Exterminate All Rational Thought.

Back to a bit of normal this year...whatever that means.

Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere

Album of the year for me, the best metal album of the year and also one of the most adventurous as this epic brings in elements of fusion and Pink Floydish psychedelia to Blood Incantations already heady mix of Death metal and ambient noise with psychedelic flashes throughout.

Kendrick Lamar - GNX

This comes very close to knocking Blood Incantation off it's perch as best album of the year. It's been on steady rotation since it dropped, and shows no sign of getting old for a while. Kendrick in major accessible mode still goes hard.

High on Fire - Cometh the Storm

High on Fire release an album and it makes my top list...shocking! Definitely HoFs strongest album in years. The new addition of Corey on drums has been a welcome addition. Hof has always had twinges of "Middle Eastern" sounding melodies, and the added influence of Turkish folk melodies really takes it over the top.

Freddie Gibbs - You Only Die 1nce

This was a return to form for Freddie, as his major label debut S.S.S. missed the mark for me. Despite having a whole list of producers, this had more of a cohesive feel with strong replay value.

Sturgill Simpson - Johnny Blue Skies - Passage de Desir

Sturgill does soft rock / country, and of course he does it well.

Wormwitch - Wormwitch

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

JPEGMAFIA - I Lay Down My Life for You

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Of the Last Human Being

Zeal & Ardor - Greif

Honorable Mentions:

Tyler the Creator - Chromacopia Ishahn - Ishahn

Yeah yeah yeah, so late. I made a list last year but never published. Here it is.

Black Thought + Danger Mouse – Cheat Codes

After over 15 years “in the making,” Danger Mouse and Black Thought’s joint album came out this year and to my ears lives up to the hype.  Sounding like a lost time capsule from the past, thanks in large part to DM’s fuzzy soul beats, gives the whole affair a timeless classic sound.  Black Thought’s voice carries intelligent authority weaving lyrical webs that prove once again that he is one of the GOATs.  And to top it all off a killer DOOM verse from beyond the grave on Belize (calling back the great goofy Adultswim sponsored Mouse and the Mask Danger Mouse/DOOM collab with a Black Thought feature…full circle). 

Bjork – Fossora

This is the Bjorkest Bjork has ever Bjorked.  To me it feels like this album, more so than any other one, is built using all the tools learned from her endless experimentations over the last 30 years.  She described this as a dancing alone in your room type of album, which is very true…though I’ve danced all around my house to it.  The breadth of instrumentation and seamless blending styles on this album is truly stunning: strings, woodwinds, brass, choirs, and electronica.  She used all her tools available to make her most immersive album yet.  With it being her “mushroom” album, it does feel grounded, but in an alien way.  Like we are shrunk down to near microscopic sizes, experiencing the world as worms or single cellular creatures…reacting to the natural symphonies of the wind, and the dirt and the bugs.  Fossora is about the connection of all things on a molecular level, and while to me it feels like a cumulative achievement, I know that to Bjork it’s just another album on her journey, just as important as each one before and each one after.  I love Bjork.

Zola Jesus - Arkhon

I feel such a connection with this album, perhaps because I got to see parts of her process during the pandemic as we got Patreon updates.  Musically its such a leap in so many ways, production being one of the big things.  The sound is big and mixed to perfection and having turned her tracks over to a session drummer and bassist to evolve, these songs became big pop art tracks.  Could prove to be a major step in her evolution as she’s typically been a self-produced artist in the past, and has probably grown all she can within that limitation for the time being.  And yet the highlight is the simply beautiful acoustic piano and voice track, Desire.  A milestone of an album for an artist still evolving and finding herself 10+ years into her career.

Boris – W

This year Boris celebrated their 30th anniversary as a band by releasing 3 phenomenal albums, each within three of their main stylistic areas: heavy rock, drone metal and experimental ambientish psychedelic freakout.  W, serves in part as somehow cleaning up the loose threads from last year’s thrash punk masterpiece NO (NO + W=NOW, get it?), but also stands on its own as a psychedelic vibe.  Floating on waves of feedback, tentacles of terror grasp from the darkness but fade to smoke upon hearing a siren’s song across the ocean din.  A few tracks of dirge doom accentuate the journey towards the end, but overall, it’s a pleasant place to sink into…a sensory deprivation chamber in audio form.  

