2016 was another tough list to put together. The top 5ish spots are usually pretty easy, but deciding which albums to cut in the last few spots is such a struggle (what a hard life I lead). For the past month I've been going through the bajillions of best of lists. As usual there was a TON of stuff I missed. I just have to be ok with the fact that there's only 24 hours in a day and it's unpossible [sic] to get to everything.
Last year I made an unsuccesful attempt to catch up everything I missed, but eventually gave up and finalized my list a month or two into the new year. This time around I've drawn the line at the end of the year, and if I missed anything, then so be it. Onward to my list!
16) The Mercury Tree - Permutations
This experimental progressive rock band out of Portland, OR sounds like Behold the Arctopus, Mr. Bungle, Panzerballet, and Haken all rolled into one. There is also another band I should be throwing in there to show off how amazing and diverse I am with my name drops, but I’m not quite what the it is. This band has been around since 2006 but I'm only discovering them now. It's a shame that it's taken this long, but on the bright side I get a lot of back catalog to discover
15) Vektor - Terminal Redux
The thrash revival / re-thrash of the 2000s was all the rage for a hot minute, but ultimately hit the same stagnant wall of samey mcsamersons. I grew tired of the same damn thrash album from the same damn thrash bands. Thegenre as a whole has just refused to evolve and has been so stagnant that there really hasn't been anything new or interesting. Granted, there have been some excellent thrash in the past few years (Death Angel, Anthrax, et al).
Finally, after all these years, Vektor absolutely nails it with Terminal Redux. This progressive thrash masterpiece is a torch in the ass that the genre needed to make me interested in it again. Clocking in at 73 minutes, this is three albums worth of material for a typical thrash band. Couple that with the sheer amount of notes this makes for a pretty heavy listen. Give in to the 73 minute sonic assault that is Terminal Redux, you’ll be glad you did.
14) Black Crown Initiate - Selves We Cannot Forgive
This is quite the gem in a sea of tech/prog death. Hailing from Reading, PA, this new-ish band has been making waves in the metal scene ever since their debut full length album, The Wreckage of Stars. On their sophomore release, they show no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Selves We Cannot Forgive sounds proggier than their debut, and I feel like the clean vocals are much better this time around. While this is truly a solid album, something seems to be missing to propel them into the top 10. Their debut in 2014 just missed my top 10 as well. Third time's a charm?
13) öOoOoOoOoOo - Samen
If I had a list of least Google-able bands, öOoOoOoOoOo would be right near the top (the winner would have to be 3). I've tried it myself and it turns out that you get the best results when you include the umlaut on the first o. How do you even pronounce that, just say 'ooh' for 11 seconds? Do you change the inflections between the upper and lowercase o? Is it important to make sure you get that umlaut on the first o? So many unanswered questions?!
The best I can describe this experimental metal band from France Mr. Bungle meets Diablo Swing Orchestra meets Unexpect. I first read about this on No Clean Singing and knew I would love it the moment I read "It seems kind of ironic to warn fans of extreme metal that they’re about to hear something challenging." If you're not familiar with the avant garde and you give this one a shot, you've been warned!
12) Dark Funeral - Where Shadows Forever Reign
With vegan non-GMO gulten free responsibly raised hipster black metal getting so much press these days (seriously how does Deafheaven get so much press?), it is absolutely refreshing to get kicked in the face by some pure evil satanic goat sacrificing church burning black metal. The so called “Ineffable Kings Of Black Metal” haven't released an album in 7 years, and it happens to be my favorite straight up black metal release of the year (sorry Abbath).
10) Astronoid - Air
When I first heard Astronoid on the MetalSucks podcast (shoutout to Chuck and Godless), I wasn’t quite sure what I was hearing. Astronoid took the shoegaze major chord black metal sound laid down by Deafheaven and took it a step further. Astronoid describe themselves as dream thrash, which I suppose is appropriate. After the shock of "WTF IS THIS" wore off, I still wasn't quite sure what to think of Air. I just couldn't stop coming back to it, something about it just kept bringing me back. I still feel like I need to spin this a few more times before I fully get it. Whatever the case may be, this is an excellent debut album from a band I will keep a close eye on.
9) Fallujah - Dreamless
Bay Area hometown heroes deliver another solid release. Mixing technical death metal and ambient ethereal soundscapes doesn’t seem like the most likely pairing, but holy hell do they make it work. As good as The Flesh Prevails is, they’ve really hit their stride on Dreamless. Yes, there are some clean vocals on here, but they tapped into the talents of Tori Letzler rather than having Alex try to sing clean. To be fair, I have no idea if his clean singing voice is any good, but the majority of the time a band transitions to clean vocals, it sucks the big one. Tori's voice is absolutely beautiful, and fits perfectly over the airy soundscapes provided by the band. This album is both beautiful and brutal...brutiful.
8) Cyborg Octopus - Learning to Breathe
The debut album from this killer local prog metal out of San Ramon. The album goes from tech death to neo-classical to punk to funk and jazz. I really enjoy diversity but they are dangerously dancing the line of diverse and confused. My favorite tracks are the album opener and closer, Data_m1nefield and Epiphany. They also happen to the longest and most epic tracks on the album. They make perfect bookends for all the genre hopping in the middle. These guys are still babies and this is their debut album. I anticipate that their songwriting and sound will get even stronger as the years go on.
7) Babymetal - Metal Resistance
The opening track is a recycled track off of their US (re?) release of their eponymous debut album. It really is a great way to kick off an album, but way to double dip and dupe me into paying for it twice! There are a few other songs on the album that are also very Dragonforce-y to match that recycled album opener, but overall it’s quite diverse. There’s some genericore/sumeriancore, proggy Dream Theater, a touch of ska, jungle, and of course J-pop. My favorite songs are the album closers, Tales of the Destinies and The One. The two songs have such an epic progressive metal feel (a la Dream Theater). It gives me hope that the next album will have either a multiple song/suite or be a full blown concept album.
6) Helion Prime - s/t
I discovered this local-ish band out of Sacramento late in the year. They truly earn their label as SciFi power metal. There’s no doubt that power metal is the cheesiest, and often times embarrassing sub-genre of metal. When it’s bad, it’s downright laughable. When it’s good, it just makes you want to don a suit of armor, grab your broadsword, and ride off into the moonlight on your steed to slay the dragon.
With Helion Prime you just need to replace armor with spacesuit, broadsword with lightsaber, steed with spaceship, and dragon with T-Rex in space armor. The songs here are downright infectious and the album is just pure fun from front to back. Heather Michele’s vocals aren't as cheesy and high as your typical power metal band and that helps it stand out from the typical power metal scene. It’s a shame that she has left the band, and I hope Kayla Dixon will be able to carry the torch.
5) The Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation
Hmmm...this is the only album of theirs that’s missing the one-two knockout punch with the first two tracks. Limerant Death is a banger for sure, but it sounds like it should be the second track on the album. I did some futzing around with the tracklist and I made Honeysuckle the opener, and put Fugue in its place (between Surrogate and Manufacturing Discontent). Spotify playlist can be found here.
Minor gripes aside, like all of their albums, this one a grower (SO MANY NOTES). The album is an amalgamation of their past work with some string quartet sprinkled in there. What I appreciate most is they've incorporated the string quartet in such a way that it doesn't sound forced.
I’ve been following this band since 2004 when Miss Machine came out. While I’m bummed that I missed their intimate show in SF, I’ve had the privilege of seeing them 4 times. I will truly miss this band, RIP Dillinger.
4) Haken - Affinity
I set my expectations way too high on this one. The Mountain was such an amazing album, I couldn't help but expect the absolute best. While I still liked Affinity, I was a bit disappointed at first. After about 4-5 spins, something clicked. I still think the Mountain is a better album (it really should have made my top ten in 2013, what was I thinking?), but Affinity is still absolutely amazing.
There’s a heavy 80s influence here, with 1985 sounding straight of Yes’ not so great 80s synth phase. Even though I prefer The Mountain, I think Affinity is more mature and sounds like they're really settling into their own sound (vs. sounding like all their influences smashed together). If Haken continues on this path, they will be considered the premiere progressive metal band in my book, stealing the crown from that other one prog metal band (you know who I'm talking about).
3) Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep of Reason
It’s not always easy to remain at the top of a genre that you essentially created. With so many djenty mcdjenterface copycats, Meshuggah still reign supreme among all the imitators. I know that Meshuggah are pretty damn dependable and I expected this album to be solid. What I didn’t expect is how much I would love this album. While the first two tracks were an excellent way to open up the albu, Monstrocity was the first track to reel me in. Add to that the moments that sound like they're straight out of Chaosphere, this album absolutely wrecks. Crank this one up to 11 and blow out your speakers!
2) Fleshgod Apocalypse - King
Holy mother of ass, this album absolutely RIPS! Their previous album, Labrynth, is #9 on my top 10 list of 2013. The fact that this is #2 goes to show that King is a significant improvement in my book. It’s more balanced, restrained, and mature. Their past releases are a cacophany of blastbeats (nothing wrong with that), but King shows some restraint.
King has a very strong opening track(s), a "hit" single with The Fool, two sprawling epic tunes Cold as Perfection and Syphilis, and an interlude in the middle to break things up. I was almost certain that this album was going to be my top pick for album of the year. However, that honor goes to...
1) Cult of Luna with Julie Christmas - Mariner
Cult of Luna is a band I've been meaning to get into, but I never quite made the leap. I had no idea this album was even a thing until the day it came out. When I saw “Cult of Luna with Julie Christmas” I knew I had to listen to it right away. I will listen to anything Julie Christmas and I loved this album right off the bat.
With only 5 tracks and clocking in at 54 minutes, it is a a dense listen. There really isn't much of a standout track; this is really meant to be listened to in its entirety. Julie Christmas' clean singing provides such a wonderful contrast to Johannes Person's harsh vocals, while her harsh vocals complement. The first time the two sing harsh vocals together on Chevron makes my spine tingle every damn time.
With only one US show where Mariner will be performed in its entirety, it hurts me right in the feels that I won't be able to go and experience this once in a lifetime show. I hope that this whole "only show in the US" thing is trick and they announce a full blown US tour. One can dream.
Game Over Man
Phew, what a year in music! The metal scene is in a really sweet spot right now. Unlike previous years, I can't really say this has been the year of "insert sub-genre here." So many bands are experimenting and pulling the genre in all different directions, and I am totally on board with that.
Looking forward to 2017, I already have an album of the year contender and it hasn't even come out yet! The releases I look forward to are:
- Pain of Salvation - In the Passing Light of Day
- Kreator - Gods of Violence
- Immolation - Atonement
- Steel Panther - Lower the Bar
- System of a Down
- Tool (HAHAHA yeah right...I guess I'll settle for the new Soen)
- X Japan (not a band I follow, but it's hard not to get excited for their first album in 20 years)
I've still got more lists to come for the 0 readers of this blog. Stay tuned!!