This was a year I had a really hard time narrowing it down to just 10. I had a pool of over 100 albums to sift through! I thought I would be so amazing and clever and make it my Top 15 of '15. Unfortunately, it didn't make it any easier to narrow it down.
I also paid more attention to non metal/prog, and I gotta say that I've been missing out all these years with my head down deep in the metals. As a metalhead I guess I'm supposed to hate pop/rap/commerical BS, but I grew up on that stuff and also who cares what you think don't judge me. I created a separate best of list for it because:
- I obviously love metal a helluva lot
- I don't pay as close attention to non-metal
- I want to show off how diverse and amazing I am
- STFU that's why
Little did I know that the year ahead of me was going to pretty awful, losing several music and pop culture icons and that whole WTF America thing in November. I was looking forward to the new Dream Theater, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Gojira, Kvelertak, Hiromi, Meshuggah, Fallujah, Haken, and BABYMETAL!
Looking ahead to 2016, I wanted to expand my face even more. I listened to one song in every genre in Spotify and The Guardian's 101 Strangest Records on Spotify. More on these things later.
Best 15 Albums of 2015
1) Ghost Bath - Moonlover
2) Periphery - Juggernaut
3) Kauan - Sorni Nai
4) Enslaved - In Times
5) Ghost - Meliora
6) Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.
7) Native Construct - Quiet World
8) Between the Buried and Me - Coma Ecliptic
9) The Gentle Storm - The Diary
10) Deafheaven - New Bermuda
11) Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful
12) Earthside - A Dream in Static
13) So Hideous - Laurestine
14) Galar - De Gjenlevende
15) Alkaloid - The Malkuth Grimoire
Honorable Mentions:
Cyrax - Pictures
Secrets of the Sky - Pathway
Voices - London
The Armed - Untitled
Beardfish - +4626-COMFORTZONE
Maladie - Still
Chaos Divine - Colliding Skies
Vola - Inmazes
Thurisaz - The Pulse of Mourning
Leprous - The Congregation
The Hirsch Effekt - Holon: Anamnesis
The Night Flight Orchestra - Skyline Whispers
District 97 - In Vaults
Nile - What Should Not Be Unearthed
Dreadnought - Bridging Realms
Void of Sleep - New World Order
Shining - International Blackjazz Society
Intronaut - The Direction of Last Things
Wilderun - Sleep at the Edge of the Earth
Yeah yeah, I'm missing Napalm Death, Soilwork, etc. There's just way too many more to list here.
Best Non-Metal Albums of 2015
1) Dr. Dre - Compton
2) Gost - Behemoth
3) Jaga Jazzist - Starfire
4) The Aristocrats - Tres Caballeros
5) Meghan Trainor - Title
6) Duran Duran - Paper Gods
7) Skrillex and Diplo - Jack U
8) Anna Von Hausswolff - Miraculous
9) Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
10) Kamasi Washington - The Epic
Honorable Mentions:
Ibeyi - s/t
David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock
​Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion
