2017, what a dumpster fire of a year. It wasn't all bad though. The Wonder Woman movie was amazing despite being a part of the assy mcbutt DC extended universe, Thor: Ragnarok dug itself out of its WHY SO SERIOUS and ended up being absolutely hilarious, there was a new season of Stranger Things, and of course there were a lot of great albums released this year.
Last year I struggled trying to listen to everything I could, so this year I took a different approach and stuck to listening to albums that I think I would like. When comparing my Spotify playlist of favorites from 2016 to 2017, they have 9668 songs (782 hours) vs 5555 songs (452 hours) respectively.
This year, I had a pool of over 400 albums to choose from, which I whittled down to about 60 for my short list. I've finally set my top 17 and I've tinkered with it so many times over the past month. I kept moving albums around, taking some off the list, putting them back on, etc. Enough talk, on to the list!
17) Nova Collective - The Further Side
The Nova Collective is an epic prog instruMETAL jazz fusion supergroup made up of members of Between the Buried and Me, Haken, and Trioscapes. You can certainly hear each of those bands, but this is something entirely new.
It's a rarity that an instrumental album makes it onto my lists, but this one was good enough to just crack the top 17. I would even say that Nova Collective is this generation's Liquid Tension Experiment. The future of prog shines bright with the new generation taking the genre to the next level.
16) Rikard Sjoblom's Gungfly - On Her Journey to the Sun
Last year it was such a disappointment to hear that Beardfish called it quits. Out of the ashes of Beardfish however, is Rikard Sjoblom's (how hell say that?) Gungfly.
Rikard is the main voice and founding member of Beardfish, so his solo work essentially sounds just like Beardfish. It's new old classic prog with a slight pop leaning. Pop is used loosely here as the first track on the album is over 10 minutes long.
My only complaint is that the album is a bit too long, clocking in at 74 minutes. The album is made up of songs meant for Beardfish that just didn't quite fit, so it seems like he just crammed them all into this album. Having too much music on an album is really a non-complaint complaint. I'm happy that he's still writing music, and is also still in a collaborative environment with the band Big Big Train.
15) The Black Dahlia Murder - Nightbringers
I heard about this band back in the mid 2000s, picked up Miasma, and didn't really care for it. About 10 years later, the band is back on my radar, and I give Abysmal a spin. It was decent, and certainly wasn't Abysmal, but ultimately ended up being forgettable. Now it's 12 years after the release of Miasma, and for some reason, Nightbringers is the album that finally clicks!
At a lean 33 minutes, Nightbringers is a relentless assault of melodic Swedish inspired death metal. Think At the Gates and In Flames and you'll get the idea. The band's sound hasn't even drastically changed, but for some reason this hits me in just the right way. Maybe it's their new guitarist, or maybe it's just me finally catching up to the band after 14 years.
14) Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pacificsticuffs
5 years after the excellent Pandora's Piñata, Sweden's DSO are back with a new lead vocalist and a new album. It's just as DAFUQ DIS as the last album, mixing metal with samba, salsa, bossa nova, disco, etc. The best way to describe it is to take Devin Townsend's Bad Devil as a starting point and just go off the rails with it.
As strange and avant garde as this is, it's not as room clearingly, ear stabbingly grating as the tag "avant garde" would lead you to believe. There is plenty of melody here, but the blending of genres is so odd but somehow works brilliantly.
13) Body Count - Bloodlust
While Bloodlust is a strong follow up to their comeback album Manslaughter (which made my best of 2014), the band hasn't evolved much. It has the usual groovy riffs and leads, social issues, as well as the obligatory cover song.
That said, there's nothing wrong with this album. It still kicks a major amount of arse. It's got plenty of groove and headbangable moments.
Guest spots include Dave Mustaine's strange voiceover (considering his politics), Max Cavalera and Randy Blythe. Overall, this is another killer album from Body Count, with some catchy riffs and Ice-T laying down truth bombs.
12) Persefone - Aathma
Persefone is a progressive death metal band out of Andorra (da hell dat?). They're a part of the new wave of modern prog metal bands. The sheer amount of notes they throw at you is a bit overwhelming, but that is partially what makes this album great for repeated listens.
Cynic's Paul Mavidal makes an appearance on a couple tracks with his unmistakable airy bleep blorp robotic vocoder vocals, as well as Leprous guitarist Øystein Landsverk.
