By Jack Rafferty
There are many other albums I wish I could have written about here, but as with every year, the madness of putting this list together must stop somewhere. Some honorable mentions that did not make the list below are Beth Gibbons, The Chisel, John Moreland, Thou, Orville Peck, Willie Nelson, Tyler, The Creator, Couch Slut, Jack White, Defeated Sanity, Crypt Sermon, Dawn Treader, Necrowretch, Khruangbin, IDLES, and Ihsahn.
Convulsing, Perdurance.
In 2018, Grievous was the album that almost passed me by, and I am so happy it didn’t. Brendan Sloan’s relatively obscure one-person project Convulsing is one of the more impressive sleeper hits I’ve encountered in recent years, masterfully combining elements of dissonant technical death metal and atmospheric black metal. From my first listen of Grievous, I was hooked. Knowing that this project is astoundingly the product of one person (including production), it makes sense that the follow up would take some time to create. Much like Grievous, Perdurance very nearly went under my radar as well. Again, I am very happy that it did not. Perdurance picks up with the same winding, deep, resonant tones Convulsing is known for, with a notably sharper production style, before sweeping you off your feet with the dissonant notes fans of groups such as Ulcerate and Gorguts (me) fawn over. While I do feel like the drums feel a bit buried in the mix, and there are some moments in the production that seem like odd stylistic choices in shifting volume (they seem intentional), overall, the sound is great. I am satisfied that, even though the production has a greater clarity to it, the sound has not lost its edge. Every bit of jagged, atonal quality remains. The low end especially is handled very well, and there is a powerfully resonant feel to the deeper tones present.
Brendan’s vocals are as guttural as ever, the instrumentation is tighter and more complex, and his songwriting has made clear strides since 2018. I especially love moments like the acoustic into the track “Inner Oceans,” as it allows the listener a reprieve while still adding to, as opposed to detracting from, the atmosphere that has been built so far. There is a clear feeling of maturation evident in moments like this on the album.
Pyrrhon, Exhaust.
Few concepts of an album resonated with me more this year than Exhaust. From losing my father, my vehicle getting totaled, the house flooding, being diagnosed with a chronic esophageal condition, to just a continual global descent into fascist barbarism and ecological collapse, I’m fucking exhausted. I am day to day filled with uncertainty and dread, an ongoing anxiety that fuels nothing but physical and mental degradation. I’ve tried my best to combat it. This year, I went to the gym more than I ever have before. Quit drinking. Eat healthier. Trying to keep working. More and more, though, I find every available space within me is filled with bitterness, and like a poison it kills off my love for things, my passions. I find myself less interested in music, film, writing, reading, going on walks, any of it. Pyrrhon is one of the few bands this year that accurately captures sonically what all that feels like. A demented and convoluted spiraling. People just going by, day to day, acting like the precipices we stand upon are normal. Because in many cases they have no other option. They are all barely hanging on. Eviscerated bird on oil-slick asphalt.
Watching your last gasp
Of failing atmosphere
Drowning in red dust
You’ll cough and rasp
Exposed, you will know fear.
Kendrick Lamar, GNX.
This one is going to be long, so bear with me. This has been such a wild year for Kendrick. Beginning with the generation-defining beef with Drake (a wicked opportunist and exploiter of black culture and genuinely one of the worst things to happen to hip hop as a genre) where Kendrick not only decidedly won the beef, but turned it into a larger cultural event and renaissance for the genre as whole (“Not Like Us” literally unified not just the entire West Coast, but rival gangs such as the Crips and Bloods momentarily). Kendrick’s savage and unrelenting demolition of Drake’s persona has had reverberating effects that continue late in the year. It wasn’t just about Kendrick versus Drake. It was about what each figure represented. They are not just opposing artists, they are opposing ideologies.
Kendrick took this opportunity to not only tear Drake down, but everything Drake as a persona stood for: appropriation, vapid music, manipulation, sexual behavior with minors, exploitation of Black talent and identity, and so much more. It also helped that through the act of doing this, Kendrick released my two favorite songs of the entire year, “Euphoria” and “Not Like Us.” This whole debacle really had the energy of a “you had to be there” event.
After a decade of buried feelings of hatred for each other, and smaller sneak disses and jabs being taken at one another over time, the floodgates finally opened when Future and Metro Boomin’s new album had a Kendrick feature, which had a very unsubtle attack on Drake (and somewhat J Cole, but mostly Drake). Drake had to respond, and he released the track “Push Ups” to take his first shot at Kendrick, where the majority of his insults basically boil down to Kendrick is short and not as successful as him. He also spent most of the run time dealing with a whole coalition of other people who had taken jabs at him. There was a week-long wait, then Drake released another diss track toward Kendrick, and still there was radio silence from Kendrick. Everyone that was anticipating a response from Kendrick was starting to get nervous about him not responding. And then “Euphoria” dropped.
“Euphoria” isn’t just a track that tears Drake apart at every angle, it is one of the best diss tracks released in the history of the genre. I still remember the chills I got when first listening to it. It was as if some sleeping giant had been disturbed by an arrogant pest, and finally rose to squash it effortlessly. The songwriting on display here is so powerfully built and well-constructed. It is just a perfect distillation of the ways Drake has acted like a vulture to Black struggle, misrepresenting it and commodifying it, while also changing the overall public perception of what the art form even is (he wasn’t the first to do this, just the most recent and most noteworthy) from its radical roots.
