 |
| Peter Gabriel Melt | 4.5 |
| Peter Gabriel Scratch | 3.5 |
| Peter Gabriel Car | 4.0 |
| Genesis Wind & Wuthering | 3.8 |
| Genesis A Trick of the Tail | 4.1 |
| Gorillaz D-Sides | 3.5 |
| Gorillaz G-Sides | 3.0 |
| Amorphous Androgynous Tales of Ephidrina | 3.7 |
| Enya Watermark | 3.5 |
| Amethystium Aphelion | 3.5 |
| Boards of Canada Tomorrow's Harvest | 4.2 |
| Dead Can Dance Anastasis | 4.0 |
| Dead Can Dance Spiritchaser | 3.5 |
| Enigma The Cross of Changes | 3.1 |
| Amon Tobin Dark Jovian | 2.5 |
| Amon Tobin ISAM | 3.7 |
| Harold Budd The White Arcades | 4.0 |
| Harold Budd Lovely Thunder | 4.0 |
| Jon Hassell Dream Theory in Malaya | 4.0 |
| Bohren und der Club of Gore Black Earth | 4.0 |
| Bohren und der Club of Gore Sunset Mission | 4.2 |
| Coil The Ape Of Naples | 4.5 |
| Clan of Xymox Medusa | 4.2 |
| A very atmospheric and unique album. Back Door is one of the best goth songs I've ever heard. |
| Blue Sky Black Death Late Night Cinema | 4.2 |
| Swarms Old Raves End | 4.0 |
| Dead Can Dance Into the Labyrinth | 4.0 |
| Dead Can Dance Aion | 3.5 |
| Dead Can Dance The Serpent's Egg | 4.0 |
| Dead Can Dance Within the Realm of a Dying Sun | 5.0 |
| Dead Can Dance Spleen and Ideal | 4.5 |
| Dead Can Dance Dead Can Dance | 3.7 |
| David Sylvian and Robert Fripp Damage | 4.0 |
| David Sylvian There's a Light that Enters Houses... | 3.5 |
| David Sylvian When Loud Weather Buffeted Naoshima | 3.0 |
| David Sylvian Sleepwalkers | 4.0 |
| David Sylvian Approaching Silence | 3.5 |
| David Sylvian Pop Song | 3.5 |
| Flying Lotus You're Dead! | 3.5 |
| Flying Lotus Until the Quiet Comes | 4.2 |
| Flying Lotus Cosmogramma | 4.4 |
| Flying Lotus Los Angeles | 3.5 |
| Brian Eno Small Craft on a Milk Sea | 3.2 |
| Air Moon Safari | 4.0 |
| Amon Tobin Foley Room | 4.0 |
| Amon Tobin Chaos Theory - Splinter Cell 3 Soundtrack | 4.2 |
| Amon Tobin Out From Out Where | 4.0 |
| Amon Tobin Supermodified | 4.5 |
| Boards of Canada The Campfire Headphase | 4.5 |
| Boards of Canada Geogaddi | 4.3 |
| Boards of Canada Music Has the Right to Children | 4.4 |
| Goldfrapp Silver Eye | 4.0 |
| Goldfrapp Tales Of Us | 4.3 |
| Goldfrapp Head First | 3.0 |
| Goldfrapp Seventh Tree | 4.4 |
| Goldfrapp Supernature | 3.5 |
| Goldfrapp Black Cherry | 3.7 |
| Ulvesang The Hunt | 4.0 |
| David Byrne American Utopia | 3.3 |
| S. Carey Hundred Acres | 4.0 |
| Ludwig Goransson Black Panther (Original Score) | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Black Panther The Album | 2.5 |
| Hammock Repeat/Texture | 3.5 |
| Jonny Greenwood Phantom Thread OST | 4.2 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Baby Driver | 3.5 |
| Karnivool Sound Awake | 3.5 |
| Coheed and Cambria Year of the Black Rainbow | 3.0 |
| Coheed and Cambria In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 | 3.5 |
| Coheed and Cambria From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness | 3.5 |
| Falseta Thought Process | 3.5 |
| System of a Down Steal This Album! | 3.0 |
| System of a Down Toxicity | 3.5 |
| System of a Down System of a Down | 3.5 |
| The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium | 3.5 |
| At the Drive-In Relationship of Command | 3.5 |
| Harmonia Tracks and Traces | 4.2 |
| Harmonia Deluxe | 4.0 |
| Harmonia Musik von Harmonia | 4.1 |
| Vennart The Demon Joke | 3.7 |
| Fennesz Becs | 3.5 |
| Baths Ocean Death | 3.5 |
| Banks Goddess | 3.5 |
| Antimatter Leaving Eden | 3.5 |
| Supercell Today is a Beautiful Day | 3.5 |
| The Shins Wincing the Night Away | 3.5 |
| The Shins Chutes Too Narrow | 3.5 |
| The Letter Black Hanging On By A Thread | 3.0 |
| Evan Brewer Your Itinerary | 3.5 |
| Red Sparowes At The Soundless Dawn | 4.0 |
| Fair to Midland Arrows and Anchors | 4.0 |
| Muse The Resistance | 2.5 |
| Muse Black Holes & Revelations | 3.0 |
| Muse Absolution | 3.5 |
| Muse Origin of Symmetry | 3.5 |
| Leprous Bilateral | 3.5 |
| The Winery Dogs The Winery Dogs | 3.5 |
| Black Label Society Skullage | 3.5 |
| Black Label Society The Blessed Hellride | 3.5 |
| Crooked X Crooked X | 3.0 |
| A Sunny Day in Glasgow Scribble Mural Comic Journal | 3.7 |
| Underoath Ø (Disambiguation) | 3.8 |
| Underoath Lost in the Sound of Separation | 3.5 |
| Converge All We Love We Leave Behind | 4.0 |
| Converge Jane Doe | 4.0 |
| Weakling Dead as Dreams | 4.0 |
| Dark Millennium Ashore the Celestial Burden | 4.0 |
| Vinterland Welcome My Last Chapter | 4.0 |
| Manntis Sleep In Your Grave | 3.0 |
| Fallujah The Flesh Prevails | 3.7 |
| Between the Buried and Me Automata I | 2.5 |
| Dark Fortress Ylem | 3.5 |
| Dark Fortress Eidolon | 3.5 |
| Dark Fortress Seance | 3.5 |
| BABYMETAL BABYMETAL | 2.5 |
| Arma Gathas Dead To This World | 3.0 |
| Anarchy Club A Single Drop of Red | 3.0 |
| Anarchy Club The Way and Its Power | 3.3 |
| Melvins Stoner Witch | 4.0 |
| Melvins Houdini | 4.0 |
| Melvins Bullhead | 4.0 |
| Pearl Jam Yield | 3.5 |
| Pearl Jam Vitalogy | 4.0 |
| Pearl Jam Vs. | 4.0 |
| Pearl Jam Ten | 4.5 |
| Anvil Metal on Metal | 3.5 |
| Jeff Beck There and Back | 3.5 |
| Joy Division Love Will Tear Us Apart | 4.0 |
| Van Halen The Best of Both Worlds | 4.0 |
| Brian Eno Another Day On Earth | 3.0 |
| Neu! Neu! '75 | 4.5 |
| Neu! Neu! | 4.0 |
| Kraftwerk The Man-Machine | 4.0 |
| Kraftwerk Trans-Europe Express | 4.0 |
| Kraftwerk Autobahn | 4.0 |
| XTC Skylarking | 4.0 |
| Squeeze Greatest Hits | 3.5 |
| Goo Goo Dolls Greatest Hits Volume One: The Singles | 3.0 |
| Goo Goo Dolls A Boy Named Goo | 3.0 |
| Cheap Trick Heaven Tonight | 4.0 |
| Blondie Blondie | 3.5 |
| The B-52s Cosmic Thing | 3.5 |
| The B-52s The B-52's | 3.5 |
| George Harrison All Things Must Pass | 4.0 |
| Paul McCartney Wingspan: Hits and History | 4.0 |
| John Lennon Imagine | 4.0 |
| Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Bad Reputation | 3.5 |
| The Clash The Clash (US version) | 3.5 |
| Ramones Greatest Hits | 3.5 |
| Ramones Ramones | 3.0 |
| Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols | 3.0 |
| Tom Tom Club Tom Tom Club | 4.0 |
| Devo Freedom of Choice | 3.5 |
| Devo Duty Now for the Future | 3.5 |
| Devo Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! | 3.5 |
| Talking Heads Fear of Music | 4.5 |
| Talking Heads More Songs About Buildings and Food | 4.2 |
| Talking Heads Talking Heads: 77 | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Kveikur | 4.5 |
| Sigur Ros Valtari | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Med Sud i Eyrum vid Spilum Endalaust | 4.0 |
| S. Carey Supermoon | 3.5 |
| S. Carey Range Of Light | 4.2 |
| S. Carey Hoyas | 3.5 |
| S. Carey All We Grow | 3.6 |
| Count to Altek Path Kethona | 3.5 |
| Jonny Greenwood Inherent Vice OST | 3.5 |
| Hans Zimmer Dunkirk | 4.0 |
| Bass Communion Sisters Oregon | 3.0 |
| Bass Communion Cenotaph | 3.5 |
| Bass Communion Bass Communion III | 3.0 |
| Bass Communion Atmospherics | 3.7 |
| Bang On A Can All-Stars Music for Airports | 4.0 |
| Brian Eno and John Cale Wrong Way Up | 3.7 |
| Brian Eno Neroli | 3.5 |
| Brian Eno The Shutov Assembly | 3.5 |
| Brian Eno More Music for Films | 3.5 |
| Brian Eno Music for Films Volume 2 | 3.5 |
| 801 801 Live | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson Last Day of June Soundtrack | 4.0 |
| A beautiful extension of Wilson's music re-interpreted for the purposes of a video game soundtrack. Many of the finest moments of his work is tinkered with and made instrumental for an atmospheric and engrossing listening experience. |
| Portishead Third | 4.0 |
| Portishead Portishead | 3.8 |
| Massive Attack Ritual Spirit | 4.2 |
| Massive Attack Heligoland | 3.8 |
| Massive Attack Splitting the Atom | 3.5 |
| David Bowie Legacy | 4.0 |
| David Bowie Best of Bowie | 4.0 |
| David Bowie The Next Day Extra | 3.5 |
| David Bowie The Buddha of Suburbia | 3.5 |
| David Bowie Space Oddity | 3.5 |
| David Bowie The Man Who Sold the World | 3.5 |
| David Bowie Hunky Dory | 4.0 |
| Pink Floyd Cre/ation: The Early Years 1965–1972 | 4.0 |
| Bon Iver Blood Bank | 4.0 |
| Tangerine Dream Pergamon | 4.0 |
| Tangerine Dream Quichotte | 4.0 |
| Tangerine Dream Tangram | 4.0 |
| Tangerine Dream Force Majeure | 4.0 |
| Tangerine Dream Stratosfear | 4.2 |
| Tangerine Dream Ricochet | 4.0 |
| Tangerine Dream Rubycon | 4.5 |
| Tangerine Dream Phaedra | 4.5 |
| Tangerine Dream Atem | 4.0 |
| Tangerine Dream Zeit | 4.0 |
| Tangerine Dream Alpha Centauri | 4.0 |
| Tangerine Dream Electronic Meditation | 3.5 |
| Brian Eno and Jon Hassell Fourth World, Vol 1: Possible Musics | 4.0 |
| Massive Attack Protection | 4.0 |
| Massive Attack 100th Window | 4.3 |
| Brian Eno Lux | 4.0 |
| LUX is one of the finest modern ambient albums you can find. Follows in the legacy of Discreet Music and Ambient 1: Music for Airports in the best ways. |
| Brian Eno The Ship | 3.0 |
| Brian Eno Reflection | 3.5 |
| Tom Rogerson with Brian Eno Finding Shore | 4.0 |
| U2 Songs of Experience | 3.0 |
| Songs of Experience is no different from most modern U2: accessible and maybe a bit safe, but this embodies a more triumphant and resilient tone than predecessors Songs of Innocence and No Line... It won't convert detractors of the band, but U2's latest is a diverse collection of effective, inspirational pop rock anthems that are worth hearing. Summer of Love, Red Flag Day, and 13 (There is a Light) are the album highlights. |
| Sufjan Stevens The Greatest Gift | 3.5 |
| Tame Impala Currents B-Sides and Remixes | 4.0 |
| Father John Misty I Love You, Honeybear | 3.7 |
| Ulver Sic Transit Gloria Mundi | 4.0 |
| Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch Blade Runner 2049 | 4.2 |
| Toby Driver Live at Roulette, March 2017 | 4.0 |
| Beck Colors | 3.0 |
| Upbeat almost to a fault, Colors finds Beck return to writing pop rock hits for the first time in nearly a decade. This is yet another new direction however, with glossy, modern production and pop hooks galore. While a bit one dimensional in this way, the songs are diverse enough to keep attention for the 40 minute run time. |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Luciferian Towers | 3.3 |
| The Contortionist Clairvoyant | 4.0 |
| A solid and enjoyable follow-up to Language, if a bit less compelling overall. The middle section of songs are the most adventurous and memorable. There is plenty of excellent songwriting and soaring melodies here, but the song structures themselves don't quite develop with as much punch or impact as I feel like they could. A couple tracks are also almost too straightforward, but everything still works well. |
| Angelo Badalamenti Twin Peaks (Limited Series Soundtrack) | 4.2 |
| Angelo Badalamenti Twin Peaks: Music from the Limited Event Series | 4.0 |
| LCD Soundsystem American Dream | 4.0 |
| Alice in Chains MTV Unplugged | 4.0 |
| 2814 新しい日の誕生 | 4.0 |
| Amorphous Androgynous The Isness | 4.0 |
| The Future Sound of London The Isness | 4.2 |
| The Future Sound of London My Kingdom | 4.0 |
| The Future Sound of London ISDN | 4.0 |
| The Future Sound of London Lifeforms (Paths) | 4.0 |
| The Future Sound of London Cascade | 4.0 |
| The Future Sound of London Dead Cities | 4.5 |
| The Microphones The Glow Pt. 2 | 4.2 |
| Mastodon Cold Dark Place | 3.5 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Villains | 3.5 |
| Queens of the Stone Age decide to take a left turn, which isn't a surprise for the shape-shifting rock band, but results in some regression. Villains too often feels like they took the ideas of "Smooth Sailing," a very good song, and stretched them out to an entire album. This results in guitar riff-centered dance rock songs with witty lyrics, some of which work and some don't. Queens... shouldn't need to repeat what worked in the past to make excellent music, but the brief moments that remind of ...Like Clockwork in Fortress and Hideaway are the most rewarding qualities this has. There are plenty of other enjoyable moments, like most of The Evil has Landed and the middle few songs. Doesn't hold a candle to ...Like Clockwork, but still a very good listen overall. |
| The War On Drugs A Deeper Understanding | 4.0 |
| Another excellent The War on Drugs album, despite some familiar elements. I can't help but think at times that this style is going to run out of steam soon, but for now it's still going strong with some of the band's best cuts to date including "Thinking of a Place," "Strangest Thing," "Pain," and "In Chains." |
| Ninet Tayeb Paper Parachute | 4.0 |
| "Child" is one of the best rock songs of the year. |
| Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot | 4.5 |
| LCD Soundsystem This Is Happening | 3.5 |
| LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver | 4.0 |
| LCD Soundsystem LCD Soundsystem | 3.5 |
| EL VY Return to the Moon | 4.0 |
| The National Trouble Will Find Me | 4.2 |
| The National Think You Can Wait/Exile Vilify | 4.0 |
| The National High Violet | 5.0 |
| The National The Virginia EP | 3.7 |
| The National Boxer | 5.0 |
| The National Alligator | 4.6 |
| The National Cherry Tree | 4.0 |
| The National Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers | 4.0 |
| The National The National | 3.0 |
| Hammock Mysterium | 3.3 |
| Brand New Science Fiction | 4.3 |
| Brand New unceremoniously drop their long-waited fifth album, Science Fiction, yet another rewarding new direction. Jesse & co. stray even farther from their roots, resembling the latest Thrice in some ways. The scattershot direction of Daisy comes to mind here, though the angst, fire, and rage is replaced with exciting, mature songwriting and a confident new direction. Whether it's superior to Daisy, or even The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me is not yet clear. What matters is that Brand New have exceeded expectations yet again, providing some of the most emotional and mature music of the year. |
| Kate Bush 50 Words for Snow | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson To the Bone | 4.5 |
| Steven Wilson strays further from progressive rock with his most forward thinking album yet. To The Bone is a colorful, accessible yet diverse rock album that explores the modern age of distorted truths and volatile nature of world affairs in 2017. Steven Wilson doesn't just revel in doom and gloom as one might anticipate him doing, but phases in and out of joyful moments ("Nowhere Now" and "Permanating"), being the most surprising here, and more progressive songs like the title track and "Detonation." Much of To The Bone follows a more straightforward rock pacing, but not without wide shifts in tone and mood. All in all, this is a hugely impressive statement from Wilson. It's an album that hearkens to Porcupine Tree's Stupid Dream in that it has the potential to be enjoyed by anyone, riding the line impressively between going very accessible (at times), and furthering artistry. |
| Arcade Fire Everything Now | 2.2 |
| Like Humanz by Gorillaz from earlier this year, Everything Now by Arcade Fire is a major low for a once incredible band. The mainstream 80s dance rock sound reaches modern The Killers-level banality here, with especially poor lyrics and singing performances. One of the laziest albums I've ever heard from a favorite band of mine, as much as it pains me to say it. |
| Coldplay Kaleidoscope | 3.0 |
| CHON Homey | 3.7 |
| Blissful summer jams with beautiful guitar work and some interesting electronic elements as well. |
| Fleet Foxes Crack-Up | 4.3 |