Venom Prison – Erebus

Venom Prison already have a history of taking giant evolutionary steps with each album and Erebus is no exception with this being the first solid step toward crossover potential.  The riffs are still progressively putrid, and the punishing primal screams of Larissa Stupar still gut wrenching, conveying intelligent expressions of anger at various forms of toxic male behaviors/drawing parallels with Greek mythology.  On Pain of Oizys, Larissa shows off her clean goth rock vocals with the trip hop style of the track still ending up a great introduction to the band with the powerful stadium death metal ending.  The production choices were brilliant, crystal-clear drums and leads, the crunch always solid…just perfect modern production for technical death metal, with colorful flashes of ambient tones lending to ominous transitions throughout.  Another chapter in what seems certain to be a legendary career.

Action Bronson – Cocodrillo Turbo

I’ve been a casual fan of Action for a while, but mostly for his cooking and “Watching Ancient Alien” shows, up until a few years ago when I really gave his music a chance and became a fan.  On Crocodilo, his charisma is on full display, which combined with a ridiculous sense of style, peppering his clever wordplay with absurd morsels of teenage humor makes for a nonstop laugh fest.  But the secret weapon is the psychedelic journey through the wilderness that is the beats.  The whole thing is only 30 minutes long, but it’s lean with no filler.  Every sound and nonsensical skit serves to keep you moving on the roller coaster ride.  This album just gets me hype and laughing at the same time.  Start a party off with this to set the tone for the evening.  Turbo.  Turbo.

Willi Carlisle – Peculiar, Missouri

Finding Willi is all thanks to KJHK, where I think I’d heard Vanlife a few times before I finally paid attention and immediately checked out his latest album.  This is Great Plains folk music, with dashes of country in the proper proportions.  He’s a helluva songwriter able to cover all kinds of topics with a down home genius philosophy.  Great road album for sure, with lots of great story songs to make you think.

Zeal & Ardor – Zeal & Ardor

Z&A are a meme band that turned out to be good, mostly in the beginning on the strength of founder Manuel Gagneux’s musical talents.  Now on their third album Manuel is able to fully write for himself through the “gimmick” of the band, and the results are vastly elevated as a result.  Sure, there’s plenty of fire and brimstone Satan blues metal pageantry on this self-titled effort, but Zeal & Ardor have become a fully fledged road tested band with some great songs backing them up.  There are some obvious nu metal batches on the bands sleeve, used in the most tasteful head banging ways possible here, giving rounder edges to some of the jagged black metal influences driving the riffage.

Tyler Childers – Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven

I certainly had reservations when I learned that Tyler’s new album would be gospel leaning, but upon hearing it I realized I had heard almost all the songs before during his 2-night live stream from Red Rocks…and they’re all great songs.  Just feel good, down home country church music expertly performed by his top notch band, probably one of the best country bands on stage right now.  They’re tighter than rusty lug nuts, especially the drummer…picture a country Buddy Miles cement mixing the back beat with deft precision.  I will say that I rarely listen to the 2nd big band gospel or 3rd ambient triphop versions of the songs and stick to the Hallelujah versions which seem to be the definitive to my ears.  Can’t wait to see him next summer in St. Louis.  Fuck you Ticketmaster.

Boris – Heavy Rocks 2022

Boris’ 28th studio album, the 3rd one titled Heavy Rocks, and their 2nd album on this year’s list.  Boris’ interpretation of 70s proto-metal, fist pumping anthems with synthesized horn blasts driving the already muscle car riffing tracks, over the edge into turbo overdrive.  Boris are still at the height of their powers and I can’t imagine what they’ll do next. 

Special Mention:

JPEGmafia – Offline (EP)

This EP was really just the original mixes of tracks he couldn’t get on his LP! album last year due to uncleared samples, and got a ton of play from me.  It was yet another reminder not to sleep on artists singles and EP work as I tend to give weighted favor to full length albums.  But it also gives me an excuse to talk about how monumental seeing him this past October was.  He was so into his music, riding his beats and having a good time along with the crowd.  I’ve been a huge fan of him for years but seeing what he does live was enlightening…like unlocking some mod code to his music and ingraining it into my psyche even more.  I could listen to little else after seeing him for a few months and still spin something from him daily.  Peggy’s music is the closest thing to capturing what the inside of my brain sounds like, while being able to soothe out panic attacks and stress like a magic antidote.  You think you know me, indeed.

Honorable mentions:

Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

Khruanggbin – Ali

Death’s Dynamic Shroud – Darklife

All Them Witches – Baker’s Dozen

Mike Baggetta/Jim Keltner/Mike Watt – Everywhen We Go

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio – Cold as Weiss

Universally Estranged - Dimension of Deviant Clusters

Sedimentum – Suppuration Morphogenesiaque

Tombs – Ex Oblivion (EP)

Blood Incantation – Timewave Zero

Freddie Gibbs – Soul Sold Separately

Jon Spencer and the Hitmakers - Spencer Gets Lit

Dead Cross - II

Bill Frisell /w Gregory Tardy/Jonathan Blake/Gerald Clayton – Four

Plaid – Feorm Falorx

While my list of albums barely reflects it on paper, this year was mostly about funk and pop music for me. A lot of digging into new wave-ish pop classics from the 80s, to dissect what make them tick, as well as deep mining missions into the worlds of funk. I looked to music more than ever to lift my waning spirits in many stressful troubled times this year, and while there were many cathartic death metal blasts along the way, feel good music was good for my soul.

Valerie June - The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers

Released in March this year, this album was with me nearly the whole year. The first 2 or 3 months after it came out, I listened to little else, just playing it on repeat. It truly does act as a sort of balm to my soul and puts me in a better place mentally. She puts a smoother sheen on her usual unique soul country blues blend with great results. This has jumped up somewhere high on my all-time albums list for sure.

Turnstile - Glow On

A late addition to my list, but it shot up to the top of my favorites pretty much upon first listen. Well written hardcore punk/pop songs, the whole thing is an upbeat uplifting good time. Every song is a bouncing up and down banger that makes me feel like almost like a teenager just getting into an all-ages club for the first time to dance to the music I want. It reminds me of Bad Brains in a way, but instead of the reggae jazz sounds, it borrows beats and vibes from hip hop, bossa nova and funk to a joyous effect. I’m sure many have released albums in this territory before, but I’m not sure if they were as good of songwriters as these guys are. Every song is a compact hook bomb, insidiously burrowing into your ear and begging you to give it another spin. Can’t recommend enough, just a hell of a great time album.

L'Imperatrice - Tako Tsubo

The real odd man out of my list, this excellent pop album from the French pop/funk group L’Imperatrice got a ton of summer spins from me this year thanks to luckily catching the perfect Submarine on KJHK one day. The music is finely crafted pop funk jams with clever vocals (at least what’s English, half the songs are sung in French) creating a Jamiroquai meets Cardigans, 70’s funk disco yet entirely modern sound. Just a good time album, anytime.

Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

A double album made in dedication to their recently deceased manager/best friend & their grieving process certainly made for great inspiration. Hushed and Grim has everything great about Mastodon, bonehead catchy heavy riffs, epic prog sections, top notch musicianship, great vocals and above all else great songs.

Alison Krauss & Robert Plant - Raise the Roof

Just like their 2007 classic Raising Sand, Raise the Roof is a magical blend of their two musical worlds to create a lovely calm place to chill out. The sound of this record is much smoother adult contemporary rather than the swamp bluegrass vibes of the last one, but it still works. The production is clean but full of depth and soul, just like their voices.

Aesop Rock + Blockhead – Garbology

Another year, another Aesop album in my top ten, no surprise there. As an album this probably wouldn’t be high on a ranking of all Aesop’s fabled albums, but it has several great top tier tracks that raises it based on the sum of all parts. Blockhead’s beats were a perfect spacious soil for which Aesop to spread his lyrical seeds.

Emma Ruth Rundle - Engine of Hell

While I had certainly enjoyed some earlier songs from her (and her album with Thou last year was really great) it wasn’t until I heard Blooms of Oblivion that I was hooked. The melodies, the details in the story of the lyrics, her performance, the simple haunting arrangement…just amazing. The rest of the album holds up in comparison to its highlight as great songs on their own, even if she does sound a lot like Tori Amos. This dark folk record grabbed me and became a real contemplative vibe for a lot of 2021’s fall for me.

Wormwitch - Wolf Hex

More great black n’ roll riffs from the Canadian Wormwitch. With this werewolf themed effort, they dip into some folk territory which adds some nice colors to what is a fairly grim, yet still fun affair. Honestly this album isn’t as good as their previous one Heaven that Dwells Within, but I still completely enjoyed it. Just a good “no thought required”, good banger of a time.