The funniest and most ludicrous moment in the beef was that, while the world was waiting for Drake to respond, and Drake was hyping it up, Kendrick dropped another track out of the blue. Then, Drake gets around to dropping his response track, and within minutes, Kendrick dropped yet another track, completely deflating any attention around Drake’s response. Kendrick was multiple steps ahead the entire time, and had everything planned out, and this moment was evidence of it. The track is frankly diabolical, written as though it were a letter to Drake’s family (beginning with his son, who Drake hid from the world until Pusha T revealed his existence, apologizing to him for having Drake as a father). It was devastating and personal and dark, and it really kind of solidified the end of the battle. But Kendrick wasn’t done. He wanted a victory lap.
I’m trying to remember another song that was as much of a cultural phenomenon in the way “Not Like Us” was. Videos of entire neighborhoods in the streets dancing to it. Entire clubs and stadiums of people singing along to it and calling Drake a pedophile. It was the final nail in the coffin, which is what made Drake’s response to it all the more pathetic. He sounded deflated and dispirited. It was pretty embarrassing. Kendrick then planned a live performance involving a whole host of West Coast talent on Juneteenth, where the end of the show had Kendrick playing “Not Like Us” not once, not twice, but five times in a row. It was a great example of how this whole rap beef was larger than Kendrick or Drake, with entire communities coming together, a rival gang truce ceremony on stage, and just an overall celebration of Black excellence and culture.
So, given all that context, now we get to GNX. GNX is an interesting opposite to Kendrick’s 2022 album Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. It is energetic, bombastic, and in most places sillier and more fun. It is nice to see Kendrick letting loose a bit, and paying homage to the West Coast sound he is steeped in so deeply. I love how Kendrick did no marketing for this release. Other than probably four people or so, no one knew this was coming out. It is also notable that quieter tracks like “Luther” featuring Sza are some of the best he has put out. I don’t want to really go into the album track by track too much, as this is already too long. Suffice to say it is an excellent album, and easily one of my favorites for the year. It has been on repeat since release, just like the diss tracks. Hell of a year to be a Kendrick fan.
The only thing I will say about Kendrick is that he is a complicated figure. Much of his discography has involved various levels of pseudo-radicalism, and it has certainly cultivated an image that he cannot live up to. Most of his recent work has involved him dealing with these complexes that were created by interpretations of his art, but I do also think that there is a certain responsibility there that is not being lived up to. While certain tracks like “Alright” were anthems for the BLM movement, and Kendrick has always had a very direct approach to Black struggle, he has become a capitalist, and the politics of his more recent work reflects that. There is no more apt example of this than his recent super bowl halftime show announcement, that showed Kendrick in front of a massive U.S. flag. I don’t expect ideological purity from Kendrick or any artist, but I do think we are in a time where we need tracks like “Alright” now more than ever, and Kendrick has kind of distanced himself from that, which is disappointing, but not surprising.
Job for a Cowboy, Moon Healer.
Job for a Cowboy is one of those rare bands that started in deathcore and actually made a successful transition into death metal. It is one of the examples I could probably count on one hand of a band from that genre and era evolving and (in my opinion) improving with each album they have released. While albums like Genesis and Ruination saw them moving in a new direction, it was 2014’s Sun Eater that really cemented a new sound of progressive, technical death metal, somewhat in the vein of something like Beyond Creation, Fallujah, and others, with a more brutal core. Job for a Cowboy released that album, then seemed to vanish.
Ten years later, the hiatus ended with the release of Moon Healer, which quite frankly, takes everything done on Sun Eater and enhances it. I was wary of what such a long break would mean for the band, but all worries were cast aside almost immediately. After only listening to the first track, I knew this was going to be the band’s best album to date. The compositions are deeper and more complex. The progressive elements that first appeared in 2014 have been honed and their boundaries have been expanded, without compromising brutality in the slightest.
I mentioned Beyond Creation earlier, because the sweeping bass here is really given a lot of room to breathe and flex, which it does and then some. The guitar passages and riffs seem nearly unrelenting, yet never exhausting. Jonny’s vocals are the most diverse, expressive, and hard-hitting they have ever been. The drums are pristinely mixed and are dizzyingly played without being distracting. This album is fucking incredible, and it is a joy to have Job for a Cowboy back and better than ever.
20 Buck spin is not fucking around with releases this year. Civerous has a massive sounding death metal with some interesting atmospheric twists to go along with it. The album cover art is also badass. Sonically, I think they do a great job representing the theme on display here: Lovecraftian labyrinth. Evil, crushing, mysterious. This is a real highlight for those out for doom-leaning brutality.
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Woodland.
Woodland is the name of the studio where Gillian and David have collaborated and recorded throughout the years. It was nearly destroyed in a tornado a few years back, so there is special significance to this album’s title and theme. There is a resilience in their voices, harmonizing beautifully as they always have. There’s a lot of great lyrics throughout, but one line really stood out to me on “Hashtag,” where David states “singers like you and I are only news when we die.” As a lot of my favorite artists continue to age or have already passed, I think about this more and more. On one hand, it’s really sad to think about the ways these folks are thought of once they pass. And that level of attention in the media, but I also think there is some solace in that thought. I like to believe that these artists have relative amounts of peace in that selective obscurity, even if they are bigger names like Gillian and David. I take comfort in the idea that they aren’t pestered in their personal lives by the likes of entities like TMZ. I hope they’re not, anyway.
This is an album that, to me, reflects the ways in which Gillian and David are building new foundations, both in the literal sense of reconstructing their studio, but also in their lives as well. These experiences and time have given them a quiet strength, and a solidarity that comes through in subtle ways on Woodland.
Slimelord, Chytrodiomycosis Relinquished.
Peculiar lifeforms embrace the grave in a foul backwater.
Bands need to stop naming shit after bacteria and binomial nomenclature and whatnot. Besides that, this Slimelord album fucking rips. I read a comment somewhere that likened it to “Death metal on shrooms,” and that made me chuckle. Reminiscent of the hallucinogenic swampland sound of a band such as Tomb Mold, the listening experience is akin to being sucked down slowly into a dense mire, surrounded by Lovecraftian shapes and sounds confounding the limits of your fragile conscious perception. This album is grimy and cavernous in all the right ways. I love Slimelord’s willingness to meander in much more subdued sections, which really help build the murky atmosphere, but also give a dynamic to the listening experience, as it breaks up any monotony that would otherwise exist. I also enjoy how weird this album allows itself to be, without delving into excessive amounts of camp. They hit the balance of all the elements just right.
Julia Holter, Something in the Room She Moves.
My first experience of Julia Holter was listening to Aviary, and I marveled how unique and lush that album felt, and still feels. Holter is a starkly inventive songwriter, and her compositions always defy expectation. Often wobbling on the fine line between disquieting beauty and unnerving discordance, much of the sonic landscape of Holter’s music explores hypnotic limits of voice and instrumentation. While this experimentation can often wander, it never finds itself getting lost. Building upon the unconventional form and intriguing style of Aviary, Holter’s new album revels in the sensations it produces, and feels more comfortable in itself doing so. There is still a great deal going on here, but much of it feels more purposeful. The multitudes of instrumentation and approaches here never feel overbearing or hard to distinguish. There is great intentionality to it all, which simultaneously never feels as if it is forcing a sense of intent upon the listener. Holter conveys the powerful truth that art of any kind isn’t meant to be explained, but felt. This album is a gorgeous, disorienting dream.
Willi Carlisle, Critterland/Magnolia Sessions.
Willi is one of my favorite lyricists of the past few years. I think that he is nearly unmatched in terms of writing prowess in his genre right now. I will say that with each release of his, I find myself conflicted on his singing style, trapped somewhere between spoken word and full-on melody, and I kind of wish that it leaned more in one direction or the other. I think this middle ground that he finds himself in from a vocal style standpoint doesn’t always resonate with me. However, his songs are still great, and this new album has some of his best work to date. I always love returning to his songs and catching a line that I missed beforehand. His writing is excellent, and it has been great watching him transform as an artist over the few years I’ve been aware of him.
Willi also released a Magnolia Sessions album, which is really exciting. I always enjoy Magnolia Sessions. Their production is wonderful, and I love their integration of ambience from recording outdoors, such as sounds of crickets chirping, cicadas whirring, etc., which really adds to every session I’ve listened to. Willi’s is no different. Frankly, I like Willi’s music the most when it is stripped down as it is here, with just his voice and an accompanying instrument. This album has Willi covering a range of traditional songs, with any sales of the record going to hurricane Helene relief. This more intimate setting, with the sounds of Nashville’s critters humming in the background, is just wonderful. Since these are covers, we don’t get Willi’s particular brand of lyrical wit here, however, this is easily some of my favorite work he has done. Such a warm and wonderful record.
Chelsea Wolfe, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She.
I love Birth of Violence and Chelsea’s other acoustic work with its morose, more folk-inspired style. That being said, I also enjoy Hiss Spun and her other earlier work. She Reaches gets back to the more distorted, darker soundscape she explored in those albums. I’ll never grow tired of Chelsea’s hushed, melancholy voice. This album in particular has a bassier, electronic-focused sound. The gloomy mixes present on this album are well-constructed, with flavors of goth and industrial throughout. Many of the tracks here have a sense of swelling, the soundscape feeling like a dark liquid that is slowly encompassing the listener. I think Chelsea’s voice contrasts well with dissonance, which is often ebbing in and out of softer, synth-laden melodies and atmospheres here. This album does a great job of balancing gloom with the fragile beauty of Chelsea’s vocals, while adding the fuzzier, more discordant elements just sparingly enough.
Vitroil’s To Bathe from the Throat of Cowardice, in 2019, was a real standout album for me that year. There were few bands I had listened to that were as brutal and unrelenting as Vitriol. For other fans of their hurricane of sound, I am happy to report that their follow up, Suffer & Become, is a situation where they merely improved upon everything that made their debut great. It has the same bleak urgency, the same ripping and gnashing energy, but with more focus and contrast this time around. Some of the guitar work on here is mind boggling (I say guitar because it’s what I know, but every aspect is firing on all cylinders). I’ve been seeing some hate for their production style, and I don’t really agree with it, but I can see where they are coming from. Vitriol definitely takes a strong approach to how this is presented, and I think that will be inherently divisive. However, if you want a listening experience that will simulate a washing machine full of bricks plummeting through the sky after being tossed out of a plane in the best way, Vitriol is for you.