| If Crack-Up is any indication, the members of Fleet Foxes have spent the past six years since Helplessness Blues maturing their songwriting skills and overcoming that albums' themes of inner anxiety. Crack-Up is the other side of that coin, a freeing and surprisingly eclectic work of art. Diverse instrumentation, classical influences, and grand arrangements make for some of the group's finest compositions yet. "Third of May," the two-part "Cassius," and the gorgeous "On Another Ocean" encompass these ideas in spectacular fashion. The beauty of Fleet Foxes' music is just as apparent as it ever was, with an abundance of musical flourishes and progressive song structures that make for some of the band's finest achievements thus far. |
| Anathema The Optimist | 4.0 |
| An interesting direction to go in, mainly darker and with less accessible songwriting than the previous three albums. The middle few songs are the highlights. |
| Stevens/Dessner/Muhly/McAlister Planetarium | 4.1 |
| Planetarium is a wondrous, massive experience that explores ideas of fate, mythology, the solar system, and other big topics. It's not perfect, but the music is consistently engaging while frequently changing genres from ambient ballads, to frantic electronica, to spacey soundscapes, and other styles. It can elicit a range of emotions and reactions from a listener, as these collaborators decided to make something more daring and ambitious than any of their individual projects would allow, at times to a fault. While a bit long-winded and over-indulgent at times, the strengths of Planetarium make it adventurous and highly engaging, being one of the best albums of the year. |
| Roger Waters Is This The Life We Really Want? | 3.5 |
| Pink Floyd legend Roger Waters joins with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich for an impassioned expression of the current state of affairs in the world. There are some beautiful arrangements on here, but the album suffers from a bit of an identity crisis in the middle run of songs. Lyrically you definitely feel the passion and message Waters is projecting throughout, for whoever is in the mood for outcry about modern times and global conflict. This isn't just complaining about world affairs, it is a call to respond, and for that function it accomplishes that goal well. |
| alt-J Relaxer | 3.8 |
| Alt-J mature and expand their songwriting for rewarding results. |
| The Future Sound of London Lifeforms | 4.5 |
| Coldplay Prospekt's March | 3.5 |
| Paramore After Laughter | 4.0 |
| Slowdive Slowdive (LP) | 4.2 |
| An excellent collection of dreamy shoegaze tracks, ranging from melancholy to more upbeat. The dual vocals really elevate the songs, and the band have not lost their touch after 20 years. |
| Gorillaz Humanz | 3.0 |
| The biggest problem with Humanz lies in how underdeveloped so much of the material sounds. Half-baked trip-hop ideas aplenty, and too many of the songs fly by, hardly leaving much of an impression. "Ascension" and "Carnival" are listenable, but don't really go anywhere beyond what you hear in their first 15-30 seconds. "Charger" is good and sees an appropriate use of a collaboration, and "Busted and Blue" is slower and more atmospheric than the rest, an album highlight, along with the banger "Andromeda." Unfortunately though, most of the tracks lack enough interesting elements that made much of their first three albums so rewarding to listen to. There are many guest appearances, which makes the underwhelming nature of this even more disappointing. Some of them are even the worst and most grating moments of the album, like the screeching vocals in "Momentz" and Danny Brown's appearance in "Submission." I've never been a fan of breaking up an average length album like Humanz (40-50 minutes) with a 10 second interlude every two songs, and the real songs being short much of the time all makes for a pretty underwhelming experience. Still, there is some enjoyable sounds throughout, especially the deluxe bonus tracks. You just have to get past a good amount of filler and interludes to find them. |
| Cocteau Twins Heaven or Las Vegas | 5.0 |
| Cocteau Twins Blue Bell Knoll | 4.0 |
| Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd The Moon and the Melodies | 4.0 |
| Cocteau Twins Victorialand | 4.2 |
| Cocteau Twins Treasure | 4.5 |
| Cocteau Twins Head Over Heels | 4.0 |
| Melody's Echo Chamber Melody's Echo Chamber | 3.5 |
| Porcupine Tree Lazarus | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson 4 1/2 | 4.2 |
| Steven Wilson Transience | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson Hand. Cannot. Erase. | 5.0 |
| An adventurous and modern release that combines a wide array of influences to create an atmospheric and massively enjoyable LP. |
| Steven Wilson Drive Home | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) | 4.2 |
| Storm Corrosion Storm Corrosion | 4.5 |
| Steven Wilson Grace for Drowning | 4.3 |
| Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues | 4.4 |
| Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes | 4.0 |
| Fleet Foxes Sun Giant | 4.0 |
| Grouper Paradise Valley | 4.0 |
| Grouper Water People | 4.0 |
| Kate Bush Hounds of Love | 5.0 |
| Kate Bush The Dreaming | 4.5 |
| Kate Bush Never for Ever | 4.0 |
| Kate Bush Lionheart | 3.5 |
| Kate Bush The Kick Inside | 4.2 |
| Porcupine Tree Insignificance | 3.5 |
| Porcupine Tree Metanoia | 3.5 |
| Porcupine Tree We Lost the Skyline | 4.0 |
| Dream Theater Greatest Hit | 3.5 |
| Opeth Still Day Beneath The Sun | 4.0 |
| Opeth The Roundhouse Tapes | 4.0 |
| Opeth Lamentations | 4.0 |
| Christopher Lee A Heavy Metal Christmas | 3.5 |
| Christopher Lee Charlemagne: The Omens of Death | 3.5 |
| Christopher Lee Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross | 3.0 |
| Alestorm Leviathan | 3.0 |
| Alestorm Sunset on the Golden Age | 3.5 |
| Alestorm Back Through Time | 3.0 |
| Alestorm Black Sails at Midnight | 3.0 |
| Alestorm Captain Morgan's Revenge | 3.5 |
| Tenacious D Rize of the Fenix | 3.5 |
| Tenacious D The Pick of Destiny | 3.5 |
| Tenacious D Tenacious D | 3.5 |
| Prince Batman | 3.0 |
| Prince Sign o' the Times | 4.5 |
| Prince Parade | 4.0 |
| Prince Around the World in a Day | 4.2 |
| Prince Purple Rain | 4.5 |
| Prince 1999 | 4.0 |
| Prince Dirty Mind | 3.5 |
| Tears for Fears The Seeds of Love | 5.0 |
| Tears for Fears Songs from the Big Chair | 4.5 |
| Tears for Fears The Hurting | 4.0 |
| Talk Talk It's My Life | 3.5 |
| Talk Talk The Party's Over | 3.0 |
| Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life | 4.5 |
| Stevie Wonder Innervisions | 4.5 |
| David Sylvian Everything and Nothing | 4.0 |
| The Police The Police | 4.0 |
| Bob Marley and The Wailers Exodus | 4.5 |
| Bob Marley and The Wailers Legend | 4.5 |
| Michael Jackson The Essential Michael Jackson | 4.0 |
| Michael Jackson Dangerous | 3.5 |
| Michael Jackson Bad | 4.0 |
| Michael Jackson Thriller | 4.0 |
| Michael Jackson Off the Wall | 4.0 |
| Michael Jackson This Is It | 3.0 |
| Junkie XL Mad Max: Fury Road | 4.0 |
| Sufjan Stevens Carrie and Lowell Live | 4.5 |
| Toby Driver Madonnawhore | 4.0 |
| A dreamy collection of ambient guitar pieces, making for Toby Driver's most intimate (and accessible) offering yet. Everything about Madonnawhore feels loose and fleeting. Sparse drumming comes in at times to support the floaty guitars and vocals, and the sounds create a beautiful ambience fully realized from the quieter moments of Driver's bands Maudlin of the Well and Kayo Dot. |
| Kendrick Lamar DAMN. | 3.0 |
| Ulver The Assassination of Julius Caesar | 4.3 |
| Ghostly atmospheres are abound in Ulver's latest. Being their "pop" album, there are electro-pop melodies, dark synth passages, and even a few bass drops scattered throughout the run time. The lyrics traverse all times of history and mythology, while the music recalls a strange blend of their turn of the millennium records and Wars of the Roses. Garm's vocals are back in full force as well, all making for a resounding meditation on the dark side of history, mythology, and human nature. |
| sleepmakeswaves Made Of Breath Only | 4.0 |
| Sleepmakeswaves go in a proggier direction here, blending technical instrumental prowess with lush guitar work. The standout track "Midnight Sun" encapsulates these ideas stunningly, being an early contender for post-rock song of the year. |
| Tim Bowness Lost in the Ghost Light | 4.0 |
| Very enjoyable, atmospheric prog rock album for fans of Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree. |
| Blackfield Blackfield V | 3.6 |
| The songs serve as a series of brief vignettes that together form a sweeping art rock musical concept about the cycles of life relating to the ocean. It cleverly builds to the impressive ending few songs, recalling Porcupine Tree while launching Blackfield back into the hearts of fans who may have been disappointed by WTMDNA and IV. |
| Soen Lykaia | 3.8 |
| Soen continue to find their own voice through Lykaia. With many of their contemporaries changing musical direction or halting progress altogether, it's encouraging to hear a new band provide an excellent contribution to progressive metal. Soen used to wear their influences on their sleeve, but have impressively been moving away from this trend and are sounding more original. Lykaia might sound like Opeth, Riverside, or even Pink Floyd at times, but maintains a distinct voice and stands as an impressive, well above average album for fans of Tool, Katatonia, and other similar groups. |
| Riverside Eye of the Soundscape | 4.0 |
| Riverside emerge from the ashes of tragedy with a compilation double-album of instrumental explorations: some old, some new. Past successes "Rapid Eye Movement" and "Rainbow Box" are treated with remixes, and arguably surpass the originals. Ambient bonus tracks of the previous two albums are included as well. As if all of this content wasn't enough for a tantalizing compilation, four new tracks are also present. Two of them, "Where The River Flows" and the t/t, bookend the album, all four comprised of atmospheric textures with a notable absence of progressive rock or metal flourishes the band have become known for. Overall, the minimal showcasing of guitars here will surprise many fans, but Piotr Grudzi?ski is still honored, just in a different way than one would assume. His contributions possess a subtle, dreamy quality that recall the more thoughtful Riverside compositions. All in all, this serves as a fitting, loving sendoff for Grudzi?ski, as well as an intriguing reminder of the ever-shifting musical qualities of one of the finest modern progressive rock bands. |
| John Frusciante To Record Only Water for Ten Days | 3.5 |
| John Frusciante Smile from the Streets You Hold | 3.0 |
| John Frusciante Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt | 3.5 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers The Uplift Mofo Party Plan | 3.5 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Freaky Styley | 3.0 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers The Red Hot Chili Peppers | 3.0 |
| Vaura The Missing | 4.2 |
| Vaura Selenelion | 3.6 |
| Liturgy The Ark Work | 2.5 |
| Beautiful melodies and harmonies alongside a fantastic drumming performance are the best parts of The Ark Work, while monotonous vocals and muddled production mar the overall potential. |
| Liturgy Aesthethica | 3.0 |
| Liturgy Renihilation | 3.5 |
| The Verve Urban Hymns | 4.2 |
| The Verve A Northern Soul | 4.0 |
| The Verve A Storm in Heaven | 4.3 |
| Interpol El Pintor | 4.2 |
| Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory? | 4.3 |
| Oasis Definitely Maybe | 4.2 |
| Depeche Mode Violator | 4.5 |
| Pulp Different Class | 4.0 |
| Pulp His 'n' Hers | 3.7 |
| Suede Dog Man Star | 4.0 |
| Suede Suede | 3.7 |
| Blur The Magic Whip | 3.5 |
| Blur Think Tank | 4.0 |
| Blur 13 | 4.0 |
| Blur Blur | 3.5 |
| Blur The Great Escape | 3.2 |
| Blur Parklife | 3.8 |
| Blur Modern Life Is Rubbish | 3.5 |
| Blur Leisure | 3.3 |
| Bloc Party Silent Alarm | 4.0 |
| Esperanza Spalding Emily's D+Evolution | 3.8 |
| Run the Jewels Run the Jewels 3 | 4.0 |
| Run the Jewels Run the Jewels 2 | 4.0 |
| Run the Jewels Run the Jewels | 4.0 |
| Kendrick Lamar untitled unmastered. | 3.0 |
| Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly | 4.0 |
| Kendrick Lamar good kid, m.A.A.d city | 3.5 |
| Kendrick Lamar Section.80 | 3.5 |
| Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy | 3.5 |
| Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP | 4.0 |
| Geto Boys The Resurrection | 4.0 |
| Will Smith Greatest Hits | 3.0 |
| Will Smith Lost and Found | 3.0 |
| Will Smith Born To Reign | 2.5 |
| Will Smith Willennium | 3.0 |
| Will Smith Big Willie Style | 2.5 |
| 2Pac All Eyez on Me | 4.0 |
| 2Pac Me Against the World | 4.0 |
| The Notorious B.I.G. Life After Death | 4.0 |
| The Notorious B.I.G. Ready to Die | 4.0 |
| Jay-Z The Black Album | 4.0 |
| Jay-Z Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life | 3.5 |
| Jay-Z In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 | 3.5 |
| Jay-Z Reasonable Doubt | 4.0 |
| 50 Cent Get Rich or Die Tryin' | 3.0 |
| Snoop Dogg Bush | 2.5 |
| Snoop Lion Reincarnated | 2.5 |
| Snoop Dogg Tha Blue Carpet Treatment | 3.0 |
| Snoop Dogg Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$ | 3.0 |
| Snoop Dogg Tha Doggfather | 3.5 |
| Snoop Dogg Doggystyle | 4.0 |
| Dr. Dre Compton | 3.5 |
| Dr. Dre 2001 | 3.5 |
| Dr. Dre The Chronic | 4.0 |
| N.W.A. Niggaz4Life | 3.5 |
| N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton | 4.0 |
| Public Enemy Power to the People and the Beats | 4.0 |
| Run-D.M.C. Down With The King | 3.0 |
| Run-D.M.C. Raising Hell | 4.0 |
| Run-D.M.C. King Of Rock | 3.5 |
| Run-D.M.C. Run DMC | 4.0 |
| Bela Fleck and The Flecktones Live at the Quick | 4.0 |
| Beck Morning Phase | 3.7 |
| Beck Modern Guilt | 3.5 |
| Beck The Information | 2.5 |
| Beck Guero | 3.5 |
| Beck Sea Change | 4.2 |
| Beck Midnite Vultures | 4.0 |
| Beck Mutations | 3.8 |
| Beck Odelay | 4.0 |
| Beck Mellow Gold | 3.5 |
| Nirvana MTV Unplugged in New York | 4.0 |
| Murderdolls Women and Children Last | 2.5 |
| Murderdolls Beyond The Valley of the Murderdolls | 3.0 |
| Pixies Doolittle | 4.5 |
| Pixies Surfer Rosa | 4.0 |
| Pixies Come On Pilgrim | 4.0 |
| David Sylvian Do You Know Me Now? | 4.0 |
| David Sylvian Manafon | 3.5 |
| David Sylvian Blemish | 4.0 |
| Harold Budd and Brian Eno The Pearl | 4.5 |
| Robert Fripp The Gates of Paradise | 4.0 |
| David Sylvian and Robert Fripp The First Day | 4.5 |
| David Sylvian Dead Bees on a Cake | 4.5 |
| Harold Budd The Pavilion of Dreams | 4.0 |
| Brian Eno Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) | 4.0 |
| Brian Eno Here Come the Warm Jets | 4.0 |
| Mastodon Emperor of Sand | 3.5 |
| Emperor of Sand signifies more excellent, mind-bending metal from prog giants Mastodon. There's not a whole lot that's new to be said for the band in 2017, as they continue down the path that really began with The Hunter. Some moments hearken to Crack the Skye and Blood Mountain, but this is mostly a further excursion into what they've been doing in a more classic metal sounding approach. |
| David Bowie No Plan | 4.0 |
| Animals As Leaders The Madness of Many | 4.0 |