The vocals on the album is ultimately why this album is not ranked higher. While the death growls are great, and the music is great, the clean vocal melodies could use a little bit of work. They're not terrible by any means, but I just want them to be so much stronger. The music and death growls are both strong enough to make this one of my favorites of the year.
11) Leprous - Malina
2015's The Congregation didn't quite make it onto my best albums of 2015. As great as it was, it just felt like leftovers from Coal. Malina, on the other hand, takes a few steps in the pop rock direction. This is still far from being played on mainstream rock radio, as there are still shades of proggy jumpy mcjilty Leprous.
The album opener is a slow burner, and takes a few minutes before finally kicking into gear. It's an odd choice for an opening track, but given their opening song for their last tour, they must like easing people into the Leprous. What I appreciate most is that the band has taken steps to evolve. It's somewhat expected if you're labeled as any form of "progressive" band. Inevitably they will lose some fans along the way, and even I'm one of those fans I can't fault them for at least evolving.
10) Kauan - Kaiho
This oddity of a band are from the Ukraine but sing entirely in Finnish. The follow up to the AMAZING Sorni Nai is a slight change in direction. It's less heavy (where the growls at?), less plodding, and is not one continuous song. Even still, I would only listen to this album in its entirety.
Kaiho in Finnish roughly translates to longing, yearning, or nostalgia. They absolutely nailed that feeling. The whole album feels like you're thinking back on a happy memories, but at the same time you're sad because you miss those times.
The first track is a mellow 5 minute instrumental not unlike the beginning of Shine on You Crazy Diamond or the intro to Octavarium. The entire album is filled with absolutely beautiful melodies. It's taken me a few listens to get into this album, but I feel like I've only scratched the surface. Given more time, this album might be ranked higher. I hope this band never stops making music, and I hope they find a way to tour the states.
9) Carach Angren - Dance and Laugh Amongst the Rotten
The ultimate cheesy scary storytime black metallers are back with another concept album. When I say cheesy scary, I think of something like Tales from the Crypt.
The best part of this album is the three song centerpiece made up of Charles Francis Coghlan, Song for the Dead and In da Naam Van de Duivel. Of course I would only listen to this album in its entirety, but it's these three songs that are the strongest.
What also sets Carach Angren apart from other black metal bands, is that their lyrics sound like they're reading from a scary short story. To sum up the concept of the album in so many words, don't fux with Oujia boards.
8) Dool - Here Now, There Then
This new Dutch dark rock band with an old school sound came out of nowhere with their debut album Here Now, There Then. Picture a mix of Ghost, Royal Thunder, Sabbath, and Rush. I can certainly see this band opening for Ghost (what a bill that would be!).
Vantablack, the album opener, is a bit slow and has the longest runtime on the album, clocking in at over 10 minutes. It is a lot to sit through especially for a first time listen, but I was patient enough to get to the second track (Golden Serpents) which is arguably the catchiest tune on the album. The instrumental closer to Oweynagat really sealed the deal for this album securing the #8 spot.
Also, WTF is a Dool?
7) Igorrr - Savage Sinusoid
Unlike Diablo Swing Orchestra, Igorrr is more likely to clear the room and make everyone think you're a psychopath. I'm not even sure how to begin to describe this, but I guess it's Mr. Bungle mixed with Baroque and Operatic elements.
Thankfully, for those with weak ears the operatic parts do lend some melody to the mix, but overall it's just so strange and out there that the only way to get a sense is to listen to it. Good luck to you and your ears!
6) Ayreon - The Source
Every Arjen Anthony Lucassen's progressive rock opera album is made up of an A-list group of vocalists. Each vocalist plays a character in the rock opera. When I first got into Ayreon, I had a hard time with the lyrics. They lacked subtlety and were so cheesy. Years later, I came to realize that this is how the lyrics to actual operas really are. We just don't notice it because it's often in a foreign language.
Admittedly I don't own a copy of The Source (yet) so I haven't been able to get a good sense of what the story is. I just know that it's connected to one of his previous albums, 01011001 (nerd alert). I'm the hella smrt and figured this out when some of vocalists were passionately singing 1's and 0's (HELLA NERD ALERT). Sure it's laughably cheesy, but that's Ayreon for ya.
I would have ranked this one higher, but with a running time of 80+ minutes over 2 CDs, this is tough album to throw on casually. I don't see myself putting this on as often as others. I can't wait to purchase a copy of this, set aside a chunk of time, and dig deep on the lyrics and the concept.
5) Make Them Suffer - Worlds Apart
Holy hell, what's this metalcore album doing on here and why is ranked so damn high?! My metalhead card should be revoked.