Cave Sermon, Divine Laughter.
This was probably the biggest surprise of the year for me. I’ve never heard of this band, but this one really knocked me on my ass. The internet seems to be having difficulty ascribing a genre to this one, and that checks out. It has some elements of dissonant death metal, but with far more experimental aspects to it, including some really engaging synth inclusions. It has a strange juxtaposition of feeling cavernous and airy at the same time. Some of the riffs really remind me of Ulcerate, especially with the high note tremolo sections. I do appreciate the clarity and rich depth of the production on display here, which can be an issue with this type of sound. There is often so much going on that it would run the risk of melding together to create a mess of sound, but thankfully, Cave Sermon never disappoints in this regard. Overall, Divine Laughter is nuanced and invites much dissection.
Hamferð, Men Guðs hond er sterk.
I love this band. Deeply somber and filled with the best aspects of what makes doom a great genre. The vocals are like no others I have heard. There’s a real fragility to their sound, which they achieve without sacrificing any heft. The emotional weight is palpable. One moment walking a calm beach on an overcast day, contemplating, the next moment a monsoon conjures from the ether to bombard you with the enormity of heaven’s grief. This album is a beautiful musing on tragedy, and how humanity faces down such things with what courage we can. There are multiple moments on this album that make the hair on my neck stand up. If you need something melancholy yet powerful, this is it.
Full of Hell, Coagulated Bliss.
I love Full of Hell. I hate this album art. Coagulated Bliss has Full of Hell taking a different direction than their previous solo work. While their collaborations are diverse and many, their solo albums have often coursed the same vein of fast-paced, erratic, skull-splitting grind. This one, however, has the band experimenting with more punk/noise-rock influences, slowing their typical unrelenting sound and introducing new demented melodies. The production here is also noticeably a lot cleaner, which fits well with the shift that they have decided to take. While part of me initially did not resonate with this decision to change their sound, it has grown on me with subsequent listens. Much of the old ferocity is still present, and I do acknowledge that a band as eclectic as Full of Hell not wanting to become stale makes complete sense.
Crawl, Altar of Disgust.
Goddamn this album is angry. Sounds like a hammer made of buzzsaws. Punk/Hardcore-tinged, crushing death metal from Sweden. Pretty straight-forward and nothing fancy here. Everything from the drums to vocals smashes and shreds and I want to beat the fuck out of an old car with a baseball bat to it. The high vocals are especially noteworthy, for how rare but also high quality they are. Every time I hear them, I grit my teeth. Perfect mosh music.
Ryth, Deceptor Creator (released 2022).
Progressive death metal with plenty of groove from Bahrain. At times, I get hints of Decapitated and Revocation, though they state their main influences as Gojira and Opeth. Heavily riff-focused, with a crunchy, dense tone. The low-end vocals feel a bit too raspy and don’t have the hefty growl I’m looking for, but for the most part they are solid. The clean vocals at times remind me of those from Ne Obliviscaris, which is a good thing for me. They have a melancholy to them and soar.
The guitar work throughout is impressive, and I really enjoy how they break up the onslaught with cleaner sections that don’t feel forced in any way. There is a great fluidity to the songwriting. I do think there are lulls in the album, especially around the midsection. The atmospheric, spoken word track, “Spectre,” really strikes me as unnecessary and disrupts the album as a whole, but overall this is great.
Inter Arma, New Heaven.
Inter Arma is always one that I have appreciated, but I haven’t loved. Their cavernous sound, filled with simultaneously echoing and submerged production, is an acquired taste for some, I think. New Heaven finds the band exploring a more demented sound, with a greater focus on atonal progressions as opposed to the hollow, mountainous focus of their past work. The core of their sound is still present, to be sure, but there is a much greater focus on experimentation here. Frankly, I think it is a positive change. While I have always really enjoyed albums like Paradise Gallows and Sulphur English, I found at a point that they would become a bit repetitive, would drag on a bit, and a lot of the runtime wouldn’t stick out in my mind after listening. This is not the case with New Heaven. There is a lot of variety here, and the band seems to have a sense of energy in exploring new ideas. Perhaps it is my preference for more dissonant death metal that makes this one stick out to me, but this is really clicking. I don’t know if I would go so far as to say this is better than their previous albums, just different.
Beaten to Death, Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis.
Beaten to Death exhibits some intriguing and unpredictable chaotic goodness. The guitar tone here is very odd. It is muffled, as though all the treble has been bled out of it or something. It works, though, in service to the style they are working with. They also integrate melodic elements to their sound, which certainly stands out in this genre. Something as crazy and different as this is worth paying attention to, and they certainly have caught my interest. While there are many moments on this album that I love, I don’t know if I see myself listening to it over and over.
Jessica Pratt, Here in the Pitch.
I feel like Jessica’s music would fit well in a Twin Peaks bar performance scene. Dreamlike, slightly unnerving, echoing, euphoric. Listening to this is like having a bird’s eye view of a tranquil meadow, and you can’t shift that perspective, only observe, and you enjoy it, but there is a feeling under your skin that something in the meadow is wrong. Nothing looks wrong, but something is. I guess that’s why I feel it would fit with Lynch’s style. This album, while less “freak folk” than some of her previous work, still carries that essence within.
Dvne, Voidkind.
I really enjoyed Dvne’s debut album. I didn’t really get into their follow up, however. With Voidkind, that interest has been rekindled. They seem a little more aggressive and upfront this time around, while still maintaining their prog rock roots. I will say that I have always had a bit of an issue with Dvne’s production. It seems a bit flat to me. I think that feeling of weightlessness in the sound can be a boon on some of the cleaner, more melodic sections, but it is all the more noticeable on an album like this, where they are leaning more toward heavier songwriting. For example, sections like the superb introduction to “Eleonora” benefit from this, where the guitar sounds lush, and the clean vocals pair very well with it. At around the one minute mark, where the song gets heavier, elements such as the drums feel washed out, and it doesn’t provide the transition to a massive sound that you would hope for. That’s about where my criticism ends, though. The songwriting and performances here are stellar. I will need to go back to their second album and give it another chance.
Huntsmen, The Dry Land.
Continuing the trend of bands whose debut I really enjoyed, but then I kind of fell off from following their music, we have Huntsmen. I adored American Scrap, but never got around to listening to Mandala of Fear or The Dying Pines. This album will probably remedy that, because, damn, I fuckin love The Dry Land too. Huntsmen do such fantastic work with fuzzy, sludgy, southern gothic, emotionally raw, melodic, massive sounding tunes. It has been a while since I have listened to American Scrap, but upon recollection, I do feel like the songwriting here is denser, and packed with a lot more moment to moment. The vocal harmonies present also feel much more pronounced and honed. The atmosphere is like smoke in water. It feels simultaneously like vast air yet also full of weight, like a heavy monsoon storm in an open desert sky. Dark and brooding and beautiful.
Oceans of Slumber, Where Gods Fear to Speak.
I haven’t given Oceans of Slumber much of a listen since 2016’s Winter. It is good to see that certain elements of their sound have really matured and they feel more at home in their sound now. I will say that some aspects of this band have always felt a bit mediocre to me, but Cammie Gilbert-Beverly’s voice is more than reason enough to give them the time of day. There are certain moments on this album that remind me why I loved Winter so much. Cammie’s voice truly gives me chills at times, and she has an impressive range that she explores further on this album. They focus on the moodier elements of their sound here as well, which I think is their strength. I also think they have made some great improvements to their guitar tone and production quality in general. There is a distinctness and richness present now. They can still fall into moments bordering on melodrama at times, especially with some of the backing vocals, but thankfully they aren’t very common. Overall, this is a solid release.
Fit For an Autopsy, The Nothing That Is.
Ever since The Great Collapse, I’ve been waiting for Fit For an Autopsy to release an album that I loved as much as that one. While The Sea of Tragic Beasts and Oh What the Future Holds had great moments, they ultimately did not satisfy the same feeling. I am happy to report that while I don’t think The Nothing That Is gets to the level of The Great Collapse, it gets close. I think that the reason for this has to do with the ways despair and aggression meld on this album. Not much else to say about this one, other than it is one of my favorite bands back to where I feel they are at their best, which is a great feeling.
Mabe Fratti, Sentir Que No Sabes.
Mexico City-based Mabe Fratti surprised me this year with this enigmatic album. Mabe composes unexpected pieces that never venture too far in territories of pretentiousness. An eclectic combination of instrumentation and odd cadences, they never feel out of place no matter how odd. One moment a strummed cello, the next horns, then distorted electronic vocal passages, to echoing, lonely singing. This is only a glimpse of the tapestry that is Sentir Que No Sabes, with each inch stitched with mystique and beautiful, strange flourishes, much like the gorgeous album cover art. At once stripped down yet also complex. A strange valley to wander. The trees here are like nothing I’ve ever seen.
Knocked Loose, You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To.
Knocked Loose continues their streak of releasing punishing, brutal albums with this one. They have expanded in popularity quite a bit around the time of this album, especially with their performance on Jimmy Kimmel, which has made many non-metal fans exposed to it have a knee jerk reaction and an uproar, much like the Gojira performance at the Olympics, and I find that amusing. Knocked Loose has been a consistent favorite of mine, only getting more crushing and heavy with each release. I will say that I think the production on this album is a downgrade from their last one. It seems more washed out, with certain elements being lost in the cacophony. It has a “being played the next room over” sound to me. This album is heavy as fuck, not much else to say at this point. Relentless. That breakdown on “Suffocate” makes me want to smash stuff.
Les Amazones d’Afrique, Musow Danse.
To educate a woman is to educate a village.
This is a powerful and invigorating dance/electronic album from the pan-African collective, Les Amazones d’Afrique, formed in Mali and consisting of renowned Malian musicians and activists, including Mamani Keita, Oumou Sangare, and Mariam Doumbia. The vocal harmonies are strong, and the synths, afrobeat, hip hop grooves, thrumming bass, and exuberant melodies all come together to provide a powerful sonic stage for themes of women’s emancipation. The combination of a diversity of traditional African vocal styles and languages along with newer forms of genre and production (which is pristine) styles is exciting, and the vibrance of their shared energy and message is immense.
Replicant, Infinite Mortality.
Easily one of the best dissonant death releases of the year. Replicant’s sound is crushing on this album, and it has far more tech death elements than many other disso-death I’ve heard recently. The vocals are like some ancient, despairing ghoul howling in the mist. The guitar and bass tones are deep yet deft, with a discordance that does not sacrifice groove or structure. The drums, while a bit lost in the mix at times, still come through with equal measures weight and speed, seemingly weaving in and out of passages ranging from the more technical to slower, methodical, and skull-pounding. One aspect I found really remarkable was the sonic harmony they achieve throughout all this chaos, with everything seeming to thrum to not only the same rhythm, but also the same…essence? I don’t know what to call it. There is a feeling of cohesion in the sound that I can’t really put words to. Everyone involved is on the same wavelength, I suppose, and it does wonders for every track here. This one would be a real mistake to pass up. Exceptional.
Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Past Is Still Alive.
I haven’t listened to enough of Hurray for the Riff Raff. There have been a few songs that I enjoy quite a lot that I listen to often, but that’s about the extent of it. It has been good to just enjoy a full release with The Past Is Still Alive, and I am excited to go back and listen to each of the albums front to back soon. In assessing the sporadic songs I do listen to throughout their discography, this album shows a maturity in sound and songwriting. There seems to be a sense of confidence and comfort that a veteran artist comes to over time. “Hawkmoon” is a standout track, and has personally been one of my favorite and most replayed songs of the year.
Sierra Ferrell, Trail of Flowers.
Sierra Ferrell is another one that I have kept an eye on from the early days of the first bandcamp releases, and it has been really cool watching how popular she has become. Sierra has always had a singular voice, sounding like no one else, and her songwriting has aged like fine wine, with aspects of her sound merely improving over time. Trail of Flowers especially has witnessed Sierra have multiple singles that were immensely successful and played all over. It has been nice to watch many people get exposed to her music, while Sierra has not had to compromise her sound or integrity to do so. There are a lot of great tracks on this album, and Sierra does a good job of writing hooks and choruses that you will be singing to yourself for days after listening.
Ulcerate, Cutting the Throat of God.
Ulcerate is a black marble monolith in a void of fog. The band feels like they’ve been defining and honing their sound over multiple albums now, and in a lot of ways, Cutting the Throat of God feels like a culmination of that effort. The dark atmosphere, dissonant tremolo, meticulous percussion, anguished vocals, and other hallmarks of their sound have always had a feeling of hopelessness, like a fissure has opened in Earth and you’re plunging headfirst into hells unknown. Or perhaps it is being dragged that is the more apt analogy. Ulcerate has a methodical pace, almost slow, but not possibly slow, given the ferocity of the instrumentation. Regardless, it gives one the sensation of being lashed by tendrils pulling you down somewhere darker. This band is probably my favorite dissonant death metal band, and given that’s a genre I gravitate toward, that is high praise. Cutting the Throat of God has only further solidified this opinion. Deeper into the mire we go, to dispose of God’s body.
KNEECAP, Fine Art.
Kneecap is one I have followed basically from the beginning, falling in love with them from their first singles. It is crazy to see how much they have blown up, from their new film, to playing to immense crowds at festivals with immense backdrops of the Irish flag and “FREE PALESTINE.”
Fine Art is their most complete and focused release they have put out. While none of the tracks here really reach the heights of something like “It’s Been Ages,” everything here is very solid. I love the opener featuring Radie Peat from Lankum, such a pleasure to see her working with Kneecap. Usually, I’m a hater of excessive interludes, but they flow well with the tracks here, and the amount of them doesn’t annoy me too much.
No one is doing what Kneecap is doing, they are entirely unique. Their attitude and energy are intoxicating. I’ve mentioned this before, but their integration of Gaeilge and their anti-imperialist rhetoric combating ongoing oppression of the people throughout the world, not just Ireland, is all the more important with each increase in popularity they have. The legacy of radical music in Ireland is alive and well. Some highlights for me are the title track, “Harrow Road,” “Sick in the Head,” “I bhFiacha Linne,” and the opener.
Show Me The Body, CORPUS II.
Show Me The Body is consistently one of my favorite groups, and CORPUS is their ongoing collaborative project that goes beyond just music. This two-disc album still only clocks in at thirty-three minutes, but I will say that it packs a lot within that time. Some of the standout collabs here for me include Zulu, King Yosef, SPELLLING, and Regional Justice Center. The first track is Show Me The Body only, and would have fit right in on their most recent album, Trouble The Water. It is discordant, with caustic attitude, and bass so deep it will collapse your eardrums. We then transition to the brick-breaking, straight up hardcore “Nation of Mind” with Zulu, one of my favorites on the album. I would love to see a full collab album between Show Me The Body and Zulu, as I think their styles meld wonderfully. “Shelter” is the next and only other Show Me The Body only track on the album. It is slower, eerie, but still has a lot of energy and venom to it. “Fishes to Fry” confused me, as I swear YL sounds just like Moor Mother, and I couldn’t believe it at first. The first disc closes out with “Wings Wheels Steel,” which is easily one of the heaviest songs on the album. This one has been on repeat at the gym.
Disc two starts off with “Stomach,” which will give your ears a bit of a break from the crushing bass of previous songs. This one has more of a throwback punk sound, but it is kind of hard to describe. It has a very “skating an aqueduct during sunset” vibe. Great song. “Peace Corps” features a dissonant vocal performance by the experimental filmmaker and performance artist Alli Logout backed by a mix of bass guitar, analog melody, and what I imagine is a synth being distorted to screech like power tools. Unnerving and powerful. “Magnum” is chilling and gorgeous in all the ways I would expect SPELLLING to deliver. “Honky Tonk” sounds diabolical and drenched in slag. “Surround” ends disc two with a melancholy, soulful soundscape. This was a great decision from a pacing perspective. After being bombarded with the myriad violent tracks prior, it feels fitting to just melt into the ground with this ending.