| Animals As Leaders shake up their formula a bit with increased technical playing (if that were even possible) and less hooks overall. The result could be described as mixed, but there are simply too many great moments on here to be considered a disappointment. The opener is one of their most fascinating tracks, beginning the first run of more dissonant, darker sounding compositions than on the debut or The Joy of Motion. This trend only lasts for about the first 1/3 of the album however, as it veers back into more melodic and rewarding territory in the middle. The last three songs are the highlights, with less metal elements making for jazzy, syncopated musical madness to be the focus. The Madness of Many isn't the strongest album from AAL, but takes enough risks and remains fascinating enough to warrant plenty of close listens, as plenty of rewarding details can flicker by quickly. |
| Animals As Leaders The Joy of Motion | 4.5 |
| Animals As Leaders Weightless | 4.0 |
| Animals As Leaders Animals as Leaders | 4.5 |
| Toby Driver Ichneumonidae | 3.5 |
| Tartar Lamb Polyimage of Known Exits | 3.5 |
| Tartar Lamb Sixty Metonymies | 4.0 |
| Toby Driver In the L..L..Library Loft | 3.5 |
| My Bloody Valentine EPs 1988-1991 | 4.5 |
| My Bloody Valentine Ecstasy and Wine | 3.5 |
| My Bloody Valentine Glider | 4.0 |
| My Bloody Valentine Feed Me with Your Kiss | 3.5 |
| Slowdive Blue Day | 4.0 |
| Slowdive 5 | 4.0 |
| Slowdive Outside Your Room | 4.0 |
| Slowdive Holding Our Breath | 4.0 |
| Slowdive Morningrise | 4.0 |
| Slowdive Slowdive | 4.0 |
| Arsonists Get All the Girls The Game Of Life | 2.5 |
| In This Moment A Star-Crossed Wasteland | 3.0 |
| In This Moment The Dream | 3.0 |
| In This Moment Beautiful Tragedy | 3.0 |
| Disturbed Immortalized | 2.5 |
| Disturbed Asylum | 2.5 |
| Disturbed Indestructible | 3.0 |
| Disturbed Ten Thousand Fists | 3.0 |
| Disturbed Believe | 3.0 |
| Disturbed The Sickness | 2.0 |
| Himsa Summon In Thunder | 3.0 |
| Eyes Set to Kill Reach | 3.0 |
| Seether Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces | 2.5 |
| Seether Disclaimer II | 2.5 |
| Korn All Mixed Up | 2.0 |
| Korn MTV Unplugged: Korn | 2.5 |
| Limp Bizkit Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water | 2.0 |
| Linkin Park Reanimation | 1.5 |
| Hawthorne Heights If Only You Were Lonely | 2.5 |
| Hawthorne Heights The Silence in Black and White | 2.5 |
| A Day To Remember What Separates Me from You | 2.5 |
| A Day To Remember Homesick | 2.5 |
| A Day To Remember For Those Who Have Heart | 2.5 |
| Brian Eno and David Byrne Everything that Happens Will Happen Today | 3.6 |
| Brian Eno and David Byrne My Life in the Bush of Ghosts | 4.5 |
| Snow Patrol Eyes Open | 3.8 |
| U2 Original Soundtracks 1 (As Passengers) | 3.0 |
| Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii | 4.5 |
| Fen Winter | 4.0 |
| Fen Carrion Skies | 3.8 |
| Gorillaz The Fall | 2.5 |
| Gorillaz Plastic Beach | 4.0 |
| Gorillaz Demon Days | 4.0 |
| Gorillaz Gorillaz | 3.7 |
| Les Discrets Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées | 4.0 |
| Amesoeurs Amesoeurs | 4.0 |
| Alcest Kodama | 4.5 |
| The atmosphere of Japanese folklore and Neige's dreamworld collide in this euphoric odyssey, continuing from where Voyages... left off, yet sounding more focused overall. While Shelter was an enjoyable diversion from the band's sound, Kodama follows swiftly in the footsteps of Le Secret and Ecailles...: sweeping post-rock atmospheres colliding with intense metal soundscapes. It frequently convalesces into a swirling blend of chaotic beauty, going for a more sophisticated sound than the typical dynamic motifs one hears in post-black metal. While it could have been a bit longer, the first forty minutes stands as among Niege's most stunning creations yet. Note: It helps to think of the enjoyable yet meandering final 10 minutes (including the bonus track, "Notre sang et nos pens?es") as the falling action of Kodama, being much more ambient overall. |
| Alcest Shelter | 4.0 |
| Alcest Les Voyages De L'Âme | 4.2 |
| Alcest Écailles De Lune | 5.0 |
| Alcest Souvenirs D'Un Autre Monde | 4.3 |
| Alcest Le Secret (2011 Version) | 4.0 |
| Creepers Lush | 3.5 |
| Deafheaven New Bermuda | 3.7 |
| As the surreal album cover would suggest, New Bermuda is a much darker and more melancholic record than smash hit Sunbather from only two years ago. Soaring dream pop melodies and their most furious black metal yet clash in one of the most diverse records of the year, a passionate, furious, unpredictable journey through all sides of the band's sound thus far. This is not Sunbather Part 2, but a different beast altogether, and serves as a fantastic progression for the young group thus far. |
| Deafheaven Sunbather | 4.3 |
| An expansion of the style presented in their debut Roads to Judah, Sunbather defies genre boundaries. The hour blurs by in multi-faceted textures that blend shoegazing, black metal, and post-rock into an incredible whirlwind of sonic power and beauty. Crashing drums and tremolo picked guitars alternate with dreamy guitar ambience, with beautiful melodies abundant throughout. This magnificent powerhouse demands multiple listens to allow the sheer intensity and emotional power it exudes to fully sink in. As the album cover and title suggest, a perfect album to jam in the summer. |
| Deafheaven Roads to Judah | 3.5 |
| Deafheaven Demo | 3.5 |
| David Julyan The Prestige: Original Score | 4.0 |
| Behavior Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent | 4.0 |
| Neil Davidge Halo 4 Original Soundtrack | 3.5 |
| Garry Schyman Bioshock Infinite Score | 4.0 |
| Garry Schyman Sounds from the Lighthouse (BioShock 2) | 4.0 |
| Garry Schyman Bioshock Score | 4.0 |
| Kelly Bailey Half-Life 2 | 4.0 |
| Aperture Science Psychoacoustics Lab... Portal 2: Songs to Test By | 3.5 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Gone Girl OST | 4.0 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo OST | 4.0 |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross The Social Network OST | 4.0 |
| Mick Gordon Doom OST | 3.5 |
| Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein Stranger Things, Volume One | 4.0 |
| Martin O'Donnell Destiny OST | 3.5 |
| Martin O'Donnell Halo: Reach OST | 3.5 |
| Martin O'Donnell Halo 2, Vol. 2 OST | 4.0 |
| Dave Porter Breaking Bad, Vol. 2 | 4.0 |
| Dave Porter Breaking Bad | 4.0 |
| Various Artists Der Wanderer über Dem Nebelmeer | 4.0 |
| Mark Snow The Truth and the Light: Music From the X-Files | 4.0 |
| Angelo Badalamenti Twin Peaks | 4.2 |
| Howard Shore The Return of the King | 4.5 |
| Howard Shore The Two Towers | 4.5 |
| Howard Shore The Fellowship of the Ring | 4.5 |
| Hans Zimmer Interstellar | 4.0 |
| Hans Zimmer Inception | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Theatre) Phantom of the Opera [Highlights] | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Video Game) Bioshock Infinite | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Video Game) Mass Effect 2 | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Video Game) Infamous | 3.6 |
| Soundtrack (Video Game) Fallout 3 | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Video Game) The Orange Box | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Garden State | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Juno | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Django Unchained | 3.5 |
| Jonny Greenwood The Master OST | 4.0 |
| Jonny Greenwood There Will Be Blood OST | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Run Lola Run | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) The Matrix | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) The Crow | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) 28 Days Later | 4.0 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Pulp Fiction | 4.0 |
| Vuvr Pilgrimage | 4.0 |
| Pink Floyd The Early Singles | 4.0 |
| Makoto Matsushita First Light | 4.0 |
| CHON Grow | 3.7 |
| CHON Woohoo! | 3.5 |
| CHON Newborn Sun | 4.0 |
| CHON Demo 2008 | 4.0 |
| Minus the Bear Lost Loves | 3.5 |
| Minus the Bear Planet of Ice | 4.5 |
| Minus the Bear Menos El Oso | 4.0 |
| Minus the Bear They Make Beer Commercials Like This | 4.0 |
| Minus the Bear Highly Refined Pirates | 4.0 |
| Minus the Bear Bands Like It When You Yell YAR at Them | 3.5 |
| Minus the Bear This is What I Know About Being Gigantic | 3.5 |
| Submotion Orchestra Alium | 3.7 |
| Submotion Orchestra Fragments | 4.0 |
| Submotion Orchestra Finest Hour | 4.5 |
| Bjork Homogenic | 5.0 |
| Massive Attack Blue Lines | 4.0 |
| DJ Shadow The Private Press | 4.0 |
| Amethystium Odonata | 4.0 |
| dredg El Cielo | 4.0 |
| Oceansize Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up | 4.0 |
| Oceansize Music for Nurses | 4.0 |
| Oceansize Frames | 4.5 |
| Oceansize Everyone Into Position | 4.0 |
| Oceansize Effloresce | 4.5 |
| Scale the Summit V | 3.0 |
| Scale the Summit The Migration | 4.0 |
| Scale the Summit The Collective | 3.8 |
| Scale the Summit Carving Desert Canyons | 3.5 |
| Scale the Summit Monument | 3.0 |
| Cloudkicker Live with Intronaut | 3.5 |
| Cloudkicker Subsume | 3.0 |
| Cloudkicker Let Yourself Be Huge | 3.5 |
| Cloudkicker Beacons | 3.5 |
| Cloudkicker The Discovery | 2.6 |
| Soen Tellurian | 3.7 |
| Soen Cognitive | 3.5 |
| Blackfield Blackfield IV | 3.0 |
| Blackfield Welcome To My DNA | 3.0 |
| Blackfield Blackfield II | 4.0 |
| Blackfield Blackfield | 4.0 |
| Bass Communion Litany | 4.0 |
| Bass Communion Molotov And Haze | 3.0 |
| Bass Communion Ghosts on Magnetic Tape | 3.5 |
| Bass Communion Bass Communion II | 4.0 |
| Bass Communion Bass Communion | 3.5 |
| No-Man Schoolyard Ghosts | 4.5 |
| No-Man All The Blue Changes - An Anthology 1988-2003 | 4.0 |
| No-Man Together We're Stranger | 4.3 |
| No-Man Returning Jesus | 4.5 |
| No-Man Speak | 4.5 |
| No-Man Wild Opera | 4.0 |
| No-Man Heaven Taste | 3.5 |
| No-Man Flowermouth | 4.0 |
| No-Man Loveblows & Lovecries | 3.5 |
| No-Man Lovesighs - An Entertainment | 3.5 |
| Porcupine Tree Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape | 3.5 |
| Haruomi Hosono/Shigeru Suzuki/Tatsuro Yamashita Pacific | 4.0 |
| The War On Drugs Future Weather | 4.0 |
| Andy Summers and Robert Fripp Bewitched | 3.5 |
| Andy Summers and Robert Fripp I Advance Masked | 4.0 |
| Brian Eno Thursday Afternoon | 3.7 |
| Brian Eno Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks | 4.0 |
| Brian Eno Ambient 4: On Land | 4.0 |
| Laraaji Ambient 3: Day of Radiance | 4.0 |
| Harold Budd and Brian Eno Ambient 2 - The Plateaux of Mirror | 4.5 |
| Brian Eno Music For Films | 4.0 |
| Brian Eno Ambient 1: Music For Airports | 4.5 |
| Brian Eno Before and After Science | 4.5 |
| Brian Eno Discreet Music | 4.0 |
| Brian Eno Another Green World | 5.0 |
| Fripp and Eno The Equatorial Stars | 4.0 |
| Fripp and Eno Evening Star | 4.5 |
| Fripp and Eno No Pussyfooting | 4.0 |
| Robert Fripp A Blessing of Tears: 1995 Soundscapes Vol. 2 | 4.0 |
| Robert Fripp The League of Gentlemen | 4.0 |
| Robert Fripp Exposure | 4.0 |
| Mammoth Deviations | 3.5 |
| Austin Wintory Journey OST | 4.0 |
| Pink Floyd Pulse | 4.0 |
| David Sylvian Alchemy - An Index of Possibilities | 4.0 |
| David Sylvian Brilliant Trees | 4.5 |
| David Sylvian Secrets of the Beehive | 5.0 |
| David Sylvian Gone to Earth | 5.0 |
| Ulver Riverhead OST | 3.5 |
| Leonard Cohen You Want It Darker | 3.5 |
| Our Oceans Our Oceans | 4.0 |
| Cynic Kindly Bent to Free Us | 3.3 |
| Exivious Liminal | 4.2 |
| Aeon Spoke Nothing | 3.0 |
| Cynic The Portal Tapes | 4.5 |
| Cynic Carbon-Based Anatomy | 4.0 |
| Cynic Re-Traced | 3.5 |
| Exivious Exivious | 4.0 |
| Cynic Traced in Air | 4.5 |
| Aeon Spoke Aeon Spoke | 4.0 |
| Aghora Formless | 4.0 |
| Aeon Spoke Above the Buried Cry | 3.5 |
| Gordian Knot Emergent | 4.0 |
| Aghora Aghora | 4.0 |
| Gordian Knot Gordian Knot | 4.0 |
| Portal (Cynic) Portal | 4.2 |
| Cynic Focus | 4.5 |
| Goldfrapp Felt Mountain | 4.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens Carrie and Lowell | 4.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens The Age of Adz | 3.7 |
| Sufjan Stevens All Delighted People | 3.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens Illinois | 4.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans | 4.1 |
| Sufjan Stevens Michigan | 4.3 |
| Sufjan Stevens Silver & Gold | 4.0 |
| Sufjan Stevens Songs For Christmas | 3.5 |
| King Crimson Three of a Perfect Pair | 3.5 |
| King Crimson Beat | 3.5 |
| King Crimson Discipline | 4.7 |
| King Crimson Red | 5.0 |
| King Crimson Starless and Bible Black | 4.0 |
| King Crimson Larks' Tongues in Aspic | 5.0 |
| King Crimson Islands | 4.3 |
| King Crimson Lizard | 4.5 |
| King Crimson In the Wake of Poseidon | 4.0 |
| King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King | 4.5 |
| David Bowie Blackstar | 4.5 |
| Blackstar sees David Bowie's music at its most profound, bewildering, and emotional. There's hardly any semblance of traditional rock n' roll on here, with a purposeful move to stray from that style. It instead draws influences from more contemporary music, and makes use of avant-garde musical styles like industrial, jazz, art rock, and electronica. "Blackstar" is a monolith, being a 10 minute exercise in occultish atmospheres and haunting melodies. The bridge is a beautiful soundscape however, with other gorgeous moments being plentiful in the morose "Lazarus" and emotionally resonant album closer "I Can't Give Everything Away." Bowie passed away two days after this was released, and much of the lyrical themes seem to hauntingly explore his impending passing. This only adds to the poignancy of Blackstar, being not only Bowie's strongest record in decades, but one of the best finale albums of all time. |
| David Bowie The Next Day | 4.0 |
| David Bowie Reality | 3.5 |
| David Bowie Heathen | 3.8 |
| David Bowie Hours | 3.5 |
| David Bowie Earthling | 3.3 |
| David Bowie Outside | 4.0 |
| David Bowie Black Tie White Noise | 3.0 |
| Metallica Hardwired...To Self-Destruct | 3.0 |
| Jim James Eternally Even | 3.5 |
| Jimmy Eat World Integrity Blues | 3.6 |
| Bon Iver 22, A Million | 4.0 |
| Opeth Sorceress | 3.3 |
| Naturalistic vibes and explorative songwriting galore, Sorceress emphasizes adventure above all else. It manifests a warm, yet occult atmosphere, particularly within the gorgeous "Sorceress 2" and colorful "The Wilde Flowers." The unpredictable qualities of Watershed and Heritage are certainly intact, especially regarding the instrumentation; don't be surprised when a rollicking progressive metal jam fully transforms into beautiful musical passages of acoustic guitar pluckings and ethereal mellotrons. There are unfortunately some bland lyrics similar to the weaker moments of Pale Communion, but vocals are improved with Akerfeldt giving his best performance in a decade. While Sorceress may be too disjointed or tranquil for some, Opeth nevertheless continue developing their new musical styles triumphantly. |
| Riverside Love, Fear and the Time Machine | 4.0 |
| Riverside Shrine Of New Generation Slaves | 4.0 |
| Paradise Lost One Second | 3.5 |
| Paradise Lost Lost Paradise | 3.0 |
| Paradise Lost Shades of God | 4.0 |
| Paradise Lost Gothic | 4.0 |
| Avril Lavigne Goodbye Lullaby | 2.5 |
| Avril Lavigne The Best Damn Thing | 2.5 |
| Avril Lavigne Under My Skin | 3.0 |
| Avril Lavigne Let Go | 2.5 |
| Katy Perry Teenage Dream | 2.0 |
| Katy Perry One of the Boys | 2.5 |
| I Declare War I Declare War | 2.5 |
| Maroon 5 V | 1.0 |
| Hello Kitty Suicide Club ^_^ | 1.0 |
| Miss May I Monument | 2.5 |
| Miss May I Apologies Are for the Weak | 2.5 |
| Fleshgod Apocalypse Agony | 3.5 |
| Fleshgod Apocalypse Oracles | 3.5 |
| Fleshgod Apocalypse Mafia | 3.5 |
| The Faceless Planetary Duality | 3.0 |
| Panopticon Kentucky | 2.5 |
| Panopticon Social Disservices | 2.5 |
| Deicide Deicide | 3.5 |
| Cannibal Corpse Tomb of the Mutilated | 3.0 |
| Job For A Cowboy Gloom | 3.0 |
| Job For A Cowboy Ruination | 3.0 |
| Job For A Cowboy Genesis | 2.5 |
| Job For A Cowboy Doom | 2.5 |
| DevilDriver Winter Kills | 2.5 |
| DevilDriver Beast | 3.0 |
| DevilDriver Pray for Villains | 2.5 |
| DevilDriver The Last Kind Words | 3.0 |
| DevilDriver The Fury of Our Maker's Hand | 3.0 |
| DevilDriver DevilDriver | 2.5 |
| Divine Heresy Bringer of Plagues | 3.0 |
| Kataklysm In the Arms of Devastation | 3.0 |
| Atreyu Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses | 2.5 |
| Beneath The Sky In Loving Memory | 3.0 |
| White Zombie Make Them Die Slowly | 3.0 |
| Static-X Wisconsin Death Trip | 3.5 |
| Powerman 5000 Transform | 2.5 |
| Powerman 5000 True Force | 3.0 |
| Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe 2 | 3.0 |
| Rob Zombie Educated Horses | 3.0 |
| Rob Zombie The Sinister Urge | 3.5 |
| Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe | 3.5 |
| Marilyn Manson The Golden Age of Grotesque | 3.0 |
| Marilyn Manson Portrait of an American Family | 2.5 |
| Marilyn Manson Born Villain | 3.0 |
| Linkin Park Minutes to Midnight | 1.5 |
| Linkin Park Meteora | 2.5 |
| Linkin Park Hybrid Theory | 2.5 |
| Incubus (USA-CA) Morning View | 4.0 |
| Incubus (USA-CA) Make Yourself | 4.0 |
| Mushroomhead XIII | 3.5 |
| Stone Sour House of Gold and Bones - Part 2 | 3.0 |
| Stone Sour House of Gold and Bones - Part 1 | 3.0 |
| Scar the Martyr Scar the Martyr | 2.7 |
| Slipknot .5: The Gray Chapter | 2.5 |
| Slipknot All Hope Is Gone | 3.0 |
| Slipknot Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses | 3.5 |
| Slipknot Iowa | 3.0 |
| Slipknot Slipknot | 3.0 |
| Slipknot Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. | 3.0 |
| Evanescence The Open Door | 3.0 |
| Korn The Paradigm Shift | 3.0 |
| Korn The Path of Totality | 2.0 |
| Korn Korn III: Remember Who You Are | 2.5 |
| Korn Untitled | 2.0 |
| Korn See You on the Other Side | 2.5 |
| Korn Take a Look in the Mirror | 2.0 |
| Korn Untouchables | 3.0 |
| Korn Issues | 3.5 |
| Korn Follow the Leader | 3.5 |
| Korn Life Is Peachy | 3.5 |
| Korn Korn | 3.5 |
| Reflux The Illusion Of Democracy | 4.0 |
| Burn the Priest Burn the Priest | 3.0 |
| Metallica Garage Inc. | 3.0 |
| Thulcandra Ascension Lost | 3.5 |
| Thulcandra Under a Frozen Sun | 3.5 |
| Thulcandra Fallen Angel's Dominion | 3.5 |
| Vildhjarta Måsstaden | 3.8 |
| Carnifex Until I Feel Nothing | 3.0 |
| Carnifex Hell Chose Me | 3.0 |
| Carnifex The Diseased and Poisoned | 2.0 |
| Carnifex Dead in My Arms | 2.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Waking the Fallen: Resurrected | 3.0 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Waking the Fallen | 2.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Sounding the Seventh Trumpet | 2.5 |
| Periphery Clear | 3.0 |
| Periphery Icarus | 3.0 |
| ERRA Impulse | 3.0 |
| Veil of Maya Eclipse | 2.5 |
| Veil of Maya [id] | 3.0 |
| Veil of Maya The Common Man's Collapse | 3.0 |
| After the Burial In Dreams | 3.5 |
| After the Burial Rareform | 3.5 |
| After the Burial Forging a Future Self | 3.5 |
| Volumes Via | 3.0 |
| Underoath Define the Great Line | 3.7 |
| Underoath They're Only Chasing Safety | 3.5 |
| Underoath The Changing of Times | 3.0 |
| August Burns Red Found in Far Away Places | 3.5 |
| The melodic sections are a welcome break from August Burns Red's trademark sound. Overall, this is just as good as R&R, with some longer tracks and a welcome guest appearance from A Day To Remember vocalist Jeremy McKinnon. |
| August Burns Red Rescue & Restore | 3.5 |
| August Burns Red Leveler | 3.0 |
| August Burns Red Constellations | 3.5 |
| August Burns Red Messengers | 3.0 |
| Parkway Drive Ire | 2.0 |
| Parkway Drive Atlas | 2.5 |
| Parkway Drive Deep Blue | 3.0 |
| Parkway Drive Horizons | 3.5 |
| Parkway Drive Killing with a Smile | 3.5 |
| Falling in Reverse Fashionably Late | 1.0 |
| Falling in Reverse The Drug in Me Is You | 2.0 |
| Escape the Fate Escape the Fate | 1.5 |
| Escape the Fate This War Is Ours | 2.0 |
| Alesana On Frail Wings of Vanity and Wax | 3.0 |
| Blessthefall Awakening | 3.0 |
| Blessthefall Witness | 3.0 |
| Times of Grace The Hymn of a Broken Man | 2.5 |
| Killswitch Engage Killswitch Engage (2009) | 2.0 |
| Killswitch Engage As Daylight Dies | 2.5 |
| Killswitch Engage The End of Heartache | 3.0 |
| Killswitch Engage Alive or Just Breathing | 3.5 |
| Killswitch Engage Killswitch Engage | 3.0 |
| All That Remains The Order of Things | 2.0 |
| All That Remains For We Are Many | 2.5 |
| All That Remains Overcome | 3.0 |
| All That Remains This Darkened Heart | 3.0 |
| All That Remains Behind Silence and Solitude | 2.0 |
| As I Lay Dying Awakened | 2.5 |
| As I Lay Dying Decas | 2.5 |
| As I Lay Dying The Powerless Rise | 3.5 |
| As I Lay Dying An Ocean Between Us | 3.5 |
| As I Lay Dying Shadows Are Security | 3.0 |
| As I Lay Dying Frail Words Collapse | 3.0 |
| The Devil Wears Prada Dead Throne | 2.5 |
| The Devil Wears Prada Zombie | 3.1 |
| The Devil Wears Prada With Roots Above and Branches Below | 3.0 |
| The Devil Wears Prada Plagues | 2.5 |
| The Devil Wears Prada Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord | 2.5 |
| Attack Attack! Attack Attack! | 2.0 |
| Asking Alexandria Reckless and Relentless | 2.0 |
| Asking Alexandria Stand Up and Scream | 1.5 |
| Cannibal Corpse Vile | 3.0 |
| Oceano Ascendants | 2.5 |
| Oceano Depths | 2.0 |
| Black Tongue The Unconquerable Dark | 2.5 |
| Black Tongue Born Hanged | 1.5 |
| Chelsea Grin Ashes To Ashes | 3.0 |
| Chelsea Grin Evolve | 3.0 |
| Chelsea Grin My Damnation | 2.5 |
| Chelsea Grin Desolation Of Eden | 2.0 |
| Chelsea Grin Chelsea Grin | 2.5 |
| At the Gates The Red in the Sky Is Ours | 3.5 |
| At the Gates Gardens of Grief | 3.5 |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Nocturnal | 3.0 |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Unhallowed | 3.0 |
| All Shall Perish The Price of Existence | 3.5 |
| Fit for an Autopsy Hellbound | 3.5 |
| Fit for an Autopsy The Process of Human Extermination | 3.0 |
| The Acacia Strain Wormwood | 2.5 |
| The Acacia Strain The Dead Walk | 2.5 |
| Whitechapel Recorrupted | 2.0 |
| Whitechapel Our Endless War | 2.5 |
| Whitechapel Whitechapel | 3.5 |
| Whitechapel A New Era of Corruption | 3.0 |
| Whitechapel This Is Exile | 3.0 |
| Whitechapel The Somatic Defilement | 2.5 |
| Suicide Silence You Can't Stop Me | 2.0 |
| Some decent solos and a few cool moments can't save this overblown, repetitive-ass album from the depths of mediocrity. From the constant chugging and breakdowns to the out of place blast beats to the painful lyrics, this is true commercial diarrhea for a scene that really needs to die already. 1.8/5 |
| Suicide Silence The Black Crown | 2.7 |
| Suicide Silence No Time to Bleed | 2.5 |
| Suicide Silence The Cleansing | 3.0 |
| Suicide Silence Suicide Silence (EP) | 2.5 |
| Bring Me the Horizon That's the Spirit | 2.0 |
| Wetting myself in anticipation to hear Oli Sykes go full-on Chester Bennington here. Reviews for this will probably talk about the how the band has "matured" just because they decided to nix the riffs and dynamics for synth ambience and pop hooks instead. Personally though AOTY 2/5 |
| Bring Me the Horizon Count Your Blessings | 2.5 |
| Bring Me the Horizon Sempiternal | 3.0 |
| Bring Me the Horizon Suicide Season | 2.8 |
| Bring Me the Horizon This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For | 2.0 |
| Arcade Fire Her | 4.0 |
| Cradle of Filth Evermore Darkly | 2.5 |
| Cradle of Filth Bitter Suites to Succubi | 3.5 |
| Cradle of Filth From the Cradle to Enslave | 3.0 |
| Cradle of Filth Vempire or Dark Faerytales in Phalluste | 4.5 |
| Cradle of Filth Midnight in the Labyrinth | 1.5 |
| Cradle of Filth Lovecraft & Witch Hearts | 3.5 |
| The Gathering How to Measure a Planet? | 4.3 |
| The Gathering Nighttime Birds | 4.2 |
| The Gathering Mandylion | 4.0 |
| Fields of the Nephilim Elizium | 4.5 |
| Fields of the Nephilim The Nephilim | 3.8 |
| Anathema Eternity | 3.7 |
| Anathema The Silent Enigma | 3.5 |
| Anathema Serenades | 3.0 |
| Riverside Memories In My Head | 3.5 |
| Riverside Anno Domini High Definition | 3.7 |
| Riverside Rapid Eye Movement | 3.5 |
| Riverside O2 Panic Room | 3.5 |
| Riverside Voices In My Head | 4.0 |
| Riverside Second Life Syndrome | 4.2 |
| Riverside Out of Myself | 4.0 |
| Horseback Dead Ringers | 3.0 |
| Horseback Piedmont Apocrypha | 4.0 |
| Anciients Voice of the Void | 3.7 |
| Anciients Heart of Oak | 4.1 |
| Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver | 4.5 |
| Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago | 4.2 |
| Rush Clockwork Angels | 4.5 |
| Rush Snakes & Arrows | 4.0 |
| Rush Vapor Trails Remixed | 4.0 |
| Rush Vapor Trails | 4.0 |
| No-Man Days in the Trees | 4.0 |
| Burzum Hvis Lyset Tar Oss | 4.5 |
| Myrkur Myrkur | 3.0 |
| Stargazer (AUS) A Merging to the Boundless | 4.0 |
| The 69 Eyes Back In Blood | 3.5 |
| Black Peaks Statues | 3.7 |
| A Perfect Circle Three Sixty | 3.5 |
| A Perfect Circle A Perfect Circle Live: Featuring Stone and Echo | 4.0 |
| Tool 10,000 Days | 4.5 |
| Tool Lateralus | 5.0 |
| Tool Salival | 4.0 |
| Tool Ænima | 5.0 |
| Tool Undertow | 4.0 |
| Tool Opiate | 3.5 |
| Tool 72826 | 3.5 |
| Yes Relayer | 4.5 |
| Renaissance Turn of the Cards | 4.0 |
| Jethro Tull Thick as a Brick | 4.5 |
| Genesis The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway | 4.5 |
| Harmonium Harmonium | 4.0 |
| Yes Tales from Topographic Oceans | 4.0 |
| Mahavishnu Orchestra Birds of Fire | 4.0 |
| Genesis Selling England by the Pound | 5.0 |
| Renaissance Ashes Are Burning | 4.5 |
| Renaissance Prologue | 4.0 |
| Genesis Foxtrot | 4.5 |
| Yes Classic Yes | 4.0 |
| Jethro Tull Aqualung | 4.5 |
| Genesis Nursery Cryme | 4.2 |
| Mahavishnu Orchestra The Inner Mounting Flame | 4.0 |
| Falls of Rauros The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood | 4.0 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Malevolent Grain | 3.5 |
| Panopticon On the Subject of Mortality | 3.5 |
| Panopticon Collapse | 4.0 |
| Panopticon Panopticon | 4.0 |
| Jim James Regions of Light and Sound of God | 3.5 |
| Jimmy Eat World Futures | 4.2 |
| Jimmy Eat World Bleed American | 3.2 |
| Jimmy Eat World Clarity | 4.3 |
| Earthside A Dream In Static | 4.0 |
| Mono Hymn to the Immortal Wind | 4.3 |
| Mono You Are There | 4.0 |
| We the Wild From The Cities We Fled | 3.5 |
| Botanist Hammer of Botany | 3.5 |
| Of Machines As If Everything Was Held In Place | 4.0 |
| Kayo Dot Plastic House on Base of Sky | 4.3 |
| Kayo Dot take the sci-fi aspects of Coffins on Io and funnels them into a surreal amalgamation of progressive rock and synthwave. The music is dense and unrelenting at times, but also lush and with plenty of beautiful moments. Avant-garde and electronic musical styles, along with the lyrics, conjures forth strange imagery of a neo-noir future reminiscent of Blade Runner. Plastic House on Base of Sky embodies an identity of its own with electrifying energy and incredible musicianship. |
| Kayo Dot Coffins on Io | 4.5 |
| Kayo Dot Hubardo | 4.5 |
| Kayo Dot Gamma Knife | 3.5 |
| Kayo Dot Coyote | 3.0 |
| Kayo Dot Blue Lambency Downward | 4.0 |
| Kayo Dot Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue | 4.5 |
| Kayo Dot Choirs of the Eye | 5.0 |
| Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool | 4.5 |
| Radiohead take another surprising direction by emphasizing Jonny Greenwood's sublime string arrangements. The band craft beautiful, spacey atmospheres and engaging compositions like "Present Tense," "Decks Dark," and "Daydreaming." Each song is memorable in its own right, be it the layered, midtempo indie rock song "The Numbers" or the anxious "Ful Stop" that ends with a propulsive guitar-centered outro similar to "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi." A Moon Shaped Pool recalls the warm, melancholic qualities of In Rainbows along with the colder, more elusive nature of The King of Limbs and Kid A, but this is very much its own incarnation. Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are masters of their craft, always seeking new ways to explore and reinvent their sound. In the context of Radiohead's career thus far, A Moon Shaped Pool isn't their most experimental or challenging record. It's not simplistic, straightforward, or predictable either, but has an emotional core more open and fragile than what we're used to hearing. On top of that, there's an elegance to the songwriting and even if it's not as innovative as their past classics, A Moon Shaped Pool is always engrossing and Radiohead's most subtle offering yet. The band offer an immersive and spaced out journey with some of their most emotionally poignant moments to date. |
| Radiohead The King of Limbs: From the Basement | 4.5 |
| Radiohead TKOL RMX 1234567 | 3.5 |
| Radiohead The Daily Mail/Staircase | 4.0 |
| Radiohead Supercollider/The Butcher | 4.0 |
| Radiohead The King of Limbs | 4.0 |
| Radiohead In Rainbows: From the Basement | 4.5 |
| Radiohead In Rainbows Disk 2 | 4.2 |
| Radiohead In Rainbows | 5.0 |
| Radiohead COM LAG (2plus2isfive) | 3.5 |
| Radiohead Go to Sleep | 3.5 |
| Radiohead Knives Out | 4.0 |
| Radiohead I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings | 4.0 |
| Radiohead 8 Outtakes From Amnesiac | 4.0 |
| Radiohead Amnesiac | 4.4 |
| Radiohead Kid A | 5.0 |
| Radiohead OK Computer | 5.0 |
| Ulcerate The Destroyers of All | 4.0 |
| Ashbringer Yūgen | 3.5 |
| The Dear Hunter Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional | 3.7 |
| The Dear Hunter Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise | 3.5 |
| The Dear Hunter Act III: Life and Death | 3.3 |
| The Dear Hunter Act II: The Meaning of, & All Things Regarding Ms. Leading | 4.0 |
| The Dear Hunter Act I: The Lake South, the River North | 3.5 |
| Sigur Ros Takk... | 4.7 |
| Ghost (SWE) Popestar | 3.0 |
| Young the Giant Home Of The Strange | 3.5 |
| U2 Rattle and Hum | 3.0 |
| Queen Queen II | 4.0 |
| Heaven and Hell The Devil You Know | 4.0 |
| AC/DC Black Ice | 3.0 |
| Alice Cooper Along Came a Spider | 3.0 |
| Ozzy Osbourne Scream | 2.5 |
| Ozzy Osbourne Black Rain | 2.0 |
| Ozzy Osbourne Down to Earth | 2.5 |
| Ozzy Osbourne Ozzmosis | 3.0 |
| Ozzy Osbourne No More Tears | 4.0 |
| Ozzy Osbourne No Rest for the Wicked | 3.5 |
| Aerosmith Permanent Vacation | 3.5 |
| Ozzy Osbourne The Ultimate Sin | 3.0 |
| Twisted Sister Stay Hungry | 3.5 |
| Ozzy Osbourne Bark at the Moon | 3.5 |
| David Bowie Let's Dance | 3.5 |
| ZZ Top Eliminator | 3.5 |
| Dio Holy Diver | 4.0 |
| The Cure Pornography | 4.5 |
| Ozzy Osbourne Diary of a Madman | 3.5 |
| Blue Oyster Cult Fire of Unknown Origin | 4.0 |
| The Cure Faith | 4.0 |
| U2 The Unforgettable Fire | 4.5 |
| U2 War | 4.5 |
| U2 October | 3.5 |
| U2 Boy | 4.0 |
| Talking Heads Remain in Light | 5.0 |
| Ozzy Osbourne Blizzard of Ozz | 4.0 |
| David Bowie Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) | 4.5 |
| Yes Drama | 4.0 |
| Blue Oyster Cult Cultösaurus Erectus | 3.5 |
| The Cure Seventeen Seconds | 4.0 |
| Blue Oyster Cult Mirrors | 3.0 |
| David Bowie Lodger | 4.0 |
| Van Halen Van Halen | 4.0 |
| Blue Oyster Cult Spectres | 3.5 |
| David Bowie "Heroes" | 4.5 |