JPEGMafia - LP!

This album has a very punk rock attitude and JPEG’s lyrics are angry, intelligent, and funny all at once. The evolution of his beats is truly amazing, having achieved a sound that’s more commercial and polished while also feeling esoteric and somewhat abrasive at times. At times it almost feels like LP! Is its own genre, outside of hip hop and yet firmly planted upon its roots. Imagine if Childish Gambino did 10 more albums, each one more expansive and experimental than the last, and then that evolutionary knowledge was downloaded into another young man from Flatbush, New York and then grew into something else entirely.

Malignant Altar - Realms of Exquisite Morbidity

A last-minute addition to the list (as it was just released December 20th) this vile gore soaked debut from Texas is straight up filthy modern death metal just grabs you by the balls and knocks you in the teeth at the same time. An instant classic in my book.

Honorable Mentions: Not really that many this year, but it was another weird year where I did even more comfort listening and had a harder time getting into new music.

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio – I Told You So

Gatecreeper – An Unexpected Reality

Yves Tumor - The Asymptotic World

Gojira - Fortitude

For big chunks of the hellscape that was 2020 I struggled to have much interest in new music.  Much of my listening time was spend in the comfort of old favorites of all sorts.  But there were still several albums that were great and managed to grab my attention. This is my top ten favorite albums of 2020.

  Venom Prison – Primeval

Technically all but 2 of these songs are rerecorded versions of tunes off their first two Eps, but it delivers the definitive versions of these hearty slabs of riffs.  The two new songs giving an exciting glimpse into where they’re heading in the future.  The quality within elevates it from, what on paper would seem a pandemic year stop gap album to something that stands well aside their other two full length albums. In my book one of the leaders in modern death metal.

  Blake Mills – Mutable Set

The singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer’s latest solo record deftly straddles two aspects of his multi-faceted musical personality…that of singer/songwriter and of ambientish experimenter.  Mostly understated tunes covering many genres in the pursuit of honesty and chill.  He’s probably considered a near virtuoso at least on the guitar, but he rarely shows off with flashy licks.  Everything is to support the song.  Sometimes that creates subtly complex lines, sometimes ambient soundscapes.  Always enjoyable.

  Run the Jewels - RTJ4

The beats are all next level bangers.  The rhymes balancing the line between juvenile humor and sharp political statements. This album grabbed me from the first listen and immediately imprinted itself on my brain.  RTJ Forever.

Boris – NO

This has been the first Boris record that I’ve really connected to in quite a while.  I’d have to go back to 2008’s Smile to find a Boris album that I enjoyed more than this one.  Just ripping rage and roars from start to finish on this punk/thrash leaning effort.  

Budos Band – Long in the Tooth

Just funky afro jazz funk tunes like we’ve come to expect from the Budos Band for decades now. This album sticks to that already ripe territory like glue, but in doing so does what it does best.  Firing on all cylinders funk that always elevates the mood and moves my ass to a more joyful state than I started in.

Aesop Rock – Spirit World Field Guide

This album just clicked into my brain like a Tetris piece and has been there ever since.  Several tunes on here feel like I’ve known them for years…something that also happened with his last LP Impossible Kid.  1 hour and 3 minutes of beats and rhymes that just get me. Or rather I just get Aesop Rock.  In my old age it seems like most of the hip hop that speaks to me is by dudes approaching or over 40.  Oh well. I got heavy into hip hop again the latter part of this year and I’d say the big push for that came from this album.

Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist – Alfredo

It’s a Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist joint.  How is not making the top ten?  Freddie is the other MC out there that pretty much pushes all the buttons for me (at least the one’s Aesop doesn’t always).  Soulful beats, classic hooks and technical without even trying street story raps from the best in the game.  

Esoctrilihum - Eternity of Shaog

A late intro in the year to this guy, probably the most psychedelic black metal I’ve ever heard. The production on this album is next level shit, with the aural spacing really jumping out at you.  Such a feeling of depth makes listening to this feel like a VR experience with just the audio (good headphones the best way to go…but it slams in the car as well).  A feeling of moving through different spaces, like a Doom in hell sort of first person shooter vibe.  The music itself is amazing, very progressive passages throughout, and featuring perfect usage of violins and orchestral sounds that blends perfectly with the drum blasts, beautiful and riff-tastic guitar work along with keys and everything else.  Just seamless.  Definitely the best metal album of the year for me.