As of right now, I think I prefer disc one, but both have highlights that I keep coming back to. I like this a lot more than CORPUS I, and it has been a joy seeing this amazing collaborative project continue in such a powerful direction.
Agalisiga, Nasgino Inage Nidayulenvi.
This was one of my favorite discoveries of the year. The youtube channel Western AF can always be relied on to introduce me to some great new folk and country artists. Agalisiga Mackey is a Cherokee singer/songwriter that blends elements of classic country/folksy blues sung in the Cherokee language. What an amazing debut this is. The songs are filled with such warmth. Covers such as Hank Williams’s “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” are done in a faithful, yet innovative way, that builds upon and puts a characteristic spin on the original. This includes the instrumental version, which varies from the version with vocals, and doesn’t just recreate it. I will be keeping close attention on Agalisiga. I cannot wait to hear more from them.
Carnosus, Wormtales.
This one was a bit of a disappointment for me. The previous album by Carnosus was my favorite metal album of last year, so this one had big shoes to fill. I don’t think it is entirely a letdown, but it certainly didn’t grab me like Visions of Infinihility did. There is still incredible vocal range here, which I think is the band’s most prominent strength. The highs especially are just rancid in the best way. There is also more of a focus on groove here, and for the most part it works well throughout. At times, some of the riffs are reminiscent of Decapitated (thinking Nihility). It is a new sound that they are exploring, but haven’t fully mastered yet. If they continue in this direction, I could see it panning out much better in an album or two. Overall, this is still an excellent album. I don’t want to sell it short, I’m merely comparing it to one of my favorite albums of last year. I imagine this will be one that will grow on me, and the more I sit with it as its own project without those expectations placed upon it, the more I will come to enjoy it. I can already tell on my third and fourth listen that my opinions on it have improved.
ELUCID, REVELATOR.
It’s well known at this point that I am a big fan of the experimental rap duo Armand Hammer, and subsequently the respective solo work of its members billy woods and ELUCID. Both of them have always had a knack for making their bars and the beats that guide them feel rather free form, while also having this clear intent behind them. They are esoteric and revolutionary. REVELATOR shows ELUCID as perhaps his most experimental in his solo work so far, and I also feel that this is the best thing he has released in a solo capacity. The samples, bass lines, and drums here are manic, with the production weaving in and out of dark and aggressive pathways. I love how varied the tracks are here. I also think there are some great features with billy woods on here, with “Instant Transfer” being one of my favorite tracks on the album. Overall, just excellent. It’s crazy how consistent the output has been for both of these guys, and I’m always looking forward to their next projects, solo or together.
Chat Pile, Cool World.
Chat Pile can always be relied upon for filthy, deranged music that feels so at home in the neoliberal hell we find ourselves in. In a way, they remind me of a darker, sludgier Jesus Lizard. Less gnashing than their 2022 God’s Country, this one has more of a despondent, trudging through the muck essence to it. Chat Pile’s music is thick with dread and violence, and stark confrontation with it. Visceral and abrasive. This passage from “Shame” sums it up pretty well.
In their parents arms, the kids were falling apart
Broken tiny bodies holding tiny still hearts
There are myriad ways to destroy human skin
Red flesh exposed raw over and over again.
Adrianne Lenker, Bright Future.
Adrianne Lenker (and Big Thief) is an artist I’ve kind of danced around for years. There are a few tracks that I listen to often, but I haven’t really delved into much that they have released. I decided to hunker down and sit with Bright Future this year, to get a more consistent experience with their music. Adrianne’s voice is vulnerable and sad, with lyrics that are at times heartbreaking. The production on this album in particular has a lofi quality, which fits the sound very well. A beautiful singer-songwriter album which is motivating me to go back and listen to their other albums.
Geordie Greep, The New Sound.
I love Black Midi, and now that they have gone on hiatus, Geordie has produced this solo album in very much the same vein of avant-garde, noisy and chaotic prog rock. This album is lush with intriguing lyrics and dizzying compositions. One aspect of Black Midi’s sound that I am happy to see carry over here is the way their songs build and build to these immense crescendos. The sound somewhat departs from the experimental rock core of Midi to a more jazz-rock fusion style here. There is an extravagance to the songwriting on display here, a massive instrumental diversity, and a strangeness to the deranged and sexually explicit lyrics detailing lucid escapism that needs to just be experienced to be understood.
Anciients, Beyond the Reach of the Sun.
These guys have been in hibernation for a while. We haven’t heard from them since 2016’s excellent Voice of the Void, which I enjoyed quite a lot. My impressions of this one are a little more mixed. Overall, I still think it is great, but I don’t think it achieves many of the same highs that Voice of the Void did. The melodic and atmospheric elements on this one seem to stand out more, and they do contribute to some great passages on the tracks. I especially like the intro to “Cloak of the Vast and Black.” They are carrying on their tradition of incredible album cover art, though, I must say.
Haley Henderickx, Seed of a Seed.