| Heart Little Queen | 3.5 |
| AC/DC For Those About To Rock We Salute You | 3.5 |
| AC/DC Back In Black | 3.5 |
| AC/DC Highway To Hell | 4.0 |
| AC/DC Let There Be Rock | 3.5 |
| Pink Floyd The Division Bell | 3.5 |
| Pink Floyd A Momentary Lapse of Reason | 3.5 |
| Roger Waters The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking | 3.5 |
| Pink Floyd The Final Cut | 3.5 |
| Pink Floyd The Wall | 4.5 |
| Pink Floyd Animals | 5.0 |
| David Bowie Low | 5.0 |
| Black Sabbath Forbidden | 2.0 |
| Black Sabbath Cross Purposes | 3.0 |
| Black Sabbath Dehumanizer | 3.5 |
| Black Sabbath Tyr | 3.0 |
| Black Sabbath Headless Cross | 2.5 |
| Black Sabbath The Eternal Idol | 2.0 |
| Black Sabbath Seventh Star | 2.5 |
| Black Sabbath Born Again | 2.0 |
| Black Sabbath Heaven and Hell | 4.0 |
| Black Sabbath Mob Rules | 4.0 |
| Black Sabbath Never Say Die! | 2.5 |
| Harmonium L'heptade | 4.0 |
| Black Sabbath Technical Ecstasy | 3.0 |
| AC/DC Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap | 3.5 |
| Boston Boston | 3.5 |
| Jaco Pastorius Jaco Pastorius | 4.0 |
| Rainbow Rising | 4.5 |
| David Bowie Station to Station | 4.5 |
| The Runaways The Runaways | 3.5 |
| Blue Oyster Cult Agents of Fortune | 4.0 |
| Camel Moonmadness | 4.7 |
| Queen A Night at the Opera | 4.0 |
| Camel The Snow Goose | 4.2 |
| Aerosmith Toys in the Attic | 4.0 |
| Harmonium Les Cinq Saisons | 4.2 |
| Budgie Never Turn Your Back on a Friend | 4.0 |
| Blue Oyster Cult Tyranny and Mutation | 4.0 |
| Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy | 4.5 |
| Camel Camel | 4.1 |
| Blue Oyster Cult Secret Treaties | 4.5 |
| Rush Test for Echo | 3.5 |
| Rush Counterparts | 4.0 |
| Rush Roll the Bones | 4.0 |
| Rush Presto | 4.0 |
| Rush Hold Your Fire | 4.5 |
| Rush Power Windows | 4.5 |
| Rush Grace Under Pressure | 4.5 |
| Rush Signals | 4.5 |
| Rush Moving Pictures | 5.0 |
| Rush Permanent Waves | 4.5 |
| Rush Hemispheres | 5.0 |
| Rush A Farewell to Kings | 5.0 |
| Rush 2112 | 4.5 |
| Rush Caress of Steel | 4.0 |
| Rush Fly by Night | 4.0 |
| Rush Rush | 3.5 |
| Aerosmith Get Your Wings | 4.0 |
| David Bowie Aladdin Sane | 4.0 |
| Camel Mirage | 5.0 |
| Blue Oyster Cult Blue Öyster Cult | 3.5 |
| Deep Purple Machine Head | 4.5 |
| Alice Cooper School's Out | 3.5 |
| Yes Close to the Edge | 5.0 |
| David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars | 4.5 |
| Catapilla Changes | 4.0 |
| Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here | 5.0 |
| Black Sabbath Sabotage | 4.5 |
| Black Sabbath Sabbath Bloody Sabbath | 4.6 |
| Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon | 5.0 |
| Black Sabbath Vol. 4 | 4.0 |
| Pink Floyd Obscured by Clouds | 4.0 |
| Pink Floyd Meddle | 4.5 |
| Black Sabbath Master of Reality | 5.0 |
| Yes Fragile | 5.0 |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV | 5.0 |
| Alice Cooper Killer | 3.5 |
| Deep Purple Fireball | 4.0 |
| Marvin Gaye What's Going On | 4.0 |
| The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers | 4.5 |
| Yes The Yes Album | 4.5 |
| Comus First Utterance | 4.0 |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin III | 4.0 |
| T2 It'll All Work Out in Boomland | 4.0 |
| Black Sabbath Paranoid | 5.0 |
| Black Sabbath Black Sabbath | 4.5 |
| The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed | 4.5 |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II | 4.5 |
| Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band Trout Mask Replica | 3.5 |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin | 4.5 |
| Iron Butterfly In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida | 3.0 |
| Pink Floyd Atom Heart Mother | 3.5 |
| Pink Floyd Ummagumma | 3.0 |
| Pink Floyd More | 3.0 |
| Pink Floyd A Saucerful of Secrets | 4.0 |
| Pink Floyd The Piper at the Gates of Dawn | 4.0 |
| The Jimi Hendrix Experience Are You Experienced | 5.0 |
| The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground | 4.5 |
| The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico | 5.0 |
| Love Forever Changes | 5.0 |
| Love Da Capo | 3.5 |
| Brian Wilson Smile | 4.5 |
| Brian Wilson Brian Wilson | 3.5 |
| The Beach Boys The Smile Sessions | 4.5 |
| The Beach Boys Sunflower | 4.0 |
| The Beach Boys Wild Honey | 4.0 |
| The Beach Boys Smiley Smile | 4.0 |
| The Beach Boys Pet Sounds | 5.0 |
| The Beatles Let It Be | 4.0 |
| The Beatles Abbey Road | 5.0 |
| The Beatles The Beatles | 4.5 |
| The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour | 4.5 |
| The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | 5.0 |
| The Beatles Revolver | 5.0 |
| The Beatles Rubber Soul | 4.5 |
| The Zombies Odessey and Oracle | 5.0 |
| The Zombies Begin Here | 3.0 |
| Jonny Greenwood Bodysong | 3.0 |
| Sinmara Aphotic Womb | 4.0 |
| Trigger the Bloodshed Degenerate | 3.5 |
| Behemoth The Satanist | 3.7 |
| Behemoth Evangelion | 3.5 |
| Behemoth The Apostasy | 3.0 |
| Behemoth Demigod | 3.5 |
| Behemoth Satanica | 3.5 |
| Behemoth Grom | 3.5 |
| Behemoth Sventevith (Storming Near the Baltic) | 3.5 |
| Behemoth And the Forests Dream Eternally | 3.7 |
| Six Feet Under Undead | 3.0 |
| Six Feet Under Unborn | 2.7 |
| Six Feet Under Death Rituals | 2.5 |
| Six Feet Under Bringer of Blood | 2.5 |
| Six Feet Under Maximum Violence | 3.0 |
| Cannibal Corpse Bloodthirst | 3.5 |
| Cannibal Corpse Gore Obsessed | 3.5 |
| Cannibal Corpse A Skeletal Domain | 4.0 |
| Cannibal Corpse Torture | 4.0 |
| Cannibal Corpse Evisceration Plague | 3.7 |
| Cannibal Corpse Kill | 4.0 |
| Nile At The Gate of Sethu | 3.0 |
| Nile Those Whom the Gods Detest | 4.2 |
| Nile Ithyphallic | 3.0 |
| Nile Annihilation of the Wicked | 4.0 |
| Nile In Their Darkened Shrines | 3.7 |
| Nile Black Seeds of Vengeance | 3.5 |
| Joe Satriani Surfing with the Alien | 4.0 |
| Candlemass Lucifer Rising | 3.0 |
| Yngwie Malmsteen Rising Force | 3.5 |
| Porcupine Tree Recordings | 4.2 |
| Morbus Chron Sleepers in the Rift | 3.5 |
| Nirvana Incesticide | 3.5 |
| Nirvana Bleach | 3.7 |
| X Japan Art of Life | 4.0 |
| Pestilence Consuming Impulse | 4.0 |
| Diamond Head Lightning to the Nations | 4.0 |
| Suffocation Pierced from Within | 4.0 |
| Suffocation Effigy of the Forgotten | 4.0 |
| Autopsy Severed Survival | 4.0 |
| Autopsy Mental Funeral | 4.0 |
| Morbid Angel Altars of Madness | 3.5 |
| Bloodbath Grand Morbid Funeral | 3.0 |
| Bloodbath The Fathomless Mastery | 3.5 |
| Bloodbath Nightmares Made Flesh | 4.0 |
| Bloodbath Resurrection Through Carnage | 3.5 |
| Sepultura Arise | 4.0 |
| Gorguts The Erosion of Sanity | 4.0 |
| Gorguts Considered Dead | 4.0 |
| Darkthrone Hate Them | 3.0 |
| Pantera Reinventing the Steel | 3.0 |
| Pantera The Great Southern Trendkill | 3.5 |
| Pantera Power Metal | 3.0 |
| Motorhead Ace of Spades | 4.0 |
| Motorhead Motörhead | 4.0 |
| Venom Welcome to Hell | 3.5 |
| Bathory The Return of the Darkness and Evil | 3.5 |
| Bathory Bathory | 4.0 |
| Enslaved Vikingligr Veldi | 3.5 |
| Confessor Condemned | 4.0 |
| Death Angel The Ultra-Violence | 4.0 |
| Svartidaudi Flesh Cathedral | 4.2 |
| Testament The Formation of Damnation | 3.5 |
| Testament The Ritual | 3.0 |
| Testament Souls of Black | 3.5 |
| Testament Practice What You Preach | 4.0 |
| Testament The New Order | 4.5 |
| Testament The Legacy | 4.0 |
| Metallica Death Magnetic | 3.0 |
| Metallica St. Anger | 2.3 |
| Metallica Reload | 2.0 |
| Metallica Load | 2.5 |
| Metallica Metallica | 3.5 |
| Metallica ...And Justice for All | 4.3 |
| Metallica Master of Puppets | 4.5 |
| Metallica Ride the Lightning | 4.4 |
| Metallica Kill 'Em All | 4.0 |
| Exodus Exhibit B: The Human Condition | 3.5 |
| Exodus The Atrocity Exhibition: Exhibit A | 3.0 |
| Exodus Shovel Headed Kill Machine | 3.0 |
| Megadeth Super Collider | 2.0 |
| Megadeth Th1rt3en | 3.0 |
| Megadeth Endgame | 4.0 |
| Megadeth United Abominations | 3.5 |
| Megadeth The System Has Failed | 3.0 |
| Megadeth The World Needs a Hero | 2.5 |
| Megadeth Hidden Treasures | 3.0 |
| Megadeth Risk | 2.0 |
| Megadeth Cryptic Writings | 2.5 |
| Megadeth Youthanasia | 4.0 |
| Megadeth Countdown to Extinction | 4.0 |
| Megadeth Rust in Peace | 4.5 |
| Megadeth So Far, So Good... So What! | 4.0 |
| Megadeth Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? | 4.4 |
| Megadeth Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! | 4.0 |
| Spastic Ink Ink Complete | 4.0 |
| Spiral Architect A Sceptic's Universe | 3.5 |
| Watchtower Control and Resistance | 4.0 |
| Watchtower Energetic Disassembly | 4.0 |
| Death Scream Bloody Gore | 4.0 |
| Death Leprosy | 4.0 |
| Death Spiritual Healing | 4.0 |
| Death Human | 4.5 |
| Death Individual Thought Patterns | 4.0 |
| Judas Priest Nostradamus | 2.5 |
| Judas Priest Jugulator | 2.0 |
| Judas Priest Painkiller | 4.0 |
| Judas Priest Ram It Down | 3.0 |
| Judas Priest Screaming for Vengeance | 4.0 |
| Judas Priest British Steel | 3.0 |
| Judas Priest Sin After Sin | 4.0 |
| Judas Priest Sad Wings of Destiny | 4.5 |
| Iron Maiden Live After Death | 4.5 |
| Iron Maiden The Final Frontier | 3.5 |
| Iron Maiden A Matter of Life and Death | 3.5 |
| Iron Maiden Dance of Death | 3.5 |
| Iron Maiden Brave New World | 4.0 |
| Iron Maiden Seventh Son of a Seventh Son | 4.5 |
| Iron Maiden Somewhere in Time | 4.5 |
| Iron Maiden Powerslave | 4.5 |
| Iron Maiden Piece of Mind | 4.0 |
| Iron Maiden The Number of the Beast | 4.5 |
| Iron Maiden Killers | 4.0 |
| Iron Maiden Iron Maiden | 4.0 |
| Slayer Eternal Pyre | 3.0 |
| Slayer Undisputed Attitude | 2.5 |
| Slayer Decade of Aggression | 4.0 |
| Slayer Repentless | 2.5 |
| Slayer World Painted Blood | 3.0 |
| Slayer Christ Illusion | 3.5 |
| Slayer God Hates Us All | 2.5 |
| Slayer Diabolus in Musica | 2.0 |
| Slayer Divine Intervention | 3.0 |
| Slayer Seasons in the Abyss | 4.0 |
| Slayer South of Heaven | 4.0 |
| Slayer Reign in Blood | 4.0 |
| Slayer Hell Awaits | 4.1 |
| Slayer Show No Mercy | 4.2 |
| Misthyrming Söngvar elds og óreiðu | 4.0 |
| Cruciamentum Charnel Passages | 4.0 |
| Ulver Teachings In Silence | 4.1 |
| Martin O'Donnell Halo 2 OST & New Music Volume One | 4.0 |
| Martin O'Donnell Halo 3 OST | 4.3 |
| Jeremy Soule The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Soundtrack | 4.5 |
| Jeremy Soule Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Soundtrack | 4.5 |
| Jeremy Soule Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Soundtrack | 4.0 |
| Stiu Nu Stiu Ultra Silvam | 4.0 |
| Throes of Dawn Quicksilver Clouds | 4.0 |
| Meshuggah The Violent Sleep Of Reason | 2.5 |
| Local Natives Sunlit Youth | 3.3 |
| Okkervil River Away | 4.0 |
| Opeth Book of Opeth EP | 3.5 |
| Black Sabbath The End | 3.5 |
| Saor Aura | 4.3 |
| Ghost (SWE) If You Have Ghost | 3.0 |
| Swans Various Failures | 4.0 |
| Agalloch Alpha Serpentis | 4.0 |
| Neurosis Fires Within Fires | 4.0 |
| Fires Within Fires takes on a more purposeful feel than previous Neurosis albums, being the shortest and most easily digestible from them in many years. This demands a close listen more than anything else, as the subtleties in each track flicker by quickly. Tempos are largely increased here, making for a refreshing groove feel present in many of the heavier moments. The songwriting is top notch as always, feeling massive in scope and is consistently engrossing, with enough new tricks to keep it interesting. Faster songs and a willingness to further explore their calmer odysseys make for their most rewarding release in over a decade. "Reach" is their best song in 10 years. |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree | 5.0 |
| Skeleton Tree is a captivating, heart-rending meditation from a true artist coming to terms with the most horrific tragedy a person can experience. Many of the tracks in Skeleton Tree see Cave paint bizarre, beautiful pictures of lost loves in much the same way as predecessor Push The Sky Away did. Continuing from where it left off, the instrumentation is largely based on dissonant string arrangements and unsettling ambience. The bare bones playing provides appropriate musical terrain for Cave to exorcise his demons, giving a tense feeling over the listening experience. This is due largely to the vulnerable, and sometimes even quivering vocal performance by Cave. Skeleton Tree is meant to be a record for everyone, a naked, honest depiction of true grief in musical form. This is as much a sorrowful exploration as a loving sendoff for his fans, but more importantly, for himself. |
| The Pineapple Thief Your Wilderness | 3.7 |
| 65daysofstatic No Man's Sky: Soundscapes | 3.5 |
| 65daysofstatic No Man's Sky: Music for an Infinite... | 3.5 |
| Dissection Storm of the Light's Bane | 4.5 |
| Battle Tapes Polygon | 3.5 |
| Neurosis The Word as Law | 3.6 |
| Neurosis Pain of Mind | 3.3 |
| Opeth Pale Communion | 3.5 |
| Diverse, emotional, and at times heavy, this is Heritage taken in a new and interesting direction, but manages to sound completely different. Very proggy and wonderful. |
| Opeth Heritage | 4.2 |
| A major grower, Heritage takes the group into a new direction while still maintaining their sense of musical adventure and dynamic instrumentation. |
| Opeth Burden | 3.0 |
| Opeth Watershed | 4.3 |
| Opeth Ghost Reveries | 5.0 |
| Opeth Damnation | 4.5 |
| Opeth Deliverance & Damnation Remixed | 4.0 |
| Mamiffer Hirror Enniffer | 4.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Octane Twisted | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson Unreleased Electronic Music Vol. 1 | 3.5 |
| Thrice Anthology | 4.0 |
| Thrice Identity Crisis | 3.0 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Push The Sky Away | 4.1 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus | 4.2 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Nocturama | 3.5 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds B-Sides & Rarities | 4.0 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds The Best Of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds | 4.0 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds The Firstborn Is Dead | 3.5 |
| Neurosis Honor Found in Decay | 4.0 |
| Neurosis Given to the Rising | 3.8 |
| Neurosis The Eye of Every Storm | 4.5 |
| Neurosis A Sun That Never Sets | 4.5 |
| Neurosis Times of Grace | 4.2 |
| Neurosis Through Silver in Blood | 4.0 |
| Neurosis Enemy of the Sun | 4.0 |
| Neurosis Souls at Zero | 4.3 |
| My Bloody Valentine Tremolo | 4.0 |
| My Bloody Valentine m b v | 4.0 |
| My Bloody Valentine Isn't Anything | 4.0 |
| Lush Spooky | 4.0 |
| Lush Scar | 3.5 |
| maudlin of the Well Odes To Darksome Spring | 4.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Futile | 4.0 |
| Agalloch Of Stone, Wind and Pillor | 4.0 |
| Agalloch From Which of This Oak | 4.0 |
| Dream Theater A Change of Seasons | 4.0 |
| Chelsea Wolfe Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs | 4.0 |
| Gates (USA-NJ) Parallel Lives | 3.7 |
| Martin O'Donnell Halo Original Soundtrack | 4.3 |
| Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion | 3.0 |
| The Drones Feelin Kinda Free | 3.5 |
| Loom (CAN) epyllion | 4.0 |
| Astronoid Air | 4.0 |
| One of the better blackgaze albums with hardly any actual black metal elements at all. The songwriting is fairly triumphant and bombastic throughout, being a good example of hard-hitting music that can sound happy and upbeat without getting cheesy. It's a fine line to ride, but select bands can do it, and the results are always fascinating. Astronoid have the songwriting chops to back up such genre-bending decisions as combining thrash metal, dream pop, and whatever else this is. Air almost resembles Melting Sun by Lantlos, if the tempos were three times faster and had catchier sensibilities. |