Moses Sumney – grae

Considering Part 1 and 2 as one album (as intended) this is yet another monumental step in the hopefully long on epic career of young Moses Sumney.  He’s stepped into the realm of being his own genre like Bjork, Fiona Apple, and Primus.  The description of soul music always works, in the wide stance of Moses covering jazz, R&B, funk and more with an experimental but comforting spirit.  Not a casual listening album, it demands attention…so despite the fact that I don’t listen to it as much as others, it lives in my subconscious the other times.  

Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters

A narrow line if I was picking the best album of the year between this and Moses Sumney.  Fiona is an all time favorite artist for me and this ranks up there with her best albums.  Such a warm intimate sound and feeling she captured in her home recording studio.  The arrangements are simple but so expansive and complete.  Heavy Balloon and Cosmonauts are two of the best songs of the year, but this one is packed with instant classics.  Classic Fiona, she never disappoints.

A lot of honorable mentions and runner ups, a lot of which I didn’t even find until late in the year.  Number one and almost made the top ten was Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi...Awesome krautrock psychedelic metal.  Others include Skeleton - Skeleton, Wormhole - The Weakest Among Us, Raspberry Bulbs - Before the Ago of Mirrors, Feminazgul - No Dawn for Man, Fluisteraars - Bloem, Pallbearer - Forgotten Days, Perfume Genius - Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, Paysage d'Hiver - Im Wald, Yves Tumor  Heaven to a Tortured Mind, REZN - Chaotic Divine, The Deftones - Ohms and Sturgill Simpson’s two bluegrass albums as well.  Got to mention Inter Arma’s great covers album Garbers Days Revisited with their version of Southern Man probably being my #1 favorite song of the year.  There was a few dark months there where I would listen to this song on repeat daily just to get a feeling of happiness.

2019 was the year I finally fell in love with Death Metal.  Sure I’ve listened and enjoyed a little bit of DM over the years ((mostly Death, Celtic Frost, Bolt Thrower) seems like I listened to early In Flames for a while too maybe) but for the most part I just didn’t get it.  But this year something finally clicked and DM took a claw hold on my heart. 

Gatecreeper - Deserted

This album probably got the most spins from me this year, and though I wouldn’t say it was the “best” album to come out this year, it’s probably my favorite.  Just balls to the wall, old school simple death metal.  It’s also super catchy, the riffs just get stuck in my head and beg for me to give it another spin.

Tyler Childers - Country Squire

For me Tyler’s music is drenched in sincerity, from his voice to all the little details he adds to his lyrics that add to the stories he tells.  High quality, timeless honky tonk music here, a great album full of songs that remind us to relish the little joys in life amidst all the trails and tribulations surrounding them. 

Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Bandana

They have done it again...Madlib’s throwback blaxploitation beats with Gibbs no nonsense street rhymes mesh perfectly together here.  Gibbs technical skill, charisma and storytelling make him one of the best in hip hop today...which also fuels his drive to be recognized as such.  As always, Gibbs raps about real life, his own experiences and what he sees in the world around him with an honesty that makes him relate able to even this white boy from Kansas.

The Mountain Goats - In League With Dragons

Once again John Darnielle and company deliver a delightful collection of tunes that tell the tales of wizards, heroes and villains and Ozzy.  Despite many of the songs being about bigger than life characters, they’re all grounded in the humanity that unites us all.

Venom Prison - Samsara

An absolute beast of a record, with crushing, sometimes even anthemic riffs but also intelligent, thought provoking and infuriating lyrics about the atrocities of the world today.  This album is truly something special that I believe will be revered by fans far in the future as a vital and important death metal album.

Inter Arma - Sulphur English

I’m not sure if its possible for Inter Arma to make a record that doesn’t make my top ten list...I sure hope not.  This album is yet another masterpiece from one of my all time favorite bands.  Still based on a foundation of psychedelic blackened sludge, this album veers sharply into death metal territory with spectacularly brutal results.  Its a audio journey that covers most of the bases in modern extreme metal, with splashes of Nick Cave and post rock for extra flavor.  

Chelsea Wolfe - Birth of Violence

This album, like all of Chelsea’s work is dark and gloomy, though this focuses more on folk-ish intimate voice/acoustic guitar centered tunes rather than treading into heavy doom metal/NIN territory as her last record did.  It still has the feel of a bleak black doom metal album, yet with the tones of something much softer.  Though “Deranged for Rock ‘n Roll” plays like a cover of lost Black Sabbath jam and is one of my favorite songs of 2019, so there’s some heavy moments amid all the emotional introspection on this record.

Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race

This record both musically and thematically deals with the state of living in the oppressive swamp of humanity while seeking a higher state of consciousness and spirituality.  Its grimy and dense, yet with a strong melodic streak that lifts it up to the heavens at times.  It swerves into psychedelic areas at times, thanks to both spacey interludes as well as brilliant unexpected twists and turns.  And that cover is dope as fuck too.

JPEGMAFIA - All My Heroes Are Cornballs

This is a perfect follow up to last years Veteran album, building on Peggy’s trademark of madcap patchwork beats and rhymes that somehow balance the disparate poles of vulnerability, braggadocio and political complaints by adding a layer of pop sensibility.  He’s an artist that shows he’s always pushing himself to explore new areas, and this record is yet another interesting/entertaining stop on that journey.

Witch Vomit - Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave

This album is just straight up filthy death metal.  A rancid and fetid pile of rusty grime encrusted bone saws and surgical waste.  The guitars sound like a swarm of angry wasps with blood lust.  Its also a ton of gross out fun, which is why it narrowly made it onto my top ten.  

An extremely honorable mention to these two records that came so close to making my top 10 but after a cold hard look at them didn’t quite make the final cut.

A ton of great music came out this year and these are among the other albums I greatly enjoyed this year:

 Sleep – The Sciences

These guys put on the best concert I went to this year and then less than a month later dropped probably my favorite album of the year.  Psychedelic to the point that I almost feel high while listening to parts of it and as ridiculously heavy as a herd of rampaging wooly mammoths on an ice berg…floating through space.  

High on Fire – Electric Messiah

Yeah I’m basically an unabashed Matt Pike fan boy at this point.  But even when listening to HoF’s latest with my most critical ear possible I still love it.  A few goofy lyrical choices aside, this album rocks…though when most of the songs are about ancient giants emerging from underground to destroy us all, some goofiness comes with the territory.  The riffs are giant, the solos monstrous, the drumming is terrifyingly good as always. Also I would lease my soul for Jeff Matz’s bass tone.  

Freddie Gibbs – Freddie

This album is just full of bangers; Freddie has made gangsta rap really fun again.  It reminds me of hip hop in the late 90’s/early 00’s for some reason…could have just been that was a more carefree time of my life and this album captures that “don’t give a fuck” feel.  Great wordplay and catchy hooks over great slamming beats.  If ever I have a summer BBQ (without little kids around), this is what I want to be listening to.

Beastmaker – Eps 1-9

I’ll add up all of Beastmaker’s Eps into 1 for this.  Even though each EP of ~4 songs each have their own feel and subject matter they all flow together well, which is how I’ve been listening to them anyway.  This is Hammer horror inspired, Black Sabbath-esce doom metal and it’s even more fun than that might sound.  Every track is just great fun metal, nothing to analyze or contemplate, just put it on and rock out music.

Allfather - …And All Will Be Desolation

These bearded Brits dropped one of the best metal albums of the year, fat groove metal with a hardcore attitude.  Endlessly playable, these guys have a knack of always finding a way to surprise you with the power of their riffs.  They zig when you expect a zag, and the zig sounds better than anything you could imagine. At times this wanders into Southern groove sludge metal territory, and owns it like it invented the shit.  Great pointed political lyrics driven by the force of the riffs are like nails shot into your skull with a compressed air nail gun.

Skeletonwitch – Devouring Radiant Light

With a new singer and a slightly altered direction this band transformed from decent blackened thrash to absolute brilliance.  This stayed on heavy rotation for me since the day it came out.  Super heavy and yet extremely melodic thrash metal…very catchy at the same time.  This album just makes me happy, it’s almost like pop music to me, like someone sat in a room analyzing my tastes to come up with music they thought I would love.

Noname – Room 25

This woman can spit, period. With varied nuances of style, sometimes she’s spitting fire at an almost whisper volume, which is surprisingly effective.  The beats are warm and cozy neo-soul inspired grooves and the songs are just good.  If this is any indication of things to come, this Chicago rapper has a long and bright future ahead of her.