I fell in love with Haley’s first album, I Need to Start a Garden. Many of the songs from that album have accompanied me on adventures since. I didn’t spend much time with her 2023 album she did with Max Garcia Conover, as it just wasn’t evoking the same feelings. Seed of a Seed, however, is doing just that. The songs this time around lack a bit of the intimacy that her 2018 album had, since they had a sound that was stripped down and a little more raw. That being said, there is a clear maturity and assuredness in the songwriting here, and the compositions are far more lush and the elements in them have more cohesion and harmony. The result is a remarkable and gorgeous album full of moments that swell my heart.
Arooj Aftab, Night Reign.
This is my first exposure to Arooj Aftab, and what an amazing feeling it is to be aware of such an artist. Night Reign is haunting, combining elements of classical, jazz, Urdu poetry, and heartbreaking vocals filled with melodies from middle eastern folk. It is wide-reaching, and succeeds in every way. From the first song I heard off this album, I was enamored. The compositions here are so well thought out and complex, while never getting lost within that complexity. Arooj never sacrifices emotion for technicality. A marvelous album. I cannot wait to listen to everything else they have done.
Blood Incantation, Absolute Elsewhere.
Blood Incantation certainly continues to make waves. Absolute Elsewhere is all the buzz this year, perhaps even more so than 2019s acclaimed Hidden History of the Human Race. This time around, the band is leaning even heavier to 1970s prog elements, and remaining truly unabashed in the sci-fi aspects and aesthetics they include. They do a good job of reflecting this in the sound, not just through the synths, but by more subtle stylistic choices as well, such as the production of the vocals, making them seem somewhat distant and echoing, but without diminishing them, giving them an aura of vastness as though screaming out from a bleak emptiness.
Nothing exemplifies better the commitment to progressive elements than the inclusion of electronic group Tangerine Dream on the second track. This really surprised me, and I appreciate the boldness of such a decision. I also think it works well, and doesn’t feel out of place at all. There is nothing worse to me on records like this than the inclusion of instrumentation or genre-bending that feels out of place or undeserved. It just comes off as “look what we can do” more than musicians putting their hearts into and trying to write good music that they love. Thankfully, there isn’t a single example of that on Absolute Elsewhere.
The production also must be praised here. Nowhere on this album does a sound get lost in the mix, which is incredibly impressive, given the sheer amount of variation going on at any given moment. I don’t have a single example of the sound not being crisp and full. Kudos to Blood Incantation for continuing to push boundaries. This album feels like it was crafted out of a deep sense of passion, and that feeling carries in every note.
Ripped to Shreds, Sanshi.
Ripped to Shreds can always be trusted to deliver on crusty, punk-flavored old school death metal. This album is a hurricane of riffs and grooves. It is fast and unyielding. The guitar solos here are also notable, as I can often be bothered by such things, but they are so well written and executed here, and fit so well within the pacing of the songs, that I have nothing but good things to report on this end. Overall, this just kicks ass. Thrashy, grindy, grimy, ruthless. I would need to go back and revisit some albums to be sure of this claim, but I think this is their best work to date.
Spectral Voice, Sparagmos.
The guys from Blood Incantation had a crazy year. They release Absolute Elsewhere, one of the most masterful prog death metal albums of the year, and with many of their members also in Spectral Voice, have also released one of the most bewitching and hellish death doom albums of the year as well. Where Absolute Elsewhere is spacey and vast. Sparagmos is cavernous and claustrophobic. This album is a deeply menacing one. I enjoyed the debut, Eroded Corridors of Unbeing, quite a lot, and this is just more of what I love. Intensely slow, full of malice, ethereal. Spectral Voice improved everything about their debut here. This band will reverberate in the sunken bones within you. It will call you downward, into the earth, to be consumed.
Gatecreeper, Dark Superstition.
It has been six years since Deserted, so I needed to go back to that record for a refresher on Gatecreeper. It seems like Dark Superstition has the band in more of a melodeath mood than their previous record. The production from Kurt Ballou certainly helps everything sound meatier without losing any clarity. Far from it. Honestly, I think the production on this album is easily the best thing about it. As for the music itself, I’m a bit torn. It still has that massive Gatecreeper sound, but I can’t say I’m in love with the shift to a more melodic songwriting approach. I just don’t know if it fits them. There is still a lot to love here. Many great and memorable riffs. Worth a listen, for sure, but this one is going to need some time for me to form a more digested opinion on it.
Opeth, The Last Will and Testament.
I haven’t been the biggest fan of Opeth’s latest records, but I also haven’t hated them as vehemently as some others have (some metalheads need to accept the fact that bands evolve their sound, and that even if they don’t love that shift, these bands don’t owe them anything). The Last Will and Testament is a better and more interesting album than the other recent releases, though I do think that the prog elements will border on the indulgent at times (I especially don’t like the spoken word sections, even though I know it fits within the concept of the album). However, there are plenty of moments on this album that make me perk my ears up. The songwriting seems sharper here, more focused. Passages and tracks flow together much better. The combination of the older death-tinged sound with prog rock works better here than it has on other recent albums. I feel as though they have finally found balance in this new direction they have taken their sound. I might need to revisit the newer albums again soon to reevaluate, but I remember them having a lot of good ideas that just didn’t seem to come together well as a whole. Perhaps I’ll change my mind on that over time. Regardless, this is a great record. Just like I haven’t hated their newer sound as much as some, I don’t love this one as much as some are seeming to.
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