| Explosions in the Sky All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone | 4.0 |
| Brand New 3 Demos, Reworked | 3.7 |
| Pain of Salvation The Perfect Element, Part 1 | 4.3 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers The Getaway | 3.0 |
| Swans The Glowing Man | 3.5 |
| Meditative and hypnotic, The Glowing Man possesses even less traditional song structures than the band's previous efforts. It contains more serene soundscapes than To Be Kind, with no bangers in the form of "Oxygen" to be found. Some nods toward their gothic past take the form of the shorter tracks, while longer epics require the listener's full patience to completely absorb. It bears a few too many similarities to To Be Kind, but The Glowing Man stands as a fantastic outing nonetheless, and one of the highlights of the year. |
| Kayo Dot Stained Glass | 3.5 |
| Caladan Brood Echoes Of Battle | 4.0 |
| Periphery Periphery III: Select Difficulty | 2.0 |
| Periphery perhaps come too hot on the heels of the Juggernaut albums with their weakest release yet. The first song sounds like a joke, especially Spencer's contributions. Motormouth has a badass Koloss by Meshuggah sounding breakdown, but other than that lacks memorability. Most of the tracks follow the same way in one form or another, as the band could really benefit from being more melodic. They need to focus on something for a bit, instead of drastically changing what's happening in the song every minute or two. Habitual Line-Stepper is the worst offender in that regard, at least having a cool melodic guitar section. Remain Indoors is the only track on here I can stand all the way through. The rest all annoy in one way or another due to unmemorable songwriting and cheesy pop elements (especially the second half). Spencer's singing is neither better nor worse than the previous releases, and while the lyrics aren't awful, they don't exactly help either. A disappointing lack of inspiration is obvious, and I can only recommend this to the most loyal of fans. |
| Coldworld Autumn | 4.3 |
| After a lengthy eight years of inactivity, Coldworld returns with one of the best metal albums of 2016. Autumn features a plethora of added instrumentation and melodic vocals not heard before from the one-man black metal project. It's reminiscent of last year's Autumn Eternal by Panopticon in this way, even featuring folk instrumentation and female vocals. This makes for a large departure from Coldworld's rawer debut, with Autumn embodying a full range of sounds for a more polished, superior offering that even has moments of optimism, particularly within the post-rock influenced "Womb of Emptiness" and the folkish "The Wind and the Leaves." Coldworld have once again released a masterful modern metal record, one that was well worth the nearly decade long wait. |
| Big Thief Masterpiece | 3.5 |
| Thrice To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere | 3.7 |
| Katatonia The Fall of Hearts | 4.0 |
| Failure Fantastic Planet | 4.0 |
| mewithoutYou Brother, Sister | 3.5 |
| Blotted Science The Animation of Entomology | 4.0 |
| Blotted Science The Machinations of Dementia | 4.0 |
| Cryptopsy None So Vile | 4.2 |
| Meshuggah Psykisk Testbild | 3.0 |
| Meshuggah Rare Trax | 3.5 |
| Meshuggah None | 3.7 |
| Meshuggah Selfcaged | 3.0 |
| Meshuggah The True Human Design | 3.0 |
| Meshuggah I | 4.0 |
| Meshuggah Contradictions Collapse | 3.3 |
| Napalm Death Utilitarian | 3.5 |
| Meshuggah Nothing | 4.0 |
| Napalm Death Time Waits for No Slave | 3.5 |
| Ulcerate Everything Is Fire | 4.3 |
| Demilich Nespithe | 4.0 |
| Meshuggah Chaosphere | 3.5 |
| Ghoulgotha The Deathmass Cloak | 3.0 |
| Circle of Contempt Structures for Creation | 3.5 |
| Circle of Contempt Entwine the Threads | 3.5 |
| Circle of Contempt Artifacts in Motion | 3.5 |
| Born of Osiris Tomorrow We Die Alive | 2.0 |
| Born of Osiris The Discovery | 3.8 |
| Born of Osiris A Higher Place | 3.0 |
| Born of Osiris The New Reign | 3.5 |
| Emperor IX Equilibrium | 3.5 |
| Pantera Far Beyond Driven | 3.5 |
| Pantera Vulgar Display of Power | 3.5 |
| Pantera Cowboys from Hell | 4.0 |
| Machine Head Supercharger | 2.0 |
| Machine Head The Burning Red | 2.5 |
| Machine Head Bloodstone And Diamonds | 3.5 |
| Machine Head Unto The Locust | 3.5 |
| Machine Head The Blackening | 3.5 |
| Machine Head Through The Ashes Of Empires | 3.0 |
| Machine Head The More Things Change... | 3.5 |
| Machine Head Burn My Eyes | 3.5 |
| Lamb of God VII: Sturm und Drang | 3.5 |
| Lamb of God Resolution | 3.0 |
| Lamb of God Wrath | 3.0 |
| Lamb of God Sacrament | 3.5 |
| Lamb of God Ashes of the Wake | 3.5 |
| Lamb of God As the Palaces Burn | 3.5 |
| Lamb of God New American Gospel | 3.0 |
| Job For A Cowboy Demonocracy | 3.0 |
| Job For A Cowboy Sun Eater | 4.0 |
| That bass is so delicious, this band really stepped up their game. |
| Nero di Marte Nero di Marte | 3.5 |
| Nero di Marte Derivae | 4.0 |
| The Agonist Once Only Imagined | 3.0 |
| The Agonist Lullabies for the Dormant Mind | 3.5 |
| The Agonist Prisoners | 4.0 |
| The Agonist Eye of Providence | 2.7 |
| Abigail Williams In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns | 3.0 |
| Abigail Williams In the Absence of Light | 3.0 |
| Abigail Williams Becoming | 3.5 |
| Abigail Williams The Accuser | 3.0 |
| Foo Fighters One by One | 3.0 |
| Foo Fighters Wasting Light | 3.5 |
| Foo Fighters Sonic Highways | 3.0 |
| Black Wizard New Waste | 4.0 |
| Foo Fighters Saint Cecilia | 3.0 |
| Darzamat Solfernus' Path | 4.0 |
| Graveworm As the Angels Reach the Beauty | 4.0 |
| Cradle of Filth Hammer of the Witches | 4.0 |
| This is their most fun and seamless release in quite a while. The line-up changes yield their most focused songwriting in years, especially given the centerpiece of twin guitar riffs, harmonies, and soloing throughout. |
| Cradle of Filth The Manticore and Other Horrors | 3.5 |
| Cradle of Filth Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa | 3.0 |
| Cradle of Filth Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder | 3.0 |
| Cradle of Filth Thornography | 3.5 |
| Cradle of Filth Nymphetamine | 3.5 |
| Cradle of Filth Damnation and a Day | 3.5 |
| Cradle of Filth Midian | 4.3 |
| Cradle of Filth Cruelty and the Beast | 4.5 |
| Cradle of Filth Dusk... and Her Embrace | 4.5 |
| Cradle of Filth The Principle of Evil Made Flesh | 4.0 |
| Dimmu Borgir Death Cult Armageddon | 3.5 |
| Dimmu Borgir Spiritual Black Dimensions | 4.5 |
| Dimmu Borgir Enthrone Darkness Triumphant | 4.5 |
| Dimmu Borgir Stormblåst | 4.0 |
| Dimmu Borgir For All Tid | 4.0 |
| Old Man's Child Slaves of the World | 3.8 |
| Old Man's Child Vermin | 3.5 |
| Old Man's Child In Defiance of Existence | 4.3 |
| Old Man's Child Revelation 666 | 3.5 |
| Mayhem De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas | 3.5 |
| Myrkur M | 3.2 |
| Devin Townsend Ocean Machine: Biomech | 4.0 |
| Devin Townsend Project Ghost | 4.0 |
| ISIS Mosquito Control | 3.5 |
| ISIS The Red Sea | 3.5 |
| ISIS SGNL>05 | 3.5 |
| ISIS Celestial | 4.0 |
| ISIS Oceanic | 4.5 |
| Drudkh Autumn Aurora | 4.5 |
| Drudkh Forgotten Legends | 4.0 |
| Weezer The White Album | 3.3 |
| Weezer Everything Will Be Alright in the End | 3.5 |
| Weezer Hurley | 3.0 |
| Weezer Maladroit | 3.0 |
| Mogwai Come On Die Young | 4.0 |
| The Night Watch The Night Watch | 3.5 |
| Neun Welten Vergessene Pfade | 4.0 |
| Unwound New Plastic Ideas | 4.0 |
| At the Gates Slaughter of the Soul | 4.0 |
| Arch Enemy Wages of Sin | 4.0 |
| Dark Tranquillity Damage Done | 4.0 |
| Dark Tranquillity The Gallery | 4.2 |
| Insomnium In the Halls of Awaiting | 4.0 |
| Insomnium Since the Day It All Came Down | 4.5 |
| Insomnium Above the Weeping World | 4.5 |
| Insomnium One for Sorrow | 3.5 |
| Kauan Sorni Nai | 4.2 |
| Candlemass King of the Grey Islands | 3.5 |
| Candlemass Ancient Dreams | 4.0 |
| Candlemass Epicus Doomicus Metallicus | 4.5 |
| Candlemass Candlemass | 3.5 |
| Isis and Aereogramme In The Fishtank 14 | 4.0 |
| Stone Temple Pilots Core | 4.0 |
| Fuath I | 3.5 |
| Votum :KTONIK: | 3.5 |
| Haken Affinity | 3.0 |
| Haken The Mountain | 3.5 |
| Haken Visions | 3.0 |
| Sylvaine Wistful | 3.5 |
| Wistful is an album that develops beautifully throughout. The angelic vocal layers are a huge strength, making for a meditative listening experience despite some of the bombast. Neige from Alcest is behind the instrumentation, lending this to feel almost like a companion album to his band. Highly recommended for fans of Alcest, and of atmospheric music in general. |
| Howls of Ebb Vigils of the 3rd Eye | 4.0 |
| Howls of Ebb The Marrow Veil | 4.2 |
| Gorguts Pleiades' Dust | 4.0 |
| Picking up where Colored Sands left off, this release sees Gorguts showcase ominous ambient soundscapes juxtaposed with their off kilter brand of death metal wonderfully. The bass tone is also sharp and tasty, a wonderful addition as practically a lead instrument. |
| Silverstein Transitions | 3.0 |
| Silverstein A Shipwreck in the Sand | 3.0 |
| Silverstein When Broken Is Easily Fixed | 3.0 |
| Megadeth Dystopia | 3.0 |
| Haruka Nakamura Twilight | 4.0 |
| Codeine Barely Real | 4.0 |
| White Zombie Astro Creep: 2000 | 4.0 |
| White Zombie La Sexorcisto-Devil Music Vol. 1 | 4.0 |
| And So I Watch You From Afar And So I Watch You From Afar | 4.0 |
| Amon Tobin Bricolage | 4.5 |
| Iron Maiden The Book of Souls | 3.7 |
| Dream Theater The Astonishing | 2.3 |
| Dream Theater Dream Theater | 2.5 |
| Dream Theater A Dramatic Turn of Events | 3.2 |
| Dream Theater Black Clouds and Silver Linings | 3.0 |
| Dream Theater Systematic Chaos | 3.0 |
| Dream Theater Octavarium | 3.5 |
| Dream Theater Train of Thought | 3.5 |
| Dream Theater Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence | 4.0 |
| Dream Theater Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory | 4.5 |
| Dream Theater Falling into Infinity | 3.3 |
| Dream Theater Awake | 4.0 |
| Dream Theater Images and Words | 4.5 |
| Dream Theater When Dream and Day Unite | 3.0 |
| Astronoid Stargazer | 3.5 |
| Astronauts End Codes | 4.0 |
| Astronauts are an underappreciated indie band that deserve more attention, and will probably make it big some day. End Codes has a very gentle feel to many of the compositions, but the quirky songwriting is enough to stand out from the rest. While being quirky, much of this band?s music is subtle and restrained. Very much their own sound, the band does a great job of making thoughtful and poignant music while not getting too melancholic, which suits them. |
| Kevin Morby Singing Saw | 3.5 |
| The 1975 I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It | 2.5 |
| Kitchie Kitchie Ki Me O Are You Land Or Water | 3.5 |
| Yuri Gagarin At The Center Of All Infinity | 4.0 |
| Ulvesang Ulvesang | 4.0 |
| Pretend Tapestry'd Life | 4.0 |
| Black Wing ...Is Doomed | 3.5 |
| David Gilmour Rattle That Lock | 3.7 |
| Mouse On The Keys The Flowers of Romance | 4.0 |
| Stray (UK-LDN) Paradise | 3.5 |
| Jamie xx In Colour | 3.0 |
| Zedd True Colors | 2.5 |
| Trickfinger Trickfinger | 3.0 |
| Iwan Rheon Dinard | 4.0 |
| Pinkshinyultrablast Everything Else Matters | 4.0 |
| Pompeii Loom | 4.0 |
| Millicent Waffles Under Dark Blue Blanket | 4.0 |
| Oado Life Era | 4.0 |
| Lost Ubikyst in Apeiron Abstruse Imbeciles Nailed on Slavery | 4.0 |
| Astronauts Hollow Ponds | 4.0 |
| Disemballerina Undertaker | 4.0 |
| Casualties of Cool Casualties of Cool | 4.0 |
| Destiny Potato Lun | 4.0 |
| Asya Sergeeva Heart of Winter | 4.0 |
| NeraNature Disorders | 3.3 |
| Divine Ratio Split By Unity | 3.5 |
| Trophy Scars Holy Vacants | 4.2 |
| Ainulindale Nevrast | 4.0 |
| SKATERS Manhattan | 3.0 |
| Cheatahs Sunne | 3.2 |
| Cheatahs Cheatahs | 3.5 |
| Crosses Crosses | 3.7 |
| Young the Giant Mind Over Matter | 3.5 |
| Edge of Sanity Crimson II | 4.3 |
| Edge of Sanity Crimson | 4.5 |
| Edge of Sanity Purgatory Afterglow | 4.2 |
| Edge of Sanity The Spectral Sorrows | 4.0 |
| The Contortionist Exoplanet | 4.0 |
| The Contortionist Intrinsic | 3.5 |
| The Contortionist Language | 4.5 |
| Between the Buried and Me Between the Buried and Me | 2.5 |
| Between the Buried and Me The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues | 3.5 |
| Between the Buried and Me The Silent Circus | 3.0 |
| Between the Buried and Me Alaska | 3.1 |
| Between the Buried and Me Colors | 3.3 |
| Between the Buried and Me The Great Misdirect | 3.0 |
| Between the Buried and Me The Parallax II: Future Sequence | 3.2 |
| Between the Buried and Me Coma Ecliptic | 2.3 |
| TesseracT Perspective | 2.3 |
| TesseracT Concealing Fate | 4.0 |
| TesseracT Polaris | 2.7 |
| TesseracT Altered State | 3.3 |
| TesseracT One | 3.8 |
| Periphery Juggernaut: Omega | 3.0 |
| Periphery Juggernaut: Alpha | 2.8 |
| Periphery Periphery II: This Time It's Personal | 3.4 |
| Periphery Periphery | 3.3 |
| Palms Palms | 4.0 |
| Ride Nowhere | 4.1 |
| Nothing Guilty of Everything | 4.0 |
| Lush Mad Love | 4.0 |
| Pity Sex Feast of Love | 3.0 |
| October Falls Marras | 4.0 |
| Empyrium Weiland | 4.0 |
| Vali Skogslandskap | 4.0 |
| There Will Be Fireworks The Dark, Dark Bright | 4.0 |
| Pink Floyd The Endless River | 3.0 |
| Black Sabbath 13 | 3.8 |
| Vampire Weekend Modern Vampires of the City | 3.0 |
| Temple of Thieves Passing Through the Zer0s | 3.5 |
| All That Remains A War You Cannot Win | 1.5 |
| 10 Years Minus the Machine | 3.5 |
| Agalloch Faustian Echoes | 4.0 |
| Walk the Moon Walk the Moon | 3.0 |
| Pity Sex Dark World | 3.5 |
| Adrenaline Mob Omerta | 2.0 |
| Effigy (FRC) Black Is Now the Sun | 3.5 |
| Love, Robot Rebuild | Rebirth | 3.5 |
| Ceterum Fathom | 3.5 |
| Puscifer Money Shot | 3.5 |
| Puscifer Conditions of My Parole | 3.5 |
| Evanescence Evanescence | 3.0 |
| sleepmakeswaves ...and so we destroyed everything | 4.0 |
| John Haughm +46° 17' 36.30", -124° 4' 20.13" | 3.5 |
| The Jezabels Synthia | 4.5 |
| Synthia contains elements from all kinds of musical styles like dance and electronica, providing interesting results behind the anthemic indie rock sound. This certainly is a gripping listen, with a lot of dimensions to it including vulnerability, love, loss, and triumph. It's not quite as straightforward as the band's previous two albums, and feels more urgent overall. Everything comes together and feels strange yet beautiful, with moments of irony lending to the personality the band have shown to possess. Synthia shows an alternative band continuing to grow into themselves, delivering an impassioned exercise in social issues, heartbreak, and naked emotion. |
| The Jezabels The Brink | 3.7 |
| The Jezabels Prisoner | 4.2 |
| NeraNature Foresting Wounds | 3.7 |
| Mansions Dig Up the Dead | 4.0 |
| Oriya Light To Dark | 3.5 |
| Various Artists Whom The Moon A Nightsong Sings | 4.0 |
| Young the Giant Young the Giant | 3.7 |
| Dungen Skit I Allt | 4.0 |
| The Sword High Country | 2.6 |
| The Sword Apocryphon | 3.5 |
| The Sword Warp Riders | 4.1 |
| The Sword Gods of the Earth | 3.8 |
| The Sword Age of Winters | 3.7 |
| Bring Me the Horizon There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It... | 3.4 |
| Meshuggah Nothing (Re-Release) | 4.2 |
| Meshuggah Koloss | 3.3 |
| Meshuggah Catch Thirtythree | 4.1 |
| Meshuggah obZen | 4.2 |
| Meshuggah Destroy Erase Improve | 4.3 |