Vile Creature – Cast of Static and Smoke

Bleak and desolate sludge doom about a future post a nuclear holocaust from a couple of adorable queer kids from Canada.  Riffs swirl around like toxic clouds of smoke, yet there’s an edge of hope glimmering somewhere in the fog.  Like one last candle that says things will get better somehow.  This is blues for the modern age.

Kelly Moran – Ultraviolet

Beautiful music that affects me in different ways.  The first time I heard In Parallel I felt the music in my chest, fluttering around like a nervous young love type of energy.  This free form music, played on a prepared piano (piano with pieces of metal on the strings for a percussive attack on the notes) always takes me on a different journey depending on my mood and attention level.  Sometimes I view it as sad, sometimes as life affirming and joyful…but I always feel better when it’s over than I did when I start it.

Minority Threat – Minority Threat

This album is an explosion of righteous anger, blunt and effective like a baseball bat to the skull. Great hardcore out of Ohio shows some growth from their previous effort Culture Control, but they have a great formula that doesn’t really need improving.  Anti-fascist, anti-racist rants over brutal riffs...it works.

                                                           ***

There’s a ton of honorable mentions this year; a few came real close to making the cut and a lot that I certainly enjoyed (and will continue to).  One thing I need to mention is that there seems to be a lot of great jazz coming out of London lately (Ill Conceived, We Out Here, and 1000 Kings to name a few). Amazing year for music overall.  I know I’ve looked at several people’s lists lately that are full of metal albums that I hadn’t even heard of so there’s likely a ton of other great stuff I’ve missed.

Even though I still listened to a ton of metal this year as always, my top ten best albums list is a little different for me.  A lot of more low key, eclectic stuff…especially compared to last year’s list that was dominated by metal and hip hop.  Part of it is just what I listened to and the mix of what was released. Part of it could just be that I needed to find more chill moments of solace in the shit show of current events 2017 was.  A lot of great headphone music in this list.  I had a very hard time keeping it down to 10.  Vattnet’s new sound with their s/t album came so close but didn’t quite make it.

 Moses Sumney – Aromanticism

This is soul music. Not really R&B, very minimalist at times, carried almost entirely by Moses soaring upper register and falsettos. Emotionally therapeutic in a devastating sort of way.  If I had to say only one album was the best of the year, this would be it.

 Bjork – Utopia

Like all of Bjork’s later albums, headphones are the way to go.  You need to get close and intimate to really hear and appreciate everything that’s going on.  A very organic sounding album, filled with the wind…voice, flutes, bird calls, etc. Not exactly upbeat, but still, it makes me feel hopeful and happy.

 Pallbearer – Heartless

Arguably their best album to date, this still young band has found the sweet spot of soaring Rush/Sabbath vocals, crushing doom riffs and great catchy melodies.  This one got a LOT of spins from me this year.  Easily my favorite pure rock/metal album of the year.

 Zola Jesus – Okovi

She stepped up her game big time with this album, beautiful songs, even the slightly depressing ones dealing with suicide.  A lot of the sounds remind of Bjork in a good way…she’s working in the same vein but still doing her own thing.  Powerful vocals over string/electronic arrangements.  I like this album more every time I put it on.

Open Mike Eagle – Body Brick Kids Still Daydream

Best hip hop album of the year for me.  His flow is super low key and off kilter, yet still catchy as hell.  The beats are somewhat lo fi and all seem to start off a little of balance, but then once you get your sea legs within the song they just work.

Mountain Goats – Goths

The Goats are one of my new favorite bands, great folk rock with superb clever songwriting.  Great storytelling and there’s always a line or two that make me chuckle.  This album is all about the 80’s goth scene, which even though I know little about the subject, love this album regardless.

Mac Demarco – This Old Dog

Maybe one of the most upbeat breakup albums ever.  The production on this is a lot better than on his previous albums (even though I loved the sound of Salad Years so much) but it is still in the lo fi garage/yacht rock category.  His songwriting is more mature and improved as well, but still with a clever humorous edge. Very catchy and fun to sing along to, this is just great good mood chill music.

 Blanck Mass- World Eater

Made by one half of the Fuck Buttons, this electronic noise album is fucking heavy.  There’s plenty of great soothing stuff to start to zone out to before the levels of sounds start adding on and before you know it you’re in the middle of an intense banger of a track.  Great for long car trips or just cranking up on headphones at work.