Australia's Make Them Suffer started out as your run of the mill genericore band. In 2016, they released a single, Ether, which threw me for a loop. They still retained the standard metalcore elements, but they also added keyboard parts and ethereal female vocals. I wasn't sure if this was their current direction, or if this was a weird one off, but I did know that I liked the change in direction.
When Worlds Apart came out this year, I was relieved to hear that they kept the sound which they established on Ether. Make Them Suffer has added something new to the table and I'm loving their current direction. Some of their older fans though, not so much. I read some of the comments (don't ever do this) and some of their tr00 kvlt fans want them to return to their boring generic metalcore sound. Too bad, so sad, I really hope the new Make Them Suffer is here to stay.
4) Septicflesh - Codex Omega
The first time I listened to Codex Omega, I didn't love it. In fact, I was sorely disappointed. Maybe it was my awful sound system in the car, maybe it was the self-imposed hype. Once the dust settled, and I gave it a few repeated listens, and the album gets better every time.
The album is still not perfect. It's a bit uneven, with no clean vocals until several songs deep into the album. The closing track is not as grandiose as I want it to be. Ultimately I can't resist the blend of symphonic with blackened death metal.
3) Dying Fetus - Wrong One to Fuck With
With that band name, album art, and album title, can you guess what this album sounds like? YUP, BR00TAL AF! Clocking in at 54 minutes, it's a bit long for a death metal album. Imagine 54 minutes of a jackhammer to the face.
They don't mess around with some slow orchestral epic album opener here, the notes fly at you at light speed from the moment you start the album. Dying Fetus is in top form here, with enough of shred, blast beats, breakdowns and death growls to make your head spin.
2) White Moth Black Butterfly - Atone
Atone is labeled an "experimental" Daniel Tompkin side project. Experimental is too strong of a word. It's purpose is to differentiate it from his usual metal projects (i.e. Tesseract).
Atone has a very depressing soundscape prog vibe to it. Tompkins trades vocal duties with Jordan Turner, giving you this dichotomy of male and female vocals. There have been some depressing moments to 2017, and putting on an album like this just feels so comforting.
1) Pain of Salvation - In the Passing Light of Day
When this album came out in January, I knew right away that this would be the album to beat in 2017. Every subsequent album of 2017 would have to compete with it for the top spot, and every album paled in comparison.
Pain of Salvation have been on a downslide ever since Remedy Lane. Be was overreaching and pretentious, Scarsick was not a worthy followup to The Perfect Element Part I, and as great as Road Salt One & Two were, those albums were a huge departure in their sound.
In 2014, I was excited to see Transatlantic for the second time at the Regency Ballroom. Daniel Gildenlow was supposed to be a guest musician, providing extra vocals and percussion. I figured this would likely be the closest I will get to actually seeing some form of Pain of Salvation. Unfortunately, he had to drop from the tour due to being hospitalized for flesh eating bacteria.
I didn't think much of it at the time and I thought he'd be in the hospital for just a few days. The bacteria ended being seriously life threatening, and he was dealing with the very real possibility that this this seemingly routine hospital visit could end being the end of his life.
Spoiler alert, he survived his hospital stay, and decided to write a very personal chronicle of the events with 2017's In the Passing Light of Day. The band has returned to form and it's so good to have them back! They have gotten a little bit heavier, drawing influences from their heavier Swedish metal brethren. They switch from heavy, to sad and somber, often abruptly.
This back and forth between heavy and light is what makes the album so compelling. I don't know what what it's like to be in a hospital bed contemplating your own death, but Gildenlow's take on it makes it seems like a rollecoaster ride bouncing between anger and sadness, with dashes of hope.
The album closer is an epic 15 minutes, and is my favorite song on the album and perhaps my favorite song of the year. It's a heartbreaking love letter that sounds like he's saying goodbye to his long time love, and at the same time coming to terms with the possibility of moving on from this life. There's even a brilliant callback to Ending Theme off of Remedy Lane, another very personal album written about a relationship going through turbulent times.
I've been listening to this album every so often for the entire year. It just keeps getting better and better, and songs that I didn't necessarily care for before have really grown on me. Given some time, In the Passing Light of Day might end up being my favorite Pain of Salvation album, dethroning The Perfect Element and/or Remedy lane. For now though, I can say with certainty that this is far and away the best album of the year, and I'm sure I'll still be listening to this 10+ years down the road.