| Wavves King of the Beach | 3.2 |
| The War On Drugs Lost in the Dream | 4.4 |
| The War On Drugs Slave Ambient | 4.0 |
| Wild Nothing Life of Pause | 3.0 |
| While Life of Pause perhaps lacks as much depth as Wild Nothing's previous releases, this is still a fairly enjoyable and blissfully nostalgic sounding record. The songwriting and lush production job channels the likes of Slowdive and The Cure in the best ways. "Life of Pause," "Alien," and "To Know You" is perhaps the band's finest trifecta of songs yet. Overall this is a fun, diverse dream pop record that deserves multiple listens to fully sink in and appreciate. |
| Wild Nothing Gemini | 3.7 |
| Kaura That Which Defines Us | 3.5 |
| Weezer Raditude | 2.0 |
| Marilyn Manson The High End of Low | 2.5 |
| Pinkshinyultrablast Happy Songs For Happy Zombies | 3.5 |
| Lunatic Soul Lunatic Soul | 3.5 |
| pg.lost It's Not Me, It's You! | 4.0 |
| Weezer The Red Album | 2.3 |
| In Flames A Sense of Purpose | 3.2 |
| sleepmakeswaves Love of Cartography | 4.0 |
| sleepmakeswaves In Today Already Walks Tomorrow | 4.0 |
| Aiden Conviction | 1.5 |
| Kashiwa Daisuke Program Music I | 4.0 |
| Radiohead Pablo Honey | 3.0 |
| Radiohead The Bends | 4.0 |
| Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Raising Sand | 3.5 |
| Yndi Halda Under Summer | 4.0 |
| After ten years, Yndi Halda return with a beautiful debut album perfect for the month of summer. While some musical passages might go on longer than they need to, the build-ups are handled well, crescendoing into gorgeous soundscapes and bursts of energy. There just enough vocals to add color without overpowering the instrumental focus. Overall they are used rarely and effectively, especially adding to the beauty of the album's first few minutes. Violins and other strings give a classical feel reminiscent of Sigur Ros. While not quite reaching the heights of Enjoy Eternal Bliss from a decade before, Under Summer can be counted among the essential post-rock albums of the year. |
| Yndi Halda Enjoy Eternal Bliss | 4.5 |
| LSD and the Search for God LSD and the Search for God | 4.0 |
| The Pineapple Thief Little Man | 4.1 |
| Drop Dead, Gorgeous In Vogue | 1.5 |
| Escape the Fate Dying Is Your Latest Fashion | 3.0 |
| Escape the Fate There's No Sympathy for the Dead | 3.0 |
| Peeping Tom Peeping Tom | 3.0 |
| All That Remains The Fall of Ideals | 3.5 |
| Thom Yorke Tomorrow's Modern Boxes | 3.5 |
| Thom Yorke The Eraser | 3.5 |
| Prisma Collusion | 3.5 |
| Guthrie Govan Erotic Cakes | 4.2 |
| Brand New Leaked Demos 2006 | 4.0 |
| Brand New Fight Off Your Demons (The Demos) | 4.0 |
| David Gilmour On An Island | 4.0 |
| 10 Years The Autumn Effect | 4.0 |
| Weezer Make Believe | 2.0 |
| Team Sleep Team Sleep | 3.5 |
| A Bunny's Caravan Draining Puddles, Retrieving Treasures | 4.0 |
| Gates (USA-NJ) Bloom and Breathe | 4.1 |
| The Killers Day & Age | 2.7 |
| The Killers Sam's Town | 3.7 |
| Moving Mountains Moving Mountains | 3.0 |
| Moving Mountains Waves | 3.3 |
| Moving Mountains Foreword | 4.5 |
| Moving Mountains Pneuma | 4.5 |
| 65daysofstatic Wild Light | 3.5 |
| 65daysofstatic We Were Exploding Anyway | 3.5 |
| 65daysofstatic The Destruction of Small Ideas | 4.0 |
| 65daysofstatic One Time for All Time | 4.0 |
| John Frusciante and Josh Klinghoffer A Sphere in the Heart of Silence | 3.5 |
| Karl Sanders Saurian Meditation | 3.5 |
| 65daysofstatic The Fall of Math | 4.0 |
| The Killers Hot Fuss | 4.0 |
| Wilco A Ghost Is Born | 4.0 |
| Vali Forlatt | 4.0 |
| Jakob Solace | 4.5 |
| Jakob Sines | 4.3 |
| Jakob Cale:Drew | 4.0 |
| Mew Frengers | 4.0 |
| yodaka yodaka | 3.5 |
| Nirvana Nevermind | 4.3 |
| Soundgarden King Animal | 3.0 |
| Soundgarden Superunknown | 4.5 |
| Rage Against the Machine The Battle of Los Angeles | 4.3 |
| Rage Against the Machine Evil Empire | 4.0 |
| Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine | 4.5 |
| Audioslave Revelations | 3.0 |
| Audioslave Out of Exile | 3.0 |
| Audioslave Audioslave | 3.5 |
| Interpol Antics | 4.0 |
| Autumn's Grey Solace Riverine | 4.0 |
| Autumn's Grey Solace Over The Ocean | 4.2 |
| Autumn's Grey Solace Within the Depths of a Darkened Forest | 4.4 |
| Covenant Northern Light | 3.5 |
| Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights | 4.5 |
| Stella Luna Stargazer | 4.1 |
| Damien Rice O | 4.3 |
| Pain of Salvation Remedy Lane | 4.2 |
| Weezer The Green Album | 3.0 |
| Unwound Leaves Turn Inside You | 4.5 |
| Nest (FIN) Mietteitä | 3.0 |
| Nest (FIN) Trail of the Unwary | 4.0 |
| Nest (FIN) Woodsmoke | 3.7 |
| Nest (FIN) Hidden Stream | 3.5 |
| Nest (FIN) Fabled Lore | 3.5 |
| Porcupine Tree Transmission IV | 4.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Anesthetize | 4.5 |
| Porcupine Tree Nil Recurring | 4.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Staircase Infinities | 4.2 |
| Porcupine Tree Moonloop | 4.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Stars Die: The Delerium Years | 4.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Voyage 34: The Complete Trip | 4.0 |
| Hammock Everything and Nothing | 4.2 |
| Hammock Oblivion Hymns | 4.0 |
| Hammock Departure Songs | 4.3 |
| Hammock Chasing After Shadows...Living with the Ghosts | 4.0 |
| Hammock Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow | 3.7 |
| Hammock Raising Your Voice... Trying to Stop an Echo | 4.5 |
| Hammock Stranded Under Endless Sky | 4.3 |
| Hammock Kenotic | 4.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky The Wilderness | 4.0 |
| The Wilderness signifies important changes for Explosions: most notably, an absence of sonic clutter and a willingness to fearlessly explore new sonic terrain. The band utilizes shorter track lengths lending to a more easily digestible listening experience, while taking their sound into bold new directions. Their musical style welcomes emphases of low end and electronica featured throughout. "Disintegration Anxiety" has stunning bass guitar and "Tangle Formations" is a moment of meditative beauty. "Landing Cliffs" is the real highlight, being one of the most blissful songs of the year. Overall The Wilderness is a diverse and heady post-rock release that should not be missed by fans of the genre, and especially if you thought Explosions were becoming too comfortable repeating past successes. |
| Explosions in the Sky The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place | 4.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die... | 4.2 |
| Explosions in the Sky How Strange, Innocence | 4.0 |
| Ethereal Shroud They Became the Falling Ash | 4.0 |
| Musk Ox Woodfall | 4.1 |
| Ne Obliviscaris Citadel | 3.8 |
| Ne Obliviscaris Portal of I | 4.1 |
| The Great Old Ones Tekeli-Li | 4.2 |
| The Great Old Ones Al Azif | 4.0 |
| Black Veil Brides Set the World on Fire | 2.0 |
| Black Veil Brides We Stitch These Wounds | 2.5 |
| Guns N' Roses G N' R Lies | 3.5 |
| Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy | 3.0 |
| Guns N' Roses The Spaghetti Incident? | 2.5 |
| Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion II | 4.0 |
| Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion I | 4.0 |
| Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction | 4.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Hail to the King | 1.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold further alienate their fanbase by releasing a shamelessly unoriginal rip-off of classic hard rock and heavy metal bands. Granted they've always done that to some degree, but the band really show how little shame they have here. Hail... stands as being largely void of substance or inspiration, so much that it boggles the mind. Arin Ilejay's talent with the sticks is squandered for a disappointingly bland and monotonous drumming performance throughout. The music itself isn't terrible, other than the ever-pervading stagnation and unoriginality. The singing is the least annoying of any of their albums at least, and the guitar work can be interesting if I have to name some positives. Heretic and Coming Home are the most worthwhile tracks. |
| Avenged Sevenfold Nightmare | 2.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Avenged Sevenfold | 2.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold City of Evil | 3.0 |
| Bullet for My Valentine Venom | 2.0 |
| Louder and thrashier than Temper Temper, but more or less same **** different day |
| Bullet for My Valentine Temper Temper | 1.5 |
| Bullet for My Valentine Fever | 2.5 |
| Bullet for My Valentine Scream Aim Fire | 2.5 |
| Bullet for My Valentine Hand of Blood | 3.3 |
| Bullet for My Valentine The Poison | 3.0 |
| Dissection Reinkaos | 3.0 |
| Dissection The Somberlain | 4.0 |
| Bathory Blood Fire Death | 4.5 |
| Darkthrone Goatlord | 2.5 |
| Darkthrone A Blaze in the Northern Sky | 4.5 |
| Darkthrone Soulside Journey | 4.0 |
| Altar of Plagues Teethed Glory and Injury | 4.0 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Celestite | 3.5 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Celestial Lineage | 4.0 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Black Cascade | 3.5 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Two Hunters | 4.5 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Diadem of 12 Stars | 4.0 |
| Coldworld Melancholie² | 4.1 |
| Dir En Grey The Marrow of a Bone | 3.5 |
| Dir En Grey Withering to Death | 4.0 |
| Dir En Grey Vulgar | 4.0 |
| Dir En Grey Kisou | 4.0 |
| Dir En Grey Macabre | 4.0 |
| Dir En Grey Gauze | 4.0 |
| Swallow the Sun Plague of Butterflies | 4.0 |
| Swallow the Sun Songs from the North I, II & III | 3.8 |
| Swallow the Sun Emerald Forest and the Blackbird | 3.7 |
| Swallow the Sun New Moon | 4.0 |
| Swallow the Sun Hope | 4.5 |
| Swallow the Sun Ghosts of Loss | 3.6 |
| Swallow the Sun The Morning Never Came | 4.5 |
| Katatonia Dead End Kings | 4.0 |
| Katatonia Night Is the New Day | 3.8 |
| Katatonia The Great Cold Distance | 4.0 |
| Novembers Doom Amid Its Hallowed Mirth | 2.5 |
| Novembre Ursa | 4.4 |
| Ursa is a more patient record than its predecessor The Blue, with less emphasis on genre bending. "Australis," "Umana," "Agathae," and "Fin" are counted with the best songs they ever wrote, lending Ursa to the triumphant feel it exudes for much of the running time. The fluid atmospheres recall bands like Opeth and Katatonia, while sounding just as original. With a masterful command of structure and compelling songwriting ideas, Ursa is among the finest melodic metal records in recent years. |
| Novembre The Blue | 4.2 |
| Novembre Materia | 4.5 |
| Novembre Novembrine Waltz | 4.2 |
| Novembre Classica | 4.5 |
| Morbus Chron A Saunter Through The Shroud | 4.0 |
| Morbus Chron Sweven | 4.5 |
| An Autumn For Crippled Children Try Not To Destroy Everything You Love | 4.0 |
| Lantlos Melting Sun | 4.2 |
| Lantlos Agape | 4.0 |
| Lantlos .neon | 4.3 |
| Lantlos Lantlos | 3.5 |
| Tenhi Kauan | 4.2 |
| American Football American Football | 3.8 |
| Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine | 4.0 |
| Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral | 4.5 |
| Coldplay The Blue Room | 3.5 |
| The Dismemberment Plan Emergency & I | 4.1 |
| Coil Musick To Play In The Dark 2 | 4.0 |
| Coil Musick To Play In The Dark | 4.0 |
| The Angels of Light New Mother | 4.0 |
| Evanescence Fallen | 3.2 |
| Lacuna Coil Broken Crown Halo | 2.5 |
| Lacuna Coil Dark Adrenaline | 3.0 |
| Lacuna Coil Shallow Life | 2.5 |
| Lacuna Coil Karmacode | 3.0 |
| Marilyn Manson Mechanical Animals | 3.5 |
| Lacuna Coil Comalies | 3.5 |
| Atheist Unquestionable Presence | 4.5 |
| Atheist Piece of Time | 4.5 |
| Control Denied The Fragile Art of Existence | 3.8 |
| Death The Sound of Perseverance | 4.5 |
| Death Symbolic | 4.5 |
| Lacuna Coil Lacuna Coil | 3.8 |
| Tortoise TNT | 4.4 |
| Shpongle Nothing Lasts... But Nothing Is Lost | 4.2 |
| Shpongle Tales of the Inexpressible | 4.5 |
| Shpongle Are You Shpongled? | 4.0 |
| Amon Tobin Permutation | 4.5 |
| Radiohead Airbag/How Am I Driving? | 4.0 |
| Modest Mouse ナイト・オン・ザ・サン (Night on the Sun) | 4.0 |
| Modest Mouse Interstate 8 | 4.0 |
| Built to Spill Keep It Like a Secret | 4.0 |
| Built to Spill There's Nothing Wrong with Love | 4.0 |
| Ulver The Norwegian National Opera | 4.0 |
| Ulver Trolsk Sortmetall 1993-1997 | 4.5 |
| Ulver Oddities and Rarities #1 | 3.5 |
| Ulver Svidd Neger OST | 4.0 |
| Ulver Silencing the Singing | 4.0 |
| Ulver Silence Teaches You How to Sing EP | 4.0 |
| Ulver Kveldssanger | 4.4 |
| Ulver Blood Inside | 4.0 |
| Ulver Nattens Madrigal | 4.5 |
| Electric Wizard Electric Wizard | 3.5 |
| Electric Wizard Black Masses | 3.5 |
| Electric Wizard Let Us Prey | 3.5 |
| Electric Wizard We Live | 4.1 |
| Electric Wizard Time to Die | 3.7 |
| Yo La Tengo Painful | 4.0 |
| Yo La Tengo And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside... | 4.0 |
| Yo La Tengo I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One | 4.3 |
| Mogwai Young Team | 4.5 |
| Electric Wizard Witchcult Today | 4.0 |
| Electric Wizard Dopethrone | 4.3 |
| Electric Wizard Come My Fanatics... | 4.2 |
| Marilyn Manson The Pale Emperor | 3.3 |
| Marilyn Manson Eat Me, Drink Me | 3.2 |
| Marilyn Manson Holy Wood | 3.5 |
| Amon Tobin Adventures In Foam | 3.5 |
| Marilyn Manson Antichrist Superstar | 3.5 |
| Weezer Pinkerton | 4.0 |
| Tortoise Millions Now Living Will Never Die | 4.3 |
| Radiohead Street Spirit (Fade Out) | 3.5 |
| Paradise Lost Draconian Times | 4.5 |
| Paradise Lost Icon | 4.5 |
| Paradise Lost The Plague Within | 4.2 |
| Paradise Lost Tragic Idol | 4.0 |
| Paradise Lost Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us | 4.3 |
| Paradise Lost In Requiem | 3.8 |
| The Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream | 4.3 |
| The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness | 4.0 |
| Mojave 3 Ask Me Tomorrow | 4.0 |
| Deftones Gore | 4.0 |
| Deftones keep getting better and better, with Gore expertly infusing their crushing metal with tranquil, blissful soundscapes. |
| Deftones Koi No Yokan | 4.5 |
| Deftones Diamond Eyes | 4.0 |
| Deftones Saturday Night Wrist | 4.5 |
| Deftones Deftones | 3.5 |
| Deftones White Pony | 4.0 |
| Deftones B-Sides and Rarities | 3.0 |
| Deftones Around the Fur | 3.5 |
| Deftones Adrenaline | 3.0 |
| Opeth Deliverance | 4.0 |
| Opeth Blackwater Park | 5.0 |
| Opeth Still Life | 5.0 |
| Opeth My Arms, Your Hearse | 4.5 |
| Opeth Morningrise | 4.1 |
| Opeth Orchid | 4.0 |
| Opeth Apostle in Triumph | 3.5 |
| Intronaut The Direction of Last Things | 4.1 |
| Fantastic energy and musicianship throughout, featuring their most energetic, dynamic guitar work and a stunningly technical rhythm section. The transitions from jazzy, meditative sections to pummeling metal and frantic prog goodness are fantastic, and the return of screams and chaotic songwriting is most welcome. |
| Intronaut Habitual Levitations | 4.2 |
| Intronaut Valley of Smoke | 4.5 |
| Intronaut Prehistoricisms | 4.0 |
| Intronaut Void | 3.7 |
| Mastodon Once More 'Round the Sun | 3.2 |
| Mastodon The Hunter | 3.6 |
| Mastodon Crack the Skye | 4.4 |
| Mastodon Blood Mountain | 4.0 |
| Mastodon Leviathan | 4.3 |
| Mastodon Remission | 4.0 |
| Mastodon Call of the Mastodon | 3.5 |
| Modest Mouse The Fruit That Ate Itself | 3.3 |
| Modest Mouse Sad Sappy Sucker | 3.5 |
| Modest Mouse Building Nothing Out of Something | 4.2 |
| Modest Mouse Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks | 4.2 |
| Modest Mouse No One's First, and You're Next | 4.0 |