Zeal and Ardor – Devil is Fine

Zeal and Ardor combine African American spirituals, blues, and black metal in such an essential way that scratches an itch I never knew existed before. Surprisingly catchy, very heavy and just odd.  I can’t honestly say that this is one of the best albums on my list, but it could easily be my favorite.  Its mere existence brings me joy.

The Hearers – 5 Seasons

Coming 6 years after their previous album, I was long awaiting this album from one of my favorite bands and it didn’t disappoint.  It’s still psychedelic country rock slow jams like most of their other work.  But still inventive and interesting.  Production is top notch, this doesn’t sound like the work of a “part time/semi local” band. Another album that will continue to age like fine wine and get better with each listen.  The fact that I got to hear a few of these songs in a rare live show a few weeks after this album drops was extra bonus points.

In no particular order, list slimmed down to my Top Ten of the Year.

Inter Arma – Paradise Gallows

Sturgill Simpson – A Sailors Guide To Earth

David Bowie - Blackstar

Free Salamander Exhibit - Undestroyed

Chance The Rapper – Coloring Book

Oranssi Pazuzu – Varahtelija

Death Grips – Bottomless Pit

Chelsea Wolfe – Abyss

Run The Jewels – RTJ3

Aesop Rock – The Impossible Kid

Ray Charles once said “You take country music, you take black music, you got the same goddamn thing exactly.”  Rhythm & blues and country music used to always be linked at the hip.  Both had a core of talented musicians singing great songs.  Even as recently as the 1970’s it was nothing very unusual about artists crossing over between these two neighboring genres and getting hits in each other’s back yards.  Al Green, Kenny Rogers, Stevie Wonder, Charlie Rich, Percy Sledge, Dobie Gray, and of course Ray Charles and many more fit this loose fitting mold. 

               Instrumentation and accents, one could argue, were the main differences between county music and R&B.  And the now faded commonality of Freeform radio formats, helped for this cross pollination to enrich both styles of music.  Both among the artists, and for the fans to be exposed to new things. 

               When I saw Stevie Wonder in concert last fall, beyond being a very diverse crowd, I took note of how many aging cowboys there were in attendance.  It was one of those things that was surprising, but really shouldn’t have been.  For the past month or so, I’ve found my radio dial hopping between the “classic country” station and the “classic R&B” station in town.  Though both stations definition of classic seems to reside mostly in the 80’s and primarily the 90’s for the R&B station.  At first I just thought it was my genre shuffle happy musical mind making a connection that was really tenuous at best.  Yet it seems I was finding some sort of solace in these two genre’s for reasons I had not yet put into fully formed thoughts yet.

               And then I started listening to Sturgill Simpson’s new album “A Sailor’s Guide To Earth,” and everything clicked into place.  He makes a solid reconnection to the roots of R&B on an album that is completely country.  It sounds so natural, so at home in its own skin.  So right.

               But listening to most popular modern country or R&B, that connection seems so foreign and hard to fathom.  What happened?  What caused these once friendly neighbors to move so far away from each other?

               One factor could certainly be the rise and dominance of hip hop.  Most R&B today now seems so intertwined with hip hop, that nearly all strains of the country and western connection have been purged from its genetic makeup.  And as a result, one could make the case that beyond the top 40/teeny bopper variety, R&B is a genre that doesn’t seem to stand on its own two feet anymore.  It has lost its independence and is just an extension of hip hop with a little more singing instead of rapping.

               While country has grown into a money making juggernaut, by white washing out so much of country music’s soul and R&B roots for low grade rock beats and pop influences.  One could make the case that real country music is suffering the same fate as real R&B.  Both are still surviving, but only in the ever looming shadows of their bastardized offspring.

               And what else could have caused this shift?  Corporate radio and music industries.  The rise of corporate radio has firmly segregated musical genres into neat little demographics boxes.  One could easily imagine a day long ago where groups of people from different backgrounds, and races could easily find some common ground through music.  Even if it’s only an artist or two, the spark of something in common is sometimes enough to fan the flames into friendship…or at least civil friendliness.  I’ve known so many people in older generations who have crossovers into different genres and hold open minds musically, at least with music from their own generation.

               But imagine someone who only listens to modern country radio stuck in a room with someone that only listens to modern R&B radio.  What would they have in common from a musical perspective?  I’m not sure.  Sure the internet age has increased the ease at which listeners can find different kinds of music, but how many are still chained to the popular music agenda of their own possibly limited comfort zone?  Whether it’s fed by the radio or Spotify playlists, the results are still generally the same.