| Modest Mouse Strangers to Ourselves | 3.6 |
| Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank | 3.8 |
| Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News | 4.4 |
| Modest Mouse The Moon & Antarctica | 5.0 |
| Modest Mouse The Lonesome Crowded West | 4.5 |
| Modest Mouse This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About | 4.3 |
| My Morning Jacket The Waterfall | 4.0 |
| My Morning Jacket Circuital | 3.0 |
| My Morning Jacket Evil Urges | 3.3 |
| My Morning Jacket Z | 4.3 |
| My Morning Jacket It Still Moves | 4.2 |
| My Morning Jacket At Dawn | 4.0 |
| My Morning Jacket The Tennessee Fire | 3.5 |
| Pond (AUS) Man, It Feels like Space Again | 3.5 |
| Pond (AUS) Frond | 3.5 |
| The Pineapple Thief Magnolia | 3.5 |
| The Pineapple Thief All the Wars | 3.3 |
| The Pineapple Thief Someone Here Is Missing | 4.0 |
| The Pineapple Thief Variations on a Dream | 4.2 |
| The Pineapple Thief 137 | 4.0 |
| The Pineapple Thief Abducting the Unicorn | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson Cover Version | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson Insurgentes | 4.0 |
| Woods City Sun Eater In The River Of Light | 4.0 |
| One of the more fun records of a depressing yet musically brilliant year, Woods put out one of the best indie rock records of the year. This has psychedelia, personality, and varied instrumentation aplenty to keep things interesting. It's different enough from other bands that make it very replayable as well, with the music serving a variety of functions, be it a cookout, study music, or a drive through the sweltering desert. |
| The Strokes Is This It | 4.0 |
| The Black Keys Turn Blue | 2.5 |
| The Black Keys El Camino | 3.0 |
| Iggy Pop Post Pop Depression | 3.5 |
| Grouper Ruins | 4.2 |
| Grouper A I A | 4.0 |
| Grouper Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill | 4.0 |
| Porcupine Tree The Incident | 4.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Fear of a Blank Planet | 4.5 |
| Porcupine Tree Deadwing | 5.0 |
| Porcupine Tree In Absentia | 5.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Lightbulb Sun | 4.5 |
| Porcupine Tree Stupid Dream | 5.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Signify | 4.7 |
| One of their most atmospheric and consistent releases, Signify indicates a perfect balance of their psychedelic beginnings and welcomes more diversity into the Porcupine Tree sound. Waiting, Every Home is Wired, Intermediate Jesus, Idiot Prayer, and Dark Matter are highlights. |
| Porcupine Tree The Sky Moves Sideways | 5.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Up the Downstair | 4.3 |
| Porcupine Tree On the Sunday of Life | 3.5 |
| Gazpacho Molok | 3.5 |
| As if this band couldn't get any quirkier. Molok plays out as a bombastic musical journey, with swelling instrumentation and dreamy, ethereal soundscapes throughout. Despite being very much a Gazpacho album, it manages to sound largely different from everything else they've done. The concept is interesting and ambitious as always, which is up to the listener to follow and experience for themselves. A charming and diverse listen, as always from the Norwegian rockers. |
| Gazpacho Demon | 4.0 |
| Gazpacho March of Ghosts | 3.7 |
| Gazpacho Missa Atropos | 4.0 |
| Gazpacho Tick Tock | 4.2 |
| Gazpacho Night | 4.5 |
| John Frusciante Enclosure | 2.0 |
| John Frusciante PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone | 2.5 |
| John Frusciante The Empyrean | 4.0 |
| John Frusciante Curtains | 4.0 |
| John Frusciante Inside of Emptiness | 3.5 |
| John Frusciante The Will to Death | 3.8 |
| John Frusciante Shadows Collide with People | 4.0 |
| Radiohead My Iron Lung | 3.5 |
| Portishead Dummy | 4.2 |
| Rishloo Living as Ghosts with Buildings as Teeth | 3.6 |
| Rishloo Feathergun | 3.8 |
| Rishloo Eidolon | 4.0 |
| Built to Spill Perfect from Now On | 4.5 |
| Ozric Tentacles Jurassic Shift | 4.2 |
| Anubis Hitchhiking to Byzantium | 3.5 |
| Anathema Distant Satellites | 3.5 |
| Anathema Weather Systems | 4.0 |
| Anathema We're Here Because We're Here | 4.2 |
| Anathema A Natural Disaster | 4.0 |
| Anathema A Fine Day to Exit | 4.0 |
| Anathema Judgement | 4.3 |
| Anathema Alternative 4 | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Von | 3.5 |
| Sigur Ros Agætis byrjun | 4.5 |
| Sigur Ros ( ) | 5.0 |
| Atoms for Peace Amok | 3.2 |
| maudlin of the Well Part the Second | 5.0 |
| maudlin of the Well Leaving Your Body Map | 4.5 |
| maudlin of the Well Bath | 5.0 |
| maudlin of the Well My Fruit Psychobells... A Seed Combustible | 4.2 |
| Kyuss Welcome to Sky Valley | 4.2 |
| Kyuss Blues for the Red Sun | 4.0 |
| A Perfect Circle eMOTIVe | 2.5 |
| A Perfect Circle Thirteenth Step | 4.5 |
| A Perfect Circle Mer de Noms | 4.0 |
| Slowdive Pygmalion | 4.5 |
| Slowdive Souvlaki | 5.0 |
| Slowdive Just for a Day | 4.2 |
| Sand (UK) The Dynamic Curve | 4.0 |
| Enigma MCMXC a.D. | 3.8 |
| Social Distortion Social Distortion | 4.0 |
| ISIS Wavering Radiant | 4.5 |
| ISIS In the Absence of Truth | 5.0 |
| ISIS Panopticon | 4.7 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers I'm With You | 2.5 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium | 3.5 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers By the Way | 4.1 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication | 4.2 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers One Hot Minute | 3.0 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magik | 4.0 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Mother's Milk | 3.7 |
| The Stone Roses The Stone Roses | 4.0 |
| Sonic Youth Daydream Nation | 4.0 |
| Mark Hollis Mark Hollis | 5.0 |
| Bark Psychosis Codename: Dustsucker | 4.5 |
| Bark Psychosis Hex | 5.0 |
| Talk Talk Laughing Stock | 5.0 |
| Talk Talk Spirit of Eden | 5.0 |
| Talk Talk The Colour of Spring | 4.5 |
| Weezer Weezer | 4.0 |
| Agalloch The Serpent and the Sphere | 3.7 |
| Agalloch Marrow of the Spirit | 4.3 |
| Agalloch Ashes Against the Grain | 5.0 |
| Agalloch The White | 4.5 |
| Agalloch The Mantle | 5.0 |
| Agalloch Pale Folklore | 4.5 |
| Sunn O))) and Ulver Terrestrials | 3.3 |
| Arcturus Arcturian | 4.0 |
| Arcturus Sideshow Symphonies | 3.7 |
| Arcturus The Sham Mirrors | 4.3 |
| Arcturus La Masquerade Infernale | 4.0 |
| Arcturus Aspera Hiems Symfonia | 4.0 |
| Ulver Childhood's End | 3.5 |
| Ulver Lyckantropen Themes OST | 4.0 |
| Ulver Metamorphosis | 3.5 |
| Ulver A Quick Fix of Melancholy | 4.0 |
| Ulver ATGCLVLSSCAP | 4.2 |
| Ulver's latest outing is one that convalesces together elements of psychedelic rock, drone, and ambience into a pulsing, organic entity. It's almost too easy to get lost in the beautiful soundscapes, as well as the dark, trancing noise that permeates the mind. The hypnotic qualities Ulver has explored in the past are brought to the forefront here, showcasing all sides of the band's sound for a truly haunting and emotionally engaging release. |
| Ulver Messe I.X-VI.X | 4.1 |
| Ulver Wars of the Roses | 4.5 |
| Ulver Shadows of the Sun | 5.0 |
| Ulver Perdition City | 4.7 |
| Ulver Themes From William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell | 4.0 |
| Ulver Bergtatt - Et eeventyr i 5 capitler | 5.0 |
| Immortal At the Heart of Winter | 4.2 |
| Emperor Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire... | 4.0 |
| Emperor Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk | 4.5 |
| Emperor In the Nightside Eclipse | 4.5 |
| Vektor Terminal Redux | 4.1 |
| Vektor Black Future | 3.7 |
| Vektor Outer Isolation | 3.8 |
| Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything | 4.0 |
| Thantifaxath Sacred White Noise | 4.2 |
| Panopticon Roads to the North | 4.1 |
| Panopticon Autumn Eternal | 4.4 |
| From what I've heard of Panopticon before Autumn Eternal, the one-man project has a great run of atmospheric black metal albums exploring a wide range of themes. This is considered his most impressive release yet however, magnificently harnessing the essence of autumn throughout the ghostly atmospheres, particularly within the soothing opener and "Oaks Ablaze". Much of Autumn Eternal balances incredible guitar solos and blasting drums with clean guitar breaks and naturalistic interludes stunningly. A strong discography now has its crowning achievement with the most mature sense of songwriting yet, and has solidified itself as one of the greatest metal albums of the year. Excellent Fall album. For fans of Drukdh, Agalloch, and Opeth. |
| Massive Attack Mezzanine | 5.0 |
| Enslaved In Times | 4.0 |
| An incredible and diverse listen from start to finish, as usual the opener and closer are among the very best. It's difficult to believe, but even thirteen albums in they pushed their experimentation even further. |
| Enslaved RIITIIR | 4.3 |
| Enslaved Axioma Ethica Odini | 4.5 |
| Enslaved Vertebrae | 4.5 |
| Enslaved Isa | 4.0 |
| Enslaved Below the Lights | 4.5 |
| Enslaved Ruun | 4.3 |
| Enslaved Monumension | 4.0 |
| Enslaved Mardraum - Beyond the Within | 3.5 |
| Leviathan Scar Sighted | 4.0 |
| Gorguts Obscura | 4.3 |
| Gorguts From Wisdom to Hate | 4.0 |
| Gorguts Colored Sands | 4.1 |
| Silversun Pickups Carnavas | 4.0 |
| Imagine Dragons Night Visions | 2.5 |
| Coldplay Ghost Stories | 2.5 |
| Coldplay A Head Full of Dreams | 2.0 |
| Coldplay Mylo Xyloto | 2.5 |
| Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends | 4.0 |
| Coldplay X&Y | 3.3 |
| Coldplay A Rush of Blood to the Head | 3.8 |
| Coldplay Parachutes | 3.7 |
| Caspian Dust and Disquiet | 4.4 |
| U2 All That You Can't Leave Behind | 3.5 |
| U2 Songs of Innocence | 3.0 |
| U2 No Line on the Horizon | 3.8 |
| U2 How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb | 3.2 |
| U2 Pop | 3.5 |
| U2 Zooropa | 3.5 |
| U2 Achtung Baby | 4.0 |
| U2 The Joshua Tree | 5.0 |
| Alice in Chains The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here | 3.5 |
| Alice in Chains Black Gives Way to Blue | 4.0 |
| Alice in Chains Alice in Chains | 3.5 |
| Alice in Chains Sap | 3.5 |
| Alice in Chains Jar of Flies | 4.5 |
| Alice in Chains Dirt | 4.5 |
| Alice in Chains Facelift | 4.0 |
| Arctic Monkeys AM | 3.2 |
| Arctic Monkeys Suck It and See | 3.0 |
| Arctic Monkeys Humbug | 3.8 |
| Arctic Monkeys Favourite Worst Nightmare | 4.0 |
| Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not | 4.0 |
| Chelsea Wolfe Abyss | 4.0 |
| Chelsea Wolfe Pain Is Beauty | 4.0 |
| Chelsea Wolfe Apokalypsis | 4.0 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Murder Ballads | 4.5 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Henry's Dream | 4.0 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds The Good Son | 4.1 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Your Funeral... My Trial | 3.8 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! | 3.5 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds No More Shall We Part | 5.0 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds The Boatman's Call | 4.3 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Let Love In | 4.4 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Tender Prey | 4.3 |
| Giles Corey Giles Corey | 4.0 |
| Have a Nice Life The Unnatural World | 3.5 |
| Have a Nice Life Deathconsciousness | 4.3 |
| Boring Bathtimes An Otherwise Clouded Mind | 4.0 |
| Pelican The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon... | 4.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada | 4.5 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress' | 4.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! | 4.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Yanqui U.X.O. | 4.3 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor F♯ A♯ ∞ | 5.0 |
| God Is an Astronaut All Is Violent, All Is Bright | 4.4 |
| We Lost the Sea Departure Songs | 4.4 |
| We Lost the Sea The Quietest Place on Earth | 4.0 |
| We Lost the Sea Crimea | 3.0 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Codes and Keys | 3.0 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Plans | 3.8 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Kintsugi | 3.0 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Narrow Stairs | 3.2 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Transatlanticism | 4.0 |
| Death Cab for Cutie The Photo Album | 4.0 |
| Death Cab for Cutie We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes | 3.7 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Something About Airplanes | 3.5 |
| Foo Fighters The Colour and the Shape | 4.0 |
| Foo Fighters Foo Fighters | 4.0 |
| Local Natives Hummingbird | 4.0 |
| Paramore The Summer Tic | 3.5 |
| Paramore Brand New Eyes | 3.5 |
| Paramore Paramore | 3.0 |
| Paramore Riot! | 3.0 |
| Paramore All We Know Is Falling | 3.5 |
| Paramore Singles Club | 3.5 |
| The Cure Disintegration | 5.0 |
| My Bloody Valentine You Made Me Realise | 4.5 |
| Tame Impala Lonerism | 4.5 |
| Tame Impala Innerspeaker | 4.3 |
| Tame Impala Currents | 4.4 |
| Wild Nothing Nocturne | 4.2 |
| The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Belong | 3.5 |
| Brand New Daisy | 4.4 |
| Brand New The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me | 4.5 |
| Brand New Deja Entendu | 4.0 |
| Brand New Your Favorite Weapon | 3.0 |
| Arcade Fire Reflektor | 3.5 |
| Arcade Fire The Suburbs | 4.2 |
| Arcade Fire Neon Bible | 4.0 |
| Arcade Fire Funeral | 4.5 |
| Foals Holy Fire | 4.0 |
| Foals Antidotes | 4.0 |
| Foals What Went Down | 4.2 |
| Foals Total Life Forever | 4.6 |
| Total Life Forever excels in providing a rich, stunning, aquatic atmosphere throughout. Everything from the guitar effects, keyboards, vocals, and percussion comes together in service of adventurous and naturalistic textures. This is a rich, beautiful record that displays just the right amount of accessibility to accompany its ambitions. This album has it all and shines bright in its creative, melancholic beauty and truth. |
| alt-J This Is All Yours | 3.6 |
| alt-J An Awesome Wave | 4.2 |
| Swans Children of God | 4.0 |
| Swans The Burning World | 3.5 |
| Swans White Light From the Mouth of Infinity | 4.5 |
| Swans Love of Life | 4.0 |
| Swans The Great Annihilator | 4.0 |
| Swans Soundtracks for the Blind | 4.4 |
| Swans My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky | 3.3 |
| Swans The Seer | 4.2 |
| Them Crooked Vultures Them Crooked Vultures | 4.0 |
| Queens of the Stone Age ...Like Clockwork | 4.5 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Era Vulgaris | 3.3 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Lullabies to Paralyze | 4.1 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf | 4.6 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Rated R | 4.2 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age | 3.7 |
| Ghost (SWE) Infestissumam | 3.5 |
| Ghost (SWE) Opus Eponymous | 3.9 |
| Ghost (SWE) Meliora | 3.8 |
| Thrice Beggars | 4.5 |
| Thrice The Illusion of Safety | 4.0 |
| Thrice The Artist in the Ambulance | 4.0 |
| Thrice Vheissu | 4.5 |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II | 4.2 |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV | 4.0 |
| Thrice Major/Minor | 4.0 |
| DJ Shadow Endtroducing..... | 4.5 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven | 5.0 |
| My Bloody Valentine Loveless | 5.0 |
| Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea | 4.0 |
| Nirvana In Utero | 4.1 |
| Swans To Be Kind | 4.0 |
| Slint Spiderland | 4.5 |
| Radiohead Hail to the Thief | 4.3 |
